#anyway none of this is new it's just getting more and more imminent

[thebestofoneshots]

Gilded Constellations | wolfstar x reader

Series Masterlist | Previous episode

Pairing: Wolfstar x Reader Word Count: 8.5 K Warnings: none Prompt: The divination classroom becomes an intriguing nexus for forging new friendships amidst revelations laden with enigmatic symbolism. Meanwhile, Defense Against the Dark Arts delves even deeper into the shadows as you struggle to grasp the imminence of the ever-looming wаr. This IS a wolfstar x reader fic, but it's incredibly slow burn. They won't start all dating each other until we're very deep into the story, but I promise the long wait will be worth it.

Chapter 9: The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroкe

September 24, 1976 - Friday

Your race with Sirius, Marlene and a couple of other students who decided to tag along and prove their worth would be next week. The broom race was basically the talk of town. James had talked to the other Quidditch Team Captains, Lyonel Aldridge, Delilah Moss and of course Dmitri Volkov, and they all reached to the conclusion that it would be a great way to boost their team’s morale before the first match.

You woke up early like you had been doing the past couple of weeks, but you and Sirius had gotten a lot more competitive, so competitive you’d already gotten on James’ nerves. Which was something pretty hard to do when you were talking about quidditch. Every day you’d go on mini races, inventing new challenges to fulfill and you always pestered James regarding who’d gotten there first.

“My hand reached the line first,” Sirius said.

“Yeah, but it’s not about hands, it’s about brooms, my broom reached the halo first.” You argued back. 

“It’s not about brooms, we said whoever gets there first, and clearly I did.” 

“Sirius you can’t bend the rules so you win all the time! Besides, if I had stretched my hand I would’ve reached first so it doesn’t count.” 

“It does because you didn’t!” 

“James tell him!” You said. 

“No James, tell her!”

James sighed exasperated and hit his head against the handle of his broom “Just fucк each other already,” he mumbled, not that either of you heard it. 

“What?” You asked with a frown. 

“You know what?" He snapped, sitting straight "Neither of you won! And your mini air races when practicing? They’re OVER! No more broom races until official race day and then you’ll admit the other is a faster flier and this bickering will be forgotten.” 

“But James!” Both you and Sirius argued. 

He gave you both a stern look, and you shot your mouth. “Fine then, till the race we’ll know.” 

Sirius nodded “Truce?” He said offering you his hand. You took a deep breath and shook it. 

Once you were back in the ground Sirius called you with a smirk “Hey (Y/N)! Bet I can get to the common room before you do.” He then started running. 

“You wish,” you said running behind him.

James sighed again “We said no races!” 

“You said no flying,” Sirius shouted back. 

You then turned to James with a smile as you ran “He’s right, this is running.” 

James rolled his eyes but took off running behind the two of you anyway. The only thing that sometimes shut the two of you up, was when someone else won, and he had the longest legs. In the end, he was indeed the first one to arrive, letting himself fall on the couch as you and Sirius fought your way inside. 

“Prongs, you’re here?” You said out of breath when you saw him laying on the couch, regaining his own breath. 

He frowned “Since when do you call me Prongs?” He asked amused. 

“Oh… um… sorry, it must have slipped,” You said as you sat down “I blame Sirius for it.” 

James laughed “No, it’s fine. You can call me Prongs.” He took a long breath, “But stop blaming Pads for everything.” 

“In my defence. It really is ALWAYS Sirius’ fault.” 

He made the face of a man that agreed with your statement. “James!” Sirius complained he noticed. 

James grimaced in return “For fucкs sake, take me away from these two,” he said grabbing a pillow and placing it over his head dramatically. 

You and Sirius exchanged a glance, yeah, you may be bickering all the time now, but it was all friendly banter, James was overreacting. 

“Morning,” you heard Remus say as he came down the stairs “Just got here from practice?” 

You nodded “And they’re getting on my nerves Moony,” James grumbled. 

Remus raised an eyebrow at the two of you “We just asked him to decide who’d been the winner of our mini race,” you said innocently.

 He nodded, understanding. “Leave poor James alone, he’s been doing so much to prepare your race that… he might actually be sick of quidditch by the end of it.” 

James instantly reacted to Remus’ words, removing the pillow from his head “I would never!” 

You were sweaty from so much running so you excused yourself and went for a short shower, Lily was preparing her backpack when you walked out of the bathroom, using your wand to dry your hair. “Today we’re picking the fluxweed together, right?” You asked her. 

She nodded “Just wait for me, will you? We’ll walk to the greenhouse together, don’t think of going by yourself.” 

“Of course, I’ll wait for you Lils, don’t worry about it,” you told her with a smile and finished both closing the buttons of your shirt, and shoving your stuff quickly in your bag "Ready for breakfast?"

Lily nodded and the two of you walked down to the common room together. The boys were secretly talking to each other on the corner close to the fire, looking all conspiratoriall as they did. "You coming for breakfast?" Lily asked them. Remus turned to look at her, his brown eyes seemed more golden than usual, you wondered if it was because of the lighting in the room.

"Yes, we’ll be down in a minute tho, we’re helping Peter finish his Divination essay.” 

You raised an eyebrow at that statement. Since when did they help Peter with essays? Well, Remus definitely would help Peter, he’d probably help anyone that asked nicely. But the rest? Sirius? That was a bit sus, to say the least. But Lily was already walking out of the common room, so after giving them one more look, you followed her. Maybe they were planning another prank like the rain on the main hall. 

Once you were downstairs, the two of you walked towards the great hall. Mary, Marlene, Beth and some others were already there, having breakfast. You greeted them all with a smile “Good morning!” You said as you sat down. 

“Morning,” responded Mary as she looked up from her copy of The Daily Prophet. 

“Anything new?” You asked her, nodding towards the paper. 

She shook her head “Just the wаr,” she replied somberly “Apparently some deatheaters went on a кiling spree. They’re trying to get the muggle-borns.” 

“An older lady was кiled,” Marlene continued “Marsha Allenty, she was a muggle-born auror.” 

You shuddered at the thought. Muggle-borns first, half-borns next, it wouldn’t take them too long to destroy half the wizarding population if they kept going. Someone had to stop them. You were about to say something when the owls started coming in.  

Your family owl, Barnaby, flew down, dropping a package in front of you. You looked at it. The (Y/LN) family seal was stamped over the elegant wrapping. It had to be from your mother. You opened the package, it contained several things. Some galleons, sweets from your favourite bakery back at home, which instantly told you they’d been travelling. A box filled with different potions, and some ingredients to brew shampoo and other beauty-related things. A special potions booklet and a small velvet box. 

You opened it and there was a ring inside, a thin metal piece with some engravings on it and a gem at the top, held by 4 small pieces of metal, two shaped like a star and two shaped like a moon. 

“What is it?” asked Beth, leaning into you from the side. 

“A gift from my parents,” you responded, taking the reins out of the box to show it to her. 

“It’s stunning,” she told you. “Do you know what that is?” She said pointing at the stone. 

“Moonstone, isn’t it?” You asked, Beth nodded. “Mom cares a lot about the magical properties of stones,” you explained. 

“And the metal is silver,” she said turning the ring around, taking a look at the little seal on the inside. 

“Silver?” You frowned, taking a closer look “You’re right, that’s different. She’s never given me a silver piece before.” 

“Maybe she thinks you’re old enough?” She asked with a shrug. 

You nodded, but it wasn’t that. Your mom always gave you gold things. She said the protective value of it was a lot higher than any other metal. Even the necklace Sirius had given you in the vacation, made of brass, was turned into gold with a special spell she had, a spell that would leave all the magical properties of the item intact. 

“Well, whatever the reason, she did pick a beautiful ring,” you said, finally sliding it through one of your fingers. 

“Do you know what magic it’s got?” 

You shook your head, looking through the box to see if your mom had written any kind of letter. You didn’t find any and shrugged it off “Maybe she just thought it was pretty…” 

“What was pretty?” Asked Peter, who appeared almost out of nowhere along with the boys. 

“(Y/N) was gifted a new ring,” said Mary before taking a bite from her eggs. 

You raised your hand so Peter could see it “Got it on a package from my mom.”

“Moon and stars, eh?” He asked with a raised eyebrow “Interesting choice of symbolism, isn’t it?” 

You looked at Peter and shrugged. He was right, it was an interesting choice of symbolism. Your mom, like you, had an affinity to divination. Maybe she knew something you didn’t “My mom loves that stuff,” you told him, and lowered your hand back to the table, taking your fork to dig into a sausage. 

The boys sat further down on the table. Just close enough to still be able to talk to everyone already sitting there. You left early to go check on the fireworms. Remus and you had decided to split the days in which you had to feed them, and today was your turn. When you arrived at the tunnel entrance you looked around to make sure no one had followed you and entered as quickly as possible. 

“Lumus,” You whispered, and your wand lit up, making the dark tunnel navigable. You looked through the pockets of your robe and found the scrap of parchment Remus had made for you. “Revelio,” you said as you moved your wand over it, revealing a tiny map of the tunnels. You were sure you’d learn the way soon enough, but for now, the little map was indispensable.

You used the map to navigate the tunnel until you arrived at the little nook in which you’d hidden your fireworms. You grabbed some of the food in your backpack and gently placed it on the food trays you’d created with a couple of pumpkin juice caps. You looked at the little fireworms satisfied when you noticed one of them was shining, like a firefly. But the light travelled from the end of the tail, all the way through his body and towards his head, then with a small little sound, almost like a fairy burp, the fireworm caused a small ball of fire to come from his mouth. You looked at it amazed, and quickly put the small fire out with your wand. 

You grabbed your backpack and took out your charms book, trying to find a flames stopper or fire preventive spell as soon as possible. Soon enough you found something that could work and cast it all over the little fireworm habitat you and Remus had been building. After the spell was ready, you stayed for a couple of minutes to make sure they wouldn’t cause a fire that’d burn the entire castle down and once you were certain you let out a long sigh, not even realizing you’d been holding your breath. 

You were thrilled, your fireworms were doing excellent, the way you and Remus had taken care of them allowed them to develop in less time than the standard, which would guarantee the two of you really good grades. You had to tell Remus about it. Maybe you could tell him in divination. Shiit, divination! You were supposed to be in divination. You ran out of the little nook and used the map to find a shortcut towards the divination tower. Once outside you knocked on the door a couple of times and waited. Professor Spellman opened the door, letting you inside with a displeased glance. 

“I’m sorry for being late,” you mumbled as fast as possible. You walked inside and started walking towards Remus, who luckily, hadn’t been paired with anyone yet. 

“Miss (Y/LN),” Professor Spellman called, you turned to him “You will be working with Sybil today,” he said, pointing towards the small Ravenclaw girl. You swallowed but nodded and walked towards her table. You knew who she was, Remus had told you about her, and her story, and you’d probably exchanged a couple of words with her in the past, but you’d never really talked to her. 

“Hey,” you waved as you sat next to her, she waved back, with a small smile, and absentmindedly nudged her glasses back to their place. You looked at her for a minute, her hair might be messy, and you heard she wasn’t very popular, but she was very pretty non the less. 

Professor Spellman started talking and with a flick of his wand opened some cabinets, floating a teapot in front of each table, Leaf reading. You and Sybil brew the tea together, using some of the herbs suggested by the book for more accurate readings. And started chatting to each other after you served your respective teas. 

“Do you like divination?” She asked you. 

“I… uh… not that much, I’ve had some experiences,” you stuttered. 

“Sad readings?” She asked, with a sympathetic expression. 

You nodded, taking a sip of your tea “It’s always negative stuff with me,” you explained “Accurate, but negative.” You shuddered, “What about you? With your legacy and all?” 

“I don’t dislike it,” she told you with a smile, “I don’t like getting sad readings either but it’s fun to know bits of the future, for example, the other day I had these feeling that it was going to rain, so I put on some rain boots before going to Care for Magical Creatures, some Hufflepuffs and even other kids from my year were throwing looks at me, but when it started raining and everyone’s shoes got ruined, but mine didn’t, it was completely worth it.”

You smiled at her story “I don’t get those kinds of feelings,” you said “But it’s nice to meet someone that enjoys it, maybe you could help me enjoy it too.” 

Eventually, you both finished your teas and exchanged teacups. You took a deep breath and eventually leaned over to look at her cup, hoping there would be something good in there. You exhaled when you saw a small little butterfly on the cup. Butterflies were good, they meant change, they meant personal growth, they meant… Images flashed through your eyes, and you breathed heavily a couple of times, trying to regain composure. 

Sybil knew exactly what was going on, she’d been through it several times before too. So she looked at you with concern. “What did you see?” She asked in a steady tone. 

“Nothing bad,” was the first thing you managed to muster, “just… you’ll give a prophecy soon. A very important one, I saw Professor Dumbledore, he seemed really interested in what you had to say.” She nodded at your words, writing everything you said down on a piece of paper, then you looked at her, placing a hand on her arm “Sybil, this prophecy… it looked like it was going to be dark,” you said “but it’s one of those that will change the world.” 

