#but also neela yes

[cassioppenny]

A Day With Cheren

eternity island au created by @citrongarde

[ravenstargames]

✦ Lost in Limbo Devlog #1 | 01.31.23

Welcome to Ravenstar Games' first devlog! ✨💜 We are so excited to finally share this month's progress with all of you! It has been a surprisingly productive month for the team, and we have not only done everything we scheduled for January, but also some extra work!

I want to first and foremost congratulate my team for their wonderful job this month. We hope February will be another amazing month for us and the game!

We want to thank you all so much for sticking with us, for sending us asks, showering us with love and good vibes, and overall for just being here! Without further ado, let's jump into the devlog, shall we? 💜

One of January's highlights has been, without a doubt, Vycar's debut! He's one of six supporting characters you will meet in the demo, and he is very dear to the team.

Calm, shy and a bit of a workaholic, Vycar is the complete opposite of his Lord and close friend, Amon. The dynamic of these two is extremely fun to write, and you'll be seeing a great deal of it in Amon's route!

We did his concept art around late 2022, but this month we focused on his clothes, the color palette and his sprite.

He's not our first finished supporting character, though: we already did Neela's sprite—a character you'll also meet in the demo, and one of the main supporting characters of Envy's route— a few months ago. We want to do some tweaks as her sprite sadly is a bit outdated now compared to the rest of the cast, but you most likely will be meeting her soon! 💜

Ah, yes, the team's personal nightmare! This month we have made outstanding progress with our backgrounds: as of now, six out of ten backgrounds are ready for rendering, or are already finished!

I may as well point out that Raquel, our lead character artist, is also in charge of rendering the backgrounds, which is a ton of work. As we'll be focusing on the characters next month, it'll be a while until Raquel can keep working on finishing backgrounds, but the wait will be worth it! 💜 In the meantime, Astro and Kayden will keep working on them.

Here you have a WIP of one of the first places you'll visit in the demo: your kitchen! We also wanted to show how the background department works with this little gif. Every member of the team is in charge of a different stage; I, for example, write down a briefing for each background and create a moodboard for Astro, and then we all offer our feedback as he works.

Well, this is your mother's kitchen, but it counts...right?

Astro, our lead background concept artist, has also been working hard on bringing Lost in Limbo's world to life. We don't want to spoil too much, but as the director, I wanted to highlight Astro's work today, so I'm leaving here one of the concept pieces he did for another background, as a treat! 💜

What could possibly be happening here, I wonder...?

As of today, 76% of the demo script is coded! ✨ Courtesy of Seyl (that's me!), who has suddenly become a Ren'Py pro (quotation needed).

Jokes aside, we are slowly but surely getting closer to tie all the knots and solve all the mysteries behind Lost in Limbo's demo programming. The pronoun selection works great, the choices don't make the game explode, and variables change when they have to, which may not sound like a lot, but for us first-timers it is like a dream!

You can punch Amon in Lost in Limbo's demo! Yay!

For me, the most complicated thing has been programming the LIs sprites, as they will change clothes in the future, they blink, etc. A bunch of unexpected problems came out (as they always do) as I got familiar with Ren'Py, but fixing them has been an equally rewarding and maddening experience. There's a lot of work left to do and I'm sure I'll suffer a great deal trying to figure everything out, but isn't that the fun part?! Coping mechanism!

Honestly, as an adult who still has to count with her fingers, finding out that I can program with Ren'Py quite correctly is making me feel kind of smart.

Our UI is still on the making, but we hope we can show y'all some sneak peeks real soon!

Seyl's programming adventure also includes absolutely beautiful placeholders like this one, made by yours truly. We promise your mom looks better than this.

As for the writing department, I keep saying the prologue / demo script is finished, but I find myself going back to it to modify stuff. To this day there's still some changes I think can benefit the narrative—but I have to sit down and think about them thoroughly first. As the story grows and the plot thickens, it is my job to make the demo as engaging as possible, and I'm committed to it.

The first chapter of Amon's route is done, and the second is on the making. My plan is to at least write three chapters of every route before focusing on finishing one, to make sure all of them are coherent and cohesive.

January has been a good month for the team. I'd say that the progress we have made especially in the programming and background department has relieved us from a lot of stress.

Sadly, as you all know, Raquel, Astro and me are full time students, and our master degree is being quite intense. How much time we can dedicate to the game depends on the amount of work the master demands from us, so February could be as good as January for the game, or it could be not as fullfilling. Only time will tell! Know that in any case, we regularly work on the game.

If you've made it this far, thank you so much for your time! 💜 I hope it wasn't too boring, and please forgive my overworked brain if there's a bunch of nasty typos around. I promise I'll check the post (again) soon, just in case.

Sending you all a lot of love from the Ravenstar Team! Have an incredible week, take care, and remember to drink water!💜

[sea-owl]

Question about Stepdad Anthony au: why was Kate thrown out after her husband died? Who was he? What's Kate's situation now? Did Anthony meet her the same way? And yes, Anthony would know how to handle children because he has plenty of experience but what do he and little Neela and Newton bond over? So Gregory and Hyacinth recruit them for mischief making? What's the honeymoon like? How much is Violet planning to spoil her new grandbabies? What was the marriage negotiation like? How do Mary, Edwina and Danbury think about it?

So to answer the first question it requires a little bit of real-world history. Now I am by no means an expert on this, this was some information I had learned and read up on a few years back when a world history class I was taking did a segment on death around the world, and obviously there are different experiences, and there are some who are pushing for change. But to answer the first question widowhood in India has basically been a social death for women. Many are seen as shameful burdens who bring bad luck and can potentially face abuse, sexual assault, or abandonment after the death of their husbands. This being common enough that the city of Vrindavan is nicknamed the city of widows because so many go there seeking refuge. It is believed to host somewhere around 20,000 widows. In the early 1800s the practice of Sati, or widow burning, was still commonly practiced as well. This was where a widow would sit on her husband's funeral pyre and burn with him, either willing or unwilling.

Mary being from England kinda saves Kate from that by taking her back in after she is made a widow. In this au it is also one of the reasons why they move to England, it being safer for Kate to raise her children.

As for the situation now Kate focuses on her children and getting Edwina a good match. She goes by her maiden name again and her children also go by it. Getting remarried hasn't even crossed her mind as a possibility until Anthony proposes his deal. After that her practicality takes over and she's going through what this deal could do to help her family. She agrees under the stipulation that he meets Neela and Newton first.

Anthony calls the next day with flowers for all the Sharma ladies, even a mini bouquet so little Neela can hold it. He also brings sweets and age appropriate toys for 5 year old Neela and 2 year old Newton.

Anthony surprised Kate when he got down on the children's level and began introducing himself. Newton was fascinated by someone new. Neela was more hesitant, taking glances back at her mom for cues. Kate gives her the daughter the okay Neela shyly introduces herself.

Dad mode comes out of Anthony and Kate can see his softer side earlier than she did in the show. They spend the whole afternoon together and playing with the children.

They spend about two months doing meetings like this, just to get the kids more comfortable with Anthony before announcing their engagement and moving them in together.

Unknown to Kate Anthony had sat down with Neela and Newton to ask their permission to marry their mom. The children have seen how happier their mother is and agree. They like Anthony anyway, he's way better than some of those men who come to visit Aunt Edwina.

When the time comes for them to finally tell their families Anthony invites the Sharmas over for dinner, including the little Sharmas. Anthony and Kate pull their moms and Lady Danbury into Anthony's office where they announce their intention to marry.

Violet and Lady Danbury are immediately congratulating the couple, but Mary is concerned. Kate's first marriage had essentially been for the family too, an arrangement she encouraged Miles to take, and that did not end well.

Mary asks for a moment with her daughter. They talk things out. Mary is, rightfully, concerned about Kate. Kate assures her this is something she wants, that Anthony will be a good father to her children, and she will be happy knowing her children will be secured. Still hesitant Mary agrees to the match, there was something, a spark maybe, in Kate's eyes that Mary hasnt seen before and it gave her hope.

[aryan-sachdeva]

THE TALE OF THE FIRST RULER, EPISODE 9

Thank you for your love and support towards the last blog :). Greetings to the regular readers and a warm welcome to the new readers. Through this blog, ill tell you about my expedition to the famous "Humayun's Tomb". My journey started with a beautiful mistake as I took a wrong turn toward Lodhi Art District following a longer route to Nizamuddin due to my mistake but when I saw this my mistake turned into a beautiful one.

The art District was full of beautiful graffiti and street art I can even write a blog on them but ill keep that for another day. Somehow, I finally reached the busy streets of Nizamuddin. I parked my cycle and entered the complex. The area was so big that there was signs board every 100 meters. The first sign led me to a place called Isa Khan's Tomb. And the first view of the place was jaw dropping .

The structure is so beautifully made with a mixture of Arabic and Hindu architecture and the blue stone acts as a cherry on the top. I stared at the exterior for about a minute. And decided to explore the insides of the octagonal tomb. The main entrance to the tomb was covered with chains and as I passed through them they took me back to the era of the emperors.

The tomb had three graves and there were quotes from The Quran written all around the walls. Sadly I was not able to find any translations :(. But the carvings were no less than a masterpiece. The place already had my heart and I didn't want to leave but little did I know what wonders were waiting for me. Further, I followed the marks to reach a place called "Arab Ki Sarai". As I reached the point I couldn't believe what I saw.

The door was around 40 feet in height and width of about 15 feet. The door had some kind of magical power it tempted me to go through. The door as took me away from all the tourists to a hidden yet big mosque but the mosque had lost its elegance with time.

I followed the pointers and finally reached the main entrance. The first glance of the legendary place was so out of the world that I thought that I was in a dream .

To make myself speculate what I was witnessing was real I splashed some water onto my face from the ancient water fountain. Yes! It was real I followed the path and reached the big stairways. I climbed the stairs and was very close to the tomb. I was so overwhelmed that you could have knocked me down with a feather

The tomb is built of rubble masonry and red sandstone which gives a total royal look to the place. One thing that I noticed was that there were big rooms underneath the tomb that were visible but still were not never accessible to the public. I wonder what mysteries they are hiding for so many years? I moved inside the monument and was amazed at the interior! The tomb was on a raised platform with a small chandelier.

Like can you believe this was all made by human hands without any special machinery? The thing that surprised me the most was the jaali work

I sat there for a while to absorb the excitement and admire the craftsman. I was lost in my thoughts and even questioned reality. But in the end, I walked away from the place. As I was finding a way back I saw a big blue structure with a different kind of carvings on it

The carvings were typical Arab carvings with some mix of Persian According to my research the place is called Neela Gumbad because of its shining blue Gumbad. I was overwhelmed with the energy of the place that I didn't want to return but sadly every good thing has an end :(. Here are some clips from my adventure

A bit about Humayun Tomb

Humayun’s Tomb, Delhi is the first of the grand dynastic mausoleums that were to become synonyms of Mughal architecture with the architectural style reaching its zenith 80 years later at the later Taj Mahal. Persian and Indian craftsmen worked together to build the garden tomb, far grander than any tomb built before in the Islamic world.Humayun’s garden-tomb is also called the ‘dormitory of the Mughals’ as in the cells are buried over 150 Mughal family members.

So that was my adventure to the Humayun's Tomb hope you enjoyed it. I just wanted to end with the announcement of my 10th Blog! A little seek peak about the blog would be on the most haunted place in Delhi and real haunted practices being followed their. So stay tuned!

Signing off

Until next time

Aryan Sachdeva

[coolbud13]

Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai 28th September 2023 Written Episode: Akshara and Abhimanyu's Wedding Preparations Marred by Family Discord

Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hain 28th September 2023 Written Episode Update on worldofentertainment.in Initially, Akshara asked Kairav where he was going and if Neela was okay. Kairav replied yes, I was going to do an imp deal, ask Manish, he is also upset. Akshara asked is Muskaan also joining you. Kairav says she is going to Mumbai for a week as she has important work, sorry, we have to go. Akshara…

[undertsums]

Nuzzles for comfort

NOTE: This is mostly a pre fall into the void thing but I have two that are after and I'll let you know when that is. Also these are not skeleton kisses, nuzzles are a more platonic way to show affection and care for those you are closest to.

