#his actual title is The Justice but he uses a fake one when hes not doing his job

[texeoghea]

isolated ipad doodle of The Rook bc i like him so much honestly

[readychilledwine]

another fic idea for you, my queen, if you would like to write it into existence. instead of thesan publicly having a male lover, he has a peregryn female who is his “beard”. like he tells everyone she’s his lover when he definitely doesn’t swing that way. let’s pretend everyone believes him 🫢 and their agreement is actually a bargain that she can’t break with the stipulation being that the bargain is fulfilled once she finds her mate. her bargain tattoo is super visible like up her neck (or on her face, but like tastefully of course) during the high lord meeting, azriel has a love at first sight moment (he’s obsessed but the mating bond hasn’t snapped) and he is once again thwarted by Rhys who tells him to stay away to prevent war with dawn court. azriel still secretly meets with the peregryn who 100% returns his affections bc she’s not ACTUALLY with thesan. but then they’re somehow caught red handed. shit hits the fan because keeping up with appearances, thesan is literally about to throw it down with the night court for stealing his girl. He’s actively beating up azriel (who is letting him bc angst 🤷🏽‍♀️) with the peregryn screaming at him to stop when the bond snaps and her very visible bargain tattoo fades away (dramatically like with gold shimmers or something bc it’s dawn court LOL) and it’s happily ever afters all around. (I hope you don’t mind me sending you these fully fleshed out ideas bc I can’t write worth a damn but I know you would do them justice 🫡)

Love and 1000 other Lies

Summary - Aurora has held her place with pride and joy aince accepting Thesan and Bastian’s idea and becoming their coverup. But a certain shadowsinger seems to have other plans for her and her future

Warnings - implied smut, swearing, threats, mentions of war, time jump transitions, sappy Azriel

A/n- after my final edit and run through, this is just shy of 5.7k words. I fixed some grammar errors, changed out some wording, and turned this into a full on love child. I hope you all enjoy her as much as I enjoyed the long process of writing her, perfecting her, and editing her. I used a new writing method, so I do apologize for weird cuts and flow if there is any 💜

"Ew," Thesan joked quietly as his fake lover went to hold his hand, lacing their fingers together. "You need better hand cream."

She shot him an insulted look, eyes darting between her best friend and his actual lover. "I use the hand cream you two bought me. It's not my fault you didn't drop warrior from my title when you decided on our… arrangement." 

Thesan nodded to the guards, he offered his "wife" his arm, holding her a little closer as they entered the room a few high lords had already entered with their parties. To the outside world, it was Thesan and Aurora the High Lord and Lady of Dawn who were very much in love. On the inside they were best friends, and had been forever. Thesan loved her like a sister he had never been blessed with, and she loved him, and his mate, like the brothers she had always wanted. 

75 years ago, when they had asked her to publicly marry Thesan to protect him from Amarantha's claws, she had not hesitated to say yes. She had not hesitated when it came to the bargain either. Was she thrilled when morning glories began to appear on her neck, wrapping her ear like the vines they grew from, and appearing on the right side of her face? No. Thesan had not been either, but could they change it? No. Now though, it was just part of her. It was a piece of who was and would be until she found her mate and presented him to Thesan.

He escorted her to her chair, kissing the top of her hand gently before taking his place. His own mate stood behind both of them, keeping the outward appearance as their selected guard. Bastain loved Thesan dearly, and he had been the one to come up with the plan of using Aurora as their cover. He never once was jealous until they were trapped under the mountain, and playing an occasional role became a daily struggle between the three of them. Mainly due to the common room inspections they were forced to endure. Thesan and Ro were forced to take their marriage to levels they had not expected nor wanted. Levels they had promised each other wouldn't be crossed. 

The three of them watched each party enter, every High Lord coming to greet the Peregryn female to compliment the beauty of their home and Palace. Aurora smiled at each compliment, thanking them and holding their wife’s or female guest’s hands as she played her role. The gentle home maker, the skilled combat healer, the soft soul who had somehow captured the heart of Pryithian’s most elusive High Lord. 

Kal and Viv were particularly taken with the pond that centered the room. The lord of Winter had always wanted to incorporate more of the land into the building Amarantha had destroyed where he formerly hosted meetings and gatherings with outside courts. “I just do not understand how you manage such things,” he turned to Aurora. “Thesan, I may steal your wife for a few weeks. My court could use such talented eyes.”

Aurora smiled at him as they took their seats and she sat back on her own, straightening her dress before putting her hand back on Thesan’s muscled inner forearm. 

Bas leaned into his husband's side, "I can't wait to remind her she has the taste of an Illyrian Brute when we are all alone." Thesan covered his mouth, eyes sparkling. “I designed that for you, you harlot. You did do a lovely job with the stone, plant, and fish selection though.”

Aurora whispered back, a soft smile hiding the small and playful pissing contest between her and Bas. ”You realize that is much more important than the design of a stone pool, right? I am literally the one who made it worth looking at.”

“She is not wrong, Bas. She did a lot of the-” Thesan paused. "The Night Court is here."

Aurora rolled her eyes, a headache already starting at the thought of seeing Rhysand again. "Do I really have to be here?"

"Yes," the males both said quietly. 

Bas handed her a wine glass over her shoulder. "No one said you cannot drink through this though, my lady." She took the wine happily. 

"Thank you, General." 

"Of course, my lady." He replied playfully. "Must Rhysand always make everything an ostentatious fashion show?"

Aurora almost spit her wine out, gripping Thesan's hand a little tighter. The High Lord hid his own laughter by clearing his throat. "Composure, 'Rora," he hissed under his breath. "Azriel is extra scrumptious today, though. The Mother took her time on that one."

Bas hummed in agreement. "I heard he plays both sides of the field." 

Thesan raised his brows in excitement. His urge to gossip came forward as his eyes began to sparkle. "Oh do tell."

"Later." Thesan noted Azriel's eyes on his "wife" the whole meeting.

It wasn't that he could blame the male, Aurora was stunning, especially for fae standards. Gorgeous silky chocolate hair, plump full lips, a button nose, and beautiful curves that sat on her muscled frame perfectly. Her dress accented her hourglass figure. Had he enjoyed the company of females, he would have courted her, possibly married her for real. It was her mind that intrigued Thesan most. She was intelligent, witty, funny. SHe held herself to high standards and performed at that standard whenever it was asked of her. There was also her selflessness. Her willingness to place a target on her own back to protect him, to protect Bastian, to protect their court. Aurora was as beautiful inside as she was outside, a true sparkling rare gem of his court that he could have used for so much more than a fake marriage.

He placed a hand possessively on her thigh as she focused on her quiet discussion with a kneeled down Bastian. Thesan shot Azriel a look of warning as he caught the shadowsinger staring at her again. "Rhysand, tell your family to keep their eyes off taken females." 

Despite the marriage being fake, Thesan knew two things. The first was he had to keep the act of a protective territorial male up. The second was he would never yield her to the hands of the Night Court. He would never yield any of his fae to the Night Court. Not after years of Rhysand’s constant humiliation. His constant attacks. Not after what he had done to the barely healed wings of his wife.

The High Lord of Night knitted his brows together before turning to Azriel and following his gaze to where Bastian and Aurora were whispering Hybern's battle plans Tamlin had just presented. “I apologize, Thesan. She is just as radiant today as rumors and gossip makes her out to be. Forgive Azriel. Please. It is both rare to see a female with wings, and one in such a high position of power among the Illyrians.”

Aurora paused, feeling the room's eyes on her. She made confused eye contact with Viv who simply pointed to the Night Court as she and Kal too had picked up on the stares from the Spymaster. "Did I miss something, love?"

Thesan gently pulled your hand to his. "Nothing, dove. Just a male not keeping his gaze where it belongs." He kissed her hand gently. "Thoughts on those papers?"

Aurora handed them back to Bas with a sigh. "Our air legion would not be enough, nor would the Illyrian Armies. If they truly have those numbers, we will need to work closely with the Night Court and their general. The bigger concern is their Naval fleet. I would have never guessed to have put Hybern in possession of that level of an armada.”

Rhysand spoke. "Which brings us back to the question at hand Lady Dawn. Can we trust Tamlin when Spring has been known to ally with Hybern and he is the reason they are here?"

Aurora spoke without thinking, 50 years of anger lacing her tone. "I did not realize all males were their fathers, Rhysand.” She watched as the sentence struck where she aimed it and his sharp jawline tightened. “Should we worry about you and where you stand as well? Your father only fought with us during the last war because he did not want to lose his place as High Lord had Hybern's last efforts been successful. It seems the offer Hybern made Tamlin would have surely swayed your father. Perhaps it swayed you as well, seeing as your so-called High Lady,” Aurora held up the letters Feyre sent Hybern on “behalf” of Tamlin, “Is the actual reason they invaded a full year ahead of plan.”

Tension in the room rose slightly as the Lord of Night and Lady of Dawn stared each other down. No one sitting in those chairs who had witnessed her torture would soon forget her screams, nor how Rhysand had smiled as he administered it. "Of the High Lords currently present, I've experienced cruelty from two of them. One simply because of my wings,” a pointed look to Autumn had even Beron looking away, refusing to be in the stare of a female he knew could end all trade supply of healing herbs and medicines to his court. “And one because he was evidently so deep into what he wanted us all to believe was an act that all courtesy went out the window." Her gaze went back to Rhys, hard eyes meeting shamed violet ones.

Rhys shifted. "I never wanted to hurt you."

Bas spoke firmly, the timber of his voice almost shaking the room. "You plucked her wings bare. Twice. You do not get to say you never wanted to hurt her when you did. You will not address my lady any further. We will choose to believe Spring until given a real reason not to that isn't some farce of a lovers spat."

Azriel growled at another general commanding his High Lord, and Aurora immediately stood facing him between them. "You've already attacked Eris Vanserra, Shadowsinger, do not test your luck against the Dawn Court in our home. Unlike Autumn, I am more than capable of handing you and finishing what you start. We are warriors too, shadowsinger. Try your best to not forget that.”

Azriel felt his chest tighten, then warmth, and a snap. His eyes went wide before he turned to Rhysand with a panicked expression. 

Lady Dawn was his mate. 

Azriel paced the room Helion, Cassian, and Rhys all sat watching him in. "What do I do?"

Cassian spoke first with a shrug. "Nothing you truly can do, Azriel. Unless you plan on breaking up a marriage between the High Lord, who may I remind you controls healers, healer apprenticeships, and the flow of healing medicines and tonics, and his wife absolutely hates your high lord and brother."

Rhys nodded gently. "I already pushed that alliance enough without choice, Azriel. We can't risk it. They supply all of our healing houses, they staff our healing houses. All of them are on contract and Thesan could pull the healers home without notice or warning.”

Helion shifted. "So I'm the only one who noticed then?" The three males all looked to him, indicating for him to continue. "Aurora fidgets with her "wedding ring", Helion putsput fake emphasisemphases on the phrase, "when she's nervous. She spins it, slides it off and on. She never wears that rock. Her finger is tanned, and there is no indent indicating she actually wears her wedding ring frequently. It could be because of her status as a second general, but, still, even if she had it off to train for 3 to 4 hours a day, she should still have some sign of it on that pretty hand of hers.”

Helion took a sip of his wine and continued. "That bargain on her also has specific conditions. I have not had the pleasure of being alone with her long enough to read the rune markings, but it is not a life bargain one would normally see between a High Lord and his Lady. I would talk to her, alone, Azriel. I do not think that marriage is all it is cracked out to be.”

Rhysand leaned forward. "The reason Amarantha began to target them was because their room never smelled of sex, but Thesan did. As did Bastain and his room. But never Aurora. Whose room only ever smelled like her. She thought it was…. Odd."

Helion nodded. "That's my point. She's covering for them. We all know Thesan had no interest in females until Amarantha started rearing her ugly ass head around. Then suddenly Thesan and sweet Aurora were married. It is suspicious at the very least, and a lie at the most."

Rhys shook his head, standing to go to bed. "Stay away from her, Azriel. I do not want to have to add War with Dawn on to our family meeting agendas. I also do not want to deal with fighting a war with no healers for our court.”

Azriel could not find sleep. He tossed and turned in his bed, heart beating too rapidly with joy and his soul screaming too loudly with excitement. He felt a tug on the bond, and Azriel immediately left the room, following his shadows to where they said Lady Dawn currently was.

He took him a little while to find her in the dark herb garden, and he almost stopped his approach completely when he did. Her long hair was completely down, her feet bare as she stood by the lake in the flowing knot and rope styled dress she was wearing. "Shadowsinger," she greeted calmly as a tendril of dark Mist weaved between her fingers in greeting. 

Azriel moved standing next to her. "Lady Dawn."

They stood there in silence, both afraid to break the dam and address what happened in the meeting. Azriel broke the silence first. "Can you feel it?" 

Aurora answered honestly. "Only because of my powers. It didn't snap for me yet, and I do not know why." 

Azriel stared at the bargain tattoo dancing on her neck and face. "Does it have anything to do with the bargain?" She shrugged at the question. "What exactly is the bargain?"

"I can't tell you." Azriel nodded at the response. His eyes then went down to her hand, noticing the lack of diamonds currently adorning her left ring finger. 

"Where are your chambers?"

Aurora rose a brow, a small smirk forming. "Bold."

Azriel nodded. "I've waited over 500 years for you. I will be as bold as I need to be."

He took her shamelessly that night. Noting how she truly did have her own chambers located nowhereno where near Thesan. How her chambers only smelled like her. 

He memorized every shiver, every sound, every plea. She had not been touched, truly touched, in years. Azriel hated the thought of it. He hated the idea of her alone in this giant bed. He hated the thought of her being woken up to the sun rising and painting the sky in soft light instead of waking to kisses and worship.

He hated that his bond was being hidden by a lie. He slipped from her room using the shadows and returned to his before the sun fully rose. He held back tears as he washed the scent of her off of his skin, hating every single second of it. He looked away from Rhysand as he asked for help masking what lingered. Not in shame, but so his brother wouldn’t see his hurting, his small amount of guiltguit wracking through him.

Breakfast the next morning was filled with uncomfortable silence. Aurora sat next to Thesan, eating silently as shadows ran her legs and skirts under the table. She had glamored the scent of night mist clinging to her skin softly, the love marks, the small bruises. She smiled as Thesan kissed her hand, trying to pull her from her distracted mind with a look. 

Azriel kept his gaze from her. Keeping his focus on his plate and just holding the memories from last night as close to him as possible. 

