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askthechronoverse · 3 months

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Last Chapter •||• Next Chapter

When Bellamy returned to the others with Kit in tow, Charmy was attempting to eavesdrop on some beat cops who were talking about the robbery.

“Guys.” Charmy and Vito turned to look at Bellamy, who pointed at Kit.

“We have to help these people solve the mystery. The guy who stole Ken's roller skates doesn't have it. Once we return everything to its rightful owner, then we'll see if we can borrow it.” Kit frowned. “Hopefully.”

“All right. You said that you know somebody was looking into this?” Vito pulled his sister over. “We should find them. If we need to help solve this case, we should have all the clues that whoever has been researching this whole thing has gathered.” Almost as if summoned, Tim’s voice called to Kit.

“Hey! Are you going to introduce me to your friends?” He trotted over to them, his Pikachu nowhere in sight. He flashed Kit a sympathetic smile. Kit introduced him to her cousins and Bellamy. “What kind of Pokemon are you, Bellamy? It's not often you see a Pokemon who can talk, unless they're a psychic type.”

“I'm not a Po-kay-mon. I am a few different kinds of things, but not that.” Bellamy flexed their wings. Charmy laughed from behind Bellamy, mouthing the pronunciation of the word Pokemon to remember it for later.

“You really are from a different world, huh?” Tim scratched his head. “Kit, the police haven't found anybody fitting the description of the guy you're looking for, but we do have a few leads about where the plates could be. We could team up. Swap notes. I have a feeling the five of us could solve this mystery.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Vito was the first and only of the group to speak up. “What do you have so far?”

“I think the actual heist was done by a Pokemon called kecleon. They are Normal types who have the ability to camouflage. It was hard to see in the camera footage, but I think that's where we should start.” He sighed. “The problem I'm having is there aren't many witnesses, and not many of them have or know a kecleon.”

“Who have you talked to so far?” Vito closed his eyes in concentration. It was clear from his stance that Vito was in his element.

“The museum curator, the owner of the items for the exhibit, and the janitor. As far as we know, the janitor was the last human to be at the exhibit before closing time.” Tim picked up Pikachu. The rabbit Pokemon made noises that sounded excited. Then again, Pikachu always seemed to sound excited to Kit.

“And you say there's no other witnesses? Just those three humans?” Tim shook his head. “Is there anything else we should know?”

“I can't get you into the crime scene. But I can get you into the museum. I've told the Chief Inspector you're my apprentices… And that Bellamy is a Pokemon from a far away region.” Bellamy looked taken aback. He rubbed his neck. “Let’s go. We have the museum all to ourselves right now.” The group headed for the front doors, Tim and Kit trailing behind the others. “How are you holding up?”

“I'm getting really worried about my dad. He… I'm afraid I'm not going to see him again for a very long time.” Kit’s voice shook a little. She was guarded, but the words of the stranger about her dad being afraid still rattled around in her head.

“I know how you feel. Part of the reason why I came to the city was to find my dad. Losing a parent in any way isn't easy.” Tim’s eyes lit up. “I'm going to go get something. I'll be right back.” The man rushed through a small doorway. While Tim was gone, Kit began to search around the dinosaur displays again. A piece of cloth in the claw of one of the centerpiece Pokemon skeletons, a jumping Archeops, caught her eye. The cloth was a ruby red and looked almost silken. As she took it out of the claw, Tim returned. His Pikachu was not with him.

“Has anybody you've seen today had repairs to their clothes?” Kit handed Tim the ripped cloth.

“I didn't, but I'll ask around. This might be a really good clue, Kit.” He put the cloth in his pocket. “Did you find anything else?” Kit shook her head. Pikachu walked next to Tim with a to go cup of coffee.

“What is Pikachu to you? I know you said he's your partner, but how did you meet?” Kit started her search for more clues.

“He was originally my dad's partner. I'd say I took him in, but it feels more like he took me in sometimes.” He laughed as he helped with the search.

“So your dad is a detective, too?”

“Yeah. He’s pretty famous. People would come from all over for his help.” Tim's voice sounded wistful. “I've been looking for him. I haven't had any luck finding him yet.” He picked something up off of the floor that Kit couldn't see and pocketed it. “I sometimes feel like he's close, but I think that's just wishful thinking.”

“Is that why you're a detective? To find your dad?” He nodded. “I hope you find him.”

“Me too. It's been years, but I don't want to lose hope just yet.” He put something else in his pocket. “He can't have just disappeared.”

“I really hope you find him, Tim.” Kit said with a light smile. She pointed to a corridor. “Where does that hallway lead?”

Tim was glad for the distraction. “I'm pretty sure that the hallway leads to the curator's office. I know the police were told to not go in there because of some priceless artifacts, but that makes me wonder if the curator is hiding something.”

“Why don't we go in there then?”

“I have a way to search that room without people getting suspicious. I'll let you know what I find.” Tim gestured with his eyes to Pikachu, who ran off in the direction of the corridor when Kit’s back was turned. “I think you were onto something with the cloth. I found a button and another piece of the same kind of cloth. If we find the piece of clothing it belongs to, we can find a new suspect.”

“If you found a button, could it possibly be from a jacket? Maybe a sleeve?” Kit tilted her head. She watched Bellamy get thrown out of the room where the plates once resided. “Ami! Did you find anything?”

“Yeah!” They rushed over to Kit. “The whole room reeked of something super sweet. Like honey mixed with milk.” Bellamy stretched their wings.

“Milk and honey?” Tim thought for a moment. “That's strange. I'll have to ask the inspector to get a sample of whatever that smell is coming from to see what it really is.” He trotted over to the person he had spoken to before and began to talk to him.

“I hope we're not doin’ all this work just for the bad guy to swoop in and take it from us.” Bellamy folded their arms.

“I hope so, too.” Kit played with the horn on her head.

“Really interesting.” Tim came back to the two. “They already looked into that. It's just a mixture of milk and honey. I don't think anyone had any time to spill a snack and the police believe it has to do with the display. That still might be something important.” They were quickly joined by Vito and Charmy.

“We found something.” Charmy grabbed Kit and dragged her over to a glass vase with a twisted neck just outside of the roped off exhibit. Inside the vase was a small creature that was sprite like in appearance. It was pink and wore a scarf. It looked up at the five with large eyes.

“The poor little thing! It's trapped!” Kit put a finger on the glass, the humanoid insect putting a hand on the spot.

“That's a ribombee, a fairy Pokemon. I wonder what it’s doing here. They usually prefer being around flowers and meadows.” Tim stated as Kit began to work to get the creature out of the vase. She dug through her bag and pulled out a sweet smelling granola bar. She used this to help the tiny creature through the mazeline twists by waving it around the neck. Eventually, the insect was out and the little thing looked grateful for the save. Kit broke off a piece of the bar to share with the fairy. “I wonder if it saw anything. This vase isn't that far from the exhibit.”

“It's a shame you can't ask.” Kit stated as she looked the winged creature over. It flew into the display room, flew around the now empty altar in confusion, and then returned to Kit.

“Yeah. Pokemon don't really work that way.” Tim shifted awkwardly. “I'll take Ribombee for a moment. I can make sure it's OK.” The insect landed on his hand and he headed off to a quiet and darkened corner, Pikachu trailing after.

“I don't like how this feels.” Vito stated. “Bellamy told me you saw that hood guy before. I can't help but wonder what the end game is.”

“We definitely need to talk about this, but later.” Charmy stated. “Right now, our focus should probably be on helping that weird guy who's currently talking to the bee thing solve the mystery so we can beat the bad guy at his own game.” Kit looked over to where Tim was and, sure enough, it did appear that he was trying to calm the ribombee down. She shrugged and continued to listen to the others.

“I guess you're right on that, big sis. I feel like we all need to sit down and figure out what we know so far. I think the police completely combed this place at this point.”

“You're right about that.” Tim finally approached them, Pikachu and Ribombee trailing behind. “Let's head back to the Hi-Hat. We can go over my notes and figure things out from there.”

Before they left, Tim tapped Kit’s shoulder. “Ribombee seems to want to return the favor. I don't know how she can do that, but I've told her to stick around.” The bee Pokemon nestled into Kit’s messenger bag. The teenager nodded and the two humans headed to where the others were waiting.

#⌈the ashes of disaster drift to you⌋ ⋆❈⋆ ⌈days of oblivion⌋#⌈the newspaper isn't antiquated⌋ ⋆❈⋆ ⌈writings⌋

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brucenorris007 · 10 months

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All right, it seems that a. . . not insignificant number of people take issue, or at least are upset by, the reaction of Sonic and friends to Metal Sonic in the final story of Heroes.

Yes I did just reblog that specific post, scroll down a just a little for reference.

I think the anguish and angst of Metal's perspective of the situation definitely warrants exploration; and HELL YEAH if we got to see that in any official media. I do caution against vilifying Sonic and his friends for how they reacted to Metal Overlord, though; nuance, everyone, nuance. (Not saying that was the intended purpose of that other post, I've just seen takes like that get twisted in fandom a lot before and would prefer it nipped before anything starts. Far be for me to want to even try to preach, of course.)

Would Metal interpret all the smack talk thrown at it as genuine hatred, as ignoring what might be a very dramatic and destructive cry for help? Yes, it's certainly possible. But A) Sonic and friends don't hate Metal whatsoever, since even Omega, who based his entire personality around destroying Eggman robots, gently gathers Metal into his arms after everyone else leaves and B) that angst isn't really theirs to address.

Keep in mind, the titular Heroes of the game are all teenagers and kids who just heard Neo declare "All living things, kneel before your master!" before turning itself into a lightning rod to trigger a transformation into Metal Overlord. Mitigating that alarming statement and the aggression packaged with it is their first priority; and if that involves a smack down, that's kind of Sonic's style anyway.

As for the fact that they lob smack talk in the first place, well, group think is a thing; and Shadow, amnesiac or otherwise, and Omega are both quite proud creature who don't kowtow to anybody, to say nothing of Omega's animosity for anything Eggman made. And honestly, I think Sonic might have been less likely to throw around and encourage smack talk if Tails and the other kids hadn't been present.

But Cream, Charmy and Tails were present, and being the youngest, likely scared of Overlord who, let's be honest, looks fairly monstrous. The adventure up to the point of the Final Story took all of three days when they were all on the move; worn out and frightened, people like Vector and Sonic would've carried themselves a certain way.