She nodded, taking in all the information you’d given her. She did not doubt a single word you said. And you were glad she did, sometimes visions as such were hard to comprehend, and that’s if the person even cared for it. 

“Are you ok?” She asked then. 

You nodded “I– uh…” you looked at her tea “You will have a period of transformation and positive change, like the metamorphosis of a butterfly,” you told her, making an effort to read the rest of her tea leaves “You should, uh… embrace the opportunities that’ll come your way and also let yourself spread your wings.” 

She laughed in response “That’s my fortune?” She asked motioning towards her tea cup. 

 “Yeah,” you nodded, sounding very certain about it “You must accept your uniqueness,” you added for good measure, after all, humor is one of the best ways to cope with such things “And me? What’s my destiny?” 

She adjusted her glasses and took a peak at your cup “I see… stars, the moon, they’re surrounding something,” she said “A small animal, maybe a hare, or… a wildcat?” 

You looked at her with a frown “Did you say the moon and stars?” 

She nodded, tilting the cup towards you. And she was right, the moon was there, the stars too, and… the small animal? That was a fox. You took a deep breath and showed her the ring your mom had given you “My mom sent me this,” you told her “also moon and stars symbolism.” 

Sybil raised an eyebrow “Does she have an affinity with divination?” She asked. You nodded in response “Then it must mean something…” she said, picking up her book and flipping through it “But I can’t find anything about the moon and stars in the book.” 

“Interpret it,” Said Professor Spellman as he walked by, looking at Sybil with a stern face. 

She nodded, sliding towards the back of the chair, Professor Spellman was imposing, to say the least. “I uh… I see the moon and the stars, they’re close, to a… it’s a–“ 

“It’s a fox,” you told her “The animal, it’s not a wild cat, it’s a fox.” 

“A fox, right!” she agreed, “and I– are those flowers?” She asked looking deeper into the cup. By then your little interaction had piqued the attention of some other students from the class, they were watching the two of you intently. “I– I may be getting things twisted but… according to your cup, the moon and the star will find a blossoming love with…” she hesitated “with the fox.” 

Everyone around the classroom laughed, but the professor raised a hand to quiet them, looking into the cup himself “Sybil’s reading is accurate.” He said, “Maybe (Y/N) has an idea what those symbols might mean?”

You sat straighter, looking at the professor “I seem to be surrounded by symbolism today,” you told him “But I’m sorry sir, I’ve got no idea what it may mean. Perhaps I’ll adopt a fox or something? Shower it with love and stuff,” You lied. While you may have not been able to understand the whole symbolism, there was one thing you knew for certain: you were the fox. 

The Professor nodded, even if he didn’t look convinced, and moved towards someone else’s table. You exhaled, only then realizing you’d been holding your breath. “He can be very intimidating, right?” Sybil asked you. 

You nodded “Definitely.” She looked like she wanted to tell you something else “What is it?” You asked her. 

“Just.. be careful, yeah? The moon, it– it looks a little mennacing on your cup. Like… like it could be dangerous.” 

You frowned “As in, maybe I shouldn’t go out tonight dangerous or…?” 

“No, no,” she shook her head “I don’t know how to explain it, just… keep that in mind, will ya?” 

You nodded, placing a hand on her arm to reassure her “And you’ll be a famous fortune teller soon,” you told her with a smile “How does that feel?” 

She shrugged “I always expected to end up as one, I guess it’s nice to get a prediction of what you’ll be, makes it a little more certain.” 

“And you trust my predictions?” You asked her with a shrug.

She nodded furiously “Of course I do! It’s not every day a fairy tells you your fortune.” 

“I’m sorry?!” You asked her, shocked. 

“I saw it in your cup,” she explained “I didn’t mean to pry, but it made sense… your divination affinity, your charm and magnetism, your talent while flying… You’re part fairy, aren’t you?”  

You looked at her mortified, your parents had done so many things to keep that hidden and now Sybil just guessed it, “You can’t tell anyone,” you told her in a very serious tone. 

She smiled at you “I wasn’t planning to, your secrets are safe with me.” You smiled at her after that, you trusted her. 

Once the class was over you stood up, but she stayed in her seat “You don’t have another class?” You asked her politely. 

She shook her head “I’ve got arithmancy next, I took it as an optative.” 

You hummed in response “Have fun then,” You told her with a smile “I’ve got Magical Theory.”

“Good luck, I heard Professor Pendragon, can be very strict.” 

“No worse than Spellman,” you whispered, so that the Professor in question, who was talking to some other students wouldn’t hear you. Sybil laughed and you finally pulled your backpack from your seat and started walking outside but you were stopped by Professor Spellman. 

“Miss (Y/LN),” he said, and you walked closer to him “Be very careful tonight,” he warned, “there was something odd on your cup, and as you may know, today is Full Moon.” 

You nodded “Thanks, Professor.” Clearly, he saw the same thing Sybil had seen, which was mildly disturbing, but alas, your day had to continue.

Once you were outside of the classroom you spotted the boys a few stairs down. Peter was walking with the girls, you assumed towards their Ancient Studies class, while James, Sirius and Remus walked together, they were walking towards the east wing, to Magical Theory, the class you shared. You had the intention to catch up with them, but they were looking as suspicious as they had looked earlier in the common room, talking in whispers to each other, heads so close they could easily bump together. You decided it was best to let them be, you’d been hanging out with them so much lately, they probably needed some space. So you slowed down your pace, just far enough so they could get their much-needed privacy. 

Eventually, you reached the Magical Theory classroom, and when you arrived you found James waiting at the door, he quickly pulled you towards him and said “She’s gonna be my team.”  

You looked at him with a shrug “Your team? for what?” 

Remus, who was close by responded “The teacher said we’ll be working on a team project, Sirius and I are working together, so James was waiting to claim you as his team.” 

“Besides, I really need your help,” James added. 

You frowned, and asked, a little confused “With the project?” 

“No, with Evans!” He whispered.

Realization down on you and you looked at Remus “He didn’t even ask you to be on his team, did he?” 

He shook his head in response, mouthing a “nope.” 

You laughed, “All right then, we’re a team,” you told James “You can ask me all you need when we–“ You cut yourself off “Wait, Remus! I’ve got to tell you something…” 

“All right, if you gave your teams, please take a seat, class will start.” You heard the teacher say. 

“Nevermind,” you  told him as you turned back since James was pulling you into a table near the back “You’re not planning to pay much attention then?” 

“Don’t scorn me like that,” he complained “We’ll pay attention, I just– really need your advice.” 

"In this project, you will embark on a captivating journey to craft your very own magical artifact. Channel your imagination, drawing inspiration from the likes of invisibility cloaks and rememberalls, as you fashion an extraordinary creation of your own making," the teacher commenced, igniting a spark of curiosity among the class, even James, who had been mortified about Lily just minutes earlier was paying attention.

"Each artifact should possess a distinct purpose, serving its intended function with finesse. You will delve into the depths of your creativity, meticulously designing a blueprint that brings your vision to life. Fear not, for guidance shall be provided, I will walk with you every step of the way“ the teacher reassured, yet a chorus of playful groans filled the air in response to the mention of project design papers.

"Ah, I understand your sentiment," the teacher chuckled, acknowledging the students' apprehension. "But worry not! The journey shall be as enchanting as the destination itself. These project design papers will serve as a canvas to weave together the threads of your imagination, showcasing the brilliance of your creation. Embrace the opportunity to bring your ideas to fruition, weaving magic into the tangible realm. Who knows, you may be the next creators to hold the rights to an incredibly useful device that will sell millions.“ With these words, a wave of anticipation and excitement rippled through the classroom, as students began envisioning the magical artifacts they would soon breathe life into.

“Well, that’s an interesting project,” you said as you started writing down some ideas in your notebook. 

“It’s brilliant, we could ask him to help us with the map!” 

“What map?” You asked while raising an eyebrow. 

“Oh… sorry,” he said “I thought for a minute that you– nevermind. You need to help me with Lily.” James had gotten so used to hanging around you and the boys at the same time for a moment he thought you already knew about the Marauders Map. 

You sighed “Of course James. Tell me what happened,” you said, turning to him “but please write some ideas down as you do.” 

He nodded, and started scribbling on his piece of paper “You see, since we kissed back at Marlene’s party–“

“–James that was a game, you can’t be hung up on that.” You interrupted. 

“No, you don’t understand, there was a connection.” 

You rolled your eyes, while you did think Lily maybe had a little bit of a crush on James, you also knew she wasn’t anywhere ready to admit it. Especially with James’ incessant flirting since like 4th year. Marlene had told you about it. “James, it sounds ridiculous. I kissed Remus then too, and I’m not hung up on it.” 

He narrowed his eyes at that “but you seemed to enjoy it.” 

You shrugged “Can’t say he’s a bad kisser.” And Remus is handsome, you thought “But that’s not the point anyway. What happened?” 

“Lily seems more willing to talk to me lately,” he explained.

“Well, that’s lovely, just give her enough space so you don’t make her feel pressured. Be kind and nice… and stuff.” 

“I was thinking of making this very grand gesture on the quidditch–“ 

You shook your head “James Potter,” you warned “If you so much as try something like that you will scare her away. She’s barely realizing she might like you, don’t do THAT!” 

“What did you just say?” 

“Don’t do it!” You insisted.

“No,” he shook his head, “before that.” 

“I said that she’s barely realizing she might have a c… fuck.” 

“You think… You think she likes me?” He asked, in a very small high pitched tone.

“I– wouldn’t go as far as to say that…” he looked so sad, “…yet.” 

“Yet?” He asked, perking up as a surge of excitement ran through his body.

You nodded “I… think she’s warming up to you,” you told him sincerely “Just don’t do anything that could scare her away, please.” 

“Like what?” 

“Like a scary grand gesture for example.” 

The professor walked toward you “Any ideas so far?” He said looking at James’ messy writing. 

James nodded “A confetti cannon that, after using it, leaves confetti wherever you go,” he said, and read another idea “a pair of shoes that make the wearer constantly trip, a teapot that won’t stop whistling, even without any tea on it, and a buble liquid that makes ticklish bubbles.” He said proudly. 

You stared dagger at him and covered his notes with your some parchment “It’s still a work in progress,” you told the teacher with the most charming smile you could muster, “James and I are still looking for better ideas.” 

The professor nodded and kept walking around the classroom. 

“Tripping shoes?” You asked in desbeilif “an ever whistling teapot? Are you for real–“

“–In my defence, I’m not great at multitasking.”

“No shiit Sherlock,” you told him.

“The tripping shoes could be funny tho.”

“Yeah, and the tickling bubbles are useful, for pranks, but Professor Pendragon wants us to invent the next invisibility cloak, I don’t think he’d be too satisfied with any of those options.” 

“What about a ring that’s also an invisibility cloak?” 

You rose your eyebrow at him “You mean like in the Lord of the Rings?” 

“What’s the Lord of the Rings?” 

You gasped, offended, you too had grown on a pure-blood wizard family but at least you knew the Lord of the Rings, “The hobbit?! Does not ring any bells?” He shook his head “It’s a very popular muggle book, you should really brush up on your muggle literature. Perhaps you should have taken muggle studies instead.”

“Hey!” He complained, “Don’t bash me for not being a literature genius like you and Remus.”

“I bet even Sirius would know about The Lord of the Rings.” 

“How much?” 

“10 sickles?” You asked. 

“Oh, I’m really, really sure Sirius won’t know either,” James said “Make it 20.” 

You rose your eyebrow at his challenge and nodded “Deal,” you said raising your hand to shake his, successfully closing the deal. 

“So… the magical ring’s off the table?” 

“No, I… I don’t think it’s a bad idea, maybe we can make a magical ring, just, with different powers instead.” 

“Like…?”

You shrugged in response “We could make two rings that always find each other.” 

“Ohhh, and I could give one to Lily!” James said excitedly, you threw him a look “Like… not now... When we start dating… obviously.” 

“Love the confidence of that statement,” you said with a smile, thinking of how James had used when instead of if. 

He winked “What about a bracelet that lets you communicate with someone else, like a… muggle telephone.” 

“Or a walkie talkie…” you agreed.

“A what?” He asked. 

“You’re joking, right?” 

“I- uh… yeah,” he replied, not confidently at all. 

“Damn it, James, you urgently need some muggle classes.” You said and started drawing a pair of walkie-talkies on the notebook, trying to explain their use, and how they worked, even if you weren’t entirely certain of how they did. “Can’t believe none of you thought it’d be useful to have some of them around. Especially for your pranks.” 

“Yeah, me neither,” he agreed “You know smoke signals aren’t really the most effective.” 

“Surely you didn’t try that,” You said confidently, his expression gave him away “You did?!?” 

