#and right now I'm not seeing anything to sway me otherwise. personally! you guys can do whatever you want forever. it's down to you 💜

[red-moon-at-night]

remember you can vote every day! peace and love on planet earth <3

[mysteryshoptls]

SSR Leona Kingscholar Beastly Garb Personal Story: Part 1

"Whatever I feel like doing."

Part 1 (Part 2) (Part 3)

[Sports Field]

Leona: We'll end today's practice here. Make sure you do your cool down exercise on your own.

Magift Club Members: YESSIR!!!

Leona: Ahh, I'm beat. Think I'll head back to the dorm and snooze a bit.

Epel: Um, Leona-san! There's something I'd like to ask of you…

Leona: Ask of me? If it's something stupid, I ain't gonna hear you out.

Epel: Uhhm… That means I can still ask, right? Thank you very much.

Epel: Recently, I keep missing passes and dropping discs a lot.

Epel: Please tell me a way to train so I can improve my control of the disc and make less mistakes!

Leona: Oh, is that all? Don't worry about it. Bye.

Epel: Eh… Wait, no, I wanted more specific advice…!

???: EH!

Epel/Leona: ?

Ruggie: You guys are gonna go into town? By bus?

Magift Club Member A: Yeah, but… What's up, Ruggie? You wanna go too?

Magift Club Member B: You can come, but we're not gonna buy you any food.

Ruggie: Tch, that sucks. But puttin' that aside… If you're headin' there, can I getcha to buy somethin' for me?

Ruggie: It might be a liiiittle heavy, but… It should be easy enough for two people to carry 20 boxes of sports drink powder packets!

Magift Club Member A: No way!! You can do that by sending a first year to the Mystery Shop or something, instead.

Ruggie: YEAH BUT THE SPORTIN' GOODS STORE IN TOWN'S ABOUT 6 MADOL CHEAPER PER BOX!!!!!

Ruggie: If I ask you guys to do it for me, then that saves me on the bus fare, and the club's money. It's basically killing two birds with one stone.

Magift Club Member B: Not my problem. It's not like that amount saved is gonna go into our pockets or anything… If you want to save money so bad, why don't you go yourself?

Ruggie: Mmkay, I mean, I don't really care～ But there's that time you owe me from when I swapped clubroom cleaning duties with ya…

Magift Club Member A: O-Okay, okay! We'll go buy some on the way back!

Ruggie: Thanks a bunch. 'Kay, here's the money for it. I need the usual 20 boxes of sports drinks!

Leona: Man, you're being so cheap…

Ruggie: Ah, Leona-san. Were you listening to all that?

Ruggie: I'm not being cheap at all. That's me saving 6 Madol on 20 boxes each, y'know!? It's completely a rip-off otherwise!

Epel: 20 boxes of sports drink powder…

Epel: That'd be difficult to carry by broom, maybe? I guess it would be pretty impossible to bring back without taking the bus.

Ruggie: Riiight? Brooms're great 'cause you don't gotta think about schedules and fares, but...

Ruggie: If you gotta carry stuff, it's basically the pits…. Or more like, someone scrawny like me can't do that.

Epel: Yes… Whenever I try to fly with my stuff on the broom, I'm always swaying so hard it makes me anxious…

Epel: If I try to use magic to carry it, then I get so focused on the floating luggage that my speed drops.

Leona: See, you get it.

Ruggie: Huh, but your flight ability's way out of our range.

Leona: Well, yeah. But that's not what I'm talking about.

Leona: I meant about what I said to Epel earlier to not worry about making mistakes when handling the disc.

Leona: Your flying's one of the best out of all the first years.

Leona: If you're gonna try to greedily grab at everything and neglect your actual strong point, how're you actually gonna be useful?

Epel: That's…

Leona: You don't need to think about anything unnecessary right now.

Leona: If you think about it, the disc is just a single object. Moving it with magic is like, the fundamentals.

Leona: As long as you keep up your studies, you'll improve over time.

Epel: I see…!

Ruggie: Shishishi, can you really say that, though, since you skip all your classes?

Leona: Hah?

Epel: Ahahaha…

Leona: But when it comes to shopping… You guys figure it out on your own.

Ruggie: Ehhh. Even if you say that…

Ruggie: Public transportation costs money, and there's not that many buses running on Sage's Island to start with!

Ruggie: If we used brooms, then that'd help save time, but… If there's a ton to buy, then we'd need a bunch of people to work together to go get it.

Leona: Luckily, the Magical Shift Club has more members than any other club. Shouldn't be a problem.

Ruggie: What're you even saying? There's no way any of these guys would take on something like this before coming to practice.

Epel: And magical wheels… Aren't really geared towards hauling stuff, either.

Ruggie: Maaan, it'd be great if we had someone who could bust out a car in times like these.

Ruggie: If we did, it'd be so easy to go shoppin' for the club, and we could totally use it to take full advantage of all the bargains that happen in town!

Leona: …

Epel: Most of the adults back home have cars… But I don't think I know anyone here at school with a license, I think?

Ruggie: I mean, the first years're probably too young, and everyone at our school's pretty busy anyway. I don't think there's anyone who'd be able to get one.

Epel: I thought you'd be someone to get something as useful as a license as soon as he could, Ruggie-san.

Ruggie: Eh? But getting a license and renewin' it costs money, don't it?

Leona: How long're you guys going to be talking about something you can't have? No one can drive, so just give it up.

Leona: C'mon, it's an easy decision. Just don't go to into town.

Leona: Night Raven College is a prestigious Magical Shift school. Our club's really well funded, if not abundantly so.

Leona: Basically, the Mystery Shop should be enough. Just don't be greedy.

Ruggie: Tch. This island's reaaaally inconvenient.

Part 1 (Part 2) (Part 3)

Requested by @dorito9708 and @kiingsroar.

[roronoa-roro]

Ok ok wait

what bout geto taking care of you? Like in caretaker-whumpee (hurt person and their caretaker) trope or smn?

Like you are very hurt from some mission—to the point of near death, like you’ve been a prisoner and shit and just can’t breathe normally and will pass away whenever

an geto taking care of you then —seeing you like that and stuff, yes, elaborate,

Hubs😃🗞 y u tryna make me make myself sad? But anyways—

[12 - 03 - 2022 21:13]

Every single bone hurts. The hit you took this time was fatal. But nothing hurt you more than being taken down in such an embarrassing manner by a weak curse right in front of Geto fucking Suguru. No pain was worth the humiliation you felt while losing consciousness before your worst nightmare.

Next, when you wake up you are greeted by his brooding face peering down at you. Startled you push his face away. He was too close for any coherent thinking.

Suguru sits back on the chair beside the hospital bed you are lying in. "What are you doing?!" You whisper shout at him, throat hurting so bad.

His brows rise, "I was examining your broken nose," he smirks at you, "What? Don't tell me you thought I was gonna kiss you when your face smells of antiseptic."

Rubbing salt to the wound, he hands you a pocket mirror. You take it, face all hot because that was exactly what you were thinking. Was he going to kiss you before you woke up?

The thought strangely had your heart booming but you ignore it. Staring straight at the mess of bandages on your face you sigh. Yes, he wouldn't be able to kiss you even if he wanted to. Your face was just that broken right now.

"Ahem," he clears his throat, standing up, "Would your majesty like anything for dinner?"

You stare at him hard.

Did they really think having Geto Suguru look after you in the hospital was a good choice?

But then you smirk, "Oh, so you are my maid for the time being?" You tease.

He rolls his eyes, "Twelve broken ribs and you still have the energy to crack jokes. Yes, I'm your maid for the time being. Now quick, watcha wanna eat?"

