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wiypt-writes · 4 years

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Honey Haloed Weakness

A Bucky Barnes One Shot

Summary: Sometimes second chances come when you least expect them.

Warnings: Bad language, fluff, feels, some sad stuff…character death…mentions of smut but nothing explicit. Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Enhanced Reader. (Nicknamed Honey). Reader appearance bar eyes is deliberately not described. Moodboard is just for aesthetic purposes

Characters: Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson

A/N: This was originally written for a writing challenge last year, and I meant to revamp/repost it for Bucky’s birthday a few days back but never did. Then the rumours of the title for the first ep of FATWS hit my feed and…well, it reminded me of this.

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please respect this and do not read if you are underage. I do not own any characters bar the reader and any other OCs. By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.

Main Masterlist

************

One bullet. One pull of the trigger. That was all it took. As you watched, the shot flew clean through the shoulder of one hostile, ricocheted off Sam’s shield and then hit a second straight in the hand causing him to drop the knife he had been slashing at Sam with. The three of you stooped, Falcon, The Winter Soldier and you, Silver Shadow. Shield, guns and sparking hands all lowered as you glanced around, the last noises of your fight dying in the air.

“Man did you just shoot two guys with one bullet?” Sam turned to Bucky, his tone laced with shock and awe. “Did it look cool?” Bucky quipped back, an air of nonchalance in his voice, despite the level of surprise he himself felt. James Buchanan Barnes knew he was a good shot. But that…that was something else.

And something that had been down to chance more than anything. Even if he had tried to make that shot, there’s no way of predicting the trajectory of the bullet once it emerged from the guys shoulder or controlling the angle it exited at…

Unless… He turned to look at you. Your hair, splattered with blood and gore from the battle, hung like curtains of scarlet drenched silk round your face, from behind which warm eyes glanced back at him. Your features remained passive, adorned with the same expression you had worn when he had first seen one another in your rundown apartment in Bucharest when Steve had come looking for him post the Vienna bombings.

Sam turned away muttering something about retrieving the Intel they had come for off the hard drives in the main office, and once his back was turned, you caught Bucky’s eyes with your own and blinked as Bucky swallowed. After using your powers, your irises were always ringed with a bright gold, a honey halo. And, as Bucky allowed himself just a second to indulge in the warmth they exuded over him, one slipped onto a sly wink. And then he knew for certain.

“You did it.” He looked at you and you merely stared back remaining passive. He was right, you had. You’d controlled the shot, directing it exactly where it needed to go. And Bucky wasn’t sure whether he felt turned on or slightly emasculated. “Don’t worry.” You said gently as you made your way back to the jet. “I won’t tell Sam, on one condition?” “Yeah? What’s that?” Bucky asked, turning to look at you. “You ask me out for that drink Steve’s been telling me you want to take me for.” And with that you left him standing there, slack jawed as he watched you head up the ramp. **** “So, in a word, you’re still a punk.” Bucky finished recapping the tale later the next morning, leaning back in the comfy chair by the bed Steve lay in. The old man laughed and shook his head. “She’s a devil, I’ll give her that. Mind you, she always was good at playing the cards she was dealt.” A fond smile spread across Steve’s face at the thought of you, his other best friend, the girl he had pulled from that shitty HYDRA base in 2014 when they had been chasing the Sceptre. No one had any idea who you were, what you could do, where you had come from…and that included you. You hadn’t spoken for three days other than to thank him or Natasha for the food and clothes you were given, and Tony for his kindness. And then, on the fourth day, Steve found you in the kitchen at the base, trying to decide on what to make you for lunch, and he won you over with an expertly made grilled cheese. “What’s your name?” He asked softly as you sat chewing.

“I…I don’t know.” You shrugged, your eyes wide as you looked down at your plate. Steve gently reached out, his hand taking yours softly as you looked at him, your eyes flashing that sparkling gold colour.

"Honey, you’re safe now, you know that right?

“Honey…” You said wistfully, “I like that.”

And so it stuck. Where your ability to manipulate metal came from, no one knew. A mutation? Maybe. Human enhancement experiment? Possibly. But it didn’t matter. What mattered was the fact you embraced the responsibility that came with that power. You wanted to help people and, as such, you agreed to stay with the Avengers and they were better for having Silver Shadow as their teammate, and Honey as their friend. Allowing himself another few moments of nostalgia, Steve eventually shook himself free of his memories and, with a sly look turned his head to face Bucky. “In my eyes it’s normally correct to buy a dame a drink before you bump uglies on an African Plain. Yeah, I know exactly what went down between you two that night in Wakanda.” Bucky blinked before he snorted, shaking his head. “Of course she told you…” When the dust settled after the show down in Leipzig, Bucky didn’t see you for almost a year until you came to Wakanda with Steve to be there when they brought him out of Stasis. You were different then, but so was Steve. A year on the run in the shadows had hardened you both. Those warm eyes still flashed gold, yet they carried a darkness that hadn’t been there before.

But they still exuded all the power and warmth of the sun. And Bucky was on fire.

“Can’t sleep either?” He asked as he emerged from the comfortable farmers hut he had been given to live in. You shrugged. “My mind gets a bit busy sometimes. I find the stars help.” He sat down beside you, stretching his legs out in front of him. “Ever wonder what it’s like just to be normal?” You sighed and he snorted, his head turning slowly to look at you as you gazed up at the sky. “What’s normal?” You laughed softly and looked at him, your eyes flashing in the moonlight, turning this time a deep amber speckled with brown. There was a moment, another blink and then your lips were crashing together, tongues fighting for dominance, hands grabbing at whatever they could reach. Under the moonlight, sultry cries and gentle whimpers were shared. Skin slid on skin, hands wandered and explored as together you reclaimed your grasp on humanity, what it was to feel something other than fear and death and anger. And then you had to leave and it was another twelve months since Bucky saw you again, this time on a battle field in Wakanda…with those creatures. Now your eyes were fierce and laced with a reddish gilt, as you tore metal armour limb from limb, wrenched weapons from hands, made sure shots hit their targets, your daggers flying and returning to your hands.

But there was no beating Thanos.

“I can’t control his gauntlet.” Your voice was laced with the desperation you felt, broken as you realised your powers were of no use.

And then Bucky had been snapped.

“Those five years were long.” Steve shook Bucky from his reminiscing. “For all of us. Trying to forgive ourselves for our failure. And it was that inability to do so that saw us figure it out, a way to bring everyone back.”

Bucky looked down. He knew all about that. Seeking redemption, wiping your leger clean. “Don’t keep her waiting another five years.” Steve locked his eyes onto Bucky’s. A plea, a beg.

So he didn’t.

Later that night, Bucky asked you for that drink. And he dated you, bought you flowers, made love to you some nights, fucked you into the mattress on others. You ran missions side by side with Sam, walked and danced in the rain.

A diamond ring was bought, a yes was said

And one bright April day a year later, his honey haloed weakness became his wife.

***** “Where are my keys?” Bucky asked, frowning as he gently closed the drawer to the sideboard. “You know, Honey, I wish you’d stop moving my stuff.” No sooner had he finished, he felt a vibration in his pocket and a moment later he heard the keys in question jangling. He turned with a soft sigh to see them hovering about a foot away from him in the air. You stood at the other side of the room, hand raised lightly as you wriggled her fingers causing them to move higher as you arched an eyebrow. “You owe me an apology, Buckaroo.” “So what’s new?” He chuckled and you smiled as you shrugged on your jacket and walked towards him, whilst he checked you had everything your needed. Even for a simple trip down the road it seemed like you were prepping for a mission, but then again, maybe you were… You made your way out of the Brownstone into the glorious September sun, your hand curled around Bucky’s arm, nestling comfortably in the crook of his elbow, the shiny platinum and diamond of your rings sparkling as they caught the light. Bucky had a knack for steering and making sure everyone moved out of the way, which was why you were happy to let him take the lead. After a short walk, you reached your destination and made your way down the familiar narrow gravel path towards what you were aiming for. Your pace slowed a little here, it was always harder on gravel, you felt like you were sinking almost.

Together you stopped in front of a beautiful headstone made out of white marble upon which a simple inscription was etched in deep, gold writing.

‘Steven Grant Rogers. Much loved husband, father and friend.’ Below the wording sat Steve’s symbol. His shield, the star surrounded by rings, along with a simple phrase to remind everyone exactly who the stone commemorated. ‘Captain America is hope, he’s freedom, he’s just a kid from Brooklyn’ Bucky’s metal hand gently ran across the top of the headstone and you smiled softly at him, before a noise drew your attention back to exactly why you had come here today specifically. Smiling at one another, Bucky turned and gently lifted his four day old baby boy from sling around your chest as you watched, reaching up to smooth a finger down the baby’s soft, rosy cheek. Steve had been so excited when you had both told him you were pregnant. But you had all known deep down that Steve’s time was coming to an end. The serum wasn’t repairing what was happening to him anymore, and hadn’t been for a while. Steve had noticed its effects had been dwindling for almost thirty years by that point and he was ready to go, to be with Peggy who had left him some ten years previously. All of you had hoped he would live long enough to meet Baby Barnes, but things never do work out the way you want them to, and Steve had passed quietly surrounded by his friends and family some six weeks before your baby boy bad been born. Bucky had made a vow, a promise to himself that his son would understand exactly who his Uncle Stevie was. Not Captain America, but that little kid from Brooklyn who was always too dumb to run away from a fight. “Had to bring him to meet you one way or another.” Bucky said gently, looking from his son’s face to the stone with a soft smile before he crouched down in front of it. He took a moment, the words he was trying to form sticking in his throat as pure emotion washed over him. He felt grief, he felt loss, but also joy at the fact he was a new father and an overwhelming sense of gratitude and serenity that he had found his salvation, his second chance.

And it was draining to feel it all at once. You stepped forward, softly squeezing his shoulder before you crouched by his side, gently wiping the tears from your own face as Bucky finally found his voice again. “Yeah, it was a him, so I got to pick the name.” Besides him you chuckled. “I can still see your face, Stevie, when we told you about that deal. Girl I picked, boy he picked.” Watery blue eyes that still had that sparkle widened as Steve looked at you both, horror on his face as he shook his head on disbelief. “What? You can’t do that…I mean it needs to be a joint decision, no matter what the gender…surely?” In the end, Steve had been right. Whilst Bucky had suggested the first name for your little boy, he had struggled with a middle one and it had been you who had quietly suggested one as Bucky stood in the hospital room, gently rocking his new-born baby in his arms. Both of you had welled up with tears at the simplicity and the poignancy, and the utter love you both felt that your son would help keep the memory of your friend, your brother, your Captain, alive. “Punk,” Bucky gently shifted the baby in his arms so he was facing the stone. “Say hello to Steven Roger Barnes” His son. His beautiful son. A life created because two people fell in love.

Because James Buchanan Barnes had a Honey haloed weakness.

#honey haloed weakness #bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #steve rogers #sam wilson

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moostaronce · 3 years

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Uninterested

Request: Hey wassup may I request a Jinsoul x fem reader where the reader was super loving and caring in the relationship but they suddenly saw the "Let me introduce idols" ep 5 where Jinsoul said she likes someone who isn't really interested in her. This makes reader get hurt and act cold towards Jinsoul bc she's scared she'll leave her and Jinsoul gets confused. Angst and fluff please, thank you <3

Pairing: Jinsoul x Fem Reader

A/N I hope this is to your liking!

"Sol!"

You come bounding into your girlfriend's arms the moment you see her and she receives you with even more excitement. The usual ritual that the two of you fall into without fail. The massive hug you share is only matched by the passion in the kisses you share when you get to see each other. She doesn't complain when you come crashing into her full force or when you dote on her 24/7. In fact, Jinsoul surprises herself sometimes with how much she loves being loved by you so hard. Not once has she ever had to question your love for her, because you show it in everything you do.

When you pull back, it's just enough to look into her eyes, chin on her chest, and a smile on your face. The other BBC staff brought the girls a little late so you and the rest of the makeup and hair staff have to move quicker than usual. Luckily for you, there were only 6 out of the twelve girls today. Unfortunately for you that also meant you needed to cover 3 different faces in less time than usual, but you're a pro so it's all good. Today you came up with a plan of action to move quicker, today you were in charge of the unnie line in age order while your colleague covered Heejin, Hyejoo, and Yeojin.

"Hey to you too." Her smile gives you warmth as you completely pull away. Now that your moment was over, you put on your game face and looked around until you spotted Kahei.

"See you later babe, duty calls." You give her a pack on the cheek before making your way to a clearly tired Kahei and gently guiding her to your chair.

"Why are you two so grossly adorable?" Jinsol turns her head to see Hyejoo looking mildly disgusted before Sooyoung puts her in a headlock from behind.

"Oh don't be such a love hater Hyejoo. They're just the right amount of cute." Heejin comments before sitting in the other makeup artist's chair.

"Yeah, don't be like that to your unnie." Jinsol squishes her cheeks when Sooyoung lets her go with a flourish of laughter.

"Seriously though you guys can be a little gross, I think it's cute." Sooyoung comments.

She watches Jinsol look over at you with adoration. In her mind, there was just no reason for you to be so perfect for her. She constantly finds things to love about you like right now. The concentration that takes over your face and the sweet smile she can catch you giving her members while you do your damndest to make them look even better for the cameras, consistently reminds her of how deeply she loves you.

"She has no business being that pretty," Jinsol grumbles under her breath, but Sooyoung definitely hears it. She nudges her friend fondly and just goes off into a different conversation.

Time actually seems to fly by as you finish up Kahei, then Sooyoung. You and your co-worker go pretty much at the same pace so when Jinsol finally sits in your chair, Yeojin sits in hers at the same time. You don't speak to her right away, you just give her a small peck on the lips before you get started. Jinsol looks up at you and pouts, trying to guilt you into another kiss.

"What's the face for?" You stand back, head tilted to the side.

"You call that a kiss?" She reaches for your hips to bring you down on her lap but you gently smack her hands away with a serious expression.

"You'll get kisses after work. Right now I have a job to do so be a good girl and hold still." You turn to start grabbing the products you use for her and Jinsol has to resist the urge to protest because she knows you're right.

The entire time you do her makeup Jinsol's eyes hardly ever leave your face. Periodically, she'll pucker her lips in hopes of you giving in but you don't pay her any mind. She doesn't try to speak because of the look in your eye when she tries to flirt with you while you're working. When you finally finish and start to pack up your things Jinsol stands and pulls you into her arms. You never mind when she wants to display her affection for you, but the moment she tries to lean in you aren't having it.

"Jung Jinsol!" She startles back and loosens her grip on you just enough for you to duck out of her arms and glare at her. She looks at you dumbfounded.

"If you mess up my hard work before you even get on set, I'm not kissing you at all."

Your threat shakes her up just enough to have her sputtering but she doesn't have time to properly respond before they are called in for their interview. They have another event with the full group after this is over so you pack up your bags except for your pouch for touch-ups. For now, you just have to watch backstage with the other staff before it's time to meet up at the next location.

For the most part, you just sat and relaxed. The atmosphere was pretty chill until Jinsol said something that hurt your feelings.

"I think I like people who are not interested in me," Heejin speaks up.

"Oh, that's right!" Jinsol nods along.

"It's a little much when someone expresses interest first." Heejin continues.

"Right." You're a little shocked to see Jinsol nodding and responding in agreeance.

You've never heard her even allude to being overwhelmed by you, yet right now you're overthinking every move you've ever made. Was she just pretending to like you back this whole time? Or if not, will she grow tired of you? You shift uncomfortably in your seat and nonchalantly glance around.

No one else seems to notice your discomfort so you just sit quietly until it's time to go. When the members make their way back, you're all packed up and ready to go. Jinsol comes to you immediately, lips puckered and hands around your waist. When she leans in, all she's gets is your cheek.

Jinsol steps back and looks at you sideways but you're too busy grabbing your things to look at her.

"Baby? What's wrong?" Your girlfriend begins to worry when you don't answer or look at her. Her mind races as you leave for the next location with the other makeup artist.

"Baby?" She practically whimpers at you but you're already out of earshot. She turns around to see the others looking at her concerned. You couldn't really be mad about earlier right? She was only playing around but what else could you possibly be upset with her about?

"Maybe she's just not feeling well?" Yeojin chimes.

"Maybe." Jinsol doesn't know what else to say.

-------------------

When they arrive, you're already working on Chaewon. You're usually in charge of yyxy for ot12 events so Sooyoung and Hyejoo agree to try and figure out what's wrong with you. Jinsol on the other hand can't help the little feeling of jealousy growing inside of her while you giggle quietly with Chaewon. You hadn't even glanced her way when she came in but you looked up and smiled at Sooyoung and Hyejoo.

Deciding she had some time to spare before it was her to have her makeup redone, Jinsol slides up to you and asks what's wrong directly in your ear. You jump in surprise and turn your head only to realize just how close she is to your face. Seconds feel like minutes when you see her looking at your lips, and you almost kiss her. But then you remember your fears from earlier.

"Nothing, I'm fine." With that you turn back to Gowon, leaving Jinsol to pout at your side.

She leaves you alone for the rest of the day and is even more disheartened when Sooyoung and Hyejoo come back with nothing but shrugging shoulders. The hope that you'll be back to normal tomorrow stays with her but a week later and she's still confused. You never want to kiss or cuddle and when she tries you just avoid her. As a matter of fact, it feels like you're avoiding her period and it's making her upset.

It weighs on her mind until she can't take it anymore. She misses you and wants to understand how you're feeling so she calls you with a serious tone in her voice. It's not a request but a demand that you be home when she arrives at your apartment, so you are.

When she crosses the threshold you make no moves of intimacy towards her like you usually do and she huffs with frustration.

"Do you want to break up?" It's not the speech she had practiced and planned, in fact, it breaks her heart to even say. Her voice cracks but it seems to snap you out of whatever you were under.

"What? No!" Panic sets in so deeply, you feel it in your bones.

"Then why are you acting so weird Y/n? You just seem so uninterested lately." She gets worried when she sees the tears building in your eyes and the sniffles you let out.

"But I thought that's what you wanted. You said you like people that aren't interested in you, so I thought you might be getting tired of me."

At first, she's confused. When had she ever said that? It's clear that she said it because you look so sad just thinking about it. Then she thinks back to the first day you began acting differently and things start clicking into place.

"I didn't mean anything by that! I was just agreeing with Heekie because I know that's how she feels." Jinsol begins slowly closing the rather large gap of space you put between you. She moves as calmly as possible to give you time to back up if you want to, but she's really not sure her heart could take that.

"I love you and how you treat me. You have no idea how good it makes me feel when you get excited to see me. I love that you always want to show me love just like I do for you."

As she speaks and walks your head hangs low while tears spill silently down your beautiful face. When she's so close that her feet are right in front of your, Jinsol wraps you in her arms. It takes you a moment to reciprocate but you do. The hug you give back is so tight that it lets your girlfriend know very clearly how much you missed her. You're so warm that it brings tears to her eyes and soon she's crying with you.

"Please don't do this again. I thought you fell out of love with me." Jinsol's words were followed up with a gut-wrenching sobbing sound that made your own tears fall that much faster.

"I won't. I'm sorry baby." You whisper to her.

You continue to hold each other until you have just enough strength to lay down together on your futon. Jinsol is usually the big spoon but it was clear she needed to be held, so that's what you did. Before either of you know it, you're both knocked out. You're only awakened hours later by the call from Loona for Sol to come back to the dorm.

