#guess who eternally has ‘it’s beginning to look a lot like murder’ stuck in their head forever and guess what else

[deityofhearts]

the worst part about having been in the yansim fandom uniconically and then in a hater way is that I have the shitty yandere covers of songs stuck in my head

[dramioneficrecommendations]

Best Draco/Hermione Fics Dramione Shippers Read in 2020

A few days ago, I asked you what were the best Dramione fics you'd read in 2020. Here's the huge list of your excellent recs (in alphabetical order):

A Creature Most Unusual by JMilz: Draco Malfoy is on a mission. Unfortunately, Hermione Granger catches him in the act. When she sees that he has adopted a rather unusual magical creature, she becomes determined to make sure he takes care of it. Little does she know, the animal may hold her key to eternal glory . . . and a whirlwind romance. M, 9 Chapters, 24,460 Words

A Little More Alive, Far Less Lost by MGL_Dramione_Lover: After Draco's post-war trial, he finds himself attending his 8th year at Hogwarts with Hermione. As remorse and acceptance replace anger and hate, the old enemies begin a friendship that sparks into much more than they ever hoped for. Hermione's goal as Head Girl is to banish old prejudices and unite the school while Draco's only wish is to become a man worthy of her love. M, 22 Chapters, 84,823

A New Light by mithrilstarlight: Draco spent six years doing his best to keep his head down. Then he runs into Hermione Granger. Turns out, they actually have a lot in common.Chapters posted M/W/F. T, 18 Chapters, 33,876 Words

A Second Look by RiverWriter: Her best friend's life was a mess and she would have done anything to make things better for him and his sons. So, when she found her former enemy in a similar situation her heart went out to him as well... and the beautiful blond baby in his arms didn't hurt his case. It was certainly enough for her to give him a second look. M, 30 Chapters, 127,243 Words

All that is Rare by smithandbarrowman: In the wizarding world, it has long been assumed that men are Alphas and women are Omegas. However, when Hermione Granger discovers that assumptions are rarely factual, her status as one of only a handful of female alphas that has ever existed has men falling at her feet.But there’s only one man she wants, and like the male alphas before her, the hunt is on until he bears her mark. E, 31 Chapters, 119,755 Words

All the Wrong Things by LovesBitca8: Sequel to "The Right Thing to Do" - Draco's POV. Part 2 of the "Rights and Wrongs" series. E, 24 Chapters, 160,297 Words

All You Want by senlinyu: Eighth Year at Hogwarts was supposed to be Hermione’s. And it is, just not in the way she expects. Omegaverse fic. E, 36 Chapters, 172,651

apples & cream by LovesBitca8: She could have taken her things and gone through his Floo without a word. She could have ignored him on Monday morning, as though last night had been no more than a fever dream and too much Firewhisky. But she’d come back to bed. Inspired by the lovely NikitaJuice's "apples & cream." E, 1 Chapter, 1,426 Words

Beginning and End by mightbewriting: Years. Broken into months into weeks into days—into hours, minutes, seconds—into moments. Simple at one end, complex at the other. In Draco’s experience, moments, even when simple, had a habit of becoming irretrievable. Moments grew, stretched, multiplied into ages and eras that defined whole stretches of measurable time. Draco regretted several moments in his life, some within his control, some without: all of them irretrievable in nature. At a certain point, wedged between ‘what-ifs’ of his own devising, he’d stopped trying to keep track of those regrettable moments: now and then, pushing and pulling, coming and going, beginning and end. Moments were only moments for just as long. After that, he had no control. A Draco POV prequel to Wait and Hope. E, 48 Chapters, 242,100 Words

Bells on a Hill by HeyJude19: Left by his fiancée a month before the ceremony, Draco never got his dream wedding, so agreeing to assist Granger with her own wedding planning to distract himself from his broken engagement seems like a great idea—though Draco probably shouldn't fall in love with the bride-to-be. Based very (very) loosely on The Wedding Singer. T, WIP

Bending Light by scullymurphy: Draco Malfoy was in exile, though they called it protection. It was the summer after sixth year and he'd taken Dumbledore's offer, defected to the other side and been sent away to a small town in Italy for his troubles. No magic, few rules, and not a lot to do - until Hermione Granger showed up. M, WIP

Break for me by Ada_P_Rix: COMPLETE _______________ "-I told them this wouldn’t work.” He cut in through gritted teeth as he kept his eyes on Hermione, making her pulse quicken and she couldn’t help but clench her thighs together at the rough, husky tone of his voice. He didn’t miss it; his eyes landed on her thighs and they darkened even further. “I can’t help her when all I feel like I want to do is pin her down and fuck her into the mattress.” _______________ Hermione gets into a little accident at work and is infected with a hybrid potion created to cause certain heightened side effects. Draco offers to stick around to give his work partner a little support ... if he can Occlude long enough to resist her... E, 7 Chapters, 45,107 Words

Breath Mints / Battle Scars by Onyx_and_Elm: For a moment, she's almost giddy. Because Draco Malfoy's been ruined by this war and he's as out of place as she is and — yes, he has scars too. He's got an even bigger one. She wonders whether one day they'll compare sizes. E, 51 Chapters, 148,908 Words

Bring Him to His Knees by Musyc: Draco is on the case of a murderer, but to investigate, he needs a fake relationship - and a kink club play partner. When Hermione volunteers to take the role, both do their best to maintain the lie without letting each other know the truth: neither of them are acting. E, WIP

Calendar Boys by anne_ammons, Nadiapolyakova (Rijaya83): She had thrown out the idea on a lark, but now Hermione Granger was tasked with bringing the charity calendar to life. What was one more thing on her list? An art/writing collaboration between nadiapolyakova and anne_ammons - twelve photos and a piece of the story behind them. M, WIP

Cherry Mint by dirtymudblood: "He could smell her. Even multiple train cars away, he could smell her. Except, Draco didn’t know who she was. He ignored his natural instincts to pant like a dog and follow the scent to the omega in the beginning stages of heat. Instead he willed himself to rub his knuckles against the rough wood of the table in front of him." E, 27 Chapters, 58,081 Words

Dark Water and Dying Eyebrights by bexchan: One of them is desperately trying to remember their past while the other is forever trying to escape theirs. It's seven years after the war and Draco has managed to avoid almost everyone from Hogwarts, living a lonely life on a small island, far away from the wizarding community. But a familiar face in a cafe window capsizes his world into chaos. Dramione. EWE. Memory fic. M, WIP

Difficult by provocative envy: COMPLETE: "I should," I repeated. "But I don't want to." And then he smiled, and I was wrecked. HG/DM. M, 30 Chapters, 87,041 Words

Don't Look Back by Onyx_and_Elm: It’s the smell of it. Chemical. Bitter and sharp as a raw edge on metal. Just a hint of it as she passes him at breakfast — but enough to stop her dead, mid-step. There is Wolfsbane in his tea. E, WIP

Don't Threaten Me with a Good Time by monsterleadmehome: She scoffs. “If you must know, he ‘elected’ me because he thinks our shared animosity will keep you in check. He’s also not worried about you trying to shag me as a distraction.” He leans back, stubbing out his cigarette on the banister. His eyes rove over her from crown to toe and back. She lifts her chin and tries not to shiver. “Well, he’s right about that.” Lucius Malfoy hires Hermione Granger to whip his son into shape so he can find a pure-blood bride and receive his inheritance. What could go wrong? E, 10 Chapters, 48,092 Words

Draco's Gift by TriDogMom: Draco gives Hermione a gift because of an instructional YouTube video. M, 1 Chapter, 1,705 Words

Dragon in the Dark by GracefulLioness: The battle is won, Voldemort is dead, but the war is far from over. In the new Death Eater regime, Draco Malfoy does what he must to survive and keep his mother safe. Now a highly trained assassin, Draco has learned to think of his targets as inhuman beings, but when he is tasked with killing someone from his past, he can no longer hide from the horrors of the world around him. E, 31 Chapters, 164,782 Words

For a Present Under the Tree by grace_lou_freebush: When Draco and Hermione eloped, the Wizarding World turned against them. Hermione is stuck in a low level, low paying Ministry job with no hope of upward movement. Draco can't even convince someone to hire him. Now, it's Christmas, and Draco knows Hermione deserves the world - or at the least a Christmas gift. He finds the perfect hair comb to replace the horrid Muggle brush she's been making due with, and he'll do anything to afford the paltry present so he can have something to put under the Christmas tree for his wife. Making a beeline for the jewelry box containing the hair combs, Draco rifled through them, landing on an ivory comb with queen anne rose carvings and gold filigree detailing. He brought it to the startled shopkeeper and set it down gently. Pulling his sixth generation Malfoy heirloom pocket watch from his coat, he shoved it in the wizard's face without second guessing himself. "I would like to make an exchange." E, 1 Chapter, 10,141 Words

Fortuitous by MrsRen: Recently divorced Draco doesn't believe in the ideology of having one true love. He certainly doesn't expect to meet his match in a Halloween themed coffee shop, but fate has a peculiar way of giving you just what you need. M, 13 Chapters, 93,695 Words

Fuck, Marry, Avada by Lilian_Silver: Some years after the war, the gang meets up at the Leaky to play a silly game, with very real consequences. E, 1 Chapter, 3,106 Words

Give Me An Hour by RZZMG: As the war continues to rage on around them, Hermione Granger decides to seduce fellow Order Member, Draco Malfoy, one night while at Grimmauld Place... and everything between them changes after that. Fic follows the "five times" trope, and is dedicated to raspberryjukebox. One-shot. A/U-Extended War scenario. Dramione. Drama-Romance-Hot Shag! COMPLETE! M, 1 Chapter, 3,251 Words

Good Girl by arabellaleyes: Hermione is tired of their normal routine in the bedroom. What will happen when she asks Draco to spice things up? One-shot. Complete. M, 1 Chapter, 9,000 Words

Hindsight by floorcoaster: It's a New Year and Hermione decides it's time to make some changes. T, 12 Chapters, 167,694 Words

How to Love Thy Neighbour by WhatSoMalfoy: After her relationship with Ron falls apart, Hermione attempts to juggle a personal muggle life with a professional wizarding one. After encountering her high school nemesis in the most unlikely place, Hermione adds another ball to the juggling mix. M, 14 Chapters, 41,992 Words

How to Move On by longdistance: It's been nearly a decade since the war. A long time since she locked herself away. A long time since he faced his mistakes. She's what he wants. He's what she needs. It's time for both of them to figure out how to move on. M, WIP

Hydrotherapy by eilonwy: Draco finds a trip to the showers after playing Quidditch... enlightening. E, 2 Chapters, 7,163 Words

I Choose You by melanoradrood: At the end of Fifth Year, Hermione finds out why It is that none have approached her with a Marital Contract, the only way she can remain in the Wizarding World after Graduation. It has already been signed by her Magical Guardian, someone she has never met - she is to be the next Lady Malfoy. A year and a half later, she is a married witch, but still, Draco Malfoy, who had chosen her above all others, had not spoken of it. In fact, they barely spoke at all. And when trouble heads their way, Hermione means to change that. Really, she means to change a lot of things. E, 5 Chapters, 24,527 Words

Isolation by Bex-chan: He can't leave the room. Her room. And it's all the Order's fault. Confined to a small space with only the Mudblood for company, something's going to give. Maybe his sanity. Maybe not. "There," she spat. "Now your Blood's filthy too!" DM/HG. PostHBP. Now complete with epilogue. M, 49 Chapters, 284,050 Words

It Happened in Egypt by bionically: Wandless in Egypt: Draco's stranded in Egypt, but luckily, there's a Granger in sight. Now, if only he could be prevented from strangling her. Fun times abroad: It was supposed to be a leisurely solo trip down the Nile. Hermione didn't factor in one blond man from her past and all his drama. Then, of course, there's the fact that everyone's after him. Much hilarity ensues. Maybe. *** A rom-com adventure/mystery featuring two unwilling partners on the run from Lucius Malfoy, alien-hunters, Muggle police, and local wizards engaged in a civil war. T, WIP

Love and Other Misfortunes by senlinyu: Draco Malfoy is dying. He's part-Veela and needs his mate to survive. Post-war, Hermione Granger is a workaholic, up to her eyeballs in legal activism on behalf of Magical Beings, and hasn't yet noticed that Malfoy is the Magical Being who needs her most. “Because I don’t want to be saved by you just because you feel like you have to.” He was properly furious now. “I’m in love with you." Hermione stared at him. She knew but somehow hearing him say it made the air shimmer with magic. "I’m in love with you,” he said again, despairingly. “And that means I want you to be as happy as you possibly can. And you won’t be, not with me.” M, 23 Chapters, 98,584 Words 

Manacled by senlinyu: Harry Potter is dead. In the aftermath of the war, in order to strengthen the might of the magical world, Voldemort enacts a repopulation effort. Hermione Granger has an Order secret, lost but hidden in her mind, so she is sent as an enslaved surrogate to the High Reeve until her mind can be cracked.Now illustrated by Avendell. E, 77 Chapters, 370,473 Words

Measure Of A Man by inadaze22: To truly know someone is to differentiate between who they once were, who they are now, and who they're capable of being. Hermione realises the duality of one man as she rectifies what she knows of the past and begins to understand the pieces of who Draco Malfoy is now: a father, a son, and a man. E, WIP

Meet the Malfoys by raven_maiden: 4 Works, 21, 442 Words

of flavoured names and coloured sounds by Pink Panda (Ejacyeolation): "He doesn’t question it at first, the fact that sounds have colours and words have flavours. He grows up with it, grows up seeing powerful ruptures of colour when his mother plays the piano and softer, translucent bursts when the people around him speak. His father’s voice fills his vision with sombre oranges and lilacs while his mother’s is a pleasant mix of delicate greens, blues, and greys. The word father tastes like wet wood and the word mother tastes like the pumpkin juice the house-elves frequently serve him."In which Draco just wants to know what colour Hermione's moans would be. He also wants to know if her skin would taste as sweet as her surname or maybe as intoxicating as her given name. E, 2 Chapters, 10,351

Once Upon a Night by longdistance: One night will change everything. M, 17 Chapters, 57,444 Words

One and Done by PacificRimbaud: Hermione Granger has a career she loves, friends she can depend on, and a nice set of hand towels for her new flat. She's single and tired of tiresome men, but that doesn't stop her from wearing beautiful lingerie underneath her serious Ministry skirts. Or having pictures taken in naughty knickers. Just once. For herself. Draco Malfoy doesn't get upset at the sight of blood, which is good, because he sees a lot of it. What he doesn't see a lot of is Hermione Granger in her unmentionables. Usually. A series of meetings and mix-ups in which one cannot possibly mean done. E, 4 Chapters, 35,011 Words

Our shared silence by Vofastudum: She wakes up one morning and everyone is just gone, vanished like they never existed at all. Everyone but Him. And in this silent solitude, he's all she has. Hermione and Draco alone in empty castle. Mystery and a plot twist you didn't see coming! EDITED 10/2020 M, 17 Chapters, 40,149 Words

Pinned by bionically: Draco doesn't know what he's expecting when he follows Blaise down a dark alley, but it certainly isn't this. For a man with an addictive personality, this isn't going to turn out well. Assigned trope: Voyeurism *** Or, a chance encounter with a frizzy-haired witch from his misbegotten past in the last place anyone should have expected to see her sets Draco's disordered life on its ear. The path to redemption is truly paved with unexpected surprises. E, 20 Chapters, 110,886 Words

Really Sell It by RoseHarperMaxwell: Draco's having a rough eighth year, and Hermione's going to make it better for him. "Well, it’s clear what needs to happen.” She gripped his chin, tilting his head to make sure she hadn’t missed any injuries, before looking straight into his eyes. “You’re my boyfriend now.” *Featuring fake dating, exhibitionism, and sex-positive Hermione Granger. Submission for Farewell to Summer: The 31 Flavors of Smut Fest. E, 1 Chapters, 7,612 Words

Remain Nameless by HeyJude19: How did it feel? It felt like he was barely holding it together. She, of all people, should shun him. Or yell at him. Curse him. Spit at him. Take out her wand and blast him off the face of the earth. It was crushing guilt and relief and confusion all at once when he looked at Hermione Granger. The monotony of Draco’s daily routine had become both a lifeline and a noose. But this new habit of grabbing coffee with Hermione Granger is quickly becoming a reason to get out of bed and is unfortunately forcing him to re-evaluate his inconsequential existence. Hermione is living her life in fragments, separate pieces scattered about, and she can’t find a way to step back and let the full picture form. Why are morning meetings with Draco Malfoy the only thing that make sense anymore? E, 51 Chapters, 312,315 Words

Remember Us As War (but call us forgiveness) by Anyaparadox: Following the devastation of the Battle of Hogwarts, The Wizarding Population Growth Act is put into effect. All witches and wizards will be matched with their most compatible partner. Failure to comply will not be tolerated. Survival is key. Hermione reminds herself of this. Survival. She can fix this, if only she can survive. The war has made this a task she is equipped for. Marrying Draco Malfoy will hardly be the worst thing she's ever endured. M, WIP

Ring A Ring O' Roses by Gallivant: Dark Magic, Dark Wizards and a mysterious and deadly Dark Flux, which, in the wrong hands, has the terrifying potential to mass-murder Muggles and Muggle-borns ... It’s been fourteen years since the end of the Second Wizarding War and the Wizarding World is settled, stable and seemingly safe… Hermione Weasley has it all: a loving family, a successful career - and happiness… of sorts. But a series of unexpected events is about to turn her life upside-down, threatening those she loves, fatally undermining the peace between worlds that has prevailed for centuries … changing life as she knows it, possibly forever. If working with Draco Malfoy was the last thing Hermione Weasley ever wanted, falling for your enemy was the least expected. A quest to thwart a magical weapon of mass destruction has devastating consequences. A race to save the world, becomes a race to save themselves… M, 65 Chapters, 527,141 Chapters

Set Fire to the Rain by HarleyQuinn1317: What happens when the one you're destined for is the last person you should ever be with... When the Ministry of Magic asks for volunteers for their Marriage Initiative, Hermione Granger must come to terms with the one terrible deed she committed during the Second Wizarding War. Can she find it in her heart to forgive herself and finally learn to let love in? E, WIP

Sex and Occlumency by Graendoll: Hermione didn't escape from the war unscathed, and when she finally decides on a solution to her problems she's left to explore it on her own. A chance encounter with Draco Malfoy sets her world on it's head and leads her down a path towards healing that she would never have anticipated. E, 18 Chapters, 65,079 Words

The Art of Seating Etiquette by inadaze22: Hermione believes that every problem has a solution, and that solution can be found in a book. That is, until Draco starts sitting to her right every Friday. She has no answers until help comes in the form of an unlikely source: Ron Weasley. E, 1 Chapter, 9,734 Words

The Auction by LovesBitca8: In the wake of the Dark Lord’s triumph over Harry Potter, the defeated must learn their new place. Hermione Granger, former Golden Girl, has been captured and reduced to human chattel. Sold to the highest bidder as the top prize at an auction of Order members and sympathizers, she is thrust into the rabid, waiting hands of the Death Eaters. But despite the horrors of Voldemort’s new world, help—and hope—seem to arise from the most unlikely of places. PART 3 of the RIGHTS AND WRONGS series. E, 41 Chapters, 325,702 Words

The Binding by Curly_Kay: “Okay, what we know so far.” Hermione listed, "One, our magic is drawing us together. Two, we can use each other’s wands. Three, there were actual sparks when you touched me."After an infant binding ritual magically joins Hermione and Draco to counteract the Black family blood curse, they must navigate the secret binding through their years together at Hogwarts. E, 35 Chapters, 175,451 Words

The Carnal Club by Ada_P_Rix: COMPLETE The Halloween Ball is fast approaching with Hermione at the helm.... What a delightful time to suddenly learn of a centuries old secret sex-game club that is currently ran by a Blonde haired Slytherin. Oh, and it only happens once a year every October, when the winner takes all at the Halloween Ball ...The First Rule of Carnal Club: You do not talk about Carnal Club. E, 8 Chapters, 43,306 Words

The Disappearances of Draco Malfoy by Speechwriter (batmansymbol): The night that Harry and Dumbledore return from the cave, the Death Eaters are delayed from reaching the top of the Astronomy Tower for one more minute. Draco Malfoy lowers his wand. A Deathly Hallows rewrite in which Draco accepts Dumbledore's offer to fake his death and go into hiding with the Order of the Phoenix. T, WIP

The Erised Effect by Ada_P_Rix: Hermione and Pansy work in a shop together. Draco, Harry, Theo and Blaise all work together at the Ministry. They all meet up every Friday at the pub to have drinks. Pansy has a new fantasy potion that she likes to call 'The Erised Effect' that she's keen to try out on willing participants ... Boys are so easy to manipulate when alcohol is involved .... E, 13 Chapters, 88,852 Words

The Fallout by everythursday: Hermione learns about growing up through the redemption of Draco Malfoy. E, 49 Chapters, 310,229 Words

The Figures of Figuring Out by Vofastudum: You were the biggest riddle in my life. You were the one I couldn't figure out. You were the only thing I couldn't find a pattern to. You were something I couldn't look up from any book. Unwritten, with no instructions. And I was used to finding solutions! Post-war eight-year secret romance. Edited 12/2020 M, 13 Chapters, 26,951 Words

The Flat in Bath by Ada_P_Rix: Loosely inspired by 365 Days...-- Malfoy grabbed her chin, forcing her to look directly at him. “Don’t you dare, Granger...” He told her roughly as his intense gaze bored into her own. “I fucking forbid you to come until I’ve had enough of you...” Draco caught her cheeks now between the fingers of his free hand and then snapped her head to the side and licked her earlobe, trailing down to her jawline. “...one flutter of those delicious walls of yours and you’re going to wish you never opened your legs for me.” -- __________________ Hermione is kidnapped during a raid and taken captive by someone who doesn't plan on 'torturing' her in the conventional way... E, WIP

The Gloriana Set by ThebeMoon: The War is won, and Hermione Granger is back at Hogwarts as an “Eighth Year”, feeling reckless and determined to shed her prim bookworm persona. She will do as she pleases, and anyone who doesn’t like it will see the business end of her wand. Also returning is Draco Malfoy, universally hated but determined to restore his family’s name. Hermione’s hopes for a quiet school year are quickly dashed as she contends with mischievous First Years, killer plants, enchanted hair accessories, a totally inappropriate Moaning Myrtle, renegade Death Eaters, a nice vampire, a poorly named study group, a depraved party, and mysterious, threatening blood messages on the castle walls. We have redemption, partial redemption and (sadly or hilariously) no redemption at all. Throw in a snarky, disturbingly attractive Draco with his own secret agenda, and we have a very slow-burn Dramione with a side of who-dun-it. COMPLETE! M, 81 Chapters, 271,830 Words

The Library of Alexandria by senlinyu: The Library of Alexandria is not for just any witch or wizard. Many bookworms may try but few are permitted to pass through its doors. The books residing there are ancient and powerful and, if one happens to make a mistake, the consequences can be rather—novel. E, 6 Chapters, 26,383 Words

The List by AureliaBlack90: After her divorce, Hermione decides to get out of town to recover from the pain of her lost relationship and the miscarriage she suffered a year previously. She arrives in the Cotswolds depressed and aimless but compiles a list of things to do that she hopes will help her get back on her feet. In the midst of her journey to find healing she keeps running into Draco Malfoy, who is nothing like she remembered him. He invites her into his world, and Hermione finds exactly what she was looking for - in the place she least expected it. E, 10 Chapters, 70,526 Words

The Manuscript by alexandra_emerson: Five 1/2 years after the war, in the middle of a big fight with Draco, Hermione finds a manuscript. It’s a retelling of her and Draco’s love story, written by him. She never realized how much he was struggling before she read his words. Snippet: I could spend my whole life apologizing to you Hermione, and it would never be enough. Post-war, angst-filled Dramione with a happy ending. M, 21 Chapters, 154,918 Words

The Memory of You by PotionChemist: Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger fell in love against all odds, but there was one big problem — he was already married. Pressured, Hermione does something she promised herself she would never do again and erases their affair from his memory. Completely devastated, she avoids seeing Draco or the Malfoys at all costs. But is their love too strong? Are they inevitable? What will happen if he finds out about their previous relationship? E, WIP

The Mountain and The Sea by AlexisDanaan: Hermione Granger was perfectly happy with her life, her job as a Healer Trainee, her ugly cat and her cute little house in the countryside. And then Draco Malfoy had to go and mess that all up, typical git. Post-Hogwarts, EWE, OOC, creature!fic. E, 12 Chapters, 40,441 Words

The Nietzsche Classes by Beringae: The Ministry takes action against the remaining prejudice in the wizarding society and asks Hermione for help. “What do you want? Money? Power? Name your price, Granger. I’m not about to let pride get in my way when an Azkaban sentence is on the line.” M, 15 Chapters, 45,807 Words

The Phoenix Potion by FedonCiadale: Twenty years after the battle of Hogwarts.... Harry is head auror and is worried about cases where Muggleborn children meet with accidents, Ron is a famous Quidditch keeper. Both haven't talked to Hermione for ages and certainly not to her husband, Draco Malfoy. Narcissa Malfoy struggles with a curse, and Neville and Luna try to stay friends with all. The key to solving the problems may lie in the past, a time nobody really wants to revisit and some can't. T, 111 Chapters, 237,745 Words

The Potioneers by omnenomnom: They need each other unfortunately. Hermione has tricked Draco under her tutelage, arrogant attitude and all. But she would be simple to think he would accept it quietly. They have both have secrets to hide, old wounds better left to fester, and a world full of mermaids, dragons, and magic to explore. T, 53 Chapters, 196,559 Words

The Pretense by Colubrina: Voldemort died, but the Death Eaters live on. Hermione Granger traded herself to Draco Malfoy in exchange for safe passage for core Order members. Now he's pretending to love her, Narcissa is pretending to believe that, and Hermione is walking a tightrope behind enemy lines as she figures out what is going on. Unfortunately, people fall off tightropes. (no non-con) T, 50 Chapters, 108,164 Words

The Right Thing To Do by LovesBitca8: Hermione felt the pounding in her ears again. She would see him for the first time since the Great Hall, gaunt and stricken at the Slytherin table with his mother clutching his arm. She hadn't meant to look for him. Not in the corridors, not beneath the white sheets of the fallen, not on the way to the Chamber of Secrets with Ron, but she was a stupid girl. E, 36 Chapters, 174,911 Words

The Seven Year Witch by TheLastLynx: A boy and a girl have been meeting – coincidentally – for seven summers. While they pretty much hate one another most of the year, for those secret summer moments, they manage to see each other in a different light. But will that be enough to bring them together? A Dramione story about growing up and changing perspective, told along - and in-between - the lines of canon. M, WIP

Thirty Times Lucky by galfoy: "Granger, I can't hire you on any longer," Draco said. Hermione stared at him. Losing her job might actually mean losing the War, and she had to bargain, but there was literally nothing she had that he would want. Or was there? M, 2 Chapters, 7,128 Words

Traditions by raven_maiden: She straddled him slowly, still biting her lip, her hands on his shoulders. He held her hips tightly as he stared up at her. “So beautiful,” he whispered, and she flushed prettily, like she always did from his compliments. “You never need to hide from me.” ** Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy fell in love during the war. One year later, they're heading home for the holidays so he can finally meet her parents. There's just one teeny little problem: her parents think they're both Muggles. E, 14 Chapters, 68,767 Words

Waifs and Strays by Kyonomiko: War leaves a lot of orphans in its wake. Hermione is one, by her own hand, and she struggles with the realities of her situation. When she finds an orphaned familiar, it seems meant to be, giving and receiving comfort helping to heal her fractured heart. Unfortunately, the animal is actually a wizard, and he has his own issues. M, 31 Chapters, 118,152 Words

What You Think Is Right by icepower55: Six years after the war, Hermione parents are dying and her marriage to Draco is crumbling. Nothing seems logical in her life anymore. Her healer tells her to start writing about it, so she does, as a way to figure things out, and remind herself along the way. Hell is proximity without intimacy -Dante's Inferno M, WIP

When the Bell Tolls by everythursday: As a Dark revival begins to rise four years after the war, Hermione Granger is placed on the assignment of putting an end to them – and her first task is to recruit the Ministry's best hope and last option in the form of Draco Malfoy. E, 20 Chapters, 148,033 Words

Wreck by JMilz: Serving as Minister for Magic, Hermione Granger is finally at the peak of her career. With a beautiful family, a successful book, and the public on her side, her life should be a fairytale. Unfortunately, there is trouble in paradise, and when Draco Malfoy pays her a visit, she begins recalling their history and questioning her marriage. The reality is: every relationship is hard. M, 53 Chapters, 187,992 Words

Thanks to every person who contributed (I hope I've mentioned everyone. If not, let me know. 😊): @certified-arsehole @fedonciadale kiwim22 @really-sad-devil-guy endless-musings @headfullofnargles @pinksunsets-world @rosseliz01 @dramioneden @all-consuming @elricsister @injailoutsoon12 reclusivebird @mariakov81 @notthatchhavi @mordanbooqs @haaatch @hpsassenach @ybaeby @farmgirl-in @coyg-81 @eiramrelyat metterschling-plus-two @a-maidens-fantasy @sansacat @vofastudum @lexayeon @1800-rewrite @aneiria-writes @anonymouslydramione 

It took much longer to compile this list than I thought it would. Hopefully, I didn’t skip anything. 🙈

Happy New Year. May it be better than the previous one and full of great Dramione fics and fanarts! 🥳🥳🥳

And here’s the 2019 list: https://dramioneficrecommendations.tumblr.com/post/190216354767/what-is-the-best-dramione-fic-you-read-in-2019

[sineala]

Tony Stark and Arthuriana

Coming to you by special request, a very long post about 616 Tony's interest in Arthuriana, with a focus on all of Tony's run-ins with Morgan le Fay!

