#Loft and Aria

[putonmyfavoriteshow]

3 tickets to the Barbie movie please

[theglamoursauce]

Tranquility

Almost August! A month more of Summer shots and then we’re going to be heading into the Autumn feels! I say it every year, I love the summer in SL way more than I love the summer in real life! I bought a portable air conditioner about a month ago and it was a godsend when the really hot weather hit here a few weeks ago. I think gradually us Brits will have to get more used to the idea of getting…

[eloenmaerdrym]

New favorite office

Credits [Rezz Room] Box American Bully Puppy JumpLoft & Aria – Hoyos Console Books @ Collabor88floorplan. asymmetrical print / la luna @ Collabor88MudHoney  Roman Shades ❤.peaches. Menno’s Self Love Valentine – Cookies ❤Sari-Sari – Meow Headset ❤[InsurreKtion] Cami Home Office Pack ❤Pitaya  – Magnetic whiteboard – Fatpack @ ACCESS ❤DaD “Myplace Sofa”  @ EQUAL10❤MudHoney  Classic Photo Rooms ❤

[ilovewriting06]

Always Been His

A/N: This is part two of this fic and it was requested by @allisonargent144.

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Everyone was sitting around Derek's loft for pack night, a new tradition to build up everyone's connection and trust with the others of the pack. Originally, Chris and I weren't going to be a part of it but Allison started dating Scott and joined the pack so Chris and I decided to join too. The pack is mostly teenagers who got the bite for different reasons, except for Scott, Allison, and Stiles. Maybe, Lydia, but she hasn't officially joined the pack yet, but I have a feeling she will soon enough.

Scott was forced to take the bite, Allison joined for love, and Stiles, sweet baby Stiles did it out of loyalty. Out of everyone in the pack, other than Allison, Stiles has to be my favorite. I'm sarcastic by nature and Chris isn't so it's fun to be able to banter with someone. I feel like I've adopted him and Scott as my sons since they're at my house more than they are their own.

Scott and Allison are always, 'studying,' or watching movies and Stiles is dragged along because Scott doesn't have a car to drive. After realizing Stiles literally sat at our dining room table and did schoolwork or research while his two best friends did fun stuff I took pity on the boy and kept him company, that's how I figured out he's the brains of the pack.

I'm also trying to set him up with Lydia, his long term crush, and it's become my mission to get them together so Stiles is no longer the third wheel and actually has some happiness. He's also surprisingly good with children. After I gave birth to Aria, he was a huge help, he won't change diapers but that's about the only thing he won't do. Even Chris likes him and Scott, he just won't admit it.

In my opinion Scott and Allison are absolutely adorable. He adores her and treats her like a princess and Allison loves him more than most people would think possible at her age. In some ways they remind me of Chris and I when we were in high school.

The first time Chris met Scott as Allison's boyfriend it was a bit rocky and Scott looked like he was going to shit himself at any given moment, I have to hand it to him though, I was impressed at how well he handled it.

Chris pulled every page out of every book he's got and was impressed but also annoyed that Scott handled it all so well. Do you want a drink? Oh no sir, I don't drink. You want a smoke? No thank you, I never want to smoke, the smell makes me sick. Do you want to have sex with my daughter? Uh, I feel like that's a trick question, sir. I say yes, I'm dead, I say no and you'll think I don't want her or something. I'll just say that at the moment no, in the future, probably.

I almost jumped across the table to give him a hug but I was too busy gloating to Chris about how I was right and the boy really was a sweetheart. After Scott left and Allison had went to bed I asked Chris what he thought, he answered by saying, and I quote, "She could do worse." In Chris talk that means, 'I like him, he's a good kid'.

Similar to Stiles, Scott isn't afraid to help with Aria, in fact he adores her. I think him and Stiles both secretly wanted a younger sibling and when Aria was born they adopted her as their sister. I can't complain because between the armory in our garage, Scott's fangs and claws, and Stiles' bat, Aria is one safe little girl.

I hum and rock Aria to sleep as I watch the kids play a game of Monopoly, a little worried a fight's about to break loose because Isaac is convinced Stiles is cheating and Stiles keeps responding with, "Dude! If I was cheating I'd be in charge of the money because I could skim off of it without anyone noticing." Or, my personal favorite, "Oh my god, stop acting like a little bitch because you can't manage your money. There's a reason I have cool flannels and a jeep and you have ugly ass scarves and a bike. Suck it up and pay up, you're on Boardwalk and I own that shit, gimme."

I snort at the last one as Chris bites back a laugh and leans over, "I see why you like him, he's sassy. Do you want anything to drink?"

I nod, "Yeah, a water please." He nods and heads towards the kitchen as I smirk when I notice the small, yet noticeable look Lydia throws Stiles when the latter rips the money out of Isaac's hand with a, "Thank you! Now, go back to Baltic Avenue. Bastard. I swear those scarves stop your brain from functioning sometimes."

I look up in confusion when the door to the loft open's but before I can turn around a voice I wished I'd never hear again speaks, "Nephew, I didn't know you were having friend's over."

Derek roles his eyes from his spot on the couch, "Makes sense since you weren't invited."

I bite back a noise of amusement hoping he doesn't notice me but my luck sucks and he's standing in front of me before Chris can get back to me, "Well, hello Darling, it's good to see you."

I roll my eyes as Chris comes to stand by me, "Wish I could say the same."

He rolls his eyes before sneering at Chris and looking back at me, "I see you still associate with the enemy."

I scowl and tuck Aria closer to my chest feeling the need to protect her, "He's only the enemy because he got what you wanted, and I have to say, I am so glad I never wasted a second on you."

He growls and Chris steps a little closer and I notice Derek stand from the corner of my eye. I glance at Aria when she makes a discontented noise and I glare at Peter, "I swear, if you wake her up..." I leave the threat hang in the air which makes Peter growl louder, and that one does wake Aria, and boy does she wake up with a start.

I get off the couch as Aria starts screaming throwing one last glare at Peter before walking away so I have enough space to walk around. However, once again I'm cut off by Peter materializing out of fucking nowhere. I groan as Aria keeps crying, "Peter, leave me and my family alone. I have two kids, four if you count the two stragglers Allison brought home, and I'd really like for them to remain safe, and to be honest, I'm terrified you'll hurt one of them to get to me. So, please leave."

Aria seems to start crying louder and I can faintly hear Peter ranting and raving but I'm to busy trying to soothe my baby to pay attention but I do hear the word divorce, which makes me roll my eyes. I finally zone in when Derek roars at him, "Get out, Peter! You aren't welcome here when they're here. You have an unhealthy obsession with her and it has to stop! She's married, with kids!"

Chris comes to stand in front of me as Peter's eyes glow blue before he growls at Derek, "I can make them all disappear, and I'll do it too if it means I get her!"

I squeeze Aria even tighter to me as Chris pushes me back slightly but it's all for nothing when Derek swings and knocks Peter out with one punch. He stands above his mentally deranged uncle as his eyes remain red, "You guys should go. I don't know what I'm going to do with him but I don't want to take the chance that he'll wake up when you guys are still here."

I nod before grabbing Chris's hand, "Come on Chris. Let's get the kid's home. At that Allison jumps up followed by Scott and Stiles. I glance at them before sighing, "Boys, you should probably go home."

Stiles scoffs, "Hell no Mrs. A. He just threatened you and Aria, besides Scott will be able to sense him if he's close to the house."

I glance at Chris and he nods and I smile, "Okay, you two can come stay over but Scott, you don't go into Allison's room unless Stiles is with you or the door is open."

They all nod in agreement before following us out the door.

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It's well past midnight when Derek texts that Peter won't be an issue anymore and I'm not interested in what that means but I trust Derek enough to believe we've seen the last of Peter. I slowly get off the couch and tiptoe over the bodies on the floor that accumulated throughout the evening.

As I grab a glass of water I feel arms circle my waist as I look at the mass of teenagers sprawled across the living room floor. I lean into the solid chest behind me as I whisper, "I feel like we've adopted six extra kids, and I can't really be mad about it. They're all good kids, they all just have a few flaws, but hey, so do we."

Chris chuckles as he places a kiss on the top of my head, "Yeah, they're good kids. I can't believe I'm saying this but I feel safer with all of them around." I nod in agreement before excitedly whispering, "Did you see Stiles and Lydia?"

He shakes his head and buries his head in my neck, "You're ridiculous."

I roll my eyes continuing to smile, "But Chris, they're cuddling!"

[literaryfandomangel]

The Promise Chapter Two

Chapter Two

The Range Rover my mother retained in the divorce was filled with little. Mom had a small trailer attached to the station wagon's rear, which contained most of our meager possessions. Mom only bothered taking a little from the marriage - just what she needed, like clothes and small possessions. 

Inside the trailer was my bicycle, amongst our other belongings. I had a driver's license, but my parents revoked my privilege when my eating disorder got out of hand. Therefore, my Schwinn bicycle was my primary method of transportation, which was a win in my eyes. I also got to burn off calories I hadn't even consumed. 

I started to remove the boxes, clearly labeled. Sam's comic box was one of the heaviest outside of my two boxes of books. During the move, I had to downsize my collection. But that was a good cleaning opportunity. It allowed me to review and evaluate every book I owned or collected. I determined if I liked the book enough to read again or if I thought that it belonged in my collection. At the end of my book cleaning, I was left with mainly classics, a few books that I read and wanted to reread, and then about six books that I didn't have a chance to read. 

Since I wasn't optimistic about the room situation, I grabbed the box of miscellaneous kitchen items. Sam tried to inch away, but I grabbed him by the collar. He yelped at a possible stretch when I dumped the box of comics into his arms. Sam huffed but followed me into the house. 

"When you put those boxes down, the empty rooms are up the stairs," Grandpa stated, momentarily breaking the conversation with Mom. I nodded to show that I heard, and Sam continued behind me, curious about the interior of the log-cabinesque home. 

"You two can pick first," Mom nodded at me. I smiled at my Mom in understanding and acknowledgment before I took my first step into the home. 

It looked how I pictured it. Dark wood, with a cabin-like appearance. There was a loft overlooking the living room but a lack of natural light. The furniture was dark and wooden, seemingly hand-hewn. If there had ever been a woman's touch in the decoration, it was lost underneath the numerous taxidermied animals and masculine furniture. 

"This is like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre!" Sam complained, being overly dramatic about the house. I rolled my eyes at his dramatism and theatrics, walking over the hardwood floors to the kitchen. Thankfully, the kitchen was lighter than the main cabin and could easily be seen in the gloom of the house. I just walked through the kitchen towards the back door, where I deposited the box of kitchen supplies by the door. 