He shook his head, letting out a long sigh “We were in detention for days.” 

You chuckled  at that “At least you have the little paper planes now,” you said, remembering the day Remus had sent one to the boys, same day he took you to the lake because you were feeling upset. 

“They’re useful, but they can be intercepted.” He explained, “Not very good for top secret plans.” 

You laughed, of course, James would consider his prank plans worthy of the Top Secret title. “What about a bracelet?” You asked then.

“A magical bracelet? Sounds good, also with walkie-talkie abilities?” 

“Could be more convenient than a ring…” you responded, “Not really sure about it tho."

“What about a pair of glasses that can help you see better in the dark?” He asked, “For those times where you can’t use lumos, maybe you lost your wand, or you wanna be inconspicuous.” 

“Night vision googles, I dig it.” 

“Exactly, but smaller, more practical to carry around.” 

“Well, I guess we’ve got a few solid ideas then,” you said as you started picking up your things, you and James had stayed brainstorming together for a little longer than you realized “Class is over?”

James nodded “Moony and Pads left already,” he said as he looked towards the table your friends had been sitting on, “probably to the great hall, we said we’d eat together.” 

“Peter too?” You asked him, he nodded.

“Wanna join us?” 

You shrugged in response, “though you were planning a prank or something,” you said as you walked towards the door with him by your side. 

He frowned “Why?” 

“All the secretive talks? You’ve been awfully suspicious today.” 

“What? No- that’s… it’s not. We’re not suspicious.” 

You gave him an incredulous look but nodded “No, not at all,” you added sarcastically. 

Once you were in the hall you spotted Remus and Sirius walking ahead of you and remembered you had to tell him about your fireworms so you picked up the pace. You walked behind him, for a minute, but he was so entertained in his conversation with Sirius you decided it’d be funny to tease him, so you extended your arms, and standing in your toes –because Remus was actually pretty tall– you decided to cover his eyes with your palms “Guess who–“ you started, but didn’t even get enough time to finish since Remus practically jumped out of your grasp in seconds, hissing as the silver of your new ring came into contact with his skin. It didn’t leave a mark but it did hurt him like hell. 

Sirius, being quick to figure the new ring you wore had silver on it, looked at you with panic, but you didn’t notice, you were too concerned over Remus’ reaction. “I– I’m sorry Rem, didn’t mean to scare you…” you stammered “I… I was just trying to tease.” James and Sirius finally relaxed when they noticed you’d thought Remus was just scared. 

“It’s ok…” he said with a forced smile as he extended his hand, a safe distance between your ring and himself “I wasn’t expecting you to come up from behind like that.” 

You didn’t seem convinced but nodded, concern still evident on your face. “I uhh… I was trying to catch up to actually,” You finally changed the subject. James had gotten in between you and Remus as you walked, so you leaned a little towards the front to see your friend better “It’s about our fireworms, they’re already breathing fire.” 

“What? I thought they wouldn’t do it until they were like a month old,” said Sirius. 

“Exactly!” You nodded excitedly “They weren’t, our caring must have been phenomenal. Our babies are overachievers.” 

“You’re keeping them together?” James asked. 

You nodded “Co-parenting,” you paused “We split tasks and that way we make sure we don’t burn down the school by accident.” 

Remus nodded in agreement “It’s easy to remember to feed them when it’s only a couple times a week instead of every single day.” 

“And we found an excellent spot to keep them too, away from stress and anything that could make them nervous.” 

“Well, the overachievers are not the worms,” Sirius said giving you and Remus a look. 

James agreed “We just gave ours to Peter, in exchange for some other homework.” 

“By the way (Y/N), mind taking care of them tomorrow too?” Remus asked politely.

“Sure thing,” you said, not thinking much of it. 

You had your lunch with the boys, the girls and Peter joined you a bit later and you all walked to Defense Against the Dark Arts together. Professor Nightshade was elegantly leaning on her desk when you arrived at her classroom. She looked a little tense. Like she wasn’t too excited about the class to come. 

Once most students were inside she shut the door with a wave of her wand “Today we will be going through the unforgivable curses.” She said, looking rather dejected “and while is not of my favourite classes to teach, we must delve into the subject, especially in dark times like these in which you might need to defend yourselves from one of them.” 

The entire class was silent, everyone was paying attention to every single one of her words. It wasn’t uncommon to hear about the war, it was on the paper every single day, but most students chose to avoid and ignore the subject, so even if the war was going on, it was outside, Hogwarts was safe. But being confronted with it, so upfront, felt, well, it felt eerie and scary. 

“Can someone name the unforgivable curses?” She asked. 

Lily raised her hand “The кilling course, Imperius curse and…” 

“The cruciatus curse,” Finished Sirius with a heavy breath. 

“Correct!” Seraphina said, “10 points for Gryffindor… Indeed those are the three unforgivable curses, and they are unforgivable because…”

“Because they violate the rights of whoever is being cursed by them,” you responded. 

“Can any of them be avoided?” 

You shook your head “Only very experienced wizards can resist Imperio.” 

“And countered?” 

“Physical barriers might block some of the curses, but there is no known spell that can do such a thing.” Said Remus. 

“No one has ever survived a кilling course either,” Imogen Potts added.  

“Seems like you’ve been doing all the readings accordingly,” the teacher said satisfied “Now, you know the theory, but today we will have a small demonstration.” The students gasped, but Seraphina nodded heavily “You must know what you’re up against,” she pulled out a box and opened it, a butterfly flew out of it, about the size of your palm. Seraphina let the small insect fly freely for a minute before pointing her wand straight at her and whispering “Imperio.”  

The butterfly started flying around, making circles around the class before landing on Marlene’s nose. She was sitting beside you, so you looked at her in awe as the butterfly batted its wings softly near her face. But then Seraphina changed the course, whispering “Cruicio.” The butterfly fell from Marlene’s nose and onto your table, right next to your book as it batted its wings helplessly. You looked at it with concern, Seraphina herself looked mortified as she inflicted pain on the small creature.

You gave her an imploring look, and that was all it took for her to stop. The small butterfly was released from the pain and started flying all around the classroom, desperately looking to get away from the place. Once the butterfly was close enough to her, she whispered the last curse and after a green flash came from her wand, the butterfly stopped flying, slowly falling to the ground, like a leaf from a tree. 

The whole classroom was quiet. You stood up and carefully picked up the small butterfly from the floor. Looking at it pitifully as you handed it over to Seraphina, who held the box out for you to place it inside. “As you’ve seen, these curses are not only lethal but terrifying as well. There is a reason why, whoever dares to infringe them, will never be forgiven.” 

“They will go to Azkaban,” whispered Peter. 

“What a pitiful destiny,” agreed Sirius. 

Professor Nightshade sighed heavily “I think this is enough for today, you may go.”

Students nodded and started placing their things into their backpacks. When you stood up, you walked towards her “I want to be in the duelling club.” You told her “I… I don’t want to end up like the butterfly.” 

Seraphina looked at you, a sorrowful look in her eyes, she understood the implications of what you’d said. She knew how heavy your statement was. And she nodded “Of course darling, you’ll be a brilliant addition to the club.” 

You nodded, satisfied and finally caught up with your friends. You went straight to Lily “At what time must we go get the fluxweed?” You asked. 

“It’s supposed to be when the moon it’s at its highest point,” she told you “I checked the astronomy section of the paper in the morning, apparently at around 11:30 pm.” 

“All right, we can totally hang out together till then, right? Do you have any plans?” 

She shook her head “We had study club, but we cancelled it today, I was thinking of maybe going to the library to get some stuff and then studying or just chilling back at the common room.” 

“It’s settled then,” you told her with a smile, walking alongside her towards the library. Since you had already finished most of your assignments you decided to walk through the long bookshelf to see if you found anything that caught your eye, while Lily looked for some more specific books. And as you walked over the edge of one of the bookshelves you bumped into Nina, the small Ravenclaw girl from the study grup that had a crush on Remus. “Hey love,” you said politely. 

“Hi,” she replied quietly. To be fair, Nina really wanted to dislike you when she first encountered you. She was jealous of how close you and Remus had gotten in such a short period of time, but you had always treated her with kindness, genuinely willing to help her, if she had any questions, or needed help with a particular spell; that, in the end, she couldn’t help but like you instead. In fact, she’d go as far as to say she admired you. She’d seen you practicing spells and she even went to one of the quidditch trainings, with the intention to ogle at Remus who had gone too, but she was far too entranced by you when you were flying that she almost completely forgot about her original reason for going. 

“You looking for Rem?” You asked her politely. 

She shook her head “He cancels study sessions at least once every couple of weeks,” she told you “Originally, only Lily held the sessions by herself but she got very stressed without him to help her with the younger students, so they decided it was best to cancel them altogether.” Remus cancelled them? You thought, that’s odd. “What about you? Are you looking for a book in particular?” 

You shook your head “Just something to entertain me while I hang out with Lily.” 

“Oh, I think I can help you with that,” she said with a smile, bringing her backpack in front of her and opening the zipper “I actually got my hands on this book out last week, I read it in days, it’s about a werewolf who falls in love with a wizard.” she explained “It’s not very accurate with the actual nature of werewolves, but the key points are there. It’s a very fun romantic novel If you’re into that kind of stuff.” She said taking a book out of her bag and placing it on the table. “Oh and this one,” she grabbed a smaller book “It’s filled with simple yet practical spells that we don’t have in the curriculum, such as ways to fix glasses and open locks. It’s fantastic if you want something a bit more educational.” 

You looked at her with a smile “These are fantastic Nina, thank you!” You said with genuine excitement.

She smiled at you, blushing just a little at your reaction “It’s nothing. I’m– I really like books,” she told you with a smile “If you ever need new recommendations, I’m down.” 

You smiled at her “You’re the best!” You told her picking the books up from where she left them “It was lovely seeing you.” 

She nodded, and was about to say something when Lily showed up, looking for you “I’ve got the books, ready to go?” She asked, and then noticed you weren’t alone “Oh, hey Nina! What’s up?” 

“She lent me a couple of books,” you said, raising the books you held in between your arms so Lily would notice.

Lily nodded “Oh, Nina is really good at picking out books, trust me.” Lily said, “Mind if I take (Y/N) with me now?” 

Nina shook her head “We were just doing some small talk.” She said, with a bit of a blush as both you and Lily waved your goodbyes. 

As you walked outside the library Lily gave you a look “So… you’re friends with Nina now?” 

You shrugged “She’s pretty nice actually. I don’t know when it happened, but she stopped hating me over Remus, and now she’s really kind, she even recommended books!” 

“You probably just charmed her with your personality and looks, like you did with pretty much everyone,” Lily teased with a smile. 

“Oi, shut up Evans, you’re probably more charming than I am,” you said nudging her in a friendly manner. She nudged you back and the two of you walked together towards the common room, chatting about your due assignments, and your favourite books. Since Lily was a muggle-born, she knew even more about muggle books than you, and it was fun hearing about all of them, from her favourites to those she didn’t like all that much.

Once you arrived at the common room you both found a comfortable place, she sat on the small round table by the stairs and you went straight for one of the couches, letting yourself comfortably lay on it while opening your backpack to pick one of the books Nina had recommended, you grabbed each on one hand, staring at the covers, trying to decide which one to go for first. After weighing both of them in your head, you decided to read the spell book and leave the romance novel on the side table. 

Nina hadn’t been lying, the book was indeed practical, and you tried casting some of the most complicated or useful spells as you read, practicing the wand movements and incantations as Lily focused on her homework.

At some point Mary and Marlene went in, they were giggling about something that happened so you decided to leave your book next to the others and join their conversation. 

“Oh my god, (Y/N)! You won’t believe what happened.” Mary said. 

You smiled “Oh, do tell” 

“We were talking to Moaning Myrtle, she said she overheard Holden talk about Marlene with some other boys, that she was an incredible beater and stuff.” 

“Really?” You said smiling wider “I mean, no doubt, she’s amazing!  But he said that?”

Mary nodded “According to Myrtle, that is… She also said some boys have been saying you’re part Veela because of your charm, be careful they may try and throw you into the water to see if you’re a good swimmer.” 

You laughed at that, you were a good swimmer, but they couldn’t have been more off with their guesses. “So… what are you waiting for Mars? You have to make your move!” 

“Make my move?” She gasped. 

You nodded “Well, at the party you seemed pretty close, admit you like him or–”

“–Kiss him unexpectedly,” completed Mary. 

“Yeah, that too.” You nodded.

“Well…” Marlene said taking a deep breath “I’m thinking I could– I wanted to invite him to Hogsmeade over the weekend, actually.” 

“That’s brilliant!” You told her “Isn’t that tomorrow?”

She nodded in response “You coming too? I heard Sirius and James mention they wanted to show you around.” 

“They haven’t told me anything about it, but I guess I’ll tag along with ya’ll anyway.”

