#This woman is also WAY smarter than she will ever be given credit for

[maintitle]

'But Merrill needs someone to tell her how far she's fallen' nah bud, everyone in the world including her mother-figure and the actively possessed mage of the group are telling her she's an idiot or she's wrong or she doesn't understand what she's doing. She has literally nobody in the world on her side, why would she need a sixty-fourth person telling her how she's wrong for taking her grief and trying to turn it into something to help her people? Maybe the real right thing to do for her is to offer the support system she so clearly has been robbed of? Just a thought.

[adamwatchesmovies]

Outlander (2008)

Outlander is not a great film but it has a certain charm. I can see this mish-mash of Predator and Beowulf finding an audience... in viewers who haven’t yet seen Predator or Beowulf yet. Hmm.

In 709 A.D., a spacecraft crash-lands in Scandinavia. From the wreckage emerge Kainan (Jim Caviezel) and a “Moorwhen”, a hulking, alien creature whose hide is impervious to the Iron-Age weapons of the abandoned “seed” colony we know as Earth. Kainen must find a way to band the feuding Viking tribes together to stop the monster.

Directed by Howard McCain (who also co-writes with Dirk Blackman), this movie feels like something that would’ve come out in the late 80s/early 90s. I mean that in a good way. Jim Caviezel plays an alien that blends in perfectly with the locals, he’s up against a monster with an insatiable appetite, and helping him defeat it are the manliest of men history has ever produced: vikings. To kill it, they’ll have to forge part of his ship into blades, set traps, and stalk the creature in its lair. For good measure, there are details about this world peppered throughout that make it feel bigger than the plot, such as the Moorwhen’s origin, the concept of Earth not being mankind’s homeworld, rivalries and feuds between the vikings, and more. This was a movie people were excited to work on and for the right audience, that will be enough to bridge the gaps in the writing.

The special effects are good for a mid-budget 2008 sci-fi movie. There’s plenty of gore and action. I’ve got no complaints about the costumes, sets, makeup or performances. Where the movie could’ve been improved is at the script level. The characters are basic and often the movie forgets to follow through with the arcs they’re given. The “outlander” is captured early on and interrogated by Wulfric (Jack Huston), who's described as arrogant and cruel by his betrothed, Freya (Sophia Myles). On the one hand, I want to give the movie credit for making him smarten up once the Moorwhen is sighted and forget all about the grudge he develops towards our protagonist, but he seems so reasonable once the chips are down that you question Freya’s description. As for her, she’s set up as a much tougher woman than anyone believes she could be but eventually, she gets captured by the Moorwhen and needs to be rescued… so it didn’t matter that she could swing a sword.

There’s an attempt to make the Moorwhen more of a tragic wild animal than a monster. We’re told by Kainan that its species was wiped out so humans could occupy its planet, that it’s the last of its kind. That’s sad, but your sympathy for it is hard to maintain when you see its den. We’re not just talking about a pile of bloody bones; it’s several villages’ worth of half-eaten corpses piled high, underground. Talk about a glutton. It’s just killing people for fun at this point!

Either the characters needed to be developed a little further or the plot needed to be a bit smarter. Of course, King Hrothgar (John Hurt) and his people don’t believe Kainan when he tells them he’s hunting “a dragon”. Too bad. Is that line going to work in any time period, ever? I mean where do they think all the bodies went, didn’t they see the bent swords and the huge claw marks on the buildings? Anyway, when they take down a bear instead of the monster, it’s as if he doubts his claims because he doesn’t speak up again until the Moorwhen re-appears and starts butchering people en-masse. Maybe the problem is that the movie is too long, that its premise didn’t need the introduction of the rival village led by Gunnar (Ron Perlman).

I’ve got many criticisms for the movie but overall, I’d say I enjoyed Outlander. There are plenty of missed opportunities, but seeing the Vikings pitted against the space alien monster is cool. The movie looks good and it gets its homages right. You're reminded of other movies but this story isn't copying them outright or even putting in any easter eggs for fanboys to discover. Outlander simply captures the essence of the other properties it loves.

Having viewed Outlander twice now, I see the flaws, I accept them and have decided they just don’t weigh as much as the entertaining bits. Even so, I don’t think anyone would ever call this their favorite movie, which makes it a good rental, or the kind of movie you catch on TV, enjoy as a substitute for a classic (or “classic”) and then set aside. (September 23, 2021)

[forsakenmis]

Calming her down

Title: Calming her down Pairing: top!Wanda Maximoff x female!reader Rating: 18+ Incredibly NSFW Warnings: Dark Wanda, kind of non-con, strap on, fingering, mummy kink, post-WV finale so spoilers if you haven’t seen it. also i haven’t editted it so beware grammar and spelling mistakes. Word count:  4215 words

It had taken far too long to track her down. Why they asked you to do it, you weren’t really sure. It’s not as if you and Wanda ever really talked, or even made eye contact, during the years as an avenger. Yet you were given the task of pulling her back onto the rails, rails she’s apparently veered pretty badly. You really think Doctor Strange, the Gandalf of wizards, would be a lot better at handling her than you would be. Or even Clint, the guy who was her mentor. But no-no one wanted to reach out to her, even though they spent years arguing that she needed to be supervised. You could go on for days how you being the person being sent is the most ridiculous idea they could have had.

You weren’t even a super, or an avenger, you started off as a shield agent who was then thrown into Stark Industries as Tony’s intern. Fury wanted an in and you were that in. Then everything went bottoms up and you became a slightly more valuable member of the group. Support, really.

After the snap, you just wanted a stable life. A normal life. By the time they contacted you to do this, you’d applied to a college. No, a university. In Australia, which was far, far away from New York. The briefing was simple. Wanda, left to her own devices in her time of need, went to try to handle her own grief after stealing Vision’s body from S.W.O.R.D. You were being asked to go try to talk some sense into her. Then, within the week of you repeatedly saying no, it turned out the head of S.W.O.R.D. was a bastard which you could have seen coming from a mile away, and Wanda was god knows where.

They promised you they’d leave you alone after this.

So you said yes.

What could go wrong?

You were still asking herself that three weeks later when you were sitting there still trying to find out where exactly she went. Wanda wasn’t going to be easy to find, especially considering she didn’t want to be found but you did it. It was four in the morning when you finally narrowed down a list of ten possible locations that she could be in. You were too tired to even crack a smile, you fell back onto your bed to sleep.

Your celebration was sleep for by the next morning, you were trekking across the world and came to the outskirts of a property with the view of the mountains. Pretty, sure, but you didn’t think Wanda was here for the view.

It was eerily quiet when you walked up to the door. That type of quiet they put into horror movies before they pulled out a jump scare. You didn’t trust it. Then again-not that there was anything around to make noise. Wanda could be asleep, as maybe all this isolation has meant she’s forsaken a body clock.

Still-you trusted it as much as you could lift Mjollnir and you couldn’t even make it shift.

The curtains were closed, you couldn’t see anything as you walked up the two steps and you had to stop your hand from hovering over your handgun. It would have been more of a self assurance. You couldn’t dream of winning against Wanda in a fight, both of you would be aware of that, but you couldn’t exactly imagine she’d be that trusting of you if you walked in holding a gun. So you fiddled with the watch around your wrist, it was a gift from Tony years ago.

You could have brought reinforcement, sure, but that seemed like a moot point considering you were trying to gain her trust, somewhat. The reinforcement would have been S.W.O-oh whatever, sword, you don’t have the time for formality. And sword made such a huge mess of it the first time round so you didn’t think they were going to help this time round. You tried calling Clint, but he was busy, apparently. Too busy to pick up your calls.

This was definitely a suicide mission.

You knocked three times with the back of your knuckles and listened, trying to hear any hint of movement.

Nothing.

You knocked again. Knock. Knock. Knock. Not even a creak.

Maybe she was asleep or maybe, dare you say it, had gotten it wrong. God, you’d hate for some old man to swing the door open.

Your hand dropped to the handle, going to test the lock, but then it swung open and if it wasn’t for your own instincts, you would have stumbled forward.

Wanda.

Your eyes slammed onto her face and, for the first time in years, you fumbled. She looked different, way too different for your liking, she looked older since Tony’s funeral. Mature. More confident in herself. You could think of a different million ways to describe her in that split second.

She’d always been pretty before but this Wanda was…gorgeous. This Wanda could also read minds.

You cut your thoughts short and took in a slight breath. Wanda wasn’t saying anything and her only acknowledgement was the slight hook of her brow.

“Wanda,” you began before forcing a smile onto yourself, “long time no see.”

“So they sent you, of all people,” Wanda remarked and you made a face. Sure-she was right but that was, quite frankly, rude.

“They suggested I come and I wanted to come,” you lied, “to see how you were doing...okay, look, I know we never talked. Or interacted. I know that. I was probably not the most open to you as I could have been.” Wanda was continuing to stare at you. She was dressed in jeans and a white t-shirt. A shirt that arguably was one size too small for her. You weren’t really sure what to say, if you were honest, you’d spent so much time trying to find her, tracking her down like a puzzle, that you forgot to plan for this interaction.

“But I like to think we were on good terms,” you continued. Worst thing she could do was close the door in your face and you were more than happy to camp outside. “Enough that you’ll hear me out. I heard about your book, the darkhold–” That’s when you got a reaction out of her. Her eyes narrowed, growing even colder, and you could see her grip tightening on the door. “–we need to talk. Please-just let me in. I’m not going to fight you. We both know I can’t do that.”

You were keeping your thoughts clear. You didn’t want her reading you.

After a second, Wanda swung the door open wider and let you in.  

Your eyes scanned the room the moment you entered the threshold, looking for all the exits, before you turned back to Wanda. Wanda, who had closed the door, and had started walking towards you, close enough that you took a step back but found yourself hitting the back of a table.

Now that she was right up in your personal space, close enough that you could smell the soap she was using. Your heart was beating now.

“So you came for the book?” She asked, staring down at you. She was only a couple of inches taller than you but it may as well have been more.

“No, I came here to help you. And I know that book isn’t helping you, no matter how much you think it is. Wanda, that book is dangerous,” you said, gaining enough courage that you pushed yourself off the table to step forward, getting into Wanda’s space just as she was in yours.

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Wanda remarked but she didn’t move. “You’re as bullheaded as you used to be, never knowing when a fight was too big for you. I remember all those times Nat and Steve had to throw themselves on the line because you’d done something reckless.” “That’s rich coming from you.” “I could protect myself,” Wanda snapped back. “So where are they? The rest of them. The people that said they were my family. Were you all that they had?”

You clenched your teeth. Don’t say the truth. “They wanted a woman’s touch with it,” you lied. “There isn’t that many of us who were close to you back then anymore.”

It was really only Nat and maybe Pepper who were close to Wanda. Both were a little preoccupied as of right now (for different reasons) to come knocking on Wanda’s door.

“A woman’s touch?” Wanda echoed, saying it in a way that made you clench your teeth. It was a raspy whisper. “And what, may I ask, would that entail?”

With the way she said it, you were pretty sure that Wanda wasn’t meaning it in the same way you were. Albeit, your meaning was rather off as well. In that you had no idea what that would entail either.

Wanda must have realised this and took a step back. “I suggest you leave,” she said and you hesitated before shaking your head.

“I won’t do that,” you said and she frowned. “They asked me to calm you down–”

“Calm me down?” She repeated, pronouncing each syllable, and it was as if the temperature dropped ten degrees. “Calm me down.” Then she smirked and it made you roll back on your heels.

“As long as you have that book, yes,” you said, “how about this–I take the book and then I go. You’ll think more rational without it, Maximoff, you know that. Deep down. You’re smart, Wanda, smarter than anyone ever gave you credit for. Besides Vision–”

“Don’t say his name,” Wanda snarled and suddenly she was in front of you again, hand around your throat, “do you understand me? He doesn’t exist here, not with you around.”

You didn’t really know what she meant but you ran with it and nodded. Her hand was tight and your airway was becoming a little too blocked for your liking.

She stared down at you, her eyes hard and cold, but then they softened and her grip loosened but they still didn’t leave your skin.

“You know, I might have pursued you back then, if it wasn’t for him,” Wanda began and you blinked. What? “You were everything I liked in a girl. Besides your recklessness….and stubbornness...but I think I can deal with that pretty easily.”

“Wanda, I’m flattered, really, but how about we focus,” you said, carefully, deciding to take that with a grain of salt and then over analyse it at three in the morning. Like how could you be cock blocked by a bloody robot? “Just give me the book and I’ll leave you in peace. I’ll make sure no one comes looking for you–” “You can’t promise me that,” Wanda remarked before she dropped her hand to take a step back. Then she looked you up and down. “You said they wanted you to calm me down, right? How about I keep both you and the book.”

You would like to say you were able to fight back. Prevent Wanda from knocking you out. But you were gone by the time she finished her sentence.

----

When light streamed into your eyes, the first thing you registered was the soft pillow underneath your head. Then you felt the rest of the bed and your eyes sprung open.

Your legs were bent up and out, Wanda’s red mist wrapped around your ankles and knees to keep them up. Meanwhile, your wrists were stuck to the headboard. Then your eyes rested on….Wanda?

Transparent Wanda reading that bloody book. You swear to god-you’ll burn that book the moment you get your hands–

“You’ll do no such thing,” Wanda’s voice cut through your apparently rather loud thoughts. You turned your head, trying to find her, and there she was in the doorway, sipping a cup of tea, watching you. Then she kicked off it and moved into the room and slid the mug onto a table before coming to the bed. “Maybe I’ll let you hold it one day as I read it.”

“I don’t...I don’t understand, Wanda, let me go,” you whispered as you began to struggle, pulling on the restraints again and again, but they weren’t budging. Neither was Wanda.

“I don’t think I want to,” Wanda hummed as she pushed herself onto the bed, “you see, I lost everything. My brother, Vision, Nat, Steve, my two boys, then Vision again. I lose every single family I ever have. Maybe this time I’ll succeed. I’m trying to find them, you see, with the book. Find them and pull them out. We can live here, happy, away from everyone.”

“We’ve done this story before Wanda, it didn’t–” “This time will be different, I’ll be more powerful, I won’t mess up this time,” Wanda pressed as her hands went to your inner thighs, moving them up and down your clothed skin. “And, when it comes to you, what they don’t know won’t hurt them. I don’t think I’ll let them see you. No, you can be my little secret. I stared at you for too many years, let you whore yourself out to other people. Not anymore.”

You drew your brows together. This couldn’t be happening.

“As you said, you’re meant to calm me down, right? Meant to pull me off some edge because everyone else was just too busy,” Wanda said as she positioned herself between your legs, bending down to kiss your jawline. You throbbed and pulled on the red strands wrapped around your wrist, but to no avail. “But I can think of another edge you can get close to,” she whispered as she pulled away again.

“Wanda, what are you–”

Her fingers slid in between your thighs, pressing into your heat, and a sharp gasp left your mouth. She began to rub through your jeans, cupping your heat, and you tugged again. This time, the red scratched the watch around your wrist and suddenly your clothes had snapped into the red armour Tony had built you years ago. Protective armour that replaced whatever you were wearing in a nick of time.

Useful.

The shift was enough to push Wanda off you and she stared down at the red and black armour with a slight tilt of her head.

“Well, that won’t do, will it?” She asked as her hands trailed down the cool metal. “Neat trick. Tony’s design, right?”

“Of course,” you responded after a moment, your chest rising up and down. There was no point in denying it-it was obviously Tony’s. Right down to the colours.

Wanda’s eyes turned red as the red mist circled around her hand as she lowered it back down. You flinched when you felt it slink in between the small crevices. The suit was meant to be protected against outside substances, able to go into water, but you supposed Tony didn’t exactly build it against Wanda.

“Wanda, you don’t–” “If you don’t be quiet, I’ll make you, do you understand me?” She hissed as she bucked her hand backwards and the suit around your hips ripped off you and tossed across the room. You whined as the cold air hit your bare skin, contrasting the building heat in between your legs.  

You were left with nothing but the top half and the pants that wrapped around your thigh. “Much better.”

With that, she went back to what she was doing before but this time there was nothing to prevent her from slipping her fingers through your slick folds, the tips of her nails teasing your entrance.

“Look at you, already so wet,” she cooed and you gritted your teeth. This really couldn’t be happening. This was a dream. She could control reality, this was just a dream. “This isn’t me in your head, sweetheart, trust me–I would have cut the foreplay if I was creating this.”

She continued to massage your heat and it took you everything you had not to moan.

“Why are you…” you tried saying but you were cut short, once again, when her fingers found your hooded clit, using the tips of her nails to start playing with it. You bucked your hips instinctively and she chuckled.

“You said you wanted to help me, right?” Wanda asked and the building heat was beginning to become a little too much. “So how about this, sweetheart, you help mummy out by becoming mummy’s little stress reliever.”

Two fingers suddenly plunged into your entrance and your back arched. At least your clit got a little bit of a break but it wasn’t long until her palm began to grind against it as she thrusted the fingers into your tight entrance. Each thrust expanded your walls, letting her in even deeper, your own arousal making her movements slick and quick.

“Wand-” you began to moan but it morphed into a sharp yelp when she pulled her fingers out to slap your cunt.

“You’re a smart girl, sweetheart, it’s how you got around Tony for so long. I think you know exactly what you want to be calling me,” she said and suddenly she was back down so that her face was only inches away from yours and her fingers slid back inside of you.

Unlike last time, though, it wasn’t rough and sharp. Her fingers were slow as they moved inside of you, curling at the tips, scratching your walls. Exploring. She was exploring you and you could do nothing but whimper and moan.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? I know you would. Look at you, already so wet and submissive for me,” she whispered, scattering kisses down your jawline as she reached your ear to nibble on your earlobe. “I’ll keep you in here for as long as I need you. Ride your pretty little mouth as I read that book, fill you up again and again until you’re passing out. All you have to do is be a good little girl.”

Heat was curling through your body, that buzzing sort of heat, that made your vision blur. Your teeth were clamped together. You wanted to moan, they were in your throat, but even when you opened your mouth, no sound came out. Just silent moans. The fingers moving inside of you had grabbed all your attention.

Then she scratched that little sweet spot and it was that that pushed out a moan that bounced around the room. Wanda laughed, hitting it again and again.

“Let your mummy hear your moans, sweetheart,” she said before she pulled back to kiss you on the mouth, biting hard on your lip so you wouldn’t even try to close your mouth and stop the tongue that slid into your mouth.

Your stomach was twisting into knots at this point and seemed like every other muscle seemed to be cramping. You were close to climax. Your walls clenched around Wanda’s fingers. Just a little bit–

You groaned when she peeled herself off you. You blinked up at her, looking through what seemed like tears, as you were denied that relief. Relief from the throbbing coming from your cunt.

“You want to cum, baby?” Wanda asked as she pulled off her shirt. Underneath was a simple black bra that was quickly disposed of. Your eyes, naturally, landed on her chest. A chest that, even under the circumstances, made you drool. Wanda’s clicking your fingers drew your eyes back up. “Eyes on mummy, sweetheart. God, you really are a little whore, aren’t you? Tell me-do you want to cum?” You pulled on your restraints just once more but all it seemed to do was to make it even tighter.

You nodded, jerkily.

“Use your words, sweetheart, I very clearly established you’re not mute,” Wanda remarked as her fingers went down to her jeans, fiddling with her button.

“Yes. Please, I want to,” you mumbled, knowing you won’t be coming back from this point. Then again-if she could make you feel like that again...maybe that wasn’t so bad.

Wanda tilted her head as she hummed, not having to move much to slap your sore cunt again and you jerked. “Say it politely and maybe I’ll consider it.” You scrunch your eyes shut and mewled when she began to knead your pulsating clit again. “M-mummy, please,” you whispered and her hands left your cunt. Before you could even open your eyes, you felt her lips on yours. Soft, gentle...loving.

“Good girl...that wasn’t so hard, was it?” She asked and you could hear the ruffling of her pants as she kicked them off. “Now...mummy’s going into your head, okay? I promise it won’t be long.” You began to struggle again but the warmth of her powers quickly washed over you. Your memories began playing the past three months. You tracking her down. Refusing back up.

Then she was out again.

“You really told no one where you were going? Almost as if you wanted this to happen,” She said as she shifted on top of you. Shifted that you felt something rub up against your entrance and you flinched. She...she was packing. “Of course I am, sweetheart, do you really think I wasn’t prepared for you? I knew you were coming from a mile away, honey.”

And with that, she pushed the strap inside of you, not bothering to wait for you to adjust until she was completely inside of you. You arched your back again, pressing into Wanda’s naked body, as the pain of being ripped open rushed through your body. You moaned and grunted as you grew adjusted to the width and length of Wanda.

“Come on, baby, you can do it,” Wanda murmured into your lips and suddenly your wrists were freed. But then her own hands came up to wrap around them to press them against the pillows herself. “I know you’ve taken bigger. Do you think we didn’t know? Didn’t know you and Nat were fucking every other night?” The comment drew you out, just for a moment, and you shook your head but all she did was pull back slightly to slam inside of you again.

“Don’t lie to me,” Wanda snarled, “tell me, tell me the truth. Use your words.”

It took only a few more thrusts of her strap filling you up again and again that the words began to spill out of your lips. “S-she found out. About my status as a shield status. Fuck,” you hissed out, barely able to hear your own words over the lude noises of Wanda beginning to pound into you. This wasn’t fair-you couldn’t dream of talking when she was fucking you like this.

“So you whored yourself out to her to make sure she kept her mouth shut,” Wanda said, finishing the sentence and you nodded jerkily. “You little slut. I bet you liked it too, just like how you like me pounding into you. But you’re mine now. Not hers. Not Tony’s. Mine. My little whore.”

She shifted upwards so that her chest was dangling above your face. “Suck your mommy's tit, baby, I saw you admire them before.”

It was a welcome change, you had to admit, to trying to formulate sentences and words around the moans and screams spilling out of your mouth. Your head leaned forward, closing the distance, so your mouth could wrap around her erect nipple and your walls clenched around her strap as you heard her moan.

Her hand moved to the top of your head, her nails scraping against your scalp as she interwove her fingers through your messy hair. Your tongue lapped at the small bud between your teeth and she began to move her hips in time with your tongue.

Your now free hand wrapped around her body so your nails were digging into her shoulder, drawing Wanda down even closer so you could take more of her tit into her mouth.

The same heat that had built before was coming back, and you weren’t sure how long you could hold on at this point.

“You can cum whenever you want, baby, just this once,” Wanda purred, hearing your thoughts, and it was all you needed, that confirmation, to come undone. Your walls clenched around the strap and you could feel Wanda slowing down as thrusting became just a tad more difficult and you screamed into her tits, careful not to clamp your jaw shut, as the orgasm rushed through you.

Even through it, she continued moving inside of you, and you almost felt like you could pass out.

“Good girl,” Wanda whispered. “Oh, I could get used to this. I’m going to keep you in here, do you hear me? Make you a good little whore for me to come home to.” They did say your mission was to help Wanda calm down.

