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amberskywrites · 2 months

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Eternal

Chapter 24 - Consequences

Chapter 1 | Chapter 23 | Chapter 25 || Masterpost | AO3 Link | FF.net Link

Fandom / Genre: Nanatsu no Taizai (Seven Deadly Sins) / Canon-Divergent and Hurt/Comfort

Pairings: Meliodas/Elizabeth, Zeldris/Gelda, Meliodas & Zeldris & Elizabeth & Gelda

Overall Story Warnings: Angst with a happy ending, Canon-typical violence, Canonical character death, Canon temporary character death, Cursed characters, Lmk if I need to add anything else!

Chapter Warnings: None, lmk if there’s anything I need to add!

Author's Note:

So, so incredibly sorry for how long it's taken to get back to this! A lot of stuff ended up happening - younger sibling was dealing with a lot of health issues, family tensions reached a new high, I'm no longer on speaking terms with someone in my house, so much uni work. And now I'm trying to get to a point where I'm no longer reliant on that someone financially, trying to plan to move out later this year, and am now working retail part-time before uni starts up again alongside an internship I was accepted for. I can't promise that updates will be more frequent or be on any kind of schedule; but what I can promise is that this story will not be abandoned. If you ever want an update on how it's going - or just to ask me what's up - message me anywhere from here on Ao3 to Tumblr or Instagram ^^ Thank you all, genuinely, for being patient and for the love you have shown this story - I truly appreciate it!

Story Summary:

Eternal…

life.

reincarnation.

silence.

and chains.

For 3,000 long and painful years, these four have been doing all they can to lift their curses. They have failed, again and again and again. With only a sliver of hope left, they try once more.

Or, what if Zeldris accepted Meliodas’ offer to go with him 3,000 years ago?

King’s eyes were wide, and his voice caught in his throat. But even if he wanted to say anything, he had no words. All he managed was a strangled gasp before he heard the distorted and so, so painfully familiar voice of his baby sister come from the lights.

“Ban, what happened? How did you get that scar?”

She didn’t even acknowledge him, the lights tilting slightly to the side but still near Ban, still not moving away from the man who should still be petrified.

Ban scoffed and tilted his head King’s way, but didn’t actually look at King. His expression was… if King had to name it, he’d say fond, faux annoyance plastered on his face.

“I thought you guys watched over us from the other side?”

“It… it really is her- Elaine!” King choked out, and he was vaguely aware of Ban glancing at him, but King couldn’t- he just couldn’t be bothered anymore. Not when… “Please, show yourself to me too!”

Ban continued looking at him, and he said something, though King didn’t hear it. It wasn’t too quiet, but everything suddenly seemed muffled, and all that mattered was Elaine. He had to see her again, make up for his mistakes.

The orbs of light swayed slightly, side to side, as if she were shaking her head. King’s heart settled in his throat as tears stung his eyes.

“The Necropolis allows people to see each other even after death, but only through strong emotional bonds.”

He looked down, finally tearing his eyes away from the pair. He couldn’t help but laugh quietly to himself. “So you’re still angry at me… for abandoning you, the forest, and everything we believed in…” King mumbled, feeling the tears collect at the corner of his eyes and trying to blink them away. He clenched his fists, trying to distract himself.

There was an explosion in the distance. The power was almost overwhelmingly familiar, followed by a certainly familiar aura of magic.

“A holy knight?” Ban hissed, whipping around to look in the direction they had come from. King glanced up, seeing the immortal posed to run that way. At this point, King didn’t really care.

Elaine’s voice stopped them both - Ban from running off, and King from continuing to wallow.

“Ban, why did you come here?”

Ban didn’t even turn to face her. He just paused, and even when he began speaking, his face gave nothing away.

“I came to say one thing to you: that I will one day take what is mine.”

Despite his expression never changing, King could only imagine what the man meant by that, and his despair over Elaine refusing to let him see her easily morphed into a rage that heated him to his very core.

“What more could you take from my sister, Ban?!” he snapped, but Ban didn’t even look at him this time. King ground his teeth together, fingers twitching, calling Chastiefol back and about to transform it.

The only reason he stopped was because of Elaine.

“Thank you, Ban.” Her voice was softer than it was before, and King was frozen in his confusion.

Ban didn’t wait a second more, running off towards the remnants of the explosion.

Elaine watched her brother drift to the ground, head hanging, the tears finally slipping down his boyish cheeks. She watched impassively, the only thing she would allow herself to feel regarding her brother.

Too many years she had wasted in sorrow and anger and confusion. He didn’t deserve more than impassion from her.

“Why?” he was whispering, she realized. “What could Ban give you that I can’t? When he’s the reason you died?”

She said nothing, but she did drift closer, if only to hear more of what he would say on the things he had no knowledge of.

“How can you forgive Ban?”

How could she forgive him?

What is there to forgive?

Ban didn’t do anything to her.

…

Well. That’s not true.

Elaine didn’t inhale, because she no longer needed to, but she thinks if she still had to breathe she would have. She let go of the impassion, the indifference. And she let the pain in her heart soul boil to the surface as she stared at her big, foolish brother.

“You left,” she starts. “You left, and I was forced to spend hundreds of years in solitude.” She could hear her voice reverberate off the crystalline walls around them, so far away still. But his breathing had hitched, he was listening, and she could see the moment his heart skipped a beat when she finally addressed him. She could feel the way his heart ached, the pain that plagued it, the pain that he had no right to feel when he left.

The pain was familiar. The pain was her own as much as it was his.

Her next words were clearer, grounded in her instead of around them. His head snapped up.

“Seven hundred years after you abandoned your country, after you abandoned me. And Ban… Ban erased all the loneliness in just seven days. He made those centuries feel like nothing more than a nightmare.”

He couldn’t find words, his mouth opening and closing but not even a stranged sound could escape. She narrowed her eyes, just slightly. He was still her brother, after all, and she would not allow her rage and hurt caused by him to take over her soul. She would not.

“You ask how I can forgive Ban. But I have to ask, how can I forgive you?”

The anguish on his face didn’t bring her any satisfaction. It only sparked a fury in her chest, and she ached with the anger. She took a faux breath, if only to ground herself, and smoothed the glare away, dragging back the indifferent expression to her face.

“You don’t know him, brother. You don’t know him at all.”

Zeldris hauled Meliodas out of the rubble, the brothers hunching behind Gelda a moment later as she blasted one of Guila’s incoming attacks.

“We’re getting nowhere,” Meliodas huffed, “and only being driven back to where Elizabeth ran.”

“We’re getting somewhere,” Zeldris said. “We’re being good distractions.”

“I wouldn’t call you distractions. I haven’t forgotten about Princess Elizabeth,” Guila said from where she stood on a high crystal that Diane had made in an attempt to attack her. “However, I have no intention of passing up the chance of fighting two of the Seven Deadly Sins.” She tilted her head, regarding Gelda and Zeldris with a contemplative frown. “Well, two depowered Sins and their… family, if the reports are to be believed. I must say, it is a mystery as to why two people so seemingly as powerful as the Sins would not have fought alongside them over ten years ago. I must ask-”

“None of your business!” Diane swung a hammer-shaped crystal at the pillar Guila had claimed, forcing the possible holy knight to leap to another. Before she could get her bearings, Diane swung again, aiming for Guila’s feet, and again with every move back she forced Guila.

“Interesting,” Guila mused on the fifth swing, before twisting her body and propelling herself back on Diane’s make-shift hammer. She flipped back and created an explosion beneath herself, bringing her higher than the giant and keeping herself in the air with multiple smaller explosions. The next time Diane swung, there was a warning shout from Zeldris, but it was too late, and Guila blasted the hammer swinging at her with a large ball of flames.

The explosion forced the hammer to swing in reverse, and Diane narrowly avoided being slammed in the head by it, but lost her footing in avoiding the bludgeon. Guila took the opening and barraged her with explosions, and two, three stumbles back, Diane finally crashed.

Guila aimed another explosion at the downed giant, dismissing the fact that Gelda and Zeldris were in front of her. They braced for impact, both Gelda and Zeldris creating a barrier of purple and red flames in front of them and Diane. Guila’s frown deepened and brow furrowed. Something about the aura…

It didn’t matter. The flames would just bolster her power.

She sent the blast forward.

When it made contact, she expected the explosion to absorb the flames and continue on its path, smashing into the three.

It absorbed the flames.

It did not collide.

She had just a second to dodge her own blast.

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emjenenla · 6 years

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I’m safe inside the light, so go on do your worst Part Three [A Stormlight Archive Fanfic]

Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four

Elhokar was a failure at everything he’d ever done. He’d failed as a son, as a warrior and as a king. He saw no reason to fail as a Knight Radiant too. Or the one where Elhokar swears to the first Ideal at the end of WoK.

Warnings: Domestic Violence, Self-Esteem Issues

**Comes back after over two months with this pathetic offering** Sorry, about the wait. I actually have a lot of part four written so hopefully there won't be as much of a wait.

NOTE: While I don’t like Dalinar, I don’t believe that his actions towards Elhokar are consciously malicious. Until halfway through Oathbringer, Dalinar is incapable of realizing that what he did to Elhokar in WoK was wrong and therefore it never crosses his mind that Elhokar might be traumatized by what happened. Dalinar never intends to actually kill Elhokar if it becomes convenient, but he also doesn’t realize Elhokar believes that he would. I’m saying this because I realized that since I’ve never written a meta about Dalinar you have no way of telling the difference between how I interpret Dalinar’s intentions and how Elhokar does.

When Dalinar announced the latest part of his mad plan, Elhokar didn’t even bother wasting time wondering if he was serious. If he’d been less of a coward he might have simply put his head down on the table and groaned, but as it was he just sat stiffly and let everyone else react around him.

“Brightlord, I know we have discussed this before,” Teshav said, “but I think that the objections raised during that discussion still stand. You’re talking about reforming the storming Knights Radiant, people aren’t going to be okay with that.”

“They’re going to have to get used to it,” Dalinar said. Was he trying to sound to self-assured or was that just how his voice was? “The world is changing and people need to change with it.”

“When people normally say that,” Shadow grumbled from Elhokar’s shoulder. “They are talking about legitimate progress not shaping the world to the whims of a old man with delusions of grandeur.”

“I’m not sure I understand how you chose Amaram for this position,” Navani said. “What makes him the right person?”

“He’s an honorable man,” Dalinar said. “He will lead the new Knights Radiant well.”

“Why don’t you just lead them yourself?” Elhokar muttered under his breath. He was a bit surprised by himself for saying it; it appeared Shadow was rubbing off on him. She buzzed appreciatively.

Dalinar looked at him eyebrows raised. Elhokar’s stomach clenched. “Do you have something to add, son?”

“No,” Elhokar muttered ducking his head. “Sorry for interrupting.”

Dalinar looked at him for another moment then nodded curtly and returned to his conversation with Teshav.

~~~~

“Do you have the wording down?” Dalinar asked as they rode to the dueling arena to watch Adolin’s duel Elit.

“I’ve got it,” Elhokar confirmed. “I’ve been practicing the script you gave me. I have it memorized.”

Dalinar nodded in a slightly satisfied manner. “Good.”

The duel and then boon scheme was actually a really good plan, the best one his uncle had ever attempted as far as Elhokar was concerned, which was probably because the girl Shallan Davar has been the one to come up with it. Elhokar was cautiously optimistic about this working and his high profile role in it meant that he would be directly responsible for correcting the error in judgment that had caused him to appoint Sadeas Highprince of Information in the first place. Shadow still got a little huffy when he referred to it like that but the way Elhokar saw it he really should have known better than to trust either of the two men who had helped his father kill his way into power.

“You’re sure?” Dalinar asked again after barely a minute had passed. He was actually really worried about this plan and Elhokar couldn’t tell if it was because he factored so prominently in it, or if Dalinar just really wanted to get Sadeas. He wasn’t sure which he wanted to be.

“I’ve got it,” he assured his uncle again. “It will be fine.”

~~~~

The thing about Elhokar’s life that was somewhere between sad and ironic was that even when he did his utmost to be helpful and not to mess anything up, he always did anyway.

After everything at the duel fell apart, Elhokar practically fled back to the palace. Kaladin Stormblessed was in prison and Sadeas had wormed his way out the trap. It was all Elhokar’s fault.

Elhokar slammed the door to his chambers in the face of his guards. Both were members of the old lighteyed guard. None of the bridgemen had even moved to follow when he’d left. Elhokar figured that they’d officially gone from simply being willing to stand by and let him die on Dalinar’s orders to actively wanting him dead which was always a bad thing for your bodyguards. Things had never been worse.

Elhokar poured himself a goblet of violet wine. It was a pointless thing to do, but there was nothing he could do now. He knew what was coming, and he’d decided that he didn’t want to be completely sober for it.

“I messed up,” he said to Shadow. His hands were shaking so badly he could barely raise the goblet to his mouth without spilling it. “I really, really messed up this time.”

She did not insult him by denying it. “I’ll be right here with you,” she said. “No matter what happens.”

“Thank you,” Elhokar whispered.

There were voices outside in the hallway. Elhokar drained the rest of the goblet and set it next to the pitcher before carefully stepping to the center of the room, trying to brace himself as best he could. The door opened and Dalinar Kholin, the Blackthorn, stalked him. His face was a mask of annoyance and his body was held stiffly. He did not look happy that his plans had been spoiled yet again.

Elhokar had entertained some small hopes of being able to meet Dalinar’s wrath in a manly, stoic way fitting of a king, but the instant he saw his uncle the small measure of courage he’d managed to summon collapsed.

“I’m sorry; I panicked,” he said, his words tripping over each other as they raced to get out of his body. “I had practiced just giving Adolin the boon, and I didn’t know what to do when-”

“Do you understand how far behind Sadeas this has put us, son?” Dalinar interrupted. His voice was cool, much cooler than it had been the day he had thrown Elhokar around the room, but that did not make Elhokar feel any safer. He backed away by instinct, cursed himself for the cowardice, but didn’t stop.

“You knew what you were supposed to do,” Dalinar said. He sounded so calm. It was worse that it would have been if he was yelling. How was Elhokar supposed to know when he was going to attack like this? “There were ways to deal with Captain Kaladin without letting Sadeas get away. I was trusting you to find them.”

Elhokar’s back hit the wall. There was no where else to retreat to. When was Dalianar going to attack? When was he going to say that he had decided Elhokar wasn’t worth the effort necessary to keep him alive? Elhokar was shaking so hard he felt like he was going to collapse. He could hear buzzing, but he wasn’t sure if it was Shadow or his own ears.

“I’m sorry,” he whimpered.

Dalinar ran a hand through his hair. “I know you are, son,” he said. “We were just so close…”

“Brightlord,” a voice said.

Dalinar turned towards the guard standing in the doorway. “Yes?”

The guard--Koen--saluted. “Brightlady Navani Kholin is outside. Do you want to see her?”

“Yes,” Dalinar said. “Let her in.”

Koen nodded and saluted again before heading out of the room. Dalinar didn’t look away from the door and Elhokar tried to pull himself back to together. He cursed himself for being so weak. A real Alethi man would be able act unaffected, but it had already been established that Elhokar was a failure at everything even performing gender. He shouldn’t be surprised by how weak and unmasculine he was being.

Koen held the door open and Navani came in. She looked just as frustrated as Dalinar had. “I can’t see any loopholes in Sadeas’s response,” she said to Dalinar. “I’ll look more thoroughly, but I don’t think we’re going to be able to get him and Adolin into a dueling ring any sooner than next year like he specified.”

Elhokar wanted to melt into the floor from shame.

“Thank you for trying,” Dalinar said. He sounded tired not angry, which didn’t make any sense.

Navani looked past Dalinar. “Are you alright, Elhokar?”

Too late, Elhokar realized he was still leaning against the wall like he was about to slide down to the floor (which to be fair, he was). He attempted to straighten up. “I’m okay,” he said in a disgusting, trembling voice. “Everything’s fine.” He winced. What a lie.

“Elhokar,” Navani said. “It’s alright. You’re not to blame for panicking; the bridgeman was out of line and should have realized that what he did would mess up the plan. There were better ways you could have dealt with the situation, but we’ll find another way to corner Sadeas.”

Elhokar couldn’t handle it. He couldn’t see Dalinar’s face so he had no idea how he was reacting to what Navani was saying. Elhokar needed to get out of here. As far as he knew Navani didn’t know what Dalinar had done to convince Elhokar to name him Highprince of War. Dalinar had probably never told her and Elhokar didn’t want to know what Dalinar would do if the secret somehow got out. He needed to get away from here before he did something to blow it.

“I’m sorry,” he got out. His voice was still trembling. “But I have...something...that I need to be doing. I should go.”

He left the room without waiting for a response.

~~~~

Surprisingly, Dalinar never moved to restart a conversation about Elhokar’s failure at the duel. Elhokar had no idea why that was, but waiting for it was almost worse than it happening. He was barely sleeping. He was drinking more than ever. He was drowning in his own failure. Shadow tried to help, but Elhokar was mostly tuning her out these days. None of her encouragement was helpful, especially not now that there was ample proof that everything she said about him was a lie.

When Dalinar and the others made their plans to march into the Shattered Plains to take the Parshendi in their own home, Elhokar stayed out of the way. He’d made it blatantly clear that he ruined any plan he touched so it was for that was for the best. He couldn’t even look any of the bridgeman guards in the face and half expected one to put a spear through his back in revenge. He half believed that was what he deserved.

~~~~

In some ways, everyone leaving for the Shattered Plains and traditional Alethi glory was a relief, if only because it meant he could drink himself into a stupor without worrying about his mother or Dalinar walking in on him. Elhokar paced his chambers, goblet held in one hand. He was steady on his feet, but fully aware that was only because of the Stormlight. Shadow buzzed tensely on his shoulder. “Maybe you should stop,” he said. “Or at least eat something; I’m worried about you.”

“You shouldn't be,” Elhokar said. “I’ve destroyed everything.”

“Elhokar-”

“Don’t give me any more of that,” Elhokar spat. “This is exactly why I never wanted to become king. I never told you that before, did I? I wasn’t really sad when my father died; I just really didn’t want to be king. Granted, Dalinar was the only one who really was sad; Jasnah took our father’s death as a person failure, and I don’t know how Mother felt, but still: my father died and I was more worried about taking the position I’d been raised for from birth than sad for him!”

“Oh,” Shadow said in a strange tone of voice. “You realize that was a Truth, don’t you? Elhokar-”

And then Elhokar was falling through nothing. He reached out, fingers stretching for a table or a chair or anything to grab on to, but there was nothing. He braced himself to slam into the Soulcast stone floor, but he didn’t. He splashed into an ocean of beads.

He sunk down into the beads, the descent slower than water but still steady. They closed over his head and he struggled, trying to swim back to the surface, but he just kept sinking further and further down. He thrashed in panic, but that only made him sink faster. Vaguely he could hear Shadow screaming for him, but he couldn’t respond. There were beads in his ears and mouth and throat. He was going to drown in them. He was going to die here, wherever here was. He wanted to return to his chambers were it was safe. He wanted to go back to badly.

He back hit solid stone and the beads vanished. He was lying on his back on his chamber floor. Shadow was twisting in terrified circles next to his head, buzzing loudly.

“What was that?” he asked. His voice sounded wrong even though the beads were all gone. There was not even a taste left. “Please tell me it was a dream.”

“That was Shadesmar,” Shadow said tremulously. She was almost as freaked out as he was. “In time you’ll learn to-”

Elhokar didn’t wait to hear the rest of what she was going to say. He scrambled to his feet which were now unsteady for reasons that had nothing to do with all the alcohol he’d consumed. He crossed to the door and hauled it open. “Moash?”

“Yes?” Moash asked. “Your Majesty?” For something reason his honorifics always sounded tacked on, like he had to remind himself to say them.

“Get my carriage,” Elhokar ordered. “I need to speak to your captain.”

~~~~

Kaladin Stormblessed was supposed to be confined to his quarters recovering from his chasmfiend wounds, too weak to come to the palace to supervise his men. Elhokar knew this because he’d asked for the man once or twice figuring that was probably what he was supposed to do in Dalinar’s absence and had been told that the bridgeman couldn’t come. Elhokar wasn’t sure why he was surprised to find that Kaladin was actually well enough to go on walks around the warcamp in the middle of the Weeping but was still backing out of his duties; after all, Elhokar wouldn’t want to be anywhere near the man that had gotten him thrown into prison either.

Knowing that, Elhokar wasn’t sure why he was standing in the bridgeman’s quarters waiting for him. He should go back to the palace, but he had no idea how to deal with what had just happened to him. Kaladin Stormblessed seemed like the only person who might be able to help. There had always been something not quite normal about him, even before Adolin had sworn up and down that the bridgeman had somehow healed from a Shardblade wound during the Assassin’s attack.

“Your Majesty?” a voice asked just as Elhokar was starting to wonder if the bridgeman was ever going to return.

“Ah,” Elhokar said, turning around. “Bridgeman. This is really all that Dalinar assigns one of his officers? That man. He expects everyone to live with his own austerity. It is as if he’s completely forgotten how to enjoy himself.”

Kaladin and Moash exchanged an obviously judging look and Elhokar hoped he wasn’t turning red. He didn’t really care what kind of quarters Dalinar had given Kaladin, he had just wanted to say something to cover up the awkwardness and to keep from getting carried away thinking about how much this man must hate him. Obviously, he’d just made things worse. Again.

He tried again, “I was told you were too weak to make the trip to see me. I see that might not be the case.” Also bad. He winced internally. Can’t you say anything right?

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty,” Kaladin replied. “I’m not well, but I walk the camp each day to rebuild my strength. I feared that my weakness and appearance might be offensive to the Throne.”

“You’ve learned to speak politically, I see,” Elhokar loathed political-speak. It made it much too easy to read between the lines and think the speaker hated you, though, to be fair, most people did hate the people they used political-speak on. “The truth is that my command is meaningless, even to a darkeyes. I no longer have authority in the eyes of men.”

Storms, that was way to honest. He should never have come here. He was panicky, exhausted and just a little too drunk to make good decisions about what to say. He should have waited until he could hold his tongue.

“Out, you other two,” he ordered Moash and Taka. “I’d speak to this man alone.” At least this way he’d only humiliate himself in front of Kaladin.

When Moash and Taka were gone, Elhokar tried to figure out what to say. He hadn’t even know what he’d have said if Kaladin had come to the palace, and he wasn’t entirely sure what had driven him to come here today.

“How did you know how to be a hero?” he blurted out.

The question surprised the bridgeman and it surprised Elhokar for a second too, but only for a second. He was supposed to be a Knight Radiant. How was he supposed to do that if he didn’t know how to be a hero?

Kaladin said something inane about luck and then Elhokar was talking again. He was rambling about how he was always failing at being king and disappointing everyone. He’d never been this honest to anyone other than Jasnah and Shadow, and he could tell that he was making Kaladin uncomfortable. Finally Elhokar managed to rein in the torrent of words and cursed himself for coming here. He was in the exact wrong frame of mind for this.

“I want to be a king like my father was,” he finished. “I want to lead men, and I want them to respect me.”

“I don’t…” Kaladin said. “I don’t know if that’s possible, Your Majesty.”

Elhokar held himself very still. “Do you think me a bad king, bridgeman?” he asked slowly once he’d regained the ability to speak.

“Yes,” Kaladin said.

He had the honestly, the decency, to look Elhokar in the eye as he said it and some very small part of Elhokar was grateful for that even as hearing someone say exactly what he’d feared people believed about him for most of his life tore him apart inside. He tried to balance the full soul-crushing weight of Kaladin’s words where it wouldn’t destroy anything major until he was safely alone.

“Well,” he said because he needed to say something to make it seem like that word hadn’t hurt. Gavilar would have just let the comment roll off and then magically it would have turned into ammunition he could use. Dalinar would have simply killed anyone who insulted him. Elhokar could do neither. All he could do was hang on and hope Kaladin couldn’t see how that little word was going to destroy him. “I did ask. I merely have to win you over as well. I will figure this out. I will be a king to be remembered.” That sounded confident, right? Or did it just sound pathetic? He couldn’t decide.

“Or you could do what is best for Alethkar and step down,” Kaladin said, still brutally honest.

That almost broke Elhokar’s precious wall of calm. “Do not overstep yourself, bridgeman,” he snapped. “I should never have come here.”

“I agree,” Kaladin said, coolly but without a hint of malice.

Elhokar fled. He did not mention the strange place full of beads.