"Hey little buddy, this is just business as usual; nothing to worry about, yeah?" etc.

As for the line everyone knows from the Super Sonic fight of this game "You thought you could defeat me by transforming into a monster" yeah, yes, absolutely that isn't going to help Metal's turmoil whatsoever.

BUT. Consider the events of Sonic's most recent adventures: Chaos' rage, simmering for thousands of years, threatened to destroy civilization when it was released. The Biolizard, fused with the ARK, was minutes away from destroying the planet.

By comparison: "Oh, this guy doesn't care about destroying things, they just want a piece of me; I can handle that eight days a week!" would probably feel like something of a relief and a step down in tension and stakes.

Sonic's not out to hurt Metal's feelings, he's just leaning into what he sees as a fight with a rival. That Metal's personal stakes on the fight are much, much higher than that isn't a fact he's really privy to.

And the ultimate question at the end of it all, when Neo reverts back to Metal and, using the last seconds of a voice box it has left to ask "Why can't I defeat you?"

That question isn't really for Sonic to answer. It's not for anyone to answer except maybe Metal's shitty dad. Because there isn't a single thing Sonic could say in that moment that wouldn't worsen Metal's angst. I think the nearest to helpful that Sonic might have been able to give Metal that doesn't break character would have been:

"Because you keep trying to be me; and you're not."

Say what you will about whether or not Sonic and friends listened to Metal during final story, but Metal was never going to be able to listen to any answer Sonic had for it, no matter how helpful.

Literally.

Metal's programmed to see Sonic as The Enemy of All; to the point of paranoia. Despite the fact that Sonic's open invitation for a rematch is his way of saying he's down to hang out, Metal cannot interpret anything Sonic says as anything less than mockery, an insult or a threat.

In fact, that actually why the whole plot of Heroes kicks off; Metal's obsession with Sonic, with conquering the 'threat' briefly superseded its loyalty to Eggman. That's how deeply ingrained its fear of Sonic, and the pre-packaged identity crisis that comes with it, is.

Because that's the way Eggman made Metal.

#Metal Sonic #Sonic Heroes #Sonic the Hedgehog #Mobile Identity Crisis #Some Guy #Eggman #Shitty Dad #brainworm #analysis

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serialadoptersbracket · 7 months

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Round 2, Match 19: Grace vs. Vector the Crocodile

Submitted kids:

Grace: Allison, Viktor, Diego, Five, Ben, Klaus, Luther

Vector the Crocodile: Espio the Chameleon, Charmy Bee

Propaganda under the cut!

Grace:

“Each of those seven women's children became numbers 1-7, but were later all given names by Reginald's android nanny/adoptive mother for the children (except for Number Five, who refused to be given a name)”

Vector the Crocodile:

“I know some people perceive the dynamic of team chaotix to be espio and vector collectively taking care of charmy (the kid of the group) and I respect that and that is also correct, but am I the only one that thinks vector pretty much adopted like both espio and charmy? Like he's the only adult in the group, yeah he might not be as professionally responsible as some people's specific definitions may be but still. He's in a detective group with a teenager and a six year old child, so that pretty much puts him (21) into a position of being the eldest one, and therefore imo the dad of the group. Also I just like the idea of dad vector. In Sonic Archie I'm pretty sure charmy is even LEGALLY adopted judging by that one panel where vector says he writes charmy off as a charitable case (that sounds bad uhmmmm ignore that). He's also the one in the group that cares the most about the rent (why do they have rent anyway?? Like since when?? Was rent a thing in Sonic lore?? When literally no other character talks about rent?? I'ma just go with it).

Do you see my vision. Dad vector being the only one trying to mantain responsibility and getting tired of espio and chamrys chaotixness (espio is chaotic and silly. TO ME.) Obviously espio is also "the responsible one" but vector is older so

While originally charmy espio and vector were all listed as sixteen, that day is long gone now and now they must be a found family cuz they just are

Anyway yeah that's all I had to say”

#tua #grace #the umbrella academy #grace tua #sonic the hedgehog #sth #team chaotix #vector the crocodile #serial adopters bracket #round 2 #tumblr polls #tumblr tournament #mod note: imagining these two in a fistfight gives me LIFE

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nonbinarycharmybee · 1 year

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Eclipse pisses Espio off one too many times and now Espio is OUT FOR BLOOD

"Uh-oh, you made Espio maaad!" Charmy singsonged.

"What are you talking about?" Eclipse rolled his eyes. "He looked fine to me."

"Nah, that was his mad face. He's furious." Vector stood up. "Good luck."

"Good-" he spluttered, nearly falling out of the chair. "What do you mean 'good luck'? What the hell are you saying?"

"You're gonna need it," Charmy snickered. The prospect of Eclipse being in mortal danger delighted him in only the way a six year old full of schadenfraude could be.

Whatever. Eclipse huffed and stomped away from the table (leaving his plate on it. What? If these humans were so desperate to let him into their houses he wasn't going to reward them by doing something as lowly as housework. He wouldn't be fooled into being anyone's servant.)

Espio was in the living room, sitting cross-legged on the floor with an assortment of weapons spread out neatly in front of him. He scraped a knife across a whetstone, making a shh-shh-shhk sound.

Eclipse stepped over a sword and some chain-thing. Espio's head shot up. "Don't touch anything." Shh-shh-shhk.

"Wasn't gonna," Eclipse grumbled. He grabbed the Switch from the charging port and took it to the laundry room, curling up in the warm dryer with his left foot hanging out the door. He started up the game, overwrote Silver's save file, and began a new one.

Beep-beep-beep. Eclipse's tongue poked out of the corner of his mouth as he focused on jumping over blocks to save a kidnapped princess. (If it was up to him, he'd just leave the princess to her fate, but obviously nobody asked him.) He could hear Silver and Charmy playing tag outside, loudly, with Wade yelling up at them not to fly too high. Espio and Shadow were in the living room, the only sounds from there being the occassional shh-shh-shhk of the knife.

He was halfway through the game when Wade opened the door. "Hey-" he said automatically, then stopped.

"...Are those my clothes?"

Eclipse blinked.

"Right. Sorry I asked." The human backed up and closed the door. Eclipse heard him walking away, mumbling under his breath about needing to make a new cup of coffee before dealing with this. His ear flicked.

He finished the next level. Wade came back to tell him that Vector and Espio and Charmy were going back to their house (he did not care) if he wanted to say goodbye (he did not). They took their baths. Silver got mad at Eclipse for deleting his save file, which ended up in a fight, which ended up in the human taking the Switch away for the rest of the night.

"Can I have it back tomorrow morning?" Silver whined, leaning over the edge of the top bunk.

"We'll see." Wade stood up on his tiptoes, far enough for Silver (with a little telekinetic help) to wrap his arms around his neck and plant a kiss on his cheek. After that he moved down to Shadow.

"Fist bump?"

The black hedgehog looked like he was seriously considering it, then put his hand out. "Night, Dad."

"Night, bud," Wade smiled. He then turned to the closet.

"Good-"

Eclipse slammed the door shut.

"...night."

He curled up on a pile of blankets nested in the corner. The thin light shining under the door went out, leaving him in total darkness. He yawned.

Shh-shhk.

Eclipse bolted up.

Shh-ssh-shhk.

"Hello?" he whispered.

Shh-shh-shhk.

"Shadow? ...Silver? Is that you?"

Shhhhhhk. Now Eclipse was getting mad. "It's not funny, you guys!"

The light flipped on. Soft footsteps pattered out the room, then reappeared with heavier ones moments later. Wade knocked on the door.

"Eclipse? You okay?"

"I'm fine!" he snapped.

"Really? Shadow said you were talking in your sleep...."

"Not sleeping."

"Then what-"

He opened the door slowly. "Not sleeping. There's some...thing in here."

"Yeah, there's an alien," Wade smiled wryly. Eclipse stamped his foot.

"Not me! There's something else!"

"Alright, alright, don't get upset." Wade poked his head in, using his phone's flashlight to scan the darker corners. "...Everything looks fine to me."

Of course the stupid human would say that. Eclipse grit his teeth.

"Maybe it's invisible." Shadow pointed out.

"Or maybe it's a ghost!" Silver cried. "Do you think it's a ghost, Dad? Did anyone die in this house?"

"Uh..." Wade flipped off the light. "If you're scared of ghosts, Eclipse, you're free to sleep anywhere else. Except for my room. And the kitchen. And the table. And...okay, you can sleep on the couch."

Eclipse sniffed haughtily. "I'm not sleeping on the couch."

The closet wasn't an option, though.

He slunk across the floor, shaking his brother. "Shadow-"

"Go away," Shadow grumbled, rolling over.

Well, fine, Eclipse huffed.

He found himself sleeping on the couch.

Although sleeping wasn't quite the right word for it - more like sitting on it wrapped in one of the fluffier blankets from the closet nest. The tv was turned on to some human fighting channel. He watched a heavily-armed person tackling someone on a field of grass and closed his eyes, half-listening to the stream of chatter coming from the commentators.

...Shh-shhk.

His eyes snapped open.

The fighting arena on tv had changed; now everybody was on ice, holding large sticks that they were, for some reason, not hitting or stabbing with. What even were the rules for these tournaments? They seemed very inefficient. The Black Arms would have-

Shk. He jumped, grabbing the remote to turn the tv off, sitting in total darkness and silence.

Shhhhhk.

Wade opened his eyes to see a pair of red ones staring down from the ceiling.

"What the-!"

Eclipse dropped down, bouncing on the mattress a little.

"There's somebody in our house." He informed matter-of-factly.

He rubbed his eyes. "Eclipse, if somebody was in our house, I'd have gotten an alarm about it on my phone."

"Well, your 'phone' must be broken because-."

"Okay," Wade grunted, sitting up like he'd really rather not do this. Mostly because he wouldn't. But he'd gone through similar phases as a kid, and if this finally got the little alien to sleep, then it'd be worth it. "Come with me."

He walked Eclipse through the house, testing the doors and all the windows. Just like he knew, everything was locked tight. Eclipse, however, insisted on checking everything again a second time. Then a third time. Then a-

"I'm not checking everything a fourth time."

Eclipse scowled. "You still don't believe me."

"Sure, sure," he yawned. "You were probably just dreaming. The wind makes strange sounds sometimes...."