Roman sniffled as she cried, she asked just one simple question to Webdings. "Doc...Why don't you show me affection?" She asked because Shadow brought it up to her, he told her that affection was something everyone shows to those they care for. Roman never expected Webdings to freak out, she got yelled at for a pointless question, that she 'didn't need affection'.

Roman felt hurt...She thought maybe Webdings did care...But now she knew. "There there" said a familiar voice. Roman sniffled as she looked up to Shadow as he pulled her close "I did warn you...But it's okay, you don't need affection from her" he said. Roman tilted her head slightly "w-why not?" She asked, Shadow placed his nose on her forehead "because I'll give you all the affection you need" he answered.

Roman smiled and sniffled "m-me too" she said as she sat up slightly and nuzzled his forehead with her nose. Shadow smiled "that's right, just me and you" he whispered pulling her close in a hug.

*Scene shift to before the Gyftmas party incident in Season 1*

Roman was drawing with Joyce, Toriel came into the room and gave Joyce a forehead nuzzle with her nose. Roman stared as she felt her soul shift, when was the last time she gave a nuzzle to someone?

"Roman?" Joyce's voice pulled Roman from her thoughts, oh...Was she staring? Roman smiled and stood up giving Joyce a nuzzle who was a little shocked at first before smiling "have you nuzzled anyone else before?" She asked curious. "I think so...But I don't remember who" Roman said, Joyce frowned "do you ever worry why you can't remember your past?" She asked. Roman shook her head "not really, maybe it's for the best I don't remember, what if it was awful?" She suggested.

Joyce looked sad "I hope it wasn't...Your so sweet and nice, I don't know anyone who would treat you harshly" she replied, Roman sat down "I mean there's Error" she replied as Joyce giggled "he doesn't count, he hates everyone."

*Scene shift to Season 2*

Shadow was in the middle of a really good book, it was very late but sleep is not really something he needs. Well okay...He MIGHT need it but he just...Can't. He heard soft footsteps and looked up from his book to Neela standing in the doorway "oh...S-Sorry, I thought maybe you were mom" she said.

Shadow stared, Neela's body was shivering, she looked tired but also very much awake. Ah...Nightmares. He closed the book he was reading and laid it on the small desk "come here" he said patting the chair. Neela stared for a moment before joining Shadow on the chair, she wondered why he was up and was about to ask before Shadow placed his nose on her forehead. It was a nuzzle, it made Neela smile, Shadow felt comfortable enough and wanted to show Neela affection in a time she needed it.

"There there, nothing scary can hurt you now" Shadow said pulling away with a smile, "did you nuzzle Roman like this too?" Neela asked curiously. Shadow's memory flashed to that time...Comfort and affection, something he never got but saw many times. Anytime he had to pull away a parent from a loved one, they would quickly do a nuzzle of affection, a last goodbye.

Back then he didn't care, but now...He had those he wanted to comfort and cared for. "Yes...Many times when she needed comfort" he replied, Neela frowned "what about you?" She asked. Shadow smiled "once...I didn't need the comfort" he said, Neela stared and reached up and nuzzled his forehead before pulling back with a smile "you deserve it...Is that okay?" She asked.

Shadow smiled and pulled Neela close in a hug "more than okay...I guess I really did need that" he said, Neela giggled slightly.

After about an hour she would drift off into sleep, Shadow was careful in carrying her to the bedroom she was sharing with Joyce.

His memory would bring up times when he would forcefully drag kids to their doom, but now here he was, careful, gentle. He laid her down and tucked her in. Memories flashing of tying down innocent kids to a table, ready for experiments.

Shadow floated out and instead of going back to the chair decided to try to sleep. Maybe...Maybe the nightmares won't wake him up.

The screaming, the begging.

Maybe...Just maybe he'll have enough comfort...He could only hope.

[oreoskys]

I be saying that Leona and Neela have a mutual respect for each other and that's true and all but they also have their hands on each other's throats constantly like they get EVIL with each other-

the spring break thing was cute and all but I wanna see these hoes TUSSLE

I wanna see this bozos throw PUNCHES !! have I read The Cruel Prince one too many times? Yes. because now this is my favorite dynamic. \/

[kunalkarankapoor]

Happy Birthday Kunal Karan Kapoor.

May you keep experience new and exciting things, and have an endlessly changing horizon. May you get many more great opportunities to explore your craft and grow as an artist. May this journey of yours be filled with adventures, great health, joy, success in whatever you aim to do and many beautiful memories. 

“Kya kah de tumhen..kshitij se ban jaate ho iss kadar... Dhlte ho anant se..khud me hi apnepan se.” Preeti Rajkotiya

“Kahaani khoobsurat nazaron kee..ki hai roshani se pahachaan bhee... Kaise naape oonchaiyaan..hai anant tera ye aasmaan bhee. Rangon ka zikr kya karna..har rang me dhal jaana tera.. Gar bhar sako aankhon me to tera ye neela aasmaan bhee.″  

Kunal Karan Kapoor’s fans published a poetry book dedicated to him on #OneYearOfSidG🤟 and his birthday. The beautiful poetries are written by Preeti Rajkotiya and Kunal Karan Kapoor is her inspiration and motivation behind every poetry. 

After many years break from writing, she found her passion again with Kunal Karan Kapoor’s comeback on TV. 

Every poetry are bunch of emotions and a part of her, Kunal’s characters and him.  Every book sold and after the publishing cost, goes to charity. 

https://notionpress.com/read/neela-aasmaan

https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0BBQZH6CT

The meaning behind the name of the book:

Preeti Rajkotiya: “NEELA AASMAAN' is also poetic symbolic.  It is written in two meanings.  Like I just mentioned.  The second 'sky' became like a symbol of Kunal. The first line of the poem is the story of beautiful eyes and beautiful eyes of Kunal, who is recognized by light.  Just as the height of the sky cannot be measured, it is difficult to know Kunal.  This is the meaning of the second line of the poem.  And getting accustomed to every color means to live in every situation, get immersed in every emotion.  This is the third line.  In the fourth line, the word 'NEELA AASMAAN' is used, it is from the Mining Book.  If you can fill your eyes, understand the poetry written on it, then this book is yours whose name is 'NEELA AASMAAN'.

एक ज़िंदगी

महज़ एक किरदार

काफ़ी नहीं उसके लिए

एक जगह,

बस एक ही आयाम

काफ़ी नहीं

बँधना, बँध कर रह जाना

मंज़ूर नहीं उसे

वो

बाँध लेता है —

लफ़्ज़ों में,

ज़ज्बातों में,

कुछ बेनामी से नातों में

सुबक-सुबक कर दिल पिघला दे,

बन जाए ऐसा बच्चा भी

मायूसी का ग़म झलका दे,

ऐसा एक चेहरा सच्चा भी

रूढ़िवादिता तोड़े जो

अभिनय से मिसालें जोड़े जो

किरदार अनूठे चुन चुन कर

बिन बोले सब कुछ बोले जो

बिन ज़ुबान ही शोर मचा दे,

कह नज़्म एक सौ भाव जता दे

तस्वीर अकेली लेकर ही

अफ़साने बेहिसाब दिखा दे

नीरसता में बह जाना

मंज़ूर नहीं उसे

वो

ख़ुद में ही ब्रह्माण्ड है

भाव का, स्वभाव का, आत्मभाव का

ख़ुद में ही घुल कर रह जाना

मंज़ूर नहीं उसे

वो

समन्दर है, आकाश है—

असीम, आज़ाद, अनन्त।।

Written by V.S

हमें जिसकी तलाश थी, वो मंजिल हो तुम कभी कम ना हो, वो अभिनय की तृष्णा हो तुम। हर नए किरदार के मुदस्सर है, आपका अंदाज नया रूप नया, रंग नया, संवाद अदायगी का ढंग नया। दुआ है हमारी, यूंही अभिनय की चुनौतियां मिलती रहे दिल में आपके, कुछ नया करने की ज्वाला जलती रहे। बरसों बरस आपके अभिनय का सफर चलता रहे आपका भावपूर्ण अभिनय आत्म विभोर करता रह।

Every character that Kunal Karan Kapoor has portrayed till date has left an impact on viewers, and especially characters like Yudi in 2004, Mohan in 2012/2013, Shaurya in 2015 and Siddharth in 2021 have burned a passionate path into the hearts of fans.

“Naye armaanon se khilti duniyaa ho... Haq me hi aapke sari khushiyaan ho. Hothon ka muskuraahton se vaasta ho... Maangte yahi duaa..gamon se dooriyaan ho. Surmayi zindgani..sun lo dhadkanon kee... Ban jaaye phir har pal jaise qaafiya ho. Ek dhoon si gungunayegi saanson me... Ehsaason ka pal pal jaise dariyaa ho. Na kar sake mol..rishta jo anmol ho... Mile khubsoorat aisa dil ka aashiyaan ho. Aasmaan se jhaankta hai jo ek taara... Roshan ussi se hi aapki sadiyaan ho. Thodi khubiyaan ho..thodi si khamiyaan bhi... Khud se hi mil lo..phir na majbooriyaan ho. Kar lo waada..jaise ho vaise hi rahna... Jeena kahaan..gar jo na nadaaniyaan ho. Subah kee dhoop si..shaam kee chhaanv si aankhon me... Manmaaniyaan ho to kuchh besabriyaan ho. Manzil-e-raah ko choom le kadam aapke... Sach jo ho..sapnon kee na kahaaniyaan ho.”

- Preeti Rajkotiya

“Zindagi yahi to hai jo chalti mere saath...

Kabhi Kabhi baithkar gungunaati mere saath.

Jaisa hun vaise hi wajood me samaati...

Har lamha mujhme hi jee leti mere saath.

Kaafir si ye to kabhi duaa si lage yun mujhe...

Ke jeene kee wajah talaashti mere saath.

Khuli kitaab si ye banti parchhai jaise...

Aawaargi me bhi muskuraati mere saath.

Akela kahaan main ke subah si khilti mujhme...

Sukoon dhundhti phir har shaam dhalti mere saath.

Thakna na rukna har pal mujhse hai ye kahti...

Uljhti-suljhti hawaa si bahti mere saath.

Apna thoda hissa chhod dun ya samet lun...

Bata zindagi..tu hi safar karti mere saath.”

- Preeti Rajkotiya

We could say that the entire universe wills to manifest itself into wishes for your special day, and we still wouldn't  be wrong. Happy birthday @kunalkkapoor !!! Keep shining

@Nature_Vici

[monkeyd-lily]

Fairy Tail: Neela Dragneel

The Fairy Tail

Neela's pov

My brother and I were on a train going to a town where we heard our father Igneel is, i'm so excited. I haven't seen him in forever. I really miss him. Thats why I always stick to Natsu, he takes care of me, & sometimes I take care of him when I can but i'm weaker than him. Like right now he has his head in my lap trying to relax because he gets motion sickness & I don't. He's so cute when he's vulnerable around me. I got up to grab my bag when Happy challenged me to a race.

"Hey Neela, last one outside pays for lunch!"

Knowing how me, him, & Natsu eat I jumped out the nearest window & ran up to the door right before he came out and I yelled, "YES VICTORY I WIN & I DON'T HAVE TO PAY FOR LUNCH!"

"No fair you cheated." He cried.

"Did not, i'm just awesome." I stuck my tongue out.

We started to laugh until I saw a flash of pink on the side of the train

"OH CRAP! Happy we forgot Natsu" I looked at him freaking out.

"Oh no your right"

"Well go get him, your the one with wings!"

   **

While Happy went to fetch Natsu I started to look for someone to bribe into "lending"  me money so we could eat, since I knew Happy had no money cause he spent it on fish. I saw a bunch of girls gathered around someone & of course being nosy went to see who it was. When I finished pushing my way to the front I saw this man who they kept calling Salamander, I instantly felt disappointed since we originally came looking for our father Igneel who could also be called a salamander because he's a dragon.

