#i mostly want the devastation of her pining in the woods

[porterprophet]

As Bells Hells trek into the foreboding forest haunted by souls who died and cannot pass on or escape…

I want Imogen to hear music in the Savalirwood.

I want her to hear music, in the dark and creepy woods, that only she can hear and I want her to think it’s Laudna and get lured away like that shit her mom pulled in a dream.

I want her to ignore danger and death and be overcome with her longing and desperation and follow the music like some pied piper calling her and I want her to crack when she realises Laudna isn’t fucking there.

Give me creepy folktales in the woods, Mercer! Give me nightmare fairytale!

[pappydaddy]

the woes of the highly overdramatic (o.w.)

a/n: first business of re-opening requests, getting to the ones that have been waiting patiently! starting off strong, we have a oliver wood x fem!shy!gryffindor!reader requested by a lovely anon! this was very fun to write and enjoyed writing a character who was shy since i suffer from chronic shyness as well. this was largely written from oliver's perspective as i felt like it would make the fic better.

anywho! i hope you lovelies enjoy this and i hope you are happy with this fic lovely anon💛!

tv show/movie: harry potter

pairing: oliver wood x fem!shy!gryffindor!reader

requested part two - requested

description: oliver wood has a crush on the intriguing but shy y/n and he cannot seem to figure out how to interact with her. when he hears that she has a crush of her own, he is devastated until he learns that its on him. now, he must figure out a way to approach her.

warnings: reader is shy but shyness isn't bad and not described as bad in this fic. negative thoughts. slight, very slight angst. fluff mostly really. roughly proof-read, will be proof-read better later.

note: reader wears the female hogwarts uniform.

taglist: @just-here-to-escape-reality | @rottenstyx | @boxofsilentwords | @badass-yn | @onyourgoddamnleft

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- not my gif -

Oliver Wood, the stubborn and slightly obsessed Gryffindor Quidditch Captain, never was one to be reluctant, awkward, or scared. He normally oozed self-confidence and he never did anything half-asked. It was all or nothing with him, but when it came to the captivating Gryffindor in his year, he found himself teetering on the edge of making a move and pining silently. He had been stuck in this limbo since their Fifth Year at Hogwarts when they shared their first actual conversation. Of course, they had known of each other before then, but they ran in two completely different social circles.

Oliver hung around the rambunctious and loud Quidditch players when he wasn’t chumming it with his roommates. Oliver had no shortage of people to talk to, he was popular due to his standings in Hogwarts Quidditch. Y/N, on the other hand, much preferred to avoid that much attention and noise. She was quite shy so it was out of her comfort zone to be in fast-paced social environments. Oftentimes, she was lounging in the quiet areas of Hogwarts with her close group of friends. Sometimes, Oliver would see her conversing with her fellow Prefects in a nice, easy-flowing conversation. This never stopped Oliver from becoming infatuated with her even though they probably only conversed a handful of times.

At first, he had been intrigued in their second year when his roommate Percy kept talking of this girl in their year. He had talked of her with a blush adorning his freckled cheeks and a sparkle in his eyes. Originally, Oliver wanted to figure it out simply so he could bug Percy about his crush. When he had finally figured out who was occupying the mind of his roommate and unlikely friend, he immediately realised why Percy was so hung up on her. Just looking at her seemed to calm the world, letting Oliver take a deep breath, ridding his body of tension.

Even now, that they were in their last year of Hogwarts, that feeling never went away. Whenever he looked over at her, he would find himself relaxing as he slowed down. Today was one of those days. Anxiety was swirling within Oliver like a brewing storm and that meant nothing good for him or the Gryffindor Quidditch team for their practice later that night. On days like this, everyone knew to give Oliver his space. His head was always clouded, his temper short, his body rigid. It was like a volcano waiting for the one trigger to explode.

It wasn’t enough for Oliver to be filled with anxiety, but he was also not in a good mood in general - waking up on the wrong side of the bed as the saying goes. His anger only grew more when nothing seemed to be going his way. First-years were occupying the Common Room on the blustery fall Saturday, making the usually quiet environment sound like the Great Hall. Normally, Oliver preferred to sit in the Common Room on Saturdays to work on Quidditch plays, but with the noise, he hadn’t been able to come up with one single play for their upcoming game.