"What's wrong with this picture!" Sam's voice was louder and squeaker as he continued whining about our new home. "There's no TV! Have you seen a TV? I haven't seen a TV Aria! You know what it means when there's no TV? NO MTV!"

I didn't bother to voice a response to my brother. He was being dramatic and throwing a temper tantrum over a television set. I, for one, was glad to not have a television in the house. It would mean less distraction and more time for Sam to annoy me. Instead, I walked towards my brother, stopping momentarily and tapping on the comic book box. I raised an eyebrow, and then I walked around him. While he was distracted, I could pick a room. 

There were twenty steps leading to the second floor. When I had made it up about twelve steps, I had to stop for breath. My lungs burned, my thighs ached, and I had black dots at the edge of my vision. Not to mention the heart palpitations literally taking my breath away. I didn't want Mom or Sam to see me in this state, so when I heard footsteps and their voice coming closer, I continued my trek up the last few stairs. 

I poked my head into the rooms, finally deciding on the room that overlooked the paddock. The window allowed ample light to waft through the thin, lacy curtains. The room was big enough to be comfortable, and a bookcase was a bonus part of the wall. It was built in, which would mean less money to make the room more hospitable. 

I set the duffel bag full of clothing onto the bed. Sam ran up the stairs and tried to claim the room. I folded my arms in front of my chest and tapped my foot. Sam had to concede defeat. He chose the room that adjoined the bathroom. It was a Jack and Jill room. I rolled my eyes - Sam was utterly disgusting in the bathroom. He never cleaned, but at least we had separate rooms. 

I opened the window while Sam thundered down the stairs. I smiled, feeling the sun's rays warming my skin. Mom shouted at Sam to stop running. That's when I gathered the rest of the things from the car. 

Sam's astute awareness of my ailments meant he realized I was struggling to trek up and down the stairs. Thankfully, instead of making a scene about my weakened state, Sam brought the heavier boxes up the stairs. Once he was finished, I nodded at him in thanks. 

"Honey, did you find a room?" My mother asked, turning her gentle gaze onto me. I wished I could wear short hair like my Mom, mainly due to the sweat beading in my hairline. 

I nodded with a smile. I actually liked my new room. It was a sharp contrast to my previous room in Phoenix, but it was cozy. I had ample amount of room for my books and room for growth. I made my way up the stairs, feeling as though I might pass out by the time I reached my room. 

In case I did pass out, I shut the door. I didn't want my Mom or Sam to spy me sprawled out on the floor, unconscious. If I passed out, I knew from experience that I would wake up on my own. I sat on the bed, head between my knees, waiting for the feeling to fade. Once more stable, I stood and began removing the books from the boxes. 

"Honey," my Mom knocked on the door and peeked her head in. "I'm taking you and your brother to the boardwalk tonight. Dinner will be at 6, then we will leave around 7:30. Alright?"

I gave a nod to show I heard. Then, I continued to put my books on the shelves. I decided that it would take too long tonight to sort the books. I wanted them out of the boxes, not contained for months. Therefore, I could sort them by genre tomorrow and then alphabetize the novels.  Chapter Three

[neutronice]

Viktuuri Week Day 1: Music

Here's a double drabble for @viktuuri-week!

Victor remembers the first time he heard it, watching the way Yuuri’s body sang without words. It was a frenetic and panicked melody, scratching against the soundtrack of the skate, a cry in notes of anguish fighting against the upbeat jaunts playing on the loudspeaker. Victor had to look away.

Then came Stammi Vicino. Victor heard every aria while he watched Yuuri skate, but instead of the crooning tenor, it was sung by a soprano, Yuuri’s movements promising that there would be an end to the loneliness of Victor’s song.

In Hasetsu, Victor enjoyed the hum of a well-practiced melody while Yuuri skated figures, each movement thrumming chords of a well-loved instrument, a maestro who made the familiarity of those notes profound. Victor wondered if anyone had ever heard his music.

After all those months together on the ice, Victor could hear Yuuri’s lyrics with the music of his body. He relished in the seductive whispers of Eros, and the lofting declarations of Yuri on Ice. But it was the quad flip in the end that sang the most beautiful song. Because the moment he launched into the air, Yuuri sang at the top of his lungs: I love you.

[omniblades-and-stars]

cracks knuckles

1 + 6 for korak

8 + 19 for lou

31 + 33 for nilea

6 + 11 for crash, i know i did 6 twice but listen. you can tell a lot about a person from their rituals and emotions surrounding food, in this essay i will--

Korak –

1 – What does his bedroom look like? – Look, the man is painfully neat. And dreadfully unimaginative when it comes to décor (and most things actually). He has a bed, it has a blanket. What else does he need? He lives a very simple life, practically monastic if we’re being honest.

6 –– What you should know by now is that Korak and his adopted daughter narrowly escaped the Citadel before the Reapers captured it, and landed on Omega of all places. I imagine that Omega in the aftermath of the Cerberus fiasco and even with a softened Aria, he exists in a world where the big red laser ripped through the galaxy and destroyed a bunch of stuff. So he gets what he Eating habits and sample daily menu? gets. He’s also hopeless in the kitchen and hopeless at remembering to stop working and eat. The good news is that Trisha cooks and makes him remember to eat during the day.

He likes spicy food, it reminds him of his mother’s cooking.

Lou –

8 – Favorite indulgence and feelings surrounding indulging? – Sweet baby Lou indulges in a lot of things, food, alcohol, sex. She is trying to enjoy life damn it! Her shameful secret indulgence is absolutely Harlequin romance novels. She has a lot of old paperbacks on the bookshelf in the loft that serves as her home office.

19 – What do they think about before falling asleep at night? – When she’s in a good headspace, she thinks up new ways she can modify her omni-tool or plans what kind of zany traps she can come up with. When she’s not in a good headspace? She thinks about how it feels like her dad just gave up on trying to live, how she feels like he’s abandoning her in a world that’s been very unkind to her. Before the events of the story I’m writing, she wonders why loving Alice feels like torture sometimes, why it makes her feel so small.

Lou’s got so much personality, she should never feel small.

Nilea –

31 – Most prized possession? – In her crappy little apartment is a small statue. She found it for sale at a secondhand shop and really was just quite charmed by it. It’s an abstract piece, geometric shapes, made of fired clay. She has no idea if it was mass produced or handmade, or who it might have been made by. But it was the first thing she saw on Omega that didn’t make her angry or sick to her stomach.

33 – Concept of home and family? – You’re a mean bastard, aren’t you? You know this one was a gut punch from the get go. What Nilea knows of family hasn’t been exactly kind, stable, for the most part, but not terribly kind. Her father abandoned the family when she was a child, the only thing he left for her was a startling family resemblance, which her mother has used as an insult on more than one occasion. Nilea’s mother wasn’t entirely unloving, but she had very high expectation and ran her household like it was her own personal military base. Juna was a military woman through and through, and held her children to high standards. Cyprian, her younger brother, is just a regular pain in the ass. They aren’t close, but she doesn’t hate him.

Any chance Nilea might have had at making some sort of inroads with having a relationship with her mother was taken from her during the Geth assault on the Citadel. She has no desire to seek out her father, and besides, she’s pretty sure he’s dead anyway. She thinks that after she makes it through her current situation, she’ll start trying to talk to her brother more often.

Crash –

6 - Eating habits and sample daily menu? – Well, see, Crash is a krogan and really can and will eat just about anything at least once, but she does love good food. Crash makes a lot of soup for herself, but she lives by herself with Burn. So she will just straight up eat soup for multiple meals a day. But the thing about Crash is she spends her days wandering around the station, checking in on friends and gossiping and helping get people in need get the things they need. As a result, she eats many meals with many different types of folks. She’s a big fan of elcor cuisine, doesn’t care for nutrient paste at all.

Her favorite thing is the human tradition of making the spiciest shit they can handle and eating that. She also loves spicy food. But really, her favorite way to eat is surrounded by friends. That’s what’s good in life.

11 – Intellectual pursuits? – Crash enjoys painting, even though she’s not terribly good at it. She keeps her senses sharp and keen by reading books, really whatever she can get her hands on. Would it be considered an intellectual pursuit that she makes it a point to learn as much about the cultures of her many, many friends and associates so that she can participate in their customs?

Another intellectual pursuit for Crash, at least one that she considers an intellectual pursuit but literally no one else would, is that she spends a lot of time modding KRANTT. And finding new and interesting ways to make things explode. She’s a big fan of explosions.

[ao3feed-supercorp]

Solar Powered Always Wins

by itsAlliebitheway

“I’m literally solar powered Alex! No stupid batteries needed! Lena’s vibrator may run out of battery, but I won’t. Someone should tell her that!”

There was a pregnant pause in which Kara gestured to her own tongue, the open floor-plan of her loft doing her no favors to hide it in any capacity.

Alex looked about three seconds away from either throwing up or killing Kara, what urge would win was yet to be determined. Sam, Kelly and Nia looked absolutely delighted but Lena felt shell-shocked.

Superspeed, superpowered tongues, solar powered Kara, no batteries but still vibration, Kara’s tongue for her vibration, Kara’s tongue… Kara’s tongue on Lena’s body, her clit, her nipples...

Words: 3613, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Supergirl (TV 2015)

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/F

Characters: Kara Danvers, Lena Luthor, Alex Danvers, Kelly Olsen (Supergirl TV 2015), Nia Nal, Samantha "Sam" Arias

Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor

Additional Tags: Girls' Night Shenanigans, Fluff, Crack, Eventual Smut, First Kiss, Getting Together, Kara is bothered by racy conversations, Lena Luthor Knows Kara Danvers Is Supergirl, Drinking, Drunken Confessions, Kara's tongue is a main character, Alex Danvers is So Done, Everyone Is Gay, soft smut, Drunk Sex

from AO3 works tagged 'Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor' https://ift.tt/Av6rtki via IFTTT https://ift.tt/Av6rtki

[passingfaces]

Aria Intro

welcome to marina, ARIA BELL ( cis-female, she/her ) ! they are a/n TWENTY SEVEN year old who has lived on the island for ONE YEAR. word on the street is they’re currently living in TOWER HILL and works as a RETIRED ACTOR/PODCASTER. everyone also says they look a lot like MAIA MITCHELL. what do you think?

STATISTICS.

NAME: Aria Bell

GOES BY: Ri, Ari

AGE: 27 years old

BIRTHDAY: July 20th, 1996

ZODIAC CHART: Cancer sun, Aries moon, Virgo rising  

GENDER & PRONOUNS: Cis-female, she/her

FACE CLAIM: Maia Mitchell

OCCUPATION: Former Child Star/ Podcaster

PLACE OF BIRTH: LA, CA

CURRENT RESIDENCE: Tower Hill

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Bisexual

HEIGHT: 5′6″ (168. cm)

BACKGROUND

Aria grew up in the sunny and beautiful city of LA, but never really had a normal childhood. Her mother put her in diaper commercials practically straight out of the hospital. She worked as an actor in many commercials and shows right from the beginning, never really knowing anything else.