I feel like I should disclaim the extent of my knowledge here, which is that I still haven't managed to read anywhere near every issue of Iron Man -- at least, not yet, anyway -- so I'm just going by the things I know I've read, and Morgan le Fay's Marvel wiki entry is frustratingly under-cited, so it's very possible I've missed something relevant, but I'm pretty sure I've got the big stuff down. My other disclaimer here is that I'm not as big an Arthurian nerd as Tony is, which is to say that most of my familiarity comes from modern retellings -- T. H. White's The Once and Future King, Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave, Rosemary Sutcliff's Sword at Sunset -- and not so much the usual classic sources on the Matter of Britain, though I've read bits and pieces of them.

(This is because I wanted to read versions of them that were as close to the original as possible but so far have not ended up finishing any of them because, well, that's hard. So I've never read the Mabinogion because I do not know Welsh. I've got the Norton Critical Edition of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, which is probably the best student edition if you're looking for something without modernized spellings, as I was. I've also got -- well, okay, it's my wife's but I'm borrowing it -- a relatively recent Boydell & Brewer edition (ed. Reeve, tr. Wright) of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), which is, you guessed it, in Latin with a facing English translation. I haven't gotten very far in it because, in case you didn't know this about Latin texts, the beginning is pretty much always the hardest, so I gave up and read some Plautus adaptations instead. Anyway, if for some reason you too want to read Geoffrey of Monmouth in the original Latin I'd recommend that one, but I can't recommend any particular English translations because I've never read one by itself. I bet you didn't think you'd be getting Latin prose recommendations in this post. I mean, maybe you did; it is me, after all.)

Okay. Right. King Arthur. Here we go.

We've got:

Flashbacks to Tony's childhood in late Iron Man volume 1

A brief discussion of Morgan's origin story and Avengers #187

Iron Man vol 1 #149-150: Doomquest

What If vol 1 #33: What if Iron Man was trapped in the time of King Arthur?

Iron Man vol 1 #249-250: Recurring Knightmare

Iron Man: Legacy of Doom #1-4

Avengers vol 3 #1-4: The Morgan Conquest

Civil War: The Confession

Mighty Avengers vol 1 #9-11: Time Is On No One's Side

In terms of universe-internal chronology, we know from Iron Man #287, from 1992, that Tony has been a fan of King Arthur since childhood. This is an issue of a fandom-favorite arc which features Tony having a lot of childhood flashbacks, including the famous "Stark men are made of iron" line (in #286) that for some reason MCU fandom decided it loved; I mean, seriously, I've seen that quoted in way more MCU fic than 616 fic. But slightly later, in #287, we get an entire page devoted to Tony's love of King Arthur.

The narration reads: "Over the next few years, I learned as my father intended. Discipline of body. Strength of character. But in what free time I was allowed, I worked my way through the school's library. At thirteen, I discovered Mallory [sic], who showed me a whole new world. A world of dedication to a cause greater than oneself. Of chivalry and honor. And the fantastic deeds -- of armored heroes."

The art shows Tony as a child sitting under a tree, reading a book labeled Mort D'Arthur by Mallory [sic] -- no, don't ask me why nobody at Marvel checked how to spell either the name of the book or its author -- and daydreaming of King Arthur, the Sword in the Stone, knights, et cetera. Just in case you somehow missed the extremely blatant hint that we are meant to understand that Tony's knight obsession heavily influenced him becoming Iron Man as an adult, we see one of his armors mixed in with all the drawings of knights. So, yes, canonically Tony is Iron Man at least partly because he's a giant King Arthur nerd, which I think is so very sweet. I love him. He's such a dork!

(This issue is currently in print in the Iron Man Epic Collection War Machine, should you need your own copy.)

This isn't actually the only reference to Tony as a King Arthur fanboy in this era of canon, either; a little later, in IM #298, we see that one of Tony's passwords is actually "Mallory." (Yeah, no, they still couldn't spell. But it's cute.)

But in terms of actual publication order, this is definitely not the first time we have seen in canon that Tony is into Arthuriana, as I'm sure you all know. I would assume, in fact, that giving Tony a childhood interest in Arthuriana is because Doomquest is one of the most beloved Iron Man story arcs of all time, and that all started at least a decade before IM #287 here was published.

The villain of Doomquest -- the one who isn't Doctor Doom, at least -- is Morgan le Fay. Yes, that Morgan le Fay. Yes, Arthur's evil half-sister Morgan le Fay. Yes, all of this King Arthur stuff is canonically real history on Earth-616. Morgan's first appearance in Marvel, per the wiki, was in Black Knight #1 (1955), which I have not read, and judging by the summary I feel like this is probably just supposed to be a straight-up comic retelling of Arthurian legends for kids; I don't think Marvel really had the whole Marvel Universe in mind as a concept in 1955, so I'm not sure this was meant to connect to anything else. I feel like this is another one of those instances of Marvel discovering that they can write comics about characters in the public domain for free -- like, I'm pretty sure that's how we also ended up with, like, Norse, Greek, and Roman mythology wedged into 616.

As far as I can tell from the wiki, the first time Morgan tangled with the Avengers (or indeed the larger 616 universe) in any way actually predated Doomquest -- it was in an early arc in Spider-Woman (#2-6) and then Avengers #187, which came out in 1979, actually right when Demon in a Bottle was happening over in Iron Man comics. If you read #187, Iron Man is not in it because he's off the team due to his drinking problem and also his accidentally murdering the Carnelian ambassador problem. So Wonder Man's filling in instead. This issue is part of Michelinie's rather sporadic Avengers run, which makes sense, I guess, considering where we see Morgan next.

Anyway, Avengers #187 is the classic issue where Wanda is possessed by Chthon, but what you may not remember from Chthon's backstory (I sure didn't!) is that he was summoned by Morgan le Fay because she was the first person who tried to wield the Darkhold to summon him. As you can imagine, this did not work out especially well for her and her followers and they had to seal Chthon away in Wundagore Mountain, which was where Wanda found him. (The Spider-Woman stuff is only slightly earlier and also appears to be about Morgan and the Darkhold; the Darkhold is not one of the areas of 616 canon I am especially conversant with, alas. It's on my to-read list.)

Doomquest, as you probably know, was a classic Iron Man two-parter in Layton & Michelinie's first Iron Man run that set up Tony and Doom as rivals; Doomquest itself was IM #149-150, in 1981, and then in their second IM run they came back and did a sequel in 1989, Recurring Knightmare (IM #249-250), and then the much later four-part sequel to that was the 2008 miniseries Iron Man: Legacy of Doom, which was also by Layton & Michelinie but generally does not seem to be as popular as the first two parts. They've all been reprinted, if you're looking for copies; I have a Doomquest hardcover that collects the first four issues and then a separate Legacy of Doom hardcover. Currently in the Iron Man Epic Collection line there's a volume called Doom, which confusingly only collects the 249-250 part of the storyline (as well as surrounding issues), because for some reason the first Layton & Michelinie run isn't in Epics yet but the second one is. So the beginning of Doomquest isn't currently in print, as far as I can tell. I'm sure you can find it anyway.

So what's Doomquest about? Okay, so you remember how Doctor Doom's mother's soul is stuck in hell for all eternity? Well, Doom's obviously interested in getting her back, and the strategy he has embarked on is to try to team up with other powerful magicians who can help him out, and he thinks Morgan le Fay would be a good choice, for, uh, his quest. Doom's quest. A Doomquest, if you will. (If you've ever read Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment, you're familiar with the part where he later ends up waylaying Strange for this and they go to hell together. And if you haven't read Triumph & Torment, you really should, because it's amazing.)

So Doom is off to his time machine to go team up with Morgan le Fay and Tony thinks Doom is up to something -- Doom has been stealing components for his time machine from a lot of people, including Tony -- and he follows him and it turns out one of Doom's lackeys has a grudge and wants to trap Doom in the past forever, and Tony gets caught up in it. Now they're both in Camelot. Surprise! #149 is actually all setup; they don't get to Camelot until #150.

IM #150 begins with Doom and Tony thrown back into the past; there's a fandom-famous splash page of them locked in combat, only to realize that they have found themselves in Camelot.

They are then discovered by knights; Doom would very much like to attack them, but Tony, who naturally would be happy to LARP Camelot forever, persuades him to play nice. Also Doom thinks Iron Man is only Tony's bodyguard so he keeps referring to him as "lackey," much to Tony's annoyance. Somehow everyone thinks they're sorcerers. Can't imagine why. The knights take them to meet King Arthur himself, and Tony has clearly had his introduction all ready to go, as he introduces himself in a timeline-appropriate manner, says he's here to apprehend Doom, and demonstrates his "magic" by levitating Arthur's throne. Doom's response is essentially "I'm the king of Latveria," which is, y'know, also valid. So they're guests at Camelot for the night while Arthur figures out what to do with them.

We then have a page devoted to Tony alone in his room, musing sadly about how alien he feels, how he doesn't know if he'll ever get home, how he could never fit in here without his beloved technology. Then a Sexy Lady shows up to keep him company for the night, and he decides maybe it's not all bad. Thanks, Marvel. I guess they can't all be winners.

Doom is using his evening much more productively; he compels one of the servants to tell him where Morgan's castle is, because he's still interested in having that team-up. Then he jets off. Literally. He has a jetpack.

The next morning Arthur's like "one of you is still here and one of you has punched a hole through the castle wall and flown off to join Morgan so I guess I know which of you is more trustworthy." He then explains to Tony who Morgan is, because Tony professes ignorance, because clearly we had not yet retconned in Tony's love of Arthuriana. Tony offers to go fight Doom and Morgan with Arthur; meanwhile, Morgan and Doom have teamed up and Morgan has offered to help get Doom's mother out of hell if he commands her undead armies against Arthur because for Reasons she can't command them herself anymore. So that's a thing that happens.

So, yes, it's Tony and Arthur versus Doom and Morgan. Fight fight fight!

Tony tries Doom first but then decides to hunt Morgan down, and in the ensuing fight we get what I think is Tony's first ever "I hate magic," a complaint that we all know he still makes even to this day.

Anyway, Tony freezes a dragon with Freon (mmm, technology) and Morgan gets upset and disappears, so the battle comes to an end, and of course Doom is extremely mad at Tony because he blames Tony for Morgan not sticking around to save Doom's mom, because I guess Doom trusted her to keep her word? Weird. (Like I said, for the next chapter of Doom saving his mother, go read Triumph & Torment.)

Doom says if he and Tony work together, the components in both of their armors can send them both home. So Tony has to trust Doom. Which he does, because he really has no other choice. They build a time machine and Tony makes Doom agree to a 24-hour truce when they get back, so they can both get home. So it all works out okay, and they end up in the present, and Doom tells him, ominously, that they will meet again. Okay, then. That concludes the original Doomquest. It's fun! You can see why fandom likes it.

So that's all well and good, but you might have noticed that Tony's ability to get home hinged on Doom actually being trustworthy. And Doom was. But what if Doom hadn't been? What if he'd just stranded Tony in Camelot forever As you may have surmised from the form of that question, that is in fact a question Marvel asked themselves, because, yes, there's a What If about this! What If v1 #33 is "What if Iron Man was trapped in the time of King Arthur?"

The divergence point from canon, as you can probably guess, is the very end of Doomquest. Instead of Doom bringing Tony home, he deceives him and leaves him in Camelot. And since Tony cannibalized a lot of the tech from his armor to make the time machine, he doesn't have a way to go home.

This is not a story where Tony comes up with a way to go home after all. He really doesn't get to go home. But instead of drowning his sorrows in mead -- because, remember, Demon in a Bottle has already happened and Tony is sober now -- he decides he might as well just play the hand he's dealt. So with what's left of his armor, he defeats some enemies that Morgan rounds up to send against Camelot. And for his services, he's knighted. He is now Sir Anthony.

Tony acknowledges that he is both living the dream and would also like very, very much to go home.

He does end up having some fun in Camelot; it's not all miserable. But he obviously doesn't want to be there.

So if you're at all familiar with King Arthur, you know how this goes, right? Arthur fights Mordred and Mordred kills him. And that does happen in this version. Except Tony is right there, and with his dying words, Arthur asks Tony to rule Camelot... and Tony agrees.

So, yes, Tony Stark becomes king of the Britons after Arthur's death and he never goes home again. The end. Man, I love What Ifs.

Heading back to main 616 continuity, there is still more of this arc to go. The original Doomquest was only two issues, yes, but it was popular enough that Layton & Michelinie did a sequel a hundred issues later, in their second run of Iron Man, and that's Iron Man #249-250, Recurring Knightmare. (In the intervening issues were Denny O'Neil's IM run, specifically the second drinking arc (#160-200), and then Layton & Michelinie came back and most famously gave us Armor Wars (#225-232). I would have to say that Armor Wars is definitely the standout fandom-favorite arc of their second IM run; for their first one, I think a lot of people would have a hard time choosing between Doomquest and Demon.) But anyway, yes. Recurring Knightmare.

Recurring Knightmare is... well, the best way I can describe it is "a trip." It is definitely a sequel to Doomquest, and it is also definitely not a sequel you  would ever have expected to see for Doomquest.

Much like #149, #249 is pretty much just setup. Fun setup, but the big action is in the next issue. We open with Doom in Latveria, on his throne, pondering which of his servants he should have disintegrated. Anyway, he's just hanging out there when a mysterious object appears. In California, Tony is suited up and entertaining the crowd at a mall opening when the same object also appears! He takes it to his lab. Please note that this is after the Kathy Dare incident, so Tony is still recovering and is walking with a cane. Doom sees on the news that Iron Man has found the same object, which cannot be carbon-dated, and he shows up at Tony's house. He criticizes Tony's taste in art.

Anyway, Doom basically orders Tony to work with him. Tony refuses, and then Doom sends some robots to attempt to steal Tony's version of the object because he thinks if he has them both he will be powerful. Doom manages to steal it, and when he puts the pieces together, both he and Tony disappear.

So where do they go, you might ask? Camelot?

Not exactly. The future! There is a great callback to the Doomquest splash page.

It turns out they are in London in 2093. Merlin brought them there. Tony still hates magic. And in the future, King Arthur is still there, except he is now a child, because he has been reborn. But he does remember Tony from Doomquest, at which point Tony kneels. Doom, of course, is not impressed. He asks why they have been brought to the future.

The answer is that things are going wrong in the future. If you do not personally remember United States politics in the 1980s, I need you to google the words "Strategic Defense Initiative" right now. I'll wait.

Back with me? Okay, so this is a future where Reagan's Star Wars program actually happened the way he wanted it to, and the satellites are still hanging around the Earth in the future and messing everything up, and Arthur and Merlin need Tony and Doom's help to stop them. Doom once again flies away with his jetpack, of course.

Tony is game to help, but he's not in an armor that can stay in space for long. This is when Merlin takes him and Arthur to the mall and Tony manages to get everything to upgrade his armor at Radio Shack. You see what I meant about this issue being weird.

Tony is out in space trying to disarm the SDI platform, which is where he runs into his future descendant, Andros Stark, who is in armor you will probably recognize from Iron Man 2020. He is referred to as "the resurrected spawn of Iron Man 2020" so I assume he's actually directly related to Arno rather than a direct descendant of Tony; Wiki confirms that Arno is his grandfather. This is all from way before Arno was contemporaneous with Tony in canon. Anyway, he's fighting Tony.

Oh, by the way, Future Doom exists. Future Doom would like to rule this future Earth and for some reason Andros would like to help him. Meanwhile, Present Doom finds out from Merlin that he can't leave except by magic and he can't leave without Tony, so he is reluctantly on Tony's side.

They need help from the Lady of the Lake, except the lake has been paved over and is now a parking lot. Merlin makes the lake come back and then of course they get Excalibur. Arthur is a kid, so he can't wield a longsword; Doom assumes he's going to take it because he is basically a king, and he's pretty grumpy when the sword picks Tony. Tony then uses Excalibur to destroy the space lasers, and I bet that is a sentence you never thought you would read. It's pretty cool. Tony concludes that magic has its good points. Tony stops Andros and Doom stops, uh, himself, and the world is saved and they get to go home. Also, Doom finds out Tony is Iron Man, but when Merlin sends them back he conveniently erases their memories, so neither of them remember anything about this and Tony's secret is still safe. And that's the sequel to Doomquest.

And if you think that's weird, wait until you see Legacy of Doom.

Iron Man: Legacy of Doom is a four-issue miniseries from 2008, also by Layton and Michelinie. Even though it's from 2008, it's set during a much more classic time in Iron Man, continuing on from where we left off in this Doomquest saga. We start with a framing story in 2008. Tony, who has Extremis now, is busy scrapping some of his older armors and reviewing his logs when he suddenly remembers that there was a whole thing with Doom that happened that he seems to have forgotten about until right now. So the whole thing is narrated by Tony in flashback.

Tony's in space fixing a satellite when a hologram of Doom shows up and summons him to Latveria. It's not really clear why Doom needs Tony's help in particular here, but Doom tells Tony that he's discovered that Mephisto would like to bring about the end of the world, which Doom finds, and I quote, "presumptive." So Doom has his Time Cube, and with it he takes Tony to hell.

(Yes, I promise this is relevant to Doomquest. There will be some Arthuriana shortly.)

Doom brings Tony to Mephisto, and it turns out it's a setup! Doom trades Tony for an item he wants from Mephisto, leaves, and Tony's going to be trapped in hell forever! Oh no! (I mean, he's not. But it's quite a cliffhanger.)

At the beginning of issue #2, we find out what the Arthurian connection is, which is that we learned that after the events of Doomquest, Morgan had been granted sanctuary by Mephisto in exchange for a shard of Excalibur that she had somehow stolen. Doom still wants Morgan's help with some magic -- he doesn't mention what it is here, but he says he needs someone of Pendragon blood, and that'd be her -- so he traded Tony to Mephisto in exchange for, I'm guessing, Morgan and the Excalibur shard.

I have probably mentioned this elsewhere, but Legacy of Doom #2 is one of my favorite issues of Iron Man ever, solely because of the next scene. We return to Tony in hell. Howard Stark is also in hell, and he is now a demon, and Tony has to fight him. Mephisto brings popcorn and watches. This is the one time in canon when Tony actually confronts his father, and okay, yes, it's a fistfight in hell and Howard is a demon, but that's comics for you. Howard spends several pages insulting Tony -- specifically insulting his masculinity, but that's a whole other essay -- until he finally insults Maria too, and that's when Tony fights back, because his mother taught him to be good. Honestly if you're a Tony fan I'd recommend this issue just for that scene.

Anyway, we go back to the Doom and Morgan plot, and Morgan casts the spell Doom wanted, which was fusing the Excalibur shard with Doom's armor. Then Doom sends her back to Camelot rather than hell, because he's still mad that she never helped him get his mom out of hell like she said she would.

Tony freezes Howard with Freon -- yes, the same trick he pulled on the dragon back in Doomquest -- and tells him, "You're no father of mine." It is immensely satisfying.

(I had been going to mention that I thought it was a shame that neither canon nor fandom seems to have really engaged with this confrontation, and I know canon never believes in narrative closure but fandom sure does -- and then, anyway, it occurred to me that since the framing story of Tony remembering this is set when Tony has Extremis, there's a very good chance that he no longer remembers remembering it. Goddammit, Marvel.)

(If I got to retcon one canon thing about Tony, I think "the entirety of World's Most Wanted" is up there. I mean, okay, a lot of things are up there, but WMW is definitely on the shortlist.)

Okay. Tony has now engineered his way out of hell, and he's back with Doom in Latveria. Doom has Excalibur. Doom would very much like to fight him. While wielding Excalibur. You get the sense that this is going to be bad. Another cliffhanger!

Legacy of Doom #3 opens with Tony destroying Doom's lab to buy time and running away from Doom and Excalibur. I should probably mention that Doom still doesn't know Tony is Iron Man (anymore), so he thinks he is dealing only with Iron Man, Tony Stark's lackey. Meanwhile, some scientists at SI think there's something weird going on with space. Meanwhile meanwhile, Tony is in a forest taking a breather when a mysterious old man walks up to him.

It's Merlin! Surprise! Merlin wants Tony's help to stop Doom from doing whatever he's doing with Excalibur. The sword makes you invincible and the scabbard makes you invulnerable, so Merlin sends Tony to Scotland on a fetch quest for the scabbard. Doom has now magically sent the sword in search of the scabbard, so the sword flies away to meet it and Doom follows. Turns out the thing that's wrong with space is a thing that's going to hit Earth at the exact place Tony and Doom are. What a coincidence! So Tony and Doom get trapped in a stone circle and fight some stone warriors and then Tony ends up with the scabbard. And by "ends up with," I mean it fuses to his armor. Next issue!

Legacy of Doom #4 is when things really, really get weird. A giant demon made of eyes (???) appears, and this demon is apparently what Doom had been preparing to fight (because it's mad that Doom stole one of its spellbooks), and now he can't, because the sword and the scabbard aren't together. Thanks, Shellhead.

That's when Merlin shows up and says all is not lost. They can defeat the demon... if they put the sword into the scabbard.

"But I'm the scabbard now!" Tony says, uncomprehending.

"Yes," Merlin says. "You are."

Then Tony gets it.

So, yes, Doom has to, um, penetrate Tony. With Excalibur. I love comics. I love comics so much.

So that's a thing that happens.

And then Tony flies off and, I guess, resolves to never, ever think about any of this again.

We head back to the framing story, in which Tony, now having remembered all of this, flies to Britain, buys the land the lake is on, and paves it over, presumably so it will be there for Merlin to bring back in Iron Man #250. The end.

Whew.

Okay, yeah, I know I didn't have to summarize the whole thing, but Legacy of Doom here really is one of my favorite Iron Man miniseries. And I just want to share the love. Please read it. It's great.

But the Arthuriana fun doesn't end there! In fact, now we get an Arthurian-themed arc that actually isn't in Iron Man comics. It's in Avengers! Iron Man is involved, though.

(There is also apparently a Morgan arc in Avengers #240. I actually haven't read it. It seems to be yet another Spider-Woman arc. I get the impression that this isn't really Arthuriana other than having Morgan in it fighting Jess, though, so it doesn't seem quite as relevant. Morgan also apparently has some appearances in FF, Journey into Mystery, and Marvel Team-Up, but those seem like more of just basic villainy. Also, probably not involving Tony.)

Kurt Busiek's 1998 Avengers run, volume 3, is in large part the kind of Avengers run that is a nostalgic love letter to older comics. Heroes are heroes and villains are villains and good triumphs over evil. The Avengers all live in the mansion and are BFFs. I love it. It does assume that you are already a fan of the Avengers, because it starts out by summoning pretty much everyone who has ever been an Avenger and is available to the mansion, and that is... a lot of people. Thirty-nine, by my count. Also, when the entire team is magically whisked away, we are treated to the following narration, as Steve disappears: "And Captain America's last thought, as the world goes white around him, and he with it -- is that Iron Man would hate this."

The narration doesn't tell you why Iron Man would hate this, or how Captain America would know that Iron Man hates this. This is not explained later on. But if you have read comics -- or if you have read the above summary of Doomquest -- you know that Tony is absolutely, one hundred percent, thinking, "I hate magic." And Steve knows it.

The reference is not relevant to the plot; if you don't get it, you'll be fine. But that's what I mean when I say this is a nostalgia run. There are definitely Easter eggs for people who have read a bunch of comics. Busiek does this a whole lot in his work -- there's a reason you can buy an annotated edition of Marvels -- and, yeah, it happens here too. Just know that there will be references you're not getting, if you're new to comics.

Anyway. So Busiek's run actually starts out with an Arthurian arc, #1-4, "The Morgan Conquest." The name is a dead giveaway. Yes, Morgan le Fay is back. Again. For once, Doom is not involved.

The Avengers are all back from their sojourn on Counter-Earth after fighting Onslaught -- don't worry about it -- and mysterious things are happening. There are a lot of monster attacks. So pretty much everyone who has ever been an Avenger is summoned to the mansion, at which point we learn from Thor about some mystical artifacts that are being stolen. (They are the Norn Stones and also the Twilight Sword. That sounds like something from a Zelda game, doesn't it?) The Avengers go to try to stop this, end up in Tintagel, and then they run into Mordred. He wants to capture Wanda, presumably for Magic Reasons. Morgan le Fay casts a spell on all of them, reshaping reality. Yes, all of them. Surprise!

So now all the Avengers are living in a medieval castle and/or town; Morgan is their queen, and thanks to the power of mind-control they are all basically living in Ye Olden Times. The Avengers are all some variety of knight, except for Wanda, who is chained up in the dungeon so Morgan can steal her magic and use it to fuel all this reality-warping.

Wanda calls for help, and that snaps Steve (Yeoman America!) out of the mind control (or altered reality or whatever you want to call it) pretty fast, because Steve's always been very good at resisting mind control, and then Steve promptly goes and snaps Clint out of it, because I guess Steve is also good at inspiring people to snap out of mind control. "Oh, man!" Clint says. "Not another alternate reality! Not again!" (I assume he's referring to Counter-Earth? Maybe?)

So Steve and Clint go around reassembling the Avengers and orienting them as to reality. They get Jan and Monica easily, but then Steve insists on trying to get Tony because, I guess, he likes Tony and would really like to hang around Tony, who is half-naked and asleep in his bedroom, and certainly I am reading nothing whatsoever into this. Clint tells Steve it's not going to work. Tony has historically been fairly susceptible to mind control; it was only pretty recently at this point that he'd been doing Kang's bidding in The Crossing. But the more serious impediment is that this is Tony Stark and he would obviously like to LARP being a knight forever and ever. Tony, therefore, does not believe Steve, and throws him and Clint out of his bedroom and into the barracks.

"Iron Man's a good guy, normally," Clint says. "But he's waaay too into his whole nobleman/lord of the manor trip. That spell musta hit him right where he lives!"

Clint speaks the truth, clearly.

Anyway, they go around and manage to make pretty much every Avenger in the room other than Tony snap out, and attempt to rebel against Morgan while Tony is stil fighting them because he is Still A Knight. There's a lot of punching, because some of the Avengers still aren't free; they weren't ones Steve found.

The day is saved when Wanda manages to channel Wonder Man and break free. This gives the Avengers a fighting chance against Morgan and the Avengers are all lending Wanda their power when Tony finally snaps out of it and is on the side of good. 

Then they take Morgan down, go home, and attempt to figure out which of these thirty-nine people should be on the active Avengers team. Hooray.

But that's not the end of Morgan le Fay showing up to screw around with Tony's life! There's more to come! Not much, but there is one that I know of, and at least one more memorable reference. 

(I haven't read all her appearances or anything, but one of them definitely involves Tony; I can't swear that he doesn't appear in any of the other books Morgan shows up in, but it'd be a cameo for him, because I only know of one more arc that she's in in a book that Tony stars in.)

In a few more years, we have now entered the part of Marvel Comics history where Brian Michael Bendis writes all the Avengers books at the same time for, like, seven years running. It was sure A Time. There were a lot of word bubbles.

And the thing about Bendis is, Bendis looooooves Doomquest. If you're familiar with the very end of his tenure at Marvel where he made Doom be Iron Man after Tony got knocked into a coma in Civil War II, you have probably figured out already that he likes Doom. But he also likes Doomquest, specifically.

I mean, if nothing else, the giant splash page in The Confession where Maleev redrew the climactic Doomquest fight while Bendis had Tony talk about how deeply meaningful to his understanding of the world this all was -- and how it allowed him to predict Civil War -- was probably a big clue, right?

As far as I am aware, Morgan le Fay makes exactly one more appearance in Tony's life. And that's in Mighty Avengers vol 1 #9-11. Only one of those issues is named, so I'm going to assume the arc is named after it: Time Is On No One's Side.

You remember Mighty Avengers, right? The deal with the Avengers books at the time was that after Bendis exploded the mansion and made the team disband in Avengers Disassembled, the main Avengers book was no longer called just Avengers. Instead, the main Avengers book was New Avengers, and that was the only Avengers book. Then Civil War happened, Steve got killed, and New Avengers became the book about what was left of the SHRA resistance (i.e., Steve's side) after the war. So about halfway through New Avengers, Mighty Avengers starts up, and Mighty Avengers is about an extremely fucked-up and grief-stricken Tony Stark trying to run the official government-sanctioned Avengers team, with Carol's help. This is the comic with the arc where Tony turned into naked girl Ultron. You remember.

So, anyway, there's this Mighty Avengers arc where Doom is Up To Something (there are symbiotes and a satellite involved) and somehow Tony and the Avengers end up in Latveria, punching Doom. Also, by the way, Doom is visiting Morgan in the past because he likes her. The Avengers attacking his castle made him have to come back to the present, so he's kind of cranky. And he fights Tony, and in the course of the fight, his time platform explodes and sends Doom and Tony and also the Sentry to... the past.

This is one of those times where you should definitely look up the comics if possible because the way the past is visually indicated here is that it's colored with halftone dots the way you would expect old comics to be colored, although they have modern shading and color palettes. It's very charmingly retro.

So the three of them are stuck in New York in the past, and naturally they would like to leave. There's one person in this time who has a time machine and it is, of course, Reed Richards. Doom and Tony have a lot of banter in this arc; I think it's entertaining.

Sentry has to be the one to break them all into the Baxter Building because of that power he has where no one will remember him. So they do that, travel forward in time, and end up in Latveria in the present again except Doom is gone and also things are currently exploding where they are.