Grumpily, the Scottish Quidditch Keeper was storming through the castle. The library, the second place he would retreat to in order to work on plays, was full with fifth-years fretting over their O.W.Ls, meaning all the possible seats in the library were filled by sleep-deprived sixteen-year-olds. “ ‘Ollo, Oliver,” Fred’s sing-song voice rang in his ears, making the older boy grunt in response, not wanting to deal with the Twin’s antic’s at the moment.

“Lookin’ like a man on a mission, Cap!” George noted as Oliver breezed right by them.

“Alrighty then, see you at practice tonight, Cap!” Fred brushed off Oliver’s lack of interaction, the pair continuing to saunter down the hall, whistling some sort of off-tune song, their whistles syncing perfectly. Making the final turn, Oliver saw why everyone was retreating to the warmest areas of the castle. Instantly, the cold attacked him, the open archways of the windowless corridor letting him feel the hint of winter mixing with the late autumn air. However, he had planned for that. Pulling the wool hat farther down onto his head, his already red ears were protected from the bitter wind. Zipping his puffy jacket up to the top, he snuggled his face into it, only leaving his eyes visible as he made his way along the stone, heading closer to the Greenhouses.

The only people who hung around the Greenhouses in this bitter cold are either insanely mad, Hufflepuffs, searching for a quiet place, or Neville Longbottom. As long as they didn’t bother him, Oliver did not mind their presence. Plopping himself down on a stone bench, he was thankful he decided to layer up his pants. As quickly as he could with gloved hands, Oliver unpacked the parchment, inkpot, and quill from the bag he was carrying, wanting to get to work on his plays.

The sudden sound of a Greenhouse door opening and the bustling conversation flowing from it as the group of Hufflepuffs left made him groan, his eyes fluttering closed in defeat, hoping to Merlin that they would just bustle on by in search of warmth. As if answering his hopes, the group scurried right by as if Oliver wasn’t even there until one of them stopped a few steps after they had passed the ill-tempered seventh-year.

“Hello, Percy, Y/N,” The sound of Y/N’s name made Oliver snap his head in the direction, seeing Percy walking alongside the most magnificent sight Oliver had ever seen. Y/N walked along, bundled up in a red wool coat, buttoned up as far as the two large buttons would allow. A red plaid scarf was wrapped around her neck, covering her mouth and the tip of her nose. A blush pink knitted hat covered the top of her head. One thing Oliver knew about Y/N was that she loved hats with pom-poms on the top (liking how the pom-pom felt when it moved), but she could never bring herself to wear one in public. He had overheard her talking to Neville about it one day when she was helping him with Potions. “Picking Neville up for his Potions tutoring?”

“Kind of, Neville wants to work in the Greenhouse today, apparently he’s trying to nurse a plant back to health.” Percy responded in a somewhat judgemental tone, not understanding how or why Neville planned to nurse a plant back to health.

“Oh, yeah, he mentioned that Y/N was going to help with it,” Another Hufflepuff remembered, her teeth chattering as her body trembled from her lack of winter apparel. “How do you think you guys will nurse it back? Neville was just showing it to me, it doesn’t appear to be doing too well.” Oliver watched, his feelings of gloom, anger, frustration, and anxiety melting away as he looked at her. He could see her shrink back slightly, the large crowd of Hufflepuff’s intimidating her slightly. Her wide eyes flicked from face to face for a moment as they all waited patiently for her to reply. The bit of her wind-bitten cheeks tinged farther, looking like she put on too much blush.

“Uh-” She paused, her voice muffled by her scarf. “Potion. Percy is helping me brainstorm how to create or modify a potion to heal it. We’re using it as an exercise for Neville’s tutoring, hoping if we incorporate Potions with Herbology, he might get the hang of it.” She rushed out, fidgeting as she blinked, questioning if she overshared or didn’t share enough. Oliver thought it was adorable how she always constantly questioned how to gauge and navigate social interaction.

“Oh! That sounds cool,” The original Hufflepuff girl lit up as the cold started to get to her, her teeth also chattering. “Well, we won’t keep you guys out in the cold much longer. Let us know how it goes, will you?” Those words and waves (an awkwardly quick wave on Y/N’s part) were the partings of the group, leaving Percy and Y/N fully exposed to Oliver.