"Okay, but if somebody IS in the house, I can kill them, right?"

"Please don't."

"You never said murder was against the house rules," he grumbled.

"I really thought it'd be implied." he yawned again. "Now please. Go to sleep. And don't wake me until after the sun is up."

The noise did not wait for the sun to be up.

Shhk. Shhk.

"What do you want?" he demanded, sitting up on the couch.

Silence.

"Are you a ghost?"

Again, no reply.

"I'll have you know, I'm not scared of-" something cold and metal and sharp pressed to the back of his neck.

"W-"

"Go ahead and call," a voice hissed next to his ear, just as chilling as the knife. "If you think they'll believe you."

"That's...." Eclipse wanted to snap back that that was ridiculous, of course his- the others would believe him.

But Shadow had gotten mad at him. And Wade had told him not to bother him.

He really was alone.

"Well?" The blade pressed deeper, close enough that he could feel the edge digging into his skin. "Have anything to say?"

"I'm sorry, okay! I'm sorry I said your poems were cringe!"

#ask #livingthewritelife-things

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whymustyouhurtmeinthisway · 10 months

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The other day, while scrolling through Tumblr, I saw an Espio x Silver fancomic and somehow mistook Silver for Bark the Polar Bear at first. After realizing Bark was actually Silver, I found it funny that I somehow confused those two very distinct characters for each other and laughed off the idea of Espio x Bark as being pretty stupid, but now that I’ve put more thought into it I think it's kind of a cute matchup.

I could totally see the two of them as the epitome of comfortable silence. Espio's a fairly calm and meditative person and Bark of course doesn't talk at all, so I can definitely imagine them being totally comfortable and capable of having a great time together in total silence. Most of the sentiments shared between them are communicated more through actions than words, body language and facial expression stuff, as if they'd invented their own form of sign language. Bark could tap Espio on the shoulder, gesticulate his hands a bit, roll his eyes, and jerk his head towards the door and Espio would perfectly understand he means "This party sucks ass, wanna go to your place and play video games?" and agree with him.

As for how others would react to them dating, I've always thought of the Chaotix and Hooligans as being personal rivals (like the Hooligans usually have no quarrels with anyone unless someone else is paying them to, but will always immediately beef with the Chaotix unprovoked, even when off the job) so Espio and Bark are kinda like Romeo and Juliet except much less tragic and murderous. I feel like the other members of the teams would react to the news that the two were dating as such: (under the cut)

Vector: Really more confused than anything, he isn't especially angry that Espio's dating Bark, he just straight up doesn't understand why he would. Vector likes Bark more than the other Hooligans of course, he's not as concerned about Espio’s relationship with him as he would be if Espio was dating Nack or Bean instead, but Bark’s still affiliated with the other two and Vector can’t tell if he should trust him or not. He once tried to do the protective dad thing and took Bark aside to interrogate him about his intentions with Espio, but realized how ridiculous the idea of interrogating Bark was after trying for like two minutes and promptly gave up.

Charmy: He'd immediately go 100% annoying little brother mode, pestering Espio constantly about the relationship. He doesn't seem to care at all who in particular Espio’s dating, just that him dating anyone means that Charmy has new angles with which he can prod and annoy him. Charmy's always had a theory that Bark's fully capable of speech but only talks in secret with his closest allies, so every time Espio comes home from hanging out with him Charmy asks some variant of "So what'd Bark tell you today?" or “Is it just me or does Bark’s voice sound kinda nasally lately.” in an attempt to catch him off guard and get him to accidentally admit his boyfriend can talk. This strategy hasn’t even come close to working yet, but that hasn’t discouraged him.

Nack: Despite their long-lived partnership, Nack's really never known much about Bark's personality, what he wants, or even if he wants anything at all, so naturally when the news that his silent enigmatic bruiser had inexplicably started going out with the ninja boy from the Chaotix reached him, the shock stunned him in place like a nuclear flash grenade. According to a certain Duck's reports, Nack proceeded to remain slack-jawed and immobile for the following three hours and swallow at least twelve flies during that time (though the reliability of this claim is debatable). After that initial shock and much considering, Nack begrudgingly decided that as long as it doesn't get in the way of the Hooligans' business, Bark can date Espio. He very noticeably doesn’t approve of Bark canoodling around with one of the enemy, and can be heard loudly complaining to nobody about it every time Bark leaves the house for a date, but he never directly confronts or put more restrictions on him (as he's afraid Bark would quit and join the Chaotix if pushed too far).

Bean: Remember how I compared Bark and Espio's relationship to Romeo and Juliet, except with much less drama and death? Well Bean seems to be under the impression that Bark and Espio’s relationship is like Romeo and Juliet with considerably more drama and death. He often goes on long tirades whenever he sees the two of them together, acting like a one-duck Greek chorus. Like he could be walking down the street one day, totally minding his own business, until he notices Bark and Espio through the window of a nearby building and suddenly bursts into soliloquy: “Oh woe! The two tragic lovers reunite once more, lamenting in the knowledge this could be the last time they ever embrace! What a sordid past, what an even sordider future, will this misery and drama never end!?!?” Then the camera cuts to Espio and Bark and they’re just eating lunch together at Burger King or some shit. Bean’s fully in view outside the window, sorrowfully praying on his knees that the gods above have mercy on their poor innocent souls. Espio looks at his whopper and goes “This tastes like ass”. Bark nods and dips his in ketchup. Bean curls up into the fetal position and breaks down crying.

I kinda really wanna write more stuff about this ship, I like it a lot more than I was expecting to, the dynamics involved are really fun, and I think it’s funny to never explain how or why Espio and Bark started dating. The only problem now is to make up a ship name. Barkspio? Espibark? I don't know, if anyone's actually has any suggestions tell me.

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silvyysthings · 1 year

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Are those anons deuxmoi herself? She's already had 2 mental breakdowns because no one believes her kylothee shit. Calling people creepy for not believing her blinds and their "relationship" and has posted like 3 stories on IG yesterday calling her followers out for thinking Kenito (Kendall/Bad Bunny) and Kylothee are PR stunts. Not even in r/Fauxmoi (subreddit dedicated to her and her blinds) nor the Kardashian supportive reddit believe kylothee to be a thig after their laughable MET gala appearance in which Kylie had to bring her 3 year old child bc she had no one else who wanted to be her +1.

No one outside the kween anti and her 3 friends and deuxmoo believe them to be together or that timothee is gonna put a ring on kylie and be the dad that stepped up to her 2 kids. Those anons should keep writing their fanfic and sending it to her rather than lose time sending them to you and other charmies.

Dm ( alias fucking Melissa)if you' re here you are a pathetic, sad, and bitter woman and I' m not talking for the rumours constantly spreading on Timmy

#timothée chalamet #anon ask

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azurine-cryptid · 2 years

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aometimes i remember archie sonic lore and it amazes me how they just let the writers rite some of the most absurd shit in existence

the reasons mobians exist and why theres like three sentient species on the planet mobius sounds like something out of a sci fi horror

at some point silver accodentlly fuvked the future with sonic trying to help it and it resulted in shadow marrying sally and being tyrant king? also sonic had kids with sally and they didnt let the artists give sonic a full breakdown (cause mandates) after finding out his kids are gone cause of time shenanigans

30 years later issues are just a Read, a very absurd read

zone jail is thing, and every officer is just sonic and friends with a z in front of their names (example: zonic), also buff amy is an actual prisoner in that jail along with mephiles who's really chill

the chaos emeralds spawn from a planet where thousands of chaos emeralds spew out of it (if im remembering that part correctly)

knuckles' dad experiemented on his egg when he wasnt born yet, ??? i forgot why but i think involves him being green at some point

theres a whole prophecy involving tails becoming a god, and he becomes this giant with abs and the worst thing iv seen in my life with the worst panels ive laid my eyes on after every panel drawn by penders and he has to kill mogul (who doesnt die for some reason despute that being part of his destiny i believe) and hes told about it through a weird ass uncle

also tails' parents are revolutionaries who think the acorn family have to be taken down, this is actually one of the more interesting arcs

sally was with geoffrey saint john who while not having a canonical age in a flashback its shown hes much older than alias (who in currebt time is sallys brother and 21, sally is 16) (im taking this information with a grain of salt i cannot prove this one yet)

shadow has a brother,this is the least ridiculous thing ive mentioned

charmy is royalty, married to another bee girl, and got brain damage at some point after eggman tried to suck the life out of every mobian he caught to fuel his machines and this is after making sonic believe he disintegrated/killed all his friends and everyone he knew

eggman is not human and neither is maria and gerald theyre an evolutionary/mutated offshoot from humans after aliens decided to experiement on humanity by dumping weird shit on the planet which is why theres talking anthropomorphic animals, also the offshoot is supposed to be distinguished by four fingers but they forget this deatik if theyre actully importnt to the plot or have relevance

scourge the hedgehog(anti sonic/ bad boy green sonic) has daddy issues, this is shown through a fathers day mini where in an attempt to get at sonic in his own home finds Jules (sonics dad who was roboticized at some point) and this man just calls out this green bastard until hes crawling out the window trying not to cry

Amy has a cousin named Rob 'o the hedge whos a prince if im remembering correctly, amy is related to royalty yep

kneecaps the echidna

eggman canonically dies early in the comic and is replaced by his alternate self who did achieve world domination and is modern eggman as we know it, (dead eggman being SatAM robotnik/classic robotnik if im not mistaken on this)

is this all? no no its not this shits the longest running comic based on a video game characters and it just got increasingly more absurd

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic archie comics #sonic lore is absurd #im burdened with knowledge

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lyranova · 1 year

Text

Children of the Future: Shadows of the Past

Chapter 3: No Rest for the Wicked

Hiya guys! So here’s chapter 3, I’m really enjoying this series so far and I hope you are too! I’ll try and get back on my other one’s shortly since I’m starting to miss them a bit (I also need to get back on writing requests 😭!) but I do apologize if this chapter is written funny or if there’s a lot of typos or anything, I’m having to write on a computer due to my hands and I’m not used to it. Also Corduroy and Chenille belong to my mutual @hybridanafrost and I thank her for allowing me to use them 🥰! I hope you all enjoy~!