Doom, of course, has made a side trip to visit Morgan again and he asks her to help him build an army, because I guess this is what their relationship is like. So the rest of the Avengers are captured by what look to me like Mindless Ones and are in a cave in magic bondage, because comics. Jess comments that at least they aren't naked, because she too is remembering that memorable New Avengers trip to the Savage Land. Doom threatens Carol in some creepy sexist ways and eventually it turns out that Tony and the Sentry are fine and everyone kicks Doom's ass. Business as usual.

And the last page of the arc is Morgan alone, wondering where Doom is. So technically Morgan and Tony don't come face to face here, but I think she counts as being at least partially responsible for ruining Tony's day here. And then Secret Invasion happens and Tony has a very, very bad day.

There are a few more Morgan appearances after this, but, as I said, I don't think any of them involve Tony. She shows up in Dark Avengers, apparently, which was one of the post-Civil War Avengers titles I didn't read, and I know that recently, on the X-Men side of things, she's been in Tini Howard's Excalibur one, which I have only read a little of. No Tony there. Just a lot of Morgan and Betsy Braddock and Brian Braddock and the Otherworld.

If you are interested in Morgan's other appearances, you might like this Marvel listicle that is Morgan le Fay's six most malicious acts. I pulled some of the Darkhold backstory from their discussion, but it's not really focused on Morgan and Tony.

So there you have it! That's everything I know about Tony's love for King Arthur and every run-in I know about that he's had with Morgan le Fay! One of two terrible people in Tony's life named Morgan! Actually, I don't think we've seen Morgan Stark in a while. I wonder if he's alive. There should be a Morgan & Morgan team-up. I should probably stop typing and post this.

The tl;dr point is that you should all read Doomquest and its sequels, especially Legacy of Doom. They're great!

[arsenicpanda]

kiss marry kill: tabitha, betty, jughead

So, my first impulse was marry Tabitha, flip a coin to kiss either Betty or Jughead, kill who loses, but then I started to think about it, and that is not the correct answer if I have to stay married to the person I marry and can’t divorce them. Let’s examine this.

Now, before we begin, we must establish some rules:

#1: We cannot kill Tabitha; she is canonically beloved by god and angels, and killing her is 100% a one-way ticket to eternal damnation, which I am not interested in. Like, obviously she’s a sweetheart and I wouldn’t want to kill her anyway, but avoiding damnation is still a priority.

#2: I cannot live in Riverdale. This is partially because of all the murder, but it’s also because I have to see a lot of specialists for my health, and I’m not interested in all the commuting that would be involved in that. Also, there’s no way Riverdale has any open jobs for archivists, and I refuse to completely block myself off from ever getting a job that uses the MLIS degree I worked so hard for.

So, let’s look at Tabitha first, because we can only marry or kiss her. Tabitha has gone all-in with Pop’s and will probably stay in Riverdale until the day she dies, working in that diner the whole time. I cannot live that life, so I cannot marry Tabitha, which means I am not marrying her.

Okay, so what about Betty? Betty has also opted to chain herself to her mother and therefore Riverdale, so I cannot marry her, and Tabitha has already taken up the kiss slot, so no wedding bells for us.

That leaves Jughead, and he isn’t chained to Riverdale. Now, “alcoholic” is normally at the top of my dealbreakers list for dating, but “live in Riverdale” apparently supplants that, so I guess I’m stuck here. Worst comes to worst, I pull a Gladys and bail but stay married to him, which would be tragic, but c’est la vie.

Now, we’ve established that I can’t kill Tabitha, so I kiss her, which means RIP Betty, who is getting killed.

HOWEVER, if divorce is allowed, then I marry Tabitha because who wouldn’t marry Tabitha, and then we get divorced when I can’t live in Riverdale anymore. Now, my first instinct is “flip a coin to decide whether I kiss Jughead or Betty”, but, going off of canon, Tabitha would probably just keep turning back time until Jughead lives, so let’s avoid that and let him live, which means I kiss Jughead. And RIP Betty again, I will miss you.

So, the results are (and, Betty, I am so sorry):

Marry: Jughead | Tabitha

Kiss: Tabitha | Jughead

Kill: Betty | Betty

[retrievablememories]

stuck with you | yoongi

title: stuck with you pairing: yoongi x reader, taehyung and jimin as side characters genre: fluff request: “Can you do a idol!Min Yoongi of BTS request of his crush being best friends with Jimin and Taehyung and him and his crush consistently fluster the other but they never realize until one day he does and finally make as move despite everyone telling them for weeks that they like each other?” word count: 3.3k warnings: some cursing, mentions of the pandemic a/n: i’ve been actively avoiding writing anything concerning the pandemic/lockdown cuz let’s be real, we’re all here to have fun, not think about real-life shit...but i decided to try it here

i wasn’t sure how to write their living arrangements tho since most of them seem to have their own places? so i just used the hannam the hill house for reference 🤪

“How have things been for you guys lately?”

Taehyung and Jimin exchange skeptical looks with each other, which you don’t catch because you’re too busy picking over your food.

“We’ve all been stuck in the same damn place for weeks now, so you tell me.” Taehyung chuckles, shaking his head. 

You visiting their house right before the stay-at-home mandate was issued ended up with the three of you—plus Yoongi, to your luck—being cooped up in the same house for almost two weeks now. It wasn’t wholly a bad thing, since you got to be with your two best friends, but living with three men was pretty much as messy as you’d expected it to be. “Wow. Never thought we’d run out of things to talk about.”

Jimin tries to humor you. “Things have been fine, you know...same as always. Except for Yoongi-hyung acting like a lovesick weirdo. But you wouldn’t know about that, would you…?” Jimin feigns an innocent look.

You look up from your plate. “A lovesick weirdo for who?”

“We’ve been through this like 20 times already, Y/N,” Jimin sighs.

“Yes, and every time I tell you you must have the wrong person because that makes no sense whatsoever.”

“He’s lovesick over you,” Taehyung reiterates, like you didn’t catch the gist the first time around.

“I don’t think Yoongi likes me.” You shake your head and make a face at the notion of it, trying to disguise your irritation at them constantly trying to provoke your emotions.

“Why not? There’s a lot to like about you, don’t downgrade yourself.” Jimin insists.

“He doesn’t even act like he does. If anything, he gets all odd around me.”

“That’s just how he is,” Taehyung says, leaning back in his chair. “You’d think you’d start to catch onto this after being here for so long, but…”

“No, she’s too busy being too embarrassed and intimidated to even get within 4 meters of him.” Jimin and Taehyung both giggle at that, and you shake your head.

“You guys are like little schoolkids. How many more big tales are you going to think up before our quarantine lifts? You could probably write a book by the end.”

Taehyung shrugs, putting his arms behind his head. “I might do that, as long as you let me make you and hyung the star-crossed lovers who are too dumb to tell each other how they feel.” He stretches his leg under the table to nudge your shin with his toes, knowing how you hate when he puts his bare feet on you, and he cackles when you protest loudly.

“Will you stop trying to get my hopes up for nothing—?” 

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Yoongi steps out onto the terrace with the three of you a few minutes later. He shields his eyes against the sun’s sudden brightness after he slides open the glass door, holding his other arm up.

“Look who’s appeared!” Jimin says excitedly, his eyes glittering with enthusiasm.

“You’re loud,” Yoongi grumbles, though he’s mostly speaking to Taehyung and Jimin. “I can hear you laughing from downstairs.” Your body tenses up and melts all at the same time, and suddenly you feel like you don’t know how to do anything right—like hold your chopsticks correctly. They shoot out of your hand when you try to use them again and hit the patio floor. You look at them forlornly.

“You good?” Yoongi asks, a smile fluttering across his lips at your clumsy actions.

“Uh, yeah I’m fine.” You can only glance back at him, embarrassed that you’ve made yourself look like a clown. Jimin laughs like he’s just witnessed the funniest thing on Earth. You shake your head and push away from the table, wanting—no, needing—a quick exit. “I’ll just find some more of those…”

Jimin shakes himself free of his sudden bout of laughter and jumps at the opportunity. “Wait, I’ll get them for you.” He bolts up from the chair before you can even think about it and goes back into the house, already planning to take his sweet time on his mission to get you new chopsticks. Taehyung picks up the hint almost instantly.

Yoongi turns back to the doorway after Jimin disappears through it, his movements a few beats too late—as if he’s just now realizing the other man left. “What was that about—”

“Oh shit!” Taehyung’s exclamation cuts into Yoongi’s question. In a sweeping motion, Taehyung “accidentally” elbows your water off the table, sending the bottle splashing out onto the patio in sad little streams. You jerk away from the splash, but the water droplets have already gotten you.

“What the hell?!”

Taehyung shrugs like it was inevitable and gives a sheepish smile. There’s an undeniable scheme lingering in his eyes, though. “Looks like I’ll have to get you another one.” He stands up to get your aforementioned water, though you begin to form the idea that you’re not getting any water at all.

You sigh and rub your fingers across your forehead. The heat of the sun has turned from pleasant to uncomfortable, and you don’t even have your water to take the edge off. Great.

Yoongi turns back to you, his eyebrows creased. “That was weird.”

“They’re just trying to…” Force us together? You’re too embarrassed to say anything like that, and your words trail off in a stammer. Why did they ever think this would be a good idea? Yoongi raises his eyebrows in curiosity at your bitten-off answer. “An-anyway, that doesn’t matter. So...what are you doing out here?”

Yoongi shrugs, smirking slightly. “Well, I do live here.”

You snort to cover the way your stomach cuts a flip at his smirk, and you reach for your food in a nervous gesture before you remember your chopsticks are still gone. “You sorta seem like a vampire, though. I’m surprised you came out to get some sun.”

Yoongi mulls over that thought. “Hmm…a vampire, huh?” He runs a hand through his pitch-black hair, and even though the gesture is just an afterthought, it makes your heart skip a beat. You almost want to roll your eyes at your reaction to that simple movement. “Don’t tell me you were one of those obsessive Twilight fans over a decade ago.”

“And if I was?”

“Would you enjoy being bitten by a vampire?” Yoongi regrets it as soon as he says it, and you ducking your head into your hands doesn’t help the flaming embarrassment. “Fuck, that was stupid—sorry.” Your shoulders are shaking with laughter, and even though it’d be cute in another context, he feels like he’s about to combust. So he decides to make a run for it. Maybe a cowardly move on his part, but it seems like the best one right now.

“Hyung, you can’t be serious—” Jimin calls out to Yoongi as the older man brushes past once he gets back indoors, but the other man tries his best to ignore Jimin as a blush crawls up his neck. “Go back and tell her. It was the perfect moment!”

“There’s gonna be a lot more of that mess until we can leave,” Taehyung says, peering through the glass at your now confused expression and shaking his head. “God, one of them needs to say something before I lose my mind.”

--

Like Taehyung predicted, there’s a lot more of “that mess” over the next week. You and Yoongi continue to tip-toe around each other, unsure of how to appropriately handle each other and never unable to shake the awkwardness that colors every interaction.

The most notable incident of all, however, occurs when Yoongi does his laundry one day and somehow finds a pair of your underwear mixed in with his clothes after taking them out of the dryer. How the hell did they even get there, and how did he not notice them before?

Bound to his usual fierce overthinking, he stands there for a few long moments, wondering what he should do. Obviously, the only answer would be to return them to you. But then what if you think that’s weird, him somehow having your underwear? Or what if you assume he’s some pervert who’d taken your panties on purpose?

And to his great luck, that’s precisely when you walk into the laundry room. You give him a timid smile and greeting, which melts away into pure embarrassment when you see him standing there as if he’d just been framed for murder—and your deep red panties sitting in his laundry pile.

Yoongi’s gaze darts between the laundry and your eyes, his jaw working aimlessly as he tries to come up with something that makes sense.

He decides on “I didn’t know they were there,” though this feels just as inadequate as it sounds.

“M-maybe I threw them in the wrong bin,” you rush out, and in the same breath you cross the room to practically snatch them out of the pile of his clothes. You know you couldn’t have done it, though, which leads your mind back to those two sneaky men who’ve been trying to exercise their terrible matchmaking skills as of late.

“A-ah, yeah—maybe,” Yoongi agrees half-heartedly, rubbing the back of his neck.

You both pause for what feels like an eternity, for a reason you can’t decipher, and you think you might burst from the sheer discomfort of it all. “Well—th-thanks. One less thing to wash, I guess.” You try to laugh, but the sound comes out high and forced. Similarly, Yoongi’s answering smile is tight around the corners.

The next few days after that, you are both unable to maintain any kind of eye contact. Taehyung and Jimin are endlessly amused by the way you and the older man dance around each other like two ghosts struggling to inhabit the same space.

You make up for it slightly by turning all of Jimin’s white shirts into a splotchy pink once you find out that this was indeed his terrible and silly idea.

--

You’ve been sleeping in Jimin’s and Taehyung’s beds since you’ve been barricaded in their home with them, which none of you really think twice about. You’ve been friends with them for years and don’t see either of them other than platonically, so it’s not awkward for you or them. Although it was originally intended for you to mostly stay in Jimin’s bed, you end up alternating between the two, climbing into whoever’s bed you feel like that particular night. Neither of them mind the switch-up, and Taehyung likes using you as his personal pillow, so it all works out.

If there was anyone who minded at all, it was Yoongi. It wasn’t a burning jealousy, because he knew he had no right to feel like that about you—not when he couldn’t even admit to you that he liked you. But it didn’t make him want to jump for joy to know you were in either of the younger men’s beds, even just as friends.

He spent many nights imagining you were beside him instead, warming the empty spaces of his bed, whispering to him and telling him about your day. It didn’t matter if he already knew everything you did that day because you’d all been living in the same space for weeks. He still wanted to know. 

But until either of you made a move, he didn’t know when that would happen. If ever.

He didn’t even know if you’d be interested, or if you saw him the way he saw you. You were never as close to him as you’d been with the other two men, and although that could be explained by you being best friends with them for years, he honestly chalked it up to you not liking him as much. Taehyung and Jimin had tried to tell him the exact opposite several times before, but he wasn’t really convinced. Not with the way you seemed to lock up around him—like if you said or did the wrong thing, he’d hate you forever.

If only you knew he could never feel that way about you.

--

You decide to sneak your way to the kitchen for a late-night snack one night, your socked feet scuffing quietly on the floor as you make your way to the kitchen. However, your plan is derailed when you run into Yoongi in the hallway, who has apparently just taken a shower. He’s fully clothed—thank God, because you’re not sure how you would’ve survived it otherwise—but the towel on his wet hair speaks to his recent shower. Your immediate response is to jump in surprise, feeling like you’ve been caught red-handed; although there’s no law stopping you from getting something to eat in the middle of the night.

“Oh—Yoongi.”

“You’re still up?” he asks, pulling the towel away from his face so he can see you better.

“Uh, yeah...I was just getting something to eat, I guess.”

“No crime in that. You’re tip-toeing around like you’re nervous about it, though.”

“I didn’t want to wake anyone up.” You shrug your shoulders, trying to appear more nonchalant than you really feel. “But I see you’re already up…” Your words trail off behind you as you walk into the kitchen. Yoongi watches your retreating back before making the split-second decision to follow you. He’s not really sure why, previously intending to go back to his own room. 

“Were you getting something to eat too?” you ask, turning back to glance at him when you hear his footsteps behind you. You’re admittedly happy at the idea of spending a little more time alone with Yoongi, though you’re still nervous as hell.

It’s probably not the best idea to say I just came because I wanted to be next to you, so he nods to your question. "Uh, sure, I guess. What were you gonna get?”

“I don’t really know, just whatever’s in here…” You open the fridge and stare into it absentmindedly, your eyes raking over the food but not really seeing it—not with Yoongi’s presence hovering behind you.

Eventually you settle on some leftover rice and kimchi—which there’s always plenty of—not wanting to expend too much energy on cooking anything new.

You and Yoongi sit at the table together, using the light of your phone’s flashlight and the under-cabinet lights to illuminate the room instead of the overhead. Maybe it’s a little strange, but you like the ambiance of it more than having the harsh overhead light on.

The room is quiet for a while as you both eat, which you don’t initially mind. But you can’t ignore how Yoongi keeps stealing glances at you, like you aren’t going to notice, like he isn’t sitting right in front of you where you can see. It makes you antsy, but not necessarily in a bad way.

“Is something up?” you finally ask, keeping your eyes on your half-empty bowls, too nervous to look straight at him.

He hums like he’s thinking intently about it. Then he decides to rip the band-aid off and says, “You’re always tense around me.”

“Oh.”

He chuckles at your short response. “Why?”

You feel like you’ve been backed into a corner, and you hesitate. “Well, you’re always weird around me. Why is that?”

“Touché.” Another tense pause where he thinks of what to say, and then, “Jimin and Taehyung swear you like me.”

You try not to react so obviously, but your spoon clatters against the side of the bowl. If he’s acting weird because of the idea of you liking him, how can it be possible that he returns the feelings? Maybe he doesn’t know how to let you down easily. You suddenly feel ridiculous, like you’ve been wasting your emotions on nothing. “...I see.”

“I thought they were...trying to play some game. But, since you’re here now...is it true?”

Maybe if you close your eyes hard enough, you can poof yourself out of existence. If you felt trapped before, you really are now. You blurt out the first thing you can think of, trying to save yourself.

“Before you think I’m stupid for liking you, you should know they’ve been saying the same thing to me about you. So. Yeah.”

Yoongi looks at you full-on. “They told you I like you?” A nervous grin fixes itself on his lips, which makes you second-guess yourself. At this point, your head and heart are tangled in a knot. Why does your love life have to be this difficult? “So that’s it, then.”

“What is?”

“We like each other.” That makes your heart rate pick up. “...and didn’t even figure it out until just now, despite everyone else’s ‘help’.”

You take a shaky breath. “You like me.”

Yoongi nods, glancing between his hands on the table and your face. “I should’ve said it sooner.”

Despite yourself, you feel the corners of your mouth twitch into a slight smile—one that’s colored with relief and a tinge of lingering nervousness. “Later is better than never, I guess.” You find yourself laughing from the way all your stress slowly unwinds itself from your body, and Yoongi joins you, his eyes sparkling in the dark.

“So. This means we’re dating now, right?”

“I hope this isn’t considered our first date.” You snort, looking around the kitchen.

Yoongi shakes his head, placing his cheek in his hand with a sleepy smile. “I promise I’ll take you somewhere nice...after the pandemic is over.”

“We might be waiting a while, then.” Finished with your food, you go to quickly wash the dishes in the sink, and Yoongi slides in next to you to do the same. Another silence falls over the two of you, but for the first time, it’s not uncomfortable or pulled taut with words unsaid.

When you finish, Yoongi leans against the counter, his eyes openly tracing over you, wearing just a big T-shirt and shorts. It’s a simple outfit, but it warms his heart.

“Come sleep with me,” he says suddenly. You crack an awkward smile at that, and he’s blushing before the last syllable even leaves his lips, because he understands how that sounds. “I mean, actually sleep. It’s late.”

You pretend to hesitate on it. “I don’t know, Taehyung might miss me…”

“Taehyung and Jimin have had you all to themselves the past few weeks. It’s my turn now.”

And with that, you let him take your hand and guide you back to his room, maneuvering carefully through the dark house. His bed is new to you, but it’s instantly comfortable—like home. The smell of him surrounds you, as does his arms when he pulls you closer. You smile against the fabric of his shirt as you tuck your face into his chest, his chin on top of your head.

“Goodnight,” he murmurs, his fingers curling around your shoulder. His voice is soft and low, already halfway to sleep.

“Goodnight, Yoongi.”

[scintillatingshortgirl19]

Loki Episode 5 Response Pt. 2 - The Positive

On to the positive post! I really did enjoy this episode overall, so here’s the stuff I liked/loved:

Hair flip! Only one this time (I believe?), and from a distance (it's when he first stands up in the Void) but glad to see we're keeping with the pattern.

I LOVED Classic Loki and Kid Loki! I had more or less zero expectations regarding them - didn't expect to like them or dislike them - so I was pleasantly surprised to have pretty strong positive feelings for both of them! Both had emotional stories and Classic Loki's sacrifice at the end was really well done. It was interesting how even though he was dressed so ridiculously, I almost found myself forgetting about that? Or at least not really noticing, because the character was so good and the narrative never used the outfit for comedy. I also have a lot of feelings about Kid Loki and Classic Loki's dynamic, thanks to this meta.

And obviously Gator Loki is glorious and I stan him for all eternity.

I have...a lot of feels about Loki calling the other Lokis monsters. Can I articulate said feels? Not really, but just know I have a LOT of them. I also just like his face in this shot - very lost, very sad, (very good lighting), 10/10.

MOBIUS YESSSSS. Loved him showing up in the car, and - "You should be careful jumping into a stranger's car like that" - lmao he is such a DAD

I know the TVA is obviously being framed as the bad guys now, but I appreciate the continued verbal acknowledgement with what Sylvie said about annihilating realities and orphaning little girls, and Mobuis' apology to her. And also, his statement about thinking the ends justified the means - even from episode one, Mobius stuck me as someone who was brainwashed and stuck in an ends-justify-the-means mentality/echo chamber, and who would do the right thing once he got out of it (which is why I found myself liking him even at the beginning, despite some of his actions early in the series) so it was nice to have that confirmed. And this just now occurred to me, but I'm wondering if my sympathy for Mobius early on has something to do with my conservative Christian upbringing and eventual complete belief change, and maybe I relate to Mobius on some level? I wasn't part of a cult like the TVA, and it was stuff like homophobia instead of murder, but still...huh, I might have to think more on that one lol.

I'm actually feeling moderately ok with the romance - better about it than last episode, for sure. I'd still much, much rather it be platonic...but they're just so cute, is the thing. Whether in a romantic or platonic context, I'm always a sucker for the trope of two emotionally closed off characters being soft with each other. And they're both just so awkward but really sweet at the same time, and neither of them are very skilled at this friend thing but they're really trying, and it's cute. I was terrified they were going to kiss (as many of us were lol) but the story really didn't go too hard on the romance this episode - it caught me off guard in episode 4 and seemed so out of the blue and sudden, but now they’ve slowed it down and just kind of focused on the general bond between the two (with some romantic undertones as well, though I think even those could potentially be read as platonic). So yeah it still depends on how they handle a next episode, but at this point I'm pretty ok with it, and it's starting to feel slightly more earned. Do I wish all that awkwardness and cuteness was centered around being friends instead of potential romantic partners? Hell yes I do. But the two of them are still cute together regardless of whether it's romantic or platonic - and I guess it is actually centered around friendship either way, because the romance is at least starting with a friendship foundation? Even if they do go full romance with it (likely) they're at least also friends - and that's something a lot of couples lack so that's definitely refreshing. So I guess my tl;dr on the romance is: I wish Loki's heart-eyes were platonic heart-eyes but either way the heart-eyes are pretty damn adorable.

LOKI WITH A BLANKET. Listen, do you - do you know - do you have any idea - how long and how desperately I've wanted to see Loki wrapped up in a blanket? A thing I once thought would only ever be in fanfic?? Yet here it is, right before my eyes, on my very own screen???? I'll never be over it. I cannot stand how cute he is. LOOK.

Although I must say, I am with Sylvie here - Loki should up his blanket-conjuring game just a little and conjure something fluffier next time. (Also @thelightofthingshopedfor posted some good meta on it being green.)

I loved the “burn it [the TVA] to the ground” and “thanks for the spark” lines. AND THE HUG!!! Talk about things I've been wanting to see for a very, very long time. Loki tearing up was great, always love that, and just...yeah. No words, only feels. 

I liked that Loki was taking charge more in this episode and actually had a plan. While I didn't love that Sylvie ended up having the better plan, Loki definitely had more of a purpose in this episode than in the others. Besides, it was really beautiful at the end when they enchanted Alioth together (I’m proud!!), and it's possible Slyvie saying "we're the same" was meant to contradict Loki's line near the beginning about how Sylvie's different than all the other Loki's? I couldn't tell if that was intentional or not, but I think it was? 

Anyway, I loved this episode overall! In a lot of ways I liked the tone and comedic moments better, I am extremely proud of my son, and I’m excited/terrified for the final episode. 

@delyth88​ @thelightofthingshopedfor​ @iamanartichoke​

[rivalsforlife]

oooo i'm sorry but one more scene for commentary if youre up to it: maya and phoenix talking in chapter 6?

Of course, no need to apologize!! Once more, keeping this under a “keep reading”:

Around noon, his apartment intercom buzzed. “Nick, it’s Maya! Let me up.”

Maya? What was she even doing here? Maya never visited him out of the blue anymore… Whatever. She’d probably think he was at his office. She’d go away soon.

There was another buzz. “Nick! I know you’re in there! I called your office, you know!”

Kids these days. Selling out their bosses that easily… Maybe he should cut Athena’s salary. Nah, he wasn’t Edgeworth. … Edgeworth.

“don’t think about Edgeworth don’t think about Edgeworth -- ah damn it”

“Nick! Hello! Nick!”

She had to give up eventually, right? Whatever she was here for, someone else could help her…

“Security’s coming after me, if they arrest me you’re gonna have to defend me, you know, do you want that? I’m not even gonna try to pay you for it since it’s gonna be your fault —”

Ugh.

Phoenix stumbled out of bed and buzzed her in. “Fine. Come up.”

“Thank you!” she chirped in a sing-songy voice. “Hey, you heard him, let me go…”

Maya’s Obnoxious Little Sister Energy is eternal. Her next strategy was to break from the guards and dash as far as she could go trying to break her way into Phoenix’s apartment which... wouldn’t have ended well haha.

Also! Like I mentioned in the previous ask, a lot of this fic was just Phoenix’s Relationship Issues, and the way I characterized him in this fic was a lot of... he needs to have people around or he kind of falls apart, and his history of having people around was that these people needed him in some way -- Maya after she was accused of murder and then hanging around for Mia’s sake, Trucy being abandoned and needing looking after, even Miles to an extent needing to be saved from his corrupt ways and the von Karma influence -- and now that they’re all growing up and don’t need him anymore he thinks they’re going to abandon him.

That’s a long-winded way of referring to that one sentence of “Whatever she was here for, someone else could help her”

Also... I don’t live in an apartment and haven’t visited many apartments? So I’m not totally sure how the whole buzzing someone in process works. no one’s called me out on it though so I guess I’m okay.

Phoenix sighed and wondered if he should make himself look presentable. There probably wasn’t enough time. Maya wouldn’t notice that he hadn’t changed his clothes for two days, right?

She probably would. But he couldn’t do anything about it, as just then there was a knock on the door. Figuring he should appease her so she wouldn’t give security anymore trouble, he reluctantly let her in.

Indeed, there was Maya, looking cheery as ever. “Hey, dude. What’s going on with you?”

“Nothing,” said Phoenix, and in response to Maya’s raised eyebrow as she took in his appearance, “Just not feeling well. Why’re you here, Maya? I thought you were busy up at the village.”

passive-aggressive “oh aren’t you supposed to be busy?” from Phoenix here...

One of the other major changes I made to this fic in the editing process was cutting out a LOT of Maya content. I really love her and wanted her to be here more, but to properly go through the Phoenix Characterization Study I had to make it seem like she wasn’t around as much so that Phoenix would feel more lonely. again, sorry, Phoenix... but like originally she came down for the picnic in chapter 3 and was around at the beginning of chapter 4, so it would be SO WEIRD if she showed up in every single chapter except for chapter 5 and then Phoenix accuses her here of being too busy to hang out with him. She was there all the time! So I only had her show up for the wedding and added in a few more lines alluding to her not being here as much as she used to in trilogy days.

“I am,” she admitted, pushing her way into his apartment. “But your daughter called me yesterday morning and said that if you didn’t call, I should check in on you. So. Here I am. And I know you’re not just sick.”

Kids these days indeed! Like Phoenix didn’t feel bad enough, his own daughter had to go and parent him. “Look, Maya, everything’s fine. I’m sorry Trucy made you think something was wrong.”

One writing tip I got and I’ve been working on implementing is like... trying to have a general idea of what every character is up to when they’re not “on screen”, so to speak. Even then, what they’re thinking about when they’re not the POV focus. So basically after the call with Trucy just prior to this scene, she immediately decided to call Maya (because she could tell something was Off with her dad and Miles, given his reaction when she mentioned his name,) and then told her to check up on him because he really scared her during that phone call... though she wouldn’t admit it. She basically saw it as a hint of returning to a sort of... disbarment-era depression, which she didn’t want, so she wanted to make sure someone could check in on him as soon as he could since she couldn’t.

Also another small aspect of Phoenix characterization (that’s going to be like 99% of my commentary about this fic I’m sorry) is that the way he deals best with depression is like... being around people, and doing things with people. It’s obviously not a method that works for everyone, but it keeps him from dwelling on things and kind of gives him a purpose, helps him feel like he’s needed. Mostly got this headcanon from RFTA where he says he was unable to take on any cases when Maya was gone until Ema showed up... and then even at the beginning of 2-2 he does seem pretty down. Trucy kind of knows some of this since she was the main thing keeping him together during disbarment era, at least enough to know that when Phoenix is depressed he’ll do much better if he’s got someone he cares about around.

Anyways, Trucy probably told Maya just to call in, because she knows her aunt is busy and part of the reason Maya hasn’t been around much is because she’s stuck with all sorts of Master responsibilities at Kurain, but Maya herself wanted to come down and check on Phoenix in person because she knows how he can get and if it was enough to worry Trucy, then she was pretty worried too.

Maya planted her hands on her hips. “No way, mister. I did not take a two hour train ride down here for you to tell me everything’s fine. Do you know how difficult it was to get permission to leave?! I had to pull the old ‘I need to visit my boyfriend’ card for them to let me go!”

Phoenix groaned, despite himself. “Have they still not caught on about that?”

“Their desperation for an heir has blinded them to common sense. They made me drink some disgusting fertility tea before I left, so you really owe me one.” She lowered her hands and sighed. “Look, Nick, I know something’s up. So talk to me. Please.”