[alyblacklist]

Do you think the keenler storyline is going anywhere? I used to be sure that it was, I mean why else would they have them kiss and have sex. However now that Liz has been gone for five episodes and she is being quite mean to Ressler (the whole pointing a gun to his head and pretty much telling Cooper about them sleeping together) I feel like a relationship between them will never happen and the writers are just trying to make us forget or dislike Keenler.

Ok, on to the asks about Ressler/Keenler in 8x09 where things were said, but only through contact lenses and earpieces. Thoughts below the jump, because it’s a long post that will (hopefully) address all of these at least in part.

I do think it was Liz speaking through the doppelganger at all relevant times. They haven’t given me a reason not to think that at this point. She knew things only Liz could know. So I assume (unless we get new info) that everything Mia Collins said to Ressler was actually Liz telling her what to say to him (and likewise to Aram and Cooper). I did express to BlacklistRoom on Twitter that they were evil for having faux-Liz call Ressler “Donald” on screen before real Liz does. And at first, I thought maybe that was some sort of signal to Ressler that things were amiss because real Liz wouldn’t do that, but in the end I think it was just the writers playing their usual games. NOT because they hate Keenler or Keenler fans (they’re the ones who made Keenler canon, for God’s sake), but just because they love to toy with fan emotion. They give you a Wing Yee birthday nugget one ep, they throw in a loose “Donald” in another from the lips of a faux-Liz. They know exactly the emotional points to hit if they’re paying attention to social media (and they certainly are, to a point). 

I did catch that accurate observation on Twitter that the doppelganger did not have her finger on the trigger while pointing the gun at Ressler’s head. I’d like to think the actress and crew are careful enough to catch such things as her finger was nowhere near that trigger (and she knew how to shoot that unnamed FBI agent during the chase) so I hope that was purposeful, perhaps as a small signal to the audience that Liz never really intended to hurt Ressler, even though he of course couldn’t see what was going on behind his head. A nod, at least, to the idea that Liz doesn’t really mean to hurt him.

Before I get too much deeper into my personal impressions of the scene, I want to specifically address the anon who wonders if she’s alone in finding it hard to root for Liz or Keenler in all this.

Of course you’re not.

Darker Liz isn’t for everyone. If I had a dollar for every time someone has told me Ressler deserves better than Liz over the past five years, I’d be able to buy you dinner (even at NYC prices). Never mind how many have abandoned the ship over that exact issue or related issues over the seasons. But I also think you know that I don’t share your viewpoint. Maybe that’s why you send me asks, or maybe you’re just using my inbox as an outlet to find those who agree with you. I don’t know and it doesn’t matter (although I admit if it’s the latter, publishing your thoughts on your OWN page rather than in my inbox might be preferable because as much as I enjoy asks to a point, I’m a little tired of ship hand-holding asks. I like what I like and trying to explain it or defend it gets a little tiring.)

All I can say is after five years of deep investment in this fandom and these characters, it takes a LOT more than an absent female lead and a bumpy episode to capsize my ship and send me into the pit of despair. For me, this is the expected price we pay for the ship being canon now versus only at the very end of the show. The Blacklist has never been about showing smooth, happy, relationships. Angst, drama, tension is the name of the game. You have to decide for yourself whether you can stomach that on a week to week basis and especially this season because they warned us – “good AND difficult” – difficult!  - for Keenler. I reconcile the conflict by the fact that Ressler still WANTS Liz and BELIEVES in Liz despite her flaws and if he does, then so do I. The man has some blinders when it comes to Liz, certainly, but not the sort that they love to mock him for on screen. He’s not thinking solely with his male parts brain, he’s thinking with his actual, in his head brain and he LOVES this woman despite her crazy and I love that about him. He’s smarter than most people give him credit for. And I am also of the view that real life and ships do not need to be equivalents. You can love two flawed fictional TV characters without being a person who wants to see those things manifest in real life. (I also ship Wanda and Vision for the record).

So I think we can all agree that this episode – and Liz’s absence generally – has been more “difficult” than good Keenler-wise. Ressler himself told us in those early episodes before her departure that it’s different if you see her, and it certainly is. We’ve been robbed of Liz’s thoughts and emotions entirely ever since she last graced our screen in Ep. 8x04. (And of Ressler’s reaction to said departure, for the most part). At the same time, I think Liz recognizes that too as she hasn’t to our knowledge directly engaged with Cooper, Aram OR Ressler since she left except through surrogates. Purposeful choices on the part of the diabolical writers.

As I said in my earlier ask response tonight, I remain of the view that Liz is in control of her actions and is doing her own risk/benefit assessment in how she responds to the situations she finds herself in. 

I do NOT think that means she has lost all emotion or feeling for Cooper, Aram OR Ressler, but as she explained to Townsend, “Reddington has an army on both sides of the law. I can’t do this alone. I need a partner.” She believes that the Task Force – all of them – are tied to Reddington in their own way, including Ressler, and she doesn’t expect them to violate those arrangements/principles for her. She’s moving outside the boundaries of those relationships to shed light on the secrets that she believes are being kept. Did she involve them this week?  Yes, but I think only because Townsend forced her hand on dealing with his sister. I doubt she would’ve sent her double to the Post Office otherwise. (I totally agree that the Post Office needs better security protocols btw – the idea that Liz can continually breach their defenses has become absolutely laughable at this point).

But, part of that is personal relationships.  She needed Ressler to give her the door codes and he did. Why? Not because he’s her patsy or her f--- boy or whatever derogatory term someone wants to slap on him (!), but because he loves her, flaws and all. The whole letting her go/letting him go thing has always had double meaning, back to S2. 

Cyranoid Liz: You should let me go. Ressler: Those days are over. Cyranoid Liz: Why? Nothing’s changed.

Has nothing changed? He let her go in S2 and then she shot Tom Connolly and he beat himself up over it. Then, the “I can’t let her go” (Ressler pointing the gun in S3 outside the Russian embassy), followed by that car chase and then Red in the next episode, Eli Matchett:

Red: Ressler is a law-enforcement robot. The FBI winds him up– Liz: That’s not true. He’s a person. He’s a good person. Red: Look at me. You need to let that go, Lizzy. I have survived for a very long time now, and I assure you, I didn’t do it by relying on the goodness in people.

I’d submit it has and it hasn’t. All these seasons later, she is once again having a hard time letting him go and so is he (with respect to her).

Ressler: Why’d you call? Liz: I don’t know. I guess– because every time we say goodbye, I’m afraid we might actually mean it.

Both with eyes open wider this time and yet, still wanting the peaceful night, free of all the distractions. 

Yes, he let Liz’s double go physically without much protest. Emotionally? He hasn’t let go of Liz. Not one bit. And Liz saw that, through her cyranoid. He’s still on her side. He still wants to believe in her, no matter what she’s putting him through (and poor Ressler, he’s really enduring a lot – though I hope the tide will turn on that at some point).  He had no reason to open that door, and yet – he did. He doesn’t want that one night to be just ONE night and deep down, I don’t think she does either.

“I won’t give up on you.” 

He hasn’t, yet. “But I still need to do my job, Keen.” She better not push him too far because the day he does is the day I worry. He’s desperate not to repeat the mistakes of the past, he’s desperate to trust her this time. Not because he’s thinking with his small man-part-brain, but with his HEART. He loves her. He’ll do anything he can for her within the limits of his conscience. They are each others’ second chance.

I don’t view Keenler or Ressler’s feelings for Liz or Liz’s manipulations of Ressler as fatal to the ship because I accept that this whole thing – Liz’s mission – is the battle for her soul  that the writers have teased for years . Which side will win? Hopefully the right one. The hopeful one. The one that makes second chances happen.

Cheers.

[nikosarc]

break my soul in two looking for you (but you’re right here)

hello here’s a silent knight drabble because i’m weak. pls be nice i’ve never written for neo and the last time i wrote for jaune was a thousand years ago, it’s not good but i did my best dammit. title comes from the song coney island by taylor swift.

It was getting a bit too crowded in the belly of this demon whale for Neo’s liking. Salem’s faction had already been larger than the mute girl had been anticipating. That in itself was irritating – going from Cinder’s partner to another cog in Salem’s machine, an “asset” didn’t sit right with Neo. Then came the young boy Salem called “Ozma.” Neo had to shut her ears and eyes to his torture on a daily basis. She’d give the kid this – his will was strong.  

Next one of the guys she’d fought when she’d stolen the relic – which she still hasn’t gotten credit for by the way - the one with black hair she’d tricked by turning into the ginger girl. That had been entertaining for a brief moment, but he’d been alone so it made for an easy takedown. He was being held elsewhere – alive, for now as incentive to make the boy talk, but that could change given recent developments.  

Recent developments being the newest addition to the whale. The blonde one. For some reason she’d pegged him as being smarter than his teammate. Neo was perceptive, it was her specialty, actually. She could tell the black-haired boy was weak mentally, emotionally, that was why she targeted him, and it was why, she’d wager, he came here impulsively looking for his kidnapped comrade and perhaps the relic.  

She didn’t think anyone else would be stupid enough to follow, not alone anyways, but then came this one. He’d put up a better fight, but he couldn't take on even the lowest of Salem’s underlings, not by himself.  

And she was his babysitter. Mercury was watching the other one and Hazel was probably keeping an eye on the child, probably eagerly awaiting his next approval to beat the kid to a pulp. And maybe they were delighting in their tasks, but Neo was bored. She couldn’t exactly tease or mouth off to him. Well, she could, but it wasn’t like he’d understand her. So they just...stared at each other. Or rather, she stared. He’d glance up at her with eyes full of contempt every so often but for the most part he seemed content to stare up at the ceiling or down in his lap. But she studied him with watchful eyes.  

He was quiet, pensive. Probably thinking of an escape plan for himself and his comrades. He was a smart guy, surely he realized Salem didn’t need two reasons to convince the kid to talk. Kill one while he watches to show him her threat is serious; Oscar would be willing to do anything to protect the one left alive. Their window was closing fast, and he must realize that, but Neo also knew these boys had plenty of other friends who could come to their aid if they were stupid enough.  

And attachments certainly had a way of making people stupid.  

He was still as a statue for the most part, the only subtle movements he made every so often occurred when he rubbed the fabric of his scarlet sash between his fingers. The bright red stood out against the darkness of the rest of his outfit and the pristine white of his armor like a sore thumb. The longer she stared at it, the more a memory itched at the back of her mind.  

A girl with fire-engine-red hair and a sash around her waist to match. She’d carried her team throughout the Vital tournament, Neo remembered, though she’d never gotten the pleasure of fighting her. She’d been Cinder’s pawn, the spark that would be used to ignite the world. She’d met her fate – her destiny – that night.  

He was one of her teammates, the sash must have been hers. Neo wasn’t the only one who lost someone when Beacon fell, it seemed, and she wasn’t the only one who still carried a piece of them with her. The thought was enough to make the small woman unconsciously reach up, her fingers ghosting over the velvety brim of her hat – Roman's hat. She frowned, the color draining slightly from each of her heterochromatic eyes, and when she looked back up she was horrified to learn that the tables had turned. He was now staring at her. If the realization in his cerulean eyes was anything to go by, Neo would wager he’d put two and two together.  

She glared at him, color and intensity returning to her eyes. She didn’t want his pity, and he sure as shit wasn’t getting any from her.  

“You really cared about him, didn’t you?” His voice was hoarse – with emotion, misuse, or weariness, she couldn’t tell, nor did she care enough to find out.  

Believing he wouldn’t understand her anyway, she answered via sign language. “He was my only friend” her scowl deepened as she went on. “And your friend killed him.”  

His deep blue eyes shifted from moderate compassion to confusion to anger in a matter of moments. She didn’t register what that must mean until after he’d already said “Guess that makes us even, then” in a bitter voice.  

Neo froze. A moment passed before she shook off her surprise and signed, “You understand me?”

Some of the anger left his eyes as he replied calmly, “My sister taught me a little.” He didn’t elaborate, and Neo found herself wanting to ask, but first she felt the need to defend herself.  

“Cinder is not my friend.”

“Coulda fooled me.”  

Neo frowned. “She’s not. We just want the same thing.”

He was silent for a moment. She could see him translating in his head but even after that there was a noticeable pause. “Revenge.” He nods, and Neo bristled slightly at the idea that this guy thinks he’s got her all figured out. “It won’t change anything. It won’t - won’t bring him back.”

Neo glared daggers at him. Maybe not, but it’s all I have left. She didn’t dare sign those words, but the look on his face told her that he was reading her like an open book, and she quickly looked away, not wanting to see the sympathy in his eyes. She didn’t want it – didn't deserve it. When she went to sleep at night, she had dreams about murdering his friend, why on earth would he look at her like that?

“And even if it did, Ruby didn’t kill him.”  

She gave him a sharp look at that, and if looks could kill he’d already be dead. Did he think she was stupid? Some dumb little girl that didn’t know how to enact revenge properly? Ruby was the last person to see Roman alive before he died. Whatever happened up there, it was her fault he was gone.  

“I know she’s my friend and I’m sure you think I’d say anything to defend her, but you can trust me when I say Ruby’s not like that. She’s all about protecting life, she’d never kill anyone.”  

She scoffed at that. Trust me. Neo didn’t trust anyone – the only person she’d ever extended that courtesy to was dead. What had this golden-haired stranger with his earnest ocean eyes and sincere voice done to earn her trust?  

There was silence for a moment and then, “From what she told me,” he began, sounding, for all accounts, like he was simply thinking out loud. “He got swallowed by a grimm.”  

That statement hung in the air for a moment, the implications of that fact not lost on either of them. They both knew who controlled the grimm, and they both knew who was there that night that served her.  

Neo had no reason to believe him – or Ruby. But an annoying voice in the back of her head reminded her that she had no reason to believe Cinder, either. She’s been here long enough to see how things – these people – worked. Salem wrapped her followers up in her honeyed words and grand promises. She was manipulative and Cinder was molded in her image.  

Neo huffed and turned away from Jaune before crossing her arms. She didn’t want to think about this. She was fine where she was, she was on her way to getting what she wanted, who did this boy think he was to come in here and put doubts in her mind?

She could hear him shift behind her, getting up from his place on the ground she’d wager. She tensed, wondering if he was going to try and fight his way out again, but then he spoke gently. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you, Neopolitan.” He called, and she uncrossed her arms, some of the anger leaving her.  

She didn’t know what compelled her to do so, but she turned around and signed. “Just Neo.”  

There was a pause, and he looked like he was thinking before he signed “I’m sorry, Neo.”  

Neo blinked in surprise. All this time they’d been able to communicate because he understood her language – and that in itself was rare – but here he was reaching out to her using her language. The last person who’d bothered to do that for her was Roman.  

What is this guy’s game?

He was playing her, he had to be. She’d thought he was planning an escape, and this must be it. Get inside her head, plant doubts so she’d slip up and let him go while he left her with the fallout when Salem inevitably found out. Well, Neo wasn’t stupid enough to fall for it. She marched up to him, her eyes vibrant and defiant as they glared at him defiantly. She stopped maybe a foot from him, glaring up at him, he was well over a foot taller than she was, but she didn’t care. “I know what you’re doing and it’s not gonna work.”

His eyes looked sad then, and she realized much to her chagrin that he felt sorry for her. “I can’t tell you what to do, Neo,” he said sincerely, and suddenly Neo could feel the fight leaving her. She deflated; her glare retreated leaving eyes that looked almost as sad as his. “But I can tell you that you deserve better than this place and these people.”  

Their eyes met once more before he turned away from her, leaving Neo alone with her thoughts again.  

Except the only thought that came to her was whether or not his inevitable escape attempt would be successful. Why she felt a tiny glimmer of hope in the back of her mind that he would be, she couldn’t say. Or didn’t want to.

[cozy-the-overlord]

Dances and Daggers

Summary:   The Summer Festival is upon Asgard, as is the tradition of the dagger ceremony, where each unmarried gentleman chooses a lady to bestow with the honor of carrying his dagger for the night. As Prince Thor’s betrothed, Teki’s only goal is to accept his dagger with grace and hope that her violent stepfather doesn’t find fault with her in the process. But Prince Thor is unpredictable, and when he ignores his engagement on a whim Teki finds herself in a desperate situation. Luckily, Thor isn’t the only prince in Asgard…

Pairing: Loki x Original Female Character

Chapter 2: The Piano

Previous Chapter  |  Next Chapter

Word Count: 3,715

Chapter Summary:  In the wake of the Summer Festival, Teki gets a summons to the Queen's chambers.

A/N:  Here it is! Like I said yesterday, I’m going to be posting a chapter a week every Tuesday. I’m really excited for this story and I hope you all enjoy it! 

Thanks for reading! :)

TW: mentions of child abuse

Tags: @lucywrites02

Read it on Ao3!

The Great Hall was roaring.

The last night of the summer festival always called for feasting and revelries, singing and shouting, shattering glasses and toasting from tabletops, and the people of Odin’s palace were only too happy to comply. Frantic servants navigated through the chaos, pressing overflowing goblets into outstretched palms. The drunken celebration consumed the room, the one time a year every noble allowed themselves to act like peasants.

Well, almost everyone.

“What a filthy display,” grumbled Osvald, glaring at a couple kissing passionately, the woman sitting in the man’s lap. He chucked another goblet over his shoulder. “If I wanted to watch sluts tonight, I would’ve gone to the whorehouse.”

Teki didn’t say anything. She dabbed at her mouth with her napkin, balancing stiffly on the edge of the bench on the other side of the table. Any other year, her stepfather would be happily participating in the debauchery engulfing the room. She knew that he was only spitting poison tonight because of what happened two weeks ago, on the first night of the festival. On their way back to their rooms, Osvald had tripped at the top of the staircase and hurt his back, cursing and spitting and moaning about how he had been pushed. He had refused to go to the healers.

“What do want me to tell them?” he snapped at her mother when she broached the subject. “That I can’t walk down a flight of stairs?” With that, he hobbled off, insisting that he was fine.

Two weeks later, he still was hunched over in pain.

It gave the family an odd atmosphere. On one hand, Osvald’s frequent foul moods had turned into a perpetual foul mood, and Teki was frequently finding herself on the receiving end of his tongue-lashings for merely existing. On the other hand, they were only tongue-lashings. She had spent enough time with an injured back to understand that her stepfather was hurting too much to be bothered to hurt her, and that brought on a tentative sort of peace.

Brant tugged at her sleeve. “Teki,” he whispered. “Can you cut my food?”

She smiled. “Sure. But first—” she scanned the table for something with writing on it, settling on the nametags marking their seats, “Can you tell me what this says?”

Brant squinted at his name, mouthing out the sounds in silence. Teki waited patiently. She had made it her goal this summer to teach her little brother to read—honestly, he should have already been assigned a tutor a year ago, but since he was so shy around others, her mother had decided to wait. She had laughed when Teki had explained her intentions, but Brant was smarter than his parents often gave him credit for.

His eyes lit up. “That’s me!” he cried out. “Brant Osvaldson!”

“Right!” she grinned. “Good job!” Teki reached over with her knife and fork to chop his meat into smaller bites. Beaming, Brant turned towards the partiers. He turned back around rather quickly.

“Teki!” he hissed, pulling at her sleeve again. “Teki, he’s looking at you!”

“What?” Teki twisted around to see what her brother was talking about, following his gaze to the raised platform where the royal family and their close friends were eating. She locked eyes with the dark-haired prince for only a second before Loki whipped his head back towards his mother.

Teki turned back to her table quickly as well, cheeks burning. She hadn’t spoken with Loki since he gave her his dagger on the first night of the festival. That was likely due to action taken by both sets of parents, who sought to cover up the embarrassment of the Crown Prince giving his dagger to the wrong girl by making certain Thor danced with Teki multiple times every night since. It was … awkward. While Prince Thor was always perfectly polite, it was painfully obvious that there were other activities he’d rather be doing than dancing with a girl several years his junior, whose head barely came up to his shoulders.

She had wanted to spend more time with Loki, but that was awkward too. Teki was supposed to be marrying Thor, as her parents made a point of reminding her. She needed to be spending time with him, not his inconsequential little brother. So, Teki played the model daughter, model princess, model queen-in-training and danced only with those her mother told her to.

But she couldn’t forget how nice Loki had been. How he had sat with her when she cried, healed her rib, gave her his dagger—she still had his dagger, stuffed under her mattress. Usually, the whole “dagger-holding” ceremony was just that: a ceremony that ended with the night. But when Teki tried to return his blade, Loki wouldn’t have it.

“You should keep it,” he said. “To remember the night. If you want, that is. I have plenty.”

Teki’s instinct had been to refuse, to insist that it was his and that he needed to take it back, but something caused her to bite her tongue.

“Thank you,” she whispered. She was relatively certain he knew she wasn’t just talking about the dagger.

Osvald was sure to lose his temper at her if he caught her sneaking weapons into his rooms, so she was careful to keep it hidden. It was rather stupid, the more she thought about it (why would she ever need a dagger? What would she supposed to do with it?) but there was also a strange kind of thrill that would come over her when she took it out its sheath and admired her reflection in the pointed blade.

Brant was back to tugging at her sleeve. “He’s looking at you again,” he whispered. “Why does he keep looking at you?”

“He’s not looking at me,” she said, forcing a smile as she poked him in his tummy. “He’s looking at you, because you’re not eating your food, even after I cut it all nicely for you! You didn’t even say thank you!”

He giggled and pulled his plate closer to him. “Thank you, Teki.”

“You’re welcome.” Teki watched him shovel food into his mouth, trying to fight the urge to look over her shoulder again. The temptation soon became too much, and she allowed herself one quick peak.

Brant was right. Loki was looking at her again.

Teki turned back to the table, keeping her features completely neutral to hide the strange warmth that seemed to be glowing in her chest.

…

Teki stood stiffly in the middle of the Queen’s sitting room, picking at the sash on her dress with nervous fingers. The servant who had led her in had told her to make herself comfortable while she waited, but she was far too tense to even consider sitting down.

The Queen had sent word to her mother that morning that she wished to see Teki in her quarters, but she hadn’t given any explanation as to why. Of course, her mother wasn’t concerned with an explanation. She spent the morning fussing over what dress Teki was to wear, how she should fix her hair, whether or not she should put on jewelry (it was decided she shouldn’t, as her mother feared giving the appearance of putting on airs before the Queen). For most of the morning, Teki had been playing the role of a mannequin as her mother draped different fabric across her shoulders, hoping that her stillness could hide the churning in her stomach.

The Queen had never asked to see her before. They had spoken many times at balls and feasts, but Teki had never been singled out for a private audience. She told herself it made sense—after all, she was of age now, perhaps the Queen simply wanted to get to know her future daughter-in-law—but what if it was something else? What if she had done something wrong? What if the Queen was angry at her? What if (and this was the “what if” making her feel as if she was about to vomit) Loki had told her about Osvald?

