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liptonsbabe · 3 years

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Havoc [Thomas]

A Maze Runner fanfiction

Summary: When the reader, the second-in-command of the village goes out into the maze looking for a way out, the last thing she hopes to find is a whole new community on the other side of the walls. Much less, when it seems to be inhabited only by boys her age.

Warnings: none

A/N: Hey! This is my very first fanfic here and i decided to start with some tmr stuff ;) English not my mother language so please let me know if something is wrong. Anyways, enjoy!

Chapter one: Leaving home

YOU WAKE UP THAT DAY WITH AN INCREDIBLE MOOD, although things in the village were not encouraging at all.

The dew hadn't fallen yet when you were already in front of the maze, impatiently waiting for the doors to open. You were carrying a backpack with the breakfast on your back, the belt resting on your hips, and an awl strategically hidden in your back pocket.

You didn't understand why your heart was beating so fast even if the night before had been the worst of all. The disease was progressing, it was devastating the village and the parents were leaving their children alone. You trembled in your place. You've never seen anything like that before. The illness, the confusion, the tiredness, the agony. The desease was ending with all of you. If you and the trackers didn’t find a way out as you had promised, then the village would be devastated.

You couldn't allow it. You weren't going to give up. Maybe the answer was out there, waiting for you and you weren't going to keep it waiting.

Maybe the feeling of your restless heart was a good sign. Maybe your heart was sensing things that you could not know and, with a little bit of luck, get it right as he almost always did.

The village had exits from its four points, so, as the sun was in the west that day, you decided to start with the east gate, considering it a good sign. You pulled your hair up in a high ponytail, ate an apple as fast as you could, and waited for the doors to move.

A curtain of dust and pebbles rose in front of your face as you listened the doors opening. That day the main corridor to the maze had a strange smell, but you thought that your nose was already damaged by the medicines and infusions that you had been smelling in the nursery, so you ignored it. You adjusted your boots waiting for the stench to disperse when a strong pull carried you backwards, scaring you.

“What the hell...? Asenat! "You muttered releasing the grip on your shirt. The girl smiled haughtily, crossing her arms over her chest “How many times do I have to tell you to not pull me like that? I hate being pulled!

“You can do it as many times as you want, I honestly don't care, I'll keep doing it anyways”

“You're an idiot”

“Where do you think you are going?” Cassidy asked, standing next to Asenat, both of them staring at you with their arms crossed over their chests and frowning. You rolled your eyes

“To do my job, the same as you should be doing right now”

"You are no longer a tracker”

“I am the leader, I can give myself that position”

"Second leader," Asenat corrected you, "After Richard, and he was the one who gave you the order to stay in the village, remember?"

You clicked your tongue as the trackers were already leaving to the maze. Asenat caught your shirt between her fingers again preventing you from running. Cassidy sighed, shaking her head. If something was clear to them about you, it was how stubborn you could be.

“Yes, I remember”

"Do you still have those headaches?"

"No," you lied. You'd been feeling terrible headaches for a couple of weeks now, before Richard fell sick from what the villagers called the glow. The man, who was also a tracker, had found you in the middle of your section with a terrible bruise on the back of your head and a pool of blood surrounding you. He carried you to the village, and when you were sufficiently recovered, you mentioned having a terrible pain and falling unconscious hitting the stone. Richard didn't need to know more to remove you from your job, forbidding you to return to the maze until your headaches were better. Until the night before you hadn't felt any pain, so you assumed you were fine “I'm great, don't worry about me. It was an accident”

"Yeah, are you sure?"

“Completely”

"Even if it were so, you are not allowed to go out," Cassidy said, determined. "We need you here, my friend."

"I'll be back before dark”

"Things don't work that way anymore," Cassidy replied, looking at you with a frown. "Richard hasn't died yet." His rules are still ours and since when we can do whatever we want?

“Don’t say it like that”

"You know Richard is not going to survive" Asenat lowered her voice preventing any other villagers from hearing her "he will die like the rest of the infected and when that happens all this will be over. We can continue with the rules that he made, but that will not be enough. There are families dying every day, our duty is to take care of them. We have a pact, okay? Treat the disease first, look for a way out later”

"How long are we going to keep waiting?" You asked, taking a step forward. Asenat sighed, "Three? Four? Another five years? This place is falling apart. If we really want to help the remaining villagers we need to find a way out, take them home, give them a better life, heal them "

"Nobody assures us that we will be better out there than here"

"Let's take the risk, we won't lose anything just by trying"

"We have kids in here, even babies. Their parents have died and they depend on us.

"This time it will be different" you said looking at them pleadingly "It's crazy, but something tells me that today we will find the answers we have been looking for. I could assure you that. Do you believe me? Do you trust me enough to believe in what my heart feels?”

Cassidy and Asenat looked at each other. Richard was still sick, confined to his cabin with the doctors trying to keep him alive. The night before he had lost part of the skin on his arms and his uncontrollable anger had made them tie him to the bed, however, that didn’t mean that in his small lapses of serenity he did not realize what was happening in the village.

Asenat shrugged her arms, leaving the decision to Cassidy. In her role as a teacher, she had no say in that situation and she didn't really care too much. You were reckless and almost always clumsy, but you had good ideas and that had helped you become te mainstay of the village. However Cassidy as the third in charge represented the third head of the monster. She would be the leader at Richard's death and if you didn't get back from the maze in time and that terrified her. She was not afraid of responsibility, nor making important decisions, but that represented visualizing a future where the three of you were not together and she preferred not to think about it.

"You know we do," she replied. "There hasn't been a single day when we doubted in your good judgment, but ..."

"It's different," Asenat said rubbing her chin. "The village doesn't feel like it used to. We are used to death, we can handle it, but the feeling of having it lurking over our heads is unbearable. The maze is not better. It is changing. I listen to it every night. The steel lobsters clattering through the halls. The giant woke up and will not go back to sleep”

"Cassidy," you called her, squeezing her hands. The girl sighed, thinking of the possibilities you guys had. Staying with your arms crossed was not an option, but neither was breaking the trust Richard had placed in all of you. Asenat watched you. The three of you shared the same fear, the same confusion and the same dread of losing the entire village. There were children who required the presence of someone capable to guide them, men and women waiting in fear to be infected with the glow and babies crying to feel the arms of their dead parents. You clenched her hands tighter. You needed to be covered for a few hours only and, in return, you would find the way out. You could do it, you trusted your instincts “Please...”

Cassidy sighed.

"We'll cover you until lunchtime, that's all."

"I only need that”

"Come back in one piece, will you?" She begged, looking at a small boy approaching. You leaned down, taking him in your arms letting out a groan as you picked him up. George was eight years old, he didn't weigh the same as five years ago. You kissed his cheek, returning him to the ground “The boy would go nuts if something happened to you”

"Are you going back to the maze?" George asked looking at you with his huge brown eyes. You nodded. Then you were hit by the little boy's suffocating embrace “the lobsters will hurt you!

"They are asleep now”

"They can wake up!"

"I doubt it little one. Don’t worry, I'll be fine. I'll be back at noon and we'll have a snack together, what ya think?”

“You promise?

“I promise”

"Okay, you can go," he said. You laughed, ruffling his hair

"Thanks, puppy. Stay with Asenat, okay? She can scold you while I'm gone”

"Ya’ heard it, boy," Asenat said, rubbing her knuckles at the top of his head. George complained, "You will stay with me the rest of the day and help me teach the little ones how to count to ten.

“That's not fair!”

"Life isn't fair, brat." Come on, maybe we can grab some chocolate from the kitchen later, huh?”

Asenat held out her hand and George took it enthusiastically as they walked together towards the largest cabin that you used as a classroom. George spun on his feet saying goodbye with a bright smile on his face. You blew him a kiss and Asenat turned to show you her middle finger. You smiled

"Take care of him, will you?" I highly doubt that Asenat will do it properly”

"I'm going to watch her. Now go before I regret it. And (Y/N)” She said, stopping you as you walked towards the main corridor of the maze. You turned around, waiting for his words “Don't die out there. The maze stinks enough to add the stench of a corpse” You nodded. It was a fair deal

“No prob”

You finished your run in your section faster than you expected. The meal would not be until three hours later so you decided to make a stop to rest. You sat on the floor against a wall. Hot sweat was running down your neck and the fucking headache was back. You closed your eyes, tired. It was terribly hot, and the stench of rotting meat numbed your nose.

You drank water, the little sip you had left, and put it back in your backpack. You were going to eat some of the apple slices you took with you, but the pain in the back of your head kept you from even chewing. You stood up wanting to continue your hike when the headache went down your neck and then numbed your spine. You leaned against the wall. It was covered in vines, moss, and fungus. You wiped your palms on your pants and started walking again.

The migraine erased your sight. For a second the world around you seemed to move in luminous spirals forcing you to close your eyes. The sound lightened and you swore you heard a static signal on your eardrums.

The floor spined over and over again. You dug your nails into the palms of your hands feeling the blood pour out from the sides, staining the stone. You heard the drops hiting the floor and suddenly everything stopped.

You were sweating. Your soaked shirt stuck to your body, your hair matted on your forehead and you opened your eyes. Pushing back the hair you noticed that this was not your section, that in some inexplicable way the maze had changed drastically and there was no way to return home.

Your heart beat madly. You fell to the ground on your knees, your head aching every second screaming in agony. You crawled down the corridor without understanding its course, but recognizing small fragments of leaves pointing a path to the north.

was that the way out? You, without being aware of the pain, could you have operated some kind of lever, changing the composition of the maze, leaving it unrecognizable? You weren't sure.

You kept crawling. The leaves spreading across the path, turning into a corridor covered in dust and dirt. You complained in pain and in the confusion, you managed to hear voices from the other side.

You buried your nails in the stone rising up. You pulled forward slowly approaching until you reached the exit (or the entrance?) of the maze. The wind ruffled your hair. Then your hands touched the green grass and the pain stopped.

You stayed alert. Your senses fading little by little from fatigue. Your head ached, your hands ached, your back ached. You heard the clear voice of a boy and, unaware of it, you got up as best as you could.

You got up with the help of the leaves on the wall. You narrowed your eyes focusing on the meadow stretching out in front of you. It was not the village, it was not the exit. The walls of the maze were surrounding the meadow and you could only think that the pain had caused you allusions.

Then the torture returned. You clenched your teeth. Your vision became blurry, however you could distinguish completely unknown figures in the mist. Your ears recognized voices, men's voices, and, unable to bear another second, you fainted.

#the maze runner #thomas #dylan obrien #tmr #cast #the scorch trials #the death cure #newt #gally imagine #minho x reader #thomas x reader #dylan o'brian imagine

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phasmwrites · 4 years

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sweet as syrup || amajiki tamaki

Pairing: Amajiki Tamaki x Reader Warnings: None Word Count: 2513 A/N: This is a part of the bnharem soulmate au collab that can be found here! Please be sure to check out everyone else’s amazing work! also yes i know the title of this probs sucks but also i hope you guys like this! 🥺💕

From an early age, you were acutely aware that you had a soulmate roaming around somewhere waiting for you. It was told from generation to generation that soulmates could taste what the other was eating at any given moment and you were no stranger to experiencing it. The range of flavors that melted on your tongue ranged from actual food to even things like crystals when you were a teenager. Most commonly, though, you grew accustomed to the salty tastes of takoyaki and clams, with the occasional crispy fried chicken.

It had always been fascinating, the concept of one day being face-to-face with the one who is meant to complete you. Pressing your lips against theirs to both seal the commitment of being one half of a whole heart and no longer having to taste the other’s meals. When those thoughts began to run rampant in your mind, you always found yourself smiling at the prospect of who that one person could possibly be.

Throughout your childhood and teenage years, any person your heart beat for just a bit harder than normal had you fully convinced that they just had to be your soulmate. You had rationalized your unrequited feelings nearly every single time. Once you would find them eating something that didn’t quite match up with your tastebuds, your hunt for that person would continue.

You were beginning to lose hope by the time you became an adult, forcing yourself to accept that maybe your soulmate was off in another country or was already with someone who made them immensely happy. It was a hard decision for your hopeless romantic heart. You pushed your innate desires to meet your soulmate aside to focus on becoming the greatest pro-hero you could be. It was that increased ambition and passion that landed you a sidekick job at Fatgum’s agency, your first opportunity to work and learn alongside the pros.

“Suneater!” You shouted across the nearly barren hallway, jogging over to the one person who was occupying the space. Amajiki Tamaki, one of the nation’s top rising pro-heroes, stalled in his tracks at your voice. He had been one of those pros you admired from afar, only getting glimpses of his triumphs from newspapers and television.

Pointed ears twitched in response to your call as he slowly turned around, only to be met with your joyful gaze. When had you gotten so close to him?

Tamaki made a futile attempt to swallow the lump in his throat, but it was to no avail as he barely managed to sputter out a greeting, “H-Hi.”

“I was wondering…” You began, his chest immediately constricting at all of the possible things you could utter in that very moment, “If you wanted to go grab some lunch after our patrol?”

How was he supposed to even consider declining your offer when you looked up at him with such an optimistic expression? It wasn’t often that the two of you would interact, given your highly contrasting schedules. When he was informed he would be running patrols with you for the first time, he couldn’t stop the faint flush that spread across his cheeks.

“Yeah, okay. Lunch is good.” Tamaki nodded, “I have to pee- I-I mean I’m going to the restroom!”

Your small laughter bounced off the walls as he sprinted down the long corridor and turned away from your line of sight, “I’ll meet you outside, Suneater!”

The beginning of the patrol was rather quiet, the two of you surveying the surrounding areas while making sure to occasionally check your cellphones in the event that you were needed elsewhere. Tamaki held his head rather low in a feeble attempt to shield his complexion in his hood, the trepidation of you engaging in conversation lowering his confidence. What if he said something stupid again?

“So, how does your quirk work?” Of course, you did exactly what he had been afraid of, turning your head to peer over at him, “It’s called Manifest right?”

Tamaki nodded slowly, “Depending on what I’m eating, I can manifest different parts of it. I eat a lot of- a lot of takoyaki because I can manifest tentacles with it.”

Your heart twinged at the mention of takoyaki, remembering the familiar taste of it on your tongue as you had so often experienced its salty flavor without ever having taken a bite of the appetizer. Instead of dwelling on the possibility, you shoved it to the back of your mind to save yourself from the inevitable heartache.

“What if you ate a human? Would you turn into them?” You tapped your chin, asking him as if he would possibly know the answer.

It took both of you by surprise when he let out a soft chuckle, “I once swallowed a piece of Mirio’s hair when we were kids and my hair matched his for a couple of hours.”

Just then, a low mewl stalled you and Tamaki in your tracks and had you craning your neck to find the source of the noise. After a quick survey of the area, you noticed the small grey kitten sitting on top of a tall branch in one of the cherry blossom trees.

“It looks frightened.” You pointed out, noticing the way its tail tucked itself between its hind legs.

When you glanced over at the pro-hero, his fingers had elongated and transformed into tentacles before your very eyes. He didn’t hesitate to fling them over to the tree, using one of the manifested appendages to grip the branch itself while another curled around the kitten.

Just as Tamaki began to carefully retract the tentacles, the small feline slipped out of his grasp like butter and began to free fall to the ground. In a moment of sudden panic, you seemed to forget that you had a quirk and sprinted head first towards the kitten as it stretched its legs out to prepare for the harsh landing.

While your face took a nosedive straight into the dirt below your feet, your outstretched hands now contained the kitten as it curled itself into your palms. The taste of dirt began to flood your tongue, accidentally having your lips parted when you collided with the earth.

A similar sensation was beginning to occur on Tamaki’s tongue as well, his mouth suddenly feeling like he had been the one who just received a mouth full of soil- no. Tamaki shook his head quickly as if it would rattle even the concept out of his mind and out his ears. He convinced himself that you must have kicked up some dirt during your fall that wound up in his mouth.

“A-Are you okay?!” Tamaki rushed over to you after his brief moment of internal panic. He outstretched a hand to you as you slowly pushed yourself up with one arm and tucked the kitten into your chest with the other. You decided to accept his gesture, your hand now tightly gripping his as you used him as leverage to pull yourself onto your feet.

“Yeah I’m fine, thank you.” You smiled warmly at your partner before taking your hand back and spitting out the remaining dirt in your mouth, “I’m just glad this little guy is okay!”

The two of you headed back onto the main trail of patrol that Tamaki had mentally mapped out, the kitten now sleeping soundly in Tamaki’s hood as he shrugged it off of his head. Unfortunately, you kept coughing from the dirt that just wouldn’t escape your senses.

“I think we make a pretty good team, you and I.” You spoke up after a short silence, “It may not have been a crazy villain fight, but we rescued an adorable kitten!”

Tamaki couldn’t stop himself from reciprocating your genuine grin, reaching his arm over to lightly scratch behind the kitten’s ears, “Yeah, I-I think so too.”

Before you could say anything else, your stomach decided to do the talking for you as it grumbled rather violently.

“There’s this...there’s this diner not too far from here if you want to get lunch now...instead of later?” Tamaki couldn’t help but feel like he was the reason you fell in the first place, having allowed the kitten to slip from his hold.

Your eyes lit up at the mention of food, zealous at the idea of getting something in your mouth other than a handful of dirt, “Lead the way, Suneater!”

This was how the two of you found yourselves entering a small diner not too far from the path the two of you had been patrolling for the past couple of hours. It was rather small, but Tamaki had suggested the location considering he had frequented the spot quite often.

The kitten continued to snooze. It appeared to be unfazed when Tamaki laid his cape and hood on the other side of the booth to allow the feline a better surface to sleep on. You eagerly looked over the menu, overwhelmed with the endless possibilities of what to order.

When the waitress had come over to take your orders, you knew exactly what you were craving. “Could I get the three stack of pancakes?”

“Of course! For you?” She redirected her attention to Tamaki.

“I’ll-” He glanced over the menu once more to confirm his decision, “I’ll just have some takoyaki…”

The woman stepped away to place your orders and you couldn’t help but chuckle to yourself as to how opposing your choice of food was from his.

“I meant to ask, what is your quirk?” Tamaki fidgeted with his fingers as they laid on the table, curiosity eating away at him.

If you were going to keep smiling at him like that, he wasn’t sure how long his heart could handle it, “Oh! I can shoot out energy shields! Would have been a better way of grabbing the cat actually…”

“You reacted on instinct alone…” He remarked before taking a quick swig of his drink, “It’s an admirable quality of someone aspiring to be a pro-hero.”

Your complexion felt warm at his sudden praise, getting seemingly lost in his eyes as the two of you shared another silence. It was comfortable, as if the two of you had known each other your entire lives. Tamaki had never felt so serene so quickly around someone before, almost as if you completed him.

Once the food arrived you immediately reached for the nearest utensils, your fingers gliding across the top of Tamaki’s hand instead. A small yelp passed from his lips before he quickly grabbed the other set and began to eat.

At first, you could taste the syrupy deliciousness that was your stack of pancakes but gradually it shifted, the familiar salty sensation of seafood flooding your senses. Tamaki noticed it too, what was once his favorite dish was now tasting like velvety maple syrup.

The gears in your mind set into motion only seconds before his did. Your fork and knife clattered to the ground as you directed your gaze from your meal to the man sitting across from you. Your soulmate.

“Tamaki-” You began to say his name as it rolled off of your tongue so naturally. Except, in a fleeting moment of absolute panic he threw some cash on the table and began to rush out of the small restaurant.

Why was he running away? “Wait!” Your feet began to move on their own accord.

He hadn’t made it very far when you chased after him with the kitten wrapped in his cape in tow. You curled your fingers around his wrist as you caught him with your free hand. You could feel your heart in your eardrums, pounding painfully as you desperately sought answers for questions left unsaid.

“What the hell?” You exhaled a deep breath, trying to catch your breath, “What was that?”

“You’re probably disappointed...I-I wouldn’t blame you.” Tamaki sighed as he turned to face you despite his immediate reservations. He feared this day his entire life, knowing that whoever shared the other half of his heart, his soul, would be undoubtedly displeased that it was with him. When he began to taste the dirt in his mouth earlier, he already knew it had to be you.

You took a step closer to him, slowly reaching up as your soft palm made contact with the skin on his cheek. His breath caught in his throat at just how intense your gaze had become when you finally parted your lips, “I couldn’t be happier with who my soulmate is.”

“Are...are you sure?” His voice was barely a whisper, too afraid to burst the bubble the two of you had put yourselves in as your body heat practically radiated onto him.

