#i do not currently own a scarf so making one myself would be pretty neat

[astralpenguin]

literally on a whim this morning i decided i wanted to learn how to knit. ~£1.50 for the needles and some wool from a nearby charity shop, and a couple of youtube tutorials, later and i now have the beginnings of what could hopefully become a scarf at some point in the future

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales: Woo-oo! Review! or From the Top

Hello all you happy people! And to those of you just joining this blog, welcome I review ducks, other animated shows and comics... and today’s review is special for me. For a number of reasons. For starters it’s a reminder how far i’ve come. See I always wanted to be a reviewer, ever since high school when a friend showed me a certain online reviewer whose now dead to me, and opened me up to a world of much better reviewers who i’m still fans of to this day, and ones who came after them , and after that and so on and so on. I so badly wanted a community to belong to I struggled to be a youtube reviewer but frankly lacked the talent or self confidence back then to try, so my attempts over the decade were a series of stops and starts. Of me starting to find my niche writing only to stop because I hated myself so much, and still struggle with that, i’d tell myself I could never do it, I wasn’t good enough, I wasn’t funny enough and no one cared. I kept shutting myself down AGAIN AND AGAIN, for far too long. 

But that all changed a year ago next month: I’d long been a fan of the Ducktales Reboot. I was caustiously optimistic when it was announced. The optimism came from a deep abiding love of scrooge as a character despite not having dove into his comics that deep, I didn’t have an easy way at the time, thanks to life and times and what comics I had read, and was excited to see a fresh reboot closer to the comics with my eternal boy Donald Duck back in the main character. The caution.. came from the fact that at the time we’d gotten a string of bad to medicore reboots: Teen Titans GO, Powerpuff Girl, and Ben 10 which started pretty meh but has turned into alirght from some of the later episodes I saw. I wanted to be hyped to all hell but I had no proof this wasn’t going to be another dumbed down reboot. Then comic con came, the first teaser poster dropped, and my skepticism died.

It was perfect: a barksian art style with it’s own twists! Donald full on display! And best of all the triplets FINALLY had not only unique outfits but personalities! I’ve long went on in my reviews about how much that annoyed me and while it worked for the barks comics ever since then it’s just felt like a waste to have three characters there.. and not even the SLIGHTEST difference. 

My anticipation only grew with the full trailer, the promo posters as more and more info showed how good this series would be, how unique it’d be, and how much tw as taking what made the comics great, giving us a better distalation of that while still being very much it’s own beast. And once this episode dropped.. that faith was unfounded. Woo-oo! is without hyperbole, one of the best pilots i’ve seen, one that introduced the entire main cast perfectly, gets the series tone and mission statment out just right and in general set the stage for one of the best shows of the 2010′s (and 2020′s, even if it only lasted a year and some change). Wheras Teen Titans GO actively tried to take a dump on it’s source material, they thankfully have stopped that but it dosent’ make those early years any less grating, Ducktales was a breath of fresh air that honored the past while making i’ts own future. I tried talking about it but it was all in other failed attempts at reviewing: solo podcasts, my breif second video review career.. stuff no one rightly cared about and I just couldn’t get the hang of. 

So this is where we loop back to last year: I decided to finally try and cover it one more time, not realizing this would be my last chance as it came out anyway, and since I was doing text reviews but my output had slid in the new year, I decided to review Season 3 as it came out. If it bottomed out I could always stop.... and I just never did. I kept going, eventually finding new fans, a patreon (The other one’s an old friend of mine), and not only got paid doing what I love.. but found some peace.  I reviewed other shows as they came out, covered things i’d wanted to cover for years like life and times, scott pilgrim and x-men,. I covered other shows as they came out, found people willing to talk over my opinions and found my niche at long last. 

So that’s why the long speech folks: After almost a year of reviewing i’m properly covering the start of something that made me happier than I had been in a long time and gave me hope during one of the worst periods of ALL our lives. Something i’ve wanted to cover since I finally got started last year, and something truly amazing. So i’d be honored if you’d join me under the cut as I talk about the genesis of one of the best series Disney has ever put out. 

Behind the Scenes Stuff:  Most details I could find were sparse. it took going back to the first month the show came out and looking at a LOT of unrelated questions to finally find out Frank and Matt outright pitched the show. This dosen’t suprise me as both are huge ducktales fans with Matt having drawn his own duck comics as a kid and Frank taking it an extra mile having sang the theme song in his first grade talent show, worked it into his vows and got his first daughter’s first word to be “Woo-oo”. It’s very clear this show as a labor of love for them something they dreamed of Disney made possible. 

Otherwise I don’t have much on the genisis of the show: It was in the earliest ideas going to be a revivial but Frank and Matt both decided against it , deciding it’d be unfair to expect kids from 30 years after the original to know the source material, and instead just starting it over outright, which was the right call especailly with Alan Young’s passing. 

Design wise I found quite a bit of concept art thanks to one website, and it’s incredibly intresting. This is why i’ve really gotten into art books: I like seeing this early stuff what characters used to be, figuring out or outright hearing from the creators mouths why they changed it that sort of thing. 

Starting off we have some early designs for Donald, with him wearing the sailor suit as a kid but his Quackshot outfit as an adult, something I honestly wish they’d kept but get why they changed it: The iconic sailor suit both helps contrast him with della and fits his reluctance to adventure in season 1 more. I still wish that they worked the Quackshot outfit in somewhere, but they worked in so damn much, it’s hard to complain> Though I probably will make a list of “things I wished they’d worked” in at some point and i’d be lying inf I siad my mind wasn’t currently turning the gears to figure out how to work this into a fanfic. Oohhh maybe as Dewey’s outfit as an adult but blue, obviously. 

Next we have Donald settled more into his final apperance as well as the boy’s first outfits.  As you can tell from both of these the show originally went more with the classic art style before getting the one we’re familiar with now, one I love by the way and was made to combine a classic cartoon style with the visual of the comics. Donald originally had his classic outfit before they transitioned to the more barks style one, a good call.  

The interesting bit though is obviously the boys original outfits which i’m honestly bummed didn’t make it for Huey and Louie, not so much Dewey minus the visor. I do get the changes though: The hoodie Dewey had fit WAY beter on Louie, and the lumberjack shirt didn’t quite fit the nerdier huey. Still look nice. Dewey’s is okay, but only the visor is something I really gregret them removing same with louie’s fedora. It would’ve been neat ot keep the hat thing, but have each hat be unique. Likely they simplified things to make animation easier and simply removed the hats for some reason, but it’s nice ot see these more detailed original drafts and it is VERY interesting to find that differentiating the triplets was something planned from the earliest concept art. Though given Matt and Frank said in interviews they wanted a more natural family feel, it’s not a huge surprise. 

Scrooge like everyone BUT the boys thus far, naturally also had his original outfit at first, but like he ended up doing in the series rotated a bit, if not as much in the final product. We also see a protoype for his final design, the old coat but with a jacket over it in the last image. I also notice Donald seemed a lot more like his old comics self in the concept art with quackshot!donald. 

Like everyone else, Webby and Launchapd were originally their 87 deisgns, though Launchpad’s slightly diffrent jacket and green scarf were changed from the start. Webby is the closest to her 87 design, and as shown in the previous Lena concept art from my “Spies Like Us and Dime after Dime” double feature, she still had her new personality. More on that in a bit. 

Finally we have Flintheart, whose design is a bit diffrent from 87: He was a chub from day one it appears, though they’d exagerate it, and his beard was a bit longer at first like his other incarnations. 

Beakly is largely unchanged form 87, only given a coat, which would gradually be mofidied, much liekt he boys into her current outfit. 

As you can tell Beakly, Webby and Launchpad were all there from day one as they wanted them from the original ducktales just updated. 

Production wise they wanted to go handrawn, chose the style they did to have something close to the comics that felt classicly aniamteda t the same time, I feel they succeeded and wanted a show that felt like the original. I do think this show has it’s own feel but it does feel ducktales. I badly hope for an artbook at some point though as this show probably hada  LOT more intresting concept art. Seriously Disney I will PAY YOU to look at your neat art. Please. 

So they created a fully formed world and put the characters in it, wanting it to feel like the world had existed before and had throughly been explored and letting our young heroes be the watson to Donald and Scrooge’s holmes. 

Finally Della was indeed part of the initial pitch and a core idea from day one as every family has secrets and Della felt like one that had been lurking around the fringes of the story for 80 years. The rest of the production stuff i’ll weave in as we go but first one last stop, the STELLAR voice cast, none of whom outsideo f Tony i’ve talked about before sooooo...

The All Star Cast

The casting was outstanding here, with Matt admitting the cast brought a LOT to the characters, especially Ben Schwartz whose taken on Dewey was so unique and intresting they actually rewrote some of his dialouge for the pilot to fit this version better. This is far and away one of the best casts in western animation, most coming from comedy backgrounds and one or two coming from a voice acting background, but all bringing their absolute best. And since our main 8 are all in the pilot let’s run them down along with Keith Ferguson shall we?

Playing everyone’s faviorite billionare scotsman  and one of the very few to ever do so, we have David Fucking Tennant. David was their “First and only choice” and for good reason: David is a talented actor with a MASSIVE amount of stage, tv and audio drama credits. His biggest and best known role is playing the 10th Doctor on Doctor Who, which while not my faviorite (That’d be matt smith, as he’s both the one I came in on and hte one who got me hooked) he’s still  VERY close second and damn talented and I need to watch more of his tenure. Outside of that just to condense it to his ongoing roles on stuff and bigger roles: Filmwise he’s had starring roles in the Fright Night remake, You, Me and Him, Fish Without Bicycles and Bad Samartains, and is set to do a voice for the upcoming Loud House Movie, which excites me to no end. 

TV wise where most of his roles have been he got his first big starring role on the Telly with the BBC Mini series Taking Over the Asylum in the late 90′s. He’d go on to make a career out of doing mini’s for a while, also taking part in He Knew He Was Right, The Quatermass Experiment Remake, Casanova, Secret Smile.. and Blackpool. I saved Blackpool for last before we move into the Who era as if you’ve never heard of it.. it’s REALY fucking weird. It’s a jukebox musical about a man who wants to make Blackpool, a real city, into the new vegas and Tennat plays a cop investigating a case around the guy and also trying to get with his wife because they used to date and because our lead is philandering jackass. That’s already kinda nuts.. but then you get to the fact the songs are sung OVER the original songs instead of making a new version of them. It’s surreal to be sure but if you can find it it’s worth it for the handful of good numbers and how weird it looks and you can find clips of the songs on youtube if your intrested. Here’s a starter. 

Your also welcome. He’d go on to play Detective Alec Hardy in Broadchurch to critical aclaim as well as be a part of it’s short lived american remake, would play the Fugitoid in tmnt 2007, Kilgrave in Jessica Jones, one of his few post who roles i’ve seen or heard besides Scrooge and easily some of his best work he NAILS that purple bastard perfectly, would make his own show Staged about a fictional version of himself putting on a Stage play that’s still ongoing, and is currently , along with Ducktales as it wraps up, the voice of Lord Commander on Final Space, with the character returning this season judging by the trailers to fan delight and terror. He’s a VERY talented actor and voice actor and I do hope he goes on to do more and more voice work in years to come as, with his background in radio, he was born for it. 

He was also born for this roll, playing Scrooge perfectly and easily matching Alan Young in quality, not a small feat and i’ts VERY obvious why he was their one and only choice. 

Next up is another legend, Tony Anselmo who we’ve talked about before when I covered legend of the Three Cablleros: He’s been Donald’s voice since shortly before Ducktales, hasn’t done much else but given he’s THE voice for the character and this show let him show off one hell of a range with teh voice, he dosen’t really need other credits. The man is a treasure and I fear loosing him one day and fear for whoever replaces him as they have a LOT to live up to. 

Getting into the triplets, we’re going by age so starting off we have Huey, voiced by Danny Pudi. Like most of this cast aside from Toks Ogladyve and Beck Bennet (Who I probably HAD seen on SNL but didn’t really know or look out for him on there till after Ducktales), I not only knew Danny but was a huge fan of his going in. This is due to his breakout role on the glorious sitcom Community, which sadly only had a handful of i’ts cast show up on this show. I mean you got Lin Manuel Miranda I’m sure Donald Glover would’ve said yes too. He grew up with Ducktales. Regardless his role as meta guy Abed was easily the best of the cast on that show, with Glover as troy a very close second and the two working at their best as a duo. Outside of that he’s had a few roles being a regular on Powerless, which I forgot existed and currently on Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet, and shockingly hasn’t done a ton of voice work. And given his performance as huey was one of the best parts of this show he REALLY, REALLY SHOULD. Please Danny. He’s also a loving husband, father and surprisingly a marathon runner. Never would’ve guessed.

Next up is SNL Alumn of 9 years, Bobby Monynihan. Bobby is naturally best known for that, my faviorite role of his being Ass Dan. That’s right bitch you know he’s going to live fore..

ASS DAN 1981-2021

He’ll be back. Outside of SNL he’s done a bunch of minor roles. He’s currently on the tragically mediocre sitcom Mr. Mayor, and voiced Panda on We Bare Bears. Hopefully he keeps up the good work as he deserves better than he’s gotten and Ducktales proves it. 

Finally for the triplets we have a rising star in voice acting, Ben Schrwartz. At the time Ducktales launched, I was a fan of his from his roll on parks and Rec as Jen Ralphio, aka older scummier Dewey. 

Outside of his historic recurring role here he played a main role on House of Lies, a show I need to go back to, and has done other live action rolls but has REALLY hit his stride in voice acting. He started with voicing Randy Cunningham in Randy Cunningham 9th grade ninja and since then has hit the ground running: He was Rutabega on Bojack, Josh on Bob’s Burgers, and went on to complete the trifecta of blue nostalgic characters after voicing dewey by voicing Leo in Rise of the TMNT (and having one of the most unique and intresting versions of the character to play) and reprised the roll for the upcoming film. And of course he hit it HUGE by playing Sonic in the suprsingly fantastic Sonic the Hedgehog movie, and will do so again for the sequel and might even take up the roll for the games now Roger Craig Smith has retired. We shall see. Point is this guy’s at the top of his game and Dewey is part of that. Like with his brothers I can’t picture anyone else playing him. 

Rounding out the kids is Webby, played by the wonderous Kate Micucci. Kate is a lovely talented woman who mostly showed up in smaller parts, was part of the musical duo garfunkel and oates which even got their own tv show, and is currently a fairly prolific voice actor with this being her best known roll. I also had a bit of a crush on her once can you tell? Regardless besides absolutely nailing it as Webby she’s voiced Julie Kane in the crimnally short and even more crimnally not on Disney+ Motorcity, “Irma” in the 2012 TMNT cartoon, and the fact that “Irma” is in quotes should tell you how big a waste I felt it was having her NOT actually be Irma, despite Kate’s massive talent, the fact that Irma hadn’t been in anything since the 87 cartoon, and the fact that for added “Fuck you audience points” her krang form was voiced by Gilbert Godfried, who I love but whose casting feels like they wanted to make the twist as grating as possible. Good job there. 

Anyways her second biggest voice gig was as Sadie on Steven Universe, which took WAY too long to show off her absolutely tremendous singing voice. She started voicing Velma Dinkley in the mid-2010′s and has since, voiced Milo’s sister Sarah on Milo Murphy’s Law, Dr. Fox on Unikitty, and most recently voiced a sentient present on close enough who did this. 

So yeah quite the career and like Ben she probably has a long and storied career in Voice Acting ahead. 

Next up is Beck Bennet as everyone’s friend Launchpad where he excels. He’s best known as a castmember on SNL outside of this, and shockingly hasn’t done a ton of voice work. The only other time i’ve caught him is in the same season of Close Enough as Luc, aka dude-bro satan. But like eveyrone else here who hasn’t done a lot of voice work so far or has been more selective I defintely hope he keeps going with it as he’s amazing. He and Ben will be co-starring on MODOK in May so i’m excited for that. 

Last up for the main cast is Beakly, voiced by  Toks Olagundoye, who I hadn’t heard of before this show and hasn’t done a lot outside of the two season sitcom the neighbors, the aliens one not the really terrible looking one, and a stint on Castle, but like everyone here deserves much more and if Beakly is any indication, really should stick with voice acting. 

Last up is Keith Ferguson as only he could as FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD, whose a staple in the voice acting community ever since 2000, and has had a TON of roles some of which I was unaware with him. Given Frank worked with him on Wonder Over Yonder, where he voiced Lord Hater to perfection, the two clearly have a close working relationship. He also has a close working relationship with Wonder creator Craig McCracken and has worked on all of his post-powerpuff girls show, voicing Bloo as his first major role, something I never would’ve guessed, and currently voicing Papa G on Kid Cosmic. 

Outside of Craig and Frank, he played both Karate Kid and Nemisis Kid on Legion of Super Heroes (Which really needs to come to HBO Max), Deputy Durland on Gravity Falls,  and Thunderbolt Ross on Avengers Earth’s Mighteist Heroes. He’s damn good and deserves the world for Glomgold alone and i’m glad Craig rung him up again as so far through my watch of Kid Cosmic he’s great. 

So with our cast in place, our past in place and you all likely ready to get on with it already let’s dive into the episode:

THE EPISODE: Part one Woo-Ooo!

We begin with a shot of a seagull flying overseagulls, a nice way to establish how this world works and how it bends expectations. They’d have to wait till season 3 to get a duck next to ducks but given that gag is one of the best of the series, it was worth it. 