They sought each other out weeks later before the war truly began. Azriel etched the look on her face as they stood in Velaris together ininto his memory. He led her to his cabin, keeping her with him that weekend. He learned she loved to read, to explore and hike, to laugh. He had laughed so hard in those 3 days he was pretty sure his body had discovered unworked muscles. It had taken him those 72 hours to fall for her. He wasn’t sure if it was the bond driving it, or just because they were simply meant to be, but Azriel knew after 72 hours he would never love anyone like this again. And, selfishly, he never wanted to.

She came to him during the war. Seeking him out in the dead of night near their camps, drenched in blood and exhausted. “Azriel,” Aurora set her weapons down, almost collapsing at his feet as sobs shook her to the core. His mate. His gentle mate. A 2nd general of a large legion of warriors, breaking down as he moved to her instantly. 

He held her close, stroking her matted hair as she clung to his leathers. “It's okay,” he soothed her, wishing that bond had snapped in those stolen moments alone so he could send her everything he was feeling, every trapped word. Azriel snuck her into this tent that night, keeping her close after bathing the blood, dirt, and sweat from her body, from her soft hair and wings. 

That was the beginning of a nail in the coffin. 

He had not been as vigilant as he should have due to his focus locked solely on Aurora. 

She was his priority, not her husband’s mate watching them. 

Bastian kicked off the tree. This was the third confirmation he needed. The first had come the morning after the High Lord’s meeting. Aurora’s room had a scent he knew, but hadn’t been able to place. The second came as he watched her sneak out and fly towards the Night Court. Now this. He wanted to chalk it up to war bringing out emotions and needs in all of them. Afterall, he had shamelessly fucked Thesan into a state of bliss and emptyness just moments ago. But there was something in the way Azriel held Aurora, as if he was familiar with her and her body that gave Bastian the answer he needed. 

They were having an affair. 

And she was a traitor and potential threat to their court.

A month after the war, Azriel and Aurora began to fall into a soft dance. Every two nights, they met in the Day Court, hiding their affair, their love, among Helion’s many fae and open court. Guilt had set into Aurora’s mind at times, guilt that she was betraying her court, her two closest friends. Guilt that she did not feel the bond the way Azriel did. Guilt that as she laid beneath him that night with Azriel peppering kisses and gentle words of adoration and praise into her tanned skin with each slow calculated movement inside of her, that she loved him. 

Aurora had truly, madly, and deeply fallen for this male without caution, without second thought, without hesitation. She didn’t need a bond to tell him that as her head fell back, and she whispered those three words over and over, whining desperately for him, pleading for him, feeling nothing but the wholeness only Azriel brought her. Her nails sunk into his back when they found completion together, minds and souls merging into one. 

A ring box sat on the bedside table next to them, a glittering black and blue gem centered in gold with sapphires sat beside it, mocking her as he slept . He was behind her, an arm curled around the curve of her waist, soft breathing fanning her neck and causing her to shiver in anticipation of the morning sex she knew they would have. 

The ring was such a contrast to the blush pink diamond that sat silver Thesan had gifted her. It wasn’t fair. Thesan was allowed his lover in their scam of a marriage, yet Aurora was meant to be the docile wife blind to what everyone else clearly could see. Every meal between her, Thesan, and Bastian was becoming more and more hostile as resentment built and built on her end. It wasn’t fair, knowing she’d fly home to Dawn tomorrow and they’d be wearing those golden bands while she hid this gorgeous ring and only wore it when she was alone. 

She didn’t know they knew. That they had agreed to let her confess in her own time and explain. It wouldn’t matter if she had told them, until that bond snapped, she was trapped in this limbo. 

Azriel landed as quietly as possible on Aurora's balcony. It was eerily quiet and dark inside of her normally life filled room. He entered slowly and paused when he saw Thesan sitting on her couch in front of the fire.

"Did you really think I wouldn't find out?" The High Lord sipped something as he waved Azriel closer. "How long have you been fucking my wife in my home?" Azriel did not respond. Only setting his weapons aside to show he meant no harm. Bastian came into the room as well, Aurora held tight in his grip as tears streamed down her face.

Azriel couldn’t suppress the growl that tore through his throat. “Let. Her. Go.” 

Thesan was tired of games, though. Tired of months of lies after pretty lies. “He will after you two try to explain yourselves. It is a crime to fuck a High Lord’s wife. Or did Rhysand not tell you that when he put you up to this?”

Azriel glared towards Thesan before locking his gaze on Aurora, the feral side of him watching for any sign of pain or distress since he could not feel her the way he should have been able to. He called out for Rhysand in his mind, not even flinching as Rhys and Cassian appeared behind him.

Rhysand took in the scene, taking a deep breath as his suspicions were all but confirmed. He knew he had no right to judge. After all, he had taken his own mate from her impending marriage to another High Lord. “Thesan, let’s talk about this, please.” Rhys put his hands up, showing he meant to harm as he approached the other High Lord. “I know this is not ideal-”

Thesan interrupted, anger spilling into his words. “He’s fucking my wife. My 2nd general. How much information has she handed to all of you? How deep does this betrayal go, Rhysand?” Azriel paled at what was being inferred, at the consequences Thesan could hand his mate if he felt necessary.

Banishment and death, Aurora realized slowly. This was going to end with her being banished from her home, and possibly from the Night Court to maintain that little relationship Thesan and Rhys had rebuilt, or with her and Azriel’s death. “I told him nothing,” she whimpered out. “It wasn’t like that, Thesan. You know me better than that.”

“I thought I did,” those words felt like hot knives in her chest, cutting deeper than she had ever imagined they could. “I can see now I was clearly wrong about you, Clearly wrong for picking you.”

Aurora just nodded, taking the scolding before looking at Azriel. “Just let him live, Thesan, please. Do what you want with me, but let him live.” Bastian’s grip on her faltered slightly, and Thesan’s mask fell. There was desperation in her tone. “He’s just a male. You know how you all are when something pretty and kind looks your way.”

Bastian closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, “So you initiated it?”

The lie fell easily as she looked as Cassian gripping Azriel’s arm, holding him back from rushing to her, and in place in case they needed to escape. “Yes, I sought him out each time.” 

Thesan knew she was lying. He knew the meeting between them were mutually planned. “So, you confess to high treason then, wife?”

Death. She realized fully. This was going to end with death. She should have been more afraid, but she couldn't be if her confession led to Azriel's safety. “Yes.”

Thesan's face dropped fully. “And you Azriel-”

“Should not be held accountable for my actions,” Aurora interrupted. “Let him go. Ban him from Dawn if you must, but please, let him live.” 

Thesan moved to her, taking her chin in his hand. “You love him?”

All she could do was pause, lip trembling as she looked at Thesan's hurt eyes. “I do.”

“More than our people, our court?”

Azriel felt Rhysand move to him as he went to jump, the urge to protect his mate growing stronger and stronger. “Stop,” Rhysand growled and commanded. “She's trying to save your life. Fucking stop.”

“She is my life!” Azriel shouted back. “She is my everything.” 

Azriel broke free from them, glaring harshly, “she is why I get out of bed. Why I am happy. She is why I don't fucking hate myself so much anymore. She makes me want to be better. She makes me want to be a better male for myself, for her, for all of you.”

Aurora pulled at Bastian’s grip, wanting to reach Azriel, to hold him. “Let her go. We will leave to the continent and never return. We will both swear out of our positions. Please, Thesan, let my mate go. Do not hurt her.”

The words had Bastian’s hand fall off Aurora's arms, shock setting in as she rushed to Azriel, jumping into his arms and holding him as if her very life and being depended on it. 

Thesan was frozen in place watching them. Watching as she whispered goodbye and kept trying to fight him into leaving. “I'm not leaving without you. I'm not living without you.” 

Azriel had a tight grip on her upper arms. “I would face 1000 executioners, 1000 deaths, before ever returning to life where you are not in it. If I have to die at his hand by your side, Ii will.”

Aurora shook her head, eyes pleading. “Please go.”

Azriel's lips tightened in a sad smile. “No, angel. I'm not leaving you.” He pulled her to him, holding her head against his chest as she began to cry. “I love you far too much to say goodbye this soon.” 

It was as if time was standing still, Rhysand and Cassian unsure of what to do as Bastain grabbed a lunging Thesan's arm and held him back while pointing.

Before them, Aurora's neck and face bargain was glittering, glowing softly as her and Azriel stood there, eyes shut and foreheads touching. He was whispering every soft confession of love to her, of how he had waited for her for centuries, and how he would have waited more. The mark began to fall like snow, sparkling its way down and removing itself from Aurora as the scent of a strong bondbind between mates began to fill the room. 

Thesan calmed instantly. Realizing his own hand had played a part in her inability to fully make thatr sacred connection. That their bargain had come with terms he had unknowingly placed. It had forced Aurora to learn and fall in love with Azriel without its influence and power. Ensuring she loved him more than her position, her fae, her court. 

It had ensured the male loved her the same though. Ensured he would live for her, breathe for her, bleed for her. 

Azriel kissed her deeply, not opening his eyes before forcing her back behind him and offering himself to Thesan. 

They loved each other so deeply that their feelings mirrored and merged. Causing him to be blissfully unaware of her ability to see that golden string and of her feelings hitting him wave after wave, colliding with his own in harmony. 

Rhysand's jaw twitched as he gently grabbed Aurora. “Fly her home, Cassian. Get her out of here.” 

Bastian held a hand up. “There's no need to do that. Her part of the bargain is fulfilled.” He turned to his mate. “Let her go, The’. Let her be happy. She's sacrificed so much for our home. For us.” 

Thesan looked at her with pride and sympathy. “I'm so fucking happy for you,” he rushed to his best friend. “Oh Gods we get to plan a wedding!” Thesan pulled her in close. “An actual wedding, Rora. Not some bullshit paper with conditions.” 

Cassian rose a brow to Bas, crossing his arms. “General.”

Bastain raised a brow to Cassian, mimicking his stance and tone, “General?”

Cassian put his hands up, smiling. “Why didn't you two just tell all of us? We don't care.”

Bastian smiled, head inclining to Thesan. “To protect him. The rules of war are not the same as the rules for leaders.”

Rhysand scoffed. “Tell that to Helion, Tamlin, and Tarquin.”

“And you,” Azriel quickly said. “Beron and Kal are the only two that haven't slept with another male.”

Thesan was too deep in Aurora, wiping her tears away to even care about the rest. “Rora, I have the perfect dress in mind. You're going to love it. It's this pretty white drop waist with a lace back. Cute off the shoulder ties. Big full tulle skirt. Not like Feyre's cupcake monstrous dress, but classy. Faerie tale like.'' Aurora nodded. All her worries were forgotten as she waited for him to continue. “Oooooh in the High Garden,” Thesan was practically drooling. His true side coming out in front of strangers for the first time. “I always imagined your hair down in a waterfall braid with flowers too.” 

He made it a reality a year later. Aurora rocked back on her high heels, hands shaking as Bastian stood beside her, waiting for the cue to take her before Rhysand, Feyre, Thesan, and the High Priestess of Dawn. “Breathe,” Bastian commanded softly. Almost smirking as the command forced an effect on her. 

He had enjoyed giving commands since being sworn in as Thesan's husband and second High Lord of Dawn. He thought it was funny how almost unbearably compulsive the commands were to follow. “Asshole,” she muttered softly. “I'm allowed to be nervous.”

Bastian shrugged. “It's just a wedding with over 500 fae present. I don't understand what there is to be nervous about? It's not like this wedding also seals an agreement between Dawn and the Night court in regards to healers, trade exports, cross training between our camps-”

Aurora glared at him, her face paling. “Shut. Up.”

It was still odd to see her bare skin. Her face was unmarked from the bargain. Azriel had promised his mark on her would appear elsewhere, wanting the world to admire her beauty. 

He was hoping for her spine, somewhere hidden from his countless enemies, but visible in the low back dress styles popular in Night. Hell, he would settle for a tiny A adorning her ring finger. 

Just something marking her as his. 

The music began and Bastian offered her his arm, “Ready, Aurora?”

She smiled and nodded. “As ready as I'll ever be.”

[vegaseatsass]

4 Minutes Episode 2

Who knew the stoic, serious, antisocial Doctor Tyme would be so pookie-shaped??? Even after that cute scene w/ his grandma last episode I was not prepared for the unmitigated cheekpinchability of how flustered he gets in the presence of a beautiful man. Edit: I'm now reading theories that he was approaching Great with an Agenda (if he's investigating their family's gambling empire) but that almost makes it BETTER to me that his approach is "flex in the mirror and wince every time you say a completely mild line like '"'let's exchange LINE ids'". He's so awkward and unused to this <3

I'm very mournful that JJay is playing a cop sighs but I love that he's already visibly having the Inspector M "I'm questioning my life and my choices" reaction to Tonkla going off on an anti-justice system rant. Only instead of like, encouraging him to turn on the police and actually help people, Tonkla's griefstricken words are basically urging him in the mafia direction, god just make yourself useful and start shooting people you don't like in the head. Doctor Bun: Your justice system is broken and harmful! Power to the people! Tonkla: Your justice system is weak and cringe! Get mobbed up or shut up! Their resident cops: Whatever you say beautiful

I was very relieved Great didn't actually forget View existed because I was pretty worried for a moment there when he laughed off Title's safehouse-era behavior. Just because the spirit of Vegas runs through you somewhere doesn't mean you need to sign off on locking up people who don't love you until they do! So I'm glad his reaction was more cowardly social nicety and less actual tacit approval. Anyway, while I'm making Kinnporsche comparisons, re: my highly unserious theory that Korn is Korn and Great is Gun, Fahsai is 100% Kinn's mother who people say he's more like than his father. 100%. No question, no notes.

I'm so curious who the dead guys are: Manee's son, who I'm assuming was one of the trafficked online gambling people living in Korn's den, and Tonkla's mystery brother. I'm also wondering with that EPIC fake-out that the brother was Title, if every time Great or a 4 minutes power-haver saves a life, someone else is taken in their place... same crime scene, same bloody rock, everything. Wasn't sure if that was Bible or Mio or someone else in the opening scene doing the rock-beating. Anyway also very excited for the sexy chick working against Korn et al under their noses and possibly collaborating with??? Tyme??? WILD I AM SO SO SO HOOKED

[mysticmellowlove]

Yandere sub x female vigilante.

She is a world treasure, a world renowned philanthropist. She cares for humanity and all the creatures on earth. But in this life when someone is actually doing good things the people with fake titles hate you with their entire being. Well she hates them too and underneath her shimmering smile she has an underground corporation to eradicate evil celebrities, politics, people with power. Has an entire organization to wipe out evil. So basically her getting her hands on a super bad person like a human trafficker or something and torturing them when yan walks in and is kinda…. Flustered? Like she is beating the fuck out this demon and he is just like… “My Angel goddess mommy 🥹”

Idk if this is to extreme or not

note; stay safe lovies, also get you a man who already know's everything about you!

warnings; violence, fem reader, sadistic reader, sub yan, yan male, worship kink, triggering content mention (rape, human trafficking)

"I swear it's always people like you that fall into traps like this." She hissed as she looked down at the trafficker. Her hands were already crusted over with blood at this point, the sickly strong smell permeating her nose.