Teki swallowed, pulling harder at her sash. She hadn’t outright told him about her stepfather, but she was clear after that night that he knew what was going on. He had offered to tell his mother for her, but she had refused. Doing such would only result in scandal for her family, and if Osvald thought she was spreading rumors about him … all the back pain in the world wouldn’t stop him.

She tried to push the thoughts away. Loki wouldn’t have told. He wouldn’t have! She had specifically asked him not to. What kind of prince would he be if he couldn’t keep his word?

But as time went on, with Queen Frigga still not entering the room, Teki’s anxiety began to be replaced with impatience. What was going on? How much longer would she have to wait? She found herself scanning the room for the first time since she walked in.

It was a lovely sitting room, although not quite as extravagant as she would have thought from a Queen’s quarters. The walls were of simple wooden paneling, the furniture matching with blue and golden accents. Sapphire curtains opened into a gold-plated balcony overlooking the palace courtyard. And in the corner of the room… Teki’s breath caught in her throat.

It was a piano. A beautiful, polished, mahogany piano. She found herself walking towards it without making the decision to move. It had been so long since Teki had last seen a piano. Music had been the first thing her mother purged from the household upon her father’s departure. She had taken all Teki’s sheet music away that first day and sold off the piano by the end of the week. While Teki was never directly banned from playing music, there was an unaddressed chill in the air whenever she brought the topic up. And so, after a while, she had stopped bringing it up.

Her fingertips grazed the keyboard cover, aching to lift it so they could stroke the ivory keys. She couldn’t, of course—what would the Queen say if she found her messing with her piano without permission?— but she longed to play. She missed the thrill of dancing across the keys, that feeling when you had the instrument singing for you perfectly in tune, so much going on at once but knowing that you were perfectly in control. Teki sighed, still unable to tear her eyes from the piano. Oh, it was so tempting…

She jumped out of her skin when the door opened.

“Mother?” Prince Loki called. “Father wishes to speak with you. He—” He stopped abruptly when his gaze landed on Teki.

Her eyes dropped to the floor, sinking into a curtsey out of habit. “Prince Loki,” she murmured. For some reason, her cheeks were burning.

Her curtsey seemed to spur Loki to action; he bowed politely. “Lady Teki,” he said. “Forgive me, I didn’t expect to see you here.”

He remembered my nickname!

“No worries, my prince,” she replied, looking up again. He was smiling, albeit a bit awkwardly. “I was just waiting for Queen Frigga. She—she asked to see me this morning.”

Loki nodded. “Ah. I see.” They stood there for a few moments, glancing around the room as if searching for something to break the silence. Teki shifted uncomfortably. Say something! she screamed at herself, but it seemed her tongue had turned to lead.

Finally, his gaze landed at the instrument by her side. “Oh, do you play piano?” he asked.

“Oh-uh- I did. Or I used to,” she stuttered, shifting again. “I—haven’t, in a while.”

“My mother tried to teach my brother and me. Neither of us were very good,” he grinned. “I did better than Thor, at least, but that’s not saying much.”

Teki smiled. “I’m sure you don’t give yourself enough credit, my prince.”

“I’m sure you’re just trying to be nice. I was terrible,” Loki laughed, shaking his head. “The only piece I actually learned was this silly little duet I used to play with my mother, and even then I could only do the easy part.”

That sounded familiar. How many songs had she learned by playing alongside her father? Teki’s chest expanded with warmth.

“What duet?” she asked.

“Here, I’ll show you.” He sauntered over to the piano and rolled up the keyboard cover as if it was nothing, as if he was completely unaware of how Teki had been agonizing over that very thing minutes before he walked in. She eyed the Queen’s bedroom door. Would Frigga be upset if she found them disturbing her piano? But if Loki did it so easily, then surely it was allowed, right?

Her anxious line of thought was cut off abruptly as the prince began playing a simple melody with one hand, a string of eight repeated notes that she recognized immediately.

“Wait, I know that!” she cried. “That’s Elf Song!”

He nodded. “Yes, Elf Song. That’s what it was called. I’d play this, and my mother would do the hard part.”

Teki choked on her own laughter. Oh, this was ridiculous. “What do you mean, ‘hard part’?” she giggled. “The other part is just chords! It’s easy!”

Loki laughed too, holding his hands up in mock surrender. “I told you, I’m bad!”

“But it’s so easy—here, I’ll show you.” She sat down next to him on the piano seat without thinking about it, the notes just flowing from her fingertips. Oh, she had missed this, feeling her hands on the keys. It was over far too soon.

“See, that’s hard!” Loki protested. “You’re using both hands! That makes it hard!”

“That’s how you play piano!” Teki cried in amused exasperation. “How can you play piano with only one hand?”

“Like this!” He returned to his chopstick melody. This time, Teki was certain he was making a point of being as stiff as possible. It was becoming increasingly more difficult to control her giggles.

“Here, you do that, I’ll do the chords.” She began playing alongside him. It was terribly disjointed—Loki was completely off tempo and finished way before he was supposed to, but by the time she caught up to him they were both laughing hysterically.

“You’re the worst duet partner I’ve ever had,” she said, wiping the tears from her eyes.

“But I’ll bet I’m the most entertaining,” he smirked.

“Sure, I’ll give you that.” Teki returned the smile. It was nice, just sitting here and laughing about something stupid. Relaxing, almost. For once, she realized suddenly, she didn’t feel nervous about anything.

“You should play a real song,” Loki said, motioning towards the keyboard. “If Elf Song is so beneath you, then let’s see what a true pianist can do.”

Teki hesitated. Fooling around with what was essentially a child’s exercise was one thing, playing an actual piece in front of someone was another. She wasn’t even certain she could remember any of the songs she once had memorized all the way through. She must have taken too long to respond, because Loki was quick to backtrack.

“Or not, if you don’t want to,” he said hurriedly. “I was only jesting, I didn’t mean to—”

“No, that’s fine.” There was something in the way he was looking at her, the pure apologetic sincerity, that made her determined to perform something. “It’s—it’s been a while, since I played, so I—I’m probably rusty, but, uh, here—”

It was funny, because she didn’t remember making the decision to play one of her father’s pieces. At first, she didn’t even realize that she was playing one of her father’s pieces. It just… happened. He had called it Aster Breeze—she remembered when he was writing it, ages ago when she still had to sit on his lap to see the keys.

“Do you hear that, Teki?” he’d ask as he played a new sequence of notes. “That’s the wind in the tree branches. Can you hear the wind?”

All Teki ever could hear was the piano, but if Daddy said there was wind, then there was wind. She nodded vigorously. He laughed as he continued playing.

Now, at the Queen’s piano, the notes flowed through her as if she had never stopped playing them. She still couldn’t hear the wind, but she felt it, tugging her soul forward and enveloping her in the music. It was an exhilaration she had forgotten she missed—by the time she reached the end of the piece, Teki was out of breath and grinning ear-to-ear.  

She turned to Loki, who was watching her with wide eyes. “That was rusty?” he cried incredulously.

Teki burned. “Well—I—”

“That was absolutely fantastic!” he insisted, breaking into applause. “How can you play all that from memory?”

“I—I don’t know,” she stammered. “I-my father was a court musician, so maybe I got it from him?”

“Well, it was brilliant.” Loki’s tone had a definitive air to it as he nodded. “You should play more often.”

Teki’s heart, which had been soaring high above the trees, crashed back into reality. “Oh—” she mumbled. “I—I can’t—”

“I didn’t know you played, Tekla.” Teki jumped at the regal voice, spinning around so quickly that she nearly tumbled over. Frigga stood in the doorway, her golden curls pulled back behind her head, hands clasped and smile wide.

Heart pounding, Teki sank into a curtsey. “Your Majesty.”

Loki was significantly more amused. “Mother,” he grinned, merely standing in greeting.

“Rise, child, there’s no need for formalities here,” Frigga laughed, moving to sit on the couch and motioning for Teki to join her. “After all, we are to be family sooner than later.” Slowly, Teki followed her on shaking legs.

“Mother,” Loki interjected, voice authoritative and professional. “Father’s finalizing the plans for the Alfheim trip. He wanted to know if you wished to check the dates.”

“Yes, I will,” she affirmed. “I’ll look at those as soon as Lady Tekla and I have finished here.”

Loki nodded. “I’ll tell him to wait to send them in. Mother. Lady Tekla.” With an exaggerated bow and a slight smirk as her official name left his lips, he made to leave. Teki flushed, biting her lip to hold back the giggle. Loki seemed to have a knack for making her smile when she was stressed.

Frigga turned back to her. “Please forgive me for making you wait so long. I was working out the logistics of our upcoming trip and lost track of time.”

“It’s fine, I don’t mind,” Teki said, far too quickly. “Your Majesty.”

Frigga laughed, a melodic tinkle. “Yes, I could tell. It sounded as if the two of you were enjoying yourself.”

Teki’s stomach turned to ice. “Oh, forgive me, Your Majesty,” she stumbled. “I shouldn’t have—”

“Relax, darling, I’m not angry,” Frigga soothed gently, rubbing her shoulder. “I’m glad that someone was appreciating the piano. I’m afraid I don’t give it as much attention as I’d like.” She smiled encouragingly. “And you played so beautifully—how could I be angry? I can’t say I recognize that piece, though.”

Teki forced herself to swallow. “My father wrote it, Your Majesty,” she whispered. “I don’t really think anyone else would recognize it.”

“Your father must be quite talented, then.”

It occurred to Teki that the Queen probably thought she was talking about Osvald, and her heart sank even deeper than it was before. Still, she didn’t bother to correct her.

“I’m surprised Áslaug never mentioned your gift for music,” Frigga continued on, unaware of Teki’s discomfort. “She’s always so eager to sing your praises.”

Teki cringed. The mental picture of her mother obnoxiously bragging about her to the Queen was horrifically easy to conjure.

“Mama—my mother doesn’t like music very much,” she said softly. “I doubt she’d talk about it.”

“Really?” Frigga frowned. “Well, I adore music. Perhaps you could come and play for me every so often?”

“I—” Teki stuttered. The Queen wanted her to play for her? There was something frightening about that thought, but at the same time, something deeply exciting. “If you’d like me to, Your Majesty. I’d be honored.”

“I’d be honored to listen to you,” she beamed. “But now to the matter at hand.” Teki tensed again. “The Summer Festival made me realize that we’ve done a horrible job of including you in our family.”

Norns, she had to have been talking about the dagger ceremony, wasn’t she? That’s what this had to be about. Her long-forgotten nausea from earlier came racing back all at once.

“I’m sorry about that, Your Majesty,” she whispered. “With Thor, and the dagger—”

“No.” Frigga cut her off sternly. “That was not your fault in the least bit, Tekla. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. It’s we who owe an apology to you.”

Teki frowned. “Thor already apologized, Your Majesty.” It had been an awkward, stilted apology, on the dance floor the night after the dagger ceremony, but it was an apology nonetheless, and more than Teki had expected.

“Good. I’m glad to hear it,” she said. “But I think it’s time we went beyond words. Asgard should learn to see you as its future Queen, just as it sees Thor as its future King.”

“But…” Teki was so confused. “What—how would that happen?”

Frigga smiled. “I think it’s time you began appearing as a part of the royal family. Taking your meals with us, traveling with us, sitting with us, and so forth. I think it would also help you and Thor become better acquainted with each other if you started spending more time together.” She studied her seriously. “Is this something you would be ready for, Tekla?”

Teki’s head was spinning. Becoming a part of the royal family—it was something she had always known to be prepared for, but that had still only lingered in the distance future. Everything was happening too fast. She wasn’t ready for it at all.

But her mother had trained her well. With what she hoped was a glowing smile, she looked straight into the Queen’s cobalt eyes. “I’d be honored, Your Majesty.”

[becomelions]

Batroc Canon Divergence After Season Finale of FATWS ( spoilers below)

( Alright so I was thinking about how I was going to go about correcting the fate of Georges Batroc and how they did him dirty. It took me not too long after finishing the episode last night and I’ve come up with how I will be presenting him from now on besides the fact he is alive and not dead in a storage room under tunnels or whatever just left there like he’s nothing. )

Batroc is a smart man, smarter than given credit for. Yes he is stubborn and driven by money but he also has a code of honor. Sometimes these two drives for success bring him at rather unfortunate crossroads and that night he decided to run with Karli after saving her was one of the biggest he had to deal with in recent memory. When he’s separated in that brief moment they look for cover as they reached a more open space with heroes on their tail, he goes for the closest cover he can find which takes him away from Karli who seems to be wandering about on her own. 

This brings in Sharon, the woman who hired him to help Karli but now has her at gun point. He sees it from his cover and Batroc is more confused than anything else at the fact the woman who broke him out of prison and now brought him here has the very person she paid him to help in this position. So he watches, listens. He knows better than to charge into a situation where he wouldn’t have the advantage. Batroc has lived through multiple military campaigns and leads a rather successful mercenary group for a reason. But quietly he does get closer, to listen to what was being said and that is when he hears and learns of Sharon’s true identity. Blue eyes widen at the reveal that the woman who hired him is in fact the powerbroker ( if your sharon is not canon to that then he still listens and learns she is agent carter ). This gives him an advantage, yes, but it also gives him a powerful ally.

It makes him want to demand more money, do more for himself but at the same time....revealing her identity would get him nothing. So instead, he keeps it to himself, deciding that would be for the best. An honor among thieves in a way. Never does he charge into the argument the duo are having, but stays back and eventually takes his leave as he knows how to get into contact with Sharon later once the dust has settled. This isn’t his fight anymore, he will come back stronger and better than ever to eventually kill the new Captain America. 

[carmenxjulia]

do you ever just think about how carmen's first reaction after hearing julia's voice in the fashion caper went from mild surprise to a smile? or how after she quickly disarmed julia, she gently put her gun back in her coat. or how carmen grabbed julia's hand? or how she made julia iin charge of her group despite barely knowing her? im still thinking about it and i cant fully explain why these small moments are so good? can you, please?

Absolutely. You’re talking to a person who created a 20,000 word fanfic based on a 45 second interaction. You want a Carmen and Julia analysis? I’d say you’ve come to the right place.

Yes, I do think about that scene a lot.

Let us begin.

Last season, Carmen and Julia interacted for less than a single minute. In that time, Carmen came to know and trust her enough to pass off the Magna Carta to her for safekeeping. And Julia got to have a real conversation with someone who was an international criminal and by some, might have even been branded as dangerous.

But Julia had always believed in her innocence and clung to the idea that there was more to each theft that most people didn’t see. Carmen leaving the Magna Carta was solid proof towards her theory that Carmen was one of the good guys. And it was a show of goodwill, a symbol of trust, that Carmen was banking on Julia doing the right thing and not taking full credit for its safe return (at least among her colleagues).

Then we get to season 2. Julia has, almost inexplicably, doubled down on her insistence that Carmen Sandiego is doing good in the world and is not actually a criminal at all. From the very first moment that we see her, she is trying prove her innocence. She asks Chase to wake up so that he can clear her name. She tries everything she can to wake him, and we as the audience are made to think it’s because she is concerned for his well-being… until the scene ends with, “we need you to tell us that she did not do this to you.”

Now, while I’m sure Julia would never wish death or permanent damage to Chase, she’s not trying to wake him because she particularly cares about him. He was rude and selfish and constantly dismissed her and yeah, Julia is the type of person who would still care after all that (refer to the first sentence of this paragraph), but it’s really really important to recognize that she’s not there for him. She’s there on behalf of Carmen.

So, what does that have to do with “The Fashionista Caper”?

We, the audience, are privy to Julia’s private conversations with Chief and other members of A.C.M.E. We get to see her defending Carmen, over and over, in the episodes leading up to episode 4. It’s not just speculation anymore! In Season 1, Julia had her theories, but was actively open to being proven wrong when provided with evidence to the contrary of her hunches. In Season 2, she is certain she’s right, and she stands by her belief that Carmen is good.

Carmen doesn’t see/hear any of that. She has literally no idea Julia has been defending her behind her back. No idea just how hard Julia has been fighting to clear her name with A.C.M.E. Not a single clue how conflicted Julia actually is, with having a job to do versus wanting to stand by the facts right in front of her.

She doesn’t see Julia again after the train incident (“The Chasing Paper Caper”) until they meet in Italy (”The Fashionista Caper”). All Carmen knows is that Julia is not as hellbent on catching her as Chase was, and that the Magna Carta were returned safely.

We, the audience, have a front row seat to watch Julia go from shaky theories to boldly proclaiming Carmen Sandiego is not who everyone thinks she is, despite seeming to be the only person who actually believes that.

Legitimately, Carmen has very little reason to trust Julia other than a gut feeling. There is no explanation for not only roping her into the caper, but immediately giving Julia her gun back and fully trusting she wouldn’t use it. Any other agent would have ignored Carmen’s request for help and gassed her right then and there. Carmen just inherently knows Julia is different.

We actually see an example of this just a few moments earlier. When Agent Zari tells Carmen to freeze, Carmen sets the gun off and turns it on her right away. When Julia shows up and demands more or less the same thing, the two have a little back and fourth banter. Carmen, no doubt, notes Agent Argent’s hesitation.

Carmen’s surprise no doubt came from her not expecting another agent, or at least, not expecting an agent to give her a chance to respond. Whereas Zari wasn’t afraid to get up close and point the gun directly at her face, Julia is standing quite far off. It probably took Carmen a moment to register who was speaking to her, and once she realized it was Julia, she relaxed, and smiled.

Julia helped her before, with the Magna Carta. So, why not seek her help more directly? Test the waters with the one agent who was willing to give her the time of day.

Not only that, but undoubtedly Carmen was re-formulating her plan to include Julia in it, right at that very moment. Honestly, the whole thing went far better with 4 people instead of the initial 3 (Carmen, Ivy, and Zack). So Carmen was probably like ‘oh hey that very reasonable agent from the train that I can probably count on to help me out if I also present myself as a sane and reasonable person.’ And then it actually worked.

But we can dissect this small change in her expression even further. Carmen is genuinely happy to see her/hear her voice. Not just because she knows Julia is raw and untrained and easily disarmed, no. Upon their first meeting, Carmen gave her the nickname “Jules”. In fact, Carmen has literally never spoken her full name, “Julia”. Even when passing off leadership in front of Ivy and Zack, Carmen still sticks to the Jules nickname. She doesn’t do this with anyone else. (Sure, Player is “Player”, but that’s purely upon his own request.) Maybe this is a reach, but, it feels like this indicates a completely different type of relationship and level of intimacy that Carmen shares with Julia and no one else.

Getting back on track.

Carmen probably took her hand as an extra precaution to prevent Julia from deciding to whip out her gun again. I mean, sure, it was also faster and easier to lead her by holding her hand. But also consider that the gun was holstered against her left hip, making it awkward to try to maneuver around her jacket with her left hand to try and grab it. With her right hand occupied, it would have taken too long for her to pull it out again, even if she’d tried. Honestly, taking her hand was the most practical action in this scenario, even if it was a bit intimate. It doesn’t have to mean anything, but it can.

It is also worth noting that although Julia believes Carmen is on the same side as A.C.M.E., she is probably rightfully confused starting from the moment Carmen takes her gun and then doesn’t gas her.

Julia’s orders from A.C.M.E. were to capture Carmen Sandiego in order to protect the Medici gowns. So when it turned out Carmen wasn’t planning to take the gowns, Julia had to decide that saving the dresses overruled the order to capture Carmen. The original mission she was given changed in a matter of seconds, making her have to pick a priority (Carmen or dresses). It also gave her an opportunity to work with Carmen and show A.C.M.E. she’d been right all along. But Julia, much like Carmen, had to trust her gut about this woman she barely knew, but had the utmost faith in.

As far as putting Julia in charge of getting the gowns to safety, that was probably the easiest decision of the evening for either of them. Carmen already knows Julia is one of the good guys. She doesn’t need to question her motives, at all. Not only that, but as mentioned above, Julia had already proven she could be trusted by ensuring the safe return of the Magna Carta.

Carmen knew V.I.L.E. wouldn’t be far behind, and dividing her attention could have been disastrous for the mission overall. I mean, she’s Carmen Sandiego, so, she could have probably handled it. But it was a much smarter move to put Julia in charge. She knew that Ivy and Zack were better at taking orders than giving them. She knew Player wouldn’t be able to coordinate well enough from his location. Carmen needed someone on the ground, right there, right then. Julia was available.

One final piece of this scene, that although it was not mentioned in the original ask, I feel is worth noting. Julia is actively worried about Carmen Sandiego’s safety. She outright asks, “what about you?” when Carmen instructs the others to get the gowns to safety. Why should she care? Her mission, saving the  Medici’s, is about to be complete. She’s about to really and truly prove herself to A.C.M.E. by being the agent responsible for saving the gowns. And yet she pauses, wanting to ensure Carmen is safe before she goes anywhere. A person that is supposed to be her enemy, although Julia has never truly believed that.

This is followed by Carmen pushing Julia back, not only urging her to leave with the gowns and Carmen’s own team, but moving her further away from danger as well as physically putting her body between Julia and potential harm. There are smashing sounds coming from the ceiling; clearly something bad is on its way. As usual, Carmen puts the safety of her friends before her own, which is a completely new experience for Julia. She is getting to see a caring and protective side of the super thief, one she was previously unaware of. Even for someone she barely knows, she’s willing to put her life on the line to save that of someone else.

And finally, even after Julia runs after Ivy and Zack, she turns back one last time to see how Carmen is doing. She doesn’t want to leave her behind, but ultimately realizes she has no choice. She certainly wouldn’t be any use in a fight. Plus, her number one objective is to save the gowns. Carmen Sandiego is probably going to get away. But the items she was sent to protect are now in A.C.M.E. hands. Job well done.

But Julia is left with the knowledge that Carmen Sandiego played an integral part in the success of the mission. She and Zari could not have saved the gowns alone (especially with the knowledge that Carmen was being attacked). Carmen Sandiego did in fact steal things- but it was to get the jump on another person or organization before they could do so themselves, smuggling the valuables away and returning them at a later date. Just as was the pattern Carmen laid out in Season 1.

Julia not only had her long-standing theory validated, but she got to see just how self-sacrificing Carmen could be. Putting herself in harms way while everyone else was encouraged to find somewhere safer. For someone labeled as a criminal, that was probably completely unexpected. Among a multitude of other unexpected things that had just happened. But that one may have been the most surprising.

All in all, there is a lot to say about this scene, and I could honestly go through it frame by frame and write a comprehensive essay. But hopefully this will sufficiently answer your query, and if not, feel free to send another ask.

[arandompostarchive]

SALEM - Ch. 16

SAVED WORK

Summary: In all the centuries of your existence, you had never been dragged out of hiding by another god, put in a superhero team and forced to save the universe. But it seems your luck has run out.

_____________

Salem was nothing like he remembered it.

The town was quiet. No soft shouting in the background, or small children running around, bumping into him. You hadn’t sensed his arrival and run out to meet him with your usual wide smile.

There was nothing.

In fact, he smelled fire, ash, and some sort of cooked meat.