Yea you heard me right our father is a full blooded DRAGON. He isn't our real father but he raised us & taught us magic, he taught us Fire Dragon Slayer Magic.

As I was about to turn around and start heading back to look for the boys the man turned around and looked me straight in the eyes. All of the sudden my heart started to beat rapidly in my chest and my face was getting red as he started walking in my direction never breaking eye contact with me. My eyes were probably shaped like hearts, & I bet I looked like a freakin tomato too since that's how most of these girls looked.

"Hey there little lady, what might your name be?" he asked.

"N-Neela", wait! why the hell am I stuttering for!?! I'm not attracted to him & I already have a boyfriend. And a very sexxxxxay one at that.

"Neela huh? well what a beautifully unique and rare name to fit an even more beautiful, unique, & rare young woman." the man said while gently holding my chin between his index finger & thumb.

Seriously? Did he seriously just call me beautiful, rare, & unique like it would actually work on me? At least pick 1. Using all 3 is so lame and cheesy :-\.

All of the sudden he started leaning down to my lips. I wanted to move away and punch him but my body wouldn't respond. Right as I felt his lips brush mine I was knocked into the ground by someone who smelled extremely familiar. Natsu.

Thankfully the impact didn't really hurt & knocked me out of my daze.

"You're not Igneel, and keep your damn hands off my sister." Natsu said standing in front of me protectively. My brother is so awesome and sweet<3.

Almost immediately after Natsu insulted the strange man a bunch of his fan girls attacked him. I reacted quickly & kicked them off, but not that hard since they're normal and have no magic power.

The man tried to give my brother an autograph signing with the name Salamander. Natsu refused to take it before some more fan girls tried to attack him. Tried.

After the man left, but not before winking & blowing a kiss at me which sent shivers down my spine and not in a good way, this blonde girl with huge boobs that made mine feel tiny & made me die a little inside, came up to Natsu to thank him for snapping her out of his spell or something. I wasn't really paying attention, too busy crying on the inside at how tiny my boobs are compared to everyone else's is.

The next thing I know Natsu is carrying me bridal style into a restaurant. He set me down on the inside of the booth next to him. Then we started eating while the blonde haired girl (who's name I learned was Lucy and was paying for our food) was talking about her being a wizard and wanting to join her favorite guild ever.

After we finished eating we bowed down to Lucy to thank her for feeding us and then left. I told Natsu that I was gonna go gift shopping for my boyfriend and some of my closest friends back home while him & Happy do whatever they wanted. He was hesitant at letting me go off on my own but eventually gave in to my pleading, hugs, and cute puppy dog faces.

About 20 minutes later when I had bought my BF something I ran into that strange man from earlier and was immediately cast under his spell again. He asked me if I wanted to go for a ride on his boat & of course being under some weird kind of love spell stuttered a yes.

He took me to buy this pretty pink dress to wear on his boat. It went down to a few inches above my knee, was the same shade of pink as my hair, was very soft, had a sequined black belt around it, and the straps tied around the back of my neck. He gave me this beautiful pink Saphire necklace to go with my outfit.

While we were on the boat I noticed that I wasn't getting seasick. You know how Natsu gets motion sickness? Well I don't except when I'm on a boat. I know, it's weird.

I was sitting on the "Salamander's" lap while he was talking to Lucy. I wasn't really paying attention because I was too busy staring at his beautiful face & daydreaming about us doing "stuff". WAIT WHAT THE HELL I HAVE TO STOP THINKING ABOUT THIS CRAP IT'S SO ANNOYING, I AM SO GONNA KICK HIS ASS ONCE I GET OUT OF THIS SPELL!!!!!.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Lucy run towards me, I couldn't tell what she was trying to do until I felt a terrible pain on the top of my head.............*blink blink*

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT THE FUCKING HELL WAS THAT FOR YOU MEAN BITCH!!!???!!!"

"I HIT YOU TO SNAP YOU OUT OF THE STUPID SPELL THAT YOU WERE STUPID ENOUGH TO GET CAUGHT UNDER AGAIN!!!"

"Oh, thanks Blondie hehe:)"

"Now will you please help me against these guys?" she asked.

"Huh? What gu-oh those guys" I said while looking around the room.

"All right I guess i'll have to hurt you guys now. Stand back Lucy I don't want you to get caught up in my attack."

"Um ok" she said.

"All right here we g-"......

"Neela what's wrong? Why are you just standing there?"

Lucy's pov

What's wrong with her? She was about to attack them when she just stopped.

I walked around to stand in front if her to see what was wrong. When I got in front of her, what I saw made me want to hit her in the face so hard so many times! Her face was green and looked like she was about to puke. She gets seasick? Are you kidding me? And after all that talk. I swear when she gets better I'm gonna hit her.

Neela's pov

I felt like I was gonna die. The only words I were able to say were, "so siiiiick."

Salamander grabbed me while one of his men grabbed Lucy. Suddenly Natsu came crashing through the ceiling and Lucy and I were happy he came. But of course, that happiness was short lived when I remembered he has motion sickness and was soon in the same situation as me.

"Ugh you are both so lame" Lucy said.

"What are you two doing here Neela and Lucy?"

"Oh, Happy. This jerk tricked me, he said he was gonna get me into Fairy Tail." Lucy responded.

I tried to respond but I could only make weird groans.

Salamander and his men all looked dumbfounded saying they've never seen a flying blue cat who could talk before.

Happy escaped with Lucy while we went to beat up those guys, which didn't really work out since we could barely move without wanting to puke our brains out.

Salamanders guys started to beat up Natsu while I was trying to crawl my way over to him to beat him up. While crawling I asked, "You're a member of Fairy Tail?".

Suddenly the ship was being thrown around and we crashed on land, then the sickness stopped. I found Natsu and we made our way towards Salamander and his guys.

"So you claim to be a member of the Fairy Tail Guild." Natsu said.

"So what's it to either of you?" Salamander retorted. "Go get em men".

"Let us get a closer look at your face" these guys came at us and Natsu just brushed them aside.

"Our names are Neela and Natsu Dragneel, we're Fairy Tail wizards and we've never seen you before!" I said.

"These guys are the real deal Vora" said one of his men.

"You idiot don't call me that!"

"I have no idea what you're tryin to do here buddy and I don't care if your a good guy, bad guy or what. But we're not gonna let you dirty the Fairy Tail Guilds name!" Natsu yelled.

"And what are you gonna do about it, stop me? Sorry about this sweetheart but I don't care how hot you are, i'm not gonna let you stop me. PROMINENT TYPHOON!"

His attack sent some kind of purple lookin fire at us, pfft, it's almost funny how stupid some people can be. We just stood there and when the fire came at us we swallowed it.

"Ah this is so gross, are you sure you're a fire wizard cause these are the nastiest flames we've ever tasted". Said Natsu. I was just eating and laughing at their expressions. It was hilarious, they screamed like little girls.

"Thanks for the grub, poser" I said.

"What's going on here? Who are these kids?"

"Now we got fires in our bellies that are just raging to get out." Natsu said. It's kinda his catchphrase.

We put our hands around our mouths and yelled "FIRE DRAGON ROAR!" then we breathed fire at Vora and his men.

Let me explain how we can do that. To cut it short we have dragon lungs for breathing fire, dragon scales to help dissolve the fire, and dragon claws to attack with fire. It's an ancient spell that no one uses anymore it's Dragon Slayer Magic that Igneel taught to us.

We then got into a battle with Vora, it didn't take long since he was kinda weak, after a few more moves and crushed and destroyed buildings we were about to beat him.

"We're gonna cook you like a smoked fish!" I said.

"YOU'RE GONNA DO WHAT TO ME!='O" Vora yelled terrified and crying like a little girl.

"DOUBLE FIRE DRAGON IRON FISTS!" and with that last move Natsu and I sent him flying through the streets and into a huge bell, hitting some buildings along the way.

We noticed the army was coming our way, so I grabbed Lucy by the wrist and ran as fast as I could.

"Where are you taking me!?" Lucy asked.

"Just come on, you said you wanted to join the Fairy Tail Guild didn't cha?" I answered.

I looked back and gave her a close eyes smile while Natsu and I said, "So lets go"

"Alright" she said excitedly.

And with that we made a break for it with the army chasing close behind us.

[kitchener-waterloo]

because of all the recent “the late er seasons are bad” discourse, i would like  2 propose an alternative: they didn’t happen. romano is still alive. he is still a  begrudging mentor to neela (she reminds him of lucy, but don’t let her know that). lewis is still harried er chief. lizzie is in mourning, but she will be okay. tony gates doesn’t exist, and never will. simon brenner will never leave australia. carter will keep unsuccessfully dating his coworkers. weaver still needs a nap (she’ll take it when she goes home to sandy).

[yukina-otome]

Ikevamp pregnancy and family headcanon pt.3

I am back ! This time with Isaac and jean ! I hope you enjoy ! Please encourage me and let me know what you think !

@ginshoujo​ @bierunderdbeeren​ @fun-ghoul-neela​ @loverofmanyrandomthings​

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 4 

-Isaac: A daughter

-He spent most of his life alone so the idea of one day being a father was foreign and impossible for him. -When you came into his room one day being all nervous and refusing to look him in the eyes he thought you were there to dump him. -The last thing he expected you to say was that you were pregnant. -Isaac was so shocked he kept silent as you started rambling in nervousness. -After few minutes of Isaac staying silent and you rambling on how you want to keep the baby because it is the product of your love, Isaac  finally spoke: -"P-Pregnant....as in....B-Baby? Mine ? Wait....no that's no what i should be saying in this situation...ah wait a minute.....So there is a baby made of my sperm and your ovule in your uterus ??" -"Yes Isaac that's exactly what pregnant mean....are you not happy ?" -"NO ! I am very happy ! It's just that i never had a father, and I'm so awkward and clumsy I don't know if i can be a good father to our child" -The word "Our child" felt so foreign to him yet the second he said his heart felt so full. -After that you spent long hours reassuring him before you both fell asleep dreaming of your future together with your baby. -Few days later both of you guys decided to announce it to the whole mansion during dinner and as soon as the word "I am pregnant" left your mouth the whole dinner room fell silent. -The silence was broken by Arthur who said "Congratulation Newt you old chap, I can already suggest a pretty good name for your child! What about Apple if its a girl ! And if its a boy Applo !" -Isaac started arguing with Arthur and Dazai who also suggested naming your child Ringo. The rest of the resident all congratulated you and Sebastian banned you from doing house chores. -Your pregnancy was very peaceful. You would visit Isaac at the university almost every day and all his students treated you as if you were made of glass. The dean would always ask you about how you were doing and when you were in your 8th month, all the students and the dean gave you presents for the baby. -You were in university attending one of Isaac's class when your water broke. You started groaning and screaming in pain and the whole classroom started panicking. -Isaac was at your side by the second and quickly carrying you out of the class and toward the hospital (the students followed you) -And so you were in the delivery room while Isaac, 80 university students and the mansion's resident were waiting outside. -Napoleon was by Isaac's side trying to calm him down while Arthur Theo Dazai leo and le compte were making bets about the baby's gender. -After what felt like hours, the doctor came out of the delivery room and looked at the huge crowd in amazement before saying "Who is the father ?" -Isaac raised his hand and the doctor invited him in the delivery room. -You gave birth to a beautiful baby girl with light brown hair and pink eyes. -After much consideration you named her Cherry (As in cherry blossom) -Cherry was a very innocent and shy child. -She was also a huge crybaby. -One time when she was around 5 Arthur teased her and the second her eyes filled with tears and she started sniffing the whole mansion looked at arthur like he had just committed murder. From that day on she started avoiding him (it broke his hearth) -From when she was very young Isaac often took her to his classes where his student would gush over her and one day when she was 8 she corrected the student who was sitting next to her as he made a mistake in his formula. -That's how you knew she was a genius, her IQ was extremely high. But you guys never forced anything on her as she was more interested in cultures and languages than math's and physics. -By the age of 12 she was fluent in all the languages that were spoke in the mansion, English, French, Japanese and Dutch and of course Latin (her father taught her). -She would spend long hours having a debate about history with Sebastian. -You guys would go on stroll in the city and Isaac would smile as you and cherry would start nerding about some monument and the history behind it. He would thank all the stars and it would not be enough because he knew that he would never feel lonely ever again.