Inside a house boat we meet Donald, Huey and Louie and get a sense of their personalities: Donald is panicked trying to get to a job interview and insists the boys wear life vests, showing his overprotectiveness and responsibility exclusive to this version. Louie stresses that Donald wear a suit instead of his normal clothes to properly impress the interviewer, showing his skill at people reading and manipulation, and Huey is making a nice, if messy, breakfast with a heartwarming message showing his heart and dedication. After finding out said Babysitter was sent to the wrong address, the boys TRY to hustle him out to stay alone.. only for Dewey to blow the scheme by starting the boat too early, letting Donald know he’s been had. Huey’s attempt to lie about it is of course the classic “Who’s Dewey?” Dewey’s caught wiring the boat and Donald throws them in the car, with Donald livid and the boys upset as their chafing at his constant overprotectiveness. 

Both sides aren’t wrong. tThe boys DID do something reckless, putting an old woman in the desert and risking their home just to go on a joyride. What they did was wrong.. but the boys AREN’T wrong for getting annoyed that he won’t let them DO anything and overly hovering over them when they CAN handle themselves as we’ll see. WE now know why: he lost their mother and his sister to her and scrooge’s recklesness. While he got therapy for his anger it’s clear he never properly got help about Della, and thus overcompensates by trying to keep what he has left of her alive. He means well.. but to them it comes off as him being manically overprotective with no good reason. They get into trouble because it’s the only way to DO anything away from him. He’s trying so hard not to loose them he almost has by the time hte series starts, and it’s telling that when they get context in Last Crash, they appricate him more from then on. They do love him, but their frustration is understandable even if what their doing is pretty damn stupid. But their also 10 and Donald’s the grown adult in therapy who should’ve dealt with this or tried to at least by now.

So with no other options Donald sets a course for McDuck manor which excites the boys who have heard of Scrooge McDuck and his exploits, each rattling off something they heard him do that fits their personality (Dewey picks him fighting a stone monster, Huey picks him uncovering a hoax and Louie picks his swimming in money. ) As Donald tries to get them to simmer down, they wonder what he’s up to

He’s up toooo.. depression. He’s in a room with his board, watching them with utter hate and sadness as they talk about cutting the invention and aviation departments. This scene plays ENTIRELY differently after the final two episodes of the season. Before it still plays well as Scrooge clearly resenting being stuck in a boring board meeting, having lost everything that made him him and just having lost his passion for life. Now? It plays as a man utterly disdainful of the men who made him give up on his daughter. While as far as he knows they did it to save his employees from his company collapsing, we know better now... and seriously where IS the rest of the board they just vanished after the Season 3 premiere.

I don’t mind only one being fleshed out, unlike the triplets we only NEED the one I mind that they just never explained it and still haven’t. Hopefully the finale will. 

But back on the plot, it now plays as Scooge just full of hatred for them, knowing they had to do what they did, even if they weren’t emebzlling but still hating them and himself. He’s likely not even paying attention anymore because he just dosen’t CARE: he has all the money int he world.. and it couldn’t bring him his daughter back. As he sadly puts the coins he was fiddling with back and says see you tommorow he can’t even close the vault without a struggle. As we’ll see later the strength never left, it’s not like he stopped execrising.. but he has nothing left to fight for. Nothing left to care about. He could adventure agian so far.. but without Della or Donald, as we’d learn two seasons later the reason he enjoyed it again... what’s the point? He has nothing left except his money. 

This is also a nice parallel to the final Chapter of LIfe and Times. I always felt the first half of woo-ooo was a spiritual adaptation of chapter 12 of that: Scrooge meets the boys for the first time and with their help, and Donalds in the story< Webby and Launchpad here, he regains his passion and more importantly his family after driving them away> The how is very different: he did in life and times due to sinking to his lowest point morally, then cruelly dismissing his family when they tried to welcome him home and bury the hatchet despite what he’d done. Here.. he made a HORRIBLE mistake, one that wasn’t entirely on him but still cost him everything and spent the decade instead of stewing or making more money trying desperately to undo it. The end result is the same, a dried out husk of a man with nothing left to loose and no will to gain anything.

This husk has launchpad though whose introduced as his driver and while good with subs and planes.. isn’t great on the road. After that though Donald pulls up hoping to drop the kids off before Scrooge arrives. Naturally this being a cartoon and Donald having tempted fate with that Scrooge shows up telling him to jettison that Jallopy at once. And finding out who it is, apart from asking how Donald is and Donald doing the same, dosen’t sway him. The boys however freak out after finding out Scrooge is Donald’s and there uncle, with my faivriote bit of that being Dewey exiting the car via a window and rolling across the roof back in. Amazing bit of animation. Wish I had a gif of that. 

Donald makes the situation plane and angry and asks “Can you do that without LOOSING THEM”. And scrooge is so painfully disarmed by his reminder of his past mistakes and the fact his surrogate son still resents him, that he agrees before realizing “Shit I have to watch children now don’t I” as Donald drives off. As you probably guessed, this is another scene that plays differently in hindsight, if not by much: It still plays as two men too stubborn and bitter to reconcile.. but now we know the why behind both their rages it feels even sadder. They both lost the person they cared about most but as it sadly happens in real life both have dug in their heels to reconcile, both feeling their right when neither completely is. While Donald was right to be upset at scrooge and della for what happened, and is mostly taking it out on scrooge because he’s the one left... he’s held onto his anger for 10 years instead of going to help when he’s unemployed, living in a dilapidated houseboat and trying ot raise three children alone and could’ve used what help scrooge would give. Scrooge is right to be upset that Donald is just selectively ignoring everything he’s done to save Della, but is too stubborn and prideful to apologize for what he DID do wrong and feels that’s enough to make up for it when , while it is enough that donald should forgive him, still dosen’t mean he dosen’t have a lot to apologize for. Both are just too angry and too much alike, as much as it woudln’t seem so, to settle with each other and see too much of what they lost. 

So the kids follow Scrooge.. who forgets to open the door, and Beakly lets them in. It’s a nice subtle bit. After some silence, Bentina TRIES to get her old friend and now employer to talk to them, but he naturally refuses and they do the talking, asking tons of questions.. and Dewey ends the conversation by accidently pressing the “imply he USED to be something rather than is something right now “ button

So Scrooge throws them in the twins old room, and Beakly gives them some marbles. You will give them b ack they will be counted. But another subtle touch I missed the first time is there... her sad look. She clearly doesn’t want to do this, but she has to play this carefully or else he might get mad and fire her on the spur of the moment. He’d obviously hire her back, where else is he going to get an ex spy who will both clean for him AND be his bodyguard and security. It’s a very small pool. Mostly because Beakly probably killed most of the other people who’d of fit that description during her spy days. 

Scrooge meanwhile is still rattled by Dewey’s statment, wondering if he really is a “used to be” instead of a “never left”. The fire is starting to spark again.. he just needs more kindling. And more kin. 

Meanwhile Louie and Huey marvel at Dewey’s “Brilliant’ breakout plan: hit the door knob with the sack of marbles til lit breaks. To be fair, they’ve known dewey as long as they’ve been alive and even by season 3 after he’s taken several levels in badass and cunning.. he still crashed a plane because his brother well-meaningly called him basic, and thought being nearly sacrificed the most times was an accomplishment. This is the best he could do and you all know it. It also works, so they can’t fault him for that... though he’s quickly kidnapped as are they. They wake up after the commerical break in a room with pure darkness, hung from the celing with a mystery person asking who they are and who they work for before Louie calls out for “uncle scrooge”... so she claps the lights back on and..

Well close. But it is Webby, who cuts them down, fangirls over meeting the nephews and asks who the evil triplet is. They all point to Louie who shrugs it off. I mean it was funny enough the first time but at this point I know he’s running several fradulent charites, almost all scamming his uncle. He’s earned that title. Webby puts them on the big board and then when asked they find out she’s Webby, her granny Beakly is housekeeper.  She then asks the big questons “Are we friends now?” “If we say yes will you let us live?” “Ha good one new best friend”

She then explains she dosen’t get to leave or anything even eat a hamburger. The boys are moved by this and Louie asks what she does for fun. She leads them to the vents and while Huey and Louie are a bit relcutant, Dewey naturally goes first pointing out it’s better than the marble room. They agree and are on their way. 

Okay unpinning that pin, the crew conciously updated Webby and Beakly as neither really had a lot of purpose in the original. It was also to conciously add more actiony females to the main family lineup, as both creators, both being fathers, preferred someone their daughters could look up to and would enjoy watching. Not someone perfect but someone intresting instead of someone who often got Kidnapped and whose main charactrisitcs were “Sweet and GIRL STEROTYPE” So cleverly they KEPT her being girly, having a skirt, liking ponies. .but also gave her all the training and skill of one Cassandra Cain, a sheltered background and an adorable personality that kept the sweetness but added her probably having killed a man at some point. It worked as Webby is one of the best parts of the show. 

Likewise Beakly was upgraded from fuddy duddy housekeeper, to badass former secret agent whose also a housekeeper, and bodyguard and confidant to scrooge. Demonstrated by her talk with him as he tries to put on his diving suit and go after the jewel of atlantis, having spotted the signs to go after it in the paper.. and wanting to prove a child wrong. Beakly points out the flaws in this, and tries to get him to connect to his family. Having lost hers, it’s easy to see why.. though the how’s a mystery.. for now i’m guess. We’ll see in the finale. But she’s Scrooge’s concisence and the one who can easiest reign him in, to the point two episodes directly have our heroes have to NOT call her or else the plot was end, but have that worked into the plot so it works. She’s the calm in his storm and hte one person he needs more than anyone else even if he dosen’t always realize it. He calls family “nothing but trouble” just as Dewey passes overhead. 

So naturally as Webby shows off Scrooge’s old treasures in a mysterious room, while the other Siblings are rightfully impressed, Dewey dismisses it as “fake” because he’s being a little shit, and they agree after seeing Donald, not knowing his reputation. The cutaway to him struggling with a stapler does not help> it’s only when Webby accidnetly uneleashes Captain Peghook, a vengeful ghost after scrooge, who gets his hand on a ghostly sword do they realize this time the monsters are real. Huey also accidently wakes up Manny, the headless manhorse! 

Things somehow get WORSE as Scrooge finds them.. but is in no state to argue and as our heroes duck and Huey tries to divise a plan.. Scrooge get’s his spark back once agian.. it’s starting to become an ember now... and he charges in despite Dewey’s cries of “No come back your old!”. It then gets VERY badass Scrooge: Oi! Beastie! What's it gonna take to shuffle you off to the afterlife? Captain Peg-Hook: The head of Scrooge McDuck! Scrooge: [cracks his neck, flips his cane around to wield like a sword] Would you settle for his hat?

Now that is how you show how badass Scrooge is in a few lines and gestures. HE proceeds to take both out, as they’ve now teamed up, easily, tricking peghook into cutting off the head of a statue of him in the area, throwinng it at him and finsihing the ghosts buisnesss (”I should’ve been more specifiiiicccccc”) and then giving Manny the head, earning him a loyal employee for life. So our days saved, the kids have faith.. and Scrooge is still pissed. He also reveals this isn’t a treasure room but the garage in what’s easily the best gag of the first half, possibly the whole special but one iconic moment is very close in that one. Webby concedes what about the stack of old magazines or the hose or.. okay he’s probably right. He berates them only for the kids to fire back, pointing out he threw them in a room, they just wanted to spend time with him... but it’s only Dewey throwing his words back in his face that pisses him off. Scrooge bellows at them to get out, clearly having internalized everything with donald into rage and trying to justify pushing eveyrone away instead of working at it... but this dosen’t have time to actually work, nor would Beakly actually throw three children out on the curb, as he hits a mystic gong.. the third time it’s been hit. And after realizing it’s already been hit twice Scrooge is faced with Pixu, the gold hutning dragon! And guess who has a giant bin of it wanting to snack on? Scrooge naturally climbs on the thing and the kids naturally want to follow, with Webby getting her first development by proudly announcing “I’m going to eat a hamburger” then explains the metaphor. They just need a pilto.. and as Launchpad has been saying but I forgot to add in “I’m a pilot”

So we get a GORGEOUS bit of Scrooge riding the dragon over the city, getting banged up as he does before finally being thrown off.. only for the kids to catch him with the planes help and try and come up with a plan. Scrooge overcomes his anger at them not staying put, especailly since Webby brings up the right weakness: as a wise man once said...

So they need some.. like say the Medusa Gauntlet Scrooge had in the garage.. that Louie naturally stole. Huey and Webby eyeroll him but they have what they need.. and Huey brought the hose and quickly comes up with a plan, tying scrooge in, and swinging him to Pixu. The kids hold on tight, Dewey calls his family awesome and our heroes win the day as Scrooge turns the dragon to stone, slips and falls.. and then GRACEFULLY dives into hte bin, showing off his diving skills and his badassery. The day is saved, the gauntlet and the dragon go in the bin for safe keeping and Scrooge calls the kids trouble.. and chuckles fondly. “Curse me kilts how i’ve missed trouble”

He’s impressed: Huey’s quick thinking, Louie’s pickpocketing, Dewey’s drive, and Webby’s magical knowledge all saved them. For once. .he’s happy again. And for the second time in life it took his family to remind him why he does this and show him the true fun of adventure: Getting to share it with those he love. And he finally has people to love again. He has family back, kids who look up to him and want to learn from him again, a REASON to adventure. Money and treasure and eveyrthig couldn’t bring della back.. but he at least sees now that whiel they certianly couldn’t.. they can bring him closely with what he has left. She’s gone, for now.. but she left behind three great kids who could use a mentor and Beakly brought him a fourth. And he just found out he has a pilot. The ember.. is now a raging flame. Scrooge is back. Because i’ts not the money or the glory.. it’s the thrill of it, the discovery.. and the family that makes adventuring worth while and he’s learned that lesson again. So he calls Beakly to clear his schedule.. forgetting she you know PUT A FUCKING PIN INTHE WALL the last time he asked her to play scretary and the onlyr eason she dind’t drive over the choke him to death, is that she’s probably happy he’s back on track.

Back at the interview Donald is stapled to the wall and gets the job.. not as an accountant mind but his employer needs a sailor.. and his employer is FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD. Oh boy. 

Part 2: Escape To/From Atlantis First the last bit of background I saved: Originally, Fenton and Gyro were supposed to show up here, starting a gag of Fenton showing up but not being named until “Beware the B.U.D.D.Y. System!”, setting up the sub. But the crew decided this took too much away from the focus on the duck family. The not naming him gag was also dropped, and I have two reasons why: Their given reason, which is it’d take up too much time and a logistical reason: While they gave a heartfelt pitch to Lin-Manuel Miranda, as frank wanted a strong Latino superhero to combat the lack of them on film, Frank and Matt probably thought they woudln’t get such a huge name or at least prepared for it.. and were delightfully suprised when Lin happily and tearfully agreed. So they likely scrapped it so they could properly promote the biggest name in their voice cast. Honestly it was for the best and they still go to do the idea with Drake in “The Duck Knight Returns!”, where it worked much better than it probably would have with Fenton. 

We open with the Glomgold Industries Employee Training Video! Encourging IP Theft, making things cheaper and general scumbaggery, and claming your the world’s most beloved scottish billionare. IN short the perfect introduction to everyone’s favorite insane, fake-scottish, scheming, egotistical , short sighted billionaire. As i’ve made transparent before, I fucking love the reboot version of Glomgold and he’s easily one of my favorite parts of the reboot. They clearly needded to find a new place for Glomgold in the grand scheme of things as the show was more about globetrotting adventure and family and less about getting contracts or bets about whose bigger money and more about family. While they DID do a classic bet storyline with season 2, it’s clear the old glomgold was just a bit too stiff to properly fit into this new zanier and deeper universe. 

So they instead remolded him as a half insane, knockoff scrooge, someone who PURPOSFULLY modeled himself after the guy to try and one up him, and instead of being a fairly low pitched schemer, was a bombastic idiot whose schemes were half baked, whose name was on everything he made, and whose only thing bigger than scrooge was his glorious ego. In short he was perfect for this series and perfect to show up way more often as a bumbling thorn in Scrooge’s side.. but one who COULD be effective in the right circumstances, as to not make him completely pointless. Keith was likewise the only person I could see in the roll now as with Hater he had a history of playing bombastic, egosticial morons, and made Glomgold into the enjoyable ball of ego, bombs, sharks and shouting we know and love. Some people didn’t take to this version after a while... I’m not one of those. I loved him here, I love him now, and he’s every bit as good in season 3 as he was at the start. He’s also wearing a kilt mcduck A KILT. A bit that’st STILL funny four years and 70 some episodes later. 

So we meet Gabby McStabberson and the Smashnikovs as they and Donald file in, though Donald is busy wrapping up a call with Scrooge, who assures them he has a low key day planned.. while in the sub getting ready to go to atlantis. And nearly drowning when Dewey tells Launchpad to dive while he and Scrooge are still up top. Cue credits. 

So on the sub we get our setup for the two main plots for the episode: While the main thrust of everything is Scrooge taking them to Atlantis, each leads to a diffrent plot. Louie talks to Donald and lies entirely about their day, worrying Webby.. who then reveals she just didn’t tell Beakly she took off or where she was going and encourages her to call and lie. To save time, i’m going to cover this subplot now minus the conclusion as it’s pretty simple and this review is already a day behind. Louie wants her to lie so she dosen’t worry, which is oddly sweet.. still a bit greasy, but it’s clear he means well and it shows in his own way the boy cares about Donald: Sure he’ll lie to the guy, and set up a fradulent charity to scam him.. but he also knows not to worry his dad-uncle and kows Donald is better off thinking their safe than knowing the truth. Granted it also prevents consequences for Louie.. but he’s not playing here here. He gets nothing out of Beakly not knowing the truth or helping some girl he just met, he’s just being NICE in his own twisty way. It’s a nice show of his depths: While louie will lie, cheat and steal Eddie Gurrero style, he does have a caring side underneath hit. He can read people well and while he primarily uses it to manipulate people, we’ll see time and time again that he can use it for good too and to help those he cares about. He’s nothing but supportive the whole plot, and even when he says “you can’t back that up” it’s more worrying about her and having a bit of crack than actually being a dick. 