“Hello, Oliver, freezing yourself over Quidditch I see.” Percy remarked, spotting hit awestruck Roommate. Oliver made no attempt to talk back, simply managing a wave as Y/N wagged her fingers shyly towards him, the kind smile she gave him being shown in her eyes.

“Have fun, Oliver.” Her beautiful, muffled voice spoke before she visibly cringed, not knowing why she would tell him to have fun when he was sitting out in the bitter cold, but those few words warmed Oliver enough that he felt like he was in the Common Room sitting in front of the roaring fire.

____

That night, after a particularly horrible Quidditch practice, Oliver was tense and anxious once again. The spell Y/N seems to place upon him was long warn off. This was his last chance to win the Quidditch cup. Storming into the Gryffindor Common Room, he didn’t even take a second to see who occupied the space as he stomped towards the couch, collapsing onto it. “Do you mind?” Percy grumbled when Oliver nearly knocked the book out of his lap.

“No, not really,” Oliver shrugged, sighing as he leaned his head back against the back of the couch. Percy grunted in response, looking back to his book, jotting some notes in the margin. “The team is just a mess,” Oliver ranted, knowing that Percy would just ignore him and let him vent. “Our chasers seem to be out of rhythm with each other, they keep dropping the quaffle, Then a rogue bludger hit George’s broom so he’s on a school-issued one which is just cruddy. But, worst of all, Harry seems to have his head in the clouds! He’s too distracted over something.” Oliver deflated, nearly being sucked into the scarlet couch cushions.

“Percy,” The soft melodious voice of Y/N floated from the stairs, no longer muffled behind her scarf. Oliver perked up, pushing himself up just enough to look at the stairs, seeing her still hidden as her footfalls echoed off the spiral stone. “I was thinking about what you said after we got into the Greenhouse.” She announced, her shadow growing on the stone in contrast to the flickering flames lining the dark and damp stairs of the tower. Even just the outline of her showed the essence of beauty, art, and peace. Percy never looked up from his book, simply waiting for her to hit the bottom of the stairs. She obviously did not notice Oliver sitting there as she blinked at the redhead, pausing for a second to know he heard her.

“About what?” Percy pursed his lips, eyes still scanning the page of his textbook before his fingers flicked to the next page, eyes never once stopping. Oliver settled back into his spot, trying to go unnoticed by the girl. He knew the second she knew he was there, she would clam up and he wanted to know what went on in that beautiful mind of hers, just to get a glimpse. He lived vicariously through the moments he overhead.

“About my predicament.” She clarified but that only made Oliver more confused.

“Having a crush is not a predicament,. Percy noted absentmindedly, flicking to the next page of his textbook already. Oliver’s heart lurched before it plummeted to his feet. She had a crush on someone. Of course, she would have a crush on someone, her heart was big and pure. It would be impossible to think that she wouldn’t be charmed by someone.

“It is in this case, Percy,” She cried, throwing herself down on the other side of Percy, making the two boys bounce, disclosing Oliver’s presence to her. She had been on the verge of pouring her heart out about her crush to Percy for the sixth time this week, and he could tell she was embarrassed she had almost revealed it all to Oliver by accident. “Oh, my Merlin! I had no idea you were here, Oliver! I am so sorry,” A rush of blood hit her face, tinging the colour of her cheeks. He could see her shaking from the sudden realisation that she had just probably made a fool of herself in front of someone outside of her close circle of friends. “I’ll leave you two to whatever you guys were doing, I am so sorry. I’ll talk to you later, Percy.” She shot up, her anxiety-riddled frame racing to the stairs and disappearing as quickly as she came, tripping over her feet just like she had been tripping over her words seconds before.

Oliver, stunned, sat there with his mouth hanging open. He regretted not making himself known to her. He wouldn’t have been so affected by the additional person to the conversation, but Y/N wasn’t like him. She was skittish and delicate like a butterfly. Loudness and crowds scared her. A nice calm environment with a handful of people was more her speed. “Nice going, Wood,” Percy commented, flicking the page of his book. “At this rate, you’ll continuously scare her off before you can tell her you like her,” He continued, the Weasley wit coming through in him making Oliver glare up at him. “For someone who basically stalks her, you don’t know much about how to interact with her.”

