#i guess in the opera though she kills herself

[thehours2002]

i’ve read a lot of twitter theories suggesting that the palermo gays are working with tanya’s husband to manipulate her into breaking an infidelity clause in their prenup, allowing greg to win some of her fortune in divorce proceedings

and that might be part of it but between this and the frequent madama butterfly allusions… i’m worried about her livelihood!!!! i don’t want tanya to die 😓

[rottendeadpan]

Nobody has asked about her but I wanna talk about her anyway

This is Antonia; she’s the middle-triplet to the Emile-Antonia-Faure trio

she’s twisted off of Marie, and in battle class, she’d be the DPS, despite being the shortest, smallest, and most ‘innocent’ looking.

She’s a little clumsy, and finds herself in several Situations that honestly, most people really should not have found themselves in. She’s a white cat, but there’s a running joke that she’s secretly a black cat of bad luck but specifically her own bad luck.

She doesn’t go to any canon school to hone her magic; it’s a fanmade school.

She takes after her mother AGGRESSIVELY in appearances, to the degree you can barely tell there was another donor to her genepool-- beyond the personality, that is. Whereas Eva (Mom) is fairly calm and very flowing with her movements, words, and how easily she can take a hit (metaphorical or literal) and keep going, Antonia is a little jarring. She never Starts fights, but boy will she finish them. She’s the sweetheart next door one second, the idol you wish you could catch, and then the next second she’s knee deep in mud shoving one of her brother’s under a log cause they pulled her ear too hard. She’s a hair trigger AND a damsel; able to defend herself without question and wanting protection from someone who will dote on her hand and foot. She is a perfect princess; the rising star of amateur opera. She dreams of getting her throat insured one day--

and she’ll bite you so hard and fast you won’t know what’s happening.

(Or so, that’s how her brothers tell it)

if you ask Faure, she’s a little demon who always has to get her way, but he’d kill and hide a body for her, no questions asked. The two bicker and ‘fight’ constantly, if they had to guess it’s a 1:10 for how many times Emile fights with anyone compared to how many times Antonia and Faure end up pulling tails.  (he loves her deeply, though, and will drop his boy-next-door persona the moment she falls to real harm in order to save or protect her.)

Antonia is a fashionista and a makeup fan, trying to keep up with all the trends and actively posting and browsing around on Magicam. She doesn’t have the kind of pull that people like, say, Vil does-- but she tries her hardest. In year2, after Faure and Deuce start dating, she learns that Deuce used to go to school with Vil (keyword on Used To, as Vil was a 4th year-pushing-graduation and knee deep in workstudy), and nearly lost her mind that she lost her ONE CHANCE of ever connecting with the man.  she is a Princess and she’s going to make sure you treat her as one.

one of Antonia’s side projects is run promo material on her personal hype page, but this means she has to actually Test hte products first-- which is where her brothers come in. If she can’t risk a breakout, she’s slapping the weird facemask on one of the boys and judging the results accordingly before she posts it anywhere. She’ll also practice makeup on either boy which has lead to Faure sprawled across her floor with his face beat in full glitter and lashes, waiting for the sign that he can bail and wash all the nonsense off (cause she can kick his butt, and he knows it.)

Antonia’s magic is decently high in the Attack potential, but she lacks in defense or support. Luckily her triplets fill in those gaps very well.  her UM is still being hashed out, but it’s ‘banshee scream’ themed-- right now I’m sort of swatting around an idea it’s a Disarm. Maybe she can get her voice to such a level that Almost All attackers will drop their weapon, and she can swoop in to deliver a full disarming blow. 

** forgot to say so i’m throwing it into the end her hair is naturally mostly straight, she spends minimum An Hour daily to make her hair do the full ringlet curl. Her ‘show performance’ hairstyle takes nearly 2h cause she refuses to let a single curl droop while she’s on stage under all those lights.

[ornii]

Bitterly Beautiful, Part 2

Chapter 2: There is no “Eye” in Team.

"How could you miss a dead body?"

Wednesday, the Sherrif and Principal Weems walk though the school to her office.

"'Cause it wasn't there. No footprints, no blood, no sign of a struggle. Nothing, nada. My search party looked all night." The Sheriff kept his composure, as annoyed and upset he is.

"Well, your search party must have left their seeing-eye dogs at home. I saw that monster kill Rowan right in front of me." Wednesday claims.

"Get a good look at this monster thing?"

"It didn't stick around for a chat."

"Maybe it was one of your classmates." The Sherrif said accusingly, which Principal Weems interfered in.

"Sheriff, I find that question offensive."

"I don't care, 'cause I got three other dead bodies in the morgue. Hikers just ripped apart in the woods."

"The mayor said those were bear attacks." Weems furrows her brow at the Sheriff who is unfazed by her upset nature.

"Well, the mayor and I disagree on that."

"So you automatically assume a Nevermore student is the murderer, even though there's no evidence a crime was even committed."

"I'm sorry. I forgot, you only teach the good outcasts here, right?" The Sheriff scowls at Weems, they enter her office finally and The Sherrif sits across from Weems and her desk, which she promptly sits at as well.

"My guess is Rowan ran away. State troopers have put out an alert, and I've contacted his family, but they haven't heard from him either." Weems explains.

"Dead people are notoriously bad at returning calls." Wednesday's prompt but cold demeanor stood firm in her belief.

"What were you doing out in the woods with him, Ms. Addams?" The Sheriff asked, "I heard a noise in the forest and went to go investigate. That's when I stumbled upon the attack."

"Then what happened?"

"Then I ran into Bianca Barclay, and I told her to go for help. Next thing I remember, I was awaking in my dorm."

"And just to be clear, this monster wasn't a bear or some other wild animal?"

"I've hibernated with grizzlies. I know the difference." Wednesda replies, and Weems gets noticeably, uncouth as she tries to lee up appearances.

"Thank you, Sheriff. I think Miss Addams is done now—"

"Actually, I would like to speak to Sheriff Galpin. Alone." Wednesday said, and there was an unnerving aura around it.

"I'm not sure I can allow that." Weems begins but the Sheriff, catching onto what Wednesday is doing, adds in.

"I'm sure I could take her to the station and get a formal statement. Yeah, let's go." He begins but weems quickly stops.

"Fine. You have five minutes, and everything is off the record. Play nice... or I will call the mayor" Weems leaves them to their lonesome to discuss.

"Someone is trying to cover up Rowan's murder. That's the only reason to scrub the crime scene."

"Is that your professional opinion as the daughter of a murderer?"

"My father's twice the man you are, and the only thing he murders is the occasional opera in the shower."

"It's been a long night. I'm tired of your games. I'm not playing games."

"I'm telling the truth. You want to reject my claims but you can't. Why is that? Because you and I both know there's a monster out there. And Rowan is his latest victim." Wednesday said, her cold dark eyes staring into the eyes of the Sheriff. Suddenly, the deputy of the Sherrif steps into the office, a heavyset woman with a chocolate dark skin tone.

"Sheriff?"

"What?"

"You're gonna want to see this." she says; and seemingly from the land of the Dead, Rowan appeared. Leaving even Wednesday herself puzzled and confused.

"Edgar Allan Poe said, "Believe nothing you hear and half of what you see." Clearly Nevermore's most famous alumni picked that up here. No wonder he became a drսg madman."

"Help me understand why you claim you witnessed a murder. Was it to gain attention?"

Kinbott, Wednesdays scheduled therapist sits across from the child of the Addams, a bit perplexed by her oddity.

"Why should I bother telling you anything? You've already decided I'm lying. I know what I saw."

"Your life's had a lot of upheaval recently. It's okay to be confused about things."

"Don't try and lure me into one of your psychological traps."

"No one is trying to trap you. I'm here to help you process your emotions. Emotions are a gateway trait. They lead to feelings, which trigger tears." Kimbott attempts to try to slightly pry open the iron vice of Wednesday's feelings, but they were rusted; snapped shut and cold.

"I don't do tears."

"Tell me how you're adjusting to school."

"Sartre said, "Hell is other people." He was my first crush."

"Wednesday, Part of the reason your parents sent you to Nevermore is so you could find your people. Become part of a larger community."

"I like being an island. A well-fortified one surrounded by sharks."

"Have you considered your antisocial tendencies might be motivated by fear of rejection?" She asks.

"If you were to reject me, I would not be upset." Wednesday said. And Kinbott thought for a moment.

"Ah, so there's no one at the school you'd hate to be rejected by?" She asks, and just for a moment there was a hint of hesitation by Wednesday.

"None at all." She replies, deadpanned.

"Well...You can't get rid of me that easily. And look, you made it through an entire session without trying to escape. I'll take that as a win." Kinbott replies, and Wednesday notices that she has been here her entire session, she leaves after her realization and heads back to Nevermore, She returns back to to see her "Friend." Enid and classmates working on board.

"Ladies, come on! Let's work on those teeth. More scowl. This kitty is taking no prisoners. If Bianca Barclay wins again this year, I will literally scratch my own eyes out!"

"I would pay money to see that." Wednesday said, Enid turns around all cheerful and ready to hug.

"Howdy, roomie! I'm so glad you decided to stay."

"I thought you wanted your single room back.”

“Full disclose, I hate going solo, and thing gives a killer neck massage, so I say it’s a win win, why did you stay?” Enid said, and Wednesday calmly looks off to the distance.

"I refuse to play the role of a pawn in someone else's corrupt game."

"You mean Rowan?"

"I witnessed his murder, Enid." Wednesday claims.

"It's just, we all saw him this morning. Very much, like, not dead."

"I know. Which leads me to believe I've been losing my mind. It's not nearly as fun as I had anticipated. You're Nevermore's gossip queen. What's Rowan's story?" Wednesday asks, and Enid thinks.

"Other than being a weird loner... Uh... No offense. None taken. Xavier Thorpe's his roommate, but due to "Safety Concerns", (Y/n) had to move in, If you had a cell phone, you could just text him and ask him. Yoko. Come on! Flare those whiskers! The Poe Cup droops for no one."

"What is the Poe Cup anyway?"

"My entire reason for living right now. Part canoe race, part foot chase, no rules. Each dorm has to pick an Edgar Allan Poe short story for inspiration. You could grab a brush. Ms. Thornhill's just ordered pizza. Want to take a stab at being social?" Enid asks, trying to invite Wednesday over.

"..I do like stabbing. The social part, not so much. Besides, it'll cut into my writing time."

“No worries. Just as long as you're lakeside cheering us to victory on race day…Or you can just glare uncomfortably. Whatever works for you.” Enid said trying to as supportive as usual, Wednesday takes this free time to head to Principal Weems, ready for another interrogation.

"I need to speak with Rowan. I can't find him."

"It won't be possible, I'm afraid. He's been expelled."

"For what?"

"Never you mind. He'll be on the first train out this afternoon. What were you doing out in the woods with him?"

"I told you already. I heard a noise, and I went to investigate." Wednesday said feigning innocence.

"That excuse might have placated the sheriff, but you can't fool me. You had a psychic vision, didn't you? I realized you might be having them when we passed by the accident and you knew that poor farmer had broken his neck. Your mother started having visions around your age. They were notoriously unreliable and dangerous. I remember at first, she thought she might be losing her mind. Have you spoken to her about them? Clearly the person withholding information here is you." Weems said, putting Miss Addams in a verbal checkmate.

"May I go now?"

"Not until you've picked your extracurricular activity. We want our students to be well-rounded."

"I'd prefer to remain sharp-edged." Wednesday stabs back.

"I took the liberty of putting together a list of clubs that have openings." Weems shows a list of classes, one specifically "Archery - (Y/n) Healy"

"How thoughtful." Wednesday replies.

"You need to have picked one by the end of the day. I'll be keeping my eye on you. No doubt you'll find something that tickles your fancy."

"The last person who tickled me lost a finger." Wednesday kept her scowl and left. Her first destination was Chior lead by the Queen Bee, and she hears them harmonizing. They stop at the arrival of Wednesday.

"Weems said you'd be stopping by. But to be honest, after your performance at the Harvest Festival, drama club might be more your speed." Bianca said, smirking so coyly,

"After I passed out, who did you tell? The sheriff?"

"You think I'd trust normie cops? I went straight to Weems and let her handle it. Anyway, let's get this audition over with. What are you? Alto, soprano or just loco?" she asks obviously as a dig, a few laugh and Wednesday opens her mouth. There was oddly no sound. Well no sound a human could hear, but ones glasses cracked.

"What was that?" Bianca asked,

"A note only dogs can hear." she replies, and Walks off, leaving them a bit perplexed.

Wednesday's next and most important Task was Archery, she approached the Range as (Y/n) stood there, with a basket of apples which were signed and picked by Enid, he drew the Bow and notched an arrow from his Quiver and aimed. As if he was waiting for something. Let's the arrow loose and it hits nearly dead on. He turns to face Wednesday, hearing her approach.

"If it isn't Wednesday Addams, so you're joining the League of Handsome and or Beautiful rouges? I shall be your teacher." He says, and she looks around.

"You're the only one?" She asks.

"Unfortunately Yes, The Team disbanded before you arrived, Me, Xavier, Jenna, Emma, and Hunter." He said, he aims another arrow.

"I'm curious, What made your Band of Merry Outcasts fall apart? Xavier?" She asks and he lets another arrow loose, abruptly and misses. For a moment she sees a scowl and he quickly masks his emotions with a fake smile.

"Ever shot a bow and arrow before?" Hd asks, "Only on live targets." She replies and he scoffs. He begins his instruction.

"From you? I can believe it, alright first things first, wide stance for your legs, good balance stance." He says, he notches the arrow to the string. "notch the Arrow, take aim, don't shoot immediately, calm yourself." He says, "But in my case..." he whistled loudly, and he lets loose another arrow hitting inches away from the bullseye. Fairly proud of himself, he turns to her direction.

"Any questions?" He asks, "I know the blind part is confusing—"

"When's the last time you saw your Rowan?"

(Y/n) frowns a bit hearing that.

"Well I wouldn’t say “Saw”, You mean the one that was "killed" by a monster?" He said sarcastically.

"You were there."

"Yeah, and I talked to Rowan this morning... either i sensed a body that was similar, or he's a Zombie, and since he isn't smelling like rotting flesh, I'm gonna say we just got it wrong." (Y/n) says, he thinks for a moment.

"But..He did seem.. off."

"Off How?" Wednesday asked.

"Rowan was a bit of a loner but he and I got along as, Well as well as most students. We said hello to each other at least but this time he was just, much more nervous that before to even speak to me." He said, he shakes his head... “So, my turn..So what's the deal with you and Tyler?" He asks, Wednesdays attitude shifts from the question as (Y/n) now pesters her.

"I answered your questions, only fair you answer mine." He says.

"He was doing me a favor driving me out of town." Wednesday replied a bit defensive.

"I have advice for you, Steer clear of Tyler." He said.

"Why? Because he's a normie?"

"That, and his Dad seemingly has the biggest hate boner for your family,." (Y/n) says, he reaches to a small basket to eat an apple. Wednesday takes it and the bow and arrow, she tosses the apple, aims and fires, hitting the apple and a bullseye. (Y/n) was a bit flabbergasted, he could feel it land dead on.

"That is... impressive."

"I'm not here to impress." She says and begins to walk off, (Y/n) walks after her, as he quickly grabs his cane.

"Wednesday.. Wednesday!" He says and she stops for a moment.

"I'm busy, I have to go to deal with the trials of Hell Weems is putting me though." She begins to walk again and he stops.

"Well. That's unfortunate since I have a good way to keep you under the radar." He says and she stops walking, "A Way to keep Weems off your hide and gives you time to, do whatever you plan to do." He says, she turns around and walks over to him so calmly, she steps a foot away, while (Y/n) couldn't see, his senses were heightened so well, almost like a sonar the sound waves bounce and dance around him like waves crashing, forming almost perfect shapes and forms; He has never been this close to Wednesday to allow him to get such a detailed idea of her, and for a moment he was taken aback by just how beautiful she is. Her face was in a permanent form of unamused glare. And she couldn’t be any more drop dead beautiful.

".. Stunning." He said, just Gazing at her face. "What Plan do you have?" She asks snapping him out of it, he catches himself before acting more suave.

"Of course, well you see most Clubs are in the schools grounds, but there's one that's into the greenery. A perfect place to hide out." He said, which slowly begins to build the interest of Wednesday.

"...Show Me."

(Y/n) and Wednesday walk though a small forest to a beautiful clearing, and noticing a flat there. It was a small white building with not much accommodation. (Y/n) leans over to slightly whisper to Wednesday.

"Word of Advice Miss Addams, Eugene is a bit.. unique, even for Nevermore standards." He said, Wednesday turns her head to him. "Just try not to Gut him or anything." He says asking.

"I will make no such promises."

"I guess that's the best I'll get." He said and taps on the door. He steps back and it opens to a short, slightly pudgy boy with a pair of glasses.

"(Y/n)!” He says with whimsical cheer.

“It’s good to see you too, there’s someone I’d like you to meet. Wednesday. Wednesday Addams.” He says introducing the two. “Am I late or is it only you?” She asks and Eugene sadly nods.

"The hive life isn't for everyone." Eugene said and a sly (Y/n) smiles.

"Told you, it's perfect for you." (Y/n) said to Wednesday.

"Most kids are afraid of venomous insects. Are you willing to feel the sting?" Eugene asked, and a very small smile creeps along the face of Wednesday, even (Y/n) was a tiny bit worried for the Health of Nevermore if Wednesday could get an army of bees.