His nose wrinkled at the scent. He had never liked the smells fire left behind for whatever reason. He walked into the town and immediately sensed the use of magic. The grass was wet with red, but there were no bodies in sight. He was sure he sensed recent magic, maybe someone had decided to clean the place up.

But from what he could tell, there weren’t any humans around to do that. He looked around more, trying to figure out exactly where you were. Looking closer, he saw there were a few bodies, though they had been burnt to char. His eyes widened. He became a bit more nauseous now that he was able to identify one of the smells.

The bodies, whoever they were, seemed to have been haphazardly thrown by someone else. The saw the town’s square, a stacked of burnt wood in front of its usual decorations. There was another body tied to it, also burnt. It seemed less charred than the others but was still most certainly dead.

He rushed over to it. There was a nauseating squish sound beneath his shoes, a small amount of blood splashed onto his pant leg, staining the fabric. He recognized the woman there, he was sure of it. He couldn’t place it though.

The skin was charcoal black.

He ran his hand over the face. The red-black of the skin flaked under his head and he struggled to identify what he felt.

It was most certainly your magic.

It floated around the burnt wood, hovering in the air. It was stronger than he had ever felt it before. Strangely strong. It almost reminded him of his mother’s power. A strange, intense type of magic.

This had to be you. There’s no way you, even if you were a demi-god, could release this much power unless it was revenge for your own death. They had killed you.

He felt an extreme type of rage. A boiling kind of rage. The kind that bubbles in the pits of your stomach and makes you see red. He could feel water run does his face. He hadn’t even realized he’d started crying until he felt the tears drip from his chin.

He untied the body. He managed to teleport over to a nearby bench, something he had never perfect it. He’d never use it for long distances, but small ones were do-able.

He laid you down next to the lake he had met you at and slowly started at the sun. It was a sunrise instead of a sunset, and somehow that made this all worse. The universe had given you a sunset at the beginning and a sunrise at the end. Everything seemed to be backward. He would’ve laughed at the circumstances, but all that came to his ears was silence. His silence.

Your hands were frozen in place, creating a terrifying statue. An actual person etched in time. He used magic to drift your body out before allowing it to sink.

Loki woke up sweating, his shirt sticking to his back. He was breathing heavily as he whipped his head around, looking at his surroundings. His room. Rather the one Stark had assigned him. It didn’t quite feel like ‘his’ yet, but it was where he was supposed to sleep. Thor had somehow convinced the man of iron to let him stay on the same floor as you and share a small common area with you. Leave it to Stark to make over the top living areas. Usually, he wouldn’t mind silence. Especially since he spent his childhood with Thor, who wasn’t exactly known for being quiet. But with the knowledge that you were supposed to be there too, it felt unsettling. Odd.

He ran his hands over his face, feeling the sweat on his forehead. He had been dreaming about you. He didn’t want to get Stark’s hopes up. He may not like the man, but Loki wasn’t cruel. That and he’d seen rock fall from above him as he left. He was too far sense where you were, not that he was even sure where he should be looking. He wasn’t certain how to get to Kalan from Earth, Kalan to Earth, he’d much rather find a ship and fly. If you were dead, there was no point in going now. If you weren’t, you were probably already on your way. Either way, waiting seemed to be his only option.

He hadn’t spent any time outside of his room, aside from the day or two he was in the Avenger’s medical wing. Some of the team had come up to his door, asking questions.

Peter was the first one. He tried asking what happened, but Loki simply ignored until the boy eventually left, telling Loki that whatever happened wasn’t his fault.

It didn’t help.

Tony came several times.

At first, it was yelling. Mostly questioning why he was there and you weren’t.

And of course, there was Thor. Thor was concerned about Loki’s health, encouraging him to eat or get out of his room. It never worked.

Then, late that night he heard the soft, recognizable footsteps of the spider boy.

“Hi, Mr. Loki.” Peter started. There was a chair next to Loki’s door. Peter wasn’t certain who had put it there, but he pulled it closer to him and sat down.

“She left that note behind when you first left.” Peter held the letter in his hand. “Seemed like she wasn’t sure if it was a good idea in the first place.”

Peter’s hand was shaking. He could hear shuffling behind the door. He took a deep breath.

“I’m just going to read the note.”

Hello, all.

Well, this letter certainly won’t be the nicest thing you’ve ever read.

Sorry.

If this actually opens, I’d say chances are high that I’m dead. Don’t give up hope on me completely though. But, still.

Moros is still dangerous. If I’m not back, we probably didn’t manage to kill the asshole. I’m sorry. I’m sure I tried, but fighting isn’t an exact science, you know? I hope you’ll eventually forgive me for leaving without you.

Cap, you never really liked me. I was hoping that maybe by breaking the rules successfully, you might have more respect for me. I guess I failed that one. I’m sorry I never really proved myself a worthy teammate.

Tony, you are the best brother I never wanted. Thanks for showing me more about technology and humanity. It’s been a while since I’ve spent this much time with mortals. I know you’re upset, and I’m sorry. All my life I’ve wanted to be the hero. The person people think of when they need help, someone they feel they can rely on. You showed me I could do that. And for a moment, I really was a hero. I doubt you understand how much that meant to me.

Peter, I hope that project went well. Sorry I couldn’t help. I’ll miss you, kid. You’re smarter than you give yourself credit for. For once, just let yourself be in the spotlight, huh? You may not be an official Avenger now, but you will be. I promise.

Loki. Hopefully, I’ll find a way to save you even if I can’t save myself. I loved you years ago. And well I wouldn’t use the word “love”, I definitely feel strongly for you now. Maybe we could’ve been something again. I hope to see you in Elysium.

Everyone else. I didn’t know you well. I hoped that we would be close. That I would be a real part of this team, but it never seemed to happen. Still, thank you.

Your name was signed messily on the bottom. You had clearly been rushing. Peter was sure he heard something on the other side of the door. Your letter may speak about you like you were dead, but you asked him not to give up hope.

So he wasn’t going to.

Tony didn’t speak too much. I spent most of his time in his lab, which wasn’t too different from his norm. But he didn’t seem to make the same jokes. He hadn’t called anyone a nickname in a good few days. But even Nat missed Tony’s sarcastic comments.

Peter tried his best to get through to Tony, and Tony was clearly trying his best to make Peter feel better, but it didn’t seem to be helping either of them.

Loki stayed away from everyone. Everyone took turns bringing him up food. Most of the time he ate it, though sometimes he just didn’t want to get up. Losing you once was hard, losing you twice was taking a toll.

He went over every detail of the past two weeks in his head. Moros and Ker, Kalan, then hell itself. The small, chaste kiss you had planted on his lips before sending him back to Kalan. He wished he held it just a second longer. Maybe argued against you more. Tried to stay in Tartarus as long as he could. But no. He didn’t do any of that.

Centuries ago, you were the greatest person he had ever met. Nothing had changed.

***

On your travel, you dozed off more than once. Piloting a ship alone was boring. Insanely boring. And it’s like finally being alone let your body catch up with the events of the past two weeks.

Two weeks.

It seemed like longer.

Much longer.

You weren’t certain how long it took you to get home. Space was pitch black, and it was harder to navigate than you’d like to admit.

Over your life, you’d spent time in space. Gods were used to that sort of thing. But that doesn’t mean it was somewhere you liked spending your time.

You were sure it was at least a few days before you began to recognize the star patterns. By then, the ship was running low on whatever fueled it. You were thankful you didn’t have to teleport yourself again, you weren’t sure if you could handle that again. Physically or mentally.

The small patch over your eye made it difficult to see, much less find your way to Earth. You had never really gotten to see the stars around Earth up close, and although they were beautiful, you had much more important things to do.

You paced around the back of your ship, waiting to get the alert that you were entering Earth’s atmosphere. You let out a small groan. Not like there was anyone around to hear you.

It was silent. Eerily silent. Not a single sound around and it was beginning to drive you insane. You had started humming songs you’d learn over the past few hundred years. Some melodies you had overheard a century ago, other modern songs you had heard Stark playing in his lab.

You paced and hummed, trying to create some sort of sound besides the drowning quiet of space. Eventually, you heard a small siren sound, and the front windshield of the ship flashed red. A symbol came up in a language you hadn’t seen before. Thank the gods for Allspeak.

It seemed to be the Kalan equivalent of an exclamation mark, which was never good when accompanied by sirens and flashing lights.

You rushed to the front looking over some of the systems. The ones you understood at least. It seemed you were approaching Earth’s atmosphere far too fast.

You sat down in the pilot’s seat and steered the ship. Hopefully, it would stay intact enough to land.

***

Loki had spent the two weeks sitting in his room or in Tony’s garage. It had the body of the ship you had stolen. Tony didn’t want to rebuild it, so it made for a nice quiet place that nobody would look for him in.

He had brought a few books down, mostly Midgardian ones you had shown him centuries ago. Everyone was preparing to fight Moros, and he had sat in on more than a few strategy meetings. They mostly consisted of him repeating the same information over and over.

But the garage was quiet.

He paced around, picking his palm. It was a bad habit he had picked up from his mother over the years, but it helped calm his nerves. As he walked back and forth, the metal beneath him creaked. It was less than stable, which wasn’t reassuring, but at the moment he wasn’t particularly worried.

As he walked toward the back of the ship, he heard a soft crunch beneath his feet.

He lifted his boot and some broken petals fell from his shoe. It was the flower he had discarded into the ship after it had scratched you. He picked it up. The petals were only beginning to dry, and some were still the same soft purple they had been before. It really was a pretty color.

One thorn of the rose-like flower still had a small bit of blood on it. He frowned at the now dried liquid. He carefully set the flower aside and sat down on the floor, his head in his hands.

He took a deep breath before the ship shook. There was some sort of loud sound in the background and a few seconds went by before he heard a voice address him.

“Loki, Captain Rogers has asked you to meet the team outside immediately. He has also said you may need your armor.”

Loki sighed and stood. It felt more like clawing his way out of a whole than simply walking out of the garage. His armor appeared on him as he walked outside. He heard some yelling and other voices in the distance. And maybe someone crying?

When he stepped outside he saw a ship that had landed. Well, it was closer to ‘crashed’ but it was certainly better than his landing.

The man of iron and the Captain were yelling at each other, and he saw a body lying on the ground. He walked a bit quicker toward the group. The closer he got, the better he could hear the argument.

A doctor rushed past him toward the body, sitting next to the spider boy. She seemed to be checking vitals, and she gestured to someone behind him before a few other doctors walked past Loki with a stretcher. They picked the body up (which he could now tell was a woman with a large scar and a patch on her face).

“Tony you need to calm down. For all we know, Moros is coming here now. We need to wake her up as soon as possible.”

“I don’t care Steve. I thought she was dead. Everyone thought she was dead. She wrote a note saying she was dead! Let her relax for five seconds, will you?”

Peter was trying his best to get you up. At the very least, he wanted to make sure you were alright.What the hell had happened? The was a slight, still raw-looking scar on about half your face, though it was partially covered by a white and red patch. He assumed the red was blood, but did his best to ignore that.

Steve and Tony were yelling in the background, everyone else was talking amongst themselves and interjecting every so often. Thor and Clint had gone in to get Cho not too long ago and help her with any supplies she’d need and soon they had all returned and you were taken away. Loki had arrived, and Peter saw his face shift into one of horror as you passed.

“What is going on?” Loki said, rapidly looking between Tony and Steve.

Steve sighed before answering. “It seemed Y/n is alright. Broadly speaking that is. We need to wake her up immediately and get her back with the team. It’s not ideal, but we need information and we need it now.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “She needs rest. Whatever happened to her obviously took a toll. She’s missing a fucking eye! At least let her heal a little bit, god man.”

“She’s a god, you’ve heard her. She heals fast. She’ll be alright. She needs to push a little longer, I know it’s not—”

“You’ve never liked her. I get it, really I do. A random girl shows up and her ex is the guy who tried to take over the world. But she needs longer than a few minutes of rest. If we woke her up, she’d say she’s fine and just push through it. I know better than anyone that she’ll just crash and burn. Now, I’m going to go stay in her room with Cho. If you get a few more brain cells, come visit.” Tony walked off.

“Tony, that’s not it at all.” Tony didn’t turn back, he simply continued the walk toward the tower.

“With all respect that is due, Captain.” Loki started, facing Steve. “She’ll need recovery before she is capable of helping in any way. Stark is correct, she’ll only pretend to be alright until she eventually tires herself out. Then she’ll be of no help at all. It may be best to ignore Tony’s offer of visiting. I’d rather not have to hear another one of those fights in the near future.” He too turned away, and Peter followed after them quickly.

Loki was still slightly numb from the shock of actually seeing you.

Were you okay?

Where have you been?

Why didn’t you go with him?

What happened to your face?

***

You sat up quickly, your hair sticking to your forehead. For a second, you panicked that you couldn’t see out of one eye until you remembered the past… however long it had been. You could feel your shirt sticking to your back. You tried your best to take deep breaths and figure out where the hell you were.

There were a few people sitting around the room.

“Hey, you’re alright, it’s us.” You heard from right next to you. It startled you for a second before you saw Tony’s face next to you. You let out a sigh of relief and slowly lay back down.

Peter and Loki were both asleep in chairs on the other side of the room. Peter had a blanket draped over him and a piece of paper crumpled in his hand.

“Hey, kid.” You laughed a bit.

“Tony I’ve been alive longer than you were a thought in the back of your parent’s head.”

“Okay, okay kid.” You smiled at him. You missed him.

“How long have you been waiting?”

He sighed and sat back in his chair. “I think you’ve been out for around 24 hours? Cap isn’t happy about waiting this long to talk to you about what happened.” You nodded, sensing there was more he wanted to say. “Listen, I understand wanting to be the hero, I really do, by why on Earth would you try to make us think you were dead?”

You sighed. “Because I’ve fought with my siblings before. Fights usually last a little while before my mother steps in and breaks it up. I thought that would happen. If it took more than two weeks… I was fully expecting not to be here. I’m sorry.”

He nodded a bit but stayed silent.

Loki’s eyes slowly opened in his chair before he stood up and walked over to you.

“Are you alright? Do you feel okay?” He was showing more emotion in front of Tony than he usually would, and you suspected he was just too tired to keep on his usual straight face.

“Loki, I’m fine.” You smiled at him. Tony stood up and let Loki pull his seat closer to your bedside. Tony went to wake up Peter before he dragged him out of the room. Peter seemed more than a little upset, but eventually nodded at Tony and followed him out of the room, offering you a cheerful smile as he walked away.

Loki wrapped his arms around you, pulling you close to his chest. He had about a million and thoughts rushing through his head at once, and he wanted to ask you all of them.

Wherewereyou?Whydidyouleavehim?Whathappenedtoyourface?Howareyoualive?Howdidyougetback?Wheredidyougetthatship?Whatsortofuniformwereyouwearing?Haveyoueatenrecently?Didyouevenhavewater?Howlongwereyouinspace?Wereyoutravelingthewholetimehewasgone?

But that didn’t matter right now. Whatever happened, you were at least alive. He’d take what he could get.

[magnhild]

let’s talk about nora valkyrie

warning: this post is not a solid, coherent discussion. it is simply a mess of my thoughts and ideas and is rather messy. also, it contains spoilers for volume 7 of rwby, but if you can see this post then you’re probably all caught up and don’t have spoilers tagged.

so anyway let’s get into it.

I’ve always loved Nora, there’s never been any doubt about that. but at the same time, she’s always off to the side, hasn’t done too much to contribute to the plot and arguably hasn’t had any character development either. This volume though is where I think that changes. Volume 7 is truly taking steps to make sure we know she’s part of the main cast alongside her teammates and RWBY, to the point where she’s now joined Yang and Blake as one of my top favourite characters. And I think she’s going to be far more important in this volume and possibly the next ones than any of us anticipated.

Some of us had already picked up that there was more to Nora than one would first think. We’ve picked up on her brutal honesty and her surprising perceptiveness, both when it comes to people’s feelings and how to potentially solve issues. She’s certainly smarter than most people give her credit for. But volume 7 is bringing all this to the surface so that everyone can see, and I don’t think they’re just doing so for no reason. They could easily have Blake taking her role in the story, or maybe even Ruby or Weiss. But of all people, it’s Nora who’s standing up more than any of the main cast for Mantle’s wellbeing and calling Ironwood out for what he’s doing to harm it. For her, it almost seems personal, with episode 7 seeing her get angrier than we’ve ever seen her before. In fact, aside from direct confrontation with villains, we’ve rarely seen any character get this angry so far in the show. I’ve seen people say that it’s because she was an orphan and she doesn’t want to see the people of Mantle go through what she did, but I don’t think it’s that simple. After all, Ren was an orphan too, but he seems to be taking the opposite stance to her (and that’s a whole other can of worms). No, I think- and disclaimer, I’m not claiming to have come up with this- that Mantle is Nora’s original hometown and where she spent her life before somehow winding up in Anima. After all, we have absolutely no knowledge of where she came from or went through before meeting Ren aside from the fact that she was not from Kuroyuri. As for further details on her backstory, there are several possibilities. Maybe her family were extremely poor and suffered greatly from the city’s circumstances. Maybe she’s the child of a human-faunus couple and faced discrimination from both humans and faunus as a result, especially given the racism of Atlas. Maybe her parents died early on in her life and she was an orphan long before meeting Ren. Or maybe her parents died early, but she was taken in by other family. Perhaps a grandmother who might just be on her deathbed deep within Atlas who’s constantly thinking of her lost granddaughter.

Yes, the Winter Maiden Nora theory sure is a good one and if my personal theory (the human/faunus child one) falls through, I’d be very happy with it. It certainly makes sense. Not only did we never get a mention of the current Winter Maiden’s last name, but her first has some interesting origins. Fria is one of the modern spellings of Freyja, a Norse goddess, who, according to some scholars, was one of the Valkyries of Norse myth. Interesting, huh? There’s also the fact that it seems a little too easy and obvious for Winter to get the powers. Not to mention, it would certainly be a very interesting choice for the story if the powers go to someone who is beginning to oppose Ironwood rather than his most trusted lieutenant. And if Nora does indeed become the Winter Maiden, the whole game changes. Atlas’ fate is suddenly going to pretty much be in the hands of this 19-year-old woman who isn’t looking to be a very big fan of Atlas right now and is already getting stressed enough as it is. I don’t actually know much about proper Norse mythology, but I know that, in the Marvel movie at least, it’s Thor himself who causes Ragnarök. Whether or not it’s the same in the actual folklore, I don’t know, but it’s definitely something to think about.

So yeah, there are a lot of possibilities surrounding Nora being from Mantle but now let’s talk about where she could be headed with these possibilities in mind. I think it’s clear at this point that she is regretting allying with Ironwood with each passing day. In the very first episode of Volume 7, she expressed her dry disappointment with the state Mantle’s in and she’s continued to do so as time’s gone on. We also know that she supports Robyn Hill and it’s been implied that she thinks she’s doing a much better job at helping people than Ironwood is. And then there’s Ren. Despite their kiss in episode 6, it’s clear that they’re still having problems, especially now that Ren’s showed a worrying amount of support towards Ironwood- it even seems to have surprised Ruby. With all this coming to a head, I don’t think Nora’s going to be staying with the team for long. Something’s going to happen, something like a huge argument or a break of her trust and it’s going to push her right to someone who she knows is doing the right thing- Robyn. After all, Nora expressed frustration with all the lies she and the others are having to keep in the very same episode Robyn’s Semblance was revealed to be the ability to know the truth. There’s also my personal headcanon of her, May and Joanna all being trans girls and bonding over it, but I’m not getting my hopes too high for that.

Honestly though, if Nora joins the Huntresses, I think it’ll be great, both inside the show and out. I personally don’t think that what Ironwood’s doing is a good idea at all, nor do I agree with his methods and I think Nora rebelling could be the push the others to do the same (especially since Yang and Blake have already done it a little bit). It could be the cause of some really interesting conflict and we could get a lot of character building. Would she leave in secret or make it very clear where she’s going? Would her friends be able go after her or will Ironwood insist that the Amity project is more important? Will Ren feeling deeply betrayed and angered or will it be the wake-up call he needs? The choice opens so many doors and if it’s the direction they take and I’m very much here for it

Then there’s Ren. I’ve already mentioned him several times in this post, so all I’m gonna say is that I don’t think their conflict will doom them, not at all. Ren and Nora have been best friends since they were young kids and were all each other had for the longest time. They’re not going to let this ruin their friendship after all they’ve been through together. And despite what I keep seeing people saying, I think episode 6 made it clear that Ren does return Nora’s romantic feelings and it’s all in the kiss. There’s no way he’d have reacted the way he did- wrapping his arms around her and staying in the kiss for several seconds- if he didn’t feel the same way. He’d have pulled away or at the very least looked uncomfortable with it. I honestly think that, once Ren realizes that how he’s acting is risking him losing her for good, he’ll come to his senses. Every friendship and every couple have their arguments but that doesn’t mean it has to end. I have faith that they’ll get through this, even if it takes a while.

So yeah, there’s all of my jumbled-together thoughts about Nora and where I think she could be headed. I actually didn’t get down quite all of what I wanted to say, but there’ll be time for that when I eventually make Nora’s episode of my ‘Why I Love’ series on YouTube, though that’ll definitely be after volume 7 in case anything more important happens with her. For now, I hope this satisfies you guys and gives you something to think about in the seven weeks (yes, seven- they’re taking a break after episode 8) that we have to go of Volume 7.

bye nerds

[lilacmoon83]

Finding You Always

Also on Fanfiction.net and A03

Chapter 217: Heathens

Pain and Panic did their due diligence and brought the two souls that their mistress had requested into her Throne room. They tossed the pair at her feet and she stared down at them.

"You have a couple of visitors," she said. Hera and Clayton looked up, only to see Zeus and Dione stood there with glares that would have frozen even a desert.

"You…" Hera hissed, as she glared at Dione.

"Give me one reason that I shouldn't cast you into Tartarus for everything you have done to my precious daughter?" Dione hissed.

"No reason at all, because the only thing I regret...is not causing her more pain! Had Seth not killed me, I would have made sure she lost James again…" Hera said deviously. Dione started to advance on her, but it was Zeus that held her back.

"She's not worth your time...you are so far above the likes of her," he said, as his attention turned to Clayton.

"But you...I'm starting to think that even death in eternal fire isn't good enough for you," he said. Clayton smirked, showing that his arrogance knew no bounds.

"I only ever tried to woo your daughter, Lord Zeus. I was captivated by her the moment I saw her," he confessed.

"You were captivated by the power of the chalice," he corrected.

"If she had agreed to be with me...and bore me a Demi-God son, we would have ruled the Earth together. I would have made sure she was showered with affection and gifts," Clayton said.

"She already had a true love and you pursued her anyway!" Dione said. He smirked again.

"What can I say? I'm a man that doesn't accept it when he is told no," Clayton replied.