~~~~

After returning from the bridgemen’s barracks, Elhokar headed directly for his chambers. He tried without success to ignore the presence of the other guards, but it was hard. They were whispering and shooting each other looks behind his back. Every once and a while he heard what they were saying, whispers of the same things Kaladin had said. They all thought he was a terrible king who should step down. They all thought Dalinar would be better off in charge.

Perhaps they were right. Who was to say that if Gavilar and Navani hadn’t had another son that child wouldn’t have become king? Perhaps if Gavilar had been able to see the true depths of his son’s weakness and cowardice he would have made Dalinar heir. Elhokar had always assumed that his life would be better if Gavilar had survived but perhaps then his life would have ended in a convenient accident to get rid of an unworthy heir to the throne.

The guards would not stop whispering. It was driving Elhokar mad. He knew he was unfit. He knew that he was failing. Why did they have to rub his face in it?

By the time they reached his chambers he was shaking so badly he could barely stand. He pulled the door open by himself and leaned against it. What did it matter if he looked weak when everyone already knew he was?

“Stay out here,” he told Moash and Taka. His voice was shaking and he hated it. He hated himself.

“But--Your Majesty--” Moash said. “How are we supposed to protect you if we can’t see you?” His tone of voice sounded almost mocking but surely Elhokar was just imagining that.

“I don’t care,” Elhokar growled. “Stay out of my sight.” Then he forced himself into his chambers and slammed the door behind him.

He stumbled across the room and poured a goblet of violet wine. He spilled a not inconsiderable amount all over the table, but he didn’t care. He practically dumped the contents of the goblet down his throat and poured another and then another.

Shadow buzzed sharply. At some point she’s transferred from his shoulder to the table. Though she had no face he got the distinct feeling that she was judging him with a raised eyebrow. “What?” He asked.

“I wish you wouldn’t drink so much,” Shadow said. “Do you feel better about yourself when you do?”

“Does it matter?” Elhokar snapped.

“You don’t need to do this,” Shadow said. “You could do great things if you just tried.”

“Haven’t you been listening?” Elhokar asked. “The only great thing I could do is get out Dalinar’s way.” He downed another swallow of wine.

“Never,” Shadow snarled. “You must never let that man gain any more power than he currently has.”

“But I’m failing,” Elhokar said choking back a sob. “You heard them. They all know it.”

“Then you need to keep trying,” Shadow said. “And if you fail again you need to try again. You are a Knight Radiant; you cannot lie down and let people take everything from you.”

“Where are you pulling these delusions out of?” Elhokar finished off the goblet. “I’m not a Knight Radiant. Amaram is the leader of the Knights Radiant--or he was, at least--and no one would ever let me join magic powers or no magic powers.”

“I chose you not Amaram,” Shadow snarled. “Do you insult me by suggesting that I didn’t know what I was doing?”

“You don’t remember much about before you came here!” Elhokar shot back. He was shouting, but he found he didn’t particularly care if the guards heard. “How do you know that you knew what you were doing?”

“I knew what I was doing,” Shadow said sharply. “I remember enough to know that I knew.”

Elhokar snorted and turned away from her. He went to refill his goblet, then just tossed it aside and drank directly from the bottle. The violet wine burned like fire going down, but he didn’t care, he even enjoyed it.

“Elhokar,” Shadow said, very quietly, almost like she was afraid to set him off again. “Regardless of everything, you really shouldn’t be drinking tonight. Something bad is going to happen. It’s not safe.”

“I don’t care,” Elhokar said and took another swig from the bottle.

#the stormlight archive #stormlight archive #words of radiance #elhokar kholin #dalinar kholin #original spren character #kaladin stormblessed #moash #elhokar kholin has social anxiety #elhokar needs a hug #things are not going well #canon divergent au #I promise this will actually manage to diverge in part four #emjenenla #Emjen writes #tw: domestic violence #tw: self loathing

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stygianflood · 3 years

Text

Hideaway (Ethan x F!MC)

Summary: As promised, a very canon-divergent version of Ethan’s... dark mood. 3.8; Ethan’s PoV

Words, rating, genre, trope- 1.5k, General, Fluff (but the tone is angsty); hurt/comfort

A/N- It bothered me that Ethan’s demand for consolation was an either-this-or-nothing sort of scenario, when we know the real Ethan Ramsey would never! In this universe Ethan just leaves refusing MC’s offer to help. Much like Book 1 ❤ Also, I really tried to make sense of whatever PB is making Harper do. And there might be an Easter egg near the end.

The amber liquid sloshes down his throat, trickling into the more labyrinthine crevices of his mind, sharp and biting. Somewhere in a sky not veiled by the havoc of civilisation, a forlorn sun pours itself in a steady drip.

For each of the last fifteen minutes, his finger has been teetering on the brink of a call he knows he’ll make.

I don’t need you to follow me, Aparna. I knew there could be consequences.

I made my bed... The least I can do is lie in it.

She stood before him, under the lurid new lights of the revamped atrium. Face contorted in worry, and something else he is no longer a stranger to.

That doesn’t mean you have to weather them alone.

I care about you. Talk to me.

And she looked no older than she did in her first year.

In those days the atrium housed the trees planted in his intern year, and some even older. And Aparna had implored him to stay. Because the patients needed him. Because she needed him.

Ethan was not brave enough to admit he needed her more than she would ever need him. That part of them remains pitifully unaltered.

This time however, it’s different from letting her in. It’s about beating the devil at his own game. Wrestling his slippery self on a rock face.

He wonders what it’s like on the other side of the tunnel. The darker side that the likes of Bloom inhabit. The one that doesn’t have its throat slit by the glare of street lights. More importantly, how do the likes of Dr. Ramsey beat him at his own game and remain unscathed.

He’s being reckless. Dangerously so. But whatever else he might tell himself, he is lonely too.

Cloistered in an apartment that never felt emptier, he can almost hear her terrible joke on fingers of scotch. When did the notoriously single Ethan Ramsey become this dependent he wonders.

After four arduously long rings, he almost disconnects the call.

‘Ethan?’

‘Hey.’

The silence stretches into a long and restless twilight across his windows, and he thinks he ought to ask about her day. She beats him to it.

‘Do you want me to come over?’

‘That… That would be nice.’

She definitely rolls her eyes on the other side of the line.

***

‘Do you ever wish you’d settled for someone… less complicated?’ He avoids her eyes fixing his own on the ceiling.

The fingers massaging his forehead stall for the briefest quarter of a second before resuming. The slight shift finds his head even more snugly settled in her lap.

He feels stifled by an all-consuming sense of helplessness. And it’s different from the trickiest diagnoses when he knows he’s giving his all and failing. It is a plethora of all that is wrong with the system. The one he has been pitted against all his life, and mostly managed to thwart.

Ethan Ramsey never settles for half-measures. Not when he can help it. And with Bloom, he cannot.

Not unless he tips the scales in his favour. And it has taken the last morsel of his sanity to plot it.

No loose ends. Or second footprints for that matter. One more ethics hearing and her career would end before it began, and Naveen himself could do nothing about it.

Yet here he is. The irony of it biting, as the one person he needs to protect by all means is the one being implicated. If Harper, one of the most level-headed people he knows-

‘Besides the fact that I’m nowhere close to being settled?’ Aparna interrupts his thoughts from somewhere above him.

Oh.

‘Sorry, I didn't mean-’

Of course she is grinning. Annoyingly smug and utterly distracting.

He could kiss her senseless and wipe the smirk off those lips. Make her moan right here on the couch.

He almost does.

‘Did you wish you weren’t involved with someone whose medical license was about to be revoked?’ She asks.

Her fingers rove about his temple, right where he has recently seen specks of silver. And he awaits a joke about his age that never comes.

‘Ethan…’

God, he hopes he doesn’t look that miserable.

‘I need you to know I’d go anywhere with you. And I mean that-’ She holds his chin to turn his face. ‘I mean that in every sense of the word. Thought you’d know by now.’

She looks strangely composed.

It could be the immensity of her proclamation. Or the ease with which it has rolled off her tongue. But it alarms him. Not because he isn’t ready, because make no mistake he is. It alarms him because she is doing it again.

In that moment all of his life could flicker past him like the tedious crackle of an old television set, and he’d still be enraptured by the unwavering intent in her eyes.

And she looks no older than she did in her first year.

He raises a hand grazing the softness of her neck. Her cheek. And the corner of her parted lips.

Come here is all he manages before drawing her face to his own.

He only vaguely remembers the drive back home when he wanted to be in control of his life. He has never felt more disarmed. Or more- he discerns the lump in his throat- in love.

Beads of crimson settle on the horizon, and in the abandoned dregs of his whisky. The natural order of things calls for day and night. Much in the same way it summons droughts and downpour.

And as for him, he’d come undone for her again and again.

***

The stillness of the air is riddled by his own ragged breaths mingling with hers. And the deluge in his mind almost subsides.

‘Glad that I stayed?’ She props herself on her elbows and lazily smiles down at him.

‘Always.’

She peppers the column of his neck with a final drizzle of kisses before burying one languid hand in his hair and settling against him. Just as the silence is splintered by the buzz on his coffee table.

Thankfully it’s not her pager. Just her phone. And her fingers resume their stroking of his hair.

‘How are you feeling?’

‘Pleasantly spent.’ It’s his first genuine smile in hours. ‘But really, several things at once.

‘And I’ll talk to Harper as soon as I can.’

‘I appreciate that, but… I think we need to talk to each other,’ She says. ‘For the team, but also for ourselves.

‘I need to be able to forgive her. Not today perhaps. But I need to do it.’

He agrees. But he is baffled that Harper should accuse her now. Especially when she was willing to wait for evidence when Aparna had actually breached ethics as an intern.

Is it his tactlessness he wonders, as she loops his arm around herself. Speaking over her inputs, denying the credibility she has earned in the team by sheer hard work.

Creating the impression that she’s still just an intern with history.

As her breath cools the sheen of sweat on his chest, he instinctively gathers her even closer. And not for the first time that evening, he feels he doesn’t deserve her.

Damage control, the interminable mutterings in his mind suggest. He needs to ensure Harper has not spoken to anyone outside the team. And Tobias has not prattled. Perhaps give Naveen a heads up.

‘Check that,’ He remarks as her phone buzzes again. ‘It could be work.’

But just as he is about to disentangle himself to make the calls, he sees them.

Just wanted to check on you.

Hope you’re not beeting yourself up over it.

Not a saved contact on her phone he realises. But it’s familiar. A little too familiar. He decides against asking.

She shakes her head with a faint half-smile before replacing the phone and curling up to him. She loops an arm about his chest as he strokes rehearsed patterns on her back.

It’s minutes before they startle the peace.

‘Thank you for being here tonight, Apu,’ He almost whispers. ‘For helping me work through this.'

‘I meant what I said, Ethan,’ She says. ‘I’ll always be there for you.

‘Even when I don’t agree with you.’

And it’s there again. That frightfully alarming calm on her face every time she promises to leap.

When he takes her bottom lip between his teeth, it’s with the ardour of a disciple who did not just invoke her minutes ago, or this morning, or into the wee hours of the night before.

‘And I hope,’ He manages breathlessly. ‘I hope I never take that... Take you for granted.’

She doesn’t respond. Except for the immutable glimmer in her eyes. And he knows.

He decides he will call Naveen and Harper once she’s asleep. He’ll not unsettle her. Not when it might never happen.

‘What happens when we go back out there?’

If he only knew.

‘Let’s get you to bed.’ He smiles, lacing his fingers with hers.

His life has long stopped being the neatly stacked manila folders he’d once sorted it into. For all he knows, it could be dipped and bent in all directions tomorrow.

But he also knows she will be right there on the promontory with him.

Thank you all for reading this! A special shout-out to @starrystarrytrouble because I had the inspiration to write after ages solely because of our chat ❤

Let me know if you’d want to be added or removed.

#open heart #ethan ramsey #ethan ramsey x mc #harper emery #tobias carrick #choices fic writers creations #fics of the week #openheartfanfics #cac2021 #choices monthly challenge

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aliaslua · 3 years

Text

In broad daylight

Chapter 01: Out and about

Raphael is still learning to cope with his new life. On the rainy evening after Michelangelo's first national interview, the big and solitary turtle brother decides to go on a walk and while he tries to adapt to a world he never wanted to be a part of, he meets a human woman that changes his path.

This is an AU that diverges from cannon after the events of Out of the shadows. Instead of choosing to keep living hidden in the sewers, the family of mutants accepts chief Vincent's suggestion of trying to live a normal life among humans. This is a compilation of events that unfold after the fact, tales about the turtles and the humans that cross their paths.

This series may contain mature themes (Trigger Warnings will be included before every chapter), if you’re a minor please don’t interact.

TW: None

You can also read it in AO3

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It took Raphael two years to finally decide to walk on a sidewalk alone. It was the first time he was alone in... Well, Michelangelo called it “upstairs”, Leonardo called it “the real world” and Donatello just called the streets of New York by their common name. Raph didn’t called it anything since names carry meaning and that world and its residents were a mystery to him. When he had to describe the world above him, he called it “outside”.

He was 19 when he was outvoted and then convinced of accepting the idea of coming out into the world. Now a grown 21 years old man-turtle, he still felt his palms sweaty and his fingers cold as he held the knob of the door that led into the streets of New York. A shaky breath left his mouth when he finally opened the alley door.

It wasn’t the first time he walked among humans but in every occasion he had to (knowing he would only do it if he was obligated) he had Casey holding one of his shoulders or April holding one of his fingers. Now, the world presented itself in front of him and he was alone. Despite his anxiety, the landscape wasn’t as intimidating as he once anticipated, there was no big crowd filled with scared looks of disgust, only the concrete street and light rain drops. He didn’t know exactly what he expected, actually. It was too late in the night to be walking the street alone, no human would dare to bet their safety to wander around an ugly and stinky street. Raphael wasn’t human and he would bet his life knowing no one ill intended would dare to cross his path... No one would even dare to ask for directions or to wish him a good evening. No one would dare to approach him. He had learned sooner than later that even well meaning humans would avoid being alone next to him and despite his efforts to understand them there was a deep part of Raph that held a grudge against it.

The second oldest brother would rather spend the rest of his life avoiding contact with this reality. It took maybe two or three minutes after he started to walk down the street for him to regret that decision as he felt the warm thick air of the night against his skin. He kept his pace despite that, determined to reach at least one mile before coming back home. The streets were still empty and he could only hear his heavy steps on the ground and the distant sound of cars. There was a time he loved this city... A time when all he wanted to was to roam around hidden in the roof tops and the dark shadows of the alleys, a time when he could watch this world and not be a part of it, when he could be invisible, a mere observer. Maybe he still could, he thought, maybe his outfit made him look human enough from a distance... Raphael liked the clothes, he liked he was now able to hear Knicks' shirts that fitted him perfectly thanks to his new access to tailor-made clothing, he liked his loose trousers and the dark colored sweaters that covered his shell, he liked his sneakers and his watch. Life out on the surface had brought him many new luxuries: now the lair had tiles and furniture and a long corridor that led to a door facing the streets, it didn't smell bad anymore thanks to modern isolation and he had his own bed, a king sized bed, with many pillows and clean white bed sheets. Raph sighed loudly once again, maybe Mikey was right. Maybe life could be more than he perceived to be.

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"Turn it on!"

The crowd cheered lively as the host turned in his chair.

"Good night, ladies and gentleman." He started talking in a pleasant voice "Tonight, in a exclusive interview... An absolutely unique moment in history. It's an honor to be here, sharing this moment with you as we receive with a warm round of applause please welcome... Michelangelo Hamato!"

Mikey walked into the stage with the biggest smile as the applause kept going, he was wearing a well fitted set of blazer and pants and he looked nothing like the wild and anxious brother they new. He waved to the crowd with such confidence that the absurd size difference between him and the host looked funny instead of terrifying, he even flipped the edge of his blazer behind him as he seated in the two-seater sofa and crossed his leg, showing a shinny elegant shoe.

"Michelangelo.... May I call you Mikey?"

"Yes, please."

"It's an honor... and I mean it, it's an honor to have you tonight."

"The honor is all mine, Jim."

The crowd cheered once again.

"Now... Mikey, I've to start saying... You're a sight to be seen!"

"Thank you!" Loud claps echoing from the crowd.

"How tall are you?"

"I'am 6'5"

"Taller than Micheal Jordan!"

"... And the smallest in the bunch!" Mikey commented with a big smile and the host returned the smile with wide eyes.

"Must be a very tall bunch!"

"A very big bunch!"

"Yes indeed!" The crowd laughed along with the host as Mikey shared a wide smile again.

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Ten minutes had passed since Raphael started his walk and three minutes had passed since a man with a dog on a leash had walked past him, completely unbothered by his presence. Had he made it? Has he invisible? Comfortable enough with the prospect of an empty city that slept while he walked, Raph took his headphones and pressed play in the link Donnie had sent him, the cellphone opened a new tab and a podcast started playing. Soothing was followed by a female voice that introduced the name of the show.

"...As always, thank you all for listening. In today's episode we'll be discussing the new revelations in the law case that wrecked the nation: the case Sacks vs Hamato, that absurd demonstration of pure capitalist greed that tried to condemn four literal teenagers to pay an equally absurd amount of money - and prison time!- for materials damage caused to the Sacks company-" "...and illegal espionage." A second voice complemented "Yes, thank you Sabrina. We have already discussed the legal implications that case could open for the judicial system here in America and all the possible outcomes in the Thirteenth episode of the first season of this podcast, if you haven't heard it yet, I heavily suggest you do so you can follow the argument of the developments in this case. Now, Sabrina... Yesterday we saw the final outcome of this case and the hearing that decided the sentence ended with an incredible emotional speech from Donatello - we know he was one of the brother's more involved with the whole process" "Yes" "... And now they're free! Of all charges!" "...Yes Gabi what we saw today followed by Michelangelo's incredible interview in the Late Night Show back on Thursday was, honestly, a beautiful strike against bigotry in this country..." "Absolutely, I mean... The judge of the case himself assumed that the charges were unfounded and biased..." "Yes! And now we have a established background to be able to-"

Raphael stopped the audio, unable to disguise his contempt. Geez , is that the kind of thing Donnie spends his time listening to? Wasn't real life already a bore? He let out a grumpy sigh and put his phone away. A human figure across the street started to stare indiscreetly at him and Raphael felt his heart shrink before making a blunt turn in a different street. The rain had stopped and the night wind was starting to feel colder, just like Raphael's heart as he tried to escape whoever it was that was trying to identify his figure.

A bright blue light appeared at the end of the new street Raphael just walked into. An all-night convenience store. Raph had been in a place that before, he and Casey had brought snacks and a couple of beers. He felt his mouth water at the idea of a cold beer. He had cash - more than enough. Maybe if he promised a fat tip they would let him get in. He shift his height between his feet as he observed the inside, the neon blue light was coming from a weirdly shaped advertisement placed above the entrance, perfectly contrasting with the ugly green light inside the store, some shelves appeared through the glass window and door, but he could tell that the place was empty - or almost that. In his head, Raphael had decided to take that chance and he was determined to perceive, his body, otherwise, didn't seem as thrilled with the idea. He waited outside as the rain started to pour once again, trying collect the mental strength to got in when a skinny old man opened the translucent door

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"Mikey, your last name is now worldwide known since the start of the trial, tell me: is it Japanese? Was it inherited from you father...?"

"I don't know, actually... We made it up!"

"What?" The human man asked as the crowd giggled

"It's exactly that, actually. When we came to the surface and Sacks decides to sue us the judicial system needed a surname to use... Apparently!"

"So you just made it up!"

"Hell yeah! Wouldn't you like to come up with your name?"

"Yes, absolutely."

"What would you call yourself?" He host made a surprise expression as Mikey changed the dynamic

"Jim Linotax!"

"...Oh, it's a pleasure, Mr. Linotax!" Michelangelo said, offering a handshake as he managed to pull more laughs from the crowd

"Michelangelo... It's a unique name!"

"I heard once it was very popular in the sixteen century."

"Oh, really?"

"Oh yes."

"And all your brothers have renascence names, is that right?"

"Yes. Thanks to old dad."

"How 's that?"

"Well, you see, when you grow up in a tiny sewer house you have more concerns than you weirdly specific name..."

━━━━━━ • ✿ • ━━━━━━

"Are you gonna steal?" The tiny man asked and he seemed to fight the same nervousness as Raph. The turtle-man on the other hand, felt all his limbs stiff and his hands go numb at the sound of that old man directing calling to him. He made a genuine effort and reached his pockets for the dollar bills.

"I-I just want a couple of beers."

"Go AWAY! Go away! No beers here for you!" The man started to yell as Raphael finally caught up his accent. It was stiff and hard in the h's and o's, he couldn't decipher where it was from.