That was Percy’s last comment before Oliver sat up, angrily pushing on one side of Percy’s book, flicking it closed aggressively before storming off to his dorm. He had just found out that Y/N had a crush and he managed to scare her off. Percy was right, he didn’t know how to interact with her which meant that it was extremely unlikely that her crush was on him. Frustrated, he kicked his dorm room door closed, tackling his bed, wishing to punch the daylights out of his mattress - which he did.

____

Sluggish and down-trodden, Oliver’s recent behaviour sparked the circulation of gossip. The Gryffindor Quidditch team were practically shaking in their boots - not knowing what was going through their Captain’s mind. Even Fred and George were slightly scared - not that they let that show. They had seen Oliver pissed off, seen him trying to drown himself in the locker room showers, they’ve seen him an anxious mess, but they have never seen him completely give up. Many people assumed that the Gryffindor team was falling apart at the seams. Now that their main competition was experiencing turbulence, the Slytherin team was already celebrating their suspected House Cup win, assuming that they had a clear path to another victory.

Oliver wasn’t unaware of any of this, but for once, he found himself not caring about anything. Surrounded in his cloud of heartbreak and self-pity, he was on the brink of spending two months in a solemn state. This had Percy (arguably Oliver’s best friend oddly) both annoyed and concerned - but mostly annoyed. Now, instead of being on the Quidditch pitch, the Great Hall, or working on Quidditch plays, Oliver was bothering him. Constantly around Percy. In the library, in the Common Room, in the dorm. Wherever Percy was, Oliver was also. If Oliver had been brooding silently, Percy wouldn’t have a problem with his company, but nearly every second, a loud and depressed sigh would leave the dejected Captain’s lips. “Oh for Merlin’s sake, Wood!” Percy stood from his bed, throwing the textbook he had placed on his lap to his bed - the pieces of parchment wrinkling under its weight.

Storming over to Oliver’s bed, he loomed over it, his thin freckled face glowing red with anger. Oliver simply blinked up at him slowly, unable to do anything else, as he let the book fall carelessly off the side of his bed. Oliver having a book was not an odd sight, against popular belief, Oliver did read. He just read mostly Quidditch things. With his face reddening more, Percy yanked the blankets Oliver had rolled around in, cocooning everything below the waist into them. He ripped them from Oliver, hoping the sudden invasion of cold air would jolt the headstrong Quidditch Captain back into a living state. However, he faced no such lunch. “Get up.” Percy spat out the order with the tip of his nose curling slightly into a sneer.

“What’s the point, Percy,” Oliver sighed, rolling onto his side, his back facing the angry Percy. “What is the point of loving something when you constantly end up getting hurt by the very thing you love,” He heaved out another grand sigh, earning an unseen eye roll from the annoyed redhead. “This is my last chance at winning the house cup and the team is in the worst state ever. My first love, betraying me. Slaying me through the heart. Not to mention my second love, tossing my love for her out the window before I could even utter a word of it-”

“Why are you talking like that? Where did you learn to talk like that?” Percy questioned, his eyebrows furrowing in concern. Oliver was not one to use such descriptive words let alone such heartbreakingly romantic words.

“I’ve been reading.” Oliver stated simply, pointing down to the book that had fallen from his grasp when Percy intruded his reading time.

“What in Merlin’s name have you been reading, Shakespeare? Jane Austin?” Percy sputtered out in shock. Percy was aware he was reading, they have been spending nearly every waking hour beside each other. Percy had just assumed he was reading about Quidditch or using the time for school work.

“Who are they?” Oliver questioned, his words sluggish and slow. Almost like he was using every ounce of power left in his body to speak to them. Percy, ignoring for a second, walked to the other side of the bed, intent on finding out what Oliver had gotten his hands on.