"And that has sealed your fate, which you will meet once James and Aphrodite are able to confront you one last time," Zeus said. Clayton frowned, as his confidence wavered, for he knew that a very bleak eternity awaited him soon.

~*~

Flashback

"And this Black Fairy...you know not of her origin?" Zeus questioned.

"I am afraid not, my Lord...but she is definitely interested in your daughter's chalice and is livid that she cannot have it. I fear that she may try to harm Aphrodite," Blue replied.

"Then…I have no choice. She must come home to Mount Olympus. She can be protected here by Hephaestus," Zeus said gravely.

"Father...you cannot separate her from Anchises," Athena chided.

"It is not forever and he will concede for her safety, especially now that their child will also be in peril," he reasoned. Blue nodded.

"I'll go at once and retrieve them, my Lord," Blue said, as she disappeared.

~*~

She reappeared in the Enchanted Forest and the Black Fairy emerged from the trees.

"He suspects nothing?" she asked.

"No...he has no inkling that you and I were once one being. He has sent me to retrieve his unruly daughter. Now, you just need to follow and everything should go as planned," Blue said. The Black Fairy nodded, as Blue shrank down to her fairy form and the Black Fairy followed suit.

~*~

Aphrodite softly caressed her son's cheek, as she nursed him and felt his presence before she saw him. She smiled up at her husband, as he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead, while peering at their son.

"There's papa, little one," she cooed, as he finished nursing and she got a burp out of him. Anchises smiled and took their son, as they put him down in his bassinet together and looked over him. He put his arms around her and they gazed down at him for several moments.

"Sleep well, our little Eros," Aphrodite cooed, as they quietly exited his nursery and she immediately kissed him passionately. He smiled, as their lips parted.

"Well, hello to you too, my beautiful wife," he said.

"I missed you…" she replied.

"I was only a mile away in the fields," he said. She bit her bottom lip and then rested her head on his chest.

"I know...but even just a few hours is too much separation for me," she said.

"Me too," he agreed, as he surprised her and swept her into his arms. Their bliss was interrupted though by a knock at the door.

"Who could that be?" she wondered, as he placed her on her feet and they answered the door together.

"Blue...what are you doing here?" Aphrodite asked.

"I'm afraid I have terrible news...there is a great threat to you and your family," Blue replied, as she came inside.

"What kind of threat?" Anchises asked.

"There is a dark fairy. We do not know where she came from or who she is, but she wants the power of the chalice and she will do anything to force you to give it to her," Blue claimed.

"But it doesn't work that way. Unless you are deemed worthy by the chalice, you cannot touch it. Even I cannot modify that rule," Aphrodite protested.

"Yes, but you have a husband and a baby. She will use them to force you to use its power on her behalf if she has to," Blue replied.

"What do we do?" Anchises asked.

"Zeus wants you and the baby to come home to Olympus. It is the only way you can be protected from her," Blue replied.

"But...what about my husband?" Aphrodite asked.

"I'm afraid he'll have to stay behind. Mortals are not allowed on Mount Olympus," Blue replied.

"I'll not leave my husband…" Aphrodite protested.

"My love...this may be the only way you will be safe," Anchises said sadly, as she turned to him.

"No...no I can't be without you," she replied in anguish. He was about to plead with her that it was for her safety and the baby's, despite how painful it would be. But he didn't get the chance, as their door burst open, revealing a woman, dressed in black fairy garb. Aphrodite reacted immediately and blasted her with orange magic, but the Black Fairy batted her attack away like nothing. Aphrodite gasped, as her airway was restricted and with a wave of her hand, Fiona slammed her against the wall. Inky black tendrils came alive from the wall and wrapped around her, trapping her there.

"Aphrodite!" Anchises cried, as he grabbed his sword and tried to cut through the magical restraints. But when he could not break through, he attacked the Black Fairy instead.

"Anchises!" Aphrodite cried fearfully. The Black Fairy dodged his attacks, leaving an otherwise expert swordsman, shadowboxing. With a devious grin, she picked him up with her magic and threw him into the table, causing it to shatter and him to fall among the rubble.

"Anchises!" Aphrodite cried, as she sobbed uncontrollably. And she screamed, even louder, as her hand went into his chest and she extracted his heart. The baby started to cry and she waved her wand, as the child appeared in her arms.

"Ohhh...a Demi-God. Grandson of Zeus himself...you will do perfectly well for what I have planned," she said.

"No...no, my baby!" Aphrodite cried.

"My baby now…" Fiona hissed, as she crushed Anchises heart into diamond dust, gave Blue a quick glance, and then disappeared with the child. Her restraints disappeared and Aphrodite let out a gut wrenching scream, as she collapsed beside her dead husband and cradled him in her arms.

"You led her right to us!" Aphrodite cried, as her eyes burned with pain.

"I...I didn't mean to," Blue lied.

"Yes...yes you did! I sensed her energy...it's the same as yours!" Aphrodite accused.

"She was a part of you once, wasn't she?" the blonde accused. Blue smirked.

"You are definitely smarter than we give you credit for, but it makes no difference, because you won't remember this," Blue replied.

"Why...why would you do this? You let her kill my husband and steal my baby!" Aphrodite sobbed.

"You still don't get it...none of this would have happened if you had just given me power over the chalice," Blue responded.

"You did this because of my mother's chalice!?" Aphrodite cried, but she was zapped with Blue's wand and lost consciousness instead of getting an answer. With her wand, she carefully extracted the parts of Aphrodite's memory where she had realized the truth about herself and Fiona, leaving only the pain, and then roughed herself up to make for a good show, as Zeus and Athena arrived.

"What...what happened?" Athena asked, as she helped Blue up.

"It was horrible...I tried to stop her, but the Black Fairy got the better of me," she said, as she watched Zeus cradle his daughter.

"I am afraid she killed the mortal and stole your grandson, my Lord. I am so sorry that I could not stop her," Blue offered. And somehow, Zeus knew she would never be the same. Athena looked at her half sister and frowned, as she used magic to evaluate her.

"What is it?" Zeus asked, as she did the same with Anchises.

"They have been cursed," Athena said, as she revealed a black lightning bolt marking on both their hands, which was only visible with magic.

"A curse?" Zeus asked.

"It is a rare curse and can only be enacted with dark fairy dust. It preys on true love and twists it into something that will only cause pain," Athena said gravely, as Blue smirked deviously at their turned backs.

"When a true love couple is cursed with this...it means they shall be reborn time and again, find each other, only for their love to be ended violently, ensuring a cycle of pain. In this case, Anchises will be reborn and find Aphrodite in whatever life he is living. The curse will blind her from remembering that he was once Anchises and she will never realize that each time she finds true love that it is her first and only true love, just in a new life," Athena declared.

"Can the curse be broken?" Zeus asked.

"Only when they are aware of all their lives together, but that is why this curse is nearly unbreakable. Aphrodite will remember Anchises, but each time after this that she finds him, her memory will be wiped once she loses him. And he will always return, cleansed of any memory of his previous lives. Only when they are both able to retain their memories can the cycle be broken," Athena replied.

"I want the Black Fairy found! She will undo this horror she has wrought upon my daughter!" he ordered. Blue bowed.

"I will not rest until I find her, my Lord," Blue lied, as she disappeared.

"She will be inconsolable when she awakens. We must prepare a burial for her beloved and then see her through her mourning," Athena said. Zeus felt helpless. He was the supreme God of the skies, yet even with all his power, he could not spare his beloved daughter of this pain and any future pain she would endure.

"Prepare the burial...then we will return to Olympus. Aphrodite will be coming home with us," he said.

"And the baby?" Athena asked.

"I want every available God searching for him...alert Hermes to what has happened immediately. She has the best chance of finding him," Zeus replied.

~*~

Rose sighed deeply, as she looked up from the book, having just read about the moment Aphrodite lost Anchises and had her baby ripped away.

"Mom!" Ben and Ari called, as they ran into the library, with their father and older sister following them.

"Wow…I didn't realize it was so late in the day already. How was today's training to be Knights?" she asked, as she hugged them both.

"The best! I beat Ben in a spar!" Ari boasted.

"You got lucky," Ben protested.

"Did not!" Ari protested.

"Did too," Ben argued.

"All right...what have we said when it comes to winning and losing?" Rose asked.

"Gracious people are humble whether they win or lose," Ari replied.

"And?" she asked. Ben sighed.

"And we learn more from losing than from winning," he added.

"Very good...now go wash up for dinner. The palace chef will likely have dinner ready soon," she said, as they ran off and Carina followed them, as Fandral leaned down to kiss her tenderly.

"A sad part in the book?" he asked, as she shifted so he could sit in the chair with her and she cuddled against him.

"Yes...and I can't imagine how she got through it. If I lost you and our children...I'd be broken beyond repair," she replied.

"Well, though you are stronger than you know, I promise you will not lose me or the children, my darling Rose," he promised.

"And Aphrodite will have her happy ending. Though her past may be sad, I have no doubt that she and James will see their way through this and come out stronger in the end," he added. She smiled.

"Me too...and now that Blue is behind bars where she belongs, they can have justice," Rose said, as they stood up and joined hands.

"Do you think she'll receive a life sentence?" she asked.

"Well, if this were Asgard, she would be tried in a military tribunal and receive a death sentence for a charge such as treason, let alone murder," he replied.

"But Snow and David will likely try her in a royal tribunal and though they will probably not seek the death penalty, as most royals would, I doubt they will show much more mercy than that. I think it is safe to say that the remainder of her years will be in a cell," he surmised, as they made their way to the dining hall to have evening meal with their children.

~*~

"I cannot believe this! If it is the last thing I do...I will make them pay," Malina Pizarro complained, as the four of them sat in the cramped brig of the Jolly Roger.

"At least you have not been betrayed by your own flesh and blood," Thalia countered.

"Yes…I must say my so-called girlfriend sold us out in record time. I guess that Charming blood in her veins is more powerful than your bloodline," Johnny countered.

"I come from a bloodline of royals, blessed by Hera herself," Thalia hissed back. He smirked.

"The Charming line is blessed by Aphrodite...she was far more revered than Hera ever was," Johnny replied.

"Watch your tongue…" she warned.

"Bloodlines are irrelevant. Believe me, I've seen beneath the skin and the blood is all red. But he's right about one thing," Dr. LaGuerra stated.

"That Charming bloodline is special...because magic. Oh the experiments I could do with access to that magical blood. Just thinking about sinking my scalpel into that flesh gives me goosebumps," he added.

"Well, on that disturbing note...I need a drink. Too bad all they'll give us is water," Malina said, as she shook the bars.

"Hey...stupid cops! Hey! You haven't given us any water or food for hours!" she cried. But there was no answer and she huffed in annoyance and only heard some noise above deck.

~*~

"I can't believe this...six years as a Baltimore cop, three as a detective, and four more as a trained FBI agent and I'm back to guard duty," Agent Brooks complained. Agent Green snorted.

"Believe me...I'm still seething over it," she said, as she looked over a file.

"What's that?" he asked.

"Just "agent" Nolan's file on his casework," she replied.

"Why are you reading that?" he asked curiously.

"Because for someone like Major General Patricia Donovan to give him complete free reign over this entire operation suggests that there is at least some validity to his skills. I like to know who I'm working with," she answered.

"Yeah, are we sure his record during the last two years is legit?" he asked.

"I wondered the same, but all these cases check out in the system. Guess Prince Charming just has a knack for finding scumbags," she replied.

"I still don't see how he is more qualified than us," he said, as they heard a whining sound and looked over the bow.

"What the hell…" Agent Brooks uttered.

"What are they?" Agent Green asked of the creatures, as Agent Brooks drew his gun. But it would be the final thing he ever did, as one of the creatures used a blaster and a blue beam of energy shot straight through his chest, as he dropped dead on the deck with a smoking hole in his chest.

"Oh my God!" she cried, as she unloaded an entire clip at the strange looking people, but was shocked to find that they had bluish shields. One of them chucked its spear-like weapon at her and she hit the floor, as the wound in her belly slowly bled and she could only watch them go below deck.

"Sir...there are prisoners down here," one of the goblin-like men called.

"These ones may be useful. We'll let the Commander decide their fate," the lead soldier said, as the four prisoners were led away by the oddly deformed looking people.

~*~

Snow and Charming willed the chalice into their individual weapons, while the others readied with magic and their weapons as well. Two young men ran in from the jungle frantically.

"They are coming! The Mu are attacking!" they warned.

"Everyone to their battle posts!" the Queen ordered, as her personal guard readied their weapons to defend their Queen.

"Charming…" Snow whispered.

"We'll defeat whoever is in that jungle," he assured.

"I know...I love you," she said.

"I love you too...that's why we'll win," he promised, as he kissed her quickly, before their enemies made their entrance. And they were definitely not what they expected. They tried to never judge anyone based solely on their appearance, but the beings in front of them were astonishing to look at.

Their eyes were all a sickly yellow or green color and sunken back in their heads, disturbingly so. They were heavily armed too, though that was likely because they were skin and bones. Their ears looked deformed and pointed, while their cheeks were sunken as well and they were all bald.

"Whoa...they were kidding about the deformities," Leo commented.

"Normally, I'd chide you having no tact, but when you're right, you're right," Eva said.

"Have you ever seen anything like this? I mean medically?" Belle asked. She shook her head.

"No...but then I've never actually seen or treated anyone with radiation poisoning," Eva replied.

"So...the chalice of Venus has new champions at last. The Children of the Sun have returned," one of them said, as he stepped forward. They were all wearing what appeared to be a military-type uniform, but this one definitely seemed to be the leader.

"We prefer truest loves," David interjected and the man nodded.

"As you wish. No matter...you will lead us to Cibola. We need it to stabilize our reactor," he stated.

"We've come only to secure the Dragon Queen's heritage. She wishes for Cibola to be protected. It is her legacy and belongs to her descendants," Snow reasoned.

"Pity...then it seems you will have to be forced to cooperate," the man said, as he motioned to his army and they raised their weapons.

"So much for peaceful negotiations," David quipped, as he blocked an arrow that was volleyed their way.

"You're going to have to do better than arrows against us," Emma commented.

"Oh they will...the arrows are just a distraction. Those blasters on them are the real danger," David warned. The Commander smirked.

"You know your weaponry well. I once got the esteemed pleasure of dueling a master warrior like the Dragon King. Shall we see if you compare?" Kiyun asked. David stepped forward and drew his sword and the commander charged him.

~*~

Snow looked on, as a female warrior approached her and drew a sword.

"I'm Lauda...and our Queen is very interested in meeting the successor to the great Dragon Queen. She was a formidable warrior in her own right. Let's see if you are the same, shall we fair one?" she asked, as Snow willed the chalice to take the form of a sword.

"Careful...because you may have just bitten off more than you can chew," Snow warned, as they engaged in a duel of their own.

~*~

Emma stood before the rest of the army with her siblings flanking her. A few of them had broken off here and there to fight the others, but the bulk of the army remained before them.

"Something tells me they almost want to see our powers," Eva commented.

"Then let's show them…" Emma replied. Bobby disappeared beneath the ground and burrowed beneath the soldiers, before shooting up from the ground with a quake that threw many of them off their feet. Summer volleyed bubbles at their arrows, harmlessly deflecting them and then doused them with a water blast. Leo let the lightning flow through his arms and into his palms, devastating their soldiers. Emma and Eva finished off the soldiers in their path with Savior magic and wind power.

"Well, well...looks like we're just in time to join the fight," Johnny said, as they arrived.

"How the hell did you get free?" Emma questioned. He smirked.

"These fine soldiers freed us and we have joined their cause so I can have revenge on everyone that has dared to betray me," he said, as he glanced at Natalie.

"You're up against a lot of magic users, so we're ready for whatever you've got," Leo retorted. He chuckled.

"Oh I'm so glad you said that," he said, as he pressed a button on his watch.

"I've been itching to try out this new weapon my techs have created," he said, as his arms glowed and seemed to take on a steel-like appearance.

"Steel skin…" he boasted, as Regina lofted a fireball at him and it hit his forearm. He smirked, as he withstood the heat and the fireball fizzled out.

"Oh crap...he can nullify magic," Leo warned, as they prepared to battle him.

~*~

For someone that looked malnourished, Charming quickly found that he had plenty of fighting prowess, as he threw himself into the battle with an aggressive style. But it was nothing David wasn't able to keep up with, as he parried every strike and blow with his own blade.

"Impressive…I daresay the Dragon King had little on you," Kiyun stated.

"Then you'll be really surprised when I actually go on the offensive," David countered, as he made several swift moves and Kiyun began to shadowbox. Unfortunately, Snow's blood curdling scream pierced through him like a blade and he kicked Kiyun away.

"SNOW!" he cried, as he rushed to her.

~*~

Snow dueled Louda, who like her male counterpart, was a formidable warrior, despite her malnourished appearance. But unsurprisingly, Snow held her own and even challenged the clearly seasoned warrior.

"Yes...you are definitely a warrior and not just a pretty face," Louda complimented.

"Guess you'll get to tell your Queen how I rate compared to the Dragon Queen," Snow retorted, as she blocked several slashes from the other woman.

"Oh no, fair one...she wishes to see you for herself," she warned.

"Not going to happen," Snow refuted, as she slashed at the other woman, but she sidestepped Snow and pulled out another weapon that looked like a nightstick. But it extended into a long pole and with one touch to the small of Snow's back, an incredible electro-magnetic pulse caused her excruciating pain and she cried out in agony.

"SNOW!" David cried, as he kicked Kiyun away and barreled toward his wife, catching her as she fell to the sand.

"Just as we knew you would," Kiyun said, as David suddenly saw two round, robot-like devices in the sky, encircling them. Black netting shot forth from the devices and captured them both inside.

"Mom! Dad!" Emma cried. Bobby reacted quickly and burrowed beneath the ground, popping up within the confines of the netting with his parents.

"Bobby...no, you need to get out of here," David stressed.

"Not without you and mom," he replied, as he prepared to use his powers to escape the netting with them. But the net became alive with electricity. David and Bobby cried out, as they were rendered unconscious.

"Let them go!" Xander cried, as he barreled toward them, but was blocked by the remaining soldiers.

"We have what the Queen wants," Kiyun said.

"She wanted all of the offspring too," Louda reminded him.

"We have one...it will be sufficient for now," Kiyun replied, as a large ship soared through the sky and stopped above them. A transport ray engulfed the two of them, their remaining soldiers, transporting them onto the ship, along with Snow, David, and Bobby, as well as Johnny and his crew.

"No!" Summer cried, as she tried to run toward the beam, but JJ wisely held her back.

"That was their whole plan this entire time. They'll force Snow and David to open the gates to Cibola for them," Regina said worriedly.

"Then we go to that stupid mountain and we stop them!" Xander cried.

"No...it's a foregone conclusion that they will dangle Bobby's life in front of them. Snow and David will do what they want, as any parent would," Rumple reasoned.

"Then what? We just give up?" Natalie asked. He side-eyed her.

"No one in this bunch even knows what it is to "give up" as you say, nor entertains it," he corrected.

"Exactly...he's saying that instead of going to that mountain, we head them off at the pass," Robin said. Rumple nodded.

"We make our way to the gates ourselves and this time, we'll be ready for round two of a fight they won't win again," Regina agreed.

"Your Majesty...do you know where the gates to Cibola lay?" Eva asked. Queen Nubia nodded and turned toward the setting sun.

"Where the sun touches the horizon, there is an island. The half moon island, for it is in the shape of a crescent. On that island rests the gates to Cibola. The island is said to be rife with treachery," the Queen warned.

"Doesn't matter...we have magic to protect us and we have to save our parents and little brother," Emma replied. The Queen nodded.

"Be safe…" she said.

"Let's get back to the Jolly Roger," Hook said, as they headed for the beach.

~*~

Flashback

When Aphrodite awoke, she had memory of the Black Fairy killing her beloved and taking her baby. Her father and Athena informed her that Hermes was searching the realms for Eros, but had yet to yield any results. They had a funeral for Anchises and then she cried for months in mourning of her beloved and their son.

Her father was extremely protective of her and had forbade her to leave Olympus. For the first few months, she didn't disobey, but eventually, she found herself fleeing in search of solace in nature, but that didn't last long.

During her period of mourning, her father, in his anger, had punished Sirius Clayton by striking him down with a lightning bolt for trying to deceive her. His consort, Beryl, had sworn revenge and soon tried to take it out on Aphrodite's charges.

They warred for months in Thebes, as Beryl led a criminal sect to try and take over the city. Aphrodite soon joined her charges and aided them in a final battle to defeat Beryl. She was banished to a remote island, where it was rumored that she gave birth to Sirius' son.

Serenity and Endymion were crowned King and Queen of Thebes and it entered a new age. The old name seemed to be plagued by its criminal past so they renamed it the Crystal Kingdom and reigned benevolently.

Aphrodite returned to Olympus and endured a worried lecture from Zeus and insistence that she marry Hephaestus for her own protection. She kindly declined Hephaestus' proposal, ensuring him that he was a wonderful man, but she couldn't marry for anything less than love.

After an argument with her father, she left Olympus again and created a small cottage for herself outside the Crystal Kingdom and spent most of her days in the garden and surrounding forest.

Her first charges ruled for centuries and she saw them through many battles, until their reign ended and they passed into Elysian and she returned the chalice to Olympus until there was another spark.

Despite searching thousands of realms, Hermes was unable to find Eros and Aphrodite mourned her lost child. It was an ache that would never fade, just as the pain of losing Anchises never would as well.

She had long ago resigned herself to the realization that she would likely spend the rest of her life alone; that she would never find true love twice. It was shortly after that acceptance that she met Adonis and he proved her wrong.

~*~

Snow awoke to pitch blackness before her eyes and immediately her breathing quickened, until it was coming in ragged gasps. She was laying on something that felt like a cot or bench and she slowly sat up. She knew David wasn't in the room, for she couldn't feel him nearby, which terrified her. Her half of the chalice, in sword form lay next to her and she picked it up when she heard a noise.

"Who's there?" she called with a quiver in her voice, as the lights went up in the room and she saw a woman sitting before her upon a Throne. She looked much like the other Mu people. Sunken eyes and cheeks, yellowing irises around sickly green eyes, rail thin and probably balding, though this woman wore a headdress, not unlike the Queen of Hiva did.

"I am Omaru, Queen of the Mu and I am told that you are called Snow White. A very appropriate name it would seem," the woman said.

"Where is my husband?" Snow demanded to know. She smirked.

"Causing quite a ruckus from his cell...he is very virile," the Queen mentioned.

"I want to see him," the raven haired beauty demanded.

"In good time...I must say, you are both quite impressive. The Goddess Venus has chosen well. Your rectitude and exploits are impressive and now you have come to save my people," she said.

"Charming and I would never not help people in need, but I know you don't have good intentions for the gold you seek. You have poisoned your people with radiation, if my daughter is correct, and now you are poisoning us," Snow refuted.