You indicate him to come closer. When he bends over, you lean in, hot breath whispering in his ear, "I have twelve broken ribs idiot. I can't eat." You snicker, then grimace at the pain. He sighs exasperated, pulling back.

Waving your hand, you tell him, "You go have dinner. I'll be fine with the drip."

He nods and leaves. You watch him stop by the door and talk to a pretty nurse. She is looking up at him mesmerized, batting her pretty lashes and propping her chest forward. You scowl. Fat chance that bitch thought Geto would play along with her.

But to your surprise, he is stilll talking to her, nodding his head now and then too. You grit your teeth, the urge to rip the needles off and barge in on their conversation very strong. But you hold yourself back. He isn't worth the catfight.

You aren't stupid. You know you have a crush on him. But would you ever act on it? Never.

Geto leaves, the nurse standing there still watching his back. Once he's out of sight she remembers she had a patient to attend.

The nurse approaches you with dainty steps, her hips swaying seductively. Her existence hits all the sore spots in you. Chest? Hips? Smile? Make up? Everything seemed to be on point. To top that off, she seemed the nice kind.

"Hi!" She giggles, "That guy is your friend right? Mighty fine guy, by the way." She winks. You simply stare at her confused, "Huh?" Is all you mutter. But the woman ignores you, getting the stats she needed and leaves.

When Geto returns with a fruit juice for you, you scowl. "Didn't I say I don't want anything?"

He glares right back at you, "Your crusty ass voice says otherwise. Stop being a brat and drink this." He shoves the carton in your face.

You take it, scowl intensifying, "Dont tell me what to do. Don't you have better stuff to do?"

He huffs, "Like what? Your grandma?"

"Like that nurse?"

It spills out before you can stop it and you bite your tongue, praying as you watch his expression shift.

"Oh, Ro, you mean?" There's a teasing lilt to his voice as he watches you, amused. "Yeah, she's one hot chick. Even gave me her number earlier."

Your face puffs in anger. How dare she?

"Gimme her number." You push your palm forward. His brow rises as he hands you a small note. "What? You gonna hook up with her? She's not really my type."

You don't reply, simply focused on opening the folded note. It smells good, just like her. And the handwriting inside is pretty too.

Reading it, all the bravado on your face leaves and Geto frowns, "What is it?"

He tries snatching the paper, but you pull it back, hiding it from his fingers. His frown intensifies as a small battle ensues, the winner obviously being him who got the note in his fist.

The note's crumpled but he can still read the contents—

'Tell that sweetheart not to be so obvious with their glares next time ;)'

He scoffs, "I can't believe the one woman who genuinely tried hitting me up would give me a note for you."

You chuckle, all bad feelings for the nurse dissipating. "I do think she's my type—"

"Don't even think about it."

Your eyes widen when Geto stops you mid sentence like that. You turn back to look at him, and sure enough, he's sporting that slight pout you heard in his voice earlier. "What? Is she your type too now?" You ask, heart battering.

"No. You are." His words, albeit short, carry a sort of embarrassment that only comes with a heartfelt confession. You ogle at him, "Me too—" You sputter.

You will be damned if you let this opportunity go. But Geto has some other ideas as his smirk returns.

"You are your type too?"

You roll your eyes, "No. You are my type too."

He laughs, the sound booming from his chest and so comforting to listen to.

"Then maybe we should do a favor to these nurses and get together, huh?"

[zhongliologist]

Oh my gosh! Visions! Lore!! I hope you don't mind me rambling about visions and the in-game lore, this is my favourite part about the games and I'm very excited that you brought this up XD

I think you might be onto something with the visions! I definitely agree with what you said about each vision being a gift of sorts from each elemental archon to those they seem "worthy". I think Zhongli also mentioned that the reason why there hasn't been any new elecro allogenes was because it was the will of the electro archon? So I guess from there we can kind of surmise that at the very least, the respective elemental archons have some kind of influence on who gets what vision.

That being said though, I've always wondered if each archon tends to favour particular kinds of people, or if they there is a certain criteria to obtain a particular element vision (like maybe they give visions to people who embody a particular value or something). I feel like I've found some common thread between each element vision holder?? These are just my theories thoughh, so I'd love to know what you think!

Starting with what I think is the most obvious, I think the Pyro archon values passion. All of the pyro allogenes have something that they're very very passionate about, be it music, bombs, cooking, or defending their hometown.

(everything goes downhill from here the pyro one is the only one I'm confident about lmao)

For Geo visions, I think the connecting thread is resilience? Diligence, strength, and resilience in the face of adversity. People with wills of rock.

Electro visions, I think are given to those who are protecting something. The only common thread I can find between the electro characters was that they were protecting something or someone when they got their visions (ex: Razor protecting lupical, Fischl protecting her dreams and fantasies). I'm not too sure about this one though XD

Hydro, again, I'm not too sure if it's mastery over something, or if it's clarity? Like these people all have a particular value system or ideology that they live by (ex: chivalry, heal others with music, fight yeah!!), and they will not sway from that and will not hide who they are. It's less passion about a field and more discovery of self, I think.

Cryo took me a long time to figure out (Chongyun kept throwing a wrench in my plans 😭), but I believe the value the tsaritsa looks for is rebellion: People who dare to defy their fate, their origins, their physical conditions, to do what they want. It fits what we know of the Tsaritsa as well, with her (spoilers!) "rebellion against the divine" and what not.

Anemo I cannot figure out. I have tried. I have failed. If you know the answer, please tell me because I just cannot figure it out 😭

But yeah!! These are just my two cents. What do you think? P.S. I'm sorry to make you read so much, I got way too excited. XD Hope you're doing well 💕

Yepp!!! You surmised it well!! I do like the Vision part of the game (i mean more than Celestia's bs lmaooo) bc it's pretty interesting!

I'm gonna discuss this through the characters' traits and not through the archons! This is only my own take tho!

I like to think about Vision elements the same way as astrology does! Since astrology is better studied and you can actually infer some ideas from it!

Let's start from elements that have close qualities!

You're right about Pyro allogenes! They're pretty passionate. They'll stop at nothing to go do what they want. They're pretty brash, sometimes impulsive and impatient. They don't really wanna get told what to do. They have their own thing and you gotta respect it otherwise, you're gonna get burned.

For Geo,, it's sort of similar with Pyro but Geo allogenes are more self disciplined. They also won't stop at nothing to get what they want but they're more patient. They're willing to go through the long haul. They're also more grounded and calm. Patience is the keyword here.

For Cryo, i think Cryo allogenes are those who will do anything to survive. I think Resilient is the word to describe them. They are usually befallen by some sort of misfortune, but they still persevere to go on and live. I think the Tsaritsa respects that sort of drive and bestows Visions to those people.

Now for these two, I am unsure bc the characters are really different and I'm only grasping on straws for these ones.

For Hydro allogenes...to me, it's kind of difficult to say bc we have a variety of characters like Barbara, Mona, Xingqiu and Childe who are definitely not alike. But as I read their character stories, I realized that what these people usually feel like something is missing in their lives. They have the drive to search for that "thing", and often goes through some sort of "coming of age" test. Why do I say this?

Barbara always feels like she's less than her sister Jean. She wants to be like her but doesn't know what to do. Until she finds her purpose after singing for that boy with a high fever until her voice was hoarse.

For Xingqiu, he wanted to be like the martial arts characters he would read in books. As a sheltered kid, he wanted to do something other than ride the coattails of his family's fortune. We aren't sure how he got his Vision but I do think his time with a dwindling Guhua clan was his test.

For Mona, she wanted to be like her master. To see the truth through the stars. Perhaps her test was when her master had died and the burden to carry astrological knowledge and pass it on fell on her shoulders. It also fits if she did inherit her Vision from her master.