“I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life!” That smile that had dissipated from your lips had returned just as fast, your hand growing warm from his flushed cheeks, “To be honest, I’ve always admired you…”

Tamaki thought he couldn’t get anymore flushed, but his pink cheeks gradually transitioned into a soft red at the kind words you were directing at him. His mind felt fuzzy, too overwhelmed by your presence alone.

“How about we can talk more over some mochi? I know a great place nearby.” Your hand that laid on his cheek had now settled into his sweaty palm, fingers interlocking as you waited with bated breath for his response.

“Okay.” Tamaki began to follow your lead, noticing that the kitten still snuggled to you had begun to mewl once again as it observed its surroundings, “What should we do about the kitten?”

You thought about it for a brief moment, “I think I might just take the little thing home with me.”

“You’d be a great adoptive parent.” He commented, but immediately regretted doing so when you let out a chuckle.

“Sorry.” You giggled once more, “It was cute, your compliment.”

Before the two of you entered the mochi shop, you pulled Tamaki aside and peered up at him, “What’s your favorite flavor of mochi?”

“Hm, maybe pistach-” He couldn’t even finish stating the flavor before you leaned up and pressed your lips against his in a fleeting kiss. It had felt like literal sparks had begun to fly off of you as he melted into your touch.

Sadly, the moment ended just as quick as it started, the ghost of your lips still tingling on his. You giggled once more, “I really don’t like pistachio and didn’t feel like having to taste it.”

Tamaki deflated, thinking that the only reason you locked lips with him was to end the connection that had sealed the two of you together for so many years. At least, until you pecked his lips two more times, silently reminding him that it was so much more than just shared taste buds. The smile you followed up with was just as sweet as the syrup he had tasted from you only a short while ago.

“Those were because I wanted to, come on!” Maybe having a soulmate wasn’t so bad.

#tamaki x reader #amajiki x reader #amajiki tamaki x reader #mha x reader #bnha x reader #phasm.writings #we trying out a new format too bby!!!!

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skelanonymous · 3 years

Text

Song Prompt 3

Song - Looking at Me by Sabrina Carpenter

Skeleton - Killer Prob Murder Trio

Words - 3.3k

I cannot stress enough, listen to the song at least once. It’s a BOP.

@inertiaambition I made a decision. I hope you can appreciate it anyway. ^^’

“Accompany the others. You’ll learn best that way.” Cross stood up straighter, trying to impress his new boss. Nightmare had found him in his timeline and brought him in under the agreement he’d serve directly under him as a hired mercenary of sorts. He hadn’t hesitated to say yes. Anything was better than his timeline, empty as it was.

“Yes sir. Where should I meet them?” Cross was confident in his skills but he wanted to scope out these others he’d be working with. Nightmare’s satisfied smile filled Cross with foreboding.

“They’re just outside the door.”

The door opened to three very different looking skeletons, all a little...off. He waited for Nightmare to introduce him.

“Heya Boss. We gunna make a move on that rude kingdom or what?” A skeleton in white shorts, this guy had some sort of black paint traced down from his eyes.

“Patience Killer. I was preparing the new team member to join you. This is Cross.” His cyan eye traced over to the skeleton with a giant crack in his skull. “Try to dedicate it to memory Horror.”

“Gotcha Boss.” Horror dragged an axe behind him, hauling it up when Nightmare made the portal. “Orders?” Night scoffed.

“Wipe that pitiful place from the map. Show him what I expect. And Cross?” He snapped to attention. “It’s your first outing, so let me illuminate: I don’t have patience for failure so do not disappoint me.” Then he waved them off to their mission. “Now go.”

They all jumped through quickly, hitting the ground just on the outskirts of a smaller castle, hidden by the shadow of the treeline from the eyes of the guards pacing along the tower tops.

“So newbie, here’s the deal. Follow us, and try not to get in the way. Don’t get much easier than kill everyone, so remember these faces and aim at anyone else.” Killer cracked his neck, rolling his shoulders, bouncing on his knees. “Anything to add there Dust?”

“Don’t die.” Dust turned his odd colored eyes over to the fresh blood. Cross suppressed a shiver while Killer howled like a hyena.

“Holy shit Dusty, you’re great. Yeah, don’t do that. I’m good to go. You ready Horror?” Killer flipped out a blade from nowhere, too fast for Cross to even see. It glinted in the moonlight. The lumbering skeleton turned to face Killer before walking towards the place.

“Yeah.”

The first wall took no time to breach. Horror had broken down the front door and they walked right in. Unfortunately, a guard drill was taking place in the courtyard, so it had most of the armed forces right within view.

“Hang back guys. I got this one.” Killer winked at Cross. “Take notes.” Cross rolled his eyes. There were near fifteen heavily armed men in front of them, and Cross felt five would be a good match for himself, considering their stats he could check. He leaned back on the wall behind him, keeping an eye on the peripheral for back up.

Killer rushed headlong into the action, a stupid move by most accounts, but he’d moved so fast. His blade ran clean through one soldier, armor and all. He flung him off his knife with a flourish.

“Let’s dance.”

He cleanly cut off the first taker’s arm, head with the second swing. He shoved the body forward, knocking over another, scaring a third. An attacker went for his back.

With a swing of his hips, he dodged the attack at his spine. He grabbed the blade and spun, using his back as leverage to wrench it out of the offender’s hands. He cut them off with his knife and blocked another sword swing with his stolen weapon.

Killer parried the next clash, crossing swords to slide down, handles pressed together, one of his hands to his opponent’s two. He pushed up with his elbow to create an opening to get clean through the chest. When he pushed this body back, he did it hard enough to impale another. Before the impaled bodies could fall, he snatched the blade handle again, kicking up one leg to force them off of it.

He jumped over the attack at his one leg, smashing a foot into the fifth’s jaw. It dislocated with a sickening crack. Sixth and seventh tried to attack at the same time, but ate a blade into their throats for the trouble. Killer swayed his way towards the rest, stopping to dig the sword through the first person he’d knocked over, trying to hide under a dead body. They wheezed out a final breath.

Nine screamed a battle cry before rushing. Killer tossed his knife up, taking the sword right through the ribs and repaid the favor. Nine’s body fell to the ground. Killer pulled the sword out and spun to chuck them directly into No-Hands and Dislocated Jaw’s skull. He caught his knife with a grin

Six left. Cross had forgotten to breathe.

Killer ran up to horrified bystander Ten, stabbing upwards through their chin, yanking out the knife when the light in their eyes died. He grabbed the mace off their corpse. He got in one full wind up before smashing into Eleven’s sneak attack. Twelve hadn’t expected the just as fast throw, eating the spikes in seconds flat in a bloody spray.

“Fuck you!” Unlucky Thirteen attempted to swing for the throat, but Killer wasn’t having it. With a quick duck, he’s wrenched his hand under the front of the plate armor to gut the poor idiot. His hand slid down Thirteen’s horrified face, blood dribbling out of his mouth that Killer dragged his fingers through.

“No, fuck you.” His voice drops to something husky, eyes half lidded with the thrill of it. LV felt good in the moment, the burns wouldn’t come until the next day, or maybe not at all, Cross couldn’t tell anymore if he was dealing with a skeleton bound by the same physical limits as his own.

“I’m always good for a threesome.” He stalks towards Fourteen and Fifteen, gracefully as a tiger, waiting to pounce.

“You sick freak!” One went for him, trying to use the shield he was holding, but Killer was faster.

“Always.” He kicked hard at Fourteen’s left knee, bending it fully the wrong way. He collapsed with a scream, escalating to inhuman wails when he yanks the shield off so hard, it dislocates the left shoulder and right elbow. He finished with a clean neck snap, Fourteen dropping as a pretzel of a man.

Fifteen couldn’t breathe a word before Killer’s knife was embedded in his right forearm. It’s wretched high above his head, left wrist going limp in a vice grip.

“Let’s finish this little performance, shall we?” The knife dragged up to catch on the wrist, curved to hook and drag the bloody mess along with Killer’s tango, stepping in time to the horrified screeching.

He unhooked the knife to spin his partner outward. Killer yanked him back, letting go just before Killer met his chest.

With a twirl, he decapitated Fifteen with a flair, blood spurting into a light shower over his skull. He met Cross’s eyes when he licked the blood spray off his teeth.

Dust sarcastically clapped, Killer bowing to his ‘audience.’ Horror grumbled about wasting something, but Cross can’t hear it over the loud clang that follows. When he turns to the courtyard again, a new challenger has appeared.

A hulking knight, he glared at Killer and pulls out his greatsword with a patient rage, controlled and channeled. He raised the point of it at Killer’s amused grin.

“You shall fall here beast.” Killer didn’t move. Barely acknowledges that the contender spoke at all, just changed his stance, ready to take whatever this guy has to dish out.

The huge knight swung his blade into the confident Killer. Beside him, he could hear the light shuffle of slippers. Cross couldn’t look away from the clash, the blood spattered Killer blocking the arc with his knife but the unexpected amount of pure power broke through his guard and flung him into the wall. The blade followed the path, about to cut into Killer’s arm, but another blade clashed with his.

“Mind if I cut in?” Dust stood over Killer, holding the sword back with one hand.

“Heh, show off. Go ahead.” Killer stuck his tongue out. He laughed, shaking his head at the knight. “You’re fucked dude.”

“You monsters won’t best me! I will defend the princess!” The knight swung again, but Dust didn’t flinch when it made contact. He pushed back with no effort, knight thrown off balance.

Dust’s approach was as instantaneous as it was inescapable. He appeared behind the hulking opponent in a flash to dig his knife in as deep as it could go into Sixteen’s side. Just as quickly, it was out and Dust returned to before Sixteen’s eyes.

“Wh-wha-what?” Sixteen’s hand dropped to the fresh wound, disbelieving but unable to turn back. He returned to his confident stance, ready for another attack.

By now, Killer had moved away from the immediate area, freeing up Dust to do whatever he wanted without friendly fire as a consideration. Cross watched carefully for whatever technique Dust would show, especially after the artistry Killer performed.

Sixteen let loose a flurry of attacks. Cross evaluated his area control. His greatsword thrusted forward, curving and swinging to cover the entire field Dust occupied.

Dust’s smooth evasion was faster. Sixteen couldn’t hit him, only able to hit the air in the last place he could track with his eyes. On the flip side, Dust yawned. When he got truly bored, he caught an attack directly against the knife hilt. He blinked into Sixteen’s face, giving him a matching wound on the other side.

This time though, Sixteen anticipated it, smashing his armored elbow down into Dust’s skull, the point catching Dust’s cheek even as he dodged backwards.

A thin red line. It stood out against his dusty complexion, matching his determined eyes. Dust freed his blade, blinked back, then raised his fingers to touch it. He wiped off a streak.

“Heh.” Dust pressed the finger into his mouth, eyes getting wider and wider. “Heh heh…HahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” The taste of his own blood flipped the switch. Cross felt the air shift, a bolt of terror striking him from just one glance at those mad eyes.

“Thank you! NOW DIE!”

The knight swung to intercept. Dust cut the blade in two. He reached him in two steps.

“HEH HAHAHAHAHAHA!” Dust kicked the center of Sixteen’s chest, flinging him into the wall he’d dropped from not much earlier. Dust followed along to ram the blade into Sixteen’s wielding shoulder. He stomped on the greatsword handle, clattering to the ground under the newly broken fingers.

Dust giggled, knife dug an inch in, tracing absurd patterns into his screaming opponent. Sixteen begged for death before Dust had plucked out the first eye.

The second eye had taken another two minutes, before the psycho finally got bored and slid his weapon solidly into Sixteen’s heart, between his ribs, humming when the heart stopped beating around the knife, body vibrating with the need to silence every heartbeat he could hear.

Dust grinned at Cross while he laughed, turning to Killer with wide eyes.

“I’m done putting on a show. Can we kill them now?”

“I’d never stop you from killing Dusty. I’ll let you pick which wing you want even.” Killer cackled when Dust took off like a rocket down the right path, only the echoes of Dust’s psychotic laughter and screams drifting back in their direction. Cross almost followed, but a hand dropped on his shoulder.

“Dust’ll kill you. He don’t do control very well.” Horror’s vacant stare impressed the danger upon him. “Only warning you get. Let’s finish up.”

Cross walked directly across the courtyard to the back of the castle, cutting down whoever he came across, trailed by Horror who kept his back clear with his wide axe cuts. Killer had gone down the left wing.

Cross took in Horror compared to the other two. There really wasn’t a comparison between them. Killer and Dust had power and grace, smooth and calculated in battle. Cuts were even and precise, like a planned wound that they could see before it happened, skills borne of a million kills to know the outcome.

Horror’s axe cut unevenly, not kept pristinely sharp like their weapons. He lugged it behind him, eyes unfocused, just cutting down whatever stood ahead. He attacked whatever he could swing at. Clean kills apparently didn’t matter, the only technique he could even parse out was hitting the same spot more than once, focused damage dealt like one chopped down a tree. Horror also didn’t appear to have nearly as much strength as the other two abominations, not struggling per say, but seemed to be near Cross’s level or slightly below in pure power. Nightmare keeping him eased Cross’s mind about not fitting in with the absolute monsters that were Killer and Dust.

They ended up in a throne room, throne overturned to a tunnel beneath. The princess must’ve been evacuated during the shuffle.

“Did we lose some of them?” Killer leaned against the doorway, looking less than impressed. “The princess can’t survive, she’ll just cause trouble.”

“I can’t feel any more souls in the castle.” Dust stepped around the other side of the doorway. His face looked a little calmer, though his hands trembled with bloodlust. Cross tried to breathe through his raising anxiety. He REALLY didn’t wait to fail Nightmare on day one.

“She’s not far.” Horror stooped down to the ground, looking at the torn carpet beside the throne. His eyes closed, taking in a deep breath. “Got it. Let’s go.”

Dust wordlessly held out his hand, taking Horror away in a blip. Killer swaggered up to offer his own to Cross.

“You ain’t gunna want to miss this Criss Cross.” Cross stared at the bloody hand with disdain. He took it, disgusted. They reappeared at the edge of the forest behind the castle, Horror and Dust just ahead. Too distracted, he didn’t catch Killer yanking him down until he almost fell over.

“What are you!-”

“I saw your fucking eyes.” Killer pointed his knife over Cross’s nasal crest. “You best pay attention newbie. You might think you’re not the bottom of the totem pole, but let me tell ya, ya’re outclassed.” He dragged the tip softly down the line of his eye socket. “Watch closely and realize you ain’t got shit on ANY of us.” He dropped Cross to walk over to the duo moving along the forest’s edge, Cross hitting the dirt hard.

Holy shit, Nightmare employed some crazy bastards.

Killer had a point though, he HAD judged Horror, found him lacking, and moved on. The recognition of his judgement wasn’t disproved yet though. He followed over to the group, barely making it before Horror’s head snapped to the right.

“There.” Horror leaned down to grab a few stones before taking off through the woods. The other two walked into the dark with him.

Killer, Dust, and Cross moved through the underbrush, trying to keep up with Horror’s quick walk. He twisted and turned without thought, following an invisible trail that he alone could track, not halted by any of the obstacles of the forest at night. It took all of Cross’s focus to walk steadily and not tumble over something gnarled and wet in all this black.

Cross squinted at the hunter, trying to see the thread he was following. By the light, he could see nothing to follow, no trail of broken branches and muddy footprints to track. Hearing when they were all behind him making an equal if louder sound seemed out of the question.

He turned to Killer to ask, but Killer had a finger on his teeth. Quiet. Then slowly tapped his nose. It took Cross fifteen long seconds.

He...was following her SCENT?! Where would he have even got the initial whiff? Got it. Then?! That’d been instantaneous and faint to begin with.

Compared to the massive crunching sounds Cross could hear from himself and the other two, Horror’s movement was suddenly silent. He’d hauled his axe up off the ground, sliding between trees without so much as a scrape, silently tracking until his head cricked to the side while walking. Without a word, he plucked a stone out of his pocket and chucked it off to the left. There was the sound of wood being chipped, then the softer sound of crunching. Horror turned towards the right, still quiet as the grave.

Even Cross could tell she was close.

With a slowly widening grin, he took off right, racing ahead with remarkably quiet speed. The crunches dwarfed those of the target, whose hurried stumbling across the roots of the trees rang like thunder by comparison.

Another pebble, flung with precision, and the princess practically ran into Horror’s arms.

“Good try.”

“AHHHHH!” She flailed back, falling onto the ground still screaming. To the side, he could hear the soft chuckles of the other two, looking at Horror and his prey with amused anticipation.

Horror raised his axe for a killing blow. The princess tried to punch him, but he dodged so her hand slipped by. He turned his head to line up his mouth with the forearm presented.

Horror caught Cross’s eye and smirked as he opened his jaw and bit down.

She screamed bloody murder when he took out the chunk, swinging down the axe to take the whole limb off at the shoulder. The loose arm hung from his mouth. He reached up to grab the elbow, pulling to tear off a chunk of the meat. Horror swallowed with a satisfied rumble. The princess cowered under him, frozen when he raised the axe again.

Right at the neck, curved to break the bones down into her sternum. It came free with a wet squelch. Horror grabbed at each side of the crooked break, yanking her warm corpse open with horrifying creaks and pops as the bones gave way, leaking red and revealing the varied organs within her body. Horror’s hand dug around and pulled back with his prize.

He bit into the heart like an apple. Cross wasn’t even sure it had stopped beating. The thought made bile rise in his throat, taking one step back. Horror chewed away, completely relaxed as they made their way back.

“Judge and you’ll be next.” Dust met Cross’s eyes before turning to walk next to Horror. Killer sidled up next to Cross.

“Have fun with the inferiority complex bastard.” Killer’s sharp smile burned into Cross’s mind.

The entire evening had made one thing very clear: his work was cut out for him.

The portal home opened and they stepped in, the castle’s carpets beneath their feet in an instant. Nightmare looked up from his paperwork. He made eye contact with Cross, holding it until sweat formed on his skull.

“We killed everyone in the area.” Cross reported. Nightmare leaned back, soaking in the positively delicious negative emotions pouring off his overwhelmed brain.

“Wonderful. Then again, I sent you with my best.” Nightmare crossed his fingers to rest his chin on them, endlessly amused. “So, did you learn anything from them Cross?”

“I have a lot of work to do.”

“The correct answer. Killer, lead him to the free room, shower, and training area. I’m sure our new recruit has need of all of them.” He spun his chair around to stare out the giant glass overlook of their courtyard.

“Gotcha Boss.” Nightmare inclined his head, facing them one more time as they made the move to exit.

“Good night Cross, and welcome to my castle.”

You said Killer prob because I get that the song is totally his vibe, but man, he’s the biggest show off while killing and I needed it. I promise I have fluff for other ones.

#murder trio #story time #song prompt #bad sans gang

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preppymayhem · 3 years

Note

Do you think Pacey and Andie would have ended up together if Andie hadn’t cheated on Pacey? Why do you prefer Pacey/Joey over Pacey/Andie?

Okay so before I answer this question I want to preface this by saying that I generally do not think that the worth of a ship is determined by whether I feel it should have been endgame or not. Or in shorter terms, I do not think a ship being endgame in canon makes it better than ship that is not endgame. I also generally don’t require or need a ship to be canon to enjoy it or to like it. I cared a lot more when I was younger, but now I am in the words of Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon: “I’m too old for this shit”.

That is all to say that I very much liked Pacey/Andie, them and their romance in s2 was one of the best things in that season! I thought they were really good together and I def reblog posts of them any time it comes across my dash (which is sadly not that often). I think their relationship was important to both their development as characters both individually and together. And I’m not saying that it was a stepping stone to Pacey/Joey (it is great in its own right), but I do maintain that Pacey/Joey could not have happened if Pacey/Andie hadn’t happened. Like it is super important that Andie was in all likelihood the first person in Pacey’s life who loved him and saw and treated him as if he had value in and of himself.

(And I also don’t want anyone want to take this as like Andie “fixed” Pacey and so after he was good enough for Joey. I think that’s infantilizing and is an unfair reading to all characters involved and I get very wary when people start talking about relationships in terms of whether people deserve other people like they are rewards for getting a good report card)

So with all that being said, no I don’t believe that their relationship was ever destined for long term success even if she hadn’t cheated. How much this was due to writer intent or just accidental flaws in the writing I can’t say, but personally to me, I didn’t see them lasting at all past high school in any real capacity. Which I want to reiterate does not make them lesser or mean that they were bad for each other. I think it was evident to me especially in the latter half of s2 that there would come a time when the fissures that were present in their relationship would just open and separate them completely.