"Did you really think you'd be able to get away with it?" She asked as she knelt down and looked them in the eye, a sneer on her face.

"You're fucking sick." They spat at her, a glob of blood tainted spit landed on her cheek with an unsatisfying splat. Instantly her hand whipped out and slapped them across the face, their head whirling towards the side.

"And you are the worst of the worst, honestly someone was going to catch you eventually. Maybe you should be thankful it's me," She looked down at them as she stood. She had listened and waited enough.

"You think you're top shit don't you when in reality you're just a rich bitch with good parents." They snarled as they watched her go over to a small table off to the side, usually, she would have a little more fun but she had someone just as interesting upstairs waiting for her.

"My pals will find you and, they're going to get you and you know what, when they do you'll just be a mindless fucking useless doll." They spat at her again before she turned and shot them through the head cleanly. As soon as the shot rang out so did the familiar sound of glass breaking.

Her head turned quickly towards the stairs that she thought she had concealed, standing there was her one-night stand... though she doubted that he wanted to stay any longer. This is what happened when you forgot about the loose end in your basement, she had no one else but herself to blame. She stared at him as his lips quivered.

She'd have to kill him but before she was even able to raise the gun to him he came rushing over, his sleeve pulled down below his fingers as he used the coarse fabric to wipe her cheek of the now-deceased trafficker's spit.

"Are you alright?" His voice was surprisingly soft as he stood before her, his eyes trained on her body as he scanned her for more injuries. She stood there motionless for a moment. He wasn't running, or screaming or begging for his life... he was just there. Checking in on her. She knew that people loved her, she had made such a big name for herself in the humanitarian sphere but she could've never anticipated this.

The sheer reverence and worry in his eyes...

"I was getting worried. You were taking so long... I could hear it, the things they said to you." His mouth hardened as he seemed to bare his teeth like a rabid dog. He grasped her hand in between his.

"I promise, I'd never let anyone harm you. What you are to this world... you need to be protected, like an angel... no a goddess of true justice." At that moment, she finally began to slide the pieces together. How she had seen him on Tinder, how she talked to him and then coincidentally ran into him at her favourite cafe. She hadn't disclosed anything about her, not even her identity. She knew she wouldn't be able to have a normal relationship with her near celebrity-like status. She was resigned to phone sex and sexting yet here he was, in front of her... in her house that he seemed to know a little too well.

"You've been following me." She looked at him, her eyes stern as he shivered under her gaze. He nodded sheepishly before he slunk to his knees. He looked overwhelmed, his hands going out to brush against her legs before he pulled himself back.

"I just wanted to make sure you're safe." He whispered quietly as he looked up at her through his lashes. He was slightly teary but she had a feeling it was nothing but a facade. A hum left her mouth as she considered her options. She already had a network of depraved people working under her, people on the inside... perhaps he could find a place there. He'd probably excel at it if his servitude right now was any indicator.

Maybe there was use for him yet.

[58sei]

The thoughts ran out of control so here’s more detective yomi

This one will contain a lot and I mean a LOT of rambling, the demons need to be let out…..

Contains some game spoilers for chap 5

I thought ab how yomi would climb the ranks of the WDO a bit more and I decided it was with the help of shinigami hitman. (Will get back to this later)

Some things to get out of the way first:

- Yomi’s past in this au. Yomi has always seen a lot of death happening around him since childhood so that’s why he doesn’t feel anything when it comes to the matter. I’m also thinking yomi’s childhood involved a lot of kill or be killed situations, so he develops that mentality down the line. Wherever he goes, death follows, and because his fate is so intertwined with death, it eventually leads up to him joining the WDO and finding the book of death.

- As for how he gets to the book of death, I’m honestly not sure how he manages to breach security. That or he was used in some sorta side experiment and given the book as one of the procedures by the UG but then he kinda just killed em and ran

- After he obtains the book of death he forms a contract. Shinigami hitman asks to see yomi’s life through to the end in return for his powers (bc why is this bitch always attracting death??). Also I want to just, make some slight altercations to the game lore here. In this universe the book of death can only be opened by those who are close to dying (less than 5 years left to live). People who have spiritual affinity like vivia can only see the death god inside and feel it’s aura, but cannot open the book. There is a chance they can open it, but only if shinigami hitman chooses to let them.

Ok with that out of the way, back to how yomi climbed the ranks with the help of his shinigami (calling him fake zilch for convenience). He uses fake zilch’s powers to solve mysteries (as well as crush those in his way). In a sense, he has already performed multiple detective deeds all in the span of less than a year, but because the culprits keep dying, there is no way to properly evaluate the things he did. But he DID solve the mystery and bc death has always followed him everywhere so people in the WDO’s just like “yeah checks out”. So with a lot and I mean a LOT of skepticism he gets promoted to a master detective and also earns the title of ‘grim reaper’ (this’ll be important later) in the process bc everywhere he goes someone dies.

I should reiterate that Yomi absolutely does not feel guilty when killing in the mystery labyrinth, in fact, he feels great about using it to find the culprits. 2 reasons. First, he believes the blood is on fake zilch’s hands bc yomi didnt actually reap the culprit’s souls himself. This view is heavily challenged in chap 4. Second, to him, he’s enacting justice on the guilty and he’s not in the wrong for doing that. Like the original yomi, he views justice in a very black and white way. Fake zilch has his own opinions on the matter, but he is far more interested to see Yomi’s story to the end to bother doing anything ab his behaviour. He only opens the mystery labyrinth for yomi if the case is very complicated (except master detectives take on a lot of absurd cases, so you know how that goes)

As for how he became number 1, he probably just murdered the former one like how his original killed Amaterasu’s old ceo. Then after murder he just, took no. 1’s position without anyone knowing. Not much thought put into this part yet sorry lol. Also I’d say the UG’s successful homunculus did not use the world’s brightest mind but rather the man most associated with death, bc they didn’t obtain no 1’s DNA, and while Yomi is intelligent he isn’t even a contender for the spot.

Circling back to the grim reaper title, it comes into play on the Amaterasu express. Yomi was not dispatched to kanai ward, the real trainee Yuma was sent, but Yomi drugged him and put him in the disconnected 5th car early on. He then asks fake zilch to take his memories after he locks himself into one of the toilet stalls in car 1. Wakes up later yali yali yada, the “where am I who am I” panic, sees his letter thing “oh I’m yomi hellsmile!!”, “wait how am I already on the express ??”, “ok whatever ig”, goes into car 2 and sees detectives, then intro scene. Except yomi isn’t a doormat (no hate to Yuma I love him actually) and has an attitude lol he probably starts bickering with aphex and both nearly get physical before shinigami (who’s now the hitman, who disguises as a diff MD) and melami restrain both of them 💀

Then everyone introduces themselves and the moment yomi says his name the other MDs are like hold tf up why is the grim reaper on the Amaterasu express with us?? So now the strange circumstance is the fact that yomi appeared instead of the trainee. Still the same “oh someone who shouldn’t be here is here” type mystery but slightly different. Suspicions rise and people are starting to get riled up in the express, but then shinigami eases it up and the MDs all realize that if the amnesiac before them actually is the WDO’s grim reaper then they’re in deep shit. (They are) cue rest of chap 0.

Also, during the entirety of the introduction up to yomi getting drugged and passing out in the bathroom, fake zilch is actually able to show himself. He just… doesn’t to act like they just formed a contract.

Yeah ok that’s ab it

[raine-kai]

Third Prince from Love Like the Galaxy

Ok so after the like, half a dozen times I have seen Love Like the Galaxy, of course I adore the Third Prince. The first time I watched it, that was the biggest twist for me. Like, sure, we get that Zisheng has secrets and has been hiding his true identity--no plot description ever let us forget that, even though you have to get into the 40s before the show even starts dropping you the hints about the truth of that. Shaoshang keeps saying, "I'll stand by you unless you deceive me" etc etc she says it a couple times in a few different ways which signaled to me ok he is *definitely* deceiving her, and probably with more than just his secret identity.

Anyway, all of this pays off beautifully. Shaoshang works out a whole bunch of the truth all by herself. She and Zisheng have a confrontation about the ways in which he's been using her as a shield to hide his political movements, and she gives Zisheng FOUR openings over the course of like, 45mins of runtime to tell her the truth. But he never does, anyway she goes to his aid anyway, because liar or no, Zisheng doesn't get to go to his tragic death without Shaoshang's permission. Cue the him trying to push her away and she refusing...right up until they're trapped on the cliff and he abandons her for his presumed death.

BUT THEN.

The Third Prince storming her home and Shaoshang just ambling out of her room to the standoff to sit down on the floor and be like, "Don't worry guys, this is Zisheng's best friend. He needs me to help save Zisheng. So, Third Prince, what do you think we should do? He wouldn't wanna live in exile till you come to power like you guys have been planning, doncha think?" and I was like 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

WHAT.

THIRD PRINCE.

The guy who is always snarking in the background??? Who never has even the hint of a kind word to ANYONE. This is Zisheng's best frien-

Okay you know what, never mind, I can see that. Dude even presented evidence to get his sister punished for a crime she committed, and as we have established with Shaoshang, people who go for justice over family ties are DEFINITELY Zisheng's favorite type of person.

Anyway, so this guy is Zisheng's best friend. They've been best friends for as long as Zisheng has been in the palace, we learn, and that story Crown Princess Consort told Shaoshang about the Crown Prince rescuing Zisheng from the water? Turns out that was Third Prince, actually.

That scene at the banquet where Third Prince chides everybody for cozying up to Zisheng now that he's risen to power, and implores them all to remember who was kind to him from the start? That's not him calling them out on hypocrisy so much as staking his territory...in a way that only perhaps he, Zisheng and the Crown Prince understand (more on this later).

Pre-Reveal Third Prince in the Rewatch Experience

On rewatch, the connection between Third Prince and Zisheng is increasingly obvious. Zisheng is overtly tied to the original Crown Prince (Zikun), and Third Prince (Ziduan) despises him. On initial watch, I completely missed it because it wasn't clear to me that Third Prince cuts a fine line where he despises Zikun and everything to do with him, except for Zisheng.

NOTE: Zikun and Ziduan are original Crown Prince and Third Prince's respective courtesy names from the book, and I am going to use them going forward because it's easier than constantly trying to keep track of them via title, especially when they both held the Crown Prince title at some point.

The two of them putting on a public show of being barely civil really doesn't help things for first-time viewers, but once you see through the facade, it's increasingly obvious.

The first time we see this faked antagonism flat-out is in ep 24 when Zisheng brings Shaoshang to sit beside him, in line with Zikun (Crown Prince at the time). Ziduan immediately uses this to take a verbal stab at Zikun. Zikun (in character for him) brushes this off and points out that Zisheng is the one who brought her, while Ziduan's words lump Zikun together with Zisheng, using Shaoshang's unearned place at Zisheng's side as a sign of their ineptitude. As that scene goes on and Zisheng requests the Emperor for a betrothal, and Shaoshang's mother steps in to try to find an excuse to avoid the engagement, Ziduan is the one who articulates what's going on: that the Cheng family fears Ling Buyi to such an extent that they are willing to disparage their daughter in public to avoid a betrothal.

Going forward from here, Ziduan continues to be a fairly snarky background presence, with his noteworthy moments in the 30s being the time he brought evidence against Third Princess for using counterfeit currency, and his involvement in the playacted show that was Zisheng's "punishment" in episode 38. The punishment sequence is particularly entertaining to me to watch in retrospect, knowing that Zisheng is very much part of this show and Ziduan is his best friend, because Ziduan is visibly having fun.

One thing that I've spent a lot of time pondering is the way that, during the Huo memorial banquet, Ziduan called out everybody in the room for cozying up to Zisheng now that he has power and influence, when they used to think so little of him. He implores them all to remember who took Zisheng's side back then—which we audience, through the story the Crown Princess Consort tells Shaoshang, are led to believe refers principally to Zikun. It's only after the reveal of Ziduan and Zisheng's friendship in episode 49 that we learn that this story is incorrect—that Ziduan was the one who pulled Zisheng out of the water, and that they have been friends ever since.

This is a particularly interesting moment to me, because surely the three involved—Zisheng, Ziduan, Zikun—have not forgotten the truth of that story. But at the same time, it makes little sense for Ziduan to speak up that way if he had intended it as an outright "Zisheng is MINE, hands off". (In the corresponding scene in the novel, he does seem to be more overtly pointing out that only he has treated Zisheng well through the years, but if we start mixing canons we'll be here all day—not least because I am constrained by the limitations of navigating machine translation and my poor language abilities with the original text.) The two of them have spent too long concealing their connection for that, even within the palace walls. So I'm left to conclude that for whatever reason, they have been feeding the false rumor that Zikun was the one who saved Zisheng that day.

The issue of the tiger tally is a fascinating one once we understand all the motivations at play, because Zisheng very much supports Ziduan's bid for the throne, but he is moving against his uncle the Marquis Yue, who is one of Ziduan's most ardent supporters. The silent interplay between Zisheng and Ziduan when the supposedly-stolen tiger tally is seemingly present and accounted for is fascinating. Ziduan is visibly taken aback, and looks at Zisheng like he knows he has had something to do with this. At the same time, he says nothing even as his uncle tries to press, assuming the tally is a counterfeit. Zisheng is not merely compromising his own political schemes for Shaoshang here. He is caught in between Shaoshang—who has firmly allied herself with Zikun and Empress Xuan—and Ziduan, and he is going out of his way to maneuver in such a way where both of them remain protected, while also doing his best to salvage what he can of the plan for Ziduan (as evidenced by the fact that he did not return the tiger tally).

When Zisheng makes his choice to go after Ling Yi the way he does, it is Shaoshang who points out that he used the tiger tally knowing that it would result in Zikun being deposed, like a last gift to Ziduan. Ziduan denies this fervently, insisting that he did not want to implicate Zikun for Shaoshang's sake, but she brushes this aside. Zisheng is a detail-minded person, and he's excellent at using one action to cover multiple schemes. He knew what he was doing.