#Girl Group scenarios #Loona scenarios #Jung Jinsol scenarios #angst #Jinsoul scenarios #fluff #MooStarOnce

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pucksnsticksnhockeyboys · 4 years

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there for you

summary: your best friend Bowen can’t help but draw some connections between you and your favorite show.

word count: 2k

warnings: heavy spoilers for New Girl. like, its basically the premise of the fic

note from the writer: here’s a link to a tweet with the scene im talking about in this fic, its from the episode “Oregon” (season 4 ep 16). shoutout to @bqstqnbruin for finding it for me

Bowen had long since stopped asking to come over before showing up on your doorstep. Usually, he’d send a ‘are you home?’ text to make sure you were around, before heading to your apartment for whatever reason he had in mind.

The latest text had come in twenty minutes ago, so you knew he was going to show up soon.

Like clockwork, you heard a knock on your front door and Bowen greeting your roommates before your bedroom door opened. He was grinning, wide as ever, and you opened your arms for a hug from your position laying in bed, under the covers and in the middle of a New Girl marathon.

“Scoot over.” Bowen grins, barely giving you enough time to react before dropping on top of you, arms wrapped around your middle and his head nuzzled into the crook of your neck. You paused the show, not wanting to miss anything despite being on your third rewatch.

You wondered if he could feel how fast your heart was beating. If he knew just how much his touch affected you, how many feelings you were harboring from him.

“What’s up?” You asked, pushing away any thoughts about your massive crush on your best friend as you tried to get to the bottom of why he showed up out of the blue. It wasn’t the first time he had done so, but he always had a reason.

“I wanted to see you. Practice was rough.” He mumbled in the crook of your neck. Your heart skipped a beat at his words, how they fell past his lips so easily. Those words made you think that maybe your feelings weren’t so one sided, that there was a chance for you to be even happier than you already were with your best friend.

“You’re going to make me blush.” You teased, downplaying the fact that he really did manage to fluster you. Bowen snorted, squeezing you tightly once more instead of responding to your comment. An easy moment of silence passed, one that wasn’t stifling or awkward and it reminded you once more just how much you enjoyed being around Bowen. Subconsciously, one of your hands threaded through his hair. “I like it when your hair is longer like this.”

Your words were punctuated by a tug on his roots and though he didn’t say anything, he hummed contentedly. You worried that maybe he’d be able to hear the hammering of your heart or he’d know that the smile on your face wasn’t because of your platonic love for him. You feared that he would know—know how much you loved him and know that you had been hiding your feelings for so long. But you couldn’t let yourself think too much about that, you couldn’t let yourself overthink and ruin one of your closest friendships, so you tactfully changed the subject.

“Are we napping or watching my show?” You asked, though you had a pretty good idea what his answer would be.

“Nap, please.” He mumbled, and you could never deny him, especially when he was acting so sleepy and adorable, so you agreed easily. You both shifted your positions slightly, you trying to find the comfiest spot and him climbing under the covers with you, but eventually you both melted into your mattress, Bowen’s head still buried in the crook of your neck.

Bowen tried to stay awake a little longer; to tell you about his morning and the practice he had just come from that had drained his energy completely. But before long, his words were slurring together and when he stopped mid sentence, you knew he had fallen asleep with his arms wrapped around you and your fingers carding through his hair.

You tried to stay up too, to relish in the feeling of being in his arms. But you knew that pretending like it meant something more than it did was only going to break your heart more, so soon after he dozed off you closed your eyes and followed suit.

You were the first one to wake up, a combinatin of Bowen’s weight on you becoming slightly uncomfortable and the need to use the bathroom, so you did your best to climb out from underneath him without waking him. You thought you had made it out clear, but the moment your feet hit the floor Bowen was stirring from behind you.

“Where are you going?” He mumbled, causing you to halt your movements. It was far from the first time you had heard his gravelly voice just after he woke up, but it never failed to make your heart race. You swore you could listen to him talk forever, which was a good thing, since he never seemed to be able to stop talking.

“Bathroom. I’ll be right back.” You told him, finally standing to your feet. When you turned back around, Bowen was already watching you with tired eyes that made your heart clench. God, you were so gone for him.

You slipped out of the room without saying anything more, not trusting yourself to not blurt out just exactly how his smile made you feel. When you returned, he was sitting up against your headboard, your laptop open on his lap as he queued up the episode you had been watching before he arrived.

“New Girl again?” Bowen teased when he spotted you enter the room. You playfully rolled your eyes at him, climbing back into your spot beside him on the bed. You mirrored his position, though you dropped your head against his shoulder.

“It’s a good show. Plus, Jess and Nick’s relationship is my favorite.” You told him decidedly, like you had a dozen times before. The relationship between Jess and Nick truly was somehting you strived for—friends that were always in love with each other, no matter the problems that arised and even when they were broken up they did their best to keep the other happy.

“Fair enough.” He chuckled, shifting slightly so that his arm was around you and he could hold you closer to his side. “What episode are we on?”

“Oregon.” You started, knowing you’d have to catch him up on more than just the episode name. “Jess, Cece, and the guys go to Portland because Jess’ dad is getting married. Jess’ boyfriend, Ryan, was supposed to show up but since he lives in England he said it wouldn’t make sense for him to be there. So, Nick’s trying to make Jess feel better because he secretly loves her and I just need them to get back together.”

“Don’t they end up together though?” Bowen asks, trying to recall as much about the show as he could. It might not have been one of his personal favorites, but he knew you loved it, so that was enough for him to try and follow along.

“Yeah, but they aren’t right now.” You confirm. Before Bowen could ask anymore questions, you pressed play on your laptop and continued where you left off. Jess and the group had just arrived at her childhood home, only to find her mom ready to greet Ryan, who wasn’t there. The scene played on, with Nick telling Jess the hard truth that Ryan bailing wasn’t okay.

You could feel Bowen’s eyes on you as the scene changed to Nick comforting Jess in her room. Giggling at the Jordan Catalano joke, you tried your best to focus on the screen and not the piercing blue eyed gaze that seemed to be studying your face. And, like you always did when you got to this scene, you bit your lip to supress a grin as Nick delivered his next line.

“The only thing that matters is that the guy is there for you when you need him. Otherwise, you’re dating a wall.”

“Are you even paying attention, Bow? That’s like, my favorite line. What I wouldn’t give to have someone love me the way Nick loves Jess.” You sighed, settling further against Bowen as the episode continued on. He didn’t say anything in response, other than a quiet hum, but for the rest of the episode you could practically hear the gears turning inside his head as he turned his attention to the screen.

Netflix automatically continued on to the next episode, but as soon as the intro started Bowen’s hand shot out and paused the show. You looked at him curiously; the two of you usually got through at least a couple of episodes whenever you hung out like you were then.

“You know…” Bowen started, trailing off before he finished his thought. He wasn’t meeting your gaze, and it was clear that what he wanted to say was on the tip of his tongue so you stayed silent while he found his words. “I’m always there for you.”

You felt your heart stop beating and skip three beats all at once. You weren’t sure where he was going with his train of thought, but if you had to guess you would be getting your hopes up. Because there was absolutely no way that he felt the same for you that Nick does for Jess.

“Yeah, you are…” You breathed, trying to get him to meet your gaze but instead he stayed focused on your comforter pulled over both of your laps. The hand that wasn’t around your shoulders was toying with the fabric, and in a bid to calm him down enough to get him to say what he needed you slipped your hand into his. Bowen drew in a steadying breath and finally met your gaze, a dozen and one emotions swirling behind his eyes.

“I love you, you know.” He said firmly, like there was no question about it in the slightest and not the very words you had been dying to hear from him for years. You nodded, unable to form words but not wanting to leave him hanging.

You supposed you did know that he loved you. He showed it in his blatant affection and the frequent texts about how his life was going. He cared for you, there was no doubt about it, but you had never let yourself believe that he meant anything more than friendship. And now he was offereing everything you’d ever wanted on a silver platter.

“Bowen,” You started, but you couldn’t find the words to tell him just how much you loved him back. Instead, you moved the hand that wasn’t wrapped up in his to rest on Bowen’s jaw, turning his head just slightly so that you could press your lips to yours in a long awaited kiss that stole your breath.

Kissing Bowen felt so much better than what you imagined. The angle was a little odd and your neck was craned to face him, but you wouldn’t trade it for the world. You’d share a thousand more awkwardly positioned kisses if it meant you got to be with Bowen.

You were the first to pull away, but you didn’t move far, wide grins on both of your faces as you took in the events of the past few moments. Your friendship was definitely changed, and in place was a relationship that you had been hoping for.

“I love you, too.” You finally mumbled. You wanted to tell him how you had loved him from the moment you met, how he made you fall in love with him with each and every day, but for the moment all that mattered was he knew you loved him just the same as he loved you.

“I hope, or else this is going to be awkward.” He mumbled playfully, leaning in again to close the distance between the two of you. You couldn’t help but chuckle against him, your hand slipping from his jaw to curve around the back of his neck in order to deepen the kiss.

Bowen was the Nick to your Jess, and not a day went by that you weren’t greatful for him.

#bowen byram #bowen byram fic #bowen byram imagine #bowen byram x reader #Colorado Avalanche #colorado avalanche fic #Colorado Avalanche x reader #Colorado Avalanche imagine #hockey fic #hockey imagine #nhl fic #nhl imagine #hockey x reader

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xmalereader · 4 years

Text

The Mandalorian X Dark Fey! Male Reader

—

|| Masterlist ||

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

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

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

—

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

—

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Grogu?” Both Din and y/n say.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#male reader #pedro pascal #din djarin #din djarin x male reader #pedro pascal x male reader #the mandalorain #star wars x male reader #star wars #the mandalorian inccorect quotes #the mandalorian spoilers

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amwritingmeta · 4 years

Text

15x19: A First Ending

This was a good episode! Oh, I know, I know - we didn’t get Cas back. But oh, boy, that should mean that Misha shot for five of eight days for 15x20 and that makes me want to rub my hands together with the hope of what that might mean. All the good things!

Oh, don’t hang your hopes on mine btw. I had very high hopes that we’d get Cas back, or very strongly established as coming back (as per 13x04) with a final scene of him waking up in the Empty or something like it, and that didn’t happen, but omg I’m so glad they didn’t.

When Jack started praying and reaching out to Cas my heart almost stopped.

If Dean doesn’t instigate Cas’ return, then oh it would take away too much!

But then Jack’s moment didn’t lead to anything, and now, the more I think about it, there more it feels like a plant. A reminder of how he prayed to Cas the last time, and woke him. We shall see, eh?

And then we got Dean telling Chuck to bring Cas back, which was a pivotal plant as well. I’d been worried if they hadn’t mentioned Cas more than once, with Dean telling Jack and Sam that Cas sacrificed himself to save him, yeah?

If there had been no more Cas for the entire episode then, narratively speaking, I would have started wondering what role Cas might actually play in 15x20.

But Cas was mentioned more than once. We even got to hear his voice and have that fake return to stir our... I almost wrote loins, but that’s not appropriate so let’s change it to stir our... martinis.

Ah yes. We could all use a drink, I’m sure.

The dog as well! Dean was so happy and he carried the dog and petted the dog and put it in Cas’ spot in the backseat and was all, yes, emotional substitute! And then... poof. Because it’s not going to be that easy to replace Cas. *fingers crossed*

Here’s mostly why I’m hopeful for something quite different as the actual finale of the show, the proper wrapping up of these character journeys:

This first ending is for those who have followed the show explicitly to watch these two brothers. (yes there’s a word for them but let’s not)

It ends exactly how these viewers -- and quite possibly the writers who wrote it -- always saw the show ending. It gives an emotionally satisfying wrapping up of all the thematic threads of the show and gives the brothers their hard-won freedom, and keeps the brothers riding in Baby, together, indefinitely.

And these viewers and fans will always be able to stop watching the show there and keep that as their perfect ending.

Except it’s not the ending-ending. Is it?

This episode neatly and gorgeously wrapped up the Michael/Lucifer/Chuck storyline. It wiped the slate completely clean. Especially with Michael killing Lucifer and Chuck killing Michael. These characters just completely annihilating each other because they’ve all served their purpose.

And Chuck being drained of his powers and ending up ignored, never to be worshipped again, or even remembered, is such a fitting ending for him! And with Dean refusing to kill him, leaving him to his fate, I’d call that Dean integrating his Shadow.

No more fearing it. It’s powerless. Thanks to Jack (Dean’s inner child) who now holds all the power in the universe.

I’d say Dean Winchester has reached a point of internal balance.

And for all of these good things: Chuck powerless, Jack the New God, surely helping to fix what Cas broke by restoring Heaven (I’m assuming Heaven will be repopulated or that God’s grace will level it out) and Jack stepping into shoes that Cas once tried to fill and failed to, to the detriment to so many of his kin, is simply stunning.

I cried, properly, at Jack’s speech. It was beautiful.

But for all these good things and wrappings up of stuff, didn’t the ending feel kind of superficial? Like stuff was missing in those final five minutes or so? Like... I don’t know... Sam mentioning Eileen maybe? Because surely she was brought back along with everyone else, and one episode ago he was losing his mind over the loss of her.

And they didn’t even mention Cas. Jack mentioned Castiel as a good influence, but Cas was just bunched in with “everyone we’ve lost along the way”.

Meh.

Hey, it’s fine if all you care about is Dean and Sam and you think that they’re at their happiest when they get to drive along a road in Baby, listening to tunes and play-fighting and reminiscing about all those people that have come and gone, while they know they’ll always remain the same.

I mean, if we hadn’t gotten that montage at the end of this episode (a fucking MONTAGE ppl) I would’ve started thinking that maybe Misha was coming back to shoot flashbacks for 15x20, as we got to see the brothers remembering Cas (like with Mary), taking a walk down memory lane and driving around to well-known locales for a final hurrah.

But we got that fucking montage, ppl.

Leaving me to feel that they probably won’t also spend forty minutes rememberembering those same people. You know?

Also, dull. And Dabb is anything but dull. And Dabb loves pulling on stuff he’s hinted at in the first ep of the season.

And I remember reacting to Sam being the one to escort the kid and her mother into the, what was it? The high school, right? For safety.

While Dean and Cas had that tense exchange by Baby, where Dean couldn’t not ask if Cas was okay and Cas saying, hopefully, that he was, but Dean remaining stone faced and distant. “Awkward” is what Belphegor called it.

Oh. Please let there be awkwardness in 15x20. I beg on bent knees. Beg, I say!

Anyway.

What is 15x20 going to be about if it isn’t about finally answering the question of what will make the brothers happy?

A balanced universe, of course! But freedom without love... sounds kind of lonely to me.

So, have they answered the question of What do I want? yet? Is this what they want for themselves? More of the same? This season has hinted that it isn’t. It’s hinted very strongly that it isn’t.

So, I’m holding my breath that Dean’s final confrontation is to do with happiness and daring to want it for himself. Daring to admit to wanting it for himself. Daring to go after it...

Cas does not belong in the Empty.

And hope that it’s telling how Jack didn’t even think to get Cas out of there and bring him home. God got Lucifer out of the Empty so Jack definitely has the power.

And Dean didn’t ask him to get Cas out of there, not because he doesn’t still want Cas out, but because it would ruin the first ending for the people who want Cas to stay dead. Yeah?

It’s kind of beautifully done, to my mind, as a nod and a thank you to the people who have supported one reading of the show. It’ll be difficult for them to go apeshit when Dabb and the writers can simply tell them they don’t have to watch further than 15x19 and be content that they’ve got an ending that lets them cling to the brothers as the begin all, end all.

And yes, I remain believing we will get Dean and Cas together-together before the end of the show. I have no clue how much of a together-together we’ll get, but for the show not to give us a clear understanding of how Dean loves Cas back is unthinkable at this point, and will stay unthinkable until the show tells me otherwise, because nothing but those two together makes even a lick of sense to me.

Dean’s feelings were in the subtext this episode because that’s where they always have been and hopefully fingers crossed because this ending wasn’t for us, it was for other sides of fandom, giving them room for denial, if they simply don’t want to see that what Dean wants is Cas back.

Our ending isn’t happening until next week.

Dean: It’s a helluva time to bail. There’s a lot of people counting on you. People with questions—they’re gonna need answers. Jack: The answers will be in each of them. Maybe not today, but someday.

For me this may be setting up for 15x20.

Dean could be said to be accepting the reality of Cas being gone this episode. He starts off not telling the whole truth about what happened with Cas (of course), he’s drinking himself stupid, he tries to demand of Chuck to bring Cas back, he finds that emotional crutch in the doggo and he moves into acceptance because what else can he do?

Especially if he’s still reeling and is struggling with his fear of happiness, with not feeling deserving, with it being easier to simply let it all go.

But.

Letting go of the need is healthy, allowing it to make way for the real want that is about choosing Cas, not because he feels lost without him, but because Cas completes him...

That would be something.

(oh shush let’s get with the romance) (Jerry always brings it)

The brothers love each other, but throughout this narrative there’s been hints that they both long for more. So much more. It would be so weird if it didn’t all wrap up with more being wanted and chosen and offered and had.

So if the answers are to be “in each of them -- someday”, then maybe Dean just needs to reach a moment where he’s ready to admit to himself that he can’t stand the fact that Cas died not knowing that Dean loves him back.

I wonder if Sam will push for this admittance... I’d like to witness that conversation, that’s for sure.

And Eileen. I hope she’s back sooner rather than later next episode!!

What’s next episode going to be about if it’s not about the breaking of old patterns to make way for new ones...? Are we going to follow the boys around as they do laundry and cook and make a few tentative plans for their unknown future? They won’t be hunting much in 15x20, at least if Dabb is anything to go by. I guess there might be something brief as a final The Boys With Their Weapons Doing Their Thing, but... it won’t be a case episode. And it would’ve been strange if it was, you know?

So then. Hope. One more week breathing eating sleeping on hopes and wishes and we shall simply have to wait and see what we get.

I have every faith it will blow us away, but I’m also sitting pretty. Reining in those horses lest they run away with me. And whatever comes our way, I’m so grateful for this show!

#spn meta #spn 15x19 #spn speculation #dean #cas #sam #jack #chuck #michael #lucifer #deancas #destiel #hopes and wishes

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lizacstuff · 4 years

Text

Hoşgeldiniz SCK/EDSER Anons!

Lots of people wanted to talk about lots of things after episode 32 and the episode 33 fragman. Fragman asks are at the end.

Let’s get started!

(asks under the cut)

Anonymous said: The latest episode of SCK was a great step in the right direction for Eda & Serkan’s relationship but there is still a lot of work to do. They had a ton of scenes together which was a significant improvement not to mention solids conversations. Them working together to save the presentation was perfect. But how on earth are we four episodes into the Serkan & Selin relationship with no end in sight? 🤦🏻‍♀️Yikes! At least Selin is finally realizing that she will never be the woman for Serkan but real progress would be him realizing that. Hopefully he will finally take that step in the next episode!

I hear you! The funny thing is I’m fine with the pace on everything except with Selin. She is driving me CRAZY. It is excruciating to watch her scheme and fool Serkan episode after episode! Yes, he’s suffering from amnesia and probably Stockholm syndrome after she trapped him in that cabin and brainwashed him, yes she’s a childhood friend and he doesn’t remember her going off the deep end, but he’s free now, he’s seeing first hand that Eda is not what Selin told him she was, he’s getting other people’s perspective, he needs to question Selin a whole lot more than he has done.