"I just want to buy something! I am a client!" Raphael responded too late to recognize his anger.

"Nothing here for you! Go away!"

"I HAVE THE MONEY!" Raph screamed back at him, waving the bills in the air. The world started to feel out of focus as he realized people had gone to their apartment balconies and were looking at him through the windows in the buildings surrounding the store. Had he woke the whole street? Did he hear someone saying they were calling the police? No, please... The last thing he needed was a scold from Leo for causing a scene... All he wanted was a beer. Fuck, fuck, fuck. More and more lights started to turn on as the buzz around him got bigger and louder. He felt his heart sink and his hand hurt from the tight firsts he could not undo. Something inside him couldn't decide between the want to murder that man and the uncontrollable desire to scream and shout. "No more roof climbing." Leo had said "We're like humans now. We can't just go out jumping through people's houses." He couldn't just vanish away, despite the burning desire to just escape that situation.

"Look," Raphael managed to say, after two or three deep breaths "... I am sorry. I just wanted to buy a beer... I am leaving now."

"Hey! I finally found you!" An unfamiliar voice shouted from the other side of the street. Raph turned to look and almost knocked over whoever it was. Their bodies bumped into each other but only the smaller of them reacted to the impact, he felt a tiny pair of hands grab his arm."OooOOooww! That was close... Hey, we've been looking for you! Did you get the drinks?"

"NO DRINKS HERE FOR YOU!" The store owner screamed once again.

"Damn... Ok. We can go somewhere else!" The female voice had a sharpness to it, finally Raphael finally looked at her.

Nothing in this world could have prepared him for the vision of the young women holding his arm. She was short (but most people usually are in comparison to the mutant), had a luscious curly hair, tied in two pigtails that ended in the back of her neck. She was wearing a very revealing blouse and high waisted pants that matched in color. She was clearly dressed up, with sparkly high heels and long elegant earrings and she was holding his arms with a casualty he had never experienced before.

"C'mon!" She said and turned her head to him, showing a full face of makeup and bright brown eyes "Let's get the hell out of here."

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The crowd followed Mikey and the host as they laughed at the childhood story the turtle just shared.

"Mikey, unfortunately our time is almost over... I just wanted to thank you once again for coming tonight, for coming out into the world."

"The pleasure is all mine Jim, really... I've spent all my teenage years watching you on TV... I never thought I would be here tonight, I never thought I'd have the pleasure of meeting such a welcoming audience (loud cheering noises) and I never thought I could be part of this world."

There was an almost child-like honesty in his words making the brief moment of silence that came after especially touching.

"He's killing it." - April whispered to the TV

"100%" - Leo's voice came after

"Thank you, Michelangelo... I hope we can have all your brothers soon!"

"You can count on it!" Mikey answered, excited

"You can NOT count on that" - Raphael responded at the TV

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"I thought you guys didn't walk the streets... I've red the interview your brother gave to the New Yorker... He said you probably would wait a while until you decided to stroll around." The woman said as they walked back to the lair's alley door. She had told Raphael her name was Clara and they had held hands until they turned the corner and were out of sight from those judging eyes. She was smaller than most humans, Raphael later realized, maybe 5'1 or 5'2 and had a high pitched voice that made the turtle think about those weird anime dubs he used to watch as a kid. The strangest thing about his savior was that she seemed strangely familiarized with his presence. He ignored her comment as they kept walking in silence for a while. Raphael couldn't stop thinking about how long it would take for him to finally reach his destination and how could he respectfully ask for her to back off. Not that he wasn't grateful but her presence alone made him incredibly uncomfortable. She was too small, too elegant, too beautiful to walk just like that, beside him.

"I guess it is equally strange to you, right? To be here, in the real world... Out and about." Clara walked casually with both hands in her pocket as she looked up to the streets lights, Raphael wondered if she actually expected him to answer "... Is it weird for me to be like this? I mean... I thought you could use some help back there. But I don't mean to be inconvenient... Is it ok if you just walk with me closer to the next bus station? It is a bit late and I guess you're the perfect body guard..."

They kept walking, Clara and her tiny hands in the neon green pockets of her pants and Raphael with his stiff steps and dark clothing, all he wanted was to walk home without meeting everyone else, lock the door behind him and drink until all the memories fade away... But it didn't seem his wishes would come true as a pair of men jogging appeared at the end of the street, just in front of them. They looked at the strange couple and one of them startled at the vision. Clara looked at them and waved.

"Good night to you!" She said with a calm tone.

"Are you alright??" One of them asked from far away, still trying to figure out Raphael's image.

"Yeah!" She answered immediately "Why wouldn't I be?" Then she gave them a wide welcoming smile that made Raphael's heart beat uncontrollably "Good night to you." Clara then said, just as she turned one corner, grabbing Raphael's arm.

She then let go of him and offered a warm smile "It's ok... I don't think they will bother you. The bus stop is just right there turning the other corner... Thank you for bringing me here. Good night!" And just like that, she turned her back to him and started to walk away. Each step pressing Raphael's heart against his chest.

"WAIT!" The worlds came out of his mouth before he could stop them. She startled at the unexpected sound and immediately turned to him

"What?"

Raphael waited a minute so he could gather all the emotional strength to ask: "Can you walk me home?"

Clara smiled as she approached the mutant once again: "Is it too far?"

Raph took a minute to answer but instead said: "I'll pay you a cab when we get there." Clara hums and adds:" You sure? I leave pretty far." Raphael only nodded. Then she gave him the same silence answer. He couldn't mentally trace the path he had taken that night but he knew it was almost morning. The rain had stopped long ago but the air was much colder than when he left the lair, he was actually getting cold and wondered if she felt the same. They kept walking in silence until it finally hit him:

"What were you doing in the streets so late at night?"

"Oh..." She seemed surprised by his question, her voice a comparison that made him realize how low he sounded "I was on a date actually..." She said showing her teeth in a straight smile that indicated self-awareness, well that explained the clothing. "The guy turned out to be a prick, so I bolted! I was completely lost when I heard all the fuss the store guy was making... Thank god I found that mess, actually... I was getting pretty scared."

Silence as they got closer and closer to the lair's street door.

"... It was a complete coincidence to find you, actually... I was watching the rerun of your brother's interview today... I am actually in love with him! "she said in a ambiguous tone "Can you introduce us? Do you think I have a chance?" Raph finally laughed. Not at the idea that Mikey was charming enough to acquire the interest a woman like Clara, but at the absurd fact she thought she had to ask if she had a chance. With Mikey?

"He's also a prick." Raphael responded sharply but with a captivating tone to his voice. Then... She laughed. Raph couldn't contain his own grin.

The first sunbeams were about to appear at the horizon and when the red-wearing turtle finally reached the large metal door, he felt a relief like never before.

"I'll call a cab and get inside… So you know… The guy doesn’t bail because of me."

"Ok." Clara said, a light smile in her cheeks. "It was nice to meet you..."

"Raphael." He added after realizing she never asked his name did she knew it already?

"Hope to see you around soon."

Raph nodded with uncertainty and grabbed the metal knob. Clara's last words engraved in his brain as he crossed the long corridor that led to his underground home.

#TMNT Bayverse #In broad daylight #Out and about #TMNT Raphael #tmnt leonardo #Tmnt Donatello #tmnt michelangelo #Slice of life #coming of age #first love #this is my baby ; - ;#URGH I HOPE SOMEONE LIKES IT I AM SO EXCITED #Out of the shadows #Headcannon sequel #Raph is soft #Mikey is a star

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ouyang-zizhen · 4 years

Text

Headcanon, part 2

So, I’ve seen a few posts in which ZiZhen has plenty of siblings due to his dad being old and all, and I raise you with: ZiZhen has many moms.

A total of 6, to be precise, would have been 7 if his own mother had survive. So here’s the thing:

1 - ZiZhen is an only child.

2 - His father realized, after marrying his third wife, that the problem of conception does not lie with the women he beds but with his own genetic. He’s still hoping it might happen with the right woman though.

3 - ZiZhen is pretty much a miracle baby from an infertile (but not sterile) father.

4 - His mother was the first wife. After she died, the second concubine got that title. The third concubine arrived a year after the first wife’s death.

5 - Ouyang Dad still tried to have more kids, marrying 3 more women, yet never earning any results (3 more instead of 2, because 4 is a bad omen).

6 - He would have kept only those, but his fourth wife got badly sick and she was expected to die within the year. Not wanting to keep only 4 women in his household (again, bad omen), he took another wife during that time. The fourth wife survived, and they are now 6 in total.

7 - All the wives, fully aware they’ll never have a child of their own unless Ouyang Dad adopts (which is unlikely), dotes on ZiZhen like he is their own son.

8 - The second concubine, now first wife, was raised in the Meishan Yu sect, although not part of the main Yu clan. Her family has been part of the sect for three generations. She is the third daughter.

9 - When the Second Concubine married into the Baling sect, ZiZhen’s mom was still childless. She got pregnant with ZiZhen a year or so after the arrival of the Second Concubine, who also remained childless.

10 - ZiZhen knows many stories of his mother through the bedtime tales of the Second Concubine.

11 - The third concubine is from YunMeng. She was a dancer, born from a rogue cultivator, who taught her to train her golden core, and a dancer, who taught her the skills she made a livelihood of after her parents death when she was 16. She was 19 when she joined the OuYang household.

12 - She and the Second Concubine slowly fell for each other and became lovers.

13 - ZiZhen once caught them kissing. They both told him beautiful stories of soulmates and how easily those bonds can be broken by the cruelty of the world. ZiZhen listened with rapture and promised never to tell a soul about what he saw, for his aunties were true soulmates. (Yes, they both manipulated ZiZhen into not telling his father of what he saw).

14 - That moment sparked ZiZhen’s interest in love stories and slowly shaped him into the romantic he is.

15 - He later understood what Second and Third concubine truly meant by their story. It fueled his passion for WangXian more than anything.

16 - The Fourth Concubine was from the Chang clan. She got sick after hearing of their horrible death at the hands of Xue Yang, and how the latter escaped justice for it. Her cultivation has always been weaker than most, which is why she was thought to die from her pain, but, with the help of Second and Third Concubines, she got through. Her body still does not allow her to travel very far, but she enjoys taking long walks in the gardens of the previous First Wife, lovingly tended to by she and the other concubines.

17 - During her recovery, she began to write stories to keep herself entertained.

18 - ZiZhen is her most fervent fan, always poking in her rooms to have a sneak peek of her next story.

19 - Because of the involvement of the Jin Clan in the absence of justice for the Chang, she is the most suspicious of the budding relationship between ZiZhen and Jin Ling. While not outright disagreeing, she always keeps her eyes open to any clues that might tell Jin Ling is not right for ZiZhen.

20 - The Fifth Concubine is the 5th daughter of a rich Baling family. She was raised in the sect, developing a strong core, often helping Young Master ZiZhen, age 14 by now, to train. At age 25, still unmarried, the Fifth Concubine was noticed for the first time by OuYang Dad, on a day she actually bothered to dress nicely. She went back to what I would call an “Ancient Chinese Butch Look” shortly after the wedding.

21 - Fifth Concubine then proceeded to thoroughly seduce Second, Third and Fourth Concubine into a relationship all together. Their laughter can often be heard in the courtyard linking each of their pavillion together.

22 - Sixth Concubine was a rogue cultivator herself. Fifth Concubine saw her at the market one day. They talked and fell in love. Fifth Concubine, with the help of Second, Third and Fourth, who also met Sixth and were charmed, managed to convince her husband to take Sixth in with them. “Four is a bad omen husband, you need another one of us!”

23 - When Fourth fell sick, that’s when OuYang Dad hurriedly tried to find Seventh Concubine. She was a merchant’s daughter, selling her father’s ware at the market. Ouyang Dad tried to haggle something much cheaper than it was worth. She stood her ground. He asked to marry her.

24 - She refused at first. “I am not a cultivator, what am I bringing to you?” OuYang Dad, at this point trying one last time before calling it quit, decided that maybe it would work, a baby with a non-cultivator.

25 - It did not work. But Seventh is pretty happy with her lot. She’s well taken care of, especially by the other concubine who all warmly welcomed her, and they all promised to take care of her the same, even once she’s old and grey.

26 - So ZiZhen is really well loved by his father’s remaining 6 wives. That’s where he gets his “Respect Women” juice from.

27 - The only reason why he’s been feeling down lately with his father’s expectations and mistreatment is because said father also cut the time ZiZhen is allowed to spend with them, he has “Sect Related Duties” now, he doesn’t have the time to play around anymore.

28 - The Wives eventually called bullshit. ZiZhen has been feeling better ever since.

29 - OuYang Dad is painfully oblivious to his Wives relationship together. He is just happy none of them are giving him any headaches.

30 - One day, Jiggy went to Ouyang Dad and congratulated him on the harmony of his household. Jiggy, of course, thought he would be subtly blackmailing OuYang Dad with the scandal of his wives together (where did he learnt that? Fuck if I know!), but Oblivious OuYang just smiled and thanked him, which kinda messed up Jiggy’s plan. Not that he needed to blackmail Sect Leader OuYang, but it’s always useful to do so. Anyway, Jiggy left the conversation thinking Ouyang Dad thought everyone knew already and he was happy with it.

31 - Eventually, Ouyang Dad DID learn the truth, well into ZiZhen’s 20′s. He got mad for about 5 minutes before calming down. “At least they can’t get pregnant from this, it won’t bring me any shame.”

32 - He lets them be, especially since they let him be. He enjoys his quiet evenings away from whatever his wives are doing.

33 - Which is ironic considering he is friends with one of the loudest mouths in the Cultivation world, Sect Leader Yao.

34 - All the wives avoid him like the plague whenever he visits Baling.

35 - All the wives having a golden core, they go to Night Hunts together from time to time. Seventh sometimes tags along despite not having a golden core, while Fourth tends to stay at home after her sickness.

36 - They are all very careful though, since they know ZiZhen’s mother died during a Night Hunt and they all promised ZiZhen they would not be careless.

37 - ZiZhen started calling the Concubines “Autie”, but one day, he accidentally called Fourth “Mom”, and all the others got jealous and wanted to be called “Mom” too, so he now calls them First mom, Second mom, Third mom, etc.

38 - He uses a different, more childish word when talking about his deceased birth mother.

Aaaaaand that’s it for tonight folks! I know some of what I’ve written gets change a little now that I have this headcanon in mind, but I’ll keep this for whatever’s coming next in the OG world (well, canon-divergence world now XD). See you guys soon with some new OS!

#ouyang zizhen #headcanon #mo dao zu shi #the untamed #mdzs #cql #The Juniors #wangxian #jin ling #lingzhen #zhenling #ZiZhen has many moms

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doyelikehaggis · 3 years

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✨ Kindly pressure me to actually write things ✨

Okay, I’m stealing this idea from @a-lil-bi-furious because it is Genius and I could really do with the motivation! So, I will list my current WIP’s and brief descriptions of them. For each title I get in my inbox, I will write you a snippet for that WIP, and you can feel free to send me as many titles as you like! (If I get two asks for the same title, I will just write another snippet so don’t worry about that!)

And because that neat little list seems weirdly motivating too, here are the promises I make:

• Each ask will be answered within the week

• I will write a good few paragraphs for all of them and do my best to make them Really good paragraphs!

I’m only gonna do the WIPs that I think I could actually be motivated to write. Here we go!

WIPs below the cut:

Find me in the forest, Frodo

A sequel to a fic I wrote called “a dance for the decades” about Lizzie, Josie, Hope, Kaleb, and MG sneaking out to a decade dance at Mystic Falls High, based pre-canon with major divergence. In this one, it focuses solely on the Lizzie/Landon storyline while also dealing with the aftermath of Connor’s attempt to kill Lizzie and the revelation that he knows she’s a witch, in which he’ll once again attempt to out her to the town.

Clash of the European Boyfriends

A dinner party is hosted at the Salvatore House in order to force Damon, Stefan, Enzo, and Klaus to have at least one civilised conversation, courtesy of Elijah and Lexi, with some extra cooperation and persuasion on Enzo’s part for Damon.

that’s a kindness you can’t afford

Another sequel, this one to “don’t be kind to it, it’ll come back” in which young Elena discovers Enzo being held in her dad’s basement and frees him, only he erases her memories. Now, years later, Enzo is keeping an eye on her from afar — until her parents’ care goes over Wickery Bridge, and he’s forced to confront his past through Elena and, to his displeased surprise, Damon.

Let the Games Begin

An AU where the Avengers are all entered into a social experiment called “The Circle” in which they are isolated for three weeks with only one form of communication to each other. Only, Stark Industries isn’t aware that its “experiment” is being used by S.H.I.E.L.D for other purposes.

So if you wanna piss off your parents

Sirius is being forced to go to a social event, hosted by his own family, where Purebloods gather to find prospective husbands and wives for their heirs. But he has a plan: His parents can’t marry him off if he shows up with a date on his arm. And they absolutely cannot marry him off if that date is a bloke (hopefully). It just so happens that James is his only viable option, resulting in a night of faking a relationship to Sirius’ entire family and a bunch of other Purebloods.

Uncle Wolf and Auntie Witch

Lizzie and Josie know about the merge. Liv can’t stay away anymore, and so she and Tyler leave the safety of their newfound contentment and go back to Mystic Falls so that she can help them. Only for them to arrive right in the middle of a Malivore monster invasion.

The Great Magic(less) Bake-Off

As a distraction for the students remaining at the Salvatore School for the holidays, Caroline and Alaric decide to host a series of friendly competitions. Hope is less than thrilled when she’s not only made to take part, but also paired up with Penelope, who is equally as dismayed about the entire situation.

Dear Past, I miss you

Pre-Legacies, when Hope’s room goes on fire and she loses nearly everything she owned, she loses control and hides in her temporary room (Caroline’s old one). In it, she finds a box of unopened letters that Freya had passed along in case Hope wanted them. All from her mom, addressed to her dad.

Were in the woods

Set just after 3A but Boyd and Erica are alive. Erica is wandering the woods during a full moon and comes across a coyote with bright blue eyes. She swears they’re some kind of werewolf, like her, and so she keeps coming back, trying to figure them out, and accidentally ends up solving a murder and a missing person’s case in the process.

First Wizarding War (to be changed)

Begins before the Order finds out that Voldemort is after Harry, before Lily and James are forced into hiding, before Harry is even born; one action completely changes the outcome. Petunia kills Vernon, in self-defence. It’s a burst of magic, she doesn’t know how or why, but it’s brief. With no one else to turn to, she turns to Lily. And with their bond quickly becoming restored in a few short weeks, when the prophecy is revealed, Petunia insists that they make her their secret keeper. In order to keep her safe, Dumbledore hides her and Dudley. They stay on the grounds of Hogwarts, undetected by the students, and from there, Voldemort’s plans are hang in the balance.

The Speedster & The Spider

All of the Avengers are alive, and they see a broadcast of an attack on Venice. Remembering where Peter’s field trip is, Pietro runs off to help — and thus breaking the Sokovia Accords. Again.

are we just a stepping stone?

It’s a late June night in 1978, and neither James nor Peter can sleep. James knows something is wrong. When he finally confronts Peter, the truth spills out about what Dumbledore has been planning. Now the Marauders need to find a way out without anyone getting hurt.

Always In the Closet

It’s the day of Lily’s wedding, and of course all four of the Marauders are there to support her and celebrate with her. Two of them just happen to be a bit distracted elsewhere.

And I’m not sorry for myself

A glimpse at life growing up in Ottery St. Catchpole for the Weasleys, Diggorys, and Lovegoods; from when they were kids, to starting Hogwarts, to the death of Luna’s mum, to the end of the line.

Why McGonagall banned Gryffindor Common Room parties

A series of parties held in the Gryffindor common room throughout the Marauders’ years at Hogwarts, ranging from explosions to snogging (and more).

Crash back into you

After Tracy’s face is in every newspaper across the UK for being seen with Sean Godfrey, Crash gets back in touch with her, and they restore their old friendship while Jess gets to bond with him, and it feels like another piece of their family has been found.

Wedding Disaster

Tracy can’t figure out how to fix Mike and Fiona’s wedding when it starts to turn to chaos, only for a few surprising guests to show up right when she needs them most. With Crash, Jackie, and Justine there to help, they manage to save the wedding — barely.

#ask games #fanfiction asks #harry potter #mcu #legacies #the vampire diaries #please absolutely help me ou if you want to!!#I’m desperately hoping this will help

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omnicat · 4 years

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A Brief Summary of More Seasons of “Timeless” (Inevitably Leading Up to Gladiator!Flynn)

Hey @ununpredictableme, here’s that thing I promised to show you! :D (Again with a delay, but better late than never, right? /o\ )

The thing about time travel was, it was just too damn tempting for its own good. The whole “doubling back over your own lifetime will kill you” thing was an effective deterrent to whims like “that date was a disaster, let’s go give my past self some tips to improve the experience” and “we’re going to try this specific evil plan over and over until it succeeds, dammit!”, but as it turned out, that still left plenty of bigger ambitions.

First, of course, there was Rittenhouse and its covert world domination schemes: the very reason time travel managed to be invented in the first place. Briefly interrupted by Garcia Flynn’s roaring rampage of burning Rittenhouse to the ground and/or saving the wife and daughter they’d murdered. (Preferably both at the same time, but when push came to shove he would’ve settled for going down in a blaze of martyrdom, survivor’s guilt soothed by the knowledge that he’d at least tried.)

/S1; Flynn

Then back to Rittenhouse, their plans by that point out of the development phase and being implemented by a visionary with more flair and philosophy than common sense, but plenty of dangerous ideas either way. Though it didn’t take long for Rittenhouse’s deplorable recruitment practices to come back and bite them in the ass, resulting in a coup by one of its lowest-esteemed members.

/S2; Rittenhouse

Emma Whitmore, driven by nothing but a bitter desire to thrive over the backs of anyone who had ever harmed or held her back with even so much as their mere existence, but no longer knowing what thriving meant after the decades of pressure and manipulation and isolation Rittenhouse had subjected her to, turned the time machine into her personal pirate ship. She looted and pillaged her way through history, taking treasures and torching everything that pissed her off. And there wasn’t much that didn’t piss her off. If Flynn’s strategy had been to blow up especially fishy-smelling rocks and see what Rittenhouse filth came scurrying out from underneath, and Nicholas Keynes’ had been to repaint history in his own image in intricate and meticulously crafted brush strokes, Emma’s was to punish those in history who disadvantaged her and twist the arms of those who could elevate her in the cruelest ways she could think of. It was no wonder Jessica Logan had turned on her, in the end. It had only been a matter of time before Emma would have turned on her – and her baby.