She had tutors to get her through her homeschooling since she needed to balance it with her work schedule. She played sweet little sisters and sassy little sisters until she was old enough to start being the main character herself. Any channel you flipped onto you would see her face somewhere.

By the time she finished school and worked as an actress full-time, she could already feel herself starting to burn out. By the age of 25, she was ready to retire, but her mother thought she was crazy. she was in her prime and could go on for many more years, she was told. For the first time in her life, she decided to ignore her mother and when the contracts ended she didn't renew them.

Desperate for some sort of normalcy and some sort of life, Aria decided that she needed to get out of California and retire somewhere that she could actually relax and enjoy her life. When she found Marina she fell in love with it, buying a cute little loft in Tower Hill, she was excited to be able to do whatever she wanted with her time.

She still had a social media following and residual checks that kept her from blowing through her millions, but she did think that people needed to understand how damaging it could be to be a child star. To be a part of millions of people's childhoods without having one of her own. So, she started a podcast and posts weekly. It was more of a passion project than anything else, but it blew up and now she does it weekly. A way of keeping the benefits of the life that she didn't want anymore.

PERSONALITY.

Aria is friendly and bubbly and spends most of her time trying to meet new people. She didn't have the chance to make any friends growing up because she simply didn't have the time, so she is trying her best to make up for lost time. She can be naive and always thinks the best of people. She also feels like she needs to provide something to be valued so she has issues with that. She spent so much time playing different characters she never had the chance to really figure out who she was underneath all of that.

WANTED CONNECTIONS

Aria moved here a year ago so her connections would all be at least somewhat recent but I'm down for WHATEVER

[o-rusted-heart]

@kenasakis .

To see Nick Valentine in Purgatory was a significant rarity, but here he was; standing still as the décor just under Aria's loft, yellow eyes fixed on her until she'd taken notice. It wasn't until she did that his head tilted disdainfully to the guards blocking him from a flight up her stairs.

"You really only hire the warm ones, huh."

[ariana-cruz]

A couple years after Aria moved to Tonopah she had a vision for the type of house she wanted. The town didn't present anything to her unique taste & so she set the wheels in motion to build one from scratch. Acquiring a plot of land in Glenn Estates, it was a good couple of years before it was built, kitted out and decorated to her liking. She's lived there now for 5 years and absolutely adores it.

First 4 pictures:

Exterior

Living area

Balcony

Kitchen

Pictures 5 & 6:

Her bedroom & onsuite, fitted with a shower and large jacuzzi bathtub.

Pictures 7 & 8:

She uses this as her lounge room for magik & meditation.

Pictures 9 & 10:

Guest bedroom and onsuite.

Pictures 11 & 12:

Staircase to the loft that leads into a makeshift cinema room.

Not pictured:

A large back garden filled with flowers & plants.

Black stone decking and a blacked-out conservatory that's home to a small bar, hot tub and 70" TV.

Basement, mostly used to stock supplies she can't squeeze in her shop.

Driveway.

Garage.

[theglamoursauce]

Camden Series - The Living Room

Camden Series - The Living Room #SecondLife #VirtualReality #Metaverse #SLBN

I was very excited to hear from the team at ReBourne that they had a new release coming. I saw some photos and loved the build so I was even more happy to receive a copy to review. It’s a big build so I am going to be doing a series of photos and posts as I decorate it. This first one focuses on the area I have designated for the living room. The house is big and open plan and you can use many…

[brideofkylosolo]

Writer Wednesday Week 2

Writer Wednesday Fic for Week 2.

Tagging @writer-wednesday

Nights in NYC

Ben Solo x Aria (FOC) (Star Wars Sequel Trilogy)

Ben decides to go on a solo adventure one night in New York and meets someone from his past.

Warnings: Modern AU NYC, mild swearing

  The party was boring as all hell.

  Ben’s mother, Ambassador Leia Organa-Solo, was hosting yet another event at the family Manhattan loft near Central Park, and Ben was bored out of his mind. He had been trying to figure out some way of making an exit for the better part of an hour, but so far, he was having zero luck.

  As Ben was trying to think of some way to sneak off, his phone in his pocket buzzed.

  Thank Gods, he thought as he pulled it out.

  It was a text message from his college roommate Cian: You free for a hot dog?

  Yep. Ben replied. The one near Times Square?

  Cian sent a thumbs up emoji in reply.

  Ben glanced around the room, making sure the coast was clear. His mother was busy talking to some delegate from China, and his father was standing next to her, awkwardly drinking a glass of whiskey. Now was his chance.

  He quietly slipped out via the side door and made his way down the elevator to the front lobby of the Dakota. He made his way to the subway, taking the B line from his family apartment on 72nd St. to Times Square.

  As Ben had expected, Times Square was busy with the tourist crowd and locals alike. He scanned the area, soon seeing the familiar sight of his friend Cian along with his other college roommate, Poe Dameron; their friend Finn, standing next to a hot dog cart as well. And Aria, Cian’s younger sister.

  Even though Ben and Cain were close, he considered her one as well. They still hung out and often talked, as well as followed each other on their social medias. Of course, it never went beyond that, although Ben would be lying if he didn’t want something more. Still, if she was happy as friends, so was he.

  “Oi, Solo!” Cian greeted him with a hug. “’Bout time you showed up. Was beginning to think you couldn’t get away.”

  “Nah, my mom didn’t even notice I left,” Ben replied.

  “I don’t get why your mom makes you go to those things,” Poe remarked as they stood in line to get their food.

  “Polite politics and shit, the same since I was a kid,” Be said.

  Aria gave him a sympathetic glance. She was one of the few people that knew how much Ben hated having to attend all of his mother’s functions. Still, he knew he had to attend them, at least for now.

  “So, what are you guy’s plans?” he asked as the group ate their food.

  “Not much,” Cian said. “Thinking about going bowling or something.”

  “What about that one bar on the west side?” Poe said. “That retro themed one?”

  “Fine with me,” Cian said as Finn, Aria, and Ben nodded.

  The group finished up and headed to the Chelsea neighborhood to hit up a bar. Cian, Poe, and Finn walked ahead while Ben and Aria hung back.

  “I’m kinda surprised to see you out,” Ben said as they walked.

  “Yeah, my brother forced me to come,” Aria said. “He was complaining I spend too much time studying.”

  That made Ben chuckle. “Yeah, you are a bit of a bookworm,” he teased her.

  Aria just giggled in response. They continued to walk awhile, still trailing behind the others.

  “You really don’t want to go to this bar, right?” Ben suddenly asked her.

  Aria gave him a look that told him he was right on the money.

  She took Ben’s hand, and they crossed the street, the others failing to see them. As the couple made their way back uptown, Ben got a text.

  Take care of my kid sister, it said with a winky face emoji.Will do, he replied with a smile.

[heartsburstintofire13ghosts]

Sam’s Tattoos

I did say that I would go into detail about her tattoos, so here we go. Samara has 10 tattoos in total. 1 of which she shares with Aria and Sara, which is a trio friend tattoo. The other did not fit on the template. 

Right Wrist

Samara has Buttercup on her wrist. Aria has Blossom and Sara has Bubbles. 

Left Arm

Sam has always been a lover of musicals. She portrayed Cosette in their high school’s production of Les Misérables five different times. 

Right Ribs

Mothra. Queen of the Monsters. Giver of Life. The Winged One. 

Left Collarbone/Shoulder Area

The TV in the junkyard did not have the best reception, so Horace would rent movies for his young daughter to watch. She grew particularly fond of the film, “The Crow” having also read the comic books that the movie was adapted from. 

She named her rottweiler pup Brandon in honor of Brandon Lee after his death before the Crow was released. Brandon (the dog) survived the Junkyard Shooting, along with his owner. 

Horace was also quite fond of the film. 

This tattoo was Sam’s way of honoring her father. 

Left Thigh

Samara visited the library a great deal when she resided with her father and grandfather. JRR Tolkien was one of her favorite authors. 

Crease of Her Right Arm

Dana and Sam had a very deep bond. One of Dana’s favorite books to read to her sister was “Where The Wild Things Are” and she would always pretend to gobble Sam up when she read this part. 

This tattoo was meant to honor Dana’s memory after her suicide

Right Collarbone/Shoulder Area

Dana was in love with Kurt Cobain. She and Sam would eat pizza and lay on the floor of her loft apartment, listening to Nirvana at full blast. 

Lithium was one of Dana’s favorite songs. 

Right Ribs

Samara is also an avid consumer of poetry. One of her favorite poems in the world is "The Old Astronomer to His Pupil." By Sarah Williams. Her tattoo is the poem's most renowned couplet.

Right Thigh

Sam has never been overly fond of Disney movies. However, she did always adore Beauty and The Beast.

Right Shin

The Dark Crystal is her favorite movie from her childhood. She and her grandfather, Andrew, would watch it all the time before he died. 

She still watches it consistently when she is stressed. 

[the-great-lightwood-bane]

Could Cry Power

Malec | Rated general | tw kidnapping

Whumptober Day 2: Caged

Summary: People are disappearing from New York, and Alec has no idea why.

What he finds out is worse than he’d expected.

A/N: This is written as a sequel to @arialerendeair's fic The Weight of Power, as well as to my own fic, With Great Power. Both are in the Power series; I’d recommend reading them before this one!

Aria’s fic is a BRILLIANT expansion on my idea and it spawned even MORE ideas for me… this AU is never going to end, is it 🤣🤣🤣

Thanks to Aria for letting me borrow her OCs Oberon, Qinemru, and Seera, and to lawsofchaos for letting me use Tosa, Yuan, and the Consular High Warlock 'verse!

Read it on AO3 or below the cut.

As it turned out, the consequences of overcharging Alec’s body with elemental magic for the second time didn’t have nearly as extreme an effect as it had the first time. So far, at least. 

Admittedly, it would be hard to top their discovery of Alec’s immortality — Magnus had been running a diagnosis on Alec to figure out if there’d been any consequences for his absorption of the tsunami’s power, and when he’d realised that Alec’s cells were no longer degrading over time… Well. There’d been some minor misunderstandings (two screaming sessions followed by several hours in which they’d both feared that the other one wasn’t as committed as they were featuring Alec beating his hands to a bloody pulp and Magnus getting viciously drunk with Caterina), but eventually they’d realised that they both wanted this, and Magnus would never forget the joy he’d felt knowing that age would never take Alec away from him. 

The second consequence of stopping the tsunami had been more immediately evident: the bond that now stretched between them, coiling in time with their emotions, constantly transmitting the other one’s mental state as well as allowing them to share strength with unparalleled ease, although it wasn’t possible if they were too far away from each other. 