I think Pacey’s self worth was just totally in the rock bottom so he molded himself way too much so that he could feel like he was good enough for her, and Andie I think overly dictated what he should value and gave the indication that everything was on her terms which didn’t bode well.

But I also want to say the writing choice of breaking them up via Andie cheating was a bad and lazy writing decision on the writer’s part. Like I don’t necessarily think that the timing of it (them breaking up early in s2) was wrong, but more the how.

If I were to fix it and do it over. I would have had Andie just plain break up with him once she got out of the mental health facility. It would have been in line for her to come out and say “Hey Pacey I have to work on getting my life back to where I want it to be and I don’t think I have the capacity or ability to be in a relationship” and Pacey would resist but they would breakup, probs both would walk away thinking that once she got her life back they would reconcile. I think this was in line with the way Andie was ordering her life at the time and also doing it this way would have added extra layers of tension to Pacey’s character over the course of the season, AND would have made Andie’s selfless decision at the end to let the idea of them getting back together go when she realized Pacey had fallen for a Joey a real character growth moment for her. It also would have contrasted even more nicely with the way Dawson was handling the whole thing because it puts all couples and characters in a parallel.

But hey I am not tv writer now or in 1999 so what do I know.

And I should also cop to the fact that when I first watched Dawson’s Creek fully through, I already knew Pacey/Andie weren’t going to last so I had both consciously and unconsciously set my expectations accordingly.

As to the second question, my reason for preferring Pacey/Joey is more than the idea that either of them could never be happy with anyone else (a fact that I don’t believe at all) and more that I really just like how their romance was written, performed and developed. I liked the idea of two people who think they are so different and completely separate from each other, find out that they have something in common and actually like connect and that the other has things that they value and respect. Pacey values Joey’s ambitions, her intelligence and insights and the work she has put into getting to where she is in life and Joey learns (because as I have said Joey is little narrow focused on things and is prone too overly judge others for their ‘flaws’) to value things in Pacey that she perhaps struggles with. (I really think she at her heart fell in love with his ability to just go into things wholeheartedly without worrying about the risks and picking himself up after every setback) i think they both fell for the other when they were supporting and just generally being there emotionally for each other when they both thought they had been abandoned by the people they had loved (Dawson and Andie). And I thought it was just really emotionally resonant, well told and is a perfect example that when US TV can get this sort of u expected storytelling right, it just knocks most anything out of the water.

So for me it was the narrative and the writing. And I also just really loved their dynamic all throughout. Unfortunately from s3 onwards we just get more time to see them together than we got with Pacey and Andie and that just sort of sealed it.

I know this is long and I had to keep myself from going off on a hundred tangents, but thank you for asking! I love talking about this stuff and unfortunately Inso rarely get into active enough fandoms and ships where I get to talk about it so thank you anon!

#meta i guess #show: dawson’s creek #otp: joey potter x pacey witter #ship: andie mcphee x pacey witter

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saiilorstars · 3 years

Text

The Girl in the Forest

Chapter 30: The Girl in the Forest

// Story Masterlist //

Pairings: Klaus Mikaelson x OFC

Pronunciation of OC’s name: Ma-leh-nee

Requested tag: @ocfairygodmother @anotherunreadblog @transformerfan97 @stareyedplanet @perfectlystiles

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

Chapter Summary: The final battle between the Mikaelsons and Dahlia is here and not everybody will survive. Klaus and Maleny go to the extremes to save Hope and their son no matter what the cost is. Soon enough, Maleny even gets to face the worst of her past: lifting the curse she had to endure for over a thousand years. Will she finally be free to live with her family?

Klaus and Dahlia had relocated to a more secure place still near the bayou...where Dahlia would be performing the spell needed to link to Klaus. Before so, however, Klaus had forced her to de-link herself from Maleny as well, reminding Dahlia there was no point in having Maleny linked to herself when she would be casting the spell to break the slumber curse anyways. Fortunately, Dahlia had listened. With them was Hope sitting calmly in her car seat while Freya's unconscious body laid next to her. While she wasn't very happy with the new deal, Dahlia worked her best to get the spell finished.

"You're quiet," she remarked after Klaus gave a purposely loud sigh, "Are you having misgivings?"

"I was just looking for a polite way to ask, 'What the hell is taking so long?'"

Dahlia rolled her eyes and gestured to the table, "Well, we can begin now. Once we're linked, I'll no longer have to sleep a hundred years again. Your concerns for my status will ease, and I'll finally be able to focus on power that is truly owed to me."

"My son's—" Klaus said for her, darkly to serve as a reminder there was yet another part of the deal, "—whom you will only guide and draw the sufficient power you need from him."

Dahlia nodded with a smile, "Of course."

Klaus then glanced to the car, seeing his older sister still unconscious,, "What do you want to do about Freya?"

"She served her purpose," Dahlia carelessly waved a hand at the car. "So, tonight, at the moon's apex, I'll end her life, and once our link is severed, the bond that I share with your son will become one and stronger."

"Best get on with it, then," Klaus motioned, struggling to hide his discontent with the plan. He moved up to the table where Dahlia was awaiting for him with hands held out.

Dahlia then began to chant the spell to bind them together, "Medareno sometswar. Medareno sometswar."

As she chanted further, the pewter chalices Dahlia set up in front of her filled with blood. When it became full, it poured down to the table where it then traveled to the center of an infinity symbol. When the spell neared its end, the two spellers were blasted backwards from the table. Due to the commotion, Hope, alarmed, began to whimper. As Klaus went to check on her, Dahlia remained on the ground feeling the newfound power rushing through her body.

When the novelty passed, she began to laugh and got up, "With your strength, I will never need to sleep for a century again!"

"Well…" Klaus began, keeping his back to her as he slowly reached for something inside his jacket's pocket, "...perhaps one more nap."

Dahlia stood confused until Klaus turned around revealing he held the golden dagger. Realization dawning on her, she meant to telekinetically take the dagger from him but it was too late. Klaus daggered himself and just as the effects began to take him under, Dahlia felt the weakening come to her as well.

Both were out in less than a minute.

~ 0 ~

Back at the compound, Elijah was still listening to the exact plan Klaus had apparently formed without their opinions. In the meantime of doing so, he healed Maleny's bad neck with blood of his own.

"So, you see? You would have failed," Maleny finished off the story with a great big scold, "You would have failed and gotten yourselves killed."

"But to link himself to our enemy?" Elijah still could not understand why on Earth Klaus had thought that was a better plan, "She'll be virtually indestructible!"

"Not if he uses the dagger that was used on him," Maleny smirked when Elijah stayed quiet, "He uses the dagger on himself, Dahlia goes down with him in the meantime we collect the right ingredients for the final battle. You see, Elijah? Family works better together."

Elijah could not hide his monument shock. He glanced at Cami - who'd remained by the threshold of the living room - as if to ask for some sort of confirmation.

"They came up with it together," Cami said quietly, holding back her bitter tongue for the sake of the situation. "The perfect team, don't you think?"

Maleny slowly looked between the two, feeling awkward fairly fast.

~ 0 ~

"She'll be fine," Amarrah kept telling Marcel as they both waited for Rebekah to wake up in her original body.

It had been quite some time since Cami had snapped her neck and seeing Rebekah still not waking up put Marcel on edge.

"I can't believe Klaus forced her into this!" Marcel paced back and forth, actively ignoring the French witch, "Who does this!?"

"Um, we are talking about the sister who agreed to dagger her brother when his daughter's life was stake...right?" Amarrah sarcastically asked, upholding the glare Marcel now had on him, "Don't give me that look. She's no better than he is. But no matter what she's not going to die. We looked into the spell and she's going to wake up."

And just then, they heard a noise coming from Rebekah's coffin. After a couple of seconds, the blonde vampire opened up the lid and looked around anxiously.

"See?" Amarrah then gestured to the living woman, but Marcel ignored her to go hug Rebekah.

"Fair warning- since you're still compelled to kill me, you've got a whole new fight on your hands," Rebekah told Marcel as she was put to the floor.

"Well, technically not anymore," Marcel threw a look at Amarrah, apparently doubting her word still.

"How do you mean?" Rebekah questioned the French witch, curiously looking between the two.

"It's what I told you," Cami walked into the room then, grimly looking around the place, "Klaus daggered himself, thus cancelling out any compulsion he had on anyone."

"One bloody good thing he did, then," Rebekah muttered and straightened up, clearing her throat, "So, am I to assume you undaggered my other brother downstairs?"

Cami rolled her eyes and looked to the side, "He's fine," came her mutter. "He's downstairs with Mal."

"Excellent, I'd like a word with her," Rebekah started making way out of the room when she heard her cellphone ringing from Eva's body lying on the couch. With a sigh, as nothing good could come out of that call, she returned to answer it.

~ 0 ~

"I don't understand why they're not picking up," Maleny sighed after hanging up the tenth call she'd made to Alton that night.

"Perhaps Niklaus has unexpectedly taken them out as well," Elijah bitterly remarked as he also hung up on an unanswered call to Hayley.

"Elijah, I know you're angry—" Maleny began but Elijah lost his temper and furiously bellowed.

"I AM BEYOND ANGRY WITH YOU BOTH!"

Maleny flinched but this time she didn't stay as quiet as she typically did. "DON'T SHOUT AT ME FOR SOMETHING YOU ALL DESERVED!"

"We deserved?" Elijah indignantly repeated, "Have you lost your mind—"

"YES!" Maleny screamed, now furious herself, "Because unlike you I am fighting for Hope and my son if you've forgotten! You can call me whatever you want but, just like you, I would do anything to get my son back. Hayley ran away from this family and you didn't even try to stop her because you firmly believed she was doing what was best for Hope!"

"It was the best decision to make—"

"THAT WAS NOT YOUR CALL TO MAKE!" Maleny had gotten close to his face when she shouted. Elijah blinked, her ferocity surprising him due to the fact she'd never expressed the emotion like that before. "It was a sole decision to be made by both Hayley and Klaus." Maleny continued, taking a step back. "We had a better, permanent way to keep Hope safe. Fault us for that, I don't give a damn what anyone thinks. All I know is that by the end of the day that little girl and my son will be free of Dahlia's wrath."

"Am I to assume that you know about this little switcharoo judging by your unsurprised face?" Rebekah strode into the room, not even going to address all the screams she had just listened to.

"Sorry," Maleny bitterly sighed, "but it was necessary."

"Sure," it was Rebekah's turn to sigh in bitterness, "Now, I just got a call from Freya. Dahlia is... incapacitated. They are two hours north at an orchard near Pale River. She has Hope."

"Told you," Maleny shot at Elijah then gestured for him to get going. For the first time in the entire night, Elijah agreed with her and vamp-sped away.

~ 0 ~

Freya was trying to handle a fussy Hope in her arms while waiting for someone to come and pick them up. She had no idea how she'd gotten there in the first place, and much less how Dahlia and Klaus became neutralized on the ground. She was more than relieved when Elijah appeared out of nowhere.

"Well," she sighed, "my adage holds- nothing good ever happens in a clearing in the woods."

"Nothing good ever happens where my brother is concerned," Elijah glanced at the two bodies on the ground. However, when he saw Hope perfectly safe his demeanor lightened, "With one exception. How is she?"

Freya smiled lightly, "She's a Mikaelson. She's resilient. When I woke, they were like this," she nodded over to the bodies, "Rebekah tells me Klaus has a plan to kill Dahlia, that he knew our plan would not work?"

"Yes, according to him and Maleny, our ingredients were incorrect. Niklaus infiltrated Dahlia's mind. You didn't break her heart. We needed the blood of the witch she loved the most, and you are not that witch—that honor goes to our beloved mother."

Although stunned, Freya was more frustrated than anything, "So, we need Esther's blood? Well, that's impossible—I killed her."

"One incarnation," Elijah said as if it weren't a problem, and truly it wasn't. Because at the same moment a certain new Regent witch was creating a resurrection spell. "

~ 0 ~

"Still nothing," Cami told Maleny once she hung up on a call towards Yamilet. The two blondes stood just outside the compound, still trying to get ahold of their two missing wolf friends.

"This is getting serious," Maleny bit her nail anxiously, "Alton doesn't answer, Yamilet doesn't answer, not even Hayley answers."

"Do you think it's a wolf thing?" Cami asked nervously, "Maybe something happened to them, and…"

"Nothing was supposed to happen," Maleny dropped her hand to her side, "I mean, I knew Klaus was angry and he was probably gonna hurt some of them, but not Hayley. We didn't really have anything planned except steal Hope."

"Yeah, you guys didn't, but what about Dhalia?" Cami arched an eyebrow, making Maleny stop and think for a moment.

Shakily exhaling, Maleny turned for the compound, "We need Amarrah to do a locator spell on Alton and Yamilet." However, she only made to the threshold when she glanced back and saw Cami staying right where she was. "Cami? C'mon. We have to get going."

Cami's eyes drifted to the second level and shook her head, "No, Mal. Elijah's back in there and he's pretty angry. I mean, I don't care, I'm still angry with him. But I don't want to see him. You've got a job for me tell me and I'll do it from my place or Amarrah's."

Maleny stared at her cousin for a minute before nodding, "Okay, I get it. It's awkward as hell. I'll tell Amarrah to meet you at her place so you guys can do the spell."

"Thanks," Cami warmly smiled and gave her cousin a hug before leaving.

Once gone, Maleny went on inside the compound, told Amarrah what to do then hurried up to the living room where Elijah had brought in Klaus and Dahlia. The two laid on the floor still neutralized.

"Nik is demented!" Rebekah was busy shouting, "Are we really to dig up our mother, burn her to ash, swap said ash with Kol's, and then trick Davina into using up her last chance to bring someone back from the dead? Not to mention we lose the opportunity to save Kol... if Davina doesn't turn us inside out!"

"Or, we dig a deep hole and leave both our problems at the bottom of it," Elijah muttered but was perfectly heard by Maleny.

"I say we choose a more permanent option: find the white oak stake, kill Klaus, Dahlia dies with him," Freya added afterwards.

"You're all terrible people," Maleny declared as she made an entrance, ignoring their looks, "Luckily, I'm well used to it."

"Mal, you can't just tell us you're okay with what we apparently need to do," Rebekah, exasperated, turned to the blonde.

"Of course I'm not okay with it. It's what must be done," Maleny crossed her arms, "Now you may hate Klaus more than ever but he did what none of you could: put Dahlia down. Now the plan relies on us to make sure she stays down permanently." She sighed and moved closer to where Klaus was, "I was supposed to go down with him and Dahlia, but I guess he managed to get Dahlia to de-link herself from me. I will not fail him, and like I told you Elijah, I will do anything for my son and Hope. Question is, will you help us or not?"

Before anyone could respond, they heard an odd noise and were appalled to see the dagger still embedded in Klaus' chest was beginning to melt.

"Oh!" Maleny jumped back, "It's...melting?"

Elijah deeply sighed, unsurprised something like that was happening, "I suppose we have no choice but to finish the task that Niklaus has set."

The others exchanged looks amongst each other while Maleny slowly inched back to Klaus, frantically watching the dagger continuing to melt.

~ 0 ~

Now in Amarrah's place, she and Cami worked on the locator spell for Alton and Yamilet. However, Cami could easily see the spell was not working with each irritated grunt Amarrah gave after chanting her spell over and over.

"What is it?" Cami sighed, preparing herself for the bad news.

"You remember the one time when I tried looking for Mal but couldn't because she'd already been forced to body jump?" Amarrah stared at the map that refused to give a location.

"Yeah," Cami slowly nodded, "What? Did Alton and Yamilet jump bodies or something?"

"Either that, or…" Amarrah looked up from the map with a heavy sigh, "...their bodies are no more."

"What...what exactly does that mean?" Cami inquired then, biting her lip anxiously.

"I don't know what happened but I know they're not quite themselves," Amarrah placed both her hands on the table and stared down at the map again, "Something happened in the bayou last night that has something to do with their bodies. And, since Hayley is also M.I.A. I'm willing to guess it's an entire wolf pack that's in the same predicament."

~ 0 ~

Davina overlooked her work with pleasure as she now knew she was mere minutes away from bringing Kol back from the dead. With the power of the Regent she had prepared every last detail of the spell and now proudly held the glass jar of Kol's ashes.

"It's gonna be weird," she began curiously, "seeing you with your original face." She walked to the end of a stone coffin that was to be used in the spell and was about to pour the ashes in when Maleny came in.

"He was the right devil, that Kol," she called and laughed when Davina looked at her heavily surprised by her appearance. "Yeah, I'm back, and this time I intend on staying here," she patted herself.

"I would have helped," Davina began guiltily and rushed out to meet the blonde, but Maleny raised a hand to stop her, "I was busy becoming Regent and-"

"It's fine, Davina," the blonde assured, "In the end, Klaus had Dahlia return me to my original body."

Davina made a face and muttered, "Well, I suppose he had to be useful for something."

Maleny only slightly gave a chuckle, as there was something important that needed to be done. "Davina, I know how much you want to bring Kol back but I need you to do something for me."

Davina suspected there was going to come something she didn't like, "What…?"

"There is only one witch strong enough to stop Dahlia, and that i, unfortunately, Esther. I need you to use your power as Regent to bring her back."

Davina's eyes widened in horror and immediately stepped back, "No! I only get one shot at this- I'm using it to bring back Kol."

"Davina I wouldn't be asking you this if there was another way, okay?" Maleny sighed, "We can get Kol back another way but-"

"No!" Davina repeated herself, more sternly, "I love you Mal, and yeah I've done things that hurt you but I will not do this for you. It's my chance and I'm not wasting it."

"Davina, I'm begging you—"

"NO!" Davina shouted, without thinking using her magic to blast Maleny back. As the blonde groaned on the ground, Davina had a momentary guilt flash in her eyes. "Mal, I'm…" but she sighed and shook her head, "...I'm not doing it. I'm sorry."

Maleny lifted her head off the ground, grimly staring at the teen across her.

~ 0 ~

Freya worked her best to slow down the melting dagger, or to stop it altogether. However, there were no good results. "It's no use- I can't slow her magic," she groaned, "Everything I'm trying fails."

Marcel could easily see she was right. Suddenly, they heard a soft whisper and a creak, and as the two looked around they saw vines covered in black dahlias were growing inside the room.

"There's gotta be a way to kill her," Marcel breathed in, horrified to see such power even when Dahlia was meant to be unconscious.

Freya took out the white oak stake she'd found in the room earlier and held it up, "There is," she regretted to announce.

"No, Freya!" Marcel lunged to get the stake away from her but Freya used her power to pin him to the wall.

Freya turned back for Klaus and Dahlia, almost trembling as she grew closer. She saw the dagger was almost completely melted and felt like it was her obligation to stop things once and for all.

"Freya, we can find another way!" Marcel frantically pleaded with her, still trying to break free from her spell.

"I'm sorry, but I see no other way," Freya was almost in tears as she knelt down beside Klaus.

"No! No! No! You kill him, you kill me, too!"

Freya sniffled and sniffled, until she was almost hysterical, "I don't want to kill you! I don't want to kill him!" but even though her sight was becoming blurry she could see the dagger was almost gone. "This is the family I longed for, but because of her-" she angrily gritted her teeth as she cast a look over to Dahlia, "-I'll forever be alone," she raised the stake up, and was about to push it down when she felt Klaus suddenly grip her wrist.

The gold dagger had completely melted and thus released him from its effects. He had managed to hear Freya's touching words and no longer looked at her with hatred.

However, there wasn't much time to contemplate on the moment when Dahlia gasped awake. She jerked upright, furious of what had been done to her.

~ 0 ~

From the threshold, Maleny silently watched Davina perform the resurrection spell to bring 'Kol' back. She didn't dare move nor say a word, for she knew there would be tension afterwards. And this time, it would be her fault.

Davina anxiously watched two hands grip the edges of the stone coffin, presumably Kol. However, when Davina stared harder, she noticed the hands were more feminine and when Esther Mikaelson rose up, she became enraged.

"Who the hell are you!?" she demanded.

But this time Esther was quite innocent, she didn't even know why she was alive again...and in her old body!

It didn't take long before Davina put the pieces together. "MALENY!" she yelled and whirled to the blonde who'd now gotten up, "You did this!?" the indignation in her tone was more evident than was her anger. "Mal…" her voice broke, "...how could you?"

"Just like you've done many times before," Maleny answered quietly, walking over to grab a decent blanket for Esther to take. "Because I felt it needed to be done. Elijah?"