At that point Lily stood up from her place and stretched, yawning softly “What time is it?”  

“10:30,” answered Marlene after looking at her wrist watch “You done?”

She nodded “But we have to stay up for at least an hour,” Lily complained.

“Why?” Mary asked. 

“We’re going to harvest some fluxweed,” you responded instead. 

“Oh… because it’s full moon,” Marlene acknowledged. 

You nodded “When are you getting yours?” 

“Marlene ordered them from a fancy potion supply store.” 

“That was allowed?” you asked, surprised.

Marlene shrugged “Not sure, but I highly doubt Slughorn will find out, if anything, we can say we picked them out with you.”

“Sure,” Lily said, sitting down on the sofa next to you, placing your feet on top offer lap to make some space. You made a move to bring your feet down but she shook her head “It’s alright, rest up, you’ve been awake since like 5 am, haven’t you?” You nodded, letting your feet on to lay over her lap “You should just tell James to screw off and sleep in, I can tell you’re not a morning person.” 

You laughed “I wish, but I want to be in top shape for the game and… to be honest, I’m still getting used to my new broom, that’s why I’ve been flying every morning.” Out of nowhere, a pillow was thrown towards your face “Oi, what was that for?” You asked looking at Marlene, who’d been responsible for it. 

“Show off,” she said “I need time to practice with my new broom,” she teased “and then she goes and flies like a professional every single damn time.” You opened your mouth to try to speak but closed it soon after, Marlene continued talking “James has been making the training even tougher so we keep up with her.” 

“Sorry,” you said then “I guess I just really like flying.” After all, it’s in my blood, you thought. You wondered if you’d ever trust them enough to tell them about it, the answer was pretty simple, you already did, and you wanted to, but you knew how dangerous it was.

You stayed talking with the girls for a while, Marlene told you about the time she got on the quidditch team, Lily talked about being exceptionally good at potions and being invited to an exclusive party with Slughorn and Mary told you about the private classes she had been taking with Madam Pomfrey, about all the new potions and spells she had learned. 

“It’s finally 11,” said Lily when Mars finished the story about the worst date she had gone on, she’d been invited to a magical restaurant, that had been jinxed by an angry customer the previous day, it had been absolute mayhem. 

You stood up, stretching yourself “We should probably get going,” you said with a smile. She nodded and picked her backpack up, taking out a piece of paper and handing it over. You looked at her puzzled.

“It’s a nigh pass, I asked McGonagall for it,” she told you “We can go out and Filnch won’t say a thing.” 

“Oh nice,” you said looking at the paper, boy, how easy would it be to make duplicates of it, with different dates. “Shall we?” You asked tilting your head towards the door. She nodded and the two of you walked towards the portrait of the fat lady. 

“Good luck girls!” You heard Marlene shout from behind.

“Yeah, we’ll be back in the bedroom.”

Series Masterlist | Next Chapter

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Raead more Marauders Fiction

[alex-turners-world]

Alex looks like a ghost of who he once was, it's so sad to see him looking so drained of life especially in his eyes. After seeing Taylor's live it seems apparent now that they had issues brewing in their relationship for awhile before splitting, although there genuinely did seem to be love for one another. I think about that interview with the journalist who asked Alex what he thought of Taylor's fights with the fans; I wonder if he was aware of it and the extent. I could imagine that being confronted with it was humiliating for him and possibly feeling a sense of betrayal, particularly if he wasn't aware. Now, imagine meeting someone like Pauline where you 'think' you've met someone with common interests and perhaps made a genuine connection with only to discover the person you thought you met isn't 'real'. Personally, I think Alex feels remorseful about the cheating, I don't think it was something he was proud of as evidenced in his lyrics and behaviour for example shaving his hair off time period. Whilst Alex certainly has his flaws and made some questionable choices I still think there is a decent and kind person underneath. In regards to Alex's present relationship you could say he made his bed...However, I personally think he's dealing with a slightly deranged individual. I mean none of us know the depths Pauline went to get into his circle in order for their first meeting to have happened but what we do know about her is that she was highly obsessive about him and some of his previous relationships most noticeably Alexa. She's displayed stalker-ish behaviour and as we've all witnessed 'cosplaying' of previous girlfriends again, Alexa evidently being the favourite. We've seen how over time she has made multiple attempts to recreate a new 'identity', being caught out in her lies and manipulation of the truth via her own media. Even before the affair came to the fans attention she was already hinting and teasing about her hooks up with Alex infact, I think it was through her social media activity that fans where able to join the dots to the cheating as well as through Taylors. Pauline has displayed since the beginning a complete lack of respect and remorse towards Taylor even going so far to cosplay her too!! At some point Alex must've seen the 'real' Pauline, perhaps earlier than later but what could he do?! Such a big mess was made. Maybe he wanted to make the best out of a bad situation, try give the mistress and him a real go so it wasn't all for nothing. Clearly, this has led to the 'situationship' we know today. Alex has the upper hand in more ways than one; He makes decisions - she follows, He has the money - she doesn't, What he says/gives goes - she settles for what she can get. Anything to please him enough that she can keep him and this lifestyle from slipping through her fingers. Alex is being used. So is Pauline but for different reasons. Neither are happy, it's plain to see but still Pauline wants it all. I'm of the opinion that getting out of this 'situationship' is not so black and white. I have at times thought to myself, perhaps Alex thinks he deserves this; That it could be a way of self sabotaging. It can be debated that Alex doesn't think highly of himself and is deeply insecure (The Bourne Identity) Also, I think Paulines behaviour could be unpredictable and potentially damaging to Alex's reputation. I could imagine she has not seen or received the best of him as a person at times. It wouldn't surprise me if she's quite the manipulator, we already know she's a liar! I do hope if it is something that Alex wants for himself that they will be able to part ways with minimal chaos as possible (unlikely). A separation for them at least seems imminent and even Pauline can't disguise that as hard as she tries. Just my two cents anyways, apologies for rambling on! X

Very well said! I must say it's all very sad

[mantisgodiveblog]

Hello, fellow time loop enjoyers. Back at it again at the House of Change. We have recruited a new fool to the "guys who will finish the game before us" council. Egg, if you're reading this, hi! If you're not Egg and you're reading this: hello, this is a liveblog, you probably know the drill by now.

(Part 25 is here)

We're curious about this, as well. We think that we can gather a good amount of information even at this point, just from context clues and things stated - currently, we know that it's

something crafted to represent the wearer by their bonded partner

a pair, where one half goes to the partner and one half is, presumably, kept by the crafter

romantic?

From Mirabelle and Isabeau's little bout of fanfiction writing, we assume that there's a decent amount of weight on the romantic thing - similar to a wedding ring, possibly, considering the usage of "bonded partner" and similar. Is crafting bonding earrings for a partner a significant part of the ceremony, or is it merely lead-up, we wonder? It would certainly require a certain amount of care and such, especially if it's the partner crafting something made to represent you.

The way that the earrings dialogue is phrased would imply it's monogamous, or that it would require some amount of effort to modify for any sort of nonmonogamy - would a trio do something like wearing one each of just the earrings their partners made to represent them? What weight does this have, culturally speaking?

…we do wish to add, if mismatched earrings are a statement of marriage-equivalent, here, then we'd probably be flagged as a married man perhaps too often for comfort. What sort of requirements do these have to follows, we wonder? For Mirabelle and Isabeau to be capable of spotting them on sight, there must be some sort of distinctive feature, and by the way that the mismatched but complementary designs were notable, we don't think it would just be "being mismatched", but there's still a chance it's That. We like pairing earrings in interesting ways. We wouldn't want people to assume we have an actual romantic relationship because we chose to have asymmetrical earrings today.

Anyways, more importantly than any sort of "romance", we got another time freeze!!! This makes it four five attempted time freezes on Mirabelle and two attempted time freezes on Literally Every Party member! Worth the wait, though - the time freeze portraits just have a certain something to them that none of the other portraits really come close to. It's that... imminent death factor. Something about being, quite literally, frozen in the face of it. Surprise, realization - and the way that the eyes seem to faintly glow is very fun. We're a fan!

(not included due to our inability to screenshot sound effects: loud THUMP between "...please!" and "CRAB YEAH")

Ah, delightful, something to improve our fishing skills! AND a melee weapon to boot! We wonder if this one's "heavy enough to kill a cat", as they say. Or would Colonel Sassacre's Daunting Text of Magical Frivolity and Practical Japery be too undignified to equip to Odile?

Incredible interactions all around. We will note the changed dialogue for getting that book - our inventory is divided between party members, it seems! We do wonder how deep those pockets are, and how she can carry that without being concerned for the abrupt new weight. Will having this book on future loops raise suspicion? We can't imagine that having something that heavy just appear in your pocket when you know all too well it wasn't there before would pass without comment - she starts loops in the store, doesn't she? We doubt that something like that could just turn up without comment, and the more stuff we pick up especially...

...if we acquire enough items over the course of the game, then we can very easily picture our party growing suspicious over time. Swords don't grow on trees, after all, and even if the "correction" tries to make it so they retroactively always had these, unless it fabricates a new origin, we can easily see there being Glitches with that. Think too hard about where you found the sword you're carrying- hell, think too hard about where you found anything you're carrying, and...

Well, you probably get the picture. Now, let us just check out that book...

And another of these! Boost to damage, at the cost of making an already-slow Odile slower... ah, we'll take it! We're already leaning on turn relays to get her actions, this really won't mean that much to us. Probably means she'll mostly be useful in +speed loops.

[onbearfeet]

Like a hole in my head: An antidote to panic

So I've been thinking about everyone's reactions to Trump getting shot at, and especially the doomer "Oh, it's so joever" shit. And I think the most useful observation I can make is that the problem we're facing isn't the certainty of a bad future--it's the lack of any certainty at all. We don't know what's going to happen. None of us CAN know.

And we are not coping well.

Humans HATE uncertainty. We have all kinds of cognitive shortcuts and biases to protect us from having to sit with uncertainty, so when it's genuinely unavoidable, we kind of lose our little monkey minds.

But lucky for you, I am an expert on uncertainty. I've had to be, because I have a hole in my head.

The details aren't terribly important, but the short version is: due to a hilarious fuckup in an otherwise lifesaving experimental surgery I received as a tiny premature infant, I have a skull that is about 85% bone, 13% plastic, and 2% fuckall. The hole has skin and hair over it, so it's not visible, but anyone running their fingers over that part of my scalp will find their fingertips dipping into a dent that's about the right size for me to have been whacked in the head with a golf ball. The hole itself is either dime-sized or quarter-sized, depending on the X-ray you prefer.

The technical term for my condition is "stable", which means it's not changing. Stable is not healthy or safe, merely consistent. And my point of stability is that I'm basically fine ... right up until something bonks me on the head just right. Like, say, a cupboard door. Or an elbow. Or a book falling off a shelf. In that case, I might die before I hit the floor, on account of the whole "no brain armor in that spot" situation.

I'm 40 years old, so you might wonder why this hasn't been fixed, but the answer is the look on doctors' faces when the phrase "elective neurosurgery" is uttered.

Anyway.

I've lived my entire life knowing there was a pretty good chance that I'd get out of bed some morning and not make it back to my pillow that night. And at first, that uncertainty was paralyzing. It's hard to see the point of starting college, for example, if you might not live to graduate. Then again, if you think too hard about that, you won't do anything at all, and that's not great either. And this situation is stable, and therefore unlikely to improve! Certainty isn't coming, at least not for me. Not certainty of long life, not certainty of imminent death.

So let me introduce you to the question that enables me to function, the question I ask myself when contemplating any new endeavor more ambitious than cooking something new for dinner.

"Is this worth dying in the middle of?"

It's a hell of a perspective check, and the answer will vary from one person and situation to the next, but it's profoundly useful. I got two college degrees on the belief that education was a noble pursuit in itself, and even a half-finished one would look better in my obituary than the lack. I write books because even an unfinished novel can be good art. I decided a couple of years ago to pursue finding a partner because I think love is worth dying in the middle of. And who knows? I might not die. Imagine that. I might even finish.

When I start, I tell myself: Maybe I'll finish something great. Maybe I'll die in the middle of it. But even if I do, what a thing to have died in the middle of! All I have to do is keep going, and if I don't die first, the thing will be accomplished. And I have a lot of practice at keeping going.

So let me ask you: what can you start (or continue) doing that's worth dying in the middle of? Are you organizing? That's worth dying in the middle of--any amount of organizing is better than none. Working to get out the vote? Win or lose, that work will be a foundation for whatever comes next. Running mutual aid? People need that all the time, no matter who's president.

So you get up in the morning, and you do the work, and you go to bed one day closer to finishing, one more day of not being dead. As the poet says, thus do we refute entropy.

There's a funny thing about life with a hole in my head: it's made me realize that, metaphorically speaking, everyone has one. Oh, maybe your skull is a more standard model than mine, but you're not guaranteed a live bedtime either. You could get hit by a bus today, or a blood vessel in your brain could explode, or you could suddenly discover a new and violent allergy with no epipen in sight.