Now that several times more power had been pumped into Alec, that bond had expanded dramatically in breadth; whereas before, Magnus had only been able to feel a faint thread of Alec’s emotions when he focused on it, now he could always feel Alec’s heart beating next to his, feel every surge of love or adrenaline or irritation. And even when Magnus portalled to the other side of the world, the strength of the bond didn’t seem to dim at all. Alec was a constant glow in Magnus’ mind, his heart, his magic, and their strength was so entwined that any exertion on Alec’s part pulled from a shared pool of strength. 

On top of that, Alec’s eyes still hadn’t lost the ring of white power around his pupils, although it had dimmed considerably; Magnus glamoured it away while Alec was out of the loft — no point letting the Clave, or the Downworld, know any more than absolutely necessary — but inside, he let the glamour drop just as he did the one which hid his own eyes. 

Other consequences were easy enough to detect: Alec had gained an impressive sensitivity to energy, whether it be Shadowhunter, Downworlder, or even mundane. The way he described it, everyone glowed with energy in the colour of their magical signature, whether Alec was trying to look for their magic or not; he’d told Magnus, grinning, that Magnus’ blue glow was by far the brightest in the city, rivalled only by the Angelic Core and the Ley Lines, both burning white. But even mundanes glowed with energy; while they didn’t have magic, they did have energy, and that meant they all glowed faintly white in Alec’s vision. Even when they were out of sight, Alec could still feel that glow. 

Every spell Magnus cast, Alec felt, no matter how well Magnus tried to hide it from him. Every time a seraph blade was activated; every time a werewolf transformed; every time a vampire showed their fangs — Alec felt all of it, and if he focused too hard on all the energy moving around him, it was overwhelming. Fortunately, it was usually easy enough to tune out. 

Mostly, Magnus could see and feel the same things, if less clearly and only when he concentrated. But sometimes — perhaps five or six times a day — Alec felt a strange fluctuation in the energy of the city. Not a loss of energy, or a gain; only a small fluctuation, sometimes weaker and sometimes stronger, but something about it felt wrong. 

But there wasn’t time to investigate the strange feeling, because shortly after Matthias’ death, people started disappearing. 

The first, which Underhill reported to Alec as soon as he emerged from Magnus’ arms to face the world, was the most obvious: two werewolves who’d gone missing while on a walk together, leaving no trace. Neither was particularly prone to random disappearance, and when tracking suggested they might be behind wards — although still in New York — Alec tried to find their magical signature. 

He stood in the middle of the Jade Wolf, focusing on the green light of the werewolves’ magical signature which clung to a sweater. Werewolf magical signatures were much harder to track than warlocks’, since every werewolf glowed green, but there were small nuances to each individual magic, and Alec did his best to feel for the same nuances somewhere else in the city. 

His mind seemed to expand, to spread over New York’s glow. He felt like it was drawing a map in his head, the ley lines streaming like a river between scattered clumps of mundanes’ white light, the Institute a lump of brighter gold and white, colourful dots for warlocks, the gold of a patrol, the Jade Wolf glowing bright blue thanks to Magnus’ presence over a gleam of green… it was bright, too bright, colours overlapping and blurring together; Alec thought for a moment he might go mad from it all, but a thread of calmness from Magnus whispered through the bond between them, and he refocused on the city. 

Green dots. Only think about the green dots. He let the other colours — the white, the red, the gold, even Magnus’ blue — fade into background noise; only the green stood clear, the Jade Wolf glowing bright with various other spots scattered around the city. But not one matched the unique magical signature of either werewolf. 

“I can’t see them,” Alec said with a sigh, the map falling away to a background hum of colour. “They might just be buried among other magical signatures, but…”

Luke sighed and ran a hand through his hair. 

~

Three warlocks. Four faeries. Another six werewolves, for a total of eight. Seven vampires. Six Shadowhunters. 

Twenty-eight disappearances.

It had been a week, and the number hadn’t stopped climbing. Sometimes it was one person at a time; sometimes it would be two, like the first werewolves to vanish; four of the vampires had disappeared together. Most of the kidnapping scenes bore traces of a magical signature, but neither Alec nor Magnus could figure out whose it was, or even what species they were. Night, day, it didn’t matter; whoever was doing the abducting either had a messed-up sleep schedule, or there were several people working together. 

They tried Alec’s new abilities, Magnus’ warlock tracking, Shadowhunter tracking, werewolf tracking, and even Jace and Alec’s parabatai tracking, but none showed any trace of the disappearances. Or perhaps deaths; while Magnus thought the tracking had failed due to wards around the vanished Downworlders, Alec had thought he could circumvent any such wards, so perhaps the missing simply weren’t there anymore. 

All that they’d confirmed was that everyone was still in New York: Magnus had sensed that from the feeling of the wards which blocked his tracking. But neither a magical scan of the city nor physical searching had as yet revealed anything. 

That day, Luke called from the police precinct with even more worrying news — it wasn’t just members of the Shadow World who were disappearing. 

Mundanes were, too. 

Most of the mundanes were those who wouldn’t be missed — the poor, the undocumented, the lonely — but some weren’t: the owner of a not-so-small business, taken on one of her regular trips to the gym; an actor, vanished partway through the filming of a movie; three children who never came home from school. 

The mundane police were looking into it, and Luke’s precinct had realised that the wealthier victims weren’t the only ones. At least ten more (taken from underground fighting rings, mostly) had vanished without being noticed; Luke was estimating a total of eighteen to twenty-three missing mundanes. 

(The mundanes were really quite panicked about it. Apparently, between a couple homicides, supplies stolen from a hospital, a series of jewellery thefts, and now these disappearances, New York was experiencing an unprecedented surge in crime. The Clave was breathing down Alec’s neck about finding a way to placate them, but there wasn’t much he could do.)

None of the missing mundanes could be tracked or sensed anywhere, just like the vanished Shadowworlders, which meant both groups had almost certainly been taken by the same person — or rather, group of people, because there was no way any one individual could kidnap nearly fifty people in one week. 

~

Magnus was still out with a client when Alec got home — earlier than usual, thanks to an inability to focus on inane Clave reports when fifty people had been kidnapped under his nose. The Clave was kicking up a fuss about it, of course — and blaming Alec, of course — but the envoy they’d sent to speed up the process had been utterly incompetent and Alec had successfully distracted him with various uninteresting and unnecessary jobs to mess up. The Clave couldn’t send somebody higher up to claim temporary Headship until a month had passed, so Alec was safe enough so far. 

The problem was that this time, at least, the Clave was right. Alec should’ve been able to catch this group, whoever they were, or at least stop them from kidnapping people. But even now, when everybody in the Shadow World was going around in at least pairs, the disappearances hadn’t stopped; the kidnappers weren’t cowed by numbers, and Alec still knew nothing about them. 

What was the point, he wondered, of all these new powers he’d gained, if he couldn’t use them to protect his city?

If he couldn’t focus on the Clave, he could at least search again for the missing people, right?

He headed out to the balcony and sat down cross-legged, the meditation position Magnus had been teaching him; they’d found it was useful when scanning the city for the missing people. 

It was easier, now, to sink down into the map in his head at a level that neither overwhelmed him nor prevented him from feeling the currents that ran through the city. The ley lines were a drumbeat in the background; the tides of mundanes flowed along streets, into subway stations, up buildings, down buildings, like water through a stream. 

First, he scanned the Downworlders, one group at a time. He’d memorised the remaining numbers of each specifically so that he could count them like this. Werewolves: all of New York’s two hundred and twelve were there, dots of green perfectly visible. Vampires: two hundred and fifty-three, down one from yesterday’s two hundred and fifty-five, but he’d already known that. Warlocks: seventy-one, multicoloured splashes of light, among them Magnus’ bright blue beside the green of his current werewolf client. Faeries were impossible to count, since they were the same colour as mundanes and he couldn’t tell the difference between a building of several hundred mundanes and a single faerie, so he was about to allow the mental map to fall away from his mind when that strange, uncomfortable fluctuation reverberated through him. 

It was the first time that had happened while he was in this state, focusing so hard on the energy of New York, and the sheer wrongness of it nearly made him lose his grasp on his mental map. But he held on, and he saw it. 

He wouldn’t’ve noticed if he hadn’t been watching like this, specifically watching the bright colours of the city’s warlocks. But he was watching, and just as that fluctuation shook his grasp on his mental map, the purple dot of a warlock vanished. 

All that he could see in its place was a clump of white.  

He didn’t — couldn’t — stop to think. Almost unconsciously, he sent desperation flowing through his bond to Magnus, and in scarcely more than the time it took him to climb to his feet, a portal swirled open and Magnus stepped through. 

Alec didn’t wait for the portal to close; he reached for the strands of magic that guided it and unanchored it from the werewolf’s place Magnus had left, directing it instead to the spot on his mental map where the purple dot had turned white. 

He felt a different portal forming there, one created by the white dot of magic; there wasn’t time to tell Magnus what he’d seen before whoever it was went through the portal with their newest victim. 

I’ll explain later, he tried to convey through the bond, and dragged Magnus after him back through the portal. 

It had been barely seconds, but as Alec watched, the other portal — the one he’d sensed forming — closed in a swirl of white sparks. Just before it shut, though, he caught a glimpse through it of a woman turning away from them, an unconscious body held over her shoulder. 

Then it was gone, and no matter how hard Magnus tried to trace it, he found nothing — leaving the two of them with more questions than answers. 

~

“Did you know that warlock?” Alec asked softly, once they were back at the loft. 

“Not well, but I’d met him before,” Magnus replied, equally quiet. “His name’s Artem.”

Alec breathed out slowly. “I’m sorry. If I’d been faster—”

“This is not on you,” Magnus said, suddenly heated, shifting so he could meet Alec’s eyes. “You did everything you could, sayang.”

But I couldn’t do enough. Alec didn’t say the words aloud, but Magnus understood him anyway. 

“I couldn’t do enough either, love. I’m as much at fault as you are.”

Alec huffed, giving in — he could never argue when Magnus put it that way. It was always easier to blame himself than to blame someone else, especially if that someone was Magnus. 

Then Magnus kissed him, and he let his fears drift away. 

~

The fluctuations — and the kidnappings — promptly stopped. 

Alec guessed that the woman had seen Alec and Magnus coming through the portal; she must’ve realised that they were on to her, and was now avoiding doing anything to catch their attention. But as one day passed without incident, and then another, Alec felt his uneasiness rise. 

This, he feared, was nothing but the calm before the storm. 

The rest of the Downworld Cabinet was mostly just relieved that they were no longer losing people; the Clave was also happy about the news. But something wrong was itching at Alec, and he didn’t know what it was. 