For Childe, he wanted to be stronger, like a naive kid who wants to be a hero, but maybe he wasn't supposed to be that twisted? Maybe he's just some adrenaline junkie who got twisted when he fell into the abyss. That was his test tho,,, but i dunno, we're not sure how he got his vision.

Now for Electro allogenes. These ones, I am unsure of the most. I mean....Keqing, Beidou, Fischl, Razor....they're so different. Maybe it's being Unusual and going out of the norm. They usually oppose something or are very, very different in their opinions. Keqing opposes the Archon's control over Liyue. Beidou, against all odds, wanted to defeat the Haishan. Fischl is living in her own world of dreams, and wishes to maintain those dreams even if people find it weird. Razor was basically raised by wolves, and generally do not mingle with society.

For Anemo allogenes...these guys are also very different. And if they're not bound by their element, they could've gone to other elements just by their personalities. Venti is the only one who embodies the free spirit personality. Jean and Xiao both have strong motivations to protect their homes. Sucrose has a voracious appetite to learn and discover. Perhaps Venti is just embodying the free spirit and gives Visions to whoever he wants lmaooo

Maybe Jean and Xiao are people who wish to protect the freedom of the people so they were graned Anemo visions?? I dunno. I'm stumped on this one....

But this is what I think! I feel like I've made a few lore mistakes here and there bc I don't know everything and only went to the wiki ebdbhshs

[evendeadlmthehero]

The Five Year Promise: The Arrival (6/10)

Summary: Y/N Stark, a 20-year-old, makes a promise with Peter Parker, a 16-year-old, that if 5 years pass and and they both haven’t found love, they’d have their first date. Then the snap happens. Y/N is gone. Peter isn’t.

Warnings: Angst. Some swearing.

A/N: this is a short/filler chapter but you guys aren’t READY for part 7

Five Year Promise Masterlist

Based on Avengers: Endgame (2018)

It was quiet in the ship. Tony was sitting by himself, not accepting food, and giving it to Nebula and Peter. Peter also didn’t feel like eating, but on day 15 on the spaceship, his stomach had begged him to eat. His cheeks were sunken and his face had lost colour. Peter no longer grieved yet was in a state of numbness.

Thoughts kept racing in his mind. Is Aunt May okay? Is Ned fine? He couldn’t deal with another loss. Thanos had won. And he truly did leave a mark on the universe. A legacy. Peter snuggled up to nothing but his arms wrapped around himself.

Tony had saw this and whilst he was asleep, he had put his jacket on him. Both him and Peter were deprived of food, meaning more susceptibility to the cold of the endless space. Nebula however was part robot, and although she was starving, her bionic side slightly eased the pain.

Everyday, Peter had nightmares of you. Sometimes it’s you turning into ash, sometimes it’s you turning into roaches and spiders. He woke up screaming, yet no sound would come out. Water had ran out, and his throat was too dry to produce sound.

On day 22 he had made a little video for his Aunt, in case he himself did not make it. He sat down, putting on his suit as he told Karen to record.

“Hey May,” he mumbled tiredly, rubbing his eyes. “It’s been 22 days. In the rare chance you get this, I’m sorry. I-I’m sorry you have to go through this again, i-if your still there. If you aren’t gone-“

He stopped himself, unable to finish that sentence. He then looked at his watch that you have given him, making bile rise up to his throat as he was reminded of what had occurred almost a month ago.

1796 days and 2 hours, it had read. He then looked back into the recorder, letting a tear leave his eye. “She’s gone. Y/N, the girl I told you about. S-she- I couldn’t save her. She didn’t want to die. She told me she didn’t want to. She was scared. She was too young. She didn’t even get to graduate. I-I don’t think I will too. Water ran out days ago and I think I heard Mr. Stark say that oxygen will run out soon. M-May, please take care of yourself. I love you a lot and thank you for all that you’ve done. T-this world hasn’t been kind to you. A-and you deserve better.”

His hand shook as he ended to video. He then slept in the same position he was in, not really wanting to move. You were gone. And this time, the suit didn’t save you. He couldn’t save you. He tried to tell himself that Thanos is a menance, that it wasn’t his fault. But then a stupid voice told him he was so close to taking off the gauntlet, if only he was just that bit stronger.

His eyes started drooping down, begging him to sleep. Peter didn’t want to succumb to it. He was so exhausted, sick of being reminded of what had happened in the form of nightmares. He hated waking up in sweat, more dehydrated then before.

And Tony wasn’t any better. His mind was consumed with malicious thoughts towards himself. And how can he not? The worst pain for a parent is losing a child. Tony had to watch his slowly decay and disingrate into ash. He had kept some of your ash in a jar he had found in the ship. Kept it just in case you’d come back.

Your dad also didn’t want to leave you on that planet. He wanted to leave your ashes in Earth, right near his mother and father. You had to be close to your grandparents.

On day 23, your father and Peter had no energy left. Peter had his ribs sticking out of his skin and his cheekbones now more prominent then before. He could feel death closer then ever.

Nebula watched as she saw both your father and Peter drift off into what had looked like sleep, but was imminently death. She felt alone, cold as she realised she was truly going to be a left alone.

All hope was lost until a bright light came near the window, making Peter and Tony open their eyes. They saw a figure in the light, thinking it was you. It had looked like your powers. The lights then dimmed down and there she stood.

An unfamiliar face of hope donning a red and blue suit.

-

Natasha Romanoff ran into the field as she saw a spaceship coming down from the sky. It was held by a female, a glow circling around her. Her heart was beating against her chest, awaiting to see if you were alive or gone like the rest.

When the plan had landed, Tony was the first to get out of the ship. Steve had run towards him, holding him upright. Tony then looked at his old friend in sorrow and grief. “Couldn't stop him.”

“Neither could I,” Steve had spoke as he guided Tony down. Natasha kept watching, waiting to see you arrive. She saw movement, and realised it was the Peter kid she had seen during Germany. He looked in bad shape, skinnier than ever and blue bags under his eyes.

She watched as a blue female also walked out of the ship, when Rocket, a person who she’d made friends with in the recent weeks, ran out to greet her.

Natasha’s smile faltered for a secound, little hope now left that you might actually come out of the ship. But you didn’t. Her eyes welled up as she took a look at Tony who finally made his way towards her. “I l-lost her.”

Natasha let out a little breath as she shook her head, tears streaming down her face as she grabbed Tony’s shoulder. “Tony, we lost.”

“Is, uh?,” Tony struggles to ask about Pepper. He then sees the stressful blonde run up to him, embracing him.

“Oh, my God! Oh, my God!” She gasped as she let out a sob, thinking that she lost him. She then moved back, her eyes looking for you. She then looked at Natasha, who was held by Steve to stop her from collapsing and then to Peter, who had sat down, not saying a word. “No, no, no, no, no.”

You were a simple girl, an infectious girl. You had a bubbly attitude, was fierce and determined. You were brave, heroic and a genius. And today, you were mourned.

-

In the Avengers Compound, the heroes sat in a living room area. Tony was sitting at a table, getting blood in order to heal. He hadn’t spoken since he got off the spaceship. He didn’t want to speak about the horrors he went through. And neither did Peter, who sat down without saying a word, also attached to a tube and a blood bag.

“It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth,” Rhodes spoke, the tone of his voice in complete tiredness. You were like his little niece. He had known you since you were born. He knew who your mother was, before she died giving birth to you. He knew how Tony was before and after you. He knew you since you were in diapers.

“World governments are in pieces,” Natasha’s voice wavers, too emotionally distressed to speak in her usual voice. “The parts that are still working are trying to take a census. And it looks like he did- he did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent, of all living creatures.”