You live in uncertainty too. You always have. You just don't get a reminder every time you run your fingers through your hair.

So take it from someone who can't forget her constant existential dread even if she wants to: you can do a lot one day at a time, especially if it's worth dying in the middle.

[distant-velleity]

i was wrong, yes, it was me

Summary: Yu’s getting really sick and tired of landing himself in the infirmary. Warnings: none (probably) Pairings: none Word count: 461 A/N: Shorter one for the prompt "hospital stay." Almost didn’t post this with all the formatting but I haven’t done a prompt fill for the bingo iiiin… nearly three months now so I felt like I might as well. Maybe I'll write a longer follow-up for "bedside vigil" when imminent finals aren't steadily draining me of my will to do anything... Anyway. Enjoy a quadruple drabble full of what I can only describe as my evening word spill.

---

Not for the first time, Yu wakes up in the infirmary.

The lofty ceiling and cross-hatched windows are the same as always. Faintly, specks of dust float about, illuminated by the rays of sunlight filtering in from outside. They only hit part of the curtains surrounding his bed, the room otherwise comfortably dim in terms of lighting. 

So I’m back here again, he thinks groggily as more and more of his senses come back to him. 

The freshly-washed blanket draped over Yu, smelling just as generic as he remembers, rustles like paper as he tries to sit up. If the Herculean effort of just trying to get up wasn’t enough already, there’s a sharp stabbing sensation that sends pain rippling outwards from his right side.

 He winces; that probably has something to do with how he ended up here.

…How did he end up here again?

Did I get in a fight? Or… maybe it’s my fault? Did I make some stupid mistake again? 

Yu tries to recall, but—nothing of note pops up. He can’t seem to find anything in his memory, or maybe he’s just too tired to remember on his own. 

As if sensing his dilemma, the System pops up to life with a display of his current status:

[ USER’s HP is critically low and currently recovering. ]

[ CURRENT DEBUFFS: Overblotted — effects include exhaustion, sickness, and decreased recovery rate. ]

[ You’ve gained fear and concern points from several students. ]

[ Several characters are worried about you. ]

…“Overblotted.” Overblot…ted?

He has to repeat it and run it through his mind again because, for a moment, it doesn’t seem real. It feels so detached from him. 

One more time to make sure I’m not seeing things.

Yu narrows his eyes at the screen.

Overblot—?

—Of course, it’s that one word from the second notification which sends all the memories rushing back. 

Memories of hearing the news about a chance to return to the world he simply couldn’t return to;

of impulsively running off and stealing the blot stones Crowley had worked so hard to collect and hide;

of confessing everything about how he ended up here, then feeling so dizzy until the blot started wrapping around him in a comforting cocoon—

Yu’s mouth feels dry with dread, a sinking feeling coordinated in his chest. All he can really do is utter “oh” aloud like an SSS-ranked idiot, thinking—so it really was my fault, then. 

The observation is so simple and obvious, so ridiculous, that he just sort of sits there for a moment. 

And then he bends over forward, knees drawn in underneath the too-familiar and too-clean blanket, burying his face in his hands. He’s not sure if the muffled, strangled sound that comes out of him is a laugh or a sob. 

[tarisilmarwen]

Please, if you want, DUNK on the blue bastard.

Oh? I am being given permission to shittalk Thrawn? *rubs hands* Listen, I love the guy as the Affably Evil villain he is. He's imminently polite and respectful towards his adversaries, sharp as a tack brilliant which makes him a formidable foe, he appreciates good work from his underlings, he's hilarious bouncing off other characters. He's a fully three-dimensional, rounded, likable character.

Who also happens to be an authoritarian nightmare bastard.

He is at best apathetic to the Empire's atrocities, at worst, willingly complicit. He genuinely believes in the fascist tyrannical system as the best status for the galaxy, because they put up a "stronger", "ordered" front. He might bemoan some aspects of the Empire but only because he sees them as wasteful, ineffective, inefficient, and he absolutely thinks he could run things better if given the chance. He is the epitome of Machiavelli's Prince, deluded into believing himself some kind of benevolent tyrant, or willing to serve at the behest of one. He is Might Makes Right and The Ends Justify The Means and fits right in with the modus operandi of the Sith Code and the Empire's whole overarching philosophy.

The man is part of Palpatine's personal Triumvirate with Vader and Tarkin. You do not get that high up into the upper echelons unless you are a true believer.

Which is why fandom's constant excusing him because of his supposedly sympathetic and noble motivations is so damn irritating.

Oh Thrawn is doing everything For The Greater Good? He just wants to protect the interests of the Chiss? His first priority is to his own people?

None of that shit matters.

He still willingly inserted himself into the infrastructure of a fascist regime that was installed by genocide and regularly murders its own people and tried to help said regime run better and oppress the galaxy more effectively. He depersons and dehumanizes beings he doesn't consider useful, and sees the useful ones as "assests" ("allies" at best). He is perfectly willing to do horrible things if it suits him or gets him the results he needs. And he sees nothing wrong with his own actions. He is self-serving and self-righteous.

He. Is. A. Villain.

Doesn't matter how cute you think he is with Eli or Ar'alani or whoever or how sad you imagine him or how sympathetic and likable you find him, he is not a good person. He is a Bad Guy, and it's laughable that y'all wring hands over that fact. You're allowed to like the bad guy. You're allowed to find the bad guy hot and sympathetic and likeable and funny. But it annoying as hell when you insist he can't be a Bad Guy because "Oh he did it for a good reason!" which is, again, irrelevant.

And no, Zahn writing him with more sympathetic backstory and likable moments in New Canon doesn't mean he's no longer a villain. It does not mean his alignment has changed. It just means his time with the Empire becomes a corruption arc, as we see how a supposedly good person can become more and more fanatical in the pursuit of their goals.

And Zahn is on thin freaking ice anyway, if the hearsay about his asinine empty buildings headcanon is true.

I hope when August comes and the Ahsoka show has Thrawn being the magnificent bastard fascist asshole he is, fandom comes around to appreciate him properly, as the awesome villain he is.

[sullustangin]

Fluffy February Day 22: Sacrifice

A/N: Ok, so Day 21 and Day 23 will be tomorrow, and I'll be caught up.

SWTOR

Time: Between 7.2 and 7.3 (29 ATC)

Pairing: Theron Shan/Eva Corolastor

CW: Eva is a pregnant person in this fic. There is talk of the imminent arrival of Argento Shan (alias, "yet-to-be-named baby boy.") All is well, and Dr. Oggurobb's journal article is progressing nicely.

~~

“Are you sure?”

Theron looked over at Eva.  “Yes.  It was meant to be used, after all.”  He looked down at the item in his hand.  “I just don’t know why it was kept.  I mean, I wasn’t supposed to have children anyway, as a Jedi.”

“Well, Jedi do the sentimental value thing, once in awhile, right?” Eva offered.  “For little things that won’t affect the fate of the galaxy, of course.”

Theron let out a small, short laugh.  “Well, the person it should have had sentimental value for left it behind, when the Jedi at Haashimut went to the caves…”  Theron’s voice trailed off as he considered the fabric in his hands with a critical eye.

Eva held her breath.

Theron had happy memories of his childhood…as long as he didn’t think of the end.

He was thinking about the end.

And abruptly he wasn’t.  “Time to put it to the test.  Pass me that flour.”

Eva exhaled and raised an eyebrow as Theron started rigging up the baby wrap – his baby wrap.

 The one Master Zho had used to carry Theron around the galaxy when he was an infant, then a toddler.    

It… it was one of those things he kept in his former quarters, now his office… things he didn’t bring onto Virtue’s Thief to “clutter” their life together.  Sort of like his old SIS dress uniform – only broken out when necessary.

Eva hadn’t even known the wrap even existed until about fifteen minutes ago, right after the latest development scans with Dr. O had gone well; the good doctor was utterly thrilled about the progress of his journal article on the matter. 

Eva slid the five-pound bag across the counter to him.  “Dr. O said that’s just what the kid weighs now.  He’s probably going to be a few pounds heavier.”  At the movement, Eva felt the yet-to-be-named baby boy roll over.  Quarters were getting tight in these last six weeks. 

Theron finished arranging the yards of fabric, probably according to a cross-comparison of at least fifteen different schematics he’d looked up on the Holonet. 

“Well, we’ll find out whether this can even handle five pounds, let alone a bay---”

RIIIIIIIIIIIP

A massive POOF rose up from the floor, coating Theron, Eva, and the galley with a mist of flour. 

“--bee.”  Theron looked down at the floor, a large swath of torn fabric pinned under the weight of the bag.   His expression was unreadable.

“…well, it was a lot to expect for a forty-something year-old baby sling.”  Eva wiped the flour off her face. 

Still nothing from Theron.

And then… “…and isn’t it a good thing we tested it before we put a real baby in there?”  A small smile was working its way onto Theron’s face, but the eyes were already sparking in good humor. 

A giggle escaped Eva.  “A worthy sacrifice to the child safety gods?” she ventured.

Theron nodded.  “It did its job in keeping me safe.  New baby, new sling.”   

All tension in the galley escaped… especially when Theron ran a hand back through his hair, but none of the flour budged: his pomade acted as adhesive.  “Sneak preview of ten years from now,” he joked, pointing at his now whiter hair.

“More like five, at the rate you’re going!” 

~~

@fluffyfebruary

[junipernight]

The Lives of Others

(A Chronicles of the Avatar/The Dawn of Yangchen fanfic)

Summary:

Yangchen can trace a direct line between her actions, and Qiu's untimely demise. She wonders how many other deaths she's been responsible for. --or-- Yangchen is haunted by her responsibilities and her past lives both.

She’d killed him.

She may not have lifted a blade to his throat, but as Kavik recounted the initiation process for Zongdu Chaisee’s association, it was imminently clear to Yangchen that her actions had killed him. Qiu, the boy from the tea shop, barely older than herself, who’d completed the clumsiest information hand-off she’d ever seen, was dead now.

And it was her fault.

Bile rose in her throat. Qiu was dead, just like Jetsun, and Mesose, and Alornerk, and a thousand others who had suffered and died because of the Avatar’s incompetence. Guilt pressed down on her, and Yangchen struggled to keep her thoughts on the here and now.

“How could this have happened?" She asked. "You didn’t say your broker was coming to Jonduri!” She said it more accusatorily than she should have. After all, Kavik hadn’t written the misinformative message that led to Qiu’s murder.

Misinformative. Her thoughts snagged on the word. Yangchen had carefully released so much misinformation in her brief time on the world stage. It was complete chance that she’d learned Qiu's fate. How could she be sure that her other false missives hadn’t resulted in similarly brutal consequences?

“He obviously changed his mind after I talked to him,” said Kavik. “What do we do now?”

(She couldn’t afford to be indecisive-) (it wasn’t his fault, Passang was the one who-) (Blood. So much blood, if only she’d learned how to-)

“What do we do?” Kavik repeated.

(Her enemies wouldn’t hesitate, she needed to-) (it wasn’t. his. fault.)

“Avatar, this is your call,” said Tayagum

(Had she gambled too much? Was it time to cut her losses?)

“I don’t know,” she muttered. 

“You can’t not know!” Kavik cried. “We’ve been following your orders, and now two people are dead! What is the plan here?”

“I said I don’t know!” She snapped.

She should retreat to the mountains, like she’d done before. Find a remote cave to sequester herself in, and scream until stalagmites rained from the sky and her throat was bloodied.

… had she done that before? Had that been Yangchen? 

(In my era- ) (She’d brought this upon-) 

“Avatar-,” Akudan began

“If you could just shut up for a moment—there’s too many of you, there’s always too many of you, and none of you ever stop. You never stop— ”

Yangchen stood up with a gust that sent the papers in the room fluttering. 

She needed to get out of here, away from the people whose lives she held in her hands like pai sho tiles, away from their watching eyes, somewhere she could drown out the voices.

She barely had the presence of mind to don the pieces of her disguise before she stormed out the door.

____________________________________________________________

Author's Note:

Hello, please accept my humble first offering to the Chronicles of the Avatar fandom! Disclaimer 1: I'm aware that this ficlet borrows heavily from The Dawn of Yangchen, and covers very little new ground. However, I wanted to write it anyway because I’m convinced there was more happening in that scene than was apparent to Kavik and the rest of Team Avatar, and I wanted to explore that. In general, I’d like to write more fanfic exploring Yangchen’s relationships to her past lives and her current teammates. My future stories should be more original ^^' Disclaimer 2: I've only read the audiobooks; please forgive me if I misspell some things.

[tewwor]

NEWEST MUSE LIST 07-25

*** doubles as an interest check so like this and i'll cook up a starter! highly suggest specifying muse(s) for this one! i will be focusing on them more between drafts!