"We have made great sacrifices in our health for the greater good, I agree. But it is a sacrifice my people willingly make for the glory that should be ours. And you and your husband are quite protected, I assure you. The Chalice has seen to that," the Queen responded. It was then that Snow noticed a protective glow around her person and realized that once again, the Chalice demonstrated a power that almost seemed sentient when it came to knowing when they needed protection.

"Charming and I are not going to help you stabilize your reactor so you can use the power to take over the world or something," Snow warned. The Queen smirked.

"I think you will," she replied.

"I have studied the legends surrounding the children of the sun for many years," the Queen said.

"Truest loves...we prefer truest loves," Snow corrected.

"Very well...alas, the Goddess Venus has always chosen well. Her first charges defeated many evils and sired one daughter, who was born with magic," she said.

"The Dragon Queen and her King had more trouble with the people around them and ultimately paid that price, though managed to sire one child as well," she continued.

"But you and your Prince...you have not only defeated more evil than your predecessors combined...you have also sired five magical children, all with unique abilities," she added.

"If you touch my children...I'll kill you," Snow hissed. The Queen let out a cackle.

"Never poke a mama bear," she goaded.

"But don't worry...your son is quite safe. Dr. LaGuerra is just doing a little examination. The youngest one is very intriguing," Omaru said. Snow's blood ran cold, as an image appeared on the screen above her.

"Bobby…" she cried.

"It appears the chalice is protecting him from the radiation, though this particular lab is further in vicinity from the reactor," she said.

"What are they doing to my son!?" Snow demanded to know.

"Don't worry...my people are simply curious about his power and are examining his blood. I told the Dr. that none of his usual experiments would be tolerated. We're well aware of what the Dr. used to do in the Collector's employ," Omaru said.

"You knew about Clayton?" Snow asked. The Queen nodded.

"He knew Cibola was here. It was one of the many reasons he was so determined to have the Chalice. Is it true that he came so very close upon the collapse of Atlantis?" she asked. Snow gave her a hard stare.

"Yes…I suppose you don't like to speak about the moment when you had to crush your beloved heart. The split heart...it is fascinating. My scientists are chomping at the bit to examine you both, as is the doctor," she replied.

"All in good time. But first...perhaps you'd like a tour of my grand mountain and the future you will help us envision," she added.

"All I want is my husband and my son!" Snow snapped, as the door slid open.

"I swear...if you don't take me to my wife now, I'm going to knock your bald heads together so hard that they'll crack like eggs!" David shouted, as he struggled with the shackles on his wrists.

"I'm sorry, my Queen, but we had to restrain him. He is quite strong...and uncooperative," two of the soldiers said. They seemed to be quite intimidated by her husband and rightfully so. The Commander behind them, Kiyun, she recalled, and his right hand, Louda, seemed unbothered.

"Charming!" she called and it came as no surprise, as he knocked the two subordinates away and ran to her.

"Oh Snow…" he called back, as she picked up her sword and it glowed, unlocking the chains. They fell away and he swept her into his arms, before kissing her passionately.

"Charming…" she breathed, as she cupped his face and he put one arm around her waist, while drawing his chalice sword from his hip.

"One step and we'll use the full power of the chalice on you," he threatened.

"No...you won't or I'll allow Dr. LaGuerra and my scientists to conduct whatever experiments they'd like on your son," the Queen warned. It was then that David saw their son locked in the exam chair on screen and looked into his wife's tearful eyes.

He realized at that moment that they were going to easily acquire access to Cibola by holding the well being of their youngest child above them. David sheathed his sword and held Snow close.

"Now for that tour...then we will board my royal vessel, the Solaris, and you will open the gates of Cibola for me," Omaru said, as they saw Louda and Kiyun behind them. With arms around each other, they followed the Queen into the corridor.

Though this place was a mountain on the outside, the inside was man made, with stark, metal walls and floors. They came to a set of winding stone steps that seemed to descend into the underground and Snow shivered.

"You want us to go down there?" David asked.

"Afraid?" Kiyun challenged and the prince glared at him.

"Hardly...we've been to hell, after all and I promise you that by the end of this, you'll be visiting there too. But you won't get to come back like we did," David promised ominously. Kiyun chuckled.

"I look forward to the rematch, Your Highness," he said, as they followed the Queen down the winding staircase.

~*~

Flashback

"I do not know why I let you talk me into coming to this thing," Aphrodite complained, as she shifted her soft pink ball gown.

"Because you're practically a hermit these days and the Queen of Cyprus invited me. I owe them a great deal, being that they managed to save so many books and scrolls from the fire at Alexandria. They can now be added to the eternal library in the Andresia realm," Hermes responded, as she pulled her along in her baby blue ball gown.

"I am not a hermit," Aphrodite protested.

"Besides me, how many people do you talk to on a weekly basis?" Hermes questioned.

"I talk to a lot of people," she huffed.

"Zeus doesn't count and neither do the people in the crystal kingdom where you buy goods," Hermes refuted.

"Fine...at least these parties usually have good wine," she complained.

"Queen Myrrha...thank you again for giving me the texts saved from the library at Alexandria. You are truly doing a great deed in helping me preserve all stories," Hermes said, as the Queen bowed to the Goddess.

"It is my honor, Goddess," the Queen said.

"This is my niece...the Goddess Aphrodite," Hermes said, as the Queen bowed again.

"It is an honor to have you both in attendance. I was hoping that my unruly son would find an eligible woman that he is interested in courting, but judging by his disgust at this whole thing, it is not to be. At least we can save this event by presenting the rescued manuscripts to you," the Queen said, as a handsome young man stormed up to her Throne.

"That's it, mother...I detest these balls!" he said hotly.

"Adonis...you will be crowned King of Cyprus soon. You must find a Queen," Myrrha chided.

"Exactly...do you think any of them are really interested in me? Or just my title. It's like being thrown to wolves," he complained. Myrrha chuckled.

"I think you are being a little dramatic, my son. But you are a handsome prince and that is why every eligible woman within a hundred mile radius has come to our city," she reminded him.

"I understand my duties to the crown, mother...but can I not find my own Queen? Can I not marry for love?" he asked.

"I would love that for you, my son...but you know that is not always a luxury we have as royals," Myrrha said.

"Forgive me, Queen Myrrha, as I know it is not my place, but allowing him to marry for love would be one of the greatest things you could do for you for your Kingdom. I watched true love free the city of Thebes from lawlessness and create the prosperous Crystal Kingdom it is today," Aphrodite interjected, as his blue eyes met her green ones.

"And it is my hope that my son can marry for love...but the court will soon demand that he marry," the Queen said.

"Of course...forgive me, I didn't mean to intrude," Aphrodite said, as she excused herself and found the wine table. She grabbed a glass and downed the liquid in two gulps, before she heard a chuckling behind her.

"My, my...I always did admire a woman that can drink a man under the table," a voice said and she turned to find a dark haired man standing there with a smirk.

"I'm sorry...you are?" she asked.

"You don't know me...but you knew my parents. I am John Clayton, son of Sirius Clayton...the infamous Collector," he replied.

"My apologies," she drawled, as she reached for another glass, but he grabbed her arm.

"You are responsible for my father's death...I never met him, because of you," he hissed. She raised her hand and called on her magic, but felt nothing in her fingertips. That's when she noticed a peculiar looking black cuff on her wrist.

"A magic suppressing device...an very useful item from my father's vast collection, which I inherited," he boasted.

"You're mine now, Goddess. You are coming with me and you will use the Chalice to do my bidding," he hissed, as his eyes raked over her beautiful form.

"And you will bear me a Demi-God son...my bloodline is very deserving of God blood and I will have it from you," he growled. She responded by kneeing him in the groin and he growled in pain, as he doubled over. The entire room stopped when he backhanded her across the face. Hermes moved in with the intention to blast this man with her magic, but Adonis beat her to the punch. The Prince grabbed John by the collar and punched him in the face, before tossing him away.

"Guards...throw this trash out!" he ordered, as his men obeyed his command and dragged him away.

"You haven't seen the last of me, Goddess! I will have you...and the Chalice!" he ranted, as he was carried away.

"Are you okay, Goddess?" Adonis asked, as he took her hand and she practically felt the electricity between them.

"Y...yes, thank you, Prince Adonis. My father will smile on your Kingdom for defending me," she promised, as Hermes waved her hand over the cuff, but it didn't come off.

"It's resistant to my magic. We must see your father...it may require his power to remove it. He'll be livid...I'd say another Clayton has signed his death warrant," Hermes said. Aphrodite nodded, but could barely tear her eyes away from her handsome rescuer, who was unlike most royals she had encountered.

"Thank you again, Your Highness," she said, as he bowed to her.

"It was my honor, Goddess," he replied, as her Hermes led her away in a daze.

~*~

When they reached the bowels of the mountain, they were brought before the reactor and were stunned to see what it really was.

"It's a giant crystal…" Snow said.

"You're running a nuclear reactor with a giant crystal and you wonder why there's radiation," David deadpanned.

"Do not speak of our ways as if they are crude or archaic!" Louda snapped.

"Our crystal reactor is magnificent and it will change the world once we can stabilize it with the treasure of Cibola," the Queen informed them.

"Or destroy it," Snow countered, but her comment was ignored.

"Uh...why is it glowing red?" David asked with trepidation.

"This is one of our problems...our cooling system is not adequate. With gold, this problem will be corrected," Kiyun said.

"Quickly...turned on the cooling system!" Louda ordered, as one worker began turning manual water valves. They watched the water flow through the man made cooling system and it started to help, but the crystal still glowed an ominous red.

"Quickly...increase the water flow! Open more valves!" Kiyun yelled with urgency. But it was too late and one of the control panels caught fire. The poor worker that was manning that station was engulfed in flames and screamed in agony.

"Oh God…" Snow cried, as she turned away from the gruesome scene, burying her face in David's chest. The man's cries were hard to take, at least for them, as the others seemed unbothered.

"What are you doing!? Help him!" David implored, but the flames only faded when the poor man's cries ceased and his charred body fell to the floor. The extra valves cooled the crystal and it returned to its normal bluish color.

"Clean that up," the Queen said, unbothered by the carnage of the charred man that had just literally burned to death before them.

"They're monsters…" Snow cried, as she sobbed against him and he held her tightly.

"I want our son now!" David demanded.

"Do not worry...it is time to depart for half moon island. Your son will, of course, be accompanying us," Omaru said, as they were forced to follow along and endure this madness...

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

So in Uncanny X-Men 362 Pyro gets taken into custody by SHIELD, after getting chased across Nebraska by a sentient Cerebro (or something, that story didn’t make much sense).  He’s in bad shape - unconscious and “barely breathing.”  Next time we see Pyro he’s free again (in Cable 87, where he dies), but there’s no explanation as to how he escaped SHIELD.  Given his condition, I’m guessing he had help. So I wrote an extremely self-indulgent ficlet about Avalanche breaking Pyro out of SHIELD custody and having a lot of feelings about it. 

Toad had been the one who found him.  The man could hack, and he was smarter than Magneto had ever given him credit for.  At least, he was when he wasn’t completely lost in his own mind.  Toad hadn’t been especially well when the Brotherhood was keeping Xavier captive, and he still wasn’t making much sense, but Avalanche had patiently and firmly pushed him until he got results.  It was the least the Brotherhood could do, as far as Dominic was concerned.  Johnny had gotten dragged into all that weird bullshit with Xavier and some kind of mutant-scanning robot (at least that’s how Blob had described it all later), and he wasn’t even really with the Brotherhood these days, but that hadn’t stopped him from getting run down like a rabbit in fucking Nebraska, of all places.  And the X-Men, true to form, hadn’t actually done a damn thing to help him, just tried to pick a fight.  

               At least he wasn’t dead.  From the SHIELD records, he’d come pretty close, because that’s what happened when someone as desperately sick as Johnny got terrorized and chased around until he burned out and collapsed from exhaustion.  He hadn’t been robbing banks or going on a Brotherhood raid, he was just trying to get away from a damn robot, and now he was barely alive and in SHIELD custody.  Thanks for nothing, X-Men.  

But whatever. Avalanche could take matters into his own hands.  Especially since they were holding Pyro at one of their ground facilities, not up on the Helicarrier.  No one else in the Brotherhood was willing to stick their necks out, on the basis that Pyro was “a goner, anyway,” but Toad had gotten him schematics of the building, and even the exact room.

               It was a fairly simple plan.  Avalanche had never been much of a planner; he preferred others to take the lead.  He didn’t feel especially bad about it, he just knew his place as a hired thug.  Being in charge was too much of a hassle – he’d only had to make the hard calls once, and he never wanted to be in that position again.  But he was on his own here, so he had to be the thinker and the muscle all rolled into one. He created a diversion by shaking up the east wing of the building, collapsing several rooms.  There were probably casualties, and he absolutely did not give a damn.  It was all a distraction, while he came through a tunnel in the earth right up into the room where they were keeping Pyro.

               And he was alone with two doctors, not an armed guard in sight. Even better.  Avalanche turned to the door and make a quick motion that brought a sheet of solid rock up between himself, and the guards that were probably on the other side of the door.

               “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”  Avalanche turned to find a heavyset Asian woman glaring at him, hands on hips, as if he was a naughty child to be scolded instead of a man who could crush her in the earth.  The white lab-coat identified her as a doctor, while a man in similar attire was pressed back against the wall, eying Avalanche with fear.  Good.  Sensible, and unlikely to make trouble.

               “I’m getting’ my friend out of here,” said Avalanche shortly. “And if you’re smart, you’ll step back out of the way.”  

               Strapped down in what looked like a standard hospital bed, Johnny had somehow gotten even thinner than the last time he’d seen him, his blond hair lank across a scarred, pale face.  Pyro had opened his eyes at the sound of Dominic’s entrance, but they were dull and uncomprehending, and slowly closed again despite the alarms blaring through the building.  Avalanche reached out and patted him on the cheek, wincing at the heat.

               “Johnny, can you hear me, man?”  The eyes opened again, staring up at Dominic without a hint of recognition.  The Virus had turned Pyro into a walking skeleton, lesions covering a face that had once been reasonably handsome (probably better looking than most of the Brotherhood, in Dominic’s judgement), but that lack of comprehension was somehow worse to see.  He’d spent the last several months watching his clever, quick-witted friend slowly become confused and forgetful, occasionally slipping completely into a fog of delirium. Like he was being worn away, bit by bit.          

               “I wouldn’t expect him to respond.  He hasn’t been fully conscious the past couple of days, but his vitals are better than when they brought him in,” said the woman.  Avalanche glanced up at her, also taking in the machines SHIELD had hooked Pyro up to.  

               “That can’t be right, can it?”  He pointed at a temperature readout that seemed to indicate that Johnny was currently roasting at about 126°F.  

               “It is,” said the male doctor hesitantly.  “It was even higher earlier.  His file shows he has increased resistance to heat, otherwise….” He threw up his hands.  “Well, a normal person would already be dead.”

               “Johnny ain’t exactly a normal person.  Neither am I.”  Avalanche felt a weird sort of pride at how fiercely Pryo had clung to life for so many months, staying on his feet long after most people would have just given up. He reached down and started unbuckling restraints.  Johnny was at least in a proper bed with an IV in one arm, but there were about a dozen straps holding him down, with both wrists shackled on either side.  And a power-suppressing collar around his neck, of course, can’t be too careful with the mutant who is at death’s door, right?  

              The woman reached for something, and Avalanche grabbed her wrist hard enough to bruise.  She winced and froze.

               “Let’s not, okay?  I’m taking him out of here.  I don’t like to hit women, but I damn well will if you get in my way.”

               “Lynn, it’s not worth it,” said the man, putting a hand on the woman’s other arm and trying to pull her back.

               “Listen to him,” said Avalanche.  “You ain’t gonna miss one criminal, and he’s in no condition to do any damage anyway.  I’m sure your bosses will understand.”  Lynn glared at Dominic, but stepped back as he released her wrist.

               “You say you’re his friend?  Why are you doing this?  We’re not just keeping him in custody, we’re giving him medical treatment that he desperately needs.  Do you not understand how sick he is?”

               “Lady, I know!” Dominic snarled.  “I’ve been watching him waste away for months!”  

               “So why won’t you let us help him?”  Avalanche froze for a moment, his eyes flicking down involuntarily to the figure in the bed.  It wasn’t, he had to admit, the horrific image he’d imagined of Pyro strapped to a metal table (possibly vivisected), or dying slowly in a cold, bare holding cell. He wouldn’t put anything past government stooges; they’d proven themselves capable of horrors time and time again.  He knew, having been one of them.  But restraints aside, maybe this wasn’t the worst thing, for Johnny to actually be tucked into bed getting some god damn rest and nutrients instead of running himself ragged, eating infrequently and never enough.  

               “What do you mean when you say ‘help’?  Can you actually help him?  Do you have some kind of miracle cure in your back pocket or what?” The two doctors looked at each other, and Avalanche leaned forward, grabbing the man by the collar.  He was obviously the one who’d scare more easily.

               “Don’t bullshit me, understand?”  He gave the male doctor a shake.  “If you can save him, I’ll let you.  But if I leave him here, and he dies, I’m coming back for both of your heads.”

               “We-we can’t guarantee….his condition is….we’re doing everything we can-“ the man stammered.

               “We don’t have a cure,” Lynn cut in bluntly.  “And we probably won’t have a cure in time for your friend.  But we’re doing what we can.  We’re making him comfortable.  And from what we learn studying the disease in him, maybe we can help others – “

               “No!”  Avalanche snapped.  “He’s not gonna be your lab rat.  He didn’t wanna die in a hospital, and he’s sure as hell not gonna die with fucking SHIELD poking at him.”  He let go of the male doctor, and continued to undo the straps with quick, angry movements. After a moment, Lynn came forward again, reaching for Pyro’s arm.  Dominic put a hand up waving her back.

               “Don’t –“

               “I’m not going to stop you.  I know I can’t.  But if you’re determined to do this, let me get the needle out of his arm properly before you just start yanking on tubes.”  The look Lynn gave him reminded Dominic of Helen in her fiercer moments.  He always did like a woman that wasn’t afraid to stand up to him.

               “Fine.  Don’t try anything funny.”  

               “Believe me, there’s nothing funny about any of this.”

               “You’re making a mistake, “ said the male doctor, now sounding more sad than frightened.  “If you take him out of here, he’s just going to die faster.  And he’ll be in pain.  You’re not helping him.”        

               “He’ll die wherever he is.  Least he’ll be with friends and not strangers.”  Avalanche slid his hands under Pyro’s knees and back, and hoisted him easily into his arms, letting the sick man’s head rest against his shoulder. Christ, he weighted next to nothing, and he was so impossibly hot.  Pyro groaned softly, and Avalanche looked down to see that his eyes were open again.  

               “You with me, Johnny?”  Pyro’s response was unintelligible, but his eyes were aware, and he was focused on Dominic’s face, actually looking at him.  Avalanche hesitated again, despite hearing the alarms still wailing through the wall of stone, knowing that he needed to be gone immediately.  

               “I’m putting this up to you, okay, man?  You’re with SHIELD right now, and they’re kinda taking care of you.  They can’t save you, but maybe you won’t suffer so much here.  I can put you back, or get you the hell out of here.  Where do you want to go?”  

Where do you want to die? He didn’t say.  It didn’t need saying.  

“Home.”  The voice was a hoarse whisper, but clear.  “Take me home.”  

Avalanche nodded.  Without another word, he turned and dropped back through the hole in the floor.  The earth rose up to meet them, and he bent his knees as he landed, holding Johnny tight against his chest to try to reduce the impact.  The ground flowed along under Avalanche’s feet, pulling them down the tunnel in the darkness.  They’d surface a good five miles away from the facility, where he’d left a car parked, and things should be smooth sailing from that point.

               “What do you mean by home, Johnny?”  Pyro had slung one arm up around his neck, an indication that he was still awake and aware, even though Dominic couldn’t see his face in the dark.  “The Brotherhood safehouse?  Your apartment back in New York?  Do you wanna go back to Australia?  It might take some doing, but I can make it happen.  Where is home to you?”  

               The voice was still hoarse, but slightly stronger than before.  “Where you are.”

               Dominic wondered for a moment if Pyro was simply delirious.  With the heat baking off of him, he couldn’t imagine how he could possibly be lucid.  Then he decided it didn’t matter.  He just squeezed Johnny’s shoulders a little tighter.

               “Okay.”

[artificialqueens]

Royals 5/9: I Believe in a Place You Take Me (Branjie)- athena2

A/N: Thank you so much to everyone that has read and left feedback the past few chapters! All your support really does mean a lot to me and I appreciate each comment! I hope you enjoy this chapter, and leave some feedback if you’d like! Thank you Writ for being an amazing beta! Chapter title from Love song by Lana Del Rey

Read on AO3

—

It’s possible that Vanessa is growing on her. Though that implies Vanesa is a delicate flower poking through the grass, and she’s not. Maybe it’s more so that Vanessa is a saw hacking away at Brooke, and she isn’t resisting as hard as she used to.

Vanessa seems poised to ask her every question in existence, and Brooke has never talked so much. It makes her palms a little sweaty, having to think about her favorite candy and what she likes to do. No one has asked her since she was seven or eight (not that she expected anyone to waste time on that when there were more important questions) and it takes her much longer to answer those questions than it does questions about history or laws. But she’s also secretly grateful Vanessa is taking the lead because it prevents her from sitting in silence, weighing every word she wants to say for so long that by the time she opens her mouth, the subject has changed. She’s doing her best at speaking to Vanessa like an equal, not as a subject or a guest, and she hopes it’s working.

Vanessa does seem to have eased in her hatred as well. She had even given Brooke her own knife after Brooke dropped hers, probably not knowing the weight of the gesture, which spared her a lecture on being clumsy and careless. Brooke’s not sure if all their casual talking is proper behavior, but if this inquisition is what she has to do so she doesn’t disappoint her parents, then she’ll answer every question Vanessa throws at her.

—

“How have things been going with Vanessa?” Nina asks, handing her a cup of tea.

“Better,” Brooke responds truthfully.

“I told you it wouldn’t be so bad! Have you been talking to her?”

“Yes. She mostly asks me questions about myself.”

“And?”

“And I answer her.”

“You just answer?”

“Yes,” Brooke confirms in confusion. What else is she supposed to do? Her father always said a princess should never reveal more about herself than the question required, and should never leave a question unanswered for too long.

Nina turns away from the picnic basket she’s preparing for Brooke and Vanessa’s lunch, her hand easing over Brooke’s shoulder. “You don’t have to treat everything like a test,” she says softly. “She might be asking to learn more about you. You don’t have to just give her a perfect answer, you can talk about yourself a bit too,” she coaxes.

Brooke hasn’t considered that Vanessa actually wants to hear more about her. Most people didn’t; they only wanted her to speak royal greetings and talk about laws. She figured the questions are just Vanessa forcing herself to be nice, or a distraction to pass the time since they’re forbidden from yelling at each other.

“I don’t know how to do that,” Brooke admits. Nina is the only person she would ever tell that, the only person that has seen her sweat before a meeting, the only person who has seen her perfect sheen dull and not judged her for it.