Ziduan's Conspiracy to Overthrow Zikun, and Zisheng's Involvement

We learn from Ziduan's words to Shaoshang that though Zisheng was with him and his uncle that day in the pagoda, Zisheng did not agree to join their conspiracy. Zisheng has never exposed Ziduan's intentions beyond the time he implored Shaoshang to stay away from the Eastern Palace because "someone is moving against it". It seems from Ziduan's words that he at the very least believes that Zisheng requires full plausible deniability for Shaoshang if nothing else. It's possible that Ziduan himself even believes that he does not have Zisheng's full support—although he trusts him to never get him in trouble, so the word "full" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.

The relationship between Zikun and Zisheng and Ziduan is a fascinating one. While there is no doubt that Ziduan is Zisheng's truest friend, his relationship with Zikun is not as straightforward as, Zisheng actively wants him deposed for Ziduan, though this is the place that relationship is in by the time Shaoshang enters the palace. Zisheng has grown up at Zikun's side, and has been shown to be consistently giving him good advice through the years. Even when the issue of the tiger tally comes up, the seemingly cruel advice Zisheng offers—that the one way out is for the Crown Princess Consort to confess her part and take the blame—is genuine. For all of Zikun's failings, he had the potential to be a decent ruler, if he had decent people by his side. But Zikun has consistently chosen the wrong people, and taken bad advice, and the Crown Princess Consort does nothing but exacerbate this problem. Zisheng's advice is one that is designed to mitigate the ability of the Crown Princess Consort to continue causing future damage—though given his history with counseling Zikun against marrying her or appointing her relatives, it seems a foregone conclusion that Zikun will not take it.

Zisheng is of course biased toward Ziduan over Zikun, but he has given Zikun several chances to fix things as much as possible. While he might not have the same personal warmth for Zikun that he has for Ziduan, he has not given up on Zikun because of this. By the time Shaoshang enters the palace, we understand  that if she did not get in the way, Zisheng is happy to actively take steps to get Zikun deposed—but this is only after years of trying to advise Zikun in vain.

Absolutely nobody has any hard feelings in the long run about Ziduan's conspiracy either... Well, maybe Zikun does, we don't get to hear his thoughts on the subject—but he takes criticism so well and so humbly that I don't believe he'd hold a grudge, at least not in the long term. Even Empress points out on her deathbed that she doesn't need Yue Heng to offer her any promises or assurances about her family, when Ziduan has everything under control. The love and trust the Empress shows in that moment is profound—though of course she was also very much part of the "get Zikun out of this position" committee, as much for his own sake as the country's.

Ziduan and Shaoshang

The relationship between Ziduan and Shaoshang is not a harmonious one—and I spend a lot of time contemplating if it only became as combative as it did because Zisheng was hiding Ziduan from Shaoshang and shielding Shaoshang (and Zikun) from Ziduan, or if they were always going to clash no matter what.

They are essentially in a tug of war of Zisheng's loyalty that Shaoshang does not know she is engaging in for most of the narrative. Ziduan, meanwhile, might claim that he is only being antagonistic to keep up the act, but I do feel some of his frustration directed at Shaoshang must be real, given how much her presence has altered Zisheng's priorities. While Zisheng never fully betrays either of them for the other, he also can never fully support either—by some definition, he has betrayed both of them in small ways in defense of the other.

What strikes me most of all is that Ziduan does seem to warm up to Shaoshang very rapidly once they actually begin to speak plainly to each other—though there's no indication that she has ever warmed to him in return. The fact is that in their interactions in episode 49, Shaoshang is once again (and for the last time in the narrative) placed between Zisheng and Ziduan: specifically because Ziduan needs to save Zisheng, and he knows that only Shaoshang can, but she has the gall to be abed with "illness". Their resulting dialogue is so perfect and so well-acted, I love watching Ziduan's microexpressions throughout. Shaoshang's monologue about her worth is one of my favorite moments in the drama.

I say that Shaoshang is between Zisheng and Ziduan in these scenes only because I do believe that is how Ziduan sees her, initially. But in fact, Ziduan and Shaoshang are fully united in episode 49 as the two people who are willing to burn the world down to save Zisheng. Through the narrative, we have seen so many people try to appeal to Zisheng, and so many people who claimed to love him. Yet in episode 49, we see that not even the Emperor or Zikun or Uncle Cui can bring themselves to defend what seems an entirely inexplicable descent into patricide, no matter how loathsome Ling Yi was. It is Ziduan who goes fully feral, as Shaoshang had the night of Ling Yi's birthday banquet. It's Ziduan who storms the Cheng house, ready to drag Shaoshang out of bed, chastises her for not caring enough, snaps at the entire court to shut up, lays out how much Zisheng ought to mean to them, as a nominal member of their family.

In a world full of characters who claimed to love Zisheng, when he is truly in crisis, it is Shaoshang and Ziduan who stand by his side and refuse to budge.

For several viewings—until yesterday, in fact—I had been assuming that Ziduan must have a wife, somewhere in the narrative. But on closer inspection of the unnamed members of the imperial family...it does appear possible that he doesn't have one. Which seems odd, on one hand, because if Zisheng being single at his age is treated as such a big deal, then surely Ziduan is in a similar boat? Especially vying for the Crown Prince title as he is—surely he needs a wife?

I end up believing that surely he must have one, though based on what we know of his personality, I doubt it is romantic, if it is even sexual. It seems to me that Ziduan largely sees women as property, as pawns in his game. Or maybe this is just how he sees Shaoshang, who is the only woman we truly see him interact with as a person. (Even his presenting the evidence of Third Princess's crimes was so throwaway that she might have been anybody. Presumably his relationship with his mother is doing well enough, as he escapes the fire hose of her tongue lashing at the Huo memorial banquet, but we don't get to see their relationship either.) His (entirely unfair) criticisms of Shaoshang might just be what he thinks wives ought to be—but more likely, I see it as him trying to push her to "prove her worth" so to speak, as the person who has caused Zisheng to fall for her so thoroughly as she has. Zisheng, of course, being the person Ziduan cares about most in this world, as far as the narrative shows us—which brings us to the relationship I really am here to unpack.

Ziduan and Zisheng

Despite this relationship being such a big twist and so vital to the plot, it was astonishing to me that we never get a single scene of Ziduan and Zisheng just...interacting. Not one. They are always in a crowd or in a crisis, and while there is clearly a lot of love between them, and they clearly have moments just to themselves, the show never shows us a single one.

Oh, it hints at us.

The speed at which Zisheng was able to get to Shaoshang in the pagoda also has to take into account that he had to be able to communicate to Ziduan at some point, "I'll handle this, pretend I was never here".

The undertone of glee Ziduan is emitting in episode 38 during Zisheng's chastisement is probably coming from a place of getting to humble Shaoshang (who is at this point a thorn in his side that he has never really interacted with), but I also see his amusement as emoting for both himself and Zisheng. Gosh, I love imagining the verbal conversation that must have happened with the emperor, as well as the nonverbal conversation that must have happened between Ziduan and Zisheng before Shaoshang entered the throne room.

The way Ziduan went fully feral for Zisheng in episode 49 merits another mention, because it is pronounced. Here is a character who has spent most of the show being calm and collected and extremely image-conscious and careful with his words. Yet when he enters that throne room debating the crimes of Ling Buyi, his voice is so full of rage that it's hoarse. His accusation to Shaoshang from the scene before this, that she does not care enough because she is acting too calm, is very much him projecting, because he has fully lost his cool in the face of Zisheng's crisis. And not for a single moment does he care what the crimes are, or why Zisheng did them—he doesn't even have the bare-bone information that Shaoshang has worked out about Zisheng's true identity. All Ziduan wants is to save Zisheng. (This makes me think about the dialogue between him and Shaoshang at the Cheng house, too—because of course Shaoshang has the knowledge that she can probably get him exonerated. But Ziduan doesn't know what she does, so the fact that she leads by asking what is Ziduan's game plan here? And he doesn't have an answer. Chef's kiss moment for Shaoshang, honestly.)

In episode 51, when the Emperor is confronting Ziduan and Zisheng about their attempts to get Zikun deposed, there is a moment during Zisheng's explanation that he does not want to be Emperor when a series of close-ups cut to a wide shot, and we see Ziduan pulling his hand back from Zisheng. In fact, that whole scene is full of the love and trust between Ziduan and Zisheng, even though Zisheng never once so much as acknowledges Ziduan's presence. When Shaoshang enters the room, she seats herself a step behind Zisheng to his left, which approximately mirrors Ziduan's position on his right. I adore this position, which so clearly seems to illustrate the nature of the relationship between these three, and I lament that there are no shots showing all three of them in frame together. NONE. Not in the entire show.

When Zisheng returns from his 5 years in the north in episode 52, Ziduan is walking with him, side-by-side.

When Zisheng rushes to save Ziduan in episode 55, as soon as he recognizes the threat to Guo Village where Shaoshang is, Ziduan begins to demand that Zisheng leave him and go to her immediately, lest she feel abandoned again and never forgive him again. Note that it's not that Ziduan feels she cannot handle herself—it's purely their relationship he's worried about here (and arguably prioritizing over his own life).

The love between these two is profound and beautiful and despite the contention it causes with Shaoshang (and indeed even to some degree because of that) I wish they had shown us more of it.

Interpreting What We Got

So...I end up reading Ziduan as gay, and particularly in love with Zisheng. Sure, they grew up in the palace together, but they kept their distance from one another so as not to sow discord between the palaces. I can read them as platonic best friends, but I struggle to rad them as brothers. As far as I remember, the only time either of them refers to the other as a brother is when feral Ziduan is storming the court with Shaoshang in episode 49, and he appeals to everyone to remember that Zisheng was raised among them, like a brother.

Imagining them as exes, who had a thing in their teens and even after ending that have remained best friends, is also a lot of fun.

I don't read Ziduan as all that angsty or pining—I see him as a very practical character. His temperament is so alike Zisheng's that it's easy to interpret that even if he is in love with him, if he thinks that Shaoshang is what Zisheng wants and she will make him happy, he is not going to stand in their way.

I would love to see a future where Shaoshang and Ziduan get to know each other and just agree to share Zisheng. (I couldn't resist hinting at that in the one fic I have written about this.)

Regardless of how we read Ziduan's love for Zisheng, as I see it, as of the end of the show, Shaoshang still stands between Zisheng and Ziduan, but Ziduan no longer holds this against her. He understands that Zisheng needs her to be happy, and that for the rest of his life, he will be devoted to her. Maybe on some level Ziduan even feels he owes Shaoshang this too, given how he promised her before going to rescue Zisheng from the side of the cliff, that he would make sure Zisheng apologized to her—and never did.

The only thing preventing all three of them happily being friends (or a throuple, or two consenting couples whose hypotenuse between Shaoshang and Ziduan is a queer platonic relationship, which is my shipping preference) is Shaoshang's (very justified!) distrust/distaste for Ziduan. Which I think could be mitigated, given time and effort. I want to see it mitigated.

One thing that has struck me on these repeated rewatches is the way that Ziduan is so upfront about his affection for Zisheng as soon as he is able to do so openly. It makes me wonder how much he has counted on having Zisheng at his side when he eventually secured the Crown Prince position, and how much it must pain him that Zisheng sacrificed his position in the palace to secure him that spot. (Though of course he would be able to see as well as we can that it is also Zisheng's penance for everything, including wronging Shaoshang.)

Anyway, I love Wen Ziduan so much.

[fantastic-nonsense]

This is a bit arbitrary, but is Oracle’s existence public knowledge pre-Flashpoint? As in, does the average citizen know of Oracle? I’m reading up on Barbara because I’ve only read her pre-Crisis Batgirl stuff so far, but I’m kind of… iffy about the BOP book because of the writers.

No, Oracle's existence wasn't public knowledge. Babs' identity was completely secret until halfway through Ostrander and Yale's Suicide Squad run and even after that most of the heroing community didn't know who she was, much less the general public. Birds of Prey as a book largely functions on the reality that the team is, essentially, a covert ops team led by a figure whose existence isn't public knowledge and whose identity is somewhat unknown even to the larger heroing community. As we move through the post-Crisis timeline, Oracle's existence largely stays secret from the public but most of the heroing community knows that she exists and works with her. She even had a stint where she worked closely with the JLA during the Watchtower era.

In terms of her secret identity: the Bats know that Babs is Oracle, and the Birds know that she's Oracle, and various individual heroes (like Ted Kord and certain members of the Justice League that she regularly works with) know that she's Oracle, but there's still several people who have no idea that Barbara Gordon and Oracle are the same person (much less that she used to be Batgirl).

By the time we get to Blackest Night/Brightest Day in 2010, Babs decided that too many people knew about her existence as Oracle and way too many people out of that group knew that Oracle was Barbara Gordon. So she faked Oracle's death to the larger superheroing community in a very mid and weird BOP plotline called 'The Death of Oracle', leaving only a select number of people (most of the Bats and the BOP) aware that she was still alive. This canonically had major consequences for several heroes who were relying on her intel and were in the middle of dangerous assignments when she went dark, but also wasn't properly explored as much as it could have been since a) The Black Mirror, which Babs co-starred in, was also happening at the time and b) the reboot happened shortly afterwards.

In terms of Birds of Prey the book, Vol. 1 (1999-2009) is pretty solid the entire way through:

Funnily enough I consider Dixon's Birds of Prey run to be one of his Top 3 comics. There's a reason an all-female team title written in the early 2000s survived long enough to be handed over to another writer and it's because Dixon made it work. Babs (and her relationships with other characters) is his one exception when writing women and I still don't know why 20 years later. There are definitely still significant amounts of Dixon Flaws™ that shine through in that run, but he's one of Babs' best writers and is still probably the best Dick/Babs writer we've ever had–largely because he's one of the few writers who actually gives a fuck about Babs as a character separate from her relationship with Dick. Which is weird because it's Dixon, but it's still true.

Gail Simone's run is well-written with good plotlines and has better treatment of the characters overall. It's also extremely racist at times (specifically anti-Asian) and occasionally veers into weirdly immature "high school mean girl bickering" interations. She writes an excellent Babs, but I think she was also dealing with a lot of external and internalized misogyny as one of the only major female writers at DC and as someone who got to where she was because she played somewhat nice with the "good old boys' club." Her work on BOP is not without significant flaws, but it's also a really fun read and I recommend it.

I wouldn't really bother reading BOP Vol. 2 (2010-2011) unless you're a completionist and every post-Flashpoint iteration of the team has been either "decent concept, bad execution" (the New 52 book) or "this is just bad, pull it now" (every version of the book since). If you remove Oracle from the equation and pretend like post-Flashpoint's watered-down Batgirl!Babs is a suitable replacement, you've already lost a fundamental aspect of what made the book work in the first place.

[gargusscp]

Decalog 1: Enigma - "Fallen Angel" by Andy Lane

Cracking through the utter avalanche of Doctor Who books in my backlog and rambling about them on tumblr because this site deserves someone who cares to post about the short story anthologies.