"What-" Davina barely got the word out when Elijah super sped inside holding dark chain cuffs. The tears welled down Davina's face, her fury combined with despondence, "That was my only chance!" she cried, gesturing to Esther, "That was Kol's only chance!"

"Davina, I told you we can find another way-" Maleny tried to get through to the teen, but it was of no use.

"I HATE YOU!" Davina blurted towards the blonde, and while the statement meant nothing to Elijah, nor Esther, it immensely weighed on Maleny.

Maleny did not try to defend herself, nor plead for her forgiveness. She accepted her fault with her head held up high, but with her eyes full of tears.

Rebekah then sped into the room, yanking Davina away from her brother and friend, "I'm so sorry, love. I promise, we'll get Kol back - just not today," she told the teen before putting her under a sleeper-hold. While she did that, Elijah sped to Esther and cuffed her wrists to cancel out her magic.

"Careful with her," Maleny cautioned Rebekah once Davina had fallen unconscious. "She might despise me, but I don't want her getting hurt."

"That's the cost of getting your son back," Rebekah threw her words back, something Maleny expected.

"I know," Maleny nodded, "And when I hold my Nicolas again it will all be worth it."

She truly believed so.

~ 0 ~

Freya and Marcel helped Klaus stand and stepped away from Dahlia who was rising on her own. She was furious and looked as if she were ready to kill them all right there and then.

"I'm almost impressed by the lengths you'd go to for your little girl," she told Klaus, "Though you may have just cost your little blonde her own son...and you," she added afterwards with a smirk just as she ripped the white oak stake from Freya's free hand.

"We are still linked, dear aunt. You may not want to punish me with that particular weapon," Klaus reminded, though inside he was anxious as he knew he wasn't quite up to his strength to fight against her.

"Hmm, I made sure that the link between us melted along with that dagger," Dhalia stepped back, "Meaning... I'm quite free to kill you!" she used her magic to force him to come to her in order to be staked.

Marcel lunged for the hybrid and tackled him to the floor to keep him from reaching Dahlia. Dahlia used the distraction to make her escape. Hope's sudden crying made the two vampires speed into the nursery room where Dahlia's vines had nearly covered the entire room. They wrapped themselves around Hope's cradle and moved towards the infant and pricked her finger with a thorn, drawing out blood.

Klaus snatched Hope from her crib and backed away. Marcel watched the vines soon disappear as if nothing had ever been there in the first place. "Why'd she do all this? She doesn't need Hope anymore."

"She got what she wanted from the very start - to break the slumber spell and acquire a fresh new magic supply," Klaus sighed, "Unfortunately, I have no idea where the vile harpy has fled to."

Marcel shook his head, "Alright, go. Get Hope someplace safe. I'll track down your witch. And, when this is over, you and I are gonna settle up."

Klaus took his warning with a sense of amusement, "Provided we survive what's to come tonight, I look forward to it."

After several minutes, Klaus realized Dahlia had taken Freya with her as well. Carrying Hope with him, he entered the courtyard. At the same time, Amarrah and Cami strode into the place.

"Good, you're up," Amarrah called sarcastically, "you wanna tell us what the hell happened to Alton and Yamilet? We can't seem to reach them nor find them."

Klaus looked around for a moment, figuring now was as good as a time to let them all know what really happened to the wolves in the bayou. As if time was agreeing with him, Maleny came in.

"So, um," the blonde began, still carrying teary eyes, "Davina hates me. Oh! And your mother's back," she ran her hands through her hair, "Win, win, I guess…"

Cami looked between her and Klaus, suspiciously, "Go one by one, tell us what happened to the wolves and what did you do to Davina?"

"The wolves?" Maleny blinked, "What's happened with them?"

Dramatically, Klaus sighed and just came out with it, "Dahlia acquired a memory from Maleny and put Hayley and the rest of her pack under the Crescent curse once again."

"And because Alton and Yamilet were at the Unification ceremony they were cursed too…" Amarrah was horrified, her hand covering her mouth, "Oh my God!"

Even Maleny was distraught by the news, "What? That...that wasn't part of the plan. She...she wasn't...she wasn't supposed to do that!" she began to pace back and forth, but stopped when an even bigger realization hit her, "Yamilet was the only one who knew where my old corpse was! Oh my God! My curse!"

"Mal! Mal, stop!" Cami forced Maleny to stop her pacing by grabbing her shoulders. "Mal, we got that covered."

"How?"

"Yamilet told us that Esther and Finn kept your old corpse at the graveyard. We know where it is."

Maleny's face lightened up immensely and gasped, "So, my...my curse, it's…" her hand flapped excitedly as she began to realize what it meant, "...I can break my curse! Oh! I can break my curse!" in her excitement, she pushed Cami to the side, the blonde vampire merely blinking with surprise because of it. Maleny went up to Klaus who was already smiling, "Do you hear that? I get to break my curse - finally!"

"There had to be some kind of happiness in the midst of all this," he touched her face, "Which is why I want you, Cami and Amarrah to get started on that."

Maleny's smile faded a little and she shook her head, "What? No, I can't. We have to find Dahlia, because I assume since you've woken up and you're kind of clutching Hope, that she's up and escaped."

Klaus took a shaky breath, disliking his words as they came out of his mouth, "I might not be here for tomorrow but if I leave I will know that you broke your curse and that you will keep fighting for Nicolas," he gently passed Hope to her, "and for Hope."

"I swear to God if you keep talking like that I'll kill you," she sniffed, "And when you come back I'll kill you again."

As always, Klaus just chuckled at her antics, "Go and break that curse. Cami and Amarrah will be there, and please look after Hope."

"She'll be fine," Cami said in the end, "They'll both be," she added with a small smile,

Klaus nodded, for once able to believe easily in another person. He kissed Hope's head then Maleny's cheek, giving them both one last smile before speeding out of the compound. For a minute, all was silent in the place and neither Amarrah nor Cami spoke a word for fear of what Maleny would do. In the end, Maleny growled in frustration and sniffled.

"We should, um...we should get started," Amarrah whispered, "The spell's old and I'll need to channel my entire coven back home."

"Fine," Maleny nodded for them to get a start. As the two women walked for the stairs, Maleny sniffed in and pressed a kiss to Hope's head, "It's going to be okay, my Hope. It's got to be."

~ 0 ~

Klaus was delighted to see his mother shackled and forced to sit on a chair, while Elijah stood behind at a table full of several knives. They had relocated the Original witch to the jazz club where they would then prepare for the final battle with Dahlia.

"Let me guess," sighed Esther as she looked around her two sons, "you brought me back from the dead to torture me."

Behind her Elijah rolled his eyes, "My dear mother, we simply need your blood. Though, in the event that you should suffer horribly, I can't promise I won't enjoy it immensely."

"And I've arrived just in time for another one of your deaths," Klaus grinned wickedly, "and as much as I appreciate the front-row seat, I'm afraid I'm going to have to postpone the festivities."

"You're in excellent spirits," Elijah muttered, "Despite the losses we suffered - by the way," he raised a glance at him suspiciously, "Care to explain to us where is Hayley?"

"Well, Dahlia pulled an unexpected stunt and cursed her to the Crescent's curse."

It took a minute for that to process through Elijah's mind, and then he shouted, "WHAT!? And you let it happen!?"

"There wasn't much to do in the moment!" Klaus yelled back, though much lower than Elijah. He expected the reaction, "I'm no bloody witch! I had everything calculated but Dahlia pulled the memory from Maleny and kept it to herself!"

"And what are we to do then, hm? Just leave Hayley out there in the bayou? Cursed to the body of a beast?"

"Of course we will bring her back, but right now I'm more interested in killing Dahlia," Klaus pulled out a silver knife from his jacket's pocket and glanced at his mother, "I need her blood on this blade which I've had bound with the soil from Dahlia's homeland, not to mention Viking ash. Mother's demise will have to wait. You see, I need her to weaken Dahlia's defenses. Bit of psychological warfare before I slaughter the both of you."

Esther rolled her eyes, "Ah, yes. You expect me to walk willingly to my death."

"Well, your willing participation would have been a bonus, but it's far from necessary. If needs be, I'll drag you there myself."

At that moment, Rebekah walked into the place, "Yes, dear Mother, you do not have a choice. Then again, why should you be any different from the rest of us? We're all dancing puppets in Nik's end-of-days marionette show. He forces every move we make."

"And how long are you gonna stand there and pretend you don't need me to?" Klaus snapped at her, fed up with being blamed for something he believed they'd earned, "The both of you have fought me at every turn, leaving me no choice but to act alone! We're no strangers to disagreements on the battlefield, but we also have a very long history of doing whatever it takes to win the war."

"And that includes leaving Hayley on her own?" Elijah asked, instigating Rebekah's attention.

"What of Hayley?" she looked between her two brothers.

"It appears our brother allowed Dahlia to place the Crescent curse on Hayley and her pack," Elijah gestured to Klaus, making Rebekah's eyes widened in horror.

"What!?"

"I didn't plan it!" Klaus defended himself, "It happened!"

"Oh don't bother, Nik," Rebekah shook her head, "This was all just a great big punishment."

"Punishment?" Klaus then feigned thought, "Whatever for? Perhaps the dagger you put in my heart?"

"You brought that upon yourself!" Elijah declared.

"As you have with your own pain," Klaus responded back in the same exasperation he was being treated with. "I did what I did for my children, and I bargained the hell out of it for Maleny. Unlike you, I am willing to do whatever it takes to protect them. Tell me, how is Cami?" he sarcastically, yet more angrily than ever, inquired, "Last time I heard you fought against her and snapped her neck. And for what? Oh yes, to dagger me. You chose family over the woman you love," seeing Elijah's stunned expression of the revelation Klaus was pretty sure he hadn't yet made was all the more satisfying, "How big of you, I'll say. And how costly it was. I would have worked alongside her, and…" he lightly chuckled to himself, "...I did. I worked together with Maleny, and look where it got us to? Perhaps this time, brother, you should have followed my actions."

With that, Klaus grabbed Esther by the shackles and made his way out the door, leaving Elijah to ponder on his recent choices.

~ 0 ~

Under a dark starry night Maleny clutched Hope - who was bundled up for the weather - as she and Amarrah watched Cami hurriedly digging up the grave where Maleny's previous corpse was stored.

"Where are we going to do this?" Cami asked once her shovel hit the coffin.

"In the Dawson crypt," Amarrah responded and rubbed Maleny's arm when the blonde witch gave an uncomfortable shift. "It's the safest place."

"How's that for irony?" Maleny mumbled under her breath.

When Cami had retrieved the corpse - which was still in perfect condition thanks to the spells cast over it - the three women relocated to the Dawson crypt. As Cami put down the corpse on a wooden table, Maleny couldn't bring herself to step inside the place. Amarrah came up beside her and smiled softly at her. "I know it's hard, but remember they're all gone now."

"Kids are here," Maleny whispered.

"With no memories," reminded Cami. "Now c'mon, we have a spell to get started on."

Maleny sucked in a breath and took one small step inside, feeling like all the ancestors of the Dawsons were watching her like hawks. She knew after her latest stunt against the new Regent she was less than welcomed at the graveyard. It wouldn't be long before they started going against her.

Amarrah had set a spell book on a nearby the corpse and was already beginning the preparations of the spell. Cami walked towards the entrance to check their perimeters in the meantime.

"How long is it going to take?" Maleny asked, slowly coming forwards.

"About an hour?" Amarrah estimated after skimming the entire spell again.

"How ever long it takes-" Cami returned from her checking, "-we have to be prepared for what might be coming."

"What do you mean?" Amarrah looked at her.

"Look, Klaus made it pretty clear Dahlia could win-"

"She won't," Maleny interrupted with a deep scowl, but Cami continued.

"If she does, we're going to need to run. I say we wait until midnight and if we see...things didn't go our way...we get the hell out of here. With Hope," Cami nodded to the languid toddler in Maleny's arms.

"We can't go anywhere. First of all, Nicolas knows he has to come here," Maleny reminded, "And second of all, Dahlia isn't going to win."

"We don't know that for sure," Cami insisted. "And if it does happen, then we can find a way to contact Nicolas. But we have to go by midnight. Think about Hope."

Maleny knew Cami's back up plan was logical and that it would be better for Hope if they weren't in the same city as Dahlia should she manage to stay alive. Klaus would want his daughter far, far away from the war zone - he proved it once by sending her away.

"Mal," Cami sighed, now speaking to her as what they had always been - cousins - and not as the logical vampire in the room, "it's for everyone's safety."

Maleny looked down at Hope he had rested her head on Maleny's shoulder, apparently becoming sleepy. "Yeah," she whispered. "It is."

"So then it's agreed," Cami shifted her attention to Amarrah, "How are we doing?"

"Good," Amarrah took in a deep breath after looking up from the spell book. "I can feel my coven's connection growing stronger. I think they're ready to start."

"So what do I need to do, then?" Maleny inched closer to the table after handing Hope to Cami.

"Well, it's simple in that I only need to repeat like three sentences..." Amarrah's widened smile made Maleny's stomach churn. She came to learn what that smile usually meant.

"Buuuuut...it might hurt a little..." Amarrah's face told Maleny it would hurt a lot instead.

"What's gonna happen?" Maleny dreaded to ask.

"I'm sorry," Amarrah began like this was her fault. "It's just you share a strong connection with the Dawson bloodline because of your repeated sacrifices. So to break the connection...a thousand-year connection...well, how many lives have you had?"

Maleny's eyes widened in horror. "Oh my God..."

"Just...get ready to scream," Amarrah sighed.

"What choice do I have?" Maleny whispered to herself as she watched Amarrah turn to face the corpse again.

"Come here," Amarrah gestured for the blonde to extend her hand forwards. "I need your blood to fall on the corpse. The connection will break as soon as it all turns to ash."

"Here goes nothing," Maleny turned her palm and allowed Amarrah to draw a knife from her bag she brought along.

Amarrah gently cut across the palm and moved Maleny's hand over the corpse and allowed the blood to trickle down. Afterwards, she repeated the same with Maleny's other hand. She chanted louder, and more aggressively, as if there was power going against her. Her voice then began overlapping with others', thus letting Maleny know the French coven had joined in the on the spell.

And then Maleny felt the most vicious pain start at the side of her head. With shaking hands she brought them to her head and released her agonizing scream that pierced both Amarrah's and Cami's ears. Even poor Hope had begun to cry. Amarrah kept her eyes screwed shut and focused her entire energy on chanting the spell. Cami had sped to the entrance where the screams were a tad less - for Hope's sake - and watched Maleny crumple to her knees on the ground.

~ 0 ~

Dahlia had taken Freya to a warehouse full of antique cars, but otherwise empty of witnesses - not that the older witch cared who saw. She intended on killing Freya there and then, moving onto the younger Mikaelsons afterwards. She had locked Freya in salt circle and for a minute choked her with magic. It didn't last long before the others found her whereabouts and prevented her from harming Freya longer.

"Bringing vampires to a witch fight. Someone hasn't learned their lesson," Dahlia, amused, look at the two siblings.

"Well, I can be a bit thick sometimes…" Klaus swayed his hard, sarcastically looking around just as he heard Elijah bringing in Esther by the shackles. "Although, on this occasion, I'd say I took your lesson to heart."

Dahlia was visibly stunned to see her younger sister there, alive, and shackled. However, it soon passed and she laughed, "My sister... in chains? Hahaha! Is... is she to be a gift to buy your freedom? Because I brought something," and she pulled out the white oak stake she'd snatched from Freya earlier.

The sight of the stake, while nerve-wrecking, provoked incredulity in the siblings. "One stake, three of us?" Klaus asked, "Even if you don't hesitate, the other two will rip you in half."

"Sound thinking. But... small thinking," Dahlia telekinetically threw the stake up into the air and caused it to break into millions of tiny pieces, almost like snowflakes, that sprinkled over the entire room. She then directed them to the three Originals, giving them no choice but to breath the pieces in.

Dahlia ignored the pleads and addressed Esther, gleefully, "Now, sister, let us watch together as I burn your children from the inside out."

Esther stared at her dying children for a minute before heading for Dahlia, "You still carry around so much anger for me after all these years?"

"You broke your vow!" Dahlia snarled, "We were to stand together, always and forever, and you left to marry that brutish Viking imbecile. You ended my family, and they were the result." She used her powers to blast the three Originals backward, and caused their veins to grow redder with the white oak, along with their skin.

"You call this my wrongdoing?" Esther shouted, "You made me bargain away my firstborn child! My daughter!"

"Not just this firstborn, but every firstborn!" Dahlia clarified for future references, as there were still two bearers that would be left after she was done with the people in front of her. "And even then, you found a way to deny me that which you had sworn to be mine! How do you think that felt?"

Klaus had tried to lunge towards the witch with the blade that was sure to work, but was easily thrown back alongside his siblings.

Dahlia smiled at Esther, "Now, Esther, say goodbye to the last of your children." She returned to her torturing and forced Freya into the choke-hold. Before she could finally kill the blonde witch, Esther called to her.

"Sister, wait! Wait!" she managed to get Dahlia to hold off the killing, but not to let go of Freya, " You've won, Dahlia. You have everything you ever wanted, including the firstborn of new generations! You have bested us all. At least let me try to make amends," she walked closer to her sister, coming face-to-face, "Let me share with you the glorious freedom that I have found... in death."

Without warning, she lunged for Dahlia and entangled her with the shackles around her neck, forcing Dahlia to release Freya as she fought. Once free, Freya broke the imprisoning circle around her and used magic to free the air of the white oak stake and cure her siblings. Although the three coughed up blood and dust for a minute or two, they felt their strength quickly returning to them.

Esther knew she wouldn't be able to hold Dahlia forever, and so she called out, "Elijah?" desperately, she glanced back at the others, nodding for them to do what they must for things to be over.

Elijah picked up the blade from the floor and tossed it to Klaus who wasted no time in speeding to the two women and stabbing Esther through the back, making it go through Dahlia's heart in the process. The term 'killing two birds with one stone' never had such a meaning until that moment.

~ 0 ~

"Aaaaaand…" Amarrah carefully poured the last of the corpse's ashes into a glass jar, "...here we go," she finished with one great, big smile and placed the lid over the jar just as Cami walked into the crypt with Hope in arms.

"I put Maleny in the car - but she's really out like a light," she briefly explained and eyed the ornamented jar.

"She'll be out for hours," Amarrah closed the spell book and dumped it into her bag. "A thousand years to break free from? I admire her strength."

Cami gave an agreeing smile. "So is that it, then?" she nodded to the jar.

"Yup," Amarrah picked up the jar. Maleny's freedom had been like an hourglass with its trickling sand falling down. The last bit of sand was the last bit of ash that proclaimed Maleny's freedom for the rest of her life. "Maleny has finally broken her curse. She's free."

"Finally," Cami chuckled out of pure happiness for her 'cousin'.

Amarrah grabbed her purse and turned to her. "I think we should get back to the compound. If we do need to run we're going to need things from there."

Cami agreed with a nod of her head. "You're right. We should go."

Arriving at the compound they were pretty disappointed to find it completely empty. Cami brought Maleny up to her bedroom while Amarrah went to put Hope down for a nap in the meantime they collected some of the important things they would need for the run. However, Cami had finished quick and found Amarrah still trying to get Hope to sleep.

"I think she needs Hayley," Amarrah sighed as Hope continued to fuss in her crib. "Don't you worry Hope, I'm going to get that curse reversed, you'll see."

"Can you actually reverse the Crescent curse?" Cami had to ask Amarrah. "The witch who originally cast it was a powerful one, and she's long gone."

Amarrah sighed. "It's not going to be easy, but I'm not gonna give up. I'll go back to France if I have to, but this spell will not take our friends away from us. And speaking of, I think if we do have to leave, then we should go to France. It's far, Dahlia has no idea who I am no where I come from so it'll be long before she finds us."

Cami nodded in agreement, but seemed discontent. "I can't believe I might actually have to run from this place…" she chuckled bitterly, "After everything, this is still my home. I was born here - I died here."

"I would've thought after everything you would be happy to get the hell out of the Quarter," Amarrah admitted, "Dying here because of an old vampire family," she began counting off with her fingers, "Fighting for your basic survival every day, getting your heart broken by the man you love-"

Cami's eyes widened and immediately cut Amarrah off, "I don't - I don't love anyone!"

Amarrah gave her a pointed a look, almost scolding her for wasting time in denying. "Cami, it's okay. He's not here, you can be honest."

"I don't," Cami insisted, huffing as she crossed her arms.

"I'm not gonna do this," Amarrah warned the blonde, "One does not simply fight a thousand old witch for a guy she just met," she laughed.