Let’s hope there’s a development coming soon (more discussion at the end of this post in regards to the Fragman) that will push her out the door (off a cliff?)

Anonymous said: Do you think Serkan learning that Deniz & Eda are fake engaged to make him jealous is going to hurt or help the current situation? I feel like it should show him that she never stopped fighting for him but at the same time the show still has him acting very cruel at times. It could easily cause him to pick a quick wedding date with Selin as well or some other way to publicly humiliate Eda. Honestly I am hoping Eda tells Deniz that the fake engagement show is over early in the next episode and then have Serkan constantly trying to spend time with her to find out more. The fake engagement has run its course & Deniz needs to go!

Sing it!!! I have several asks along these lines, and I agree that the fake engagement has run it’s course and Deniz needs to go. The good thing is that I think Eda is aware of that now.

I get the fear that Serkan will feel manipulated when he finds out Deniz and Eda is fake, and he may, and if he does he might use it as a lever to try and keep some distance between Eda and himself, but I think he will mostly be relieved. No matter what his feelings are for her, think how happy he’ll be that she couldn’t really move on that quickly from him and that she didn’t give up and was fighting for them in her own way.

I think the fake engagement definitely had it’s uses. It’s pushed Serkan in ways he needs to be pushed. It’s made him outwardly curious about his past relationship with Eda. It made him experience jealousy he didn’t understand. I think Serkan sleeping in the office clutching her wedding invitation is proof that it gave him a lot to think about and at least made him question why he was so affected by it.

Here’s where I think Eda has gone wrong, she’s doing all of this to get Serkan to remember and when he doesn’t it crushes her, when she should be paying attention to the fact that he’s falling back in love with her even without the memories. She should be trying to connect with him more in those moments when he’s vulnerable with her.

The coffee shop scene is a perfect example. They’re both drawn there, he doesn’t know why. When she sees him you can see her mind working, that maybe he remembers, and when he doesn’t, she just sinks. She’s near tears that entire conversation. I’m sure it was extremely painful for her, but he’s sitting there opening up to her and instead of encouraging him to talk more or maybe offering him some answers, she gets up and leaves. If she’d stayed, they probably would have talked for hours.

Anonymous said: Do you think that Eda getting fakeengaged to Deniz was the wrong move? Am I being very unfair to her when I think this? Like I know Serkan is engaged to Selin and he's doing this even though he's not in love her, but he did experience amnesia and is genuinely confused at what has gone on in his life. Whenever he does have some breakthrough moments, like when he was questioning her in that cabin , she reiterates that she's with Deniz now and he's with Celine - I feel like that's the wrong move.

I think she’s made some missteps, yes, and you pointed out the biggest.

Here’s the thing, though, Serkan is like a scared little rabbit and Eda is holding out her hand with some lettuce trying to get the wee scared rabbit to come and nibble on it. Any wrong or sudden move and he’s going to scamper away! She’s afraid if he knows she’s available and still in love with him he’s going to freak out and run far, far away from her. The problem is she’s so cautious, that when she finally succeeds and he nibbles the lettuce (opens up and becomes vulnerable with her) she’s the one that retreats!

Poor babies.

That moment in the cabin felt like such a lost opportunity. Serkan was asking about their relationship, he was genuinely interested in learning more. And he sounded hurt when he asked about her giving up on him, which we know is a deep-seated fear of his, people abandoning him-- and there are so many things she could have done there to throw him a bone, but instead she doubled down on Deniz and Selin. Even if she would have ignored Deniz and just said, but you are with Selin, to drive home the fact that it’s him who gave up, but unfortunately she didn’t do that.

Anonymous said: I need Eda to lose it, confess about fake engagement, tell Serkan shes done trying to make him remember their love while he's happy with someone else because it just hurts too much so she needs to leave him and all these fake people behind and just go to Italy. Then Serkan can chase her (following her to Italy would be nice) and 33 can be our 11.

I’m onboard. I would love to see Serkan chasing her down again!

Anonymous said: I don't even care about Deniz from a love triangle standpoint but it is very sad for Eda that this longtime childhood friend that she trusts so much is working with the enemy behind her back. No matter what his ulterior motives are, it will be devastating for her to realize this. And Ceren is now super bitchy to her so Melo is literally her only real friend right now. I wish they could give us some Eda/Ferit scenes or something because they /could/ connect over all things Serkan/Selin/CerenI

I agree, it’s super sad to see how alone Eda is in all of this and to find out that this childhood friend who became a source of strength for her when Serkan was missing is actually capable of conspiring against her is devastating. I really don’t understand him, he doesn’t seem unbalanced or desperate like Selin, you’d think he’d know that he can’t force Eda to love him when she’s in love with someone else. Also I’m now on board with the theory that he was purposely not as helpful in the search for Serkan as he pretended to be. It was all performative, not substantive. Eda put her trust in the wrong person.

Thankfully she has Melo. What a terrible time for Fifi to have left and Ceren to have lost the thread. I agree I’d like to see some Ferit/Eda scenes, we know he would at least sincerely care about her and how she’s doing because he’s just that kind.

Anonymous said: Please can you explain to me why serkan keeps changing his attitude with eda? He jumps from eda to selin every episode and it's very frustrating. At the beginning of the ep he was like "you're not in my past or my future" and by the end of the ep he say "You gave up on me" come on serkan ily but boy make up your mind, one minute you don't want anything to do with her and the next minute you're making eyes at her...

This a pretty easy one to answer. The answer is because he’s suffering from trauma, PTSD, a brain injury, he has amnesia, he’s being manipulated by his oldest friend and is being lied to by the person he remembers as his girlfriend and all of a sudden he’s having powerful feelings for this strange woman that he doesn’t understand. I firmly believe that the reason we hear Serkan say in episodes 18 and 20 that he never loved Selin, is because he never loved Selin, but he didn’t know that until he met Eda. Before Eda, I don’t think he believed in love or thought much about it. If asked he might have said he loved Selin because he didn’t know better. So now he’s once again experiencing something powerful he didn’t know existed, compounded by all these other factors and it’s freaking him the fuck out!

The comment about you’re not in my past or my future was a reaction to whatever powerful feeling or recollection that made him say, “nobody touches you but me.” It scared him. And also, not for nothing, he apologized for being hard on her, something old Serkan NEVER did.

Most of the times he “jumped” to Selin in this episode were 100% in reaction to being confronted with Deniz and Eda’s relationship. In the office he witnesses Eda and Deniz all affectionate so when Selin comes in, in front of Eda he greets her warmly. When they’re outside the bungalows, Eda throw in his face that she’s so glad to be with Deniz now, so he throws a compliment at Selin. Deniz tells him he’s glad he almost died in a plane crash and has amnesia so Eda can actually finally be happy, (enough can’t be said about how awful that would be to hear, so fuck you Deniz) so he throws his energy into Selin at their party.

Every time he “changed” his attitude it was a reaction.

When he had just had a very positive experience with Eda, helping her with the presentation and their ride back to the hotel, he has zero patience for Selin and let her stomp off without even a look. When Selin was trying to get his attention later, he had no interest.

So, yes, while he was hot and cold, there was also a bit of rhyme to that reasons.

Anonymous said: I liked this episode but at times it seemed like the writers wanted to do everything to make me hate Serkan. With serkan kissing selin on the cheek, hugging selin, making heart eyes at her and throwing a surprise birthday party for her. And I'm not even talking about all those bad words he says to eda. I think it's too much. I know what they're trying to do with serkan but I think that trying to do too much will end up making the character of serkan unbearable for the audience.

Okay, but why aren’t you paying attention to any of the good things? How can you hate Serkan when he sleeps on his office couch clutching her wedding invitation, and scrubs his face not understanding why she’s gotten so far under his skin? Or when he’s so confused sitting in a coffee shop and he doesn’t know why, but feels at peace? Or when he drops everything to rush back to the office to help Eda. When he brings her coffee and calls her boss? When he looks so proud of her as she does the presentation. When he looks like a big sweet Golden Retriever after she hugs him? When he playfully tackles her while having a snowball fight. When he leaves Selin right as she’s making her birthday wish to go find Eda. He didn’t even ask if she wanted to help (which a sane, kind person would want to join everyone else in searching) he just bolted because Eda was in trouble. Then he carried her to safety and lit a fire and tended to her injuries. Does all of that make you hate him?

Is that “hateable” behavior.

I mean if it’s in your personality to only see the negative, okay, but life is much better when you don’t discount everything positive just to sate your desire to live in a dark place and only see the worst in people.

Anonymous said: eda & serkan are just so.. ahsjdkfd. such frustrating characters (whom i love but wanna knock them both in the head). everything they did with deniz & selin or when it came to their arguments was in reaction to what the other did. that's why i don't think this fake engagement thing is gonna work, bc if he's constantly being told by eda & deniz how happy they are, i dont think he's gonna be up front with this feelings. outside of eda leaving (like ep 11) i dont think a proper confession will come

Yes, I will give you that. THEY ARE FRUSTRATING!!!!! I agree that usefulness of the engagements have worn off both from a character perspective and a narrative perspective.

As I said above, I think the Deniz thing has served a bit of a purpose, but it’s now officially doing more harm that good and that shit-stain needs to leave ASAP.

Anonymous said: I was going to give a chance to these people who didn't care enough about Eda & Serkan in episode 29 but now 4 eps later, Selin has integrated back into the scene disturbingly well. Ferit is still the only one we've seen confronting her and Melo has been very supportive but that has not changed since 29 so development for other characters caring about EdSer has not improved in my opinion. They have accepted it :( And its actually worse now bc of Deniz. Aydan starting to feel bad does not count.

Oh I agree, they can all rot as far as I’m concerned, Piril is particularly disgusting to me.

You know, having said that, part of me thinks, even from Piril and Ferit’s first conversations with Selin, that they all just know it’s a matter of time until Serkan realizes he belongs with Eda. Like none of them are doing anything because they’ve witnessed over and over Serkan’s inability to stay away from her and assume the situation will play itself out and they just need to let it be? I would prefer to think this rather than any of them (other than Piril) being okay with Selin’s psycho behavior.

The other problem is that Serkan is such an authoritative figure to all of them. None of them, other than Eda, know how to question him. Did you see Engin, he’s too scared to tell Serkan they lost a client when he had nothing to do with the reason why? He has balls of Styrofoam. Kinda stands to reason that none of those gutless wonders are going to try and make him see the light when he’s so obstinately trying to not be the person they all told him he turned into with Eda.

For Aydan, while I will still never forgive her for keeping Serkan’s whereabouts a secret, she might be treading lightly because she knows Serkan tends to do the opposite of what she tells him to do. If she pushes too hard for Eda, he might start reacting against that.

Anonymous said: Serkan's change of attitude between day and night is really disturbing. The whole progression between him and eda is destroyed each time. At the end of the episode we always find ourselves back at the starting point with zero progression. At this point it's really tiring, they should stop it or at least take Selin out of the equation (also why selin and serkan are still engaged ? at this point is ridiculous).

While I agree that Selin needs to be out of the equation and her presence is beyond tiring, I disagree that their progression is destroyed each time. They really don’t start at zero.

Do you think they get to the point where they were in this episode without everything that came before? Having a couple of deep and real conversations, where Serkan is vulnerable, having Serkan leaving the hotel to come and help Eda? Calling her boss and working together as a seamless team? Him hugging her back? Him asking deep and sincere question about how she could move on and give up on him?

That would not have happened in prior episodes. I assume you feel like a deep moment happens and the next interaction they act like it didn’t? That is partly true, but I think it’s both of them protecting themselves, so after a particularly close moment they boomerang back. Serkan is being pushed out of comfort zones he didn’t even know he had. So yes he retreats after being vulnerable. Eda is at her emotional limits and she still has that pride. However, while that’s true that they do take a step back after a big moment, it’s also true that the next time they have a real moment, a big moment, it goes deeper than the last. They all build on one another.

So there is progression and they are building something. His feelings for sure are much different than they were in 29/30. He’s in a vastly different place, he’s recognizing that he has feelings for Eda to the point that he’s sleeping on his office couch clutching her wedding invitation. The progress is slow, but it’s happening, just like the first time around, when they’d take a step forward and then one of them would freak out and pull back a bit.

Anonymous said: It was a good episode but I still don't understand why writers keep on writing things that aren't necessary (aydan and ayfer killing alex plus all of theirs scenes together that are boring by the way, the scenes between selin and serkan where they are suddenly close, selin and deniz..) we don't need to see that. They should focus more on the trauma that serkan is going through and the way he falls little by little in love with eda with those memories of them that appear to him at the same time.1

They should just take Selin away and get rid of those fake engagement. 2

Well you certainly won’t get any argument from me that we need to get rid of fake engagements and Selin and Deniz. I’m also laughing because we’re all referring to Serkan and Selin’s engagement as fake. That’s because it is. It’s something Serkan is using as a buffer, and we are now at the point that he doesn’t need it anymore, its only him who needs to realize it.

As for Alex, Aydan and Ayfer the fact is this show is over 2 hours in length each week and they have to have B and C storylines in order to fill it. This week it was A/A/A and I got to tell you, I’ve seen worse. If you don’t take it too seriously (which you really shouldn’t take too much on this show seriously, at this point it’s really just a vehicle for Hande and Kerem to work their special brand of magic each week) you can just enjoy the reprieve from Selin and try and enjoy these two ladies’ dynamic and their shenanigans. Both Alican (Seyfi) and Evrim (Ayfer) previewed on twitter that they laughed so hard while reading episode 33, I assume it has to do with Alex’s “death.” I say bring on the comedy!

Anonymous said: you know i've seen a lot of talk about how serkan is being "cruel" with eda and i don't agree at all. i mean, when they're bantering, she's giving back just as good as she gets.. and bantering/arguing is kinda their "thing" .. it's like their foreplay lmao. and when she does feel hurt by something he does or says it's not like he's doing it intentionally with the purpose of inflicting her pain. idk.. cruel is a very strong word to use for what the dynamic is between them right now..

Agreed. Remember when the narrative from episode 20-26 was that Eda was being cruel to Serkan and needed to suffer? There are some people who can’t help but pit the two halves of the whole against each other. I don’t do that. There’s enough empathy to go around.

Especially when they’re arguing, as you say Eda gives as good as she gets (that’s why she’s the only match for Serkan, she’s the only one who can go toe to toe with him) and there were also quite a few moments where she was provoking him. As she told him in the shelter, just because they didn’t always agree, didn’t mean there wasn’t love.

Anonymous said: I see a ton of people cancelling Serkan each week but I think he’s going to cancel himself when he remembers and that’s what will further prolong their reunion/wedding. He drove himself sick with guilt about her parents and he had 0 fault in that, but in this instance, there are things a version of him said and did, even if it was in the wrong state of mind. I hope the writing does this justice.

Me too. While I don’t want to spend episode upon episode with him wallowing and self-flagellating, we are owed a scene of his devastation at what he’s put her through. He loves her so much it will be very painful when he puts it all together.

On the other hand, I think he won’t remember enough to be at that point until he’s already admitted he’s in love with her afresh. That might dull the need for him to punish himself too much as he would have fulfilled his promise to fall in love with her if born again.

jan31: Hi Liza, hope you are well. I am sure you have seen the fragman by now, have you got any idea why Serkan would give Seline 5% of his shares. Is at guilt thing after finding him with Eda? I want to believe he remembers more than he is letting on with her and it's some kind of test, but I think I am clowning! When it comes to love he is clueless but not business. Why would he take away his majority and now be 45%? I am perplexed! Maybe there will be something In the episode that will explain it, as I think this happens near the beginning? Not sure anymore if 33 will be Selines last episode now, maybe they are dragging out the drama a bit longer for ratings, who knows!

I think this is one where we can’t judge it until we actually see what happens. Serkan has to wise up at some point and giving away 5% of the company (even though its her shares she sold to him when she left town) is very unwise and I find it hard to buy that its something he does because he feels guilty because he got all cuddly with Eda in the cabin. He’s always been a savvy business man, and her hold on him has only been lessening, not increasing.

Let’s hope he’s starting to wise up and it’s some sort of test or trap. Unless the new writers just don’t understand who Serkan Bolat is at all.

Anonymous said: Anyone else need to take several deep breaths after watching that fragman? Everyone is canceled except for Eda, Melo, Ferit (if he knew nothing about the shares) and Serkan (although he is going to seriously make up for his cruelty at some point). I guess the only positive is that it seems like everything that happened in the last 4 episodes is all coming together finally. Eda will hopefully finally figure out what Ceren’s problem is and hopefully also figure out Deniz & Selin are working together. And at least Serkan seems determined to get Eda to admit there is still something between them which has to mean he has finally accepted his feelings for her. Things have been progressing slowly and Selin has been smug for far too long so exciting to think there will be a change.

My thought is we need to wait and see context for all of these things. I have a feeling not everything is as it appears.

Though one thing I think that is exactly as it appears is Serkan trying to get Eda to admit she has feelings for him. That’s good. That’s really, really good. He’s making a move. He’s bringing the sexual tension. Love to see it.

Anonymous said: Ok so do you buy the theory that Serkan suspects that Selin sabotaged Eda with that dossier? Because when I first saw him getting that flashback at the hotel, I didn't understand why they needed to show it - maybe just to let us know again that Serkan doubted Eda's work skills since they had been bickering all day? But then I read that the flashback could be to confirm that he knew Selin was present. This could be fans coming up with better ideas than the writers though. :/

I want to buy that theory. I want to buy it lunch and dinner and some wine and flowers and I want it to be true!!!! I also want the 5% shares to be a part of some plan he has to figure out what Selin’s is doing.

Though... lets not get too far ahead of ourselves, this is just speculation which mostly never happens, however the spoilers have long said that Selin leaves in 33 or 34. For that to happen something drastic has to happen. There’s also screenshots going around that show that there was definitely a security camera right behind Selin when she got into the network and deleted Eda’s files. So there’s a good chance hard evidence of her perfidy exists.

Honestly, this makes the most sense to me in getting rid of her (which means it’s probably not true).

However, if it were true, it would help bolster Serkan’s character a bit. He’s a smart man but they’ve turned him into a fool not suspecting anything about Selin, if he unmasks her himself and takes her down for business reasons and doesn’t care a bit about dumping her personally, it kills a bunch of birds with one stone. It restores his savvy, it gets rid of her, it gets rid of her by his hand so it’s not like the choice was taken away from him, it gives her some consequences and comeuppance without overtaking the plot, and it does all this without advancing the romantic story with Eda too quickly (cause I think they want to milk that a little while longer)

Also the only other way they get rid of her at this point is if Serkan breaks it off and tells her he’s in love with Eda. And I really need her GONE now and not once Serkan is at the screaming at her about how much he’s in love with Eda stage of this story.

Anonymous said: Okay so Serkan must have a plan and that is why he gave Selin the shares, right? Or he is doing it to make up for ruining her birthday? It would be great if he was doing it because he finally accepted his feelings for Eda on some level & plans to break up with Selin but feels bad about it. Just very weird that he would give her the shares (which to everyone that cannot read his mind comes off as cementing their future together) while at the same time trying to get Eda to admit her feelings for him.

Yeah, I think we’re all on the same wavelength that something is fishy here. Let’s hope it’s a ploy because Serkan knows Selin has been up to no good. And if so I really, really need Eda to be present for her takedown this time. Girlfriend deserves that.