-Jean : A daughter and a son

-Jean didn't want children at all. -He was a monster. He was dirty. what kind of child would come from his genes. -But then he met you and slowly but surely he started loving himself a bit more. -You were his everything. For him you were the most beautiful and pure person. -Nevertheless you two never spoke of having a family. But you dreamed of having a big family. -So one day as you were resting in jean's embrace you decide to try and see what he thinks about it. -"Jean have you ever thought of having a family ?" -Jean thought for few minutes before saying "I never thought i deserved to have a family....but if its with you...." -You started crying and squeezed him in your arms. -And so from that point on the two of you started trying. -Few months later after a visit to your doctor you came in the mansion looking for jean only to find him sparing with napoleon in the training room. -Both of them stopped sparing to look at you as you screamed "I'm pregnant". Jean dropped his rapier and picked you up in a hug. -Both you and napoleon heard a laugh that sounded like it came straight out of an angel's mouth. Jean was laughing. -After that jean became your personal bodyguard. When he was busy he made napoleon keep an eye on you of all time. -Not that you needed any more protection as the whole mansion babied you. -"Guys i am not ill. I'm pregnant" -"But then why did you vomit this morning?" Mozart said -"It's just morning sickness !" you answered back -"Sickness....that mean you're ill. I'm taking you to the doctor right now" jean said as he carried you in his arms. -Anyways days passed and when you were in your 9th month jean had to take a job as a bodyguard with napoleon. Mozart had a concert to prepare for, Isaac was busy with his job as a professor, Sebastian was too busy, Leo Vincent and Theo were away on business, and no way he would leave you to Dazai or Arthur. -Which led him to ask the one and only person who was not busy that day.....Le compte. Truthfully he didn't want to owe him anything but he would throw away his pride for your safety any day. -That day you spend time with le compte drinking Tea and eating cake when your water broke. -Le compte took care of everything and took you to the hospital. He also sent a messenger for jean. -When jean got the message he was few hours away from the city. Napoleon assured him he would take care of the rest and jean took off as fast as he could. -When he arrived you had already given birth and you were sleeping. As he came into the room he saw you with your eyes closed and panicked. He checked your breathing and pulse and relaxed when he saw you were just sleeping. Then he heard the tiniest sound. -He looked toward the direction the sound came from and he saw a crib. He peaked inside the crib and saw the most beautiful dark blue eyes. His baby girl looked at him in curiosity before giving him a smile that reminded him so much of yours. -Now he had one more person who loved him, one more person to protect. -His daughter Louise was shy and timid. She didn't speak much. -She loved her uncle Napoleon the most and admired her uncle Mozart. -She would always listen to Mozart as he played the piano. At first he was awkward with her because he didn't know how to behave with kids but one day when she was 3 he found her sitting on the floor outside his piano room and asked "what are you doing?" -She looked at him with her big eyes and said "music" -From that day on she always came to listen to him playing. She would sit on the sofa in the piano room (it wasn't there before, he bought it just for her) and listen for hours. -When Louise was 6 you got pregnant again. This time Jean refused to leave you for even a second. He wanted to be with you when you gave birth. -"Jean its only the 5th month...I'm not going to give birth any time soon." "I don't care I'm not leaving you". -You would be chilling in Jean's room (that was redecorated to look more homey and less like a prison cell) and both Louise and Jean would have their ears on your tummy trying to hear what was happening inside. -After few hours of listening Louis said "It's a boy". "How can you be so sure darling ?" "I just know. He told me just now." -And she was right. Few months later you gave birth (with jean by your side this time) to a boy who looked like a mini jean. -His name was Orlean. -From his cold deadpan expression, to his androgynous features, to his dark sense of humor  he was a copy of jean. -He was so mature for his age and often took care of his bigger sister. -Orlean and Jean looked liked they were awkward when they were together because none of them would say much, but in fact the silence between them was always comfortable. They would understand each other with a single look. -Jean taught Orlean how to use a sword but Orlean preferred reading. He always spent time in the Library with his uncle Leo who would teach him all kind of subjects. -You, Louise and Orlean would come watch jean spare with napoleon and would cheer for him like crazy. -Jean never thought he would have anyone who loved him let alone a family. He would always be thankful to you who showed him love and gave him happiness. You, Louise and Orlean were his treasures.

[xmalereader]

The Mandalorian X Dark Fey! Male Reader

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|| Masterlist ||

-

After S2 EP 5, I couldn’t help but come up with an idea! After finding out the child’s name and having Ashokas appearance, I couldn’t help myself but write some more Dark fey reader!! Also the inspiration comes from @fanficsforheartandsoul Please read their writing it is amazing and follow them!!

Summary: Din and reader have found the child a teacher, Ashoka, and learn a few new things about the Jedi order. But, Ashoka finds out a bit more about the readers kind and tells him her stories of when she once met a planet full of dark fey, creatures that the reader thought have gone extinct making him think that he is the last of his kind.

Warnings: Fluff, angst, the child being all cute, backstory, Ashoka learning, just more angst.

—

—

“I don’t think this is a good idea.” Said the Fey who walked next to the Mandalorian. The two were walking through the dead forest, jumping over fallen logs and going under trees in order to continue following the path that lead them to the Jedi. Back in town they have met with the Matriarch, a women that was in charge of the town and had offered them a spear of beskar in exchange to take down the Jedi. At first, y/n thought that din was going to refuse the offer, knowing that they needed the Jedi alive due to the child needing a proper teacher. But of course, Din being a Mandalorian, couldn’t refuse the offer. Which lead them to tracking down the jedi thorugh the dead forest.

“I already told you—“ Din turns to face the Fey. “I’m not going to kill her, I’m going to get her attention and make sure that she helps us with the kid. I just need to find her, that’s all.” He repeats. He’s already explained Y/n his plan, telling him that he woulnd’t do anything to hurt the Jedi and to only ask for their help and hand the kid over to them.

Y/n sighs deeply as he gives the child a glimpse, who sat inside the bag that Din had found for the kid. “I know but I can’t help but get a bad feeling about this.” He mumbles out as Din stops in his tracks and removes the kid from the bag, setting him down with a sigh. “Will be fine.” Din tells him and nods towards the kid. “Stay with him, I’m going to check out the area and see if I can find anything.” Y/n nods at the Mandalorian and adjusts his cape, using it to hide his wings from prying eyes. He’s never liked it when others took notice of his wings, they were precious to him and being a Dark fey was risky, he was the last of his kind and he couldn’t allow anyone to know who he was.

The fey can’t help but pout as he stands next to the child and reaches out to stroke one of its long ears. Keeping him distracted with a small smile. Before he could even say anything he hears the sound of sabers and beskar clashing against eachother.

The dark feys eyes widen as he sees the Jedi and Din fighting with each other, stepping in front of the child to protect him he bares his fangs at the Jedi until Din calls out her name. Causing the two to stop fighting with each other. Din Is quick to tell her that they were sent by bo-Katan and how they have searching for her.

The Jedi, known as Ahsoka, gives the couple a look before she eyes the dark fey that stood over the child. She’s quick to drop her guard and puts away her lightsabers. “I hope it’s about him.” She says as din turns around to see y/n glaring at the Jedi, he gives him a small nod as of saying that everything was okay.

Y/n’s wings slowly drop behind him as he too drops his guard and exposes the child to the Jedi. The two approach him as ahsoka smiles a little, “Hello.” She coos out to the child who returns her greeting with a squeak.

—

Y/n watches Din pace back and forth as the Mandalorian eyes the Jedi and the child from a distance. He was becoming nervous and anxious, not knowing what to expect from Ahsoka. The fey was standing by a tree, leaning back against it as he sighs. “Din, stop it.”

“I can’t help it.” Din snaps back at his partner of four years. The two have known each other for awhile now and it wasn’t strange for y/n to see Din acting this way, he knows that he’s grown attached to the kid and how much he loves him. But things change and they were tasked to bring him to a Jedi.

Y/n slowly gets irritated by Dins pacing, he knows that he’s acting like a worried father but he can’t help but get a little annoyed. “Din.” He approaches the Mandalorian and reaches out to touch his hand, finally getting Dins attention as he stops pacing.

“It’s going to be okay, whatever Ahsoka is doing she’ll tell us.” He whispers to Din, hearing the other sigh deeply as he looks away. Y/n grows upset as he gently places a hand on one side of the helmet and pulls him back to face him. Without saying a word he leans forward to press their foreheads together. A small tradition that both mandalorians and Dark fey have in common. “It’s okay.” He croaks out this time as Din relaxes under his touch and nods.

As the two pull away, they don’t notice Ahsoka approaching them with the child in her arms. She gives the two a small smile as she sets the lamp down between them and the child in a rock. She sits next to him and sighs.

Din is the first to break the silence. “Can you—Can you understand him?” He asks.

Ahsoka sits up straight and nods. “In a way,” she turns to face the child. “Grogu and I can communicate through the force, giving us the ability to speak with eachother.”

“Grogu?” Both Din and y/n say.

The sudden name call causes the child to perk up, looking over at his parents as he coos out.

Y/n noticed the kids reaction and smirks. “Grogu.” He repeats and again the child’s ears perk up and his eyes widen with joy.

Ahsoka watches the Dark fey kneel down at the child’s level and stroke his long ears as Din sits across from her. She takes this time to explain to him about Grogu; where he’s from and how the Jedi order had fallen during the clone wars. She also tells him about the previous master that was the same species as Grogu that she once knew. Once she’s done explaining the notices the child falling asleep which makes her smile a little. “I’ll train him in the morning, for now we rest.”

Din can only nod as he stands up and takes the kid with him, wrapping him up in his cloak as he heads towards a spot that was comfortable for them to sleep. As y/n rises from the ground he hears Ahsoka ask. “You’re a Dark fey.”

Y/n turns around to see her approach him. “I once met a fey, back when I was still in training.” She says. The feys eyes can only widen in relazation. “You’ve met a fey before?” He asks.

Ahsoka nods her head. “Of course, back when I still training with my masters we once crashed into their home planet. We’ve never heard about their species or where they came from, they were unknown to the rest of the worlds.” She explains. “The ones I met were Aster; the chief of his people and Neela the chiefs wife. She too was a force sensitive but their people didn’t know much about the force so they simply called her, ‘the special one’.”

Y/n is shocked by her words. Have their been Fey around this whole time? Was he not the only one? Could it be possible for him to visit this planet? He had so many questions to ask.

“What—what were they like?” He stutters out, licking his lips as he grips his cloak.

Ahsoka smiles as she nods towards the stump, offering him to sit as she continues to talk about this planet that she once knew.

“The Dark fey were very traditional people and kind. They welcomed us very quickly and taught us their traditions.” She continues on as y/n sits down to listen. “Aster, the chief, had a son who became very close to one of my masters.” She chuckles at the fond memory of her Master Obi-wan.

“Dark fey have this traditions when it comes to finding loved ones,” she says. “Theirs was a dance a very special dance—“ she glanced over at the Mandalorian who was sleeping against a tree with Grogu tucked underneath his arm. “By any chance are you and the Mandalorian together?”

Y/n’s face flushes red as he clears his throat, reaching up to run the back of his neck nervously. “We’ve been bonded together for awhile now.” He shyly looks away from her piercing blue eyes. “Why do you ask?”

Ahsoka hums. “While I was speaking to the child, he told me about you both and how much of a strong connection you have with the Mandalorian.” She adjusts her own cape. “Grogu really cares about you both, he sees you as his family. As parents.” Her eyes sadden at the realization.

Y/n is quick to notice the change of mood, sitting up straight he feels his wings twitch again. “Is that a good thing?” He suddenly grows anxious.