“Muggle writers, Dad has some of their works,” Percy mumbled, bending down to pick up the book. Flipping it over, Percy dispelled a sigh through his nose. “Emily Brontë,” He set the book down on Oliver’s nightside table, instantly moving to pick up Oliver’s bag. Percy knew exactly what he should find within the bag. Quidditch plays scribbled on loose parchment, crumpled assignments, and Quidditch books mixed with textbooks. Pulling the bag open, he saw the parchment stuffed to the bottom carelessly with a multitude of books from the Muggle Section of the library. “Louisa May Alcott, Charlotte Brontë, William Shakespeare, and Jane Austin. How did you even hear about these? You detested the idea of Muggle Studies and here you are, reading Muggle books.” Percy questioned, tossing each book onto the bed.

Oliver flopped back onto his back, blinking up at the scarlet canopy over his bed. “Y/N reads them. Maybe if she found love through reading these, perhaps I can too,” Oliver spoke agonizingly. “Besides, it makes me feel better to read about doomed loves.” Percy rolled his eyes at this, plopping Oliver’s bag back to the floor, pushing the books to the foot of his bed, his hands digging into his hips next.

“Alright, Wood, sit up,” Percy demanded in a tone Oliver had never heard before making him bolt upright in his bed, a bit perplexed as to why he was fearful of Percy. “I am tired of hearing the woes of the highly overdramatic.”

“What-”

“You’ve been wallowing in self-pity all over the place since you found out Y/N has a crush and we’re all tired of it,” Percy ignored him, continuing on his rant. “Now,” Percy pointed to the books. “Now, I am concerned,” He admitted, moving his finger to point to Oliver. The Scottsman watched him with knitted brows. “I honestly have no idea how you haven’t realised who she has a crush on. But then again, I honestly have no idea why you’ve sat on this crush for years when you pride yourself with being so courageous and brave,” Percy started to pace, rolling his wrist as he went on. “But, I’ve decided to stop waiting for you to get a clue through that thick, Quidditch injured skull of yours and just finally show you some clarity,” He stopped his pacing, standing at the foot of Oliver’s bed. Oliver, horribly confused, watched Percy with a hanging jaw and a screwed-up face. “She has a crush on you.”

“That’s rubbish,” Oliver waved him off. “She probably likes some bookish Ravenclaw guy who can show her every constellation in the sky at any given night.”

“One would think that, yes, but to everyone’s surprise, she seems to like concussed Quidditch players with anger issues.” Percy blinked, waiting for Oliver to finally think of the idea that Y/N could have feelings for him as well.

Oliver seemed at war with himself, caught between wanting to believe Percy, Y/N’s best friend and confidant, and continuing to believe that Y/N was in love with another. “It has to be true, it’s coming from you! You can’t tell a lie and you would get nothing from lying to me about this.” Oliver reasoned, his tongue licking his bottom lip back and forth.

“That is true. I would get literally nothing from lying to you,” Percy agreed. “I would much prefer to be right as opposed to being victorious in a lie.”

“I have to go find her,” Oliver scrambled from his bed in newfound energy and hope. “I have a chance!”

“You might have a better chance after a shower and, possibly, after putting actual pants on.” Percy pointed to the Quidditch boxers Oliver was currently wearing making the sports fanatic blush a deep red.

“Yeah, that is a good idea.” He muttered, shuffling back towards his bed where his pants were discarded.

____

Frantically running through the corridors, everyone stopped and stared at the sudden sight of Oliver acting alive again. Percy had told him that on Monday mornings for the past few weeks, Y/N had been in Greenhouse One with Neville, eating breakfast and monitoring their plant to see how the potion is working. The clusters of people started to thin out the closer he got to the outside of the castle, nobody wanting to expose themselves to the bitter cold that still hung around this late in winter.

His nerves and drive carried him to stand out in front of Greenhouse One. Butterflies swirled around in his stomach, giving him the same feeling he gets before a Quidditch game - just more intense. Breathless, both from running and from the idea of finally being able to share his feelings with Y/N, he pushed the door to the Greenhouse open, instantly spotting her perched on the stool. Her elbows were pressed into the table, her fists pushing her cheeks up as she watched the plant. Standing there, he observed her for a moment, letting her beauty wash over him.