I took a few liberties to sprinkle in my Kurain headcanons in here... which I’ve rambled about more in depth elsewhere, so I won’t go into too much detail, but basically: hereditary spiritual power leads to a lot of pressure on people who have said hereditary spiritual power to reproduce so they can pass it on to the next generation. Particularly with Maya (and Pearls to some extent though I believe Maya would willingly take the heat on it) since the two of them are the only remaining spirit channelers of the Kurain technique. And since it took Maya a really long time to become the Master officially (I don’t buy the idea that she wasn’t skilled enough by the end of T&T, my headcanon is the Master training process involves two years in Khura’in but she put that off until Phoenix was in the clear regarding Kristoph stuff) they probably don’t want her leaving the village to “goof off” unless she’s doing it to produce an heir. her biological clock is ticking! haha! (... ugh.)

And this kind of leads to -- in the elaborate backstory of this fic that I can only touch on through DVD commentaries which is like half the reason I do these things -- Maya and Phoenix agreeing that if Maya needs to get out of the village but whoever the other people in the village are start putting pressure on her, she can say she’s “visiting her boyfriend” who they think is Phoenix but really isn’t... and I guess they assume they’re getting up to heir-making activities but oh darn! didn’t work this time! guess I’ll have to go again next week! (obviously they’re just out getting burgers or something.) 

Hence people in the village pushing fertility tea on her because they think the problem is that she’s not getting pregnant... although they’re kind of misunderstanding the reason why she’s not getting pregnant... because no amount of fertility tea in the world will lead to a spontaneous pregnancy without other activities first. which aren’t happening. I feel like I need to clarify this multiple times just in case someone misunderstands.

Pearls both knows about this agreement and knows that Phoenix and Maya aren’t actually dating because she’s like nineteen now? She’s probably known for years, she never brings it up during DD and SOJ.

“I won’t go into much detail” oops. I’m so sorry.

Phoenix didn’t say anything.

Maya took him by the arm and guided him to the couch, plopping him down none-too-gently before sitting next to him. “You can trust me, right?” she asked. “You’re my best friend. I’m here for you, even if you did something really stupid.”

Phoenix laughed a bit. “Yeah… I did something really stupid.”

“Okay. Tell me.”

Phoenix buried his face in his hands with a sigh, then rolled his head to peek through his fingers at Maya. She looked — angry, sure, he wasn’t exactly being the most cooperative of people right now, but — open. Prepared. Like she was actually going to listen.

I know that SOJ called Miles Phoenix’s best friend, which don’t get me wrong I absolutely loved, but I do wish Maya was ALSO considered Phoenix’s best friend if not one of his closest friends, because they’re so obviously best friends. They’re a different flavour of best friends than Phoenix and Miles, because Phoenix and Miles are the “it’s complicated and there are secret romantic feelings possibly but we trust each other unconditionally” best friends, Phoenix and Maya have a twenty-five step secret handshake they have to execute every time upon meeting.

But of course that doesn’t mean they can’t be serious, Maya is absolutely here for her dumb best friend

“It’s…” He sighed, again. “Have you ever — have you ever wanted something for a really long time, but — but you never thought you’d get it, and then you have this chance, and you just… panic?”

Maya nodded solemnly. “Steel Samurai movie premiere tickets. I won a raffle, but I forgot I signed up for them and thought it was a hoax, and didn’t get to accept them before the deadline. The bad Wi-Fi didn’t help, either.”

“But that doesn’t mean they can’t be serious” um

The one constant among all the ace attorney main characters is that NONE OF THEM WANT TO TALK ABOUT THEIR FEELINGS EVER

Also I struggled a lot with this fic trying to figure out... exactly what was going on in Phoenix’s head, and how he would interpret what was going on in his head. I kept changing opinions all the time and it was so off before I did editing haha. Even this line is still a little weird with the “Have you ever wanted something for a really long time” because he probably shouldn’t be aware that he has wanted this for a long time. ... I’m going to stop pointing out the flaws in my own fic now--

At Phoenix’s glare, she added, “I’m just kidding. Thought I’d lighten the mood a bit. Is this about Edgeworth?”

“What makes you think that?”

“‘Cause when is it not about Edgeworth with you,” asked Maya, cutting straight to the heart of things, as always. “Did he ask you out?”

“Not even that.” Phoenix turned his gaze to the floor, ashamed. “He said he loved me. I… I told him I didn’t feel the same.”

Maya was silent for a moment. Phoenix didn’t dare look at her. “Do you?”

“I like being around him,” said Phoenix. “I like seeing him smile, and laugh, and — and he makes me happy.”

What he wouldn’t give to see Edgeworth smile and laugh at him again.

“Not what I asked, dude.”

“Nick’s being really broody again it’s GOTTA be Edgeworth...”

Anyways that second-to-last line there is sticking out at me and I’m pretty sure it’s one I wavered back and forth on deleting before deciding to keep. ... at least I think I kept it? I’m taking these from google docs so there might be a few tiny changes from the ao3 version but I don’t think there’s anything too major I changed while doing last-minute edits.

Again we run into the problem of Phoenix Is Incapable Of Admitting He’s In Love With Miles -- which is the whole psyche-locks thing that pops up in the scene after this. The psyche-locks were also a pretty last-minute addition plot-wise... I think this fic was the most I deviated from my outline, but I was pretty rushed for time so I didn’t do as much planning as I normally would.

Hm I think there’s another ask where I can talk more about the psyche-locks? I’ll talk a bit here because I put a lot of thought into it. Basically I ran with the idea of black psyche-locks hiding something even the owner isn’t aware of, and that those psyche-locks are (typically? who knows about Kristoph) inflicted through traumatic events. Phoenix has three because I came up with three main Issues he had to work through, but some of them kind of blend together... two of them came up through specific traumatic events (Phoenix guesses them in chapter 8) and another one is just general overall trauma. if no one brings up the particular scenes by the time I get to that other ask, I’ll talk more about them, but basically there are three locks from three separate traumas and three occasions where they break -- someone guessed one of the breaking scenes on the narumitsu discord, but no one’s brought up the other two yet! 

Long-winded way of saying that the psyche-locks are the reason that Phoenix can’t admit that he’s in love with Miles yet... and it’s kind of a cheap fantasy visualization of the trauma, basically? Maybe not the most elegant way of addressing it, but I never claimed to be writing for a series which addresses issues elegantly.

“But — but can you even imagine it?” Phoenix demanded, raising his head to gesture fully at the ridiculousness of it all. “Me and Edgeworth?”

“Yeah,” said Maya, simply. “It’s not that hard, really.”

Phoenix had no response.

“You two balance each other out well, and you trust each other, and you both care a ton about each other,” Maya elaborated. “If you love him, what’s the problem?”

oh Phoenix you have no idea. you and Miles are so easy to imagine together that you’re the number one pairing on ace attorney ao3 by a longshot.

Also one thing I kind of wanted to avoid was less of the... “you and Miles are PERFECT for each other how do you not SEE this” thing. nothing against the trope, of course! Just the whole concept of people shipping their friends intensely is something I’m not super familiar with and tbh would make me pretty uncomfortable...? It’s sort of the deal with rpf. Of course this is fanfiction with fictional characters but from an in-universe perspective...

So Maya’s taking the approach of more “Yeah, I can see you and Edgeworth as a couple, I think you’d work well together” rather than “you two are SO perfect together and I’ve been shipping you since 2016!!” because while that may be what Maya is THINKING it’s definitely not what Phoenix needs to hear right now.

“It just… seems like a recipe for disaster. I wouldn’t even know how to… like, this isn’t my first time feeling like this, but when I think about us, me and Edgeworth, it’s…” Why couldn’t he find the right words? “It’s too much.”

Maya brought a hand to her chin and tilted her head thoughtfully. “So — tell me if I’ve got this right — you like Edgeworth too, but for some reason, when he confessed to you, you panicked and you don’t know why.”

“I guess…” Phoenix returned his face to the comforting darkness of his hands. “I don’t know what it is. I-I shouldn’t have a problem, right? But the thought of a-actually admitting that I… or being in a relationship, it feels like I’m standing at the edge of a cliff and am about to fall off.”

Maya was silent for a long time. Phoenix just hoped that whatever she said next, it would somehow magically fix all his problems.

Instead, she said the most ridiculous thing Phoenix could possibly imagine. “Maybe you have trust issues?”

It certainly lightened the mood. Phoenix threw his head back and laughed harder than he had in a long time.

Phoenix is a very trusting person, absolutely, but you can’t tell me this man walked out of the Dahlia Debacle without quite a few romance-related issues. It’s kind of a weird sort of contradiction... 

“No, I’m serious,” she persisted, through his laughter.

“What are you talking about, Maya?” Phoenix managed to get out, once he had that fit of mirth under control. “There’s no way I have trust issues. My whole thing is trusting people and believing in people until the end, you know?”

“Yeah, I know. But trusting someone not to be a murderer is a bit different, isn’t it?”

“It’s not like that’s as far as it goes,” Phoenix argued. “I trust you, I trust all of our friends, more than just not being murderers.”

“Yeah, sure, but romance is kind of on a different level.” She leaned back into the couch thoughtfully. “When’s the last time you’ve been with anyone?”

“... At least not since I got Trucy,” Phoenix admitted, only a little shamefully. “You try hooking up with people while having the world’s most perceptive daughter who’s desperate for a ‘new mommy’.”

“Been with anyone seriously, I mean.”

Phoenix winced. “... College.”

“I rest my case, Your Honor.”

Prettty self-explanatory here, I managed to get most of my thoughts on the actual fic instead of wanting to put it in an appendix or something. Basically... you can trust people in different ways? Phoenix can trust someone to not be a murderer to the extent of putting his own life on the line for them... but when it comes to revealing any sort of details about himself, or general emotional intimacy, he’s kind of stingy about it. Of course the out-of-universe explanation is “Phoenix doesn’t talk about this stuff because we need suspense so the player keeps playing the game instead of an exposition dump as soon as the issue comes up” but I like finding in-universe explanations for out-of-universe stuff.

I think I just regurgitated my points in a few excerpts oops.

Last little comment there regarding the idea of Phoenix presumably having a casual sex life -- Iiiiii am super asexual, have known that for a long time, generally kind of squeamish about the concept and also live a very sheltered life. so I don’t know much about people hooking up... like how people just go out and do these things. But I know people do these things so I try to reference it within my limited knowledge. Anyways yeah presumably that was happening in the background throughout the trilogy in the universe of this fic. probably not an important point. i’m moving on now.

“I’m not hung up on that!” Phoenix insisted. “Iris was a good person, she was the person I trusted. I’ve known that for years, now!”

“But she did lie to you,” Maya pointed out. “And you thought she tried to kill you for five years. I dunno, if it were me, I’d have a hell of a lot of relationship issues now.”

“Do you want me to psychoanalyze you too, now, Maya? It’s not gonna be pretty.”

“Oh, no thanks, that’s what therapy’s for,” she said, far too cheerily. “But really, Nick.”

Anyways I’m pretty invested in the whole Iris-Phoenix dynamic post-Bridge to the Turnabout, because like on the one hand, hypothetically the woman you were in love with but you thought was a killer coming out to say that she actually didn’t kill anyone and was actually in love with you should resolve all your lingering relationship issues resulting from that... but I don’t see that actually happening.

It probably took Phoenix the whole five years to come to terms with the fact that Dahlia hated his guts and tried to kill him, because I do believe he was seriously hardcore in love with her at the time. Well, Iris, but he didn’t know the difference. And then finding out Iris actually loved him... but not enough to actually, say, tell him this beforehand?... makes things kind of messy. Phoenix probably thinks he should be all better now but really the whole Dahlia-Iris thing was messed up and undoubtedly messed him up a lot.

Last little bit is just me squeezing in that Maya probably also has a lot of messed up relationship issues and also definitely needs therapy. (And is getting a bit of therapy in this fic! Good for her!) I have a lot of thoughts about Maya’s trauma... but unfortunately this fic is about Phoenix so I couldn’t go too in depth about that. Sorry, Maya. One day.

Phoenix sank further into the couch. “I don’t have trust issues.”

“Y’know, there’s still a lot of stuff I don’t know about you,” said Maya. “You never tell me anything personal until there’s a murder or something and then you have to. What happened to Edgeworth, both times. The whole Dahlia thing. It took me ages to get you to tell me how you got disbarred, even! And, like, romance has this level of intimacy to it, where he’d need to know stuff about you that I wouldn’t know, that Trucy wouldn’t know. And Nick, you know I love you, but I know you’re scared of that.”

“What do you know about it?” Phoenix snapped. “You’re barely ever here.”

He felt horrible as soon as the words left his mouth. Maya gave a sharp inhale and stiffened, her eyebrows knitting above an angry and hurt glare.

“I’m sorry,” Phoenix apologized, looking at the floor. “That was… that was unfair.”

“Yeah,” said Maya. “Yeah, it was.”

yep regurgitating my points from above. Anyways, highlights: platonic “I love you”s are great, we should have more of those. Just... emphasizing that it’s platonic because the Phoenix and Maya friendship is one of my favourite things in the series.

And there’s that “You’re barely ever here” comment that I had to cut Maya out of most of this fic to fit in, because otherwise it wouldn’t make any sense. In the universe of this fic Maya was pretty distant being busy with training and spirit medium Master stuff after the trilogy... and presumably hasn’t seen Phoenix as much as either of them would like. She loves hanging out with her best friend, and probably feels super guilty too, that Phoenix is dealing with all these issues and she can’t be there because she has other responsibilities -- so obviously it upsets her when Phoenix kind of accuses her of not being there for him, because she definitely would be, if she could, and if Phoenix would let her. 

Pretty much you can’t always be around for everyone all the time, Maya would be so worn out if she had to juggle coming down to the city to hang out with Phoenix all the time on top of all her other responsibilities. She knows this, Phoenix knows this too, he’s just kind of lashing out right now because he’s hurt and confused and misses all his important people, but Maya just happens to be in front of him right now.

And yeah what Phoenix said was pretty uncalled for, which he realizes right away, and Maya acknowledges -- a pretty short fight, I don’t think these two would stay mad at each other for too long. 

They sat in a tense silence for some time, until Maya sighed and brushed back her hair.

“Look, I’m saying these things because I’m scared of it, too,” she said, barely above a whisper. “After Mia, and Mom… I don’t want to be left behind again.”

“Maya…”

“Just think about it, okay?” She extended a pinky towards him. “Promise.”

Reluctantly, Phoenix linked his pinky with hers. “Fine. I’ll think about it.”

points at this and says Maya’s Definitely Got Trauma From Trilogy Events then brushes it off to get off the uncomfortable emotion topics

“Good.” Maya hopped up from the couch and stretched her arms above her head. “I’ll forget about what you said if you buy me lunch, okay? I’ve got a client this evening, so I can’t stay long, but I’ve got enough time to stop by Eldoon’s.”

“If you insist,” said Phoenix with an exaggerated sigh, and Maya laughed, so Phoenix willed himself to push the conversation from his mind for now. Maya would be spending four hours on a train today for his sake; Eldoon’s really was the least he could provide.

and in true Phoenix and Maya fashion we’re just gonna forget about the emotions and go get ramen! 

Anyways thanks anon for requesting this scene I apparently have so many thoughts about Phoenix and Maya friendship... sorry if this is totally incoherent I should not have started this so late it’s like 11:30! But thank you! I will do more of these tomorrow... hopefully.

[alternis-dim]

If someone wanted to get into persona, what is the best game to start with?

to be honest, Persona is kind of nice in that it doesn’t matter a whole lot where you start, since each game is a relatively self-contained story which only has brief mentions or cameos of previous entries! some elements of the lore make more sense if you play certain games before others, but it isn’t anything drastic enough to impact your enjoyment. Hell, I started with Persona 5 and was just fine. So I guess I can just sorta talk about the pros and cons of each game as an entry point to the series! I can also briefly describe their premises in case a particular one seems more interesting, which could help someone with deciding where to start.

this is gonna be long, so I’ll put it under a read more.

Persona 1/Revelations: Persona is the only game I wouldn’t recommend playing first. Its mechanics are pretty outdated and not reflective of the rest of the series, and it’s relatively short compared to the others as well. Not to say that it’s not worth ever playing! In fact, from my understanding it has wonderful characterization, an engaging plot, and lays important groundwork for the franchise’s worldbuilding. I just wouldn’t recommend it for getting a taste of what the series is like.

Persona 2: Innocent Sin is the first of the dual entries for the Persona 2 duology. It has some of the same cons I mentioned for the first game; it’s relatively old, so its mechanics are a little outdated, and it plays more similarly to an SMT game than the future Persona entries do (for example, the story is fairly linear and occurs over the course of a few days, whereas later entries are strung out over a year). It is a little more refined, though, and the formula is starting to get there. It also has, in my opinion, some of the best character writing in the series.

P2IS is a story about how strange occurrences are brewing in the city of Sumaru because of a phenomenon where rumors actually influence and/or become reality. A group of high schoolers get tangled up with a mysterious man named Joker, who can supposedly grant wishes and, for some reason, seems to hold a very personal grudge against them. They discover their ability to call upon Personas to defend themselves from the demons at his command, and soon end up teaming up with journalist Maya Amano to get to the bottom of Joker’s identity and the source of the rumors which are warping the city. Over the course of their journey, they slowly start to piece together their past in order to figure out why Joker seems so invested in them.

Pros: - Stellar character writing- An intriguing, interconnected plot which is a bit of a rollercoaster but a lot of fun- Lays the groundwork for lore in the Persona series (most importantly the existence of Philemon and Nyarlathotep, as well as the origin of the Velvet Room)- Incredibly mature takes on the impact of trauma and familial abuse (TW for both of those things though)- Canonically bisexual protagonist with a potential same sex dating optionCons:- Unavoidable random encounters and really grind-heavy, as most 90′s jrpgs go- Outdated mechanics that aren’t really reflective of future Persona entries- One of those wiki-heavy games: it’s damn near impossible to unlock certain character interactions or personas without use of a guide- The second game in the Duology, Eternal Punishment, isn’t nearly as accessible to English audiences

Persona 3 is where a lot of the series formula originates from! It’s also my personal favorite, but I’ll try my best to be unbiased describing it. Small note: I recommend playing Persona 3 FES specifically, since it refines a lot of the things that were clunky in the vanilla version, adds more character content, and features a post-game which answers a lot of questions.

P3 takes place in a coastal city called Iwatodai at the beginning of the school year, where the protagonist moves in as a transfer student after being bounced around in foster care for ten years following an accident which killed his parents. Upon arrival, he experiences the strange phenomenon of the Dark Hour: an extra 25th hour in the day where people are transformed into coffins and monsters roam free. Technology doesn’t work during this hour, and anyone not protected by a coffin is violently attacked and seems soulless the next day, a condition local news dubs Apathy Syndrome. A select few people have the potential to stay conscious during the Dark Hour and protect themselves by use of a Persona, and these people make up a unit called the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad (S.E.E.S.). The protagonist joins, and the game follows their investigation of the phenomenon. It’s considered the darkest entry in the series, and for good reason: “memento mori” is right in its introduction. The game focuses heavily on themes of death, what it means to be mortal, how people deal with being confronted with their mortality, what the point of life is, and much more. 

Pros:- Introduction of the Persona formula: school life and dungeon exploration which requires time management on a linear calendar, the knockdown/1-more feature in combat, all-out-attacks, social links. Starting with this game may actually be the best way to go gameplay-wise, since coming back to this game after playing later entries makes it seem clunky.- Dungeon-crawl style of gameplay, which is a lot nicer than random encounters. You explore randomly generated floors and choose when and where to ambush enemies.- Excellent character arcs which enrich the game’s narrative- A dark, mature, and interesting story which explores human natureCons:- Still an older game, so some controls are clunky. One game mechanic in particular that many are frustrated with is the inability to directly choose what moves your teammates will use, instead requiring you to use Tactics to direct how the AI should behave.- Probably has the worst pacing issues out of any game in the series. There’s an entire calendar month where you do basically nothing.- The post-game is grind-heavy and long for the amount of story it offers. Some people just recommend watching a playthrough.- Features an uncomfortable transphobic skit towards the middle of the game.

Persona 4 is a refinement of many of the features of Persona 3. The best version to play is Persona 4 Golden, since it has a lot of extra content, but it’s vita exclusive and I’m stuck with vanilla :( Vanilla’s still fine in my experience, at least!

P4 takes place in the small town of Inaba, where the protagonist has transferred for a year to live with his uncle and cousin due to his parents leaving the country for work. Shortly after his arrival, a bizarre series of serial murderers start to occur where the bodies are found strung up on telephone lines. There’s also a rumor that looking into a turned off television screen on a rainy midnight will reveal your soulmate; this rumor is referred to as the Midnight Channel. The protagonists and friends inadvertently discover a parallel world which exists alongside Inaba, which can be entered through televisions but which can’t be exited without the help of a mysterious denizen named Teddie. They discover that these worlds are linked; people who show up on the Midnight Channel turn up dead in the real world shortly after, and the weather is inverse to Inaba’s. They discover that this is because someone is throwing people into this world, who are then unable to escape, and that the Shadows living in it become violent when the fog lifts (inverse to when the fog settles in the real world). This world also has an interesting quirk: people who enter it end up confronting their own shadow, which is a manifestation of the parts of themselves they repress or deny. Denying your shadow leads to it attempting to kill you, and this is likely what caused the deaths of the first victims. The protagonist and team discover that confronting and accepting your own Shadow, however, turns it into a Persona which you can then use to combat the monsters in the world. Equipped with their unique knowledge, the team sets out to save victims, solve the murder mystery, and learn how to accept themselves.

Pros:- A powerful message about the importance of seeking the truth and accepting all facets of yourself- An absolutely incredible murder mystery with clever plot twists and high stakes: getting the true ending is actually difficult if you don’t know who the murderer is, and you’re expected to understand the themes of the game and the characters in order to get it.- A nice in-between for the mechanics of P3 and P5: it’s pretty easy to transfer to either one after playing this one. (also introduces the ability to control party members directly, thank god)- A TON of spinoff content if you find you enjoy the characters and setting- Probably one of the best games in terms of understanding the overarching lore of the series, since it explains how Personas and Shadows work in much more depth than other entriesCons:- Has sort of a wonky difficulty curve. The first couple dungeons are honestly kind of a pain in the ass because of how level scaling works, and it takes a little while to level out.- The character arcs aren’t quite as well-written as previous games, due to the ultimate personas being associated with social link completion rather than events in the plot.- Oh god, such clumsy handling of LGBT topics. Plays around the idea of a gay narrative for one character (Kanji) and a trans narrative for another (Naoto) but ultimately just ends up playing up stereotypes and then backing out before doing anything “risky.” Another character in the party is pretty homophobic to Kanji for a while too, which sucks.

Persona 5 is the most popular in the series for sure, and for good reason. It’s the complete culmination of the Persona formula, and it adds all sorts of stuff to the gameplay and lore. It has a pretty lovable cast, to boot. Not that it doesn’t also have its problems, imo.

P5 features a protagonist who was falsely convicted of assault after attempting to defend a woman from a drunk man harassing her. His criminal record and probation result in his expulsion from his home school, so he moves in with a family friend in Tokyo where a school will accept him until his time’s up. Tokyo’s been strange for a little while now. Mysterious incidents have been causing disruptions for a while. There’s been a surge of “psychotic breakdown incidents” in which people act out unpredictably for seemingly no reason, and on rarer occasions “mental shutdowns” where people seem to completely break and die shortly after. The protagonist and friends get tied up in nonsense pretty quickly when a mysterious app on his phone transports him to a parallel world in which real locations of Tokyo are warped beyond recognition. The protagonist discovers the power of persona pretty early on, which he uses to fight the enemies there. With the help of a strange creature named Morgana, they learn that this is the “Metaverse”, a space in which the twisted desires and perceptions of people are made manifest. It’s a space where a person’s Shadow lords over a “Palace”, an altered version of real-world locations which reflects how that person views the world around them. They also learn that personas are the result of having a strong, rebellious will, allowing you to control your Shadow in combat. By breaking into a Palace, defeating the Shadow, and stealing the “Treasure” at its core, the Palace will crumble and the person in real life will come to grips with the morality of their actions, effectively outing themselves. This is referred to as stealing hearts, and the Phantom Thieves are born; they quickly become infamous in Tokyo, though their reputation attracts unwanted attention, as well as blame… could those breakdown incidents be related to the Metaverse, too? This game focuses heavily on the corruption of society, the abuse and manipulation of people in power, the ways in which our circumstances force us to hide parts of ourselves, ideas of justice, and all sorts of fun ideas of “rebellion”.

Pros:- ABSOLUTELY the best gameplay in the series. The controls are smooth, the battles and UI are streamlined, the visuals are absolutely stunning. This is the one that’s most fun to actually PLAY, bar none.- More of a stealth/heist game than a dungeon crawler, which is a fun spin on the series.- Excellent social commentary on the injustices young people face in a system stacked against them.- A really lovable cast of characters, and social links which actually grant you access to helpful gameplay features as incentive. Cons:- Sort of a small thing, but one of the game’s twists is a lot more fun to figure out if you’ve already played at least one other entry in the series.- Has some serious writing issues. The game has a very strong first half, but then starts to feel rushed the further along you get after a certain point. You can tell that the developers wanted to fit in a lot, but didn’t quite have the time to refine the ideas they implemented.- On that note, some of the character writing starts to regress or even becomes contradictory.- Has a couple instances of homophobia surrounding the Red Light District.

This got long, sorry, but I hope it’s helpful! like I said, you really can start anywhere, and you don’t have to play them in a particular order. Just pick the ones that seem the most interesting and have fun!

[perspective-series]

Vampire Perspective (13/17)

By: @arc852 and @hiddendreamer67

Warnings: tears, talk of owning people, talk of #rude relatives, grief (?)

First Chapter || Previous Chapter || Next Chapter

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 Logan’s confusion soon turned to pure shock as he looked up at Virgil. “Are you...are you crying?”

“NO.” Virgil growled, feeling the tears leaking down his cheeks even as he kept his eyes shut. 

 Logan didn’t know what to do. He was terrible with emotional outbursts like this, even worse when that person was his captor and had never shown anything like this before. “Why...why are you so upset over this? You said it yourself, you still plan on eating me eventually and even encourage Patton to eat Roman...I don’t understand.”

“It’s better that way.” Virgil tried to choke through his tears. “You- you’re too weak on your own, and at least it helps us. It’s just cruel to drag it out like this. Circle of freakin’ life.”

 “You really don’t seem too happy about that. Or even really believe it.” Logan commented softly.

“I’ve seen it happen!” Virgil cried out, finally opening his eyes to reveal how irritated they had become. “Yeah it’s absolutely wretched but the world is full of wretched creatures like me and the ones who try to survive just get crushed if they end up in our path. It’s a vicious cycle where the strong get stronger and mercy is just another term for weakness. You have to look out for yourself and your coven, and do what’s best for them.”

 Logan was silent, taking this all in. Virgil was clearly frustrated, bordering on angry so Logan didn’t know why he said what he did next. “You’ve...never eaten a borrower before, have you?” Logan asked, remembering an earlier question Virgil had shot down before. Everything was lining up, if only it could reveal something a bit easier to decipher.

“...no.” Virgil hiccuped, his breath hitching as he fought to regain control of himself. “No, I haven’t. I thought it’d be easy, I thought I could do it, but…”

 “Virgil...it’s-it’s alright…” Logan tried, almost not believing he was actually trying to comfort his vampire captor.

“No, it’s not.” Virgil insisted, wiping at his eyes. “Because I’m just screwing it all up again and you’re gonna die and Patton’s gonna be miserable and weak and everyone is just going to suffer because I can’t even follow my own biology correctly-”

 “Virgil!” Logan yelled, interrupting him. Logan sighed. “You are still stuck on the concept that you must follow your biology. Follow your family and other vampires you have seen. But you don’t. Being a monster is not determined by what species you are. It’s determined by what you do. You can choose to not be this vile creature if that is what you wish.”

Virgil looked at Logan in surprise, his tears beginning to dry up. “How?” Virgil spat. “How can I be anything but terrible when I’m made to take the lives of others to survive?”

 “But...you already don’t.” Logan said, carefully. Virgil seemed to finally be getting it, so he had to go about this slowly. “Yes, you go out and hunt humans to feed off of but from my knowledge, you haven’t killed anyone in a long time, and it’s obviously not required to get what you need.”

“Yeah, but that’s just humans.” Virgil shifted anxiously on his feet. “You’re...different. Just a taste could be fatal, if I was even able to strike, because you lose it so fast and it’s so addicting. And there’s so little.”

 “That may be true.” Logan said, wincing as he did so. “But you also do not have to eat a borrower. Yes, our blood may make you stronger but it’s not necessary as long as you are regularly drinking from humans.”

“Yeah, and then we’re vulnerable again the next time my ex family decides to take a whack at Patton!” Virgil grit his teeth, fangs barred.

 Logan took a step back, swallowing the lump that had jumped into his throat. “Wait, has that happened before?” He said, after a moment to collect himself.

Virgil froze, shrinking back slightly at he seemed to realize what he’d said.

“...vampire covens are very possessive.” Virgil revealed quietly. “They loathed me enough to let me go, but I’m still part of their blood. Turning someone gives you a claim on their life- er, afterlife. They see any claim of mine as a claim of theirs.”

 Logan frowned. “Well that doesn’t...seem very fair.” Not to Virgil or to Patton.

“It’s not.” Virgil agreed with a low growl. “I was selfish, dragging Patton into this mess, and now he’s forced to be almost my prisoner because he’s too weak on his own to ever stand a chance. We’ve only gotten lucky before. And if Patton would have just eaten Roman, he could be free of all this and stand his own. Stronger than my family, even, because the borrower blood would be fresher in his veins.”