/S3; Emma

For a short while, they thought Jessica’s change of heart was the end of it; Rittenhouse was in ruins, Emma dead, and Flynn mostly well-behaved as part of the Lifeboat crew. The antagonist bench was empty, the heroes no longer constantly preoccupied with defending themselves. The team finally had the time and opportunity to piece their timetravel-mangled lives and families back together. Lucy un-erased Amy, and their parents along with her; Flynn found a way to save Iris and Lorena without erasing all the victories their deaths had led to. Wyatt and Jessica took the Lifeboat to the 1400’s to raise their little family and clear their heads for a while. That while turned into forever. In the end, instead of disposing of the Lifeboat somewhere no modern villain would ever find it, as the initial plan had been, their grandson returned the ship to the 21st century, to a date mere weeks from the day they’d departed from. Sherwin was a bright, eager young man with Jessica’s eyes, Wyatt’s smile, an insatiable desire to see everything the past and future had to show him – and his best friend, Willard, in tow... who proved startlingly quick to be corrupted by the power of time travel.

Willard stole the ApocaLifeboat (thanks, Lucy Croft and Bearded Wyatt, that autopilot was just what they’d needed to make time travel even more of a crapshoot) and jumped from time period to time period, looking for a place and moment where he could install himself as the next best coming since Jesus, and revealing future technology and knowledge everywhere he went. He altered history with reckless abandon and relocated dozens upon dozens of bamboozled followers to eras they had no business being in.

While the team struggled to deal with Willard, Sherwin got attached to the 21th century, Lucy figured out how to deal with her restored family now that she’d uncovered the sordid truth of their ancestry, and Flynn wrestled with the self-hatred and guilt that threatened to tear his own newly-reunited family apart. And after the team returned from a jump with a damaged ship to a timeline where Connor was dead of a disease that didn’t exist before they left, taking his vital expertise and resources to the grave with him, Jiya and Rufus had to A: figure out how to undo his death, and B: develop a way to keep anybody else they cared about but who couldn’t come on a jump from being lost or critically changed by random divergences to their personal history, poofing out of existence because of family tree disruptions like Amy, or being hijacked by the enemy like Jessica. Objective A was accomplished with another jump, and objective B with what Rufus, who had the crucial eureka moment, got to dub the Wellsaday Cage (a portmanteau of Faraday Cage and H.G. Wells, the author of the first ever time machine story). The Cage ensured that everybody inside it shared in the temporal bubble that made it so the team didn’t get swept up by the effects of their actions while they were on a jump and always came back to the altered present as their old selves. BOOM. So many problems and four-dimensional puzzle induced-headaches solved.

/S4; Willard from the 14th Century

No sooner did the team stop Willard and start bickering among themselves about how – if at all – to fix the mess he’d made of history, than the remnants of Rittenhouse (their cult annoyingly unscathed by what Willard’s had wrought) reared its ugly head again. The remaining followers, a motley bunch who had rearranged the once unassailable hierarchy with blood and backstabbing in the wake of the purge of all Rittenhouse’s biggest and most actually influential figures, fought with a zeal only found in true believers who had seen their cult’s long-awaited judgement day pass by without so much as a lightning strike and doubled down on their faith regardless. Nothing the Time Team did could stop them – until finally, after an inexplicable delay of four seasons, they returned to David Rittenhouse and smothered the entire organization in the bud by killing him before he could start spreading his ideology in the first place.

/S5; Rittenhouse Redux

Preventing the birth of the Rittenhouse cult altered the history of the USA beyond recognition and, since it was Rittenhouse’s relentless urging and unlimited funds that made time travel possible, erased everything that had occurred because of it in the previous seasons. The team made a number of jumps to win some lotteries and make some jackpot investments to help themselves and the loved ones they’d saved with the Wellsaday Cage start over, and everybody set themselves to the task of adjusting to their new reality and dealing with the scars left by erased timelines only they now remembered.

Then time-travelers from centuries into the future started showed up. The team hadn’t had to wonder who the good guys and the bad guys were or what side they should be on since they cottoned on to the truth of what Flynn kept saying in S1. Now they were left questioning everything again. Who were these people from the future? What did they want, and could they be trusted to tell the truth about that? When they started contradicting each other and the cracks in their initially united front started to show, who could the team believe? And what would happen when the team fractured along long-dormant fault lines of trust (among themselves, and toward the future travelers) and philosophical disagreements over what time travel should or shouldn’t be used for and allowed to cause??

Much tension, very suspense. Wow. They figured it out eventually, though. And hey, guess what? Flynn’s inexplicable inability to come up with a sensible Plan B to kill David Rittenhouse all the way back in S1 wasn’t so inexplicable after all! Turns out it was a remote intervention by a distant-future scumbag – let’s call him Gabmucs – who read about the dude’s many different deaths in a history book about the Time War Era and the development of the tech that would come to shield The Future He Comes From from being affected by all that temporal chaos from the past. (Based on Jiya & Rufus’s Wellsaday Cage, but applied to the whole solar system past a certain point in time.)

Gabmucs thought all those ideas about oppression and suppression and world domination sounded right up his alley, and set up some kind of outcome enforcer tech (derivative from the Temporal Shield just like the Temporal Shield was a derivative of the Wellsaday Cage) around David R’s life to ensure only one specific fate from the many timelines centered around him would come to pass, and so his ideas would come to fruition no matter what. When the team first discovered David’s existence, Gabmucs’s technology had detected Flynn’s intentions and befuddled his senses until he just couldn’t think straight enough to kill the guy anymore. The eventual failure of this tech was what prompted Gabmucs to manipulate a team from his own time to go back and help him intervene in person. And while he was there, he might as well take some crucial steps toward disabling the Temporal Shield, so he could go home afterwards to a world steeped in glorious Rittenhouse-flavored evil tailor-made to his tastes.

He just wasn’t very honest to most of his team about the motives or objectives of their mission, and they didn’t take kindly to finding out the truth. Especially when one of them (let’s call her... uh... Niwrehs? /o\ I hate character names almost as much as fic titles) had fallen in love with Sherwin. (In the end, Niwhrehs stayed in the 21st century. And my wish of having both a distant past and a far future member on the team was fulfilled! Also, this season definitely has the modern team visiting the future AT LEAST once!!)

/S6; The Future

And just when they thought that was finally the end of it, Stanley Fisher arose from his ever-worsening stupor of visions and turned out to have become a temporal eldritch demi-god. A bored temporal eldritch demigod. Having seen literally everything there ever was to see, in every timeline that had ever been, he started changing things with the biggest impact possible, purely so he could experience something truly new again. And he didn’t need a time machine to transport himself to the past.

Which is what finally brings us to antiquity, and the massive, unimaginable changes he could cause by knocking history off course that far back... AND GLADIATOR FLYNN! :D The special effects budget goes through the roof! Old Rome! Ancient Egypt! The Aztecs! Atilla the Hun! Cavemen and Medieval knights and pirates and samurai and and and... WOOLY MAMMOTHS!! Good thing the far future guys left universal translator tech behind!

Wait, wait, back up, whaaaat?? WELL, you see, because of the accident that gave him his visions, Stanley was never affected by the timeline changing the way the rest of reality around him was. Even though it seemed like he was at first. But actually, every time the timeline changed, he instead absorbed the quantum imprint of the new version of himself and all the memories, visions, viability, and temporal capability that came with it. This slowly drove him crazier and crazier with every edit to the timeline, the human brain utterly unequipped to handle so many realities crammed into one mind – until the last jump of S6. That one tipped him over a critical mass of timelines into near-omniscience, and rearranged his physical and psychic being to finally accommodate it all.

(Look, no time-travel story can be called a real time-travel story unless everything goes batshit insane at some point, okay?)

Jiya had been experiencing the same thing, just on a much, much smaller scale, since she was shielded from most of the timeline changes by either being part of the jump team or being safely ensconced inside a Wellsaday Cage. But when it became clear that the team didn’t stand a chance against Stanley, she made a desperate gamble and told her past self what happened to Stanley... and how she could replicate it in herself. Jiya expected to die when she returned from this jump, but instead of being absorbed by the new timeline’s eldritch Jiya, that Jiya made sure they remained two separate entities. Girl Jiya rejoined her team, Eldritch Jiya transcended into Demi-Goddess Jiya, and between two time machines and a walking force of quantum nature, they kicked Stanley’s ass. Demi-Goddess Jiya absorbed his temporal whatever and became full-blown Time Goddess Jiya, who then merged with the timestream itself and ensured that all the time travel fuckery was finally, FINALLY, fucking over, and this season finale would be the definitive show finale. And everybody lived happily ever after.

EVERYBODY.

Yes, even if they were erased three hundred timelines ago. Yes, even if nobody was supposed to remember them anymore; she’s god now, she can fix that. That and so much more. And she does! Because she’s nice like that. Fuck ‘fate’ and ‘destiny’, the Goddess Jiya’s in charge now, and she makes sure time travel will not continue to or ever newly hurt her friends and family again.

/S7; Temporal Eldritch Demi-God Stanley Fisher

THE END

(Sorry Paulina, your scribbles will never come to anything. Or maybe they will, but your results will be relentlessly trolled by time!Jiya.)

#my creations #thoughts of mine #Timeless

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lelenoir · 4 years

Text

characters;; wong kunhang, wong yukhei [ft: yuna and sejun (ocs)]

word count;; 4.8k

warnings;; hallucinations, implied character death, hendery discreetly trying to kill you

part of @starryqian & @takitaro 's stephen king collab,, this is very late im so sorry :(

shoutout to @jenoir for proofreading this messy baby :')

sorry if comes off as a bit rushed :(( i was ✨struggling✨ and i wanted to get this out soon

NIGHT SEVEN

Run. Run as fast as you can. Run till your legs burn. Run till the sun dies out. Your life depends on it.

The woods were an unforgiving place. Especially at night when the lights turn off and the mind is at its all time high. The sounds you were hearing were unmistakable. The footsteps and the chunk of leaves cracking beneath them told you they were close. And they were coming in fast.

Your breaths came out in pants while your legs begged you to stop. But you couldn't, not when you came all this way. Suffered days in the harsh wrath of mother nature. No, you couldn't afford to die now. And as if things weren't worse enough, you tripped on an overarching root. A wild thorn grazing the skin of your ankle, making you hiss.

The sounds were getting closer now but your legs had already given up. Already turning to jelly as soon as you'd stopped running. You huddled yourself against a nearby tree in hopes of its protection. The low growl that erupted from whatever was out there echoed around the trees like a villain toying with its prey.

Your instincts were telling you to gather whatever you could. To pray to whatever higher being was up there for one last miracle. But you knew better. There were no gods that could hear you within these woods.

So you count to ten like Hendery taught you and braced yourself at the mercy of whatever being was on the other side of the trunk.

Five… four… three… two… one.

DAY ONE, TWO HOURS BEFORE

Friends. You love them. You care for them. And you'd do pretty much anything for them. Right now you really hated that concept. And you really hated the way you'd fallen for it.

Sitting in the backseat of a car with your friend and her boyfriend arguing in the front was not how you expected your Friday to go. You grumbled under your breath, looking out the window as you watched landmarks pass by. You were such a great friend. And in your greatness as a friend, you let yourself be strung along to what you've just declared as 'the worst weekend of your life'.

"If you want to stop then stop! I'm just saying that with all the places you want to stop by we might not get to the one place we actually want to go in time." She argued, putting air quotes on the words 'stop by' with an over the top eye roll. That's your friend, Yuna. She wasn't like that most of the time, the opposite actually. In your friend group she was considered as this huge ball of sunshine. Her current boyfriend just brings out the worst in her, which, in your book, is reason number one on why she should break up with him.

"You say it's okay but then you always add something like that. If you don't want to just say it! No need to act like such a saint." And on the left corner was, you guessed it, her boyfriend Sejun. As an individual, he was okay. A little douchey but everyone has a bit of douchiness inside of them in your opinion. However, pair him up with Yuna then that's a different story. They were like monsters, only acting up when close to one another. It makes you wonder why they're still holding on to each other. But, alas, humans are very complex creatures. You'd rather read a book than try to understand them.

So you do. You whip out 'Alice in Wonderland' off your bag and start reading. You didn't like butting into other people's relationships, much less going on weekend trips with them but Yuna, your sweet amazing friend, managed to convince you to go with them. How? Through bribery. Yup, after promising you that you were free for this and next month's rent, you were quick to settle your belongings. You were a simple girl with simple priorities and at the top of that list of priorities is surviving college.

You'd read at least two chapters when they'd decided to stop at some mountain. Being the sporty and outgoing couple that they were, they weren't here to take pictures nor eat at the local diner. No. They were here to hike.

You sighed in defeat when Yuna visibly beamed at you. You reluctantly placed your book down next to you before grabbing your small bag of food and water.

The two were now giving each other the silent treatment while Yuna held onto you like a leech. It was awkward to say the least, especially with the side glances they keep giving each other and you were in the middle of it. Like a small child in the middle of their parents' divorce all over again. You hated it.

You could already feel the energy getting drained away from you and you hadn't even stepped on the mountain yet. That's how intense they were. You never voiced it out. Too afraid that they might gang up on you instead of each other. They may be worse against each other but together, they're a nightmare. You much preferred them going at each other's throats rather than yours.

The mountain was as green as you expected it to be. There was a clear path set out at the foot of it with little to no people standing by. It was higher than most you'd climbed and a vast forest enveloped it. The place was quiet and it looked like one of those towns that rarely had anything bad happen to it but on the off chance that something did happen, it was bad. Really bad.

"Okay so we have like an hour here before we continue on our trip." Yuna said, looking at the map in her hands. "This should be fun."

Really? You wanted to ask. But oh you were such a good friend. You scoped the mountain once again, already dreading the experience as Yuna gestures you to come forward and Sejun already walking up the path. You sighed to yourself, opting to give yourself an internal pep talk as your legs carried you to the start of a very begrudging journey.

You can do this. You can do this. You can do this.

An hour had passed. And you know it had, based on the watch you'd carried on your wrist. The small diner at the bottom of the mountain had already left your vision minutes ago.

On your way up, the ground diverged into two paths. The right side leading towards a secluded resort while the other pointed towards an upward slope. The couple opted to take the left. Your frown deepened.

One hour, my ass! You screamed in your mind, throwing a mini tantrum as you glared at Yuna's back. Your feet stomping on the (thankfully) dry ground, lips pursed and brows stitched together. You hated being a good friend.

In the midst of your childish antics, you heard a chain snap off your bag. You quickly turned around to see your treasured key chain on the ground. It was a gift from your late mother, a small remembrance of the time you both went to Disneyland. The first and last time. You bent down to pick it up when a sudden flash of white tore through your line of sight.

A white rabbit stood in front of you, your keychain tucked in between its mouth as it stared at you. As if waiting for you to chase it. Its red eyes bore into yours.

They say when your eyes focus on one thing, everything around you blurs in the distance. Nothing but muffled background noises and subtle outside forces. That should've been your first warning.

"Why are you even yelling at me?" Sejun complained, snapping your attention back. They were back at it again. You hadn't even heard Yuna yell at him during your short daze. You held back for a while, watching them argue as they walked. That should've been your second warning.

Like a magnet, you felt your gaze shift back to the rabbit. Indistinct whispers emerged around you. That should've been your third. You glared at the small creature still holding on to your precious trinket before it suddenly dashed in the woods. You clenched your teeth, unable to stop yourself as you followed after it. Strike.

DAY ONE

You cheered in triumph as you retrieved your belonging, smirking at the rabbit as it looked up to you. The rabbit cocked it's head on one side, as if to question you, before hopping away from you. You furrowed your eyebrows before finally looking around where you were. Your eyes widened at your surroundings. The green scenery of the trees covered your vision as you cautiously stepped forward. The path was nowhere to be found and dead silence engulfed the air.

"Yuna?" You called out anxiously. "Sejun?" You tried once more. "Yuna!" You say louder but there was no reply. You looked up to the beating sun. It was noon. You couldn't tell which was east or west.

"Yuna!" You screamed. A flock of birds flew in the distance. The loud crows and scampers of the forest animals harmonised with your echo. "Sejun!"

You gulped. You looked in between the trees, trying to decipher even a small silhouette of a clearing. You narrowed your eyes, loosening up your shoulders and hands before taking another step. Then another. And another until you're finally walking towards god knows where. You were slow but you weren't really in a rush.

You pulled your bag closer to your body.

The slightest of sounds rang in your ears making you snap your head to every direction only to see that there was nothing there. That never eased your paranoia. You can feel its eyes trail along the fabric of your jacket. Feel its breath on the back of your neck. Hear its growls close to the shell of your ear. You clasped your shaking hands together, your nervousness evident as your legs began to turn jelly.

"Y-yuna!" You called out helplessly. Tears began to tickle the sides of your temples. "Anyone!?"

It was like that time you went to an amusement park with Yuna. The loud thundering rhythm in your chest, the strong rush of adrenaline leaving your body as soon as it entered, not to mention the growing anxiety constantly increasing as every second passed. It was almost hard to breathe. Almost difficult to take another step.

You collapsed on the ground, spent and shaking. Your hands stayed close to your chest in an attempt to keep warm as the air seemed to have gotten cold---despite being scorching a few moments ago---vision already hazy as you began to slip out of reality.

Just then, a figure emerged from the trees. His tall stature crouched down to get a better look at you. You couldn't even muster up a smile in relief at the stranger. Too tired to feel the cold hand on your cheeks, lightly slapping you back to reality.

Then you let yourself be engulfed in darkness.

DAY TWO

You jolt awake at the impact of his toes on your knee. Your eyes, still blurry from exhaustion, had a hard time adjusting to the harsh light of the afternoon sun.

"You're awake." A voice sighed in relief. You turned your attention to the sound, unsure and terrified as you drew your arms in front of you. "Woah, no need to fight there, little one."

"I'm not a child." You tell him but the stranger merely cocked his head to the side. His gaze curiously fixed on you before smiling.

"Then why are you here?" He shot back. The question seemed to hang in the air and an unsettling ominous feeling creeped up your spine as you mustered up your answer.

"I got lost." You say, face almost a breath away from his as he leaned in closer before prompting his head to nod.

"Exactly." He grinned. "Surely an adult wouldn't get lost within these woods. Especially for a silly trinket such as this." He holds out an object engulfed in his hand. There lay your keychain, dangling in the air and close to your face. You lifted your hand to take it until the stranger dropped it on the ground. It was not much of an action but it was humiliating as you tentatively picked it up from the soil.

"You must be hungry, aren't you?" The stranger lifted his body off the ground.

"Who are you?" You asked, voice still weak as you struggled to support your weight.

He smirked, staring down at you in utter confidence. "Hendery will do for now." You furrowed your eyebrows as he crouched down, once again, in front of you then putting your bag on your lap. "Eat up, little one."

Meanwhile…

"I didn't even notice. God what kind of a person doesn't notice her friend has gone missing." The girl sobbed for the nth time that day. Only a few of the officers paid her any mind while a boy, he assumed to be her boyfriend, sat next to her with his arms engulfing her in a comforting hug.

Lucas sighed at the pitiful sight, there was really nothing much he could do now. The map splayed in front of him was scribbled with a small 'x' within a large circle. He stared menacingly at the location.

"Detective," one of his subordinates came up to him. " What's our course of action?"

He sighed, closing his eyes as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

The subordinate couldn't understand his superior's reaction. Why did he look so distressed? It's only been a day since the victim has gone missing. They could be weak or injured, but that's about it. Throughout his time here, a handful of people got lost and all of them have been found.

"Sir?" He succeeded in getting Lucas out of his reverie. The detective then moved his fingers to rub at the lines on his forehead.

"Have everyone search in pairs around the perimeter." He finally ordered.

The subordinate nodded before scurrying off to relay the command.

It was futile. Lucas wanted to say but then that would make him look lazy. He never liked the word, but it was one that described his opponent greatly. He's been lazy. It was suspicious that he managed to find those lost tourists so easily, often they were found by their companions if they searched hard enough, but somehow this search has now stretched for a day.

The missing person, L/n Y/n, was last seen by her two friends yesterday, November 15, XXXX. It has been a day since then. The longest search in five years.

Lucas narrowed his eyes at the small x located at the north east side of the map.

What are you playing at, Kunhang?

xxx

"Keep up, little one. We have a long way ahead of us." Hendery calls out, walking a few feet away from you. His strides, quick and wide, has you picking up your pace. You couldn't help but pant as you trail behind him, the food in your pack weighing you down a bit but you couldn't afford to leave them behind.

"Why are you doing this?" You askes in between heavy breaths. Relief washed over you when he paused.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Why are you helping me?" You finally caught up to him. You splayed your arm out to the nearest tree as you calmed your breathing.

"Isn't this what you wanted?" He shot back as if it was stupidly obvious.

"Yes but--"

"You hear a person desperately calling out to someone for help and they sound incredibly in need. Wouldn't you help them?" You stared at him in shock, both of you quiet for a moment before he spoke again. "Isn't mankind built to be rational and compassionate? Do you doubt me as a person?"

"N-no I was just curious." Hendery narrowed his eyes at you, pursing his lips as he thought deeply. Not long after, a smile stretched on his face.

"Right, curiosity does come from rationality. I can't really blame you for being human I guess… but you must understand, little one, curiosity is a double edged sword. Once you wield it recklessly, the consequences may be severe." He looked away from you, eyes focusing on whatever was ahead before assuming his previous trek. "Keep up, little one, the sun won't last forever."

"Where are we going?" He smiled at that and you noticed that he had gone at a slower pace than before, walking side by side with you.

"You've used your curiosity well I see. We are going to find shelter. It's been hours now so the police are probably already looking for you. I don't know where you started running but let's hope this area of the forest is still part of the search. Daylight is slowly dying and we need to find a safe place rather than that clearing you passed out in."

"Why are you here then?" You asked. "In the forest, I mean."

"One thing about mankind is that they don't recognize chances." He whispered under his breath. A sound of confusion escaped your lips, he either ignored it or didn't hear it. "Some things are better left a secret, little one. Use your curiosities wisely."

DAY THREE

"If an animal comes rushing at you, what do you do?" Hendery asked one morning as he sat at the edge of the small stream you'd found.

In the years you'd watched documentaries and survival movies, one thing always played a vital role in human survival: water. So when you happened to come across the stream, the both of you couldn't say no to the opportunity. During your walk yesterday, the both of you came across a small shack hidden by the trees: its wooden walls looked old and were infested by moss; however you weren't really picky. It was the only shelter you could find and you lacked the supplies and skills to even attempt making a tent. There was a small window on one side and a few empty shelves on the other.