“In your way, yes. But in the Jedi way, it is forbidden.” She sighs out. “In order to become a Jedi you have to avoid attachments. My old Master...he could’ve easily fallen away from the order the day the Chiefs son proposed to him. My master was oblivious during that time and had no idea that the fey was proposing, I could sense his happiness of just being around your people and around him too but—“ she frowns. “He was a selfish fool who only thought about putting his order first before him.” This was the first time that she actually spoke ill about her master. She knew how much Obi-Wan cared and loved the man, she remembers the presents Obi-wan would receive from the fey and how happy he was to just have a small stone given to him. She knew he was happy and she wanted him to stay on that planet with him. But, she can only watch as her master broke the feys heart and telling him that he couldn’t have these attachments. For the first time she felt upset towards her master, upset that he wouldn’t put his own happiness first.

“But, Grogu needs your help.” Y/n whispers out.

“I know he does, but I can’t train him. I can’t lead him down a dark path.” Ahsoka’ voice grows into a small whisper. She knows how much the child means to them and separating him from his family can only upset Grogu and the fear that he holds can easily take him down a dark path, something she can’t bare to see again.

Y/n bites his lip, looking over his shoulder to see his partner and Grogu resting with each other. “Their is another way.” He turns his attention back to Ahsoka. “I can try and train him in the morning but if the child refuses to listen then your second option will be to take him to a Jedi temple. There he will decide his path.”

Y/n heaves out a deep sigh and nods. “Okay.” He says softly as Ahsoka places her hand on his shoulder and gives it a soft squeeze. “Get some rest.” She adds and stands from her spot.

Before she could find her own place to sleep she is stopped by y/n. “The Dark fey, you said their was a planet full of them—do you know where?” He asks desperate to know.

Ahsoka gives him a confused look. “I thought you were from there.”

Y/n shakes his head. “I don’t remember my parents or their names.” He was still a child when he found out that he was the only fey. “I was sold into slavery, passed down by many different masters. I was treated like any other; punished, neglected, sometimes they would tear my feathers away.”

Ahsoka gasps. “A feys wings are considered precious to them and no one is to touch them unless given permission too.” She is shocked to know about this.

“A feys wings are senstive as a child that was my punishment. I didn’t learn how to fly until I got older, but before anything else the mandalorians saved me—“ he looks towards Din and smiles. “Din and I were kids. He was my first friend, my first everything.” He blushes. “We grew up together, I didn’t take the creed due to me being a fey. I wanted to know more about my kind and see if I could find anyone that knew about us but, I never succeed.” He remembers spending his years doing research about the fey, only finding few books and holos about his kind. He remembers annoying the Armorer to let him go search around the area and see if could find just one hint of information about his own people. But in the end he found nothing and accept his fate of being the last one.

But now, now he’s found someone that has met, not just one, but a whole planet full of them and he’s desperate to know where this planet is located.

“I want to see more fey, I want to see my people.” He pleads out. “Please, anything you have can help me.” He looks into her blue eyes, giving her a pleading look.

Ahsoka Can sense his emotions; anger, sadness, joy, relief. She gives off a sad sigh, reaching under her cloak she pulls out a holo. Showing it to y/n. “Before we left I made sure to gather as much information as I could about the Dark fey. Their elders trusted me with this information and allowed me to add their coordinates if we were to ever visit again.” Her fingers graze over the holo before giving it a soft squeeze and handing it over to y/n.

“Take it and go find yourself a place that you can call home.”

Y/ns heart beats loudly as he eyes the holo in Ahsokas hand. Nervously he takes it into his own and bites his lip, holding back tears of joy. “Thank you.”

Ahsoka nods. “You’re welcome.” Smiling at the fey she nudges him towards the Mandalorian. “Best for you to rest, tomorrow we train Grogu.” Y/n sniff and clears his throat. “Right.” He agrees with her and puts away the holo into his own pocket. Turning around he heads towards Din and Grogu, quietly removing his own cape as he drapes it over the two. He sits down next to him and leans his head against Dins shoulder, his wings stretching out and wrapping themselves around his small family and smiles.

[certified-anakinfucker]

📓!

and for you, darling love, a summary of reasons why pava serko really needs a fucking break and also some coffee

once again, going under the cut because it's gonna get looooong

(and yes, the gif is marginally related to pava too - send me a book emoji and i'll tell you abt a storyline that i keep daydreaming!)

so, relating back to this post about jupso, pava was established as the older of his two padawans. born on mirial, brought to the temple when they were young, gifted with the vision of a seer.

much like jupso, they were herald to a very Important prophecy that held the fate of the very order of the force in its hands. they were shown the prophecy of the splintered force. and this prophecy included within it the coming of the chosen one.

(funny story about that - pava is a good eight years older than qui-gon jinn. they knew about the prophecy before jinn could fight properly. the fact that jinn bulldozed his way into the council to proclaim HE was the only one who believed in the prophecy really made pava want to shoot him, amongst a laundry list of other reasons.)

so, pava.. tries to work through this. their master is already struggling with his own prophecy of cataclysm, and pava holds onto every warning about the future grandmaster's danger; but much like jupso, they were blindsided by just how minutely the danger seeped into every crack.

starting with their finding of fae-blooded obi-wan kenobi on stewjon, alongside two mirialan "foundlings" iomara and neela ondri. they swore to the toddler's family that he would be safe and looked after, and that was a promise they intended to keep.

but pava couldn't fight the council. they practically had raised obi-wan until he was ready to take his padawan trials, but before they were able to put in an application to become kenobi's master - of course qui-gon swooped in and stole it. yoda's blessing and all. which.. held a number of red flags. 1) proximity to yoda's influence 2) literally just being too close to yoda for anything good to come of it 3) DOOKU'S LINEAGE COMING FROM YODA'S LINEAGE DAMNIT

pava had to cow out of it. and practically didn't see obi-wan again for fuck knows how long, because pava was a bit busy with the splintered force; first finding the infant chandrika banshara, who would later be known as the storm goddess of the outer rim (belonging to the lovely @pentothestars!) and making the hard decision of leaving the twi'lek child who had done everything to keep the infant alive (her name is sed'tiran and boy does she hold a grudge against jedi now), to having to watch their near-aged friend who was jupso's second padawan hacora kushiri be murdered (by mundi because hacora was too outspoken about her distrust of the beloved grandmaster.... fuck you, mundi) soon after her own padawan amira sayzeen was knighted, to having to raise chandrika's son who was taken from her by her blip-in-the-force master, to dying just months before obi-wan was able to return to the temple after qui-gon's death and the discovery of anakin on tatooine.

and yes, of course, pava is too fucking angry to stay gone. pava willed themself back as a force spirit because there was too much to be done. rumor has it that the reason qui-gon's spirit never returned to the temple after his death is because he knew pava would kick his shit in EXPEDITIOUSLY. and he's absolutely correct.

a nice little tidbit though, is that pava - as a force spirit - was able to strong-arm a new master for obi-wan upon his return. grandmaster windu knew right off the bat that obi-wan was going to THERAPY and wouldn't be anakin's master no matter what qui-gon's dying words were. and obi-wan got a very sweet master who is an incredibly supportive dad and does his best to help obi-wan with his trauma. thanks fuckface jinn

so pava is around for tcw, mostly checking in on chandrika + little beda when she calls for them, or hanging around the temple in the little mirialan sector. (ironically, hacora is at peace in the force. no one else is LOL) just trying to do their best where they can, and keep the splintered force beings ...... in one piece

[jalebi-likes]

Tera Mera (Barun Sobti’s Music Video) Liveblog

My whole trust on this lies on the fact that this is a papon song and that guy is a true musician. If Barun ever does a bad shah song I’m just gonna yeet myself out of this world

Also, TTji just added that Barun would never do this. But also she traumatically flash backed to the goggles he wore on EJ… so never say never. 

But honestly his choices in music videos haven’t been that bad. 

“Ready” asks Jalebi

“Will I ever be ready” replies TT @tellywoodtrash​

Neela Neela ocean. Ocean means Arnav. Haye trust me to connect the two. 

Yay Barun looks cute - 

she looks SO PRETTY. 

SAME BARUN SAME - I AM LOOKING AT HER AND YOU THE SAME WAY.

PAPON’S NEW LOOK??? Bro... I miss your long hair days...

Barun and Sonarika is a good pair. Didn’t realise that. 

Aye I want that cake, so does TTji. 

This character knows how to get into a woman’s heart - free cake. 

Now he’s angstily standing in front of a wall - tummy main problem hai? 

I have no idea why he’s sad. Barun literally has puppy eyes. The most puppy eyes ever.

BARUN IN A WHITE SHIRT AND BIKE - RIDZZZZZZZZZ @ridzmystique​

IT IS A V NECKED WHITE SHIRT. 

I still don’t get the sad undertone but it’s a sweet video tbh. 

“She looks like Mahira” - TTji

Is he seeing a ghost? Cause he has this angsty feel + puppy eyes. 

TTji and I are convinced she’s a ghost. He’s very sad. 

Ooh he touched her hand and she left… is she a ghost? Kya hai? The song is GOOD…. 

She’s a ghost - she keeps walking into the light. Then his sad face makes sense. 

Iska every beloved either dies or cheats or leaves him or khud hi barbaad karta hai - his characters have the worst love lives - poor guy.

Oh wait she’s alive? LOVE THE SONG… LOVE IT. The sufiana is killing me.

Warm lighting setup really compliments him compared to cooler colors.

Aye Haye are they reconnecting? Yes, please do but what is the story behind it? 

Woh samaj nahi aaya par acha laga. 

The most decent music video I’ve seen in a long time. LONG LONG TIME. 

Papon da rocks. 

Also, Barun looked so good with Sonarika - they should do a show together.

TTji’s last thoughts “No thoughts, this bitch empty *YEET*”

Also she was very appreciative of Sonarika’s figure :D

P.S: Had an idea to watch old Sanaya music videos too... what do you say guys?

Love,

[solalunar-eclipse]

Team Dark: A Holiday Special

Chapter One: Omega

Two | Three

Word count: about 5800 words

WARNING: this chapter contains entomophagy (eating insects)

Author's Note: I'm finally back! Sorry to make you all wait so long, but I really wanted to get this project out by December, so...here it is. I hope you all enjoy! (Also, apologies in advance for any bad formatting: Tumblr is being very uncooperative right now.)

...

It was, officially, a ‘lazy day’.

Team Dark was spending time at home, resting after the holiday frenzy of yesterday. Rouge had suddenly realized that they hadn’t decorated yet and that they all still needed to come up with present ideas for Team Sonic, so she and Shadow had spent the entire time in a sort of constant state of panic. Omega tried his best to help them, intermixed with a lot of gloating about his perfect memory and how he’d remembered to get a gift already.

He’d gotten punched halfway across the room for that one.