Word Count: 3,263

Warnings: None

———

Later That Same Day

Yami silently flew to the Hideout. His mind just kept going back to the memory of William coughing in the hallway and looking pale. They both knew he was lying when he said he was fine, or that he would be fine. But Yami hadn’t wanted to call him out on it, William needed time to accept it himself and tell his son just how sick he really was and he was going to give his old friend that. Yami sighed and rana hand over his tired face, how he wished he hadn’t quit smoking right now.

He finally landed outside the much expanded Hideout. Over the years, as the Black Bulls each got married and began having their own families, Yami had asked Henry to give everyone their own living space. That way the Bulls could all be together but also have some privacy. And so far it had worked out very well, but now that meant the Hideout had expanded up and out in order to accommodate them all.

But Yami and the others didn’t mind. Because it meant they could all stay together.

Yami set his broom down against the wall of the Hideout before he moved towards the front door. Before he even opened the door he could already hear all the chaos and laughter happening on the inside, he couldn’t help but smile a bit. This is something he had always wanted for his brats; them to be safe, happy, and laughing.

He opened the door and immediately had to dodge a misdirected spell that came at him. He sighed and shook his head before he moved out of the way and closed the front door. The ones sparring were, as usual, Luck and Magna. Even as those two idiots got older they still sparred like they were teenagers. Meanwhile Magna’s kids Corduroy and Chenille just watched, Chenille with a nervous look on her face, and Corduroy with a grin on his face.

“ Wow dad you’re so cool!” Cory shouted as he watched his dad dodge one of Luck’s spells, Magna turned and gave his son a thumbs up.

“ Thanks son, that means a lot!” But as soon as the words left Magna’s lips he immediately got hit by one of Luck’s spells.

“ You shouldn’t have taken your eyes off your target Magna!” Luck laughed cheerfully as Magna growled.

“ I should have gone with mom to the fabric store,” Chenille said quietly.

Yami shook his head once again before he looked around the room. Henry’s daughter Alice was sitting on the couch, quietly reading the same book that she always read. Despite inheriting her fathers magic, luckily she hadn’t inherited her fathers illness so she could freely be around the other Bulls without the fear of siphoning their mana. Beside her was Aloys Adlai, who was also reading a book, he was exactly like his father but with his mothers magic. Beside him was Wendy Agrippa, Gordon’s eldest child and only daughter, she was sewing a doll just like father always did. She had the face of her mother, but her eyes and hair color were that of her fathers, and her magic was a variation of her fathers. On the other side of the room was Wendy’s younger twin brothers Thomas and Nicholas, they were the spitting image of their father in appearance and, in Nico’s case, magic as well. Thomas kept his hair slicked back like his father, while Nico kept his hair messy, that was the only way to tell them apart. The two were talking and playing with Maelie Adlai.

Yami heard a shout in the kitchen and watched Charmy and her daughter Lovely walk out with a group of sheep following shortly after. They had plates and plates of food and were setting them out onto the table. Lovely had inherited her fathers blue hair color and her eyes were the same color as her mothers, her younger brother Vincent followed behind all the sheep and began to set out the drinks. He didn’t like cooking or food as much as his mother and sister did, but he had inherited his fathers love of art and painting. Vincent’s hair was black like his mothers but his eyes were pink like his fathers.

Yami still had a hard time believing that Charmy had fallen in love with Rill Boimortier even though it had been nearly 15 years now since they had gotten married.

“ C-Captain Yami sir, you’re back already!” Ezio Roulacase exclaimed as he ran over. The young man looked identical to his mother, but his personality and magic was the same as his fathers.

“ Of course I am, did you expect me not to come back at all?” Yami asked with a raised brow, Ezio’s demeanor immediately grew nervous and he shook his head.

“ N-No sir! We just thought the meeting would run late.” Ezio said with a sheepish laugh.

“ How did Asta do at his first meeting?” Vanessa asked as she walked over. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look at their Captain. He grinned at them.

“ He did great, so you guys can stop you’re worrying.” Yami told them and he heard everyone collectively sigh in relief. He knew everyone had been anxious and had wanted him to do well, so now that they had confirmed that he did, they all felt a weight fall off their shoulders.

“ At least we know we raised him well,’’ Finral said with a laugh as he walked over to his son and wife. Yami nodded, they all had raised Asta well.

“ Where’s my brats?” Yami asked curiously, he saw everyone else’s kids but his own. Charmy suddenly pointed towards the back door with her thumb.

“ They’re outside with Ms. Charlotte,” She said as she watched their Captain make his way towards the door. “ Tell them to hurry up and come inside since dinner’s ready!”

Yami walked outside and saw Hikari sparring against her mother as Hana and Einar watched. He crossed his arms as he silently watched his wife and eldest daughter, they looked nearly identical in their fighting styles, except Hikari had adopted a lot of Yami’s fighting style as well. She was like the perfect blend of her mother and father. Yami was pulled out of his thoughts as he noticed Einar turn to look at him.

“ Papa!” The young boy shouted excitedly as he jumped up and ran towards his father. He jumped into his arms and Yami held him.

“ Hey kid,” Yami said warmly. “ Who’s winning so far?” He asked and Einar grinned.

“ Mama of course! Tata’s still trying her best, but she’s still always losing against her.” Einar said with a sad look on his face, he always called Hikari ‘Tata’, apparently it meant “Big Sis” in the Diamond Kingdom. At least that’s what one of Einar’s favorite books told him.

“ But mama’s not going easy on her anymore, and Hikari’s still managing to hold her own,” Hana stated as she walked over to her father and brother. Yami nodded, it was no surprise that Charlotte had stopped taking it easy on their daughter. She was a Vice-Captain now, and had proven that she was a fierce and capable warrior. So there was really no need to take it easy on her.

One of Charlotte’s Briar spells hit Hikari’s katana and kocked her back a few feet. Hikari was huffing and puffing while Charlotte hadn’t even broken a sweat.

“ I’m…not done yet,” Hikari panted as she doubled over to try and catch her breath. “ I still…need to surpass my limits!” Hikari continued, and Yami shook his head.

She had certainly adopted Yami’s stubbornness.

“ Hey brat,” Yami shouted, drawing both Charlotte and Hikari’s attention to him. “ You can surpass your limits after you get something to eat! Charmy said if you didn’t come inside and eat you’d never get another meal from her!” Yami added, of course Charmy didn’t actually say any of that. But he knew it was a sure fire way to get Hikari to stop training. As he expected the girl sighed dramatically before she put her katana away.

“ Alright, alright, I’m coming! Sheesh tell Charmy to hold her sheep.” Hikari grumbled as she rubbed the back of her neck, mimicking her fathers habit. Yami chuckled as he set Einar down and the young boy ran to his sister.

“ Take your brother and sister inside, I gotta talk to your mom for a sec.” Yami told her, his eldest daughter nodded and he ruffled her hair gently as she and her siblings walked past him and into the house.

Charlotte frowned a bit as she walked up to her husband, she didn’t need to be able to read Ki to notice something was wrong with him. His eyes held a seriousness in them, and maybe a hint of sadness and worry in them too. Had the meeting gone that badly?

“ What’s going on? Did Asta’s first meeting not go well?” She asked in concern, Yami quickly shook his head.

“ Nah the brat did fine,’’ Yami quickly assured her. “ It’s William. He…announced that he was retiring as Captain.”

Charlotte’s eyes widened in surprise, sure he had mentioned it the day before at the party, but she didn’t really think he would go through with it!

“ What? What made him decide to do this so suddenly?”

“ He’s sick Charlotte, very sick.” Yami said softly, and he swore he watched her eyes widen more and her eyebrows raise considerably.

“ Did…he say what was causing it?”

“ Nah, he said he needs time. So I’m gonna give him a while before I start pushing for answers. He asked that you and I not tell anyone until he’s ready.” Yami said and Charlotte nodded in agreement, they would both keep their friends secret for now.

“ And,” Yami continued. “ He’s appointing his kid as Captain.” He watched as his wife shrugged at him.

“ Okay.” Was all she said, she didn’t look angry or concerned, she actually looked like she had expected it.

“ You’re not worried at all? What if that brat loses control again and hurts someone, or worse, gets someone killed?” Yami asked as he crossed his arms, he watched his wife do the same.

“ Since when did you hold a persons mistake against them?” She asked curiously. She watched a red blush appear on Yami’s cheeks. She knew exactly what this was all about, and it had nothing to do with Alistar.

“ He won’t hurt Hikari, besides they’re not even in the same squad so the chance of her getting hurt by him is very slim. And in addition to that, Alistar’s gotten much better at controlling his emotions which also means his magic is under better control. It’ll be fine,” Charlotte assured him. “ And if for some reason it’s not, and he does happen to lose control and injures her, I’ll kill him myself.” Charlotte added firmly and Yami couldn’t help but snort and laugh at her words.

People thought he was the more overprotective of the two, but in reality, it was Charlotte who was the overprotective one.

Eventually the couple went inside to have dinner with the rest of the squad.

—-----

At The Golden Dawn Base

Alistar yawned quietly as he followed his father out of his office, down the stairs and corridors, and eventually outside. William had told him that he needed to tell him something privately and that he would need some help to do it, which meant only one thing: They were going to visit his mother’s grave.

Alistar didn’t like going to visit her mother very often. It wasn’t because he didn’t love her or anything, it was just…hard since he had been the one who caused her to be in the graveyard in the first place.

As the two walked into the graveyard and made their way to Zera’s grave Alistar used his plant magic to conjure up a small bouquet of flowers. You couldn’t show up empty handed, his father had said.

The two eventually made it to her grave and stood in front of it, William knelt down and placed the flowers on her headstone.

“ I’m sorry it’s been a while dear, I hope you haven’t been too lonely.” William said softly as he stood back up.

“ Hi mom,” Alistar said a birt sheepishly. “ It’s been a while, I’m sorry.” He apologized softly and William chuckled.

“ Your mother would understand. She knows how nusy we Magic Knights are, especially when they’re a Vice-Captain such as yourself.” William said as he patted his sons shoulder comfortingly.

The two fell quiet after a few moments. William, unsure of where to begin, and Alistar unsure of what was going on. It wasn’t very often that his father would ask to speak with him privately, the last time they had a discussion like this was when he promoted Alistar to Vice-Captain status.

“ What’s going on father, did something happen at the meeting?” Alistar asked, a tinge of concern in his voice. William smiled and shook his head.