“Well, maybe you can explain your answers some more, talk about yourself and your experiences. I know you don’t think so, but you probably have a lot in common.”

Brooke nods and grabs the picnic basket, brushing chocolates on the counter out of the way. It reminds her of Scarlet’s candy shop, and for a second, she’s tempted to ask Nina what happened to it. It’s been bothering her since she and Vanessa went. She remembers Nina taking her there as a child, both of them crunching on the almond chocolates all afternoon. Brooke has some strange idea in the back of her mind that she knows why it closed, but locked the knowledge so far deep inside that the key no longer works. But she can’t be late to get Vanessa, and she heads out the door with a thank you.

Brooke turns the idea over in her head as she walks to Vanessa’s room. Sharing information about herself gives her the same stomach-clenching fear eye contact did, that all her secrets would be out. But Nina’s advice is typically always right, whether it’s on what to wear or what to say, and Vanessa has been nicer lately, not as rough or angry. Maybe she truly does want to hear more about Brooke. Maybe Vanessa can become someone Brooke trusts.

Maybe she can even become a friend.

—

“Nina made us a picnic?” Vanessa asks excitedly as she settles down on a blanket in the castle courtyard.

“She did.”

Vanessa makes a noise somewhere between a shriek and a squeal, and Brooke finds a snorting laugh escape her as Vanessa digs into the basket.

Vanessa pulls back and stares at her.

“What?” Brooke asks. Did she do something wrong? Is there something on her face?

“I think that’s the first time I ever heard you laugh,” Vanessa muses.

Brooke’s whole face is on fire. She wishes real flames would erupt and consume her. She’s been told several times by Thomas and her parents that her laugh isn’t lady-like and she should refrain from doing it. Not that she’s had much cause to laugh lately.

She pulls her gaze away from the small smile lighting up Vanessa’s face. “So there’s sandwiches and fruit,” Brooke explains quickly, trying to force the heat from her cheeks and hoping Vanessa won’t be offended by her laugh, won’t think she’s being improper. “There’s little chocolate cakes too. Nina found out you like them.”

“That woman is amazing.”

Vanessa tears into her sandwich, and there’s something about the way she eats with such reckless abandon, such utter delight, like she doesn’t care who sees her enjoying herself, that makes Brooke’s stomach stir uncomfortably. Last week, she thought Vanessa was barbaric for her zealous eating, but she hadn’t recognized it for what it was: freedom.

“She is.” Brooke pauses, remembering Nina’s words. Maybe she could open up a bit more, and her appreciation for Nina is an easy thing to talk about. “She’s been with us since I was born. She’s always taken care of me. Sometimes…sometimes more than my parents.” she confesses.

It was true. It was Nina who cleaned her up and kissed the scrape on her knee when she fell playing outside. Nina who gave her a honey cake and a steaming cup of tea and listened to her problems when she was upset. Nina who calmed her down before important meetings and told her she would do just fine.

“That’s nice that you have her,” Vanessa says. “I’m pretty close with my attendants. I don’t know what I’d do without them, and I know they truly like me, you know? You don’t always have that in royalty. Even the people you think care about you just care about your position and what you can give them,” Vanessa concludes, and Brooke nods. She gets that. Interactions have an air of insincerity, like every move people make, every word people say, has been carefully calculated to get them power, or money, or both. She hadn’t pictured Vanessa understanding that too, and she has to admit that Vanessa is a lot smarter than Brooke gave her credit for. Given her yelling and egg-throwing, Brooke had marked her as an idiot, but she’s seeing that was wrong.

They eat their sandwiches and Brooke’s mind is buzzing, searching for something, anything, that she can say. Why could she talk about royal expenditures but not something normal? She doubts Vanessa would be interested in an analysis of the book she finished last night, or a history of apples in the north.

“Thank you for the blankets,” Vanessa cuts through her thoughts.

“Oh. Of course. You’re a guest, you should be comfortable.” She didn’t want Vanessa to think she had to thank her; maybe she shouldn’t have left a note at all. Not everything is a test, she reminds herself. Just talk. “It must be difficult here, with the cold. Especially if you’re not used to it.”

“It is.” Vanessa nods. “I never saw snow before I came here. I hated it at first, but I suppose it’s not all bad.”

“I see it every year, and I still like it. It makes everything so bright and clean. Like a fresh start,” Brooke attempts to put her excitement of seeing the unbroken white blanketing everything into words.

“I can appreciate a fresh start,” Vanessa declares.

Maybe it’s Nina’s advice, or maybe it’s the chocolate clinging to Vanessa’s lips that’s distracting her from her fears, but she continues on, telling Vanessa about how she used to play in the snow, and Vanessa replies with stories of running through corn fields, and maybe this is what it’s like to have a friend.

—

Brooke stands in line in the village bakery the next morning and returns to Vanessa with iced lemon cakes, only to meet a swarm of squalling children surrounding Vanessa, who is passing small chocolates and bright-colored candies into their eager hands.

Brooke waits until the last one clears away before approaching.

“I leave for five minutes and you’re handing out candy to the masses,” Brooke accuses, warding off the fondness that threatens to creep into her voice.

Vanessa shrugs. “They just wanted some candy. They’re kids, it’s not like they have money.”

“Do you often do things like that for people?”

“You mean nice things? As a matter of fact, I do. I like to remind myself that non-royal people are still people, you know?”

Brooke nods, but she truly doesn’t. Her parents never let her stay in the villages for long, stating it was unsafe for her among the commoners. Princesses don’t converse with common folk, her father rings in her ears.

Vanessa moves on through the square, and Brooke wonders what has changed in the past week for this to come out. She seems gentler today, and she didn’t even insult Brooke when she started rattling off facts about a war from three centuries ago, when what Brooke really wanted to say is that Vanessa’s braids look nice today.

Vanessa has kind smiles for people, though she still stares at couples with disdain like she usually does, and Brooke wonders if she had a bad relationship with someone. Any official relationship, courtship, or engagement would have been announced by the king and queen. There was never any news of Vanessa’s romantic prospects, so if there was something, like an engagement broken too soon to announce, Brooke knows it’s not her place to ask. It is quite odd though, for Vanessa to be seventeen and not have any prospects. (Especially when she’s as pretty as she is, something Brooke admits objectively). She also ponders whether a failed engagement, however secret, might have had something to do with Vanessa’s initial hatred and mistrust toward her. Maybe it was just Vanessa’s way of protecting herself.

“You seem cheerful today,” Brooke ventures.

“Are you trying to say I’m not cheerful every other day?”

She messed up again. Why did she even think she could say something so informal? Why did she think Vanessa would like it?

“I’m just teasing you, Brooke,” Vanessa winks. “I’m not freezing today, so that’s something. And maybe you were right about snow being a fresh start.”

There’s something there, some sort of hint, but Brooke can’t bring herself to pursue it. It’s just too much. Instead she states, “Three more weeks and you’ll be back home,” an odd emptiness filling her chest. It’s a reminder of how fleeting this all is. She’s already shared her favorite food and season and color with Vanessa, but what’s the point when she’s leaving soon? Brooke doubts they would be friends after, and she doubts she even has the right to consider them friends now.

“That’s true,” Vanessa agrees, and the air around her is tinged with sadness like falling snow.

—

Thomas is arguing with the Mateos. Again.

Both her and Vanessa had been told this meeting is mandatory, and Brooke takes careful notes as everyone argues over the terms of the new alliance. Thomas is insisting the north receive more resources, like crops, because it’s larger, and Brooke’s head is pounding so much that even the scratching of her quill makes her grit her teeth. Thomas’s yelling is like a massive sword sinking deeper into her head by the second. He had pushed so hard to get the Mateos here early for this, so why is he trying to anger them, turn them into enemies?

Her quill keeps moving, chronicling the Mateos’ argument–which Brooke agrees with–that resources be distributed evenly, which eventually her father consents to, and then the meeting ends.

Brooke rises to leave when Thomas intercepts her.

“You are supposed to support me in these situations,” he hisses.

She tries to muster the words to say that she can’t support unfair policies, but the pain in her head makes the message lag. “I-”

“Just do better next time,” he instructs. “Remember who matters. You might be a princess, but you have no worth without a prince. Even your parents know I make you more likable. And wear gold for dinner tonight, I’m sick of seeing you in blue.” He storms off.

Brooke keeps her head high and takes every word without a flinch. She pinches her nose, hoping to ease the pain, but rips her hand away when she recalls there’s still people around to see her looking so weak.

“Everything all right?” Vanessa is in front of her. How much had she seen? How much had she heard?

Brooke finds her mouth opening. “Of course.”

“Do you want to go to the village?”

Oh, how she does. To be with Vanessa, their identities unknown, sandwiches and a friendship (maybe?) between them. Somehow walking the uneven streets with Vanessa has become not something she bears, but something she appreciates, maybe even–strange as it is—enjoys. But her headache is starting to make her stomach twist (though, to be fair, her stomach often twists around Vanessa) and she can’t foresee anything this afternoon beyond burrowing into bed.

“I would, I just–I have a really bad headache,” she confesses, brushing past her fear of Vanessa seeing her this weak.

“Oh.” Vanessa sounds disappointed. “My mother says ginger tea helps with headaches, if you want to try that.”

“I will. Thank you.” Brooke turns toward the door.

“I can bring it to you.”

Brooke spins around. Vanessa’s mouth is open in disbelief at her own offer, but she continues, “If you want, I mean. You should go rest. I’ll get the tea.”

Brooke agrees, and minutes later she slides into her soft bed and buries her face deep in her pillow, pain already receding. Vanessa treads in and nudges her shoulder with a gentleness Brooke didn’t think she possessed, a gentleness Brooke isn’t quite sure she deserves, and offers her a flowered teacup.

“This would have been the perfect opportunity to poison you,” Vanessa reflects in amusement. “Lucky for you, I didn’t.”

“Lucky indeed.” Brooke finds a smile deep inside and draws it out. When Vanessa first arrived, Brooke wouldn’t have been surprised if Vanessa did try to poison her. Now, the real surprise is Vanessa bringing her a cup of tea. Brooke doesn’t think anyone besides an attendant has ever done so.

“Thank you,” Brooke whispers, taking a small sip that warms her whole body.

“You’re welcome.” Vanessa shifts her weight from foot to foot and twirls a lock of hair around her finger. “Get some rest. I’ll see you at dinner.”

The room is empty, almost cavernous, without her in it. Even though she just plans to nap all afternoon, for some reason Brooke wishes Vanessa had stayed, tucked up in her arm chair, like Brooke would be able to sense her presence even in sleep. She shoves the ridiculous thought away and takes another sip.

Brooke finishes her tea and sinks into blissful sleep. Plastique wakes her to get ready for dinner, and she finds the headache has retreated for now, though it swirls beneath the surface and threatens to break through again as she steps into her gold dress.

—

“Do you think you’ll ever travel to the south? You have to come in the summer,” Vanessa insists the next day over fresh, jam-topped bread. “The peaches are so ripe, and it’s so hot one time Silky–her and A’keria are my attendants–cracked an egg on the ground to see if it would fry. It didn’t, but it sure did make a mess on A’keria’s shoes.”

Another laugh flies out of Brooke, the second Vanessa has pulled from her in a week, and she no longer fears Vanessa will insult her for it. Vanessa is laughing too, which only makes it more intense when she leans in suddenly. “Do you feel like someone’s watching us?” Vanessa’s voice is laced with suspicion and concealed fear.

Always, Brooke thinks. Every second her shoulders strained under the weight of stares people cast toward her, expecting to see the perfect Brooke she worked so hard to give them.

But Vanessa is serious, and her fear transfers to Brooke, neck prickling with sweat and hair on her arms sticking up. Is there someone around the corner, eyes searching, studying them? Someone who has figured out who they are? She’s gotten too complacent in being anonymous, almost pretending a few times that she and Vanessa are two normal girls. She can’t let that happen again.

Brooke swallows down the fear and peeks around. There’s the guards over by the butcher shop watching discreetly, but everyone else is active, griping over prices or walking with their heads down.

“It’s probably the guards,” Brooke suggests in reassurance. Vanessa is tense, shoulders drawn up near her ears, hands gripping the table for dear life.

“You’re probably right,” she sighs. “I just wish we could go somewhere where no one can see us.”

Brooke thinks for a few seconds, the idea hitting her like lightning. She should have taken Vanessa there before.

“I know a place we can go.”

—

“No one will see us up here, I promise.” Brooke leads Vanessa up the rickety chapel stairs to the music loft, where she played by herself as a child. She was hidden in a world of her own when she sunk beneath the balcony wall, and she motions for Vanessa to sit with her, facing the magnificent organ that would signal the start of her wedding in the chapel below. It is just under three weeks away now, and she forces the thought out of her mind.

As if she’s reading Brooke’s thoughts, Vanessa states, “You don’t want to marry Thomas.” It’s not a question. Vanessa must have figured out enough that it doesn’t need to be.

“It unites our families and strengthens the country,” Brooke gives the answer she’s given at several feasts when someone asks her how excited she is to marry Thomas.

“A political marriage, that’s what I thought,” Vanessa says. “Is he-”

“It could be worse,” Brooke allows.

That’s what she’s been telling herself since the engagement was announced last year: It could be worse. Of course she didn’t want to marry Thomas, but how could she escape it? She doesn’t think she wants to marry a man at all, but there is no way that can be anything but a thought. Her father would surely disown her, and she shudders to think what would happen to her if the information fell into the wrong hands. She’s trapped, her fate decided for her before she was even born. She isn’t going to pretend it’s anything other than a political marriage, done to make her more appealing and unite her family with Thomas’s. Her father had arranged the marriage with Thomas’s father, and she couldn’t disappoint him. Neither her nor Thomas loved each other; they barely even tolerated each other (but it could be worse). And maybe he raises his voice too much and grabs her arm just a little too tight when they talk to people at feasts, but he’s barely around, and he doesn’t hit her. She knows several princesses who aren’t as lucky.

She can’t get her mouth to open and say all this to Vanessa, so she says nothing.

“I’m sorry. I understand what it’s like to be trapped in something.” Vanessa bites her lip, and the compassion in her brown eyes is almost more than Brooke can bear. As much as she hates herself for it, marrying Thomas is what she has to do, for her family and the kingdom. She doesn’t want, and certainly doesn’t deserve, anyone’s pity.

Brooke remains silent through her curiosity. It’s what she’s done most of her life, swallowing down words that cut like broken glass inside her.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she says finally.

Vanessa nods. “Is there anything you do want to talk about?”

Brooke shakes her head.

“Is it all right if I talk?”

Brooke agrees gratefully, and lets Vanessa fill her ears with words of southern summers. Brooke can taste the sweet peaches bursting in her mouth while juice drips down her chin, feel the soft grass tickling her legs, the bright sun warming her head.

The hours pass without her notice until the bell in the village chimes the reminder that they have dinner in an hour. A day hasn’t slipped by like this since Brooke was a child.

“I guess we better go.” Brooke rises, even though her bones long to stay, to let Vanessa’s rough voice soothe her in some odd way, to let Brooke pretend that she’s glowing in the sun along with her.

Vanessa rolls her eyes playfully. “I know, I know. You’re not getting in trouble for me.”

But by the time they both retreat into their bedrooms to get ready, Brooke can no longer deny that she thinks Vanessa might be worth getting in trouble for.

—

“Are you feeling confident? We only have three more weeks,” the correspondent reminds the man.

“Quite confident. I just don’t understand why we have to wait. We can–”

“We are on a very strict schedule. This plan is extraordinarily delicate. Do not spoil it by being impatient,” the correspondent snaps.

“Right.”

“I have something for you as well.” The correspondent passes the man a glass vial filled with clear liquid.

“What is it?”

“It’s poison. Some extra insurance. I trust your aim, but I’m not taking any chances with this. Dip the arrow in it. Even if you miss the heart, it should get the job done.”

[neshabeingchildish]

Poly, Wanna? Ch. 12

Since Tumblr is experiencing things... Idek if anybody will be able to see this. @chenoahchantel @adorkable-blackgirl @henry-p-fart @up-the-tube

I haven’t done this in a while, or for her yet, but I wanted to dedicate this chapter to lil’ mama Lizzie. Thank you for being a lil’ goofball source of goodness on a daily basis. Thanks for the group chat. I’m the oldest human there, but it’s such a good collection of good kiddos. 

Home

"Hi. I know that we can't really discuss the nature of the other work for the show but this confessional seat is pretty much where I've been laying down my burdens so that's what's going to happen today. I think I finally realized something about the workforce. One of the reasons that I haven't been able to stay in the labs, that I haven't been able to put up with a lot of the crap that they expect you to put up with..  I feel like it's mundane and not very direct results. Sure something that I work on right now may help somebody one day, but whenever I work here whatever mark that I did, helped someone THAT day. I was having adventures and making a difference in a pretty regular basis and the entire time, I was simply trying to get a paycheck and also help others. Now, the help that I give others is a slow process and the journey includes pompous, pretentious dudes that insist that they're better, smarter, and more experienced than you, therefore, you don't even always get approved to do the work that you COULD do. When I worked here, my supervisor encouraged me to test things out and he admitted that I'm smarter than him. I've been smarter than everyone that I've ever worked under… but Schwoz is the only person who's ever validated that fact. Whenever I worked here, it was like a family. It was a community. Out in my fields of study, it's always a competition and I'm always clipped at the knees while the big name boys get their headstarts, their funding, their approvals, their awards and recognition… but, I'm a grown woman. I have to decide if I wanna push harder and drain myself just to catch up with them, or stay out of the way. 

Singing in nightclubs and serving drinks isn't beneath me, but my parents are right about one thing… it isn't what I worked so hard for all of these years. So I could give up on my years of studying and work and just find something that I'm passionate about, or work hard to be the best, even on an unfair playing field..  but in the meantime I will be settling back in here. I just feel so at home…" 

Whenever Captain Man and Mr. Feelgood came down the tubes, Charlotte was in the control panel, with Schwoz behind her, talking. "And if I had access to it, my research would make him look like the 20th century scientific charlatan that he is!"

"I support this!" Schwoz cheered.

Henry leaned over the two of them. "What's going on?"

"Charlotte's going to use my resources to stick it to the Man!" Schwoz said. 

Captain Man wondered, "What did I do, now?"

"The industry, Ray. You’d be surprised to learn that even in the scientific community, where everyone is there to further humanity with knowledge, truth and solutions, a lot of them are grossly prejudiced and oppressive,” Schwoz said, thinking about his own run ins with American scientists who felt like he knew less because they weren’t familiar with his country or his accent.

“I wouldn’t be surprised that people who went into the kind of work that was advanced at the violation of numerous enslaved African peoples and their descendants, not to mention several Jewish people and other marginalized groups who have been used as lab rats and sometimes still aren’t given viable scientific solutions to their needs,” Captain Man said, with a shrug.

Feelgood raised an eyebrow and wondered, “What have YOU been reading?”

Captain Man answered, “This bizarre story about me that for some reason had all of these science facts in it. I didn’t really get it, but the photos were GREAT!” Feelgood noticed Charlotte hiding a smile and he just HAD to know more, but needed to blow this bubble first and get comfortable.

When he was Henry again, he beckoned to Ray with a hand, “Alright, Dude. Let me see this story you speak of.”

Ray pulled out his phone and showed Henry an archive. It took Henry all of 15 seconds to realize that these were simply scientific and social justice essays that somebody had peppered in numerous photos of “The Most Handsome Man in Swellview EVER” and given titles such as, “Scientific Racism is an Ugly Part of Our Practices, But Ray Manchester is the Opposite of Ugly.” “This is interesting. It seems like the kind of thing to have a niche market of JUST YOU.” Henry told him.

“I follow it,” Charlotte and Schwoz both said. Schwoz with a shrug, as thought he OBVIOUSLY would follow such a thing. Charlotte, with a smile, because Henry knew good and damn well that these were her words. She added, “Along with Miss Shapen, Nurse Cohort, Mrs. Dunlop, YOUR MOM…” She listed off subscribers. “Piper hate follows to put things in the comments like, “I once saw him fuss with a squirrel and taunt it by saying, ‘I’ve got some nuts for you to choke on!’ which, in 3 years’ time is still the top comment on any of the posts.”

Ray groaned, “I would be insulted, but I got several ‘Do you have any nuts for me to choke on?’ messages, so Piper lost again.” He finished with a smile and headed to the auto snacker for a bucket of fries.

“Why would someone do this?” Henry asked, trying to hand Ray his phone back, but eventually gave up because of the huge size of fries and just stuck it in his pocket.

“Maybe, someone knew that there are certain people who would only be willing to receive information from such a source,” Charlotte said. 

*Holds up photograph of Ray. “Basically, if you ever want Ray Manchester to pay attention to something, the best way is to put his photo onto it. It started as an experiment, to be honest. I was trying to do a paper on narcissism for a psychology credit, and was using him as a study. But, then, I realized that I could actually get him to LEARN THINGS that I would have had to either accept that he never would or browbeat into him in the past. Now, Ray can recite to you statistics of scientific racism and how the medical field still fails minorities to this day, among other very important topics that his brain might have previously shut out.”

*Ray speaking. “Everything as harmless as poor lighting and unflattering makeup selections while on screen, to things as dangerous as not being able to detect signs of skin cancer in brown skinned patients! Right there, next to my smiling face and luxurious skin!” *Shakes his head. “I can probably trust a makeup artist or a doctor to take care of me, but Charlotte and her really hot mom might not!” *Shakes his head. “This world. It’s ugly. But you know who’s not? This guy.” *Holds up an article with the title: This World, It’s Ugly. But You Know Who’s Not? This Guy, with a photo of a young Ray in a horse sweater. “I don’t know where this person gets all of these photos, (*whispers) but they’re all perfect.”

.

Jasper and Charlotte had discussed the letters from Henry and she decided that she wasn’t sure if she wanted to read them, but told Jasper that if he felt the need to do so, he should. She and Henry were getting along pretty well and she worried that reading things that she had decided to try to move past might damage that and stir up strife and trauma that she wasn’t interested in. “If I were to say that I’m not curious about what Henry had to say for apparently 467 days, that would be an enormous lie. But, I’m also terrified of what finding out some of that might do to us. Jasper thinks that it needs to be done now, while everything is still new and fresh and it can’t hurt later. But… It can’t hurt later if he just burns them now, either.” *Shrugs her shoulders.

Charlotte still had leave of absence time from the doctor, even though she was fine, thanks to Schwoz. So, whenever Jasper and Henry were away, she was usually making herself pretty much at home and making the space a little more compatible with her. They hadn’t talked moving in together or anything, but… she hadn’t left yet and Jasper kept bringing more of their things over with each night that they spent there. She would chill in the Man Cave with Ray and Schwoz, work on her project that Schwoz was helping out with and back him up whenever the heroes got an alert. But, if Jasper was available, she spent her free time with him. And if the three of them were free, they spent that time together. The only times that she was with Henry alone was at night, when Jasper was bartending, on those nights that Swellview didn’t need their hero.