 “But...Patton doesn’t want to eat Roman...does he?” Logan guessed, putting more pieces together.

“No.” Virgil said begrudgingly. “And now we’re in this freaking mess and everything’s just gonna be worse whenever my ex family does attack because now we reek of borrower anyways.”

 “That...is quite the problem.” Logan admitted. “But even so, I doubt even with the added strength of eating us, not much would change. You might drive them away but they would just come back later. Which I assumed is what always happens.”

“Well yeah, for now, ‘cause we’re weak.” Virgil’s expression turned darker. “But the strong conquer the weak. With enough strength, we could take them down for good.”

 Logan shook his head. “No, you’ve got it all wrong.” Logan stepped a bit closer, hoping he wasn’t overstepping. “The strong can be conquered as well, by the intelligent.”

Virgil frowned, looking down at Logan with consideration. “...explain?”

 “Strength can only take you so far.” Logan started. “But ultimately, the ‘strong’ will always fall to the ones who know how to play the cards.” Logan face grew more serious. “I believe we can come up with a plan to stop your family once and for all, without any added strength on both your parts.”

“I think that’s impossible.” Virgil argued. “They’ve got several thousand years of experience accumulated between them and a small army of peons.”

 “Yes, but an army falls if the leaders are gone. If we manage to trick, trap, and off them, then the rest will follow. Who would you say the leaders are? Your parents?” Logan asked.

“My parents are dead.” Virgil crossed his arms. “My brothers took charge a handful of centuries ago, after...” Virgil paused, his lips feeling suddenly very chapped. “After they came across a very effective power supply.”

 Logan winced. “I’m to assume you mean all the borrowers that had taken residence in your house?”

Virgil swallowed the lump in his throat, not meeting Logan’s eye as he gave a nod.

 “I see...am I also to assume that you blame yourself for that?” Logan asked, seeing the signs of guilt.

“Well duh.” Virgil’s voice lacked its usual bite. “It’s my fault. I led my brothers right to them.”

 “How?” Logan couldn’t help but ask.

“I found...Emile.” Virgil explained. “And then I was selfish, as I always am, wanting company so I kept him close. But then Dee found out, and Remus took Emile, and- well after that then they tracked the rest down- and-” Virgil took a shuddering breath, his explanation coming out in pieces.

 Logan’s eyes widened. “Hey, it’s alright.” Logan tried. “You cannot be at fault for wanting a little company. For wanting a...friend.”

“Yes, I can!” Virgil grasped at his hair, looking ready to pull it all out. “That’s not how the world works. That’s not how vampires work, we don’t ‘make friends’.”

 “Says who.” Logan exclaimed. “Your family? Because we have already established they are psychopaths bent on murdering you and taking Patton. I don’t really think they have any say in ‘how things work’.”

“I think they’re the only authorities with the power to do so.” Virgil retorted. “Considering they’re some of the most powerful vamps on the planet, yeah, I think they know a thing or two.”

 “Or maybe they simply say that so they may stay in power. After all, a lot of people rule with fear. It’s quite the tactic when it comes to controlling people.” Logan explained further.

“I was one of them.” Virgil reminded him. “I watched from the inside. I’ve seen what happens to those who stay in their lane and get stronger; and I’ve seen what happens to those of us who go soft.”

 “All I am saying is that just because they are powerful, doesn’t mean they are right.” Logan said gently. “And I think you know that, you just, again, keep lying to yourself.”

“For once I’ve never been more sure of myself.” Virgil argued. “I want them to be wrong, because being lonely eternally is just about the worst fate I could imagine. But being with others is worse, because then you’re giving yourself a weakness. And you’re putting them in danger, too.”

Virgil turned to the side, pressing his shoulder up against the wall. “I don’t want to be alone, I really don’t. But it’s selfish of me to keep forcing people to stay close who don’t want to be near me.” Because why would anyone want that? Virgil was dangerous, and he knew it.

 Logan sighed, once again the only one around to do any comforting. “I may not know Patton that well and...the two of you may have just had a fight. But it seems to me that Patton wants to stay with you.”

Virgil snorted humorlessly. “Yeah, he’s getting really good at acting. I can see the sadness in his eyes. He hates what he’s become, what I forced him to be.”

 Logan frowned. “Have you...talked with him about it?” The borrower asked.

“A bit.” Virgil shrugged. “When he gets all freaked out by blood or can’t control himself and I’ve gotta help clean up the mess.”

 “That...I believe that is not an ideal time to talk about something like that. Especially if most of the ‘talking’ is the two of you yelling angrily at each other.” Logan sighed, pushing up his glasses to rub at his nose. “You need to talk to him when the two of you are not high strung with rampant emotions.”

“It’s not exactly a casual topic.” Virgil huffed. “And he’s already made his position clear, there’s no need to bring it up again.”

 “I think there very much is. If not to settle things then to at least put your own mind at ease.” Logan continued to encourage. “I doubt he would have stayed with you this long if he truly hated you.”

“He’s stayed with me because he can’t survive on his own.” Virgil argued. “Even without the threat of my psycho relatives he’s wretched at being a vampire.” Virgil frowned, looking contemplative. “He’s just… Patton was always so full of life, and I ripped that away from him, making him a living dead.”

 “I just ask that you at least think about talking with him. For real. I think it would help the both of you in the long run.” Of course, Logan couldn’t make Virgil do anything, so all he could use was his words and hope for the best.

“Okay, great, so Dee and Remus are going to come for our throats, but at least in the meantime we’ll have a tender therapy session.” Virgil scoffed mockingly.

 Logan let out a small groan. “If you never talk to Patton, you’ll always be more open to such attacks. The two of you need to be on the same page in order for you either stop them or get away depending on what you decide.” Logan was voting for stopping them once and for all.

“We’re on the same page.” Virgil insisted. “We’d love to not have to deal with them, but we’re too weak, so we run like cowards, tails between our legs.”

 “Let me reiterate, strength is nothing compared to intelligence.” Logan repeated once more, feeling frustrated at this point that Virgil refused to listen. “If you are smart, then you are the strong ones and you can stop them.”

“Are you calling me an idiot?” Virgil growled. “Over a thousand years and you don’t think I’ve tried to out-smart them?”

 Logan found this intriguing. “You have? And what did you try?” He ignored the question of thinking Virgil an idiot.

“I don’t know…” Virgil groaned, tilting his head back and trying to remember all his failures. Not exactly a fun time. “Well-placed stakes, arson, stalling into the day, salt traps, basically all the traditional stuff that wouldn’t immediately be super painful to us too. My brothers are strong, and they aren’t stupid. Well, one of them, at least.”

 Logan hummed, deep in thought. “I’ll admit...you have certainly tried many things.” If so many things had already been tried, it would be a bit more difficult to come up with something. “Still...it’s not impossible to find a solution that will work.”

“Oh yeah?” Virgil crossed his arms. “Go ahead and try, I’m all ears.”

 Logan blinked. “Wh-What? Right now?” Logan was unprepared.

“Yeah, right now.” Virgil glanced at the blinds. “Better do it fast too, sun’s coming up soon.”

 Logan looked over to the window, seeing that the sun was indeed going to come up soon, perhaps in the next few minutes. “I, well I have a lot to think about, I can’t just come up with a solid plan on the spot like this.” Logan argued, fidgeting with his hands.

“See? Not so easy.” Virgil seemed to consider this a win, crossing over towards his coffin. At this point, the only thing that could stop his brothers was a miracle.

 “I will think of something.” Logan called out, glaring.

“Sure you will.” Virgil waved him off, climbing in to sleep. “No guarantee I didn’t think of it first ages ago, though.” With this last remark, Virgil pulled the lid closed, sealing himself away for another day.

[andoqin]

K-Dramas of 2020

Well, like the general mood of 2020, the dramas this year were uh, certainly an adventure. I was going to put all the dramas I watched this year here, but uh. This turned out longer than expected so I’ll guess I’ll separate K-dramas at the very least.

Putting this behind a cut because Long.

Completed:

365: Repeat the year: I barely remember this one, but I gave it 8/10 on MDL, maybe I should lower that, because honestly all I remember are the time-travel meet up set and the main actors.

CHIP-IN: A short who-dunnit, which has interesting characters, although the show was very wise to be capped at 8 Episodes, because the “mystery” was pretty predictable and also starting to wear thin. Still, the younger cast was stellar and I hope we get to see them in more.

Diary of a Prosecutor: The cases in this drama were actually legit interesting to me and I found the politicking surprisingly not bad. People were flawed in very human ways, but the drama gave us enough time with our main characters to enjoy getting to know all of them.

Do you like Brahms: Contender for worst drama of the year for me, good lord I hated the way this tanked its story line, its characters and the romance. Is it believable that the main characters might act this way? ... Debatable. Is it entertaining to watch? Hell fucking no. Don’t watch this one, unless you like stupid misunderstandings and non communication. 

Extracurricular: Short action-y show on Netflix that makes me hopeful for what Sweet Home might be. 

Flower of Evil: Lee Jun Ki gets to suffer prettily. That is All. Okay Moon Chae Won and LJK were great together, but it got almost makjang-y by the end. 

Hospital Playlist: Delightful Slice of Life Medical show, that despite its delightfulness never quite got me. Very enjoyable and at 12 episodes it doesn’t overstay its welcome, but it didn’t stay with me either. 

Hot Stove League: Pretty entertaining and as a drama about sports management seems reasonably accurate? (Not that I’d know of course). 

Hyena: Flawed as heck in some aspects (the lawyer-plotting got lulzy and boring at the same time), but oh my god some of the HOTTEST chemistry this way from sunday. Joo Ji Hoon and Kim Hye Soo just crackled anytime they were on screen together and Joo Ji Hoon as the high powered lawyer who falls head over heels in love with KHS’s character who is more reluctant to act on those feelings is just *chefs kiss*. Also didn’t suffer the Dreaded Plot Denuement of 2020 (DPD2020). Sure the latter half wasn’t as tight as the beginning, but it stuck the landing and that’s all that matters. 

Into the Ring: Weird camera angles and sometimes overly sharp edited shots aside, this had a solid romance, great characters, great romance and almost made me want to get into community politics lmao. 

It’s Okay Not To Be Okay (Psycho But It’s Okay): The first half of this show is just *amazing*, the way the scenes transition is pretty much film-like and the main character trio is stunningly well acted. Sadly the story with the mom is resolved in the weirdest fucking way, but the drama decides to do the smart thing and just forget about it once that’s done and the finale made me cry ;_;. 

Itaewon Class: Sadly also suffered the DPD2020. I was really into the first half, loved the way the characters found support in each other, plus: a main trans character! Handled really well! Also iconic OST. I was one of the few people who was into the romance of the main couple, but the way the latter half of the plot developed was just completely nonsensical and felt like the writer was just trying to tie off the lose ends as much as possible. 

Kingdom Season 2: The first season was stellar and this continues the trend! Although it doesn’t quite reach the highs of the first season I am still so looking forward to season 3! More Joseon zombies please!

Money Game: I... apparently watched this, and looking at the logo there is some vague feeling of “Yeah this is familiar”. But nothing else...

Mr. Heart: Okay-ish BL drama that has it’s cute moments but nothing that made me go “Ooooh”. I am glad SK is getting in on this trend though!

My Holo Love: So all of those Robot/AI shows that came before that I’ve seen and had the premise of “Oh no, I’ve fallen for a ROBOT” when it either turned out their object of affection was either human or actually a robot, but their human counterpart was so shitty that no sane person would like them worked pretty well for me. This one didn’t. From what I remember the heroine does very much fall for the holographic version of this guy, but the human version is *different* and yet whoops the main couple is still human/human. Granted you can’t really do romantic kiss scenes between a girl and nothing, but the switch-over felt abrupt and the way our main lady just transfers her affections to the dude never sat right to me. 

Mystic Pop Up Bar: Quite a few dramas this year went with 12 eps, and were all the better for it. Hwang Jung Eum is incredibly hit or miss with me (mostly it’s miss honestly), but in this one she’s used really well and I liked the way the premise was used!

Private Lives: I recently wrote a longer post about this, but honestly another victim of terrible writing and maybe DPD2020. 

Stranger 2: Love! Not as much as Season 1, but man this writer is *so* good at writing smart and interesting plots and looking at things from many different angles!

Tale of the Nine Tailed: Flawed but man do I ever love the OTP. Like really really love it. Plus it stuck the landing for me in a way few dramas did in recent months.

The School Nurse Files: So weird. So fucking weird. And yet, so very entertaining. Thanks to its short length ( I think) some plot threads felt very much unceremoniously dropped, but it has a canon lesbian couple!

The World of the Married: Makjang to the Nth degree, got kind of exhausting by the end, but Kim Hee Ae is so good. 

Train: Yoon Shi Yoon gets to suffer prettily! 

When the Weather is Fine: Kinda mellow and sweet and I wish I could live like the main character does (just have a bookshop in the middle of nowhere and still no money issues??? The Dream) but for that also not super memorable. 

Where Your Eyes Linger: SK’s first major Webdrama I believe? Cute and as a foray into this genre not bad, but I hope this is just a taste of things to come.

Dropped:

Hi Bye, Mama: So many people loved this, I couldn’t get over the basic premise and the way my brain tried to tie the logic in this together made my head hurt.  The King: Eternal Monarch: Maybe KES dramas just aren’t for me, I didn’t like the plot or the main couple. Woo Do Hwan and Kim Kyung Nam were amazing though and please please I beg both of you do more stuff. 

18 Again: Nope. Lee Do Hyun is pretty, but the setup drove me bonkers and I pretty much liked no one. 

Zombie Detective: Yikes no thank you. Complete mismatch of tones I wanted and the drama gave me. 

Romantic Teacher Dr. Kim 2: Zzzzzzzzz. I found the first one mildly entertaining at least but this one just made me fall asleep immediately. 

Black Dog: Yeah I watched like 2 Episodes of this and lost interest. 

Search: I’ve watched like 6 eps and I know there’s zombies, but I couldn’t tell you much more tbh.

Start-Up: I watched 2 episodes in the beginning, didn’t think I’d want to live watch this and then just popcorned the tag until it got insufferable with the ship wars and this dropped out of my watch list pretty immediately.

Record of Youth: Pretty much the same deal as with Start-Up only in this case there wasn’t so much a shipwar as the tag showing me that this drama would *not* be my bag at all. 

Still Watching: 

Kairos: Hmmmm timey-wimey stuff. The FL is this close to losing me though. The fact I thought it plausible that she would murder someone just based on a TEXT from someone else says it all. (She didn’t, thank god, and seems to have found a few of her lost braincells, but by god she was frustrating). 

Birthcare Center: I like what it’s trying to say and the main character and her husband are very cute, but a lot of the side characters don’t really interest me. It’s only an 8 ep drama, so I might finish this.

The Spies Who Loved Me: Honestly I’m this close to dropping it. Only my intense love for Yoo In Na and fondness for Eric are keeping me going. But she might not end up with Eric and I’m gonna be mad. Honestly if they just went OT3 I’d be really cool with this, but despite the small advancements in dramaland, they aint ready for that yet. 

Lies of Lies: I watched 2 eps and I might continue (the premise seems hilariously makjang and sometimes I’m into that, but it’s *very* much on the backburner)

The Uncanny Counter: Delightful Webtoon vibe, with some great visuals and actually nice action. I’ve only seen 2 eps so far but at least they don’t want to make me poke my eyes out or make me fall asleep. Let’s hope it avoids the DPD2020 plague. 

[therainroguefanfiction]

🔥 ℝise Ⱥbove I̾t ◈ Chapter 023 [Sports Festival?]

📑 Table of Contents | ◂Backward

Word Count: 2,750

⊱ ────── {⋅. 🔥 .⋅} ────── ⊰

〈“Are you gonna die today or make it out alive? You gotta conquer the monster in your head and then you’ll fly. Fly, phoenix, fly. It’s time for a new empire.” Solence, “Phoenix”〉

⊱ ────── {⋅. 🔥 .⋅} ────── ⊰

“Aizawa-sensei, what are you doing here?!” The class chorused.

As soon as I saw him, I jumped from my seat and rushed to his side, lowering my voice. “Oi, Shuota. Are you okay to be here like this?”

“Woah, what a pro.”

“Aizawa-sensei, I’m glad you’re okay!”

I glared at Iida. “Does he fucking look okay to you, you twat?”

“H-How dare you refer to me as such a thing!”

“My well-being is irrelevant,” Aizawa commented dryly as he made his way to the podium at the front of the room, me close behind. “What’s more important is that your fight isn’t over yet.”

“Our fight?”

“Don’t tell me…”

“Not more bad guys!”

“The U.A. sports festival is about to start,” he announced.

I sweatdropped. Man, he really likes to be dramatic with these announcements, don’t he? What is this sports festival anyway?

“Why would you scare us like that?!” The class chorused again.

“Let’s go kick some ass!” Kirishima cheered.

“Is it really such a good idea to hold the sports festival so soon after the villains snuck in?” Punk questioned.

“They could attack once we’re all in the same place!”

“Apparently, the administration thinks this is a good way to show that the threat has been handled and our school is safer than ever,” Aizawa explained. “Plus, they’re beefing up security compared to past years. This event is a huge opportunity for all students at U.A. It’s not something we can cancel because of a few villains.”

“Umm, I’m sorry, but why not? It’s just the sports festival!” Mineta complained.

“Huh?” Izuku turned around in his seat. “Mineta, don’t you know how important this competition is?”

I don’t. For once, I’m hoping he goes on one of his ‘too much information’ muttering sprees because I’m feckin’ lost.

“Of course I do! I just don’t want to get murdered!”

I scoffed. “If you’re scared of getting killed, you’re in the wrong line of work, kid.”

“Why are you so mean to me?!”

“Because I hate you,”

“Ouch…” Sparky muttered.

“Our sports festival is one of the most-watched events in the entire world. In the past, everyone obsessed over the Olympic games, but then quirks started appearing. Now, the Olympics have been drastically reduced in terms of scale and viewership. For anyone that cares about competition, there’s only one tournament that matters – the U.A. sports festival.”

“That’s right,” Momo added. “And top heroes everywhere will be watching! This is where you get scouted!”

“Sure, unless you’re dead.”

God, this kid is annoying as fuck.

“She’s right!” Sparky grinned. “After graduating, a lot of people join pro agencies as a sidekick!”

A fucking sidekick, really? Isn’t that just a glorified coffee grabber? Fuck that shit.

“Yeah, but that’s as far as some people go. They miss their chance to go Indie and stay eternal sidekicks. Actually, that’s probably where you’re headed. You’re kinda dumb.” Punk deadpanned at him.

“Brutal,” I grinned at her. “I like your style.”

She smiled back.

“It’s true that joining a famous hero agency can garner you greater experience and popularity and that’s why the festival matters. If you wanna go pro one day, then this event could open a path for you. One chance a year, three chances a lifetime. No aspiring hero can afford to miss this festival. That means you better not slack off on your training.”

“Yes, sir!”

⊱ ────── {⋅. 🔥 .⋅} ────── ⊰

The bell for lunch finally rang.

“That villain stuff sucks, sure, but I’m pumped for these games!”

“If we put on a good show, we’re basically on the road to being pros!”

“Yeah! This is why I’m even here in the first place!”

“We get so few chances, we have to make the most of this.”

I tuned out the excited chatter of the others, scratching my cheek. I don’t really have any interest in going pro. The only reason I’m here, to begin with, is because of that stupid deal Nezu made with the commissioner. Sports have never really been my thing, either. I’m more of the type to sit on my ass munching on tacos, downing Dr. Pepper, and playing a racing game.

“Everyone, I’m gonna do my best!”

I raised a brow at Ochaco. The hell’s gotten into her? What’s with that aura?

She snapped her head to the side. “I said, I’m gonna do my best!”

I sweatdropped at her intense expression. Girl, calm thyself.

“You okay?” Kirishima asked in concern. “You kinda look like you’re losin’ it…”

I second that.

“And once more for the kids in the back! I say I’m gonna do my best!”

I sighed, stepping out of the classroom and toward the cafeteria. Everyone is getting so fired up for this shit, I really don’t get it. And I still don’t even know what the sports festival is. Like, are we gonna play some American football then a round of soccer? Oh god, what if they make us play golf? I refuse to acknowledge that boring shit as a sport.

I noticed Peppermint a few feet in front of me. Hmm, I guess it couldn’t hurt to ask him. Stuffing my hands into my pockets, I picked up my pace. “Oi, Peppermint.”

He paused, glaring over his shoulder at me. “My name is Shouto Todoroki.”

“That. Right,” I stopped beside him. “Tell me what the sports festival is.”

His eyes scanned my face, looking confused. “You were standing beside Aizawa-sensei when he explained it.”

“Okay, like I get that it’s this super important event to get scouted and everyone watches, whatever. But what is it? Are we gonna have a fucking tennis tournament? Shooting some hoops, maybe a game of HORSE? Just please don’t say golf. Table tennis is a better alternative. Not much movement there. Why the fuck are you laughing at me?”

He covered his mouth, shoulders shaking as his voice filled with amusement. “Sorry, I’m just surprised. You really don’t know?”

“Obviously fucking not if I’m here askin’ you,” I scowled. “Forget it, I’ll go find Izuku.” I turned to walk away, but his fingers gently wrapped around my wrist, stopping me in place.

“No, I… I’ll explain.” He looked away, quickly removing his hand. “The U.A. sports festival is an annual tournament for all students, divided by grade. Different events are chosen in which students must overcome in order to advance. The events are chosen at random and are different every year. Last year, the events were a scavenger hunt, capture the flag, and then a foam sword fighting match.”

“Che. ‘Sports’, my fucking ass.”

“I’m surprised that you don’t know about it. I thought everyone knew… Even if you don’t watch it, it’s hard to avoid because of how popular it is.”

A bead of sweat rolled down my cheek as he regarded me curiously.

“Young Jen!” Toshi stuck his head around the corner, holding up a lunchbox wrapped in a light blue cloth with white bunny heads.

I deadpanned. “Ain’t you too old to be carrying somethin’ like that?”

He waved his free hand, smile not faltering. “Come eat lunch with me~”

“Geez, you’re a glorified kid. Thanks for -” I stopped short when I saw the hostile look on Todoroki’s face as he stared at the ground. Without a word, he turned and continued down the hall. Is he fucking bi-polar or what?

“Young Jen?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m comin’,” With a sigh, I followed the large man down the hallway toward one of the teacher’s lounges.

“Head on to the lounge. I’m going to go get young Midoriya and I’ll be right there!” He patted my shoulder before taking off down the hall. I entered the lounge, plopping down onto the green sofa. Three cups sat on the table next to the boiling pot. Toshi returned a few minutes later with Izuku, who chose to sit on the stool across from us.

Toshi popped out of his muscle form and sat beside me, pouring hot water into the teapot. “I thought I’d let you both know that my time has been shortened to fifty minutes.”

“Only fifty minutes?” Izuku echoed in disbelief.

“Yeah, that’s about how long I can use my power now. I overdid it too many times. That Nomu was a real tough customer. He took a lot out of me. At this point, I can barely even look like All Might for an hour and a half.”

“I’m so sorry, I should’ve just…”

Toshi started laughing loudly, blood spurting from his mouth. He is so fucking lucky he turned his head away from me. “You don’t need to apologize for anything! Man, we are alike, you and me.” He poured the tea into the three cups, setting one in front of Izuku and one in front of me. “Have some tea,”

“Thanks…”

“I brought the two of you here to talk about the festival. The problem is that you,” he pointed to Izuku. “Can’t fully control One for All yet. And you,” he moved his finger to me. “Can’t fully control Infernal Blaze, either. So then, what do you two plan to do?”

What do I plan to do? When have I ever planned anything ahead before I did it.

Izuku was thoughtful for a moment. “Wait, I did once! When I landed a smash on that brain villain, there was no backlash at all!”

Wasn’t that just because of his absorption, though?

“Oh, that’s right, you did mention that. What was different about that smash?”

“Let’s see… we were facing real villains and I didn’t have much time to think, but maybe that’s part of it since I knew that this wasn’t just more training…” he clenched his fists. “This was the very first time… ever that I used my power against a person.”

“Hmm,” Toshi gripped his chin in thought. “Sounds like you succeeded at sub-consciously putting on the brakes so you wouldn’t kill anyone… Hey, that’s some kind of progress, at least. Tea’s getting cold.”

“Oh right, thank you.” Izuku picked up his cup but didn’t drink from it. Bitch, why pick it up?

Toshi glanced at me and I met his gaze with a blank expression. “I hate hot tea, bro.”

“Huh?!” He jumped up, blood spurting from his mouth. I jumped off the couch, lip curling up in disgust just as blood splattered where I had been sitting. “But… all those times I made you tea… you never said anything about hating it!”

“I was trying to be polite.” I scoffed, plopping onto the floor beside Izuku’s stool.

“Wait, is that why my plant died?!”

“No, I drank the tea after it cooled off.”

“Oh…”

“The plant died because your curry was too fucking spicy.”

“Young Jen!”

“What? I don’t like spicy shit.”

“You should’ve told me,” he sighed, slapping his hand to his forehead as he walked over to the window. He was quiet for a moment before speaking up again. “To be frank, I don’t have much time left as the symbol of peace. Soon, I’ll have to put that title to bed.”

“No way…”

“And some villains out there are starting to notice that. Someone has to step up and keep the people safe.” Izuku stood up at these words. Toshi turned around, holding his hand out. “I gave you my power for one reason – because you will be the hero that takes my place! Do you still feel the same way you did when we met? Do you still want to be a hero?”

“Yes!”

“Excellent! Time has come for you to prove it. This sports festival… it’s something that the pros, no… the entire country will be watching very closely! I want you to think of this sports festival as your debut! You are the fletching symbol of peace! The next All Might! Izuku Midoriya… I want you to introduce yourself to the world and proudly say, ‘I am here!'”

“But, All Might, that’s your catchphrase… besides, what can I do?”

“You know how the sports festival is set up, right?” He headed back to the couch, plopping down beside the blood.

“Well yeah, of course. Students are separated by class year and then the support, business, general studies, and hero courses all fight against each other in a bunch of preliminary trials. Whoever makes it through the initial games face off in the finals. It’s basically a big round-robin tournament.”

Hmm, so it’s basically every man for himself? Great, more effort.

“Right! Meaning you’ll have plenty of opportunities to sell yourself!”

“I guess…”

His lackluster response made Toshi fall back hard against the couch, tipping it over.

“I’m sorry! I mean, what you’re saying is absolutely correct, All Might!”

I stepped around the couch, raising a brow at him. “You dead, bro?”

Izuku started to mutter to himself and we exchanged a look. “But, honestly, it’s kind of hard to get excited about this after everything that just happened at the USJ. Plus I’ve already got the world’s greatest hero teaching me so the festival probably isn’t my only hope of getting scouted by an agency. And besides, I don’t know if I can stand out right now considering I did so horribly on the fitness tests and can’t control One for All very well.”

“Man, nobody is better at spouting word vomit than you, kid!” Toshi spoke up.

I scratched my cheek. “Maybe he’ll get lucky and one of the events will be talking circles around your opponent.”

“I doubt it,”

“Uh, hey, are you okay?” Izuku peered over the fallen couch.

“Some heroes always aim for the top while others happily settle. The difference between those two mindsets has a big impact on how far you go in the real world. I understand how you feel, and I may even be projecting a bit of myself onto you -”

There’s no ‘may’ to it, you definitely are, chief.

“However, I hope you haven’t forgotten the emotions you felt back on the beach during our training.”

“I haven’t!”

“Good,”

The bell rang to signal the end of lunch.

“Fuck, I didn’t get food!” I cried, kicking the wall.

“We should get back to class…” Izuku stood up, glancing at me.

“Go without me,” I muttered.

“A-Are you sure?”

I narrowed my eyes at him and he nodded, rushing out of the room. Toshi held his arm up and I sighed, moving to stand between the couch and the coffee table. I grabbed his hand, putting my foot on the bottom of the couch. In one swift movement, I got the couch upright with Toshi sitting atop it.

“Thank you,”

I grunted.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Look, I ain’t sayin’ you’re wrong or anything, but maybe ease up on the kid a bit? I know he’s your successor and has this all-powerful quirk, but… he’s still just a fifteen-year-old boy, ya know? You just put a shit ton of pressure on that kid, and he’s already a nervous wreck, to begin with.” I shrugged, heading for the door. “Just some food for thought,”

Instead of heading to class, I made a beeline for the deserted cafeteria.

Lunch-Rush held up a hand in greeting when he noticed me approaching. “Shouldn’t you be in class, Winchester-san?”

“Should be, but Toshi needed to speak with me so I missed lunch. I didn’t eat this morning either, so I’m fucking starving. I could eat a feckin’ cow right now.”

He sighed, shaking his head. “Have a seat,” I did as he asked, choosing the table closest to the front. He appeared a few minutes later, holding a tray high enough that I couldn’t see what was on it. “You really should stop skipping breakfast. It’s the most important meal of the day and provides you with essential nutrients a student needs in order to fully take in the lessons that they are taught.”

“Even when I do eat, it’s usually just sugary cereal or leftovers from the night before. Not exactly a nutritious meal.” I commented, leaning back in the chair.

“Honestly, child…” he shook his head.

“I know, I know.” I grinned. “I’m just too awesome for words, Lunc – ow!”

He smacked the back of my head lightly, setting the tray down in front of me. “Hurry up and eat so you can get back to class and learn.”

“Lunch-Rush…” My eyes sparkled, filling with tears. “You made me tacos! I fucking love you, man!”