So Webby tries lying, but is about as good as Huey is at it, saying “I’m at a friends house nothing, then makes up a clearly fake name, then says their only talking in swedish for a grandpa. Launchpad DOES help, but only by accident and snake venom. We’ll get to that. As I said this wasn’t the most complex plot. 

The main plot is our focus episode for dewey. In theory each of the kids was supposed to have one in the first five episodes: Dewey here, Webby in Daytrip of Doom, Louie in Great Dime Chase and Huey in Impossible Summit of Mt. Nevverest!. Given the last one was horribly delayed, he instead got Terror of the Terra Firmians, which in hindsight wasn’t the best spotlight episode for him. But it’s a good system; Introduce them all in the first half of the pilot then slowly focus on each one.  So now Idoloizing Scrooge, Dewey is desperate to be his sidekick and be seen as an equal and is in deep denial as scrooge instead has them all buckle up for a 17 hour ride and when Dewey questions the route, which skips the direct path.. but is clearly marked with monsters, Scrooge just snaps at him and shuts him down and disapoints the boy who only wants to prove himself to Scrooge. 

Naturally though, telling someone with that kind of need for attention and validation to wait goes poorly as he redirects the map while Launchapd is distracted.. and we find out WHY the trip is 17 hours as the direct route nearly gets them killed by mer-ducks, krakens and some sort of storm elemental. Dewey is bummed it didn’t work and annoyed to realize he’s just lumping them all together like Huey pointed out earlier. Huey is also delightful here, having brought travel bingo and sea shanties, clearly used to trips with his other uncle. And adorably taking after him. 

But Dewey’s deversion has done more than make him even MORE determined to prove himself to Scrooge whose just trying to NOT loose the son of the daughter he lost...

The Merducks have taken up residence in the bathroom, so they have to make a pitstop. Scrooge, CLEARLY forgetting how to take a trip with children, wasn’t prepared for this but they find a frieghter and make a stop. Naturally it’s GLOMGOLD’S freighter, where his sub took off from, and he and his minons including Donald find Scrooge using the bathroom.. and the boys to Donald’s rage. Unfortunately saying ‘I’ll kill him” to a raging sociopath who takes that as a sign to kill ALL of them, isn’t a smart move. 

So while Donald tries to plan to keep his family alive, said family arrives in Atlantis with a great bit of Scrooge trying to give a big speech only for them to see it first and ooh and ah. They touch down in the city.. which is flip turned upside down. Scrooge notes hti is odd but is able to read the hieroglypchs even upside downa nd notes there’s tones of deadly traps and that they shoudl stay back and..

Huey: Dewey ran in as soon as you said traps. 

So while Scrooge tries to prevent dewey loosing his head, Donald prevents launchpad loosing his and makes up an excuse about “if their dead now we can’t tourture them later” to cover his ass. Glomgold is impressed.  Dewey is Dewcipointed that the traps are upside down, though he does trigger some snakes that get launchpad. He’s fine just delirious. And possibly slowly dying but the fact he’s lived this long is a miracle. Maybe that’s why he’s missing for most of season 3 part 2, the snake venom caught up to him and drake and fenton need to find the cure. Anyways the rest of the party stays behind while Scrooge chases after Dewey, who naturally runs ahead AGAIN. 

Donald ducks out to use the bathroom, as Dewey tries the old dance through the laser grid routine.. but forgets the part where your supposed to actually avoid it, leaving it to an unseen Donald to stop the fire traps from barbqueing his boy. IT’s a really awesome sequence that shows off Donald’s still got it even if he dosen’t want it.  Scrooge naturally works smarter not harder and simply ziplines above like a badass and berates Dewey when he tells him he took “The easy way”

“Why would you want to take the hard way?” The argument that’s been brewing all episode bubbles up and once again both sides have a point: Scrooge rightfully points out Dewey’s being reckless, has no experince and needs to listen to Scrooge and learn something. Dewey claps back that Scrooge isn’t TEACHING them, just teling them to get behind him while he does things instead of trying to actively mentor them. He outright told them he was going to teach them so while Dewey’s been a wee bit overbearing, he’s right in being disappointed that Scrooge instead just wants them to be safe. I see it as his subconscious acting up: He wants and needs the kids along and is right ot keep them safe.. but is too scared to properly mentor them after what happened to Della and is just trying not to loose anybody. His methods have been right, to keep them safe.. he’s just been so determined to save them, he can’t properly TEACH them so he won’t have to forever or explain WHY. And given the First Adventure shows that while protective he did eventually let Della and Donald pull their weight.. but here he lost so much between adventures.. he just can’e bear loosing them. Dewey also rightfully points out he just lumps them together which in any other version wouldn’t be an issue, until the reboot I had no idea which one was which here? They have distinct outfits and personalities and you had 17 hours to actually get to know them. Probably less given the shortcut but still, several hours at a minimum. It’s things like this that make the series work: while there’s plenty of internal conflicts, at their best their nuanced ones, where if one character is clearly in the wrong they have a reason, and if both are right both are also a bit wrong, versus the original where it’d be scrooge or the boys grabbing the asshole ball at times (Not always mind you but when they did it was insufferable. 

However they don’t have time to argue as the bridge goes out and Glomgold finds donald.. and another way around as a result and gets to the treasure first. Scrooge notices they have donald but once again Dewey charges in 

“Unhand my uncle” “No” “Okay wasn’t prepared for that”

Naturally both sides are a bit livid, Donald for dragging his boys into danger after being part of the reason his sister is on the moon right now, and Scrooge for working with one of his greatest eneimies.. though Scrooge has less ground to stand on because as Donald points out “I can’t keep track of ALL of your sworn enemies” I mean he has lived like .. 200 years. That’s a long enemies list and Glomgold, while the most persistent, isn’t exactly the most dangerous they probably encountered. Given the guy’s an artist with Bombs and Sharks that does say a lot about how badass Scrooge is.. and how incompitent glomgold usually is. He’s just having an on day today I guess. 

Glomgold naturally holds Donald hostage, takes what is suppsidley the jewel and leaves them to drown to death, hitting a wall to let it start leaking. HIs minons run into the rest of the heroes and a fight breaks out while naturally Donald, after even more naturally getting his ass stuck in a hole, literally, rails out at Scrooge for doing this telling him “I knew I couldn’t trust you and” “This is the spear of selene all over again”

Scrooge’s only response is “I was not responsible for the Spear of Selene!”

Dude you still paid for the rocket. While Della shoulders most of the blame, SHE choose to take an untested rocket, SHE choose not to come back during the turbulence YOU still built it and hid it from donald and didn’t make sure she couldn’t just take off in it. Your both to blame. And as I mentioned earlier to the least extent but still an extent, so was Donald telling his grown, adult sister whose as stubborn as she is what she could and couldn’t do. He had the right idea and was the only person trying to be an adult here in this situation.. but he still took the wrong approach with stopping her. Still he got far more ground to stand on than Scrooge, who also took his nephews out. Dewey stops both by pointing out that while yes Scrooge took them on an adventure he’s been doing NTOHING but keeping him safe and most of it was his fault which disarms donald a bit. Though Dewey is quickly distracted.. but for once by an obersvation: the gem glowing above thaem that glowed when they entered... and since the city got flipped turned upside down.. THAT’S the real jewel. Dewey asks Donald ot let it flood so they can get it and begs his uncle to trust him despite his doubts which he does. They get it and everyone’s okay and even more when they reunite with the others they find they’ve handily beaten them. To me this is where donalds walls go down a bit: he realizes he’s been smothering the kids, and that while he may hate his uncle for good reason... he’s not going to make the same mistake with them and while he lied.. Don probably realized if Scrooge had been honest Donald would never have let them go. He can trust him.. and he can trust his kids will be alright without him. 

So Glomgold naturally leaves his minions to die, but our heroes manage to make it to the sub, and Gabby asks if they can bum a ride. Not wanting to do any murders they agree. On the surface Glomgold is showing off his jewel, only for Scrooge to upstage him second’s later with the real jewel, and point out his is “nice but defintly cursed”... and right on cue Glomgold gets dragged off with an octopus and let’s off his first “Curse you mcduck!”. Scrooge offers clean water and power thorugh it, for a price because of course he does, and has offically made his grand comeback. 

We get back to Webby’s subplot, as she’s confronted by Beakly.. who naturally being a former spy easily figured it out immieditely but is only upset her grandaughter lied to her. And even at that she dosen’t raise her voice or anything about the matter, knowing it’d only make her feel worse and getting that her grandaughter needs to see the world and that much like donald, she walled her up to prevent loosing what little she had left. And since being with Scrooge is safe as with her, she can go with him anytime just tell her first kay? They hug. Awwww. 

Donald likewise apologizes, admitting that whatever has passed, he misjudged his uncle here and while not forgiving him yet, is at least willing to let him back into his life and into the boys.. on holidays and stuff at least. But fate forces his hand.. or rather his 10 year old nephew-son having left the engine on and neither having turned it off, meaning his boat goes boom and is in no liveable condition. But Scrooge has the space in his heart and mansion for them.

So as we close the kids help move the artifacts all around the house instead of just the garage while Launchapd drops the boat. While clearing out Dewey notices the painting from earlier.. and finds part of it was flipped over...

“Mom?!” 

Now keep in mind, while nowadays Della’s inclusion in the show is one of the most famous and treasured parts of the show.. back then this was a fucking shock. Disney never really cared about the boys mother and outside of one comics story never really went into what happened. So the fact she was not only an actual important part of the plot but we’d find out was a HUGE wham moment and left my jaw dropped after seeing the episode. Like I would with the finales I had read no spoilers and had no idea this was coming but damn was it a huge and welcome suprise and how far they’d take it and how much they’d flesh her out was an even bigger one. Easily one of the best big reveals i’ve ever seen. The only better one I can think of from this series itself... is the end of season 2. But that’s for another time. 

Final Thoughts on Woo-Ooo!:

This two parter/hour long special.. is still one of the episodes best and easily one of the best pilots. It does slow down a bit in pacing in the second half, but otherwise is just an immaculate , beautiful pilot movie that introduces and fleshes out all 8 main characters, maybe Launchpad the least but enough to still work, gives us some big mysteries to work out, and even throws in Glomgold’s first apperance. It sets the tone, reverent and adventuerous but also with it’s own weird and wacky sense of humor and world building, and universe perfectly. I .. don’t have much else to say really it’s just THAT good and really worth checking out. If you somehow haven’t seen it go watch it and if you haven’t seen it in a while might be worth a rewatch before the finale. The absolutely perfect start to an amazing ride. 

Next on the Della Arc: Dewey and Webby try to figure out where Della is while Louie learns a valuable life lesson and  pisses off a killer robot along the way.

Next on the Blog: Amphibia Season 2 is back! 

Until then if you liked this review follow for more and if you could please support me on patreon. Even a buck a month helps and juicy stretch goals give you na incentive to contirbute. We’re 5 bucks away from 20 dollars a month which means a review of super ducktales and a Darkwing Duck review EVERY. MONTH. So contribute now! Until the next rainbow it’s been a pleasure. 

[theultimatefanficwriter]

Untouchable-Kaito Momota x Reader

Requested by minorycantwrite on Wattpad

Trigger warning: Implications of abuse

Soulmate AU: When a person is born, they have their soulmate's hair and eye color. Their natural color only returns when they first touch their soulmate. H/C= Hair color, E/C= Eye color

Purple.

Purple?

Purple.

...

Really?

You sighed as you stared into the mirror. Just like every other morning, you couldn't help but take a few good minutes to just look at the garish purple color that was your hair and your eyes. It's not that you dislike the color purple, it's just you didn't think you looked good with it at all. And honestly, you didn't think it was a good color for hair in general. So you had two reasons for wanting to find your soulmate. The first being the obvious one; you wanted to know who your true love is.

The second reason was so you could get rid of this ugly mess that was currently your hair and eye color.

You pulled your hood over your head as you made your way down Hope's Peak Academy's halls. You were really self conscious of your hair color because, again, you thought you looked ugly with it. You kept your head low as you hurried to your classroom. It was your first day at Hope's Peak, and though you were excited, you were also a bit nervous about others judging you. You were a pretty shy person and didn't have a lot of self esteem, and were also very anxious about what others thought about you. You also disliked making psychical contact with people, which is a problem if you were to ever find your soulmate. During your rush, you accidentally bumped into somebody, causing you to stumble backwards and fall down.

"Whoa, you ok?"

You looked up at the voice to see the person you had bumped into hold their hand out to you to take. They were wearing a white jacket of sorts with a checker pattern style scarf around his neck. He had green hair and eyes and was looking at you brightly. You hesitantly took his hand. After he helped you stand, he chuckled and placed his arms behind his head. "Nishishi. Man, you should look where you're going. You could get seriously hurt."

"Oh, I-I'm sorry." You muttered. "You're right, I should." You went to head on to class, but the boy stepped in your way.

"Name's Kokichi Ouma. I'm the Ultimate Supreme Leader." He looked you over, smirking at your purple hair that showed now that your hood had fallen off. "Who're you?"

"I-I'm Y/N L/N." You introduced yourself quietly. "The Ultimate Gardener." You noticed his gaze and quickly fixed your hood.

Kokichi chuckled. "Is that your real hair, or have you not found your soulmate yet?"

You shook your head. "It-it's not mine." You assured him. "I still don't know who my soulmate is."

Kokichi sighed and pulled at his hair. "Same here. I have no idea who mine is." He smirked at your hood. "But I think purple fits you! It's a good color."

You turned away shyly. "I...thank you, I guess." You muttered.

Kokichi watched you with a smirk before sighing. "Alright, I'm bored now. I've got to get to class." He waved goodbye to you. "I'll see you later, Y/N!" He turned around and skipped away, leaving you alone.

You pulled your hood even closer to your face as you hurried along to your classroom. You checked the doors until you got to the correct room and entered. As you looked around, your eyes settled on a particular boy with H/C hair and E/C eyes in the corner of the room. He had his cheek resting on his palm as he looked out the window. He was wearing a purple jacket that hung off one shoulder, and his hair was in a kind of spiky style. You couldn't help but stare at him. He was really attractive. The boy turned his head and locked eyes with you. You blushed as he caught you staring, and he smirked at you. He gave you a wink before looking back out the window. You pulled your hood further over your head as you went to look for a seat.

You were stopped by a hand on your wrist. You flinched, and looked up to see it was Kokichi. He was grinning at you. "Hey!" He exclaimed excitedly. "Who whoulda guessed we'd be in the same class!?"

You gave the boy a small smile. "Oh, hi, Kokichi." You greeted him.

"You just haaaaaave to sit next to me!" The green haired boy insisted, pulling you towards his seat.

You tried to pull your arm out of his grasp. "Please, let go of my wrist." You asked the boy quietly. He ignored you and continued to pull you along, until suddenly he was ripped away from you, the boy letting out a surprised yelp.

"Didn't ya hear the girl, Kokichi? She asked you to let her go." You looked up at the new voice, and noticed it was the boy from the corner. He was currently holding the Ultimate Supreme Leader by the back of the shirt, and the shorter boy was pouting.

"I just wanted my new friend to sit by me." He whined.

The man in purple rolled his eyes and let Kokichi go, causing the boy to stumble a bit before he caught his footing. "Well she obviously doesn't wanna." Kokichi let out a 'hmph' and sat down at his seat, his arms crossed. The H/C haired boy chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck as he turned to you. "Sorry about him. He can be a lot sometimes." He gave you a wide smile. "Oh, I haven't introduced myself." He thrust his thumb into his chest. "I'm Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars! They call me the Ultimate Astronaut!" He held his hand out to you.

You stared at it for a moment before looking back up to Kaito. "Y/N L/N....The Ultimate Gardener." You informed the other softly.

Kaito looked from his hand to you and shrugged before placing it at his side. "Not a very touchy person, huh? That's fine." He tilted his head as he tried to get a look at your hair despite your hood. When he couldn't, he searched for your eyes instead. Finding those, he smiled warmly. "Wow. You have very beautiful eyes, Y/N." He complimented you.

You felt yourself blush slightly. Did everyone really find the color purple that good on you? "Thank you...but they aren't my real eye color." You told him.

Kaito's eyes widened at that. "Really? I'm kinda surprised. I woulda thought someone as beautiful as you would've found your soulmate right away." The blush on your face increased tenfold, and your turned your face away from Kaito, causing him to chuckle. Suddenly the bell rang, and the boy smiled at you. "Looks like the only open seat is by me. That ok with you?"

You nodded, slowly turning your head back to him. "That's fine." Kaito beamed at you as he turned around and led you to the corner of the room. The two of you took your seats, and class began.

You were given an assignment that required a partner. The goal was to get to know your classmates. As soon as the teacher told you all to pick a partner, you noticed both Kaito and Kokichi look towards you. You gave the green haired boy a sad smile as you turned to Kaito. "Wanna be my partner, Kaito?" You asked.

The boy beside you beamed and nodded, giving you a thumbs up. "Sounds fun, Y/N!" He exclaimed.

You covered your mouth as you giggled. The two of you began brainstorming questions to ask each other and activities you could both do. During this, you turned to see who Kokichi had paired up with. You noticed that a boy in a blue shirt with brown pants had scooted his desk next to the Supreme Leader's. Your eyes widened when you noticed his hair color.

Purple.