“ No, it’s nothing like that. The meeting went very well, and I think Asta will make a fine Wizard King.” William said genuinely. Alistar nodded in agreement, he didn’t know Asta as well as everyone else did but, from what he had seen, Asta really was an amazing and kind person.

“ If the meeting went as well as you say it did then what do we need to talk about?” Alistar asked with a small frown and William sighed, silently asking his wife’s spirit to give him strength.

“ I-” William began but was cut off by the sound of a familiar static noise. The two men turned and saw Marx’s face staring at them.

“ Ah Captain and VIce-Captain Vangeance there you are, I was looking for you all over the place!” Marx said in relief, but his eyes began to move around as he noticed where Alistar and William. “ Um, is now a good time? I can go to another squad-?”

“ What is it Marx?” William asked patiently, he couldn’t help but be silently thankful that the memory mage had interrupted them.

“ Ah right, well,” The man cleared his throat. “ I just received word of a remote village being attacked by bandits. And supposedly these bandits are former Magic Knights. So the village leader requested our assistance. I thought maybe The Golden Dawn and the Black Bulls would like to take it on as a joint mission.” Marx finished as he looked between the two.

William noticed his son’s light up just a bit at the mention of the Black Bulls. Of course the young man was able to hide his feelings from everyone else, but he wasn’t good at hiding them from his father.

“ We’ll take the mission, but,” William said before he turned to look at Alistar. “ Alistar will be the one to lead them and will get to choose the members he wants to take along.” He watched his son’s blue eyes widen in surprise.

“ What? Why? Shouldn’t you be the one to lead this kind of mission?” Alistar asked in confusion as Marx quietly agreed with William’s statement before disappearing. William smiled gently before clapping his son on the shoulder.

“ Consider this your first real mission as the newly appointed Captain of the Golden Dawn.” William said before he turned around and began to walk away, leaving Alistar to stand there completely stunned.

“ Come on Captain Alistar Vangeance, you need to hurry up and head out.” William called as he noticed his son hadn’t snapped out of his daze. The young man quickly shook his head before nodding and running after his father.

—-----

In The Spade Kingdom

Yuno, Neva, and their three children quietly walked into the Castle with their guards and Castle servants behind them. Yuno hadn’t wanted servants when he first became king, but after a while he realized just how much they did to help the Royal family and keep things in order. So when Yuno officially became king he immediately raised all their wages to reflect how much he appreciated them and their hard work.

“ Your Majesties!” Ralph saluted as he and the others watched them walk by. Yuno instantly waved their salutes away.

“ You didn’t need to stay up and wait for us, you all should have gone to sleep.” Neva said quietly as she carried a sleeping Kya gently in her arms while Yuno carried Kito and Miku sluggishly walked beside her parents while holding each of their hands.

“ It’s alright, I had something urgent that I needed to discuss with King Yuno.” Ralph said with a serious expression, causing Yuno to frown.

“ It can’t wait until morning?” Yuno asked quietly, and when Ralph shook his head,he nodded before handing Kito off to one of his guards. “ Alright, I’m sorry about this,” Yuno added to his wife, who only smiled and shook her head.

“ It’s fine, just go do what you have to do.” Neva said softly in an understanding tone. Yuno smiled gratefully at her before he kissed his children on the head and gave Neva a gentle kiss on the lips.

Yuno quickly followed Ralph down the halls until they came to Yuno’s office. They walked over to the desk and Yuno looked down at a bunch of papers and maps that were sitting on the surface.

“ What’s all of this?” Yuno asked curiously and Ralph sighed.

“ Honestly we aren’t too sure ourselves. These coordinates are the last known locations of about 20 merchants that have gone missing in the last two weeks.” Ralph said seriously as Yuno’s brows raised in surprise.

“ 20 merchants in 2 weeks? How are we just now learning about this?” Yuno asked and Ralph shook his head.

“ We initially thought it may have only been a coincidence, or that people were making up false reports. Until we began noticing certain patterns,” Ralph suddenly began moving papers around until he found the right documents.

“ The merchants all had deliveries in the Lumi Kingdom?” Yuno asked with a frown as he began to read the papers over, and Ralph nodded.

“ That’s right. Now merchants go missing all the time due to the treacherous terrain that’s between us and Lumi, which is another reason we didn’t pay much attention to this, but according to these letters and other documents all the merchants that had been reported missing all made it to Lumi.” Ralph said as he began pointing at letters and receipts. Yuno’s frown deepend.

“ Are there any records showing that they left, or attempted to leave, Lumi? Maybe the merchants decided to stay there a while longer? Or maybe they died on the way back?” Yuno pointed out and Ralph shook his head.

“ That’s what I thought too. But from the witness statments and letters and documents it shows that all the merchants had plans to return to the Spade Kingdom. As for if they died on the way back, that’s someting I want to go and investigate if you’ll allow it. Things…just aren’t adding up, sir.”

Yuno placed a thoughtful hand under his chin as his mind began to race. Could there be something to this? Or was it just a simple missing persons case? His gut began screaming at him.

“ Investigate it. And ask for the Lumi Kingdom’s cooperation.” Yuno said seriously and Ralph nodded before saluting his King and walking out of the office. Yuno sighed quietly before he sunk down into his office chair.

Ther was certainly no rest for the wicked.

———

Thank you all so much for reading and I hope you all have a good day~!

#black clover fanfiction #black clover fanfic #black clover oc fanfiction #black clover oc #children of the future shadows of the past #sukehiro yami #yami sukehiro #charlotte roselei #oc; hikari #hikari is not my oc #oc; alistar #william vangeance #yuno grinberryall #oc neva

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steeltwigz · 1 year

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i like charmy bee for the same reason i like any of the other REAL young kid characters in sonic. hes literally Just a child. everything he does! hes Just a kid, living his life in a ridiculous situation and going on crazy adventures with superpowered teens. hes having the time of his life! he probably goes to school when he isnt on screen. what grade is he in?? third? fourth? does vector pack his lunches every day? what happened to his parents? is it an adorabat situation, or is vector rlly his dad, adoption papers n all? does he play minecraft? does he hang out w cream and tails? does he have any other friends his age? does he hang out with any other characters? does charmy ever go to vanilla's house unprompted or does vector have to call first? is it the same if charmy was going to hang out with tails? does vector go to PTA meetings? i loveeee family tropes. can we talk abt the family tropes.

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askthechronoverse · 2 months

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Last Chapter •||• Next Chapter

“Kit!” Vito shouted to his cousin as she joined them at the bottom of the cliff. Donkey Kong put her down and she walked back to the two other game travelers. Donkey Kong nodded to the girl and waited for Junior to speak.

“Thank you for your help, guys. Kit, I want you to have this.” He handed her the key for Donkey Kong’s cage. She put the key in her bag. “I hope you can save your dad, too. I don't know if the key will help you, but maybe having it with you will be a good luck charm or something.”

“I hope so. I have a feeling I'm going to need it.” Kit turned to the others.

“I think we're good.” Johnny said, looking up to check the score. “Between the tickets I've been gathering since I started playing video games and now, I think we have enough of the go-kart.” He gestured for them to follow him to the arcade cabinet, where it reset to a Defender facade. Kit waved goodbye to the pair of apes and within the blink of an eye, they were back in the arcade. Kit looked at the price rack and saw that the go-kart was still there. They weren't too late just yet. She ran over to Bellamy, who was playing pinball in the corner.

“Hey, Kit. I don't think I can play much more pinball, kind of glad you came back when ya did.” They grabbed their tickets from the dispenser box attached to the machine. “We almost have enough to get the giant teddy bear.” She gestured to Charmy, who was playing a Pac-Man machine and Ken, who was deep in a skee ball game. “Ken is some kinda skee ball savant. Took him a few tries to get the rules right, but it's oddly impressive.” Kit leaned in and whispered.

“We need to pool our tickets. The go-kart is the foundation element.” Kit watched Vito and Johnny explain the same thing to Charmy and Ken. Bellamy nodded and handed Kit a handful of tickets. The others did the same, though Ken seemed reluctant. He pointed to a very large teddy bear, but the overflow of tickets was soon relinquished. Johnny took the tickets Charmy had from Vito, then approached Kit.

“Thanks for helping me win this, kid. I know your old man will get a kick out of learning his kid got to play ColecoVision to save the world.” He chuckled as he was handed the tickets Kit had. “He keeps telling me the Atari 2600 is the better console. Doubt he’ll be able to deny the arcade experience now.” He approached the counter and the change attendant practically vaulted over to serve him.

“Johnny! Long time no see! It's been, like what, almost 12 hours?” She leaned her head on her knuckles, grinning. “So. Did you enjoy the ColecoVision spotlight we've got going on? That was my idea.”

“Yeah! It's not every day you get to play classic video games on one of the best consoles of early gaming.” The words he spoke almost made the change attendant swoon. “Guess what I finally have?”

“Enough to take the go-kart off our hands? I just knew you could do it, Johnny. But you know I got to see the tickets. Dad would get upset if I short changed another prize again because of how cute you are.” She slid the mountain of tickets to her side and began the tedious process of feeding them into a ticket counter. As she did this, she was startled by a slam on the counter and an equally large mountain of tickets. She looked up to see Master Apocalypse push the tickets in front of her.

“Looks like it's a race to the go-kart today. You just have to wait your turn. Johnny was here first.” She was completely unfazed as she counted the tickets. She turned to Johnny. “So, did you see that new game we installed?”

“NBA Jam? Totally! I've been hoping to play a good two on two two basketball game. Did you know that there's a limited edition version that has Michael Jordan in the roster? I hear he has the only copy!”

“I love when you talk about games like that.” She sighed as the counter continued to sing a song of exhausted ticket feeding. “We're also looking to get a new cabinet for Mr. Do!. Can't believe some kid broke it.”

“Right? Some people have no respect for a game that was the first to be distributed as a conversion kit! You're so lucky you know somebody who can paint old cabinets so convincingly. You had me convinced that Mr. Do! was its own cabinet for years!” The ticket counter eventually ran out and Johnny's blood went cold. They were one ticket short. The change attendant saw this and ripped a ticket from Master Apocalypse’s pile. She dropped it into the ticket feeder as he started to protest.

“Would you look at that? Looks like you finally earned enough to get that go-kart! Let me go get it packed up for you.” She turned and headed into the employees only room behind her to get the box. Master Apocalypse turned to Johnny and glared.