He chuckled as he headed back into the kitchen to finish cleaning up.

⊱ ────── {⋅. 🔥 .⋅} ────── ⊰

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[superpuppies]

WWC River’s companion.

               This is the story that started it all, I don’t recall the exact date because I didn’t start the challenge until about a year later but this is the story that triggered it in my head.  Truthfully I don’t even remember the prompt. (I have a bit of a better system for that now.)

For the first half or two third of this story my main character doesn’t have a name and that started as me just refusing to give another voice any foot holed in my head as I have way too many characters who just pop up and tell me a short story randomly anyway. But it finally got to a point where I have two female characters in one room and we needed one. And as those who were around me when I was writing this one can tell you in the beginning it was going to be shorter but halfway through the two main characters meeting each other I just knew they were soulmates and so it went on.

So, if you like detectives, sweet and snarky-ish bar keeps and a touch of the supernatural this is a fun little romp of a tale.

This story contains implied sex, so now you know.

Word count: 11,746

To read this story & all of 2019′s weekly challenge stories check out the Archive link Here  Or keep reading below.

River's Companion

The cold grey walls, to dark to be clinical but pushing heavily into industrial were barren. The two-way glass shines in the fluorescent light washing out her reflection. Her soft peaches and cream skin and ashen brown mid back length hair tied back into a messy fishtail braid look almost white in the glass. Her hands are folded on her lap almost primly. The officers that had brought her in here had left her in the room alone in an attempt to make her sweat. She’s been through things similar to many times to be concerned by it. Though she does get a small amount of pleasure from watching their confusion as they observe how calm she is. To help pass the time she pops her shoulders and rolled her neck.

The door opens and a disheveled, unkempt man in what she assumes is his late thirties though it is clear that stress and lack of sleep have aged him onto looking like he was in his late forties, stomps in pushing the door closed behind him. “I’m Detective Rolif,” He says opening the manila envelope he had tucked under his arm. “And you have some explaining to do.” He locks eyes with her for the first time and she notes they are a soft gray green and hardened by the human tragedy he deals in daily.

“Oh?” She gives him a gentle eyebrow raise before attempting to continue but stops herself when he tosses a pile of photos onto the steal table. She glances down at the photos and immediately sees herself at the latest inauguration a dark smile on her face. She shifts her gaze to Detective Rolif to confer that he actually wants her to look through them. He gives a slight nod. She pushes the inauguration photo to the side and finds another one of herself in the protest line against the Vietnam War.  The next image is at Pearl Harbor as she assisted in the treatment of wounded soldiers. The next had her at the trial of Baby Face Nelson, yet another showed her in the crowd at the opening of the Eiffel Tower in 1889. She lifts her eyes back to detective Rolif, a picture of pure confusion.

Detective Rolif leans across the table towards her. “Who are you?” his voice is low, almost threatening.

A dark smirk creeps onto her face as she watched the curiosity play in his grey green eyes. “That isn’t what you want to ask me.” she keeps her eyes locked on his. They could be pretty, if it weren’t for the dark bags under them and the frown lines around them.

“It isn’t?” He frowns.

“No, it isn’t.” The smirk grows on her face.

“What do I want to ask?”

“Mhmm?” She gives a small shrug.

“What are you?” He slams his hands down onto the table in frustration.

A smile brakes out across her face, confident and cocky. “Ah, there it is.” His eyes narrow. “What do you think I am?”

“Stop that.”

“I’m just curious.”

“What are you?” He leans farther over the table.

“Currently, I am watching a man try to intimidate me for reasons unknown and as such am mildly confused.” He shifted back slightly. “Has it occurred to you that I might be a model who does a lot of historically themed photo shoots?”

“These aren’t recreations.” He stands back up and crosses his arms over his chest.

“Oh, really? Maybe they are just really good ones.” She leans back in her chair.

“They are not recreations.” He narrows his eyes at her in bubbling frustration.

“Okay let's say they aren’t recreations. What does it matter?”

“What are you?”

“Why does it matter to you?”

Detective Rolif lets out a heavy sigh. “As far as I can tell you are at least two hundred years old, how is that possible?”

“Two hundred? Two hundred! The oldest photo you have here is from the opening of the Eiffel Tower which was march of 1889, so at most, by your logic I am one hundred and thirty.”

Detective Rolif smirks thinking he’s got her cornered. “The oldest photo in that pile is from the opening of the Eiffel Tower. I have older ones.”

“Older ones, oh no!” She puts her left hand to her cheek with a soft shrug. “They can’t be that much older. I mean do you even know when the camera was invented?”

The detective finally sits down across from her, a haughty smirk on his lips. “It doesn’t matter, I have paintings and sketches of you.” She places her elbow on the table top with a low hum. “They date back to the sixteen hundreds.”

“Do they?” She places her chin in her palm as she leaned forward. “I’m starting to think you’re obsessed with me. Do I need to get a restraining order?”

“What are you?”

“Why does it matter?”

“What are you?”

“Why does it matter?”

“You are going to tell me what you are, what makes it so you’re still alive.”

“Until you tell me why you want to know I’m not going to tell you a damned thing.”

“Do you want to be locked up?”

“Two-part answer.” she leaned back in her chair again. “First, what in the world would you arrest me for? Second, according to you I have all the time in the world, what’s a few years to me then?”

He watches her for several long heartbeats. “Were you made into this or have you always been one?”

“One what? I still don’t know what you think I am.”

“I don’t know, a, a vampire or something.” this time the frustration softens him and he slumps down in his chair.

“Is that what this is about? You think I’m a vampire and what, I’m going to go on a murder spree, possibly create a hive of my own?”

He glances down at the table, a small show of embarrassment. Her head tilts to the left ever so slightly as she wonders if she’s hit the nail a bit too hard on the head. “No, not exactly.”

Her face softens. oh dear, this has to do with someone in particular. she inhales deeply. “No, I am not a vampire.”

He lets out a soft sigh, it might be relief. “Can you make more like you?”

“Not the way I’m guessing you want me too. In answer to an earlier question, I was not made this way I simply am this way. If there are to be more, they will be born this way.”

“I see.” The dejection is palpable. “So, what are you?”

“I am an eternal, I pose no threat to you mortals. I am simply an observer.” He scrunches his face up and frowns. “I have a question for you Detective Rolif, why did you bring me in here?”

“I’m dying.”

“Are you now?”

“Testicular cancer.”

“That is a shame for a man so young. It’s a rather unpleasant way to go.”

“That's why I was hoping you could change me.”

“Ah yes, I’m afraid that isn’t possible, but I will offer you this. I have watched thousands of friends die and I will be here for you should you seek someone who understands loss.”

Detective Rolif gives her a soft quick smile, she reaches across the table motioning for him to hand her the pen in his breast pocket. He handed it over without question. Opening the folder again she writes her name and number. “Thanks.”

“Of course. Now is there another reason I’m here or did you pull me into your place of business for a personal reason.”

“Right,” He re-bundles the photos back into the folder. “About that, you witnessed a robbery last month.”

“Yes.”

“We have reason to believe that the robbers were part of the white dragons and that they are attempting to locate any and all witnesses.”

“I see, so what am I supposed to do with this information?”

“I,” He paused and glanced at her. “I don’t know, can you die?”

“AH- so you think they aim to kill me.”

“Yeah, can they?”

“Kill me? Yes, not that its ever stuck before though.”

“Oh.” Detective Rolif chuckles unnerved.

“So, what would you like me to do, if I suspect these Dragons are nearby?” She folds her hands back onto her lap.

“You should call us, well me.” He looks down at the tabletop tapping his pen against it.

“So, you’re the officer assigned to me.”  

“Yes,”

“You do, of course, realize how creepy everything you've just done comes across.”

“I’m starting to. I can see about having someone else assigned as your contact.”

“No, it’s fine just as long as you’re aware.”

“I am.”

“Good,” She claps her hands to her knees. “Do you have a card or something.” Detective Rolif reaches into the inner breast pocket of his jacket and pulls out a silver card case. Opening it he hands her a card. “Thank you, now if there isn’t anything ells. I have appointments to keep.”

“You’re free to go.”

“Thanks for the warning, and do feel free to call me if you need to talk or if you just want a drink.” she stands and pockets the card.

“Thank you for coming in today.” Detective Rolif offers her his hand and they shake farewell.  

“Of course.” She turns and walks from the room.

 It was seven weeks later when her phone rang at eleven forty-six in the evening. Detective Rolif’s name flashed onto the screen, she sat up from where she had been lounging across her sofa, soft ethereal music drifting from the speakers on the far wall.  She smirked to herself and swiped across the screen to answer. “Hello, Detective.”

“Uhg, Hel, hello.” he sounds surprised that she answered though it could be surprised that he called in the first place.

“Is there something I can do for you, Detective?”

“Umm, I, I'm sorry for calling so late.”

“It’s fine.”

“You said I could talk to you about my…” His voice fades out.

“Of course. Would you like to meet? I know of a quiet bar where we can have some privacy.”

“I don’t know about that. I”

“I, by no means, want to pressure you but most people find these conversations easier face to face.”

He sighs heavily then goes silent for several long heartbeats. “Yeah, that’s probably true. Text me the address.”

“Of course, I can be there in fifteen minutes.”

“Right, see you then.” He hung up, she sent the address and cleaned up her cup of tea before changing.

 Ten minutes later she walked through the old brass doors of Styx. Stopping at the bar she tapped her knuckles on the counter. “Hey, Boss lady, what brings you back here? Or do you just hate having time to yourself?”

“Marcus, I have a guest coming shortly, a Detective Rolif.  When he arrives get him whatever he likes and bring him to my booth.”

“Sure thing, you want your usual?”

“Yes, and some of those nibbles I like. If you would be so kind.” Marcus smiles his award-winning smile at her. She simply narrows her eyes and turns towards her booth. She’s seen to many young women fall for that smile in their time together.

“I’ll have them to you in two shakes of my sweet, sweet ass.”

“Don’t hurt yourself now.” She smiles walking away from him, towards the booth in the back-left corner. The bar is quiet, though that is to be expected of a Wednesday. Only the regulars are settled in their places, some reading, musing and listening to the soft violin music being piped in tonight. She settles into the soft leather of the high-backed booth and pulls off her hooded sweatshirt.

Five more minutes had barely passed when Marcus leads Detective Rolif over to the booth along with her whiskey sour. “Have a seat Detective.”  

Detective Rolif slid into the booth, a bourbon on the rocks glass in his hand. “I’ll have those nibbles out to you in just a bit.” Marcus tosses over his shoulder, walking back to the bar.

“Thank you, Marcus.”

“You come here often?” Detective Rolif asked looking into his glass. She tilts her head to the right with a quick smile.

“You could say that, you didn’t look into me at all after we spoke did you.”

He shakes his head slightly, looking up at her. “Should I have?”

A warm smile eases onto her lips. “No need, I will gladly share my story. I own Styx.” She motions around them to the bar. “It’s a place of quiet reflection for me in the noise of the city.”

“It’s nice,” He glances around the dimly lit room. “Quiet, Comfortable.”

“Thank you, most nights we have live music. You should come by and see it.”

“That would be nice.” He sips his drink turning back to her.

Marcus slid a plate of mini quiches and meat pies onto the table between them and disappeared as quickly as he had appeared.

“Was there something in particular you wanted to talk about or did you just want to see how it goes?”

“I think, I just wanted to talk. To be honest I can’t believe I called you let alone came down here to meet with you.”

“I see.”

“I don’t mean to offend you. I know how bad that sounded. I just don’t know a better way to say it.” he drops his gaze to his drink again.

“I never did ask you; how did you find all those photos of me?”

He keeps his eyes on his drink and lets out a nervous chuckle. “Well actually, my niece is in art school and the last time she came to visit me she was showing me some of the photos her professor had been talking about in class. And I noticed your face kept popping up over and over again. I didn’t think too much of it, you know how some people look like historical figures.” She nodded but he isn’t paying attention. “But then maybe two or three days later I was at a crime scene and one of the uniforms was taking your statement and you looked so familiar. My instincts just kind of took over and the next thing I knew I had found you all over the world, all throughout time.” His face lights up as he laughs a genuine sound. For the first time she sees he is a handsome man, his face is creased by stress, worry and laughter. The salt and peppering of his auburn, short fluffy hair offsets the warm gray green eyes.  “I sound like I’m obsessed with you; I promise I don’t mean you any harm.” He sobers from his laughter and locks eyes with her. “It’s just that you’re the only person I’ve told about my cancer.”

“Why haven’t you told your family?” She leaned on the table, concerned that he would talk to a stranger instead of his family. This question opened the floodgates. His concern of over worrying his sister and niece. How he feared losing his work before he was ready to should they find out he was sick. While the detective spilled out his concerns Marcus moved silently in and out refilling drinks and nibbles.

 “Excuse me.” Marcus politely interrupted. “It’s time for me to head out, is there anything else you two need before I go?”

“Go? What time is it?” She asked glancing down at her watch, a quarter to five glared back at her. “Wow, okay, is everything closed down?”

“Yes ma'am, patrons have gone home, tables are bussed, kitchen is closed and cleaned, cash collected and locked up, everything is done except for your table.”

“Alright, thank you. I think we are good here. I can take care of anything else we’ll need. Get some rest, I’ll see you tonight.”

“Yes Ma'am, See you tonight.” Marcus turned toward the door, “Text me so I know you got home safe.”

“Thank you, Marcus!” she shouts after him, he waves as the door clicked shut behind him. She turned back to detective Rolif shaking her head. The detective was looking down at his own watch.

“I’m so sorry.”

“What?” She tilted her head confused.

“I didn’t mean to keep you out so late. I’m so sorry, I should head out and let you get home yourself.” Detective Rolif said standing.

“It’s fine, there is no need to rush off.”

“No, you’ve been so kind already, I couldn’t knowingly keep you up any longer.”

“If you’re sure.”

“Yes, Thanks for this. I feel a lot better.”

“Well that’s good to hear,” She stood and collected their glasses. “If you need to do it again, you are always welcome to call or stop by.”

“Thanks.”

She locked the door behind him and finished cleaning out their booth before heading home herself.

 To her surprise, three nights later, Detective Rolif walked into Styx, ordered a drink and stood watching the string quartet. She watched him watching them for a few minutes before walking over. “Detective,”

He started and turned to face her. “Hi, where did”

“Won't you have a seat?” She begins leading him toward Her booth. “I’m afraid I'm still working on a few things, but I can join you shortly.”

“Oh, right, sure.” she left him at the booth and stop the young waitress, Kari, telling her to check in on the detective.

Marcus walked into her office, hung his coat. “I see your visitor is back. What have you gotten mixed up in?”

“Nothing you need to worry yourself about. Would you please finish this order for me before heading out to the bar, he’s been waiting almost a half hour already.”

Marcus shoots her the side eye. “Alright.” She ignored him heading out into the bar.

“Detective,” She slides into the booth across from the Detective. “What can I do for you?”

“You didn’t have to rush back, I’m just tired of being at my house.” She smiled her understanding and they settle into watch the quartet. Marcus slides a plate onto the table between them before heading behind the bar.

Detective Rolif was the last to leave again, this became something of a pattern though the times between his arrivals fluctuated slowly becoming shorter.

As time passed, she learned about his niece, his sister and the passing of his parents. She helped him find a lawyer to set up his will and some affordable life insurance. He began asking about her life, all that she has seen and done.

Marcus grew suspicious as the weeks turned to months and the months to years. before they realized it this pattern of theirs and been going on for two years. And yet now she found herself waiting for him, disappointed when he didn’t arrive and worrying over him whenever she heard of a, police involved shooting.

 One afternoon she and Marcus where checking in an order when the radio announced that the white dragons had opened fire at Rolif’s precinct. Marcus watched her freeze in mid motion as the story washed over her. “Do you want to head down there?” Marcus asked taking the clipboard from her hand.

“No,” she straightened back up. “No, I would just be adding to the mess.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’ll, I’ll go or call him later. If I go now, they’ll just wonder.” Marcus watched her silently. “They have enough to worry about, they don’t need me getting in the way.”

“Alright,” Marcus gave her shoulders a quick rub. “We’ll call over later.”

“Thank you.” She shot him a quick smile; Marcus nodded.

“Let's get this bar open.”

The violinist arrived and started, bringing with her a rather large crowd, creating a constant stream of work in the bar leaving both she and Marcus constantly running back and forth.

Finally, a loll came and she went back to her office to complete some paperwork. Rolif walked through the brass doors, disheveled, exhausted and headed straight to the bar. “Marcus.”

Marcus turned at the sound of his name, his eyes going wide at the sight of Rolif. “Rolif, You’re here. Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, can I get a bourbon on the rocks?”

“Sure, no problem.” Marcus turned to grab the bottle, handing over the glass. “She’s in the office.

“Right.” Rolif took a sip from the glass, turning for the office.

“Rolif,” He turned back to Marcus. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Thanks.” Rolif’s lip twitched in something of a smile, Marcus nodded returning to the other patrons.

She was sitting, going over the payroll when the office door opened. The clink of ice against glass made her look up. Instantly her chest tightened at the sight of him, she rose from her chair in a daze. “You’re here.” She moved toward him.

“Yeah, I hope that-” her arms wrapped around him, startling both of them.

“You’re here and you’re not hurt.” Her hands scratch into the back of his jacket as she fought to wrap her brain around the fact that Rolif was standing in front of her.

“I’m not hurt, it’s okay.” He moved slowly but his arms came up around her as well.

Her ear found his heartbeat and for a moment she is reassured, suddenly she can’t stop the words from rolling off her lips. “I heard what happened on the radio, I was so scared. I wanted to come down and make sure you were okay but I didn’t want to know if you weren’t.” without realizing what she was doing she stretched up him and brushed her lips against his.

Within an instant his tongue brushed over her lips easing into her mouth. The glass slid from his fingers while hers dug into his hairline, shattering on the floor as he pulled her tighter to him.

In all of her previous encounters she had never felt so hazy before, her skin tingles from his touch.

He led her through the room toward the sofa on the far wall. They sank down into the soft leather, his hand sliding up her side to squeeze her breast.

A wave of frightened screams came from the bar, breaking the spell they had fallen under. Their lips separate and that stared at each other until the screams came again. They moved in unison for the door, she entered the bar a step before him.

A man stood with a shotgun pointed at Marcus, while another stood watching the front door. She moved into action immediately, quickly and quietly working her way toward the bar. She picked up a half empty bottle of wine from one of the tables as she passed. “Hey!” she shouted throwing the bottle at the man with the shotgun. He turned just in time to get a bottle to the face while Marcus reached across the bar and disarmed him, turning the gun on the other man.

Rolif burst through the crowd his hand gun drawn, they moved toward the would-be robbers with a somewhat threatening ora. She put a foot over the downed man's genitals before nodding at Marcus, who then put the shotgun down behind the bar to call the police. Rolif cuffed the man by the door first and sat him at the bar. He then turned to her and the gunman. “I got him.” Rolif said reaching down to grab the man by his arm, “Get up.” she removed her foot and stepped back.

“She threw a bottle at me!” the man shouted.

“Yeah she did, but you tried to rob her.”

“Seems like a fair trade.” She snapped, Rolif smirked watching her move to sit at the bar and wait for the patrol car to arrive.

Once the car arrived it was a thrill for her to watch Rolif take full charge of the scene. In under two hours the would-be robbers were carted away, witness statements taken, paperwork was completed and the patrol car had pulled away. A few of the regulars came to check on her and Marcus, once the commotion had settled down. Rolif sat next to her at the bar while Marcus slid her a rum and coke. “You want anything?” Marcus asked him while signaling to the band to start back up.

“Na, I’m good.” Marcus nodded leaving them to talk. “You’re surprisingly prepared for things.” Rolif turned his full attention on her.

“This is hardly the first time I’ve had someone try to rob me.” She chuckles taking a sip.

“You’ve certainly been around long enough.”

“Oh, har har.”

He smiles and her chest tightens again. “So, I hate to … whatever this was and run but,” He glances down into her glass, just so he didn't have to look her in the eye anymore. “I don’t know how to end this and it super weird. So- I’m just gonna go.”

She couldn't help but snicker as he stood. “How about dinner in a couple of days?”

“Yeah, sounds good.” He reached for his wallet.  

“Don’t worry about it,” he glanced up at her. “Did you even drink any of it before it smashed all over my floor?”

He shrugs. “Maybe a sip or two.”

“That hardly counts.”

“Thanks.” she waved it off while he pulls his coat straight.  As he turned for the door, she grabbed his wrist, stopping him. “I’m glad your okay.”

“Thanks.” he leaned in and kissed her cheek. “Me too.”

“Go get some rest, I’ll see you soon.”

He plants another kiss on her cheek. “See you soon.”

 Four days later she was called out of the office just after opening to speak to some gentlemen who wanted a word. There were three of them, two with army short hair, probably in their early thirties. The other is in his late forties with long hair and a receding hairline along with a broken Italian nose. She plastered on a placating smile. “Gentleman, what can I do for you?”

“You the owner?” the oldest one asked clearly accustomed to speaking for the group.

“I am.”

“I understand you know a colleague of ours.”

“Do I?”

“I also understand he was here a few nights ago while you were being robbed.”

“It was an attempted robbery; they didn’t manage to get anything for their trouble. And I’m afraid there were a number of people here at the time so you’ll have to tell me your colleagues name.”

“Hmm,” He snorted condescendingly. “So, you’re telling me that Rolif has a shit day at work and then a shit night.”

He tried to imply something though she didn’t have the patience to entertain him. “I’m sure it wasn’t exactly what he had planned for the evening. It certainly wasn’t how I envisioned mine.”

“Where was he when it happened?”

“He was in the office with me.” She can feel the path of their eyes down her body as they give her a lecherous once over.

“What was he doing in there?”

“Talking, he’s a friend who came to see me after having, as you said, a shit day at work.”

“Your friend.” they scoff. “How long have you known him?”

“Right around two years.” she wove her fingers together and cracked her knuckles. Marcus looks over at the sound, taking it as the bad sign it is.

“Alright, how did you meet him?” The older man popped his neck to the left with a dark smirk, her eyes narrowed slightly.

“She was a witness,” Rolif answers from the door, a heavy scowl on his face. “Why are you here, Costa.” Rolif settles himself next to and slightly in front of her.

Costa instantly takes on a false friendly, innocent persona. “Just trying to figure out where you’ve been running off to the past few years. Guess now we know.” Costa shoots her a quick leer.

“Well, look at that you found me, maybe you have actually learned how to do some of your job. Now go away.”

“Now, now, don’t be like”

“Go away.” Rolif gently turned her away from Costa and the other men, walking her toward her booth. “I’m sorry about this, I should have known shit was going to get around the precinct after the other night.”

“Rolif,” Costa shouted after them. “Rolif, don’t you turn your back on me!”

“Leave.” Rolif turns back to Costa a dark fire blazing in his eyes. “Now, or I’ll have you escorted out in bracelets.” they stared each other down for several long tense moments before Costa and the other two turned and walked out the door.

She waited for the door to close before turning to Rolif, poking his shoulder. “What the hell is going on?”

“Costa’s an idiot.” Rolif explains rubbing his shoulder.

“That may be, but why are you concerned about the precinct knowing about you being here. Are you trying to hide the fact that you know me from them? Why is Costa looking for you with such a darkness in him? So, help you if you brought shit to my door!”

“No, No I didn’t, at least I don’t think I did.”

“Then explain.”

Rolif glanced around clearly hoping they weren’t so public despite there only being one other party in the place. “I just like having a place to myself.” She tightens her face but remains silent. “Look, I’m sorry Costa showed up and all, but I came over here today kinda hoping we could go get that dinner you talked about last time I was here and talk about a few things.” He looked up at her with sad puppy eyes.

She sighed and rolled her eyes through the room. “Fine,” crossing her arms she turns for the office. “Let me get my purse.”  She marched past the bar, sure this conversation was going to be a long and weird one. She walked into her office.  

“Rolif.” Marcus waved Rolif over. “I just want you to know that I saw that.”

“What?”

“The other night, I saw that.”

“What, are you talking about?”

“You behave yourself tonight.” Marcus wiggles his eyebrows a devious little smile on his lips.

“Marcus, you good if I head out early?”

“Sure am, I’ll call your cell if we need you.”

“Thanks.”

“Yep,” Marcus leaned on the bar closest to her. “Have fun on your date.”

“Don’t even start right now.” She and Rolif walk towards the door.

“Have fun you two!” Marcus called after them with a chuckle.

 Rolif had them seated in a quite booth in the back of a mom and pop Italian restaurant. They sat in awkward silence well after ordering, neither sure how to start the conversation. “Okay so,” Rolif started. “I get how what I said may have made it sound like I was embarrassed or trying to hide you. But I swear that’s not what it is. Truth is I don’t like Costa, he’s loud and a dick.”

“I kinda picked up on that.”

Rolif smirked. “I have to deal with him all the time, his desk is right next to mine and it drives me nuts. So, I really did just like having a place that the others didn’t know about. I didn’t want you to have to deal with their Bullshit and everything. I’m sorry they showed up today.”

“Okay, that’s fine. It is. Though I just want to point out to you that they seem to have some particular issue with you.”

“Yeah.” He shifts in his chair. “So, the other day when we were moving into defend the precinct. I was in the back of the line and while heading in I was hit,” her gut tightened. “With this ridiculous pain, it toppled me right there. They didn’t notice, not that they would there was a hell of a lot going on but a few of the guys were shot two died on scene and three others are in the hospital. Costa thinks I froze and if I had been there, they wouldn’t be where they are now, and he is you know, pissed about it.”

“Do you know what it was?” She motioned at him.

“I ducked out early today to see the doc and guess what’s back.”

Her stomach dropped. “Oh no.”

“Yep, and with a vengeance this time.” Rolif lifted his eyes to hers. “He wants me to start heavy chemo in two weeks.” She reached across the table, taking his hand. For some reason this wasn’t something she had thought would happen again. “I know it’s a lot to ask you, you shouldn’t have to go through this with me again, but I don’t think I can do this alone.”

“You let me know when your appointments are and I will make sure I’m available. You can crash at my place afterwards as well. You know you don’t have to ask.”

“Are you sure?” There was a twinkle of something she couldn’t quite decipher in his eyes.

“Of course.” she squeezed his hand and he smiled at her.

The awkwardness faded and the dinner conversation turned much lighter. Before the night was done, he kissed her cheek once again and got in his car. As he drove off, she wondered how such a simple action sent such tingles shooting through her body.

 When the first appointment came do she had the office prepped for him to crash in and the guest bedroom ready for when he thought he could manage the stairs. He held her hand through the entire treatment, chuckling as she told him stories to keep him occupied. He fell asleep on the sofa in the office for several hours’ afterword. The following day he swore he was well enough to return home and begrudgingly she agreed.

Two days later as she and Marcus were preparing for opening, she received a text from Rolif. “Come get me.” everything stopped and they headed for the car, while she called him and Marcus explained what still needed doing to the two waitresses.

“Where are you?”

“Precinct, hurry.” His voice was strained with pain.

 Marcus dropped her in front of the precinct as he searched for parking. She darted through the building pushing past the main desk to the detective’s bullpen. Rolif was hunched over in his desk chair, vomiting violently into his trash can. Most of the other detectives stood watching him, weaving her way between them she placed a hand on Rolif’s shoulder. “What that hell are you?”

Rolif began to laugh, still vomiting. “Don’t make me laugh,” He spits into the can and wipes his mouth. “It hurts.”

“Who’s trying to make you laugh, you should be at home resting.” he turns enough to look at her and she can see just how much pain he’s in etched into his face as sweat pours down it. He began vomiting again and she reached out to stabilize him in his chair as is body rocks from the force of each heave.

“Your uncle is on his way.” Marcus stated waving between the still ogling detectives.

“What! Why?” She snapped whipping her head around to face him.

“Because I called him.”

“Again, Why?”

“Because you didn’t.”

She does a slow angry blink. “What is wrong with you, we don’t have time for him.” Her voice is strained as she tries to control her anger. Rolif began to slide from his chair as a new wave of heaves overtook him, she caught him under his arms and kicked the chair out of the way sinking to the floor behind him to support him herself as he rode the wave out. “Help me get him in the damn car.” she growled at Marcus.

Rolif leaned his head back against her shoulder, she wipes the sweat from his face with her sleeve.

“What is it I have to come see right, oh.” A tall thin man in an expensive suit and an intelligent sweeping haircut stops next to Marcus.

“Edgar, that’s Rolif.” Marcus motioned to Rolif without need before kneeling down to scoop Rolif up off the floor.

“Oh, my.” Edgar watched her balance the trash can on Rolif’s stomach.

Marcus turned to head for the door. “Talk to her.” he says to Edgar as he passed.

She picked up Rolif’s jacket from the back of his chair and began digging through the pockets. Deciding she needed to head over to his apartment and pick up some clothes for him. Once she had his keys and wallet in her hand, she started past Edgar but he reached out and grabbed her wrist keeping her next to him.

Edgar ripped the keys and wallet from her hand and pressed them in to his assistant’s, telling the assistant to do the same as she had planned to. He then dragged her out of the precinct toward his waiting car, ignoring her protest as they went. He pushed her into the car then shouts something to the driver. All through the ride he sent out texts offering only disappointed glares in her direction.

She folded Rolif’s jacket over her arms and huffily looked out the window. She knew she shouldn’t have been so surprised when they pulled into Lizzy’s driveway but that didn’t change the fact that she was. “Oh God, why are we here?” she meant to sound angry but it came out as a whine.

“You need to talk to her.” Edgar said leading her from the car into the house and down the hall. Edgar pushed her into a chair as they entered Lizzy’s home office,

“Rude.” she spat at him refolding her arms and hunching down in the chair.