You were so surprised there was someone else with such a color that you couldn't help but stare. Kaito noticed you had stopped responding and looked up at you. Following your gaze, he noticed who you were looking at. "Oh, that's Rantaro Amami." He informed you. "He's the richest kid in the class."

You turned back to look at Kaito. "Oh, uh...interesting." You said. There was a bit of an awkward silence as you both went back to work. It stayed that way until the bell rang. The both of you packed up your stuff, bid each other goodbye, and left.

This continued for several months, and your friendship with Kaito had grown. Even after the project had ended, the both of you would hang out all the time. The purple clothed boy was very respectful and never touched you, not even for a high five or hug. This fact made you fall for him even more.

One day class went by as normal, and the bell rang. As you put your stuff away, Kaito spoke up. "Hey, why don't you come over to my dorm?" He suggested. "We can hang our and play video games or whatever."

You looked up at him and smiled softly. "That sounds...fun." You agreed.

Kaito smiled so wide you thought his jaw would break. "Hell yeah!" He exclaimed happily as he made his way to the door. "Sweet! C'mon, lets go!"

You giggled as you made your way after your friend. You gave a quick last glance around the classroom and noticed Kokichi talking to Rantaro. The boy in white looked happy, and he looked past his now green haired conversation partner to look at you. He grinned and waved at you, to which you responded with a small wave of your own. You then turned around and followed Kaito to his dorm.

"Sorry it's a bit of a mess." Kaito apologized as he closed the door to his room behind him. "I'm not a very neat person."

You smiled at him reassuringly. "It's fine, don't worry."

Kaito nodded as he sat on his bed. He pat the spot beside him, indicating for you to sit there. You hesitated, but eventually sat down, though you made sure to have a good foot or two distance between you both. The H/C haired boy noticed and frowned. "So, I've been really curious." He started. "And I don't mean to get too personal, but..." He looked you in the eyes. "Why don't you like being touched?"

You bit your lip and grasped your arms. "I...don't really want to talk about it." You muttered. "It's just..." You trailed off as you rubbed your arms.

Kaito narrowed his eyes as he waited for you to continue. When you didn't, he looked confused until you sighed shakily and slowly rolled up your hoodie sleeve, revealing a large bruise. It looked as if someone had grabbed your upper arm roughly. The astronaut trainee's eyes shot up to yours, but your head was turned away from him. "I...I had no idea, Y/N." He whispered, sadness in his E/C eyes.

You shrugged as you wiped away a single tear. "It's alright." You murmured. "I know this is going to sound horrible but...I've grown used to it."

Kaito clenched his fists. "You're right, that does sound horrible." The boy sitting beside you scooted closer to you. "I can completely understand why you avoid touching people now." He smiled at you warmly, though you still weren't facing him. "But not everyone is going to hurt you. Like me. In fact, I wanna keep ya safe."

You felt your face heat up, and your chest flutter. You rolled your sleeve back down as you slowly turned to look at him. "I...trust you, Kaito." You told him, giving a small smile in return. "You've been so sweet. In the months we've known each other, you never once have touched me. You've been so respectful." Your smile widened without you realizing it, and you let a happy sigh as you stared up at Kaito's eyes. "You make me feel so safe. I...didn't even know what safe felt like before you. I...care about you so much."

Kaito listened to you, his smile growing as you spoke. When you finished he scooted even closer to you, though the two of you were still not touching. "Y/N, I care about you as well." He said. "Meeting you is the best thing that ever happened to me." He sighed and rubbed his neck as he looked away. "I...have to admit, though. There were times I was real tempted to grab your hand and hold it. Both because I wanna show you how much I like ya, but also because..." He sucked in a breath before looking back at you. "I really want to know if you're my soulmate."

You bit your lip as Kaito finished speaking. You'd be lying if you said you hadn't thought the same thing. And if you were honest, you really wanted Kaito to be your soulmate. You slowly brought your hand up. Kaito watched it as you did, a puzzled look on his face. You swallowed as you hesitantly brought it towards Kaito's face. Your hand was shaking, but you kept telling yourself that this was Kaito. He wouldn't hurt you.

Your hand hovered just beside his cheek for a long while, Kaito's patient gaze flickering between your hand and your eyes. "It's ok, Y/N." He told you softly. "If you aren't ready, you don't have-"

He was cut off by you throwing both of your arms around him. The astronaut let out a surprised noise, and even you were a bit surprised you went straight for a hug. But...it felt nice. Kaito was muscular, and as the trainee slowly placed his arms around your middle, you melted into his strong and protective embrace.

You had never felt this safe in your life.

"Ok...on three, we'll pull apart and look at our hair." Kaito's voice brought you back to reality.

You took a breath and nodded. "O-ok."

"Alright. 1..." Kaito ran his hands gently over your sides as he began to lean apart from you.

"2..." You moved your hands from around his shoulders and to his biceps, clinging to his sleeves as you felt your heart beat wildly.

"...3."

The two of you pulled apart, and both of your gazes shot to the other's hair. Your eyes widened and your hand shot to your mouth as a smile formed on your face.

Kaito had a similar reaction. He beamed at you, as his purple eyes looked you over. You saw many emotions flash through them.

Shock.

Happiness.

Excitement.

But there was one you noticed out of all of them.

Love.

The purple haired man reached a hand out to you, which you gave him as your stupor wore off. He continued to grin at you, until finally he gave you a soft tug, pulling you into his chest. He wrapped his arms back around you in that warm embrace you loved so much. You went to bury your head in his chest, but were stopped by him gently grabbing your chin. You glanced up at him, and couldn't help but smile as he gave you such a loving grin.

"Can I kiss you, Y/N?" He asked quietly.

You were a little surprised, but it didn't take long for you to answer. "Yes. Of course, Kaito."

Kaito chuckled and pulled you closer, pressing his lips against your own. You reached your hands up until they tangled into his hair as you closed your eyes, melting into the kiss. The astronaut placed a hand on the back of your head as he lightly ran his tongue across your mouth, asking for entrance. After a moments hesitation, you parted your lips. Kaito smirked as your tongues battled one another, Kaito easily dominating your own. The man in purple finally pulled away from your mouth in order to lightly pepper your neck with kisses.

As he did this, Kaito began to slowly lean back onto the bed while still holding onto you. This caused you to be lying on his chest as he kissed your neck and gently rubbed up and down your sides.

"You're so beautiful, Y/N." He murmured. "I'm so glad you're my soulmate."

You smiled, and lifted your head up to look down at Kaito. Your soulmate was grinning at you lovingly, his purple hair slightly messed up now. You looked at that purple hair, then stared into his purple eyes. Your smiled widened as you leaned down to kiss him.

Maybe purple wasn't such a bad color for hair after all.

[me-and-my-gaster]

I don't know jack shit about homestuck but here you go! 3, 27 and 74! (I hope the questions apply to you) Oh and also 40 because I like when you ramble about ships even if I don't know those ships! ^3^

The 100 Homestuck Asks!

3 - How many times have you read HS?

It’s hard to count, I guess? I started reading it once and had to stop after the Cascade (about halfway). Then I re-read the first half to ‘get it’ when I read about the Alpha Kid’s session and finished the whole thing. Then I often worked with a YT queue of ‘Let’s Read Homestuck’ playing in the background. And I also often jump in and read a page or a hundred when my friend who is currently reading the whole thing for the first time reminds me of something awesome. So... Personally, fully, with my own two eyes with no breaks (that was a mighty binge, I tell you)? Once. Overall... hard to tell.

27 - Favorite carapacian?

I’d say The Mayor, because everybody loves the Mayor and the Mayor deserves all the love. I do also have a weakness for the Windswept Questant (White Queen) because her design is very pretty.

74 -  Earth C headcanons?

Everybody lived happily ever after, the end. Also, this was only the first planet they inhabited, later on, they traveled further to explore their new Universe. Good shit, good adventures, good fun.

40 - BROTP?

Ho boy. You like me ranting about ships and you picked one of the topics I can rant about A LOT.

Dave & Rose - they behave like siblings, squabble, talk shit, whine about each other, but despite that, both are ready to maul a bitch for the other AND die to keep the other one alive. 11/10.

Dirk & Roxy - they gave each other a hard time but boy if I don’t love how deep their pride and respect goes when it comes to one another. Especially since they grew up in similar circumstances and GET each other in ways that nobody else could. Good sibs again. Kick ass, chew gum, and have unhealthy coping mechanisms together.

Meowrails - at first I thought Equius was too overbearing towards Nepeta and that he was trying to keep her on ‘a leash’. But then I reminded myself that he kept her safe from the goddamn revenge spiral Vriska started and if Nepeta really wanted to do something, she would. I like the difference in height and personality between them. Nepeta being a very small, active, extroverted, and open one is a good balance for Equius’ big body and proper, stiff, and formal behavior. There are also those little things you notice like Nepeta having a blue tail, which meant Equius used his skills to help her with the Lioness life. Like how they’re usually shown together. Like how Equius trying to protect her while simultaneously knowing he’s too weak to keep her safe by his side, so he sends her away. Like how Nepeta was following him anyway and was ready to maul a mad clown because her moirail was hurt. All of it. I just really like them and I’m glad most of the fic writers always keep them together. 

Dave & Dirk - jesus wept, that one long-ass talk between them at the very end of the story hit me so hard. Both of them talking about Bro, about Alpha Dave about how they grew up and what are their expectations of each other. This was one of the best convos in the whole thing for me. I wish I could see more of them, cause there’s so much good shit that can happen. Every fic with Dave and Dirk being good brothers in any older/younger configuration is A+ content for me.

John & Karkat - I know JohnKat is a very fun and nice ship and I don’t blame anybody for preferring those two as a romantic couple but... there’s something for me with them being close friends (or moirails, please gods, yes). They really had a very good relationship in the story, one that had a lot of buildup and growth. One of my favorite convos comes from their interactions. (hi karkat!) They are both leaders of their respective groups, self-proclaimed or not and they did work together (with a lot of help from Jade, that is) to figure out how to save everybody’s asses. They also seem to balance each other out, or at least John is a good balance for Karkat’s unending anger rants. Karkat is also a lot smarter than John and isn’t afraid to point out the other’s dumbassery, so there’s that. What also appeals to me in the idea of them being moirails is how it could be a lovely way to work through John “I Am Not A Homosexual” Egbert’s internalized masculinity stereotypes.

Now, let’s delve deep into the BROTPs that didn’t have much material in the comic.

Sollux & Dave - I didn’t give this pair any thought until I’ve read a few good fics with them being in a pale quadrant, and let me tell you... this shit’s good. Those two are assholes on the outside and would probably be the duo that annoys the everloving shit out of everybody in the close vicinity just with their banter. And I just think they’re neat.

Davesprite & Hal - those two would have hit it off immediately, even if only for being the fifth wheel in their respective “kids set”. Both seem more bitter than their ‘alpha’ counterparts. Both also seem more mature, due to being a bit older/wiser but also a little bit more broken. Both also got mighty forgotten by everybody which, not gonna lie, hurts me a lot. I have a lot of feelings about Davesprite and how much he went through and I also have a lot of feelings about Hal, who’s both a human stuck in the shades and an AI at the same time. I just wish to see the two interact and be bros they really need. They should be happy, dammit!

Roxy & Eridan - the scarf and sniper rifle duo! Ok, I love both of them because they are my comfort characters for various reasons and their stories hit home very hard, so I am mighty biased. But... They both have issues that seem to be polar opposites for the most parts and I really dig the idea of them moirailing the shit out of each other. Roxy being a very open person who is first to make friends would have no issues with befriending Eridan “Water Asshole” Ampora any time of the day. And I think he needs somebody who would listen to him properly and attack him with too much love at any waking moment but also somebody he would have to be actually responsible for. Also, like I said, both are snipers who also use another extra specibi, so I think they would make a lovely power BROTP. 

Also, I do love the idea of Eridan painting Roxy’s nails because she never could get it right herself because she was either drunk or running with pumpkins and the polish looked shitty immediately after she applied it.

Ok, that’s about it when it comes to the BROTPs from the top of my head. Thank you for your ask!

[tgai-spock]

Lines of ice from rolling waves and subtle villains

So we arrive on earth.

Chapter 2

Earth was chaos. Vulcan cities may have been overflowing with people who never learnt to mind their own business, where privacy was afforded only in relation to ones personal life and behind closed doors, but earth was chaos. Was anyone paying attention to anyone else? Both yes and no, several times loud rowdy men pointed at Spock and shouted:

“Oi! Vulcan,” why he had no idea.  He’d never seen vulcans do this even by those who hated him for being a hybrid. Was it a statement of fact made by those who were mentally disabled, and was this gesture innocent, the same as a child pointing at a sky and saying, blue? Or was it something more violent? It was by the way, the sky, blue. Which was weird, there was little blue on vulcan, the seas were pink, the skies orange, although many of his clothes were blue, it was different seeing the colour where it naturally occurred. Other groups shouted at him too. Groups of girls huddled in groups would suddenly grow 3 times the size and point at him.

“Mother, at least on vulcan the vulcans pretend they aren’t talking about me. Send me back.” Spock said as they walked past another group. His mother, who was the only one he was shopping with looked more stressed than she had at his whining that the school was illogical, and that he was going to choose magic as a serious study course if he was forced to attend. That didn’t seem to bother his mother all that much, but it did make his father twitch in ways he hadn’t seen before, so he had put it down as one of his options along with science and computers. Of course his father wanted him to do computers, and math. 

“Maybe we should get you a hat. You could wear my scarf for now” Amanda motioned as she went to untie her scarf.

“If I even begin to remotely look like a girl I’m going to kill myself” Spock said. Amanda sighed.

“Listen, don’t let their shouting bother you. In school that will completely disappear, it won’t be stood for at all. They have plenty of other aliens attend, they can’t have people just shouting out species randomly. I feel the people out today our rather dim, and drunk.”

Spock shrugged “fine. But only because I’ve been called worse and they’re validating the fact I’m vulcan.” Amanda sighed, she wished her son wouldn’t say things like this. He wished this wasn’t true for him.

“Can you read the email and remind me what we need to buy?” Amanda asked “I’ve forgotten.” Spock flicked up his lightweight tablet that he had been carrying in his hand non-stop for the past three days.

The Letter:

For first years attending the school each pupil must bring with them the following :

General Lessons:

Notebooks for each lesson, at least one new one per term.

General stationary, including pens, pencils, scissors, gluesticks, and celllotape.

Scientific Calculator

Protractor and compass

Shorts for p.e, unacceptable clothes include jorts. Shorts may be any colour but no patterns, pictures, characters, or 100 pictures of Nickolas Cages face may be on them.

Jogging bottoms/leggings (plain in colour, no patterns).

Suitable shirt or jumper for p.e (no slogans or patterns.)

Hairbands/bobbles 

Tablet

If magic is a chosen subject they will need to bring:

Tarot cards

Tea Cup

Crystal ball

Spock hummed as he read through the items that were relevant to him, and they stopped outside a sports shop.

“Why does this say first years on it?” Spock asked.

“Oh, sometimes parents think their children will be better in a school that caters for children between the ages of 11-14 as they’re still very young. This is a school for older 15—17 year olds. Isn’t that good?”

“How?”

“You won’t be alone on your first day of school.” Amanda said.

“I guess” Spock said as he tried to work out if there were any benefits (currently Spock’s new slogan was ‘I guess’ but what it actually meant was ‘I have no idea how that makes sense’). They entered the sports shop.

The walked around aisles to the shorts and jogging bottom sections. Spock picked up plainest, blackest pair of each he could find.

“You can wear colour now.” Amanda encouraged.

“I don’t want to.”

“You could.”

“And yet I’m not going to.” Spock said and Amanda sighed, she could see this wasn’t going to be an argument she won. They walked past some hats and Amanda puts a black cap over his head, that was just large enough to go over his ears.

“Mother. I don’t need a hat.” Spock said.

“I don’t want you to hide who you are, but it would be nice for people to stop yelling at you. At least while we’re walking down the street.” Amanda says the words as though she is stabbing herself with each one.

“So a hat is going to solve this.” 

“It might.. reduce the amount of shouts” Amanda reasoned “you don’t have to if you think thats worse.” Spock took off the black cap and picked up a sparkling silver hat, that was enough to make an elder vulcan faint on the spot. He put it on his head. Amanda grinned.

“You may have that hat.”

“Oh” Spock said, this hadn’t been what he wanted at all.

“Your father will hate it. And I’ll get you the black one too incase you suddenly find it too garish.” Amanda said.

“Okay but, I’m going to wear this non-stop as soon as I get back to vulcan. ” Spock said although he had absolutely no plans to do so, if the vulcan sun reflected of this hat there seemed to be a great possibility that it would kill someone else upon immediate impact.

“You can, I am allowing it.” Amanda said. Spock didn’t know how to react. His mothers logical boundaries must have disappeared into the atmosphere as soon as they arrived on earth.

The walked around to the sports bra section, and Amanda stopped suddenly. Spock almost bumped into her. Spock looked about awkwardly.

“Wrong section” he said.

“The thing about human school is you will be expected to do sports in front of other people.”

“And.”

“You can’t do that in a binder.”

“And yet I will.”

“No you won’t” Amanda said quietly but with such force it was enough to stop him in his tracks. She picks up a few.

“Do you want black or another colour.”

“Black.”

“Okay.”

“Now we need tarot cards, a tea-cup and a crystal ball.” Spock said looking down at his tablet despite having already memorised them.

“Do you want to try these on? Check they fit?” Amanda asked.

“No. Where are we going to get this stuff? Is this stuff even real?”

“Oh I looked up a little place around here” Amanda said and lead the way to the changing rooms.

“I said no” Spock said.