“Where is he now?” Tony had asked, rubbing his bottom lip. “Where?”

“We don't know. He just opened a portal and walked through,” Steve had replied back, looking at the various images of those who vanished. Wanda, Sam and T’Challa. Then, a photo of you appeared, with a beaming smile. Peter quickly looked away playing with his fingers.

Tony swallowed the lump in his throat before looking at Thor, sitting on a bench and seemingly deep in thought. “What's wrong with him?”

“Oh, he's pissed,” Rocket spoke, making Tony look at him weirdly, not expecting him to speak. “He thinks he failed. Which of course he did, but you know there's a lot of that's going around, ain't there?”

“Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-A-Bear,” Tony replied back, looking at him curiously.

“Maybe I am,” Rocket had spoken to himself, as he too did not know what he was.

“We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep Space scans, and satellites, and we got nothing,” Steve spoke, before looking at your father. “Tony, you fought him-“

“Who told you that?” Your father asked harshly, looking at Steve with anger. “I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street Magician gave away the stone and my own daughter decayed right in front of me. That's what happened. There was no fight.”

“Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?” Steve had asked him in his usual professional voice, angering Tony even more.

“I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming. And then Y/N had the same vision too. You all told me that I was making her crazy, that I was planting ideas in her head-“

“Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus-“

“And I needed you! As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late buddy. Sorry. You know what I need?” Tony asked as he stands, pushing things off the table with a clatter. Everyone winces at the noise. “I need to shave. And I believe I remember telling all youse!”

Tony goes for Steve. Rhodey quickly comes in front of him, trying to stop him. “Tony, Tony, Tony!”

“Alive and otherwise what we needed was a suit of armor around the world! Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not- that's what we needed!” He yelled at Steve, the frustration and betrayal of the passed years finally exploding.

“Well, that didn't work out, did it?” Steve had spoken back, trying to get Tony to calm down. But it looked like it had the opposite effect.

“I said, "we'd lose". You said, "We'll do that together too." And guess what, cap? We lost. And you weren't there. And now my own daughter is dead. But that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact? We're the Avengers, we're the Avengers. Not the Prevengers! Right?” Tony had yelled, his hands swaying around and hitting everything.

“You made your point. Just sit down,” Rhodey had spoke, trying to help Tony from hurting himself.

“She's great, by the way. Has similar powers to Y/N. You guys do remember Y/N right?” He then looked at Carol who looked like she didn’t want to be apart of this argument. “We need you. You're new blood. Bunch of tired old mules! I got nothing for you, cap! I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust. Liar.”

Steve looks affected by Tony's words. The old friends just gaze at each other. After a moment, Tony rips his Arc Reactor from his chest and shoves it into Steve's hand. “Here, take this. You find him, and you put that on. You hide.”

Tony falls to the ground, making everyone gather around him. He whispers “I’m fine,” before collapsing onto the ground.

-

“Bruce gave him a sedative. He's gonna probably be out for the rest of the day,” Rhodey told Peter who was sitting on the same couch for three hours now. “You okay man?”

Peter is snapped out of his stare before he gets up from the couch, taking the tube off his arm. “Yeah, I- I need to go check if May and Ned are fine.”

“Peter you need to recover first,” Rhodey yelled out at Peter’s retreating figure. Peter continued walking away, not listening to him. He walked outside the building and into the cool breeze. It was quiet, no sounds of birds or anything. He didn’t realise until now that Thanos really did take away half of the population.

It took a couple of days until Peter got home. No landlines were working, due to a national emergency. There was no cellphone reception because of fires and crashes. No trams, trains or buses were working, due to obvious reasons. Peter had to steal a bike and ride it back to his home.

Of course that only made him weaker. Shops and fast food outlets were abandoned, giving him a food source. It was a tough couple of days for Peter to get back home. But he had to see her. He had to see if his Aunt was okay.

His hand was shaking as he picked the key that was hidden under the mat. He held his breath as he unlocked the door of his house. The door let out a creak as it opened.

It took Peter a while before walking inside the apartment. He tried to prolong the process of finding out the truth. Delayed the inevitable. But he knew he had to at one point. So after letting out a breath, he finally stepped inside the apartment.

It was cold, wind blowing in from the half opened window. He then looked over at the kitchen, where a bunch of dishes were stacked on top of one another. He then looked at the living room and that’s when he saw it.

Ash all over the coach and floor. A broken mug and coffee stain on the carpet. It was true, you were gone.

Before Peter could mourn, he quickly ran out of the aparentment and to Ned’s house location. He passed many houses. Many old folk and children were lost, sleeping out on the streets and crying. It was a horrific scene, straight out of an apocalyptic movie. He even saw a one year old calling out for his mother.

He then caught a glimpse of the familiar house and ran in full speed towards the door, knocking. No one answered. Peter ran towards the windows, trying to find any sign of life. “Ned? Ned!”

He smashed down the window with his fist, his hand now bleeding. But he didn’t care, he had to find his friend. He looked around furiously, up and down the house. He checked and re-checked rooms, the backyard and front-yard. He then waited hours, days outside Ned’s home, hoping that he was just returning late from the trip.

But he never did.

Everyone was gone.

Taglist (CLOSED)

@kissingtrutharchives @autobotgirl15-blog @clockblobber @im-a-stranger-thing @isabella-bby @jonsnowdoesknow @fangirlingonrhys @trenchcoatedwhiskers @platonictrashh @misswritingintherain @itsbebeyyy @xs-hoodie @callmedaddys-blog @fangirling12566 @editsbyjenny @bubblegumholland @hollandinq @lordofthunderthr @hgacutan @colored-confetti @legendarydazekitten @maya-t-13 @house-arya @cutie1365 @buckysblondie @clipopex-writing @wifunozomi @babebenhardy @sadgirlhours247 @sweetdarlingholland @taliarosej00

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

Normally I don't like to ask stuff but I feel distressed. My mom is arguing about a preaching that she heard where it says that the antichrist will be gay. She quotes the book of Daniel, particularly Daniel 11:37. Her argument is that Daniel is a prophecy book therefore it must be true. It just really hurts that she'd say this to me and keeps making remarks about my faith. That I'm not a good enough Christian for not believing like her. Is what Daniel say true or is the interpretation wrong?

Hey there. I’m sorry to hear you’re distressed, and especially that your mom keeps making remarks about your faith. It is not right for any of us to judge another person’s faith like that! 

This is gonna get long, so for a tl;dr, after studying Daniel 11 and its surrounding context I can say pretty confidently that your mom is indeed wrong about how to interpret 11:37. If you want to explore just why with me, read on!

______________

So to start with, I disagree with your mom that everything in the Book of Daniel, or in any “prophecy book” of the Bible, must necessarily be “true” – or “come true” as if it were fortune telling. Biblical prophecy is not fortune telling or future telling. As I say in this post, biblical prophets were actually much more concerned about the present, about how the past had shaped that present, and about how the present could be used to shape the future! This is just a fact of how ancient Israelites viewed prophecy, regardless of how one interprets scripture (whether more fundamentalist / literal as I imagine your mom probably is, or more historical/contextual, etc.). 

Christians who get really into all the biblical visions of “the end times” and the rapture and stuff don’t want to hear this, because they want it to be somehow directly relevant to them and their futures (and that’s understandable), so the following paragraph is just some information for you rather than anything that’s likely to convince your mom:

Most biblical scholars say that most of the biblical prophecies aren’t about “The End Times” the way we conceive of it. The Book of Daniel’s prophecies do include some talk of the actual end of the world, but – like the Book of Revelation in the New Testament – the majority of his prophecies actually refer to kingdoms and intrigue going on in Daniel’s own time (or not so long before or after his own time). 