The first of Virgin's anthologies uses a pretty standard set-up for its wrap-around segments, entitled "Playback": Seven has lost his memories, stumbled into a private eye's office in the mid-1940s, and together they seek out the help of a psychometrist, whose visions sparked by assorted objects in the Doctor's coat serve as glimpses into interrelated stories from his past. Obviously I can't judge the thing until through with the book, but Stephen James Walker seems to have an alright imitation of period detective novel descriptive language, and it's neat seeing a guileless Seven when one knows a Virgin-era story means there's some overly-convoluted plan in the wings once his memories return.

As to "Fallen Angel" itself, we kick off with as close a crossover as Lane and Virgin can publish without a lawsuit. The narration most commonly sticks to the thoughts and experiences of one Lucas Seyton, a gentleman thief whose shady family history compels him to give back by robbing the world's rich criminality their ill-gotten gains, for both justice and the fun of it. He aliases under the story's title, leaves a calling card with a little stick figure doodle of himself, brushes elbows with working-class friends who enable his adventures, and lives life to the fullest with no apology for his criminality or compunctions as to its righteousness. His voice is also described in tones evoking Roger Moore. In other words, he's a thinly-veiled analog for Leslie Charteris' popular hero Simon Templar, alias The Saint, and the story is basically Lane bumping him against a fellow 60s British telly alumni so they can exchange banter, save each other's bacon, and generally compliment how brilliant they find the other despite differences in philosophy.

S'not a bad thing by any shot. Seyton's an amiably-written perspective character whose blase attitude and observations about the Doctor's eccentricities are amusing, especially opposite so disheveled an incarnation as Two, and Lane uses the homage as excuse for all the classic pulp adventure staples. Rough alleyway encounters, morning after recuperation and pleasantries, high-flying biplane dogfights, desperate manor-bound shoot-outs, the works. Highly amusing to imagine Troughton bumbling and panicking through the best realizations a mid-60s ITV budget could manage, or exchanging quotations from Winnie the Pooh opposite Moore.

The actual plot of the thing is deliberately incomplete, as you're supposed to piece things together through the whole anthology, though I've a complaint all the same. The Doctor accidentally lands the TARDIS in a manor house that's secretly a Time Lord prison for warmongering aliens whose punishment after defeat was confinement in a convincingly faked forever war, and barely escapes the automated security on his lonesome. All the business with Seyton goes down, the Doctor revealing little details all the while, they bust into the manor, and find the prisoners dead, having killed each other over some petty dispute long ago, their robotic guards still viciously attacking any intruders because the Doctor forgot to program their deactivation if their charges died. It's always irksome to me when Wilderness Era stories decide the increased focus on Seven's machiavellian tendencies means all prior incarnations were equally duplicitous and scheming, cause it never fits how One was written or played to imply he was some brilliant Time Lord mastermind with fingers in all their devious little projects. I know we're stuck with it because "Remembrance of the Daleks" is a classic and the Hand of Omega plot point is super memorable, but I'm a stickler for Doctors feeling right, and this bit ain't it.

(Also it's a Jamie and Zoe-era story in which they barely feature, so boo on that too.)

Beyond a bother introduced by the frame story's needs, I'm happy with this self-indulgent fannish runaround. Nice tribute to the then-recently deceased Charteris. I'd say it's pretty solidly...

GOOD

[birubilirubin]

Thanks to someone I rechecked the dialog in Conan

付き合うことになった

You are going out with her.

彼女を潜入するために付き合うんでしょう？

Aren't you going out with her to infiltrate?

二人の女は同時に愛せるほど器用な性分じゃないでね。

I'm not dexterous enough to love two women at the same time.

The plot goes like this:

Akai approaches Akemi – Approached her to gain her trust or to make her fall in love with him and began dating - Akemi introduces him to Shiho as a lover - Became close friends with Shiho- Infiltrated the organization through Shiho’s connections

In the dialogue above, we can know the timeline was that he has not infiltrated the organization, and he wasn't dating Akemi at that time, he just met her and there was a love bombing process to gain her trust or to make her fall in love for a few days or months. It was not that he just met her and then suddenly asked her out, unless she's really a love brain and crazy about him.

器用な性分じゃない =不器用/ 無器用

不器用 (Not very dexterous / Bad at doing things)

It means that he is not good at communicating, not good at socializing, not good at getting along like a couple.

So 愛せる doesn't refer to the literal meaning of "Love", but it refers to the contextual meaning of "Doing all the things that couples do", and he's not good at handling it. So, the indication is that he was not in 2 boats at the same time.

So the 2 women are still referring to Akemi and Jodie.

Because it's hard to find the original text. So, I only heard from the animation. So maybe there are wrong words.

84さい、嘘、本当は.....

I'm 84 years old, kidding, actually I....

Interrupted by Ai's hat falling off

....ますます興味ぶかい魅力的...

You're getting more and more interesting and fascinating (because Conan can figure out the bomber from just a few clues).

８４歳バアバに言われたかねよ

I don't want to be praised by an 84-year-old grandmother

あなたの似合い18歳よ、なんてね。

I'm 18 years old just like you, I'm kidding.

えっ??

Huh??

The full sentence becomes like this

84歳、嘘、本当はあなたの似合い１８歳よ、なんてね。

I'm 84 years old, it's a lie, I'm actually 18 like you, Just kidding.

Huh?? (You're really 18 years old??)

(So it's not ambiguous right)

まだ糸は切れていない

The thread has not been cut (Their destiny has not been cut)

糸= 運命  (thread = Destiny / Bond)

Title of this chapter 運命の人 (The destined person)

This chapter tells a lot about Akai Shuichi, from the appearance of the fake Akai, Jodie and Akai’s past, and Subaru also appears. So, the destined person refers to Akai Shuichi.

Shiratori is the one destined for Kobayashi.

Aoyama also used Ayumi's mouth to explicitly say 放っとけない人は、好きな人です (The person you worry about is the person you like).

Who is the person who worries about Haibara the most, installing bugs everywhere, having his subordinates guard her or tap her when he has to leave Kudo’s house, forbidding her from going to the crime scene, picking her up when she didn’t come home?.

Akemi said "The only thing to worry about is you, Shiho", and Akemi loved Shiho.

The title of this chapter is ‘白い雪黒い影’ (White Snow Black Shadow). All chapter titles are clues, it applies in Conan.

When Shiho first appeared the chapter was titled 白い世界 (The White World).

Thanks to Gin, we know shiho is White Snow 白い雪, and she likes Scarlet 緋色

The kanji is the same as the kanji in the chapter "The emergence of scarlet". 緋色

白い雪 White Snow refers to Shiho. It was because Shiho still has her own sense of justice although she's been in the dark world since she was a baby.

黒い影 The black shadow refers to Akai. At that time, Akai was still suspected of being black.

So the narrative trick played out like this:

Akai saw Ran, and he thought of a stupid woman (×)

Haibara saw Ran, and she thought of Akemi (×)

So X = Stupid woman = Akemi.

The animation/movie team and the most fans’ logic are like that.

"I knew it was the wrong person"

Akai probably heard that a brown-haired girl (Sonoko) was following the doctor (He already knew the doctor was Vermouth)

When Subaru met Ran and Sonoko, he immediately noticed Sonoko first. "You, browned-haired girl", he said it to Sonoko.

It can be seen that the buildings marked in both pictures are very similar, and there is no fence on the street. So it was the same place where Miyano Shiho first appeared and was shot by Gin.

The most important point is that there is a phone booth in that place. Akai also came out of the phone booth.

Then, in Vermouth's apartment there was a Shiho photo, but during the full moon chapter, Akai met Haibara, but he still said "The person I was waiting for didn't show up".

So, I assume Akai has two different targets from the FBI, I.e:

1. Finding Shiho

2. Confronting Gin

He probably thought he could find those two people with him following Vermouth, but the FBI knew nothing about them.

So his revenge on Gin was not for Akemi.

The only witness to Akemi's murder was Vodka. How could Akai know the person who shot Akemi was Gin?. It could have been another member.

That's why Akai's actions towards Gin were all related to Shiho not Akemi. These three people have a story, and only they know about it.

Then, I look at the vocabulary he used was complex and romantic, and have many implied expressions, and comparing his dialog with Ayumi's, his dialog was rarely used in daily conversation (Well, although it's an Oresama character's dialog, and don't use this grammar in daily conversation, or you will get slapped by others). Every dialog box of every character is always carefully thought out, right. So I think Aoyama designed Akai's character as a character who is quite dark, deep and has hidden feelings (deep affection).

For example:

愛しい愛しい宿敵(こいびと) 愛しい and 恋人 can not only be interpreted as dearest love, but can also be interpreted as the person he misses. So it can be interpreted as (Gin who I miss).

So 恋人(こいびと) is not referring to Akemi.

Aoyama is traditional Japanese. The use of these words is often found in classical Japanese literature (Osamu Dazai, Akutagawa, etc)

The shadow is very deep, right.

File 874

From what Bourbon said, "I met your mother and your sister".

Then Shiho (Kid) said, "You are the rival of my sister's boyfriend, Moroboshi Dai. I heard from my sister that you don't get along."

"My sister's boyfriend" in Ai's mind this misunderstanding is still not resolved. Ai didn't know it was just a fake relationship. So it wasn't Shu-Ake's official CP hammer.

"I heard from my sister" We all clearly knew Akemi is just an outsider, she wouldn't know the problem with Rye and Bourbon. Based on Rye's character he wouldn't tell her about it either. Then based on Aoyama's interview, he said "Akemi didn't remember Bourbon". It is a contradiction.

It can be inferred that "I met your mother and your sister" was when he was a child, and Akemi has forgotten about him.

So this "I heard from my sister" is Aoyama's narrative trick. Because Aoyama wanted to hide Shuichi-Shiho's close relationship. He used a patch sentence (I heard from my sister) to cover up the original information.

Then, I saw some theories from Chinese fans who argued, the dialog probably like this because I also forgot it, "Like two sisters (姉妹), I know your action".

Actually, there is no need to use complex logic to analyze the dialogue in Conan, just use simple logic. "Sisters" still refers to Shiho and Akemi not Vermouth and Yukiko. "Your action is just like two sisters" This action doesn't refer to Haibara's action of crying silently, but Haibara's action of sacrificing herself for others just like Akemi sacrificed herself for Shiho, and Akai clearly knew it. So this dialog doesn't describe Akai knowing Akemi well (because cring silently). So, the girl who cries silently still refers to Shiho (Haibara). Akai only knew Akemi sacrificed herself for Shiho (from the message she sent).

Then, In Conan, the information we get from each character is not synchronized. It happens in the case of Subaru and Wakasa's identities, so you can't line them up linearly, but you have to look at each character's perspective.

Some of Ran's behaviors can refer to several characters depending on the perspective of each character describing Ran, so Ran doesn't just seems like Akemi because they both have long black hair.

For example, in one of the daily cases. A murderer saw Ran and he saw his girlfriend's shadow because Ran's voice was similiar to his girlfriend.

In Ai's mind, Ran's characteristics, bright, kind-hearted, protect her, was the same as Akemi.

Ran wanted to go home because she was worried about Conan. But Ai suddenly shouted at her to stop her, seeing her sister's shadow. This is Ai's guilt for Akemi because she couldn't stop her at that time.

But for Akai who only always saw Ran crying alone was similar to Shiho.

And in Ai's mind Ran's behavior of always holding back her crying, pretending to smile was just like herself. So that's why Ai understands Ran's feelings because they have the same behavior like pretending to be strong.

It's in chapter 335 A Gift from The Wife, sorry I don't have a picture.

This chocolate is smiling, but its face is sad.

A face torn with pain and tears, she pushed herself too hard

Mistranslation in the English version

It should be a dialogue box for Yamamura

The dialog should be like this

"If you get in contact with Hiro-chan again. You'll talk to him about me..."

Look at the angle when Shinichi said to Ai. It has the same angle, and it's a lens language where the conversation doesn't use subject and object if there are only two of them there.

In the English version the object becomes "Her"

"I will protect her......"

If he loved her, Akai should have gone to save her when he knew Akemi was in danger, or he can spend 1000 episodes taking care of her grave. But instead he appeared to meet her younger sister with a smiling face every day.

Haibara said 守ってくれるんでしょう to Conan

....んです is an emphasis sentence.

She's emphasizing that Conan will protect her right?. Because there was someone who wanted to protect her, but he didn't keep his promise.

Spoiler M26

Many of the character settings are very OOC and slightly out of the manga. First, Akai's reaction when he found out Ai was kidnapped was calm, while in the manga he was looking for her all over the city with a sad face. Second, How could he miss it, so all those bugs are useless. Third, Ai heard Akai's voice through the intercom of the diving goggles, but she didn't respond at all, and after Conan started answering the call, but her attention was only on Conan, and she only responded with "Kudo-kun", it is not Ai-chan who will think of Moroboshi Dai when she hears that someone likes to drink black coffee. Fourth, Conan said "そんな颜してんじゃねーよ" (Don't make faces like that) to Ai-chan. The production team seemed to run out of ideas and just Ctrl+C - Ctrl+V another CP's phrase and pasted it on the popular CP, although the structure is slightly different from Akai's "そんな颜するな". Fifth, the Conan-Ai kiss that seems like a copy-paste of the Conan-Ran kiss in M2. My first reaction after reading it was that there were a lot of character setups that didn't make sense and didn't match the plot of the original manga, and it was again a recycling of the previous plot.

[cornedbread]

Hey so what is your favorited Bbieal au ship

:))

Apologies for late reply 🙏

TL;DR my favourite ships are Shybi, Billfriend, Joedina, Olivialex and Dollex.

Shybi 😮🧤 (Shy John x Billy)

Best friends to lovers trope + “Light in the dark” trope — very cliche but I adore it very much. I think that Billy always tries to portray himself as “well-made” to the public, but behind closed doors he’s literally everything except “well-made.” He’s emotional (Non-Emotional Creature being used to “clean up trash”); he doesn’t know how to deal with his emotions adequately (Vending machine of Beer, need I say more?); he’s tired (shoutout to Billy’s three jobs, mad respect to single-parent fatherhood 💪); he’s arrogant sometimes (This isn’t inspired by canon, I think Billy would have an ego from being always told he’s “well-made”); he’s haunted by things that aren’t there (The Great War, circa 1985, from CBA).