“I am saving you. You do not want to do p.e in clothes you’re not comfortable in, go try them on.”

“They’re the right size.”

“It’s completely different to finding out if their comfortable, go on.”

* * *

There was a lot of crystal balls in the shop display. Every inch his eyes looked on, sparkled with crystals. Crystals on necklaces, crystals on rings, crystals on pendulums - and a number of dragon ornaments. 

“I should not have chosen magic” Spock sighs already defeated, Amanda laughs.

“Don’t think we don’t know you did that on purpose, your going through with it now” Amanda laughs pushing her son forward. They walk in through a dark blue door, and a bell above their heads rings as they enter.

“Good morning” a woman, with curly straw like hair behind a till greets them.

“Morning” Amanda replies “do you have any tarot cards?”

“I have a few selections available at the back” she points “would you like help choosing one?”

“No thank you” Amanda says and they walk in the direction the lady had pointed, around tables full of small gems with a ‘buy 4 get 1 free’ deal around them. The back of the store was different, slightly less gems appearing and more wooden rings. Much to Spock’s confusion, there were several wands and tall staffs with fancy curved wood tops.

“Why?” Spock asks pointing to a staff.

“Walking stick” says Amanda.

“Why?” Spock asks pointing to the wand.

“Religious practices. Your the one that choose magic, my aunt used to practice you know.”

“Is that the one married to the uncle who tried to kill me?” Spock asked.

Amanda sighed “well she’s divorced him now.”

“Erm” a voice from behind them, the shop keeper with wide eyes and a few extra packs of tarot cards in her arms said “I just remembered my shipment arrived this morning with some different tarot styles, so I thought I’d set them out for you.”

“Oh, thank you” Amanda said as the lady walked forwards and put down several extra packs. Amanda picked up one pack covered in cats, Spock picked up one that was black.

“You can take them out and have a look if you’d like, just remember to put them all back in.” The lady says and backs away, Amanda nods.

“This one” Spock says and chooses the cards that are all black except for the symbols outline on them, such as the 8 of swords which had 8 rainbow swords on it.

“Are you sure?” Amanda asks showing off the cats “I bet I could custom order one like this, but with sehlats instead.”

“I’m sure.” Spock said. Amanda shakes her head as they walk back over to the till.

“Well at least this has been quick. Excuse me do you have any crystal balls? The type you can see the future in.” Amanda asked

“Strange” the woman says “you’re the seventeenth person to ask me that.”

“There is a school nearby that has magic lessons, this is one of the requirements.” Amanda informs her.

“Oh” says the woman with her teeth as she looks up to her ceiling for a moment “yeah that would make sense. I thought everyone must just be like geeze, that Gandalf guys, pretty neat.”

Amanda nodded “I’m aware it’s a new school, is it new this year then, or is this a new shop?”

“Oh, I only brought the place a few months ago” the woman says as she places a large crystal on the bench “I guess I should check out the requirements that school has and get some  in stock. Whats it called?”

“Saint Daimon’s" Amanda nodded.

“Nice, modern. Hey I’ll tell you what, if you buy this big crystal ball I’ll give you and your son a discount on any of these protection stones. Never hurts to have a little extra help” she says and she waves her hand over a collection of different sized gems, some smooth, some rough like rocks.

“Would you like a magical stone for protection?” Amanda asks Spock calmly. Spock picks up a hand size rough orange stone covered in blue lines. He chucks it up into the air and catches in neatly in his palm.

“Yes. This looks like a protection stone” Spock says and places it next to the tarot cards and crystal ball. Amanda eyes him suspiciously.

“I don’t like how you handled that at all.” Amanda says.

“You said I could have the protection stone.” Spock says with one raised eyebrow.

“Is that all I can help you with?” The woman asks.

“Yes thank you.”

“Card or print?”

“Print” Amanda says as the woman types up the cost into her till.

[Chapter 1]         [Chapter 2]         [Chapter 3]          [Chapter 4]

[Chapter 5]         [Chapter 6]

[mysterioushogwartsrequests]

can you do an imagine with Bill introducing mc to the rest of the weasley’s for the first time?

I put the MC in the same year as Bill for consistencies sake so just imagine she still has her OG friends, but they met when MC was in their third year instead of their first so Bill was her first friend.

Ik weird, but I thought that would work out better! There’s a little heated moments in the beginning of this one so just a fair warning!H/H = Hogwarts House

Bill Weasley was resting on his bed as his girlfriend and curse-breaking companion, (Y/N) (L/N) looked over the contents of her trunk, triple checking it for the fourth time. The pair was currently in their sixth year of Hogwarts and Bill finally asked her to come to meet the rest of his family since they had been dating for a year. Opening his eyes, he saw her staring intently at her bag, her hair neatly styled, eyeliner perfectly applied (after multiple tries), and a ruby red color decorating her lips. Bill admired the color, how it complimented her skin tone and how it must’ve taken her a while to get it perfectly applied, but his admiration suddenly turned into something else. He could only think about how much he wanted to mess up that perfect lipstick and how those velvet lips would feel against his skin. “Bill!” (Y/N) exclaimed as he pulled her against his body, “I have to finish~” She laughed attempting to put some of her shirts away, “I’m meeting the rest of your family and I at least want to look presentable” Bill tugged her away from her trunk and sat down on the bed, pulling her onto his lap, “You always look presentable” He muttered, pressing rough kisses against her shoulder and neck, “I have you to myself right now and that won’t be the case when we get to The Burrow” Bill uttered, pushing her cardigan off her shoulders. She had already met Charlie, one of Bill’s many younger siblings, and she had heard of the elusive Percy around the school, but never met him. It wasn’t unusual for Bill to speak about his siblings, but meeting them would be a whole nother story. “I like the color,” Bill muttered against her skin, “Shame I’m about to ruin it” He grinned and pulled her in for a kiss. (Y/N) gave into his kisses, adjusting herself so she was straddling his waist to push him down against the mattress. “My lipstick is what got you like this?” She asked softly, admiring the bits of red against his lips and the area around it, “You’re impossible, William” She teased, pressing chaste kisses down his jawline. A trail of ruby red marks began appearing against his skin and Bill sighed contentedly as he slid his large hands up her thighs, bringing a small bit of her skirt up along with them. Her hands moved to unbutton his shirt and she pressed her lips against his exposed chest. Bill gripped the back of her thighs and flipped her over so she was the one against the mattress, “You’re tempting me, (Y/N)” He muttered, trailing a finger from her jaw to the neat (H/H) tie around her neck. (Y/N) admired the marks of red she had left on her boyfriend and wrapped her arms around his neck, lacing her fingers in his long disheveled hair, “You look indecent, Mr. Weasley” She teased and Bill could only laugh. He gripped her by the waist and leaned his lips close to her ear, “And who’s fault is that Miss (L/N)” He huffed against her ear, making her shudder, “You’re so beautiful,” He murmured, pulling her tie undone and throwing it to the side. Bill began to lean down to kiss her as he unbuttoned her blouse, hoping to get a bit further before they had to depart, “Who looks indecent now, hm?” He teased, admiring the smudged red across her lips and face. (Y/N) had no objection to his eagerness, her body replied to his touches as he hoped she would. He kissed her fervently, her back bending willingly against his body as he ran his hands all over it. Grabbing one of her legs, he wrapped it around his waist and she gave his lip a soft tug, making him groan. He had unbuttoned her shirt just enough to reveal the tops of her bra, but Bill was too busy kissing her to admire it. “William Arthur Weasley! We’re going to-!” A boy yelled, First Year Percy Weasley to be exact. The yelling startled Bill, rolling off (Y/N), he hit the wooden floor with a thud. Percy stood at the doorway with his mouth agape as his older brother sat up with a sheepish smile, “Hey, Perce” Percy’s eyes immediately landed on the red kiss marks that decorated his brother’s body and the girl scrambling to cover herself with the blanket their mother had knitted for her eldest son. “WE’RE ABOUT TO MISS THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS AND YOU’RE SNOGGING?!” Percy screamed in frustration,“I’m going to the station!” He announced with a huff and descended down the stairs. Not the best first impression.Charlie rushed up the stairs, trying to figure out what all the commotion was, but raised an eyebrow as his younger brother stomped down the stairs. Peering through the door, he noticed Bill on the ground with (Y/N) on his bed. Charlie placed a hand over his mouth to muffle a snicker, “Red’s a good look on you, William” Charlie joked and Bill glared at him, buttoning his shirt. “Piss off, Charlie” Bill muttered and Charlie headed back down the stairs, laughing at his own joke. Bill groaned, standing up from the floor and giving his girlfriend an apologetic smile, “Sorry, love” He said, pressing a kiss against her cheek. (Y/N) laughed, “It’s fine, but we better go get cleaned up,” She said as she buttoned her blouse back up, picking her cardigan and robe off the ground. “I think I might go like this” Bill stated nonchalantly, “It is a good color on me” He grinned and she squinted at him playfully, shaking her head and leading Bill straight to the bathroom.

The ride home wasn’t the most pleasant one. Charlie couldn’t stop laughing as Percy refused to look his brother and his girlfriend in the eye out of sheer embarrassment. 

“Is Dad picking us up?” Bill asked, attempting to make conversation as he brushed his thumb against (Y/N)’s hand. 

“Yes, William” Percy muttered, keeping his eyes on the moving scenery as Bill cleared his throat. Charlie bit his lip as he watched his brothers, attempting not to bust out in laughter. 

Once they arrived, they were met by a car from the Ministry saying that Arthur was caught at work and the Minister sent a car to pick them up. Bill tapped his foot nervously and Percy continued to avoid their gazes, but before they arrived, Percy had glanced over at (Y/N), accidentally making eye contact with her.

Percy turned his head away with a light blush on his cheeks, once again out of embarrassment that he had caught them.

(Y/N) had reapplied her lipstick and was touching herself up to make sure she looked her best for Bill’s family.

“You don’t have to do that,” Charlie chimed in, “They’re going to like you just the way you are” He smiled, leaning up against the seat as their home came into sight. 

Instead of finding their parents at the door, they noticed the two boys grinning at the car. Their arms were linked together as they smiled, attempting to resemble perfect angels. 

Walking up to the car, the two red-headed nine-year-olds stretched out their hands in front of their guest, “I’m Fred Gideon Weasley” He greeted and his twin brother smiled, “I’m George Fabian Weasley!” The other one exclaimed as they took (Y/N)’s hands. 

“We’re happy to have you here!” They said simultaneously, handing the girl two flowers as welcome. 

“Thank you!” She grinned, taking a moment to smell the flowers. (Y/N) turned to face Bill, “I thought you said they were menaces! They seem sweet” (Y/N) whispered, admiring the flowers. But when Bill looked over her shoulder, he noticed the twins sticking their tongues out at him before returning to their smiles. 

“Boys!” Molly Weasley called from the window, she gave a wide smile seeing her family outside, “Don’t linger come on in!” She called as the group began to bring their trunks inside. 

The light summer’s breeze cooled down the Weasley home, but there wasn’t anything chilling going on inside the house. 

“Give it!” Ginny yelled as her older brother held a toy above his head, “Give it, Wron!” She cried as she attempted to snatch the toy back. 

“It’s mine!” Ron yelled, pushing his six-year-old sister away as he tried to keep the toy away, “Get your own!” The seven-year-old yelled and Bill finally snatched the toy away from his tiny siblings.

“You’re both going to be in a time out if you don’t stop arguing” Bill scolded and the two siblings pouted, crossing their arms.

“My darling boys!” Molly smiled, grabbing each of them and pressing kisses against their cheeks, “You must be (Y/N), Billy’s mentioned so much about you” She smiled and Bill blushed

“Mum, the nickname?” Bill scratched his head as Ginny and Ron giggled, snatching the toy away from Bill’s hand.

“I’m Ginny!” She exclaimed, waving at (Y/N), “I’m, uh” She looked down at her fingers, counting to make sure, “Six! You’re pretty!” Ginny smiled, grabbing (Y/N)’s hand with a smile. 

Ron squinted at Ginny, “I was going to tell her that!” He exclaimed, grabbing (Y/N)’s other hand, “You’re very pretty! Bill has a picture of you!” Ron smiled.

“You mean this picture?” Fred grinned, holding a framed picture of (Y/N) in her fifth year. 

“You still have this?” She asked, walking over to examine the picture. It was during the winter and she wore her (H/H) scarf as she sat on the fountain of the Clocktower Courtyard with snow covering the ground. Ben had brought his new muggle camera to school that year and they had fun with it, taking group pictures and candid shots around the school. 

Bill had taken that picture of her as she laughed, attempting to catch snowflakes in her hands. Bill blushed and attempted to snatch the picture away, “Yeah, I don’t know why they brought it out though” Bill uttered, glaring at his two smiling twin brothers.

“Afternoon, Weasleys!” Arthur exclaimed as he finally arrived home for work, “My branch at the ministry had a ton of work today, but all’s well!” Ron and Ginny ran up to their father, jumping up and down, greeting him happily. 

Mr. Weasley picked up Ginny and pressed a kiss against her head then did the same for Ron, “Fred, George, are you behaving?” He asked teasingly and the two boys gave a nod

“Of course, father” They replied with grins on their faces as Mr. Weasley ruffled their hair. 

“My boys back from school!” Arthur exclaimed, pulling in his three eldest sons for a hug, “So good to have the family together again” He laughed as he ruffled all their hairs.

Charlie laughed as Percy attempted to fix his hair and Bill turned to grab (Y/N)’s hand, “Dad, this is (Y/N) (L/N), the girl I told you about” Bill smiled and (Y/N) gave a shy wave. 

Arthur smiled, grabbing her hand and giving it a firm shake, “You’re the famous Hogwarts curse-breaker” Arthur said, “Let me tell you, my dear William is over the moon about you! Even has a picture of you framed!”

(Y/N) laughed as Bill attempted to hide the picture, “Yes, the twins showed it to me just minutes ago” She replied and Arthur beamed “Anyone that gets along with my family is automatically welcome in our home!” He added on, “You make Bill happy so I’m happy!”

Molly Weasley smiled, giving her husband a hug, “I’ve fixed dinner, let’s get eating everyone!” Mrs. Weasley exclaimed, urging her family into the dinning area.

Bill grabbed (Y/N)’s hand, holding her back for a moment, “I hope this is okay, I know it might be a lot” Bill muttered, pressing a kiss against her forehead.

“Bill, this is amazing,” (Y/N) smiled, placing her hand on his cheek and trailing her thumb over it, “Your family is wonderful”

Bill smiled and pressed a kiss against her red lips, “I’m glad you think so” He muttered.

(Y/N) laughed as she saw the red mark around his mouth, “You’re right" (Y/N) said.

“Red is a good color on you”

[defendersofaurita]

Title: Converging and Diverting

Author/Artist: AnchoredTether

Rating: M [graphic depictions of violence, major character death, dark themes]

Pairings: Plance [Pikelavar], Kallura [Thunderyun]

Series: Defenders of Aurita

Chapter: 13/?

Summary: Meklavar has a formidable secret. Pike has an objective for which he's willing to kill. Despite their odds, they might have a chance of realizing their seemingly impossible desires if they fight for them together. Revelations are brought to light, quests align, and their hope lies in the power of a common cause.

Aurita is on the brink of desolation and it will require more than courage and sacrifice to save what is left. As the stakes continue to rise, what was once a fight for restoring a broken kingdom turns into a war far more sinister.

CH13 :: CONVERGING AND DIVERTING

"It's been days and we still haven't seen or heard from Meklavar or Pike." Block said when he brought over a tray filled with various meals to their table in the busy tavern.

"They'll know to meet here," Valayun piped hopefully as she grabbed her bowl of soup with an excited grin. "It's the largest tavern and it's in the center of town. It's the most logical place to meet." She shrugged. "Meklavar's short, and Pike's arm was still injured, so maybe they're just taking a while longer to get here."

"Being short doesn't make you that much slower at walking." Thunder deadpanned.

"If they're not here within the next day," Jiro started, "then we'll leave a message with the innkeeper and head north."

"Just one more day?" Block looked at the paladin with concern. "What if they're in trouble? What if the dragon caught up to them? Shouldn't we go looking for them?"

"Shiro doesn't have much time left, it is imperative that I find the sorcerer." His expression was stern. "Whether you choose to accompany me or not is up to your discretion."

"I will come with you," Thunder offered, his gaze hard. "I at least owe Shiro that much."

"I... feel more inclined to stay," Valayun said. "For all we know, Pike or Meklavar could desperately need a healer. If they aren't here by tomorrow evening I will try looking for them."

"I'm with Valayun," Block said. "But if you leave something of yours with us I can use a tracking spell to meet back up with you guys."

Thunder nodded, taking the ring off his index finger and placing it in Block's upturned palm. "Don't lose it, it's important to me."

"I can take something less valuable-"

"No, the stronger the sentiment the stronger the spell. It'll help you find us with greater ease."

"Okay," Block held onto the ring tight before placing it carefully in one of his pockets. "I'll keep it secret, keep it safe."

][ --- ][

It took Pike nearly three days to heal enough that they could start traveling again. Thanks to Korhan's healing salve and various ingredients, Pike's recovery was swift. Meklavar realized Korhan's claim that khaliit were a resilient species held true - the only other species she had seen (aside from herself as dragonborn) with such strength and adaptability were galra.

"Princess, we need to get you a change of clothes! Your previous outfit was completely destroyed aside from the armor…" Korhan distressed. "Unfortunately I have nothing worthy of a princess!!"

"Korhan, we're traveling to Darmuth and finding a sorcerer. It's not like I need to wear a ballgown," Meklavar said impassively. "Besides, I'm trying to keep my identity secret, remember?"