THE FRINGE — SAUL'S LIMINAL WORLD .

the knowing

the second host to be shunted into the fringe as a last ditch effort for safety. ended up becoming the keeper of knowledge; to the point where it’s debilitating. happened upon the abyss and was given the cruel gift of knowing by concentration, and by touch as of late. burdened by the mind splitting headache of retention and hunger to learn more. pigeonholed as the devils advocate.

the peril

meant to embody the very gravity within the fringe. within the space, their influence is shown by lands turned upside down or sideways and the visceral sense of falling without stop. outside of it, their presence manifests in deep rumbling storms and pressure — sometimes to the point of vertigo. when encountered, the manner of which they impact another varies person to person. some will experience the falling, vertigo, threat of imminent thunder, or even allure to gravitate closer. confused as a double agent of good and evil.

THE MARKED .

shrike 'choi siwoo'

Civilian occupation: blacksmith . Marked position: weapons dealer. Ability: physical restoration. Part of The Marked ( lore here ). Cares more about his craft than anyone. Get enraged when his weapons are treated like shit ( even though he can restore it to perfection ). Leaves his hovel of a home once every blue moon, while also somehow hosting the most at home parties ( ?? he's not sure how that works either ). Incredibly good host but will beat you with your own shoes if you don't take them off at the entrance. Has a fairly popular online shop and big Youtube/Tiktok following regarding his blacksmithing.

HARBORVIEW .

barbara davies

crocodile sea creature . all grin, all bite. big lady, big energy. harborview's very own local radio host. would rather not get into how she's come to know oram / how she was changed. not sure if she's the town's Mother or Fun Aunt just yet — most likely both. has #throwndown to protect at least a few other sea creatures / locals. will always do it again.

ha aera

waho employee near the outskirts, because of course there’s one. who else is going to witness the weird shit that happens? no, it’s not like the baga yaga’s hut — you can’t even prove it relocating anyways ( it 100% moves across town on giant chicken feet ). often has to deal with whatever bullshit happens out in the parking lot. does not enjoy this despite it making for good stories.

natori kato

seagull shapeshifter . steals everyone’s fries, sandwiches, any finger foods all the time ( mostly near / on the beach ). 10000% close friends to the other two bird shapshifters ( yunseo & chinmae ) except she doesn't bestow anything. just takes food and yaps away. clearly homeless, but she never mentions it — gets a little weird if it is brought to light ( usually sleeps as a seagull elsewhere on the shore ). only way she pays for food or lodging is by whatever washes up on the beach.

spencer aka suspenders

kelpie wangler / hippocampus protector????? yeah, the town’s infested with weird sea creatures, but the uptick in disappearances not from them caused lior to outsource someone to help with the herd of kelpies. none were harmed in the fruitless relocation ( they keep finding their way back ), so his residence became permanent and he set up sanctuary. if you see a stunning resemblance between him and holt ( holster under fantasy section ), he'll deny it till’ he's blue in the face.

ini shaw

sea witch that primarily sells knots and charms for sailors. most of the time they're filled with good luck. be nasty to her and you'll get a nasty surprise back amidst your stupid voyage. maybe a fanatic over oram, but who’s to say?

jinae 'jenny' cho

there's a new hot wife in town and she's married to the mayor ( that hasn't been eaten by the sea creatures finally )! does she know her high school sweetheart turned husband is a sea creature? no! so pretty and so scrappy. definitely has traits of a survivalist for reasons she'd rather leave in the dark.

[thedarkmoonkingdom]

Chapter One: An Unexpected Arrival

It's been a long, long time since I've written anything. So I hope it's not too bad... haha

Also I suck at titles... Anyway...

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

It wasn't supposed to turn out like this...

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

The frantic sound sound of an alarm stirred Luna from her slumber. She unfurled herself and stretched before quickly getting to work, her paws tapping away on the keypad she had just been sleeping on. A screen appeared before her, red flashing text reading "anomaly detected". The black cat's eyebrows furrowed, her paws hitting a series of keys to zoom in on the image.

"An asteroid?"

The cat muttered to herself, her blue eyes focused on the glowing object hurtling through the galaxy lightyears at a time. Luna entered another string of commands and a textbox appeared next to the object.

“Material unknown”

Luna’s frown deepened. The computer could identify all elements and materials known to humankind… and then some. So, what was this thing?

Luna's heart pounded in her chest. An object of unknown origin, made of materials that couldn't be analyzed, hurtling through the galaxy… could things get any worse?

The beeping of another alarm pulled Luna from her thoughts. That thing, whatever it was, was headed straight for the Earth.

"With that trajectory," Her paws flew across the keypad "and at that speed… collision with the Earth is imminent!”

A determined look came upon Luna's features.