“I'm getting that go-kart.” He folded his arms.

“Nah. It's mine. It ain't yours. Go find something else.” The attendant quickly returned with two boxes and a ladder and began to pack up the go-kart. She handed the boxes over to Johnny when she was done. The smaller of the two boxes was silver and had the word “Colecovision” in rainbow lettering. Under this was a card that had a waving tapir that wore a toy soldier's clothes with neat cursive that stated the console was donated by Daydream Toyworks.

“Like I said: I knew you could do it. We'll probably put a TV up there for the next big prize. We'll have to see.” She grinned. “Oh! Almost forgot to mention: The Colecovision is the prize for playing the showcase. Glad you got it and not someone else. Now, can you take your new friends out of here before I have to kick that blonde beauty over there for abusing our skeeball setup?” Johnny gave Bellamy the go-kart and Kit the Colecovision, which went into her bag, and the group left the arcade for the food court.

The area was set up in a circle. In the center of this circle were green metal tables and chairs full of people eating everything from fried chicken to burgers and more. Some of these people had purchases in bags that declared they came from places like The Bon•Bon and Gloamingdales. The area was filled with the same lush greenery that was seen in the center court, with the only items that weren't green being the sunset orange trash cans that dotted the area. At the furthest point, another fountain could be seen, the sounds of the water a calming force. Before Kit could fully take in the scenery, a voice snapped her into the present.

“Give me the go-cart. I'm not asking again.” Master Apocalypse folded his arms. Johnny turned to face himself, mirroring the gesture.

“That is not happening and I'll tell you why. You're in a shopping mall. The best one in Sunset View. This shopping mall has really good security and an honestly eagle eyed guy who loves this place and enforcing its rules more than anything else. The second you take this go-kart from me or make a move to touch it, he's telling the security guard you're trying to steal it. They're not going to believe you.” Johnny headed for the nearest fast food restaurant in the court, a place called Louisiana Crispy Chicken. “I'm going to treat these kids to lunch. You're going to back off.” The aura the cloaked stranger was putting off was oppressive.

“I'm going to get what I need one way or the other. I guarantee you that, by the time you're done with your little lunch, the world around you will be mine for the molding.” He turned to walk away. “Although, I may just have to convince the right people to give your father a wonderful welcome to life in the Awntawp Correctional Center as the prison punching bag. That might be enough of a change to this world.”

“What are you saying, kid?” Johnny folded his arms.

“I know people. The people I know run Awntawp. They can make Emmet’s time in Undar look like a tropical vacation.”

“Are you threatening us?” Bellamy stepped forward, between Johnny and Kit and Master Apocalypse.

“Maybe. I see it as leveraging my assets.” Apocalypse turned to Kit. “Well?”

“Yeah, Kit. Which do you choose? The rock or the hard place?” Bellamy rolled her eyes. Kit held the key she was given by Junior in her hand from in her bag and steeled her gaze.

“What do you mean? You still never told me who you are, so I don't know why I have to see anything you've done as a threat.”

“You really don't need to know. All it needs to be understood between you and I is that we are enemies. As my enemy, I know your weaknesses. Your weakness is your family. I mean, look what you've gone through so far to make sure your father stays out of prison. He's trained you well. But I was trained a lot better. I know people who can make your father's life a miserable mess in prison. Because he let himself be captured, it's only a matter of time before the court puts him away. All that has to happen is one little push. And once he does get sentenced, he's in a domain I can control. A domain I will make sure he will never come back from. I want you to choose, Catherine Brickowski. Choose between the world as you know it or your father. I know what you're going to pick.” He grabbed a chair and sat.

“Kit.” Charmy put a hand on her cousin’s shoulder. “Please think this through. I know you love your father. That's never been a question. But you need to walk away.”

“Your father can take care of himself. The world might not be able to handle the change. Don't be too rash.” Vito added. The pause between words was long and awkward, moving like a newborn deer. Eventually, Kit spoke.

“Master Apocalypse. I'm not playing this game. You can- Hey!” While she spoke, Master Apocalypse had rolled his eyes and snatched the go-kart out of Bellamy's hands.

“Don't worry. None of you are going to remember any of this. No one's going to remember how selfish you are.” A portal opened behind him and he stepped away. The portal closed quickly, causing the others to be unable to chase after. Kit didn't turn to face her travel companions. She instead put her head in her hands. A voice in the distance cried out, “HEY! STEALING IS NOT TOLERATED ON MALL PREMISES!”

#⌈the newspaper isn't antiquated⌋ ⋆❈⋆ ⌈writings⌋#⌈the ashes of disaster drift to you⌋ ⋆❈⋆ ⌈days of oblivion⌋

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acacia-may · 2 years

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A Family Where There Once Was None

Description: In the future, the Black Bulls gather together at the beach with their families causing Asta to reflect on his life’s journey and the family he found along the way.

Rating: G

Warnings: Mentions Pregnancy, A character accidentally gets hit in the head

Fandom: Black Clover

Genre: Black Bulls Squad as Family; Domestic Fluff

Relationships: The Black Bulls Squad as Family is main focus. There is some Asta/Noelle, and Asta, Noelle & Their Children. There are a few hints at Grey/Gauche and Rill/Charmy. (Henry/My OC is also briefly mentioned). The rest is left intentionally ambiguous so choose your own adventure.

Characters: Asta (POV Character), Noelle Silva, Liebe, Charmy Pappitson, Vanessa Enoteca, Finral Roulacase, Finesse Calmreich, Yami Sukehiro, Zora Ideale, Nacht Faust, Gauche Adlai, Grey, The Black Bulls Family, Lorelei (Swallow) Legolant (OC), and the Children: (Katsu, Marceline, Tirion, Lia, Kalon, Narah, Asa, Toshi, Mira, Summer, Daphne, Rye, Anni, Altan, Licita, and Kai).

Word Count: 4905

Link to original post on AO3. Please do not repost to another site.

This story was written for Black Bulls Month Day 3: Found Family. I checked with the organiser and got the greenlight for this idea so hopefully what I've written still fits the prompt. I honestly can't believe I actually got this finished in time! 😅

Story Below the Cut! Thank you for reading!

“Dad! Dad! Come see my sandcastle!” Licita’s bare feet made a trail of excited footprints as she ran straight for Asta. Beaming, he scooped his daughter up in his arms causing her to giggle before she grabbed his hand and dragged him off towards the town of sandcastles she and several of her Black Bulls cousins had been building with their Uncle Rill. Judging by the ice cream smeared all over her face, Rill’s daughter Anni had seemingly been distracted from her own sandcastle by snacks leaving her dad to finish it on his own—not that he seemed to mind much since he didn’t even notice Asta wave at him as he walked by. Captain Yami’s son, Katsu, and Lia Roulacase seemed to be equally caught up in their work and, if Asta had to guess, some sort of competition to see whose sandcastle would be the biggest—though they did both find the time to quickly wave back at him. On the other side of their sandcastles, Liebe, in what Noelle affectionately referred to as his “cutesy form,” was smoothing the wall of a much smaller and less elaborate structure.

“This one is mine,” said Licita excitedly—her little blonde pigtails bobbing as she talked.

Asta beamed at her. “It’s beautiful!”

“I’ll show you around, Dad!” Licita’s eyes sparkled with pride as she dragged Asta around the sand structure. She pointed to a cluster of shells stuck into one of the mounds of sand. “That’s the door. Narah helped me find seashells to make it. Narah didn’t make a sandcastle, but she was helping build mine before she went to get more seashells.”

Asta’s smile widened. Narah Roulacase had inherited her father’s kind heart and had always been particularly attached to Licita seeing her more as a little sister than just a little cousin. “That’s really nice of her.”

“Narah is really nice. I like her a lot. I like all my cousins!” Licita prattled excitedly with a smile that seemed to fill her tiny face. “Did you see Lia and Katsu’s sandcastles? They’re really big!”

“Yes, I saw them when we came over,” chuckled Asta. “But your sandcastle is really big too, Licita, and I love all the windows!”

“Uncle Liebe made those. I’m making this sandcastle for him to stay in, and I want to be big enough. Can you help us, Dad?”

“Sure,” said Asta as he reached for a nearby shovel. He couldn’t help but chuckle a little as he glanced over at Liebe who had returned to work—carving another window in the sand. Asta knew that if he had even jokingly suggested making a sandcastle for Liebe, Liebe probably would’ve crossed his arms and scowled at him, but he had such a soft spot for his niece that these days he could be caught building sandcastles, having tea parties, playing dress up, and doing a wide variety of other things, Asta could have never imagined Liebe doing before Licita was born. Asta wondered if it was perhaps how much his daughter took after him and her namesake that caused Liebe to be so attached to her or perhaps it was all the ways she was like Noelle—her smile, the way her nose wrinkled when she laughed, how her shoulders stiffened and she fidgeted when she was nervous. Liebe and Noelle had bonded so much over the years, and she had once confided in him that Liebe, despite only being her brother-in-law, felt as much like her brother as Nozel, possibly even more so.

At the thought of his brother-in-law, Asta glanced towards the ocean where Nozel was standing at the water’s edge holding onto the hands of his young daughter, Acier, who giggled as the water crashed against her feet in tiny little waves. It had been Asta’s idea to invite him and his family along with them to Racque—after talking it over with Noelle, of course—and he liked to think Nozel was grateful to be there, even if he did look a bit exhausted, probably from chasing his twin boys up and down the beach earlier.

Asta was at least pleased to see that he looked happier to be there than Langris, who Finral had invited along for, Asta presumed, much the same reason that he and Noelle had invited Nozel and who had unfortunately, despite ample amounts of sunscreen, gotten horribly burned on their first day. Asta chuckled a bit to himself remembering how Vanessa had teased him for looking like a beached lobster at dinner the previous evening, but immediately felt sorry for it. Despite still being a bit red, Langris seemed to be doing alright now—collecting seashells with his son and his niece not a few yards away from the sandcastle village. Asta wondered if Narah was collecting seashells for her older sister’s sandcastle too or just Licita’s.