"You'll have to change into a Beekeeper uniform, there's plenty to choose from!" He says, Wednesday, now a bit annoyed since she can't allow them to touch her skin, heads inside to change.

"Well I suppose my work here is done. Eugene, make sure you keep an eye out for her." He says, and Eugene salutes.

"Hey, anything for a fellow friend!" He says and (Y/n) kindly bows and leaves, Planning what's next in his mind, Wednesdays exits the Room now in her own, off putting Bee Keeper costume.

"Bees have been producing honey in the same way for 150 million years. They're nature's perfect community. All working together to achieve a common goal. Fun fact, it's also one of the few ecosystems in which females dominate. From the queen bee to her workers. There's no patriarchy in the hive!" he says explaining to her, but Wednesday is, less than enthusiastic about the honey and more about the Stinging. (Y/n) walks off and a crow lands on his shoulder.

"Any word about the Sheriff?" He asks and it makes a few caws and pecks its side to scratch an itch.

"Hmm... I See. Thank you, you may go now." He says and the bird flies off, he trudged off into the woods as well, walking so cautiously, until footsteps catch him. He jerks his head left to sense the pattering of paws, hound paws, he kneels down quickly and puts his hand on the tree he's hiding behind. Small, tiny vibrations in the earth from their footsteps, they give small indications of their location and possibly who they are.

"There you are, Sheriff." He says and slowly begins to follow, he keeps a fair distance to avoid any scent being picked up by the hound. His solemn footsteps crunch twigs and leaves, but are much lighter in sound. Creeping closer; he stops and feels another tree, using its roots to enhance his hearing. He picks up the same footsteps, but another one, lighter on their feet. Not as Heavy. And he suspects his new "friend." Sneaking around he picks up on movement, and heads that way, it was Wednesday. Seems she was also following the Sheriff but was creeping too close, before the hound could pick up, Wednesday is snatched behind a tree, she tenses up, a hand covering her mouth and slightly around her stomach. As the Sheriff passes, they let her go, she quickly gets away and turns around to (Y/n).

"I didn't want the Dog to pick up on your scent. If he finds us here, well it won't be good." He says.

"Thanks." Wednesday said, as much as she detests being grabbed and held, she detested (Y/n) doing it, a bit less. "How'd you throw them off?"

"Crow feathers, rubbing them on me... don't look at me like that. It works okay?" He says a bit annoyed.

"I assume he didn't bring the bloodhound to play fetch." Wednesday said.

"No, I assume he's checking the leads as well... But I want to ask you. And be honest, what happened At the festival?" (Y/n) asked, looking obviously concerned.

"I thought Rowan was in danger. Turns out I was wrong. Then he proceeded to use his telekinesis to try and choke me to death. That's when this monster came out of the shadows and gutted him." Wednesday explains, much to (Y/n)'a shock.

"Rowan? Tried to Kill you? It wasn't the monster that tried to kill you?"

"It actually saved me from Rowan. That's the part I'm trying to figure out. I came here to find something that can prove he was murdered and that I haven't lost my mind. Yet." Wednesday said, (Y/n) looks more serious now.

"Rowans never used this powers on others as far as I know, what would drive him to go after you of all people?" He asks, thinking. Wednesday peers past him and into the ground and looks at something. (Y/n) walks over and kneels down to see Wednesday picking something up.

"Those are Rowan's glasses." (Y/n) says, Suddenly, Wednesday's head jerks up, stiffening like a corpse. She was stunned, not moving. He looks over, growing much more concerned.

"Wednesday? Wednesday?!" He yells, he grabs her, checking her for some wounds or cuts. She snaps out of it, and looks at him, she sees the concern in his face.

"You okay?" He said, shaking her. Wednesday snaps out of it, she looks a bit out of it before realizing that, she's being held, she sees (Y/n), worried about her and her off spasm. She quickly puts her walls back up and glares at him.

"Let. Go. Of. Me." She said with the most scathing whisper, and he does.

"I was just making sure you were okay." He said, and Wednesday and (Y/n) stand up.

"There's some place I want to go to." She said, and Wednesday and (Y/n) continue their investigation inside the library. Thing is searching the bookshelf for Wednesday as (Y/n)

"The cover was darker. More like a day-old contusion. Keep looking." Wednesday said, (Y/n) walked up next to her.

"So, what is it that you're looking for specifically?" He said.

"A book Rowan had, it has some importance and I just need to figure out what." She explains, (Y/n) folds his arms.

"Rowan, and books? A match made In heaven, he was a book worm. It might have still been in his room with Xander we can—" he begins but they hear footsteps, the two quickly get Thing out of the way and (Y/n) and Wednesday were just standing there. Thornhill looks at the Blooming Dark flowers and smiles.

"I don't usually find students in here looking for actual books. Most sneak in to make out." She says, (Y/n) and Wednesday take a step further apart.

"That is not what's going on." He said.

"I'd rather take a nap in a swamp of famished alligators." She says, he looks at her.

"Okay that was Just mean." He said.

"I accidentally walked in on two vampires fanging. I can't unsee that." Wednesday claimed.

"That just sounds like Jealousy." (Y/n) replies, Wednesday turns her head menacingly towards him, a tiny smirk creeps along his face.

"Is there something I can help you two find?" Thornhill asks the Teenagers. Wednesday approaches with a ripped out page, "Have you seen this before?" She says showing her. "It's a watermark from a book I'm looking for."

"I think it's the symbol to an old student society. Um... The Nightshades."

"Like the deadly flower." Wednesday says, "Color me intrigued." (Y/n) approaches, and thinks.

"I was told they disbanded years ago." Thornhill said, which (Y/n) pesters her for information.

"Any idea why?" (Y/n) asks piping up.

"Sorry. I was very impressed with your answers in class today."

"My mother is a carnivorous plant aficionado. I assume I get my red thumb from her."

"Are you and your mother close?" Thornhill asks. There's a hint of hesitation within her voice.

"Like two inmates sentenced to life on the same cell block."

"I know it can't be easy... showing up mid-semester. I've been here a year and a half, and I still feel like an outsider."

"Because you're the only normie on the staff? (Y/n) told me." She says. "Not all normies are bad, You're pretty Great Mrs Thornhill." He Said trying to cheer her up, she just gives a smile in return.

"To tell you the truth, I've never really fit in anywhere. Too odd for the normies, not odd enough for the outcasts. I thought Nevermore would be different, but there's still a handful of teachers who will barely acknowledge me." She says,

"I act as if I don't care if people dislike me. Deep down... I secretly enjoy it." Wednesday said, and Thornhill laughed, she, actually laughed at that.

"Never lose that, Wednesday."

"Lose what?" The ability to not let others define you. It's a gift. The most interesting plants grow in the shade. And if you ever need anyone to talk to, the door to the conservatory is always open. That goes to you too Mister Healy." She says before leaving.

".. you know, she kinda reminds me of you." He says, watching Thornhill leave.

Night creeps along the horizon of the Earth and Nevermore is put into another darkness, (Y/n) was sitting in his new dorm room, cleaning his cane using black wood polish at his desk, the door opens to Xavier.

"Yo." He says, and (Y/n) looks up, hearing his voice.

"Sup Xavier."

"Taking a shower, Uh..let me know if you need anything." He says.

"Thanks." (Y/n) replies sharply before Xavier enters the shower, (Y/n) waits to hear it running before he walks over to the closet and knocks on it in a sophisticated series of taps. He steps back and Wednesday exits it with thing in tow.

"Well, that's not weird, anyway he should be busy I might have fiddled with the handles, let's get looking." He said.

"That purple book has got to be around here somewhere. Start investigating." She says to thing and the two begin to search, (Y/n) checking the walls and drawers for anything, Wednesday for the things that require a, "Cautious eye." She turns the lights off, which doesn't hinder (Y/n)'s search, using a Blacklight, she checks the floorboards and opens one up, (Y/n) turns to the sound and lifts the bed for her, she looks up at him and he smiles. She pries open the floor board and picks something up. It wasn't a book but, a mask.

"Huh... isn't that odd." He says; they hear the water stop and Xavier exits the shower, he looks over to (Y/n) standing there with his arms crossed. Wednesday is behind him, trying to stand as still as possible.

"You okay?" Xavier asks, and (Y/n) nods.

"Yeah, just... hanging out." He said, before Xavier can ask, there is a knock at the door.

"You want to get that?" (Y/n) asks, Xavier shrugs and heads to the door, (Y/n) turns and motions Wednesday who quickly hides under his Bed, the door opens to Bianca. (Y/n) smirks, sending the body figure and the siren like humming from her.

"Oh, I didnt know we could have "Friends" over." He said smirking, much to the annoyance of the two.

"Don't worry Queen Bee, I'll let you two go at it." He says and leaves, he exits to give them some space.

"You're not supposed to be up here." Xavier said.

"Good to see you too." Bianca said obviously a bit offended.

"How'd you get past the Housemaster? Use your siren powers?"

"Not while wearing this." Bianca shows the charm necklace. "Would it kill you to not think the worst of me for once?"

"What do you want, Bianca?"

"To see how you're doing. I'm sorry about Rowan. I know you guys used to be close."

"Since when did you give a damn about Rowan?"

"You were the one afraid he'd do something to Wednesday. Isn't that why you've been following her like an eager-eyed puppy? Or is there something more? Seriously, what do you see in her? You have a thing for a tragic goth girls with funeral-parlor fashion sense?"

"Maybe it's because she hasn't tried to manipulate me."

"I make one mistake, and you can't forgive me. She treats you like crap, you can't get enough. Why are you fixated on Wednesday? Because she thinks she's better than everyone else. I can't wait to crush Ophelia Hall tomorrow and watch her werewolf roommate crumble. It's gonna be a Poe Cup finale to remember."

"I hate to think what you've got planned."

"My game's already started. I like to win. Is that so wrong?"

"And you wonder why I broke up with you."

"You used to love my killer instinct. We were good together, Xavier." She said, reminiscing.

"Were we? Is that just how you wanted me to feel?" Xavier's tone was full of distrust, and anger.

"Trust me, Wednesday Addams is not the girl of your dreams. She's the stuff of your nightmares." Bianca says, and Leaves.

(Y/n) waits outside, Bianca leaves and minutes pass and Wednesday exits as well.

"Found what you need?" He asks, and Wednesday looks over him up and down.

"Yes. Follow me." She said, and like a loyal dog, he follows. They creep into her dorm room to Enid, crying on the bed. (Y/n)'s attitude immediately softens.

"Enid, Enid what's wrong?" He asks, she turns to notice the two entering through the window together.

"I'm literally having a heart attack right now. Yoko's in the infirmary!" She said Panicked though tears and (Y/n) comforts her with a hug.

“Shhh Shhh, What happened?”

"Garlic bread incident at dinner. She had a major allergic reaction. She's out of the Poe Cup. I don't have a co-pilot." She said sadly; and (Y/n) gives her a pat on the head to comfort her.

"It's gonna be okay." He said, she tightened her grip around him and her claws began to come out, stabbing him in the side.

"Ow. ow, Enid, ENID!" He says and she quickly lets go, wiping her tears.

"Sorry! Sorry.." She Said sadly. He waves it off.

"It's okay."

"It wasn't an accident. Bianca's behind it." Wednesday said, which catches the interest of (Y/n) and Enid.

"How do you know?" Enid asks.

"Doesn't matter. We are going to take her down tomorrow."

"Wait. You're joining the Black Cats? You're willing to do that? For me?" Enid said, and Wednesday looks at (Y/n), he motions her to be nice and Wednesday replies coldly.

"I want to humiliate Bianca so badly that the bitter taste of defeat burns in her throat."

"Yeah, but mostly you're doing it because we're friends, right?" Enid asks, and (Y/n) puts his hand on Enid shoulder.

"Yes, because we're friends, and I'm going to make sure Bianca will never mess with Enid Sinclair or anyone like this again." He says, his dark aura radiating.

"Tell me how she keeps winning." Wednesday said.

"It's a real brain cramp. The past two years, no other boat has made it across and back without sinking."

"Sounds like sabotage." Wednesday said, "There are no rules in the Poe Cup, and she is a siren, which makes her master of the water." Enid admits, and (Y/n) snaps his fingers, a crow comes flying from the open window and lands on his arm.

“I’ve learned a few Hexes and curses from my family, and I know just the one.” He says, “The answer is simple, we just need to beat her at her own game." (Y/n) said. His smile grows more and more like a Cheshire Cat. The Next day, Wednesday walks past Bianca to (Y/n) and Enid awaiting.

"We're all set." Enid says.

"Good. Thing's in position." Wednesday Leers at Bianca.

"Wanna tell me what you two were up to?" Enid says to (Y/n) and Wednesday.

"And spoil the surprise?" (Y/n) smirks, he turned towards them.

"Trust me, a few modifications to the boat and a few crows watching, we have everything.

"Speaking of surprises, your costume's in the tent." Enid said to Wednesday, which confuses her.

"Costume?"

Wednesday exits the tent in the cat costume, black and, tight fitting with even the ears to compliment. Enid comes up behind her as Wednesday is absolutely fuming at this.

"OMG, you look purr-fect! Only thing, where are your whiskers?" Enid asks in her own costume

"Ask again, and you'll be down to eight lives." Wednesdays scowled back, (Y/n) approached.

"Alright, I've got everything ready, where's Wednesday?" He asks.

"She's right here." Enid said, (Y/n) turned his focus to the figure next to her, looked a bit perplexed, he's never seen her wearing anything besides dressed and he's never got a full sense of her ..figure. He tries to play it off and laugh, he felt like she was naked and embarrassment washed over him.

"Of course it's you, alright! ready?" He asked, Enid and Wednesday head to the canoe. Sitting inside, there are three other sets, all with different teams. One specifically was Bianca's team. Principal Weems gives the introduction to students. Wednesday looks down to Thing and a Walkie-Talkie in the Boat.

"I want to welcome you all to the Edgar Allan Poe Cup. This is one of Nevermore's proudest annual traditions, dating back 125 years. Each team must row across to Raven Island, pull a flag from Crackstone's Crypt, and hustle back without sinking or being sunk. First team to cross the finish line with their flag wins the cup and bragging rights for a year, as well as some special privileges. Let the Poe Cup begin!" weems fires a gun into the air and the teams row off. (Y/n) quickly disappears into the crowd and runs along the river. Standing on a small dock, he kneels down to focus on the rowing boats.

He feels the four slowly begins their journey to the island, he senses something else moving in the water. It can't be a fish it's too big, it seems, human.

"Of course!" He grabs his other Walkie-Talkie and comms in.

"Black Cat, this is Blind Hawk, I know how Bianca is cheating! There's another Siren in the water! He's going to topple you over!"

"Roger." Wednesday replies and they continue to row, Wednesday and Company unfortunate reach last before Bianca and Ajax's team, the last flag was taken by them, but a plan was formulated to sink Ajax,

"The final two teams are the Gold Bugs...and the Black Cats!" Weems says from the Megaphone. (Y/n) senses the rowers closing in.

"Whatever you have planned. Do it now." Wednesday says, and (Y/n) smiles.

"Obliged, just stray from the center of the river, I can't control where it goes." He says, Bianca's crew stays in the middle as Wednesday's slowly maneuvers to the side. (Y/n) calms himself and begins to concentrate.

(Y/n) raises his Cain, and storms begin to brew.

"Go ndalladh an diabhal thú, Agus Bealtaine go deo leat dul ar strae!"

He slams his cane into the ground, a dark shadow falls over Bianca's team as flocks of crows come flying, surrounding and blinding them. They scream and bat them away, but to no avail. It halts their journey and Wednesday and company pass them. And even Wednesday could only smirk slyly at it.

"A Murder of Crows, How poetic." She says and spots (Y/n) who gives a bow. They reach the school and confidently jam the flag into the position and secure victory, cheers erupt from the crowds and Enid grabs Wednesday absolutely elated.

"Yeah, we did it! OMG, Wednesday, we did it! This is the greatest moment of my entire life. Admit it, you kinda got into the whole school spirit thing." She says, Wednesday Looks to the side to Bianca and her team sadly making their way there.

"You didn't tell me it was a dark, vengeful spirit." Wednesday watches with dark glee, the end of the festival. The cup is awarded. Principal Weems now gives the speech to the students of Nevermore..

"The first Poe Cup took place in 1897 as a way to not only honor Nevermore's most famous alumni, but to celebrate those values that all outcasts share. Community, perseverance, and determination. And we certainly saw those values on display today! Congratulations to Ophelia Hall! As a former resident, I will be happy to see the cup back on the mantle after all these years." She gives Enid the trophy and they celebrate, but Wednesday is not one less for celebration and sits alone in the corridor, she stands before the statue of Poe with a Raven on his arm, she sits at the base of the statue and lets out a weary sigh. She closes her eyes for a moment.

"Now, What are you doing down here?" A voice calls out, she opens her eyes to (Y/n) standing there, one hand in his pocket and the other on the cane.

"Hiding. People keep randomly smiling at me, it's unsettling." She says, (Y/n) chuckled at that.

"They're looking at you because you did something amazing, You took down The Bianca Barclay. Try to enjoy it, anyway... I wanted to ask if you, wanted to celebrate. Privately of course, as a way of saying thank you for helping Enid, I'm even if it was selfish." He said, giving a warm smile.

"Oh, come on, it won't kill you." He said, she continues her stare, but she gives in.

"I'll think about it." Wednesday said caving into his Cavity inducing sweetness.