"I have to tell the girls"

~~~

So there they were, all five sailor scouts transformed and gathered in a grassy field, their gazes locked on the star-filled sky above. They had been there for quite some time.

"Maybe the computer was wrong," Said Sailor Moon, her hands clasped in front of her chest making her words seem more like a prayer.

"Considering its mass, there is a good chance that whatever it is wouldn't survive the Earth's atmosphere," Sailor Mercury added.

"That would be true under normal circumstances," Artemis interjected, jumping on Sailor Venus' shoulder, "but we don't know what that thing is made of. It could be made from a material that would allow it to withstand extraordinary temperatures"

"There!" Sailor Mercury announced, pointing at a bright spec in the sky that hadn't been there a moment ago.

The spec seemed to grow by the second, a ball of light with a bright burgundy tail streaking through the sky. Sailor Mercury activated her visor, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

"Thirty-three centimeters in diameter, traveling at a speed of three hundred miles per hour. Damage to the Earth will be minimal"

The guardians sighed in relief, their shoulders slumped as their stances relaxed.

"Oh, what a relief!" Jupiter breathed, using the back of her hand to wipe the sweat that had unknowingly formed on her brow.

"Well, that’s good news at least, " Venus sighed.

"We’re not out of the woods yet" Artemis' warned, his green eyes still fixed on the sky above.

"What? What do you you mean?"

Ignoring the ache in her neck, Sailor Venus craned her head to the sky once more, her dark blue eyes widening.

"We need to move. NOW!"

The object was headed straight for them. With only seconds to spare, the scouts moved in unison, leaping backward to create as much distance as possible. The object collided with the earth, kicking up a thick cloud of dirt and debris that left the group coughing.

"Is everyone alright?" Sailor Mars called out, her clear voice seeming to cut through the haze.

A chorus of affirmations, accompanied by a medley of coughs and sneezes served as a response.

The haze dissipated just as quickly as it formed, revealing a deep trough at least several meters long carved into the ground where the scouts had been standing just moments before. At its end, a mound of freshly churned earth, still smoldering from the heat of the impact.

"What do we do now?"

"I think I see something!" Said Sailor Moon, dashing toward the heap.

"Usagi-chan! Wait!" The scouts pleaded, following after their princess.

None one could have guessed the sight that awaited them.

"Is that... an owl?"

Before the scouts laid a creature no larger than a volleyball, its wings outstretched on either side of its small body, feathers ruffled and singed. At first, it appeared to be dead, but its heaving chest and twitching talons proved that it still had some life left in it at the very least.

"Athena?" Artemis gasped, launching himself from Minako's shoulder and racing toward the creature.

"Athena! Wake up!"

He relentlessly nudged and batted at the creature, shaking it until, surprisingly, it stirred. Its eyelids flew open, a pair of bright emerald-green eyes rapidly flicked from one thing to the next, its head swiveling in the same erratic manner as it took in its surroundings.

"Wha-where am I?"

[nerdkiller]

what's your fave headcanon for the reactions of their family/other characters to learning abt khanpella marriage imminent?

HELLO ANON TY FOR ASKING 😃😃

Well FIRSTLY I think overall the Kains are against it or neutral while Vlad Sr. is generally for it but still not totally supportive... Vlad Jr. is only as supportive as he has to be in any situation but actually heartbroken and so so sad 💔 boo hoo

Victor appears... hmm... not enthusiastic? I think he *wants* his son to start behaving more and Capella will likely make that happen once she takes the reins, but still Khan wouldn't be acting in or motivated by his family's (esp Nina and Maria's) interests. Which Victor is against as a Utopian who is obv biased to his daughter's success. So i suspect his attitude is more measured n complicated. Georgiy, i think, isn't even really concerned- i think he's thrown in the towel when it comes to his family, he's done all he thinks he could have done, his life is at its end no matter the ending. He might even be for it, as he does seem to feel threatened by Vlad Jr.'s presence- i think he is less concerned about Nina or Maria's wants, or the Mistress rivalry, than Kaspar (as a Kain heir) & his overall success as a cornerstone of power. Whether he supposedly moves across the River figuratively or literally or none of the above, as long as that is met, he's fine. It's not like there are many options anyway.

Maria on the other hand is highly against it. Like so against it that this canonically becomes the basis of the new Mistress rivalry in Classic. Maria has no reason to seriously reckon with Capella until the marriage plot- which is nevertheless an inevitability for a dozen reasons- and she mentions their relationship as happening even in the Utopian ending, notably near her projected death. Nobody takes Khan's betrayal seriously enough! I could literally write a whole post about this & i likely already have and just forgotten. Maybe i will again. Anyway i think this is roughly the same case in Patho 2, as Khan mentions his sister harassing him about the Tower there too*

Vlad Sr., i think, is for it for business purposes- i don't think he'd be happy to have Maria make his son submit to her, or give the Kains that advantage. He's a pragmatic person, although i think he's still strongly male-biased. He accepts his daughter's decision bc she's smart & generally acts within his business interests, even if she is only concerned about maintaining soft power, but i think he knows how to make the loss of his daughter not touch his empire (as in, P2 said Capella would inherit nothing). She'd be marrying up, so he wouldn't lose anything. It's complicated. As for how he views Khan, i think he respects the brutality and spine Khan exhibits that his own son doesn't (& there's a whole other post on this), but he might also view that as a threat, depending. It would be interesting to see play out, esp as Capella breaks away more from her father's plans in 2.

Vlad Jr is an interesting case. In Classic, he's the one to tell Clara that it was actually the parents that first arranged Capella and Khan's marriage, before all parties backed out due to the 2 butting heads when they got older. There's so much we don't know when it comes to Vlad. I think he loves but still heavily distrusts his sister, knowing their plans will diverge. Unlike Khan, who would wedge himself between his sister & Capella, Vlad tries to flee. I joke that he and Khan would be funny to see talk, but i also feel like he wouldn't naturally align himself to Khan/Capella's plans. But he'd certainly be super fake to his face and not complain. I have a feeling he has a low opinion of Khan anyway, as he's not someone easily used (or very loyal to his own father), he's unpredictable, & an obstacle in his way. And rude. Probably Vlad will still try to make it happen with Maria regardless, at least in 2- as for Classic, we know he learns of the marriage & immediately wants to get out of Town. Which is funny in a way.

[ashplayz]

Ballister Blackheart (The book version of Ballister from the movie nimona) x Y/n

(This is my first time writing a fanfiction on a character from a book)

After the tumultuous events that led to the dissolution of the Institution and the disappearance of Nimona, Ballister Blackheart found himself in a new chapter of life. He had lost a great deal, but also gained unexpected opportunities. One of these was the chance to collaborate with the eccentric but brilliant scientist, Meredith Blitzmeyer. Together, they founded 'Blitzmeyer Blackheart Labs,' a place where they could explore the scientific marvels of their world without the restrictions of the now-defunct Institution.

Ballister soon learned that Meredith had a younger sibling by the name of Y/n. Ballister took a liking to them, seeing as Y/n, who held an impressive passion for science and a specific admiration for Ballister himself. Y/n was a firecracker, full of energy, and bright ideas, much like their sister. They idolized Ballister, not just for his scientific accomplishments, but also for his heroic and villainous undertakings. They wanted Ballister to show them the ropes of how to be a hero or a villain or even an anti hero. Ballister agreed to take them on as his apprentice. As they worked closely together, Ballister found himself developing feelings for Y/n. But confessing them seemed a daunting task, especially when Y/n was on the verge of branching out on their own, ready to apply all that they had learned from him. Ballister was proud, but he couldn't help the pang of sadness that came with their imminent departure. But Meredith was having none of that and smacked Ballister upside the head and scolded him for sitting there feeling sad instead of going after Y/n. While Meredith did want to see Y/n go off and achieve her dreams she was also a firm believer in true love and if Ballister loved her sibling then of course she would want them to end up together. So Meredith wound up grabbing Ballister and speeding to the train station before Y/n left. "What if she doesn't want to just give up on their dream and wants to leave anyways?" Ballister asked. After a thoughtful pause Meredith spoke. "Well then you better go with them," Meredith said. "What about the lab?" Ballister asked quickly. Meredith waved a hand at him. "I can hold down the fort until you two get back. But you better be back, you can't just take my sibling and disappear." Meredith warned jokingly. Ballister chuckled, "wouldn't dream of it." Ballister reassured her. So Ballister wound up catching Y/n before they left and told them his true feelings. Y/n admitted that they had had somewhat of a crush on him even before they met. Y/n was surprised that Ballister wanted to go with them into a new city. And so the two of them hand in hand walked onto the train ready for whatever life would throw at them, while Meredith waved them goodbye proud of her sibling and proud of Ballister, he was more than deserving of a happy ending after everything that he had gone through.

[bill-gates-hate-blog]

would anyone like to read my story

Zombie apocalypses are supposed to be… apocalypses. That’s what I thought until I was sixteen, when what the scientists call Opheliacordiceps was discovered.

I was raised on a ton of zombie media-- shows, books, video games, you name it. It had what appealed to every teenage boy-- the fantasy of laying down the law with your shotgun. When the Brazilian government revealed they had discovered a fungus that could reanimate the dead, I and every other misanthrope on the planet pervertedly fantasized about the collapse of society, imminent mass death, and becoming the badasses the games convinced us we’d be.

The doomsday preppers must have been real disappointed when business continued as usual.

Two things, we learned that fateful year. One, that the fungus didn’t actually do anything to you until you were already dead, and two, that we’d been in contact with it for a lot longer than we’d realized. Have you eaten a piece of fruit in the last two months? Congrats, you’re going to be a zombie when you die. Sure, getting bit accelerates the process, but the consequences are the same.

Even now, sometimes I find myself wishing that society had collapsed anyway. Humans and their damn perseverance.

I didn’t know my mother passed away until I got home from work yesterday. My daughter pointed at the TV and asked why the news was looking for Grandma. I called my boss this morning, asking for the day off so I could grieve and be with my family.

He said no.

What could I do? My daughter has to eat, so I took the bus to work.

Collections officers frequent the crematorium for obvious reasons. You can tell them apart from civilians by their tired, anxious expressions. They’re a little like paramedics. However, for Collections, a misstep will cost more than one life.

I don my gas mask.

It’s grotesque, the way the dead strain against their bonds. False people, bound to planks of solid oak, fingers thick with bloat. My job is to make sure they don’t get up.

Sometimes people come here straight from the hospital. There have been a few cases where they aren’t even quite dead yet, but are still bound and sent to the crematorium in anticipation of their death. It makes it easier on Collections, I guess.

People are often less than whole when they die, too. Sometimes Collections nails the parts to the boards in a last ditch-effort to keep them in place.

I spy one such woman. She’s been cut cleanly in half. I heard it was a workplace accident. Her hand seemed to have gotten caught in the machine too-- it’s stapled to the board, detached, straining eerily against its prison.

I scan the bodies one by one as I burn and document them. None of them have been my mom.

When I finally go on break, I’ve neutralized 36 threats.

“You’re working slower than usual, Jim. I hope I don’t have to write you up...” Johnson drawls.

“You can’t be for real,” I say through gritted teeth. “I told you my mother--”

“She’s still running around, no? They’re not dead until they go through us.”

“That’s not--”

Johnson has the gall to pat my back like he’s my friend. “Listen. I know something that’ll cheer you up.”

Despite myself, I meet his eyes.

“I’ve picked up a new hobby. If you can spare a few hours after work, I’ll explain on the way.”

“I don’t know…”

“There’ll be beer.”

“I’ll be there.”

“Good man. Now, pump those numbers up! Those zombies won’t roast themselves! Though I certainly wish they would,” he says, guffawing at his own joke.

The rest of my shift goes by without incident. I try my hardest to put thoughts of my mom out of my mind.

5pm rolls around and Johnson motions secretively to me from his car.

“People aren’t supposed to know about this kind of thing, you see. So you’ll have to keep it between us.”

“That’s fine,” I say, not sure if I’m lying.

He pulls out of the parking lot and puts on some smooth jazz.

“So Jim, what do you know about operating a gun?” he says, eyes squarely on the road.

“Huh? Um, just what I learned in college. The mandatory courses, after..”

“Not that they have any effect.” Johnson snorts.

“Yeah.”

“Well, you’ll learn today.”

“Are we going to a shooting range?”

“Eh, not quite.”

I try to pry more information out of him, but no luck.

We pull into the driveway of what is probably the biggest house I’ve ever seen. That’s a real mansion, no doubt about it…in the middle of the woods.

“You know  this guy?”

“He’s my brother,” Johnson snorts. He buzzes himself in with the thumbprint scanner.

The mansion is practically empty. Most of the furniture is white. Sometimes I’m not even sure there’s furniture there at all, if I move my eyes too fast.

“Oh hey, Dave. You brought a friend this time?” It’s a man that, unsurprisingly, looks like Johnson.

“Jim, this is my brother Cory. Cory, this is Jim. He’ll be joining us this evening.”

“Ah, I see.” Cory grins. “He’s got just the build we’re looking for, too.”

“Build?” I can’t stop myself from asking. Johnson hands me a beer.

“We need young, fit guys. Most of the people who try their hand at this kind of thing are old coots.” Cory rolls his eyes. “Wait, did you tell him?” “Oh, yeah, we’re going hunting.” Johnson says casually.

“Oh. I’ve never hunted before.” I’m not sure this is going to make me feel better at all.

Johnson seems to read my thoughts. “You’ll find this cathartic, I promise.”

I don’t answer. I just take a swig of Cory’s expensive beer.

“Sun’s about to set,” Cory notes. “They get more active at night. We should start preparing.”

“You have a gun preference?” Johnson asks as we meander our way to the shed.

“Well, I haven’t shot a lot of them.”

“Just pick something that looks cool.” Cory shrugs, pressing a button.

As the motorized door slowly slides open, I can’t help but find myself in awe of the sheer collection in front of me. It’s the decade-old violent wet dream of every teenage boy.

“Tell me, did you ever play ‘Gears of the Dead,’ Jim?” Johnson says smugly.

“Not for ten years. Wait… do you mean..?” I can’t make my mouth work.

Cory winks. “Take the shotgun. I have a feeling you’ll like it.”

Johnson himself chooses a pistol. Cory has a sniper rifle. I obediently take the shotgun off the wall, trying to remember how to load it. Something tells me the games I played as a kid wouldn’t be very accurate, and my college memories are hazy.

“Eyes up, men!” Cory says, in an approximation of a commanding voice. “Once I open this door, we’re in their territory.” He’s at the other shed entrance.

“Let’s kick some ass,” says Johnson, in the lamest way you could possibly imagine.

I just nod, and we enter the vast, gated forest.

“On my mark, gentlemen.” Cory says, closing the gates behind him.

“So… you play zombies in here. Is that it?” I’m beginning to wish I hadn’t had so many beers.

“Shh!” Johnson says.

Cory leads us further into the woods.

“Some kind of camp there,” Johnson notes.

Cory nods. He takes a metal stake from his pack, and then vaults up the tree, perching himself on a thick branch with rifle in hand. He signals to Johnson with a nod. “I’ll watch your back. You two raid for supplies.”

“This is your property.” I say in disbelief.

“Cory has the servants set stuff up here so we never have the same scenario twice.” He lights the fire nonchalantly.

Incredulously, I check one of the tents. Bullets.

I cautiously check the other tent and all of a sudden a hissing zombie launches itself on top of me, pinning me to the earth scarily close to the campfire. I try to kick it off, its deathly scent making me gag. 

“Johnson! Help!”

“Use your gun, man! Come on!”

“You have a g--!” I give the thing a swift kick in the gut before I scramble to fire my shotgun. White pain shoots through my stomach. I must have fired it incorrectly, because my ribs hurt like crazy, but the zombie reels back with pellets peppered across (and in) its chest.

Cory fires a bullet through its brain, barely missing me. It slowly falls over, searching for its head like a drunken man searches for his dignity.

“You aren’t very good at this.” Johnson says, frowning.

I slowly sit up, clutching my stomach. “I needed help!” I lift my shirt up to check the damage. It looks like this is going to bruise pretty badly.

“You needed the practice.” Johnson says dismissively.

“Hey, he did fine for his first time.” Cory says, hopping down from the tree. “Was it guarding anything?”

Johnson fires another bullet into its spine, stopping it almost entirely. “You check.”

Cory steals into the tent, coming out with a few beers and a loaf of bread. “Eh. This is alright. Did you see that headshot, Dave?” He grins.

“Ah, yes, from point blank range.”

“You still saved me, though.” I mumble. “Thanks.”

“See? He appreciates me.”

“So this is the game you play?” I say slowly.

“Jim, there are very few times when a man can fulfill his actual potential. You have to fight to feel alive in this world.” Cory says with mock wisdom. “Sometimes, Collections will miss somebody. I do society a favor by bringing those missed souls here.” He opens his arms grandly.