Well, he had several questions, really. Artem’s magical signature had vanished before his kidnapper had taken him through a portal, which meant that it wasn’t just hidden behind wards, it was gone. How had the kidnapper done that? What was the point of it? Where were the kidnappers bringing these people, and what were they doing with them? How many kidnappers were there, and how were they hiding their presence from Alec’s new abilities? Magnus said that Artem was a fairly powerful warlock; how had one single kidnapper overpowered him so easily? What was that kidnapper — faerie, as her magical signature had been white, or something else, since Alec didn’t think she’d felt like a faerie?

They’d already wondered whether this might be related to Matthias Hillborne: the kidnappings had, after all, started directly after his death. And perhaps the kidnapees’ magical signatures had vanished because their energy had been leeched from them, as Matthias had done. 

But if the kidnappers were taking their victims’ energy, why would they take the bodies with them? And from what Alec had seen of Artem as he’d been taken through the portal, he looked nothing like Matthias’ victims — no shrivelled skin, no shrunken corpse. 

On top of that, if Matthias had told multiple people that it was possible to steal a person’s energy to fuel yourself, it seemed unlikely that the knowledge could stay hidden very long. There was a reason why Magnus and Alec had hid Matthias’ actions from the Clave; that kind of knowledge was dangerous in the wrong hands, and very, very difficult to keep quiet. Clearly, the kidnappers were a large group of people, so if they all knew what was happening, it was practically inconceivable that not one of them would try to break away, steal as much energy as possible, and concoct some sort of nefarious plan to take over the world. As far as they knew, that hadn’t happened yet. 

And, lastly, there didn’t seem to be some huge accumulation of energy anywhere in the city. If Alec had been able to sense energy at the scale he could now, he knew he would’ve noticed Matthias before he’d managed to increase his power so dramatically; right now, the brightest spots of power in New York were Magnus and the Institute. Nothing else even came close; there were a few faeries and warlocks with a solid chunk of power, but none with more energy than was reasonable. 

So Magnus and Alec guessed that this, whatever it was, had no connection to Matthias Hillborne. 

They still couldn’t begin to guess what it was connected to. 

~

The next day — ten days after the first kidnapping — a positive troop of Consular High Warlocks showed up in New York. 

Magnus had sent for them to ask for help after Artem’s kidnapping; clearly, the question of what had happened to his magical signature was intriguing, and four Consular High Warlocks made New York glow far more brightly than Alec was accustomed to. 

Oberon was there, his purple magic nearly half as bright as Magnus’ (which was saying something, because ever since Magnus had absorbed Edom, he’d far and above outclassed any other warlock they’d met by several orders of magnitude), and he’d brought Qinemru, who was glowing just as much as Oberon in Alec’s new vision. Tosa and her partner Yuan both glowed red, although Yuan, as a vampire, was less bright; Seera shone yellow, duller than the other two thanks to her youth but not by much. 

The fourth Consular High Warlock, Asterope of Australia, was one Alec knew less well, although she greeted Magnus like an old friend. She glowed pink only a shade less bright than Oberon; Alec guessed she, too, was descended from a Prince of Hell. She seemed a touch younger than the others, and indeed, Magnus explained in an undertone that she was the second-youngest Consular High Warlock, after Seera. 

Alec greeted them all warmly, adjusting his vision to dim the brightness of the crowd of powerful Downworlders, before the eight of them headed out to a café Magnus and Alec liked (because, as Magnus declared and Oberon agreed, there was no point in worrying about strange magical incidences if one couldn’t eat good pastry while doing so). 

Then followed a positive interrogation on every aspect of Alec’s abilities, the strange fluctuation, what he’d seen, what he’d felt, and what he thought might be happening. Understandably, a few of them were dissatisfied with Alec’s answers — he couldn’t describe the fluctuation except “it feels like something is changing or shifting in a bad way” — but soon enough, everyone was discussing magical theory at a level Alec could only barely grasp thanks to his time with Magnus. 

But even when Alec’s knowledge of magical theory bottomed out and he was left listening without really understanding as Oberon, Qinemru, Magnus, Tosa, Yuan, and Asterope (who’d been quiet at first but quickly opened up when it came to academic discussions) debated the fine points of the differentiation between warlock and faerie magic, nothing seemed to come of the discussion. Seera had declared that she’d be more useful trying to see if she could detect any unusual wards in the city which might be capable of blocking out Alec’s abilities, but he doubted she’d find much. 

“I just don’t know,” Oberon said at last, leaning back in his chair. “Whether this kidnapper is faerie or warlock, she’s using magic unknown to either, and I don’t think we’ll get much further wondering about it in the abstract like this.”

“We’ve already tried to find her,” Magnus pointed out, “but it’s nearly impossible for Alec to sense her due to all the mundanes milling about—”

“But if several of us worked together, we might be able to do a more thorough search,” Oberon replied. “Several warlocks, combining their magic, can track better than one; what if we can temporarily boost Alec’s abilities?”

Alec frowned. “It’s not that my abilities aren’t strong enough, I don’t think; it’s more that I’m picking up on too many mundanes when I try to focus on her magic. Increasing the strength of my senses might just overwhelm me more.”

Tosa, however, had her head tilted to the side. “Still. Perhaps if we boost you, you’ll be able to narrow your search, in some sense, to only her magical signature.”

“It’s possible,” Alec allowed. “And we don’t really have any other options. Let’s try it.”

Magnus opened his mouth to protest, but Alec shook his head at him, and he said nothing, although his lips tightened. 

Oberon hesitated. “If you don’t want to do this, Alec, obviously you don’t have to—”

“I want to,” Alec insisted. Sure, there was a good chance he’d be completely overwhelmed and collapse, but if this could help find anything to help everyone who’d disappeared… It wasn’t really a choice. 

For a moment more, Oberon paused, then nodded sharply. “I’ll call Seera back, and then we can start.”

~

Magnus put his hands on Alec’s shoulders. Oberon had his hand on one of Magnus’ arms, himself holding hands with Qinemru; Seera was touching Magnus’ other shoulder, with Asterope, Yuan, and Tosa completing the circle. All seven of them would be channelling power into Alec, hoping it would boost his abilities enough to detect the kidnappers through whatever wards they had up. 

They were in the middle of Central Park, now, where there were fewer mundanes to see them; Magnus had added a quick ward to divert people away. 

“Ready?” Magnus asked Alec. 

“Ready,” Alec confirmed, and Magnus felt him sink deeper into his magic, into the meditative state he’d begun to master. 

Magic began to pool in Magnus from Oberon and Seera’s touch, and Magnus let it flow through him into Alec. 

There was nothing more for him to do but wait and see. 

~

The world seemed to spin beneath Alec, even as he felt his feet anchored to the ground, Magnus’ hands on his shoulders. 

His eyes were closed, and instead of seeing darkness, he could see everything. 

It wasn’t just New York. It wasn’t just the US, even; he could see — feel? — the whole world, a brilliant ball of light, glowing more brightly in some places, dimmer in others. 

He focused in on New York just as a surge of extra power came flowing, multicoloured, through his bond with Magnus. 

For a moment, he wavered into confusion, into an overwhelming onslaught of light, but Magnus was there, and he breathed deeply to calm himself. 

Focus. He could see the circle of brilliant light where they stood — could see himself, glowing white with flecks of gold, blue, red, purple, pink, yellow, all the colours of the five warlocks, vampire, and faerie standing around him. That wasn’t the point, though; he let the bright hues of warlocks and vampires and werewolves and Shadowhunters fade into the background. 

Mundanes scurried back and forth, an endless river of movement. There were clumps of them in tall buildings, streams flowing up and down streets, every fragment of white a different person with their own goals and aims — Alec knew he could get lost in them, in the unending tide of humanity. 

But right now, he wasn’t looking at the mundanes: he was looking for something that shone brighter than them, something that shone with the strength of a faerie or warlock. Carefully, carefully, he dialled back his sensations; it was harder than it had been without the warlocks fuelling his power, but he held back the impossibly complex flood of light. 

Ignoring the duller mundanes, there were only a few places in the city that glowed bright white. This was where the warlocks’ power boost came in handy: he could sense the differentiation between a crowd of mundanes and a faerie, and — hopefully — any old faerie and the woman who’d kidnapped Artem. 

One by one, achingly slowly, Alec let his enhanced senses flit over each of the faeries he could see. Two Unseelie warriors, who felt like shadow and silence; six Seelies, feeling like light and laughter, although Alec knew neither Court was worse than the other. 

Qinemru’s white glow was only barely visible below the multicoloured glows of the warlocks and Yuan; Alec couldn’t focus on them for too long without the colours brightening to overwhelm him. 

Nowhere in the city did he find any magical signature like that of Artem’s kidnapper. 

He searched again, widening his parameters — perhaps she was magically exhausted, and her signature was weak? Or perhaps she was hidden behind wards? 

There was nothing. 

Alec opened his eyes. 

Directly in front of him — her magical signature glowing strong and bright where it’d been hidden from his scan by the glow of the powerful people around him — stood the woman who’d taken Artem. 

Her hands flicked up, and Alec knew that whatever spell she was casting would do to the warlocks, vampire, and faerie behind him precisely what she’d done to Artem. All the warlocks were still focusing on Alec, and although they were just halting the flow of power into Alec, none would react in time to protect themselves. 

Desperately, unthinkingly, Alec threw up his hands. 

Through the bond between himself and Magnus, and Magnus’ rapidly fading temporary bond to the others, he felt six people slip into unconsciousness, their magical signatures draining into white that illuminated the woman standing before them, the city’s power fluctuating and vibrating with that wrongness — but neither Alec nor Magnus was touched. Rage and incomprehension grew on her face. 

Another moment, another flick of the woman’s fingers. Oberon, Qinemru, Tosa, Yuan, Seera, and Asterope were yanked forward and through a portal which appeared in scattered white sparks. 

Alec felt Magnus gathering his magic to attack, but the woman threw up a shield and followed her captives through the portal. 

It shut behind her, leaving Alec and Magnus alone in the park. 

~

Magnus didn’t know how Alec had stopped the kidnapper from taking him and Alec as well as the others, but he could only be grateful for it — judging by the ease with which she’d pierced six sets of powerful wards, Magnus’ own wards would be no match. This woman, whoever she was, was far more powerful than she ought to be. 

Alec had his eyes closed, scanning the city for traces of her magical signature, as he had every minute or so since the others had been taken. Without the boost from everyone else’s energy, he couldn’t sense differences in signature with as much precision as he’d like, and Magnus feared it would be a hopeless endeavour. 