"Yes!" He says, but he quickly composes himself. "I mean, of course. I'll be seeing you." He says and walks off, Wednesday watches him leaving, thinking to herself.

"Nevermore continues to be an enigma. A place where the questions far outweigh the answers. But sometimes... the answer is staring you right in the face."

(Y/n) and Wednesday stand side by side, at the statue.

"The Statue of my Favorite Author that i have seen countless times, how thoughtful." Wednesday says deadpanned, (Y/n) Kept smiling.

"I suppose it is, but while the celebration was going on, I did some research of my own. And specifically of the statue, sometimes I listen to music on my walks and I was particularly enjoying the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven. I came across the statue and touched it, cold metal, I tapped on it and noticed that some parts of it were, hallow, I continued and noticed small latches on the wings. there are hinges and mechanical gears within. I saw the wing could move, so, after doing a few experiments, I figured it out." He explains, and Wednesday looks intrigued.

"Figured out what exactly?" She asks, he motions her to the statue.

"Please, Snap twice." He says, Wednesday obliges and snaps twice, the wings fold and the arm pulls in, and the statue begins to retract and show a flight of stairs. Wednesday heads down and (Y/n) follows. They enter what seems to be an old library. The knowledge hidden within these walls.

"Secret societies. Hidden libraries. My mother staring at me in a judgmental way. These are all things I've come to expect." Wednesday said, she takes notice of something though.

"(Y/n)." She said, "There." Wednesday approaches a wall of books.

"This, these are the books Rowan Had." She said and he stands next to her.

"I see... so, we know where Rowan got the book from, question is, what was he doing down here?" He asks, the two look in, "But the minute I inch towards the truth..."

As she says this, (Y/n) quickly picks up on the danger looming, he tries to turn to face it, but to no avail. the two are bagged and bound, being dragged into the darkness.

"Luckily, I'm not afraid of the dark."

[princesssarisa]

Also speaking of Turandot, there is actually no female sidekick for the prince in the original French-retold Persian story, which surprised me when I first read it because there is a sidekick in the Grimm version. Turandot, however, does have a Girl Friday, s a captured princess from some lesser Khanate who falls in love with Calaf. Turandot, resisting the idea of marriage, as well as the humiliation of being defeated in the riddle contest, sends her maid to Calaf to do two things. The first is to trick him into revealing his name...the second is to threaten him with assassination when he comes to the audience with the princess tomorrow and frighten him into eloping with her. Turandot up and tried to take a third option that would hopefully satisfy everyone. Her pal gets the guy she's crushing on, Calaf gets a pretty princess who actually loves him, and Turandot gets to be left alone. However, his courage and devotion in rejecting the slave girl's offer does get Turandot to fall in love with him, as she already started respecting him after he was smart enough to guess her riddles and respectful enough to at least offer her a semblance of a chance to get out of marriage. She successfully guesses his name to get the satisfaction of winning, and then turns around and marries him because now she's choosing him instead of letting him win her. Unfortunately the poor slave girl is so devastated that she won't get to marry Calaf that she stabs herself even though Turandot would be perfectly happy to make her a co-wife so they could share Calaf. She gets a big fancy funeral and is implied to be reborn as one of Turandot and Calaf's children...so happy ending, I guess?

That's certainly a different storyline from that of Liú in Puccini's opera!

Of course, Puccini's biographers agree that Liú was probably inspired by Doria Manfredi, a maid who worked for the Puccini family, whom the composer's wife Elvira wrongly accused of having an affair with him and abused and slandered until she killed herself. Puccini and the librettists must have combined the original tale's storyline of the slave girl with this tragic real-life incident.

[vellatra]

Fire Emblem - Three Houses - A Dumb Summary

I was challenged to summarize 3H. I know very little about the game. You've been warned!

Once upon a time there was this guy Billy. Or this girl Billie. Actually you get to pick so we’ll just pick one now… wait and there are also several stories to pick. Shoot. Well we’ll just have to have several summaries then, won’t we? Nyeh!

Story One - Azure… Something

Once upon a time there was this girl Billie who taught battle strategy or something at the Mach 10 Monastery. She was very confusing to everyone, ‘cause she was the same age as the students but also teaching them, but also not the same age and like a super old goddess or dragon or something and also might’ve been possessed by the demigod descendent of Sothe and Yune? Look I don’t know and neither do you. Anyway, so she’s teaching and they’ve got this system like Hogwarts where everybody picks a sports mascot to rally behind, and the teachers also get to pick favorites. She picks Gryffindor because she has a major crush on this dude in the house who wants to KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM. Who are “them”, you ask? Yes. It’s a wonder anybody survived going to school with him okay? Super bloodthirsty dude. Dunno why either, something to do with working for the Holy Faerghan Empire and the Spanish Inquisition I think? And also he talks to ghosts? Yeah that sounds right. Eventually somebody got annoyed with his serial slaughtering because at some point he lost an eye, but we’ll get to that later.

Mr. Inquisitor’s classmates (who will probably never show their faces in this story again) consist of a bottle of Felix Felicis, Ash from Pokemon, Miklan’s Brother, a car, the mailwoman from Rune Factory Frontier, and a d-dude (people always stutter when they talk about him so his title is canonically “d-dude”).

There are also some other teachers, but most of them are boring. Except of course for Mole Lady, and the Phantom of the Opera who’s trained to become a ninja.

So Billie taught the Inquisitor and his cronies all there is to know about combat and strategy and whatnot, until one day when she decided to go on a years-long vacation to “find herself” or something. Everything blew up without Billie there to stop it! But you play as Billie so it all just kinda happens without you and she comes back like “Oh crud what’d I miss?” and she just joins in the war that’s started, on the side of her teacher’s pets of course because they’re her most favoritest and are absolutely in the right in this war, right? Turns out they’re fighting against the other two houses, who are also fighting each other. It’s just a total mess. Also there’s this group of sewer rats who come out of the gutter and say they’re the totally legit and super awesome FOURTH HOUSE DUN DUN DUN! Led by somebody named Japanese Lesbian even though he’s a dude? Whatever, anyway he says they want to join Billie’s side because… I dunno she’s cool I guess? So off they go to fight everybody else, and of course, to KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM! Especially the leader of Ravenclaw, Edelwiess, because she’s definitely a heretic who wants to be a normal Fire Emblem lord and fight the church and defeat god like everybody else. Ew! The horror! She’s definitely evil! So um… yeah that’s basically what they do I guess? Just whoop up on everybody and take over the continent? Oh and also they make a detour to Miklan’s Brother’s Brother’s house and smite him in particular because nobody likes him. He liked to be mean to his brother when they were little because his brother had a fancy hat or something that meant he’d get to be king after their father? I think? Or something? Anyway Miklan’s Brother’s Brother was super jealous of the fancy hat and made sure it was everybody’s problem so they all went to his house to smite him before continuing on their journey to KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM. Which they did. Then if you play your cards right Billie marries the Inquisitor and they live murderously ever after! Yay!

Story Two - Crimson Flour (What the heck is that made of? Red 40? Ew!)

Billy decided to teach Ravenclaw because he thinks their albino leader Edelwiess is cute, but then he discovers that she has this menacing bodyguard who never eats, never sleeps, and follows her everywhere, and he thinks “ya know what, I should’ve picked another house”, but then it’s too late. Ravenclaw consists of Edelwiess, Scary Hubert, a nerd, a ghost, Sonic’s mom, a modern girl cameoing, and Cool Fiona.

So anyway, like Billie, he teaches the kiddos and then leaves for a well-undeserved vacation while the war starts. When he comes back, he’s like “well obviously my faves are the good guys” so he joins the Ravenclaws on their quest to defy the Holy Faerghan Empire and the Church of Kronos’ Wife and to slay god or something. This means they also run afoul of Mr. Inquisitor, but they slay him too and put an end to his bloodbath… while they go off and do basically the same thing I think? Starting to think there are no good guys actually. Oh dear. Anyway at one point things get so evil and wrong that Billy gets to choose whether to stick with Edelwiess or to backstab her. If he sticks with her, they smite their foes and probably live happily ever after (but they don’t get married because Hubert is too scary and Billy doesn’t want to get poisoned on a date). If he betrays her, I have no idea. All I know is that the story turns into Story Three - White… Fluffy Clouds… or something…. And he probably teams up with the aforementioned sewer rats, because they think he’s cool. I’m sure he wins but how in the world does he defeat Hubert? That man is an all-powerful menace. Somebody fill me in? Haha

Story Four - Fear the Deer

Billie joins Hufflepuff, mostly because she sees it’s led by fellow Star Wars enthusiast Claude von Beethoven. He’s so committed to the bit that he even has a little padawan braid and everything! So cool! Anyway so she teaches him and his buddies: a dude obsessed with roses, an artist self-insert, a Micaiah wannabe, Amy Rose with an axe, and some girl who’s obsessed with The Witcher. They’re all a bunch of nerds and we love them for it. I have no idea what these guys want when the war breaks out - they’re probably just excited to be in a Fire Emblem game honestly! - but obviously, since Billie’s with them in this version of the story, those crazy sewer rats join them and they mop the floor with everybody else and, uh, they live happily ever after I guess! Except for Miklan of course. ;P

There’s also Story Five - Whiskered Eggplant, but we’re not getting into that today ;) XD

THE END.

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Hmm. The "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" novelization in "The Xander Years Vol. 1" is interesting, and making me think that Angelus originally intended to turn Buffy in this episode: a hypothesize that I (and a few others) have had about it.

Because he has that whole line of, "I wanted to do something special for Buffy--actually, to Buffy--but this is so much better," when he grabs Xander and is about to bite him.

And initially I thought that he was just planning to kill Xander here, but now I'm wondering if he was planning to change him (like he'd originally been planning to do with Buffy? But then when he couldn't find her, he decided to go with him instead). Because there's this line in the book when Drusilla "falls in love with him" and gets all protective of Xander (because of the spell), and wants to make him a vampire herself: "Just as Drusilla leaned in to do out of love what Angel had been about to do out of hate..."

Though if he had been planning this, it was surely as a means to torture Xander (and of course Buffy), not because he likes Xander and wants him around, of course. Because the whole reason Angelus decides to give up on his plan with Xander is when he realizes about said love spell--how all the women in Sunnydale wanted Xander in an angry mob kind of way, some even willing to kill him like in a soap opera: "If I can't have him, nobody can!"--and thought it was a more perfect torture for him than even he could have devised.

But other reasons this could be the case... I now find it weird that Giles is keeping secrets about Angelus' past crimes to Buffy, specifically around Valentine's Day in this episode. As Buffy says, he'd never shied away from telling her the important details before. I mean... I guess it could be that he doesn't want her to hear all of these gruesome things about her ex-honey and what might be coming for her, but isn't it extremely important that she should know?

Also, if a lot of this is mainly about killing her, Buffy already knew that that was Angelus' desire. So why is she so thrown by the "soon," he wrote with the roses to her if that's all it meant?

Unless it was supposed to mean something else.

And maybe Giles thought there was a possibility that Angelus might think of turning Buffy? Could he have at least partly been keeping things from her, because he didn't want her to be tempted by the seduction? Because make no mistake: a number of Angelus' actions with Buffy are certainly a brutal seduction.

"He would see it as affection."

-shrugs-

[coffeeheartaddict2]

Everybody hurts Sometimes (3/?)

Enemy within

Book: Open Heart (au)

Pairing: Ethan Ramsey x F!MC Casey Valentine

Warnings: Character death, language, sexual references

****Trigger warning- these series deals with issues or addiction and abandonment***

Category: Angst

Rating: Mature

Word count: 1905

Summary: Mrs Martinez dies and the implications are far reaching. Casey finds out who has been sabotaging her and events shake Ethan to his core.

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Pixelberry

Authors note: Tash, I thought this was an AU, why is it close to canon?

No one has asked me but a valid thought. Yes I am using some canon but there are differences- the differences will become more apparent in the coming chapters.

😓😓😓😓😓😓😓😓😓😓

It had been a few days when the whole hospital said farewell to Mrs Martinez. Casey received an email from Mrs Martinez. She had made it to Paris and Sacre De Couer. She looked so happy and that made Casey forget about her worries. She was still number one but the sabotage was still happening and she still had no idea. That and Naveen were troubling her. There were so many symptoms that were not adding up and the treatment that had appeared to be working now was not. Casey could tell Ethan was worried about him too, he did not say it but the concern was more noticeable each passing day. Nights provided a much needed respite, physically losing himself with Casey. And on the nights she was not with him he pleasured himself, it was never the same of course but it helped distract him from the pain.

A week and a bit after receiving the email from Teresa in Paris, Casey was flagged down by Bryce. He took her to an on-call room,Jackie, Sienna, Elijah were there. They informed her that Mrs M had died. Casey held it together but on the inside she was falling apart. If the treatment was going to kill her, why not straight away. The only comfort that Casey took was that she at least got to go out and do what she wanted and thus went on her own terms. The gang decided not to say anything and went about her day. The day was rough. The news of Mrs M had Casey second guessing herself all day. It was after the end of her shift when she went to the cafeteria to get something for the journey home when she saw Ethan. She had not told him but the guilt was eating at her and she needed to tell him. She sat down. He asked her if she had heard.

“It was me, I wanted to find a way to get out of the hospital, we stumbled onto a treatment that would work but still had a chance of failure. I told Mrs M the chances and she said yes. I then went through proper channels and my request was denied, then we planned the heist.”

Ethan so badly wanted to hold her hand in that moment but he refrained.

“What you did was kind, I have always been proud of how you have looked out for not just the physical elements of patient care. I do wish you thought of the consequences.”

“As a consequence I have been second guessing myself all day,just feel so guilty.”

“Stewing guilt helps no one, especially your patients,” Ethan looks at his watch, “Come, let’s go to the opera, I am a season ticket holder.”

Casey smiles sadly. When they are safely in his car he gives her a kiss. They arrive at the opera house. Casey’s breath was taken away by how gorgeous the interior was. She was not expecting to be seated in a box. Ethan stated that this was his box, he did not get to use it as much as he liked. They took their seats and Ethan took her hand in his. It was an Italian opera, about a girl who fell in love and a journey to the underworld. It was an emotional story. Ethan could not help but draw parallels to how he was feeling. He loved Casey, even though he had not told her but he knew some decisions had to be made. Despite the Mrs Martinez episode, she was still number one intern and it was likely, if nothing happened that she would be number one and on her team. He sure as hell was not going to have her reporting to June, she would know something was up straight away and Baz was not workable either as he did research more than patients. He wanted so desperately for them to work but could not see a way forward and more importantly how do you tell the woman you love that you need to end it. Sure they could remain secret like they have been but she definitely long term deserved more than a clandestine affair. Instead he thought of what he wanted to do to her assuming she was coming back to his. At the thoughts, his hand went up her thigh to her centre, Casey moved slightly to allow him better access. She was soaked so he teased her nub before moving to her folds and inserted two fingers. Casey’s breath hitched at contact then she got more turned on with how bold Ethan was. How she stayed quiet she did not know but she eventually came all over his hand. He quietly whispered “good girl” in her ear before continuing with watching the rest of the opera. The opera finished and she kissed him. She wanted to reciprocate right then and there but decided against it. They went back to his place, finished what they started multiple times over. Casey drifted off into an exhausted but blissful sleep. Ethan stayed awake, a myriad of thoughts going through his head, surprisingly the only regret was for what he knew needed to happen.

They got up early so he could drop Casey home, she gave him a kiss before exiting the car, unbeknownst to them, the kiss was seen by Landry. He was appalled. He had put in what he thought was a lot of hard work but yet he was unable to crack the top 5 of the competition. He suspected that Dr Emery was so high because all the attending wanted to stay on the good side of Harper but he could not figure how Casey was so high up and maintaining it with all the sabotage then that kiss, she had to be sleeping with him he thought. The plan to get her fired was in effect, he had anonymously told the family about the unauthorised treatment but the fact that Ramsey was sleeping with her, he could not wait to let this rumour loose.

He did not get the chance, however. An investigation was called and Casey and the gang were paired up. Casey was paired up with Aurora. Both were not happy. They had a difficult case too which was not helping. Meanwhile, Ethan was struggling. He got the results back and they were not good. Naveen had only one month to live and despite Casey’s assistance, he had literally run out of ideas. He knew that Naveen would want to make the most of the time that he had left. Casey saw him, he could tell she needed him, both as a mentor but also as Ethan but he needed to be alone. He shut her out. He felt bad about it but he needed it. Casey and Aurora did figure out what was wrong with little Tommy and something crystallised for Casey. It was not Aurora who ratted her out, it was from within their midst.

She went to the locker room. Landry was there.

“It was you wasn’t it?”

“Yes” said Landry arrogantly.

“Why? Some of what you did could have really impacted the patients.”

“No it wouldn’t have.”

“How the fuck can you say that?”

“Yeah and how has you sleeping with Ramsey not impacted your position?”

Casey looked shocked.

“I saw you get dropped off and the kiss. I work harder and study and yet you are on top and sleeping with the boss.

Casey is seething. She knew she was getting harder cases but she was solving them.

“Yes I have had some difficult cases to solve but I have solved them, no assistance from Dr Ramsey. Yet I can think of several instances where your plan has not worked because you were not thorough enough. Any changes in lifestyle are just as important in solving the case.”

“All of that is superfluous…”

“No Landry, it is not, a patient is more than the symptoms they present, listening to them can hold the key. Like with my first patient, the tests lead to one issue, it was not right but I remembered something she said and it lead to the correct Diagnosis.”