You thought for a while about his question before telling him the first answer that comes to mind. "Dodge it, I guess."

He stood up from his seat, walking towards you before sitting next to you. In a flash, you felt his hand push against your collarbone, sending you back on the ground.

He looked down at you and hummed. "Seems pretty ineffective."

You glared. "I wasn't ready."

"And what makes you think that you'll be ready when the attack comes?" He raised an eyebrow. You opened your mouth to retort but no words came. "I thought so."

He pushed his body off the ground once again. This time, to inspect the plants behind you.

"What would you do then?" He smirked.

"Like you said, I'll dodge." He starts, swaying his body slightly for a moment before suddenly running towards you. "Then attack." He whispered, just by your ear and you felt a chill run down your spine. A small shadow rose above you and it's then that you saw a large rock in his hand, parallel to the skull of your forehead. You sensed the object pick up its pace and you barely had enough time as you moved your head away from its course.

Hendery smashed the rock to the ground. His body slanted forward and you took this chance to stand and land a hit directly at his nape with the side of your hand. He jolted forward at the force and you started to distance yourself away from him.

"What the fuck, Hendery?" You watch in slight horror as he chuckled lightly before turning to you with a smile.

"No need to worry, y/n." He picked up a piece of the rock. "It's shale," he held it up with his fingers before breaking them, "practically harmless."

You let him walk past you before making your way towards the remnants of the stone. Looking back, you see him occupy himself with some berries on a nearby bush. You gently picked up a small piece of the rock, imitating what Hendery just did with his fingers.

It wouldn't budge.

You furrowed your eyebrows, this time using both hands to break it. The sheer force of your finger tips made your skin slip. A small cut was drawn on your thumb and you narrowed your eyes on it.

You looked over to Hendery who was now picking out some berries. You glared at his back. This fucker was trying to kill you.

You decided not to voice out your concerns. It was smarter to observe him for now and run away later.

Use your curiosities wisely. The words echoed in your mind as you gripped the strap of your bag tighter.

It'd been a while since he's had this much entertainment. From a human, no less. Usually they would've been dead by now or begging for their pitiful lives. But you? You were something special.

Hendery couldn't help but smirk.

DAY FIVE

"You don't trust me." You flinched at the sound of his voice. All of the forest seemed to have stopped moving for a second as you scramble for your thoughts.

You whip around, ready to deny the accusation before he lifted one finger up to silence you. "I don't really blame you about this but then why are you still here?"

Why were you still here?

You had an answer to that of course but admitting it out loud would've exposed you further to the man in front of you. You were afraid, weak and very fragile at this point. Your body was growing unbearably hot and your head has been in pain since yesterday. You didn't want to inform him of your state.

"There's safety in numbers. I don't know what's out there and frankly, I'm not prepared to face them either." You answered curtly. The response heightened Hendery's interest and he couldn't help but wonder: why would you lie?

Fortunately, he let it go. Being as he was, he asked you another question. "If an animal stalks you while you're powerless, what would you do?"

"Another one of your hypothetical scenarios?"

He shrugged, "you'll never know."

"Guess I'll die."

Hendery blew raspberries at that, unable to contain his laughter at your blunt reply. "You really are amusing, aren't you?"

"What do you suggest I do then?"

"Good point," he thinks for a moment, resting his chin on his fingers in a childish manner that made you slightly confused about the different sides he held. He sighed in defeat, "it really is a hopeless case!" He groaned, "the least you could probably do is count to ten and hope for the best."

You raised an eyebrow at him, holding back a humoured smile. "Thanks for the tip."

He grinned, "you're welcome!"

xxx

That night, a low rumbling growl awoke you from your slumber. You jumped up from your position, the thin blankets of leaves rustling below you as you looked around the dark room. The dim glow of the moon didn't help much but you could faintly see a huge silhouette of a figure standing right outside the window. Its back was turned in your view and you couldn't identify what it was.

You looked to your side to see Hendery gone. You panicked, the adrenaline spiking up to your lungs as you began to panic. The figure was still out there and it was not going anywhere.

You take a cautious step forward, the floorboards creaking as you did so. You tensed at the loud sound. Your whole body froze, keeping an eye at the window when the door of the shack suddenly opened.

"Did I wake you?" Hendery asked, rubbing his temples while he stood at the door. "I needed to pee."

"N-no?" He only nodded his head before groggily walking to his spot on the floor.

You were now wide awake. The will to sleep abandoning you as you hesitantly lay on your back.

The shadow was still there.

DAY SEVEN

"Hey y/n," you looked up from your seat to the man next to you. The slight flinch of your shoulders didn't go unnoticed by him.

You'd been exceptionally jumpy since yesterday and Hendery knew why. Fear was a cord that humans could never cut off. Once you're introduced to an unknown being, your whole body freezes as you desperately try to make sense of what you've witnessed, just to ease your irrational mind.

"We don't have any food left." Hendery says, holding out the empty wrappers of the bread you ate the night before.

You thought for a while, the image of the shadow pushed to the back of your head for a short while. "I guess we need to start looking for something to eat? I think there are some edible berries and plants we can collect."

He appeared to be considering it before nodding his head. "Okay! I'll go look for something to eat. Go start up a fire y/n to keep us warm while I go in the woods."

You nodded your head, already preoccupied with the grass, thoughts wandering back again to whatever it was that you saw.

With the way you were going, it almost felt like Hendery had only been gone for a few seconds when he came back just to see you hunched over; the same stance you had when he left. He sighed.

"You okay?" And there you were again, jumping a few good centimeters away from him. "I told you to start a fire."

Your eyes widened in shock before sputtering out multiple apologies. Hendery pressed his lips to a thin line.

"I'll start it, don't worry y/n. Just stay here." You nodded, eyes focusing on the ground that you failed to see the smirk on your companion's lips. He handed you a leaf filled with mushrooms, berries and some nuts.

"I hope they find us soon." You huffed, lifting a few of the food to your lips. Hendery watched you intently, smiling to himself before picking at the edibles on his makeshift plate.

"I hope so too. It's already been a week."

Suddenly, you felt your vision turn hazy. You furrowed your brows, concentrating on a specific tree as it morphed with its surroundings. "H-hendery?"

You lazily turned your head to your side, the weight felt light on your neck that you whipped faster than you've anticipated. Thus, your brain began to ache. You focused on Hendery's features, his expression unreadable as he, too, became a blurry mess of lights and shadows.

Once your eyes finally closed, Hendery let out the chuckle he's been holding in. He lifted your body off the ground.

Thus the game comes to end.

NIGHT SEVEN

Four… three… two… one…

You opened your eyes when you realised your limbs were still intact. The animal was nowhere in sight. Still, you couldn't shake off the overwhelming presence you felt all around you.

Looking around, it was pitch black. No shine of the moonlight peeked through the leaves of the trees, no sound of the whistles of the wind as you stood up from your terrified stance. Cautiously, you took a step forward. Your bag slumping down your shoulders before falling to the ground.

Your whole body felt weightless and you didn't find enough care in you to pick it up. Not even when the gleam of your treasures keychain sparked your vision.

You were tired.

You fell forward, a flash of bright white lights shocking your eyes as you squinted. A hum of a familiar lullaby and a chorus of footsteps neared your fragile body. You allowed your eyes to close as you finally relaxed, feeling the warmth of an embrace wrap around you. The smell of mint and chocolates killing you to sleep as gentle hands lift you up.

The soft song never faltered, vibrating across the person's chest and to your warm cheek.

You were going home.

xxx

In the shadows, Hendery watched as multiple police officers circled your body. One of them, Wong Yukhei, lifted you off the ground. He shakes his head in disappointment and regret at the state you're in: head bloodied, limbs bruised, and skin already blue.

Cold hands and feet already limp from the games he played, strumming your chords throughout the week until you eventually snapped.

Hendery hummed, a sweet lullaby in contrast to his wicked deeds. There was no shadow, no animal, nor a Hendery to begin with. It was all a byproduct of the scared, fragile and lonely human mind.

"How unfortunate, little one."

#nct-writers #neothestars #neowritingsnet #wayvhoursnet #kpopscape #starryktown #wayv imagines #wayv hendery #wong hendery #hendery imagines #hendery x reader #wong kunhang #wong guanheng #wong kunhang x reader #wong kunhang imagines #collabs

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flightfoot · 4 years

Text

Divergent Points: ML Salt -Chapter 8

AO3/FFN

----------

Alya leaned against her boyfriend, just resting for a moment. A few meters away Marinette sat with Adrien’s head in her lap, stroking his hair as he purred like a motorboat.

She smiled. They both could use comfort after the nightmarish world they just came from.

That world’s Ladybug….

She shuddered.

Adrien’s situation had been pretty bad. Hearing all those people say those things about a version of him, seeing someone with the face of the person he cared most for try to hurt him as much as she could…

If they’d each been by themselves, if they’d thought that the worlds they’d gone to had been real, that the people had been genuine, that they actually thought those things…?

Between Adrien’s self-worth issues from his father’s treatment of him and Marinette’s anxiety, her fear of letting people down?

It was a very, VERY good thing neither of them were going through this alone.

Not that she’d be doing too well by herself either. She didn’t have the same sort of issues as Adrien or Marinette, but this place could mess anyone up – Nino’d probably have some issues as well.

Come to think of it, what was up with Nino’s world? It was still really strange how he’d been the only one able to actually move around, who no one’d started out being hostile to. That world’s ‘Marinette’ had even tried to recruit him to her cause!

But all the worlds differed somewhat.

In hers, ‘Marinette’ was a hapless victim of that… that THING that’d taken over her body, and the bodies of Adrien and Marinette in their own worlds.

Though… maybe it wasn’t so different?

Adrien’d mentioned the ‘Ladybug’ in his nightmare world saying that he’d refused to stand up while one of his friends was beaten and her property was destroyed. Assuming Ladybug had been talking about herself, about ‘Marinette’, that’d fit almost perfectly with her own nightmare.

And even Nino’s nightmare… it didn’t seem to be as extreme – not from what he thought of it – but it seemed to follow the same basic idea, the idea of everyone around Marinette shunning her, even bullying her, believing Lila – and then her taking revenge.

The world they just came from was different – Lila wasn’t involved, and Marinette wasn’t being bullied, but… it still had some similarities; mostly in Ladybug striking back for perceived slights, barely even seeming to consider the person she was taking revenge on to be, well – a person, and just seeming intent on causing the person she hated to suffer as much as possible.

What would the next world bring?

“You okay?”

Sighing, she looked over at her boyfriend. “Just trying to figure out what the deal with this place is, what’s coming next.”

She gazed at the looming door, an imposing reminder that their respite was temporary. “The last world was just… just horrible. Most of them have been. Everyone’s warped and twisted and just… not themselves. And being trapped in that… it’s like being akumatized, but being fully aware of it the whole time, and no one else knowing or CARING that something’s wrong!”

At least she hadn’t run across her counterpart in this last world. Judging by that Ladyblog article, she’d rather not have had anything to do with her. Experiencing the twisted version of herself she’d been forced to inhabit during her nightmare had been quite bad enough, thankyouverymuch. Hopefully she didn’t run into any other warped versions of herself.

Somehow she doubted the universe would be that nice.

Nino put his arm around her shoulders, giving her a warm smile. “I know things look bad. I’m worried too. But… just look at us!” He gestured to Adrien and Marinette, still lost in their own little world, then back to Alya. “We’re together. All four of us. Whatever this place has in store, we’ll manage.”

He leaned in closer. “And for us two especially… well, it isn’t exactly the first time we’ve been in trouble together, is it?”

Her face softened as she gave Nino a small smile. His courage (and recklessness, but she wasn’t exactly one to talk) attacking Anansi repeatedly, over and over, even though he stood no chance of beating her, staying with her after she was infected by Zombizou, just holding her, unwilling to let her go through that alone-

There was no one she’d rather have by her side.

“Thanks.” Leaning over, she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “You’re right. Even if things go wrong, even if everything seems hopeless, I know you’ll be there for me, and I’ll be there for you.”

On Heroes Day, she’d seen him be targeted by Dark Cupid. And she just… she couldn’t lose him.

So she’d taken the arrow instead.

She didn’t remember anything after that of course – the victims of mind-altering akumas usually didn’t – but she’d seen the footage.

He’d held her, tried to calm her, speaking to her gently even as she struggled to get away and fight him.

He didn’t give up on trying to get through to her.

Even if this place tried to warp them, break them, change them, showed facsimiles of them doing the most horrible things, tried to say they were real, that this was who they were – they’d always know the truth.

Slowly she stood up, facing the door, fists clenched. “You know what, world!” she shouted, “It doesn’t matter how much stuff you throw at us. We’re friends, and we’re a team. We’ll figure out a way out of here, kick the butt of whoever’s responsible, and get back home! So WATCH OUT!”

Looking over her shoulder, she smiled triumphantly at her friends. “You ready to take on whatever’s waiting for us?”

“Yeah!” Nino and Marinette cheered.

“Mmmmr?” Adrien grumbled sleepily, sounding like a disgruntled cat.

“…Maybe five more minutes,” Marinette chuckled.

Ooph

It would be nice if the world would NOT just drop them. But things just had to be that little bit more difficult, didn’t they? Because just walking through a door and stepping foot on the other side would be too easy. But noooo, the world had to be PETTY about it.

After standing up and dusting herself off, she took a look around.

“Huh. Francois-Dupont. Shoulda figured.”

At least they wouldn’t have to navigate an unfamiliar site.

Looking around, nothing particularly stood out as unusual. Not that it had with previous worlds either, but with this thing, you never knew.

Pulling up her phone she quickly checked the Ladyblog.

What Ladybug REALLY thinks of Chat Noir: Lila tells all

Lila Rossi: The Most Talented Teen Of Our Generation

Malicious Marinette Bullies Disabled, Promising Classmate Lila Rossi

So this version of her was completely fooled by Lila. And also was down with publicly shaming her friends.

Not a surprise considering her counterpart in the previous world had even worse things to say about Adrien, and in her nightmare-

She shuddered.

Ok, best not to think about that more than she had to.

(She had a feeling she’d have to).

Marinette looked over her shoulder and grimaced. “Oh. Lila.”

Yeah, that about summed up how she felt too.

Clicking on the articles, the first two seemed… well, bad, but she’d seen worse.

The tell-all about Ladybug’s and Chat’s relationship was mostly just Lila bragging about supposedly being Ladybug’s best friend while inserting little jibes about how Chat wasn’t really all that competent and how she’d been thinking of recruiting more heroes, while HEAVILY hinting that she herself would have a large role in the selection process.

The second was just her standard bragging and lies like she’d sometimes tell around school. Annoying to see herself lap them up, but well – she’d kinda done that when she first met her, though not to THIS extent.

But the last one-

Bugheads, I regret to inform you that a girl I once foolishly called a ‘friend’, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, is a bully and a liar. I know I’ve promoted her work on this platform before, but that was before I knew she’d secretly been stealing Lila’s designs, badmouthing and lying about her behind her back to certain influential people, and even going so far as to trip her down stairs, bump into her, and purposely aggravate her medical conditions when no one’s looking!

I know this is hard to believe. It took me awhile to come to terms with as well. But she’s not the awesome person I and some other media outlets and celebrities have hyped her up to be in the past.

No; that honor goes to Lila, the most talented, kindest, and all-around best person in existence.

You want further proof of Lila’s awesomeness? She’s the reason the Ladyblog’s even a thing, the reason Ladybug’s a superhero at all! In fact, Ladybug looks up to her so much, she wanted LILA to be Ladybug at first, but she refused, seeing the talent in our beloved bug. She encouraged Ladybug to try being a superhero and pushed her into action, gave her the self-confidence she needed to become a pillar of the city. Truly we all owe Lila a debt of gratitude, and owe Marinette contempt for how she’s treated her.

Marinette peered at her phone and snorted. “She really leans into the ‘false fox’ thing, huh?”

Alya just shook her head. Clearly, this universe ran on irony.

…Oh what was she saying, even their normal universe ran on irony. She wasn’t about to forget the absurd ‘unrequited requited’ love square her best friend had managed to get into with Adrien. When she’d gone home after finding out about all THAT, she’d buried her face in her pillow and intermittently screamed and laughed her head off for a few hours.

Okay, admittedly, finding out about the existence of the Lovesquare (and consequently that two of her favorite ships were actually the SAME ship and were helping to block each other) was hardly the only reason she’d been screaming into her pillow. There’d been a LOT for her to digest that day.

More importantly though, the early part of the article was troubling. It rang a little too similar to Adrien’s, Nino’s, and her own nightmare worlds.

With the way it talked about Marinette… maybe she was the sane person in this universe? The one who was ‘split off’ of one of them upon arrival in this world? Assuming this world functioned the way the last one did of course, which was by no means guaranteed.

Then again, the ‘Marinettes’ of some of the other worlds had also been put through this kind of thing, and the ones for Adrien’s and Nino’s worlds at least DEFINITELY weren’t in their right minds…

This would require more investigation.

A hand forcefully pulled her downwards and to the side.

“Waaa-!”

“Shh!”

Marinette put a finger to her lips.

Confused, she looked at the school.

There was herself, walking out of school… beside Lila.

Her heart dropped. Reading the articles, this version of herself was clearly ‘friends’ with Lila. If you could call any relationship with Lila ‘friendship’. Did she even know what true friendship was like, or had she fooled herself into thinking that manipulating others was at the core of every close relationship? …Maybe she HADN’T ever had a mutually supportive relationship before, never experienced what a good friendship should be like.

Lila was a threat certainly, and wasn’t that great a person… but maybe it was possible for her to be better?

She shook herself slightly. Time to focus on the here and now. That wasn’t actually Lila, nor could she DO anything about Lila right now. Trying to puzzle out what to do about her wasn’t exactly a priority at the moment.

She quietly stowed that whole train of thought. Maybe later she could explore that more, talk it over a bit with the others once they were out of danger.

“…so then the prince asked ME to be his top advisor! Of course, I had to say no, since I’m already advising that king – you remember the one I told you about – on how best to rule his country, and conflict of interest and all. I DID help set him up with his fiancé though! I’m even invited to his wedding!”

Well. Those were stupidly extravagant lies. Still not too far outside what she expected from Lila though.

The ‘Alya’ of this universe ate it right up. “Oh Lila. You’re so smart, and talented, and famous, and powerful. I’m so glad you’re leading several charitable agencies as well! How DO you find the time?”

Lila gave a dramatic, long-suffering sigh. “It’s hard, but I just HAD to bring everyone’s attention to the urgent need for penguin sweaters! Those poor little things…”

“Seriously? Penguin sweaters?” Alya muttered quietly. “How ridiculous-“

Marinette shook her head, whispering back, “Actually, that’s real.”

She blinked. “Huh?”

“People thought it would be helpful for penguins impacted by oil spills, but it turned out not to be very useful and they got way more of them than could ever be used. Most of the ones received were sold for money to support penguins instead.”

That… actually made a lot of sense. You ask people for help putting cute penguins in tiny sweaters, you’re gonna end up with a LOT of tiny sweaters.

And if she was running a charity collecting the penguin sweaters, and they usually ended up being sold for funds instead of being put on penguins ANYWAY…

Oh. That was DEVIOUS. She was almost impressed.

“I can’t believe Marinette refused to make more penguin sweaters to help! What does she have against helping penguins stay warm!” ‘Alya’ fretted.

Lila put on a sad face. “Sadly, not everyone can be as kind and enlightened as you and I.”

Marinette mimed gagging. Alya was inclined to agree with her.

She might’ve swallowed Lila’s lies before, but she was never this sycophantic.

And then this world’s Marinette came barreling out the front doors.

She tensed.

Oh crap she was running right past ‘Alya’.

‘Alya’ stuck out a foot.

Right in her path.

This was gonna be-

‘Alya’ pulled back her foot seconds before ‘Marinette’ reached her, a look of confusion and shock on her face before quickly smoothing away into a sneer.

“Well look who it is,” she said disdainfully, “the penguin-hater.”

‘Marinette’ looked away and downwards, her voice breaking a little. “I- I’m so busy with all my commissions, making the scarf for you, organizing school field trips, I- I’m not gonna devote that much time creating sweaters for a fake charity, that Lila’ll just sell for profit!”

Lila gasped. “Why Marinette, how could you possibly accuse me of such a heinous act! I would never do something so awful!”

“How dare you say such a thing about Lila, if you don’t- take that back-“

Alya’s eyes narrowed. Her counterpart seemed to be struggling, spitting words out but… it almost seemed like something was forcing them out of her throat.

And her eyes, her expression…

Her eyes bulged, her face screwing up slightly.

‘Alya’ stepped forwards, towards ‘Marinette’, her hand closing into a fist-

And put one foot forwards a little too much, abruptly stopping her forward momentum, then moved back slightly. She grit her teeth, breathing raggedly. “I’ll- I’ll tell someone about it,” she slowly said, seeming to shape every word. “They’ll be- be really upset.” She closed her eyes, closing her mouth into a straight line. Noises emerged from her throat, but with her mouth closed, no words.

‘Marinette’s’ eyes narrowed, taking on a dangerous expression.

And then she blinked and it was gone, the doe-eyed expression returning.

But Alya saw it.

Something was wrong here.

Something was VERY wrong here.

‘Marinette’ looked at the ground, scuffing her feet. “Are- are you going to lie about me again? Tell them I’m hurting Lila, like you did before?”

“YOU’RE the liar!” Lila spat. “Tell her, Alya!”

‘Alya’ jerked, her tongue loosening. But her eyes widened, looking terrified. “It’s not a lie,” she spoke mechanically. “You are awful. Lila said you did those things, so you did. You de-de-deserve-“

Abruptly she started walking away, still attempting to finish her sentence.

“Hey, where’re you GOING?!” Lila called.

Alya just jerked her head to either side in what looked like an approximation of shaking her head, if it was done while actively fighting against something. Her pace sped up.

‘Marinette’ glared after her.

Alya looked at her friends. All of them looked shaken, eyes nearly as wide as Alya’s counterpart had been.

“Should we-?” she asked.

They all nodded and as a group, quietly followed after this universe’s version of Alya – and she was beginning to suspect, the ‘split-off’ fragment of herself.

------------

As ‘Alya’ got further away, her pace sped up until she full-on ran, her movements becoming smoother, less jerky and forced.

Alya herself was doing the best she could just to keep up with – well, ‘Alya’. Girl could be fast when she wanted to be. The four of them had long since abandoned ‘sneaking around’ in favor of ‘just trying not to lose track of her’ several minutes ago.

Luckily she was pretty distrac-

‘Alya’ abruptly stopped and turned around.