Anonymous said: what do you think of this third set of writers? I'm not sure if the episodes have been bad because they were instructed to write this stagnant plot and its not really their fault, or if the scene would've been fine but were just actually written badly. Idk if Im making any sense. I personally refer to 26-27-28 as the "edser renaissance" and was not missing Ayse's team and now I'm sad but idk if it's unfair to the writers if this is more likely the showrunner's idea or something

It’s hard to tell because it’s only been two episode, but I think the DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA seems to be a directive from the producers/network. However, I think they’ve written some very nice individual scenes. As I’ve said, the scene where Serkan comes back to ArtLife to help Eda is already on my list of favorite scenes ever and there was a lot of goodness besides that. There was the accidental kiss, and arguing (how much did you love Eda sitting with Melo counting down until Serkan came to the coffee room) and the coffee shop and every second in that cabin. So I guess I disagree with you that the scenes are all bad. If there’s nothing you like in the episode, maybe go back and just rewatch some of the Edser scenes without having the stench of Selin and Deniz nonsense polluting them, I promise you there’s lots of goodness there.

#edser #sen cal kapimi #Sen Çal Kapımı #sck 1x32 #sck spoilers #sck 1x33 #asklizac #sckask

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scullydubois · 4 years

Text

Only the Light: Ch. 7

A dubious figure from Scully's life visits her in a nightmare; Mulder tries to distract her with breakfast and a philosophical conversation.

[I’m getting a clearer picture of what I want this to be...thanks for bearing with me!]

----------------------

She’s entering the motel room again, just as she did only hours before. This time, something is wrong. She hears it as soon as she closes the door. Ragged breathing, like a dog worn out from a walk. She doesn’t have a dog, and she sure as hell hasn’t just taken one for a walk.

“Mulder?” she asks the darkness. She tries to think: was he just with her? Did he enter his own room, like she did hers? She cannot remember. For the life of her, she cannot remember.

The room’s silence is the unwanted answer to her question. A shadow moves in the darkness. Scully reaches for her gun with one hand and the bedside lamp with the other. Her hand slides over her belt, comes up empty. Her gun, what happened to it? She cannot remember this either. An act of faith will have to do. She sucks in a breath, clicks the light on.

There’s BJ, illuminated. Scully’s mind races to fill in the inconsistencies. This isn’t the BJ who left her in the bathroom earlier. Fear has written itself on her face and frozen her too. This phantom woman’s stomach bulges under her sweatshirt. She is heavily pregnant and... bleeding. That’s what it is. Blood, sickeningly red, trickling down BJ’s front like she’s starring in a low budget horror film.

“BJ!” Scully rushes toward her without a second thought. But BJ puts out her hands, backs toward the bathroom.

“No, Agent Scully, don’t!” she pleads. “He got me. It’s too late. He’ll get you too if you don’t leave.”

As Scully gets closer, she sees that the collar of BJ’s sweatshirt has been ripped. Beneath it, letters are inked in blood quite clearly across BJ’s chest: SISTER. Just like the crime scene photos of those women years ago.

Scully stops moving so that BJ will hold still. “Who, BJ? Who did this?”

“Him, he did.” A hand emerges from the shadowy bathroom, grips BJ by the rip in her collar, and slams her into the doorframe. A fresh spurt of blood glides down her and puddles at her feet. “Go, Scully, go!” she cries. “Please.”

But Scully won’t go, she could never abandon a situation like this. She moves closer to the bathroom, desperately wishing she had her gun and trying to piece together a back-up plan that might get both her and BJ out safely.

She puts on the most intimidating voice she possesses. “Let go of her now!”

“Let me have you and it’s a done deal.” The hand steps out of the shadows, becoming a body, becoming a nightmare. It is not possible, and yet it is happening. The delusional eyes of Duane Barry stare into hers.

Scully loses the ability to breath, to scream, to do anything except fear death. A thought pings in her brain. There’s something she does remember that revives her. Duane Barry’s dead. Mulder killed him. He told her that very day. Mulder wouldn’t lie about a thing like that, she is sure of it.

She is not quite sure what this means for the situation. She throws her shoulders back, lifts her head high. She is the survivor, and she will be victorious this time.

“No. You can’t have me, or BJ either. Go back to hell.” She steps toward BJ, holds out her hand. Duane’s fist is still clamped on BJ’s sweatshirt, right over her collarbone. She will not move.

“Duane Barry can have whatever he wants,” the man’s gritty voice says. “Duane Barry got eternity.”

“Eternal damnation,” Scully growls. “Now give it up.”

Duane Barry laughs. It’s hollow, devoid of any real emotion. The laughter of a dead man. He pushes BJ away from him, releases her shirt. She catapults into Scully, who steps in front of her like a shield.

“Go, BJ,” Scully orders.

“I can’t leave you.” BJ’s voice is the shakiest it’s ever been.

“You’ll bleed out. Go.”

Scully doesn’t hear her leave. She glances behind her, and BJ is not there anymore. It is just her and Duane now, like in her apartment, and the car, and though she doesn’t remember it, the field too. Mulder tells her he caught Duane there. That her necklace was in the trunk, and her blood. But not her.

She snaps back into the moment. This is something she will remember, and she needs to be present for it. Duane moves toward her. A gun appears in his hand. Her gun. Her weapon, somehow in his hands. He didn’t pick it up or pull it from his belt, it appeared. Just as abruptly as BJ disappeared.

“You think they’ll let you into heaven looking like that?” he sneers. He’s coming closer and closer.

“That’s not for me to say,” Scully replies, holding her ground.

“I’m not talking hypothetically,” Duane’s voice booms through the room. “Look at yourself!”

She’s not sure why, but she listens; maybe he’s an alien, maybe that’s why they kept coming after him, maybe they just wanted him back. It sure feels like he’s controlling her mind.

She looks down and immediately dissociates. This is not her. This is a trail of blood. How could someone call this a body?

SISTER is scribbled across her chest too. She doesn’t have to check to know. She has fallen victim, just as she predicted.

And then...she lurches out of bed, the cheap motel sheets strewn across the floor in her wake. She is on her knees against the cracked tile before she can put two and two together. Her stomach contents spill out of her like they’ve been waiting on a cue. If this is confession, the porcelain is her priest.

When her stomach can’t possibly spew any more, she flushes the toilet, then crawls over to the towel rack and pulls down her still drying towel. The tile has made creases on her hands. She lays the towel against her cheek, then rests her head against the edge of the toilet. This is what her simple night has come to.

She stays in this position while her strength finds its way back. She is just about to doze off when someone knocks on her door. She sighs, lifts her head, puts it back down again. At the sound of the second knock, she glances into the other room. Stray beams of light stream through the edges of the curtains. She hadn’t had time to glance at the clock in her mad dash to the bathroom. It’s morning already.

This suspicion is confirmed by Mulder’s concerned voice on the other side of the door. “Scully?”

She pushes herself up off the floor, hangs the towel back on the rack. “I’m here,” she calls. It comes out strained and raspy.

She shuffles toward the door, unsure of how to explain this situation. The clock reads 7:18. Mulder makes up for all the times he’s late to the J. Edgar Hoover building by getting an early start during their travels. She’s aware of this and usually beats him to the punch. Not today. She wonders why her alarm didn’t go off, then realizes she never set it.

She unlocks the door and opens it a crack, embarrassed by her silk pajamas and undoubtedly messy hair.

“Hey, sorry. I forgot to set my alarm.” Her voice is still not right.

“Are you okay?” His tone indicates that she must not be.

“I had a bad dream, that’s all.”

“You don’t look so good.” He lays a palm on the door, pushes it open to get a better view. Scully’s always been pale, but usually it reminds him of marble, like a statue of a Greek goddess. Right now she’s looking more like a ghost. Or like she’s seen one. “Can I come in?”

She closes the door so that just her face is visible. “I have to get dressed,” she protests. “Then we can get going. We’re meeting BJ at 9, right?”

“We have time,” Mulder insists, putting his hand on the door so she can’t shut it without smashing his fingers.

“If we leave early enough, we can get breakfast on the way.”

Mulder wonders who she is trying to pander to, then lets go of the door. He knows how this goes. He’ll let her off easy now, she’ll be more willing to talk later. Their version of compromise.

“Okay, fine. You get ready, and we’ll stop for breakfast.”

“Great.” She presses her lips into a thin line that he thinks is supposed to be a smile. “I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

“I’ll start the car.”

She nods after him, watches him go. Their partnership, like all relationships, is an act of give and take. She gets the feeling that she has been taking too much lately and giving very little back. He deserves better, she knows this. It does not make her feel good.

------------------------

Their car rattles along Aubrey’s main street. It’s classic Americana with narrow sidewalks, quaint storefronts, and altogether too much traffic for such a small town. While sitting at a redlight, Mulder taps the steering wheel absentmindedly and takes the opportunity to do some sight-seeing. He looks past Scully and notices a sign in the window of the building next to them claiming that it is an “authentic 1950s mom-and-pop diner.” “Best in Aubrey!” it brags. He smirks, then checks his mirror and enters the right-turn lane. Scully, who had been watching the light, glares at him.

“What are you doing?”

He takes the right turn. “You promised breakfast, remember?” He pulls into the small lot behind the cafe. “Whaddya say we go back in time? I can’t picture you in a poodle skirt, Scully.”

“Good.” Her bluntness makes Mulder laugh. His hearty chuckle is chicken soup to her soul. She tries to power through the flutter in her heart. “Is this place gonna have 1950s prices too? Cause if not, you’re paying.”

Mulder parks, cuts the engine. “I’ll take the risk.”

“And I’ll hold you to that.” She unclicks her seatbelt and opens the passenger door. Her heels hit the pavement with fervor. She’s trying to shake off the nightmare by putting on an extra tough, confident exterior. Fake it til you make it, right? She struts away from the car, hears Mulder click it locked behind her. How often is he the one lagging behind? She waits for him at the sidewalk, watching as he jogs toward her a bit like he’s running down the beach on Baywatch. She can’t tell if he’s doing the sexy slow motion thing on purpose or if that’s just his natural state.

“Do you think they’ll have a jukebox?” he asks, amused with himself. “Cause I forgot to bring my roll of quarters.”

“That’s too bad,” Scully intones, humoring him as she often does.

As he falls into step beside her, Scully is tempted to touch him. Nothing inappropriate, just a gesture that says, we are here walking together. She can’t think of an innocent way for a woman to do this to a man, and this annoys her. After all, he does this to her all the time, and she’s pretty positive it’s the only thing keeping her from becoming completely touch-starved. Sometimes he guides her by the small of her back, sometimes it’s more like a gentle hand on her elbow or shoulder. It reminds her of when she was a little girl and her father would let her take the lead in a crowd, whether it be a department store or a 4th of July parade. It built her confidence, having to cut a path for herself through what felt like skyscrapers of people. She could feel her father there the whole time, and so she knew she was safe. Not so easy these days.

To Scully’s left, Mulder wonders what his partner’s love language is. Not that he’s read a book on love languages or anything. I mean, it was just the one time. Now it sits on his shelf and gathers dust with all his other books! Nothing odd about that. He did manage to take the quiz in the back of the book before he put it up, though. He got mostly C’s, which meant that his love language was physical touch. This was not surprising to him, though not anything he’d ever thought deeply about either. Maybe it stems from the fact that his father was never very affectionate? Who can say, really?...It’s times like this he wishes he didn’t have a psychology degree.

“Hey, Scully,” he pipes up, figuring the topic can’t hurt. “Have you heard of the five love languages?”

“You mean the stupid self-help book?” she goads. “Yeah.”

He opens the diner door, a chirpy bell announcing their arrival. He holds it open while Scully steps into a recreation of a by-gone era complete with a long red counter with retro barstools, black-and-white tile on the floors and the walls, and, yes, a jukebox. Mulder points to it and glances at Scully, who simply shakes her head. Behind the counter, a waitress with pin curls and an apron dress addresses them.

“Welcome in, folks. Seat yourselves anywhere you’d like.”

Mulder thumbs toward the counter (because how else would you get the whole 50s diner experience?) but Scully, who has finally found an occasion to touch him, lays a hand on his bicep and pulls him over to a red leather booth.

They settle in, their eyes scanning the laminated menus and realizing that these are not, in fact, 1950s prices.

“Have you read it?” Mulder asks.

“I’m reading it right now, Mulder,” Scully says, stating the obvious.

“No, I mean the love languages book.”

“We’re still on this?”

Mulder lays his menu flat on the table, lifts his hands in surrender. “I just thought it would be an interesting thing to talk about.”

Scully sets her menu down too. “I’ve never read it, but you know who did and loved it? Melissa. She told me all about it.”

“Oh, really? What’s hers?”

“Uh, I think it was acts of service. Is that one?”

Mulder nods. “It’s acts of service, words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, or physical touch.”

The waitress comes over with a steaming pot of coffee and asks if they’re interested. They both nod, and she fills two mugs to the brim. The liquid shivers as Scully blows on it.

“What’s yours?” she asks over the rim of her mug. “I’m assuming you’ve read the book.”

“Read the book and taken the quiz,” Mulder brags, topping it off with a smile. “I got physical touch.”

“Nice.” Scully files that information away for later. “Do you think that’s accurate?”

He shrugs. “It’s not wrong.”

“How can something be not right, but not wrong?”

His eyes, a caramel brown right now, brush over her. “I don’t know, Scully, how can something be not right, but not wrong?” he challenges.

She swallows, understanding what he is getting at. Some things are hard to justify. To yourself, to others. But when you take all the thinking out of it and just rely on the feeling...there are certain things that refuse to be resisted. She knows. She has tried to resist, and the universe has raised hell.

She rests her hands on the table. “What would I get?”

“What do I look like, a psychologist?” Mulder teases.

Scully giggles, looks at her hands. She disregards object permanence and figures that if she can’t see him, he must not see her. He doesn’t say anything, so she takes this to mean he doesn’t notice how most of the blood in her body has rushed to her face.

He does, and he thinks it’s cute how she’s at mercy of her trivial embarrassments. She reddens at the smallest things: dropping her keys, forgetting her jacket, adding up the total on a restaurant tab incorrectly. It’s refreshing actually, the way her feelings show on her face, especially since she so rarely puts them into words. She’s a beacon of sincerity in his otherwise insincere life.

She gathers herself enough to look him in the eyes. “Quiz me. You’ve read the book, so quiz me.”

Mulder mouth has gone dry for reasons he cannot quite explain. “Okay.” He rips open a packet of sugar, pours it into his coffee. He doesn’t even want it, he just needs something to do with his hands.

“Um…” he can’t look at her. “Which sounds more fulfilling to you: being served breakfast in bed, or being given, say, a box of chocolates, as an anniversary gift?”

“Breakfast in bed. But the chocolate would be good too.” She sips her coffee while she watches him process that.

“Okay...would you rather hear someone say ‘I love you’ or have them show it by holding hands or putting their arm around you?”

She has to think about this one. Her gut reaction is neither, frankly. Both are positive things, she wouldn’t be mad at either of them, but she’s looking for something more. Something deeper than words spoken millions of times or public displays of affection. She wants love that transcends the ordinary. Love that is bigger than love.

“The second one, I guess. But only under the right circumstances.”

“You have provisions to your love, do you?”

“Yes,” she says without wavering. “I do.”

Mulder wonders if the waitress might come over and defuse the growing tension before it manifests elsewhere. Like in a place that would make the situation incredibly embarrassing for him.

Scully lets her gaze fall over him. The sight of Mulder on the opposite side of a restaurant booth is one that has become very familiar to her, but it’s never any less satisfying. She holds on to the consistencies in her life now more than ever. This is one of them.

She follows his eye line toward the counter. “So do you have another question?” she asks, a purposeful break in his concentration.

He comes back to her. There are so many things he could say to her right now. So goddamn many. Following the theme of the morning, he picks one that feels neither right, nor wrong.

“Do you really care about your love language, or are you just humoring me?”

“I’m always humoring you, Mulder.”

Mulder chuckles. She smiles at her own joke and at the fact that it made him laugh. She literally was humoring him.

“But I am actually curious,” she clarifies. “I don’t see how an informal love language quiz could truly have detrimental effects.”

“Well, clearly. I’m the one coming up with it, so it’s foolproof.”

“No, it’s just so unscientific that I could never take it seriously enough to let it dictate my decisions.”

Mulder rubs his chest like he’s just been shot in the heart. “Ouch.”

“It’s a cute metric, nothing more,” she says lightly. “But keep going, two questions can’t be enough to determine my result.”

Mulder smiles. She’s a tricky one, his Scully. He opens his mouth, intent on getting into the deep stuff when the waitress finally shows up with her notepad and pencil.

“What can I get y’all?” she asks with phony cheer.

Scully orders first. Always. “I’ll have the oatmeal with berries. Just the small bowl, and that’s all.”

The waitress nods, doesn’t even bother to scribble the order down. “And for you, sir?”

“I’ll have the scrambled eggs and bacon. And can I get that in 1950s prices?” He can’t resist.

The waitress chuckles, but in a tired way like she’s definitely heard that before. “You invent a time machine, then you sure can.”

Mulder nods, wonders if he might one day be able to do that. He doesn’t say this out loud, of course, and the waitress takes up their menus.

Scully turns her attention back to Mulder with the look of an embarrassed teenager.

“You just had to make that joke, didn’t you?”

He slurps his coffee. “Yes I did. And here’s your next question: have you ever really been in love?”

Scully’s jaw tightens. Has she?

“I don’t know, Mulder,” she remarks, weary. “What is love, exactly?”

She doesn’t mean for him to give a legitimate answer. As far as she’s concerned, that’s about as unanswerable as questions get.

He leans his elbows on the table, gets the twinkle in his eye that shows up when he’s stimulated. “In my mind, it’s defined by the extremes. The limits you would push. How far out of your comfort zone would you go for the person? What’s the most dangerous thing you'd be willing to do for them? That’s what love is to me. Going out of yourself and out of safety for the comfort of someone else.”

Scully is rendered speechless by how concise this explanation is. He’s given it some thought, definitely. But what he’s come up with...it’s like he verbalized the feeling she’s been looking for her whole life. She’s never understood why she had never fallen, what with the fairly decent guys who have prostrated themselves at her feet. She had never been willing to die for them. Or to forsake any piece of herself for them, really. That was the problem. That’s what makes this--she never thinks of it as anything but this, it’s a feeling too daunting to force into the confines of language--different. Before, she wasn’t willing to change when it was demanded. Now she is not asked to, but chooses it at her own will. She wants to, because it doesn’t feel like changing, it feels like coming closer to her authentic self.

“That’s a very philosophical answer,” she says, trying not to let on that her understanding of life was just sharpened. “I like it.”

“Mhmm.” He wants to. God, he wants to. He wants to do everything with her, every activity in the whole world. Even the unpleasant ones. Maybe that’s another symptom of love.

He clears his throat. The tension has clearly built. He tries to counter it by thinking of the way she looked this morning when she opened that door. Like a caved-in version of herself, like someone had scooped out the substance. She was hurting, and she wasn’t sharing her pain. This hurt him. Yet she wasn’t willing to talk about it, she wasn’t ready to take the risk. He had just given her his definition of love, and she agreed. Yet her actions are not representative of it. Clearly they aren’t in the same place. He can do nothing about this.

“You know, forget love languages,” Mulder declares. “They are stupid.” You either love, or you don’t love; that’s the part he keeps to himself. It’s a choice you have to make.