Landry was flabbergasted. Unable to say anything.

“Is that why you ratted me out?”

“Yes, your actions robbed a family of their mother…

“A mother who was trapped by her treatment. She resented it, Landry.”

“Yeah well who gave you permission to play God or are you hoping that sleeping with Ramsey is enough to save you.”

The rest of the gang walked in, confused at what was going on.

“It was Landry that ratted me out to the family.”

“Landry,No, why?” Said Sienna, both shocked and angry. The rest of the gang stood behind Casey.

“What, it does not bother you she gave a treatment that killed someone? Does it not bother you that she is sleeping with Dr Ramsey and getting preferential treatment?”

“We knew what we were getting into with the heist but we did it anyway. Yes we are sad she died but at least she got to go out on her own terms. Because Casey actually cares about her patients, that is why she is on top.” Said Jackie.

Landry took his leave, I will pack my things and be gone.

Casey thanked the gang for sticking up for her. She went and finished her shift. Not wanting to address the elephant in the room.

She found Ethan and he apologized for his behaviour. He said he had to tell Naveen he had a month left to live. He was dreading doing this. She asked him to come with him. They went to the room. He could tell by the looks on our faces that the news was not good. Ethan apologizes for not been able to cure him. That he only had a month to live.

Naveen, despite the news, was understanding. I know you put everything into this, but sometimes there are mysteries that can not be solved. Now I am going to take my leave and enjoy the lake house I rarely get to enjoy. They see him off. He gives Casey a hug and whispers to her “do not let him shut you out, my dear” and he embraces Ethan. “Don’t shut her out, she has been great for you.”

Ethan is taken aback slightly and they watch him make his way to the bus stop. Casey gives him a hug and they share a brief kiss. He says I am so sorry and makes his way inside. He hands his badge in and quits. Casey, as well as Harper are shocked. Casey runs after him. He can see she is upset.

“I am not the man you thought. I am sorry Casey.”

He walks away, leaving Casey standing there she’ll shocked. How she finishes the shift she does not know. On the train ride home she listens to the voicemail.

“Rookie, I am sorry for today. I need a few days to process, you and me are not over, I know I have taught you to never give up so please don’t, your career is worth fighting for. I will contact you when I am ready.”

His message gives Casey food for thought. She knows she did the wrong thing for the right reasons but how to go about clearing her name.

——

Authors note 2. Yeah that was a good place. Next chapter will be intense. Have ice cream or whatever comfort food you need.

Tagging: @jerzwriter @jamespotterthefirst @genevievemd @potionsprefect @liaromancewriter @cariantha @peonierose @youlookappropriate @tessa-liam @trappedinfanfiction @bex-la-get @a-crepusculo @crazy-loca-blog @schnitzelbutterfingers @binny1985 @ofmischiefandmedicine @lucy-268

@choicesficwriterscreations

@openheartfanfics

[being-of-rain]

Some thoughts on my Classic Who watchthrough, the second half of season 21. I’ve got really behind on these thoughts, whoops. I’m still hoping to get through them all before the end of the year!

First of all, before I forget- why on Earth does the cover of the Planet of Fire DVD have the random heat suit right in the middle, but no Turlough on it anywhere??? Bizarre. You know I love the glimpses of genuine drama and character depth in this show, so I adore Turlough in his final story. The way he keeps secrets and sabotages the Tardis at the start, it’s just like old times. It’s so much more impactful because we’ve seen him grow and change, so reverting back like this feels like something big. Then the way he and the Doctor’s friendship is pushed close to breaking point is great to watch, when they’re forced into a situation where the Master turns up and lives are hanging in the balance, and the Doctor tells Turlough “if you're holding back anything that will aid the Master, our friendship is at an end.” This is a real soap opera for Turlough, I didn’t realise this was such a family drama. And then at the end he makes a choice to face his past! It’s just so good. Every day I pray that Doctor Who gets a bit more experimental with its companions so we get more character journeys like Turlough’s. Oh, and he goes to save Peri’s life while he’s busy with his own stuff too, good on you Turlough. Peri has a pretty strong start! Like a lot of companions, she feels like she gets a bit more generic as her time in the Tardis goes on, but her first story paints an interesting picture. I have to say I agree with her step-father that her plan to join a bunch of strangers for international travel at such a young age was a bad idea... though I guess that’s more or less what she ends up doing in the Tardis anyway. Though to be fair I thought she adapted to it very quickly- One of the first things she does when waking up to find herself on her first alien planet is to find a way to fend off the Master by threatening a Tardis component he needs and fight his control of Kamelion. Her accent is very much under development though huh. Isn’t the story that Nicola Bryant tricked the BBC into thinking she was actually American? How. I’m a big Dr Who fan who’s been binging through this series at break-neck speed, and even I forgot that Kamelion was onboard the Tardis by the start of this story. I can only wonder if casual viewers at the time remembered him at all, like a year after he was last mentioned, especially when his reintroduction here was so sudden. Maybe he was a massive pest of a roommate though, judging by how much satisfaction Turlough takes in disabling him with a vindictive “you’re finished Kamelion!” The Master reminded me of a wild west preacher in this one. I don’t remember seeing much of this story as a kid, except for the one cliffhanger when Peri opened the box in the Master’s Tardis to find the Master was shrunken inside. Iconic. Also, I know the set for the Master’s Tardis is basically always the Doctor’s Tardis with a black makeover, but the implication here is that he modified his central console to look the way the Doctor had modified his to in The Five Doctors, which is hilarious. Finally, the Doctor really says that he’s going to change his ways after Tegan leaves, then the next story kills Kamelion and the Master pretty easily huh. Damn dude. He also gets to say “obey me” at one point when trying to control Kamelion, which felt so weird but fit with the idea of a darker series.

I didn’t have a lot of notes written for The Caves of Androzani, probably because I’ve seen it many times before. Though this is somehow the first time I’ve noticed the way Peri’s accent slips in it. I know it’s a really solid story, but tbh the serial isn’t going to make a list of favourites for me. Bleak stories with basically no likable characters just aren’t really my thing. My favourite bit is naturally the part three cliffhanger. What a phenomenal moment. Maybe it’s because of how grounded and well made the rest of it is, but the Cave Beast really does stand out as particularly fake-looking. But I also thought that about the Myrka in Warriors of the Deep. Surely two of the least convincing monsters in Classic Who? I can suspend my disbelief pretty easily for most of the things in this show but I struggle with them.

One of the only things I really knew about The Twin Dilemma going in was that it was rated the worst Doctor Who story a few times in DWM polls, so I was interested to see what I’d think of it. And now that I have, honestly I feel like I’ve seen worse? Maybe it’s because I’ve absorbed a Lot of Who EU content, and that really raises the bar for what could be considered the worst Doctor Who story. Plus I didn’t really find it boring, which is a crime many other stories commit, but perhaps that’s just because this is the first time I was watching it. I think ultimately a lot of the story’s bad reputation comes from the Doctor’s madness ...which is fair. I think the show doing something different with the Doctor was a very good decision, especially after the Fifth Doctor, and I like how Six explicitly references in the story that his personality is a reaction to Five. And that sort of thing can be done very well, as shown by the Twelfth Doctor. But I think the show made a few big mistakes with Six (and I’ll always say that none of them were Colin Baker’s fault, who was clearly very talented and did the best he could with the scripts he was given). All the mistakes basically come down to the story not really making clear what Six’s personality actually is. The biggest crime of the story is his bouts of madness, like (infamously) strangling Peri, which don’t actually reflect nothing about the character, and don’t mean anything in the story at all. They’re just things that happen... for shock value I guess? Compare to Twelve in Deep Breath, whose extreme moments like leaving Clara without the sonic and taking a coat from a homeless man still felt tied to the character’s newly prickly pragmatism. At the end of Twin Dilemma the Doctor announces that he’s “fully stabilised,” but that doesn’t make a great character introduction when it doesn’t make very clear which extreme bits of his character are staying and which are just going to be ignored with no consequences. Then there’s two things that make the mess worse: firstly, they end the series like that. Maybe they thought that would make people curious about the next series, but personally I think showing the main character at his most unlikable then telling people to come back next time for more of it is a bizarre choice (Again, Twelve’s Deep Breath was better for being at the start of the series, and letting the audience explore the character further soon after.) Secondly, the next season clearly doesn’t have a strong idea of the character, because despite announcing him to be stablisied, Peri goes on to say that he’s still unstable quite a lot next season, and he definitely keeps a lot of his unlikable qualities. In short, in order to make an ‘unlikable Doctor’ work, the Dr Who writers needed a strong idea of what they were going to do with him, and they simply did not.

Anything about the rest of the story? The Doctor being mean meant that the times he had sweet moments with Peri and Azmael stand out. Him saying “brave heart Tegan,” was sweet as well, and so was Peri smiling at the end when he announced “I am the Doctor whether you like it or not.” Tbh one of the things that seemed the most out-of-character to me was when the Doctor calls the Tardis hideous! I bet he felt awful about that later. Something I didn’t like about the story was the way it used the word “alien” all the time as if it made sense to use when the main character is a different species, and sometimes as if the word meant ‘enemy.’ Very bad vibes! I hate it. Something I did like in the story was how Peri could still be very competent even though she was overwhelmed by the Doctor’s changes. One of my favourite moments in the story is when she teleports into the Tardis, a policeman in there points a gun at her and tells her to stop, and she just ignores him because she’s got more important things to deal with like worrying about the Doctor. Amazing. So yeah, that’s the end of Five and the start of Six. Close to the end now!

[herasyndlla]

if you're in the mood i would like to hear about your dnd characters!!!!!!!!

ooooooo you have given me such a treat asking this, i LOVE talking about my characters. i will only talking about characters i have played as and not the backlog i have sitting in reserve. though... maybe another time cause i have some good ones waiting! i'm going to go in order of playing them.

starting with eryn! she's my first dnd character and boy is she. a wood elf ranger, basically a princess. dead mom issues. she was difficult and learning to be a team player. she's my baby girl, i learned how to play dnd with her and she will always have a special place in my heart.

next is isobel! she's my longest running character, started playing her in 2018 (though we're on a hiatus atm but we'll be back at it this year). she is the most made from me character. i have figured stuff out about myself with her. she's my warlock turned wizard.

her story is soooo sad and sometimes i think maybe it's too sad lol. she was chosen for mysterious reasons as a baby by a demon who proceed to kill her parents to isolate her at age 7. the demon befriended her though isobel had no idea what they are. eventually a young couple took her in and her adoptive dad started to teach her magic. at 16 her country fell into turmoil with civil war, most likely caused by the demon (it was, she only suspects this now). in her escape of her home, she made a pact with the demon for magic and unknowingly gave away a piece of her like soul, binding herself to them.

at 19, in a new country, she meets a group of other travellers and they all start working with a rebellion to free the country she's in now. a lot of stuff goes on, she causes some pretty bad things trying to get out from under the influence of the demon. she does try to break her pact, and while that has been unsuccessful, she has rejected the magic she was given and now uses her own powers.

she also has fallen in love with a paladin who is one of the rebellion leaders, this young sweet and very strong girl named zephyr. they are not together, it is super slow burn, and isobel doesn't think she is worthy enough to love her or to be loved by her. it's good. we're all rooting for these cuties.

this is the very first art of isobel by my dm @gladejade

next is meriele. she's a fun one. my girlies and i briefly played curse of stradh before deciding it was the best fit for us at the time. she's a high elf wizard, using necromancy magic to heal people instead of hurting people. she used to be like a teacher or teacher's assistant at a magic school but left. she ended up traveling with two other people before ending up in the vampire stuuuff. she was fun and messed up but wanting to be good.

finally, there's my girlie sefris. she's a rogue assassin in training and i loooove her. we're playing waterdeep and it's so much fun. sefris is of a family of rogues who are like the spies and secret bodyguards from this noble family. she, the youngest in the family, fell in love with the youngest son of the family she works for. i cannot share his name because the other players are trying to guess it and one of them does follow me here lol (i see you, rose 😘). they're found out and she gets distracted on a job, potentially losing a family member, and the boy's parents send her on a job to waterdeep to like prove her dedication to them and her family. she meets two very fun ladies in waterdeep and gets into a lot of fun shenanigans and now the three of them own a tavern. i looooove sefris she's a lot of fun to play. she's my first not good aligned character (chaotic neutral) and it's a fun change. this campaign is also on a little hiatus and i cannot wait to get back to it. we at one point went to an opera and the opera was the story of eryn's group lol.

[notsobeautifuldisaester]

Do otome villainesses actually exist?

When browsing vndb,I got an idea; How many otome villainesses I can actually find. It’s well known in the otome community that villainesses are mostly a rarity usually reserved for mobages and faceless mobs. 

While you’ll be hard pressed to find a villainess in a modern otome game due to multiple reason “some people consider it sexist plus let’s be real in a good chunk of plot oriented otome who has time for -insert jealous twin drill groupie- when the world’s about to end”?

So when sifting through the rival tag I got a decent bunch of characters that fit the role.

(Please note: I don’t have much info on these character outside of character summary, so I don’t know if they hit the other tropes of otome isekai like dying horribly, attempting to kill the heroine or a condemnation event plus I never played these games)

Charlotte Eckerhardin- Pretty☆Witch☆Academy! (R18)

She’s betrothed to one of the love interests and in love with another plus she’s described as “determined to make him her "Partner" any way necessary.”

Wakamori Midori- Miss Princess Miss Pri!

There actually three rivals but Midori fits the bill the most being haughty and hass a prissy look to her

Jougasaki Ririko- Saikin Koi Shiteru?

In love with one of the love interest and is described “the jealous prideful type who hates to lose”

Cossette Gipeldi- Oukyuu Yasoukyoku

In love with LI and eats the protagonist like a rival due to her being his twin sister. (And if you’re wondering, Yes they go there)

Yuurakuin Towako- Full House Kiss

A haughty girl who’s cold to the protagonist. It says “her goal is to gain elite status by marrying a rich and powerful man” so there’s a good chance that she could be gunning for one of MC’s LIs

Richil Emaiyu & Deana Carlsait - Ripple no Tamago ~Apprentice Magician~

Mainly Richil due to her antagonizing the MC and stealing her work (plus she has twin drills). Idk if Deana counts since she’s actually a LI’s rival.

Elizabeth- Soshite Kono Sora ni Kirameku Kimi no Uta

Haughty looking girl who considers herself the MC’s rival.

Carlotta- PersonA ~Opera Za no Kaijin~ (R18)

A prima donna who flirts with one of the love interest. Plus, she ends up dying.

Ejima Shikiko- Hanaoni ~Koi Someru Toki Towa no Shirushi~

Treats the protagonist as an obstacle due to them being oni’s brides

Goutokuji Sakurako- Dear My Sun!! ~Musuko★Ikusei★Capriccio~

She kinda counts... She’s more of rival in the “who’s kid is better” raising sim of the game then a love rival. Plus twin drills.

Hayami Nadeshiko- Sto☆Mani ~Strobe☆Mania~

Doesn’t get along with the MC and respect the LI (tbh she seems more like a tsundere than a villainess)

Kotoo Ruka- Panic Palette

Has a connection with LI and considers the protagonist a rival at first sight (a bit extra but go off)

Ookuma Karen - Butlers ~Meshimase Ojou-sama~

In love with LI and related to another.

Fana De La Wibell Leyendike- Albaria no Otome

Wealthy, Ambitious, and a daughters of noble

Shinogami Rie- True Fortune

I don’t have much on this girl but she’s described as cold-hearted

Toujou Yurika- Otometeki Koi Kakumei★Love Revo!!

A wealthy girl who bullies the MC out of envy

Cordelia- Diabolik Lovers

I guess she counts. She’s a haughty noblewoman who torments the MC over a man (either her husband or her sons) or power 

Madame du Barry- Bara ni Kakusareshi Verite

Arrogant and literally holds animosity toward the MC for not knowing her.

Rika- Amnesia

Practically the most well known otome villianess. Basically made the MC’s life hell of a LI. She did become friends with her in the later game, tho. Plus she runs with toast in her mouth (Not relevant whatsoever but I had to tell someone that fact)

Cynthia/Adele/Martha- Wand of Fortune

In love with LI and causes trouble for the MC, though they seem to comic relief for the most part.

Welp, that was lot. I guess the main conclusion is yes otome villainess did exist but they mainly seemed to died off. some are more rivals in technical aspects like magic or jobs. Interestingly, I found a lot of stereotypical snobby ojou-sama rival type from galges.

This is a bit rambly, I’ll edit in pictures later, I have to get to sleep

[phoenixyfriend]

The Family Tree is... a Disaster

Takes place in the TCW Leverage AU. It does contain a few deviations, namely that the narrative ended up shifting Plo's role in Ahsoka's life, and Ventress's role overall.

This is mostly just dialogue where I outline the fuckery that is the disaster lineage family tree, not actual fic. It stemmed from my incessant need to justify "25yo Obi-Wan somehow got custody of 9yo Anakin without Shmi dying."

Warnings for: canon character death (modernized), canon violence (modernized), and references to Nazis and white supremacists (Palpatine collects WWII weaponry as a parallel to his canon display of Sith artifacts in his office as chancellor, and Ahsoka thinks it's sketchy)

----

"Okay," Cody says, setting down a glass of whiskey as he drops into the seat across the table. "What the hell is your family tree like?"