He also had the feeling that whatever that woman and the other kidnappers were planning, it would happen soon. You couldn’t kidnap four Consular High Warlocks and expect to keep them hidden for months on end; the entire Shadow World would show up in New York soon enough, ready to tear everything apart to find them. Even somebody with the eerily strong power of this woman couldn’t stand up to thousands. 

By the time those thousands had gathered, though, Magnus was fairly certain she’d already have made her move. The problem was that he didn’t know what that move was. 

He was pulled from his thoughts by Alec’s sharp inhale, and his husband’s eyes snapped open, ring of white clearly visible around their pupils. “I can feel her. There’s a massive amount of raw power gathering in one particular spot, and it’s got her magical signature on it.”

There wasn’t time to wait for backup. Magnus summoned a portal, and Alec led the way through. 

~

The moment they stepped through the portal, bands of white light wrapped like rope around Magnus and Alec both. 

The woman stood in front of them, sneering. “Did you really think I wouldn’t be expecting you?”

Alec didn’t bother answering. He could see, along each wall, rows and rows of cages, one person lying on a bed in each, a rope of white magic like the ones that bound Magnus and Alec extending from each captive to a spot in the centre of the room where a ball of pure power glowed a brilliant white. 

He thought of Matthias Hillborne, who’d taken energy from perhaps fifteen people to fuel a bomb comparable in power to a nuclear bomb. 

This woman had been taking power from sixty people, mundanes and Shadowhunters and Downworlders alike, and six of those people were the most powerful Alec had ever seen, aside from Magnus. 

The ball of power glowed brighter. 

~

“What is this?” Magnus asked, eyes flickering around — to the captives unconscious in cages, to the building energy in the centre of the room. 

“The most important thing you’ll ever see,” the woman replied, smirking slightly and bouncing on the balls of her feet as though in excitement. “Oh, but I haven’t introduced myself, have I? I’m Vanessa Hillborne.”

Like Matthias Hillborne. 

“Matthias was my brother,” Vanessa went on, head tilted slightly to the side. “Half-brother, I suppose — we shared a demonic parent, but his mother was a mundane, while mine was a faerie.” That explained the white-but-not-faerie magical signature, Magnus supposed. Vanessa was clearly in the mood for a stereotypical villain monologue, and Magnus would like to have stopped her since the ball of energy seemed to pulse brighter and bigger every moment, but he knew that if he tried to free himself magically, the blast would almost certainly set off the bomb she’d built. For now, he would have to wait and listen. 

“We worked on this for months together,” Vanessa was saying, cheerily, when Magnus tuned back in. “He was after the power it could give him — he’s always wanted revenge against the Shadowhunters — but I was the one who came up with the idea. We can draw power from ley lines, and share strength with each other; why not try draining energy from the unwilling to fuel oneself?” 

“Were you two working alone?” Alec asked, when she paused for dramatic effect. 

“Of course,” she said, as though it were obvious; somehow, her incongruously cheerful demeanour didn’t falter. “If anyone else found out, they’d take the idea. Matthias even pretended I wasn’t involved when you caught him. Rather irritating, of course, that he claimed it was all his idea, but it did give me the opportunity I needed for revenge.” Her smile was gleeful. “You two killed him, so I’ll have to kill you. When my bomb goes off, it’ll tear apart half the continent.”

Magnus glanced quickly at the still-expanding sphere of power, and had to admit that her estimate was probably accurate: she held in her hands more power than Magnus had seen before in his life. 

“How did you manage to gather so much energy without us noticing?” Alec asked — mostly, Magnus gathered from the emotions in the bond between them, to keep her talking, but also from a sense of morbid curiosity about what they’d missed. 

“I’m glad you asked.” Vanessa clapped her hands, sprightly. “I’ve been kidnapping people since he died, you know, and I’ve taken their energy so neither of you can find them. But I don’t kill them; I’ve always thought that was rather careless of Matthias. Instead, I keep them alive so I can continue gathering energy. And with enough people to fuel my power, I don’t need much rest, so it was easy enough.”

Magnus could feel Alec swallowing back disgust at Vanessa’s casual admission that she’d used people as batteries to give her power, not once, but constantly for the last ten days. None of that disgust, however, showed on Alec’s face. “But how come I couldn’t sense your power accumulating until a few minutes ago?”

“Oh! Well, for that, I was actually inspired by your own efforts to absorb Matthias’ power. I’ve been feeding the energy into gemstones” — she waved a hand at a pile of sparkling stones in the corner, which appeared to be dissolving to ash as power was pulled from them; Magnus recalled the missing jewellery incidents the mundanes had been worrying about, and thought it was unlikely they’d find their gems again — “and portalling the stones all over the world, so you wouldn’t notice their energy in New York. Now I’m just pulling all the power out, so I can use it.”

She waited for a moment, almost like a teacher checking to see if there were any more questions before going on with the lesson, then spoke again. “It’ll be only a few minutes until my bomb’s at full force; I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until then—”

Magic surged up through the bond between Magnus and Alec just as Alec’s hands closed on his bonds and pulled them apart. 

Vanessa started, clearly taken aback, then huffed and sent a blast of magic at Alec. 

Alec sidestepped. 

Another blast. 

Another dodge. 

Then Alec dove for her, drawing the seraph blade she hadn’t bothered to take from him, and the battle was on. 

Magnus couldn’t help. 

He tested his bonds, but while channelling a lot of his magic into them would probably free him, it would also certainly trigger Vanessa’s bomb, which ruled that out. Whatever Alec had done to get free — it had looked like he was manipulating the magic of the bonds themselves, which shouldn’t be possible — it wasn’t something Magnus could replicate, and unfortunately, Alec was a bit too busy fighting Vanessa to free Magnus, too. 

She tossed a fireball at Alec, which he blocked, but the fire ricocheted back towards Vanessa’s bomb, and only avoided triggering it by a hair’s breadth. Don’t let her magic hit the bomb! Magnus thought, shoving the words through his bond with Alec, unsure if he could even do that, but apparently he could because understanding washed back and Alec absorbed Vanessa’s next attack into his seraph blade. 

As Magnus watched, Alec sidestepped or blocked or absorbed spell after spell, with an incredible agility — he seemed to know where the spells were aimed, to almost anticipate their movements, and if Magnus didn’t know better, he’d say Alec was mildly altering the course of the spells so that they went where he wanted them to go. 

Vanessa had started the fight still smiling, although irritated by the interruption, but soon she was breathing more heavily and scowling; Alec was showing himself to be a real threat, and Magnus felt a surge of pride. But that didn’t last long, because a moment later, Vanessa reached out a hand towards the spinning ball of power and Magnus, Sight activated, saw white power flow into her, brighter and sharper than before. She stood taller, and her next attack was so quick that Alec barely dodged. 

Magnus pushed his own strength through his bond with Alec, letting him match Vanessa’s energy. Alec didn’t use it, though — instead, he stumbled back, allowing Vanessa to advance towards him before he apparently gathered himself to attack again. 

Alec moved slower than he should, allowing the warlock/faerie to control the fight; she pushed him back, back, back again. He was still keeping her magic from ricocheting chaotically around the room, but Vanessa could tell the effort was wearing on him. 

She was smiling again, almost giggling as she fought. Her confidence was growing as Alec continued to fall back, and Magnus knew what would happen the moment before it did. 

Vanessa Hillborne dropped her guard for a fragment of a second, and Alec drew on the strength Magnus had been pooling inside of him to move faster than should have been possible. His seraph blade stabbed easily through her chest. 

Her eyes widened with shock and terror and pain. In the moment before light drained from them, she thrust out a hand toward the bomb, and sent a blast of magic directly at it. 

~

As Alec watched, energy poured out of Vanessa, white and brilliant. Her life force, joining the mass of power that was making the air tremble. Her magic would both fuel her bomb and set it off. 

Magnus was suddenly beside him, presumably able to free himself from his bonds now that Vanessa was dead, urgency burning through the bond between them. 

As they had on a magic carpet over the Indian Ocean, as they had over a soon-to-erupt volcano in Iceland, Alec reached out to hold each of Magnus’ hands in his own, the bomb spinning brightly between them. It was perhaps two feet across, and for once, Magnus was not the brightest glow in the room. 

Unlike before, though, this wasn’t on a scale that he and Magnus could simply absorb. Between the two of them and the bond that connected them, the power of a tsunami had been manageable; thanks to several gemstones and Jace and Clary’s assistance, they’d absorbed enough energy to avoid the complete destruction of Iceland, although that had nearly killed them. 

This was several times more powerful. Several times more dangerous. For now, they could — temporarily — keep the power contained, and hope they could figure out what to do with it. 

Echoing Alec’s thoughts, Magnus spoke up. “If we send it up, it’ll rip a substantial portion of Earth’s atmosphere away when it goes off, which would make the planet uninhabitable within hours. If we send it down, there’s a good chance it’ll compromise the structural integrity of the planet itself, and it’ll at least cause massive disturbances on the surface — enough to drown some continents and form new ones. If we leave it be, it will explode with exponentially more force than a nuclear bomb; the environmental impacts for any survivors of the initial blast will be devastating.”

Alec swallowed hard. “We can’t absorb it. If we tried, we’d only be able to absorb a fraction of its power before it overwhelmed us and exploded.”

There was despair, heavy as a stone, in Alec’s chest — despair in the bond that connected them, despair that Alec did not know how to surmount. This wasn’t a matter of sacrificing himself to save Magnus, or to save the world; this was a sheer wall of impossibility. Nobody — no one person, no two people, no matter how powerful, could absorb all this. 

Alec looked up, sudden hope rising. “What if we channelled energy into everyone else she’s captured? Wouldn’t that make a dent—”

Magnus shook his head, and Alec’s heart fell. “They’re still unconscious, and I don’t think any of them would have the energy to get over here to help us. But even if they could, it’d just overwhelm them — this power has been taken over a period of several days for most, and giving it all back to them at once… Whatever they could absorb would only be a fraction of the total.”

“But with enough people, we could absorb it all.” 

“Theoretically,” Magnus replied, “but we can’t exactly assemble several thousand Downworlders and Shadowhunters here to share it with us.”

Alec thought of how, a few days earlier, he’d taken control of Magnus’ portal and changed its direction — something which even Magnus couldn’t do; he thought of how, when the other Consular High Warlocks and their consorts had been taken, he’d deflected Vanessa’s magic away from himself and Magnus; he thought of the glowing white ropes Vanessa had bound him and Magnus with, and the way he’d directed them away from himself as though they were his own magic. 

He thought of his battle with Vanessa, of how he’d guided her magic away from himself, away from her bomb, subtle movements which had nevertheless saved him several times over. 

His eyes fixed on the sphere of power between him and Magnus — energy too vast for him to hold, but if he wasn’t holding it all at once, if he was only holding a little at a time, perhaps—

There wasn’t time to explain his revelation to Magnus; he could barely explain it to himself. “Do you trust me?” he asked instead. 