But despite all of this, there’s always one guy who has his back. And it’s his best friend, Shy John (⌒▽⌒) Why do I think that? Well, in the mods the only character to consistently appear is Shy John. Wherever Billy is, Shy John is there too. And of course Billy is very greatful for Shy John’s care. So much that he makes prioritises Shy John’s well-being over his (Funfact: Shy John’s sprite is the only one that is “undamaged” in “11 Years Later”). But not in an obssesive way, more of a “As long as he’s okay, then everything is okay” — self-destruction is not well-made!

Billfriend 🧤⏰ (Billy x Girlfriend/Old Friend)

So much of this is headcanon/personal interpretation because Girlfriend & Old Friend literally have 0 personality in the source material 😭

I think their relationship is tragic, Billy loved his old “friend” so much he built a robot to subsitute her. But the robot is a robot, therefore she can’t replicate Old Friend perfectly. I also find it poetic that Billy’s Girlfriend is only known as “Billy’s Girlfriend,” a title is the only thing she can replicate. She can never replicate his old friend… Someone that shared memories, struggles and celebrations with him…

This is also equally tragic from Old Friend’s perspective. She’s perceived as a dead soul, when in actuality she’s very much alive but trapped in The Office™ like she’s “Kaiba getting banished to the shadow realm.” If we’re to assume this is the same Office™ that FileName2 is trapped in, then Old Friend can still see Billy. But only as a spectator. She can’t interact with him; only watch his life progress with others, as her’s is trapped in purgatory alone.

Joedina 🍾🥔 (Joe x Baldina)

They’re both losers, therefore they should kiss. And then maybe along the way, they’ll help eachother become not losers. Mutual improvement!

Olivialex 🫒🌷(Olivia x Fake Alex)

It’s not the killing that they’re infatuated with. Olivia wants to genuinely hunt down and kill Alex for justice; Alex wants to hunt down Olivia as a way to mess with her and keep her for himself. Olivia is playing hero, while Alex is acting like a wannabe-yandere. Though they want to kill eachother, they just can’t… Olivia sees Alex as a fascinating discovery, something to be studied and cultivated; Alex sees Olivia as a desireable asset for doing work and keeping him company. They say they don’t want to be friends, but perhaps in a timeline where they didn’t want to kill eachother so bad, they could be co-workers.

They hate eachother so much it wraps back around to infatuation. They don’t love eachother, they’re just so obsessed with killing the other that they end up dedicating their whole lives to it. But once they actually get to killing or losing the other person, suddenly it feels wrong. Because after death, what do you do now?

Dollex 📓🌷(Dolly x Real Alex)

Mostly headcanon for Real Alex because he has 0 personality in source material ⚰️

From a bus stop to a weird house, Dolly and Alex are good friends who’ve gone through alot. When I say “gone through alot,” I mean Alex’s depression. Alex is troubled by many things: his work, the value of his life, his aspirations and most strangely… His house. To qoute Dolly from the MrDrNose discord server, “It was a weird and old apartment.” Maybe it’s the scratches on the walls; or the empty plates with steak juice despite Alex saying he’s not fond of eating meat; or the copious amount of broken broomsticks. Either way… Dolly thinks it’s best to ignore it. The only demons she knows about are Alex’s inner demons that make him feel miserable. And those are the only demons she’s willing to deal with. It’s not her job to care for him, it’s her choice. She loves Alex and wants to see him get better, Alex is in denial that someone can be so caring and kind towards him. But over time he learns to accept Dolly and her kindness into his life. And when he improves he’ll remember all the times Dolly helped him, so he’ll surely help Dolly when she’s in her darkest moments too! Snap out of this self-loathing and self-pity, finally do something with his life and help another life! So that both lives can live happily.

At least, that’s how it was supposed to go. If it wasn’t for the demon (literal) in the house and the demons (figuratively) in the mind…

[not-my-final-account]

King of the shadows a/u

So Vader is captured by rebels and proves to not even make a facial expression when they torture him, eventually they hook him up to a memory machine and off handedly the rebel mentioned ‘who even were you’ and it showed (to the lyrics of that song ‘you with the dark curls, you with the watercolour eyes, you who bears all your teeth, in every smile’) memories of Anakin smirking and jumping off something, of being curious and spinning around with wide eyes, of him smiling wide but always looking happy. And this time the rebel just looks at Vader and asks ‘What happened to you?’ but he didn’t think it did anything until suddenly the same guy from the previous memories steps back with his lightsaber brandished looking scared, and the guy says ‘You’re Darth Sidious? yOU’RE THE GUY I’VE SPENT MY LIFE LOOKING FOR?!’ and then he steps forward angrily changing to the same position but offensive ‘YOU’RE THE GUY WHO STARTED THE WAR THAT RUINED MY LIFE!? AND YOU’VE BEEN PLAYING BOTH SIDES! USING PEOPLE LIKE PAWNS!! NO ONE’S A SLAVE!!!’ and the evil(who people actually recognise as a younger emperor) comes into view with his hands behind his back, smirking. He says ‘oh yes, me. Your dear mentor- your dear friend!‘ and then he grins at the other guy(Anakin) revealing ruined teeth and a sinister grin ‘oh not so fast my dear- hah, no. My dead boy.’ he shrugs then pulls out his lightsaber, drawing it slowly through the air, he loses the fake smile ‘Join the dark side or reap the repercussions’ he says, Anakin stands taller and hardens his face ‘I will never join the dark side. The sith(because he doesn’t understand yet) have killed too many, I will bring you to justice.’ But Palpatine just laughs ‘But! I’m afraid you can’t hurt me. Not because of this lightsaber,’ and he looks up from his blade, bringing it closer to his face and grinning evilly at Anakin ‘but because I hold all your family in my hands’ and he points his lightsaber at Anakins neck but Anakin doesn’t resist, looking at the ground and whispering ‘no…’ but Palpatine says ‘oh I’m afraid so. Like you said, this war, is my. game. And the house always wins!’ he cackles evilly and looks at Anakin who is staring at him as a single tear drips down his cheek ‘so. What will it be? Let you family die. Or join me.’ Palpatine says, Anakin lowered his lightsaber and took a step back, fear and horror echoing on his face, he hesitated, then bowed ‘I serve you. My master.’ he says, Palpatine raises an eyebrow ‘you already know the title you should call me? Oh wait, you’ve always been a slave.’

It cuts to another memory

Anakin sits now black-cloaked on a ledge at Mustafar, tears stream down his face and blood drips off his clothes but his eyes stay ice blue as lava hisses and boils and jumps in the background, a warning of his fate to come. Suddenly a ship flies down, Anakin immediately looks up and recognises it as his Angels ship. He runs down and as he runs he curses out sidious and his eyes start to flood red as lighting crackles from his hand and shadows swarm his feet, he stops and shakes his head, the forces retreating and his eyes returning back to their normal blue ‘no’ he says ‘I will not join the dark side, I just need to beat Sidious that’s all’ he arrives at the landing pad and hugs her tightly the minute she steps onto the ground, he sobs ‘I’m so glad you’re alright.’ he says, his Angel frowns ‘Of course, why wouldn’t I be?’ Anakin opens his mouth to respond when I blue lightsaber flies past him, singeing the edge of his hair and his eyes shoot wide open, Obi-Wans voice echos out ‘Let go of the senator. Sith.’ Obi-Wan spits out the last word and he raises his hand and Anakins Angel goes flying, Anakin makes to run after her but the ‘perfect’ Jedi jumps down and blocks him, his eyes shadowed by Mustafars darkness. The Jedi catches his blade and draws it on Anakin. But Anakin steps back ‘M-master? Why are yo- wait! I can explain! Sidious he-’ the Jedi cut him off by jumping at him to attack Anakin backed up and still tried to explain ‘Master he- ARGH!” Anakin cried out as he grabbed his flesh arm, just to feel a stump, nearly cutting off his shoulder, Anakin stumbled back then froze he looked at his arm then up to his master as tears start to stream down his face, the already dulled by the war spark in his eye goes away, all the hope and worry and emotion drains from his face- replaced by something hopeless and horrified that he can’t name, ‘m-master?’ he stammered and tears dripped down his face and off his chin, ‘You- you’d h-hurt me? I-I’d never-‘ he cuts himself off’You never even cared did you?’ he gives up, he stops fighting and lets the darkness consume his soul, lets the red swim in his eyes, his used-be master points his blade to his neck and he steps backwards, not seeing the cliff. As he falls without comprehending his master threw his lightsaber and cut his legs off, upon snapping out of the shock and realising how little he seemed to mean to his master, that he would betray him on the word of someone else he lost his control of the force, he fell into lava, and

S C R E A M E D

The force screamed with him, for him. He growled and cried out to the shadows in a million voices ‘COME!’ and the shadows answered his call, pulling their leader out of the lava, his legs and arm were replaced with shadows, ending and starting at no set point. The lava bowed before him and the shadows cried in delight, their leader had finally decided to join them, to rule them in his rightful place, and they whispered as such in his ear as anger replaced all else and what light was left in his soul ran. Our ruler, our master, our king, you are ours, let us help you, we’re yours, and more into his ear. He growled as his flesh burnt but not as bright as his eyes. He spoke one word ‘up.’

Kenobi, would pay.

(Also a/u where Fox doesn’t die just becomes a corrupt shadow creature that lurks in the the shadows of Coruscant and haunts Sidious, so Fox serves Vader here, oh well, Vader was never one of the ‘Guard but not GAR’ people

Fox is like, rotting skin fused with his blacks, moldy and broken armour covered in layers of dirt and filth, shadows wrapping his being, corrupted by coruscant still with a single strand of curly grey-black hair falling out through a slit in his helmet)

(I imagine one day Vader and some of his officers are walking in the depth of Coruscant for one reason or another, and the shadows start slowly creeping closer and closer to the officers and Vader sees and is like ‘HEY! They’re with me!’ And the shadows immediately back away and they are never bothered again until one day like a year later one of the officers decides to betray Vader and he just throws the officer of a ledge and says ‘get him’ and creatures of unimaginable just raise up from the void and grab him never to be seen again.)

(Vader: I am the king *a crown of shadows is on his head as the cameras falls down and shadows rise up behind him*

Sidious: you’re just the pawns *pads to a chess board with important people as pieces*

)

[creaticare]

I have been tagged by @grayseyebrowscar for a WIP game, and I have too many WIP's to not make a separate post. Some of them haven't been touched in ages, but they are still WIP's. There are also themes of death, abuse, and self-harm at least in the titles, and maybe in the WIP sentences.

rules: share the first line (or two or more!) of every current wip you have (that you feel comfortable sharing) and tag some writer friends! feel free to add the titles of your documents if you see fit

AOT

Guardian Angel: "Sasha sat up and looked around at her surroundings, she was back at her house in the forest.*

Criminal Minds

Our Witches Heart: "Reid sat at his desk just spinning around, he had finished his paperwork a while ago and now he was just letting his head roam."

DC Comics/Young Justice

Fear Toxined Batfam: "It was a normal patrol when their comms crackled to life, Oracle's voice coming through into their ears."

Green Lantern Ring: "The battle was nearing its end, the Justice League was on its last leg stopping these aliens."

Our friends shouldn't meet ends: "Jason stood with a sword in his hands, at the ready, a playful smile on his face as Wally also fell into stance."

When I Find You: "Dick always found the prospect of soulmates intriguing, his parents seemed like they had a perfect unbreakable bond, so that means he should also have the perfect bond when he was older."

Fairy Tail

MCD one-shots Bxl: "The feeling of being burned from the inside out wasn't one that Bixslow would ever say he appreciated, especially as he felt blood dribble out of his mouth."

MCD one-shots Gjl: "The Guild Hall was buzzing with an uneasy energy under the normal rambunctiousness."

Our Souls Weave Through, Chp 3: "Another week had passed since they had first found themselves in these strange times."

Our Souls Weave Through, Abuse, Gjl: "Gajeel absolutely hated it here, he has only been a part of Phantom Lord for a month and he was miserable, best guild along with the ranks of Fairy Tail his ass."

Our Souls Weave Through, Bitey One-Shot: "Fairy Tail was pretty used to the biting habit Natsu seemed to have, most of them having grown up with him, and having seen him constantly doing it, or being a victim at one point or another."

Haikyuu:

Got a secret series, Can you Keep it: "After all the Ushijima Fiancé craziness had washed over, a fan chose to go back and rewatch the interview."

Swim, Spike, Receive: "Kageyama Tobio didn't always live in Miyagi, he actually used to live in Tokyo with his older brother."

My Life is your Tribute, Hunger Games Crossover: "The ten districts of Panem all used to be one unified country along with their Capital, until they rebelled, causing a war to spread."

Racing Royalty: "Empress sat upon the hood of her car as her Knight filled up the gas in preparation for the race."

Tsukishima's Shoulder, Finding our Footing: "He kept going through the cycles, kept going through these large cycles of doubt. The surgery date was creeping up on him and he was scared."

Creepy Crawly Crows: "The two teams on the court flinched back and the crowd went silent as the Military burst through the doors in the gym."

Figure Four, Finale: "The announcer cleared their throat to get the attention of the stadium, 'Everyone there is still one more performance for today.'"

Sewn Silence: "Bokuto's insecurities were knocking on the metaphorical door once again, he had the all locked away behind a wall of fake emotions."

Short & Tall: "Nishinoya picked up his pace as he tried to keep up with Tsukishima's freakishly long strides. This was one of the many reasons he was not a fan of tall people, they walk too damn fast."

TPN x Haikyuu: "Emma threw her head back as she felt the breeze pass by, she took a deep breath of her true freedom."

Buckle up, it's MHA time

(I have so many MHA fics, at least plans, I was hyperfixated on it for a long time.)

1-A childhood friends and soulmates: "Memories are a fickle thing, you cherish them when you're young, but they will slowly disappear as you grow. Those who you would hold so close to your heart, will suddenly disappear."

Bomb on Campus: "The bright numbers flashed over the campus as teachers were guiding students out of the buildings and through the gates."

Bonding Notes, Chp 3: "As Shoji makes his way into the dorm he digs into his pocket for his white cane."

Fuck, it's the Family: "When class 1-A walked into the classroom one fateful morning they were put on edge by the sinister smile on their teacher's face."

Gouged Clouds and Pittering Paws: "Aizawa was born with his Parental Mark set on his collarbone, a small black cat curled up, sleeping peacefully."

Interviews with the 3's: "The recording flickered on as they all sat around the common rooms of the dorm, Class 3-A and 3-B convened together."

Mutation Quirk Erasure: "Aizawa woke up and went to wake up his kids with a bad feeling in his gut, his brain telling him that something had happened."

Quirk Drawback Fics, Shoji: "The day had been slow, they all started off with Homeroom and then went through their classes until getting to hero training."

Separated for Safety, Chp 2: "Bakugo woke up, his vision slowly coming into focus, he stares at the bright white ceiling as he tries to remember what happened."