"I was doing it for Mal!"

"Yeah, and Elijah because you didn't want anything to happen to him. And you wouldn't be this hurt because of what he did to you, snapping your neck and all."

Cami rolled her eyes, heavily tired of having to repeat, "I'm not angry because he snapped my neck! No one gets it!"

"Point and case," Amarrah gestured and laughed again, much to Cami's annoyance.

~ 0 ~

When the Mikaelsons began to return to the compound, Cami and Amarrah were long finished with their "emergency packing" so they were partially irritated to know they would have to unpack.

"Your fault for not having faith us," Rebekah playfully told them both.

Meanwhile, Klaus was scoping the nearby areas for the missing blonde in the room. Seeing his frantic movements, Amarrah called to him. "She's unconscious, but in her room."

"Is she...?" he turned around.

"Free from a thousand-year curse? Oh yeah," Amarrah smirked. "That's one point for the French witch," she raised a finger. "The ashes of the corpse are in the jar—" she pointed towards said jar that sat on the coffee table, "—there. I don't know if Maleny wanted to do something special with them."

Klaus didn't bother remarking and instead hurried out of the room. To his luck, Maleny had began to stir awake on her bed. She had just taken a breath in to open her eyes when he came in.

"Mal," he went directly for her like she was still in danger.

Maleny was a bit disoriented from her long 'sleep' so it took her a moment to register where she was and who was currently holding her. "We...won?" she languidly blinked.

"Yes," Klaus couldn't help smile at her. He helped her sit up a bit but let her rest against his chest. "I heard you had a winning too..."

"Did I?" she raised her eyebrows as she tried remembering just what had happened earlier. Her head was a bit groggy from the massive pain but she was sure that somewhere along that pain she must have beat the curse. "Yeah...I think I did..."

"Yes you did," Klaus set a kiss on her hair and held her just a bit closer, "Amarrah put the ashes into a jar if, uh, wanted to place them somewhere special..."

Maleny thought about it for a moment but frowned when nowhere 'special' came to mind. "I don't...know. I'd like for it to be meaningful."

But while she pondered more, Klaus had already come up with an idea of his own. "Mystic Falls." Maleny looked up at him, confused etched across her face. "Mystic Falls is where we were born...where we practically died..."

"I...like it," Maleny gave a small nod, still half considering it in her mind. "Definitely meaningful..."

"And, we could take advantage to visit so that you could finally get the connection you wanted with your mother, remember?"

Of course Maleny remembered. It now meant even more because she was, once again, a witch. No more linked to anyone meant her powers were free, albeit limited, but they were hers. "Yes," she finally agreed completely. "Let's bury them there. When can we go?"

"Any day you want, just tell me."

"Okay," Maleny smiled to herself. "Now tell me what happened with Dahlia."

"Gone forever," Klaus answered, like a promise. "Along with Esther which just makes it even more better."

Maleny chuckled. "The more people who die, the better right?"

"If they're enemies then of course."

Maleny laughed again.

~ 0 ~

At Rousseau's, Cami had taken to cleaning out the place since she had let her job slowly go down the drain. She knew it would be only a matter of time before the place went under new management and the job she had would be terminated. While cleaning out a table, she was unexpectedly visited by her friend, Gia, whom she hadn't seen in quite a while.

"My God this place is awful," Gia crinkled her nose in distaste as she wiped a finger over a table and gathered dust, "Doesn't anyone clean it?"

Cami looked up from the table she was at and glared, "Ha, ha, the bartender's been a little bit busy."

"Yeah, fighting the old wicked witch of the west," Gia put her hands behind her back, "Who, I heard, killed Josephine?" Cami sighed and continued to clean the table, "I would've liked a piece of that."

"Trust me, you really wouldn't have," Cami shook her head and grabbed and headed back to the counter for a fresh new cloth.

"Marcel told me everything was fine now and that everything should go back to normal," Gia walked up to the counter and plopped down on a stool, "Which, kinda leaves me wondering what the hell you're gonna do now?"

"Hmm?" the blonde quizzically looked at the woman.

"C'mon, Cami," Gia sighed, "You and I both know that you plainly forgot about the whole psychology major. You went back to school for about two weeks before going M.I.A."

"Yeah, because Maleny was kidnapped, and," Cami awkwardly cleared her throat, "Esther had taken Elijah. I had to help find them."

"Okay, fair enough," Gia nodded, "But what about afterwards?"

"I was busy at the safe house with Elijah," Cami said.

"And after?"

"...busy again?"

Gia tilted her head, "You were busy, I get it. But you also have to admit that ever since you turned you haven't exactly been motivated to go back to school - at least that's what you've let me assume by everything you told me about yourself."

Cami threw her head back, groaning, "I know, I know. It's...complicated. The whole reason I went into the major was because of my brother. But now that I know what happened, and there's so much more to this world than the humans know...I can't go back to school and let everything just slide."

"Then what do you want to do?" Gia asked, "Because my place is always an offer for you if you want to leave the Quarter. Give yourself a break."

"No," Cami instantly declared. "I don't want to leave this place. This is my home and I don't intend on leaving it for anything."

"Okay," Gia chuckled while Cami sighed, "Then what do you want?"

"I want to make this a better place for everyone," Cami answered honestly, crossing her arms, "Before, there were these factions and because of who I am, I was supposed to take the leadership for the humans."

"But you're not human anymore…." Gia reminded gently, "Can't exactly do that anymore.."

"No," agreed Cami, "but these people need someone. Since the Correas are gone, there hasn't been much leadership…" the more Cami got to thinking, the more inclined she felt to stay in the Quarter.

"Oh my God," Gia said after a moment, realizing just what Cami was intending on doing.

~ 0 ~

"So you're telling me everyone in that town practically hates you?" Maleny asked after hearing the brief telling of Mystic Falls from Klaus. "Why am I not surprised?"

"It's not my fault they're all irritating, know-it-all, baby vampires," Klaus rolled his eyes, just the mere memory of some of the residents of Mystic Falls put him on edge.

Maleny chuckled. "So, by definition, if they hate you they'll probably hate me too?"

"I don't want to lie-"

"There's a sentence no one would ever think you'd say." Maleny tilted her head up to meet his unamused look. "Did I annoy you like the Bennett witch you talked about? Boy, you really hate witches. I wonder how you stand me then."

"Because you-" Klaus purposely brought her impossibly close to him, getting a small yelp from her part, "-are far more different than any of these people."

Maleny decided to play with him for a bit. "But I'm just a mortal witch now. Where does that leave me, then?"

"You're a special case, my love," he pressed a kiss to her cheek. "You're slightly less irritating."

"Oh," she looked to the side, feigning offence, "Well then I guess I'll just have to go find myself a less murderous vampire. In fact, I'll get a head start tomorrow when we go visit that town."

"Don't you dare," he warned her darkly, but it made no effect on her.

She liked it, actually, and continued to tease him about it, "Yeah, I'll ask Elijah who was the most irritating vampire for you and then seduce him."

"Mal…"

"I'll start off with a nice couple of drinks," she continued, "Do they like bourbon?"

"Maleny…"

"I don't have a signature move, but I heard from Amarrah the blonde thing is really big in this modern world," she gestured to her hair, "So maybe I'll just flip my hair and batter my eyes. That's what got you, wasn't it?

"Maleny!"

"In fact, I'll go ask Elijah right now!" she declared and made to leave but was yanked back immediately. She laughed and shifted to face him. Needless to say, Klaus wasn't happy one bit. "You didn't like my joke?"

"You mean where you joke about you leaving me for some other man? And an irrelevant man at that?" Klaus placed a hand on her cheek, his soft voice ending all of Maleny's thoughts on pushing more of his buttons.

"You know I'm only joking," she spoke quietly. "After a thousand years do you think there could ever be someone else?" she cupped his face, smiling widely at him. "Now I think maybe you're the one that still has things to learn about this world."

She laughed for a second before pressing her lips to his. She wound her arms around his neck while he pulled her practically on him. Remembering the many times he wanted to kiss her while she was stuck in Yamilet's body turned it all into more urgent kissing. Without a warning, Klaus turned Maleny over so that she laid on her bed. She barely had time to gasp when he connected his lips to hers again. They fiercely kissed, both with equal fervor for each other.

It had been quite some time since they both found their selves in the same predicament, and now that they were free...there was so much time to take advantage of.

~ 0 ~

Cami walked out of Rousseau's on her own, and locked up while vowing to be back tomorrow for her shift she would now take more serious. When she finished up, she began down the street, intending on heading for her place instead of Amarrah's. Everyone had a home, and while she would much rather be where her cousin was, she didn't feel like she belonged there anymore. And when she came across Elijah on the street, she still felt the same.

"Can I help you?" she asked, doing her best to keep her voice serious and stern.

"I want to have a talk," Elijah began calmly, but already he was being met with difficulty.

"I don't have anything to talk to you about," Cami shook her head.

"Well, I do."

"Well, I don't care anymore."

"Cami," Elijah sped up to her, taking her by the arm, "I beseech you to listen, please. While we won much tonight, we also lost several things...and for me, I lost your friendship. I know what I did was wrong and it will take long before you can consider me even an acquaintance."

Cami sighed and pulled her arm from his grip, "It's difficult to forgive you when you don't even understand what the reason for my anger actually is. You think it's because you snapped my neck, everyone thinks so. Except Mal. And do you know why?"

"No…" Elijah quietly said, waiting for her to explain.

"Because she understands the pain of being cast out by the one you love," and as Cami continued to explain she overcame her fear of admitting what it was she felt. "All this time you have told me that I was part of the family. That my place was at the compound with you, with Maleny, with everyone there. But when worst came to show, you went back on your word. You showed me that I will never be one of you. The plan you made to dagger Klaus, you made with Rebekah, with Freya, hell, even Marcel and Hayley. You didn't even consider what my opinion would have been. I may not have a good concept of what love is, but I've had an example to go by."

"It's true I didn't consider your opinion on the matter, but it was a rash decision, one that needed to be made fast," Elijah tried to explain himself, "Niklaus was becoming far too paranoid and there had to be a stop. The decision was made amongst my family because they were there. And besides, you show more loyalty to Maleny, thus then to Klaus. You would have fought against me, like you did."

Cami's eyes teared up as she bit back a bitter laugh, "You chose your sisters' opinions over mine, you didn't even consider what mine would've been. Do you know," she bitterly laughed, "if there's one thing I've come to admire from Klaus since I've known him, it's his massive loyalty to Maleny. Because no matter what happened, he was there with her. He told her everything. And they fought against his own family, together. Their relationship may be highly unorthodox, but it's real, and honest. The girl in the forest," she recited Maleny's famous title, "The setting may have changed, the people may have changed, but they haven't. For Klaus, Maleny is the simple girl in the forest whom he fought for. And for Mal, he's her protector. I want that, Elijah," she sniffled, "I want someone who would fight for me, who would fight with me, against anyone. Until you can give me that, I don't think we should see each other anymore. If you need anything for Hayley's cause, or for Mal or Hope, I'll be there. But otherwise, I'm just another local in the Quarter. Goodbye."

Elijah swallowed roughly as the blonde woman turned to leave. His eyes had matched hers in tears, but after hearing what she had to say he wouldn't go after her anymore. She was right, he couldn't yet offer her what she wanted. He was too in depth with his promise to keep his family together. She deserved someone else who would stand by her against anyone, someone who would value her like she deserved. But it still broke his heart that it could not be him.

He thought back to Klaus, and his words...he had been, surprisingly, right.

~ 0 ~

Klaus shifted over the bed on his side to watch Maleny better in her deep sleep. He reached for the her next to him, gingerly stroking her hair, and smiled to himself. No more would she be leaving him. For once, he would have a good ending in one of the many tragic stories of the past. It became even better when he remembered their son was going to come home soon, and they would be able to make up for all they had missed in Nicolas' life. But for now, he would focus on what he already had with him.

The Girl in the Forest would be there with him forever.

Author's Note:

To be continued in...Under the Same Stars.

Thank you all for reading and I look forwards to hearing your thoughts about the next story! Go read it now!

#ocappreciation #the originals #klaus mikaelson #fd: the originals #klaus mikaelson fics #the originals fics #klaus mikaelson imagines #the originals imagines #oc: Maleny Rowan #fic: the girl in the forest

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mrsalenko · 3 years

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some headcanons. long and stupid. hope the readmore works lol

some shenko headcanons (sadie shepard specific because every shepard is different of course) because they live rent free in my head and give me serotonin. sadenko would prob be the ship name lol. which i like because it sounds dumb.

low pda couple. very low. most is hold hands in public, and only on off duty time when off normandy. private about kissing around other people.

affectionate in private though, but not constantly in contact because sadie doesn’t like hovering or constant needs for attention and kaidan is cool about respecting boundaries. sadie is spontaneous and passionate though so she’ll randomly give him a really big kiss and it will makes him smile for hours. she puts her whole heart and soul into them.

likes sharing a bed but doesn’t cuddle while sleeping all the time. shepard thinks it’s too hot to have him touching so she’ll shove him over the other side in her sleep and he’ll gradually move back but she doesn’t really mind. kaidan sleeps heavily some nights and sometimes really poorly but she doesn’t mind staying awake with him and giving him a scalp massage for headaches or talking quietly.

kaidan always calls her shepard. likes always. from habit from the SR1 and trying to be discreet and it bled into personal life. she sometimes gets slightly annoyed it’s like he doesn’t actually know her name so she’ll sometimes just call him alenko constantly and he’s like ‘okay what did i do wrong.’ because generally in private she’ll call him kaidan. often alenko on duty though.

shepard probably eventually semi retired from the alliance mostly because she can’t physically handle it. or psychologically for that matter. she’s pretty traumatized in general from everything. the thing that got to her most was dying and missing two years, and then the whole war thing and nearly dying again. she is fucked up beyond belief after the war for ages. takes a while to graduate from bed rest, to wheelchair, to crutches, to walking. kaidan takes care of her really well and is super protective. takes her to physio and does everything around the apartment. cooks, cleans, whatever. they live in anderson’s apartment, when it’s repaired enough because the keepers fix things pretty quickly. but prior to that a hospital on earth.

she also broke lots of things and had burns. the burns healed quickly with artificial skin grafts and medi-gel but the breaks were really bad. heaps of internal bleeding. they were worried she’d die but she pulled through.

kaidan becomes a bit of a worry wart about it all. really sick and stressed because he’s also trying to help with clean up, helping the rest of the normandy crew.

but eventually their life on the citadel becomes pretty comfortable and nice. kaidan remains in the alliance the rest of his life, the only reason he’d ever give it up is shepard and she never wanted him to. once shepard semi retires early, she talks up yoga and dancing for fitness. kaidan is baffled by the dance thing but appreciates it nonetheless.

it’s really easy to go to earth from the citadel with the beam that remains. kaidan goes down all the time to visit his mother who lived through the occupation, and tend to the property the family own but shepard refuses to come unless it’s by ship, because she can’t handle going through the beam. the beam is setup like an airport but like for instaneous travel. she’s forced on select occasions but only with holding his hand as they walk through. she likes kaidan’s mother, is sometimes confused by her, but likes having a mother figure who is very kind to her.

kaidan’s mom wouldnt have picked shepard for kaidan’s life partner (too messy, not quiet and sweet and kind like she always pictured for her boy) but likes shepard because kaidan loves her truly and she can see that. she just wants him to be happy. he never really told her much about shepard after she died and he came home on shore leave after the SR1 was blown up but kaidan’s mom knew something really wrong had happened to kaidan and he wasn’t the same. she couldn’t have guessed that he had an affair with his CO though. kaidan’s dad was ex alliance and she knew the rules through him and would have thought that was a really bad decision on kaidan’s part. kaidan’s dad if he knew would have been really disappointed in his kid. so kaidan never told him and he died without ever really knowing about shepard although he was a little suspicious. kaidan’s mom’s name libba and i always headcanoned as alma i believe, and casimir for his dad.

kaidan’s family is rich. they never hurt for money, so kaidan is the main one who brings income to his and shepard’s household. shepard has a good retirement pension though. so they’re quite comfortable. shepard finds it really weird because she grew up so poor and she remained poor until she climbed to higher ranks in the military. she worked from enlisted to officer which was really hard but all she ever did her teens and 20s was work all the time and volunteer for hard missions and be reckless.

kaidan had a degree in technology so he was able to join up as an officer.

their affair on the first normandy was probably the most passionate time in their relationship and based a lot around sex and this weird magnetism and insane attraction. it wasn’t shallow but they were both resisting a bit developing the emotional attachment because they knew it was wrong to be fraternizing. he is doubly devastated when she died because holding back didn’t mean anything in the end, she still died anyway. after this, his previous friendship with joker which was quite strong, is damaged pretty much irreparably because kaidan blames joker for getting her killed. joker says some unkind things to him at a service/wake and it nearly erupts into violence. joker was just trying to cover up his own guilty feelings but he alludes to their affair and kaidan is furious at him. they build some bridges during the reaper war but things remain a little snide. shepard knows she can’t fix it with words so doesn’t comment. she knows she missed a lot when she was dead she can’t take back or repair.

joker thinks it was wrong they were fraternizing. kaidan feels guilty but doesn’t regret a thing. in fact after shepard died, he wished he had said more.

after she dies he volunteers for high risk missions. spends a lot of time alone and drinks a lot. doesn’t really help. he’s a bit crankier than normal but he gets by. it feels like a secret he carries around that he can’t tell anyone or let go of. it’s not like he can say to someone ‘oh my last girlfriend suffocated in the cold of space and i was right there and couldn’t save her.’ so he doesn’t say much.

they did go on shore leave once before the mission to hunt down geth remnants with the SR1 after the battle of the citadel. it was to a hot sunny planet. they held hands once there and they blushed because they got to act like boyfriend and girlfriend and it felt a little weird but nice. the sun was baking hot, they drank a lot, hung out a bar and had sex mostly. they thought it was a really happy time. they had to pretend when they came back to the normandy that they went to separate locations but they both had a suntan that liara innocently commented on.

kaidan discovers then that shepard smokes and says she really shouldn’t. shepard gives him a really dirty look so he didn’t say anything again for a long time until he worked up the courage, but he doesn’t ride her about it. shepard also drinks a lot. sometimes quite a bit too much which he always worries about. kaidan doesn’t mind a drink and doesn’t even mind getting hammered occasionally but shepard uses it more like a crutch which is what worries him. she only stops drinking later in life, long after the war. she never did it on duty and hid it well. during the reaper war kaidan wanted her to see someone to talk to professionally but she scoffed and refused which caused a fight.

their fights can get a bit nasty. kaidan can get a little bitter in tone and critical and judgmental which makes shepard really angry. shepard for her part never knows the point to stop and can go too far and say hurtful things. they both apologize eventually and makeup. those kind of fights are rare and are usually the result of extreme external stresses.

shepard wants a dog when they live together. due to citadel policies over life support they can’t have one. but they play with the dogs at the orchard his mother keeps which shepard adores.

kaidan would have as many children as shepard wanted but shepard only agrees to two. well one really. the first was an accident but he’s the favorite really because he’s special and looks most like kaidan, but a mix of their personalities. has some anger issues like shepard but is usually fairly quiet. he had special needs growing up, he had nightmares and sensory issues. their second child was mostly planned and also a boy, who’s very good looking, talented with everything he does, but isn’t a strong biotic like his brother which always annoyed him. the older brother happens to be a biotic prodigy, and joins the alliance to be like his parents.

they might have a third child, a daughter, much later in life when everything is quite stable and the two boys are growing up a lot and shepard gets nostalgic. she would be absolutely spoiled by kaidan as his only girl and looks just like shepard. she looks up to shepard as her idol and hero and goes to dance class with her.

shepard has no idea how to be a parent and can be pretty lax about discipline. it was hard to bond with the babies. kaidan is really good at it and found bonding easy, always got up in the night when he could and let shepard sleep and he loved every second. shepard found it exhausting and hard but loved the kids more than anything in the world.

#sadie shepard

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babyboy-bangtan · 4 years

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By Chance Chapters 1-4

A misunderstanding gone viral puts you on BTS's radar, which leads to a series of events that finally culminate with you meeting them for the first time.

✚ Pairing: Sub!BTS/Female Reader ✚ Word Count: 3.3K ✚ Rating: M ✚ Warnings: None for now. ✚ A/N: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of my imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Read on AO3

Chapter 1: Before

Beep. Beep. Beep.

No.

Beep beep beep. Beep beep beep.

Absolutely not.

Beep beep beep beep beep!