I have not studied Daniel’s prophecies, like, at all besides reading through them, so I can say more about how the Book of Revelation is less about “the end of the world” and more about “the end of the Roman Empire;” but Daniel follows a similar trajectory of being more about the fall of the empires that have oppressed his people than about the end of the whole world. If you have a Bible that offers footnotes about the historical context going on in any given passage of scripture, it will tell you all about that – that Daniel’s prophecies discuss the sequence of Babylonian, Median, and Persian rulers that oppress his people and criticize those oppressive kings. 

Thus when you go to look at Daniel 11 (and 10), you see that Daniel isn’t talking about “The Antichrist” in this passage – indeed, that title “Antichrist” is not used at all in this Book, or in any book of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) at all! – but rather he is talking about a Persian king who is going to arise and oppress his people. The New Interpreter’s Study Bible suggests in its footnotes for 11:37 that the specific king Daniel’s talking about is Antiochus, who “grew exceedingly arrogant: He abandoned his ancestral gods and imposed the worship of Zeus Olympus” – hence 11:37′s statement that he “shall pay no respect to the God’s of his ancestors.”

Now that we’ve reached the verse itself in our discussion, let’s have a closer look at Daniel 11:37. The New King James Version reads, 

“He shall regard neither the God of his fathers nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall exalt himself above them all.”

The part of this verse that is used by some to claim that “the antichrist” (if you interpret this passage as even being about the antichrist, despite the context pointing to it actually being about a Persian king) is gay is, of course, “nor the desire of women.” 

But along with that seeming like a very random tangent for the prophet to mention in a verse that otherwise is about this king abandoning all gods, the issue with biblical Hebrew is that sometimes getting a precise meaning out of it is hard. Thus “nor the desire of women” is not the only translation into English that one can make from the Hebrew. I’ll list some other translations that have been made (and you can see tons more here):

KJV: “nor the desire of women”

NASB: “or for the desire of women”

NIV: “or for the one desired by women”

ESV and NRSV: “or to the one beloved by women”

New Living Translation: “or for the god loved by women”

CEB: “and the god preferred by women”

Now, there are many conservative Christians who believe that the King James Bible is never wrong, and therefore they’ll insist that the translation to “nor the desire of women” is the one “correct” translation. But even if that is the case, what exactly does “the desire of women” mean in English? Does it mean: 

that this guy doesn’t desire / isn’t attracted to women, as your mom believes? 

could it also mean that he doesn’t care if women desire him? aka he might still desire them, and doesn’t give a damn about whether they like him back

or does it mean that he doesn’t care what women desire/want – i.e., that he won’t listen to them about what they want, perhaps in regards to what gods he respects, since that’s what the rest of the verse is about?

Moving to look at those translations that translate it “the god loved/preferred/beloved by women,” some suggest that this meaning: just as the guy has no regard for “the god of his ancestors,” likewise he has no regard for the god[s] of his wives/concubines. There are examples in the Hebrew Bible of women having different gods from their husbands – Jacob’s wife Rachel takes her household gods with her into his house; Solomon’s many foreign wives convince him to worship their gods with them. So if the Hebrew here, hemdath nashiym, is translated something about “the god loved by the women,” that’s what it could be about – this guy won’t be swayed to worship any god, whether his own family’s gods or his wives’ gods. 

That above reasoning makes much more sense within the context of the verse than it being like “So this guy won’t care about his ancestors’ god, oh also by the way he’s gay or whatever, and back to the god thing, he’s gonna exalt himself over all gods.” It would be such a random tangent! 

_______

So that’s all the language and history stuff. Now let’s get hypothetical: 

so…what if your mom is right? So what if the verse is saying “this guy isn’t attracted women”? (and for the purpose of this hypothetical, let’s say the verse is about the antichrist though as I discussed above I do not believe that it is.) 

First off, just because he doesn’t desire women doesn’t necessarily mean he does desire men. He could be asexual and/or aromantic. That wouldn’t be much better, of course, because we’d be moving from homophobia into aphobia. Asexual and aromantic folks get vilified enough with the stigma that “oh you can’t ~~love~~?? you monster!” So I definitely do not like the supposition that the antichrist is ace/aro; that’s just as icky as him being gay.

But again, we’re in hypothetical land: so let’s say the antichrist is gay, or is aroace. ……..So what??

Gay people, aroace people, aren’t all perfect and good people. We can be badguys too, ya know? If the antichrist were cishet, it wouldn’t mean that All Cishet People Are Therefore Like The Antichrist – so if the antichrist were gay, why would it therefore mean that all gay people are like the antichrist? 

He’s just one person. A big bad person – but his sexuality isn’t necessarily a part of that. He’s not evil because of whatever his sexuality is or isn’t. 

I will close by offering some counterbalances to a supposedly gay (or aroace, or otherwise LGBTQA+) antichrist: there are also LGBTQA+ heroes in the Bible.

Daniel himself may well be one of them!!

To start with, Daniel is most likely a eunuch: after all, he has a position in the Babylonian court, and as David Bayliss notes, “it was customary for Mesopotamian kings in the first millennium BC to surround themselves with eunuchs as servants.” The Bible itself attests to this fact, in places like Isaiah 39:7 that talks about youths being taken from Judah to serve Babylon’s king as eunuchs. Along with those two facts, Bayliss continues with more evidence that Daniel was a eunuch:

Third, the fact that Daniel and the other captured Israelite youths were entrusted to the “chief eunuch” suggests that they were to become young eunuchs themselves.

Fourth, boys to be made into eunuchs were usually selected for their beauty, which is mentioned at the top of the list of selecting criteria in Dan 1:4.

Fifth, there is no mention of Daniel or his companions ever marrying (or having children).

Sixth, Daniel showed no interest in returning to Jerusalem after Cyrus the Great came to the throne (who allowed exiles to return to their homelands), which may have to do with his physical humiliation and the Deut 23:1 ban.“

Now, why’s it matter if Daniel’s a eunuch?? What’s that got to do with being LGBTQA?? Many queer scholars, myself included, have argued that biblical eunuchs share many similarities to gay people, or trans people, etc. I talk about the connection between biblical eunuchs and contemporary trans people in the section of this webpage titled “ ‘Better than sons or daughters’: Isaiah 56″.

(For other resources on eunuchs’ link to LGBT folks, see here, here, here, here.)

On top of that, some scholars have suggested a romantic/sexual relationship between David and the head eunuch under which he served, Ashpenaz. According to Daniel 1:9, Daniel enjoyed “the favor and tender love” of Ashpenaz. This could be a totally platonic thing, or it could be physical; the Hebrew is ambiguous. 

You might not be able to stop your mom from making her awful comments, but maybe being able to respond in your head to her “the antichrist is gay!” with “no, Daniel was gay” will help you a little. 

Please keep safe, and do what you can to keep your mom’s crap from getting to you (I know that’s much harder said than done). You are beloved by the God who made you, friend. And scripture is much queerer than hateful Christians want to admit. 

[stressedoutteenager]

The perfect timing (Part IV)

This is based on a prompt I got: Soulmate AU: In which you turn 18 and see everything through your soulmate’s eyes when you’re not sleeping anymore but are not fully awake yet.

Part I , Part II , Part III

‘Why did I see less than a minute of my soulmate's room?'

'Reasons for only seeing blurry through your soulmate's eyes'

'Usual amount of time seeing your soulmate's room'

Sana has been sitting on her bed, googling these types of question the whole afternoon.

She didn't want to care. She tried to ignore the thoughts regarding her soulmate since her birthday. It’s been a week now.