"Well that doesn't mean you can't still do it in style!" Korhan sounded offended. "I got the blood out of Pike's scarf and his pants were salvageable but I'm afraid everything else was too far rent from the dragon's claws. Luckily we're a similar height and build…" He rummaged through a closet, flinging the occasional item of clothing behind him.

Pike glanced over at Meklavar with a dubious expression. He was currently shirtless, his freshly removed stitches leaving ragged scars almost as dark as the crimson markings along his back. "Well, at least I don't need pants, otherwise I'd have to tailor them, and that's always a pain."

"Tailor them, or tail-or them?" She snickered.

"Hey, this is no laughing matter! Do you have any idea how much I chafe down there unless there's a proper hole for my tail?" Pike sighed. "And Aurita doesn't have a large enough population of khaliit to have pants for us readily available."

She frowned as the wheels in her head began to turn. "Huh. I never thought about something like that. I wonder how I would go about making something that's low in demand but at the same time essential for those who need it more available to the populace…"

"I mean, most tailors are willing to alter pants for khaliit, khariit, and argonians, but whew, do they charge a mighty fee… it's easier if I just do it myself." He shrugged.

"Perhaps just a simple regulation that all alterations should be charged as the same price to avoid discrimination…" She held a hand to her lips as she thought. "Or even that such alterations should be free if they don't provide necessary clothing for a certain species' specifications…" She pointed up to his head. "Hoods too, you'd need them altered for your ears."

"Some galra have similar specifications, orcs need three-fingered gloves, you and dwarves need shorter tailored clothes, and I don't even know what centaurs do for clothing and armor for their lower half."

She swatted his head for the jab towards her height. "I'm pretty certain all the centaurs live in Namithir which is not my division. Well, at least... wasn't my division. But, it's still interesting to consider."

"Look at you two," Korhan beamed, "Talking about demographics and politics!" He tossed a shirt at Pike's face, causing his ears to swivel back with a grunt. "Now put on this tight shirt and let's get out there!"

][ --- ][

"How do you know Shiro?" Jiro asked as he, Thunder, and Rover made their way through the crowded streets of Darmuth. It would take them almost half the day just to get out of the city, but Jiro was confident the sorcerer's home would only take them a day or two's journey north.

The ranger was quiet a moment, guarded as always, but decided that the twin brother of Shiro was someone he could probably trust. "Shiro found me after I was exiled from my village. I was only eleven when it happened, but he showed me how to survive. He gave me reason to hope."

"You were exiled? Why?"

"I'm originally from Namithir. And apparently my mother had to have been galran, since my markings started to show once I reached adolescence. The village must have assumed my mother was human since I didn't have any elvish markings but I still looked like all of them." He clearly remembered the day it happened and how some simple purple stripes on his face could cause so much hatred to seep from the hearts of people who he thought were kind and charitable. The true faces of people were hidden deep beneath acceptable facades and Thunder learned that the true intentions of most people were ugly and selfish.

"What about your father?"

"He died when I was five. I have no idea if my mother is alive or dead from what little I could get out of him. But regardless…" He let out a sigh. "I've lived on my own for most of my life." Rover let out a small whine which caused him to gently pet the giant wolf's head. "Well, until I met this guy."

"Hmm… you must have met Shiro when he was traveling to Henat. Did you end up accompanying him there?"

"Yeah… we parted ways when we reached Staerene. But I saw him again many years later, right before the Invasion."

"Huh… and… he never mentioned me?" Jiro almost sounded wounded.

Thunder frowned, uncertain how to address the paladin's hurt. "He never really talked about himself… never about his family, his interests, or personal concerns. It was always about the mission or about helping others."

"I suppose that's just a testament of D'Jahno's training and the seven pillars of knighthood." Jiro paused, his brows lowering in skepticism. "That's hilarious you would say he never talked about himself, because he'd never shut up about his 'bright internal light' and how he was chosen to be a paladin. It's all just because he can use chakra and I can't."

Thunder offered an encouraging smile. "I guess identical twins aren't quite so identical after all. But hey, you're still a paladin, so there's that."

"You're right… and there's nothing more fulfilling than being a paladin."

][ --- ][

"So how does this Castle of Lions thing work??" Pike asked as they headed towards Darmuth on foot, having left the giant tent behind.

"Oh it's super fascinating!" Meklavar started, "It's through a locator spell combined with a warp enchantment if I remember correctly. Korhan can explain it better though."

"So this bracelet here," Korhan held up his wrist and pulled back his sleeve for Pike to see the white band with a cyan colored spell etched into its face, "Works as a locator for the Castle. I can always find the Castle so long as I have this, so it works like a tracking spell. With the bracelet, I can also summon the Castle to wherever I am."

"Wait, so you can teleport the Castle right here if you wanted to??" Pike looked like Korhan just told him he could resurrect the dead. "Even though it's half a mile back that way? And it's huge?"

"Well, relatively speaking, the Castle is quite small. But yes - it takes a couple of doboshes to work, however, and it takes longer the greater the distance."

"But doesn't that mean that anyone could stumble across the Castle and take your stuff?"

"I don't leave my front door unlocked, Pike. And before you say 'there are no doors that cannot be unlocked'  I'll have you know, I have plenty of protective enchantments that keep the Castle hidden from thieving eyes such as yours."

"I'm not a-"

"Besides, the bracelet would alert me if anyone entered. I can always warp the Castle here if that happens because it only transports inanimate objects. Any persons inside would just remain at that location."

"Huh. Neat. I guess we don't have to stress anymore about finding shelter at night."

"Which is good considering Valayun still has our share of the loot," Meklavar added.

"Oh? You're traveling with Valayun?" Korhan asked. "Alfor's daughter?"

"The one and the same." She let out a sigh. "She seemed to recognize me as well, but I don't… I don't remember her at all. Or Alfor. But the name Altair sounds like I should know it."

"As you should - Alfor was the royal Chancellor, arguably the most important person in the kingdom after your father."

"I remember him," Pike offered. "He looks just like Valayun except his markings are light blue. Well, I guess it's Valayun who looks like him. Anyway - he wore armor very similar to Shiro's- I mean Jiro's… well, both of them, really."

"That's great, Pike, but I still don't remember him." Meklavar let out what sounded like a growl. "I think I need to just accept the fact I'm never getting those memories back and move on."

"Hey!" Pike spun in front of her, forcing her to stop. "You remembered the night of the Invasion, or at least part of it, just from me talking to you! We are not giving up on your memories!!"

"My memories are nothing but pain and suffering. I don't exactly care to relive all that."

"I know you have good memories mixed in with the bad. Don't you want to remember your family?"

"My entire family is dead, Pike. I think it'd be easier not to remember them."

"Mek…" He put a hand on her shoulder and saw she was on the verge of tears but she was being so strong despite the turmoil of emotions and confusion that raged inside her. Pike's voice was soft, his eyes pained in understanding. "I don't know anything about my father because he died when I was too young to remember. I would kill to have any kind of good memory of him. Your family would want you to remember them, even if it is painful. It will probably be incredibly painful but it'll be worth it. I know your memories are important to you despite what you're thinking now and I know they're important to everyone who was a part of them, including me."

"I'm sorry about your father… and…" Her eyebrows lowered and her voice shook ever so slightly. "My memories are important to you?  But you said we were just acquaintances."

"Well…" His markings started to turn a bright red but his eyes were sincere. He lifted his hand to rub the back of his neck. "I figured I was just an acquaintance to you… but to me? …You were kind of my only friend."

She blinked a few times, completely baffled. "I… was?"

"Most my childhood I was a slave and even though living in the castle as a servant was phenomenally better it's not like there was anyone my age to interact with. Aside from you, that is. But even that was limited. But outside of my family? You're the only one I could really call a friend." He jabbed his thumb behind him to the elder elf. "Korhan comes close. But he's more like an uncle. Same with Olia I guess, but she's more like an aunt. And her kids were much too young to befriend me. All they would do is chase my tail anyways." He sighed. "Khariit pups are a nuisance."

Korhan giggled. "I remember when that happened. They chased you and your sisters throughout the whole castle."

Pike groaned. "Uhhhgh it was awful. My legs were sore for weeks."

Meklavar gave him a wicked grin before continuing their walk towards the city. "So it was your classic game of dog-chase-cat?"

Pike stood there and pouted a moment as the two elves lengthened the distance from him. "Not a cat," he growled before running up to them and slowing to their pace. His ear rotated when he heard Meklavar whisper something that only he would be able to hear, her amber hues glancing up to him.

"Thank you, Pike."

He offered her a quiet hum.

][ --- ][

"Oh quiznack," Valayun swore as she rummaged through her satchel.

Block raised an eyebrow at her. "Quiznack?"

"I should have given Jiro and Thunder some of our loot!" She threw her head back in a frustrated groan. "I'm a horrible treasurer."

"I don't think there are any towns between here and the sorcerer's place for them to even spend money in, so I think they'll be fine. I do wonder though how Pike and Meklavar are holding up."

"Oh Pike's a thief. I'm certain that if they needed money he'd figure out a way to acquire some."

"Probably." Block frowned. "But then again he said he wasn't a thief."

"He probably just said that to throw off your guard. What kind of thief proudly announces they're such?"

"I dunno, a good one?"

"Exactly," she said decisively as if that explained everything. "We have to make it a priority then to make sure we meet back up with both Pike and Meklavar and Jiro and Thunder, that way we can at least divide up the loot between us if we do part ways again. I am hoping, however, that we stick together. I think we make a great team." She lowered her gaze, her expression nostalgic. "I'd always dreamed of being part of a spectacular group of people, out there fighting the good fight, helping people in need…"

"It is nice to travel with others," Block agreed. "I'm grateful I ran into Meklavar and that she decided to help me, otherwise I don't think I'd ever get past the Wiebian Swamps. Although… it's weird to think she's actually-"

Valayun quickly grabbed the sorcerer's shoulder, giving him a warning look.

"Right. Secrecy." Although the market street was loud with bustling people, there was no knowing what prying ears were listening in to their conversation. "But I think it'd be pretty amazing to help her with her 'quest,' if you know what I mean."

"It would be a noble quest indeed," she concurred, looking around at the various stands and booths selling a wide variety of necessities and luxuries. "I would love to continue what my father has started."

"What your father started?"

"I'll tell everyone all about it as soon as we regroup. And we can discuss Meklavar's 'quest' in greater detail as well." She let out a small exclamation once her eyes found what she was looking for, her face lighting up. "As for right now? I'm going to purchase some lovely arrows."

][ --- ][

][ music ][

The city of Darmuth was visible enough that Pike could see the details of the architecture. The city walls had impressive archways and all the rooftops of the numerous tall buildings were a distinct red. As they drew nearer, Pike's brows lowered and his ears perked forward, straining to make out anything amongst the myriad of noises coming from the town.

Meklavar noticed his change in behavior and tried to look where he was looking but his eyes were darting around too much. "What is it?"

"I'm… hearing something within the city walls. It sounds like screaming." He looked over at her and then Korhan. "And I think I got a whiff of smoke, but it's hard to tell from this distance."

"Perhaps we should enter the city from the western gate?" Korhan asked.

"I dunno… by the time we get on that side of the city whatever's going on inside might have migrated over there anyways." They all started when an explosion sounded from the heart of Darmuth, arcs of purple lightning trailing up above the rooftops. "Whatever's going on inside looks serious." He summoned his lance, the ring on his index finger transforming into the weapon he twirled in his hand. "Our teammates could be in danger."

Meklavar stared at the lance before looking up at him. "Are you sure you're healed enough to fight? It was almost impossible to get you out of bed this morning."

"I'll be fine, that's what my chakra is for," he said dismissively. He didn't actually know how many spells he would be able to cast in his current state but he didn't like the idea of Meklavar fighting without him there to ensure no harm came to her. He knew she was plenty capable and stronger than him in more ways than one, but at some point along their travels, he developed an almost instinctual need to protect her. He wasn't sure if it was his servant sense of duty to her or loyalty from their small but meaningful affinity that urged him to vigilant behavior. He reckoned the seeds of safeguarding were planted as soon as she confided in him her secret of being dragonborn and now the roots were firmly weaved deep within his heart.

"Whatever lies ahead, princess," Korhan started as he unsheathed his rapier, "Know that I shall have your back."

"And I…" Pike made a face. "Your side, I guess."

Meklavar took a deep breath as she looked to both of her comrades and then to the danger that lied ahead. "I wouldn't have it any other way. And no formalities, Korhan."

"Yes prin- ahem. Meklavar."

When they reached the city gates the chaos they were greeted with was worse than they could have imagined. Pike tried to make sense of all the sounds and smells that bombarded his senses but there was too much mayhem to understand the situation entirely. Townspeople ran in fear screaming, others brandished weapons of every variety from swords to frying pans, elvish and galran soldiers under the Empire were attacking with all forms of steel and magic, rebel forces fought against the Empire, city guards were running around shouting orders and helping townspeople while also fighting whoever, and another organization that wore facial masks adorned with the design of a maw full of fangs were included in the fray.

"The Fangtides are here, as well as the Empire," Pike hissed.

"Fangtides?" Meklavar asked.

"Rival assassin group." He started to fight an Empire galran and soon enough Meklavar and Korhan had their hands busy with their own oppressors.

"Rival? Does that mean you're part of an organization?" Meklavar shouted over her shoulder while she swung her axe at an elf.

"Of course I'm part of an organization!" One of the Fangtides was headed towards Meklavar but Pike whipped out his lance in time to cut him off. He narrowly dodged a knife to his throat with a pained grunt. His barely healed wounds were already slowing him down and he feared he would only become a burden to his teammates at this rate. He reared back his weapon and released a blast of lightning through the thrust of his lance, creating a clean line that caused a dozen to collapse to the ground. His eyes found a path for them as a wild idea passed his mind.

"Guys, follow me!" He grabbed Meklavar's arm for good measure before he dashed down the street and into an alleyway, Korhan following closely behind as he parried off some attackers. Pike began jumping and climbing his way up towards the rooftops, turning around to help Meklavar up at the parts where it was too difficult.

"Pike, you know we can't jump like-"

"I know, shut up and I'll remind you to thank me if we live through this." He held down the butt of his lance for her to grab and pulled her up to the next ledge, doing the same for Korhan. With some strained effort, the three of them made it up to the brick red rooftops of the city and overlooked the madness that spread throughout the streets like a flood. "There was no way we would have gotten through those homicidal crowds. Up here we can find our teammates faster." He started running across the rooftops and the two elves followed behind him, looking down into the streets as they passed.

"Oh that's not good," Korhan said somberly as they neared the city's center.

"That's druid magic, right?" Pike asked, staring at the vibrant purple arcs of lightning with dread.

"The one and the same."

"Wait, we have the Empire, rebels, an assassin organization, and the Druids here?!" Meklavar asked.

"Seems like it," Pike said somberly.

"What exactly is going on??"

"Valayun!"

"What?"

"Valayun!" Pike stopped, causing the others to halt as well as he pointed to the archer. "I don't see anyone else nearby, but let's regroup with her."

"How about you get her and bring her back up to the rooftops?" Meklavar suggested. "Korhan and I are safer up here and we'll find everyone else faster this way. You're the one who can get up and down with ease."

Pike wanted to argue that he didn't want to leave her side but she had a point and her plan was logical. "Alright," he answered hesitantly. "You can yell directions to me, I'll try to tune in to your voice over the madness down there."

She nodded. "We'll start to head closer to the center of town."

He took a deep inhale before departing, leaping down to ledges and other precarious lips of architecture until he landed on the ground and ran towards Valayun, slashing at anyone who tried to intervene.

Her brows rose when she saw him. "Pike!"

"Where are the others? Meklavar's on the rooftops with Korhan, we're regrouping there." He took her arm and started towards an alleyway where there were less people.

"Korhan?" Valayun shook her head, realizing now was not the time. "Thunder and Jiro split from us this morning but I saw Jiro only a moment ago. I'm afraid I've lost Block entirely."

"It's alright, follow me." He took the lead climbing up to the roof, giving her a hand when necessary. When they reached the top he looked out at the crowds below for the sorcerer donned in gold and green and the paladin in his armor that reminded him of Alfor's. Sure enough, Jiro wasn't far from where he found Valayun. "I'm going to get Jiro, keep an eye out for Block and Thunder on your way to Meklavar and Korhan."

"I'll try to offer aerial support if you need it," she offered, notching an arrow at the ready.

Pike gave her a nod before running across rooftops until he was closer to the paladin. He made his way down into the masses, striking blows with his lance as he fought his way through. When he called out the paladin's name he turned his head towards him, finishing off the fight with his opponent before striding over. "Jiro, we're regrouping on the roof and we can leave as soon as we find Block and Thunder. Do you know where they are?"

"Leave? We can't leave these people in their time of need!"

"Jiro, I know you mean well," he began but he was cut off with a yelp as an assassin tackled him to the ground. He wrestled with her for a brief moment before an arrow suddenly lodged through her throat. His widened eyes followed the angle of the fletching to see Valayun on a nearby rooftop. "I know you mean well," he continued as he stood up, "but we can't handle these odds. If we stay some of us will die, or worse."

"What's worse than dying?"

"Oh I'm sure you can use your imagination." Pike rolled his eyes before leading the paladin back up to the rooftops and meeting up with the rest of the group. They spread around looking for their sorcerer and ranger, heading closer to the center of the city where the worst of the fight raged, and Pike's heart skipped a beat when he found both of them cornered in an alleyway by a druid. Block was fighting them off the best he could since Thunder's blades were not nearly as effective against magic.