Obi-Wan raises an eyebrow, and continues cleaning off the definitely-not-stolen crystal komodo dragon he'd won in today's job. "I beg your pardon?"

"You and Skywalker," Cody says, gesturing between Obi-Wan, who is just sitting there minding his own business, and Anakin, who is across the closed-for-tonight bar and doing something inadvisable on the pool table. "You've said he was your brother, and mentioned raising him, which, sure, I'm over twenty years older than my youngest brother, people take over parenting roles all the time. But you have different last names, have mentioned stepfamilies that the other doesn't have, reference things as 'your aunt, not mine,' and I am just getting... very confused. I figured it was personal and I could leave well enough alone, but considering your older brother almost shot us today--"

"Okay, Xanatos is not my brother," Obi-Wan immediately says. "Just. I just have to stop you right there. Xanatos was a student of my father's for a time, but I promise he's not family. Nobody except maybe Komari would consider him even close, and she doesn't count since she's in prison for life and the farthest thing from stable."

Cody gestures. "That, Obi-Wan. That's what I'm talking about. I don't even know who Komari is."

Obi-Wan purses his lips in a failed attempt to not smile. "Do you actually want the explanation? It's long and unnecessarily complicated."

"So's mine," Cody snorts. Obi-Wan waits, patient and pleasant, and is rewarded when Cody sighs. "Please."

"Of course, my dear. To answer your first question, though, Anakin is my half-brother." With a smile, Obi-Wan digs a piece of paper and a pen from his briefcase. "So, center of the chain: me, my father Qui-Gon, my grandfather Yan, and my great-grandfather Yoda. With me so far?"

"Easy enough. Do you have to go back that far?"

"Great-grandfather Yoda is still alive and regularly escaping the old folks' home to terrorize younger relatives, so yes," Obi-Wan says. "Given that you may just meet a tiny, meddling relative of mine when he's bored, we do in fact have to go back that far."

"...how old is he?"

"We don't know for sure. A hundred and eight-ish is the best guess." Obi-Wan shrugs. "It's not a huge deal, mostly he likes bothering Anakin these days. Anyway, grandfather. Yan Dooku. Inherited a minory duchy from his maternal grandfather decades back. Mostly hangs around there because he's on terrorist watchlists in the States."

"Oh, lovely."

Obi-Wan grins. "Trust me, it gets worse. Anyway, grandfather never actually married, but spent most of his time with his 'best friend' Sifo Dyas, who died about a decade back."

"Gay?"

"Well, we know that now, but they got together in the seventies, and this was back when they were both working government jobs, so, you know. It happens."

"Good to know," Cody says. "So, Yoda's kid is Yan, who inherited a title and land from a maternal relative, and had a life partner but never married. With you so far."

"All of Yan's kids were adopted," Obi-Wan continues, sketching out the first branch away from the Yan/Sifo partnership. "Rael was actually grandfather's cousin, maternally, and ended up in his custody after getting orphaned at five. These days, he does most of the stewardship duties at the Serenno Duchy. His daughter Nim is teaching military history at a university in Germany."

Cody nods. "Uncle number one is named Rael, technically your dad's cousin, has a daughter. Got it."

"About a decade after Rael, they adopted my father, Qui-Gon. He and grandfather fought, frequently, but they did care for each other. My father was a botanist, did bio-engineering. We'll get back to him later, because he's where things get complicated." Obi-Wan made sure to leave room around the name. "Just a few years older than me was--is--Komari Vosa. She is... serving a life sentence. I think she fought Jango once."

"She fought my father?"

"To the best of my knowledge, they both almost died, yes," Obi-Wan says. "She's in maximum security these days. She was an assassin. I'll get a call if she breaks out, and I'll let you know along with everyone else."

"Bad news auntie, got it."

"Last adoption, sort of, is Ventress," Obi-Wan finishes off. "A few years younger than me, is technically grandfather's personal assistant and does secretarial work and the like, but we all know he's planning to leave as much of the inheritance to her as he is to the rest of us. She's aggressive and unpleasant, but she takes care of him and hasn't actually threatened to kill any of us yet, so that's fine."

"How'd she join?" Cody asks.

"Ky Narec was a friend of Qui-Gon's; Ventress was his daughter. Ky died a few years after Qui-Gon did, and Ventress was a mess, after." Obi-Wan shrugs and scratches that connection into the little sketch of a family tree as well. "Grandfather offered her a job until she got herself back together, and then she just kind of... stuck around."

"Youngest aunt, more of a cousin." Cody summarizes. "Now we go back to your father?"

"Qui-Gon Jinn was a man of many skills," Obi-Wan says drily. "Adequate birth control was not one of them."

It's almost a pity that Cody wasn't drinking anything, because going by the way he chokes, Obi-Wan's pretty sure the spit take would have been spectacular.

"I'm sorry," Cody says. "Can you repeat that?"

"I was an accident," Obi-Wan says, not even bothering to hide his smile. "So was Anakin."

"So that sounds like... a story."

"It is," Obi-Wan confirms. "My biological mother has never been in the picture. They had a fling, she wasn't sure if she'd want to abort or give me up, just that she wasn't ready to be a parent, and Qui-Gon volunteered to take full custody so she could go back to her life after the birth. I've never met her, but I kept her family name. You can consider her irrelevant beyond that."

Cody nods.

"So, when I was about a year old, Qui-Gon reconnects with an old flame, they get married two years later. Step-mother number one is Tahl. Lovely woman, I absolutely adored her, and she had a daughter, my stepsister, Bant Eerin."

"I met her, right?" Cody asks.

"Yes, she was the doctor who patched up my bullet wound a few months ago," Obi-Wan says. "With the giant glasses that make her look a little fish-eyed."

"She was nice."

"She is," Obi-Wan agrees. "At any rate, that was our family for a while, and then Tahl died when I was fourteen. Bant wanted to go to a magnet school for medical studies, and Qui-Gon's grief was... not optimal for taking care of multiple teenagers, shall we say, so Bant moved in with her paternal uncle, Kit Fisto, and Kit's son Nahdar. He's a marine biologist, incredibly friendly, and has no idea of any of the rest of my side of the family's questionable activities. If you ever meet him, you will pretend that we are a legal firm with a team of security consultants."

Cody raises a brow. Obi-Wan despairs. "Best you could do?"

"We're not that likely to run into him." Obi-Wan draws out a new line. "So, Qui-Gon deals poorly with grief. This is also around the time that Xanatos came around to ruin our lives a little. He was a very rich and unpleasant man, but he's dead as of four hours ago, so you don't have to worry about him. Or his son."

"His son?"

"Anakin handled that," Obi-Wan says. "Thoroughly. Granta Omega is no longer an issue. He's not dead, but... well. Anakin has his ways. Er--I should probably mention Feemor; he was my father's assistant at the university for a long time. Anakin and I still call him our uncle."

"Also a person to avoid mentioning criminal activity to?" Cody prompts.

"Well... no, but only because I don't think he'd care. The man is, forgive me, more of a 'walking sweatervest' than I am. He's a very bland and unassuming man. He once described himself as the background character of the soap opera that is my family's existence."

"Sounds like a charmer."

"Oh, he's very kind and clever, and witty as well. I adore him, and he really is family. He's just also very, very normal. Not boring, but..." Obi-Wan trails off and shrugs helplessly. "He's an editor for an agricultural research journal. Also not someone I anticipate us running into."

"Noted."

"Right, so, Qui-Gon dealing poorly with his grief didn't involve much drinking, but there were a few months of him trying to... lose himself in the pleasures of the flesh?" Obi-Wan tries, and then deflates at the look on Cody's face. "He was slagging around. Shmi got pregnant with Anakin, who was born when I was sixteen. Shared custody at first, Qui-Gon got him weekends and every other holiday, that sort of thing, and then they got married because they actually did like each other well enough, and it was easier on the taxes."

"So Shmi is stepmother number two."

"Shmi is stepmother number two, yes." Obi-Wan sketches in Anakin and Shmi. "About nine and a half years after Anakin was born, Shmi and Qui-Gon were in a car accident with... well, it later turned out it wasn't an accident, there was a hitman called Maul involved, he's actually Ventress's second cousin or something, I don't know. Grandfather handled most of that problem. Qui-Gon died, Shmi was in intensive care, and I got custody of Anakin as his nearest adult relative. We weren't very close before that, because I was off at university by the time he was old enough to form memories, but that changed once he started living with me. I more or less raised him as a single parent from that point."

"This is why he jokes that you're like a father to him."

"Precisely," Obi-Wan says. "Shmi took about a year to recover enough to move again, and grandfather covered the costs. She still had to live with a dedicated carer and attend daily physical therapy. At that physical therapy, she met Cliegg Lars, whose son Owen was also a patient there. They hit it off, and three years later, they married. When Anakin refers to his stepfamily he's talking about the Lars out in Nevada."

"Nevada?"

"They have a farm. A very, very normal one. We don't drag them into our activities, unless we have an at-risk person who needs a safe house." Obi-Wan pauses, and then decides this really needs to be stressed. "This is important to me and Anakin, that we don't get them involved unless there's absolutely no other choice. Shmi's been through a lot, and the Lars are busy enough running the farm."

"Works for me," Cody says. "We've got enough safe houses that it shouldn't be an issue. I'm guessing this story doesn't end there, though."

Obi-Wan grimaces. "My own love life has been... a bit of a mess."

"I already know about Kryze, at least."

There's that. "I was temporarily engaged to a friend, Siri Tachi, shortly after high school. We were in a relationship, but this was mostly something done to appease a relative of hers that was getting overbearing to the point of absurdity, and she couldn't just cut them off. We broke off the engagement after the relative passed, and we're still friends."

He notes that down, then adds the other embarrassment of his early years. "First marriage was actually a drunken joke between myself and my best friend when we were in college. We got it annulled a few months later because we just didn't have time to drop by the courthouse before then, and he's actually engaged to Asajj now."

"Asajj?" Cody asks, watching in fascination as Obi-Wan tries to mark in both his own short marriage and the newer, long-term engagement without crossing any lines. He settles for just writing the name twice and including an asterisk with 'this is the same person.'

"Ventress," Obi-Wan clarifies. "Yeah, Quinlan's a fun guy. His little sister, Aayla, treats Anakin like a beloved younger cousin."

"Are they also off-limits for criminal activity?"

"No, Aayla's the one that taught Ahsoka how to vent-crawl," Obi-Wan says. "And I'm pretty sure Quinlan has contacts in every major government branch, criminal organization, and Fortune 500 company on the planet. I reach out to them regularly."

"Resources, then."

Obi-Wan nods. "Some time later, I married Satine. We had a son; you've met Korkie. We split due to incompatibility a year and change before Qui-Gon's death. Satine doesn't engage in criminal activity, but Bo-Katan is..."

"I've met Bo-Katan. I know what she's like, Obi. You don't have to explain."

"She works with Maul sometimes."

"...the man who killed your father?"

"Yes. It's all very stupid and convoluted." Obi-Wan still writes her in. "So, that's them. Korkie goes to boarding school, and I try not to involve him in anything. Anakin and Ahsoka like to teach him self-defense and the like, but Satine is adamant that he stay unaware of my less legal dealings until he's an adult."

Cody shrugs. "Makes sense. Is that every--wait, no, Skywalker's married."

Obi-Wan grins. "Yes, and Padme's got twins on the way."

"I was there when he told us," Cody says drily. "He was very loud about it. Okay, how does Ahsoka fit in?"

"Hold on, I forgot Beru," Obi-Wan mutters. "Owen's fiancee. Same rules as the Lars. Okay, you asked about Ahsoka. Right. So. Um."

He dithers. Cody waits for him, and then Obi-Wan just gives up. "Ahsoka, dear, would you like to explain how you joined the family, so to speak?"

Ahsoka looks up from whatever she and the boys are doing--there are multiple beer glasses and straws and duct tape involved, and Obi-Wan doesn't really want to know--and then flips off the table and over to Obi-Wan and Cody. She looks over the family tree chart, and then says, "Oooh, did you tell him about the cult?"

"You were in a cult?" Cody demands.

"No, Komari was. She was head priestess or something. I dunno, it's why she's in prison and stuff."

"I did not tell him about the cult," Obi-Wan mutters, already regretting this. "The Bando Gora aren't a problem anymore. I've already gotten to explaining how you and Anakin know each other."

Ahsoka rolls her eyes, steals his pen, and starts sketching in around Quinlan's name, over by Asajj since Obi-Wan's section is too crowded. "Okay, so, Quinlan's adopted. His dad is Tholme, and Tholme's dad is Plo Koon. Plo Koon is good friends with my Auntie, Shaak Ti, who raised me. They live next door to each other, out in the country, and I'd play in his yard a lot, because he had puppies, and he took me to visit his bees. Whenever Auntie needed a babysitter, she asked Quinlan or Aayla to do it since she knew and trusted them, and Aayla needed pocket money."

"This is so unnecessarily complicated," Cody mutters.

"It is!" Ahsoka chirps. Her grin is far too sharp. "So, this one time, Aayla was watching me when I was fourteen, and she was just helping me with my physics homework. BAM, the door slams open, and in stumbled Skyguy with his arm missing. I've never met him before, and my first introduction is him shortly after he's gotten an unplanned amputation."

Anakin, on the other side of the room, giggles. Obi-Wan just sighs. The Fett brothers appear to be in the land of 'horrified fascination.'

Ahsoka revels in it. "There's blood everywhere, I'm screaming, Aayla's panicking, Anakin's halfway to unconscious and insisting we can't call the hospital, and nobody can get Obi-Wan on the phone. Quinlan's in another country, and Auntie Shaak and Uncle Plo are at a movie, so they've both got their cellphones off. Tholme was faking his death at that point to get away from an incident with the Irish Mob, so we didn't even try him."

"What the actual fuck," Rex breathes.

Ahsoka continues with relish. "We get Bant to pick up, and she's there an hour later with Padme, because Padme knows how to drive the way Skyguy does, and the entire drive there is just Auntie Bant on speakerphone telling Aayla how to stop the bleeding and get him stabilized while Padme's screaming at traffic at the top of her lungs."

"I owe Aayla a fruit basket," Anakin muses aloud. "The anniversary of her saving my life is coming up, it's warranted."

"Five years, baby!" Ahsoka crows. She fist-pumps.

Obi-Wan just drops his head into his hands. "You're killing me, children."

Anakin shrugs, grinning. "You know, I think Fett Senior might have been involved in that fight."

"My shitty dad cut off your arm?" Rex demands.

"No, I think he was busy fighting the Interpol guy," Anakin says. "But he was definitely there. I think. Blood loss kinda got to me after a bit, but I'm pretty sure Jango Fett was there, and also Boba might've been hiding in the getaway car?"

"I need another glass," Cody mutters. He doesn't stand up, though.

"Wait," Rex says. "So who cut off your arm?"

Anakin shrugs with an unsure noise. "Someone tried to convince me it was Grandpa Yan, but he was in the middle of a court case in Italy for some kind of parole violation when it happened, so he had an alibi."

"...did he actually violate parole?" Cody asks, and Obi-Wan thinks he looks like he doesn't know if he actually wants an answer.

Ahsoka shrugs. So does Anakin. Obi-Wan carefully looks at a spot behind Cody, and doesn't explain anything about wine tastings used as covers for illicit arms deals.

"The arm?" Rex prompts, sounding a little desperate to get back to the question he likely thinks is the most important.

"I still say it was Skeevy Sheev," Ahsoka chimes in.

"It wasn't Palpatine," Anakin snaps.

"Your creepy older friend who took you to operas and gives you fancy gifts and knows way too much about swords who was conveniently there to talk to the police and cover for you so you didn't get arrested for getting in the middle of a gang war in the first place, yes," Ahsoka says, dropping into a chair and sighing dramatically. "The guy who definitely hasn't been trying to convince you for a year and change that your wife is cheating on you with your older brother."

"Ahsoka!"

"What? He is."

"Anakin," Rex says, "your life sounds like a trainwreck."

"I'm not going to assume a frail, elderly man cut my arm off!" Anakin protests. "Even if he wanted to, he doesn't exactly have the muscle for it!"

"Grandfather's older," Obi-Wan points out, even though he knows it won't help. "And he definitely still could."

"Ha!" Ahsoka shouts.

"He could have hired someone?" Cody suggests. "Doesn't need to do it himself, if he has enough money."

Obi-Wan has a sneaking suspicion that Cody is deliberately stirring the pot as revenge for Anakin sending him eighty-seven cat memes inside an hour during last night's dinner.

"You all suck," Anakin declares. "Also, what the hell do you mean 'knows way too much about swords,' Ahsoka? You know way too much about swords!"

"Yeah, but I'm like ninety-percent sure that his antiques are Prussian and mid-century German military officer dress uniform relics, and pairing that with the Nazi pistols he's got on display--"

"He's just a history buff! And his family's German, of course he prioritizes that region, it's not like he doesn't have Russian or French or English antiques in there too, it's all sides of the war and--"

"I'm just saying he's almost definitely sending me sketchy glances like he thinks I'm planning to steal the silver on the three occasions you've had me with you when you stop by, and I'm pretty sure it's got less to do with my criminal record and more to do with me being, you know, not white."

Anakin looks ready to blow, so Obi-Wan interrupts. "Ahsoka, you were explaining how Anakin passing out on Aayla and scaring us all half to death led to your friendship?"