“Of course,” Magnus said immediately, as Alec had known he would. “But what—”

“No time.” Alec swallowed, and he knew that the circle of power around his pupils was likely expanding, brightening, as he gathered the power within himself. “I need you to feed the power into me, but not all at once.”

Magnus’ eyes held a thousand questions — how could Alec hold that power, what was his plan, was he going to sacrifice himself again — but Alec whispered trust me again into the bond between them, and Magnus nodded. Always. 

Power flowed into him, white and elemental but not yet too much, not yet more than he could control, and with its help, Alec let his power expand to encompass the world. 

It was like it’d been when Oberon and the others had channelled power into him: he was no longer limited to New York. The world unrolled, and with raw power rolling through him, Alec could reach out to touch every bloom of white or green or red or gold, every warlock’s magic in a thousand hues. He could touch the fifty people in the room with him, too, all so drained of power their magical signatures were nothing more than a mundane’s. 

Before the power overwhelmed him, Alec breathed in, slow and steady, and sent energy spiralling through his touch into the first souls he could reach: mundane or warlock or vampire or werewolf or faerie or Shadowhunter, the energy Vanessa had built up to destroy rushed through him and scattered into a thousand pinpricks. 

Never enough to hurt, to overwhelm. There were eight billion people to absorb this magic, and as huge as it was, divided into so many parts, it could not harm them. Perhaps — even probably — some would feel more energised than usual, stronger, but Alec would not let this power cause harm. He would not. 

The river of strength flowing into him increased, and he knew that Magnus must be struggling to keep the bomb from pouring into Alec all at once. But he could do nothing to help his husband, except keep him at full strength through their bond; right now, he moved on to more people, farther away, allowing them to take in more of the power that coursed through him. He couldn’t let the sheer energy make him lose track of himself, or he’d accidentally overwhelm somebody else; he needed to keep his head, to fill each soul with a drop of magic and then move on to the next, and the next, and the next. 

Mundanes could only carry a fraction more magic than they already had, but there were more of them than of any Downworlder or Shadowhunter, so Alec let energy drip bit by bit into one after another after another. The Downworlders could hold more, but each race, each individual, was different; Alec felt pressure building up inside of him as power flowed faster, but he forced himself to portion out that energy in packets, never too much for anyone he touched. 

Through his bond with Magnus, he felt a flare of panic, and then a pulse of pure power lanced through him. He barely had the awareness to pull away from those who already absorbed what energy they could and move on to more, still empty enough to be filled; the power sputtered out of him almost carelessly, not as efficient as it could have been, but Magnus had the flow of energy back under control and Alec went on. 

Time dissolved into white light and pinprick glows. His bond with Magnus was the only thing holding him steady, holding him still, holding him anchored to this world; as power flowed on out of him into mundanes and Downworlders and Shadowhunters, he wondered if, without that bond, he would simply drift away on a river of light. 

He wondered if that would be so bad. 

Then suddenly there was alarm in the bond, in Magnus’ chest, in Alec’s chest too, and he felt Magnus tug him back. I love you, Magnus said, words echoing in Alec’s head, and he pulled himself back under control. 

Energy streamed through him. 

Alec was scraped raw, a vessel not meant to bear this weight, this power, but he would serve: he would save the world, save New York, save Magnus from the elemental magic he still felt in what remained of Vanessa’s bomb. 

Magnus’ breaths were synced with his through the bond, an ebb and flow as, together, they moved power away and divided it into negligibility, into safety. 

Vanessa’s bomb unspooled into Alec’s veins, into the people who made up the fabric of their realm. It burned, but distantly; he was half in the bond with Magnus, half guiding the power into eight billion people, and there was nothing left to feel pain. 

Alec would come back from this changed, he knew, as he had twice before; the energy in his body and his mind was hollowing him out to make space for itself, carving out a place for white light in the gold he’d been before. He wondered how much gold was left, how much angelic energy could be replaced with white before it faded entirely. 

Yes, he would come back changed — if he came back at all. 

~

Sometime after he began controlling how quickly Vanessa’s gathered magic flowed into Alec, Magnus realised that this was not his magic that he used to do so. 

It had been at first — he’d felt the weight of using the power of a Prince of Hell to control the energy entering Alec — but somehow that was no longer the case: he wasn’t using foreign magic to control wild magic, he was simply controlling the bomb itself. 

This was Alec’s power, and somehow Magnus was borrowing it. 

He had little energy to spare for pondering such issues, however; Alec’s magic or his own, Vanessa’s bomb did not want to be contained or controlled, and forcing it to trickle slowly took all Magnus’ concentration. 

Trickle away it did, however, and Magnus held it back as Alec spread it far and wide. 

He held it back as he held Alec back, too, when he felt like he’d drift away on the power Magnus pumped through his veins; he held it back as it nudged against him and cajoled; he held it back as it slowly, impossibly slowly, drained away to nothing. 

As darkness descended on him, he held on to Alec. 

~

This time, when Alec awoke, there was no momentary panic, no burning in his lungs. 

He knew with a certainty that almost frightened him that he was no longer Nephilim. 

Yes, runes still sat, heavy with power, on his skin; yes, he knew he could activate them with a stele if need be. But his magic was not angelic, any more than it was demonic; his magic simply was, and he could use runes of the Angels as easily as runes of the Fallen. 

The knowledge was less important than his husband. 

Magnus was lying beside him, an arm across Alec’s waist and their legs entangled as though he feared Alec might drift away. Which, Alec supposed, was fair; Alec had nearly let Vanessa’s bomb drag him away, after all. 

Even without opening his eyes, he could sense Magnus’ presence: magic and heat emanating from the figure at his side, Magnus’ emotions showing clear through the bond between them. For now, Magnus was sleeping, but there was a certain fear beneath the drowsiness which, Alec knew, was responsible for Magnus’ octopus-like position. 

He felt Magnus stirring to wakefulness, perhaps because Alec himself was awake now, and opened his eyes in time to meet Magnus’ unglamoured ones. A smile spread across his face, matching Magnus’, and for a few moments more, he simply savoured the knowledge that they’d both made it out. There were an infinite number of crises to deal with, it seemed, but at least this time, there was little harm done. 

“How are you feeling?” Magnus asked, breaking the silence. 

Alec arched an eyebrow and prodded at the bond. I’m doing perfectly well, as you can see. 

Magnus huffed slightly. I want verbal confirmation, darling. 

“I’m feeling fine,” Alec told him aloud. “Great, actually.” 

The more he thought about it, the more true it felt — despite the oddness of his runes, the sense that they were not precisely his anymore, not in the way they had been, there was energy humming beneath his skin. He didn’t feel the magical-exhaustion-slash-rune-burnout he’d experienced after Matthias; before, he’d felt scraped raw, a vessel not made to hold such power, but now… now, perhaps, he was made for this. Perhaps, when white light had chased away the gold in his soul, it had built him into something new. 

Or something very old. 

The thought was Alec’s, and Magnus’, and somehow both of theirs at once; Alec had no idea how this bond, whatever it was, actually functioned, but he figured that could wait until later. 

“Before we delve into the intricacies of what happened,” Alec said, “is everyone alright?”

Magnus nodded. “The mundanes’ memories have been wiped, and while the police are a bit confused about all the missing people turning up none the worse for wear aside from a little lost weight, they’re accepting it as it is. The Downworlders Vanessa kidnapped are also well, including the other High Warlocks. There’ve been a few stories of people around the world feeling stronger than they should — you know, mundanes lifting things they shouldn’t’ve been able to, I think somebody broke the record for running a marathon — but nothing the Clave’s paying much attention to.”

Alec relaxed at the thoroughly reassuring report. “Then, what do you think happened to me?”

With a slight sigh, Magnus sat up, tugging Alec with him so that they were still cuddling but in a slightly more upright position. “First, I think you’d best look at a mirror.” He snapped his fingers, summoning one, and Alec held it up to his face. 

For a moment, Alec didn’t see it, and then the light shifted slightly and he did: paler than his skin, white scales dusted his face, particularly thick at the corners of his eyes and on his nose. As he angled the mirror back and forth, they seemed to fade in and out of view, like a mirage, but his skin felt different in those places when he ran his fingers across them. Rougher, slightly bumpy, tougher than elsewhere. 

His pupils were still surrounded by a ring of white, as they had been since Matthias, but it was brighter now, and seemed almost to be encroaching on the pupil itself. There was the faintest tracery of paler white around the deflect rune on his neck, and when he glanced down at his arms, the same seemed to be true of each rune on his body, parabatai rune included. 

“I’m not Nephilim anymore,” Alec said, “but what am I?”

“I have a theory,” Magnus replied. “It’s all theoretical, of course, and I never would’ve thought this — any of this — was actually real, but—” he cut off, gesturing to Alec. 

“Go on,” Alec told him, a smile curling at the edges of his lips. 

Magnus didn’t need much more prompting — he rarely did, to start talking about anything that interested him, and as anything that interested Magnus was automatically interesting to Alec, it wasn’t uncommon for Alec to hear an in-depth explanation on some point of obscure magical theory every few days. (Several warlocks he’d spoken to had been surprised by the rather random bits of knowledge he’d accumulated like that.)

“I’ve been researching this before you woke up,” Magnus began, “and I found something very interesting. According to legend, before the Incursion, before the advent of the Nephilim, the realms were guarded by dragons. Not dragonidae demons,” he added at Alec’s raised eyebrow, “but true dragons — no more demonic than they were angelic. Dragons hunted down the few demons who’d escape into this world every so often (although far more rarely than they do now); they didn’t try particularly hard to hide from mundanes, but there weren’t many of them, and without the Internet or the ability to travel around the world in anything less than a lifetime, stories of them eventually morphed into the myths we know today. 

“Again according to legend, dragons were chosen by the realm itself to protect it. I’m not entirely sure which threats they were meant to face, but I believe it would’ve been a combination of demons and mundanes who endangered the world. There isn’t much known about how dragons were created, or born, but it’s believed that when there was need of them, they would arise. They had both humanoid and not humanoid forms, which they could switch between at will; some legends suggest they might have had riders, mundanes or Downworlders who they bonded with. 

“As I said, they were neither angelic nor demonic in nature — or, more accurately, they were both. Unlike with the Fair Folk, whose angelic nature cancels out the demonic and vice versa, dragons wielded angelic and demonic power both. It’s a complex point of magical theory, but essentially, because they were created from the realm itself, they could not be averse to any of the forces at work within it, which includes demonic and angelic magic.”

“I didn’t know that was possible,” Alec observed. “I always thought angelic and demonic magic are… fundamentally opposites, or something.”