Pike moved quickly, traveling from rooftop to rooftop with ease and jumping his way down to land behind the druid cornering his teammates. He transformed his lance back into the silver band around his index finger and instead made a couple hand signs to summon several magical chains from the ground. They snaked around the druid and arced back into the cobblestone, pinning them down. Thunder rushed forward and swiftly took care of the enemy with one of his blades before they could get back up.

"You're alive," Thunder greeted dully.

"Barely."

"Watch out!" Block shouted before casting a shielding spell that blocked an oncoming attack with a loud clash. Pike's eyes widened when he saw what nearly hit them - a druid's hands were held up, controlling two halves of brightly glowing purple cuffs. He felt his heart fall into his stomach, his muscles tensing into near paralysis when he understood the situation.

Pike barely broke out of his trance in time to cast his own barrier spell that surrounded him and Thunder in pillars of red light before the druid struck again. Block was too far away fighting another druid for Pike to include him in the protective spell. With each blast the barrier weakened, the red light slowly fading from its vibrancy.

"They're surrounding us," Thunder warned from Pike's backside, observing the two additional druids who approached and summoned their own sets of ominously vibrant collars. "Can you teleport us out of here?" "Afraid not," Pike admitted with a terse sigh. "I'm low on chakra - I could probably teleport myself but taking someone else takes a lot of out me. Where's Rover?? Can't he come and grab us?"

"He was badly injured in the fight," he uttered. "I… don't know if he's okay."

"Cheese…" They were running out of options and his protective spell was wearing down fast. "You ready to fight the old fashioned way?"

"It's the only way I know, idiot."

"Oh, right." Pike summoned his lance again before the barrier dissipated, leaving the two of them vulnerable to the druid's attacks. Both of them lunged into the fight, blades fighting against the onslaught of cuffs curving relentlessly towards their necks.

Suddenly he heard Meklavar screaming his name from the rooftops.

And then pain was thrust against the left side of his neck, knocking him to the ground.

Pike hit the cobblestone with a gasp as the magic wrapped and sealed around his neck. He tried to pull himself up to his feet but the collar drained what little energy he had left. He could barely hear anything over the ringing in his ears but the nightmare was released from his neck temporarily and he felt like he was gasping for air after breaking the surface of the water he was drowning in.

Thunder was distracted by his comrade's pain and inevitably fell to the same fate. Block kept trying to break the collars but the druids were too many and too persistent. He could no longer help now that two druids were attacking him with elemental spells but the sorcerer continually tried to release the dark magic around his teammates' necks as he fought off his aggressors.

One of the druids conjured a swirling black portal upon the ground as Pike and Thunder struggled against the electrifying surges that left them depleted, gasping and groaning on their hands and knees. In a last attempt before the darkness swallowed them whole, Pike used all his energy to get Block's attention.

"Block!!" When Block's dark brown eyes met his terrified blues, Pike called out his final plea as one of the druids kicked Thunder into the obsidian portal. "Leave us! Please, protect her!"

Do what I can't…

Block's face fell, the horror of the situation setting his stomach into knots. As the druid's foot met Pike's shoulder, Block offered his friend a pained nod as promise before Pike was kicked into the void and swallowed into oblivion.

"I'm so sorry you guys…"

[amazildoessomethingstupid]

Chapter 91: Dial Tone

Y’know kids, forcibly shitting on these chapters so violently has really done a number on my bowels.   I think I should take it easy a little, luckily it seems Taeshi heard my cries (in the past, somehow) because this chapter just feels like it was aimed at my heart.  And not in the way she normally aims at my heart to fucking drive a stake into it, but I digress.  The chapter starts with Mike going to school and...

Yeah I’m with you Mike, I can’t believe summer’s over either.  I mean what was that?  Two chapters?  It weirded me out that it was already July when Golden Hour came around, and now it’s August!  I guess nothing else of interest happened.  Anyway they go into school, and...

Oh shit, why did no one tell me?!  It’s her!  I can’t believe it took 3 years, but she’s finally back!  Damn it I was supposed to take it easy!  I can’t get into Lucy’s new behavior, it might destroy m-

Oh, false alarm this is clearly a dream.  

A...very..weird...dream...

THE LEVEL OF CONCERN IS ELEVATING. 

OH THANK GOD!  We’re safe.

Wait...what?

OH SHIT BOYS IT’S VOLUME 1 STYLE!  WE’RE TAKING A RIDE DOWN MEMORY LANE AND EVERYONE’S INVITED!  AND GUESS WHAT? 

I actually like this part!  These callbacks are great and their implications are not lost on me! So allow me to splurge about something I like for once, and something that I actually do understand.  

This could very easily be seen as fan service, and hell my reaction to this should be proof that it probably is.  But if I’ve learned anything from Two Kinds, it’s that there’s two kinds of fan service that work for a story like this.  fan service that doesn’t effect anything, and is just there if you want it but doesn’t detract from anything, or fan service that actually drives a point home.  And credit where credit is due, Taeshi put fine use for this scene.  The volume 1 style isn’t just meant to be a visual callback, but also to create a mental connection between what’s being said and done in this current scene, and comparing it to the past.  

But before we go into the writing of the scene, let’s play a game of SPOT THAT VOLUME!

first one mid-Volume 1 Mike aka Naked Mike.  very short lived, but an alright Mike.

Second is Acapulco Mike, jaded and angry, aka Liquid Mike he is the source of all Mike’s problems.

Third is clearly early volume 1 Mike, aka Solidus Mike.  a fine man.  caring, likable, he put up with a lot of shit but he was always capable of throwing it back at them.

first is clearly Christmas Mike aka Raiden (Mike).  His time was short-lived, and he yelled at a little bird.  

second is freshman/sophomore Mike clearly pre- Just Beautiful  He is the Solid Mike.

And finally we go back to current Mike aka Punished Mike.

Lucy is a lot harder to pin point, because I can’t just go off of the scarf anymore.  The details on Lucy are more about style, a big give away though, is the eyes and face fins.  

First one is a bit of a trick Lucy.  Because the eyes and lack of face fins is Volume 1, but the proportions and body is more reminiscent of far later chapters.  

Second one is mid-Volume 1 Lucy, specifically it reminds me of Unmerry Melodies Lucy.

a fine Lucy, a happy Lucy, a carefree Lucy.

Third is early Volume 1 Lucy clearly, not even a challenge.

1st one is kinda hard, I’d have to say Late volume 1 for lack of face fins.

2nd one is volume 2 Lucy, her face fins are still stubby and haven’t grown out as much 

Example: Wonderland

3rd was hard to pin point to since the proportions look new and Lucy has been out of the picture since Volume 4, before they got that big of a head, but I found her! 

It’s volume 5 Lucy!  That’s what my choice and I’m sticking to it.  Odd since that was only a flashback from Augustus, but I’ll take it

And honorable mention to Volume 1 style paneling. It’s a nice touch.  

Anyway let’s see what they’re actually saying.

a lot of it is just arguments we’ve heard before, but this time it’s a self-reflection.  These things are maybe just what he tells himself to excuse what he did to Lucy.  

and while this may be a dream sequence this shows that it’s not pointless, we’re seeing more context to how Mike feels about the flowers he received in Class of 2008.  The doubts he has with his relationship with Sandy is interesting.  I’d say how kind of annoying it is that this is what one of the biggest relationships that has persisted in this comic has come to, but I can’t get mad.

Except that now we’re back at this again.

Look I know what I said about liking Fan service, but...

NOT THIS KIND OF FAN SERVICE

HALT!  I HAVE A GUN AND I’M NOT AFRAID TO KILL MYSELF WITH IT!

OH THANK GOD IT’S #NOTMYSANDY! 

Oh hey and we’re back to the early Volume 1 panel structure!  Although the style is still pretty much the same...Except Mike still has the pre-Just Beautiful scarf...

I feel like I gotta get into the artsy mind set to understand why he has Tess’ scarf instead of Sandy’s in this part, but... ehhh.  Let’s focus on the writing in this scene, first of all the whole “mike cheating” part.  Which kind of makes sense for the Volume 1 style given that that part of Mike’s problems only really came up during Volume 1.  I’d give shit about it being such an old plot point that’s being brought up now, but the fact that we have these volume 1 visuals helps to refresh the mind and make us remember that.  It’s a very effective way of artistically preparing the reader, and I appreciate that. 

The rest of this page feels so culty, and it really shows just how far gone Mike has gone with his relationship with Sandy.  It’s like he’s a zealot and begging to his god for mercy, but sadly...

his prayers go unanswered.  He is worshiping a...

False Idol

Oh come on! You know I had to make that joke!  

Anyway, this leads to Mike pleading for Sandy to listen, but she simply Magnetos outta there leading to Mike finding himself drowning, and there’s some neat imagery. specifically, here 

Did you catch it?  Cause I did!  IT’S MOTHER FUCKIN’ TROUBLED WATERS!  Except from Mike’s perspective, because Lucy was the one who dived in first to save Mike!  I’m glad it’s here, I feel like the people who hate on Lucy seem to forget bits like this.  And then we see another version of Lucy 

Hmmmm I know that bandaged Lucy is a reference to something, I want to say confrontation because I don’t know of any other where Lucy got physically hurt like this.  But enough about references and callbacks, they’re talking and we see Mike facing his inner demons, and I actually kinda like this.  

We finally get to see Mike getting eaten up by his  feelings about Lucy, and how he sees himself as responsible for it.  It’s a good scene, it was necessary for this character (I wish it would’ve come in earlier, but y’know better late than never I guess).  More than that, we get reminded that Mike really does care about Lucy, and didn’t want to hurt her, it’s melodramatic with the blood, but it’s a dream so it’s alright.  Although this bit is pretty hokey 

Look man, this is the most fun I’ve had reading a chapter, let me have this one.  Come on.  I can’t laugh too much because we swiftly switch back from fun times to 

Well...that’s...

And Sandy is not helping! Sh-...wait...that looks familiar.

Wait...

Nah...nah...Taeshi wouldn’t be that pretentious.   I don’t know if she was going for that, but I know what I’m going for! 

THEN PERISH

Anyway, we get more of Mike’s self-loathing and how he feels about himself in his relationship in the form of Sandy roasting the guy.  Then she points to Lucy for some reason that I’m not gonna dig too deep for 

I can’t believe Lucy’s fucking dead!  err AGAIN!  I think that might be her dress from the play.  And I’m not sure what she’s implying here.  Does sandy see herself as responsible for killing Lucy? (I mean, for triggering December I guess that would be the case)  Does Mike think that?  I’m not sure, but in either case.

One night and one more time~

EVEN THOUGH THEY WEREN’T SO GREAT!

HE TASTES LIKE YOU!

ONLY SWEETE-BLJGJLKHSKLF

“So this is how Lucy felt during Wonderland”  Anyway, Mike cries and looks for solace in trying to call Sandy but she isn’t picking up making him fed up and going back to sleep.  This leads to a similar scene except this isn’t a dream 

It’s a flashback!  And again, I give props to Taeshi because I really like this scene. 

We get to see more of Mike and Lucy’s relationship, reminding those who may have forgotten, that there was more to their relationship than just Lucy being a bitch to Mike.  Mike used Lucy himself as a shoulder to cry on, just the same as how she did him.  It shows the hypocrisy of the character, that I feel some people seem to forget too easily.  

It’s a nice scene, and we see how Mike used Lucy, but took his anger out on her.  VALIDATING A LOT OF PEOPLE’S (myself included of course) COMPLAINTS WITH DECEMBER!  Again I really wish this had come sooner to when Lucy got hospitalized, I think a lot of people needed this.  But like I said, better late than never.  And we end on mah boy, Bee’s favorite page!

imagine waiting 2 days for this page...

ANYWAY THAT WAS DIAL TONE!  And I think it was pretty good! 

I liked that they finally gave some proper introspection for Mike’s character, to make him less of an unforgivable little shit.  The callbacks, and references were very well executed, and overall I give it a 9/10!  I’m glad that Taeshi isn’t just ignoring Volume 1 and instead bringing that to the front and using it to explain the characters.

Yeah, that’s right I can be positive about BCB.  I am knocking a point though, because seeing a broken false image of Lucy seducing and tempting Mike just makes my skin crawl... I don’t have a problem with these characters in lewd shit outside of the comic, but the characters within comic, with their own fucked up mindsets, doing the lewd just feels so wrong...

Except Rachel of course. 

cuz slut pup is best pup, and I’ll see you guys on the next one!

[vcg73]

Hummel Holidays 2017: It’s a Date

Hummel Holidays Prompt #2: Baking

Rare Pair: Kurt and Elliott

~*~*~*~*~

“Oh m’Gaw! Dese’r amaving!  Wemom?”

 Kurt rolled his eyes and passed his friend the glass of cold milk he had been sipping from as he worked. Elliott had walked in and made a beeline for the array of fluffy golden cookies sitting on the cooling racks, promptly popping one into his mouth with no regard for the fact that it had come out of the oven only ten seconds earlier. He was currently attempting to chew the hot cookie without touching it to his tongue or the tender roof of his mouth, but still taste it and talk at the same time.

 “Lemon, yes, and you might want to give this next batch a minute to cool before you try one,” Kurt advised, placing a second pan full of generously chocolate chipped dough balls into the oven.

 Chugging the remainder of the milk down along with a second sample from the racks, Elliott licked his lips and grinned as he handed back the empty glass. “You didn’t tell me we were baking today.”

 He snorted. “We, huh? I’m pretty sure baking involves more than just scarfing down the end result. And stop eating all my cookies! I’m making these for the homeless shelter.”

 Elliott’s greedy fingers paused halfway to grabbing another, cheeks flushing a little. “Oh, yeah, sorry. Guess I should’ve figured that since One Three Hill is providing the entertainment for tonight’s party. Uh, well then, pass me an apron and point me toward the supplies. I’ll mix up a batch of snickerdoodles while you pour us some more milk.”

 Unable to resist the winsome smile that came along with this offer, Kurt nodded and rummaged through the plastic packing crate that held his glassware. Picking one with tiny flowers frosted into the glass that Rachel had picked up at a flea market, he opened the fridge to pour their drinks and said, “I didn’t even know you knew how to make snickerdoodles. I haven’t had those in years.”

 “Oh, man, they’re the best! They’re my mom’s specialty. She taught me the recipe when I turned ten. Her family has lived in New England since, like, the Mayflower and this recipe has been handed down through generations. Today only a handful of people in the entire world know it!”

 Kurt grinned, strongly suspecting that his leg was being pulled. “Well, then!” he said, handing over a fresh glass of milk. “Should I leave the room? Put on a blindfold? Pinch my nose shut so I don’t accidentally guess the secret ingredient?”

 “I think I can trust you. But just to make sure…”  Elliott’s face went solemn, but his eyes continued to sparkle with fun as he held up his right hand and offered Kurt’s recipe book with the other, waiting until Kurt obligingly placing his own right hand on the book and raised his left. “Kurt Hummel, do you solemnly swear upon pain of burnt cookies and fallen layer cakes never to divulge this secret to The Food Network, or any other for-profit entity?”

 Struggling not to laugh, Kurt forced his features into an equally solemn set and nodded. “I so swear.”

 “Great!  Okay then, we’ll need a cup of butter, a cup of sugar, half a cup of brown sugar, two eggs, three cups of flour, baking soda, salt, cream of tartar, and cinnamon. I’ll also need a saucepan and a couple of mixing bowls.”

 With a nod, Kurt gathered the requested items. Most were already on hand since he had been baking for the past hour. Since his favorite mixing bowl already had chocolate chip dough in it, he quickly washed up the bowl he’d used for the lemon cookies and dug out a large but slightly worn out spare one that he’d brought from Ohio. “Pan’s over the stove. What do you need it for?”

 “Because that is the secret ingredient,” he explained, wriggling out of his leather jacket, leaving himself clad in an artistically ragged gray sleeveless t-shirt, and throwing on Kurt’s borrowed apron, which bore the words ‘Sit back and relax.  You must be exhausted from watching me do everything!’ Glancing down at the words, he laughed. “Feeling a little passive aggressive, were we?”

 Kurt blushed. “Just a little. It made me feel better, but the others didn’t even get the joke.”

 “Figures,” he grunted. “Okay, so we start with the butter.”

He measured out a cup of butter and transferred it into the saucepan. While Kurt watched with interested eyes, he turned the stove on to medium heat and began whisking the butter with slow even strokes. He continued this patiently for three or four minutes until the butter was melted and slightly frothy, emitting a pleasant almost nutty aroma as it browned. Then he poured the butter into the larger bowl to cool and began mixing in the sugars, cream of tartar, and eggs together with it. In the second bowl, he blended his dry ingredients together, then gradually blended the two.

 “You’re good at that,” Kurt commented, not even bothering to pretend that he was not admiring the play of strong muscles in Elliott’s exposed shoulder as he beat the dough together with firm pressure, preferring to stir the ingredients by hand rather than borrow Kurt’s hand mixer.

 “Thanks.” Preening a little, he deliberately flexed his arm a little more. He and Kurt had never dated, but a little flirting between friends was always welcome. “Could you sprinkle some white sugar and cinnamon onto a sheet of waxed paper for me?”

 Kurt nodded, pausing a moment to take his baking batch out of the oven as the timer dinged and transferring them to the racks. He quickly shifted the lemon cookies into a waiting tin lined with a paper towel, leaving the lid off to allow them to finish cooling. Once that was done, he quickly cleared a space and laid out the requested waxed paper, covering it with a small amount of cinnamon sugar. While this was done, Elliott had been molding the cookie dough into little walnut sized globes. He took each dough ball and rolled it through the sugar, setting the finished ones in a neat row until they could be baked, since Kurt still had another two pans of chocolate chip ready to go and there would be no more baking sheets available until one of them had hands free to wash the newly emptied one.