Ahsoka blinks at him, and then sticks her tongue out at Anakin and turns back to the chart. "So basically, Skyguy had to recuperate in Uncle Plo's living room for a week or two, and I kept showing up to bother him because he was bored and nobody would give him a laptop for 'security reasons,' because he had to lay low and stuff. He made me help him sketch out designs for a prosthesis and do all the writing for the math he had to do for the 3D printer, and we got to chatting."

Ahsoka hops up and back onto a table, legs swinging below her. "I decided he was cool and started following him around while he was getting used to only having one hand, mostly because I was bored. He showed me how to hotwire a car, and explained the best places to put a bug if you were looking to make it sneaky, and he picked my pocket to show off so many times when he was walking around Uncle Plo's house that I made him teach me that, too. And, uh, then Aayla found out and they got into a shouting match about it and decided they both needed to teach me parkour so I could get out of any mess I got myself into, since I was obviously going to follow them into a life of crime."

"And you did," Anakin says, far too proudly. "You're the best thief in this half of the country."

"Only because Aayla moved out east."

Anakin rolls his eyes and pulls Ahsoka into his side, digging his knuckles into her skull. "Best thief! You are the best thief! Be proud of yourself!"

"Let go!"

"Never!"

Obi-Wan sighed heavily and rubbed at his forehead. "Children, please."

"You're not my dad," Ahsoka growls out at him. "Skyguy, I'm going to bite you!"

"Good luck, the only arm you can access is the one that's going to break your teeth."

Ahsoka shrieks in outrage and stomps on Anakin's instep.

It's almost funny, for all that Obi-Wan's seen it play out a million times before, but the really interesting part is seeing Rex's look of fond dismay.

Obi-Wan thinks he might be adding a branch out to the Fetts soon. He's not actually sure if Rex is interested in Anakin or Ahsoka, and he's smack dab between them in age, so that's not a help either, but... well. The expression is familiar enough.

"Please tell me you don't match-make," Cody mutters to him.

"No, I plan to let the pieces fall where they will," Obi-Wan responds, just as low, and far more amused. "I'm simply trying to predict where those landings are to be."

Cody looks at him, and then back at the roughhousing trio, and sighs heavily. "You know, I really didn't think that you technically being minor royalty was going to be the least convoluted thing in your story, Obi-Wan."

He laughs, because it's true. "I'm first in line to inherit the title, since Rael denounced his claim. Nim isn't interested, and Qui-Gon's dead, so... I'm next."

Cody makes a face. "Delightful. I'm guessing that's not a connection we can safely make use of."

"No more than the Kryze or Naberries, I'm afraid." Obi-Wan claps him on the shoulder. "Chin up, I've plenty others in the metaphorical rolodex, all far less legitimate and far more amenable to work with our little outfit."

"Rolodex, really?" Cody snorts. "You're not that old."

Obi-Wan smiles winningly. "You don't know how old I am, Cody. All my IDs are fake."

"Anakin's twenty-four, and you're sixteen years older than him, going by the story you just told me," Cody points out. "I do know how to do basic math, Obi-Wan."

"I had to try," Obi-Wan admits. "I threw a lot of information at you all at once; I'd hoped you missed some of the ages in there."

"I have eight brothers," Cody scoffs. "And literally dozens of cousins, plus niblings, uncles, aunts, and so on. I have experience on this."

"If I asked you to list of the age of every single relative you have, you'd be able to do it?"

"Do you want me to draw a chart? I can draw a chart."

Obi-Wan can't help but laugh. "I'd be delighted, my dear."

Cody rolls his eyes, but Obi-Wan thinks--it's hard to tell in the dimmed lights of the closed bar--that there's a hint of a blush on the man's face. Obi-Wan lets himself slouch to the side, drops his head to rest on one fist, indolent debauchery in every line of his body. Cody does his best to ignore him, but Obi-Wan knows how to smile lazily and blink slowly and draw a man in.

(The whole 'indolent debauchery in every line of his body' phrasing is Anakin's, from back when he was a teenager trying to read highbrow literature to impress a cute girl... and to come up with new insults for his older brother.)

"So," Cody says, with a cough meant to somehow distract Obi-Wan from whatever's showing on the man's face. "Why, uh, why is your grandfather on terrorist watchlists?"

"Well, he didn't initially do anything," Obi-Wan says. "He was just a gay man who didn't hide it quite well enough, and had too much money and too white a face for someone to just call the cops on a faulty report. The Red Scare was technically over by that point, I think, but if a few people made suggestions that he was more loyal to the country that gave him a noble title than to the United States... he received a few warnings, of course, and it could have all blown over..."

"But?"

"But my grandfather is not a man to do things by halves, and instead decided that if the government was to list him as a threat, then he would oblige and make himself a threat," Obi-Wan finishes. "Living up to their labels, rolling with the assumptions, whatever you'd like to call it. It all irked him, and so he made some incredibly questionable decisions to make the government's lives harder. Some weren't bad, like donating to anti-war foundations that were protesting the Gulf War and the interventions in Yugoslavia, that sort of thing, and some were... nobody really looks well on gunrunning, you know."

"For fuck's sake..."

"Indeed," Obi-Wan chuckles. "Ironically, he has minimal opinion on the optimal form of economics, for all that virulent xenophobia and the remnants of anti-communism were involved in the whole mess. He just wanted to create problems for the people that were causing him problems."

Cody shakes his head. "I want to judge that, but you've met my father."

"Jango Fett is, indeed, also not a man to do things by halves," Obi-Wan agrees, attempting to nod gravely but breaking into a smile at the end. "That man is absurd."

"At least he's not dragging Boba into it anymore," Cody mutters. He drags over the fresh sheet of paper and pen that Obi-Wan offers him. "Okay, right, let's start with Jaster..."

[alleiradayne]

The absolutely chaotic Drama that is Elden Ring’s lore is a hilarious soap-opera dressed up in the disturbing horror fantasy genre. 

An Empyrean from the lands of Numen, Marika, is granted godhood by the Greater Will, an outer god, to rule over The Lands Between. With this godhood, she becomes the host of the Elden Ring. Through a long war, she unites The Lands Between with her husband, the first Elden Lord, Godfrey (the man previously known as Hoarah Loux). They have three kids, Godwyn, and twins Morgott and Mohg. The twins are cursed for some reason. The reason is never known.

Marika wants a world without what is called Destined Death. Basically, it’s just death, but it exists as a rule in the Order which is dictated by the Elden Ring. The ring is made up of a bunch of runes. One of those runes is Destined Death. Marika strips the Elden Ring of that rune and hides it with her half-brother and Shadow (read: bodyguard), Maliketh.

Then she gets bored? I guess? After a while she starts thinking to herself, “This Golden Order really sucks, and I’m not down with this Greater Will asshat.” She tells no one about this, strips Godfrey and all of his kinfolk of their grace which cuts them off from the Erdtree, and banishes them to fight and die in other lands so that they might return to grace stronger. But nobody knows she did it. So it’s just this thing that happens, some people are “Tarnished”, without grace, and have this mission upon death and resurrection to go to The Lands Between to return to her. This is you, the player.

She also has a “male half” of her person that exists as a separate second person named Radagon. He, at her order, tried to conquer Lirunia but failed twice and instead fell in love with the Carian queen, Rennala. So he married her. They had three kids, Radahn, Rykard, and Ranni. For some absolutely unfuckingknown reason Ranni is also an Empyrean like Marika. Do not ask why, there is no explanation and contradicts how Empyreans are typically created.

Anyway, without an Elden Lord, the Erdtree (oh by the way there’s this big giant golden tree, the Erdtree, that derives its power from the Elden Ring) is at risk. So Marika demands that Radagon leave Rennala and become the second Elden Lord. That happens. It breaks Rennala’s heart. Marika has two more kids with Radagon.

Yup. That’s right. She has two kids. With herself. There is literally no questioning this nor explanation for how the fuck this works or why. Marika and Radagon are supposedly the same person yet somehow existing in two separate bodies, one “female” and one “male”. So they have two children, twins Malenia and Miquella.

There’s this rule that only Empyreans can ascend to godhood, like Marika did. And Empyreans aren’t just born because two Empyreans did the do. Nope. Empyreans can only come from ONE Empyrean. And no, not like Radagon and Rennala. Even though Ranni is somehow an Empyrean, that’s not how it works. One Empyrean has to just randomly choose to birth another. It is quite confusing, especially considering Ranni’s existence.

Remember the twins, Malenia and Miquella? They are Empyreans because Marika and Radagon are the same person, just two halves living in separate bodies. So their twins fit the criteria. Except they’re cursed, one with a rotting flesh and the other with permanent childhood.

Y’all, this is the part where shit starts going crazy.

The Greater Will has chosen Ranni to succeed Marika. But Ranni is a moon magic snow witch, she wants nothing to do with this sun lightning god bullshit. So she figures out a way to kill her body but maintain her spirit. She steals shards of Destined Death to imbue into the knives of several assassins. These assassins are all Numen women close to Marika. She sends them out one night to kill Godwyn, Marika and Godfrey’s first son. With those Black Knives, his spirit is slain at the same time Ranni kills her body. Her spirit is maintained in a tiny doll that looks like her original mentor, the Snow Witch. All that’s left of Godwyn is a soulless husk.

After that, Marika has had enough. She shatters the Elden Ring. Just smashes it to bits with a hammer. Radagon tries to repair it but only ends up imprisoning them in the Erdtree. The shards of the Elden Ring, called Runes, are picked up by Marika’s children, step-children, and her husband’s ex-wife. War ravages The Lands Between. Mohg kidnaps Miquella and imprisons him in his egg to siphon blood magic off of him, it’s horrible. Malenia and Radahn fight in Caelid and Malenia goes full on Rot Queen, blighting the entire region with her Scarlet Rot and reducing Radahn to a mindless beast that eats everything in his path.

Centuries go by. Then a rando Tarnished wakes up in a fucking crypt in Limgrave one day, skips the tutorial because it’s down a hole that looks like it would kill you, and starts following these trails of light to the Erdtree while riding a fuckin’ Takin. They look like this:

They are destined to become the next Elden Lord (Synthesis). Or change the Order with Flame (Control). Or usher in a new age, the Age of Stars (Destruction).

Wait, what...

[extremelyblackandwhite]

ascendance - 19

PAIRING: mob!bucky barnes x reader

WARNINGS: age gap (reader is 23, bucky is 37), smut (18+) (do not interact if under 18)

A/N: all i’m gonna say is ... enjoy everyone xx

PREVIOUS CHAPTER - NEXT CHAPTER | MASTERLIST

Y/N ran through the endless stairs backstage as she heard the strings tuning up accompanied by the sounds of people looking for their seats. She knew she shouldn’t peak from the wings yet she couldn’t help it. It was her very first professional production ever since leaving university and her heart was beating faster than it could. It didn’t matter if she was merely a chorus girl, in the back, dancing more than singing; it was heaven. It was heaven for her and even though her body was cramped into the boned corset of her dress and the beads that composed her skirt made it extremely hard to sit down, it was heaven and she couldn’t wait. 

She looked up, at all those boxes filled with people and her heart burst with pride. Pride she could be part of something so special, something that’d bring enjoyment to someone else. From the boxes, no one could see anything, all they could see was a red curtain and by gods was that red curtain annoying to Bucky. He never enjoyed operas, even back when his parents were around him, he just didn’t really understand the meaning or even what they were useful for. Most of the time, he’d just slowly fall asleep yet he guessed that now he could no longer do that. Nevertheless, here he was. We must please our allies, and what better way to please Zemo than to bring him to a bourgeoisie activity.

The lights lowered as the composer got up, the overture taking over the silence of the hall. He leaned his head against his head, preparing himself for two hours. Overtime he’d let himself hate all of this, the glitz and glamour of the 1% he once used to belong to. Now he just watched with apathy, not caring or even hearing until the solo performer was joined on stage by various other people and as his eyes moved around, time stopped. He was certain time stopped, he couldn’t hear the music, he couldn’t hear people breathing, everything was still except for her. The girl at the back who slowly moved around to the sound of static, with a smile brighter than the shine of a thousand spotlights. He felt warm before feeling cold right away and suddenly time moved much faster, faster than he expected and the stage was dark. She was gone. 

    - I would have you. 

Y/N stared at him, her hand extending to touch his warm skin. She could no longer allow herself to stay as far away from him as she was, she wanted to move towards him, even if time right now seemed paused. Time didn’t even seem to work properly now, all was blurry but him and she wanted to be close. 

    - Then have me. - her finger traced his jaw and Bucky tensed, taking her hand in his, kissing the top of her palm. 

    - Somewhere in another universe, you are all mine and I am all yours. 

    - You say it like we can’t belong to each other. 

    - Dove, I don’t even belong to myself. - those words came out strangled and while his face was stone cold, the words cried in pain. She wondered how he felt, how he was behind that stone cold apathetic look he chose. - You need to go to sleep. 

    - Bucky

    - I am not going to leave you. - he interrupted her before she could start complaining. - Sleep. 

    - Bucky, I love you. 

He didn’t reply to that, he just held her. Both their hearts broke at that, hers as he remained silenced, not even daring to look at him and his as he wanted to say it back but he couldn’t. That would be selfish. Bucky didn’t want to be more of a monster than he already was. He could do many things, he’d done many things; he’d killed, he lied, he cheated and he used people but he could not find it within himself to hurt her. She, for the very longest time in his life, was the only good thing that wanted to nurture him but Bucky had no business wanting her much less loving her. She fell asleep in his eyes, her heart beating against his pulse, reminding him of how alive she was. She was alive and with a life in front of her, and he had been dead since that night beneath a moonless sky years ago. He was dead and suffering purgatory and she kept walking with him, holding his hand like an angel carrying a torch. He wondered how long it’d take for her to fall. For her to realise that despite all, he’d end up disappointing her.

His mind wandered to Dot. She’d never expected him to be good or to be something more than what he already was. She was okay with the murderer he’d become and she’d known the politican’s son he’d been. She liked the danger but he couldn’t say she particularly liked him. She’d known him many years ago but she didn’t know him know, at least what went on his head. He himself didn’t know who he was right now. Whoever he was, was someone he was not ready to face. Yet again, Dot was not Y/N. No one was Y/N. No one had managed to capture his attention with a single appearence and when he closed his eyes, he could still see her. He could still see her dancing slowly in the spotlight or her childish smile when she took a bow at curtain call. She, the most brightest, the lightest and the goldest woman around, loved him. He loved her but there are loves that are meant to remain stuck in meant to be’s, meant to remain the inspiration of torch songs, to remain the relationship she’d look at when singing the arias which she so beautifully sang. He loved her, she loved him, but there are things which don’t stay and he wouldn’t doom her to him. He wouldn’t bind her to who he was right now. Maybe in another life he can find her, maybe then he’ll be as bright as her but now, now he was the night sky and she was the moon and stars, meant to end the moment hours ended. 

He stayed with her the whole night, holding her as much as he could before she woke up. He knew when she did, they’d have to deal with all that was about to come. Bucky fell asleep closer to sunrise, barely able not to have his mind on a constant run. She was the first to wake up, her spine numb from the harsh floors yet she wished that was what hurt the most. 

Y/N detangled herself from Bucky’s embrace, walking barefoot to the bathroom. She didn’t know what to expect, he couldn’t even tell her his name for the very first weeks they knew each other so she didn’t know why she expected him to reciprocate his affections. She was most likely a distraction and while she was a smart woman, smart enough to know when she was being used, she couldn’t decide on cutting the thread that connected the two of them. The water fell from the shower head, washing all the negative thoughts and leaving her just in a calm state, wondering about her. endings. 

Bucky woke up not much later than when she had detangled herself from him. She was always warm, so warm, and always smelled like a field of daisies, the lack of her was always noticeable. He propped himself up on his hand, looking around the golden lit room, it was so calm, so quiet solely from the sound of water falling which he guessed came from the bathroom. He followed the same path she’d taken, the palm of his hand leaning against the wodden door, slightly pushing it open. He could see her through the fog and the water droplets on the glass, the water rushing down her body as she washed her hair mindless to her dire situation. He didn’t mean to approach her or even peeping on her but his body had a different idea. He stalked her like a wolf, pulling the glass door open. She wasn’t frightened, merely looking at him as she twisted water out of her hair.

He didn’t say a thing, merely cupping her face before placing a kiss upon her cherry lips. She moaned in whantom, her hands climbing up his forearm, to his bicep to his shoulder as she pressed herself against him. His kiss grew past innocence, as he moved to kiss her neck as her collarbone before engulfing her breast with his mouth. She gasped as his tongue played with her nipple, her hands pushing him even closer. 

   - Bucky ... -  she whined as his thumb assaulted her other free nipple. Once he was satisfied enough, he continued his trail of kisses, kissing from the middle of her chest, down her stomach until her mound. His eyes looked up at her, watching just how needy she was for him, how she wanted him. That alone made him hard. 

She attempted to hold herself against the wet tiles of the shower, letting out a O shapped breathe as he licked a teasing strip from her orifice to her clit. Everything was heightened, he could feel the texture of his tongue as he lapped at her pussy. Her head titled, countless moans escaping her lips as he payed specific attention to her clit, sucking on it every lick or so. She felt as if he continued with his attentions, she was gonna fall onto the porcelain floor or cease to exist. Waves of heat came and went as he continued his assault, as if he was a starved man. She gripped his hair as she started to feel her lower abdominal clench, sweat dripping from her forehead along with the warm water until everything seemed to take over her. The heat took over her body and she leaned against the wet tiles, her legs shaking and almost collapsing to the ground had it not been for him holding her up.