Ah, crap.

“Who- what-?”

Hissing slightly, she grabbed her other self, pulling her over to a nearby alley and out of sight. Her friends hurriedly followed them.

Was this necessary? She wasn’t sure. But the idea of being out in the open talking about this made her hair stand on end.

Better to be at least slightly hidden.

A spark went off in ‘Alya’s’ eyes. “An akuma! That’s why-!”

“No. Well… at least, WE’RE not following any akuma.”

Maybe an akuma was responsible for this? If so though, they were being surprisingly cagey about it. They tended to be a lot more obvious than this.

Her eyebrows furrowed. “If not an akuma then-“

“We’re not from around here,” she cut in.

“Wait, who are ‘we’?”

Just then Marinette, Adrien, and Nino rounded the corner.

‘Alya’ flinched for a moment looking at Marinette, braced herself… and then relaxed. “That… that THING that took over me… it’s gone now?” she murmured confusedly.

So her suspicions were correct.

“It happened to you too, huh?”

‘Alya’ blinked. “You’ve gone through it?!”

She shrugged. “Something like it at least. I was trapped within my own body, my own head. I didn’t realize anything was wrong for a few moments, but… well, the nasty thoughts towards Marinette clued me in that something was off, and once those thoughts transformed into actions...”

‘Alya’ shuddered. “Things were fine at first, when I was just walking with Lila. Until the subject turned to Marinette anyway. Something niggled at me once the whole penguin sweater thing came up, but I couldn’t place it.

Then a thought came to trip her down the stairs. And when I balked, it started to sound more like a command than my own thoughts. I was still able to stop it, but… barely.

But it just kept going. If I hadn’t been able to force myself away-“

She let out a small sob.

Outwardly Alya gave her counterpart a hug and a small, hopefully reassuring smile. Though considering how forced it was, she wasn’t sure whether it did the job.

Inside she seethed. This… this thing, this compulsion, this controlling entity had no right. And just… why? Why did this thing want her to hurt Marinette so badly?

The violence, the bullying… just… why?

And why the focus around Marinette?

Every world so far had revolved around her in some way, either with her as the main victim or as the main perpetrator. Or both.

Granted, Adrien showed up too, but… he didn’t seem to be focused on to the same extent.

Was Marinette being targeted for some reason?

“We’re going to figure this out.”

Alya snapped out of it, turning towards the speaker.

Marinette stood in the alleyway, a fire in her eyes. “I’m tired of seeing my friends warped. I’m tired of seeing them controlled. And I’m especially tired of seeing it done using my face!”

Done using her-

Ah.

So she’d picked up on it too.

“…Huh?”

So ‘Alya’ hadn’t noticed. Unsurprising. She’d had other things to concentrate on.

“That ‘Marinette’, that supposed version of me… she acted strangely. She seemed upset when you managed to fight off against the worse compulsions trying to control you. And considering previous experience… well I’m pretty suspicious.”

‘Alya’ mouthed ‘what happened-‘, then shook herself. “…Maybe you guys should come home with me and explain.”

----------

“So none of this is real?”

Alya nodded. “Well, so far as we know.”

“That explains my memories at least,” ‘Alya’ muttered. “I remember doing all this awful stuff to Marinette and being a complete sycophant to Lila, but… none of it feels real. Like it’s something I read about or maybe saw in a show, not something I actually did.”

She stared at her hands. “Which means the first time I’ve actually had a chance to fight back against this THING was today.”

“And you did great.”

She looked up at Nino.

“Don’t you see?” he continued. “Even with all this made-up backstory, even with it controlling your body, you still realized something was wrong and fought back. And you WON.”

She glanced to the side. “Yeah, but only barely. And only by forcing my feet to walk away. What if- what if I CAN’T next time?! Or- or if it’s able to reassert control over me?!”

“Then I’ll fight for you. Wouldn’t be the first time. I WON’T abandon you.”

Alya chuckled. That was for sure. It was one reason she was so easily able to figure out his secret identity; Nino disappearing while she was in danger? Not likely. He’d fought Anansi for her, stayed with her after she was infected by Zombizou, even tried to talk her out of the Dark Cupid infection.

If she was in danger, even if she WAS the danger, Nino would still be there for her.

…Though at some point they may need to have the whole ‘I’d rather you save yourself than go down with me’ talk. She’d delayed it since she figured it’d be useless. Marinette had tried a similar talk on Adrien after taking a blow from an akuma for her once again, which to the surprise of no one, didn’t seem to have changed his stubbornness about making sure she stayed alive, uninjured, and uncaptured, even at his own expense. But hey, at least she made an effort.

It was weird to see Nino addressing this version of herself as being her, but… well, she was, wasn’t she? Even now, while it was weird, it felt more like an out-of-body experience than him talking to someone separate. Not that she was actually experiencing what her counterpart did. It just felt like everything she was saying, everything that was going on with her, applied to herself as well.

Almost like… almost like an empathic bond, but the feelings themselves didn’t exactly transmit? It was hard to explain.

Which come to think of it-

“There’s another reason why everything before we arrived felt unreal,” she told ‘Alya’

Luckily, she took the revelation of what they believed to be her true nature rather well. She’d even looked a little relieved.

“Better than being entirely manufactured for this mess of a world,” she said, grimacing.

The explanation of how ‘Marinette’ had been acting, along with the more in-depth explanation of what all of them had been through so far prompted more discussion.

“So what’s the theory then?” she asked, sipping on some hot cocoa. It wasn’t that cold outside, but after what she’d been through? She deserved some comfort.

Not that she was the only one. They’d all scrounged up some warm, fluffy blankets to arrange into a nest along with hot cocoa and chocolate chip cookies for everyone.

The food was delicious, exactly how she remembered – EXACTLY how she remembered. They’d all had a quick discussion and come to the conclusion that they were tasting what they expected it to taste like, rather than what it actually would taste like. Which explained why she, Nino, and Marinette, who’d all had a decent amount of delicious cookies over the past few years, tasted normal, but really good cookies. They probably wouldn’t have noticed anything remiss if Adrien hadn’t complained of not being able to pin down the flavor or texture of the cookie; it’d been years since he’d had a chocolate chip cookie, so his memories weren’t as fresh.

Something which Marinette had already promised to rectify when they got back home. She had a feeling they’d all be pulled into a baking lesson – while Marinette and Adrien enjoyed time alone together, something like baking was often more fun all together. They’d had some experience with it anyway, with Sabine recruiting her and Adrien to help with the bakery when Tom fell ill.

It might’ve been a little crowded at times, but it’d been fun!

“My best guess is that that ‘Marinette’,” Marinette put air-quotes around her name, “might be partly responsible for whatever was going on with you. Or at least, benefitting from it somehow.”

‘Alya’ frowned. “That would explain some things, like why getting away from her caused that controlling entity to release. Though Lila was also there.”

Hm. She had a point.

“Lila’s acting pretty normal though,” Marinette cut in. “But then again, she already acts like these messed-up versions of people. Huh. Come to think of it, she also has a similar weird hold on people. Well at first anyway. So maybe she just didn’t need to be altered that much to fit in with this world?”

Actually-

“Is it just me, or does the messed-up version of Marinette remind you of Lila, but like, on steroids? Especially in the last world.”

Marinette blinked, then grimaced. “That… actually makes a lot of sense. She had a similar focus on everyone needing to worship her, and along with the pure vindictiveness she had towards Adrien, it was pretty reminiscent of Lila’s vendetta against you, me, and Ladybug.”

“Maybe Lila’s not actually Lila and she’s just some version of whatever this entity controlling and twisting people is? Like a weaker version.”

She laughed. “That’d certainly make her easier to take care of. I think we’re stuck with her, unfortunately.”

‘Alya’ frowned. “Putting that aside, what’s the plan? How do we get out of here?”

Marinette sat back, putting her hand on her chin. “Well Chat was able to break out when he was able to lay out what was wrong with that messed up ‘Ladybug’, and before that we were all able to break out when we figured out what was wrong with the worlds we were in and rejected them. That’ll be a little more difficult this time around with how this thing keeps trying to control you.”

She closed her eyes for a moment. “You were able to fend it off a little right? Not just by fighting directly, but by modifying it?”

‘Alya’ slowly nodded. “I was able to tone down some of the speech the thing wanted me to say even when I wasn’t able to stop it completely. So long as it was still within the ballpark of what it wanted me to do or say, it released a little.”

Light dawned in her eyes. “So maybe if I can work around it a little, go after the problems and inconsistencies in a way that’s not directly against what it wants me to do, it might loosen up enough for me to strike the final blow!”

Marinette smiled and nodded. “That might work! Do you know how you could do that though?”

‘Alya’ slowly smiled, gears seeming to turn in her head. “You know, I think I have an idea…”

------------

‘Alya’ approached the school steps. Or rather, Rena; talks concerning both herself and her counterpart had gotten confusing a few times, until her counterpart had suggested that one of them take the name ‘Rena’ while the other stuck with ‘Alya’.

She’d been more than happy to take ‘Rena’, especially after finding out Ladybug and Chat’s secret identities. Well, more like rediscovering them. As soon as they mentioned it, the knowledge just kind of slotted in, like she’d known it for a long time but had gotten buried and just called to the surface again.

It’d just felt right. She hadn’t been called on to be Rena Rouge again since Heroes Day in this reality. Which made a lot more sense after finding out who Ladybug was (well, finding out again, she guessed).

Being called Rena by everyone? Having that affirmation that she was part of the team, part of their group? It’d made her feel like she belonged.

But Marinette calling her by that name had meant the most to her. She’d been the one to give her the ability to be Rena Rouge, to have chosen her as the first new Miraculous wielder. Giving her the Fox Miraculous may not have been possible right now, but she’d given her something else; her trust, her confidence, her belief that she could do this.

Marinette had chosen her to be a hero.

She wanted to live up to that.

The five of them spent the rest of the evening and night chatting and goofing, then finally going to sleep. Her parents and siblings never came home. No message explaining where they were either. They’d speculated that since they weren’t very important to this world, to this narrative it seemed to be building up, they just… weren’t there. At least, not yet. Like how a video game engine might render smaller background elements in less detail than larger, more important elements, or only render them as backdrops – at least, until the player got closer.

Speaking of video games, fortunately hers and Nino’s favorite dancing game still worked here. Only the songs they’d played a few times, but luckily that was most of them. They’d competed against Adrien and Marinette, beating them narrowly, experience winning out. She had a feeling that if they got an opportunity to practice more she and Nino would have quite a fight on their hands keeping the top spot. She and Nino had experience and moves, but the level of coordination between Adrien and Marinette was unreal.

They’d ended up dragging their blanket nest to the living room once they figured out her family likely wasn’t going to make an appearance. Technically everyone could cram into her bedroom, but it was a little tight for all five of them to sleep in there, especially if they needed to go to the bathroom.

Which they apparently didn’t? It took awhile for any of them to notice, but none of them had felt the need to do so the entire time they’d been there. No one felt hungry or thirsty exactly either, though eating and drinking were still comforting even if it didn’t appear to be a bodily necessity.

Sleep DID appear to be necessary. Everyone’s eyes had started drooping around 10 pm, none worse than Adrien’s. Part of that may’ve been an excuse to lay down and cuddle Marinette while purring up a storm though.

Smiling at the memory, she turned into the classroom.

Immediately her smile died.

The entity, the compulsion - whatever it was - had returned.

Do you see that bully, that two-faced slime? It whispered. She’s evil. You should let her know exactly how much you despise her. You know she deserves it.

She wasn’t about to fall into its trap.

She’d play its game, but by her own rules.

Her feet took her towards ‘Marinette’, towards her usual seat.

‘Marinette’ looked away from her coldly.

Then she stood up and made her way over to Chloe, sliding into the seat next to her.

Huh.

Where’d Sabrina go?

Unbidden, her feet took her over to ‘Marinette’ and Chloe.

Rip them to shreds, the voice said. She’s evil, and she’s proven it by siding with Chloe. You can do anything you want to them, say anything you want, and they’ll deserve it.

It wanted her to destroy them, huh?

It probably meant in a similar way to before, trying to hurt and damage ‘Marinette’ emotionally and physically.

But she had other plans.

So long as it still appeared hostile and anti-Marinette, or anyone on her side, maybe it’d work?

“So you’re taking Sabrina’s place, huh?” she said testily.

For a moment she was afraid the compulsion, the entity would force her to add something unintended to that; but it seemed to accept her declaration, at least for now.

Hopefully she could keep it like that. Maybe not fully satisfied, but not perturbed to the point it took over and forced her to act against her will – at least until it’d weakened enough for her to strike.

“At least Chloe never pretended to be my friend! At least she was honest!” ‘Marinette’ shot back.

She could see the argument. Easier to befriend someone who’d never been on your side than someone you’d once been close to and who’d then turned on you. And to be fair Chloe’d shown some small signs of being able to do better.

But there were flaws in that logic.

“Why though?” she asked, looking at Chloe. “You’ve been mistreating all of us, sometimes for years, and one of your closest ‘friends’ worst of all. Why is it only now that you’re okay with Marinette?”

Chloe scoffed. “At least I don’t worship some liar. And I can still tell who’s the REAL bully.”

“But why you above-“

She choked.

What are you doing?! What are you even trying to say?! Criticizing Chloe for being too nice?

Ok so she couldn’t go in that directly, not while implying so heavily that her defending ‘Marinette’ was a good thing.

So what negative thing-

Sabrina.

That was it!

It hadn’t stopped her talking about Sabrina before, so maybe-

“And what about Sabrina? You know, your closest ‘friend’? The one who does your homework, covers for you, steals for you, provides anything you need, and yet you repay with verbal abuse?”

Chloe glared at her. “She’s honored to serve me. She loves me!”

“What’re you trying to say, Alya?” ‘Marinette’ cut in. “It’s not like you’re any better. We used to be friends, but you threw me away the second someone came along who seemed shinier, more interesting, more powerful. I gave so much of myself to you, but now you just hurl insults on Lila’s say-so.”

Not in the regular universe; unfortunately she couldn’t say that just yet. Too direct. Too soon.

“Why do you think Chloe will treat you better than she does Sabrina? And if you’re comparing me to Chloe, or I guess to Sabrina if I’m supposedly Lila’s lackey… what gives Chloe a pass?”

What does this have to do with anything? Tear into Marinette! Tear into Chloe! What’re you waiting for?!

She suppressed a smile. The voice might be making demands, but it was a little quieter, a little less compelling than it was before.

Chloe stood up, shoving herself in Rena’s face. “Now listen here Cesaire. I can recognize the talent you threw away, misused, mistreated! You might not have fully appreciated Marinette, but I DO. Finally, she has friends who recognize what she truly deserves.

That’s what makes me different. I know the worth of the people around me. And you? YOU are worthless.”

Well even in these circumstances, Chloe was still at least somewhat Chloe.

But as for the rest of it-

“But that’s the thing! Those descriptors of how I supposedly treated Marinette better match how you treat Sabrina. And you never cared much about Marinette even after she helped with your mom. So why’re you the one who defends Marinette above anyone else? It’s almost like-“

STOP. PUNCH HER. RIP UP HER STUFF. SCREAM AT HER. HURT HER.

She bit her tongue.

The compulsion, the entity, had run out of patience.

But it wasn’t as powerful as it used to be; she could feel the undertone of fear in its commands.

And she was NOT about to let it puppet her around again.

She ground out, “It’s almost like you and I swapped.”

A ripple ran through her body.

Her jaw unclenched slightly.

The entity had faded to a whisper.

She straightened up, looking ‘Marinette’ straight in the eyes. “Chloe being the one who recognizes bullying and stands up to it? Sabrina seeming to almost disappear when convenient? All while everyone else descends into really toxic relationships, becoming sycophants who do whatever Lila says, no matter how hurtful? It doesn’t make sense! Chloe’s been getting better but that doesn’t mean she’s suddenly one of the only people in class with a moral compass, especially when she’s STILL treating Sabrina as badly as ever, treating her the way everyone else has been contorted into treating you!”

Looking up, she gazed at the rest of the class. “And with everyone else; would this really happen? None of us are perfect. All of us have our off days. But this sustained bullying of a friend? Badmouthing her, pushing her out, even trying to hurt her or damage her stuff? Even with Chloe who we’ve all actually experienced bullying, none of us did worse than avoid her or make a few comments and we still helped her when she was in trouble like when Zombizou came after her! No matter what lies we might be told, we wouldn’t be this callous, this hurtful, this openly malicious.”

‘Marinette’ glared at her, her face stony.

Rena breathed in one last time, and gave the final blow. “THIS. ISN’T. REAL.”

The world shattered and dissolved, breaking apart into small particles. ‘Marinette’ broke last, expression unchanging.

A tingling went up her spine, followed by a light, floaty feeling. For a moment she started to panic.

Memories surged through her mind.

"Before this past year, I've never been very confident. I was always kinda a screw-up. But you gave me HOPE, Alya. I meant it when I said that Ladybug thinks you're cool. You INSPIRED me, Alya."

“You might not come up with the super complicated plans that Ladybug does, but you can do them your own way. You’ve got this.”

A moment later her body felt solid again as she reconciled two - no, three sets of memories; the ones the false world had created for her, as well as the two sets of memories from her adventures while she was split apart.

“Disorienting isn’t it?” Adrien asked.

She nodded as he helped her off the floor.

Looking at her friends, she smiled.

These worlds may be trying to break and remake them.

But they’d forge through nonetheless.

She knew who she was.

And no entity was going to change that.

---------

(A/N) I really wanted to cover the whole "making Alya violent and malicious and a bully in order to have her victimize Marinette" thing more. Especially since... well... unlike with Adrien bashing which has several distinct categories (heck Adrien and Chat are bashed for some pretty different things) Alya bashing resides on more of a continuum, with what I'd argue is the WORST of it being the "hurting Marinette" stage. Oftentimes Marinette's just her hapless victim during this part, though that sometimes changes later; sometimes she at least ACTS kind of like canon Marinette would in that situation and doesn't have a complete personality transplant, in which case either her protection squad does the dirty deed of enacting revenge or she moves away or commits suicide, in which cases the revenge is meted out via the guilt breaking Alya or by family/friends/law enforcement coming after her for being so awful to Marinette. Though for the moving away plotline, I think it's often more "Alya learns that everything good and fun and pure came because of Marinette and without her she is nothing and everything falls apart."

Even in the cases where Marinette HERSELF isn't warped much, if the people around her are warped, contorted, made into people they aren't in order to promotes this whole "Marinette Deserves Better" mindset by importing or exaggerating negative qualities into them... well... that's still only slightly better. I wanted to cover how Alya WOULD NOT DO this stuff; she seems to be used more as a puppet or a stand-in for the character the author wants or needs for the story, this traitorous, violent, malicious, sycophantic (to the wrong person) former friend. Alya's name and appearance are used for this, but her personality is scrubbed out and replaced. Hence why she's controlled so tightly here; this part of the storyline in a lot of Alya bashing fics wouldn't work if it was derived from things that were within the realm of what she might do canonically, of how she's been shown to act.

I also wanted to cover the whole "replace Alya's role with Chloe" thing that crops up a lot. I like a good Chloedemption but when it's done while making the 'good' characters fill in for her role as a bully while she just magically becomes better? It doesn't work and comes off as very hypocritical.

I understand where some of the general idea came from. Chloe was hot off the heels of the Queen's Battle arc and Heroes Day when Chameleon aired and with Lila's threat about turning Marinette's friends against her combined with Alya being receptive to Lila's lies? There was a certain amount of narrative sense.

It's really when Alya became more and more warped into someone she wasn't along with canon showing that while she may buy some of Lila's lies to a limited capacity but yet won't leave Marinette high and dry and CERTAINLY won't try to intentionally hurt her that that plotline became grating.

Doesn't help that well... all the accusations I hear about Alya being a terrible friend to Marinette... even in a lot of saltfics, the ones that don't go so far as to have her try to physically harm Marinette, that fits how Chloe treats Sabrina or even Adrien far, far, FAR better than how Alya treats Marinette (seriously the Alyanette friendship is great and I love their relationship). If Chloe tried to show Marinette what a "better" friendship was like by treating Marinette the same way she treats Sabrina... well there's a reason I've never seen that done.

ANYWAY, I wanted to pour as much sugar as I could onto Alya. She needs love and comfort and appreciation and for nice things to happen to her.

#divergent points #miraculous ladybug #ml fanfic #alya sugar #alya cesaire #ml fandom salt #fandom salt #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #nino lahiffe

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shadowsong26fic · 4 years

Text

Some Stuff

Not a proper Coming Attractions post, that’ll come out on the first Monday of the month as always, but...a more general update on some projects (and also possibly looking for input?)

Basically, I’ve accepted the inevitable, that I’ve fallen back into ATLA in a big way. I haven’t actually rewatched the series yet, because my roommate was doing so and I kept popping in and out and I didn’t want to confuse myself by trying to do a straight rewatch while she was doing hers, but I have reread a bunch of old fanfic/RP logs, and have some plots I kind of want to work with again? Either as fulltext or as an AU Outline. Behind the cut are some more details, as well as seeking Opinions on which, if any, I should actually work on.

I am also Determined to not fall out of SW as this is going on, lol. More details about that behind the cut, as well.

(Also, I’ve talked about some of the stuff listed here on my writing discord, which feel free to come stop by and hang out! It’s basically an extension of this tumblr, only a little more interactive. Find us here!)

Star Wars Stuff:

I plan to take next weekend to bang out at minimum the next Precipice chapter, and possibly the next two (though I’ll stagger posting if I do manage to get both done). And then try and give myself a more active schedule to get the next parts of the series out.

I’m also working on a dragonshifters AU, which I’m enjoying a lot. I think OFLAM may be relegated to the back burner for a while, though I’ll probably kick it up again if I end up doing it for SWBB next year (unless I tease out enough of a Plot for dragonshifters to do that instead, lol). I’ve talked about some of the worldbuilding on my writing discord, too.

I also still owe some meme responses from way back, which I do intend to get to at some point I promise <.<

And I haven’t forgotten some other extant projects--Devoted!verse, the Ventress outline, Bail Unfucks the Timeline, Distaff, etc.--but they’re pretty back-burnered for the time being. If something Sparks in any of those, I’ll probably dive into it, but for now I’m not actively working on them in the way I am on dragonshifters and Precipice.

AtLA Stuff:

So, there’s sort of...four or five projects spinning around in my head right now, lol. One of which, if I do it, would not work as an outline so it would be fulltext. It’s canon-compliant, for the most part.