Jesus Christ, fine.

You groan and grab your phone from your bedside table, turning off the alarm. It's not possible or even logical, but you really feel the big 5:00 A.M. on your lock screen is making fun of you.

You really want to die.

As you take a deep breath and pull the covers off of you, you get angry at your own stupidity last night. You had no business staying up until 1 a.m. watching Netflix knowing very well you had to be on the makeup chair at 6, but you went and watched a show anyway.

Actually, no, scratch that. This is Netflix's fault. It's their fault for making it so that you want to binge their goddamn shows. You're merely a victim of a very successful streaming platform.

You should sue them.

Well, once you're done filming your movie for them, that is. Once you're done with the movie and the promotion for it you'll sue them for robbing you of your precious sleep, because that's unforgivable, despicable, heinous, wretched—

Before you can continue with your methodical planning of the lawsuit you're going to throw into Netflix's face for making you stay up late at night and then get up early to film their movie, your phone ringing pulls you out of your angry thoughts.

It's your stylist calling.

Right, you asked her to call you because you were not sure you weren't gonna sleep through the five alarms you set for this morning— but against all odds, you actually woke up with the first one.

"Good morning. I promise I'm up." You reassure her before she can say anything. "I'm gonna shower soon."

"That's fine." She laughs. "I'm just calling cause you told me to last night."

"I knoow." You drawl out. "I was worried I'd ignore the alarms. But I'm up. No worries."

"Alright then. See ya in a bit, dude."

"Byeeeeeee!" You say, throwing your phone into your bed after hanging up.

Your bed, the love of your life. So soft, so inviting, so beautiful and ready to keep you comfortable for as long as you need it to. Except you need to be sitting on the makeup chair at 6, so no more bed for today. You take a deep breath and walk to the bathroom, as ready as you can be to star the day after only getting 4 hours of sleep.

"Good morning Timmy." You greet your costar with a kiss on the cheek.

"Good morning to you too." He says, biting back a smile. "You didn't sleep well, did you?"

"I have a right to remain silent." You reply, taking a sip of your coffee before walking past him. He catches up to you quickly. "Did you sleep well?"

"I got up at 5 a.m. so, of course not." He says, rolling his eyes at you. "I got like 5 hours of sleep only."

"Ha!" You say, stopping as you grip the handle of the makeup trailer's door. "I slept 4. I win."

Once you're both on your makeup chairs, you laugh as quietly as you can when you notice Timotheé dozing off while his hair is brushed, and you grab your phone to distract yourself. You can't really sleep when you're sitting up even if the fact that your stylist is working on your hair is really relaxing you, so you might as well try to get a bit more awake than you are now.

While you're telling her about the interesting article you just read, your phone vibrates in your hand, interrupting you. You quickly open the text when you see is from one of your friends, thinking that if she messaged you at 6 a.m. then it must be something important.

Or... maybe not. What you got instead of an important text is what you're pretty sure is a screencap of a Buzzfeed headline.

DID [Y/N] REALLY MEET BTS WITHOUT ANYONE OF US KNOWING?

You absolutely did not. You'd definitely remember meeting the most famous boy band in the world.

You quickly type a response.

Lmao no I didn't What's that about?

It only takes her a moment to reply.

It's just clickbait but it's like a thing right now People went nuts thinking you'd met BTS Because someone uploaded a video to youtube called [Y/N] BTS But it was just a behind the scenes video But then this tweet went viral

She then sends you another screencap, this time of a tweet with over 100k likes that's quoting another tweet with a video you recognize as the behind the scenes video you filmed for your last movie.

When you think [Y/N] met BTS but the BTS actually stands for Behind The Scenes 🤡

You actually laugh at that.

😂😂😂 my god Thanks for keeping me up to date with news about myself

She quickly responds.

No prob, Bob. Also you were trending on Twitter on #1 and #2 because of it Now you're like below the 7th but i got proof

She then sends you another picture, this time of the trending topics list. There it is at number 1, "[Y/N] BTS" and at number 2 is just your name. Below that one it's BTS alone.

As far as you know, BTS and kpop fans have the power to make anything trend on Twitter, so you're not that surprised to see they got you trending because they thought you'd met them. You're a bit surprised about the fact that it was over a complete misunderstanding, but stranger things have gone viral in the past and they will continue to do so in the future.

You wish your friend good luck at work today before you start telling your stylist about what just happened, and she just rolls her eyes and complains about people making news out of literally nothing nowadays. You agree completely— this isn't even the first time you are trending on twitter because of something silly— so you just drop the subject and go back to talking to her about the article you read. However, the thought of meeting BTS stays at the back of your mind for some reason.

You've only heard a couple of their most popular songs, which were admittedly very good and enjoyable, but you'd be lying if you didn't admit you'd love to meet them soon. They're huge right now, and even though you wouldn't call yourself a fan considering you don't even know all their names, you still recognize how incredible their journey has been and how talented they are.

Well, that and the tiny detail that every single one of them is absolutely stunning.

Chapter 2: Jungkook

"Who's [Y/N]?" Jungkook asks suddenly with a little frown as he sits on the floor after dance practice, scrolling through his phone. He's sure he has heard your name before, but he doesn't really know anything about you.

"Uhh... isn't she an American actress?" Namjoon replies, downing half of his water bottle. "I think I saw one of her movies. A period drama. She's pretty good." He pauses. "Why?"

"[Y/N] BTS is trending on Twitter." He replies, reading through some of the most popular tweets about it. "Apparently there was a misunderstanding with a video." He shrugs, opening the video in question.

It's you wearing one of those 19th century dresses, but the effect is lost because the fact that you're wearing a modern coat and sunglasses. If he understood you correctly over the awful sound quality, you were on the first day of shooting.

"What are you watching?" Hoseok asks, standing behind him.

"The video people thought was of her with us. It's a behind the scenes video of her movie." He replies absent-mindedly, focused on his phone. "I think it's from the one you watched, Hyung." He tells Namjoon, looking up at him.

You seem to be at a dance practice now, with who he assumes was your costar. It looks like some kind of waltz, and you both seem to be already good at it— there's no way this is the first time you're rehearsing it. Suddenly, the man flips you around gracefully and presses his front to your back in what Jungkook assumes was meant to be an intimate moment, but only a second later you start twerking and then everyone is laughing.

Him, too.

"Come on, we have to go." Hoseok says, tapping his shoulder.

"I'm coming." Jungkook replies, still watching the video even as he stands up. "She's funny." He says to the rest, occasionally looking up to make sure he doesn't run into a wall.

"What did you say happened with her?" Jimin asks, massaging his shoulder with a grimace.

"Apparently someone uploaded a behind the scenes video of one of her movies but since it said BTS people thought it was about her meeting us."

If Jimin— or anyone else for that matter— cared about his response, Jungkook didn't realize. He clicks on the next suggested video and keeps watching, not paying attention to anyone else. It's during his viewing of that video that Jungkook decides he'll watch the movie Namjoon mentioned as soon as he gets free time to do so, and then he'll see what other movies you've done to see if anything interests him.

The fact that you're beautiful and when you smile his tummy feels tingly has absolutely nothing to do with that decision.

Chapter 3: Jimin

The thought of the video Jungkook mentioned at dance practice comes back to Jimin all of a sudden late at night, when his mind is restless and the painkillers haven't eased the ache of his shoulder just yet. He can't sleep, so he might as well distract himself a little until they kick in.

He doesn't remember your name correctly; he misspells it several times until he just searches "Actress behind the scenes video mistaken bts band" and several recent articles appear.

[Y/N], that's right. That was your name. The names he'd been trying weren't even remotely similar.

He opens one article just for the sake of it— it's a very clickbait-y one, but he figures it's likely all of them will be— and starts reading an unnecessary long version of what happened. The gist of the article is what Jungkook already said: people confused a behind the scenes video of your movie with a video that involved them, and it went viral.

There are other suggested articles about you at the end of the one he just read, and one specifically catches his attention.

"[Y/N] gets bold on new Vogue Magazine interview: 'Gender roles are such bulls**t.'"

He quickly opens the original article instead of the mess he's sure is the one on the clickbait site, and he can't hold back a gasp at the picture of you that appears in front of him.

He figures he shouldn't be surprised considering what year it is and how normal it is to see women in suits nowadays, but he can't help but get his breath taken away when he sees a woman wearing one. He doesn't know what it is, and it's not really every suit on every woman that does it either— but the one you're wearing on that photo definitely fits the bill.

Your hair is purposefully messy— the kind of messy that can only be achieved by having a hair stylist work on you for a considerable amount of time, he knows that very well— and your face is covered in natural-looking makeup.

Except for your eyes. They did a beautiful job with them.

You are most certainly not wearing a bra and he knows that the fact that it's just noticeable enough is also very intentional, and there's something about the pose you're doing that is making his palms sweat.

Chin tilted up.

Eyes half lidded, looking down.

Mouth slightly open.

White dress shirt, with just two buttons undone.

He almost wishes you'd gone for another one as well, so your cleavage would be visible.

Almost.

The picture is perfect as it is. Can't be improved by anything.

The quote on the clickbait site isn't even the most interesting part of the article; you talk about leaving social media because the pressure of making sure people liked you affected your mental health, about going to therapy since you were a teenager, and about how annoyed you were a couple years ago when the movement #AskHerMore was in full swing and you still felt reduced to only the way you looked at the Oscars, where a movie you were in was nominated. If Jimin understands correctly, a video of you looking very annoyed at the questions went viral.

"It was very frustrating," The quote begins. "because on one hand you had what was supposed to help the interviewers realize that you want to talk more about the movie you worked so hard on, but so many of them simply didn't care. I guess what really got to me was that there were people saying that women get asked about their looks because their dresses are so beautiful and of course people notice them, but I was wearing the most generic black suit you've ever seen. And still they kept calling me bold and chic and other things just cause I had fu**ing pants on."

He opens a new tab and quickly types "[Y/N] Oscars suit outfit" before he even realizes what he's doing.

And there it is: the same feeling he got a few minutes ago when he saw the first picture of you.

Breathless, palms sweaty.

He scrolls through the image results, opening and looking at related pictures of you in suits from other events. It seems that it's a preferred outfit for you along with jumpsuits, and there's an occasional dress now and then.

He sighs and goes back to the article to finish it and look at the rest of the pictures from the Vogue session.

"It doesn't just happen to me." You say in another quote. "There are other women who wear suits and it gets treated like some kind of big deal when they're just clothes. And men have it way, way worse. At least we can wear a suit normally but if men want to wear dresses or skirts or even clothes that deviate from what so many people consider masculine, they'll have people criticizing them and disrespecting them in horrible ways. They're just pieces of fu**ing fabric! Gender roles are such bulls**t."

Jimin smiles at that, and at the fact that the writer of the piece comments that you get very passionate when talking about such things. He likes it.

A big yawn interrupts his train of thought, and he realizes his shoulder hasn't been bothering him for a little while now. He leaves his phone on his nightstand and gets comfortable under the covers, thinking it would be nice if they had actually met you, instead of it only being just a misunderstanding.

Maybe one day.

Chapter 4: Jin

Because Jin is sitting next to Jungkook inside the van, he can't really help but be distracted by the videos the younger has been watching nonstop on his phone. As it has been for the past couple of weeks, he's watching another one of your interviews.

It's astoundingly obvious to everyone that Jungkook has developed a crush on you.

"You're still watching videos of her?" Jin asks, but the taunting tone in his voice goes completely over Jungkook's head. He's too focused on the video.

"Yes. Do you want to watch?" Jungkook asks, offering an earphone for him innocently. Jin finds it impossible to resist the cuteness so he accepts it, taking it from his hand and putting it on as he wraps his arm around Jungkook's shoulders.

It's an interview, and you're sitting next to an actor he doesn't recognize.

"Who's that?" He asks Jungkook, pointing at the guy.

"I don't know." Jungkook shrugs, truly not caring even a tiny a bit about who the man is.

"Okay." Jin replies, shaking his head at Jungkook with a smile. There's really good chemistry between you and the man— you laugh together a lot, and he feels a spark of recognition at the back of his mind when he sees your smile, but he can't tell where it comes from.

"Have you seen their movie?" Jin asks, returning the earphone to its owner. Jungkook nods as he puts it back on.

"It's very good. I liked it."

So he has seen the movie, but he still doesn't know who the actor is at all? There might be a possibility that the crush is a bit more intense than Jin previously believed.

"What else has she worked on?" He pries, wondering if he's confusing you with someone else or if maybe he did see something you were on, even if it was in passing. There's something familiar about you and it's starting to annoy him to not know what exactly.

"Lots of things. Several movies. She was on a show when she began acting. I think her first job was on CSI or one of those American crime shows with a thousand seasons." Jungkook focuses on his video again and Jin pulls out his own phone, quickly searching for your name.

He opens your Wikipedia page and goes straight to Filmography, where he can see right there on the Television section that your first credit is actually CSI.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

2013.

Oh, no.

The name of your character. Jin knows it. God, he'd recognize it anywhere. The name of the episode right next to it only serves to confirm what he's fearing.

He immediately types "[Y/N] CSI" and swallows a gasp when he sees the pictures that pop up in front of his eyes, careful to not alert Jungkook or the others.

Oh god, no.

Jin knows who you are very well. He hasn't really watched the episode you appeared on in a while, but he used to do it so often that he memorized exactly what happens every single second you're on screen.

Your hair was a different color and you were younger— that's why he didn't immediately recognize you. Back when you were on that episode it was futile to try and search for more of your work; CSI was your first role and he couldn't find any information about you at the time. He didn't really search for you again after that; he was very aware that shows like that have hundreds of guest actors that sometimes end up reduced to extras for the rest of their careers.

Well, this was clearly not the case for you.

The memories of the scenes he knows so well flash quickly on his mind, and he swallows with slight difficulty as he feels his ears getting hot.

Your hand is wrapped around the guy who plays your boyfriend's throat— and without showing too much it's clear you're on top of him while you have sex. His hands are tied with a scarf to the bed, and he's blindfolded.

"You like that, baby?" You whisper into the man's ear with a smile, biting his earlobe.

Jin shakes his head, trying to get rid of the very intrusive thought of you lovingly choking a guy during sex. He's in a van with the rest of the guys, the last thing he wants is for them to notice something is wrong.

He closes all the tabs and puts his phone away, moving his head to look out the window instead, hoping the sight of the buildings and streets will distract him. He's glad the whole BTS thing was a misunderstanding and you didn't actually meet them, because he has no idea how he'd react if he had you in front of him in real life.

How do you possibly greet the person you used to masturbate to on a daily basis?

If you’ve made it here: thank you so much for reading!

#sub!bts #sub!idol #ot7 x reader #bts x reader #jeon jungkook x reader #park jimin x reader #kim seokjin x reader #kim namjoon x reader #min yoongi x reader #jung hoseok x reader #kim taehyung x reader #if you've read this on ao3 don't worry it's me lmao #my work

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trensu · 4 years

Text

Episode 44: The One where Su She Gets Rekt

we’re outside of mianmian’s house and omg wwx's face is so cute when he recognizes mianmian. his little pleased grin makes me melt every time

also omg, i just realized that wwx is still wearing lwj’s white inner robes here???

you can see them where you usually see his (sinfully) red inner robes!!!!!

which means as far as i’m concerned this ENTIRE EPISODE is a wangxiantic in and of itself lolol

mr. mianmian is like, why are you calling my daughter's name??

(i keep forgetting that mianmian's name isn't actually mianmian lol)

i'd be concerned too if some strange guy who was hiding behind our hay bale or whatever the heck that is, knew my kid's name...

wwx is so amused by this turn of events! he's like, awww, mianmian and little mianmian!

which was basically my response too

but ofc lwj is much more formal and does his little bow and addresses her as Lady Luo

wwx: now i know your true name!!

wait, did he really never learn it before?? or did he just forget? both are plausible, tbh

and here mianmian introduces her husband

wwx: may i ask what clan you're from?

mm: oh, he's not from any clan. he's a merchant!

bc mm knew getting tangled up with another clan was just not a good life decision, probs

and she's all he comes with me on night hunts tho and wwx is like, oh is that what you were doing?

little mm: we were looking for the yiling patriarch!

and wwx perks up and gets all playful bc WWX LOVES CHILDREN SO MUCH

wwx: oh, but i heard he eats children. aren't you afraid?

little mm gets all shy and stutter-y and it's ADORABLE

wwx is all like, oh she's so cute! she looks just like you when you were her age

and mm is all, don't you feel bad saying that?? how would you know what i looked like at that age???

we get a shot of lwj and he looks at ease and is simply taking joy in watching wwx interact with these people

same, lwj, same

wwx: how old is she? i'd like to give her some lucky money!

and ofc mr. and mrs. mianmian immediately try to stop him for politeness sake BUT LOL LWJ IS ALREADY REACHING INTO HIS SLEEVE TO GET MONEY FOR THE KID

wwx: don't be so humble. it's not my money anyway~

and he laughs bc he'S SHAMELESS

lwj just hands wwx his purse and lets him take whatever he wants from it.

what a doting husband-to-be he is!

and then mm does that thing all parents do with small children "what do you say to hanguang jun and master wei?"

little mm: thank you, hanguang jun

SHE'S SO FREAKING CUTE

lwj must agree with me bc he SMILES. it's his little smile, the one that just barely curls up at the corner of his lips, but it's a sincere smile

he's probably remembering lsz when lsz was that age

he's probably thinking about how he wants more children, esp now that wwx is here to raise them with him

Give me all the Dadji fic!

wwx: little mm, i gave you the money. why don't you say thank you to me?

and he puts on this cute little pout but little mm just glares ADORABLY at him bc she SAW who's money it was and she's a clever girl lololol

lwj is amused by that exchange too, we get another one of his little smiles

now they're asking for info on anything unusual around but they get interrupted by some screaming!! mm was all ready to go attack, but lwj said they'd handle it

after they leave, mr. and mrs. mm have a little convo which i wouldn't bother mentioning except she ends it with a very sincere "master wei...is a good man"

BC WWX IS A GOOD MAN AND APPARENTLY SHE'S THE ONLY ONE SENSIBLE ENOUGH TO SEE THAT

turns out the screaming was wen ning!! being adorable!!

he's all covered in mud and grass, and had been trying to scare people off for Reasons

wwx starts cleaning his face

I LOVE WHEN WWX DOES THAT

HE’S SO LOVING AND NURTURING

lwj watches this go down but there's no smile on his face like there was before with little mm even tho wwx being all sweet and nurturing is always cute

DON'T BE JEALOUS LWJ, DON'T BE THAT GUY

oh, wwx just noticed wn's injured hand and is like, what happened? and wn ofc says 'NOthing!!!" bc he doesn't want to worry wwx

lwj: it's blood.

wn: not blood1! well, it is but it's not human blood!!

he says this so nervously and flustered bc lwj is very intimidating actually

Or at least I wouldn’t want to get on his bad side...

now we find out that wn has secretly been taking down puppets while following wwx and lwj around this whole time

bc wn is a good friend

then it gets kinda sad bc wwx is like, wn i told you to hide out somewhere! and wn is all, but where would i hide?

bc wn has nowhere and no one aside from wwx rn 😔

so wwx is like, okay, the three of us can travel together instead

Lol, lwj looks down at this and starts stalking off

lwj: lets go

i don't think he's happy to have a third wheel lololol

he wanted alone time with wwx!

WHAT DID I SAY, LWJ?? NO ONE LIKES A GREEN-EYED MONSTER.

now they're in town!

wwx: lan zhan, do you remember this town?

lwj: yes

BC LWJ REMEMBERS ALL OF HIS TIME WITH WWX

BC WWX IS HIS SOULMATE AND HE LOVES HIM

wwx is like, remember that time i said i'd treat you to a meal here?

they're in front of the teahouse in yiling and lwj is looking at it, like, FONDLY bc he DOES remember and it's probably one of his happiest memories tbh

wwx isn't looking at the teahouse, he's looking at lwj here and he gets this soft little smile on his face AND IT'S SO SWEET AND BEAUTIFUL

ooh flashback to their first time in yiling together! And ~Their Song~ starts playing!!

it's a quick little flashback bc we're back in the present with wwx saying something about how he's embarrassed that lwj ended up paying that time or smth

at wwx's words, lwj turns around and just looks at him.