#the pacing has been slower than intended #i've gotten the hang of it now so it'll start picking up #and prob get better in general #i have some really exciting plans!!#the x-files #x files #txf fanfic #txf fic #fox mulder #dana scully #missy & scully fic #only the light fic #msr #txf #mine

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isolctions · 3 years

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...........so let’s finally talk abt what the actual fucking fuck is wrong with ai’rina rue castillo, huh gang? :-)

(everyone go thank @armsdealing & @durcgs beating the anxiety out of me in order to post this info-dump.)

...before we get into things, now’s the part where i establish a warning for triggers to be discussed in this lengthy headcanon post. there’s gonna be some talks of mental illness, slight alcohol abuse, & breaking down topics of familial abuse, mental abuse, religious abuse, emotional manipulation, and elements of non-con. be warned.

a’ight, so look. i’ve hinted in between threads & development that rue had a not-so-fantastic upbringing that impacted how she perceives herself, how she interacts with others, (in terms of her career, at least) and how she views personal relationships, but i didn’t realize how........severely her upbringing messed with her mental health until i started working through how i wanted to plot out rue’s behavior for her next album release. at first, i had the idea that she decided to take more time for herself & sort of distance herself from the public / media circus plaguing her life so that she can create much more authentic music. then i actually listened to the EP that i’m basing her album off of and thought “...oh.” THEN, i looked over old meme responses & old threads / mentions of her family and how she grew up and thought, not for the last time since piecing everything together: “....oh. oh fucking boy.”

so, that horrible realization dawning on me, let’s talk about rue’s childhood.

i wrote a thing like, two years ago almost (that upon looking for last night, i realized i didn’t actually share it w/ anyone but alex in our discord server & only mentioned a portion of it in rue’s moodboard that i made) that talked vaguely about how rue felt growing up. and it’s worth noting that...she’s the middle of ten fucking siblings. and that’s just the brothers & sisters she knew of that stayed with their mother. and on top of that, not all of those siblings are the product of rue’s father, or even rue’s mother for that matter. and it’s also worth noting that rue not only grew up in poverty, but she grew up never having any actual space that had solely been her own, or even an article of clothing that had belonged entirely to her. so naturally, as a young child, rue sort of became torn between starved for attention & wanting someone to pay attention to her (whether that be her older siblings including her in something, whatever teacher they had for the next six months to call on her for something, for her mother to miraculously show up with her unknown father in tow one day, & for literally anyone to be her friend, pls god Notice her!!!) and for people to simply leave her the hell alone. obviously, this carried into adulthood.

and branching off from the whole “lack of space” point i made, rue wound up growing up to become increasingly more private as time went on because she literally cannot remember a single moment where she wasn’t squished between a bunch of people. driving around in their minivan? rue’s packed in the middle of the second row. nowhere to sleep while on the road? rue’s smacked between gigantic older brothers & clingy little siblings. need to use to bathroom? lmao, she better off going outside!!! gotta change clothes? yeah, good luck with that. it was to the point where, when rue got her first period, she was humiliated by it — not because ‘omg, am i a woman now?? wtf is this???’, but because she ruined the one good sheet that she slept on with her sisters & they were super pissed at her and her mother withheld pay from her for weeks. >:/

already, rue grew up never having shit to herself until the record deal. but she also dealt with literally...so much abuse from her mother. rue thought this was the norm growing up, because all of her siblings faced their mother’s wrath at some point & all of them eventually learned to just deal with the shit and do what she says if they wanted to avoid it. they all compartmentalized and repressed to varying degrees. there’s a lot in which rue has repressed so deeply, she doesn’t even remember if it seriously happened or if she was just making it up bc it was so fucking bizarre for a parent to act that way towards their child, lol?? (and this behavior of “i’m just going to do what you say bc i don’t want to deal with whatever bullshit you’re up to if i say no” also carried into business / personal relationships, which is...very Yikes it’s amazing she didn’t get scammed or worse!)

so sure, people have complimented her for her exceptional manners & her cleanliness & how quiet / polite she is & how amazing her posture is, bc seriously, this girl will never experience back problems in her life bc her posture is so on par. but where rue typically smiles / responds bashfully, she can’t exactly just up and say: “oh, yeah, my mom used to slap the shit out of me ‘til i bruised if i spoke out of turn or talked back, and if i reached for anything in the store or put my elbows on the table she’d slap a ruler against my palms ‘til i got welts, and she’d make me read verses all night without sleep if i did anything wrong and make me straighten up and kneel on rice if i slouched or took a nap in church and humiliated me in public if i so much as looked at someone of the opposite sex on the street n oh, did i mention i also cleaned houses for rich millionaire snobs from ages twelve to sixteen and if they said or did literally anything to me i wasn’t allowed to defend myself?? ya i’m real proper :)”

(and normal ppl will go: “...................what the FUCK is WRONG with you????”)

but oh man, babe, we’re not done yet!!! rue, being the product of both a highly religious and a highly exploitative household...had difficulty when she started reaching puberty & noticing her classmates. plural, because it wasn’t just boys that she began to secretly have crushes on / fantasize abt, sexually or domestically. she also realized, oh shit, that she started looking at girls differently too. and that literally put the fear of god into her heart, bc if her mother ever found out that she was having non-platonic feelings for the girls in her classrooms, she wasn’t going to be pissed. her mom might have actually tried to kill her. or have her exorcised or something. she knew the shit would be severe, and she wanted no fucking parts of her mother or her siblings inserting the church into her personal life, thank u very much! so rue started suppressing her romantic feelings for people to the point where if adult rue receives intimacy, she’s like “...is this allowed? is this not illegal??????” while simultaneously being like “i will be a slut. just this once. as a Treat to teenage me. :>” regardless, rue learned to molotov cocktail literally any emotion or thought she had, bc she was paranoid that it would give her mother a vision.

now, onto the perils of exploitation...she should’ve been used to it really, what with her mother forcing herself & siblings to lure customers into their shop with promises of visions and palm readings and the wonders of the cards and overexerting their abilities. same with housekeeping, like being of service to people was normal! but when seventeen year old rue decided to sign a record deal and break from home, she wasn’t thinking critically about what the fuck all of this would entail. and as described in this headcanon post abt her discography, her early music was the product of allowing people much older & powerful than you to influence your work & manipulate your values. so rue was very much parading around as someone she wasn’t, someone much more confident and badass and self-assured than she really was, and she was so impressionable back then that it literally makes her sick to think back on it now. she calls it her puppy phase and phrases the eagerness to please execs as ‘tongue wagging’. homegirl hardly even knew her name anymore, bc all she was and all she would ever be was rue, the star, the vocal temptress. not ai’rina, the help or ai’rina, the seer, ai’rina, the weak little nobody. but later on, the subtle manipulation was less about decision making & how they wanted her to sound, and more about how they wanted to present the latest trophy star — because after all, she was pretty. people liked her. she sung really well. suitors weren’t too far off into the distant future. so why not kill two birds with one stone by having a high ranking label artist keep tabloids talking by being seen in public with a few heart throbs? surely, there’s no harm in manipulating an eighteen/nineteen year old’s love life! under the guise of improving her social skills & relations with fellow artists and the media and the like, rue gave into the pressures and let herself be taken out on dates & seen at awards shows with a few guys. no big deal. it was only for a night or so, she could handle the attention. then, one night appearances turned into week long appearances. pretending to date for only a month! completely innocent, positive exposure. :)

(adult rue, looking back @ younger rue: you stupid fucking BITCH-)

yeah, so once her label/management realized that she was turning into a hot commodity, they lost no sleep at allowing their nineteen year old artist to be seen ‘dating’ 20-24+ year old men occasionally. and whatever happened after their public appearances were none of their business. plus, she was good at pretending and being arm candy — so rue experienced her first kiss, her first dates, and her first times with people who she’s almost certain hardly remember their time with her, and really only got involved with her for a mutual career boost. very few of them does she actually remember in a positive light, and the ones that were positive, still depress her bc lmao all of it was fake, even if they were really nice & made it less like a chore and more like they actually wanted to be with her!! even fewer of them were actual relationships. meaning, said person asked her out of their own volition, not bc their managers thought it’d be a decent match on camera. it was evil, really, what her old label made of her. (like, she makes funny jokes that her first time having sex was awkward bc she had a vision halfway through that bummed her out but in reality it was just...really more of a transaction that made her feel icky n progressively worse abt herself until it happened more often and now she just doesn’t care anymore. sex is just sex, u know?? everything’s fake. why you gotta make it personal.) this whole fiasco took over the larger part of rue’s career from like, age nineteen to age twenty-two or so, and she suffered dramatically from this because what is even a genuine, authentic relationship at this point? what do u mean you want to get to know me? did ur manager tell you to ask so many damn questions & try to get to know me? obviously you want something from me bc that’s why everyone gets into a relationship or has sex with me, stop confessing feelings for me u fucking loser. >:/

like...rue doesn’t even have friends. outside of her relationship with marcelo / @armsdealing (which, AGAIN, i think was initially arranged to promote her song be honest, how fucking IRONIC), rue does not have any personal relationships with anyone. i mean, she likes her latest management team since switching labels...her hair stylist is rly cool & her make up artist is fun to vacation with...she met a few other celebrities at events that she occasionally texts & has dinner with...yeah, she’s basically a pretty hermit. her family is more or less out of the question — the few brothers & sisters she does still have a positive relationship with (like, four of them lol), they don’t see each other in person often / mainly communicate via groupchat and facetime calls when all of them have time. she tried visiting with her mother over the years, but the verbal & emotional abuse/curses placed on her/accusations of being an imp of satan for singing to the public/memories of being forced to perform psychic shows & clean for chump change keeps her from trying to mend that relationship. like, being gaslit by ur mother isn’t really the vibe, u know? and bottom line, rue simply is a very shy and socially stunted individual who does not know how to communicate like a normal human being anymore. hell, her life revolves around pretending for strangers at this point!

now, onto how...all of That ties into her behavior / state of mind during this next album. so, after riding the wave of success from her third album & the circus that came with that. rue sort of had a fucking existential crisis. came out of absolutely nowhere. (not nowhere — one of her brothers called her out of the blue and called her ai’rina and she literally went “who the fuck is that?”) told her label that she was taking some time in between albums bc she was creatively zapped or whatever bullshit excuse she came up with that somehow worked bc this new label was a little more understanding than the last. vacationed for a little, did some hot girl shit, bought a house, tried to see her mother again for whatever reason then got the shit slapped out of her and finally screamed at her to never touch her again unless she wanted to Throw Hands. cried and got drunk abt it. that took six months. bullshat to her label again, dropped like two songs to smooth things over, decided to focus on magic for a little to ground her, started partying with label mates then going home shitfaced & hungover every other morning. that took eight months. dropped one last song, promptly deleted her twitter, tried to write songs again, got a call from her mother and panicked and got drunk. that took a year. vacationed some more, got even drunker, was bed ridden for like three months because holy shit i’m having so many visions and if i see One More Thing my brain is going to explode, couldn’t separate the present from the future for weeks after that, told absolutely no one about that, cried every day & had an identity crisis, dyed her hair to appease the identity crisis goblins. that took a year and a half.

now, she just chilling. dyed her hair again. scaring her siblings halfway to death bc she keeps going on benders & sending cryptic texts abt the visions she’s getting but they’re so incomprehensible that they’re seriously considering moving in to get her fucking shit together. had a vision that she was married with kids and had a two week identity crisis appeased only by moving houses. (she was in a neighborhood with families...too much Drama and visions. turned into a really cool song tho.) started calling herself by her birth name of ai’rina in private. reactivated twitter to send cryptic tweets that her album is coming. working on said album. trying to drink less but kinda failing bc how is one simply supposed to make a highly personal dual album without alcohol??? prbly somewhere crying in marcelo’s lap or smthn. just vibes.

like...i feel like, in my head, the Theme of her project is wrapped up in identity. her relationship with fame and whatnot. trying to coax her childhood self out of its’ shell so that she can function like a normal goddamn person for once and re-establish her values. like, if someone went to any of rue’s residences right now, it’s just songbooks everywhere and wine glasses and her crystals and shit, bc she still has people’s futures to read for money. (yes, she never really got out of that portion of her childhood, but hey it pays.) it was all very confusing to experience at once while in bed at four in the morning & even though i tried organizing and debated on this, it’s still a Lot. which is why i am once again asking for plots that would allow her to dissect all these Things

so yeah. album four otw, with a side of confronting our childhood & facing our traumas!

#rue — facts #imagine me making a cohesive hc post #it wont happen but like imagine how sexy that would be #anyway this is long and me thinks stream of conscious hc posting is both therapeutic and Exhausting #but i had a lot of thots abt her that needed to be shared to...yeah #abuse tw #alcoholism tw #long post tw #i feel like that its always sunny meme??? yall know which one #but anyways this is somehow overwhelming n embarrassing that i typed so much so i am going to hiding!#UNLESS!...........u want to plot with this Disaster of a woman :eyes:

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miguel-manbemel · 4 years

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Aspects & Fanfics Ep. 47: The Cave of Doom Part 2: Give Me My Son Back!

New entry in the main storyline of this fanfic blog inspired on Sanders Sides by Thomas Sanders and Joan S. We continue this multipart story and I hope you are enjoying it so far. Until next time.

SYNOPSIS: Knowing that the ghouls have kidnapped Chris, Virgil, Roman and the rest of the Sides make plans to go after them into the cave to rescue Virgil and Roman’s son. Meanwhile, the ghouls take Chris to the center of the cave and tell Chris their desperate story.

WARNINGS: Mentions to blood wounds, moments of angst and a brief panic attack.Virgil shows traces of an unsympathetic cruel behavior towards the ghouls in the story.

EPISODE INDEX

[Roman is in his room, writing in his diary. His royal suit is covered in dirt, he sports some wounds on his face and a tear falls down his cheek as he writes and his voice narrates what he’s writing]

ROMAN: [voice] Dear diary… we have just returned from the most horrible adventure we have ever faced. I can’t believe that, in order to save us all, I had to give up to my own flesh and bone, my own son… It all started innocently. Virgil suggested our son Chris, who was moving out of our room to live independently as an adult, that he could move to his old room, as it was now empty. So that he could have access to every door in the room, Virgil gave him all the keys he owned from it, but there was one particular key he asked him never to use, the key of the front door. After that, we left him to clean the room, very dusty after so much time unused, and we returned to our own room as we had work to do for Thomas. Virgil decided to take a nap first and startled me when he screamed in his dreams, a scream I could hear from the living room. He said he had a nightmare about Chris, and his intuition was on point as when we returned to Chris’ room, we found that the front door was open and Chris was missing. It was then when Virgil confessed that at the other side of that door there was the Cave of Doom, populated by ghouls, each one fulfilling one of Thomas’ fears. He said that they had kidnapped Chris to lure him into coming back as he, as he finally confessed, was the King and Father of ghouls and had left them to live with us. After all these revelations, we tried to make up a plan to follow them into that cave and rescue our son, before it was too late… The adventure was about to begin, and we didn’t know yet how everything was going to end. If only we had known… Maybe I could have been prepared to prevent… [sobs] losing my son…

[intro sequence]

[The Sides and Thomas look at the half open door]

VIRGIL: [sighs] Okay, guys, the time has come. Are we all ready?

DILLON: Actually… I’m kinda scared, dad…

VIRGIL: Oh, Dillon…

DILLON: But at the same time, I want to help. He’s my brother. It’s just that I don’t know if I could be of much help or if I would be a burden instead. I’m too young and inexperienced as a Side to be of any help. But will I ever improve as a Side if I don’t follow you in your missions? I want to be better… but I’m afraid. I’m sorry if that’s a disappointment for you, but I can’t help it.

VIRGIL: [grabbing Dillon’s shoulders] No, Dillon, you’re not a disappointment! You could never be!

ROMAN: It is not a disappointment at all, son. It’s totally okay that you are afraid and we would never ever push you into doing anything you don’t wanna do before you feel ready.

VIRGIL: You can stay here if you want, and that’s not disappointing at all, son. Problem is, what are you going to do on your own in the Mind Palace? You need someone to be with you while we’re out, just in case someone tried to enter the room from the cave. But who could stay with you?

THOMAS: Yeah, I could have asked Joan or Talyn… but they’re busy out of town today, I can’t call them.

IAN: Guys, if you think you can handle this yourselves, I can stay behind with Dillon to take care of him. If something serious happened, I could know through Janus’ memories and join you to help. What do you think?

VIRGIL: Actually, that’s a great idea, Ian, and I’d be very grateful if you would take care of Dillon while we’re gone.

IAN: Then it’s settled. Dillon and I will wait for you here while you guys get in there.

DILLON: Be careful, dad, father. Please, save Chris.

VIRGIL: We’ll be careful, I promise.

ROMAN: And we’ll bring your brother back, you’ll see.

[Dillon hugs his parents]

DILLON: I know you will.

JANUS: Pay attention to every step we take in the cave through my memories, Ian. Who knows if you’ll need to remember the path if you have to follow us for some reason.

IAN: Don’t worry, I have a very good memory as you know. You guys, be careful, okay?

JANUS: We’ll be careful. You two, cover our backs from here.

IAN: We will, right Dillon?

DILLON: Right.

VIRGIL: Okay, guys. Let’s go.

[Virgil opens the door and they all go through it. As soon as they cross the door, they’re in a half-lit cave that goes deep down]

THOMAS: Were is the light coming from? I don’t see any torches or any source of light at all.

VIRGIL: There can’t be shadows without light. And this place is full of shadows ready to strike behind any corner of these caves.

THOMAS: [concerned and ironic] Heh… thanks for cheering us up, Virge…

JANUS: I’m totally not about to poop my pants right now…

[The gang starts walking through the cave, always down on a 45 degree slope. They keep walking and walking]

ROMAN: What I wonder is how we’re going to come back. Descending is more or less easy, but ascending is gonna be like climbing a mountain.

REMUS: If we do have the chance to ascend…

ROMAN: Remus, for goodness sake!

REMUS: What? I’m just saying what we are all thinking right now, that’s all!

THOMAS: What I was thinking is… I thought you said this cave was labyrinthine, and up to this point, this has all been a straight cave with not even a turn or a bifurcation.

VIRGIL: You shouldn’t trust your eyes, Thomas, not in this place. The truth is we’ve already made lots of turns, it’s just that you’re under the illusion that you’re walking straight.

THOMAS: The illusion of walking straight? That’s the story of the first 23 years of my life…

VIRGIL: [beat, frowns] …Only I can defeat the illusion, that’s why I’m guiding you.

THOMAS: I find it hard to believe it…

VIRGIL: You do? Well, how do you explain this? Look behind you.

[Thomas and everybody looks behind them. There’s a wall a few steps behind them, no sign of an exit anywhere]

ROMAN: [impersonating Frollo from Hunchback of Notre Dame] Witchcraft!

JANUS: How are we going to come back if there’s no path anymore?

VIRGIL: Don’t worry, as I said, it’s all an illusion. That wall isn’t real and if I stand in front… [Virgil walks to the rear part of the group in front of the wall, and the wall suddenly dissolves and shows an ascending pathway] …you’ll see how the wall evaporates as if it was steam from just-made coffee.

THOMAS: Goodness… Sorry for doubting you, Virge… Then it’s clear we mustn’t split out, under any circumstances, or we’ll get lost in the caves.