It warmed Asta’s heart to see everyone together again. He was sure that most of his former squad mates must have felt the same way since they had all jumped at Vanessa’s idea for everyone to meet at the beach in Racque that summer. Asta and Noelle had been some of the first to commit to the idea and had been planning the trip for months. Of course, that had been before Noelle had found out she was expecting their third child—or the ’tie breaker’ as Luck liked to refer to the baby—and despite Asta’s reassurances that they wouldn’t have to go if it was going to be too much for her, his wife, in that strong, determined way of hers, had insisted that they keep their vacation plans. She had already had two children, she had reasoned, so she knew what she was dealing with, and Asta trusted her judgment. Still, that didn’t change the fact that he was a bit worried about her being in the heat and bright sun for so long when she was so heavily pregnant. He was sure he wasn’t alone in this type of concern seeing as he and Noelle weren’t the only ones expecting—even if their baby was due the soonest.

Asta glanced over at the cabana Henry had set up which Zora had nicknamed “the nest” with a sort of affection on account of all the new or expectant mothers congregating there. Noelle was lounging there now, positively in stitches over Henry’s wife, Lorelei, balancing a tower of seashells on the wide curve of her abdomen. She was due a month after Noelle and had recently knitted a set of matching booties for her baby and theirs since she was determined that they should grow up to be friends. Finesse, who was giggling behind her hand, had also been given a set of booties as she was due nearly two months later and was sporting quite the bump of her own which was a source of much stress, worry, and fussing for everyone, her husband and brother-in-law especially, given her often delicate health. Not an hour ago, Vanessa had told them all to calm down and stop worrying for what had to be the fifteenth time that day, but she too had been keeping a watchful eye on her. She had been looking out for Lorelei and Noelle too, which Asta appreciated. He was sure that Henry did as well especially while his attention was focused on watching his boys splashing around in the shallow water.

It seemed that Vanessa’s strong maternal streak, which Asta had always admired, had only intensified when she had children. Even now, she was helping Charmy pass out water and snacks to the other ladies despite the fact that she could probably benefit from some rest and relaxation of her own considering the fact that she too was, as she called it, “unexpectedly expecting” and seemed to be at that uncomfortably round stage of pregnancy, though she swore she wasn’t nearly as far along as she looked. Still her little one would be also arriving this year along with the rest of the new Black Bulls cousins, and her baby’s matching set of Lorelei’s booties appeared to still be a work in progress—attached to some temporarily forgotten knitting needles. It brought the brightest smile to Asta’s face. He couldn’t wait for all the children to get to grow up together.

He was also glad to see Noelle in such bright spirits, despite being a little bit squished given the wide curve in her belly and the two little boys who were currently leaning on her like a pillow that is. Almos Silva, the elder of Nozel’s twins whom Asta had affectionately nicknamed ‘Al’ much to his father’s chagrin when the nickname had stuck, was particularly fond of his Aunt Noelle and had fallen asleep leaning against her side at nearly every family gathering Asta could think of. This time, however, he had company, as Kai, Asta and Noelle’s two-year-old son, had curled up next to his mother and fallen asleep on her other side with a half-eaten and now melting popsicle in his hand. Asta couldn’t help but laugh a bit as he watched Noelle chuckle at her attempts to fan herself without upsetting her sleeping son and nephew.

His laughter must’ve startled her as she turned towards him with a slight shrug and playful roll of her eyes. Asta beamed at her before turning back to his daughter.

“I’m going to check on your mom real quick. I’ll be right back.”

Licita smiled and nodded. “Tell her about my sandcastle, okay?”

Asta beamed and nodded at her before making his way towards Noelle. Even by the time, he had walked over to the umbrella, Charmy and Vanessa were still busy handing out large glasses of water with festive umbrella straws to the group.

“Here,” Charmy said handing him one. “Drink up. We don’t want anybody getting dehydrated. Take Noelle’s too.”

“Thanks, Charmy!” said Asta as she handed him another cup with a different coloured straw, before she turned to Grey whose hands were currently full, rocking her daughter, Mira, to sleep. Amira Adlai was the first girl in a long line of boys and a generally fussy baby, but she looked so peaceful now as she slept. Charmy gave Grey an understanding nod and thoughtfully placed her cup next to her on a small folding table as Asta took a seat next to his wife and sleeping son and nephew.

He rubbed her back gently with his free hand. “You doing okay, Noelle? Do you want to go back to the hotel and rest?”

“I’m fine,” she assured him with a slight smile.

“At least let me take, Kai,” he said reaching out to scoop up his son. Kai stirred but quickly nestled into Asta’s shoulder and drifted back off to sleep. “Well, someone needs a nap,” Asta chuckled affectionately ruffling his fingers gently through his son’s silvery hair.

Asta thought Kai must be exhausted from playing around in the water with him and his uncles. Though Asta had ducked out about an hour ago, from what he could tell, Magna and Luck were still engaged in an intense splash fight with several nieces and nephews, and every few minutes or so, “Asa, stop turning into me!” or “Kalon, get down from there!” would echo across the beach followed by Asa Adlai, transformed into one of the Silvas, giggling at having drenched Uncle Magna again with borrowed water magic, Rye Boismortier complaining that he was starving before painting up a popsicle or an ice cream cone for himself, or little Summer Legolant running up the beach hand and hand with Daphne Agrippa excitedly exclaiming that she had found yet another hermit crab for the growing collection of “friends” that Gordon was keeping a watchful eye on in a nearby tide pool. In other words, the same kind of fun chaos the Black Bulls had enjoyed back in the day—just with a few more, younger members. That reminded him…

“Oh, Licita wanted me to tell you that she’s building a sandcastle for Liebe. I think she wants you to come see it when she’s done. As long as you’re up for it.”

Noelle tilted her head at him with an almost bantering exasperation. “Bakasta…”

Asta’s mouth twitched into a smile at the nickname which his wife only used in an affectionate and, generally, playfully annoyed way these days. “Sorry. I know. I just want to make sure you and the baby are okay,” he said as he pressed his hand to her stomach.

“Don’t worry. We’re taking good care of her,” reassured Vanessa with a kind smile. “And I swear Nozel has been over here every five minutes to make sure she’s drinking enough water.”

Noelle rolled her eyes and sighed. Asta knew that her only reservation about inviting Nozel along was that he would probably be fussing over her constantly, and, naturally, being Nozel, he was. “I told him I’m fine,” she huffed. “He’s such a worrier.”

“I think that it’s sweet that he cares about you so much,” said Finesse in her soft and gentle way.

Vanessa laughed. “Of course, you would say that,” she teased, and a pale rose filled Finesse’s cheeks.

“I like when he brings his daughter over. She’s so cute,” gushed Charmy. “All those Silva babies with their big, pretty eyes!” She turned to Noelle and Asta with a bright smile. “Who do you think this one will take after?”

Asta and Noelle looked at each other thoughtfully. Their third little one was a tie breaker in this way as well since Licita looked more like Asta and Kai looked more like Noelle. He shrugged. “Dunno. What do you think, Noelle?”

Noelle’s brow furrowed. “Guess we’ll just have to wait and see…” she conceded with a sigh.

“Just don’t mention it around Zora or Magna or they’ll start a betting pool again,” joked Vanessa with a wink.

“Where is Zora anyway?” asked Charmy.

“He said something about going with Finral to go pick up some watermelon,” replied Vanessa with a shrug.

Charmy frowned. “We have enough food already.”

“I think it’s for a game,” chimed Grey quietly enough that she wouldn’t wake the sleeping baby.

As if on cue, Finral and Zora suddenly appeared through a shimmery portal.

“Hey, we got watermelon!” Zora yelled at the chaotic group of kids still playing in the water with Luck and Magna. Finral, however, turned to the cabana with a weary sigh.

“Sorry about that. Did we miss anything?” Everyone seated under the cabana shook their heads. “Good. Zora was very insistent about getting everyone together for some watermelon splitting but couldn’t find any watermelon so I told him I’d portal him to the market to pick some up. He’s a very slow shopper though…”

“He was probably just stalling so he could get a break from all the chaos around here,” laughed Vanessa.

Finral shrugged but chuckled, “Yeah probably. I think he picked up every single watermelon they had, and—” He paused holding up a hand to the group. “Hold on just a second…”

In an instant, he had pulled his son, Kalon, gently through a portal. Kalon’s brow furrowed confusedly, but he beamed at him. “Thanks, Dad!”

“Please be careful, Kalon. How did you even get up there?”

Kalon, however, didn’t seem to hear him as his attention had turned to Asta and Noelle. “Oh hi, Uncle Asta. You and Aunt Noelle are still married right?”

“What?” Noelle’s confused exclamation caused her sleeping son and nephew to stir, but they swiftly drifted back off again as Asta double-checked that ring on his left hand, just to be sure.

“Yeah, we’re still married and very happy.”

“Oh good! I’m glad!” Kalon’s smile widened, and he turned to glance over his shoulder exclaiming, “Tirion, don’t worry! Uncle Asta and Aunt Noelle are still married so it’s okay!”

Reaching the edge of the cabana after, Asta presumed, running after Kalon, a particularly flushed Tirion ran a hand through his already messy pink hair before rubbing his hand across the back of his neck. “Thank goodness. I was really worried for a minute,” he sighed in relief before being pulled into a hug by his mother, Vanessa. It seemed to visibly calm him, and his face softened to a gentle smile.

“Kalon, what did you do?” asked Noelle with a stern but affectionate sigh.

“Nothing,” he insisted before he noticed his father’s pointed tilt of his head at him and fidgeted a little. “Well not nothing, but nothing bad…”

“Kalon, we talked about this, remember?” Finral said—his voice kind but a bit weary. “No time traveling when we’re on vacation.”

“Sorry, Dad. It was an accident. But don’t worry, I didn’t break any of the rules on the list—I don’t think but I don’t know because I didn’t have it with me because I didn’t want it to get wet and I’m not supposed to time travel on vacation.” Kalon nodded empathically with a bright, cheerful smile. “I was just checking with Uncle Asta to be sure, and everything is okay. I don’t think anything could break up Uncle Asta and Aunt Noelle. Young Aunt Noelle really, really likes him. I can tell.”

Asta stifled a bit of chuckle at the faint blush of pink that filled Noelle’s cheeks even after all these years.

“I’m sure, your Uncle Asta really liked her too,” suggested Finral, and Kalon nodded.

“He’s just more sneaky about it.”

Vanessa and Charmy could scarcely contain their laughter, and even Grey chuckled quietly to herself, always careful of the sleeping baby in her arms. Noelle glared at them with an almost playful roll-of-her eyes, though she did give a genuinely grateful nod to Finesse who was kind enough not to have laughed though she gave Kalon a gentle smile and pat on the head.