The winter sun broke through the dirty windows on the Greenhouse in mini spotlights, dust swirling and dancing in them. The golden rays hit her, illuminating her as if she were a work of art. She had shed her winter robes, scarf, hats, and mitts due to the humidity trapped within the Greenhouse, leaving her in her sweater vest, skirt, wool tights, and button-down. She reached out, touching the plant with the softest, most caring touch. Humming, she let the leaf of the plant go, jotting down something in the open notebook in front of her.

“It suddenly got really cold in here,” She spoke to the plant with a hint of confusion lacing her voice. “Perhaps the wind blew open the door again. I thought Hagrid was going to fix that,” She tisked, sliding off her stool. Grabbing her mittens, she turned to face Oliver, her body stilling when she realised the door hadn’t blown open and it was actually being held open. “O-Oliver,” She sputtered, shifting her weight. “How long have you been there?” She asked quietly, desperately wanting to fan herself as heat consumed her face.

“Not long, I was actually coming here to talk to you,” He stepped fully into the Greenhouse, letting the door close behind him. “Percy told me you would be here with Neville monitoring the plant.” He pointed to the plant behind her, hoping that would ease her nerves slightly.

“Talk to me? About what?” Her voice was so high, Oliver feared that her voice box would be squeezed right out of her throat.

“Um, about something I’ve wanted to ask you for a few years now,” Oliver swallowed the nerves that were bubbling up. Y/N stayed silent, but Oliver wasn’t sure if it was because she was scared or if she was too nervous about speaking over him in case he wasn’t done talking. He found it hard to get into her head, to understand the signs she was showing. Eyes flicking down, he saw the awkward twitch of the corner of her lips, assuming she wanted to say something but was unsure if she should. “It’s nothing bad, Y/N.” He eased her nerves.

She let out a relieved sigh, her shoulders slumping as the tension and nerves left her body. Silence surrounded the pair as Y/N shifted her weight, her eyes flicking from the stool she was sitting on to Oliver - waiting for some sort of cue to tell her what to do now. Oliver cleared his throat, suddenly consumed with the thought of her not actually liking her back. “Um, Oliver,” Her quiet, shaking and unsure voice broke him from his thoughts. “You wanted to tell me something?” She sputtered out, looking like she really didn’t want to remind him of that, but she also wanted to shift from the uncomfortable area of not knowing where this social situation was taking them.

Oliver’s mind clicked. His silence was probably causing her some anxiety. He knew she liked navigable situations and with his silence, she had no idea what to expect. “I, uh,” He cleared his throat again, his hand flying up to the back of his neck, cupping the area out of nerves, his head dipping, eyes flicking to the dirt and soil-littered floor of the Greenhouse. He felt sweat forming on his body, a mix of his nerves and the heat trapped within the Greenhouse thanks to the thermal spell placed in them for the winter months. “I wanted to ask you to Hogsmeade this weekend. There is this new bookshop there, it’s got a cafe right in it. Perhaps, it could be a date?” He finished, regaining the fleeting courage.

Looking up at her, he saw her eyes wide in shock, her mouth hanging open in shock. Blinking rapidly, she never took her eyes off of him. Oliver stood there, understanding that her mind was probably reeling, trying to figure out what to do in this situation. Oliver knew she had been asked out before, but those were always bookish Ravenclaws or introverted Hufflepuffs - both groups not being extroverted Quidditch players who were overly popular like Oliver. “Is this a prank?” She questioned after a minute of silence.

“Of course not! I wouldn’t do that, that’s horrible!” Oliver denied instantly, shocked that she would assume he would ask her on a date as a prank.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you,” She apologised, head dipping low as she looked at her feet, her school shoes kicking a pile of soil as a distraction. “I’ve just never been asked out by someone like you, but my friend was then she found out it was all a prank when she was stood up-”

“What kind of monster would do that,” Oliver questioned, not even thinking that he cut her off. The sight of her head shooting up, shocked that he had cut her off made him realise what he had done. “Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt you, I was just shocked someone would find that humorous.”

“Well, apparently Cormac McLaggen finds it hysterical,” She spoke with a roll of her eyes. “But, if you’re not asking me out as a prank, then why are you asking me out-” She trailed off before her eyes widened in realisation. “Percy told you about my crush on you and you felt sorry for me. This is a pity date! Oh, my Merlin. This is so embarrassing!” She groaned, her hands slapping over her face as she tried to hide herself away.