VIRGIL: Exactly. Whatever it happens, don’t… walk… away from me. Now, let’s go on. I think we’re not too far away from where we need to go now.

ROMAN: Okay, your majesty, lead the way.

VIRGIL: Please, don’t call me “your majesty”. I’ll only admit “your highness” as consort prince of Sandersia, nothing more.

ROMAN: As you wish, your highness.

[The gang keeps on walking through the cave. Meanwhile, in a huge cavern well lit a group of shadows carry a huge tied bag shaking. Chris’ voice is heard in muffled yells]

CHRIS: Let me outta here, whoever you are! This is outrageous!

GHOUL #1: In a minute, your majesty. We’ve finally arrived.

GHOUL #2: He surely has put out a fight all the way. I’m gonna have sore arms for days!

CHRIS: Let me out and the sore arms will be the most insignificant of your pains

GHOUL #1: Heh, you were always so funny, your majesty. Your dark humor was always the best.

CHRIS: Why do you call me your majesty!? And let me out NOW!

[The ghouls place the bag on the ground, then they untie it and Chris takes his head out gasping for air]

CHRIS: Finally, I can breath again! I mean, I can’t die of suffocation, but it’s so uncomfortable… who are you?

GHOUL #1: We are your humble servants, your majesty, and we’re glad to have you back in our kingdom which is all yours as always.

CHRIS: [getting rid of the bag and standing up] What are you talking about? I’ve never seen you in my life! What is this place!?

GHOUL #2: Okay, your majesty, for a joke, it’s been funny, but, please, cut it out. You have a kingdom to govern and we need your help. Nice new outfit, by the way.

CHRIS: Do I look like a joker to you? I’m telling you I’ve never been in this place and I don’t know who you are or where I am!

GHOUL #1: [scared, to his ghoul friend] Oh, no. Could it be that… we got the wrong guy, Rejection?

CHRIS: You did get the wrong guy, certainly! Get me back to where you found me, right now!

REJECTION: That’s impossible, Height. He was in our king’s bedroom in his private room. Who else would sleep in that bed other than the king himself?

[Chris shows a face of realization and starts understanding what is going on]

CHRIS: Wait, wait a second… that king you’re mentioning… Is his name… Virgil, by any chance?

HEIGHT: [beat] Yes…?

CHRIS: Well, you got the wrong Side. I’m not Virgil! Virgil is my father! And what do you want him for!?

HEIGHT: Your father!? You mean, he’s had offspring?

CHRIS: Yes. He has two children, my brother Dillon and me. My name is Christian, but you can call me Chris… if you were friends, that is, because you have kidnapped me, and you intended to kidnap my father! I demand you to take me back to where you found me and leave my father alone!

REJECTION: I… I’m very sorry for the confusion… your highness, but that won’t be possible.

CHRIS: What do you mean it won’t be possible!? You brought me here, you’ll send me back! And, once again, I demand you to tell me where here is.

HEIGHT: Certainly, your highness. You’re standing in the center of the ancient underground kingdom called the Cave of Doom. Your father, King Virgil the 1st, Father of Ghouls, ruled and protected our kingdom for many years.

CHRIS: My father… a king? A real king?

HEIGHT: Yes, and since you’re his son, that makes you a prince. Sorry if the news of discovering that you’re royalty are too shocking for you.

CHRIS: I mean… I’m already a prince. Prince Christian Gerard Sanders, heir of the Principality of Sandersia. My other father, and Virgil’s husband, is Prince Roman, ruler of said principality.

HEIGHT: Principality of Sandersia? A principality is like a kingdom, is it not? A foreign kingdom… Does that mean that… we could enter in a diplomatic conflict over what we’ve just done? Just what we needed, a war with a neighbor nation when our homeland is in such a serious disadvantage!

REJECTION: Don’t be silly. If our King has married that prince, that means that he’s annexed that place, Sandersia, for our kingdom, under the same government. No wonder he didn’t give sign of life, our monarch has been busy bringing glory to the Cave of Doom.

HEIGHT: Well, glory or not, we need our King here and now! This place is collapsing! Oh, no, don’t worry your highness, I didn’t mean the ceiling literally collapsing over our heads, it was just an expression…

CHRIS: [beat] I got you the first time… What do you mean this place is collapsing?

HEIGHT: You see, since his majesty left us, we’ve been ungoverned. Now, chaos has spread throughout all of the cave. We remain loyal to the legitimate king and wait patiently for his return, but there are other ghouls…

REJECTION: A bunch of vile traitors, those are the other ghouls! They think that the King is not coming back, so one of them decided to seize power and push their evil agenda over the rest of the ghouls. I can’t begin to narrate the atrocities they committed over their own brothers of shadow who didn’t want to betray King Virgil. Everyday we were less and less… We need your father. He’s the only one who can save us. We need him desperately.

CHRIS: Well, I’m very sorry to hear that, but my father never mentioned your existence at all. Perhaps it’s true that he doesn’t want to come back.

HEIGHT: But he must! If he doesn’t, what have we been fighting for? What have so many ghouls like us lost their freedom for? He wouldn’t just leave us like this? He’s our father of shadow!

CHRIS: Father of shadow? What does that exactly mean?

HEIGHT: We’re incarnations of Thomas’ fears… Yes, we never get out of this cave, but we know about Thomas, because our King usually mentioned him when he was here. Virgil’s our father of shadow, because he gave us birth. He created us as Thomas felt us. For instance, I’m Thomas’ fear of heights. Call me Height for short.

REJECTION: And I’m Thomas’ fear of rejection. That’s why Height called me Rejection.

CHRIS: I understand. Nice to meet you, I guess. But still, if he never mentioned you, he must have a good reason.

VIRGIL: [speaking behind them] I do.

[everybody turns around. The gang has just entered the place. Virgil looks at them with a mixed face of relieve and anger]

CHRIS: Dad! You’re here! I’m so happy to see you!

HEIGHT: Your majesty! It’s an honor to see you again!

VIRGIL: [yelling, angry, with his tempest tongue] How dare you speak to me without being spoken to! Be quiet in my presence! And how dare you take my son! I should crush you till you’re nothing but dust!

REJECTION: We’re sorry, your majesty… We were desperate…

CHRIS: It’s okay, dad. They didn’t mean any harm to me, they told me the whole story and…

VIRGIL: [still in tempest tongue] And you! Why did you disobey me!? I gave you strict orders about not opening the front door under any circumstances! Look what you have forced me to do! I hate putting on this dark warlord persona! I never wanted to do it again and I had to, and it was your fault!

CHRIS: Wait, wait, wait, what are you talking about? I didn’t open the front door! I didn’t even know that this place was beyond the front door! Someone got me while I was taking a nap, put me in a sack and brought me here. I didn’t open the door! I wouldn’t disobey you, dad, much less when it seemed so important and serious for you to leave that door locked. I didn’t open it, I promise! I… I’m not even carrying the key chain, I left it on the kitchen counter before I went to the bedroom! If you don’t believe me, search me if you want!

[Virgil shows a face of confusion]

VIRGIL: [normal voice] But if it wasn’t you… Then who…?

JANUS: [suddenly yelling in pain and grabbing his head with both hands] Awww! My head! Awww!

[Everybody gets startled and looks at Janus]

REMUS: [scared] Janus, what’s wrong with you!?

JANUS: [a little relieved, he lowers his hands] I don’t… I don’t know… I suddenly felt a huge headache, as if I had been hit on the head again, like the last time… then the headache suddenly disappeared.

REMUS: But you’re okay now, right?

JANUS: I don’t know… I’m feeling okay… mostly, but at the same time, I don’t know, I feel something weird in my head, I don’t know… But I’m okay now, sorry for startling you.

PATTON: What could have caused that sudden pain? It’s had to happen for a reason.

VIRGIL: We’ll think about it later. Now, the important thing is to get back to my room and out of this place.

HEIGHT: Please, your majesty, we’re begging of you! Don’t leave us! We’re desperate!

REJECTION: [panicking] I’m getting heightened… I’m getting heightened… He’s rejecting us! Everything’s lost! Everything’s lost!

CHRIS: Please, dad, listen to them. They told me their story and they really need our…

VIRGIL: That’s completely out of the question! For starters, you’re coming back to our room with Roman and I until we find a safer place for you in the Mind Palace. [looking at the ghouls] And as for you, I can’t lock my room without my key chain, but that won’t be necessary, cause you can’t get out of my room to other places of the Mind Palace and no one is gonna return to that room ever again!

HEIGHT: I knew you were dark and ominous… but I never thought you could be so cruel and cold hearted…

VIRGIL: How dare you speak to your king with such disrespect!

HEIGHT: Except you’re not, you said it yourself, and I didn’t say any lies! You’re being cruel and cold with us, your children of shadow, the children you’ve blatantly denied. Don’t worry, your former highness, we won’t disturb you in your bright life under the sun anymore. We’ll escort you back to your room, then you can do as you want while we just perish in here. Follow us, please.

[The ghouls lead the way through the caverns. Time goes by and they reach the door]

HEIGHT: Well, you’re here, your majesty, safe and sound. I wish we could say the same about ourselves.

CHRIS: Dad, please… these guys may be ghouls, but they seem nice and in danger. Why not helping them if we can?

VIRGIL: I said no. The only one whose safety I’m worried about is you. Do you have any idea of how worried I was about your safety?

CHRIS: [angry] Yes, I do, cause you’ve always been like this! You’re always trying to overprotect me! I know it’s part of who you are, but I became independent for a reason, dad, to take care of myself on my own terms without the need for your protection. And let me remind you that you agreed on these terms and recognized I needed to be on my own. So when are you going to stop treating me like a baby and consider me an equal adult like all the rest of the Sides? Tell me, dad, when!?

[Virgil does not have time to answer as Thomas interrupts them]

THOMAS: I can’t open the door! It is locked!

VIRGIL: What!?

[Virgil tries to open the door too. He can’t]

VIRGIL: [to the ghouls] You two! You locked the door, didn’t you!? Give me the keys right now!

HEIGHT: What are you talking about? We don’t have the keys!

VIRGIL: But you got in there, and if Chris didn’t open the door, it had to be you! Who else!?

REJECT: The door was open when we got in. Besides, think carefully. You all went through that door and it was still open. When you crossed the door, we were already deep in the caves carrying your son. How could we have locked the door? We can’t teleport.

VIRGIL: Then it was one of your accomplices! You gave the keys to someone and…

HEIGHT: We have no accomplices. We are the two last ghouls of our kind, no other ghoul in their current subjugated state of mind would have wanted you back to this kingdom. And besides, the keys were originally in the room on the other side of the door. We’re shadows, not ghosts. We couldn’t go through the door to fetch the keys, and if we could, what would have we needed the keys for in the first place?

LOGAN: Virgil, you must admit that his logic is completely sound.

VIRGIL: [beat] I know… but there’s something amiss here. That door couldn’t have opened itself! Someone must have opened it… and the only ones who knew of the existence of that key chain, other than the ghouls, were Chris himself, Roman and me.

ROMAN: Well, I…

VIRGIL: I know you didn’t Roman, I know you’d never do that to our son.

ROMAN: Thanks for trusting me, my love.

VIRGIL: And it’s out of the question I didn’t do it, I would have never opened that door on my own free will.

REMUS: Speaking about free will…

VIRGIL: What?

REMUS: Could it be that someone had been forced to open the door against his will?

ROMAN: I know what you’re implying Remus, and if you think the Paladin took control of me and forced me to open the door, I can confirm that’s not the case. I didn’t open the door and the Paladin didn’t take my body. I would have remembered everything I’d have done as the Paladin, and certainly I would have never hidden that to you, much less to Virgil.

REMUS: Okay, it was only a theory… a Remus theory.

ROMAN: A wrong theory. Besides, since Thomas got released from hospital, I’ve been feeling better than ever. I have never had any visits from the Paladin again after the last brief one that almost costed me my marriage. Not ever again. I think the Paladin’s very well reined in and we won’t know about him for a long time. I don’t even feel any trace of his presence at all, as if he had left me for good. I hope that’s the case.

REMUS: Okay, if you say so. Sorry if I’ve offended you, brother.

ROMAN: It’s okay. You had the right to ask and it was good that you did, so that I could clarify it.

VIRGIL: But then, who?

VOICE: Awww…

JANUS: [overlapping with the voice that no one seems to notice] Awww… My head… it’s started hurting again… Aw…

REMUS: Let me see, Janus, take your bowler hat off…

[Remus takes Janus’ hat off. He gets scared when he sees blood on the hair]

REMUS: Honey, you’re bleeding! Your hair is stained in blood! I’m not impressed by the sight of blood, of course, I’m accustomed to it… but if it’s your blood, that concerns me a lot! Did you hit your head or something?

JANUS: No, not at all. How is this possible?

VOICE: Awww…

LOGAN: Wait, what’s that sound? I heard it before but I thought it was Janus. And it certainly is not coming from him.

VOICE: Awww…

VIRGIL: It comes from that corner of the cave on the right side of the door.

[they all come to check the origin of the sound and they all get horrified when they find Ian with his head full of blood, lying on the ground]

JANUS: For goodness sake, Ian, are you okay!?

[Janus lies down to attend Ian, he’s barely conscious, unable to answer Janus, other than with painful groaning]

LOGAN: Well, that explains Janus’ sudden headache and his weird later sensation. Ian is Janus’ Siamese brother and they share memories, and what affects one affects the other, just like Roman and Remus. If Ian was knocked out, he couldn’t feel his memories anymore. And that explains the blood on his head too… but what it doesn’t explain is who did this to Ian.

PATTON: Step aside, Janus, maybe I can be of help. I’ll try to heal him with the gift from the Core.

JANUS: Thank you, Patton.

[Patton gets closer to Ian and puts his hand on Ian’s forehead. A light blue aura surrounds them both. The wound on Ian’s head then slowly disappears. The aura disappears and Ian opens his eyes]

JANUS: The wound is gone from me too, I can feel the pain is gone. Thank you, Patton.

PATTON: Happy to oblige, kiddo.

IAN: How… how did I get here? Where am I?

JANUS: Thank goodness you’re okay, Ian. What happened?

IAN: I’m not sure… I can’t remember… My last memories were that I was with Dillon watching a rerun of The Munsters on TV. Then, I remember I got up from the couch, for some reason, and after that my memories are blurry, then nothing. I can’t remember anything else.

VIRGIL: My son, Dillon, where is he?

IAN: I’m sorry, I don’t remember. What happened to me? [touches his face, and his hand gets stained with a trace of blood falling from his now healed forehead, he sees the blood on his fingers and gets scared] And how did my head get covered in blood? What is going on?

LOGAN: Obviously, someone must have attacked you from behind and rendered you unconscious. You must have lost the last few minutes before the attack due to the damage in your head, otherwise you would remember the attack. Then, while you were unconscious, the attacker, whoever they are, dragged you to the cave and locked the door. They must be the one who unlocked the door in the first place.

VIRGIL: [panicking] If the attacker hit Ian so easily, they must have done the same to my son! He could be anywhere and he could be wounded or worse! Can’t you remember anything, Ian? At all? Please, this is important, try to remember!

IAN: [anxious over Virgil’s state of panic] I’m… I’m sorry, Virgil… I can’t… I can’t!

ROMAN: [holding Virgil’s shoulders] Calm down, Virgil. Don’t harass Ian. He’s helping as much as he can now and we need to give him some room to recover.

VIRGIL: [after breathing slowly for a couple times] You’re right… I’m sorry, Ian.

IAN: It’s okay, I understand your concern and I would help if I could. But I can’t. I have no idea where Dillon is.

THOMAS: Guys, I suddenly had a thought. When we couldn’t get to Logan’s library because of his door being locked, you made me conjure a new key to unlock it. Can’t I do the same with this door?

VIRGIL: You could, Thomas… if you were in the Mind Palace, on the other side of the door. As long as we’re here, you can’t conjure a new key, just like I can’t conjure it myself. I should have conjured it before entering the cave, that was a terrible oversight on my part. But I thought Chris had the keys with him, and most importantly, I never thought someone would shut us out here.

REMUS: I’m sorry for being the Devil’s lawyer again, Virgil, but… if none of us unlocked the door, and the only one out of sight right now when we’re all trapped here is Dillon… couldn’t it have been Dillon who opened the door in the first place?

VIRGIL: What? Dillon? That’s the craziest thing you’ve ever said, and it was difficult to top them! That’s impossible!

REMUS: Sorry for insisting, but he’s the only prime suspect we have. Think about it. Ian was alone with Dillon when he was attacked. Who else could have attacked him? And he could have been the only one able to open the door, drag Ian inside and lock the door again.

VIRGIL: No, I can’t believe it. I refuse to believe it! Why would he do that in the first place? You say he’s the prime suspect, but to be a suspect, you need a motivation. What motivation would Dillon have to do that to us, to his own brother and family who love him?

REMUS: I’m sorry, Virgil. I really am. Dillon is my nephew too and it hurts me too to bring up these accusations, but you know that it’s a very strong possibility. You’re right, I don’t know why he would do that, but reviewing the facts, he’s the only one who could have done it. Maybe he’s being controlled by someone, like when the Dark Master’s Dark Sprite took control of Ira, I don’t know.

VIRGIL: Oh, gosh… you may be right… Dillon would have never done that on his own free will… but perhaps this is all another of the Dark Master’s plans to return to the Mind Palace. Gosh, not even being trapped in the Core is gonna stop him? Is he never gonna let us live happily ever after?

ROMAN: Relax, Virge. If this is the Dark Master’s doing, we’ll find a way to defeat him, as we’ve always done, and if he has our son, we’ll set him free. But for now, we must find a way to get out of this place, and soon. It won’t be long till someone starts missing Thomas in the outer world, and that could put him in trouble, as if it wasn’t enough the trouble we’re currently facing in this cave.

[to be continued, guys gals and non binary pals]

[end card]

[Remus is furiously hitting the door with his Morningstar, trying to bring it down, but despite his furious efforts and the violence of the bumps, the door doesn’t show a single dent]

VIRGIL: Don’t tire yourself up, Remus. I told you it’s completely useless. That door, like all our front doors, is completely indestructible and impossible to open without the key.

REMUS: [panting, frustrated] Not even a dent… [yelling] F*ck!

LOGAN: Well, it seems to be obvious that we can’t get away from this cave, at least through this door, so we need to think on something else.

HEIGHT: I have an idea that could be of help. We, ghouls, could help you search the whole cave to find the key, wherever it’s hidden.

CHRIS: Although we don’t even know if it’s hidden here. The culprit could very well have stayed in the Mind Palace and locked us all here. And besides, didn’t you just say that there were only two of you left?

VIRGIL: I find it hard to believe. Where are all the other ghouls. There used to be hundreds.

REJECTION: Yeah, we used to be a lot, until you abandoned us. Then one of the ghouls decided to take charge and started subjugating the other ghouls into following him. Only the two of us are left out of his control, and frankly, I don’t know how we have lasted for so long.

VIRGIL: Let’s see… if I helped you get rid of that ghoul and liberated all the rest of the ghouls that are under his control, would you help us find the key to get us out of here?

HEIGHT: You would do that for us, your highness?

VIRGIL: I would do that for the key, that’s my number one priority.

REJECTION: Your majesty… what did we ever do to you so that you hate us so much? Why did you abandon us like this?

[Virgil sighs]

VIRGIL: It’s not that I hate you… I don’t hate you… In any case, the only ghoul I hate is… myself.

PATTON: I will physically fight you!