It didn't work. Obviously.

She's interested, though. Why would she only see so little and then only blurry things?

The average amount of time for people to see through their soulmates eyes is two and a half minutes. Still, there can be exceptions. Some people have been reporting to have seen what their soulmate saw for more than three minutes.

Sana frowns. They're talking about two and a half minutes. Or even more. Her stomach drops and she hopes to find something else, an answer to satisfy her.

Simple answer for seeing things blurry in that phase is that you were simply too tired.

Sana shakes her head. That's not right. None of her friends or family told her about seeing things blurry. Not even random people at school. Yes, in the beginning but not throughout the whole thing. 

The common held belief that the blurriness is caused by your soulmate falling back asleep, has been proven wrong.

Sana furrows her eyebrows at this article. People really do research about this? Well, if they didn't Sana couldn't be reading about it now.

Is there something wrong with her? Why does it seem like there is no answer to her question.

Right when Sana is about to give up to find a satisfying answer, because she needs to leave the house soon, her eye catches something promising.

Before clicking on it all she can read is: This is how my soulmate made me hate him before I even met him!

Sana doesn't hate her soulmate, whoever that is. But she's frustrated about how things happened and if she needs to blame someone other than herself... they would be on the receiving end.

So she clicks on the post.

As the title says, my soulmate made me hate him before I even met him! Why? Because that dumbass, who's now my husband and whom I love very much, knew that I was his soulmate because he had seen my room on his birthday weeks before mine. He woke up early and just sat on his bed, hoping I'd wake up and see his room. See that he's my soulmate. He knew I would recognize that room immediately. We've been friends forever.  He was the reason why I only saw his room for less than a minute and he was the reason why anything I saw was blurry.  Well, speaking to many people about this, including some experts I may have contacted before I knew why my experience on my 18th birthday was so different from my friends' and family's, I'm pretty sure about my answer.

When your soulmate suspects you of being their soulmate and they think about you while you're in that hazy phase, then it's very likely for you to have a blurry vision and for that to last less than a minute.

Sana leans back, resting her head on the wall. She stares at the ceiling and thinks about it. Has this been fact checked or did someone just make this up?  It's scary to her, though. Everything this guy has explained fits perfectly to what Sana has experienced.

She doesn't have time to think about it too much because she gets a text from Chris saying they're outside, waiting for her.

Somehow, none of her friends wanted to go to a big party on this year's New Year’s Eve. Instead they choose to go to Noora's flat and watch movies and eat their way into the New Year.

That was fine by Sana; she didn't feel like doing much else anyway.

Grabbing her bag and checking if she has her keys and phone she leaves her room.

Even though Chris, Vilde and Eva are all together in the Van outside of Sana's house those three are texting in the group chat.

Reading those while walking is not the best idea, not when the other person in the hallway is doing something similar.

Sana crashes into someone. Since her brother's friends are here once again, there are a few possibilities of who it is but looking up from her phone, mumbling a sorry, Sana sees Yousef standing in front of her.

She's surprised. She hasn't seen him in a week. Since her birthday. The other guys were here as per usual but Yousef wasn't. Well, that's what Sana thought until her mother had asked Elias at the breakfast table why Yousef left so much earlier than the rest of the guys the day before.

He wasn't there when Sana left the house and he wasn't there when Sana came back.

She's not that self-centred that she thinks it's because of her. But he also didn't text her in the past week. Not once. He did not even answer to a stupid meme Sana sent him, thinking he'd enjoy it.

So seeing him now, after a week, feels like seeing him the first time in ages.

"I.. sorry. Didn't know you were home.", Yousef says, taking a step back.

He smiles at Sana weakly, not convincingly. His eyes wander over Sana's face and she smiles just as not convincingly as him.

She can't bite her tongue and quietly mumbles: "You wouldn't be here if you knew."

Well, Yousef still hears it and she's glad that he did. He alternates between looking at her for a few seconds and then not being able to look her in the eyes for the next seconds.

Sana sighs. What did she do wrong?

Awkwardly standing there is not what her plans were for today, not even if it's with Yousef. Looking down on her phone and seeing the girls text her non-stop to come downstairs she sighs and looks right at Yousef.

He's been looking at Sana with a look that she can't interpret.

"Look, Yousef.", she says which makes him look at her with wide eyes. "I made my life a lot harder by not talking about things straight out so whatever I did that makes you so distant or if you just don't want to talk to me anymore, you need tell me and not avoid me."

She walks past him and closes her eyes for a moment. Talking about problems helps solve those, she learned that the hard way but she's really not going to suffer more than this one week because they didn't talk to each other. Still, she can barely breathe while putting on her shoes.

She likes Yousef, a lot. She thought he might like him too. But now he didn't talk to her for a week and apparently he avoided seeing her at all costs. She doesn't dare to check if he's still standing there or if he's already gone when she opens the front door.

-

"You know what I need?", Sana asks over the phone, a day later.

She's sitting in the kitchen, eating some of the dessert her mom had made the previous day and talking to Chris over the phone.

"What? Tell me!", Chris answers.

Sana takes another forkful of the chocolaty heaven in front of her and starts talking. She gestures with the fork while doing that.

"I need for people to speak up. If they have a problem with someone, just go talk to them. It's not that hard. I learned to do that. It's a whole lot better than ignoring people and avoiding them. Tell them how it is and it's done."

Sana can't stop talking once she starts. Chris left the movie marathon early last night because her family went to a cabin. Otherwise they would have talked in person.

Now she doesn't even get to hear Chris' answer because she has to hang up when as usual five boys storm into the kitchen after each other. Are they ever alone? And didn't they sleep over at Yousef's? Elias had texted Sana yesterday evening to tell her that after Sana left the boys decided to go to Yousef's for a change and that they all would sleep over there. Just so Sana doesn’t worry about Elias’ whereabouts. If they would end up in the Bakkoush house the next noon why would they even bother taking all their stuff to Yousef's?

Not that those boys make any sense, anyway.

"Sana!", Elias says very enthusiastically.

Sana raises her eyebrows in a questioning manner. Why is he so overly happy?

"Elias!", she answers in the same tone.  Mikael looks between the siblings and decides to say something.

"Okay, sorry to interrupt but..", his eyes are drawn to the chocolate cake in front of Sana, "... that looks way too good. Can I have some?"

Sana nods: "Sure, help yourself."

Usually it would be anyone but him that would ask that question.

Sana lets her eyes wander over the boys standing in her kitchen.  Elias and Mutta are just smiling a lot at Sana, actually grinning, and swaying back and forth on their feet.

She narrows her eyes at them. What's up?

Then she sees Adam who stands at the window and has his lips pressed together. He keeps looking at Sana, to the kitchen door and back at her.

She follows his gaze and of course Yousef is standing at the door. She catches him looking at her. With a smile. Not a forced one. The complete opposite of the day before.

Sana feels herself get happier instantly but she forces herself to stay controlled, to not quickly fall back to how things were before her birthday. She still had to talk to Yousef or rather let him explain.

When she doesn't smile back, Yousef's smile falters but a small smile still plays on his lips.

This is very weird. None of them talk, all of them look at Sana. Mikael is stuffing his face with the cake but doesn't even look like he's enjoying it too much.

"What's up with you all today?"

"Nothing!", Adam is the first one to blurt out. After that he presses his lips together again. His eyes going to Yousef and grinning at him.

"How are you?", Mikael asks her with his mouth full. Mikael talking with his mouth full is probably the weirdest thing about all of this. He's the one to scold Mutta anytime he eats too loudly or speaks with food in his mouth.

"Good.", Sana answers sceptically, narrowing her eyes. "Are you sure you all are okay?"