“No, no,” Oliver strode over to her, his long legs carrying himself across the space within seconds. His hands gently wrapped around her wrists, pulling her hands away from her face. She didn’t put up a fight, allowing her hands to be pulled from her mortified face. He could see the embarrassment saddening her soft eyes before it was taken over by curiosity, her breath hitching when she took in the softness of Oliver’s captivating eyes. “Percy did tell me you like me, but only because he felt sorry for me. I’ve been so taken by you for years, when I heard you liked someone, I automatically assumed it wouldn’t be me. Percy was tired of me sulking so he told me you really liked me, not someone else.”

“I was the reason you’ve been acting so odd,” She whispered, her brows furrowing. Oliver nodded, eyes still locked with Y/N’s, silence encompassing them once again. Standing there, among the variety of beautifully growing plants, the smell of fresh soil and the fragrant tropical plants in the back corner of the Greenhouse - absorbed each other’s energies like the leaves of a plant absorbing sunlight; warm and energising. “I think I’ll go on that date with you.” She whispered, almost forgetting that there were other people that existed. At that moment, it was just Oliver and her. The warmth of his hands barely touching her wrists, the sparks exploding in her stomach as their eyes whispered heartwarming love between each other.

“I’ve got the ruler! I was in Greenhouse three for some reason-” Neville walked in through the supply room in the back of the Greenhouse, having used the back entrance. “Oh! I-I’m sorry,” Neville stopped in his tracks when he spotted the two locked in such an intimate moment, red filling his plump cheeks instantly. “I didn’t think anyone else was in here with Y/N, I’ll-” He swallowed thickly, thrown off by the presence of Oliver. Pointing back at the supply closet, he started to turn towards it. “I’ll just head back in here and get my stuff then leave you guys alone-”

“That’s not necessary, Neville.” Oliver shook his head, stepping back from Y/N, letting her wrists go. A moment of panic crossed over Y/N features, scared he was ashamed to be seen with someone so low on the social scale, but the beaming smile and the border-line cocky wink he sent her eased her nerves, leaving her a bashful schoolgirl.

“You know my name?” Neville questioned skeptically.

“Of course I know your name, Neville, you’re a very avid Quidditch fan and I appreciate you. Plus, you're a Gryffindor, why wouldn’t I know your name,” Oliver questioned, confused as to why Neville thought he wouldn’t know him. “Anyway, you stay. You guys are working on an amazing breakthrough, I just popped in to ask Y/N a quick question - I’ll leave you guys alone,” With that, he turned on his heels, his robes floating around his feet. Pausing for a moment, he looked back at Y/N. “See you Saturday morning?”

“See you Saturday morning, Oliver.” She confirmed as she tried to stifle the smile that was fighting to grow on her face. One smile from Oliver and the smile grew out of control, making his heart flutter against his chest. All it took to finally give Oliver the final push to ask her out was Percy growing tired of listening to Oliver’s overdramatic woes and Greenhouse One.

[notebooks-and-laptops]

OKAY blackwall and my feelings about the first cut scene when you get to Skyhold (if you're in a romance with him).

I have a LOT of emotions about this scene. In it, Blackwall is adamant that nothing can happen between himself and the inquisitor. He acknowledges the mutal attraction/pining they experienced at Haven but makes it clear that this can go no further because Blackwall cannot let himself be seen as 'more important' than the other soldiers flocking to the Inquisiton to fight for its cause.

And I think this reveals some of the very deep anxieties Blackwall has about his place in the inquisiton as a whole, not just how he views his personal relationship with the inquisitor. Because Blackwall has been lying about his identity now for years, yet its never truly been a lie that effects anyone. He has been living life alone and indepdent of anyone else mostly just out in the woods. But now! All of a sudden! He's in the inquisiton! And they're not just using him as a soldier they're using him as a warden. As soon as he's acquired he's given a free pass into the inner circle AND the inquisitons leaders are ACTIVELY using grey warden treaties to recruit and win over others. His lie is spiralling outside of his control, in a pretty serious way. He's suddenly special and he's special SPECIFICALLY because he's a grey warden and that means that the inquisition can claim to have the support of the order, because it has one of the order in its top ranks. And when they reach skyhold? Well shit. This inquisiton isn't just going to sort out the mage/templar conflict and then close the breach and disband. Its got an ancient magister god to fight. A magister who is clearly tainted by the blight AND has an archdemon flying around. The real grey wardens are bound to get involved sooner or later and Blackwall is going to get called upon more and more to help with these issues he actually knows very little about.