“In most cases, they are,” Magnus agreed. “Nephilim have a natural aversion to demonic magic, and Downworlders cannot, as you know, bear runes. But not always — for example, when I healed Luke that time, I was able to share strength with you without hurting either of us.”

Alec nodded, considering. He knew where this was going, but he’d let Magnus get there before making assumptions. 

“Dragons could use both,” Magnus resumed, “as well as having a natural affinity for controlling and channelling ley lines, and a general sensitivity to energy and magic. That’s where the mundane myths about dragons hoarding precious materials come from — gemstones, like the ones you and I used in Iceland and the ones Vanessa stored power in, are useful conduits for elemental energy like that, and so dragons would build up stores of them. 

“But dragons, already rare, became more rare as time went on; perhaps there were fewer demons for a while, and therefore less need for them; perhaps mundanes hunted them to near-extinction. Most likely it’s some of both. Whatever the reason behind it, dragons had vanished almost entirely by the time of the Incursion; the realm might’ve created more of them then, but Raziel created Shadowhunters, and I suspect the realm determined there was no need for dragons any longer. Therefore, dragons faded from the world, until…” 

Until me, Alec finished for him. “But — but why?” Why does the realm need a dragon again? Why did it choose me? 

There is nobody else more fit to defend the realm, Magnus told him through the bond, in response to the last question. “I’d guess that the realm deemed itself to be in danger again because Shadowhunter numbers are falling — they’ve been doing so for quite a while, and the Uprising killed a lot of you. Perhaps the realm recognised that, and decided to do something.”

Alec chewed his lip. “Then why create a dragon now, rather than during the Uprising?”

“You were created during the Uprising,” Magnus returned. “I doubt if the realm can simply make an ordinary mundane — or Shadowhunter, or Downworlder — into a dragon all at once. But since you’re a Shadowhunter, any draconic traits would have been mostly eclipsed by your angelic blood, so there wasn’t any striking difference to mark you out.”

“But when I was exposed to such large quantities of elemental energy that the draconic side became dominant,” Alec finished for him, nodding. “So if I hadn’t ever tried to absorb energy from the bomb, I might never have realised I was anything but Nephilim.”

“Pretty much,” Magnus agreed. “But there’ve been other signs, now I think about it, that you were never fully Nephilim. Remember what I said earlier, about how when I healed Luke, your angelic magic didn’t hurt me? I think that was because of this. Because your magic had draconic energy in it, which allowed my demonic magic to accept the angelic components of your magic. And with the tsunami in the Indian Ocean — no normal Shadowhunter would be able to carry enough of that power to help me absorb it, but you did. And then again with Matthias, you took on more energy than should’ve been possible, and you survived.” 

“Each time I did it, though, I became more like a dragon and less like a Shadowhunter.” Alec looked down at his runes again, at the way they glowed the white of a dragon’s magic. “I felt it, when I was channelling Vanessa’s magic. I felt my angelic magic being replaced by something else.” 

“I’m sorry,” Magnus said, a sudden rush of words, as though he’d been holding them back, hesitating, and now he’d let them loose. “If you’d never met me, none of this—”

Alec held a finger to Magnus’ lips, quieting him as Magnus had quieted Alec once before. “It’s not your fault, and I don’t blame you. More than that, Magnus, I’m not upset about this.” He let the truth of that statement ring in the bond between them, and felt Magnus grow calmer. “Sure, I’m not technically Nephilim, but I’ve got my runes, my parabatai bond — and I’ve got these new abilities, the bond with you, my immortality. I have the best of both worlds; why on Earth would I be angry at you for bringing me all this?”

Magnus smiled, and this, right here, was exactly why Alec would never, could never, resent his husband. How could he?

He tugged Magnus into a kiss, and all the world was nothing to the love blooming in his heart. 

~

“I do have a few more questions, though,” Alec said, eventually, when their bond was once again humming with a quiet peace despite the novelty of all they’d discovered in the last few hours. “Firstly, you said something about a dragon having a humanoid form and a dragon one.”

Magnus hummed his agreement. “According to myths, dragons could switch between the two. I don’t know how the theory works, per se, but I’ve no doubt we could figure it out.” He glanced around the room, then back at Alec. “Probably not in here, though. I’ve no idea how large your dragon form would be, and until you learn how to control that, I’d suggest avoiding transforming in an enclosed space. Especially one which the Clave is surveilling.”

Alec nodded. “Speaking of the Clave, how much of this are they aware of?”

“Not much,” Magnus replied. “I told them we simply managed to dissipate the magic Vanessa had accumulated, without going into details. Oberon was the one who brought us back to the Institute, and he glamoured your scales in case you didn’t want everyone to know about them; I’ve kept up the glamour since he returned to Vienna. I don’t know how the Clave would react if they knew about you, or about dragons, but knowing the Clave—”

“—they’ll probably react badly,” Alec said. “I’ll have to thank Oberon for doing that; I don’t want them to know until I’m ready to deal with whatever problems they’ll create.”

He was frowning, so Magnus said, “Let’s not worry about the Clave right now. They’re not breathing down our necks quite yet. Did you have another question?”

“I did,” Alec said, but there was something faintly less confident in his tone. “Something else you mentioned — that a dragon had a Rider with whom they were bonded.”

“I did, yes,” Magnus concurred, fingers rising immediately to toy with his ear cuff. “It’s all theoretical, but apparently dragons would bond with non-dragons — either romantically or platonically — and the two would be able to share both strength and thoughts. They were stronger together, according to the legends — stronger than any individual person or dragon could ever be alone.” 

Magnus felt his heart beating faster in his chest, unaccountable nervousness probably bleeding through the bond to Alec, but if they were dragon and Rider — if Magnus was Alec’s Rider — well, the legends all agreed that such a relationship was something out of the ordinary. 

And the way Magnus felt for Alec was undeniably out of the ordinary. He’d loved time and time again, but never like this: never with such absolute certainty and trust in the other, never without a doubt, never so wholly and completely. 

He wasn’t sure if he could work up the courage to ask Alec if he felt the same way. 

Fortunately, Alec knew him as well or better than he knew himself, and he didn’t have to ask. “Magnus Bane,” Alec said, through voice and bond alike. “Will you consent to be my Rider, as I am your dragon?”

There was something ritualistic in the words, like centuries of history neither of them knew were breathing through them both. “I do so consent,” Magnus replied, and the bond flared brighter than ever between them. 

He knew, without knowing how he knew, that Alec would be able to draw on Magnus’ magic as if it were his own — and he knew equally well that if he needed to, he’d be able to use Alec’s own magic, that ability to manipulate magic not his own. Vaguely, he wondered if he’d be able to bear runes now, too — and what the Clave would think of that. 

But none of that mattered nearly as much as the man in his arms — his husband, his dragon, his mate.

[sweetswesf]

I Found an Old Goals List...

...and it made me chuckle...

by each of the "Want to Be"s, I put who I knew was currently in that role...some names, I don't even recognize...How I feel today is in red...

Want to Be

Fundraiser

Owner of Microfinancing Philanthropist

Financial Infrastructure Engineer

Data Scientist

Product Director

Trader on Wall Street

Enterprise Saleswoman

App Owner/Business Owner/Entrepreneur/Mogul

Professor

Teacher

Author

Investment Banker

Fantasy

Actress

Dancer

DJ (Hannah Bronfman)

TV Host (Desus & Mero)

Tour Manager

Don’t Want to Be

Attorney

Real Estate Agent

Rapper

Singer

Scientist

Fitness Coach

Event Planner

Office Manager

Financial Advisor

Financial Analyst

5 Year Plan – 2017 - 2021 – 24 - 28 YO (6/13 complete)

Establish connections, gain industry experience (happened)

Complete my 1st Marathon – 2017 (happened)

Raise & Promotion @ L – 2017 (happened 2018)

Leave L – 2018 (happened 2022)

Visit Cuba - 2018 (didn't happen, lost my passport and fought w/my mom pretty badly over this one...)

Join Netflix w/ 6 figure salary – 2018 (hahahah)

Complete UC Berkeley data science program – 2018 (no longer a desire)

Make 1st trade on NYSE - 2018 (happened 2019)

Visit KT in Bangkok/Bhutan/Charles in Singapore – 2019

Visit Japan - 2020 (happened 2018)

Become Mid-level Finance Manager – 2021 (ahahhaah)

Earn CFA - 2021 (not a desire)

Visit Switzerland - 2021 (not a desire)

10 Year Plan – 2022 - 2026 – 29 - 33 YO

Visit Capetown - 2022 (2023...2022 is over this week, I don't think this finna happen...)

Return to work in NYC on Wall Street as Financial Infrastructure Manager – 2022 (no, but I did work in NYC in 2021...)

Finish the NYC Marathon - 2022 (don't care to anymore)

Learn basic conversational and reading in Japanese – 2022 (I tried in 2021...but other things were prioritized)

Visit Hong Kong - 2022 (with that air pollution & covid?? nahhh)

Harvard Business School funded by employer – 2023 (could happen...)

Visit Dubai/UAE/Mecca - 2023 (I don't care to go there anymore...human rights reasons...)

Work abroad in Italy, South Africa, Japan or London – 2024 (could happen...)

Visit Brazil – 2024

Visit Australia – 2025 

Visit Tahiti – 2026 

First child with natural birth – 2026 (yikes...unless my future husband has 8 figures, miss me with this one...)

Own NYC loft - 2026 (we shooting big here!...can happen...)

Get hired at T4 or T5 SWE position at my top choice company - 2023

Get a $180k+ base salary - 2023

Start dating a guy a like and who likes me - 2023

Move to a 1 bedroom in Manhattan or Brooklyn, New York - 2023

Master all the topics I want to before June 2023 - June 2023

Look like Tamara Prichett, Melanie Alcantara, Jade Cargill, or Massy Arias - 2024

Update my app to be on React - 2024

Mentor an intern engineer - 2024

Get a promotion - 2024

Staff engineer - 2025

Visit friends in Milan - 2023

15 Year Plan – 2027 - 2031 – 34 - 38 YO

Visit the Amazon – 2027 (don't really care to do this anymore)

Fundraise for my own app – 2027 (2028)

Go public with my company – 2031 (2037, MAYBE)

Get married to a really rich man (2026)

Move back in with grandparents to code for my app full time or live off of my really rich husband - 2027

35 Year Plan – 2032 – 2050 – 39 – 58 YO

Grow company

Tech Invest - 2040

Own home in NJ or NY - 2040

Retire – 2050 

40 Year Plan – 2051 – 2055 – 59 – 63 YO 

Become teacher in LA – 2051

41 Year Plan – 2056 - 2060 – 64 - 68 YO

Become USC Trustee

It could happen...I have to believe and work hard...