Now, a certain striped hedgehog was relaxing in his room, reading a book quietly. Until (of course) the peaceful silence was shattered by a loud blaring noise that sent him racing out the door and halfway down the stairs to their common area. Rouge was standing in the middle of the room, and shouted out to him, “Shadow! Come down here, I’m calling a group meeting!” Shadow winced and massaged one of his ears, his quills relaxing from their startled position as he walked over and sat down on the couch. He glowered at Rouge, who stood in front of him with the ‘team meeting airhorn’ still in hand. Despite his stare, she was still poised to blast again if Omega didn’t show up soon. Thankfully for Shadow’s hearing, Omega appeared quickly, albeit with much complaining about being dragged away from his targeting system calibrations. “Alright, Rouge, what’s all this about?” the hedgehog sighed, leaning forward and resting his arms on his knees. She smiled cautiously at the two of them. “Before I say anything, I want you guys to know that this offer is optional. If it’s too much for you, you don’t have to say yes.” Omega spun one of his hands around, making a slight whirring noise. “Please continue.” Rouge sat down on one end of the aforementioned couch, sinking into the cushions with a sigh. “Okay. Let’s see. I haven’t...ever talked to you guys about my family before, have I?” “I do not recall you initiating any such conversation.” Omega answered, at the same time as Shadow replied, “No….?” “Well. Considering everything...I kind of figured it’s about time I told you all my story.” She smiled again, but it was a little bittersweet. Shadow inched closer, caution sparking in his eyes. “Where to start...I mean, I have a mom, two sisters, a stepsister, a stepbrother, and a stepmom. And a dad too, I guess?” “You guess?” Omega asked skeptically, before being shot a fierce ‘no questions‘ look by Shadow. “It’s alright, hon.” Rouge said, putting a hand on the hedgehog’s shoulder. “I guess I should really start at the beginning.” “My dad was a cat and my mom is a bat- obviously, hah. My two officially related sisters are twins, three years younger than me. Right before they were born, though...my dad left. He took all the cash with him when he did. And, well. Left Mom with a barely-paid-for apartment and without a job. “We, uh. Heard later that he ran off with some lady from his job. Mom...didn’t take it too well.” Shadow’s eyes widened and Omega smacked a fist into one hand. “Rouge. Is your father, hypothetically, good at withstanding high-powered attacks from a hypothetical extremely destructive robot?” She snickered. “No, he’s not. But please don’t actually fight him, alright?” His hands crackling with chaos energy, Shadow hissed, “Rouge...I think I like his plan.” He bared his fangs as he spoke, looking furious. Rouge smiled gratefully at the both of them. “Thanks, guys, but he’s really not even worth your time. Let me keep going, okay?” Omega sat back, irritated at the lack of pulverizing Rouge’s father going on, and Shadow, reluctantly, allowed his chaos energy to dissipate. “Yeah, so he left, and that was a whole thing. Mom worked hard for us, but it just...wasn’t enough to make ends meet. I started my career of...relieving people of their fancy objects-” here she winked- “at the age of eleven to help out. Dropped out of school after eighth grade to start full-time thievery once I turned fourteen, and, yeah. I had to leave home, otherwise Mom and the twins would’ve been in real trouble. “I got busted after two whole years by the one and only Guardian Units of Nations- not a bad streak, if I do say so myself. Then, I started working for G.U.N. to pay my dues to society, and...you all know the rest after that. I still kept sending checks back to the family, though.” Shadow and Omega were both looking at her with unreadable expressions at this point. “I’ve stopped doing that now, actually, since Mom’s been with her girlfriend for like a year now. She’s dating this super sweet cardinal who gives her basically everything my dad never did- her name’s Camellia and she has two little kids from her last marriage. She’s been so good for Mom, honestly.

“I know it’s usually supposed to be this whole thing where the stepdaughter hates the stepmom, but that’s not for me. When I got the news, I was just like ‘Oh, so that’s why I’m pan’ - yeah, really- and now I’m cool with it. Plus, I’ve got two new little sibs, so it’s all fine.

“So...yeah. That’s my family.”

Shadow sat there in deep thought for a minute. “Your family sounds nice...I’m just sorry you had to go through all of that.” he said, when he finally spoke up.

“Yeah, they’re great- and it’s okay. I mean, if it wasn’t for all that, I never would’ve found you guys!” she said, looking much brighter now. “Now that you know about them, you wanna see some pictures?”

“Certainly.” Omega said, curious to see these people that Rouge cared for so deeply.

“Okay, so...these are my twin sisters, Midori and Neela.” she said, showing a social media post of two identical coffee-colored cats posing for a selfie. Even their fur markings were exactly the same, as well as the shade of their golden eyes. Despite the fact that they were felines, something about them looked an awful lot like Rouge. The shape of their faces, perhaps?

“And here’s Camellia and Mom.” A picture came up of a beaming, moderately curvy white bat and an equally overjoyed cardinal with their arms around each other in front of a beautiful sunset.

“This is Jade, my stepsister, she’s ten-” Rouge showed an image of a young goldfinch playing soccer, kicking the ball fiercely. “-and that’s Spark, my stepbrother.” A small cardinal with a grin as broad as his mother’s was swinging on a swing at a playground, his eyes bright with the excitement of childhood.

Shadow smiled, looking as though he were a mixture of genuine happiness and a little ever-present pain. “They all look wonderful, Rouge. I’m...honored...that you felt like you could show us this.”

“That wasn’t so bad, honestly- I’ve been wanting to figure out how to do that for a while.” the bat said. “This is going to be the hard part.”

Two pairs of eyes watched her expectantly.

She exhaled. “Every year...my family has this big, three-day Wintersweek party. And when I say big, I mean seven out of my mom’s nine siblings and their spouses and kids. Like, more than twenty guests big.”

Omega interrupted her there. “If your mother has nine siblings, why did none of them bother to help her when she needed them?”

Rouge looked at the floor, a little sad. “Four of them were in debt themselves, two live in crazy places around the world and didn’t really know, and...the other three tried to help. Mom refused to take more than she could pay back. They still helped do other stuff like watch us while Mom was working, though.”

“Understood. You may continue.” Omega replied, shifting into a slightly less confrontational pose.

“So. I always go to this party, except for those two years when I was on the run. This is going to be my third year back. And…

“I really, really, reallyreally want to introduce my family to my two best friends. You know, the ones who live with me and always have my back and mean the world to me.” she said, looking straight at Shadow and Omega. The former blushed a faint green at the praise, while the latter scoffed.

“Of course you wish to do so. Our excellence is unparalleled.”

Rouge smiled hopefully at them. “I know it’s a lot to ask of you guys, but...will you come to the party this year?”

Omega processed this for a minute. “How amenable is your family towards weapons of incredible destructive power being present in their home?”

“Well, see, about that….” Rouge muttered. “...you might have to empty your weapons cartridges before we go.”

“I am unsure if this is an acceptable outcome. I will respect your wishes to an extent, but I refuse to be without weaponry at my disposal.”

The bat thought for a moment. “...you can bring the flamethrower, but only if you put a PIN lock on it.”

“...”

“...”

Rouge stared him down. “There’s going to be kids there. Kids.”

“Accepted.” Omega said finally. His tone switched to a more triumphant note as he added, “I shall come and impress all of your relatives with my power.”

Shadow had reservations, too. “Won’t it be weird, having people who aren’t really your family there?”

“Shadow…” she said gently. “...you two are as close to me as my ‘real family’, and I want you to be there.”

Omega noted that Shadow was behaving in a manner that suggested he was ‘flustered’. He folded his arms tightly, lowered his head, and his mouth was pressed tightly into a line- an attempt to hide a smile. “...but won’t I take up too much space? An extra bed is more difficult to manage than an outlet.”

Rouge sighed sharply, becoming frustrated with his hesitance. “Mom has air mattresses up to her ears specifically for this, and she lives in Camellia’s house now, which has like ten bedrooms anyway. And you’re totally not going to be ‘a bother’ or anything, so don’t even say that. Mom basically screamed when she found out I was bringing people, and I mean that in a good way. She didn’t stop asking me questions for half an hour.”

“I…” Shadow said tentatively, close to giving in.

“If they’re ever too much for you, though, just feel free to hide in one of the back rooms. There’s plenty of places where you won’t be disturbed.”

The hedgehog sighed, but he didn’t look upset. “I suppose I can try, for you.”

“Yes!” Rouge shouted, kicking her legs before getting up and bouncing up and down. “Heck yeah! This is gonna be great!”

…

Over the next week, they discussed the party numerous times, and Rouge spent a lot of time sitting in the middle of mountains of wrapping paper, packaging presents for her family. Omega and Shadow had tried to help her, but she’d insisted that they not worry about it. “It’s my family,” she had said, waving them away. “You being there is already more than enough. I’d never ask anything else of you.”

Shadow had still made cupcakes, though. Omega helped with the icing.

On the first day of the event, they set off early, making the several hours’ drive from Central City up to Rouge’s family’s house (north of Empire City) so that they’d arrive just before lunch. Thinking of Shadow, Rouge didn’t want him in particular to get caught up in the early (and supposedly quite intense) greetings that her family usually participated in. Omega resolved to turn his force output down just a little- he didn’t want to accidentally break someone’s hand instead of merely shaking it in introduction.

Of course, this all meant they had to endure a four-hour car ride together, involving lots of fights over what music was playing, several different long-distance driving games, and multiple threats to toss one another out the window while moving at 80 mph or more.

So, generally uneventful for them.

...

When they arrived at the family’s house, the E-series robot decreased his optic zoom to 85% just to take the entire place in. It was truly an enormous building, built from what appeared to be stone but on closer inspection was...actually stone. Unexpected, yet impressive.

Omega was mildly uncertain about the heating capabilities of such a house, but at least it was structurally sound. He would have to decide on its defensibility later.

“Wow.” Shadow muttered, his eyes wide. “I know you said it had ten bedrooms, but...wow.”

“I said I wasn’t messing around with you!” Rouge laughed brightly. “This place is crazy big.”

As soon as they opened the door and the bat stepped inside, the team was greeted by a loud shout of “Rouge!” from various delighted family members.

Her immediate family rushed over first, giving her lots of hugs (while her parents relieved Omega of the numerous presents she’d had him carry). Her stepbrother jumped up and down, asking, “Did you bring a present for me? Do I get one? Do I?”

Rouge smiled at him, picking the little cardinal up and giving him a hug. “Of course you do. There’s one right over there!” she said, pointing towards the giant pile of presents.

Rouge’s mother came rushing back over at that, greeting her daughter with a tight embrace. “Oh!” she exclaimed, noticing Omega and Shadow standing by the door. “Are these your friends, Rouge? Come on, introduce us!”

The younger bat grinned. “Alright, so this is my partner-in-crime and our resident edgy goth, Shadow,” she said, gesturing towards the hedgehog. He responded with a glower at Rouge for the latter remark and a polite “Nice to meet you.” to the family.

“And this is my personal palanquin (just kidding, just kidding) and awesome destroyer of enemies, Omega.”

“Greetings, Rouge’s relatives.” Omega said, turning his volume down to a level that Rouge had termed ‘inside voice’. First impressions and all that.

After making their way through many, many more greetings- which Omega recorded to play back for name storage later- the team were finally seated at one of the large couches in the living room. Rouge, being Rouge, began to chat cheerfully with a couple of her family members, describing her latest escapades with the other two team members as well as her general social life.

Shadow and Omega didn’t speak much at first, but the latter in particular soon began to interrupt her stories to point out multiple inaccuracies (mostly Rouge underplaying how utterly awesome he was). He found that he quite enjoyed talking about their various adventures, in fact.

However, the three quickly discovered that some of Rouge’s relatives had...misunderstood her stories.

One of the many aunts- whose name Omega had not yet stored- spoke up. “Rouge, I know you said you were bringing friends, but you don’t have to be shy with us, sweetie. Shadow here seems like a very thoughtful boyfriend.”

Chaos ensued. Rouge choked on her water and Omega had to pound her on the back to help her breathe again. Meanwhile, Shadow seemed to have reflexively assumed a defensive, curled-up position, yet Omega could still make out a faint glow of green from within the black and red ball.

“No!” the bat shouted, once she’d regained her breath. “No, no, we’re only friends, really!”

Her aunt seemed unconvinced, as did several other guests.

Shadow slowly uncurled, prepared to back Rouge up- though he seemed to have temporarily forgotten how to speak in his shock. His mouth moved silently, and he seemed to be having trouble stringing together a coherent sentence.

“I am not romantically involved with Rouge in any way.” he began slowly. “I assure you, she means the world to me, but in a platonic manner. I am grateful to have a friend like her, but that is all we are to each other.”

Several other relatives decided to weigh in on this.

“He seems like a very polite friend!”

“Rouge, even if you’re not together, you had better hang on to this one.”

“He certainly likes you, and that’s what’s important.”

“It’s alright if you aren’t dating, honey!” Rouge’s mom added. “Healthy platonic relationships are very important.”

The younger bat shook her head, covering her eyes with her hand. “Guys, please.” she groaned, before looking over at Shadow.

The hybrid appeared to be surreptitiously trying to get in touch with his hedgehog heritage and burrow underneath the cushions by this point. Rouge grinned at him and wrapped an arm around his waist, pulling him back out into the open. “Come on, don’t make him embarrassed! It’s only day one, guys!” 

Shadow cringed at that. Omega, meanwhile, was most definitely not recording any of this and storing it safely in his blackmail folder. Not at all.