Elias is the one to answer his little sister, walking over to her and standing behind her chair. He leans down and hugs her closely and answers when he lets her go.

"We're great. Really. Amazing. And you?"

"Like I said.. good but why are you..", she stops talking when they all hear a loud noise.

It's coming from Adam and everyone turns to him. "Dropped my phone.", he says sheepishly and leans down to pick it up.

It's only then that Sana notices something.

Adam's wearing a dark blue shirt. A dark blue shirt with dark grey and white splatters over one side.

Sana's eyes widen and she blinks a few times to make sure she sees it correctly.

It's the same shirt as the one that was draped over a chair in her soulmate's room. It's similar, at least. Very similar.

Sana suddenly finds it hard to breathe. Her chest rises and falls way too quickly. Her heart aches.

Is it really the same shirt? It's awfully similar. And it's definitely not a shirt she has seen on anyone else so far and men's fashion is very limited.

When Adam stands back up and sees Sana staring at him, rather at his side, with her eyebrows furrowed and a slight frown on her face, he gets worried.

Did they say something to upset her?

Sana notices him looking back at her and now finally looks at him, not just at his shirt.

"Adam, your shirt... it's nice."

He looks down on himself and looks back up with smile. He looks at his friends standing somewhere in the room with a knowing look before he answers Sana.

"Yeah, that happened when we painted the walls but it looks good and I somehow ended up wearing it today."

When they painted the walls.

One dark grey wall and three white walls.

This doesn't make sense to Sana. She always thought that Adam and Mikael... that Yousef and her maybe...

She gulps and just slowly nods, forcing herself to smile a little.

Suddenly she feels like she's being suffocated. She lowers her gaze to the table and closes her eyes for a second.  Then she just stands up and has to leave. She likes Adam but only as a friend. A good friend, but a friend. In her hurry to get out of the room she doesn't look at any of the boys.

She doesn't look at Yousef while passing him to get out of the kitchen.

[magnusbane-lightwood]

It's me again :D 1. How seriously amazing is your header? I'm so very in love with it, I've been staring at your tumblr page for 5 minutes :DDD 2. I've started to read your number prompts and they are all so cute

And for the anon who asked: Can I have 17 written?Hi sweetie!

First of all: THANK YOU SO MUCH! Seriously, I tend to go back to this message and just get this incredibly goofy smile on my face. You’re seriously so damn sweet, thank you so much for, well for liking the things I write basically. It seriously means the world.

Second of all: This one got really long and since my day fucked up entirely and I won’t have time to write the last 1000 words right now, I thought I’d post it in chapters (hopefully I’ll be able to post chapter two tomorrow - since it’s almost finished - so you won’t have to wait long at all, please forgive me!)

Anyway, here’s chapter one! I hope it was at least somewhat along the lines of what you wanted (It takes place in the shadow-world still, but in this story Magnus and Alec didn’t meet because of Clary…):

You can read it on AO3 HERE if you’d like to!

17. “Looks like we’ll be trapped for a while…”

Isabelle frowned when she walked into the dark loft. Magnus and her had decided to meet up for lunch two hours prior and when the warlock hadn’t shown up, Isabelle had assumed he’d gotten caught up in work and forgotten about the time again. So she’d gone to his apartment to find him, but seeing the empty space had her instantly worried. It wasn’t all that unusual for Magnus to forget about the time whenever he was caught up in some spell, but he was a gentleman and if he would be out of his apartment for work and risked being late, then he’d always make sure to tell whoever he was meeting up with as much.

She’d met the High Warlock of Brooklyn at a downworlder party she’d gone to for her previous boyfriend, Meliorn, a few months back and their mutual interests in both fashion and science (as Magnus had explained - mixing potions wasn’t all that different from what she was doing in her lab) had the two of them instantly clicking. Despite the night having ended with a breakup for her, after she found Meliorn in bed with two vampires, she’d still considered it a success after Magnus had invited her over to his loft for drinks to “celebrate her getting rid of the trash”, as he’d called it. Although they both knew that the Seelie had never made any promises of exclusivity to the Shadowhunter, Isabelle had still found herself appreciating the supportive sentiment. They’d been best friends ever since.

Which was why she knew something most definitely wasn’t right with the picture before her.

Picking up her phone from her pocket, Isabelle dialed Magnus’ number and waited for the dial-tone, praying to the Angel that he’d pick up - Only to have the call cut off almost immediately. Her heart beating slightly in panic, she started looking around the loft for any indication to where her friend might be. After looking through the entire apartment without any results, she picked up a shirt to try tracking him. The light flared around her hands and an image of Magnus flashed before her eyes. He was in what looked to be a cage, shouting something she couldn’t hear. She tried to focus on getting a location, but before she could get so much as a hint, something slammed into the vision and it blinked out. With a curse, she stuffed the shirt into her bag and ran towards the institute.

She needed a stronger tracking.

***

“Alec, I need your help!”

Alec looked up from where he’d been planning out next week’s patrol-schedule and raised his eyebrows in question to his sister’s abrupt entrance.

“I thought you were having lunch with your friend?” he said, straightening up and looking his sister over. “What’s wrong?”

“I was, but something is wrong. He didn’t show up and he wasn’t at his apartment. I tried tracking him, but I got cut off by something. I need you and Jace to use your parabatai bond to track him”, Izzy explained and Alec knew better than to question his sister’s instincts. So he simply pushed off the table and started walking towards the training-room, where he knew Jace would be - especially since Raj had walked by earlier with a put-upon sigh that told the oldest Lightwood-sibling that his brother had roped the poor guy into training with him again.

“Sorry to interrupt guys”, he announced their presence when they walked in and almost smiled at the sight of Raj throwing Jace down on his back and pinning him with a knife to his throat before they both looked up at them.

“That”, Jace panted, his eyes on Raj’s smug face, “Does not count. Alec distracted me!”

The other man just huffed a laugh, helped him to his feet with a roll of his eyes and turned to Alec with a rise of his eyebrows.

“What’s up?” Jace voiced Raj’s unvoiced question.

“Izzy needs our help to track her friend, she thinks he might be in trouble”, Alec explained and Jace nodded as he started to remove his training-gloves and walked towards them.

“I could use a small break anyway, you want us to go out with you to find him too?” he said and Alec shook his head.

“No, it’s fine. I’ll go with Izzy to check it out, call you if we need backup. You should probably go make sure Clary’s doing okay with her rune-studies anyway, leave Raj alone for once?” He gave Jace a pointed look and Raj mouthed a ‘thank you’ to him from where he was packing away the knives they’d been using.

“I have some work I need to get done anyway. You can try to beat me some other time, Blondie”, he said as he walked past them out of the room, patting Jace on the shoulder. Alec shook his head at Jace’s frown as he watched his retreating form.

“Still beating you, huh?” Alec asked and Jace returned his eyes to his parabatai with an exasperated look that made the corner Alec’s mouth lift, amused.

“I don’t know how he does it, the man is a freaking ninja! I figure out how to block one move and he’s already on to the next. It’s insane!” he answered and Alec just shrugged at him in a ‘what can you do’-manner.

“As much as I enjoy this little fanboy-moment of yours, Jace, we need to hurry up. Magnus is in trouble and I need to get to him”, Izzy spoke up, thrusting the shirt she’d brought towards them and Alec went into mission-mode as he grabbed the shirt along with Jace’s hand and started focusing on tracking the warlock.