...well, I should interrupt myself here to say the following: I haven’t read a lot of the comics or tie-in novels, and my familiarity with more recent Word of God is limited. I’m basically operating out of canon defined as “it’s in the original show or WoG I’m specifically aware of, drawing in stuff from other sources as it appeals to me but otherwise ignoring it.” Where WoG contradicts itself (i.e., the timeline for Lu Ten’s death),I go with whatever answer I prefer.

In terms of worldbuilding details added in Korra--ehhhhh, it’s sort of held a little higher than the comics, etc. (in that, if I remember it, unless it Josses something I really, really liked/was foundational to something I’m doing, I’ll probably include it); but most likely whatever I’m doing will go AU enough during the first series for a lot of the other detail work/character-specific stuff to not matter.

Anyway! Back to the fun stuff.

There’s one story I’m playing with that’s not going to work as an AU outline. Depending on exactly what I focus on, there’s a couple different fulltext fics buried in it, and I’m not sure which I’d work on (or if I’d braid the two of them together). Basically, it deals with the siege of Ba Sing Se and Lu Ten’s death, and some of the fallout from that, focusing on an OC of mine and her daughter. I found a short fic I wrote for a challenge back in the day that ties into this concept, which is at the very end of this post. If I work on this, I’d probably change the names of the two relevant OCs and possibly how she gets her memory back (it was written specifically for a “what happened in the rest of the world when Zhao captured Tui” challenge; guess how many of them were Hama-related), but. Anyway, building on either the Siege portion of the story (which has a lot of West Side Story on its soundtrack in my head lol), or focusing on what she does after she remembers him. Or both! Both is also good.

The rest of the options are mostly Zuko-centric canon-divergence fics.

First option, Airbender!Zuko. This occurs because The Spirits Said So; he’s gotten very good at fake firebending using airbending. Probably to the point where he’s so deep in denial that he can’t even see the pyramids anymore, to stretch that analogy to the breaking point, lol. Basically, not much changes until the north pole, but there’s some ways for it to go from there...

Second option, Avatar Zuko. This one has been floating around in my head more lately. Reading old RP logs, my partner and I played through a bunch of different variants on how this all worked, but the one in my head right now is basically--a few months before he’s banished, they’re at Ember Island or something and he’s out on the ocean/fishing or something. Sudden storm, he stops the boat from capsizing through panicked waterbending. No other witnesses, for whatever reason. He initially decides he imagined it, something else must have happened. Except then, when he’s in the palace infirmary after getting his face melted, he does it again. At that point, he basically decides that his options here are “get turned into a weapon and kill A Lot of people, or get disappeared into some dark hole somewhere where I can’t cause any problems.” Neither of those is particularly attractive, so he decides to run away. He doesn’t know what his long-term plan is at this moment--if he’ll use the comet to regain favor/save his nation based on the context he’s operating under right now, or do something else. But he has about three and a half years before then. He figures he’ll spend a year at the Western Air Temple, looking for texts/mosaics/something to get him at least vaguely airbending; then go to the North Pole to learn waterbending for a year, then spend a year in the Earth Kingdom to learn earthbending. Planning, for the last two, to present himself as mixed and while he has a lot of his Fire Nation father’s features, he inherited bending from his other parent (or grandparent, when he goes to the North Pole). For those of you familiar with my original fic, this will also include the first iteration of a prominent secondary character from Feredar/The Farglass Cycle. Mostly so Zuko has someone to talk to at the WAT XD.

Third and fourth options are a bit more nebulous, and both break off during the Ba Sing Se arc. First option, Zuko gets injured during the stampede when Aang moves the zoo (this will probably draw in at least one of my BSS OCs because I am pathologically incapable of not creating OCs, lol). Second option, Zuko leaves his mask behind in Lake Laogai, which means Aang will know he’s in the city. Not sure where either of those would go from that point but there’s some Significant Differences there, lol.

...anyway, that’s where things stand now. Which, if any, are y’all interested in seeing?

As promised, the clip from the Lu Ten story, originally written for a challenge back in...yeesh 2010 XD. Again, this is canon-compliant at least up until Iroh and Zuko arrive in BSS, and I’d possibly change the names and/or how she gets her memories back.

An Wei sat by the window, holding her little girl and watching the sky. Today had been one of Huai's bad days, so An Wei had her hand resting lightly on her daughter's neck, counting her heartbeats. The doctors had told her, back when Huai was a baby and they'd figured out what was wrong with her, to hope for seven years--but only to hope, not to count on them. So An Wei took special care to always, always watch. She never regretted her child, no. Occasionally, she wished she had never met Huai's father, but...well, she couldn't remember much about him, other than the kind golden eyes (false kindness?) that had taken her in so completely during the Siege. She didn't think about him very much. It was too painful--and dangerous. Above and beyond the dangers in thinking about the War That Was No War, her own father had... Well, he hadn't been pleased. She didn't remember the argument, but her uncle wouldn't have brought her to the Lower Ring midwife who had cared for her during her pregnancy if she hadn't needed to hide. Despite all of her vigilance, it was her own heart that skipped a beat when the moonlight filtering in through her window turned an eerie, dull red. She gasped and clutched her daughter a little tighter, praying that Huai would sleep until this went away, so it wouldn't frighten her. That is, assuming it would go away. She shivered and shifted Huai so the little girl was facing away from the window and watched in horror as the bloody moon failed to return to normal. "Please..." she whispered. "Please be normal when she wakes..." As if in response to her desperate pleading, the moon flared silver again after a half hour. But she barely had a moment to relax before it winked out completely. An Wei jumped and stifled a scream. "Don't be afraid of the dark, this'll light your way home." She jumped again. There was no one here in the room with her and Huai, but she could have sworn... The moon blinked back into existence and a pretty girl with long white hair rode in on one of its beams. An Wei stared up at her, still frightened, pulling her daughter away from the girl as best she could. The moon-girl bent down and kissed An Wei's forehead. "Remember now," she murmured, then faded out of sight. ** "Don't be afraid of the dark." He smiles and makes a little light in his palm, carefully transferring it to a bundle of sticks. "This will light your way home." ** She studies the hairpiece he wears in his topknot, turning it over and over in her hands. "There's something you should know about me, too. About my family." ** "We can make this work, Itsu." He's determined, hopeful, his golden eyes shining. "We'll talk to my father. He'll understand. We'll make it work. Meet me here, at the usual time." "I trust you." ** She waits and waits and waits, until long past dark, but he doesn't come. ** She hates speaking with her guardian, but she's scared and has nowhere else to go. "Please, help me," she finishes quietly. He nods. "I'll keep you safe, Highness. You and your child. I promise." ** The light spins around and around and around, and she forgets her name, forgets her lover, and in her place is An Wei, a young woman trained as a scribe, seduced by a nameless Fire soldier, rather than... ** Itsu let out a little sobbing breath. Huai shifted in her arms. "Mommy?" she whispered, still half-asleep. "It's okay, baby, everything's okay. Go back to sleep." "'Kay." Huai closed her golden eyes again and her breathing evened out as much as it ever did. Itsu held her daughter close. Twice over a princess, at the worst possible time, born with a broken heart. No wonder Long Feng hid us so deep.

[to clarify--Itsu is Kuei’s sister. I forget how I set the relative ages, but assuming, as seems to be the case in flashbacks, that Lu Ten is about 10 years older than Zuko, he’d be somewhere between twenty and twenty-two when he died, depending on which date you believe; Kuei is around the same age (possibly a year or two younger?) and Itsu within two years of them.]

#shadowsong26fic #shadowsong writes star wars #shadowsong writes atla #feedback greatly appreciated #miscellania

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incorrect-diviners · 5 years

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Natalie’s Top 10 Favorite Books of 2019

Hello everyone, and welcome to my top ten book list for 2019! I read a lot of books this past year (102 to be exact, and to brag, just a little bit). I also read a lot of good books (probably roughly 75), a lot of really great books (probably 20-25), and a few truly phenomenal books. This list is about those ten books (well, actually thirteen because I cheated just a little bit.)

While compiling this list I noticed a couple of interesting trends. First of all, the majority of the books I chose for this list were published in 2018. (All the sequel books I will mention were published in 2019, but that messes up my math a bit so we are going to ignore that.) I don’t think there is any particular reason for this, I just find it interesting so I decided to mention it. Second, the vast majority of my list features books written by women. Eight out of ten, or eleven out of thirteen if we are counting sequels (damn it, now I’m just confusing my own rules). The reason for that? Women authors are awesome, and were really on their A-game when it came to writing fantastic books that I read in 2019. Third, I read all of these books on my list in the second part of the year. May came, and with it something seemed to flip over in my reading choices from good to great. Then again, that might just be recency bias.

Without further ado, here is my list of top ten books of 2019:

Ten: Truly Devious -YA, 2018

(and the sequel, The Vanishing Stair -2019)

by: Maureen Johnson

Truly Devious is so fun. There is no other way for me to describe this book, and this book series. It is just so fun. Yes, I know people die in the book and all that, but, by god it is just so irrepressibly fun to me. I love mysteries. I love murder mysteries. And I love murder mysteries set in schools. The main character is charming and relatable, and the extended cast of characters are intriguing. This book manages to be a better modern day Sherlock Holmes adaptation than most books that are actively trying to be modern day Sherlock Holmes adaptations could ever dream of being. Now that all that has been said, Maureen, could I have the next book now please?

Nine: Out of the Easy -Historical Fiction, 2013

by: Ruta Sepetys

This book might be the most “normal” of all the fictional books on my list. It does not feature any spies or mystical powers. A story alternately uplifting and heartbreaking about a young girl who wants a better chance for her life and for herself, but who has to fight to get there. I finished this book in a single day, and I loved it so much.

Eight: Killing November -YA, 2019

by: Adriana Mather

I picked up this book randomly at the library one day, in the NEW BOOK section, half thinking it would be a fairly generic spy boarding school fluff piece of a book. (This isn’t an insult, I LOVE generic spy boarding school fluff!) What I got was so much more interesting. This book is a twisty compelling thriller, set at a school where the students occasionally kill each other (because reasons that I will not spoil you for). This book might not be for everyone, but boy howdy was it right for me. Personally, I am now counting down the days until the next one comes out.

Seven: Finale -YA, 2019

by: Stephanie Garber

This book is unique in this list in that it is the third and final (hence the title) book in a series I have spent the last few years hooked on. All the other books were new worlds to me this year, except this one. I loved this series about a magical game and the two sisters at the center of it all. Honestly, this book is not the best in the series, that honor still goes to the first book Caraval, but for me it offered a satisfying ending to the story. Not all book series get that distinction after all (looking at you Divergent series, still looking at you.)

Six: A Winter’s Promise -YA, 2018

(and the sequel, The Missing of Clairdelune -2019)

by: Christelle Dabos

How do I begin to describe this book, and my feelings about it? I genuinely don’t think I can. I could attempt to explain the basic plot, but I fear I would do it a great disservice. It is far more interesting and compelling than I could ever adequately explain. It features a future that feels like the past, and magical powers that are so fundamentally different from anything I have encountered in books before. It features some sort of love story, except not at all. It feels like it is paying homage to Greek mythology, but doing so in such a unique way that even that doesn’t feel like an accurate description. Let me put it this way: this book made me want to learn how to read French. Why? Because these books are originally written in French and the idea of having to wait so much as a day longer than necessary to be able to read the next installment feels like an agonizing eternity. That’s how these books make me feel. Is that dramatic? Yes, but it is also accurate.

Five: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle -Mystery, 2018

by: Stuart Turton

Remember before when I was talking about how much I love mysteries, and how much I love murder mysteries? Well, this book really delivered it to me. The unique plot structure of this book sucks you in as a reader, and keeps you firmly in its grip the entire time. The twists and turns are truly surprising, purely because it is impossible to tell where this book is going to take you next. As if all of that wasn’t enough, it offers a powerful lesson in crime, punishment, and forgiveness. Read it, read it now.

Four: Becoming -Autobiography, 2018

by: Michelle Obama

It’s a book about Michelle Obama by Michelle Obama. I really don’t think I need to offer any further explanation, do you?

Three: Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland -True Crime, 2019

by: Patrick Radden Keefe

Before reading this book I knew relatively little about the Troubles in Northern Ireland. However, before reading this book I thought I knew a decent bit about the Troubles in Northern Ireland. This book proved me wildly wrong, and I have never been more engrossed in being told how wrong I was. This book breaks down the Troubles in a compelling way, and brilliantly entwines the personal story of one family irrevocably affected by the Troubles along with the stories of the IRA and it’s members. I read quite a few nonfiction history books this past year (former history major and all that, it comes with the territory) but this was far and away the best one. This book made me want to read more books about the Troubles, except I worry now that I have been ruined for reading more books about the Troubles. I just know none of them could be as good as this one was.

Two: The Poppy War -Adult Fantasy, 2018

(and the sequel, The Dragon Republic -2019)

by: R.F. Kuang

I did not know this book was missing in my life until I read it. A fantasy book about the Second Sino-Japanese War? This turns out to be a big yes for me and my reading habits. A masterpiece of a book written by a young Asian woman? That’s an even bigger yes for me. (It’s so good I have no choice but to forgive R.F. Kuang for being the same age as me but being so much more accomplished. I hate her, but I love her more.) This book, and the sequel, is spectacular. With that being said, this book is very firmly for adults. There is nothing YA about this, please be aware of that. This book features absolutely brutal violence, violence that becomes even more sickening when you realize it was more or less pulled directly from the books of history. I am a full grown adult woman, and it made me feel deeply ill and uncomfortable at times. Which is what the author was aiming for. These are books about war, real war, not the sort of bloodless fantasy war you find in YA books. These books are beautiful and terrible all at once.

One: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo -Fiction, 2017

by: Taylor Jenkins Reid

What is there that I can say about this book that has not already been said by others? This book is everything you could want and more. Reid’s writing is sublime, and it frequently made me forget that the people in the book were not real. I had to hold myself back from googling “Celia St. James,” had to remind myself that none of these events actually took place in Hollywood and New York. That’s the beautiful part about this book, it all felt so real, I wanted it to be a tell-all book about a real former movie star. But it wasn’t, it was instead an exquisitely crafted fictional book. You know how people talk about book hangovers? Where you read a book that is so good, it ruins you for reading anything else?. Man, let me tell you, this book gave me the worst book hangover of my entire life. I can think of no higher praise.

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olicitytropes · 5 years

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Olicity Tropetastic Awards: Season Seven

The time has come to talk of many scenes.

Of bows and arrows and superheroes.

Olicity’s reunion and the baby we knew was a Queen.

But wait just one minute,

Before we go and do all of that...

We thank you all for the time you have shared.

The elevators you have climbed,

The episodes you have faced and scared.

We will keep your stories in our hearts for always,

And we hope that you can too.

Because they would not be bigger than the friggin’ universe

If not for all of you.

-xoxo Ellie, Caitlin, Sascha, Mary, Beccie, Meegan, and Alli (and of course Emily Bett Rickards since she wrote this poem first;) )

@memcjo’s recs:

as darkness falls (a spark resides) - @alexiablackbriar13

It's been two weeks since Felicity found out she's pregnant, and she hasn't told Oliver yet.

Plagued by nightmares about being attacked and the baby being hurt, Felicity struggles to sleep.

After Oliver witnesses one of her post-nightmare panic attacks, she finally tells him about the baby.

**Award: Best Use of Angsty Angst Followed by Sweet, Sweet Olicity Moments**

two pints of mint chip it’s a girl - @alexiablackbriar13

missing scene in 7x22, before olicity move to the cabin. dr schwartz gives felicity an ultrasound, and our bigger than the freaking universe couple discover their baby's gender

**Award: Best Use of Touching, Loving, Sweet Olicity**

Run Away With Me - @dmichellewrites

This is basically everything I hoped season 7 would be after the prison arc, but unfortunately we didn't get to see it.

Join Oliver, Felicity, their friends, and family as they navigate their lives together post-Slabside. They really can have it all. Watch them balance being heroes, parents, and still manage to hold down day to day jobs. Enjoy their slice of maximum domesticity, and take a peek into their home life together with their four children.

**Award: Most Kickass, Joyous, Amazing Olicity Finding a New Life!**

We Don’t Have To Talk About It (We’ll Find Another Way) - @smoaking-greenarrow

Felicity is at Slabside to pick up Oliver, to finally take him home...when all hell breaks loose

**Award: Most Awesome, Badass Oliver and Felicity Going Through Hell and Back to Find Each Other!**

Come & Talk To Me - @hope-for-olicity

I wrote this story as a fix it for the things I felt the writers forgot or screwed up since Oliver got out of prison. It mainly focuses on Olicity but it also deals with their relationship with Diggle.

**Award: Best Use of Oliver and Felicity Facing Their Fears and Finding Each Other All Over again~ SWOON!**

Dear Felicity - @smoakmonster

A series of letters Oliver journals to Felicity from prison.

**Award: Best Use of Oliver Finding His Voice (and making me cry)**

Nothing Breaks Like a Heart - @by-mintsea

A mid season 7 and Elseworlds Crossover fix it fic. Silences, missing scenes and rewrites from 7x07 through end of crossover.

**Award: Best Us of Oliver and Felicity Fighting for Each Other and Their Family**

@blondeeoneexox’s recs:

The Other Side (of a world without you) - fanfics4you

She stares at the sky, the moon staring back at her. She holds her daughter in her arms as she starts to talk about him. She hopes wherever he is, he is safe. She hopes that he knows. That she still loves him, that he has a daughter who loves him so much, a son who lives far away from this world, leading the normal life he always wanted. She hopes that he knows he isn't alone.

He stares at the sky, his fingers caressing his wedding ring gently. The night is full of darkness and he feels so lonely. He has everything here, yet he has nothing. He sees a shooting star fall from the sky, and he finally smiles. His hold on his wedding ring tightens as he reminds himself why is he doing this again. He knows.

In which Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak spend twenty years apart and then a lifetime together.

**Award: Best Cry Your Eyes Out Til They Hurt Fic**

The Microchip Chronicles - CSM

Post 713. Follows the next nine months of Felicity’s pregnancy.

**Award: Most Domesticated, Blissfully Happy Pregnant Olicity That Definitely Should Have Actually Happened**

The Other Side of a World Without You - MachaSWicket

SUMMARY: Arrow S7 finale SPOILERS ahead. Beware!

**Award: Best 20 Year Reunion I Could Ever Ask For**

The Legacy of a Queen - inlovewithimpossibility

Series of one-shots from a future AU where Oliver and Felicity are able to raise their children after they defeat the Ninth Circle and Oliver hangs up the hood

**Award: Best ‘What Could (SHOULD) Have Been Fic**

The Hardest Part - @smoaking-greenarrow

Prompt: What if Felicity found out she was pregnant with Lucas after Oliver left and she'd have to raise both of their kids without him. Then Oliver would come back five years later to check on his girls only to find Mia playing with a slightly younger boy who looks exactly like him.

**Award: Most Heartbreakingly Beautiful, Sob-Worthy, Amazing Post-S7 (That Was Absolutely My Fault) Fic**

strange behaviors - @alexiablackbriar13

the 5 times john diggle noticed oliver queen and felicity smoak's latest weird behaviors and the 1 time he figured out what was causing it (spoiler alert: it's fetus mia smoak-queen)

**Award: Cutest Uncle Diggle Reaction to FINALLY Figuring Out Olicity’s Weird Behaviors**

@it-was-a-red-heeler’s recs:

bliss within madness - @alexiablackbriar13

“Hey, Mia. It’s your dad,” he whispered. Pausing, he added, “Mia or Lucas. We don’t know exactly who you are yet. But I promise you, your mom and I are gonna love you to the stars and back no matter who you turn out to be. I’m gonna call you Mia for now, though.” He kissed Felicity’s stomach softly, humming under his breath at the heat coming from her skin.

**Award: Best Beautiful, Blissful Domestic Olicity Moments**

Clean Slate - @smoakmonster

What happens when Oliver loses his memories of Felicity and William? How will this hurting family heal when he finally returns home from prison and doesn't know who his wife and son are?

This series is based on speculation from the Arrow 7x05 trailer that was released on Nov 5. As such, this short series will start in speculation and will likely shift to canon divergence or even au depending on what happens in the next few episodes. Future tags will be added accordingly.

**Award: Oliver Fighting His Way Back to His Family (Amnesia Tropes Are My Jam!) Award**

@msbeccieboo’s recs:

no heart for me like yours - inlovewithimpossibility

After weeks of chaos following Oliver's release from Slabside, Oliver and Felicity finally have a moment to sit down and discuss how they move forward from here

**Award: Best Gorgeous, Sleepy and Oh-So-Wise Oliver Moment**

Deep Water - @it-was-a-red-heeler

A Season 7 Speculation fic.

**Award: THE BEST S7a Do-Over (also the Delicity We All Deserved)**

At Last - @jesileighs

He hadn’t really even noticed there was a change in Felicity until the chaos died down, and even then it took him a couple of weeks to look past the excuses and the way she brushed off his attempts to talk. When he kissed her she pulled away almost immediately. When he reached for her hands she found a way to keep them busy. When he’d make his way to their bed at night, she would make an excuse to stay up and every morning when he woke up she was already gone from beside him. He told himself they were both readjusting. Things needed time to settle. They’d both been through so much.

**Award: Most Beautiful Reunion That We All Wanted But Never Really Got In Canon**

@smoaking-greenarrow’s recs:

Two - @nodecaff4me

Post Episode 7x07 ficlet about the first hours after Oliver stepped out of the gates of Slabside.

**Award: The Focus on Felicity’s Emotions That Should Have Been in Season Seven**

Renewal - @juliesioux

This first bit leads into the story we might never get and I wanted to explore the loneliness Felicity must have felt and the urgency she would feel to go and find him once she could.

**Award: Epitome of ‘Bigger than the friggin’ universe’**

Learning How to Win - @juvinadelgreko

At the end of Arrow S7, Oliver and Felicity retire from the vigilante life only to be interrupted by the Monitor and Crisis on Infinite Earths.

They deserved better. Here’s my take on what better looks like. Begins shortly after Oliver and Felicity moved into their new home.

**Award: Sweetest Life Win That Olicity Deserves**

No Sex Until There Is Hair - @hope-for-olicity

Oliver shaves his head again and Felicity is NOT a fan.

**Award: Best Felicity Completely Understanding Oliver Moment**

@tangled23works’ recs:

Holding On and Letting Go - @smoaking-greenarrow

Oliver is finally home. But he’s not as close to his wife as he’d like to be. To move past the choices he made, both of them need to get a few things off their chests.

This fic can be enjoyed on its own, but if you’ve read The Longbow Hunters, it can also be read as an epilogue for that story.