Omg, how does he always pack in SO MUCH LOVE in the way he looks at wwx??

another quick flashback of them sharing a meal at the teahouse with cute little a-yuan darting around lwj with his toys

wwx: but that happened a long time ago

and lwj gives a stilted nod bc HE DOESN'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT HOW LONG AGO THAT WAS AND THE FACT THAT WWX WAS GONE ALL THIS TIME

wwx turns and sees the toy stall and he SMILES

OH GOD HOW DOES THIS MAN HAVE SUCH BEAUTIFUL SMILES

but then he gets sad as he remembers a-yuan

wwx: if that boy were still alive, he would be a teenager now

Bc wwx still thinks all the wens died. He thinks little a-yuan was BRUTALLY MURDERED with the rest of his clan

MY POOR DARLING SUNSHINE BOY

then we get a bit of slo-mo as lwj turns to look at wwx, who's still lost in thought

AND HE DOESN'T MENTION THAT LSZ IS ALIVE AND WELL???

WHAT HECK LWJ

THAT WAS A PERFECT OPENING

ALL YOU HAD TO SAY WAS "YEAH, FUNNY STORY, HE'S ACTUALLY NOT DEAD. SURPRISE!! I RESCUED HIM AND RAISED HIM AS MY OWN SON AND GAVE HIM ALL THE LOVE I COULD POSSIBLY GIVE BC HE WAS YOUR SON AND ALL I HAD LEFT OF YOU AND HE SAVED MY LIFE AS MUCH AS I SAVED HIS"

DAMN IT, LWJ. USE YOUR WORDS!!

cut to somewhere outside the town and wn is beating up a whole bunch of puppets all by himself like a badass

oh, here's lwj with the assist! he guqin's the heck out of those puppets

he looks so cool doing that, omg

Also, i love how he whooshes away his instrument whenever he's done with it

we're at the burial mounds!!

which is looking just as bright and cheery as ever!!

meaning everything is gray and looks dead

wwx gets really sad, and he's remembering the voices of all the wens he failed

IT HURTS TO SEE HIM THIS MELANCHOLY

MY SUNSHINE BOY SHOULD ONLY EVER BE HAPPY AND SMILEY, DAMN IT

wn snaps him out of it, thankfully

lwj explains how everything was destroyed during the siege back then

he doesn't mention at all how he defended this place until he physically couldn't anymore

wwx: it doesn't matter that this place was destroyed. for me, wq, and wn, it represents the hardest time in our lives. there's no need to return to this place

wwx says this all soberly and i just wanna wrap him up in blankets and hide him from the world

BC THE WORLD DOESN'T DESERVE MY PRECIOUS SUNSHINE BOY.

LOOK WHAT THEY DID TO HIM!!

THEY BROKE HIS HEART!!! THEY’RE NOT ALLOWED TO HAVE HIM ANYMORE.

lwj looks like he feels the same way, lol

wwx: wen ning, stop looking. let's go

wn: yes, young master. i just wanted to check if there's anything left

which was ANOTHER PERFECT OPENING for lwj to cut in and say "ACTUALLY, ABOUT THAT, a-yuan is totally alive and well, guys!!"

but nooooo, ofc lwj doesn't say anything bc god forbid he use his words every once in awhile

oh, evil puppets just appeared and started attacking

But wn is like NOT TODAY SATAN and starts pummeling the lot of them

ooooh, and lwj does this thing here where he summons up a guqin string and, like, magically attaches it to a couple of trees

Then wwx tells wn to watch out and wn does this cool backflip to join wwx as lwj TWIRLS forward to take wn's place

and then he magically plucks the guqin string which lets out this big blue blast of energy

the whole move looks SO DAMN COOL

HE EVEN DOES LIKE, A FINISHING POSE LIKE ALL GOOD SUPERHEROES DO LOL

After, he whooshes away his string like nbd, just being effortlessly awesome like ALWAYS

now they're making their way to wwx's demon palace cave thing, and lwj stops to freaking MATERIALIZE suibian out of thin air and give it to wwx

it looks SO cool

lwj: for defense

wwx: thank you

wwx unsheathes it just enough so we can see the inscription on the blade before re-sheathing it and keeping it at his side

lwj gives him a Questioning Look and wwx gets a little awkward

wwx: ah, i haven't used a sword in so long, i'm not used to it

his eyes are all big and guileless and gorgeous

GOD HOW IS HE SO BEAUTIFUL

lwj is not as easily distracted as i am, apparently, and he very obviously is not buying with wwx is selling

wwx: fine, i'll tell you. it's bc this body of mine lacks spiritual power, so even the best sword can't show it's true power in my hand

lol, he raises up suibian when he says "the best sword"

i am so distracted by wwx's gorgeous cheekbones here,

omg, paired with those big brown eyes, I CAN'T HANDLE IT I'M ONLY HUMAN

wwx: therefore, hanguang jun, please protect this fragile, feeble man~

he says it with a thin smile which looks as adorable as all his other smiles

Tbh i get the impression that he's a little embarrassed to have to ask for help

NOT THAT HE EVEN NEEDED TO ASK BC LWJ IS ALREADY WILLING TO PROTECT HIM FROM ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME

wwx walks around past lwj and we see lwj aim one of his signature Longing Glances at wwx's back

now we're in wwx's old demon palace cave thing!!

AND WE SEE THE JUNIORS ARE ALL TIED UP AND TRAPPED THERE

HELLO, JUNIORS!! WE'VE MISSED YOUR PRECIOUS BABY FACES

lol, lsz and jl are tied to one another, my sweet little baby ship

you know what, this isn't wangxian at all but the juniors have some choice lines here and we should take the time to appreciate them

ljy: what do they even want? whether it's to torture or kill us, they should just do it! i'd rather be eaten by monsters during night hunting than starve to death in this shithole

LOLOL SAME LJY SAME

death by starvation has got to be one of the WORST ways to go

rando jin junior starts running his mouth again and we see jin ling close his eyes and attempt to do a breathing exercise or smth and IT'S HILARIOUS LOLOLOLOL

LOOK AT MY BRATTY SON TRYING TO CONTROL HIS TEMPER

it lasts like, two seconds before he's yelling at the other kid and telling him to shut up

rando jin junior is all offended and is like, what do you mean shut up??

so my precious bratty son is like, "what do i mean? are you deaf or stupid? can't you understand? shut up means STOP TALKING"

I LOVE JIN LING SO MUCH

MY DARLING BRAT OF A SON

they bicker for a bit and lsz cuts in trying to make them stop by pointing out that, hello, they're trapped in here by evil puppets who could decide to come in and tear them to pieces literally any minute now

the distraction tactic didn't work. the boys are trying to beat each other up whilst being tied up and it's HILARIOUS

THAT'S THE MOST PATHETIC FIGHT I'VE EVER SEEN, BOYS.

meanwhile lsz is like: guys, calm down, calm down!!

bc he's tied to jl so he's getting all jostled around, poor sweetie-pie lsz

and this is when wwx decides to step in, with a long suffering sigh and a very unamused: hey, look here.

THE WAY LSZ AND LJY'S FACES LIGHT UP WHEN THEY SEE LWJ NEVER GETS OLD

also it cracks me up how there's a breeze elegantly rustling through wwx's and wn's hair.

it's so obviously for the Aesthetic bc literally nobody else's hair is doing that 😆😆😆

ALSO ALSO, OMG WWX IS SO FREAKING HILARIOUS HERE

Wwx unsheathes suibian and hands it to wn KNOWING THAT ALL THESE KIDS ARE TERRIFIED OF THE FEARSOME GHOST GENERAL

AND THE KIDS ALL START PANICKING AS WN TAKES THE SWORD AND STALKS TOWARDS THEM

and wn ning totally plays along bc he slices through those ropes in the most menacing way possible AND ALL THE KIDS SLAM THEIR EYES CLOSED AND HAVE A FULL-BODY FLINCH AND IT'S HILARIOUS

wwx gets sulky that the kids seem more scared of wn than him lol

we see the dumber kids make a break for it but oyzz, with his big kind heart, stops them bc hey, remember there's a horde of evil puppets outside??

lol, wwx smirks at the dumb kids.

lsz: master wei, you're here to save us! you didn't send people to capture us right?

and wwx is like, do i LOOK like i have that kind of money?

lsz is like, ah, yes, i remember that you are TRAGICALLY POOR.

kid doesn't pull punches, does he lol. and he says it so mildly too

wwx's whole reaction here is like, yeah okay, i deserved that one lol

wwx starts grilling the kids for info, which ljy gladly provides, and lwj gives him and lsz a "well done" for their efforts

oooh, now jin ling is approaching wwx

lwj sees him out of the corner of his eye and IMMEDIATELY places himself in front of wwx

which cracks me up bc this is a full grown man here squaring up against a kid who's like, twelve (okay, 16 but still!)

ofc lsz and ljy follow lwj's lead and put themselves between jl and wwx too

wwx thinks they're all being ridiculous

wwx: what are you guys doing? you're surrounding him.

so he nudges the lan kids away and then grabs lwj's upper arm and literally tugs him away from where he was about to throw hands with a child

ljy: you want to stab him again?

lsz: jingyi!

thank you, lsz, tell him to leave my bratty son alone ☹️

wwx essentially waves it all off and is like, hey guys lets focus on getting out of here first, yeah?

jin ling looks ashamed, my poor boy. he feels all guilty for stabbing wwx 😞

now they're plot talking about how they're gonna get out of the cave, what with the horde of evil puppets and all

they make it to the entrance of the cave and we see a whole bunch of cultivators drop in for a party, i guess

oyzz: dad! *runs off to be with dad*

jc: jin ling what are you waiting for? your death?

I LOVE WATCHING JC BE AN UNCLE TO JL

HE'S SO ANGRY WITH HIS AFFECTION LOLOL

oh hey, one of the rando juniors called out "mom!"

that's so cool actually??? we don't really get a lot of lady cultivators but apparently one of them is there to save her kid!!

uh oh, Uncle Lan does not look happy to be here

lwj leads all the lan juniors to lqr and he bows politely to him

the lan juniors all join lqr and stand behind him but lwj very pointedly stands before lqr and makes no move to get closer to him as wwx joins him at his side

lqr: wangji, come here

lwj looks at him briefly, like he wants to say something, before looking down

bc no, he's not leaving wwx's side ever again lqr, so you better get used to it

now some rando lady cultivator is shouting at lwj. she's all "you're undeserving of your reputation!!"

and i'm sitting here like, HEY LADY, WATCH YOUR MOUTH OR COME FIGHT ME

YOU KNOW NOTHING, LADY, NOTHING AT ALL

wwx interrupts her rant

wwx: here you go again!

he probs would've said more but then jc interrupts

jc: we have to do this

and he probs wouldve said more but FUCKING SU SHE INTERRUPTS AS IF HE HAS ANY VALUE AT ALL

LOL JC’s eyes slide over from wwx to su she and he looks at su she WITH SUCH CONTEMPT AND IRRITATION, IT'S GREAT

THAT'S HOW I LOOK AT SU SHE ALL THE TIME LOLOLOL

ss: blah blah we found you cuz you stole kids blah blah

and wwx is like, EXCUSE YOU, I JUST SAVED THOSE KIDS' LIVES. HOW ABOUT SAYING THANK YOU???

now wwx is gonna get clever and start talking circles around this crew of idiot cultivators

wwx: your party seems a bit weak, guys. shouldn't jgy and lxc be here with you?

ss: blah blah assassination attempt against jgy blah blah lxc is tenderly nursing him back to health blah blah

then su she implies that wwx was the one who tried to kill jgy

STFU SU SHE

wwx snorts

ss: why are you laughing??

wwx: oh, nothing. i was just surprised that jgy could get hurt so easily

and here we get some oyzz time

oyzz: dad, i don't think he really did it. last time, he saved us in coffin town. this time, he rescued us too!

oyzz's dad: don't speak nonsense, you silly child

YOU WANNA GO, OYZZ'S DAD? DON'T TALK TO THE BOY THAT WAY, I WILL FIGHT YOU.

wwx: why didn't the nie clan come?

Nhs pops in from where he was hiding: oh, pardon me! master wei, i don't know anything about this. i'm just here to make up the numbers

ILU NHS, I'M PERSONALLY GONNA GIVE YOU AN ANCIENT FANTASY CHINA OSCAR

LOL i love how after popping up to say that, he just scoots himself away and behind the other cultivators again

now the idiot cultivators are airing their grievances against wwx

ugh, sect leader yao is talking again and we get to see mob mentality in action

GOD THEY ALL NEED TO STFU

BUNCH OF LOSER NOBODIES

they're still hurling accusations at my sunshine boy and it's making me angry

wwx: I won't admit to what i didn't do

YOU TELL ‘EM, WWX!!

Fucking su she chimes in with some bullshit and so wwx decides to do a public service and try to teach these losers some critical thinking skills by laying out Valid Points for Plot Reasons

Lesson gets cut short bc oops, here come more evil zombie puppets with a strong gust of wind for ambience

LOOK AT JC GO WITH THAT ZIDIAN

LOVE LOVE LOVE IT

but it fails on it's second strike!! jc looks at it in shock, like what's going on??

wwx must've seen that happen bc suddenly we see his flute boomerang the puppet that was headed for jc

and wwx places himself in front of him BC THAT'S HIS BROTHER, THE BROTHER HE LOVES

AND HE'S SO WORRIED FOR HIM WHEN HE SEES JC SPIT UP BLOOD

YUNMENG BROOOOOSSSSSSS *SOB*

oh, now we see lqr spit up blood and lwj, being the good nephew that he is, swoops in to fight off the puppets that had been attacking his uncle

god, lwj is such a good person bc he just blocked a hit aimed for sect leader yao

Sect leader yao

LWJ PROTECTED SECT LEADER YAO

LWJ TRULY IS AN HONORABLE MAN BC I WOULD'VE LET THAT HIT KILL HIM AND BEEN LIKE, OOPS, TOTALLY MISSED THAT, MY BAD

i mean, c'mon, is ANYONE gonna miss him if he dies??? no, nobody would be torn up over sect leader yao dying

his wake would have been a party, like ding dong the witch is dead sort of party

lol, lwj probs regrets this later on when he’s chief cultivator and has to listen to that loser rant endlessly about nothing, like, damn, i should’ve let him die back then

you know, i'm just gonna enjoy lwj fighting. he's got the best fight scenes tbh

we find out that everyone's spiritual energy has been blocked and they're defenseless against those puppets

lsz tells them all that they need to get into the cave where there's a protective circle they can fix and activate

then fucking su she is all like no don't go in there, it's probs a trap to kill us!!

SHUT UP SU SHE

wwx: staying outside will get you killed. going inside will also get you killed. either way, you're dead. but at least going inside will stall them.

wwx: su she, why are you in such a hurry to ask everyone to die with you? What’s your intent?

GET REKT SU SHE

Lol nhs is like are you guys going in or not? i'll just go inside myself if you won't and all his cultivators are like, yeah yeah, let's do that

everyone's fleeing to the cave now except for su she and his crew

wwx: su she, you'll stay here? fine, stay here. You sure are brave!

THE WAY WWX SAYS THAT THO, THICK WITH MOCKERY AND SARCASM

I LOVE HIM SO MUCH

while all the cultivators go into the cave lwj and wn are still fighting until everyone's gone

wwx: lan zhan, come on!

BC EVERYONE'S MADE IT INSIDE NOW AND LWJ NEEDS TO COME WITH HIM AND STAY SAFE!!

lwj slices down two more puppets and then zooms to wwx's side

lqr activates the protective circle and then holds wwx (and by extension lwj) at sword point

lwj: grand master

lwj looks at him like he wants him to understand, but he sees the lqr is not having it so he lowers his gaze

poor lwj 😔

lqr: what do you want?

wwx: nothing. but since you're all here let's have a chat!

lol, wwx sits down and makes himself comfortable even tho he's surrounded by cultivators that want him dead

The cultivators are all like, we don't wanna talk with you!!

wwx: aren't you interested in the reason you got poisoned? i swear, i'm not that capable of poisoning you all without being discovered

nhs: that's right. i think what he says makes sense

nhs is really good at what he does, isn't he?

he knows exactly when he should interject to get the crowd to do as he wants

wwx starts to walk them through the basic critical thinking process, and lsz adds in his clever insights as well

then there's a bunch of plot talk that idc about

nhs: master wei, what should we do now?

NHS IS SO GOOD AT WHAT HE DOES OMG

Wwx is like, there's only two groups with spiritual power. me and lwj are onE group, and the juniors are the other group.

wwx: as for the rest, i don't think it's inappropriate to describe you as week and useless

I DON'T THINK IT'S INAPPROPRIATE TO DESCRIBE YOU AS WEAK AND USELESS

LOLOLOL LOVING THIS

wwx: if i really wanted to do something, could these young men stop me?

then fucking su she starts talking again

ss: blah blah blah kill me if you want blah blah we aint scared blah blah

Man, you have NO IDEA how much i want you dead, su she

wwx: may i ask who you are?

GET REKT SU SHE

wwx starts teaching them critical thinking again and we're again shown how the juniors are way more clever that these full-fledged cultivators

wwx looks so proud whenever the juniors chime in

su she starts talking again

ss: blah blah you're being fooled by the enemy blah blah bl--

AND THEN HE STOPS MID-SENTENCE

wwx: continue. why'd you stop?

some rando cultivator accuses wwx of doing that to su she and wwx is ADORABLE about it

his eyes get all wide and he frowns with a "well, don't look at me!" expression

HE'S SO CUTE, I LOVE HIM

and lsz and ljy tell us that it's a lan clan specialty - THE SILENCE SPELL

AND WE CUT TO A SHOT OF LWJ COMPLETELY BLANK FACED AS HE TELLS WWX TO CONTINUE

LIKE A BOSS

GET REKT SU SHE

so wwx continues and is like, isn't it weird how fucking su she wanted you all to die out there with him and now he wants to stop me from figuring out who poisoned you? now, why would an ally do that, hm?

I LOVE YOU WWX

IT'S SO FUN WATCHING SU SHE GET UTTERLY DESTROYED THAT I NEED TO RECORD THIS NEXT PART FOR POSTERITY

wwx: it seems that the su clan doesn't get along with the lan clan

ljy: indeed (he says with a disgusted look at su she LOL)

lwj: the su clan is a branch of the lan clan

and here, nhs gets ljy's attention

nhs: what's the story?

LOLOL, NHS YOU GOSSIP YOU

AND THE WAY LJY EAGERLY IS LIKE, HELL YEAH LEMME TELL YOU

lsz interrupts tho so he can give a more tactful explanation

lsz: master nie, you may not know but ss built his own clan after departing from the lan clan

lsz: their techniques are similar to the lan clan's, they're also good at music. even ss's spiritual tool is modeled after hanguang jun's 7-string guqin

ljy: not "departed from." they were expelled for betraying the lan clan. and it's not only that! there are funnier reasons too!

TELL ME MORE LJY. I WANT TO KNOW ALL THE FUNNY REASONS WHY SS WAS KICKED OUT

lsz tries to stop ljy but LJY IS NOT GONNA KEEP HIS OPINIONS TO HIMSELF

ljy: ss not only imitates everything from us, he also forbids ppl from discussing how he imitates hanguang jun

LOL, ATTA BOY LJY

ha, you can hear lsz scolding him in the background

unfortunately ss gets the ability to speak back and immediately gets everyone to start bickering

we see wwx roll his eyes and get this "I am so Done" expression on his face

i feel ya bro

more bickering, ljy giving as good as he gets, which is awesome, and then ljy says something that gives wwx an "aha!" moment

ljy: who are you calling arrogant? which clan's demon-subdue melody was played badly without even noticing?

and with that, wwx figures out how the other cultivators lost their spiritual power. but he's gonna make a show out of explaining it bc Drama.

wwx: lqr, may i ask you a question?

lqr: hmph. if you have a question, why not ask lwj?

wow, very mature of you lqr. what kind of example are you setting for your juniors?

we get a shot of lwj here and he looks at his uncle and then looks away with his mouth pinched

i think that hurt him. he still loves his uncle, after all.

wwx: then i'll ask him

wwx: lan zhan, even tho the su clan departed from the lan clan, they imitated the lan clan exclusive technique, right?

lwj: yes

wwx: one of the techniques is magic music that can exorcise evil with a guqin. since the su clan copied you, lots of their disciples use the guqin too, right?

lwj: yes

wwx: ss left the clan after learning the technique but since he didn't learn it to perfection, his disciples play with many mistakes, right?