VIRGIL: I don’t mean that I hate myself as a whole, dad, I mean that I hate the ghoul part of myself. I don’t want to be a ghoul anymore.

HEIGHT: That’s not much better for us, in all honesty. What’s so wrong about being a ghoul?

VIRGIL: You are all of Thomas’ fears. You cause him to feel fear and that makes Thomas suffer… and I don’t want Thomas to suffer, much less because of me.

REJECTION: We don’t want Thomas to suffer either, your majesty. We don’t do our work to torture him. It’s just… that that’s what we’re programmed to do and we have to do it. We don’t understand why, but we have to, and something inside us tells us that, in fact, we are supposed to do what we do and it would be worse for Thomas if we didn’t do it.

THOMAS: I think I understand. It’s the same principle about why we accepted you in the first place, Virgil. These ghouls you created don’t exist to make my life a misery. They exist to help me get my guard up and protect myself from the dangers in the world. If I didn’t have any fears at all, yeah, that would be a utopianly wonderfully calm and relaxed life… but I would be unable to identify danger and I eventually would end up hurt or even dead if I didn’t know when to respond to threats. Just like this cave is an extension of your room, these ghouls are an extension of your purpose, Virgil. You shouldn’t feel ashamed for making me feel fear. Sure, some fears may be irrational and hindering, and I might benefit from not having those in particular, but most of the times… these ghouls could be saving my life, and it would be thanks to you because you created them to protect me. Embrace that part of yourself just as I’m embracing it too, because there’s nothing in you that you should look at in shame. Be proud of being the King of Ghouls. I am proud of who you are, of each and every aspect of who you are, my dear friend Virge.

[Virgil looks at Thomas, emotional. He doesn’t say a word, he just hugs Thomas tightly. Then he looks at the ghouls]

VIRGIL: I’m sorry. Thomas is right and I owe you an apology. Everything you have been going through has been my fault. I hope you can forgive me, and I’ll do my best to help you in your ordeal and make sure it never happens again.

HEIGHT: Of course we forgive you, your majesty. You are our father of shadow. We knew that, eventually, you would help us.

REJECTION: And after that, we’ll help you all find a way to get out of here back to your world. We promise.

VIRGIL: Thank you…

THOMAS: Who would have thought? These ghouls are actually very nice.

VIRGIL: [low voice] Wait to see them doing their job, Thomas… [Thomas goes a little pale over Virgil’s gloomy way of saying that, but he says nothing] Okay, then let’s get cracking. Who is the ghoul that has rebelled against my legacy and wants to overthrow me in the throne? In other words, whose face do I need to punch.

HEIGHT: The truth is, not much is known about that ghoul. It’s one of the latest ghouls to be added to the cave. Before he assumed power, the only thing we knew about him, and not everyone knew it, was his name.

VIRGIL: And what’s his name? I’m asking because I didn’t know I could create ghouls without noticing. If you say he came recently, I was out of here when he was born.

REJECTION: Yes, your majesty, he came recently. In fact, he showed up barely a couple months ago and turned this cave into a mess in such short time. His name is… Paranoia.

[Virgil shows a face of shock when he hears that name and is rendered speechless, with a dash of fear in his eyes]

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quinintheclouds · 4 years

Text

Thoughts on Putting Others First: SvS Redux as they come to me

AN HOUR LONG?!?!?! Y E S THANK YOU

I am LOVING this opening art style. The way it shows all the things Thomas could say and shuts them each down, the silliness tying in perfectly to the video game setting, the way we could SO STRONGLY empathize with Thomas despite him not saying anything. Well done!

“Eff friends, Patton!” Patton and I made the exact same gasp and noise at the same time in reaction to that dsjfhljdhg

Lookit Thomas’ lil vest awww <3

ROMAN WITH THE PUNS I LOVE IT APPRECIATE HIM

rhymes

they’re rhyming is this gonna be

A SONG!!!

(Logan off somewhere watching all of this: “You guys are doing a RAP? Without ME? .....Unacceptable”)

Seriously poor Logan being left out BOTH TIMES despite clearly having excellent points on the matter

But I’m loving this Patton/Roman dynamic being explored in this way. They have a lotta similarities but the differences are really standing OUT so far and I like it! Also it looks like Roman isn’t gonna just shut up and do whatever Patton says out of fear that he’s a bad person/bad for Thomas this time. I’m glad they’re both getting a chance to talk cause they aren’t exactly taken seriously a lot of the time.

RETURN OF THE BLINDFOLD METAPHOR followed by Roman saying “in Patton’s defense...” so they like, KNOW what Deceit meant about the blindfold? Were they playing dumb? Or do they just suddenly get it now that it’s coming from Thomas?

Ok this Feral Cat Story of Roman’s is too specific for me to dismiss and now I’m convinced either Remus brought a shitton of cats home one day and they just flooded their house/rooms, or Patton brought home a bunch of cats out of love and didn’t realize he couldn’t take care of em...either way that’s an adorable anecdote

The car jump line that Patton took literally is just making me miss Logan even more :(

I’m glad they’re giving context to the relationship between Thomas and Mary Lee & Lee! A lot of fander questions and opinions circled back to “well it depends how close they were” so it was smart of them to fill us in.

“those baby-makin’ catholics”

6:45 Patton has clearly thought through a lot of possible outcomes to talking to Lee and Mary Lee before going to the wedding... he never brought them up, even when Roman did and then Deceit did. But he’s bringing up points no one had addressed, and I think that’s a great way to put more intensity to Patton’s apology to Thomas for lying back in SvS pt 1. He hid a lot more than he let on. Man, how much guilt is this poor man feeling right now? :(

“Talking about it could have been harmful” I’m very intrigued by the parallels between Patton wanting to keep things from Thomas’ friends to protect their feelings in this episode and SvS, and Deceit disguised as Patton in CLBG trying to get Thomas to... keep things from his friend to protect their feelings...

WOAH “But was it worth it? I don’t--” “No.” Thomas cutting Roman off with that much certainty DAMN Thomas REGRETS going to the wedding HARD and also is agreeing with Roman finally??

Patton: “sometimes you can make all the good choices, and still not get the good ending.” Thomas: “I’m not even sure there was a good ending to get.” Roman: “Mmmm, I’m pretty sure there was.” There is so much to unpack here oh my gosh.

WOAH WOAH WOAH WHAT??? DAMN THOMAS CAME FOR PATTON WHAT ON EARTH??? Patton: “I think we can all agree that you are a good fellow.” Thomas: Can we? ALL? Agree on that?” Patton: *sputtering noises*

Poor Patton... I mean they’re right but gosh I feel for him. He wants so badly for Thomas to be a good person and he realizes now how strict and unyielding he’s been, and wants to not do that but doesn’t know how to be more lenient without sacrificing integrity cause that’s his JOB and he doesn’t know how to do it better aaaa this is such a mood

MUSIC IS THERE ANOTHER SONG COMING?

Return of the bagel. Except this time it’s Roman guessing/wanting the bagel and Patton being like “what? no?”

ok not a song but video game style is back!!

“ugh you’re such a dad” I love it

Patton just made more puns and Roman omg “Like, you’re SUCH a dad that like it’s too much to handle sometimes”

I am loving this whole scene jdfhjadshg Patton ily and I relate

Thomas and Roman teaching Patton how to come up with imaginary scenarios skjfklsjdfh

Sondheim wrecking Leslie Odom Jr is such a hilarious visual

Ok all three of them are peak dumbass and I’m so here for it (like they’re smart and all but they’re peak dumbass)

Daaaamn Patton is letting out so much this episode. Like he’s been holding back but wowie. R: “Just like how you didn’t HAVE to give him a hotdog” P: *sucks air through his teeth* “I feel like you kinda do though?” YES PLEASE let’s discuss the concept of obligation in morality again!!! Where’s Logan when you need him? Or Deceit even? (I feel like D’s gonna show up later but I wanna hear Logan’s thoughts this time too)

Patton: You can disagree! But... it’d kinda be wrong?

LOGAN POPUP! Ok fine if he isn’t in the ep at least he pops up in a lil dialogue box on screen. Also he popped up to support Patton... neat!

“It’s just me, Logan. I’ve taken this form because I didn’t want to be too...invasive.” POOR LOGAN NO YOU’RE NOT INVADING ANYTHING YOU HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO BE HERE! Also Roman getting scared by the popup while Patton just waves happily like he always does upon seeing Logan aww

Okay I am getting serious DOPAMINE from Logan talking. Like, he’s spittin’ FACTS. Something about the way he talks is so interesting and soothing and makes me so excited to LEARN. Roman mockingly mouthing ‘behoove’ had me snort though XD

LOGAN AND I WERE IN UNISON HELL YEAH! Patton was all like ooh you’re sharing your lil factoids! And Logan and I at the same time corrected, “Facts,” and proceeded to state the definition of factoids (we worded it differently but yeah as usual Logan is on my wavelength)

Logan’s sprite getting so disappointed at Thomas’ interruption joke jgdkjghks he looks so DONE

OML I LOVE LOGAN’S DIALOGUE BOX TALKING TOO FAST FOR THEM TO READ THIS IS SO ACCURATE

Oof Thomas finally feeling like he GETS it and Patton being like yeah but not if you’re doing it bc you want to feel good tho... (also that’s the same argument Deceit made in SvS pt1??? I’m confused by Patton/Deceit’s functions lately and I’m very invested)

Oh ok Thomas just brought up that very point haha

“we all agreed the right thing to do was go to the wedding” um are u sure about that

“I was wrong” PATTON CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT?? I know Logan has the reputation of not being able to admit when he’s wrong (which isn’t true -- he doesn’t like to but he has done so countless times...well not literally countless but you understand my meaning), but Patton rarely is in a situation where he has to, so this is jarring in a hopefully good way. Istg if this is Deceit disguised as Patton again I’ll be so disappointed... I feel like the writers wouldn’t do that though

Patton: says smth deceit said. Roman: and you...agree? Patton: Definitely! I mean uh maybe? (WHAT IS HAPPENING INSIDE PATTON’S HEAD RN SO MUCH TURMOIL)

Roman: “I’m not an expert in the... moral medium” Thomas: “Go ahead Roman, we wanna hear what you have to say.” Patton: *halfhearted gestures and noises for roman to go ahead* jashfjdh he’s trying so hard

AWWWW they’re validating Roman so much I love it

“whomstsoever” ok I take it back roman’s not valid

I adore Logan’s popup fun facts, and him giving definitions for Roman’s vocabulary reminds me how much the two of them love writing and poetry and language aaaa

Patton trying not to be harsh is somehow 10x harsher than he normally is

oh wow that got real.

I know I’ve said this but I love logan’s insertions... but I do wish he got to say them out loud like earlier :/ Pausing to read them is less fun than hearing him talk.

oh wow that got real part 2

I want. So badly. To jump into this video and debate Patton on the nature of morality and what “the right thing is.” Roman you’re not being dumb, you’re bringing up excellent points and you’re valid again.

Oh no Patton... empathy is not morality... please please address that there are people who can’t experience empathy and choose to be moral and good

THE TROLLEY PROBLEM HERE! WE! GO!

Logan’s popups bc he doesn’t want to “be too invasive” and making them optional to read hurts my heart :( He knows Patton, Roman, and Thomas aren’t reading any of it but he doesn’t want to be too much so he stays silent. Why?? Logan it’s okay! Why is this a thing now but not in the last 2 episodes? What happened to Logan :(

OOOOOOH Patton didn’t flip the switch :o Interesting! Daaaamn he’s arguing to let 5 people die rather than flip the switch so only one dies

LOGAN’S TEXTBOX WAS SO BIG AND FAST IT KNOCKED PATTON OVER I CANNOT BREATHE hang on I gotta read it

HE’S TALKING ABOUT DEONTOLOGY YES LOGAN THANK YOU FOR TELLING PATTON WHAT I PHYSICALLY CANNOT please tell me you’ll talk about utilitarianism and moral particularism next

Okay he used consequentialism but it’s close enough to utilitarianism that the outcome is the same. (Do you get it? Do you like my joke about how the outcome is most important? When we’re talking about-- oh you got it already? Good, moving on.)

DID ROMAN JUST FJCKING KILL LOGAN

“I’m okay, figment of your imagination, so.” Okay so CAN the Sides get hurt or can’t they?? Cause Patton clearly got bonked, roman got hit in the eye with paper and said ow, but logan got hit in the head with a throwing star and had his teeth ripped out and he was totally fine?

Thomas is being so HONEST with himself so early in the episode, wow this is refreshing and I’m hype

AW YAY Patton called textbox Logan in to help with philosophy yay :’)

Logan: “Pity seems to be at the center of your idea of ‘putting good into the world’” first, Logan doing a voice impression of Nietzsche is GOLD, and second.... I wish they’d let him finish cause I was waiting for a “but” cause Logan siding with Nietzsche on this one feels... wrong? Like I could see Dee bringing it up or Logan using it in an argument only to continue with a contradicting philosophy but Logan equating empathy to pity... idk I thought he’d grown more than to think that :/ Actually I don’t think he ever saw it that way. It feels out of character but I’m guessing he had more to say to debunk that.

HOLY SHIT PATTON SKIPPED ALL THE REST OF LOGAN’S DIALOGUE AND YEETED HIM OFF THE SCREEN bruh he may have been right and he should’ve gotten to say it >:(

ROMAN ISTG DO NOT TRY AND MAKE THIS YOUR FAULT

I SAID DON’T

GODDAMMIT

sjfkdjgjsh okay aww Thomas good job, Patton too. Thank god they’re being nice to him

Patton is having a breakdown holy heckity about time

damn Patton is freaking HARSH

“I have a difference in opinion on this one, Patton” Thomas: *relieved sigh whisper* “ohhh thank you, Logan” YES APPRECIATE THE BOY YES YES I LOVE HIM why are they looking around like he isn’t making sense?

LOGAN YES! CALL HIM OUT! LET THOMAS VALUE HIMSELF AND PUT HIMSELF FIRST SOMETIMES! “Every point you’ve made in today’s discussion has contradicted that sentiment.” I love you but also you sound a lil like deceit... very lawyer-y and feels calculated like he’s been keeping notes for this purpose... I want deceit and logan to debate already damn it. Maybe it’s just that Logan’s inflections feel reminiscent of Deceit to show...something?

Ok can I just say that Logan gets so much rep for his strictness or high standards but he’s been SO GOOD about that lately and him teaching about the importance of leisure and self-care and freedom in your life and self-esteem and valuing yourself like you do with others... not even just this video -- he’s been like this in the last few as well and these recent episodes remind me of early Logan (esp My Negative Emotions) and that makes my heart so so happy.

Continuation of the above, compare this to how Logan acted in Why Bed? with regards to Roman. Roman advocated for leisure time and following dreams, while Logan had a schedule that optimized productivity and health. Now he’s taking a similar stance to Roman and asserting the importance of these things... WHY is so much of Logan’s character development OFFSCREEN?? I wanna know what made him switch on this! Maybe just cause he’s listening to roman from why bed?

Why is Logan being so abrasive? He sounds like his intent is more to disprove Patton rather than state what he actually thinks... not a fan of that but he’s not wrong

WOAH WOAH TOTAL PATTON BREAKDOWN WHAT HAPPENED WHAT THE FCK HE’S A LITERAL MONSTER IN THIS VIDEO GAME?

OH, MY GOD. If Logan didn’t step in and save them here this would have been catastrophic. I can feel my relief. I mean, he screamed, but it was a relief. WAIT IT WAS DECEIT THE WHOLE TIME??? Daaaamn good job on this one Deceit and I definitely like him more now but also WHERE IS LOGAN. Was it the whole time? That makes sense in hindsight and makes me feel better about some things he’s brought up but I feel like it really was Logan at the start, it wasn’t until he started calling out patton that his voice and inflection and stuff changed

Patton trying to attack Deceit and hitting Thomas instead was an EXCELLENT way to showcase the effect SvS 1 and 2 are having

Deceit’s lil “A DUH DUH DUH DOY” looked and sounded just like Logan’s lmao don’t tell me it’s another switcheroo (I doubt it greatly lol)

REAL LOGAN REAL LOGAN REAL LOGAN

So wait what was the point that Deceit switched with Logan? Cause Logan’s saying “one more fact” so he was himself earlier right?

“Not that any of you care, but I am unharmed.” Nooooo they care </3 “I will do you all a favor and spare you my company” okay OUCH

EFFECTIVE ALTRUISM YES aw he’s talking about him and patton working together yes thank you

Damn, Deceit is LOVING everything Logan says haha same

Logan and Deceit teaming up to teach Patton that it’s okay to care about yourself

DECEIT WHAT he’s being so supportive of Roman holy heck this is so genuine OH Roman’s arguing with it this is a lot of stuff I didn’t expect roman to say out loud wow

THOMAS JUST SAID DECEIT THE CHARACTER ISN’T INHERENTLY UNETHICAL WOW this episode really said let’s make Deceit--

WAIT WOAH SORRY HIS NAME REVEAL!!! He’s Janice?? Is that true?

WAIT WOAH PART 2 BUT DECEIT JUST SAID IF IT WEREN’T FOR THE MUSTACHE HE WOULDN’T KNOW WHO THE EVIL TWIN IS BETWEEN ROMAN AND REMUS HOLY SHIT HE ACTUALLY LOOKED VULNERABLE AND THEN HURT AND THEN RIGHT BACK TO SNAKE

ROMAN’S GONE

fuck.... patton...roman....deceit....thomas....logan....I’m gonna go cry about all of them now

LESLIE ODOM JR IS HERE??????? oh there he goes

patton oh my god I love you this ANGST are you trying to kill me?