“...how do you catch them?” I say, stunned. ‘Usually Collections won’t rest until they find someone.”

“Hi, I own the Crematorium,” Dave says casually.

“I also make deals with Collections,” Cory nods sagely. “That one, though?” He gestures towards the now motionless corpse. “Bobby Carter. His daughter agreed to give him to me after I promised to pay his outstanding medical balance. Cancer treatment ain't cheap.”

“She…sold him?”

“You can sell anything for the right price.” Johnson said. “He was already dying. I was doing her a favor. I get to keep my hobby going, and she gets to be debt free. Win-win!” He grins.

Something boils in my gut, but I can’t figure out what it is.

“Get up,” Johnson commands, offering his hand. I don’t take it, and instead stagger to my feet. Worth it to spite him.

“Let’s keep looking. I want to find the tower before Junior gets himself killed.”

I want to tell the both of them to go fuck themselves so, so badly, but I bite my tongue.

We walk for at least thirty minutes. The brothers fight off another two zombies with ease. I don’t understand how they do it--how they can detect them near-instantly. They must have been doing this forever.

We arrive at another camp by a small creek. Obviously new and planted by Cory’s staff. Not well-worn by genuine hardship.

“Jim, here’s your chance to try again,” Johnson says haughtily. “Keep your wits about you. We’ll watch your back.”

“You got this.” Cory shoots me a thumbs up.

Johnson leans back against a tree, while Cory climbs it again with ease. I don’t want to do this anymore, but the last thing I want to do right now is lose my job, so I steady myself and make sure I’m holding the shotgun correctly this time. I walk slowly towards the camp, trying to listen for zombie noises.

I try to survey the area like I’ve seen Cory do. I’m shaking. I check all three tents. No zombies.

I wave to the brothers. “Hey! It’s all--”

Something grabs my ankle with violent force, dragging me into the water, I kick myself free and then I see the zombie’s face as I stumble and fall backwards.

“Mom..?”

Really, I should have expected this. I should have thought about this the moment I figured out the Johnson brothers were hunting zombies for sport, and that my mother had never been collected.

I can’t make myself shoot her. She’s blue, bloated with water, but it’s unmistakably her. Her leg is mangled, and her torso is just barely holding together. She’d been hit by a car, after all.

I slowly slide away, unable to find the strength to get up.

“J…” I think that’s what she said. I don’t know if she can recognize me. Could Ophelia do that?

I try to make out if she’s mouthing something. “It’s me, Mom.” Tears are running down my face. “It’s Jim. I’m sorry I didn’t get to say goodbye.”

“What are you doing, Jim! Shoot her!” Johnson yells.

She grabs onto my ankle again, and I stop crawling away. I just miss her. I just want to talk to her. “Kelsey misses you too. She’s five now. I wish you could hold her. She’s gotten so big.”

Mom opens her mouth. Is she about to say something? She pulls herself closer, using me as an anchor. Opheliacordiceps buds are sprouting from behind her ears. It reminds me of one of my favorite pictures of her from when she was young. She’s got a white flower crown in her hair, in that one.

And just like that, Johnson sends a bullet through her neck. Her body is so weak that her head flies clean off.

“No!” I yell, pouncing on the head.

“Let go of it, moron! She can still bite!”

“No! That’s my mother!” I scream. I’m so angry. I clutch the head close to my stomach.

“Jim, you’re no good to anyone dead,” Cory says slowly, hopping from his perch. “This isn’t how she would want you to go.”

“Keep her memory out of your fucking mouth!” I yell. “How many-- how many people do you have trapped in here! Do their children know? Does it matter one bit to you that you’re tearing apart someone’s family?”

My mother’s head has bitten into my arm. I barely recognize it, and hug her tighter.

“This is a necessary evil.”

“Jim, you burn these people for a living.”

“Yes! To keep people safe! Not to stroke my ego!”

“Dave, I think he’s been bit,” I hear Cory whisper.

“I’ve always hated you.” I spit at Johnson.  “I told you I wanted a day to grieve and all you do is squeeze and squeeze me until I have nothing left. So here’s the deal, you sons of bitches.” My vision is starting to fade. “I’ll play your little game… but Kelsey… everything… she needs to be taken care of. My daughter.”

Johnson turns to Cory. “Well? He’s young, and well built, and he doesn’t have any significant injuries.”

Cory nods. “He’d make a nice challenge for sure. But…”

“But what! I’m already dying!” My vision clouds with white fibers. This is the part where Ophelia grows through my eyes. It hurts so bad, but it’ll all be over soon. I won’t be here for these men to tear my body apart. At least, I hope.

“But I don’t remember negotiating that in your contract.” Johnson’s voice is sharp and cold. And then nothing.

[untold--stories]

A Thorny Adversary

Lena was just trying to catch some lunch when a scream forces her to change plans.

POV: 3rd person Warnings: None Word Count: 879

Lena’s ear twitched, and she stopped her prowling to scratch it. The blue flame on it flickered from the movement, but with all the glowing plants around her, that shouldn’t startle any potential prey.

Strange, though. Lena’s spiral markings glowed a little more brightly amidst her black fur as she gazed into the future, looking for some sort of imminent threat to set off the itch, but nothing. Hm. Maybe sometimes, a twitch was just a twitch.

Back to the matter at paw, then. She’d smelled a mouse just a moment ago, and now slightly opened her mouth to locate the scent even better. Just a little bit further…

A high-pitched yelp ruined Lena’s attention and sent the mouse skittering away. Not that she cared, not this time; the yelp had sounded far too familiar, and there was exactly one thing allowed to torment her little apprentice, which was Lena herself. Twigs and brambles tried to hold her back, but whenever they would catch her skin or fur, she just liquidized the area, letting them slide off harmlessly. No bothersome plants would stop her from saving Sky.

It didn’t take her long to spot Sky’s sand-colored fur through the green bushes, back turned towards her. With an impressively loud hiss, Lena leapt over the fennec, paws just barely missing Sky’s glowing white wings, fur bristled, claws unsheathed. When she landed, the blue glow of her bared fangs reflected from— the leaves of a thistle bush.

She turned towards Sky, who was rubbing her nose with a paw. “Uh, sorry?” Sky offered sheepishly. “I didn’t know you were in the area… Or that you’d come running!” She stepped closer to Lena. “Sooo… I guess that means you do care about me!”

“Well,” Lena said, and quickly groomed her chest to cover up the embarrassment of trying to start a fight with a piece of vegetation, “I didn't expect my apprentice to be foolish enough to scream because she didn’t manage to see a bush bigger than she is.” Once Lena’s chest fur was nice and shiny, she moved on to her paw. “And as your mentor, it would have been my duty to protect you from any actual threats.”

“That’s so nice of you!” Sky lowered her torso to the ground, behind still high and tail wagging quickly. “So, since you’re here anyway…” There was a playful twinkle in Sky’s brown eyes, all the more noticeable thanks to the two glowing stripes on her cheeks.

Lena lifted her head to look at Sky, but kept her paw raised. “Don’t push your luck, kitten.” When Sky took another step towards her, Lena swiftly batted at her, claws of course sheathed.

Sky jumped back, flapping her wings and hovering a little above the ground. “Aw, come on!”

“My lunch got away thanks to you.” Lena’s tail tip twitched. “So I’ll have to find something new.” She paused, faced with Sky's big pleading eyes, then sighed. “Maybe afterwards, I can teach you some more.”

“What if I helped you?” Sky landed again and neatly folded her wings against her body, almost covering up the white splotch further back. Not like it mattered; Lena knew Sky didn’t actually need the wings to fly. “You know, if I caught you something!”

“And you think you’ll find something faster than I can?” She had confidence, if nothing else.

“Well, maybe not faster,” Sky admitted. “But if there’s two Seldnacs looking, then that’s twice the chance of finding something, right? So even if I’m not faster than you in general, I might get lucky, and then you’d have your food sooner!”

It didn’t seem like Sky would give up on the plan that quickly, and in a way, it was a little endearing. “All right. Show me your forest hunting skills.”

“I came here to practice those! Look!” Sky kept her tail still and ducked close to the ground, moving forwards quietly. Seemed like she had indeed trained, even if she was still a little clumsy when it came to avoiding all the little twigs, branches and roots that littered the forest ground. And bushes, apparently.

Lena circled Sky, nudging her slightly here, pulling one of her legs into a better position there. “Fine, you can try to help. You go that way, I’ll go this way. And remember to keep your legs on the ground while you’re here.”

“I will, promise!” Though Lena had no doubt Sky meant what she said, the fennec’s feet were again hanging a paw’s width above the ground.

Lena bit Sky’s foreleg, just gentle enough that her teeth wouldn’t pierce the skin, and yanked her back down. “Don't forget to look where you’re going, I can’t save you from every thistle you might run into.”

“Yeah, I learned that lesson.” Sky rubbed her nose one more time. “Okay, I’ll go, and I’ll be back with some nice lunch for you before you know it! See you!” And off she ran, though to her credit, her paws did in fact touch the ground with every step.

Lena shook her head and turned the other way, carefully sniffing the air. There had to be more prey hidden somewhere between all these roots, after all.

[synth-spinner]

can i get another random fact about your superior spidey? and a headcanon about ps4 peter ? :3

OMGG YAYY YAYYYYY OFC U CAN :3 !!💙🦋 ooo I'm literally gonna be insane with this avert ur eyes YIPPPEEE YIPPPEE YIPPEEEE

Im gonna hit u with a big very delusional one ^_^ This is more of a silly thang that could or could not be seen in universe BUT superiors eyes flash either green amber or red (sorta like some animals' eyes in the dark) when he's feeling rlly intense emotions ^_^

Green is when he's a little malicious and he's got more of his old villain-y vibe going on, usually when he's like reaal annoyed or frustrated but in his arrogant petty evil genius way :3 usually nothing bad ACTUALLY happens, but when he's like this he goes a bit more extreme/suspicious with his methods but its always a ploy or a trick to get the badguy to back off, like threatening an innocent or being mischievously unpredictable >:3 it flashes briefly like when authors say characters have a mischievous glint in their eyes ^_^ I'd say this is triggered by more negative emotions like frustration and anger

Amber is when more of the. .Spidey side comes out, very empathetic and protective of innocents and also usually a big worrier</3 its usually when he sees someone in imminent danger and he goes full hero mode doing things he would normally say he finds illogical, like having 0 self preservation to jump into action to save someone !! :3 or going out of his way to do more than he would usually see fit !! While usually his more logical approach to saving people results in the least damage or harm to all parties, this helps in situations where he really has no time to think, but always ends with him getting more beaten up than usual </3 it flashes for longer than the green and usually lingers throughout whatever heroic action he's suddenly had the urge to take <3 I guess this is more positively charged since its his desire to help others and keep others safe? Its based on love for others I guess ^_^

Red is my most insanest idea because its all my own weird take 💕 Unlike green and amber where its some aspect of his thought process having more influence than usual in emotionally charged situations, red is uhhmm I'm a bit silly ok get this . So I had an idea before I read the comics that since he is able to access the memories of peter parker and they were like, not very spiderman-focused, the essence of "spiderman" <-strong capable and confident 'great power', is seperate from the peter parker stuff, which is the 'great responsibility' and all that.. so,, in like legitimately. Insane. Emotionally supercharged situations with high stakes.. things get funky... Now otto used to be very good at handling intense negative emotions (with violence) but with the new morals factoring in and the way its affected him I feel like even he would get overwhelmed in some situations. And in those most horrid scenarios bestie... he just is not there!! the superior spiderman is acting purely on that 'spiderman essence' but without the restraint of peter parkers compassion or otto octavius' logic.. its a little scarymode because its like unhinged strength and impulsive action, and of course backed up by intense emotion. Is it negative or positive ?? We doesnt know at this point!! It's all so overwhelming that he goes a little nuts with it.. definitely a combo of both tho. Maybe intense fear but with millions of lives and his loved ones at stake!! Obv comic superior would probably be able to handle it but like my superior is some poor little meow meow who has trouble dealing with the whole conflicting personality thing. Uhm anyway I'm normal💖💙🦋☝️ it is super bright and stays like that for however long it lasts like straight up animal staring at you in the dark core. He says almost NOTHING when he's like this and is tunnel vision on his goal(which may or may not be good) HAS THIS HAPPENED BEFORE ? answer is NO !! but its smn i think abt sometimes ^_^

But ofc none of this can be seen under the mask so whatever. <- will rip his suit so much just for this

Anyway that was very normal of me ! Onto MY BLORBO BUNGUS PETER PS4 PARKERR !!! Honestly my ver of him is pretty close to canon! A headcanon I do have tho for both the actual game and for my little au is that yknow at the end of the 2020 game miles is able to drink upside down and that shows him settling into being a fully fledged spiderman.. I think abt that a lot because its so cute.. anyway I think that that end scene is not the first time he's done it in front of peter and the first time he actually did it they celebrated SO hard. U can tell miles was really into it cuz during the montage with ganke he was practicing and failing and dropping his cup silly style </3 HES SOO SILLY I THINK ABT THIS A LOT. PETER PROBABLY MADE THAT A PART OF THE SPIDERMAN TRAININGS AFTER HE CAME BACK AND FOUND OUT MILES WANTED TO BE ABLE TO DO THAT !! He probably ended every session by treating miles to some yummy drinks and teaching him how to get comfortable drinking upside down.. and they probably got soo excited when miles finally got it they went to show ganke and miles got too excited and just dropped the cup again and they all had a great time giggling abt it ^_^ and when he finally successfully does it in front of ganke, ganke LOSES IT because that's SO FUN AND HES BEEN TRYING TO DO IT FOR DAYS

[mozillavulpix]

i am once again on my bullshit repeating myself

Super Hero is not a movie about Gohan learning that he really needs to keep training

it is a movie about Piccolo learning he really can trust in others (especially Gohan) and doesn’t have to leave everything up to himself

my evidence today: okay, so let’s imagine what would have happened if they didn’t know the Gammas were coming, what do you think would happen?

In all situations in my mind, things would still probably end up OK even if Piccolo didn’t let Pan get kidnapped to make Gohan ‘get serious’. He didn’t need to force Gohan into the fight to teach him a lesson. Because he didn’t need to learn that lesson to actually win the fight.

The only reason Cell Max gets released is because they’re not keeping an eye on Magenta because nobody knows the whole situation besides Piccolo, and even if that did still happen, Gohan would probably get the new form the moment someone got endangered by that. As we see, it doesn’t have to be Pan for him to snap.

if anything Piccolo makes things more complicated by not telling Gohan the truth, leaving him struggling with Gamma 1 and very confused while Magenta escapes to awaken Cell Max with only Hedo noticing.

Things would have turned out better if Piccolo just swallowed his pride at the start and believed Gohan could help with what’s going on. So really, Gohan didn’t need to learn anything in the story.

more thoughts under the cut

There’s two scenarios I can think of

First is if they don’t decide to kill Piccolo as a way to show their strength. Maybe they would have still gotten the idea to attack Gohan first, and they probably still would have to choose the option of kidnapping Pan because they don’t want to attract attention to themselves in the city.

But as we see, none of the Red Ribbon soldiers would have been able to actually kidnap her, she would have beaten them all up easily. The only people in the army who would actually be able to are the Gammas, and it’d be very tough to convince the Gammas to kidnap a child themselves, even if it was ‘for the greater good’. Maybe they could also trick her somehow, but either way, Gohan would be just as pissed off.

Perhaps things would get more difficult because Gohan probably isn’t strong enough to take both Gamma 1 and Gamma 2 at once, and even if Piccolo sensed what was going on, he wouldn’t be able to beat Gamma 2 without the Orange form, and he only got that because he was forewarned about him. There’s also the fact that maybe Gohan wouldn’t awaken Ultimate unless Pan was in imminent danger, and that wouldn’t happen if the Gammas were handling her, but then

well, for one it’d mean one Gamma would probably be busy, so that’d turn the tides in Gohan’s favor again, he’d just need to get to Ultimate and he’d be okay. And the other thing is if the Gammas themselves have to watch over Pan, they’d be a lot more conflicted and it’d be easier to convince them that this ‘cabal’ isn’t actually evil like they thought. So another situation in Gohan’s favor.

The other situation is if everything starts off the same, but Piccolo tells Gohan what’s going on straight away instead of doing the faux-kidnapping thing. In which case they could go straight to the HQ and take the fight on in their own terms. While Piccolo might not have used the Dragon Balls (although he probably would anyway since he did just get nearly killed by one of them), and Gohan wouldn’t be nearly as serious, catching the Gammas by surprise might make negotiation with them a lot easier, if they just frankly explain what’s going on and how they don’t want to fight unless necessary.

heck, they could both do the stealth infiltration thing and then might figure out a way to deal with this in more practical terms

that would be very cute actually

tl;dr this was all piccolo’s fault, so stop talking about how “i’m sick of gohan learning he needs to train for the 5th time”, that’s not what this story was about this time