GET REKT SU SHE

TODAY IS DRAG SU SHE DAY AND I AM LIVING FOR IT

lwj: yes

wwx: so even if they played music badly during battle, the lan clan wouldn't mind at all. they'd just assume it's careless mistakes. they'd assume someone confuse the score rather than thinking they did it on purpose

then he poses very confidently and says "isn't that right, clan leader su?"

su she goes to pluck the guqin strings and wwx reminds him that he has no spiritual power rn

ss: what are you insinuating by saying all that?

wwx: did i not say it clear enough that you feel like i'm just insinuating?

WWX IS FULL OF ZINGERS TODAY, IT'S AMAZING

and then wwx spells it all out for them bc as all know, these cultivators are all idiots.

and the episode ends there!

not a lot of wangxiantics aside from the bit at the beginning BUT SO MANY QUALITY LINES FROM WWX AND THE JUNIORS

AND WE GET TO WATCH SU SHE GET DRAGGED FOR HALF AN EPISODE

NOT A BAD WAY TO PASS THE TIME, TBH

Return to Masterpost

#WangXiantics #wangxian #the untamed #cql

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thechocoboos · 4 years

Note

Hey, if you're not busy, could we see how the boys would handle a s/o who's prone to anxiety/panic attacks?

ho ho this hits close to home!

Warning: Anxiety

Headcanons: The Bros with an S/O with Anxiety

Noctis:

Noctis, while he understands the feeling, he’s also the one who’s the least sure about how to handle panic attacks and anxiety

As the prince, he’s had his fair share of anxiety at times, but he still has no fucking idea how to go about helping it

He’s also dense as a fucking rock sometimes, so it took him a little while to recognize your pattern of anxiety and how you behave when it happens

Even then, it took an explicit explanation from you for him to actually realize what was happening

Noctis isn’t quite sure what to do, but he definitely does his best

He has an overall calm feeling about him, maybe it’s from how chill he is, or maybe it’s just everything rolling off his back, but he’s nice in that he doesn’t ever make you feel anymore stressed or anxious

And when you are anxious, once he learns to recognize your signs of anxiety, he becomes really good at trying to help you without bringing too much attention from anyone else

His go-to thing is to try and get you away from others or whatever it is that’s overwhelming you, and he tries to give you time and quietness

He’s also the one who likes to give you long, comforting hugs when it gets bad and who tries to tell you that everything is okay, and that everything will be okay

He ends up going to Ignis for coping mechanisms, and of course, Ignis raises an eyebrow and begins with, “... If there’s anything… bothering you, Noctis, we can always find you a therapist--”

And Noctis has to shake his head and be like, “Nah bro it aint me--”

That topic does spark an idea, and Noctis realizes that he’s the crown prince who can afford anything he wants

And he knows he’s honestly not too great with trying to help you himself, but he has the means to help you get proper help

So Noctis gets you to therapy! Somehow he convinces you, and he wasn’t pushy or pressuring about it either

He’s not super great at helping you find coping mechanisms or anything, but he’s gentle and understanding, and his, for lack of a better word, “chill” demeanor makes it easier to cope at times

Sometimes, it is nice to have someone you trust sitting next to you or understanding that you need a moment, and Noctis and his overall calm demeanor at times can be soothing and feels supportive and comforting

He’ll hold your hand or hold you, his arms tugging you close and the sensation of his chin on your head or his thumbs rubbing circles against your skin can help ground you

Prompto:

Prom gets it. Like, he fucking Gets It

It didn’t take him long to recognize signs of anxiety/panic attacks when he started spending more time with you, but he wasn’t sure of how to approach the topic without being awkward or causing even more anxiety

He knows that it’s not something easy to talk to people about all the time, so it definitely takes a while before he brings it up

When you two finally talk about it, Prompto is probably out of all the bros, the most understanding of it, simply because of the anxiety that he’s dealt with in his own life

He already new a bunch of coping mechanisms--breathing exercises, distraction exercises, various ways to help prevent panic attacks or anxiety from building up too much

He’s also the one who knows what shit to not say; he’s not about to say, “everything’s okay, you’re fine, it’s not too bad--” because he fucking knows that you know that, and knowing that and saying that doesn’t make anything better (@ noctis)

He’s not always the best at realizing when you might have worse anxiety than normal, so he always, always tries to check on you (as subtle as he can, which admittedly isn’t much, but he did make up code words for you two to use!)

Prompto will pull you away from people and sit with you to try and breathe with you

He reminds you to breathe, he holds your hands and listens when you try to talk through your feelings, he reminds you that your feelings are valid and that he’s there for you

He’s also pretty good at distracting you from your anxiety if it gets too much

Grounding techniques??? He knows ‘em all!!!

Sometimes he either picks up on your anxiety and it can rub off on him, and admittedly, when you’re both having massive anxiety, it’s a bit of a wreck

Eventually though, he learns that at times like that, it’s just best for you two to go home and have some quiet time--maybe with each other, maybe not--to try and ground yourselves or calm down

Other times, Prom might not realize at first that you’re having anxiety or a panic attack, especially if he’s super excited or caught up in something

However, he always makes it up to you and when he does realize that your anxiety is skyrocketing or building up at all, he is very quick to try and jump into action to help you cope or get you somewhere less stressful

He even tries to plan around your anxiety, as in, if you guys really want to go to the mall but you have social anxiety or crowded areas make your anxiety worse, he tries to plan to go on days and at times when it’s less busy

He’s not always logical about it, and it doesn’t always work, but he tries, and that attempt is more than so many other people will do, so it really means a lot

He also has the urge to try and help you feel better, but he’s bad at realizing that there are a lot of times when he can’t help, just because there’s not always a root cause (it honestly kills him during those times, he feels so awful knowing there’s nothing he can do)

Ignis:

Ignis was quick to realize, too

He didn’t realize it was anxiety at first, but he did know that something was up

And he’s also quick to discuss it with you

He’s gentle when he asks about your anxiety: how long it’s been going on, what your triggers are (if you know them), what coping mechanisms work best for you, etc

He does try to subtly ask how it might’ve developed, but he never pushes for an answer and understands if you don’t want to dwell on it (and apologizes for pushing any boundaries)

Iggy just wants to understand as best he can, in an effort to try and help you out as much as he can

He keeps an eye on you for any signs of anxiety attacks or panic attacks or anything, so that if your anxiety does flare, he can whisk you away someplace else to try and help alleviate any stress and anxiety

He knows that sometimes there’s nothing he can truly do to make your anxiety go away or to help you feel better, and while it does kill him, he tries to accept that, knowing that if he were to aimlessly fret over it constantly that it could make it so much worse

Ignis is a man of research! He does sooo much research to try and find coping mechanisms, possible triggers like caffeine, and all sorts of other stuff

Like I said, he knows that he can’t always help, but if he can, he definitely will

And make no mistake, this man will tear hell apart to get you safe and somewhere safe for you

And if you ask him to back off or give you space? He gives it. No ifs, ands, or buts, unless your safety is at risk

Similar to Prompto, Ignis does what he can to make plans during times/days when things are less busy for you

Except, unlike Prompto, Ignis’ plans usually work out better

Iggy is also the most subtle about helping you, which honestly makes things so much better

You don’t want everyone else to know about your business or your anxiety, so having a S/O that is actually subtle about helping you makes you feel better about it sometimes

Gladio:

Honestly, Gladio is the one who probs needed the most time to try and accept/understand the whole anxiety thing

He’s the kind of guy who’d try to “teach” someone to not be afraid of shit so that’s probably the mindset he has when you first approach him about it

And it was in fact, that mindset that led to a huge fight, an almost-breakup, and actually caused a lot of anxiety and panic attacks

It took both Cor and Ignis trying to explain the deal of what anxiety is and what not to do for Gladio to finally get the deal about it

Gladio feels guilty about he first handled it for years tbh, but you forgave him when you saw how hard he tries to help you when your anxiety flares or when you have panic attacks

Gladio grows to understand that sometimes anxiety makes it so hard to make decisions and being pushed for decisions/to do things makes it worse, so he’ll often man the helm of decision making when things get tough (like you can’t decide where to eat or what to buy or order at a restaurant, so he’ll ask you if you’re in the mood for smth that he knows you like)

He also can make himself the most intimidating person to get others to leave you alone when you guys are out and about, just for enough time to get you somewhere you feel safer or more comfortable at

After a little bit of time, he ends up being surprisingly very observant about your anxiety and can usually start to tell that your anxiety is getting worse before you even notice sometimes

Sometimes when you have anxiety and just want to hide from the world to try and make it go away, or are shaking so bad and can’t make it go away no matter what you do, he’ll just lay down with you and stroke your hair, taking deep breaths to try and help you breathe again

Sometimes seeing your anxiety or panic attacks makes him feel scared too, just because he knows there’s nothing he can do to make it really go away, but he’ll be damned if he doesn’t try

#ffxv #final fantasy xv #ffxv ignis #ignis scientia #ffxv prompto #prompto argentum #ffxv noctis #noctis lucis caelum #ffxv gladio #gladiolus amicitia #headcanons #ff15 #final fantasy 15 #Anonymous

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letterstothemidnightsociety · 3 years

Text

Previously On Supernatural Season 3, we had a really rock solid trio of episodes to kick us off right, so what does SPN do next? It’s gonna lay the groundwork for some spicy character development that may or may not pay off by the end of the season. Let's find out!

To be honest, I felt the next three episodes just sort of plateau? There’s enough nuggets in these three eps - “Sin City”, “Bedtime Stories”, and “Red Sky at Morning” - that it does feel like they’re setting up for something big but it’s taking too much time. If the season had been longer, I don’t know that I’d be complaining, because there’s SO much potential introduced with these character developments, but I know it’s gonna get cut off at the knees in the very near future. 2021 Me has been trained on what to expect from a short season, so half of my brain wants to give the show slack for Unexpected Circumstances, but the other half of my brain is shouting YOUR NOT DRIVING THE BUS FAST ENOUGH, YOU’LL NEVER MAKE IT TO THE END OF THE LINE IN TIME!!!

And that’s maybe unfair because there really are some great nuggets in here. We’ve got “Sin City”, which is Dean’s episode. I mean, they’re ALL Dean’s episode, but this one more so than the other two in this post. Dean gets trapped with a demon who turns out to be...kinda...nice? In kind of a Stockholm Syndromey way I guess? She let’s Dean in on the fate that awaits him when his year long contract is up and it is NOT great. This isn’t the first time we see that there’s more to the demons than SPN has shown us in the past (hello, Ruby), but it is the first time Dean chills out enough to actually have a conversation with one. Dean doesn’t really get it, like he’s still not interested in getting out of his deal, but the fear gets planted, it just needs some time to grow. Oh, also, the Colt Ex Machina is back in action, so that's important.

This dumb bitch thinks he can fool us with that devil-may-care side glance but he caaaan't

But then we get “Bedtime Stories”, the Sam episode, where Sam learns...to let go? That’s the point of this episode right? It’s about letting go of someone before that person becomes too toxic and dangerous? At least, that’s the lesson that Dean wants Sam to take away from this case. But Sam will NOT learn this lesson, so instead he tries to cancel Dean’s deal by killing the crossroads demon who wrote it. Spoiler Alert: it doesn't work.

And then we get “Red Sky At Morning”, which opens and closes with some heavy emotional baggage, but then is stuffed full of fun. Like, this episode ricochets wildly in terms of Feelings, but then that’s probably what we should expect from SPN. I mean, what show have I been watching for 3 seasons now?

Fun Facts guys: I’m a tired Millenial, and swapping DVD discs was too much work so I switched over to watching this season on Netflix and GUESS WHAT???? THESE EPISODES COME WITH A SUICIDE WARNING!?!?!

They're not wrong.

And like, if that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about this season I don’t know WHAT will. Cuz Dean is absolutely suicidal and I am surprised (??) I guess (???) by how much the show acknowledges that. Or I guess, surprised by how much Netflix acknowledges that. It’s something that I did not...pick up on the first go around on season 3, possibly because I was 19 and I was an idiot and found this sort of emotional vulnerability to be endearing. Listen, I know there’s a lot to be said about the producers of the show making...umm…poor decisions in regards to character developments? But if the target demographic of this show was anything like me - and I suspect they were - then the viewers were also...probably...responding inappropriately to some of those character developments. And here’s the thing - I’m looking at this from 12 years in the future, with 12 years worth of real life drama that makes the heavy handed melodrama of television feel...well, heavy handed. Maybe irresponsible? Certainly a little uncomfortable. Big Me is having A Time confronting Little Me’s taste in TV Characters. It’s one thing to have a kink, Little Me, it’s another thing to romanticize suicidal depression.

And hey, I can’t deny that the character development for Dean makes sense. I actually appreciate that the show is thinking through the world and the relationship dynamics that they’ve built and the toll that these misadventures are having on their main characters. These episodes all get bookended by Impala Fights where Sam keeps pushing Dean to give a shit about his own life and Dean responds with an inability to care. That’s just where he is right now, and I get that. We’re early in the season still. But how will the rest of the season handle this? I honestly can’t remember but I also don’t want this to be a throw-away issue that they use to remind us that Dean’s supposed to die at the end of the season. I’m prob gonna come back to this throughout the season because I ~just~want~this~show~to be~repsonsiblllllleeeeeeeeeeee.

Lol, I know, that’s a lot to ask from the CW.

ON TO MORE FUN THINGS!!

Sam is gettin’ reeeeeallll bitchy in these episodes and #1, I love it, Bitchy Sam 5Ever, but also #2, was this supposed to be the sign that Sam was going darkside? Like, he’s snarky, he’s angry, he’s not pulling any punches and that could just be him reacting to his brother’s situation but it could also be….you know...him...becoming slightly...evil? For instance in “Sin City”, he kills the two demons who kidnapped Dean without even thinking. On the one hand, this is the Winchester MO, they kill demons, that’s their job, but on the other hand, Dean is actively telling Sam to stop. Same deal in “Bed Time Stories” - Sam kills the crossroads demon in cold blood (or maybe viscera). Again, we could blame this on instinct - the Winchesters were brought up to do exactly this - but 1) Dean keeps telling Sam not to and 2) that’s not Sam. This show spent 2 seasons telling us that Sam is the Good Brother, the White Hat, the Touchy-Feely One. This is not the Touchy Feely Sam who reasons with ghosts and falls in love with werewolves. Like, everyone else sees it too, right? Also, he is usually very nice to everyone but he is a REAL BITCH to Gertrude in “Red Sky at Morning.” Like, come on, Sam, she just wants to have a nice time. She is OLD. You really think she’s got what it takes to climb that tree?

Honestly, how tall are this lady's heels?

I know that there was a plan for Sam to start Turning in this season before the show’s episode order got slashed due to the Writer’s Strike. And man, I really would have liked to have seen this play out. Like, first season Sam is the Innocent, right? He’s our stand in for the viewer in those first few episodes and then he’s revealed to be kind of the only thing that went right in the lives of both John and Dean, so Baby Must Be Protected at All Costs. The fact that John ultimately lets Sam go off to college and doesn’t contact him for the next four years says to me that on some level, John felt the need to preserve that innocence, that kind of untouched quality Sam has. Dean is very similar - whenever Sam gets too into the job, Dean calls him out on it. So in the second season when we find out that Sam might be evil, it’s a real punch in the gut, for Dean most of all. But then the show admittedly got bored with that storyline and it didn’t really go anywhere. So whereas Dean has personality in SPADES that fluctuates and changes and develops/maybe just gets more intense as the show goes on, Sam remains that kind of blank slate that the viewer can put their face on. Except now we’re in season three, and if you’ve bought into this show, then you’ve bought into it, so the audience doesn’t need a Blank Slate Sam anymore. And if you start with Sam the Innocent and then introduce the idea of Dark!Sam and then just leave that concept hanging, then isn’t this sort of like Checkov’s Evil Sam? If you introduce Evil Sam in the first act you really ought to deliver on Evil Sam by act three, right? Wouldn’t that have been A+ and Wild? Wouldn’t that have made Sam’s arc and emotional struggles over the previous seasons have more weight?

Will this be resolved in later seasons? Maybe. I’m gonna be honest, this is the last season I watched all the way through and seasons 4 through...like, 8 were real touch and go for me. I know that Sam ultimately is revealed to be a vessel for??? The devil??? And Dean is ultimately revealed to be a vessel for??? Michael??? And then the two of them???? Fight to the death???? Point is, season 5 got weird guys and I’m not there yet.

Back to more fun things! You know what guys?? I think I ship Dean and Bela. I’m...almost ashamed to admit it? Like, I remember Little Me watching this season and just dumping on Bela, I HATED her, but this time? I am 1,000% On Board This Ship. Like, there is an alternate universe somewhere where these two got a spinoff show that ran for 6 seasons and I watched EVERY episode. And then, like, 5 years after it ended, they rebooted it with Dean and Bela’s grown up daughter as the lead and the whole OG cast makes cameos over the three seasons it stays on the air and it’s amazing. I’d own both shows on DVD.

What I like about Bela this time around (and again, I am WILDLY surprised about this development), is that she can dish it just as hard as the Winchesters can. Like, every line Dean throws at her she holds up a mirror to say, “Oh yes, I know the Kettle is black, but what color are you, Pot?” and I’m just continually thrilled. She is also just as damaged as Dean is but somehow channeling it into a healthier way? Like, she’s true Chaotic Neutral, which is not necessarily healthy, it’s just healthier than Dean. Or maybe it’s just that she’s better at managing it. In either case, they are HOT MESSES and I love it. I just love it. I know I complained about shoehorned romances but Ackles and Lauren Cohan just totally crush it in every scene and when Dean walks down the stairs all She’s All That in “Red Sky at Morning”, I yelled at the screen OMG just BONE already!!!!! And then like, 5 seconds later, Bela literally says “We should really have angry sex,” and it was probably the most vindicating moment I’ve had on this ride so far.

I just think they're neat!

WHY did we cancel her? WHY?? I don’t want to believe it was the Wincest again, so I’m gonna pretend that it wasn’t, but it was definitely fans. According to Kripke, Bela gets the axe at the end of this season because of the fan hatred of her. Now, I’ve already admitted that I personally held a grudge, but good Lord, what was wrong with us, as a Fandom? To be fair to me (and all of us), would we have felt differently if we had not been introduced to Jo a mere season earlier?? I'm gonna say yes. Although I had misgivings about Jo the first episode we meet her, by the end of season 2 I was certainly on her side. Working through season 3, I am remembering that, when we were introduced to Bela, I was immediately FURIOUS because WTF, WHERE’S JO? SPN just introduced to her. They just settled on a love interest for Dean and the writer’s just got me on board with that. Now they’ve completely done away with both that character AND that dynamic and you want me to get on board this NEW thing? And be excited about it??? So I'm gonna blame the love-interest-whiplash, combined with the fact that Little Me related my own personal self more to Jo than to Bela, that made me hate Bela in the first place. When you look at how quickly the show abandoned one character to introduce another character, it makes sense why fans got mad, but I’m also mad that we continued to hate Bela when she turned out to be such an A+ Frenemy. It makes me want to shout at the writers through the time void COMMIT TO A FEMALE CHARACTER YOU JAGWEEDS.

What’s wild watching this show now is just how Male it was, especially considering its audience was already skewed heavily female by this point in the series. If you made this show today, I don’t know that you could do that. Today, there’s a real push for balanced, diverse casts in programming, especially in sci-fi/fantasy and young adult. I think if SPN had started in 2021, they would have introduced the Harvell’s or Bela up in season 1, and that introduction would have been much more intentional. The benefit of having a shorter episode count as the standard is that there’s less of the “throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks” approach. Looking at it from 2021, reading snippets of interviews from Kripke, that’s definitely what they’re doing with the side characters in these seasons and you can feel that in Jo and Bela. A shorter season means that the storytelling has to be tighter, it can’t wander, so every decision has to be a load-bearing decision. On the other hand, one of the down sides of having a shorter episode count is the exact same thing - less room to throw stuff, less room to experiment. Heck, Bobby was technically a character they threw at the wall and he didn’t just stick, he became a tentpole character of the series. The only side character that actually made it into the series finale even!

So how much room should we be giving our television programs? I think it depends on the show, honestly. I think you have to decide up front if you want space to experiment, or if you have one, tight, compact story line that’s gonna drive viewers from episode 1 right through the finale without giving them the chance to catch their breath. You have to make the decision, but that doesn’t mean we have to stop making one style of show in favor of the other. Just because we’re in the Age of Streaming doesn’t mean there isn’t room enough for both.

#Supernatural #Supernatural season 3 #Supernatural rewatch #Sin City #Bedtime Stories #Red Sky at Morning #Sam Winchester #Dean Winchester #Bobby Singer #Bela Talbot #TV #TV history #TV format

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