Through fluttering eyelashes, she looked at him, finding his eyes clouded with lust. She leaned her jaw against his palm and he returned to kissing her, turning her around and pressing her against the glass. He kissed her shoulder, slightly biting the supple skin he found before aligning his cock with her entrance. Her palm hit the fogged glass, dragging it down as he started to thrust in and out of him. She could feel him inside of her, the vein of his cock dragging against her walls in the most delicious of pleasures. The slow pace quickly became harsh as he held her hips and started to piston in and out of her, solely chasing his own pleasure now, but she didn’t mind. She was feeling plenty already, from her breasts against the glass going up and down and him thrusting in and out. She bite her lip, hard enough to draw blood as she attempted to contain another orgasm. She wanted him to come first, she wanted to see him cum, to see his face whenever she brought him to pleasure. With whatever strength she had, she turned around, her hands keeping her still by holding onto his shoulders.

He was a sight no matter how much he disliked that metal arm. Looking at him was enough to almost make her cum, her eyes shut tight, mouth opened agape and head leaned back, hair framing and sticking to his beautiful face. She leaned to kiss his neck, biting and sucking enough to leave a mark the moment the two got out the shower. She didn’t mind. His movements grew uncontrolled as his grip bruised her hips until he stilled, body shaking as cum painted her insides and dripped down her legs. He attempted to regain his breathe, hands still keeping her up, both still connected. 

   - Dove, I need to tell y... - a knock on the door interrupted him. He slipped out of her, eyes moving immediately to the door. - Stay here. 

Y/N didn’t listen to him. Instead she waited for him to exit the bathroom before she stepped out of the shower, despite her trembling limbs, she dressed herself in his bath robe before stepping outside. As her eyes captured the living room, she asked herself why she wasn’t surprised he was here. He was always here. He seemed to know when to make an appearance which would annoy her. 

   - If it isn’t the mob’s favourite soprano. - he mocked her. - We should start meeting in better times, shouldn’t we, sweetheart?

   - It’s Y/N. - she looked him straight into his brown eyes, defiant. Bucky stared at her, scolding her with those bright blue eyes of his. 

   - I’m pleased with you. - John walked past Bucky, pushing him to the side to reach the soprano, the chorus girl. His fingers traced her jaw, before he picked her chin. - Turns out you can play the role. 

   - Did you expect me not to know how to do the thing I was trained to do? Not everyone’s as incapable as your men. 

   - I’m sure my men are plenty ... capable. - his gaze stood on Bucky for a moment, a smirk drawn on his lips before he looked back at her. - I cannot pay you for your perfomance, sweetheart. 

   - I didn’t know there was even the possibility of paying your captives. 

   - I did decide to do something nice for you, however.

   - Is it stopping interrupting my mornings after every single event where you’re not the main focus?

   - Y/N. - Bucky warned her, moving to try and gain hold of her. Nevertheless, John stopped him, chuckling at her remark. 

   - How about a visit to the opera?

   - The place where they’d definetely know me? Aren’t you supposed to be cunning and smart? - she cocked her head to the side.

John took a step back, almost enthused by the sight of her, yet below this demeanor, his blood was boiling. Was this any other situation, he would have her killed. He wondered how well she could sing with a slit throat. Yet again, as long as she held the Baron’s affections, she was sadly of use to him. Adding to this, the last thing he needed was another murder investigation by the police.

   - You don’t need too worry that empty head of yours. 

   - Is the Baron attending? - she stepped back from him as well, moving to stand by Bucky. Behind her back, her hand moved to hold his, fully knowing she was threading a worn out thread. 

   - He is. - his sight set on the red marks on Bucky’s neck, before looking back at her with a toothy grin. - However, I’ll have Heathcliff chaperone you. After all you two seemed close. 

Bucky’s features hardened as so did his grip on her hand. He looked like a chained animal, wanting to growl and bite his captor but he remained there, anger bubbling in his usually stoic behaviour.

   - Let the opera begin then. 

TAGLIST + BEA’S MOOTS (sorry moots, it is I here to annoy you): @lookiamtrying @buckyswillow @blossomslibrary @juliesland @iloveshawnieboi @unmagically @red-head011 @poisonous00 @boofy1998  @starbuckie @jeremyrennerfanxxxx123 @yosoysere @hungryyeyes  @luckyfiction17 @keito-123 @everythingisoverrated @buckylokisimp @spaaceprincessss​

[thephantomessoftheopera]

Notes on Gaston Leroux’s “The Phantom of the Opera” - Chapter 13: “Apollo’s Lyre”

Image of the Apollo statue on the rooftop of the Palais Garnier from Wikimedia Commons

<< Previous Chapter

The chapter “Apollo’s Lyre” constitutes the basis for the “rooftop scene” between Raoul and Christine in the ALW version, but in the book, it is really all about Erik. It’s quite possibly the most important chapter in the novel because we meet our title hero face-to-face for the first time, and because Erik overhearing Christine‘s plan to escape provides a turning-point for the plot.

The symbol of Apollo's Lyre is not only present in the Apollo statue on the highest point of the rooftop (that Erik is supposedly clinging to here), but also adorns the chandelier both in the Palais Garnier and in the original production of the musical.

At the end of the preceding chapter, Raoul had vowed to take Christine away, but she is still at war with herself about the idea. She wants to leave because she is afraid, but at the same time, warns Raoul that he will probably need to force her to leave since she isn’t emotionally ready to let go:

““But if I refuse to go with you when the time comes for you to take me away, you must make me go!” [...] she spoke these words with a forcefulness that seemed to be directed against herself.”

Every time Raoul offers to take her away right then and there, Christine refuses with an excuse of why it’s not possible to leave just now. Yet she is afraid that the next time she goes to Erik, she may never leave again. Erik seems to make her feel very deeply - but too much feeling can be very terrifying, especially if it’s a wild ride on that emotional rollercoaster of ecstasy, horror, pity, despair and passion that he sends her on. It’s no wonder she rationally wants to get out before it consumes her, and yet is afraid of losing it.

While she begins telling Raoul the whole story from her perspective, they repeatedly think they hear sighs, but still remain in the same place. This is a bit odd, considering how they kept running around before, but now, Christine insists that they stay, which is a bit curious. It is possible that she thought they were safe - but considering her general unwillingness to leave, I think it is even possible that she might be subconsciously sabotaging her own escape plan.

When Christine speaks about how she first met Erik, it becomes clear that masquerading as the Angel of Music was not initially Erik‘s idea. When Christine heard Erik in her dressing-room for the first time three months ago, he sang and spoke to her like a real man, except that he had this beautiful angelic voice and was hiding in the passage behind her room, so that he could not be seen. The first person to suggest that he might indeed be the Angel of Music is Mama Valerius, who prompts Christine to ask Erik if he is the Angel her father had sent for her. Erik jumps at the opportunity presented to him and confirms that her assumption is correct, and asks if she will let him teach her. She consents, and together they make amazing progress, developing both Christine’s technique and her inspiration to hitherto unknown heights.

One day, Christine sees Raoul at the Opera, and eagerly tells Erik about it. I bet he bitterly cursed himself then for passing himself off as an Angel, leaving enough space in Christine’s heart for a real man. But his threats to leave cause her to despair and to try to ignore Raoul - also because a marriage to him would be out of her reach anyway. Now it’s Erik’s turn to whine and accuse Christine of being in love with Raoul in the same way we’ve seen Raoul do before. But just like with Raoul, she won’t have that and even challenges Erik that she will ask Raoul to accompany her to Perros. According to her, Erik’s jealous reaction made her realize that she loved Raoul. I wonder if madly jealous Raoul also made her realize that she might possibly be just a little bit in love with two very different men?

Subconsciously, she seems to kind of know already that Erik is not really an angel, because when the chandelier falls, she is half-mad with panic and terribly afraid that it may have killed “the Voice” (and it would be a bit difficult to kill a heavenly being even if you dropped a chandelier on it). She also admits that then, Raoul and Erik were both “the equal halves of her heart” (and I think they still are, beneath all the complications that have arisen in the meantime). She runs to her dressing-room because that is where she is most likely to find “the Voice”, and when she hears the sounds of Erik singing and playing the “Resurrection of Lazarus” on his violin, she follows his voice through the mirror without being able to say how exactly she disappeared through it. She suddenly finds herself being gripped by a man in a black cloak and a full-face mask and tries to fight back, but then faints. When she wakes, she is resting on the ground near a fountain, and Erik is gently tending to her, but doesn’t reply to her questions so as not to give himself away as “the Voice”. Christine recognizes César the horse, and realizes that even though she never believed in the ghost, she had heard the rumours about him stealing the horse.

Erik takes Christine to the house by the lake, first on César’s back (that’s what he needed the horse for, after all) and then in the famous boat (which is rowed in the novel). She is no longer terrified, but feels strangely peaceful - an effect which she attributes to the possibility of having been drugged, even though she admits that at the same time, she was still in full possession of her senses.

“Lake Averne”, the name of the lake under the Opera House, is a play on words as well as meaning. First, “lac averne” is almost the same as “la caverne”, which means “the cavern”. There is also a real lake named “Lago d’Averno” in Italy, and in Roman mythology, that lake is one of the entrances to the Underworld. This fits with the fact that Erik also bears characteristics of Charon, the ferryman to the Underworld, whose name can be literally translated as “with glowing eyes”. The iconic boat ride certainly resembles the passage into the Hades, which is even alluded to in the novel.

The water tank below the Palais Garnier. Image from atlasobscura.com

Let’s stay in the Underworld for a moment. “The Phantom of the Opera” can also be seen as a variation on the story of Hades and Persephone (Christine’s ship in “Love Never Dies” is not called “Persephone” for nothing). Hades, the god of the Underworld, fell in love with the young and beautiful Persephone and wanted to marry her, but as the goddess of spring, she wasn’t willing to abandon the world above and go to live in the Underworld. Therefore Hades abducted her, she finally consented to marry him and became queen of the Underworld. Due to the intervention of her infuriated mother Demeter, it was finally decided that she would divide her time between living on earth for some months every year and living in the Underworld for the rest of the time.

When they arrive, Erik sets a confused Christine down in his brightly lit drawing-room, which has been decorated with an enormous amount of golden baskets full of flowers. It is not quite clear where all the flowers come from, so I guess he bought them all for her. With a salary of 20,000 francs, he could probably afford the luxury of spending so much on flower decorations… He tells her that she is in no danger, as long as she doesn’t touch his mask. When Christine realizes that the Voice is not an angel, she starts crying. Erik then kneels down in front of her and proceeds to tell her without further ado who he is, begs her to forgive him, and lays his heart at her feet. He confesses how much he loves her, and how wrong his actions were, but that he did everything out of love for her. It seems that Erik was rather anxious to reveal the truth that he is not really the Angel of Music and end his deception, but at the same time, was waiting for an opportunity that would allow him to explain everything without the risk of her running away from him forever. Keep in mind that he took on the role of the Angel of Music for just a couple of months, not years as it is commonly assumed.

Christine then stands up to demand her freedom, and is taken aback when he actually concedes it to her, telling her that she is free to leave. But after all, she does not leave because he starts to play the harp and sing for her. The piece he is singing here is the “Canzone del Salice” from Rossini’s “Otello”, in which Desdemona laments the cruelty of love. It is often assumed that the „Otello“ Leroux is referencing here is the more famous “Otello” by Verdi, but that one didn’t premiere until 1887, while the story is definitely set before 1886. Furthermore, Rossini’s version of the “willow song” is the only one that starts with a harp solo. The song is included in the playlist, listen to it here:

https://open.spotify.com/track/25ILZhCIWIRjJVK8SqDWzn?si=U5EPiO_ySBOlIy5XvI1BGw&dl_branch=1

The next morning, Christine awakes on the couch in „her“ bedroom (aka the “Louis-Philippe room”) where Erik must have carried her after she had fallen asleep. When she can‘t get out, she suffers a fit of hysterics, although it seems that she has simply been unable to locate the door set within the wall. Erik has been out shopping for her, which is a rather cute scene when he comes back with all the boxes for her while she yells at him. He calmly tells her to get ready for lunch, and she slams the door in his face so she can take a bath in peace. She places a pair of scissors within reach so that she could kill herself if Erik “stopped behaving like an honourable man”. Her concern is understandable, being alone with the man who is madly in love with her, however it is important to note that Erik never physically forces himself on her throughout the story.

Remarkably, Erik’s house had both hot and cold running water, something that was still very rare then, which suggests that he actually lived in better hygienic conditions than most people at that time, and that he was a skilled engineer.

When she finally joins him, he tells her that she does not need to be afraid, and that all he asks for is that she will spend 5 days with him. After that, he hopes that she will come back to see “poor Erik” from time to time, shedding a few tears beneath his black mask as he speaks. He serves Christine lunch in the drawing-room, consisting of crayfish, chicken wings and Tokay wine, but he himself does again not eat or drink. From their conversation, we learn that Erik has taken on his name “by chance”, whatever that means. The meaning of the name is “sole ruler” which is quite fitting for him.

When Christine has finished eating, Erik invites her to see his room, and she doesn’t hesitate as she instinctively trusts him. Apparently Erik has a very gothic taste as far as room decorating goes, and all this also plays heavily into the death symbolism of his character. Erik sleeping in a coffin is reminiscent of vampire stories, especially because it seems to be a choice and not a necessity. There is also an organ with the score of “Don Juan Triumphant” on it, written in Erik’s customary red ink(?). Erik tells her that he started composing it 20 years ago. Christine asks him to play her something from his “Don Juan”, but Erik refuses because “some music is so formidable that it consumes everyone who approaches it”. It is quite significant that the “sing for me” motif is absent from the novel version, in contrast to the ALW version where it is very strong. Erik, in the novel, has no plans for Christine to sing any of his music. He wants her companionship and her love, and he wants to sing together with her and lose himself in their shared passion for music, but he definitely does not see her as an instrument of sorts. He did help advance her career, but not with the intention of having her perform his work.

Erik makes it clear that his own music is very different from Mozart’s „Don Giovanni“ and from “opera music” in general. “Don Juan Triumphant” can be seen as an allusion to Lord Byron’s epic poem “Don Juan” (in which, incidentally, Don Juan is sold as a slave to the sultana of Constantinople).

He sits down at the piano and starts singing the duet from “Otello” with Christine. There is of course more than one duet in “Otello”, but this one is most likely “Non arrestare il colpo/Notte per me funesta” from Act III (here: https://open.spotify.com/track/151M60b3qxzqKLDFwIVuUB?si=WX4TDWCeQVmIChqd6u7CyQ&dl_branch=1 and here: https://open.spotify.com/track/2Ep1OncGZCNR9yFevG6Pb6?si=QzG2JztuQ42MDoiVrLAaew&dl_branch=1 ) In this scene, Othello accuses Desdemona of betraying him, while she tries to convince him that she is innocent. She realizes that she has fallen victim to Iago’s plot, but Othello does not believe her and stabs her. This opera, for once, is in Italian, while most of the other pieces that appear in the “Phantom” are sung in French.  

The unmasking in the novel happens while Christine is swept up in the passion of her duet with Erik. She “stepped closer to him, attracted and fascinated, enticed by the idea of dying at the center of such passion. But before dying [she] wanted to see his face…”

It’s not like she is sneaking up to him out of pure curiosity, but rather reacting to an instinctive wish to pull away the barrier between them. The scene is even more tragic because with a normal face, the passionate mood that Christine was in would have potentially led to her kissing him. But sadly, his face is anything but normal, so Christine recoils in horror instead. Erik’s reaction to the unmasking is violent and horrific as he goes mad with rage at her, even hurting his own face with her fingernails - an expression of his self-loathing. Throughout the scene, Christine seems fixated on the horror of his face more than his behaviour, though. Ashamed of himself, Erik crawls out of the room and shuts himself up in his bedroom.

“Apollo’s Lyre” by Annie Stegg Gerard

Erik’s appearance as described in the novel is indeed bordering the realm of the fantastic and supernatural. He is so stuffed with death symbolism that it is hard to take everything literally. Christine’s description makes it rather hard to see him as “real” because he seems to look like something straight out of a nightmare.

It is important to note that Erik is not just run-of-the-mill ugly, but that he is very clearly associated with death in many ways - from sleeping in a coffin and having funeral-style decor in his room to actually looking like a „living corpse“. Erik and Christine can be seen as a literal expression of the artistic topos „death and the maiden“, which especially towards the end of the 19th century associated death very strongly with the erotic (see https://eclecticlight.co/2020/01/05/paintings-for-our-time-death-and-the-maiden/ for a very good overview of the motif). Death here is usually represented as either a skeleton or corpse, or as an angel - which is very much in line with Leroux’s Erik.

”Girl and Death” by Edvard Munch

Combined with the fact that Erik‘s music creates feelings of passion, rapture and ecstasy in Christine, it is not a big stretch to conclude that Erik is associated not only with death, but also with sexuality. The duality of sex as both a life-creating and life-threatening force was acutely perceived by the people of that period. Love and death are connected, and both are represented in Erik‘s character. ALW‘s musical adaptation recognized this strongly erotic undercurrent in the story and translated it very aptly into songs such as „Music of the night“ or „Point of no return“. The way in which Christine describes her lessons with Erik - that they “awakened an ardent, voracious, and sublime life” in her, and made her live in a “kind of ecstatic dream” can also be interpreted as her romantic awakening, with all the frightening emotional chaos attached to it.