 An hour later, the two-man baking team had finished their creations and sampled at least one of each variety of cookie, leaving dozens for the enjoyment of those attending tonight’s party.

 “Dani will be so sorry she decided to meet us at the shelter instead of coming by early,” Kurt said, dipping a snicker-doodle in his milk, frowning a bit at the resultant spice decorating his drink, then shrugging and simply belting back what was left to wash down the last of the treat.

 “I know, man. She missed out,” Elliott agreed, licking his lips happily.

 Kurt held out a hand for Elliott’s empty glass, taking them to the sink to finishing washing up the last of the dishes. Kurt was a ‘clean as you go’ baker and his kitchen was far from the disaster area Elliott’s would have been had they done this project at his place.  The application of a wet sponge and a little scrubbing, and the counters were also immaculately clean. Only the waiting tins of warm, neatly arranged cookies gave proof of the afternoon’s activity.

 Elliott shook his head, admiring the almost military precision of his friend’s baking style. “You know, we should do this again,” he said. “Maybe cook something next time. I mean, I don’t really know how to make anything except stews and curries, but I’ll bet you could teach me. If you were okay with that.”

 A big smile met this suggestion. Kurt looked like he’d just been given a wonderful present, clasping his hands and bouncing up on his toes with sudden excitement. “Of course! I have loads of cook books with recipes we could try. Some of them I’ve wanted to make for ages, but there never seemed much point in going to all that effort just for myself.”

 “What about your roommates?”

 He shrugged. “I’ve offered, but Santana isn’t a very adventurous eater, and I never know from week to week whether Rachel will be vegetarian, or vegan, or protein only, or all carbs. One week she decided out of the blue that she was going to do a liquid-only cleanse that she had read about in a magazine. It was supposed to last for a month, but three days into it, I was awakened in the middle of the night by the sounds of her going to town on leftover Chinese food, three different kinds of chips, and my newly purchased pint of strawberry-cheesecake ice cream.”

 Elliott laughed. He could picture that easily. For such a tiny woman, Rachel could really pack it away when she was in the mood. “Well, I’ll try anything once. Let’s make a pact to get together once a week and try out a brand new recipe. Something neither of us has tried before.”

 Kurt beamed. “How about Fridays?  Friday Night Dinner was a staple in my house growing up. We would always make the time to get together, no matter what, to have a sit down meal together on that night. I tried to bring the tradition back with my friends, but it only lasted a few meals before everyone started begging off for various reasons. Do you want to try it?”

 Pleased that Kurt was willing to share a special tradition with him, perhaps in return for sharing his own family recipe, Elliott said, “It’s a date.”

 Unexpectedly, Kurt blushed and turned away. “It’s getting late. Maybe we’d better get all these cookies packed up. I was planning to call for a ride instead of trying to get all these safely to the shelter on the subway.”

 “Good idea,” he said, wondering at that sudden mood shift. Kurt’s reaction to his flippant use of the word ‘date’ had given him pause. He considered just letting it go, but . . . somehow he did not want to let it go. “Kurt?”

 “Yeah?”

 Elliott took a deep breath, hoping he was not about to make a mistake and cause the rest of the night to become horribly awkward. “I had a really good time today.”

 “Me too,” he agreed with a smile.

 “Uh, yeah, so I was thinking. That is . . . I mean, I always have a good time when I’m with you.”

 Kurt’s expression softened, becoming almost wistful. “So do I.”

 “Right, so . . . do you think it’s weird for best friends to . . .”

 “To . . .” Kurt repeated, brows raising as he encouraged Elliott to finish the thought.

 Elliott paused. It was now or never. He wasn’t seeing anyone, and Kurt had been single for a decent enough span of time not to seem like he was pouncing on a vulnerable heart. He had always told himself that Kurt wasn’t his type, but Elliott knew that the sheer number of times he had given himself that reminder pretty much proved it a false claim.

 “Would you be willing to go out with me some time?” he blurted. “Not as friends. Or, I mean, of course we’re still friends, but . . . as more than friends?”

 Kurt blinked, looking as though he was not quite sure he was hearing correctly. Then he smiled a little shyly and said, “You mean, you and me; like a, go out together, do something fun, kiss at the end of the evening . . . type of thing?”

 Elliott grinned, liking the idea a lot now that he was hearing it out loud. “Exactly. Maybe not Friday, because I’m already having recipe night with my best bud on Friday, but how about Saturday?”

 Laughing at his words, but clearly touched that Elliott did not want to chance losing their friendship by throwing dating into the mix, Kurt ducked his head and said, “That sounds great. You told me you’d been wanting to visit the Museum of Modern Art, right? Maybe we could go together. Or, is that a dumb idea?”

 “I think it’s a great idea,” he said, already picturing the two of them strolling slowly hand in hand through the halls of the great structure. “And maybe get some coffee and take a snowy walk through Central Park afterward.”

 Kurt’s eyes shone at the mere mention of something so unabashedly romantic. “I’d love to.”

 “Then we definitely have a date.” Wondering how he was going to contain his sudden giddy joy all evening, Elliott reached out and took Kurt’s hand, giving it a little squeeze before letting go and returning to the task of packing up the goodies for tonight’s party.

 Stepping next to him, so that they stood side by side at the counter, Kurt accepted the cookie tin he was offered and settled it into a bag he’d brought out earlier for transporting. One by one, they packed the bag in this way, taking their time.  They did not say anything more about their sudden change in status from best friends to possibly-more-than-friends, but the silence that stretched between them felt comfortable. Every so often, their arms would bump and they would exchange a smile that somehow felt both feel warmer and closer than it ever had before.

 “I won’t do it until Saturday night,” Elliott remarked as the last tin was packed and the bag was closed up for travel. He pulled his jacket back on and accepted the warm blue scarf that Kurt held out with a scolding little cluck of his tongue, tucking it into place around his neck and down the front of his coat as he zipped the leather securely. He then lifted the strap of the cookie bag and settled it on his shoulder without asking, giving Kurt a chance to don his own coat and scarf and lock the door behind them.

 “Do what?” Kurt asked as they started down the stairs together. His building had an elevator, but it was a risky proposition at the best of times.

 Shifting the bag from one shoulder to the other, Elliott reached over and threaded his fingers through Kurt’s. “I was just thinking back there that I’d really like to kiss you, and that I felt kind of stupid for not realizing before today how much I wanted to do that.”

 Kurt smiled and ducked his head. “Oh, that.”

 “Yeah, that, and then I thought that I can’t do it. Not until Saturday night when I take you home. Or you take me home, whichever way it ends up. Because I’ve never been very good at the whole dating thing, but I want to do it right with you.”

 He tipped his head, looking up at Elliott’s face with a fond smile. “That’s really sweet. I don’t really have a lot of experience at dating either. I have a weird habit of pining, then sort of falling in love without thinking it through, then moving in with people.”

 Elliott laughed a little. “Sounds like we both have some catching up to do.”

 “Agreed. So no kisses until Saturday,” Kurt said, still smiling as he checked his phone for the status of the car service driver he’d called. “How do you feel about hugging?”

 “Friends hug,” he said, swinging an arm around Kurt’s shoulders in demonstration. “I could get into some serious post non-date hugging with you tonight. By Friday, we may be all the way up to snuggling.”

 He laughed and squeezed Elliott’s waist. “I could be okay with that.”

 Turning his head, Elliott looked down into Kurt’s eyes, noticing how pretty they looked in the light of the setting sun, shining blue with little flecks of green and gold.  Before he could be tempted to break his own promise to himself, he planted his lips on Kurt’s hairline, pressing the soft skin fondly.

 “Me too.”

 THE END

[noirsongbird]

for the fic asks: 2, 7, 13, 23, 37!

40 Questions for fic writers!

Under a cut because this got loonnnggg. Also once we get to the WIPs section I talk lightly about some smutty shit, so!

Is there a trope you’ve yet to try your hand at, but really want to?

FAKE. DATING. I want to do it SO BAD and I haven’t yet and I’m finally gonna, I swear.

Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

Oh, man, this took me a while, and it’s why I had to sleep on this ask and answer it in the morning. A lot of what I’m proud of is dialouge, but I do love Satya’s initial reaction to seeing dragon!Genji in Hold Me Tight and Fear Me Not:

The one - the man - who had spoken laughed, seeing her tense form and fierce expression, and spread his arms wide in a universal gesture of meaning no harm. He was handsome, there was no doubt about that, with bright eyes and an easy smile, dressed in a white gi over a fitted undershirt. He wore light armored gauntlets and boots that looked like they had clawed feet, perhaps for climbing. A dramatic orange scarf caught a light breeze that blew through the courtyard, stirring up the cherry blossoms. The breeze also caught his hair - short, but spiked, and bright green, and that was about where Satya’s brain stopped acknowledging what her eyes were seeing because surely she was seeing things. Men did not have antlers, nor did they have - her gaze flicked back to his face - splatterings of scales over their cheeks and on their arms, or….or strange, serpentine dragon tails.

That nope about what’s blatantly in front of her is and remains deeply delightful, okay.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever come across?

That all writing advice is malleable. You can break the rules if you have to, and if it fits, and you don’t have to be bound by genre and convention. Write what’s in your heart, babies, and even if it’s not perfect, you’ll still make something awesome.

If you were to revise one of your older fics from start to finish, which would it be and why?

Uh, all of them? but if I have to pick one, Promises, Promises (and its sequel, Walk Through the Fire). It’s much enjoyed in the Kylux fandom, but the writing could be SO much better, and the fact that I didn’t have a plan shows very clearly, so I would work harder to make all the individual incidents feel interconnected and like they were actually part of one story and not just me doing whatever I thought was fun?

Talk about your current wips.

ISA NO ISA WHY. This is the part where I get to gratuitously embarrass myself by talking about how many goddamn WIPs I have.

OKAY. So. Ones I can currently talk about, divided by fandom (can’t talk about my Sheith or Hance Big Bang fics since we’re still pre-claims ;D)

Overwatch:

Unpublished:

Flowers Like Freedom: That Mercymaker sequel to Flowers Like Ashes that I’ve been talking about for like a year. NO, REALLY, I AM WORKING ON IT. It’s about halfway done at this point, maybe even three-quarters of the way? I’ve gotten past one of the hardest parts, and have notes for all the remaining scenes, it’s just a matter of finding time where I feel allowed to work on it (which will ease up soon, since one of my most pressing Bang commitments is almost at posting time!)

Rabbit Heart: A Mercymaker AU in which it was Angela, not Amelie, who was taken by Talon. See, Gerard’s wife had security everywhere, and was in no way a soft target, but their girlfriend? Their girlfriend was a field medic, and she was much easier to snatch off the battlefield in the chaos of a fight. With her husband dead and her girlfriend under Talon’s thumb, Amelie chooses to join Blackwatch and is trained as a soldier. I’ve got a solid outline done and I’ve got the beginnings of an opening chapter, so that’s another one we might see pretty soon!

Come Along With Me: The next piece in the Child Ballad Series, in which Katya Volskaya asks for help in a fairy ring and gets one Winter Queen Sombra, who is, in her own mind, very much a helper! She’s helping! So yeah, Sombra agrees to offer Katya the answers she needs, in exchange for seven years of Katya’s service. Everything after that is just really, fantastically gay. Another one that’s about half-done, so it’s about finding time!

Published:

Coming Home: Revisions will be happening at some point I promise.

A Thousand Words: I know mostly where I want to go with this one, I just need to sit down and figure out exactly what that means! Once I get back to Overwatch fic, turning out a new chapter of ATW is very high on my priorities list.

Voltron: Legendary Defender:

Unpublished:

Past the Point of No Return: My fic for the Galra Big Bang, a Lancelot fic that diverges from canon after the end of Season 3 (it’s been in the works for…a while, okay). Lance gets captured by Lotor and his generals, and gets some very interesting perspective as a result. Coming very, very soon–my post date is March 22!

Hold Me Tight or Don’t: My fic for the Voltron Kinkbang, more Lancelot that’s canon-compliant up to Season 4. Lotor goes into heat, ends up spending it with Lance, and they accidentally pairbond (which is a bit like ABO mating, and it gives the pair an empathic link that allows a degree of feleing each other’s feeliings, emotionally and physically). There’s a lot of smut, and also a lot of feels, because these two idiots are navigating a whole lot of feelings. A bit further out–Kinkbang posting is in May!

Untitled Sheith prequel to HMTOD: An incident with Haggar results in Keith becoming more phenotypically Galra–and also gaining the ability and desire to create a Galra pairbond. He somewhat accidentally does with Shiro, and….well. This would go better if a) either of them knew what was going on, and b) Project Kuron wasn’t still looming. Ideally coming next month-ish, before I publish HMTOD, but might be after!

Shine a Light: A college au, once again more Lancelot no I don’t know why I love this ship so much either I JUST DO. This is going to be really, really personal, because a lot of what Lotor goes through during this fic is drawn directly from my personal experiences my first year of college. I had a breakdown. It was bad. But working on this fic has felt so good, because it feels like I’m finally acknowledging and pricessing some of what I went through rather than putting it in a box labelled THAT HAPPENED and filing it in the back of the mental attic.

Published:

Always In This Twilight: Um. It’s. Coming down for revisions, because some of my decisions about where I want things to go later in the story require me to go back and make some edits, and it could use some polishing, and it’s an ABO fic and currently it’s alpha!Shiro/omega!Keith and I want to flop that because omega!Shiro makes me happy. He’s big and buff and also soft okay /weeps

And I’ll Not Go To The Waves: Everything is outlined!! I just have to actually find time to write it. My intent is to finish everything and get it all nice behind the scenes once I’m free of some bang commitments, and then release it on a nice, neat weekly schedule!

I….think that’s everything. NOW YOU KNOW.

[canonfilm]

Do all the odds for the ask thingy >:)

You’re Awful:

1. Do you ever doubt the existence of others than you?

No I’m usually pretty firmly planted in reality

3. The person you would never want to meet?

Myself from ~5 years ago

5. If you were a type of tree, what would you be?

Redwood (represent my Californian birth)

7. What shirt are you wearing?

my favorite green sweater

9. Bright room or dark room?

Dark Room #Photography

11. Favorite age you’ve been so far?

20(current) this year has had a lot of suck in it but its also been good for me in the end

13. Your worst enemy?

My Anxiety??? Also theres this guy in my Microbio class who interrupts me a lot so fuck him

15. Do you like someone?

I think so

17. You can press a button that will make any one person explode. Who would you blow up?

I don’t think I would if I could

19. If anyone could be your slave for a day, who would it be and what would they have to do?

no????

21. If you were the opposite sex for one day, what would you look like and what would you do?

well I’m already hot so I’d still be hot, and I’d probably do the same shit I do every day

23. What is one unique thing you’re afraid of?

not unique but disappointing my friends

25. You just found $100! How are you going to spend it?

save it, I’m trying to save for a new car

27. An angel appears out of Heaven and offers you a lifetime supply of the alcoholic beverage of your choice. “Be brand-specific” it says. Man! What are you gonna say about that? Even if you don’t drink booze there’s something you can figure out… so what’s it gonna be?

Fuck there was this red wine at my cousin’s wedding (at a vineyard) that was so fucking good but i dont remember the name of the vineyard, but yeah that. or just some straight whiskey I like that shit. Yamazaki 50year (i just googled the most expensive whiskey)

29. What is your favorite expletive?

You’re Fucking Me?? (Said with an upward inflection in times of disbelief)

31. You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be?

Wow heavy shit well I guess I’d have to say it’d be nice if a friend of mine never killed herself yeah that’d be neat

33. The Celestial Gates Of Beyond have opened, much to your surprise because you didn’t think such a thing existed. Death appears. As it turns out, Death is actually a pretty cool entity, and happens to be in a fantastic mood. Death offers to return the friend/family-member/person/etc. of your choice to the living world. Who will you bring back?

It’d be cool to have my Grandfather back I’d really like him to meet my kids whenever that happens (I’m only 20 so we have some time but still)

35. Are you a good….[insert anything you’d like here]?

Insertion: Lover

Answer: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

37. Have you ever built a snowman?

Yes

Bonus: When I was living in California (Southern), one December we took a hat, scarf, carrot, sticks, etc. to the beach and made a sandman for our Christmas card.

39. What type of music do you like?

Varies by mood, my library has Indie Pop, Coffeehouse Acoustic shit, Progressive and Heavy Metals, Classic Rock, a lot of Blues etc. But Never Country. Never Country.

41. What is your favorite milkshake flavor?

Peppermint/Chocolate

43. Do you have any scars?

2 on my head (One from the corner of a wall, the other from slamming full-speed into the pavement falling off my scooter when I was 7)

45. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I’d Stop Being Anxious and Occasionally Depressed :)

47. If you could ask your future self one question, what would it be?

What’s my wife’s name

49. If you could breed two animals together to defy the laws of nature, what new animal would you create?

Mocking the Gods is how we got Pugs, I’m good pal

51. Are you a good liar?

No  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

53. What has been you worst haircut/style?

I used to have long fuckin beatles hair in middle school. did not look good

55. Can you do any accents other than your own?

not very well but i try

57. What is the last thing you drew a picture of?

I doodled a shitty camera when I was bored in class last week

59. Do you sing in the shower? Or do anything unusual in the shower? Explain.

I sing like hell in the shower, along with whatever music i have playing

61. Do you often read your horoscope?

I have never read a horoscope for myself

63. Which is cooler: dinosaurs or dragons?

dinosaurs bc that shit actually happened and thats fucking crazy

65. Freebie! Ask anything interesting you can think of.

Natalie didnt ask me a question for this so I’ll give a random answer:

definitely not, I would never do something like that that’s just awful how could you ask such an awful question Nat...damn...