That was when the conversation came up again, “Are you ever gonna read them?” He wondered. She tensed up at the question, but blinked shortly afterwards and stared at him. He had been giving her a pedicure (since hers hadn’t gotten done at the spa that day) and he still felt bad about that. Plus, he had hella products for that at home. Between the two of them - her holistic healthcare and organic, natural, DIY beauty care, and his high maintenance grooming and wellness… This place was an apothecary, pharmacy, spa, gym… He’d even started making certain that he got handcrafted beers shipped in, since he knew that was what Jasper preferred to drink and he really wanted both of them to kinda… never wanna leave.

“How important is it to you that I read those letters? Are they worth my current peace of mind? Are they worth our current connection?” She asked.

He squeezed her foot affectionately and kissed it, “Nothing is worth that. I just didn’t know it NOT reading them would possibly risk that as well, perhaps?”

She sighed. “I don’t know. I’m not crazy about change. Things are already in the process of changing, but this change seems good. Do you think that whatever I read there would be a change for the better? Would it improve what is already happening, in any way? Or, do you just want me to have to know what you were going through while I was going through what I was going through, because I refused to grant you that attention whenever I was going through it?” Her foot was rested against his chest and he was stroking it lovingly, absentmindedly. She pulled it away gently and she shrugged his shoulders. “Well, when you can answer me that, I can answer your question. For right now, the answer is that I don’t want to do it. I can’t see how it would help anything.”

“I respect that.”

“I actually hate it.” - Henry

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Jasper got home anywhere from 3-4:30 am, depending on how busy the lounge was or how much cleaning up he had to do. Usually, whenever he got home, Charlotte was asleep. Henry had a habit of waiting up for him. It was hard for him to sleep whenever he didn’t know that Jasp was home safe and staying awake made him less tired than interrupted sleep did. Charlotte sometimes slept in her bed, whenever she wanted to be immersed in her sleeping experience, unbothered and Jasper would join her whenever he got home. (His room was currently where he and Charlotte’s clean, but not folded laundry and other unpacked stuff was being stored. They lived in her room and visited Henry’s as frequently as though it were their own. 

His favorite nights were those when Charlotte didn’t necessarily want to be alone and slept in his bed. He still waited up for Jasper, but sometimes, she cuddled against him and went to sleep on him while he waited and played video games or watched something. Whenever Jasper would get home, Henry would be ready for bed and Jasper would generally wash up and come into bed, being the one who got to decide their placement for the night. Would he be in the middle? Would Henry? Would Charlotte? Whatever he chose, Henry was always happy, because they were both still there. 

Then there were the times that they were all home at night and got to settle into bed together! Rarely did one of the others suggest just going to their own room tonight, if all of them were there. They just went into Hen’s like it was the most natural thing in the world for all of them to be in bed together, sleeping and cuddled up - some nights just awake, talking in the candlelight until someone fell to sleep first and the other two gushed over them quietly. 

Actually, now that Henry thought about it… he had a different type of favorite night. Those nights whenever he had to leave for a mission before anybody went to bed, or when nobody else was there, and he came home, tired, weary, sore, etc… and they were both waiting for him. Either awake and worried because the mission seemed serious, or asleep in his bed, figuring that they would have been alerted if it had been something to worry about. 

Whenever he came home from a night of work and soothed away his pain and problems in a hot shower, knowing that within moments he could lay his head on a pillow or a person that he loved very much… ugh. Priceless.

.

Henry came into the dining room, from sessions in his office, to find Jasper at the table, with his letters, doing something with them. He didn’t want to interrupt… But, he appeared to possibly be destroying them and it was reflexive. “What are you doing?” He snapped. Jasper jumped and was clearly startled and taken back for a moment. Henry noticed, felt terrible, and calmed down. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.” Softer, he wondered, “What are you doing, there?”

Jasper’s hands shook a little and he set a letter down in a stack, face down and said with a low voice, “Organizing these for Charlotte.”

“What do you mean organizing? They were dated and in order. Did you like drop the stack, or something?”

“No, Henry. I didn’t. I thought that you said these belonged to us, now?”

“I did. They do. I’m just curious.”

“If you must know, I’ve separated them into categories. These are angry. These are sad. These are blunt and realistic. These are the ones that are the sweetest. They’re going into this scrapbook that I’m making for Charlotte. These other ones are going to be possibly shelved, possibly explored at her convenience. She’ll likely want to get into a certain headspace, cleanse them of their energy and ground herself before attempting to look at them. I don’t want her triggered whenever she tries to!” His voice got louder as he explained, until he was almost yelling. He rolled his eyes at Henry and began to collect his stuff.

“Where are you going?”

“Where you aren’t gonna come fussing at me just because Charlotte’s not around.”

“That’s not what I… Jasper, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound like I was fussing. Thank you for doing this. It’s so thoughtful and sweet. Charlotte is lucky to have you.”

“Yep,” Jasper said, angrily and kept going.

“Where is she, anyway?” 

“In the Man Cave. Go spin this however you need to.”

“I’m not…” Henry rubbed his eyes, frustrated as Jasper went into his room and slammed the door. 

“I can only guess that he recently read Day 273 recently…”

*Jasper taking deep breaths and clenching the air in front of his face to strengthen and center himself, then clears his throat. “Day 273. Dear Charlotte, I feel like I shouldn’t write that I love you anymore. I feel like I maybe should stop this altogether. Jasper and I are getting closer than I expected and it is starting to scare the hell out of me. I found myself wishing that I had you around to talk to about it. I found myself questioning if I was moving on from you and wondering if I should. Jasper is great. He’s everything right in the world and he seems to be really into me. I wish that I could love him, but I feel like I’d be betraying you again. Which… That’s hella stupid, right? We’re fucking. That’s betrayal, right? Or, is it okay, because I never really had feelings for him? He told me that he loves me recently. I told him that I love him too. I didn’t mean it like that, but I didn’t really wanna get into it. I would feel so much better if I thought that I could have your blessing. I know that it hurts him the way that I never quite let him in, but I can’t help it. It always feels like he’s trying to take your place, but I don’t want anybody else to take that place. Not even Jasper. I care about him, but… He’s just not you, never will be, and I don’t know if I could ever see him the way he wants me to, because I don’t know how low that would be of a blow to you. He said that you’ve cut him out now, too. I guess after 3 months of fucking your ex he felt obliged to share that info with you. I already feel like you probably hate me more. If you didn’t feel some type of way about it, you wouldn’t have blocked him. You still care! And knowing that, I just… I can’t move on. I’m not gonna say that I love you anymore. But, I know that you care..” *Slams down the paper into the “blunt and realistic” stack.

Henry came to the Man Cave and Charlotte was looking at her phone, and seemingly about to go - wrapping things up with Schwoz. “Hey, can I talk to you for a sec?” He wondered. 

She sighed and shook her head, “I’m sorry, Henry. I have to go see about Jasper.”

“I figured. I just wanted to say…”

“Say it on the way, Dude. Booty Bear is having a meltdown. What happened?”

“I think it's the letters. One in particular…” Henry said and ran a hand through his hair. “There was a time, about six months in when I was thinking about giving me and Jasper an actual try and I wrote to you about it, but basically decided not to.”

“This is why I don’t really understand WHY those letters ever had to leave your goddamn possession!” She fumed and shook her head as they got on the elevator. “Why would ever hand him something like that?”

“I figured it was better for it to happen now than it come out later somehow and what happened with you happened with him, or with both of you. I… am trying to hard to get everything out in the open and clarified and comprehended. We can’t ever become, if we don’t deal with the shit.” He fought to not cry. The last time he cried when he didn’t have a right, it only pissed her off. He shook his head and whispered, “I almost fucking died. I still have scars from that night. I still have nightmares sometimes. And, even though I was hostage for all those hours and ultimately had to fucking kill someone…”He clenched his fists, “That wasn’t the worst part of the night.” He started laughing and turned to face the wall, because he knew that the tears were coming. 

“Hen…”

“No. Sorry… I just… Go, um… Go make sure he’s okay. Tell him I’m sorry and I love him, K?” She rubbed Henry’s chest and nodded, then pulled him in for a hug. The elevator doors opened and Jasper was standing there. He slumped his shoulders and sighed. Charlotte patted Henry on the back and got off to check on Jasper. Henry went back down.

“I coulda done without seeing that today,” Jasper admitted.

“Yeah. I coulda done without you actually reading those stupid letters, but Henry said something that made me… give pause. I’ve been thinking that this was so important to him because I never let him tell me how he felt. Do you think maybe it’s so important to him because now that he’s said it, he doesn’t want it to seem like secrets that he’s keeping from us? He doesn’t want another night like that night… and I never knew how bad it had been for him. I never gave him a chance to speak. I was so done that I didn’t even think about what he’d been through. I didn’t even weigh it out against what I was feeling. I was so hurt…”

“You had every right to be hurt. You had every right to feel how you felt and do what you did, Charlotte. And, you’ve had no real reason to give him another chance, but here we are, seemingly doing just that. We’re… in a relationship with him. You realize that, right? It’s like the one that I had with him, where shit is really not spoken about and a little unclear, but we all know good and goddamned well that it’s a thing that’s happening. I just… Do you think that I’m here because he wants you and he knows he has to have me as part of the package? Do you think that he… Do you think that he could ever love me anywhere near the level that he loves you?” Jasper’s eyes were watery.

“Yeah. I think that he does love you that much. I think that those letters are a part of his past. I think that how he hurt you is a part of your past. I think that my anger at him is a part of my past. They’re parts that we have to fucking figure out, J. But… They’re the past, still. He told me himself he’s sorry and he loves you. Look. Let’s do this… Let’s… take those letters that both of you have been obsessed with for the past couple of weeks and let’s just… figure out at least those parts together. The three of us. How does that sound?”

“You said that you didn’t want to do that. You didn’t want to stir up any bad emotions. I don’t want you to do that for me, Charlotte.”

“Well… I don’t want to do it, but I know that I have to. For us.”

He took her into a hug. “You’re always gonna love me, even if it turns out that he doesn’t, right? And if I feel heartbroken by that, you won’t be mad and me and will know that it doesn’t mean that I don’t love you, right?”

“Absolutely.”

“Okay. Thank you. Henry snapped at me tonight and I just… I’d already been transported to that time with the letters and hearing him speak to me harshly just took me deeper in. He can’t talk to me like that.”

“He sure can’t and I’m gonna give him a piece of my mind about it, too! Then, we’re all gonna detox, okay?” Jasper nodded. She kissed him on the cheek and texted Henry.

Come home now. We all gotta talk.

[everythingjonsa]

Episode 1 - impressions Part 1

I’ll start with the opening credits. I love having Kit sandwiched between Emilia Clarke and Sophie Turner.

And I’m almost sure I saw two dragons facing each other in one of the rings of the citadel.

And wohoooo!! ARYA STARK. I screamed when she came onto the screen. All praise to Maise for displaying her brilliant talent in acting when she sees Jon. And maybe I’m wrong but I got Gendrya vibes right from the beginning, lol!!

Ok, so it’s pretty clear that the northerns don’t like the southerns. And boy did Emilia emote well in that scene.

You can literally see that Dany hates being unwelcome UNTIL her dragons roar and screech from above and the people scatter in fear - AND that more than anything else give the mother of dragons a reason to smile. She feels empowered, confident and marches along with a smug look on her face.

10 points to dark Dany! I love how the show runners have reiterated the fact that Daenerys derives her power from her dragons.

Jon and Bran have a great reunion. Forehead kiss is a parallel to their goodbye kiss in pilot. It was a great reunion.

Now we come to the Jonsa hug. It was very brief and did not give out any romantic vibes to me.

But here’s the thing...

This hug has been filmed from various angles for sure. Because the hug that we got to see in the earliest clips of season 8 has been filmed from a different angle than what was shown to us. My question is why?

Anyway Sansa gives Dany an epic brush off and Dany doesn’t like it one bit. We see that tension continue in the great hall where it also appears like a great love triangle is being framed.

Sansa brings the topic of food again and rightly so. Dany snubs her and they exchange an icy cold look. With Jon sandwiched in between them. This is getting better and better, mind you!!

The northern lords pull Jon up for bending the knee.

Sansa gives Jon a “Don’t look at me, I warned you, you idiot.” Look - and I simply loved it.

Jon very unwittingly tells his people that he was given a choice to retain his crown or save the north and he chose to do the latter. That’s not a very good way to introduce the new queen to your people. He basically tells them that she asked me to bend the knee or f@&₹ off.

Obviously, it doesn’t endear her to his people.

Then Tyrion adds fuel to the fire by giving them information about the Lannister army heading north which causes an uproar.

ONE CAN JUST LOOK AT THE EXPRESSION OF UTTER DISBELIEF ON SANSA’s face and figure out that right now- she’s the cleverest player of the game. She knows Cersei, she knows the way her mind works. She was not kidding last season when she said that to Jon and he’s about to learn a lesson about her “smartness” very soon.

The Tyrion and Sansa scene was brilliant too.

“I used to think you’re the cleverest man alive”

It kinda summed up their entire conversation beautifully. She’s learnt to be smarter than Tyrion. Well Full marks to Sansa Stark! I can’t wait to see the look on Tyrion’s face when they get to know the truth.

Sansa is the YAMBQ. Definitely.

The Jon and Arya reunion was awesome!! I have no words to describe it, really. It mirrored their hug from season 1. And Jon’s expression when he hugged her was fantastic - so emotional, so my baby sister like!!

Now I’ve seen some people who’re disappointed with Jon telling Arya that he could’ve used her help with Sansa. I’ve always maintained that Jon hasn’t explored his feelings for Sansa so to me it appeared like normal sibling banter. Jon’s not bitching about Sansa. He’s just saying, “Hey little sister, where were you when I could’ve used some help on my team?” It’s harmless according to me.

But what was beautiful is the way Arya defends Sansa!! I screamed so loudly, my kid got scared 😟 lmao!!

But it was a beautiful moment.

“She’s the smartest person I’ve ever met.”

Yaaaaaaas girl!! I’m all here for sister love.

Also, when Jon tells Arya, “I’m her family too.” And Arya responds with a “Don’t forget that.” It almost sounds as a warning of sorts and a definite foreshadowing for the future.

Now to the dragon riding scene between Jon and Dany. Since there are many aspects to this scene, I’m going to deal with it Part by part. Boy is this going to be a long post or what!

1. Tyrion, Davos, Varys

Davis explicitly tells Tyrion that Dany will have to “earn” the loyalty of the northerns and the wildlings. And he has a solution-

What if the seven kingdoms were ruled by a just woman and an honourable man?

This episode was very important for it asks all the right questions. The above is the first one that’s of utmost importance.

Obviously, he means a marriage between Jon and Dany

a.k.a Marriage between A Stark and a Targaryen

As a means of earning the loyalty of the north!!

The seeds of a political marriage between a Targaryen and a stark narrative have been sown.

Which means a Targaryen to a Targaryen marriage is not going to work if the living survive their fight with the dead. Need I say more?

Besides, Varys rather tragically looks sideways at Jon and Dany, the handsome couple and says,

NOTHING LASTS

2. Jon and Dany’s conversation about Sansa.

It’s important to note that Dany brings up ONLY SANSA in this conversation, when all of the northern lords threw shade on her. Plus, Bran was rather cold to her too. He simply glares at her and tells her about her dead dragon.

For some reason however, Dany singles out Sansa’s dislike for her which irks her the most. Even in Jon and Arya’s conversation, Sansa’s dislike for Dany is brought up. The show’s trying to make a point.

So anyway Jon tries to make a joke about how Sansa didn’t like him much either when they were growing up WHEN suddenly dark Dany resurfaces ...

I don’t want her to be my friend. But I AM HER QUEEN. If she can’t respect me............

WHAT WILL YOU DO??? I was asking the television screen.

It was a very pivotal moment. The show runners don’t allow her to complete her threat and for a moment there we see a glint in Jon’s eye. I don’t think Jon would’ve liked whatever Dany would’ve said next. It was essential to the plot that she didn’t tell Jon what was on her mind.

Simply because of what was coming next.

2. Jon rides Rhaegal

So in all the fictional books I’ve ever read until now which have dragons in it, the dragon always chooses the rider.

We saw that happen with Jon and Rhaegal today. Rhaegal ( his father’s namesake ) moves towards him and almost gets Jon to touch him. It’s essential to note these points about the dragons.

a) They are clearly visually different at this point of time. Rhaegal is green, Drogon is red.

b) They are virtually the same size now. Rhaegal has grown in size and I’m sure that’s been given importance because it will be important in future.

So Jon learns to ride a dragon and by the end of the ride he can maneuver a dragon on his own.

They go to a frozen waterfall and you can hate me all you want but the kiss did look genuine to me. Jon’s eyes were closed shut. But then again like every Jon and Dany romance scene in the past, there’s always a bit of negative foreshadowing.

Drogon glaring at Jon and vice versa whilst Dany had her back turned, was the continuation of the same theme.

JONSA

The scene between Jonsa in her solar was reminiscent of their tent scene from the battle of the bastards. They argue, huff and puff a little and speak their mind. Jon asks Sansa to have faith in him and Sansa asks Jon if he bent the knee for love? Jon doesn’t answer. Sansa doesn’t look like she likes the idea very much.

I also felt like Jon was caught off guard by Sansa’s observation. It was interesting and I’m sure there’s more to come. Again I could be wrong but this exchange between them just furthers my belief that whatever feelings Jon and Sansa have for each other lay hidden and unexplored. They still don’t know the truth about Jon’s parentage. Well, Jon knows now.

To be continued....

[cpvidiot]

Hit Or Miss: Endgame Edition

OK IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN ENDGAME GET OFF TUMBLR WALK YOURSELF TO THE NEAREST MOVIE THEATER AND WATCH IT FOR MY SAKE PLEASE.

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MISS

1. The Humor: Don’t get me wrong I loved the humor in Endgame: Rhodey, Scott, Tony, and Rocket were hilarious and sorely needed, but I thought all the jabs at Thor and the Fortnight thing and the whole cafe scene with Scott and the kids with the pictures was really weird and went on for way to long in my opinion.

2. Thor: Thor was not given his due in this movie. I feel like it was out of character and was a little off. The whole scene in his house with his beer belly was way to out of character and really hard to believe. And yeah he killed Thanos and thought he had won and done what he needed to but it seems out of character for him to not try and get everyone back.

3. Time Travel: Ok this bothered me at the end but when Peter reunited with Ned and they hugged for a long time.... shouldn’t Ned be twenty?? Cause Endgame is set five years later. Unless he got snapped?? Or unless Peter aged in the Soul Stone in that case he shouldn’t even be at school  Also if Far From Home is set AFTER Endgame there should be a fair mix of twenty and fifteen year old’s unless they ALL got snapped which seems pretty implausible. If someone can explain this to me please let me know it’s been frustrating me. Also when Nebula killed her past self she should be dead because what happens in the past becomes your future unless it’s because Nebula 1.0 is now in the future. Is it because they put the stones back? idk man someone needs to explain time travel to me.

HIT

1. Tony: God can we just... can we just TALK about TONY? I mean him with Morgan, him with Nebula, him with his dad, him with Pepper, him with Peter, HIM. The way he jokes with Morgan and how he teamed up with Pepper at the end and the way he got to bond with his dad. And what really sucked about his death was how the Russos showed how much Tony had to live for. The whole movie we’re shown how much he cares for his family. But I need to make one  thing clear. If Pepper hadn’t said it was time for him to rest or in any way shape or form said that she needed him he would’ve fought to stay alive because if he had any doubt that his family couldn’t make it without him he would’ve tried his goddamned hardest to stay alive because they mean that much to him. Rest in Peace Tony Stark thank you for giving me this universe i’m proud to be a part of thank you Robert Downey Jr. for bringing this character to life thank you from the bottom of my heart.

2. Nebula: I’ve always had a good feeling about Nebula. Idk call it instinct but I don’t think people give her enough credit. I mean yeah sure she tried to kill Gamora a couple of times but when you put yourself in her shoes she had so much resentment and anguish and pain so yeah I can definitely feel for her. I wish she was more of a fan favorite and after this I hope she is because she truly is an unsung hero of Endgame.

3. Scott: I know that Scott is always the comic relief and he definitely still is in this movie but he is so much smarter than we give him credit for and that really shows in this movie and i’m really pleased with his character development.

4. Natasha: GOd i’m still shaken up about her. She was so ready and willing to risk her life for the greater good. She was so ready to give herself to redeem herself for everything she’d done in a past life. I love her so much you have no idea. Thank you Natasha for showing us even in a room full of men a woman can still be powerful, thank you for inspiring young women everywhere thank you.

5. Portals: MY. GOD. CINEMATIC BEAUTY HAVE YOU EVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT NO YOU HAVEN’T YOU KNOW WHY NO ONE’S GOT THE BALLS NOT 1 (ONE) SINGLE PERSON OTHER THAN THE RUSSO BROTHERS YOU THOUGHT INFINITY WAR WAS THE BIGGEST CROSSOVER EVENT ENDGAME ATE THAT FOR BREAKFAST, SPIT IT OUT AND CRUSHED IT UNDER IT’S FOOT PURE BEAUTY FROM “ON YOUR LEFT” TO PETER SWINGING IN TO ALL OF WAKANDA TO VALKYRIE SOARING IN ON A PEGASUS LIKE MY GOD.

6.Carol: i know she didn’t get a lot of screen time and that really hurt but when she did my god it was amazing. From choke holding Thanos to saving Tony and her new haircut and cutting the entirety of Thanos’s ship in half to getting HEADBUTTED BY THANOS AND NOT EVEN FLINCHING SHE REALLY IS THE FUTURE OF THE MCU WE LOVE OUR LITTLE LESBIAN QUEEN. Also the fact that she took the time to talk to Peter really made me happy.

7. Peter Parker: From interacting with all the MCU ladies to holding the gauntlet longer than ANY OTHER HERO to hugging Tony to trying to introduce himself to every hero to reassuring Tony AS HE WAS DYING that they won god he must be protected at ALL COSTS

8. MCU Ladies: Words can’t even begin to describe the emotions that flowed through me when I saw all the MCU ladies teaming up. Wanda single-handedly took on Thanos. Valkyrie swooping in to save people. Hope and Scott fixing the van. When I saw them all standing together as a united front I wanted to cry. I felt such power flow through me I felt like I could do anything. The Russo’s really know their target audience.

10. Steve: Gotta end this one off with good ol’ Rodgers. He LIFTED MOLNIJR. That was something I never knew I needed but felt such a sense of fulfillment when I saw it. I’m gonna be very straight forward here, wasn’t that depressed with his ending. He had a full life. He gt to life with the woman of his dreams. He got to do everything he wished he wanted to do after he got out of the ice. I was happy for him, not sad. Its what he wanted and its what he got. 

Let me know what were your favorite parts of Endgame