Raoul, on the other hand, is more associated with purity and propriety - which is reflected in how he views Christine, and the standards that she must conform to in his opinion.

Before seeing Erik’s face, Christine admits that she *would* have come back, but that now, she would never return because “you don’t go back into a grave with a corpse that loves you”. Note how she switches from the first person to the impersonal “you” in this sentence - “you” might not do that, but we already know she did in fact go back more than once. And she is still able to see something of the angel in him because he does not take advantage of the situation, but leaves her alone, turning to his music again.

And then, “music has the power to abolish everything in the outside world except its sounds, which go straight to the heart”. Erik starts playing the finale of “Don Juan Triumphant” where “ugliness, lifted on the wings of love, had dared to look beauty in the face”. Through the music, Christine can glimpse into the depths of Erik’s heart and soul, feel his torment and suffering, and is overwhelmed with compassion.

Once again, she is the one to tear down the wall between them. She pushes open the door to Erik’s room and asks him to show his face, sincerely thinking that she can handle it - but it turns out, she really isn’t quite able to when there’s no music between them. But she manages to put on a brave facade and lie to him about being able to look at him without horror. She despises herself for her lies, but then she also does what she must in order to be set free. Erik takes her for walks along the shore of the underground lake, and for carriage rides to the Bois de Boulogne (that’s where they ran into Raoul in Chapter 9). After two weeks, Erik finally trusts her so much that he is willing to set her free (with conditions, of course). It’s really heartbreaking when she mentions how he dared to try to make her look at him even when he wasn’t singing, like a “timid dog”. At this point, he is in her power just as much as she is in his.

When she finally leaves, she is moved more by his tears than by his threats, and his pain is what gets her to come back in the first place: “Those sobs attached me to him more strongly than I thought when I said good-bye to him.” Part of why she is afraid to leave is that she fears it will kill him if she leaves him.

At the end of the chapter, Raoul asks the fateful question that sums up the tragedy of Erik and Christine:

“You’re afraid, but do you love me? If Erik were handsome, would you love me?” “Why tempt fate, Raoul? Why ask about things that I keep hidden at the back of my mind, like sins?”

Christine’s reply along the lines of “Don‘t ask” was cut from the de Mattos translation. It clearly evidences that Christine has conflicted feelings for Erik that go beyond only horror or pity, and that she prefers to suppress them so she doesn't have to deal with them. The statement also shows that if Erik had not been cursed with his face, then things might have looked very different for him and Christine. Attentive readers of de Mattos might nevertheless notice that her next line „If I did not love you, I would not give you my lips“ evades addressing the „what ifs“ Raoul posed, but it still makes her appear less conflicted than she really is. Christine’s heart is a pretty deep ocean of secrets, and at the back of her mind, there seem to be quite a few things that she is unwilling to admit to herself, as Raoul suspected before:

“You obviously love him, and your fear, your terror - all that is still love, of the most exciting kind! The kind you don’t admit to yourself.”

I haven‘t really counted, but this must be like the fifth time that Raoul insists on his suspicion that Christine is in love with Erik, and he just can‘t get a „no“ out of her. That “no” is given very directly though when he asks her if she hates him. She kisses Raoul to prove that she loves him, at the same time telling him that the kiss is just a one-time thing („for the first and last time“). Then “the night is torn apart”, and the last thing they see is a pair of glowing eyes looking down on them from Apollo’s lyre - which are clearly Erik’s, who has overheard the entire conversation…

Image from wikipedia

Next chapter >>

[anigerrrr]

Girl’s Talk

Natasha Romanoff x Carol Danvers

Word count: 1.5k

Summary: Kamala is introduced to Yelena, and she’s also the biggest fan of her sister’s ship- CarolNat.

Warning: Fluff, Protective Yelena, Kamala ships CarolNat, Slight Thor/Loki(mentioned)

a/n: Just random pieces written after having my covid vaccine yesterday lol I’m not sure how will Marvel deal with Kamala’s superpower in the upcoming series so I only mention a bit of it. Enjoy!

/

“Ok, can anyone tell me why we always have a new kid in the compound?”

Yelena puffed as she entered the compound a bit later than usual, and she saw her sister, Carol and an unfamiliar teenager already standing there.

She came over to join them, gazing at the new girl with distrust.

“Yelena, did you just call yourself in the third person?” Carol teased, and she shrugged suggestively to the redhead who actually couldn’t hold her laugh back for this moment.

“Ha, is it some kind of 90’s joke?” Yelena retaliated. Apparently the younger blonde didn’t get enough sleep hours last night, it always resulted in her grumpy reactions to anybody. “If so, Captain, you really need to update your comedy list on Netflix.”

“Hey,” Natasha chuckled amusedly between the two blonde women as Carol protested, “just because I aged slowly, it didn’t mean I’m out of date.”

“In case you wanna know,” Natasha raised one brow and showed her support to the blonde Captain- “She actually likes to watch The Tonight Show during our dinner time.”

-by telling their sort-of secret aloud. It’s not gonna harm the redhead spy herself, though.

“What?” Kamala finally had a chance to let out her voice, “you can’t tell me the mighty Captain Marvel, my idol, watches late-night talk shows when having some spaghetti. It’s simply out of character.”

Carol frowned, “excuse me?”

“Ugh, ok.” Yelena opened her mouth with hesitation. “No, not ok, I don’t get it. Did you just call her- ” her head was pointing to the other blonde woman, “- your idol ?”

“Am I supposed to feel offended?” Carol mumbled nearby Natasha’s ear, lowering her voice to avoid any foreseeable conflict for now.

“Um, yeah.” Kamala rolled her eyes to the much taller woman standing right in front of her, and her voice sounded genuinely fearless. “Can’t you see that? She’s Carol Danvers!”

Natasha grinned back at the blonde woman, and only teased quietly, “see, someone really has a crush on you.”

Carol blushed in the tiniest way, opening her mouth slightly but had no idea what to argue. Our Captain couldn’t even tell if the redhead was seriously jealous. Fantastic.

“So you like the name or the glowing part?” Yelena hummed, and tried to hide the little noises from her stomach out of hunger.

“All of them, I guess?”

“Oh, I got it now.” The younger widow turned to her sister, and was not surprised that Natasha had been checking on her already. “We’re having a superhero fan tour here.”

Yelena wanted to get her breakfast as soon as possible, so she tried to be nice and not to get involved in this duty. “Enjoy your day then, just don’t touch any fluffy things around here. The cat can literally swallow people, and the raccoon will shoot you in the head.”

“What? No!” The brown haired girl shouted, “I’m not here for a tour.”

“Yelena, she’s a new member in the team- ” Agent Romanoff finally introduced, and took a quick glance at Carol with a playful smile. “- another one with super power, yes.”

“…wait, what?”

“Not that kind of power to control thunder like Thor or to trick like Loki- by the way, aren’t they a lovely couple?” Kamala explained a little bit, and suddenly changed the subject triggered by her interest.

“Ugh, it’s not officially announced.” Natasha was surprised to hear the little girl’s words, a status that not many people had learned about- even in the avengers’ team.

Impressed. Yelena stared at the kid and thought, still needed her breakfast, though.

“New kids.” Carol shrugged, “we’re actually talking about tomorrow’s mission.”

The redhead immediately started glaring at the blonde Captain.

“You’re leaving for days? Tomorrow?” And Yelena tiled her head to her older sister. She’d better not be the last person to know this.

Clearly someone had forgotten their domestic plan for tomorrow.

“Well, not ‘for days’,  I’ll be back before you know it. At least that was the plan.” Natasha looked a bit…nervous, but not speechless. By her side, the Captain who’s in charge of the mission seemed to be awkward for a minute, and they shared a look of silent communication.

“Yelena, you’re welcomed to- ”

“Uh- uh, no. I’m not interested in being the third wheel in your mission date. Besides, I’ve got my own thing to deal with as well. Just remember to pick me up at 8, and feed Fanny before you leave the house, it’s your turn.” Yelena shook her head quickly like nothing’s gonna convince her, and the other young superhero goggled upon hearing some keywords.

“Wait, you two are dating? ” Kamala asked in excitement, “oh my god, CarolNat is real.”

“Well, it’s- we’re…” the blonde Captain suddenly stuttered, “we’re close, yes. That’s true.”

Natasha rolled her eyes back to show her feedback towards Carol’s explanation, and refused to make any eye contact with her sister who just accidentally sold their privacy to the newest avenger.

“Oh, I thought that was your superpower.” Yelena shrugged to the two older women, kind of feeling sorry for the coming out declaration she made for them. “Like, telling the lovebirds in a group of people.”

Kamala gave her a ‘seriously?’ look, “nobody owns a superpower like that.”

“You never can tell.”

“Ok, things got a little tense here.” Carol tried to calm them both down before they made a wrong impression on each other. “It’s time for breakfast, how about I make you guys some really nice omelette?”

“Oh God.” Natasha sighed exaggeratedly, but she didn’t deny the purpose. When Carol turned, she just pushed her sister’s shoulder and forced the younger blonde to follow. “C’mon Yelena, you love eggs.”

“I never said that.”

“Wow, Captain Marvel is making me an omelette…am I dreaming?”

“Never had a nightmare before?”

“Yelena!”

*

“So…”

A half hour later, Yelena was staring at her plate and trying to figure out why it’s not like a normal ‘omelette’ she had seen on television. “In what universe an omelette looks like this?”

“Well, it’s not that bad.” Natasha took a bite of hers, perfectly ignoring the fact that it resembled more scrambled eggs rather than an omelette.

“Stop being rude- ”As they both saw Carol and Kamala on their way to the table, Natasha squeezed her sister’s hand and ordered softly, “and tomorrow I promise to buy you the expensive tweed coat you always stare at in the display window.”

“Huh, it’s exactly why I really can’t stand to undergo a mission with you two. Deal.” Yelena sounded mockingly but she didn’t mean to embarrass her anyway. “You turned weak, Natasha. You knew it, right?”

Natasha only hummed in russian as a response (something like ‘you’d know that when we spar’ ), and grinned when Carol sat next to her as usual. The blonde Captain was finally done with cooking everyone’s breakfast and Kamala had surprisingly finished hers, only sipping a glass of apple juice.

“So, how did you meet?” Said Kamala, aka the newest avenger with extraordinary attention to the secret pairs around the base, “how long have you been dating- I wanna know the whole story.”

“Here we go.” This was the best reaction for Yelena to ‘stop being rude’.

“Well, first of all, I won’t deny or admit any statement of it…” Natasha cleaned her throat and started, her sweet butter sandwich was left on the plate.

“We’re apparently colleagues.” Carol promptly interrupted with a shrug, which made the redhead widen her green eyes in disbelief.

“I met her after the snap, and during the five years, the feelings just kinda grew on us.” The blonde smiled gently as she took Natasha’s hand, “after the end of the war, we started hanging out once a month like normal people, later on it began to be once a week as my main works in space were separated to the new-trained protectors and the Guardians. That’s it.”

Kamala was literally speechless, looking like she just got the best Christmas gift for this year.

“If you kiss her like those cliched soap operas now, I’m gonna kill you both.” Yelena did like the eggs, but obviously she wouldn’t say it. Instead, she ate it up and mumbled her statement after hearing the shorter version of their romance.

“Yelena.” Natasha raised one of her brows, reminding her who’s in charge on this table. And their deals .

“Alright, just kidding.”

“Can I take a picture when you do that?” Kamala immediately stood up and asked Carol, it seemed no one actually cared about the debriefing of tomorrow’s mission anymore. “-when you kiss Black Widow.”

Her Captain was flushed, “w-what?”

To save her partner from the short circus situation, Natasha rolled her eyes and pulled Carol’s arm all in a sudden. All Kamala could do was open her mouth widely in amazement, and tried hard not to scream like a fan who was completely out of control.

Natasha left a rough kiss on the corner of Carol’s lips, her blood red lipstick stained slightly on it.

“Satisfied?” She said with an impeccable grin, leaving the flummoxed blonde behind her.

“This place is harmful for my heart.” - the newest superhero from Jersey City claimed.

“You’re gonna get used to it, kid.” - and the former widow from the red room finally agreed with her.

“I should have stopped leaking the key information.” - the blonde Captain knew it deeply that Natasha’s not gonna take it easy on her tonight.

[welcome-to-the-cafe]

Lust, Caution (2007)

What a good movie. Very stressful, suffering watch though. I will never look at Tony Leung the same ever again. Not that I've seen that many of his works (I'm sorry), but going into Shang-Chi after those bedroom scenes....hmhmhm.

Let's get into it.

The setting is my favorite period of Chinese history, Republican Era, partially because elicits strong feelings from yours truly, and partially because it has great aesthetics. The dresses. The cars. The gap between rich and poor. The impending invasion and atrocities you only know about in retrospect. The intrigue. The nationalism. What an awful time for living, what a great time to make art about later.

The students and their patriotic play reminds me of the my own college life and my own amateur play. Of course, theirs had much more public appeal and impact...and darker inspirations. Wang Leehom (who I recognized instantly but could not name until much later), was phenomenal as the wide-eyed idealistic Kuang Yumin who yearned to make "real contributions" to his country. This was his natural undoing of course, and that of his friends, being sucked into his charisma, and love interest, the main character Wong Chiachi. They were all doomed the moment he came up with the naive assassination plot.

The crux of the scheme is Chiachi, who is a phenomenal actress in all levels of story and metatext. An interpretation of her skill is that she injects true feelings into her performances; when she acts as Mrs. Mai, she really thinks of herself as a young lonely socialite, not an innocent college student. This is also her undoing, I believe. As Mrs. Mai, Chiachi is not fully able to isolate her heart from her target's advances. When she tells Mr. Yee she hates him, she is telling the truth, because she does think he is evil, but what following seems also to be honest; that she hates him for being away.

This is one criticism I have of the plot; I do not believe the movie did enough to show how Chiachi and Mr. Yee bonded emotionally. Like, they fucked. They fucked kinda gruesomely to be honest, because it seemed mostly to be sexual abuse (though mutual). I guess that's the point, that it was just lust that bound them together, but at the same time, I felt it should not have been enough to infect Chiachi to the point of giving it all up for him. Maybe that is just my own disappointment in her.

Perhaps it's a combination of push and pull. Chiachi is pulled by lust toward Mr. Yee, but it may not have been enough without the push from her "allies". More strongly portrayed than the fucked up lustful affair, I think, is the growing resentment and internal feelings of betrayal that Chiachi felt for her allies. Mr. Yee used her body for rough sex, but the revolutionaries (or "terrorists" as we started out calling them) used her body too for murder. Whether it was justified murder or not is moot; murder itself was horrific, something that all these students all knew they would hesitate execute. They openly worry about this multiple times: in their initial planning, when practicing shooting, when their prey is almost in the clutches. The wide-eyed idealist tries to convince everyone that it is easy, because he know it isn't. During the fight with Mr. Yee's chauffeur confronts them, Kuang Yumin stabs him less out of practical necessity I think, but as a learning opportunity to take life; to "blood" himself, and the group, to push everyone over the edge of hesitancy. Each of the students took turns to stab the dying chauffeur in order to cross the murder threshold. Traumatizing themselves together, they would be more willing to take on Mr. Yee. Chiachi, however, is truly horrified and runs away. This was what she was being exploited to do, and she couldn't handle it.

Her exploitation by allies is honestly to me the most heartbreaking part of the movie. She joins the outfit because of her crush on Kuang Yumin, but it was Yumin's scheme that set her as the honeytrap. It was Yumin who let one of his friends take her virginity, instead of stepping up to the role himself (Bruh! You like the girl! Go fuck her! 我的天呀。。。). Yeah, yeah arguments for authenticity so need someone with more experience, but that friend only screwed a prostitute once. It just adds to the suffering, for Chiachi and for the viewers. And then it was Yumin who brought her back into the scheme. Of course, she consented, but he knew two previous undercover mistresses were killed, so if he truly wanted to protect her he would've left her alone...or like banged her properly. By the Heavens. We know this bothers Chiachi a lot too because she tearfully asks him about it after a heated exchange with the mission controller. Speaking of which, what an asshole. "We move when I say we move". Like sure dude, we feel for you that your family got killed and you want to make this scheme count, but can't you see you're betraying this woman again and again every time you let her get raped and don't make a move? Of course not, he's blinded by rage. And yet the wuss doesn't have the stomach to listen to her recount her trauma. What an asshole, jesus.

I think it is frustrating to think about, because it all makes sense in a fucked up way. It is like solving an equation that returns an unfavorable answer, and yet you cannot find sufficient fault in each step.

So yeah I believe Chiachi betrayed the cause more because of push than pull.

Although...I only now remember the tender moment at the Japanese geisha house, where she sings for him the sweet folk tune. Previously he commented on the Japanese being afraid of the Americans, suggesting that he's just a nihilist resigned to his job; the sweet nostalgia of her opera bit may have cracked him for real for the first time in a while.

The final shots of Mr. Yee being sad about Chiachi...yeah, I still have zero sympathy for him. My headcanon is that for consorting with mistresses so much, the Japanese betrayed him to the Republic and he is led into a trap, where he is injured in a brutal confrontation, but is successfully captured. He is then jailed until after the Second War, where he is released to work for the KMT's counterespionage. However, he is not as sharp as he used to be, and he is led into another honey trap, only this time, he is busted the very first time he tries to rendezvous with the girl. He is captured again, and when his past is revealed after the Liberation, he is paraded to the middle of Shanghai and shot in the back of the head.

Looking forward to Tony Leung once again in Shang-Chi.