…

A little later on, after everyone had eaten lunch, Omega (being the strongest on the team, despite Shadow’s protests otherwise) hauled their suitcases upstairs with little trouble. Rouge had been too busy talking to come with him, and Shadow looked as though he’d buried himself in a pile of cushions and probably wouldn’t be moved without extreme force, so he’d gone up alone.

Looking around the small room, he...found it quite tolerable, honestly. Sunlight streamed in through two medium-sized windows, and there were several empty floating shelves on the walls for their things, as well as a linen closet. There were only two beds in the room, since Omega just required a…

Ah, there it was. A charging port.

The robot was actually more pleased than he expected with the amount of mock evergreen, poinsettias, and other such ornaments in the room, though. He wasn’t much one for artistic expression himself (preferring to express his thoughts via some choice language and a few well-aimed rockets), but his friends were more...appreciative of such things and would likely enjoy the decoration.

Bored with examining the room already, he put down the suitcases and began to explore the house, trying to figure out what the floor plan looked like. He walked through all of the different rooms, enjoying himself while examining all of the possible defensive vantage points and the most optimal attack areas. 

Sure, fighting was his job, but who said he couldn’t enjoy contingency planning? Mapping out attacks on his place of residence and figuring out how to best repel invaders was one of his favorite pastimes (right up there with visiting the mall with his friends).

However, once he had planned out about five different strategies, he realized that an hour had gone by and that it was probably a good idea to go check up on said friends.

After he carefully made his way back downstairs- trying to walk in a way that didn’t shake the house was difficult- he saw Rouge still chatting with some of her cousins and looking very happy. Shadow was barely even visible, curled up in a dark corner and alternating between reading and listening to the conversation. Everyone honestly seemed to be enjoying themselves.

However, there was one jarring thing about this warm, familial scene that Omega noticed. 

The little children.

They were everywhere. Climbing their parents like a jungle gym, interrupting conversations left and right, running around underfoot, and generally causing mayhem in their wake. While Omega highly appreciated their impressive ability to cause confusion and chaos, he suspected that most of the other people here did not. Multiple guests looked ready to break something, and the robot was fully aware that Rouge’s family did not share his opinions on wanton destruction.

So, he decided to do something about this.

“SMALL CHILDREN,” he shouted, gaining the attention of the entire household. “I CHALLENGE YOU TO A SNOWBALL FIGHT.” That was an acceptable (and fun) form of violence, if he remembered correctly. Rouge certainly looked interested.

The children began to bounce around in various states of excitement, their energy somehow increasing exponentially at this prospect. “Whose team will you be on, mister?” Rouge’s stepbrother asked bravely. 

“MY OWN. NONE OF YOU CAN DEFEAT ME.” Omega declared.

“Yeah, right!” an older child shouted. “Come on, guys, let’s go!”

The entire group rushed outside and began to build a snow fort for the upcoming attack. Most of the children were clearly struggling to organize, as half seemed to comprehend the need for a well-structured creation and half were just piling up snow like maniacs.

Meanwhile, Omega began to carefully form large building blocks out of the snow, building a formidable fortress (snow could be imposing, alright??). Once he was satisfied with his semicircle construction, he noticed that he still had a few minutes to wait before the children finished theirs. He spent this time making snowballs, as well as a few other...adjustments. When the children shouted out “Ready!”, he was more than prepared.

Since they were, again, Rouge’s relatives, he was very, very generous and gave them the first chance to fire. The children launched snowball after snowball, but he ducked behind his fort and only one found its mark. Once they were all out of ammunition and scrambling for more, he felt a smug sense of satisfaction.

It was time.

He loaded his arms full of snowballs…

And proceeded to launch them out of his machine gun ports at the children.

The kids scattered in all directions, shrieking with a mixture of fear and excitement. Omega, during their attack, had thought to make even more projectiles, turning what was supposed to be organized warfare into a one-sided rampage of destruction.

By now, Rouge had appeared on the deck and was currently howling with laughter, tears streaming down her face as she watched Omega launch his onslaught of snow. Shadow was standing at the doorway along with several others, a giant wicked grin spread across his face.

The E-series robot truly wished he could make that second expression right now. He turned to Rouge, watching her cackle…

...and immediately proceeded to fire a massive amount of snow at her as well. Her laughter transformed into a gasp of mock betrayal as she scooped up some of the offending substance, packing it into a weapon of her own. “Oh. It. Is. On.”, she hissed, shaking the snow off her wings.

Taking to the skies, she began a counterattack, distracting Omega with varied sizes of snowballs and forcing him to try and fire directly upwards. The children, realizing that they had a powerful ally in Rouge, began to make new projectiles themselves and threw them at him from all sides, until Omega finally found that he was struggling to handle the attack.

As he began to turn the tide again, he realized suddenly that this was entirely due to Rouge’s absence…

...and of course that was when a shadow fell over him.

Followed by a giant pile of snow.

He flailed in the icy trap as he struggled to regain his bearings. Once he had managed to clamber halfway out of the snow, he saw Rouge hovering above him. Her wings struggled to hold her in the air as she laughed again, and he noticed sulkily that she was holding a sheet.

“Cheater.” he muttered, indignant at having been trapped in such an unflattering manner.

“Cheating?! From the guy who launched snowballs like missiles? Really?” she shouted down to him good-naturedly, shaking her head. “Talk about hypocritical, Omega.”

The E-series robot still insisted on having the last laugh, though- he had to get out somehow, so he powered on all of his fans at full blast to clear away the snow. And if everyone was standing too close to avoid the resulting icy shower, well then that was their problem.

After that, though, everyone had to go inside and dry themselves off. Organics couldn’t handle being wet and cold very well, and Omega didn’t like the idea of his circuitry being shorted out. He felt a great sense of satisfaction at having established his status as the cool one on the very first day, though.

He spent a little more time with the young ones after that, playing several rounds of a popular card game called One with them and stacking up all of the plus-fours. The robot showed no mercy even in games.

Several children, evidently impressed by his prowess (or perhaps just in awe of the fact that he was a giant robot) begged him for promises that he would play more tomorrow, to which he quickly agreed. Not long after, to everyone’s disappointment, the kids’ parents came and practically dragged them to the dinner table, having shouted their names four or five times by this point.

As he walked into the dining room, Omega surveyed the area, focusing for a moment on the glow that the many candles gave off on the table. Fire was always a nice touch.

Looking further, he noticed that the wooden table alone was a formidable piece of furniture, filling the largest room in the house and forcing some chairs to squeeze up against the wall just to make space. And that wasn’t even mentioning the feast laid out on top of it. Omega ignored that for now in favor of sitting down on one side of Rouge after he saw her at the table. Looking over to her other side, he noticed Shadow surveying the food spread out on the table with what most would consider a completely blank look.

Omega, however, had experience with analyzing Shadow’s facial expressions, and noted the slight tension in his face as well as the fact that he was fidgeting with his silverware. Both he and Rouge had a good idea as to why, too- Shadow didn’t need any of this.

The hybrid had been created with incredible physical resilience, able to withstand the most arduous of conditions. This included a significant lack of food. He actually ate only about three times a week, and even then he only consumed small meals. While it was about time for him to eat today, the fact that there would be even more food over the next couple of days seemed to have produced a conundrum for him.

If he ate now, he wouldn’t need to later, which could be quite awkward, particularly when everybody else would. Omega thought through the options and decided that there were three main paths he could take: eat now and not later, not eat now but do so later, or possibly attempt to eat a little on all three days.

Rouge seemed to have realized this as well. Leaning over to Shadow, she whispered, “Whatever you want to do is fine, hon. It’s okay if you eat a lot over these few days- everyone else here will too. If you don’t want to, though, that’s cool- just make sure you have something at some point, alright?”

The robot watched as Shadow relaxed slightly at her understanding words. The change was almost imperceptible, but he now sat back in his chair instead of forward, and he’d stopped adjusting his place setting.

Once everyone was seated and they’d given a quick toast, the family began to dig in. Shadow sat back and waited for everyone else to take some food first- a wise choice. Rouge, on the other hand, entered the rather impressive food frenzy with a voracity that her team members knew all too well- she often complained that one of her few vices (aside from gems and other sparkly objects) was food.

Omega took this time to survey what he could see of the dishes, interested in finding out for himself what a proper Wintersweek meal looked like. He saw two dishes that appeared to be some sort of poultry, as well as bowls of finger food that looked like they were filled with crickets and beetles. Various platters of cooked vegetables in every color of the rainbow covered the table, some with sliced fruit available as well. Loaves of bread in multiple shapes and sizes were scattered throughout the presentation, accented by artfully placed centerpieces.

Quite honestly, it looked impressive.

Rouge had a little bit of everything on her plate, and was currently digging into a buttery baked potato like she hadn’t eaten in weeks. Omega silently put his napkin next to her plate, the (sarcastic) message clear: You need this more than I do.

Shadow, meanwhile, had taken a little fruit, one piece of meat, and two slices of bread, but seemed very hesitant to eat much more than that. He looked to be quite invested in a conversation that several of the adults were having about their own teenage experiences, often leaning in slightly when a funny story came up.

Omega mostly kept an eye on his friends, while also half listening to the children talk about the latest video game that had become popular. It seemed to contain lots of fighting combined with some impressive storytelling, and the robot made a note of the game title for his own use later.

However, as he checked on Rouge again, making sure she hadn’t choked on her food, he noticed that she had left her plate to the side in favor of talking to her family about...wait.

Omega knew this story.

This was a story where he was walking through the halls of an abandoned underground hideout for a highly sophisticated ring of criminals (an assignment for their entire team). In which said diabolical criminals had installed multiple traps designed to keep people out. And these traps. Included magnets. That specifically messed up artificial intelligence.

Omega’s memory had been severely impaired by the event, but Shadow and Rouge told him later that they had discovered him stumbling around the main hub of the base, rambling out loud about things as ridiculous as current weather patterns and- he shuddered internally- kittens. He was eternally grateful for this memory loss, though, as the two had apparently, instead of taking this seriously, dissolved into helpless laughter on the spot.

Of course, they had taken him to Tails to get fixed up. But not until after Rouge had filmed another five minutes or so of him acting absolutely loopy while their laughter, punctuated with the occasional gasp for breath, filled the background.

And she was just getting to the part where they found him now-!

The E-series robot shot out of his chair and clamped a hand over Rouge’s mouth, turning his volume low and hissing “Don’t you dare.” in her ear.

Unfortunately, this only added to everyone else’s interest, as Rouge began to cackle loudly at Omega’s evident embarrassment and her memory of the event. “Tell us! Tell us!” Camellia (Rouge’s stepmother) cried out, clapping her hands and looking for all the world like a child who had just been handed a chocolate bar. 

“Help me, Shadow!” Rouge shouted through the steel grip on her face, slurring her words with laughter. The hybrid, happy to take a break from the crowded room and equally happy to shame Omega, pried the robot off of Rouge and somehow managed to drag him out of the room as everyone now leaned in to hear her finish the story.

“So we were really worried, right? Since we hadn’t heard anything? And then we-”

Shadow shut the door on her voice and smirked at Omega, but there was a tinge of real happiness in his expression. “It’s alright, Omega. She doesn’t actually want you to feel bad, you know.”

“That’s what you say.” he scoffed. “Rouge isn’t in there telling them about the time you didn’t eat for a month on a mission and then binge-”

“Alright, alright!” Shadow groaned. “I get it, but let’s let her have fun, alright? This is her family, after all.”

“Fine.” Omega grumbled. “But I will get you back for this.”

“Sure you will.” Shadow raised an eyebrow at him.

This led to a fierce staring match/arm-wrestling battle and subsequent argument over who won, immediately followed by Omega pulling out his phone and the two watching a recently popular obstacle course show. Of course, they both agreed that they could do far better than any of the contestants.

Eventually, though, as the evening wore on, the two joined back up with Rouge to head to their room. Shadow took a hot shower while Rouge changed into her favorite pajamas- they were soft and white with little pink hearts all over (her favorite colors). 

She yawned loudly just as the hybrid walked in, already wrapped in a blanket and pulling on some plain black nightwear. He didn’t really need it, but his fifty-year stint in what was essentially a superpowered freezer had left him with a distinct dislike for the cold.