Splat the Colorful Hero: "Deku sat atop the roof that All Might had left him on, he sat on the edge with his legs dangling over."

Trauma and Friends: "The class had been getting closer, they were three fourths of the way through their first year at UA, but there were still some barriers between them."

Vanishers, Later in the fic: "Aizawa's head swiveled around to look at the door that had just been flung open, standing there was a panting Present Mic."

What Happened to Memories?: "Memories are a precious thing, but they always seem to just disappear."

When time turns back: "The class was scattered around the area as they fight villains in close and far quarters."

3 Pros, 1 Civilian: "Izuku Midoriya was an odd kid raised in odd ways, he has 4 parents that helped raise him but that's not what was weird about it."

3-A year: "Shoji quickly finished packing his bag, even though classes didn't start till tomorrow he wanted to make sure he had time to move back into the dorms, and get adjusted to his friends."

Deaf MHA: "Aizawa watched his students closely both in and out of class so at any moment he could see if there was anything wrong with them."

Pro Hero Wards, Chaos Fic: "Shoji sits in the common room with his stuff as the class slowly leaves for Christmas break, he was one of the few left waiting."

Shoji Retires: "He couldn't have even told them himself, they had to find out from the official Pro Hero news. Katsuki had run across the article that morning and sent it to the group chat of their old class."

Whumptober

Day 7: "She looks behind her quickly to check if the people are still following her, she doesn't see anyone, but she keeps running."

There are all of my Current and Old WIP's, I'm not gonna tag anyone, but it's open for anyone who wants to do it.

[blueflyingturtleontheway]

Now then let's go with... oh 21 and 37

What's funny is that I didn't even plan to take this ask game XD

But those questions are too good to pass up, so let's go:

21. What’s one secret of theirs that could potentially ruin a relationship they have?

This question is perfect for Aleksandr... Because it already happened to him. We've already said that he was responsible for Stanislaw's (temporary) death and kept it a secret for many (around 27) years, so maybe I'll tell a little more about the effects of when his secret got revealed.

What's important is that he told Lyudmila himself (which kinda made it better? But not really x)) and at that moment she was too shaken to say anything more than just to get out. But her next thought was to bring him back and just execute him without court, with only Stanislaw to stop her from that. Obviously Aleksandr lived but Lyudmila took away almost all of his titles and privileges, he got cast out from the capital and forbidden from ever take any official roles again - and that's quite a downgrade from being the closest person to the knyaz with the exception of her literal husband.

Though Lyudmila's actions might seem drastic (they were) given how long ago it happened and, Stanislaw being alive again and the fact that Aleksandr spent all those years serving her and the kingdom, but from her perspective? She just learned that her best friend who majorly helped her put herself back together after her love's death and whom she has trust with his life many times later, was the same man WHO KILLED HIM. And it felt to her as if their whole friendship was built on a lie, as if Aleksandr not only killed Stanislaw but also used it to get closer to her. And she really trusted him like no one else, she thought they had no secrets before each other but he's been keeping such a major one for such a long time?! Lyudmila is also a very lawful person (as the ruler she literally is the law to some degree) and this also put doubt on him not only as her friend but as her right hand man too, how can she trust him with national matters if he might be hiding other murderous secrets? If he lies to his ruler?

She judged him for what she could and tried to just cut him out of her life, but to some degree the worst punishment came from other people. Because of Lyudmila's violent reaction, an avalanche of gossip erupted and some of them were even worse than the actual crime Aleksandr committed, pushing him even further into his solitude and ruining the life of his son as well...

37. What’s their favorite thing about their significant other, if they have one?

You didn't specify which pair this refers to, so we'll just tell about both XD

For Stanislaw he definitely admires Lyudmila's passion and dedication, how she puts everything into ruling the kingdom, caring about her family and basically everything she does without exhausting herself, whereas Lyudmila loves how open he is, both in terms of honesty and a kind of simpleness he still carries in his life.

Michał and Maria are actually quite different from each other, which makes it both easier and more difficult to answer, but Michał admires her bravery, both in the physical sense that Maria isn't a fighter but she isn't a coward and she's ready to protect herself and people she cares about (this is kinda what made him fall in love with her in the first place) and also in the way that she isn't afraid to speak her mind and back her words with actions. What Maria admires in Michał is, surprisingly, his sincerity. At first he appeared to be really pompous (I mean he kinda is) and fake, willing to do everything for attention or his personal gain, but in time she realized that he actually has a very strong sense of justice and even if he can be dramatic he never plays with people's emotions to hurt them and at the end of the day he always strives for honesty and truth.

Thank you for those (unexpected) questions and letting me babble about our beloved Lachians a little more ^^

Ask game

[topgunstorytimexo]

can i get soft bob and confessed feelings and all that cute stuff please 🥺🤍

Don’t ever let it end- Bob Floyd x Reader

Hi! This is my first attempt at actually posting writing i've done. In any way shape or form. I tried to keep it on the shorter side to see, but i'm sure as i get more comfortable i'll write longer and longer ones. Writing for Bob is so hard because i literally love him SO much that i want to do it justice etc... but i hope you like it!! Requests are open! xo The song that inspired the fic is linked on the title of the fic (Don't ever let it end)

Warnings: Kissing, light touching, Mild-Suggestive talk to sex, but no smut.

You showed up to the party at Fanboys house, everybody enjoying themselves and celebrating; celebrating a successful mission where everybody made it back. It was dangerous, you almost lost rooster and maverick and the relief you felt that everybody made it back safe was unparalleled to anything you’ve ever felt before. As you looked around the room, everybody was smiling, laughing, or dancing. "Y/N" a few had screamed out at your arrival, causing you to laugh. When your gaze reached Bob, he looked dazed but he looked cute nonetheless. He was wearing a baseball tee and jeans, his glasses sitting on his nose in the perfect spot. You walked over and sat down next to him, slightly nudging him in the process as he jumped and as you both began laughing.

“Did I scare you?” You ask, leaning in and speaking loudly since the music and other voices were loud. “Is it bad if I say yes?” He asked as you shrugged and you both smiled. “How’s it going Y/N?” he asked as you smiled “Not too bad now that I’m here with you guys” you say as he smiled “I’m glad you came, I’m glad you’re here” he said as you nodded “Me too” You said leaning onto him and you both smiled at each other. “How are you feeling now that you’re back?” He shrugged “Relieved. It was scary up there when we thought we lost them” he said as you could tell it had shaken him. “I bet. I can’t even imagine having been up there, I know how scared I was any of you wouldn’t make it back.” He looked over and nodded slightly. He curled his bottom lip a bit before looking over at you and smiling. “What” he asked softly as you shook your head. “I was also really worried about you” you added as he looked surprise. “Why me?” he asked surprised as you laughed, thinking it was a joke but it wasn’t. “what do you mean why you? You’re one of my favourite people on earth.. I prefer you here and alive. I cried when you left.” You said as he seemed surprised by this. “I know we're all friends i just didn't think i'd be the one singled out amongst the guys" he said as you shook your head. "You're better than all of them Bob" you said half kidding as he smiled. “I think you’re better than all of us” he said as you smiled. “Well obviously” you say joking and he rolls his eyes “obviously” he says in a funny/mocking voice as you both begin laughing. 

You had always had a crush on Bob. How could you not. His blonde hair, his glasses, the way he smiled at you. He was funny, but the kinda funny where he makes you laugh by doing ridiculous things like playing air bass, or fake rapping with the guys. He wasn’t always that comfortable with everybody at first but once he was, he killed it. It was obvious he had stolen your heart. But alas, he was shy and you didn’t know if he liked you back and you didn’t want to make him uncomfortable if he didn’t feel the same way. You had a feeling it was mutual, but you didn't want to take the chance. So in the end, you enjoyed the time you spent with him, The many hangouts whether just you two or in the group of pilots,  you pushed down the feelings and just let it be.  You and bob had your knees resting beside each other and the comfortable silence while you people watched was one of your favourite things to do together. He went to say something as Hangman stepped in and grabbed you to dance. “You owe me a dance little lady” he said as you smiled. You guys were all friends so it wasn’t shocking, but you tried to hear what Bob said before you were whisked away.

You and Hangman were doing cheesy 80’s dance moves and laughing up a storm. He was the one to go in to save the day, saving maverick and rooster from the enemy fighter jet and you were eternally thankful for it. “I’m glad you came back” you said as he shrugged “As if I wouldn’t have” he said as you laughed “Is it because you didn’t get picked for the mission so you were home safe?” You say as his eyes widened and he began to laugh. “That’s a good one. I had the most important job, saving their asses” he said as you couldn’t disagree. “Good job Jake” you said as he twirled you around and you continued to vibe. Phoenix worked her way on the dance floor and you two inevitably began dancing on each other causing Hangman, Fanboy, Payback, and Coyote to look over and start cheering. Rooster was staring with a disappointed look on his face as he shook his head at you, and Bob couldn’t keep his eyes off you either. He smiled and kept adjusting his neck to look around whoever was in his way to be able to see you dancing. He bit his lip, and shook his head smiling, something you noticed.

You weren’t sure if it was the fact you had a couple drinks, or the fact he was in regular clothes and not his uniform, or that he was just being himself but Bob had never looked So sexy in all the time you knew him. The way he was looking at you was making you feel things. You knew he was cute, and you had looked at him before but you hadn’t looked at him this way before.. the song changed, an upbeat sexy song as you ran over to Bob, he looked at you.  “Dance with me” you yelled standing in front of him as he looked confused. Having not heard you, you placed your hands on his knees and leaned across him to put your mouth to his ear. “Dance with me” you said again, this time he was distracted by everything happening in front of him.  You leaned your neck back and looked in his eyes. He shook his head and smiled “please” you say as he turns red in the face and stands up. You reach out your hand and he grabs it as you pull him onto the dance floor, Phoenix, rooster, and Coyote cheering as they saw Bob. You guys began dancing all together as you stayed as close to Bob as you could. To get him to laugh and smile, you grabbed his hands and began swaying with him, after a moment and only to your surprise he pulled you in and against him. You looked at his lips and his eyes as he smiled “How’s this?” He asked as you nodded “This is good” you exclaim as you’re still moving side to side, slower and slower. You smiled at each other and you glanced from his lips to his eyes, and he was hyper focused on your mouth. After a moment of silence, he put his hands on your hip and readjusted, You went to move in, to get closer and he pulled back. “I’m so sorry, I just need a minute” he said as you felt confused. He walked off the floor and out the back door as You turned and Phoenix wondered what happened. You followed behind him out the door, not wanting him to think anything was wrong, but also wanting to make sure you hadn't done anything. You saw him pacing on the back porch as he turned and saw you, immediately turning around. “Bob, what is it” you asked as he was silent. You walked up behind him and put your hands on his arms. You put your forehead, nose, and lips against his back as you felt him ease a little bit. You knew this was an important moment for you too, and you couldn’t help but notice he smelled amazing. Your eyes were shut while it was silent.

“I just. I’m— overwhelmed” he said as you nodded and smiled “Bobby you know you can tell me anything always. Was it me? Did I do something wrong?” He turned around and leaned against the deck facing you. “Of course you didn’t do anything wrong.. It’s-... I-…” he regrouped and began again. “When you were talking about how you were afraid of any of us not coming back it just really hit home” he said as you paused “I’m so sorry I brought that up Bob I didn’t know it was going to hurt your feelings—“ he cut you off, apologizing profusely for doing so but not wanting you to think that was the reason. “No, that’s uh not what I’m getting at. Before I left, you and I had gone to a concert, went to the coffee shop in the middle of the night, had gone to the amusement park, a baseball game, made all these memories” you nodded “I remember quite well” you said as he smiled and nodded. “Well what you didn’t know is I spent the whole concert looking at you. I could not tell you the name of any of the band members or the colour of their shirts. You on the other hand wore a black spring dress that you hand tied little knots on the shoulders so it didn’t dip too low. You wore your white shoes that you loved after you complained about how long it took you to get them clean, only for you to step in the puddle that made them dirty again. You laughed SO hard at how ridiculous they looked and you continued on. You hair was curled, you barely wore any makeup. I only remembered you. The coffee shop. You and I laughed at the cop who spilled jelly on himself from his donut as though it couldn’t have been a more cliche sight to see. We ran through a park as a shortcut and pretty much thought we were going to get murdered. The baseball game when I didn’t even care who won or lost, but the look in your eye when we made it on the scoreboard screen and we got to cheer even though I tried to hide my face and you physically made me smile for the camera. The amusement park when we spent all day on the rides and in the heat and i remember you never lost the scent of your perfume. Then the night at Phoenix's house when you showed up in your sexy playboy costume I had never felt my heart race like that. I was literally hugh hefner and you were my bunny. I knew what you were going to be wearing and i didn't think it was going to knock me on my ass and it did. I thought i had it mapped out, we were buddies, We got along, we had fun together, but When you’re holding my hand, hugging me, touching me, being near me; It drives me crazy in the absolute best way. I am usually in a state of anxiety or being nervous, but not when you’re around.”

 By this point you were almost in tears, you had waited for this moment and he was looking like he was scared you wouldn’t feel the same. But he wasn't finished talking, so you anxiously awaited to tell him he didn't have to worry. “In there, when you were talking about the possibility we wouldn’t have come home, it really hit. I was thinking about if I never saw you again. That’s why it bothered me. And holding you in there for the few moments, I really thought about what if there was an us and then thought what if you weren't in to me like that and I thought there was a moment” you cut him off by putting your lips to his. You wrapped your arms around his neck and he put his hands on your waist, his fingers holding you tightly. You pulled away and began speaking. Holding his hands, tears in your eyes. He looked stunned that you had just kissed him and you were hoping he’d hear every word you said.

“I have been holding in and hiding my feelings for months now. I never thought you’d like me that way and I was too scared to tell you and every single one of those moments were so special to me the ones you did and didn’t list. I grabbed your hand that day because it felt right to do it, and that scared me. You have always made me feel safe and cared about, and honestly these last couple years have been the best. I wish i wasn't about to say this because it sounds crazy but I love you. That’s terrifying to say out loud but it’s true. I love you.” you say as the tears fell from your eyes as Bob smiled. He pulled you in for a hug, “I love you too” he said as chin rested on your head and you began laughing “thank god” you said as he laughed.