“Please be careful, Kalon,” she said, and Kalon nodded.

“I will—Ooh popsicles! Can I have one Aunt Charmy?”

Charmy shrugged but motioned to one of her sheep to bring Kalon a popsicle. “Do you want one tool, Tirion?” she asked. He smiled and nodded.

“Yes, please.”

When Kalon and Tirion had both run off with their popsicles, Finral wearily took a seat in an empty chair next to Grey and turned apologetically to Asta and Noelle. “Sorry about that. He’s still learning how to use his magic. I don’t think he has messed anything up too badly yet…” His voice trailed as his brow furrowed. “But I guess we wouldn’t really know if he had, right? Since the future would be different…?” He rubbed his temples. “I don’t know…”

Asta shrugged. He didn’t know either and thinking about it too much made his head hurt, but he smiled and reassured Finral, “Don’t worry. I’m sure it’s fine. Besides Noelle and I are pretty solid”—he smiled brightly at his wife—“I don’t think he could break us up.”

“You should worry more about your own relationship” said Noelle with a frown. “If he messes that up, he'll make himself not exist.”

Finral sighed. “That’s what keeps me up at night…”

“I wouldn’t worry about that,” chimed Charmy with a shake of her head. “If she was going to settle for you once, she’d definitely do it again.”

Noelle snorted a laugh, and Finesse gasped, covering her mouth with her hand while Vanessa scolded, “Charmy!” She huffed but rolled her eyes with an almost playful affection before turning to Finral, “Don’t listen to her. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“And you should take advantage of the time you have to catch up on some sleep,” teased Lorelei Legolant. “You’ll have a baby keeping you up all night pretty soon.”

“The baby’s keeping me up now,” sighed Finral wearily, running his hand through his hair. “Not to mention all the nieces and nephews…”

“I wish you wouldn’t worry so much, especially about us,” Finesse said.

Vanessa comfortingly patted his arm. “You worry too much. It’s not going to help and will only end up hurting you, you know? You’re going to make yourself sick.”

“I know. But really—how are all of you? Can I get anyone anything? Noelle is there—?”

“Asta is taking very good care of Noelle and he and Nozel have cornered the market on worrying about her,” interrupted Vanessa. “Honestly, they’re about as fussy over her as you and Langris are over Finesse.”

Finral sighed. “I really am sorry about that…”

“Here, sit down and drink this,” said Charmy, handing him some water with a colorful straw. “You look awful.”

“Thanks Charmy,” he muttered sarcastically before running his hand through his hair.

“You look tired,” Vanessa corrected. “Did you sleep at all last night?”

Finral sighed and rubbed the back of his neck with a yawn. “Around 2:30, Kalon completely kicked me out of bed—literally. I couldn’t get back to sleep after that.”

“It’s probably karma,” quipped Charmy.

Vanessa rolled her eyes before she patted Finral’s back. “Maybe you should go take a nap. There’s plenty of adults around to keep an eye on the kids.”

“I don’t need—” His protest was cut off by a yawn, and Vanessa blinked at him.

“Please, Finral,” sighed Finesse, and he shrugged his shoulders and conceded.

“Alright, but only if you’re sure it’s not too much trouble.”

With a smile, Vanessa waved her hand at him. “We’ve got this. I mean, we’ve been here all day without any emergencies or injuries.”

“You jinxed it, Vanessa!” huffed Noelle as their long-retired captain made his way up the beach holding his crying daughter, Marceline.

“Charmy, you got any ice back there?” he called as he neared the cabana.

“What happened to her?” asked Noelle in concern, gasping, Asta could only presume at the big, purple bump on her forehead.

“Toshi accidentally hit her in the head when he was trying to split the watermelon.”

Sure enough, there was Gauche running up to the cabana holding a shaking, rattling teacup and saucer which Asta supposed would probably seem very odd to anyone who didn’t know that Toshi Adlai had a bad habit of turning into inanimate objects whenever he got stressed or upset. “Is Marceline okay?” asked Gauche, handing Grey the tea cup as she handed him baby Mira in exchange.

“She’ll be fine,” grunted Yami, taking a towel and a block of ice from Charmy and pressing it to his daughter’s forehead. He turned to Marceline who stared at him with teary blue eyes. “You’re okay,” he reassured her. Marceline sniffled but nodded.

“Is Toshi okay?” asked Asta turning to Grey who shrugged her shoulders as the teacup rattled in her hands.

“Everyone knows it was an accident,” said Gauche shaking his head as he rocked the baby. “You don’t have to get all upset about it.”

“I didn’t…mean to…Dad…” cried a particularly weepy Toshi Adlai as he transformed back into a little boy caught in a hug by his mother. “Marceline, I’m so sorry!”

Crossing her tiny arms, Marceline wrinkled her nose and frowned at him. “You’re a moron.”

Most of Asta’s companions began to stifle laughs, and even the former Captain Yami struggled to hold back a grin as he grunted, “That wasn’t nice.”

“But you say it all the time, Dad…” Marceline argued causing most of her aunts and uncles to burst out laughing. Before Yami could scramble to salvage the situation, Toshi started to cry harder.

“No. No, Toshi, it’s okay,” soothed Grey patting his head comfortingly, before he turned into a butter dish. “Gauche!” she called turning to her husband in concern.

Gauche, however, just let out a long weary sigh. “Just leave him. He’ll be fine.”

“Is Marceline, okay?” interjected Nacht as he appeared in the doorway to the cabana with Zora who practically beamed as he turned to Gauche.

“Your son’s got one hell of an arm.”

“Swear jar.” Nacht frowned, holding up the colorfully decorated swear jar Gordon had made. Huffing, Zora dug through his pocket for some spare Yul and dropped two coins into the jar. Despite this only being the second day of their trip, it sounded pretty full to Asta.

“What are we going to do with the swear jar money when it’s full?” asked Zora with a bitter shake of his head.

“We could buy a cake,” Charmy suggested.

Noelle’s eyes narrowed. “It’s supposed to be a punishment.”

“Okay well, you can buy me a cake and watch me eat it.” Charmy hummed thoughtfully, and Noelle huffed.

“What if we gave it to charity?” asked Asta. “To an orphanage maybe?”

“Good idea, Asta.” Finral smiled at him but yawned and tiredly rubbed his eyes. “Sorry…”

“You still need that nap,” said Vanessa with a light, good-natured chuckle.

Finral sighed. “Eh, I’ll sleep when the kids are grown up and out of the house.”

“That’s gonna be awhile,” said Yami dryly as Charmy and Zora didn’t even try to hide her snickering. Before anyone could protest, however, Licita came running up the beach with a somewhat panicked Liebe in tow, now at his full height trying to catch up with her

“Mama! Mama! Mama!” she yelled, excitedly grabbing Noelle’s hand and pulling her towards the door. “My sandcastle is done! Come see! Come see!”

“Okay. Okay. Just a second,” said Noelle with a smile. Asta knew that Noelle would have probably been the first to admit it was getting harder and harder for her to get around quickly now that she was nearing the end of her pregnancy so he offered her his arm. “Thanks,” she mumbled as she stood up from her seat with a glance towards Al to see if she had accidentally woken him. Asta stifled a chuckle. His nephew really could sleep through anything and had barely stirred despite all the commotion. Kai, however, was beginning to fidget and yawned before Asta laid him down on the chair and Noelle tucked him in gently with a nearby beach towel asking if their friends wouldn’t mind keeping an eye on him for a minute.

With Asta’s hand in one hand and Noelle’s in the other, Licita led her mother and father towards the sandcastle village. Katsu and Lia were still hard at work on theirs, and Anni and Rill appeared to be making a moat or trench of some kind.

“This is mine, Mama!” said Licita triumphantly as she began pointing out her sandcastle. “It’s really for Uncle Liebe, but it has rooms for everybody! You and Dad and me and Kai, but all the aunts and uncles too and the cousins can all play together right here.” She pointed to one of the mounds of sand. “And there’s a big kitchen for Aunt Charmy and Anni and Rye, and this is where Uncle Gordon and Uncle Gauche and Aunt Nene can show me and Narah and Genevieve how to do crafts. And over here we can play hide and seek with Toshi and Kalon and Summer and Uncle Finral and Aunt Grey. And there’s lots of shelves with books for Uncle Nozel to read to me and Al and Adler and Acier. And there’s a really big yard where Uncle Magna and Uncle Luck and Uncle Zora can show us how to play really fun games. And here’s a fireplace where Uncle Yami can tell us all stories if Katsu and Hana and Marceline ask him to. It’s big enough for the whole family! Do you like it?” Licita turned back towards them with the brightest, beaming smile, but her little brow furrowed as she tilted her head in concern. “What’s the matter, Mama?”

Asta turned to Noelle to find her wiping glistening tears from the corners of her eyes. She sniffled but reassured Licita, “Nothing. It’s okay. I’m just”—her face softened into a gentle smile—“really happy.” Asta took her hand and gave it an affectionate squeeze. He knew without the look she gave him that the tears were mainly a result of the pregnancy wreaking havoc on her mood, but he also knew what it meant to her to see their daughter’s sandcastle, thoughtfully made big enough for her whole family, a family that, at Licita’s age, Noelle could have only dreamed of. How much it meant to her to know that Licita would get to grow up surrounded by a whole group of people who loved her and would have everything that Noelle never got to have before joining up with the Black Bulls.

“I love it!” said Noelle as she scooped up a giggling Licita in her arms.

“Do you want to help me build more of it, Mama?”

Noelle beamed at her. “Of course. Maybe a nice nest for your Aunt Secre, hm?”

As Licita cheerfully prattled about Aunt Secre’s nest, Asta watched as Noelle glanced from the sandcastle, to the cabana filled with cheerful chattering and laughter of their former squad mates, to all of the happy children, their beloved nieces and nephews, running up the beach or splashing around in the water. She smiled, and as she turned to look at him now, no words were needed. He understood—knew Noelle must feel it too, that warm, safe feeling as if everything that had come before, all the sadness, loneliness and pain of the past was just a distant memory now. They were finally home.

#blackbullsmonth2023 #the black bulls as family #black clover fanfiction #just happy to have actually managed to finish this on time #astelle #greyche #rillmy

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