Omega had already plugged into the outlet and begun to charge, but yet…”Why don’t I get a blanket?”

“What the heck d’ you want one for?” Rouge muttered, already exhausted. 

“Well, you both have them.” he muttered sulkily, glowering at them from his corner of the room.

The bat opened up the closet in the room, looking up at the top shelf. “Shadow, c’mere. I can’t reach this thing by myself.” 

He walked over quickly, not appearing to be tired at all. Omega, as always, knew better, and saw the fatigue from the long day that he tried to hide behind his “Ultimate Lifeform” title.

Rouge jumped onto his shoulders in a practiced movement, snatching a pale purple fluffy blanket from the shelf and flinging it half-heartedly at Omega. “There’s your blanket.” she declared, before jumping straight from Shadow to her bed.

She settled into her usual sleeping position, with her feet hooked over the headboard and her face and pillow about halfway down the bed. It wasn’t a typical behavior for most, but she was a bat, after all. “‘Night, guys.” she murmured, already half asleep.

Shadow carefully lifted his blankets and slid under them, trying to keep them as neat as possible. The hedgehog shifted into a half-curled position, displaying his quills to the world and protecting his vulnerable legs and chest. “Sleep well, Rouge. Goodnight, Omega.” he said softly, still trying to stay awake.

“Good night.” the robot replied.

Omega kept an eye on his teammates, the room lit only by a patch of moonlight from the window. He listened to Rouge’s slight snoring, and watched as Shadow’s eyes slowly closed and his breathing evened out.

The robot was always cautious about shifting into his own form of ‘sleep’, but reminded himself that this was not enemy territory. This was Rouge’s family’s house, and they were all safe.

Still, he watched his friends sleep peacefully for a while longer. Then, he selected low power mode from his menu of choices and allowed his eyes to go dark.

[sustraiii]

TEAM ZRCN ARC 3 - CHAPTER 20

I did say I had a bad feeling about this didn’t I?

Thanks to @neopoliitan for lending me his help with proofreading again!

HELIA

"I mean you've got to have some crazy stories right?"

Helia smirked into her cup of tea, then took a long sip before responding to the question. "I don't know what you're implying, Elio." She teased.

"No crazy fans? No crazy Grimm battles?" Elio pressed. "Come on, I bet you have some stories to tell."

"Not everyone has such a colourful life as you," Cherry laughed, nudging Elio in the side.

"Colourful is a bit of an understatement,” Morgan quipped, not looking up from where he was tinkering away on what looked to be Calantha’s armour.

“To answer your question - no, I do not have any crazy fans,” Helia responded, smiling slightly when she noticed that Elio seemed disappointed to hear that this was the case. “However, I do have a few crazy stories under my belt. There was one time in Higanbana that was particularly wild if I do say so myself.”

Elio leaned forward in interest. “Oh, do go on.”

Spurred on by Elio’s words, and further encouraged by the captive audience she had in Cherry and Calantha, Helia began to retell the events of what happened when her team had stopped in the town of Higanbana. 

It was one of the last good memories she had of her team before growing tension had forced them apart. They were on their way back to Mistral following a mission in Shion when they had chosen to stop and rest. The journey back was taking longer than expected, hampered by Anthea having hurt her ankle, but they knew the village had an inn as they had passed through it on their initial journey. It seemed like a reasonable place to rest up. 

In the end, it had turned out to be a good job they had stopped there - as only a few hours later the village had to contend with a large Archelon that had come up from the nearby river and had nearly bitten some poor teen’s arm off. 

A long, tiresome battle between HNSA and the Archelon had soon followed, and after nearly two hours, they finally succeeded in defeating it. The Archelon had been a troublesome Grimm to deal with; its hard shell leaving it with only a few precise places to truly wound it. There was also its slightly hooked mouth to contend with, which made it nigh on impossible for anyone other than Anthea using her crossbow to hit it, until Leyla was able to successfully use her semblance to restrain it long enough for Alcyone and Helia to finish it off.

As she wrapped up her tale, there was a hint of sadness behind her words, the pain of Alcyone’s still recent passing rising up again. When tears threatened to form, she looked away, and made a hasty apology for almost crying.

“It’s okay,” Elio said, in a surprisingly soothing voice. He reached across and held her hand gently for a moment. “You don’t have to apologise.”

Helia smiled back at him in gratitude and took a moment to calm herself again with a steadying breath. She had just settled back down when Wren returned to the base with ZRCN in tow. She had received a call earlier in the morning and had left in a hurry soon after. Elio had tried to pry some information from Parson, teasing the man over the kiss he had shared with Wren the night before in an effort to get some information out of him, but he seemed to know just as little as the rest of them.

Wren and ZRCN entered the communications room and Helia noted that they appeared to be missing a member as Xanthos was nowhere to be seen. Clearly, she was not the only one who noticed as Elio was quick to ask in a light tone, “Where’s Ravindra? Don’t tell me he’s still in bed.”

“He’s on his way with Captain Bougainvillea,” Wren responded sharply. Helia was not used to such a tone from the older woman, so she would have been lying if she said she hadn’t been a little startled. Looking up at her, Helia could see the older woman appeared on edge, and it was only then that she realised the members of ZRCN who were present also appeared to look unsettled. It hadn’t gone unnoticed by the other Mob Ops either; Elio had promptly gone quiet following Wren’s response,  he and the others all now looking directly at their leader, curious about her sudden change in attitude. 

Despite some questioning looks from her teammates Wren said nothing and remained silent until the aforementioned arrival of Captain Bougainvillea with Xanthos in tow. When the two of them appeared, Helia suddenly had a good idea what had rattled everyone so much.

Xanthos was still wearing his formal clothes from the night before, only he was now down a jacket, his tie hung haphazardly around his neck, and the left sleeve had been torn at the shoulder.

“What even...What happened to him?” Morgan asked, following a sharp intake of breath.

“A member of staff at the university found him pretty banged up in one of the broom closets,” Carmen explained, looking at Xanthos as she spoke. “One of the medical staff checked him over and he was given the all clear - just a little dazed if anything.” Carmen smiled weakly before looking at Wren, a more serious expression taking hold. “You’ll want to hear what he has to say.”

She gestured for Xanthos to speak, but he appeared hesitant, and for a moment struggled to meet Wren’s gaze. “I’m sorry,” He finally said. “I really tried to stop them, but I failed…”

“What are you sorry for?” Wren asked.

“They took her - Belleza and Miho took Rosie!” Xanthos responded, a mix of anger and frustration in his voice. His gaze shifted over to Neela. “They took your sister too. Mira tried to help me, but she was caught in the battle and they took her with them.”

Neela blinked. “Ravi-”

But Xanthos had already turned away and was looking back at Wren. “I should have been able to do more, to put up more of a fight. They caught me off guard, and now because of me we might have lost them both!”

Wren’s expression softened considerably upon hearing his confession, and Helia watched as she stepped forward and gave him a small embrace. “It’s alright, Xanthos,” She told him as she pulled away. 

“But…” He began to stammer.

“No buts,” Wren cut him off. “You did what you could at the time, and that’s all I can ask.”

“So what do we do now?” Parson asked. He rose from his chair and came to stand by Wren, resting a hand on her shoulder. Before Wren could even give an answer, it was Calantha who spoke up first.

“We could call Belle.” Was her suggestion, holding her modified scroll in one hand for emphasis.

“You’re able to call her?” Cherry asked, sounding surprised.

“Yes?”

“And you didn’t tell us this before?”

“It’s alright Cherry, I already knew,” Wren cut in, getting the other woman to stand down from her line of questioning. “The General and I both are aware she has a line of contact to her sisters. Numerous attempts were made to reach out to them before and after we left Atlas, but our calls were all ignored.”

“So why would she answer now?” Morgan questioned.

“Because she has something we want,” Calantha responded grimly. 

The room fell silent after that, nobody appearing to know what to say or what to do, until finally Helia heard Wren speak again.

“Call her. And put her on speaker.”

Calantha nodded and tapped away on her scroll quickly, before placing it in the centre of the table where she was sat with Helia, Elio, and Cherry. Like everyone else, Helia watched as the scroll rang, waiting for the telltale noise the call had been connected. When the familiar click occurred, Helia was not alone in inhaling sharply.

“Helllooooooooooooooo,” Belleza Rossi’s voice rang out across the room. “Is that you, little lamb?”

Calantha hesitated. “It is.”

“Oh good, I was expecting a call from you soon. I’ve been waiting for my scroll for hours now for it to come in.” She laughed loudly. “Is Major Honeycutt there too?”

Wren leaned in close to the scroll. “I’m here,” She answered simply. “We’re all here.”

“How nice for you,” Belleza responded, her voice oozing with fake sweetness. “You must be calling about those items I have, correct?”

“They’re not items, they’re people,” Wren scolded.

“Mind your tone, major,” Belleza warned. 

“We do not appreciate these games, Miss Rossi,” Wren pressed on. “We want Mira and Rosie back safe now.”

“Does that mean I get to keep the other one?”

Helia looked up, catching Cherry silently mouth “Other one?” in the direction of Elio and Morgan, who shrugged in response. 

“I don’t follow.”

There was a ping sound on the scroll as another message came through. Wren was quick to give her consent, and Calantha leaned forward, tapping a few buttons on the screen to open the message, which turned out to be an image attachment, and opened it up. Helia studied the screen intently as a silver haired boy appeared on it. She did not recognise him, but it was very clear that all of ZRCN did, none more so than Zelde.

“That’s my brother!” She blurted out, which quickly answered any questions Helia and the others had over his identity. “But that’s impossible. He’s in Atlas right now.”

“He was in Atlas,” Belleza corrected, having heard Zelde’s comment through the scroll. “He was a little gift we picked up just before we left for Highpoint. I would have thought by now his parents might have filed a report for him, but we’ve heard nothing.” There was a pause before she could be heard snickering. “And here I was thinking I had parental problems.”

Although Zelde was standing far away from her, Helia could sense her tension from the other side of the room. On either side of her, Zelde was flanked by Cordovan and Neela, who pressed against her in a comforting manner. Helia could not imagine what it felt like to find out your brother had been held in the clutches of Belleza Rossi for all this time.

“We want them all back,” Wren said into the scroll. “Do you hear me? All of them.”

“I hear you loud and clear,” Belleza responded. “And you can have them all back. But first you can do something for me.”

“No.”

“You haven’t even heard what I have to say yet!” Belleza protested.

Wren groaned loudly. “Go on.”

“Wise choice,” Belleza said, as though agreeing to hear her terms was some great decision. “I have something you want, and you have something I want - or rather my sister wants - so it stands to reason we can resolve all of this with a simple trade.”

“I’m not-”

“You don’t get the deciding vote here,” Belleza said sharply, cutting Wren off before she could finish. “Calantha, are you listening?” 

Helia looked up at Calantha, and noticed how rigid she had become.

“You know I couldn’t care less where you are and what you are doing right now,” Belleza began, her words implying she was speaking solely to Calantha at this point. “But Bianca...she misses you dearly. She blames me for you leaving naturally, even though I’ve told her time and again, you made that choice on your own.” Belleza let out an exaggerated sigh. “Come home, Cala. Bianca misses you and I know you miss her too. Come back to Olympia with me and I’ll let the others walk free.”

“What if I say no?” Calantha asked.

“No?” Belleza repeated. “No?” By the tone she used, she hadn’t even considered this to be an option from her sister. “If you say no, then it's quite simple - they come home with me instead.” There was a long pause before she added, “Since you seem unable to make a decision right now, I have decided to be generous and give you some time to think things over. You can have forty-eight hours. And if I don’t hear anything from you by then, I will take that as your answer. Goodbye for now, Calantha. I hope to see from you soon.”

“Wait!” Wren called. “Are they safe? Is Rosie-”

But Belleza had already hung up before Wren could get her answer. Wren placed her hands on the table, and lowered her head, sighing softly to herself.

“Malaka!” Elio cursed from his seat. “What are we going to do now?”