Patton telling thomas he’s worthy of love I actually teared up

dfjdakjhfa deceit don’t push it

Wowie that was an EPISODE

#ts putting others first #SvS redux #sanders sides svs #janice sanders #quinpost #ts spoilers

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gaamagirl565 · 4 years

Text

Matters of the heart S3 ep 2

Matters of the heart Season 3 Ep 2 A question of faith

{OPENING CREDITS} {Open to early morning and everyone sleeping in their respective tents or by the fire; fade to Eugene sleeping in his tent with Rapunzel on his chest; A whinny from a horse sounds out and Eugene opens his eyes and sits up} Rapunzel: What’s wrong? Eugene: shhh… {He grabs his sword and steps out of his tent; he keeps his eye on the treeline; a few people wake up around the fire and stay still; Varian peeks out of his tent with Zapada} Zapada: What happens here? Varian: I don’t know… {Isaiah walks out of the tent with his sword and a smirk before Varian and Zapada yank him back by the collar of his shirt} Varian: Boy I swear-! {Eugene hides behind one of the trees and waits as a person walks out of the treeline with a sword in hand} Stoica: o, mulțumesc lui dumnezeu! Te-am găsit! {Eugene Jumps out at him and swings his sword; Stoica blocks the blow with his own sword} Eugene: urrghh… {Zapada runs out of the tent towards them} Varian: Zapada, NO! {She runs in between them and pushes Eugene off} Zapada: Your majesty! Please stop! Stoica: Zăpadă! Zapada: Stoica! { She jumps on him and hugs him} Zapada: what are you doing here!? Stoica: I heard of terrible things in Corona! I had to return and see that you were okay! Zapada: oh, fratele meu … i’m more than okay. {Pan over to Varian and Rapunzel walking up to Eugene} Eugene: um..Var? Am I missing something? Varian: Everyone can rest easy he's not an intruder he's a friend! {Everyone in the camp relaxes and some go back to sleep} Varian: Eugene, Rapunzel, this is my brother-in-law. Stoica. Rapunzel: great to meet you! Stoica: likewise your majesty. Eugene: yeah sorry about the whole almost cutting your head off thing. Zapada: Where is the rest of us? Stoica: they're coming along as well. I went along ahead. I was so filled with worry after I saw the city. Rapunzel: you saw it!? Stoica: your majesty I tried to enter. there were some new guards in Black armor. they looked hostile. Varian: any citizens? {Stoica shakes his head somberly} Stoica: I apologize but... the city was covered in these strange stones and they... they were wheeling out a cart of dead. {Rapunzel gasps and runs of in horror; Eugene follows her} Eugene: Sunshine wait! {Pan to Isaiah listening from his tent and sadly closing the flap; Cut to Isaiah sitting by a tree as the other kids play; Lily notices and walks and sits next to him} Lily: You okay? Isaiah: people died... Lily: yeah people do that. Isaiah: Lily! Lily: sorry I'm just trying to lighten the mood. I get it. it sucks. Isaiah: it more than sucks! the cult took our home! they're killing the people of Corona! Lily: I get that! They’re my subjects! How do you think I feel!? how do you say my family feels!? but there's nothing we can do about it right now... {they both sigh in frustration; Lily lays her back across his lap} Isaiah: You know my dream is to always be a guard. Lily: huh? Isaiah: protect the citizens of Corona and serve my country. go off on glorious Adventures. now when my country is actually in danger of being wiped off the map I'm just sitting here. Juniper: and for good reason little guy. Both: AHH! Juniper: sorry I didn't mean to scare you. hehe, I guess I can be pretty scary at times. Isaiah: no kidding! Lily: I think my heart just went into my throat and I just had to swallow it down again. Juniper: look.. Isaiah right? bottom of the line you're still just a little kid. {Isaiah stands up knocking Lily off his lap in the process} Isaiah: I'm 13 and I'm about to be 14 in a few months! Juniper: sit down little man! you're a baby. Isaiah: A BABY!? Juniper: yes a baby. there's a reason you're not doing anything. first of all we barely have any food or supplies that's the first thing we have to worry about. the Caravan coming into Camp will help with some of the supplies problems but in the end those are just more mouths to feed as well. on top of everything, we have all those sick victims from your village. Isaiah: Bu- Juniper: secondly we don't know anything. we don't know their numbers or strengths or weaknesses. the only thing we know is everything your dad knows about them. the next item on our list would be to find out more about them. the only way to do that would be to infiltrate the city without being spotted which ended up itself is an incredibly Dangerous Mission not something for a young teenager. {Isaiah stares at her with rage and looks away} Juniper: look kid I'm not trying to offend you or anything I'm just giving you the hard facts. to put it bluntly kid we just don't have the resources. {Juniper walks away; Lily looks over at a beet red Isaiah} Lily: ok... Isaiah breathe in and breathe out Isaiah: RRAAHHH!!! Lily: that is not breathing… Isaiah: what does she know!? I've seen tons of battles I know how they work! {Akina and Benny walk up} Benny: what is stinky screaming about this time? Lily: someone told him he couldn't do something. Benny : oh so the usual… Akina: I'm sure she didn't mean anything personal Isaiah… Isaiah: she called me a little kid! Akina: but... we are kids… {Isaiah stuffs his head into a nearby hollow tree and screams before going limp} Lily: it's okay guys I've seen this many times before we just have to let him rage himself out. {Cut to Varian chopping wood; Ruddiger climbs on his shoulder} Varian: oh hi bud! {Stoica walks up} Stoica: Varian...may we speak? Varian: huh? Oh, yeah sure! What’s on your mind? Stoica: I’ve been talking to others and trying to fill in the blanks of what I’m missed since last here...You thought your son had perished? {Varian flinches} Varian: Y-yeah...he was...pushed off of a cliff. we thought he was dead. Stoica: and you became violent. Varian: what!? Stoica: some of your villagers admit that you became a bit hostile after the supposed death of your son. I want to be sure that you didn't do anything to my sister. Varian: Stoica, whatever you've heard I'm sure is highly exaggerated. yes, I'm not proud of some of my actions but I never would lay a hand on Zapada! Stoica: and that's why I'm coming to you. I want to hear your side of it. Varian:... you have to understand something first. I had a wife before Zapada. she's been gone for a long time. all I had left of her was our son. When I thought Isaiah was dead I felt like my entire world fell apart. so yes I lashed out at a lot of people. but I want to make something clear... I would never hurt her. Stoica: life comes in waves Varian. sometimes it's happy and sometimes it's laced with tragedy. whenever the tragedy comes around I need to know that you are able to keep yourself in check. I need to know that you're not a violent man. Varian: a violent man? Stoica: do you lash out every time something bad happens? Varian: No! of course not I've been through many horrible things in my life but I didn't lash out at those who cared for me every single time! Stoica: I want you to understand I'm not trying to be a bad guy here. I'm just trying to protect my own. I know you can be a good man. I just hope that you can remember to be one. {He walks away leaving Varian looking fearful; cut to Isaiah sneaking over to the supply station; he hides as a person walks away from it; he smirks as he notices the supply chart} Lily: What are you doing? Isaiah: Gyah! What is wrong with volume people and scaring me do you want me to have a heart attack!? Lily: answer my question… Isaiah: I can't just sit by and do nothing. especially with wild man’s daughter telling me that I'm only a little kid and can't do much to help Lily: that's...not what she said. well I mean it's partially what she said but it's not all of what she said! Isaiah: I'm going to get the list of supplies that we need... it's still early afternoon. if I can find out what we need and use the tunnels I might be able to sneak into the main city unnoticed. Lily: How are you supposed to get all of the supplies we need back here without a cart. secondly, how would you put a cart in the tunnels to begin with. Isaiah: uhhh… Lily: exactly thank goodness you have me… {She walks up and grabs the supply list} Isaiah: Lily! Lily: come on let's go. Isaiah: no I can't risk taking you! Lily: why not? We’ve gone on adventures that were just as dangerous if not more. Isaiah: I can't risk losing you! {Isaiah blushes at what he said and Lily blushes as well; he realizes he grabbed her hand and he lets go sheepishly} Lily: umm..right.. but I know Wayne to the city that nobody else knows about! We’d be able to fit a cart there! Isaiah: where is it? Lily: there's a hole in the wall that the guard were supposed to fix up the day that everything happened. Isaiah: are you telling me you guys were just overlooking a giant gaping hole in Corona's main wall? Lily: NO!... the bricks were old and weak and it totally wasn't because me and my siblings were messing around and caused part of the wall to collapse… Isaiah: ... I would question him but we really don't have the time... you think we can get in without being noticed? {Lily strikes a confident pose} Lily: Totally! the collapse happened behind some houses in the main village so it's totally hidden! we'd be able to hide in the alleyways and sneak into the backsides of businesses and get the supplies we need. Isaiah: You’re a genius! C’mon! Lets get my horse and set him up on a cart! {He takes her hand and pulls her out of frame; cut to Varian as he walks over to his and Zapada’s tent; He stands for a moment in the entranceway and watches Zapada tuck in Sterling; he smiles softly}

Zapada: Iubirea mea? every thing al-!?

{He abruptly pulls her into a hug}

Zapada: Varian? what is this?

Varian: I...Seeing you with your brother again..and how happy you were...You gave up a lot to be with me. To be with us. I haven’t been the best of husbands. I just wanted to let you know I love you and...And I’m sorry...

Zapada: oh, Iubirea mea...what happened? Varian:I just..got to thinking...After we thought Isaiah.. ya know... I wasn't exactly the best person to be around. and I keep recalling things that I could have done better. things I could have said better. Zapada: Varian- Varian: no you can't just say you've already forgiven me or it's okay because in truth it's really not. I shouldn't have been taking things out on you and the ones that I cared about. {He turns away from her and looks out at the camp} Varian: I've noticed that whenever I experienced some sort of loss or something particularly bad... tend to take it out on people that are only trying to make it better for me. maybe I am a violent man. {Zapada hugs him from behind} Zapada: Iubirea mea..you were frightened and you had just lost your son... our son. you were under intense pressure. I have come to understand this and have already forgiven you. so please try to forgive yourself. you're not a violent man. You’re a good man. {Varian turns around and kisses her before hearing Sterling squeal} Varian: There’s my little man! {He picks Sterling up and holds him} Varian: Getting bigger every day! Sterling: eiii! {Sterling gurgles and pulls on his hair} Varian: ha! What is it with every child I have and pulling my hair? Zapada: Easy to grab, no? {She leans up and kisses him; Eugene runs up to the tent} Eugene: Varian Th-... am I interrupting something? Varian: uh..ahem..no of course not. what's going on? Eugene: Lily and Isaiah are missing! Varian: son of a- seriously I leave that kid alone for 5 minutes. {He hands Sterling back over to Zapada} Varian: Don’t worry we’ll find them. {He runs out of frame with Eugene; Cut to Isaiah and Lily with cloaks and hoods pulled up as they pull up to the side of Corona’s side wall} Isaiah: it’s so quiet...where is this hole? Lily: A little further down… {Once they come upon it Isaiah pulls the wagon to a stop and gazes at the hole} Isaiah: How did you even accomplish this? Lily: all the business district was having some competitive problems and mama trying to solve them so me and my siblings went behind the business and start chucking rocks at the wall... we were bored okay? Isaiah: and the result was a giant gaping hole probably big enough to fit a small elephant? Lily: I hit a weak spot on the wall apparently and it just came tumbling down… Isaiah:....oh my god… { he gets off the driver's seat it makes his way through the hole} Isaiah: and you're sure nobody will notice us? {Lily climbs through} Lily: nobody comes to the side of the wall... the only reason they would have known that the hole was here was that Mom heard it collapse and we had to tell her… as long as we're quiet and don't draw attention to ourselves we should be okay. What’s first on the list? Isaiah: we need food. Like you said before as long as we use the alleyways and the back entrances we should be able to grab whatever we need without being noticed. Lily: well for the food I'm sure the bread inside the bakery is still good. Isaiah: I probably steer clear of the butcher shop...blech… Lily: that poor man is going to come back to such a stench when this is all over. {They start moving through the back alley towards the bakery; cut back to camp with everyone on the look out for Isaiah and Lily} Rapunzel: Lily!? Cyrus: Lily answer us! Eugene: Lilianna Fitzherbert you answer us now! Eddard and Rosie: Liiiilllyyy~! Varian: Isaiah? Where are you, buddy? {Hector walks up to him with his son and daughter} Varian: find anything? Bjørn: We found some tracks that we think might belong to them where the horses are kept. one of the horses is missing and so is a wagon we also found wagon tracks leading out of camp. Hector: we checked and everybody in Camp has accounted for other than those two so they must have taken the horse and wagon and went somewhere. but the question is where and why. Juniper: oh for the sake of all things good… Hector: Little bird? something to say? Juniper: I know where they are… Varian: You do!? Hector: Where!? Juniper: They...those kids went “shopping”... {She facepalms and everyone looks at her with either a shocked or confused face} Hector: ...eh? {Cut back to Corona where Isaiah and Lily are about to turn the corner and enter the bakery; Just as their about to enter the shop Isaiah grabs Lily and ducks behind some barrels; cult members walk past the alleyway and look down it} Cult member 1: come on we have to get this car unloaded... they're going to start stinking soon.. Cult member 2: I know but doesn't this seem a bit undignified? {Isaiah looks at Lily and sneaks to the entrance of the alleyway and peeks out to listen; however, when he peeks out he sees four bodies loaded in a cart and immediately ducks back behind the wall in horror} Cult member 2: think about it don't you think they deserve a proper burial I mean they're still people. {Isaiah takes a breath and peeks back out at the cart of deceased people with purplish spots on their skin} Cult member 1: look I get your concerns but at the same time it's not our problem these people opposed larkspur's Rule and you know the punishment for that. Cult member 2: wouldn't it have been more humane to just...I don't know use a sword? Cult member: ... probably. {Isaiah goes back into the alleyway taking deep breaths trying to calm himself} Lily: what did you see? what's going on? Isaiah: it was another cart of dead bodies… Lily: *gasp* Isaiah: it looks like there was some sort of resistance within the city. they didn't last very long. also it turns out whatever biological component was in that gas is fatal. Lily: what!? Isaiah: all of the victims in the cart had the same skin markings. I'm guessing they used the gas on the resistance. Lily: I think I'm going to be sick… Isaiah: This is all the more reason to just get what we need and get out. We need food medicine and weapons. we can find all of that in the nearby stores. we just have to stick to our original plan and not get caught. Lily: o-okay… {he moves her face to look at him} Isaiah: It's going to be okay... I'm not going to let anything happen to you okay? { she smiles and nods} Lily: mmhmm {Start montage of the two entering businesses, taking what they need, maneuvering around Alleyways, and evading cult members; They throw some weapons from the blacksmith shop into a bag and tie off the bag} Isaiah: is that everything? Lily: yeah I think this was our last stop. Isaiah: all right just like before out the back.. { they sneak back out into the alleyway and start making their way back towards where the hole in the wall was; Lily turns around and notices a cloaked figure following them} Lily: Isaiah! Isaiah: Crap! we've been spotted get moving! { they start running down the Alleyways trying to avoid the figure following them.} Lily: he's gaining on us! Isaiah: just keep running when we get to the horse we'll easily be able to outrun him! {Lily trips on a loose stone and hurts herself} Lily: Ah! My leg! {Isaiah stops and turns around; The cloaked figure stops by Lily and bends down} Lily: AHH! Isaiah: NO! {Isaiah grabs his sword from his belt and charges the cloaked figure preparing to swing his sword down on its head; just to see swings downward the cloaked figure grabs his wrist and pulls back it’s hood to reveal a very angry Varian} Isaiah: oh..hi dad... Lily: is it bad that I prefer it just being a cult member… Varian: you are in a sea of trouble buddy… {He picks Lily up} Isaiah: B-but dad-! Varian: Move it! Isaiah:...yes sir. {Cut to Varian with Hector in their own wagon as Isaiah drives his cart with Lily in back with a bandaged leg; they drive up to camp and Rapunzel and Eugen run up} Rapunzel: Lily! Eugene: Lily! You’re hurt! {They hug her and look her over} Rapunzel: where on Earth were you!? {Varian hops off the wagon} Varian: they were in Corona. Eugene: What!? what were you doing there!? Lily do you know how dangerous it is it right now!? you could have been killed! Rapunzel: what were you thinking!? Isaiah: it's my fault your Majesties. Rapunzel: Isaiah? Isaiah: I just... it's my fault. Princess Lily had nothing to do with this. please don't be mad at her. Varian: come on young man we need to have a talk. {He pulls Isaiah off to the side and crosses his arms} Varian: …. well? are you going to tell me why you did this? Isaiah: I..umm… Varian: yeah I'm waiting… Isaiah: someone had to do something! we needed supplies! we needed information! Varian: we were already working on a plan to get both! do you realize how much danger you just put yourself in!? what if you had been caught!? Isaiah: I had my sword! Varian: Isaiah Cadáin Stein, you are a 13 year old boy with minimal fighting experience you would have been slaughtered! Isaiah: I'm not a child to stop talking and treating me like I'm one! {Varian’s eyes dilate in anger} Varian: Isaiah regardless of what you believe you are a child! I lost you once already because of these people and I am not going to lose you again! you were to stay within the camp's perimeter at all times if you wish to go somewhere you will be escorted from here on out am I understood!? Isaiah: What!? dad that’s not fair! Varian: I don't care what is fair! am I understood? {They stare angrily at each other before Isaiah turns away} Isaiah:...fine. { cut to later at night; a cauldron of stew sits on top the fire; Eugene walks over with a bowl and hands it to Rapunzel} Rapunzel: Thanks… so umm...How did the talk with Lily go? Eugene: I did what we agreed on she's grounded for 2 weeks. Rapunzel: good... I really hate to admit it but they really did help our supply. Eugene: and we did get some valuable information about the disease that our sick have. but we still agree what they did was incredibly stupid right? Rapunzel: oh yes 100%! don't even worry about it!... how's her injury? Eugene: deep cut down her shin.. required some stitches but other than that she should be good. {rapunzel sighs} Eugene: sunshine? you okay? Rapunzel: I just can't believe we almost lost her today... and I never thought that my rule is Queen would be like this. {Eugene wraps and arm around her} Eugene:... life sucks. {he takes a sip from his soup as Rapunzel chuckles} Rapunzel: that it does sometimes… Eugene: and to be honest sunshine... I think you're doing a pretty good job. I mean yeah things could be better but let's look at the positives. we're together, we have five amazing children, for the most part, everyone's here and doing okay, and even those things could be better we're not throwing a pity party. we're sticking together as a real Kingdom should {Camera pans around the camp as Eugene speaks; Hector leans against a tree with his son; Adira and lance watch as Akina plays with her brother; Stoica being flirted with by various women in camp; Varian sits on a log by the fire and rests his head on Zapada’s shoulder smiling as she feeds Sterling; Cut back to Eugene} Rapunzel: You really think we're doing a good job? Eugene: yeah... Yeah, I do. {Cut to Isaiah sitting under a tree watching the fire; Juniper walks up with two bowls} Juniper: hey kid…hungry? Isaiah:... *venomously* hey… Juniper: Euggh, still mad at me huh? Isaiah: What do you think!? Juniper: to be fair I didn't really do anything I just told you the facts. I wasn't telling you to go into town and put yourself in danger. Isaiah: if this is an apology you're pretty crap at it. Juniper: fine I'm sorry if I made you feel inadequate. you have to understand where I'm coming from though. I grew up in a house with a brother and a dad who's whole world is battle and survival. I know a thing or two of what I'm talking about. you may not like me but I'm not trying to look for friends. {Isaiah keeps looking away from her; she hands him his bowl; Isaiah takes it with a grumble} Juniper: I know you're mad at me because you got in trouble but at the same time you should be glad that you have a dad that cares so much about you that he's willing to get that angry. {Isaiah glances at her} Isaiah: does your dad get mad a lot? Juniper: oh you don't even know the half of it. {She takes a sip of her stew and sits down} Juniper: never me and my brother would do something stupid when we were younger dad would get furious. the dark kingdom is in nice place now back when we were young...I mean really young, it was still pretty dangerous. even just wondering off for a few minutes would get us yelled at. Isaiah: geez. sounds kind of harsh. Juniper: yeah I guess... to someone else it would sound harsh. but then when I started growing older I started realizing the reason he would yell at us so much. It’s because he loves us. he wants to keep us safe. Isaiah: ... I'm starting to feel a lesson coming out of this or something… Juniper: what I'm trying to say is don't be too hard on your dad. the fact that he freaked out so bad means that he loves you a lot. He just doesn't want to see you get hurt. all I'm asking is for you to see it from his perspective, okay kid? {Isaiah looks over at his dad and Zapada; he groans and get up, walking over to them; Varian looks over at him and they star at each other for a moment before Isaiah sits down and leans his head on Varian; Varian smiles and wraps an arm around him} Isaiah: I’m...uh..s-sorry… Varian: I know bud...I know. {END CREDITS}

#tangled #tangled the series #rapunzel’s tangled adventure #TTS #RTA #fanfic #matters of the heart #MotH #Isaiah #Varian #zapada #Rapunzel #Eugene Fitzherbert

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