“I knew how I felt, I knew it was going to be terrifying and scary to tell you. I knew I was content being your friend and being the guy whose hand you hold when you were scared, or who you hugged when you got excited about sports games and the other million reasons you’d get excited. Then came the dreaded thought of, 'what if it doesn’t last forever?' What if someone else comes in and swoops you away. I just kept thinking I’m okay with pretending i don't love you and that there isn't something really special between us but in the back of my mind being terrified of it ending. So I didn’t know I was going to do this, especially not tonight or right now but I just know now that I had to do it. I know you don’t even like Jake like that but seeing him twirl you made me nervous that one day I’d be at your future wedding or watching you be you with someone else when I know I want you. So even if you didn't want me, i'd love you and support you but i'd just rather be the one with you” He said as the tears flew down your face and he wiped them with his thumbs. "I was scared of losing YOU. i canot believe we felt the exact same way and we never figured it out" you say as he shook his head. He kissed you again deeply as your nose moved his glasses causing you to laugh against his lips as you fixed them.

“So what now” you added as you moved back from the kiss to stand in front of him “Well I think I owe my girlfriend a dance” he said as he shrugged jokingly and you smiled “Your girlfriend eh? I hope I like her, you’ll have to introduce me” you say smiling as you lean in for another kiss. “She’s awful, you’ll hate her” he said against your lips between kisses. “Are you asking me to be your girlfriend, for real?” you say excited as he nods “I am. you’re stuck with me now I’m sorry” he said as you shrugged “I think I can live with it. I would LOVE to be your girlfriend" you say with one last hug before heading back inside. Phoenix looked over to see you guys and smiled, waving you both over. "Things good?" she asked as you nod slightly as you return to the dance floor where Phoenix is.

“Let’s try this again” you say as Bob grabs you and you begin dancing, everybody dancing with each other and Hangman leans over “What did you guys talk about” He asked as bob turns and pulls you into a kiss in front of everybody as they all began chanting “BOB, BOB, BOB." "Must've been some talk" Rooster said and when you parted, Phoenix's jaw was dropped. You began laughing as Bob held you against him kissing your temple. You smiled, looking over at him as he returned the smile. The night continued on, You and Bob soaking up every moment you missed out on the last 2 years.

“Does that mean I’m going home with you later?” you ask as he raised his eyebrows and took a deep breath, sighing as he exhaled. “It means you’re going home with me right now” he said as you nodded and laughed as you both said goodbye to everybody who was shaking their heads as you walked out the door and headed to his place, finally going to get to show him instead of telling him how you feel about him.

Tags: @callsignbob

[ectonurites]

question for you because you’re one of the only people i know of who has any idea of the batfam timeline: by the time the red hood shows up in titans tower to flex on tim, have tims parents been murdered/left comatose yet? ik jack doesn’t die until later (isnt it close to when red robin run starts?) but im not entirely sure how the timeline of tim’s parents & young justice adventures line up with jason’s return to gotham (other than. he shows up that one time at the tower)

I know I’ve had a similar question before but I can’t find the post dbdhshs SO let’s do this again.

The tldr answer: Tim’s parents are both dead before Under the Red Hood when Jason makes his presence officially known in Gotham. But worth noting Jack (and Steph too) had died very recently in-universe at that point.

Let’s attach some dates and issues to what I think are relevant events to explain it in a bit more detail. Just for ease/consistency i’ll be using cover dates here, which are about two months after the date published.

Tim’s mother Janet is killed and his father Jack becomes comatose in the story Rite of Passage, in Detective Comics #618-621 (July-Sep 1990)

Jack is awake and well enough to go home, (using a wheelchair for a while) in Batman #480 (June 1992)

Jack begins seeing physical therapist Dana Winters in Robin #12 (Dec 1994) to help recover from his injuries

Dana and Jack have begun a romantic relationship that is revealed to Tim around Robin #21 (Oct 1995)

Since you mentioned Young Justice, let’s establish that the team begins with Young Justice: The Secret (June 1998) and JLA: World Without Grown-Ups #1-2 (Aug-Sep 1998), with their own comic starting shortly after in Young Justice #1 (Sep 1998)

Not 100% relevant to the stuff we’re talking about here but worth noting, No Man’s Land occurs effecting like all the Bat books in 1999-2000.

Jack and Dana get married in the Robin 80-Page Giant (Sep 2000)

Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day #1-3 (July-Aug 2003) causes Young Justice to dissolve.

Teen Titans Vol. 3 #1 (Sep 2003) launches with the YJ kids on the new team.

Jason initially shows himself to Bruce & kinda slits Tim’s throat during the Hush storyline in Batman #618 (Oct 2003). However this initially was written as Clayface in a disguise and that’s what the Bats think happened here, years later it was retconned in Batman Annual #25 (May 2006) to actually be Jason at first who secretly switched places with Clayface midway through the conflict.

Jack finds out Tim is Robin during Robin #124 (May 2004) and confronts Bruce about it at gunpoint. In Robin #125 (June 2004) he forces Tim to quit.

Stephanie steps into the role in Robin #126 (July 2004), but she is fired at the end of Robin #128 (Sep 2004) which then sets off the big messy chain of events called War Games.

War Games is an event across Bat titles in 2004, important for what we’re discussing here is that the main event ends with Steph’s death (later retconned to be fake, but at the time it was written this was real) in Batman #633 (Dec 2004)

In this same timeframe, the 2004 DC event Identity Crisis is also occurring. Jack is murdered by Captain Boomerang in Identity Crisis #5 (Dec 2004)

According to the War Games epilogue in Batman #634 (Jan 2005), Jack died only days after Stephanie did- thus War Games and Identity Crisis apparently in-universe occur within the same like, week.

Dana needed to be hospitalized due to her grief over Jack’s death, so she begins to reside in a hospital in Blüdhaven. This is why Tim also moves there, as explained via flashback in Robin #132 (Jan 2005)

The Under the Red Hood storyline, Jason’s official return to Gotham to cause problems for everyone, starts in Batman #635 (Feb 2005) so immediately following War Games.

The Teen Titans book gets a bit out of sync timeline-wise with stuff going on for Tim around War Games, but things start getting closer to lining up again by this point afterwards. During Teen Titans #20 (March 2005) Tim is shown grieving over his father’s death that just occurred.

I think it’s worth noting the whole ‘Conner gets controlled by Luthor’ storyline (a crossover more officially referred to as Teen Titans/Outsiders: The Insiders) occurs between things here in Teen Titans #24-25 and Outsiders #24-25 (July-Aug 2005)

The Titans Tower incident in which Jason breaks in to beat the shit out of Tim then takes place in Teen Titans #29 (Dec 2005)

I’m not gonna list timeline stuff out in as much detail after this point bc it’s not particularly relevant to what you asked but just a few things worth mentioning/clearing up:

Under the Red Hood ends at the same time as/overlapping with the bigger DC-wide event Infinite Crisis in 2006 (both books show the destruction of Blüdhaven, that’s the easiest place to see how they connect timeline-wise).

After Infinite Crisis, there is an in-universe timeskip event across all of DC’s books called One Year Later also in 2006 (with the exception of 52, a weekly book that shows what happened during the missing year).

Red Robin (since you brought it up) doesn’t start until a while after all that- it begins in August 2009 as part of the Batman Reborn revamp of Bat titles. This is in the aftermath of the Battle for the Cowl event in May-June 2009, which occurred as a result of Bruce’s apparent death at the hands of Darkseid during the Final Crisis event in 2008-2009.

I hope that helps clear things up? The timeline of things for the Bats (and just DC as a whole) is messy and confusing and at plenty of times contradictory, so trying to make sense of it is always a… wild time.

[thoughtless-gay-frog]

I know about the first trilogy so talk to me about Apollo and his gang, what’s goin on with those guys

Oh god where do I start with this band of idiots

For anyone who hasn’t played apollo justice Im gonna say right now MAJOR spoilers, actually I’m gonna put a little keep reading doohickey just to make sure I don’t spoil anything. Ok bye

Okay so. Apollo justice: ace attorney takes place well after the original trilogy has ended. Apollo is a rookie lawyer who works under the office of Kristoph Gavin, a lawyer who’s title is the “coolest defense in the west,” because he’s always so dang level headed during his trials. He’s an incredibly successful attorney and he’s your assistant during the first trial of the game. Your job is to defend the legendary Phoenix Wright; who’s now been charged with murder.

And like. Phoenix is a celebrity to Apollo. Apollo’s looked up to that man for all of his law school life. And now he’s defending him??? Shit is crazy!!! Even crazier, you go through that first trial and it turns out Kristoph is the one that killed the guy Phoenix was charged for murdering! Once Apollo picks up on this face Phoenix actually just like. Swaps places physically with Kristoph and suddenly it’s Phoenix as your assistant and you’re questioning your boss which is SO weird and I feel SO bad for Apollo because at the end of that first case Kristoph is proven guilty of murder and like. It was Apollo’s first real case and he’s immediately out of a job. He also, in a fandom famous moment, socks Phoenix in the jaw after the end of that case, because Phoenix admitting to using forged evidence to win the trial against Kristoph. The evidence was a replica of something Krisroph had stolen from the scene, and without it they would’ve lost, and Apollo is rightfully pissed and so he just. Hits him real hard.

But it’s fine because Phoenix hires him later! Only, uh oh, he’s been lawyerless for 7 years so he doesn’t really have the money to pay Apollo? It’s fine no one ever brings it up so somehiw it isn’t an issue even though Apollo makes several snarky comments about not ever getting payed. Anyway now Apollo is working for Phoenix. He’s also subsequently working with Trucy Wright, who is Phoenix’s adopted daughter. She’s kind of crucial to Phoenix’s past because if he hadn’t had a child to take care of he very may well have fallen into some realllllllly unhealthy coping mechanisms during the 7 year gap where he didn’t have his badge. “You keep mentioning this 7 year gap, how did he lose his badge?” you may be asking. WELL my friend I am happy to explain it to you

Remember how Kristoph killed someone? Well, 7 years ago that same man, Zak Gramarye, was charged for murder. Zak was a magician; he performed in a group called Troupe Gramarye, with his partners Valant, Thalassa, and Mr. Reus. The grandmaster of this troupe, Magnifi, was on his death bed, and set up a test for Valant and Zak to see which one would inherit the secrets of his big magic master secrets when he was gone. In this test, he asked each man separately to come in at different times and shoot him. If either actually shot him, they’d fail the test and no one would get the magic secrets. Ultimately Zak came in first and couldn’t bring himself to shoot, which was the answer Magnifi had wanted. Later, Valant came in and couldn’t bring himself to shoot, either, but Zak had already gotten the secrets and so he was told he failed the test. Magnifi then shot himself and instead of telling the doctors “hey this guy just committed suicide,” he decides to frame Zak because he’s mad he didn’t get the magic secrets. Zak is then arrested.

Kristoph was almost chosen to be Zak’s defense attorney. But Zak was a little weirdo and decided that he would only take a lawyer who could beat him at poker, and Kristoph lost to him so he chose Phoenix Wright to defend him instead. Kristoph got pissed and decided to get revenge on Phoenix, and he planted a piece of fake evidence on Phoenix. He then told the prosecutor of the trial that he knew Phoenix was going to use some forged evidence; the prosecutor, by the way, is Kristoph’s younger brother, Klavier. Klavier is young and naive and believes him, and when Phoenix presents the fake evidence in court, Klavier calls him out on it. But before anyone can react to that, Zak disappears. That’s right. The defendant of the case straight up vanishes, in a puff of smoke just like a magic trick. No one ever saw him again (you see him again in a later apollo justice case but it’s more cryptic this way). After the court settled down from that, Phoenix was disbarred for his use of forged evidence and was left alone. Alone, save, for an eight year old Trucy Wright, formerly Trucy Gramarye. That’s right. Zak left his little daughter behind when he disappeared that day, and Phoenix was left to raise a child without his source of lawyerly income. And 7 years from that is where Apollo Justice starts.

So Trucy serves as Apollo’s assistant during the rest of the game. Most of the cases relate back to the Zak Gramarye backstory, you slowly get the whole picture of what really happened as each case goes on. Klavier is your primary prosecutor for this game. Klavier is my absolute favorite because he’s such a freak. In the Japanese games he sprinkles American phrases in his sentences because America is really cool over there, but the way the localization works American references have been switched to German references, and so Klavier turns into this weird German wannabe guy who says things like ‘achtung!’ and ‘ach’ and ‘wunderbar.’ In addition to being a prosecutor he’s in a rock band, so he wears a lot of leather and one of his court sprites in an air guitar. He just riffs on the air for a good ten seconds. He’s so stupid and very much one of them hot idiots and I love him so much. His and Apollo’s dynamic is a beautiful succession to the Edgeworth/Phoenix romance rivalry. The first time we see him he’s staring us down with his hands on his hips and he says ‘I’m used to being inspected by the ladies, but I’ve never felt this way with a man.’ And I just. God he’s so gay. He’s so gay how could he not be. He’s so fucking gay just look at him look him up he is a disaster mess I fucking love him for it

The detective in Apollo justice is also my favorite!!! You remember Ema Skye? The assistant you get in the bonus case of the first ace attorney, the girl who wants to be a forensic scientist? She’s back! It’s her! She’s not a forensic scientist (though in Spirit of Justice she finally gets to that position and she’s so happy and I’m so happy for her) and so she’s pretty grumpy all the time, since she’s stuck doing detective grunt work essentially, but her sprites are full of such emotion and I really adore her character design. She’s very passionate about fingerprinting and spraying luminol fluid and she is what got me hooked on forensics but that is not important she is super passionate about her dream job and she hates Klavier with a burning passion. He tries to be her friend and she is Not Having It. Ever. It’s so funny.

Taking a step back, Trucy and Apollo are actually biological siblings!! They share the same mom, though it’s never said in canon that they figure that out. Thalassa Gramarye, the one from the magic troupe, left the troupe when she was very young and met a musician named Jove Justice. They got married and had a son, Apollo, but while traveling to another kingdom Jove was killed and in the chaos of it all Apollo was lost. Thalassa was devastated and went back home, got married to Zak Gramarye, and had another child, Trucy. Thalassa was supposedly killed during an accident during a magic show, but she actually just lost her memory and wandered the world as a mysterious singer trying to live her life without knowing anything about herself. The siblings never know of their relation, but man that doesn’t stop the sibling energy from shining through. They have SUCH the dynamic of older brother little sister like it’s insane. The first trial Trucy co-counsels for she does this dramatic thing where she pretends to be kidnapped to buy them more time but Apollo thought she was actually kidnapped and he almost cries it’s very funny and also cute. Poor guy. Honestly all of apollo justice could be summed up by looking at Klavier and Apollo and saying poor guys.

Anyway I’m sleepy and I wanna finish all the asks I got so hopefully that is what you wanted! Sorry if this was too long I really like the apollo justice era. It’s such good story and the characters are my favorites, I enjoy them more than any other group. I hope this all makes sense.