The familiar feeling of Jace’s energy surged through him as the light swirled around their joined hands and a blurry picture opened up in his mind. He could make out the siluett of a man sitting cross-legged in a leaf-filled cell, light coming from somewhere above him. Magnus, Alec assumed as there didn’t seem to be anyone else around. He redirected his focus from the image to get a feel of where this cell was when a force slammed into him and both him and Jace grabbed the other tighter as they fought it to stay on the track. A symbol on the side of the cell caught Alec’s eye and as Jace gave his hand a small tug, he knew his parabatai had seen it to. Breathing out slowly, he felt Jace’s energy leave and slowly opened his eyes as he let go of the other’s hand.

“He’s in the Seelie-realm, in a cell of some kind. Doesn’t seem hurt though, but you’re right - we should hurry to get him out”, he answered his sister’s questioning look before walking away to get changed.

***

Magnus Bane was bored out of his freaking mind. Bored and irritated. He’d been stuck in this cage for hours, unable to do anything but wait for someone to notice his absence and come save him. He really hoped Isabelle hadn’t left him a message to cancel their lunch, because unless she noticed that he was gone no one would come for him in the next 24 hours. The prospect of sitting in this muddy room, with his magic drained enough to keep him from breaking out, for an entire day had him letting out another groan and letting his head fall back against the wall.

“If someone could send me a knight in shining armor to save me, that’d be great”, he grumbled towards the man-sized hole in the roof where the light was being let in. It was too high up for him to reach and possibly escape from and Magnus wasn’t too keen on risking a broken ankle in trying either, so he simply stared longingly at it and wished for a grand rescue of some kind.

***

“We should split up, we’ll cover more ground that way”, Alec suggested and with a confirming nod from his sister he broke away to search for her friend. He wished he could say that it was a surprise to hear that the Seelies had thrown the High Warlock of Brooklyn into a cage for some reason, but considering that during Alec’s last meeting with the Seelie Queen, she’d been just about ready to do the same to him for not wanting to sleep with her, he really and truly wasn’t. Honestly, what was a surprise to him was how the rest of the faerie-folk were still accepting her as their leader. If Valentine and his people were what gave the Shadowhunters a bad reputation, then people like the Seelie Queen most definitely was what gave downworlders theirs. He’d discussed the matter of damaging downworlder-leaders with Luke and Raphael a few days prior, and the two of them had suggested they’d bring in the High Warlock to their monthly meetings, since he apparently had the most sway over the downworld as a whole.

Alec had never met Magnus Bane, but from what he’d heard about the man he seemed like a good person with a rather wild reputation. The latter was just from what he’d been told by his parents though. Izzy had protested wildly as they’d argued that her new best friend was, in their father’s words: ‘Somewhat of a lothario who is nowhere near fitting for a young shadowhunter woman to be socializing with’, and Alec couldn’t blame her. Especially since his father, who followed Valentine blindly for years, most certainly wasn’t in any position to judge anyone else. Alec sometimes thought back to how he’d viewed downworlders only two years earlier, before befriending Luke and Raphael after Clary had stumbled into their lives and turned it upside down, and felt ashamed of his past self. He hadn’t known better at that time, of course, but that didn’t change the fact that he’d thought of himself as above so many people when he’d had no right to.

Stepping over a few fallen branches, Alec surveyed the area around him, trying to see if anything looked even the slightest familiar to what he’d seen in his tracking-vision. It was no use though, they’d been forced to leave the vision too soon and hadn’t had a chance to see anything above ground from where the warlock was held. Alec heaved a frustrated sigh and continued moving forward at a swift speed.

He didn’t even make it another two yards before something sounded behind him and Alec whirled around, bow drawn and at the ready, only to be immediately blinded by a flash of light so bright he had to shield his eyes. In the shock he took a step backwards, and where he was certain there had been solid ground just a second before, were now nothing but air. With a surprised scream, Alec fell through the gaping hole in the ground.

***

Magnus looked up with a frown at the bright flash above him, just a second before something - or rather someone- fell through the hole in the roof of his cell with a scream and landed right in the middle of the little room. The man looked up towards the hole with a frown, obviously cursing its existence, before rubbing slightly at where he’d landed on his hip, grimacing slightly.

“I’m not at my full power because of the stupid wards on this place, but I’m pretty sure I could heal that for you if you want?”, Magnus spoke, rising and walking towards the man, surveying him calmly as he did so.

He seemed to finally notice that he hadn’t fallen into an empty cell and snapped his eyes up towards Magnus’ voice. The warlock felt his breath catch as the light from the roof-opening hit them, making them appear almost golden, but gathered himself quickly and reached out his hand with a gesture towards the man’s hip.

“So? You want some help with that, then?” he prompted, with a rise of his brows. That appeared to be enough to shake him out of where he’d been outright staring blatantly at Magnus - obviously still surprised that there was someone else in this stupid cell, not that Magnus could blame him all that much for that - and he started rummaging through his pockets until he finally drew a stele from one of them.

Ah, a shadowhunter then, Magnus thought and finally noticed the rune running up the man’s neck as he bent over to activate his Iratze.

“Or you can do that, I guess” he mumbled and dropped his hand before returning to sit against the wall. When the man had finished healing his hip, he returned his gaze to Magnus, cocking his head slightly to the side, and the warlock was once again struck how gorgeous this man truly was. In the shadows, his eyes appeared almost green and Magnus reached his hand out again:

“Well, if we’re going to be stuck down here together, I feel like we should at the very least know each other’s name. I’m..”

The man rose slightly from his seat to grab Magnus’ hand this time as he interrupted.

“Magnus Bane, yeah I know. I’m actually…” he started, before looking around, a frown etched on his face once again.

“Uhm… Well, I’m here to… To rescue you, actually. I came with my sister, she was worried when you didn’t show up for lunch and…” he looked at Magnus again and, to the warlock’s delight, seemed to forget what he was talking about the second their eyes met. Magnus raised his eyebrows in question at the statement and hummed in acknowledgement before he spoke:

“As much as I appreciate the whole ‘handsome knight in a not-so-very-white and shining armor coming to my rescue’, they usually tend to avoid falling into the cage with the princess. Well, prince in this case”, he teased and smiled as a blush rose on the other’s cheeks.

“Yeah, that’s… That wasn’t exactly part of the plan”, the man admitted and Magnus squeezed his hand where he was still holding on to it, dragging him slightly towards him to lean against the wall instead of sitting in the middle of the room. The shadowhunter followed without complaint and Magnus smiled to himself at that.

“Well, since it looks like we’ll be trapped here for a while why don’t you…” he started and then the man’s words from earlier registered with him and he looked up at him with a huge smile blooming freely on his lips.

“Wait, did you say sister? Isabelle sent you? She’s here?” he asked, more than excited about the prospect of the man not being all alone on this rescue-mission.

“Yeah, we split up and she went the other way. I… I’m not entirely sure when she’ll be here though”, the man confirmed and then muttered something about hoping she was smarter than him and didn’t accidentally fall in here with them too. Magnus cocked his head as he regarded this new information. Isabelle had told him she had three brothers and looking at the man before him he registered the physical attributes his friend had used to describe them all with. He hummed slightly to himself before saying:

“Tall, dark hair, gorgeous hazel-eyes and a preference for the bow… You must be Alexander then?” he purred and the blush on the man’s cheeks deepened furiously.

“Alec”, the man - Alec Lightwood apparently - corrected him with a nod.

***A/N: I hope you like it thus far and I’ll try to hurry up and get chapter two up for you by tomorrow! Also: I’m writing some other fluffy malec-things that were supposed to be posted during the day, but since my day just got completely fucked up they might have to wait until the weekend… ugh, life! Sorry!If you have any prompt you’d like to send me (or simply share your thoughts on some matter), my ask-box is always open! If you’d like to give me one of the number-prompts, then you can find the different numbers HERE!