Lizzy smiled up at them, clearly not surprised by the mid day interruption. “Now Edgar, River is never going to like you if you keep manhandling her like that.” There was a slight chuckle to her voice. Lizzy had her black hair braided over her left shoulder; she was sitting at an outrageously ornate desk writing out checks by hand.

“You need to talk to her. I assume you know about her latest boy toy.”

“Boy Toy! He’s hardly a boy and neither is he a toy, have some tact for god's sake, man.” River huffed but Edgar ignores her watching Lizzy nod that she had heard that River had one.

“I just saw them together, she glows.”

“Oh my.”

“I what?”

“You Glowed. As in were glowing.” His stare pierced through River.

“I did not!”

“You did.” He turned back to Lizzy. “Talk to her.” with that said Edgar marched from the room, leaving the two women looking at each other.

“Hey, Lizzy.” River shifted uncomfortably under the older woman's gaze.

“Glowing,” Lizzy raised an eyebrow with a smirk.

“I find that hard to believe.” River scoffed.

“Really? I don’t.” Lizzy put down her pen and closed the checkbook.

“Why?” River realized she was still hugging Rolif’s jacket and quickly put it down on her knees.

“You’re the only one of us who hasn’t found their companion and now, my dear, it appears you have.”

“My companion?” She swallowed a snort of laughter.

“Of course.”

River sank farther down into the chair, put off by the seriousness of Lizzy’s face.  “My companion, how could that. That can’t be right.”

“Oh, come now. I know you haven’t been actively looking but you can’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about.”

“He can’t be my companion.” River glances down.

“Why not?”

“He’s dying.”

“Oh, dear girl, that doesn’t matter at all.”

“How can that not matter,” River straightened up in the chair. “It’s kind of a big deal.”

“It doesn't matter.” Lizzy stood and walked over to stand beside her.  River looked around the room, suddenly sure that she was the butt of some joke. “Men are made, only women are born.” Lizzy said settling into the chair next to her. River stared at her a bit wide eyed. “I know it’s been a long time since one of us was born and the last one was the only one you saw. You probably thought nothing of the fact that it was a girl.” River nodded slowly. “But all of our children are female.”

“How, can that be, Edgar’s been around forever. And Marcus, he’s younger than me.”

Lizzy smiled. “As I said, men are made.”

“But what about all the things you drilled into me. We can’t heal, we can’t make others like us. Why say it if it isn’t true?”

“It is true, for the men that we make.” River shook her head trying to clear the confusion. “This world has always been more interested in the affairs of men then those of women. Several decades before you were born an ancient man of science, an alchemist, realized what we are and caught one of the men. He was a good man, never revealed that there were others. The alchemist experimented on him for months, killed him time and again. Thankfully we became aware of where he was being held and a few of the other men went to collect him. They took all of the alchemist’s notes and burned down his lab with the cruel man trapped inside. Much of the alchemist’s work is what you were told. Men can not heal or create more of us but we had already known that wasn’t true for us women. Now I will admit that we probably should have told you about this before you found your companion but we usually do when the younger ones start to show interest in finding a companion and you never did. You kind a snuck in here on us.” Lizzy gave her an apologetic smile.

“So, I could have fixed him when he first asked?”

“Yes, yes you could have, but”

“Why would you hide this?!” River shot forward in her chair, her fingers tightening in Rolif’s jacket.

“We don’t want just anyone joining the ranks. The main side effect of healing people is eternal life.”

River stares at her unable to process what she’s heard.  How is this possible, how is she going to explain to Rolif that she could have stopped all his pain from the day he asked her. River runs her hands through her hair and lets out a frustrated groan.

“River, my dear, don’t worry about it so much. I’ll tell you what. We’re having our yearly get together in what,”

“Thirteen days.” River supplied automatically.

“Yes, so why don’t you bring him along. Let us have a look at him and if we think he’s a good fit, I’ll tell you all you need to know.” River looks up at her completely lost. “Don’t dwell on it too much, it will be over before you know it.” Lizzy said shuffling River toward the driveway and into one of her cars.

 Rolif is asleep in the guest bedroom, River settled on the beds edge to watch him sleep. She brushed some wayward hair from his eyes, noting how his face had softened in his sleep.

 River awoke to fingers sliding across her cheek. “Hey.” Rolif smiled at her softly.

“Hey,” She mirrored the smile.

“So, your uncle is the deputy Mayor?”

“Yea-h”

“This never came up before because?”

“You never asked.”

Rolif wiggles closer to her on the bed. “Fair enough.” He brushed his lips against hers and she leaned into the kiss happily. His thumb rubbed soft circles over her cheek. “Where did you go?”

“He dragged me off to see my aunt.” River shrugged and pulled him in for another kiss before he could ask another question. That kiss leads to another and then another until it becomes a chain of slow lazy kisses.

Marcus shouted down the hall that River needed to get moving. Rolif smiled at her as he watched her huff and roll out of the bed.

For the next twelve nights River found herself curled up beside Rolif. Some mornings they would talk and others were warm and quiet. She told him of the coming gathering and asked him to join her. Rolif readily agreed and indeed seemed to look forward to it. He was doing much better these days, up and wondering most of the day light hours.

The day of the gathering Rolif was called down to the precinct to fill out some paperwork. River was glad for his absence as she was overwhelmed enough with the food prep. Marcus drove Rolif to the precinct on his way to pick up a last-minute order.

The others began to arrive just after four and the bar began to fill with noise and liveliness. Lizzy made a point of being one of the first to arrive and stood in the kitchen watching River, her eyes burning with curiosity. The feel of those dark eyes so fixated on her made River shiver. The reinvigorated noise from the front as another group arrived finally got Lizzy to leave River be with her work.

When five thirty rolled around River was balancing trays of finger foods on her arms as she walked out into the main bar. A heavy bell ring, rang out as she eased the trays onto the table. with an exaggerated sigh she, along with everyone else, turned toward the door. “Who the hell put that bell on my door?”

“I thought that was new.” Rolif chuckled softly, though in the sudden silence of the room it seemed like a small boom. “Hi.” He greeted the room, the unease he felt, apparent in his voice while they all simply stared at him.

River started towards him and was surprised herself when the group separated for her. their collective gazes shifting from River to Rolif in amazement. “Did everything go alright?”

“Fine,” Rolif let go of the door, letting it close behind him with another heavy ring. “Why are they looking at you like that?”

River glanced at the others, “Because my idiot uncle told them that I glow.” she rolled her eyes at Edgar with a glare before quickly turning back to Rolif. He had an oddly endearing, questioning smile on his face.

“You’re always glowing.”

“What?” River’s steps slowed.

“You’re always glowing, did you not mean to be?”

“No, why would I?”

“I don't know, I thought it was some make up thing. I’ve heard the ladies at the precinct going on about the glowing look. So, I just thought, why are you looking at me like that?”

“I don’t wear makeup, why would you say that?”

“I didn’t say you did, but what else am I supposed to think it is?”

“Oh my.” Lizzy chuckled from the bar.

“Why would you say that?” River can't tear her eyes from him as panic begins to bubble in her chest.

“Well it's true, you always look like your glowing.”

“I think you have found your companion, River, dear.” Lizzy laughs out right.

River snaps a glare at her the strange spell suddenly broken as the panic turns to rage. “If you’re going to be an ass, I have things to do.” She turns pushing her way back to the kitchen. The strange moment turned embarrassing as she ran from it.

River pressed her four head against the cold steel door of the refrigerator. The kitchen door from behind the bar swung open as Marcus walked over to her. “Lizzy is talking to him.”

“About what?” She whined, hating herself for it, as she turned desperate eyes to him.

“Mom.”

“Oh, hell.” She bangs her head against the refrigerator. “Oh! Hell!” She turns back to Marcus, who just shrugs.  She rushed past him, skidding to a stop at the door and peering out the window. Part of her wanted to bust through the door and separate Lizzy and Rolif though she knew she would only make herself look like some crazy woman if she did. Marcus came to a stop beside her and nodded at the floor. “Thank you.” she whispers sinking to her knees. He nodded again and pushed the door open, letting her move out ahead of him.

 “You can what?” Rolif’s voice has the same authoritative tone it did when they first met though it is definitely angrier.

“So that is all you’re after, how disappointing.” Lizzy sighed.

“Of course, it’s what I’m after, I’m dying! Why wouldn’t she tell me about this?”

“Well now, there are side effects, the main one being the whole eternal life thing, so you’ll forgive us if we don’t go advertising. Also, River didn’t know until I told her thirteen days ago.”

“Thirteen days!” Rolif’s grip tightened around his glass.

River squeezed her temples between her palms in an attempt to stop herself from jumping up and strangling Lizzy.

“Don’t hold it against her, she was never all that interested in finding a companion, so we never revealed the truth to her.” Lizzy paused adjusting herself in her chair. “Can’t say I blame her she only had her mother to guide her. Her dear mother was obsessed with finding a companion, the quest possessed her and led her into one bad relationship after another. When those failed to find her the company, she sought she decided to make her own. And so River was born but that too proved to be no consolation. Young River watched her mother’s self-destructive path, hearing nothing but stories of companions as if they were fairy tales. We did not gather then as we do now. Until finally River was old enough to be on her own and she abandoned her mother to her fruitless search.” Marcus slides a fresh glass of bourbon to Rolif while Lizzy continued. “River embraced her freedom and found herself in many key moments of history. Some two hundred years after their separation her mother had finally met her companion and had married. The man was a widower with a son, he and his son were terribly injured in a car accident, both dying. you see, River’s mother revealed the truth to her husband, offering to save him but he declined. Instead insisting that she save his son, she did as he asked. As soon as her husband was buried, she took her son and moved here, bought the bar and called for River.

River reluctantly arrived in time to hear her mother's story meet her new brother and inherit the bar before her mother passed away.”

           “Wait, I thought you couldn’t die.” Rolif had calmed while engrossed in Lizzy’s tale.

           “In order to save Marcus things had to be changed, so instead of sharing a life she had to give one. In essence she gave Marcus her eternity.”

“Wow.”            “Yes, so you see all River had ever really known of companions were fairy tales and death. I think she actually believes that she has to die in order to save someone. So please don’t hold her reluctance against her.”

“That is fucked up, Oh sorry.” Rolif immediately corrects himself.

“No, no, you’re fine.”

Marcus nudged River’s hip with his foot before waving her back into the kitchen. He propped the door to the kitchen open as he leaned in to grab something off a shelf. River slid across the floor and propped herself against the refrigerator, this was hardly going to any sort of plan. She brushed the dust from her legs and folded her arms over her knees. She had not felt this young and small in decades. The oven timer buzzed forcing her back to work, she pulled herself to standing and silenced the annoying sound before washing her hands.

“Lizzy, left him gazing into his drink and now,” Marcus struggled for a moment picking up a tray laden with plates beside River. “The others are bombarding him with questions.” River lifted the second tray on to Marcus’ other arm. “You really should go rescue him.”

“I would but I can’t.” River shrugs, continuing to plate the next course.

Marcus snorted turning back to the door. “Such a chicken.”

“Shut up Marcus!” River snapped, embarrassed.

“Nice one.” Marcus smirked letting the door swing shut behind him.

“Is that really the best you can do?” Lizzy asked from behind River. The plate River had just picked up clattered loudly against the counter top as it slipped from her startled fingers.

“Damn it, Lizzy!”  River turned on her with a sharp glare.

“Have you thought about it?” she asked coming to stand beside River.

“Thought about what?” River turned back to plating food with a huff.

“What you would do if he was gone?”

“Yes, it’s all I can think about since our little chat.” River spit the words with a sad venom.

“And?”

“And, I don’t like it.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why not?”

“Why not? Why not! I’ll tell you why not.” her eyes flashed at Lizzy for a moment. “How am I going to convince him to forgive me when I can’t find a single reason to forgive myself. And what if once it’s done, he just disappears?”

“I don’t think that will happen and neither do you. And if it does, we’ll all just hunt him down and fix it.” Lizzy chuckles at the dark implication. “Besides You know what I think. I think you’re just concerned that you’re turning into your mother.” River glanced up at her in hopes that that can’t be true. “You and your mother are two very different people. You will never be the desperate woman she was.”

A small smile crept onto River’s face. “So, let’s say I did decide to do this.”

“Mm-hmm”

“How would I go about it?”

“It’s quite simple actually.” Lizzy smiled brightly, lifting herself onto the counter top.

 River finally joined the others out in the bar only to find the majority had already finished their meal and were separated into smaller groups, talking softly. Marcus was leaning against the bar picking at a plate, talking with Rolif. River took the time to sit in her booth and watch the groups as she thought things through. Photos where being snapped and shared, laughter floated about the room. It was comfortable and peaceful; River rested her head against the back of the booth and let her eyes slide closed.

 “Hey, River” Rolif gently rocked River awake. It took her a moment to realize where she was in the gloom of the now empty bar. “Hey there, why don’t you head up stairs. Marcus and I have everything just about done.”

River rubbed her right brow looking past him. “Done? Where is everyone?”

“They went home.” Rolif chuckled. “Go to bed.”

“Went home? What time is it?” She perked up as the realization that she had slept through the entire event hit her.

“Four fifteen now go to bed, your useless like this.” Marcus growled walking past them.

Rolif backed out of the booth letting her slide past him. “I can help at least a little. Thanks.” She nods to Rolif as she followed after Marcus berating him. “You should have woken me. You don’t have to do all this work yourself.”

Marcus stops wiping down the bar and stared her down, she simply stared right back at him, he let out a huff. “You needed the rest, you’ve been up the past two weeks getting him squared away,” he waved the towel at Rolif. “And prepping for this stupid party. You should have postponed the damn thing, but No!”

“Postpone it? Do you have any idea what size mess that would have been?”

“Yeah, yeah. Go to bed.”

“If you’re going to be a pouty baby about it, I will.”

“So, go.”

“Fine.” With a playful smirk River turned and headed for the stairs beside her office.

Fifteen minutes later she heard them coming up the stairs, another twenty and there was a soft rapt of knuckles on her door. “You told me to sleep.” River folded her arms over her chest as she lay in bed.

“Actually,” the door creaked open slowly. “Marcus told you to go to sleep, I told you to get up.” Rolif’s head popped into view a shit eating grin plastered on his face. She can’t help but smile back at him.

“So, you did. Well come on in and tell me what’s on your mind.” she waved him into the room.

“Why thank you.” he stepped into the room wearing the beat-up t-shirt and boxers he usually wore to bed. He made a point to shut the door behind him while she patted the mattress as an invitation. It was quickly accepted, he settled next to her on his back and turned his head so that he could see her without the intimacy of being full face to face with her. “So, I had a chat with your aunt Lizzy today.”

“Did you now, and what did she have to say?” River kept her voice light and playful but at the mention of Lizzy’s name she wanted to do nothing more than sink through the mattress.

“A Few interesting things.”

“I’m sure she did.”

“So, this is going to seem like a shift but,” River glanced at him from the corner of her eyes a small smirk playing on her lips. “I want to kiss you all the time.” She turned her head to look at him fully, her eyes wide and confused he just gave her a quick nervous smile. “Bare with me here,” he continued. “I do want to kiss you all the time, like all of the time. I have for quite a while now but I didn’t want to upset the relationship we already have going. But then the night the White Dragons hit the precinct, you kissed me, and I thought I was going to explode. But we got interrupted and then it was over and we never talked about it. I convinced myself it was just us caught up in the moment.” He shrugged. “Then the other morning I woke up and you were next to me and I couldn’t stop myself from running my fingers through your hair. When you woke up kissing you just felt so natural. God smiled on me when you kissed me back but then once again, we never talked about it, what it meant if anything. Though I did get to wake up beside you again.”

River bit the inside of her lower lip as she watches him, unsure what to say. He flashed her that nervous smile again before continuing. “You’re probably wondering what this has to do with me talking to your aunt. She told me that there might be away for you to fix me.” River turned away from him, her face pinched with frustration. “Now just hear me out. That’s not what I’m asking you for.”

She glanced at him from the corner of her eyes again, this time highly suspicious of him. “Then what are you asking for?”

“Mostly a kiss, like a real one where you know how I feel about you and where you feel the same, then maybe a date and when that one goes well, another one.”

A genuine smile slid across her lips. “So that first one is gonna go well is it?”

“Well, I mean, I have known you for a couple of years now. I think I can put together a pretty good date.”

“Do you?”

“I do.”

“Okay.” River rolled on to her side to face him. “What would we do?”

“First,” he rolled onto his side so that they paralleled each other. “I’d take you out for a nice dinner, not even in this part of town.”

“Oh, fancy, then what?” she laughed.

“You like movies, so we would head off to see a movie.” A playful glint sparked in his eyes. “Then we would walk through the park eating ice cream.”

“That sounds ridiculously corny.”

“And you love every second of it don’t you.”

Her smile broadened. “Maybe a little bit, I do.”

He chuckles a sound like honey, a small shiver ran down her spine. “So, you want to go on a date with me?”

Her smile softens into a gentler one as she shifts closer to him on the bed, she placed her hand on his cheek and stroked it gently with her thumb for a moment before pulling him into a deep lingering kiss.

His lips fallow after hers as they break apart for air. “I would love to go on a date with you.” He pulls her back for another kiss. “If we’re having ourselves a moment of honesty, can I share something with you?”

“Oh, I suppose so.” he rolls his soft puppy dog eyes with a mock dramatic sigh.

“I had already decided to help you.” His eyes snapped back onto her disbelief clear in them. “I know Lizzy told you a lot of embarrassing things about me but she and I also had a chat. So, this is how it has to play out. In small stages, this is for your benefit as well as mine.”

“It would be weird if I just showed up perfectly healthy one day.” He said as clarification.

“Exactly. So little by little, but here’s the main thing, once it’s done you can’t just disappear on me. If you do, we’ll find you, we’re all over the place and we do know how to kill each other. Not a threat just letting you know.” Rolif narrowed his eyes playfully. “This by no means, means you are trapped with me. Edgar and Lizzy have separate lives 90% of the time but you can’t just wander off.”

Rolif rested his forehead against hers. “Promise.”

“Good.” she smiled placing a quick kiss to his lips. They moved closer together arms wrapping around each other and settled in for sleep.

 Despite her better judgement they spent the next day in bed. The warmth of his skin and the weight of his body was an intoxicant she had never before encountered. It set the glow of her skin higher than he had ever seen it before, to the point where she began to cast out actual light. The process of healing him began and it was more fun then she had thought it would be. their bodies were slick with sweat and utterly spent by the time the sun set.

 Rolif’s health improved quickly and despite its lack of romance and spontaneity they made sure he got a dose of her after each round of chemo. Until another year had passed and he was declared back in remission as well as in near perfect health. He was looking better than he ever had in the time she had known him. the wrinkles around his eyes had eased, color returned to his cheeks, it made him look almost ten years younger. While they were nearly completed with the change, River also noted how much happier they both seemed as the year had passed them.

The gathering had quickly approached again and River was busy with preparations. The bar was noisy and warm, Marcus was behind the bar, Lizzy's distinctive laugh cut through the air. River felt Rolif arrive, a side effect of the change in him and the connection they now shared as almost companions. the hair on the back of her neck stood up as if a cool breeze had brushed past her. She turned and smiled at him as he came through the door, then quickly went back to work.

The sound level dropped in the room. “River,” Rolif said from behind her. She finished placing the last dish before turning to find him down on one knee, a hand in his jacket pocket.

“What are you doing down”

“Will you,” he pulled a small box from his jacket pocket. “marry me?”

She blinked at him several times as she tilted her head to the right while she processed the scene and question “Yeah, all right.” Rolif's brow twitched. “Yes, yes that would be good.”

Marcus burst out laughing from behind the bar. “You can't have expected a different answer.”

“I guess I shouldn't have.” Rolif agreed over his shoulder before turning back to River with a careful smile. “So that's definitely a yes then?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Good, now help me up.” River smirks as she offered her hand and hoisted him back to standing. “Thanks, though I was hoping for more of a gushy response.”

“I'm not all that gushy of a person.” River shrugged.

“Yeah, I guess.” Rolif opened the box revealing a modest amethyst and sapphire set in a white gold band. A warm smile spread across her lips. “Sorry it's not as grand as you deserve but you know what a detective's pay is like.” He apologized taking the ring from the box and slipping it on to her finger.

“It’s perfect.” She lifted his chin and kissed him to the outburst of cheers from the others.

 Once the others had left, Marcus shoved Rolif and River out of the bar claiming their displays of affection were making him nauseous. River had found it difficult to keep her hands to herself after receiving the ring, often running her fingers through Rolif’s hair while they spoke with others or interlocking their fingers. So, when Marcus pushed them through the door neither put up too much resistance. The two fumbled up the stairs together, River’s fingers worked to undo what seemed like an unreasonable number of buttons on a man’s shirt. Every brush of his fingers on her skin brought an ever-building pleasure into her. They left a small train of Rolif’s clothing to River’s bedroom and shed the last of it before they fell onto the bed itself. It became one of the most passionate and intimate couplings, setting off a glow in her that filled the room.

 Rolif and River married in the fall, Marcus moved into Rolif’s apartment and Rolif moved in with River.

River was introduced to Rolif’s sister, a lovely robust woman despite all that overwhelmed her, and his niece. The young woman's hands stood out most to River calloused and ink stained as they were. The young woman was a credit to her work and her mother. More of the detectives began to come by Styx.

 The years passed and Rolif, River and Marcus didn’t age. Marcus and River began to worry, this was the first time they had been so known in a long time. They sat Rolif down and began to explain their concerns. Thankfully they found that Rolife himself had started to wonder about it as well.

Different locations were discussed until the three settled on a small island in the south of France. Marcus and River worked out an arrangement for the youngest of the eternals to come and start learning how to run the bar. Things were falling into place now they just needed to wait for the right opportunity to make their exit.

They didn’t have to wait long; the White Dragon’s came raiding the precinct again. Rolif saw it for the opportunity it was and saved a fellow officer by taking the bullet meant for her. As soon as River got word, she called Edgar and the wheels began to turn. She set herself into a state of shock and grief as best she could manage.

Rolif’s memorial was hard as she had to lie to those who cared for them. Rolif’s sister was by far the hardest the only grace River had was that Rolif had already set out to their new home and didn’t have to witness his sister in such a state of grief. His wish to let his sister know that everything was alright might have led him to reveal the truth, but instead River pushed down the need to comfort with the truth and kept the dear woman in the dark.

A month after the memorial River signed the bar over to her cousin and she and Marcus left to join Rolif in their new home. Settling into the new town and their new names they found Rolif who was now Rupert had already made great progress on the new business. A bakery that he had dubbed River Cakes. Marcus who was now known as Matthew would take position as head baker while Rupert would be manager. River would take a step back from the controls for this round let the boys have a go at being the boss. She would work the counter and run the home, it would be a nice change of pace until she got board and took the whole thing over.

 “Helena… Helena?” Rupert’s voice drew closer. “Helena?” River snapped to attention as she remembered that was her new name and popped up from behind the counter.

“Yes?” she couldn't help the smile on her face as she sees him in the new shop uniform, a crisp white high square collared button-down shirt with deep blue apron and slacks, it’s adorable.

“There you are, I’m about to go on a supply run. Do you want to join me?”

“Why, Rupert, are you asking me on a date?”

“I am indeed.” The matching laughter glitters in their eyes.

“Why I would love too.”

“Oh my god, would you just go already. And make sure you get what’s actually on the list this time.”

“Such a grump.” Helena chuckled walking around the counter. “Don’t worry Matthew you’ll find someone to play with sooner or later.”

“GO, leave me to my work.”  He shouted walking back into the kitchen.

“Alright, alright.” Rupert waves dismissively at Matthew’s back then offers his arm to Helena. “My Lady.” they linked their arms together and walked out onto the quiet street. They were the very picture of a silly Hollywood romantic cheese fest only better because for them, for now at least it was their life.

“You know, this place is starting to grow on me.” Helena said squeezing closer against his arm.

“It’s not too bad, is it?”

“Nope, but we have to get Mar-Matthew a date soon.”

“His pouting is starting to wear on me.” Rupert nodded.

“Yeah, I’m kinda surprised how inactive he’s been, not his usual.” Helena leaned her head against Rupert’s shoulder. “But hey, we never know what we’ll find at the market.”

Helena and Rupert laughed as they turned into the first stop of many.

  The end.

[mikami]

Death Note Audio Drama 09

Disc 9: Inherited Debt - a summary / partial translation

Prior translations / an explanation as to what the fuck this is.

SHIT FINALLY GOES DOWN. Mello and Near appear, Soichiro retires (or tries to) and L explores the afterlife!

_________

Feet on sand. Watari’s voice coming closer.

WATARI: Mr. L! Mr. L!

L: Watari... It’s you! Oh wow, I’m so glad to see you.

WATARI: Pleasure is all mine, Mr. L. It’s been so long.

L: This place is really badly organized. They never tell you anything.

WATARI: I know, I know... it’s been quite hard. I deduced a little and hoped... well, that I would find you here.

L: I’m sorry that it had to be under these circumstances. But look, I need to go someplace, still.

WATARI: The meetings usually start on the full hour.

L: Yeah, I don’t wanna be late. Are you going to wait here until I’m done?

WATARI (chuckles): Where else would I even go, sir?

_______

Bells ringing.

MAN: Sit down, please. I’ve got your file around here somewhere.

L: Am I late? Sorry if I’m late.

MAN: Oh, we’re all always late, Lawliet.

L: L. Please. People call me L.

MAN: Great. Yes. L. Aaah, there you are. Uh-huuuuh.... now look at all this paperwork. You’ve been really busy.

L: The devil finds work for idle hands.

MAN: Oh, really?  Uh-huh. I understand. Your case should have already been worked on a long while ago. Pardon the delay.

L: And here I still have so many things to do. I really need to get back to Tokyo, immediately.

MAN: Almost everyone still wants to take care of some things and there are ways of dealing with that. A lot of it will depend on your stamina and on how much you saved up.

L: Nobody ever explains anything around here.

MAN: I understand. Yes. You... slipped past us a little, because you... how should I put it? You were early. You came here before your time.

L: Oh, that explains a lot.

MAN: So... let’s start from the beginning, yes? Do you know where you are?`

L: Yeah?

MAN: And... you know who I am?

L: Yeah.

MAN: And... you also know you are dead.

L: Yes.

___________

TITLE MUSIC

___________

Many people talking.

MATSUDA: Do you want a drink?

SAYU: Already got one, thanks.

MATSUDA: Haha, maybe you need another.

SAYU: Thanks, I’m good.

MATSUDA: My name is Matsuda.

SAYU: I know. 

MATSUDA: Uh, and you...?

SAYU: You’ve always been nice, Matsuda, but, uh... you’re too old for me. And... I don’t date cops.

MATSUDA: But I didn’t say that I--- what is wrong with going out with a policeman?

SAYU: I don’t know... the long nights, waiting for a call, cancelled weekends...

MATSUDA: Uh... are you maybe a Yagami family member?

SAYU: That’s right.

MATSUDA: Oh my god! Sayu! It’s you! Sayu!

SAYU: You should have become a detective.

MATSUDA: Light’s little sister.... You’ve become... so mature.

SAYU: One of us had to.

Voices chattering. Soichiro is announced as a speaker.

SOICHIRO: Thank you, thank you all. I’m touched that so many of you made it here on this warm April evening.... just to say goodbye to an old inspector.

Cheering. Someone shouts “Free drinks certainly helped!”

SOICHIRO: I especially want to thank my wife Sachiko, who lied so coldbloodedly about why she wanted to go to a bar on a Thursday.

SACHIKO: I’m sorry, darling.

SOICHIRO: And my daughter Sayu, who is still sticking to my instructions to never marry a cop! So... hands off!

Laughter.

SOICHIRO: It’s now been 35 years since I finished my police training. Is Kitamura here, too? No? Well, alright. We didn’t always agree. Kitamura and I finished the academy together and he took the fastest path up into administration. And he took his hat and left, in the 30th year. I stayed. And most of you know it’s because of the special conditions of a very special case. That case still isn’t finished. That’s the reason I endured 5 further long years, to set the path for a young man, to give him time to finish the academy as well so he can take the poisoned baton from me. The Kira investigation. This man is my son.

SOMEONE: Nepotism!

Laughter.

SOICHIRO: Well nobody else wants the job! I’m sure he’d love to give it to you! Isn’t that right, son? I can be proud that my boy, my wonderful boy, is Detective Light Yagami now!

Cheering.

SOICHIRO: And if I’m still allowed, I’d like to take a short moment to remember those who aren’t lucky enough to be here today. It’s been a hard time, fighting this criminal who always did some unexpected turn, and the colleagues in our district have, perhaps more than others, had to deal with some very brutal murders. Not just comrades with a badge but also civilian investigators and friendly helpers. They all risked their lives and gave it. May God bless them. Here’s to absent friends.

___________

MAN: You don’t quite understand me, L. There is no such thing as an afterlife.

L: Where am I, then?

MAN: That is... complicated. You are... nowhere. You are... nothing. 

L: Are you trying to tell me all of this is a hallucination? Just a product of my neurons randomly firing while my brain is kicking the bucket?

MAN: Uh, no. 

L: I know a thing or two about movies. And you could turn this into a 90 minute thriller, but not for five years. I’ve been here for five years.

MAN: I’m not sure you can apply the experiences from a cinema one on one to what happens after death. 

L: Well.. you haven’t really helped me understand much yet.

MAN: Did it ever occur to you that you share some of the blame? What if this whole---

L: Pathetic bureaucracy?

MAN: Harsh words. But if it suits you. What if this whole...  bureaucracy was made up by your soul to deal with the dream of your own passing? How about that?

L: So I’ve got a soul...? Something that lasts beyond death?

MAN: Hm. Well...