**Award: Best And Most Sincere Apology By Oliver Queen**

The Longbow Hunters - @smoaking-greenarrow

Based on the set photos from 7x02 and my imagination :)

**Award: Most Badass Felicity With A Plan**

whenever you’re ready - @alexiablackbriar13

Mia and William from 2040 travel back in time to 2019 to access an uncorrupted version of Archer. Oliver and Felicity investigate a break-in at the bunker only to find their children from the future bickering. Emotional confrontations and conversations ensue.

**Award: Most Heartbreaking, Angsty and Beautiful Family Reunion**

#Arrow #Olicity #olicity tropetastic awards #season 7 trope #season 7 rec list #olicity fanfiction #olicity fic #Oliver Queen #Felicity Smoak

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literatelogan · 4 years

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the binding of two forces | a love that never lost momentum

{6: while it lasts} wattpad | a03

kobayashi kei is a teacher at U.A. who has an established relationship with aizawa shouta. kei and shouta have known each other ever since they started at UA together. their friendship had always been strong but this is the story of how they came to be as a couple and what the future holds.

a/n - !manga spoilers! slightly divergent of the main plot but it will be caught up to the current season of the anime after the time skip. she is the homeroom teacher for 1B but don't worry we still stan vlad in this house so he's now 2B. bit of a promotion for the trouble. her quirk is fatigue manipulation. she has the ability to manipulate the fatigue of oneself or others, both mental and physical. she can increase, decrease, cause or prevent fatigue. in order to increase someone's fatigue, she needs to either leech from another person or herself. her fatigue is only affected if she is using a lot of energy either giving or transferring. if she takes energy from someone else, she will gain it. she cannot rest or sleep until she gets all of her energy out either by wearing herself out mentally or physically. she cannot kill someone easily but she can make some lose consciousness.

It wasn't quite sunset but the sun was still low enough in the sky that everything had that sort of golden glow. Everything that light bounced off of had just a bit more sparkle to it. Maybe that was her mind getting away from her as she looked at Shouta. It was the end of the festival and the day had been so wonderful. The whole squad had such a good time and if she could have willed the day to never end, she would have. Having a relaxing and fun day in a sea of school work and training was a relief. He told her to wait. He stopped her. She was about to leave and say goodbye to him but he stopped her. She wasn't sure why but her heart was racing. She blushed and looked down at the ground. "I can't even look at him right now. He's so cute." She felt the fingers that were entangled in her's drift away from them. With confusion on her face, she looked back up at Shouta who was smiling softly at her. And blushing?

{aizawa's pov}

Oh crap. "Why did you say wait? Why did you stop her? You have no plan. This is not part of the plan. Because there is no plan. Shit." He looked at Kobayashi and could not believe a girl that beautiful was holding his hand right now. The sunlight danced on the strands of her hair. She had a sparkle in her eye. She just looked...so beautiful. And then she was looking away from him. "Crap. Okay. What do I do? I need to do something." As if of its own will, the hand that held Kobayashi's left hers. He smiled at her as she lifted her head and gently ran the hand against her chin, cupping it lightly. "You can do this." He moved a bit closer to her and whispered, "Is it okay if I kiss you?" A small nod from Kobayashi was all he needed before pulling her chin to close the gap. Their lips barely touched and already his entire body felt like it was on fire. Slowly and gently, he pressed his lips against hers. His eyes fluttered closed as she kissed back and his hand moved to the back of her head. All of the tension from the entire year felt like it left his body. His free arm wrapped around her back and pulled her close to him. "It really is like this." He pulled his lips away from her but it took all of his efforts. He rested his forehead against hers still and smiled, not knowing or caring what to say. He was in a daze and all he saw was her. In this moment, nothing else came close to mattering.

{kei's pov}

Shivers ran through Kei's entire body the second Shouta's hand touched her chin. "He's moving towards me. He's touching me. Oh my god. Is this actually happening? Someone pinch me. This is a dream." His words snapped her out of her internal monologue. Surprised and unsure how to speak anymore, she gave him a little nod in reply, and then they were kissing. She could not believe this was really happening. From being the boy who didn't even look at her on that first day, to now. "Does this mean we're dating?" All other thoughts were jumbled. He was a good kisser. Not that she had any reference seeing as this was her first kiss. But if this was bad kissing, she wanted to kiss all the time. His lips were warm. A little soft but he could use a little bit of balm. She tilted her head a little and melted into the kiss. As his eyes closed, so did hers. She let out a little squeak when he pulled her closer. Butterflies danced in her stomach as they stayed there. It could have been a minute or a year and she would not have known the difference. All she knew was that she wanted to be there forever. When their lips separated, she was breathing just slightly heavier than normal. They stayed there for a little while. Just in an embrace not knowing what to do or what to say.

They tried to keep the boys and Kayama from finding out for as long as they could. It lasted about 2 days with Kayama, 4 with Oboro, and a week with Hizashi. They never kissed in public. Holding hands was already a bit taboo. When they could walk to the train together, they would. And if they managed to sneak off to steal a kiss somewhere, that was their secret. Every time Shouta so much as looked at her the right way, she blushed. Their phone calls consisted of a little bit less studying and a bit more puppy love. They still weren't dating. Nope. Not allowed. Soon enough it was time for term finals again. The group of four had been training together whenever allowed. Constantly trying to better themselves and each other. It had prepared them as much as they could be prepared for the Final. It was almost the end of their first year. It felt impossible that so much had happened in such short a time. It felt like just yesterday they were doing their first training. Just yesterday that they all met and became friends.

Kei had been slacking on her morning runs. She had spent too much time talking to Shouta too late. Satoru pointed it out at dinner one night and the rest of the family agreed. She needed her energy especially with exams coming. With promises to her family that she would not slack, she started to focus on school and her routine again. The calls were shorter but that was okay. They spent a lot of time together during the day. Although going back to normal felt a bit weird at first, they adjusted. Kei trained with the boys one on one as they all took turns with different pair-ups. They learned that giving Hizashi more energy made him louder but only to a point. With Recovery Girl on hand, she worked with a teacher to see how much she could drain. She needed to know how much energy she could drain and how much she could hold without giving it to someone new. If she made someone unconscious with her power, she could still feel their energy after. That was when she realized that her quirk could kill. She accompanied Recovery Girl to the practices of other classes to see how much of her power could help in healing. Combined, they were able to heal someone and keep their energy up. And as long as the injuries were minimal, Kei was able to restore someone's stamina to its normal state. These practices took a lot out of her, as was to be expected. She started going to bed earlier and having a short phone call with Shouta every once in a while.

{aizawa's pov}

Everything was going so fast. After the first kiss, he couldn't stop wanting to kiss her. Anytime he saw another guy so much as look at her, he shot daggers at them. They weren't dating though. Maybe he wanted to but he wasn't ready for that conversation even with himself. Sometimes she would run her fingers through his hair when they kissed and he thought about that for hours after. He knew it would be wildly inappropriate but he wanted to cling to her in the halls. He wanted to hold onto her constantly. Every touch was fleeting but drove him mad. When she blushed, he melted. His brain was a cloud of thoughts about her. He had zoned out staring at her again in class. Yamada slapped him on the back of the head to snap him out of it. When the guys were willing to listen, he gushed about her. They made fake vomit noises and faces in return. "I just want to go to so many places with her. I want to do so many things with her." Yamada laughed. "With or to?" Shirakumo pat him on the back with a howling laugh of his own. "Good one." Aizawa glared at them both. "It's not like that." Shirakumo nodded and Yamada shook his head. "You wouldn't understand. I feel like I'm in a daze."

Then as it grew closer to the finals, Kobayashi was busier with studying. He knew it was important. He had been slacking in every class she was in and even some of the others. They would study over the phone as much as they could. And then she started needing to go to bed earlier. Understandable as her quirk was entirely reliant on her energy levels. The phone calls got shorter. And then they got less frequent. Well. They weren't dating. Shouta dove into his studies to keep his mind off of his stupid feelings. What kind of idiot thinks one of the most beautiful girls Japan has ever seen wouldn't get bored with him. They would still hold hands. They would still kiss sometimes on their walks to the train. But things just felt different. Maybe there was someone cooler. Some third year or something. Shouta started devoting a lot of his time to combat training. As someone with a quirk that didn't make him stronger or faster, he needed to do it himself. When he wasn't studying for the finals, he was working on his strength. Sparring partners weren't hard to come by and seeing as they couldn't use their quirks on him, it was easier to make a more even playing field. A lot of his training was with his capture weapon.

{kei's pov}

Finals were upon them. All of this studying and prep work culminated in one of the most stressful times of Kei's life. The first year of her true journey to become a pro hero. To save people. The practical was difficult and by the end of it, she felt as though she might drop. Though she pulled a lot of energy from her opponents, she did also use a lot of it for her more combat driven teammates. A strategy Saturo had been telling her to employ since she was a child. "You have to be a healer for the tanks." It rang in her head while she gave her all. The written portion of the exam was more intimidating but as she sat down to take it, she felt more comfortable. Having really devoted the past couple of weeks wholeheartedly into studying, she did well. Her scores were not perfect but she was 8th in the class. This was a huge improvement from the start of the year and she couldn't help but think that it was largely driven by her growth through her friends. Without them, she wouldn't be the hero she was already growing to be. It was thanks to them.

Thanks to Kayama, Hizashi, Oboro, and Shouta. She would give her all to repay them. Her life if she had to.

#literatelogan #literateloganworks #the binding of two forces #aizawa x oc #aizawa #aizawa fanfiction #aizawa shouta #bnha fanfiction #fanfiction

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paradise-of-guilty-pleasures · 5 years

Text

Shattered Reflections {12}

[Helsa RP- Fanfic]

Fandom: Frozen

Genre: Post-Frozen/ Canon Divergence

- Hurt/Comfort, Drama, Romance

Pairing(s): Hans/Elsa, Kristoff/Anna

Previous Chapter: 11. Spilling the Tea

A/N:

Kristanna Chapter. It's Short and Sweet. Hope you Enjoy~

12. Homemade with Love

After her tea time chat with Elsa, regarding a certain auburn-haired Prince she'd still like to punch in the face, Anna needed to find a way to decompress. Lucky for her, she had a great big cuddly bear of a boyfriend, she could go to for all her coddling needs. They had planned to spend the afternoon together and Anna was going to take full advantage of all the warm hugs and sweet kisses she could get.

Kristoff packed the picnic, mostly to test how Anna liked his cooking. Fresh molasses bread he'd baked, a stew of wild vegetables and game he'd caught, that sort of thing. He'd been planning for a while to try Anna on some of his foods, to see how she liked his wilder sort of life without pushing her into the deep end. So, he was a little nervous. Of course, she found him at the stables with Sven. "Hey there, Feistypants." He hummed, offering an arm to hug her, with the other holding the picnic basket. He was always down to hold his girlfriend, which was great because she seemed to need the hugs.

Anna didn't waste a second to wrap her arms around him in a big warm hug. "Don't call me, Feistypants," she playfully grumbled, with her face pressed against his chest. She took in his scent, no longer a stinky reindeer man odor, now more of a manly mountain musk of Kristoff, it helped that he'd bathe more frequently since they started courting. The smell of Kristoff wasn't the only thing her nose picked up, there was something else lingering in the air. ``Whatever you have planned for us today smells delicious," Anna said, prying herself from their embrace to try to sneak a peek into the picnic basket.

"Mmhm, a homemade picnic from the sort of stuff I eat at home. Where would you like to go enjoy it? Somewhere near the woods, or by the fjord, maybe under a willow tree somewhere?" Kristoff hummed. He didn't mind if she snuck a peek, she wouldn't see much but food-- but it would be what she thought of it that would be the real surprise. "I figured you ought to see what my cooking is like before, well, whatever happens in the future." He was still too nervous to say 'marriage'.

"Hmm? We can go whenever, as long as we share some relaxing alone time together, I don't really mind where we go," Anna chirped. "Oh! Is that so? You made it yourself, for me, I'm honored. If it tastes as good as it smells, which I'm pretty sure it will, you don't have to worry about your culinary skills impressing me, besides I can assure you it's definitely better than anything I can prepare myself," She giddily giggled.

"Mmhm, a few different foods I make so you can try a taste, some homemade molasses bread and cheese and butter, some garden fruits and vegetables. Here, we can find a place on Sven." He helped Anna up onto Sven's back and hung up the picnic basket on Sven's antlers while he got up so nothing would spill. He picked it up again and guided Sven out. Out over the grass and toward the willow trees that once sparkled with eternal ice when Elsa had frozen the land. Now the trees had bright spring green leaves and draped over their trunks with grace and poise, drifting down toward clear ponds where ducks built nests. Kristoff found a lovely clear spot on a hill under the sun where they could enjoy their picnic.

It was the perfect spot, secluded, beautiful and refreshing. Away from all the worries of the castle. Anna took in the fresh air and explored a bit of the surrounding area as Kristoff set up the picnic. She'd picked some wild flowers and returned to the picnic area. Anna playfully placed one of the flowers in Kristoff's hair, behind his ear. "There, now everything is perfect," Anna said brightly giggling. Kristoff laughed a little with her, and made sure she had a flower, too. "Better keep one for yourself too little dandy-lion." He teased. He liked that almost as much as feistypants, a little false lion trying to be fierce. "We've got a hot wild-game stew with wild vegetables, stuffed wild mushrooms, dandelion green salad, nettle beer, red clover ice tea, pine-wild berry crisp, and my usual lunch packs: homemade molasses bread, stored cheese, wild apples, and some smoked and dried meats. Admittedly the stuffed mushrooms were just me trying to impress, but most of this is the kind of thing I'd eat at home, and probably none of it is what you'd be used to." He smiled, but some of it was nervous. He unloaded clay containers of hot things that he had carefully brought to make sure they would stay warm, carefully insulated in the picnic basket.

"What would you like to try first? Or d'you want to try a little bit of everything and hope for the best? I won't tell you what the wild game is, but it's not reindeer." He didn't need her freaking out about rabbits, birds, or the occasional well-cooked wolf. "I do all my own hunting and keep a garden at home for the 'wild' vegetables and fruits, sometimes the folks stop by to help in the garden." He hoped the hunting wouldn't be too off-putting when she finally saw it. He didn't actually want to change his lifestyle, he loved his home. The castle was nice, but he hoped she would spend a little time with him in his home, too.

"Hmm," Anna hummed as she tapped her index finger on her chin. " I'm feeling adventurous today, give me a little bit of everything, please." A wide grin plastered on her face. "Food straight from the source sounds exciting, especially knowing you prepared it all for me with love," she cheekily teased.

"That's right." Kristoff hummed, and leaned over to kiss her forehead just to be cute. He dished up little bits of everything, including a few different meats from the stew along with a little of all the vegetables, a few stuffed mushrooms, some of the salad and bread, to start with. A plate could only hold so much, after all, may as well start with the savories. "Beer or tea to start with? The beer isn't strong, it's a 'small beer', made for after work when you need a drink but don't necessarily trust the water to be safe. You'll still be sober at the end of a pint. If I had a decent supply of honey I might make mead, but I don't know how to maintain a hive yet, it seems like full-time work." It wasn't important, it was just thoughts on his life.

Anna wore a beaming smile, she loved Kristoff's soft kisses, just as much as she loved warm hugs. " Now that's a tough choice," she giggled. "But I think I'll start with the tea and save the beer for later."

He smiled at her giggling, it was just so sweet and warmed his heart. Which was good, as an ice harvester. He poured her some ice tea into mugs. A lot of ceramic, which made sense, clay was easy enough to get and to make and fire, with a little practice; and it held hot and cold things fairly well, once they were glazed. That was the hard part, but potters were easy enough to find and work with. "I hope you enjoy it, I know it's not going to be like what you're used to." There wasn't much processed sugar, mostly molasses or honey. Anywhere he would use egg it would be from wild birds, and all of his fruits and vegetables were from things that weren't typically farmed. "The trolls taught me how to garden a lot of these things, but some things like mushrooms have to be foraged for, and some things like milk and cheese I still have to buy. I suppose I needed some reason to go to town and hold a proper job." He joked. Now he didn't need a reason any stronger than Anna.

"Milk and cheese are pretty good reasons," she laughed and quipped back. "I know chocolate would be on the top of my list."

"Now let me taste this lovely meal prepared just for me," she hummed as she brought a spoonful in for the first bite. Kristoff was right, it wasn't what she was used to. It was different, but good different, it was quite delectable in fact. The vegetables and the tender meat were paired well in a perfect blend of texture and flavor. She needed more. "Oh my goodness Kristoff, this is so good," she purred with another spoonful already in her mouth. Anna may have been a princess, but etiquette often took a back seat to her eccentric nature.

"Clothes too, I can only sew patchwork, really. Thankfully, the ice farmers' wives are usually pretty good to help out with that kind of thing. As long as I don't mind them trying to set me up with their daughters." He cringed, clearly not comfortable with that idea. "I'm glad you like it!" He wondered if he should tell her what the meat was, or wait until it was digested before he let her know she was probably eating rabbit and wolf, or maybe a wild bird, depending on which bite of meat she had. He was just glad she enjoyed whatever she ate. "I live alone, so I figured I'd best learn how to cook properly." and apparently, he did that in spades.

"Hmm? Cooking and sewing, on top of being a strong handsome ice harvester," Anna swooned. "I guess I'm extra lucky that none of those daughters managed to snag you first, cause you sir are quite the catch," she praised, holding the spoon upside down against her lips.

He laughed a little. "Like I said, I can just sew patches and fix a seam now and then." He shrugged, maybe flushing a little at the compliments. "Maybe I'll ask Elsa if she'd be okay with you coming up to visit my home for twenty-four hours or so. If I promise there won't be any funny business and tell her that Sven can be a good 'moral guardian'. But I'd like you to visit sometime..." Sometime before they got married. "I've been proposed to once or twice, usually by women just happy that I have a job. I politely declined and did my best to trade routes with other ice harvesters, but I still can't get away from the occasional nudge toward one of their daughters." He rolled his eyes, definitely not interested. And that was before the eternal winter. Now that he had a title, he just did his best to not have to talk to women outside of the castle.

Kristoff's mention of Elsa and staying overnight, made her smile falter remembering their tea time discussion. She didn't want to damper their date with her distress so soon, though right now seemed to be the right time to bring up the subject. "Um, Kristoff," She began. "Speaking of staying over..." She fidgeted with the spoon in her hand. "Do you think you could possibly stay over at the castle, for a while? I'd feel as lot safer if you did and Elsa said it was okay, at least until..." She took a deep sigh. "H-he's gone." She let out an involuntary gulp.

Kristoff was a little surprised, but nodded. "Alright, if it makes you feel safer." No questions, he understood what Anna had been through. He remembered the sight of Anna frozen on the fjord, as if in a dream. He had barely had time to process the idea before she was unfrozen again, but it did remind Kristoff of the dark side of 'nothing is permanent'. He spent a lot more time thinking about mortality, these days. "Do you want me to hold you until you fall asleep or just to hang out with the guards in the hall so I can put him through a window if he snoops around?" That was at least a little bit of a joke, to try and lighten her mood.

"Thank you." Kristoff's joke brought a small smile back to Anna's face. She sighed again. "I really wish he didn't have this control over me, but he still does and I hate it." Anna huffed. "And what's worse is that my own sister acts all nonchalant about the whole ordeal. I don't know what's gotten into Elsa, but it frightens me more how much trust she has in the very monster that tried to kill her and me!" "I don't want to doubt my own sister's judgement, she's Queen after all, and making tough decisions is what she has to do, but I can't help but feel a bit disappointed in the one she chose to take. Especially since she didn't consult me first and tried to hide the whole thing to try to 'protect me'. " I feel like I've become the cautious one and I'm the one warning her about him. Maybe there's something I'm missing. But, ugh! It's just so frustrating that I still have to nudge Elsa to open up to me... It's almost like she has more faith in him than me," Anna went from frustration to disappointment in a fraction of a second. Anna took a deep sigh from her venting. "All this to say, I don't trust Hans in the least. I don't know what he's been filling Elsa's head with, in order to make her trust him, but I know first hand he's a two-faced snake and I can't help but think that he's plotting something."

Kristoff stopped to think about it. "Maybe-- and stay with me on this-- you should talk to him, too? Not to try and trust him, but to figure out what he's been saying to seem trustworthy? I spoke to him in the battle and he seemed honest, but I also only asked whose side he was on, I didn't ask why. I definitely don't have any love for the guy. I can stay by you as a guard if you want to talk to him? But I also won't ask you to stress yourself out. I'll be the wall between you if I have to be, nobody will hurt you with me around." Kristoff assured. He didn't want her to be afraid, ever. "You're right to be frustrated, I can understand your point of view, I'd have a hard time believing if you weren't bothered."

Initially, Anna's eyes grew wide in disbelief at the suggestion, but she held her tongue and listened closely. Kristoff was wise and Anna trusted that he would never steer her wrong. After he finished she paused to ponder. " You know what? You're absolutely right!" She determinedly declared. "I should totally face him myself! I shouldn't have to cower in fear in my own home, he doesn't deserve that satisfaction! If I want my questions answered, I must go straight to source!

"Kristoff, please stand by my side when I face him, because I'm afraid...I'm afraid, I'll punch an injured man in the face, if I have no one there to stop me." "Thank you, for your insight," she said softly as she kissed his cheek. "One of the many many reasons I love you." "But, hey, let's not let that issue distract us from our date any longer. Let's continue enjoying the lovely meal you prepared for me and our alone time and we'll deal with all that stuff later."

Kristoff laughed a little at her quick turn from determination to not wanting to 'punch an injured man in the face'. "I'll be there." He promised, and pulled her back over to return her kiss, just to be cute and affectionate. "I love you too, feistypants." "And if you need me to be the scary growly mountain man to spook him a little I can do that too." Boy could he. He didn't act scary much now that he had Anna, but he still could, when pressed. The savory foods were delicious, the tea was made sweet, the wild-berry crisp was tart, it was all very good-- but the warm molasses bread with butter was probably the best, especially next to an occasional slice of cheese. Kristoff made the bread often, and he knew how to make it good. He ate a bit as well, but it was mostly for Anna to sample a lot of different foods. The extra lunch packs were hardly necessary, they were more like a demonstration of what he brought with him to work. It was, in his mind, a perfect date, just knowing that she liked his cooking and the different kinds of food he ate when he was home. He let her lean on him while he held her waist, and he was as happy there as a cat in a warm lap. Kristoff was a man of simple pleasures.

#Helsa #Kristanna #Frozen #Fanfiction #Frozen Fanfiction #Shattered Reflections

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