L: Life. After death. Indeed.

MAN: You didn’t have many friends, am I right?

L: Excuse me?

MAN: Or how did you deal with being this smart?

L: What I really want to deal with, Mr...?

MAN: Justin.

L: Mr. Justin... is which options I have. What sense is there in justice and retribution? If you’re an official here, official for what? Who’s in power here? I know there are gods of death, and I know there’s a life after death, because that’s where I’m stuck right now, it seems.

JUSTIN: There is no life after death. Human existence ends in nothingness. 

L: And yet, I’m here. And so is Watari. And who are all these people lurking about outside? Why are those here?

JUSTIN: You’ve got a whole eternity to think about it, dear L.

L: Oh really? Do I now? Human life is finite and life after death is infinite? Am I immortal now?

JUSTIN: Exactly. You’re correct. It’s not my task to let myself be interrogated here.

L: And who’s task is it then? Where do I finally get answers?

__________

We hear someone talking to “Vladimir” in a friendly way. Very soon it becomes clear that it’s the US president speaking, a very obvious Trump parody. The thing is, I don’t take any joy in being reminded Trump exists, and this audio drama spends an extraordinary amount of time letting him talk. For my own sanity, I’m not going to actually translate those scenes in whole. If anyone REALLY wants to know what Death Note Audio Drama Trump is saying, I guess you can beg me for it? Just know that there is a lot of racism, sexism, and general being stupid. It’s exactly like you’d imagine Trump, really.

An exhausted secretary named Trevor tries to introduces Near to the president. Near succeeded Paula Virilio as SPK leader. Near has to explain the situation in baby-talk for the president to get it. But basically, they think Kira is still in Japan. In this verse, Near actually got all of L’s data and only the version in the task force was fully deleted. Near suspects that Kira is among the task force.

Near wants to act, now that Soichiro is retired. 

___________

Bar noises.

SACHIKO: Alright, darling. Did you already think about how you want to spend your retirement?

SOICHIRO: Not really, Sachiko. I was just too busy.

SACHIKO: For 35 years.

SOICHIRO: Very funny. I don’t know... it seems an eternity ago that we were young. 

His phone rings.

SACHIKO: Don’t you dare pick up. Not tonight.

SOICHIRO: It’s Kitamura. 

SACHIKO: Then give it to me. I’m going to give him a piece of my mind.

She picks up.

SACHIKO: Koreyoshi Kitamura, you sad mutation of the human species. Was it really too much to ask to come to the goodbye party of my husband? After all you two went through over the years, you old rascal? If this is still about who I married, that’s been decades ago! Grow up! .... huh? Oh. I thought you were... Yes, er, this is his phone, but... Uh. Right. 

SOICHIRO: Who is that?

SACHIKO: Oh my god, no. No! You better talk to my husband about this. N-no, he’s right next to--- Don’t hang up! Don’t!

SOICHIRO: What’s wrong? Is he alright? 

SACHIKO: What is a Death Note....?

___________

Kitamura talks to Mello, while he is tied to a chair. Mello introduces himself as M. He asks about the Kira case, but Kitamura doesn’t know much of use. Because this is an audio drama and the audience needs to know what’s up, Mello just randomly explains the concept of Wammy’s House to Kitamura. 

__________

L: Looks like rain. As if there was a storm coming.

WATARI: But it will never come. It only feels like it, the whole time. Another strange aspect of this place. 

L: I’ll have to be back soon. When exactly?

WATARI: I don’t know, Mr. L. Time moves differently here. People stand around, they wait. Some are playing cards. I’m especially sorry for the young ones. 

L: Who?

WATARI: The millenials. They come here and they’re totally lost without their cell phones. They just hang around like... zombies. 

L: But not you, right Watari? You’re always busy. Keep the old brain moving, right?

WATARI: Well, Mr L, I gave my best to put the puzzle pieces together correctly. But it’s difficult.

L: Are there TVs here? Computers?

WATARI: Nothing like that. The only hints I can get come from other people who made the passage.

L: Oh, good. What did you find out?

WATARI: You and me... we were killed.

L: I got that part.

WATARI: I think it was because we got closer and closer to the truth. 

L: Well, that makes sense. What happened in the five years since?

WATARI: Wendy had an accident with her motorbike. Ivor died of liver cancer. The whole group of Yotsuba executives just dropped dead. All at the same time.

L: Someone did his homework.

WATARI: My thoughts exactly.

L: Kira is still active. The task force, who is leading that now?

WATARI: What do you think?

________

More attempts to explain the situation to Trump. They explain someone has been faking to be L. 

________

Kitamura has been kidnapped, but despite just having retired, Soichiro wants to stay and work on the case anyway. The kidnappers are asking for the Death Note in return. 

_________

Mello accuses Kitamura of having been really fucking shit at handling the Kira case. He apparently looked at all the security camera material from HQ. He plays a recording from it that shows L.

L: You’re looking sad, Rem. Even more so than usual. What’s up? ..... Oh really, that’s it? Why did it take you so long?

For Kitamura, L is alone in the recording, so L is alone with Rem. We then flash back to the scene.

_____________

L: Did you come for me, Rem?

REM: I did not come to take life, but to gift it. 

L: To me?

REM: No, you have to die. And by defying fate, I’ll be destroyed.

L: Not dead? You said ‘destroyed’ as if total annihilation was a state equaling death. 

REM: These are the final seconds of your life L, prepare yourself. 

L: Prepare for what? Your existence along already implies that death isn’t the end for me. Your hesitation meanwhile implies that destruction is definitely your end. 

REM: I... I don’t know.

L: You spend your eternity feeding off the life of others. As long as you take life, you’ll live forever. But you’ll put an end to your existence today, just to stop me?

REM: Yes, I will.

L: Just, why? 

REM: Out of love.

L (laughs): Love? Love is the power that brings a goddess of death to her knees?

REM: Don’t mock me, L. Don’t you dare! 

L: You’re in love? You know I am very close to ending the case. 

REM: She sacrificed so much for him. This is the only way to restore her lifespan and guarantee her safety. 

L: The price is paid in human lives. The Death Note has a price... for her. I was right then. It was her. And she gave something up for the man she loves. And that can only---

Beeping.

REM: What’s that?

L: The emergency data transmission. It’s only activated when Watari is in danger. 

REM: He had to pass as well.

L: What?! The old man never even hurt a fly! He was a good person!

REM: He was just about to bring the evidence.

L: It’s just as I expected... The identity of the two Kiras... I was right!

REM: Your time is up. I have to kill you now and give my remaining time to her. 

L: I was right, do you hear that?! I was--- 

Glass shattering, falling noises.

_____________

Near also has this video, he points out sand falling on the video. He assumes that’s the death of a shinigami. 

_____________

The kidnappers call Soichiro again. When Soichiro refuses to give the notebook, they shoot Kitamura live on the phone. 

They already have Sayu present as a backup hostage too. 

______________

WATARI: I knew it was a heart attack. And I knew I was being discarded. It was all I could do to press the emergency button. And I could still hear the alarm, I knew it worked.

L: So you deleted all data and transferred it to Winchester. 

WATARI: Mister Ruvie should have received them. And he surely knew how to interpret the circumstances.

L: Do we know what he did with that? Were my successors already ready?

WATARI: I am... not sure about that.

L: I’m sure you had someone in mind. You talked about a replacement for me time and time again.

WATARI: There were several candidates, yes. But the older one... was a little problematic. I am not sure he’s got the right personality.

L: And the younger one?

WATARI: Yes, he could have taken the responsibilities. But he really was so very young. I am not sure if he was ready.

L: I have to go back.

WATARI: We can’t go back. Death is a one-way street.

L: Is that really true?

_______________

Misa and Light on a phonecall. Misa suggests killing Sayu, so that Soichiro won’t exchange the notebook. Light refuses this. They have a longer debate about this, where Misa points out that they can’t let the notebook fall into the wrong hands, but Light remains in refusal.

______________

Near, out of breath, arrives at the task force headquarters.

NEAR: I’m here to talk to chief inspector Yagami.

LIGHT: I am Yagami.

NEAR: Really? Is today open day and everyone’s bringing their children?

LIGHT: Looks like. And whose child are you?

NEAR: Call me Near. We just got here from the US.

LIGHT: Of course. I immediately noticed your subtle and humble approach. CIA?

NEAR: CIA, FBI, NSA, whatever you want. We’re a unity spanning through all organizations and we follow the same goals as you. 

Near explains that he replaced Virilio on her job and he’s very arrogant about it all. Light also remarks on that. The conversation is then interrupted by a call that Soichiro stole the notebook to do the exchange on his own.

Near then talks his way into cooperation in this case.

____________

We now follow Soichiro as he goes to the place of exchange, which is now conveniently just still in Japan. It’s in Nagasaki.

____________

Light introduces Near to the task force. They are tracking Soichiro via GPS. They decide to send a drone to Nagasaki, so they have a visual feed of the exchange when it happens.

____________

Shidoh approaches Justin to ask about his Death Note. Justin deduces that it’s the one Kira is using on Earth. He stills Shidoh to go to L, because L can help him find the notebook.

_____________

Near is still flying a drone to follow Soichiro, amazing.. Light is contacting Nagasaki police. The whole exchange sequence is pretty long and not really relevant, it’s just a whole lot of description on who is where when.

Mello also uses a drone to bring the notebook away. The gangster who wasn’t killed in a notebook test gets arrested. 

____________

The gangster gets interrogated by Matsuda, but nothing really comes out of it. Light and Near talk about it and the gangster’s file.

The gangster is part of the Kinzangumi. They’re California-based organized crime with Japanese roots.

A lawyer named Yumi Hosoda waltzes into the interrogation. She’s a lawyer of the Kinzangumi. She argues with Matsuda and her lawyering gets him freed. Her arguing style makes clear that she knows of the Death Note, because her argument style relies on knowing the task force will never bring the notebook up.

Near brings up Mello’s status as a “prototype” successor, who in the end did not meet expectations, thus establishing Mello as a suspect. We then launch into a flashback.

_____________

ROGER: I didn’t say “come in”.

MELLO: I didn’t knock.

He comes in and closes the door.

MELLO: When were you going to tell me?

ROGER: Tell you what?

MELLO: That Watari is dead.

ROGER: Who told you that?

MELLO: A system crash that killed the servers for exactly 24 hours. That only happens if someone presses the emergency button.

ROGER: ....yes. It seems like our patron was killed yesterday.

MELLO: That means L is gone, too. Time for me to take over. 

ROGER: Mello, I’m sorry, my boy.

MELLO: Here it comes.

ROGER: Well, this is a longer conversation, that we will have at another time.

MELLO: We’re having this conversation exactly now. 

ROGER: ... mhmm... Near will take over. 

MELLO: He’s still a child, he didn’t even notice the download!

ROGER: He simply proved himself appropriate for this task. He’s showing greater promise.

MELLO: You mean he just absorbs everything, waiting for orders so he knows what to do. That’s why I’m standing here now and he isn’t.

ROGER: I’m sorry, Mello.

MELLO: My whole life I’ve been trained for this moment, my whole life I’ve been the golden boy, before this little punk showed up-

ROGER: There are many other tasks you can fulfill. I’m sure we’ll find a position for you that is appropriate for your talents.

MELLO: I already had a position! I was supposed to be the next L! And now I should give that up for this little boy? I’m not letting myself be degraded to an errand boy. 

ROGER: Exactly this attitude is a part of the problem, if I’m honest.

MELLO: No. You are the problem. You and Watari. You never saw it. You’re wasting your time trying to bow to the system, to respect the law. If you want to catch Kira, you have to play by his rules.

ROGER: I was afraid you’d say something like that...

MELLO:  You can be afraid, Ruvie. I’m out. And I’m taking the data with me.

ROGER: They’re worthless to you. It’s going to take years to work through them.

MELLO: Then golden boy will at least be busy.

ROGER: Don’t let things end like this.

MELLO: It’s your end, Ruvie. You made this happen. 

ROGER: Near will be the new L.

MELLO: Yeah, maybe. And I’ll be the special edition, who doesn’t play the same game as everyone else. Go ahead, send the child to find L’s killer. I’ll be there first, you’ll see.

ROGER: But what’s the cost, Mello?

MELLO: Whatever it takes. 

[mittensmorgul]

the TNT loops selected assortment of episode for the Halloween Marathon is determined to murder me. So I’m watching 3.13, Ghostfacers. and there’s just so much about this episode that’s relevant on a Major Meta Level... I’m gonna resist writing a thesis again and stick to a bullet point list of Things That Are Significant, whether thematically or narratively, to the overarching totality of Supernatural in s15.

loops. this episode is about loops, on every level:

it literally begins at the ending and works backward through the story, but only reveals that fact at the end

the typical “opening credits” run over the final scene of the episode, with the fake “Ghostfacers” theme serving as the opening credits

the concept of “death echoes” or ghosts stuck in an eternal loop, reliving their own deaths over and over again after having been trapped there by another ghost

the other ghost’s name is, ironically, “Freeman” yet he’s been trapped in his home since the 60′s because of his own fears

the haunting is presented as a loop within a loop, with the ghost only appearing every 4 years on February 29

Freeman’s eternal highlight reel loop is accompanied by the eternal stuck-record soundtrack of “It’s my party, and I’ll cry if I want to, cry if I want to, cry if I want to.” Literally just that line of the song playing over and over again.

The trope of “looking at the situation through a lens.” The conceit of the entire episode is that it’s a “reality show,” and it’s lampshaded multiple times that everyone involved feels safer, better, one degree of remove from the situation they’re trapped inside by watching it happen through the lens of their cameras rather than engaging with it directly.

The conceit of the Ghostfacers trying to “prove the existence of ghosts,” which Supernatural has demonstrated was a basic fact of reality for the Winchesters since the pilot episode.

The themes of the general public being in the dark about the Supernatural, and generally indifferent to it, outside of mild curiosity that got innocent people killed on the regular... and the lampshading of “survivorship bias” and demonstrating that the Winchesters are alreay on another level so far above even the general public who pays attention and actively LOOKS for the supernatural, how incompetent and unprepared even those people are in comparison.

The entire premise of the episode prefaced with a pitch to tv networks as a replacement series during the Writer’s Strike back in 2007, in the FIRST episode back after the hiatus that could very easily have been the series finale. Lol, they call writers “Lazy Fat Cats,” and present the concept of “Reality TV” as the obvious alternative.

ED: Who needs writers when you've got guys like us? HARRY gestures and reaches for... a cheap dimmer switch. ED: Our team faced horrible horrors to bring you the footage that will change your world forever. So strap in for the scariest hour in the history of television. HARRY: In the history of your life... ED: Strap in for... HARRY AND ED (TOGETHER): Ghostfacers! GHOSTFACERS theme song and opening montage, showing the characters and names: ED, HARRY, SPRUCE, MAGGIE, CORBETT, SAM, and DEAN MUSIC: Ghost...Ghostfacers. We face the ghosts when the others will not. We're Ghost...Ghostfacers. Stay in the kitchen when the kitchen gets hot. Ghost...Ghostfacers. We face the nightmare, we face the dread. Ghost...Ghostfacers. We face the faces, we face the dead!" (screams) When you trip and fall into the supernatural, we're who you're gonna call. We face them all! Ghost...Ghostfacers. We face the faces, we face the dead! We're Ghost...Ghostfacers!

At the end of the episode, when Corbett is trapped in a Death Echo loop, the only thing that breaks him free, that let’s them actually get out of this nightmare, is literally... Facing The Ghost. And breaking the cycle, freeing Corbett, by Ed’s literal love confession. NOTHING else worked. He would’ve been trapped for eternity without that anchor built from LOVE.

ED: Corbett, look. Hey, it's just Ed, buddy. It's just me. Hey, hey, Corbett, listen to me. Listen to me. I -- we... Okay. You meant... Corbett, you meant a lot to the team. You meant... You meant a lot to me. You know, never back down...Never say a bad word, okay? I remember that, Corbett. I-I remember that. I remember because I love you, Corbett. I really, truly love you. Do you remember that? do you? CORBETT: Hey. Ed? ED: Yeah. Yeah, Corbett, it's... Corbett, yeah, it's me. It's me. look at me. You got to help us, man. you have to help us, Corbett. Please. please. Please help us right now.

And this gave Corbett the courage to face the dead, destroying Freeman’s spirit and freeing them all.

But the entire time, the overarching story, is that Sam and Dean literally do to the Ghostfacers what Chuck has done to them... they erase the story and force them to find another one.

It was just one big loop after all.

I didn’t even touch on the entire episode. This is the But Wait, There’s More! portion of this post, because I just don’t have time today to dissect an entire episode. Just throwing this out there as Proof Of Themes, I guess... but I’m also tempted to change my Chuck tag to “Lazy Fatcat”

[robot-unicorn-attack]

CHAPTER 03 - NYX

Taglist: @ayzrules​ @bebemoon​ @interluxetumbra​ @filthysoulls​ @jay-swagsby​ @shiftyprincess​ @now-on-elissastillstands​ / @elissastillstands​

Walking through those doors, Sol was immediately bombarded with lights and sounds. It was a press conference, the same layout as it had been for every post race in the past and will continue to be for every one in the future. Though, Sol would be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy them. Relatively speaking, of course.

She enjoyed the fact that she could string everyone along with whatever story she could come up with and the reporters ate it up like it was going to give them the answers to eternal life. 'Complete suckers' she had thought after the first round of questioning past back during her first year. Ever since, she's garnered a taste for the lime light. Well… maybe a bit before then…

 However, even though she walked through as a villain would, something was off about this particular post event. There were reporters, yes, but something else stuck out to her and before she could narrow it down, someone was whisking her away to touch up her makeup - having it smeared from the heat of the race - and then ushered her to a seat.

 A growl formed low in the back of her throat and her chest was tight with the expletives she was about to spew. A woman..

 "Tell us, Nyx, did you have a hand in the fall of racer Basilisk of Abraxilis Racing?"

Coy Cheshire smile, "What ever gave you that idea?"

 Lights continued to go off around the room as she waited for the reply from the others.  They were getting wet with anticipation at the potential drama being sifted and sorted. Which way were they going to spin their stories this time around? Sol had to keep herself from the barf noises she wanted to make at the expense of everyone there.

 "It's no surprise to anyone here. Or on the track, that your methods are less than honorable."

She allowed a hum in response as the reporter continued, "it only makes sense that the cause of Basilisk's... accident would be malicious in nature. And the only one devious enough to pull it off is you, Nyx."

 "Oh stop it, Zaera," she playfully threw her hands at the reporter as if she told the funniest joke, "you're gonna boost my ego tenfold if you keep showering me with praise like that~"

 There was a faint bit of uncomfortable chuckling from the other side of all the lights and Sol couldn't help but flash a big wicked grin in their direction. Eyes catching the flash of light and casting their glow across the room. It was surreal. As if they were in the presence of an actual deity.

 "Nyx, Nyx! Tell us, c'mon, did you do it? Did you somehow sabotage Basilisk's ride?" The murmurs that kicked up were hushed but adamant. They wanted to know they wanted answers.

 Sol shifted around in her seat to make herself more comfortable. Long limbs dangle where they could. Head tilting from side to side as if contemplating life's problems. As if she had the solutions.

 Another wicked gleam and grin sent them in a frenzy, "Torrid Gorge is a tricky, tricky track. I can't be to blame every time a racer can't handle their ride."

 More clicks from the cameras. More flashes go catch her molten stare. More questions were asked and then answered or just avoided entirely. The usual were thrown out.

 Who are you wearing? McQuinth, of course. The label partnered with Noxian~ to create something perfect for a deity such as myself

What was going through your mind during the start middle end of the race? Oh, you know. How to take the turns, whether or not dashing into golems is going to ruin someone's run. How fucking hot it is on the track… the usual.

What was the incident at the Neon Demon about? The argument between you and Widowmaker? If my beloved teammate hasn't spilt the beans, than neither shall I. It isn't becoming of a lady to kiss and tell, now is it?

Etc. Etc.

 In the midst of all the questioning came a moment where the air around the room became stagnant and almost icy. Sol can remember precisely when the goosebumps rose to the surface of her skin, almost tickling her in a way that scared her. Not a moment too soon after the experience the room was all a tizzy with alarms and chimes and bells gluing off signaling notifications to all the press present. She could even hear faint noises from the other rooms. Similar situation going on everywhere, she mused.

 Even Allryn, off to the side, was answering a call in a heated hushed tone, while a small holoscreen in the palm of his hand lay open for his viewing.

 A reporter called out to Nyx, drawing her attention and focus back to the room now occupied my hungry wolves rather than the timid reporters from earlier. What ever it was that came in, really got their journalism blood going.

 "Were you aware that Basilisk raced for the company Abraxilis?"

 The question was random and it took her a moment to process those words. Just what was it that came in that has everyone in a jumpy state?

 "You have already asked me this." It was evident that she was getting annoyed with the badgering and focusing on her did she didn’t she sabotage bit. At least to Allryn, it was obvious. "Please, Nyx, answer the question." They were dead focused on her answers. Hanging to her every word more so than normal. Their eyes wide and if she had the ability to gauge the sizes of their ears she would have guessed they had enlarged enough to catch even a whisper from her lips.

 Sol released a very auditable sigh, "Yeah, of course. I'm aware of all the racers and their teams and sponsors. It comes with the territory." A flick of her wrist to show her disinterest in these lines of questionings. Hoping they would get the memo and proceed to something with a bit more sustenance.

 "So then you are aware that councilman Cedric Abraxas was the founder and CEO of said company?"

 A slow nod from the goddess. "Yes? I'm afraid I'm not following..."

 "Let me break it down for you," Sol noticed Allryn slowly approach her location, eyes trained in on the interviewer, "We have just been informed that Lucira Artelcro aka "Basilisk" is in critical condition and may never race again." The crowd that occupied the room around her was a buzz. That must have been what the notifications were about. Basilisk's condition. No matter. It wasn't like that affected her at all…

 "Makes it a little less crowded on the track~" she let out a soft chuckle but the interviewer continued. Some people even began filing out in a hurry after checking their screens one last time. And to say that that wasn't interesting would be a down right lie. If anything it peaked her interest quite a lot. Why would they leave before the interview was over? It wasn't like they were there for very long… 45 minutes max after a race.

 "Were you aware of councilman Abraxas' death earlier this evening?"

 "What does that have to do with me?" Although, yes, it definitely caught her attention. The death of a political figure in Unicorn City, no matter how corrupt the guy was, still warranted a modicum of attention.

 "As you are well aware, Basilisk's team is owned by the aforementioned councilman and his company, Abraxilis. So you can see how the two instances taking place tonight, at roughly the same time, looks very suspicious. Especially for you."

 "Again. I fail to see the comparison." This was all too much. Even for Sol. Hell even for Nyx, the Goddess herself. Why was this reporter hounding her on the councilman's death? So what? It's not like she had anything to do with it. She was n the track, anyone with eyes and half a brain cell could tell you that that was where she was at the time of his death So, why all the questions?

 "If you're looking to ask me something specific I suggest you find the backbone to do it, otherwise this is over-" she makes to rip off the mic clipped precariously to the fabric of her cleavage and begins shifting in her spot and get up when there was a voice that called out over the hustle and bustle, "Was it on purpose?"

"Hmm?" Her eyes narrowed as she locked onto her new target within the audience. Halting her movements, waiting for them to continue further.

 "W-what I mean is. The accident with Basilisk and the attack on Abraxas. Was it on purpose? Did you do it?" They tried so hard to exude courage and confidence in their voice as they projected the questions towards her. She could literally taste the nervousness in the air.

 "I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about."

 "Was it some sort of political attack on Abraxas and his policies involving the rezoning of the Barzan provinces?" Cedric Abraxas, he voted against sending aid to Ser'hld IX more than enough times before the moon was finally destroyed. Sol remembers when the issue was fresh and it was all anyone was talking about those many years ago. And then when Leni entered her life and was able to open up to her, she would lean on Sol as she lamented her home's destruction. The only reason Sol knows so much and cares enough about Ser'hld is all thanks to Leni. So is she glad that the man, who could have stopped and saved an entire moon's population, is dead and murdered no less? Abso-fucking-lutely.

 "So you aren't denying involvement with either incident then?" Shit did she say that aloud?

 Before she shoved her foot any further down her throat as she likely would have, Allryn swooped out from the shadows and gracefully, yet forcefully, took Sol by the arm and raised her to a standing position. He muttered just loud enough for her to hear for her to keep her mouth shut and to act natural.

 "Thank you all, that'll be all for tonight." The way he took over the room with the authority of power, it sent a shock of electricity through her. But it wasn't in a way that was pleasant. Not in the slightest. Allryn was taking control of a serious situation, a mess that she herself decided to dig in to. Any backlash on his part was due because of her. "Any further questioning will be taken up by the panel. Please submit any and all recordings through the correct LAZER channels and the other racers will be more inclined to answer at a later time. Thank you all." He waved them off, turning his back on them literally, in order to escort Sol off the small platform and back through the door she emerged from not but an hour earlier.

 Still they shouted their questions and still camera and lights and flashes were going off. They even tried to push past the additional LAZER security at the back door to follow; all in the name to get to the bottom of the coincidence of the century.

 Abraxas top racer physically unable to compete anymore and he himself out of commission permanently? Seems a bit suspicious.

 And the only one at the center of it all, was Nyx.

[bookishreviewsblog]

Maureen Johnson: Truly, Devious (Truly, Devious #1) | Lara

Author Maureen Johnson weaves a tale of murder and mystery in the first book of a new series.

Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. "A place" he said, "where learning is a game."

Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym, Truly Devious. It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history.

True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder.

“There is nothing so serious as a game.” 

Stevie’s parents always wanted to have a normal daughter – one that dates hot boys, goes to prom and spends her free time shopping. Instead, they are stuck with a crime-obsessed genius who got in prestige school for geniuses like her – Ellingham Academy. That is a special school founded by American billionaire Albert Ellingham in 1928. It is built for the purposes of educating teenagers with special skills or knowledge in any area of interest, being specialized and personalized for their needs. Namely, Ellingham’s academy is known for one other thing. In 1936, Albert’s wife and daughter, Iris and Alice Ellingham, were kidnapped. Iris’s body was found days later and Alice was never seen after that. Few weeks before those events, a threat-letter in the form of a riddle arrived signed “Truly, Devious” and is widely believed that the letter is connected to the case. The Ellingham case is one of the most known cold cases and hasn’t been solved to this day. Stevie knows everything about the Ellingham case and dreams of solving it. After she got accepted to Ellingham academy, series of suspicious events lead her onto a new trail, but after finding a dead body of one of her fellow students, the cold case isn’t the only thing that needs solving. “Few words are more chilling when put together than make friends.”

It’s been a while since I read a good mystery book and I can’t believe how much I missed it! When I was younger, I was basically swallowing Agatha Christie books, and the thrill of solving mysteries and theorizing about this book made me want to start reading them way more often. I was really invested in two parallel cases that were emerging through the plot. They both seemed somehow connected, but still separated, and in the end, I had no idea what to think. Johnson really surprised me with her skilled writing and plotting of two time-disconnected, but obviously related and equally mysterious cases. Stevie is a mastermind, but still an amateur detective so reading from her perspective differs from adult crime novels I used to read, especially because she can’t use law enforcement assets and has to sneak around half of the time, but it was still so much fun thinking about someone my age simultaneously solving a cold kidnapping case and a murder. The pacing and obvious absence of solid action represented a hell of a big problem for me. Yes, I am aware that this is a short mystery book and is not intended to be packed with action, but for the first half of the book (I counted it was 50%!), NOTHING was happening. There was Stevie, and Ellingham Academy and a lot of Stevie accommodating to her new school or talking about the case –it all felt like a boring intro. Sure, there should be an intro and all, but that doesn’t mean you make it half of the first book. They were literally filming a video for 100 pages. Only after the discovery of the body did things start to heat up. The story is told from the first-person perspective of one character – Stevie, which is, huh, funny because of all characters I liked her the least. Idk I don’t have a real reason, just found her character boring from time to time. It’s super interesting being inside her head while solving mysteries and I loved how was the relationship with her dick-parents described, although I don’t see why hasn’t she ever stood up for herself. By all means, she sounds like an interesting protagonist, but I just didn’t get that vibe of fondness towards her. The love interest comes in the form of hot mess David, who is, really, something I didn’t realize I needed in this book. He’s obnoxious and does not give a fuck, but is the sweetest cinnamon roll and I’m done. I love this tension and love-to-hate between Stevie and him – it’s just constructed really good, with a lot of fluff and suspense, but still not too much so it’s not pulling around xd I need Nate to become an actual person so I can marry him because he is THE ETERNAL MOOD. Sarcastic, socially awkward and eternally pessimistic author who would rather do anything that actually writes. Perfect. (I think he’s the embodiment of anyone who tried to write anything, ever). “Vitamin D,” Stevie said. “You need it.” “You don’t know that,” he said. “I want to eat my meat in my room with the lights off.” And then there’s Larry, who is supposed to be just a side character but is probably the coolest person in Ellingham. He’s everyone’s official dad detective and no one can tell me otherwise! That cliffhanger, NO! that several weird-as-fuck but utterly amazing cliffhangers left me breathless, craving for the sequel so I guess I better got onto that xd “Look! A riddle! Time for fun!Should we use a rope or gun?Knives are sharp and gleam so prettyPoison’s slow, which is a pityFire is festive, drowning’s slowHanging’s a ropy way to goA broken head, a nasty fallA car colliding with a wallBombs make a very jolly noiseSuch ways to punish naughty boys!What shall we use? We can’t decide.Just like you cannot run or hide.Ha ha.Truly,Devious” (Sorry I just needed to add Truly Devious letter to this review because it’s simply brilliant :P)