And THEN you bring in the personal relationship with the inquisitor. While none of the flirting in Haven explicitly implies that the inquisitor is flirting with Blackwall because he's a Grey Warden, the very fact that they are getting close is built upon the fact that he's in the inner circle. Even a chatty inquisitor who stops to talk to all those in Haven avaliable to talk to, can't get close with everyone. No, the inquisitor only has the time/space to get seriously close with the fastly forming inner circle. She makes time for Blackwall at first because Blackwall is IN that inner circle by virtue of his Grey Warden status, regardless of whether or not that is why her interest continues.

So in that first scene in Skyhold, Blackwall is basically saying: I'm not special. Please. I'm not special, I'm just another recruit like the other soldiers you MUST treat me that way. Its his feble attempt to put up SOME boundaries around the lie he's created, and also probably stems from a belief that if the inquisitor knew he wasn't actually a Grey Warden, then she wouldn't want anything to do with him: professionally or personally. In fact, if the lie came out it would be devastating in both ways: personally due to his betrayal of her trust, and professionally due to how much the inquisiton leaned on the support of their resident Grey Warden.

And that's SO CLEVERLY DONE AND WRITTEN AND IT GIVES ME SUCH EMOTIONS ABOUT OUR BOI THOM RAINER AHDKDLFL

[archies-litterbox]

wait aaaaa your tags about zoe being the one to find douxie with the sensory draining dust effecting him... now i'm just thinking abt it taking place when she and moppet were getting to know each other but she was kinda just someone of the peripherals of merlin's awareness. cut to her saving douxie and bringing him back, and merlin never forgets about her saving his son so he returns the favor when arthur attempts to lock her and other magic users up

AAAAA I LOVE THIS! And it gave me an idea!

Consider this: Zoe and Douxie were indeed already getting to know each other (mostly by always catching each other at the shops fetching ingredients at the same time) BUT Douxie was VERY awkward and nervous around her and each time they talked he left without ever getting her name.

So, when Zoe finds him blind and deaf from shackles infused with a sense-dampening Draining Dust variant, he doesn't recognize her touch (because c'mon. that little moppet was too awkward to even get her name when they talked. do you really think the thought of touching her ever crossed his mind? no.)

Zoe realizes Douxie doesn't recognize her but doesn't really think that's important, so she starts taking him right back to the castle so Merlin can get the shackles off, even though she's scared of King Arthur's war on magic hurting her because, unlike Douxie, she's not (yet) under Merlin's protection.

The whole time, Douxie barely leaves her side. Zoe writes short messages on his skin like weather/what's ahead, and she keeps him grounded as best she can, trying to make the loss of sight and hearing from the cuffs less awful for Douxie. And for that reason, they're almost always holding hands. It soothes him, so Zoe holds one of Douxie's hands that are shackled in front of him.

(And Zoe's blushing a lot, but Douxie can't really tell. There's more pining going on between them than in the whole dang forest they're making their way through.)

Douxie never tries touching her to figure out what she looks like because he knows the least he can do is respect her boundaries, even if it means some sense of anonymity. He's just content with holding her hand. :)

Douxie does ask what her name is eventually, and she traces "Z-O-E" onto his arm with her finger. When he asks what she looks like, she just writes "Y-O-U K-N-O-W".

Douxie doesn't get it, but he doesn't pry.

Then, Zoe finally gets him to Merlin, who ushers him away to get the cuffs off. She doesn't follow; she's unsafe there with Arthur around, and the sooner she's out, the better. Merlin tells her that if she were ever persecuted for her magic, he would bring her under his protection for saving his son.

Douxie doesn't get to see or hear Zoe before she's already out of the castle.

Cut to a while later (like days/weeks), and Douxie, his sight and hearing returned, is in the throne room watching on as a supposed witch is brought forward to Arthur to be sentenced for magic.

He's rather confused to see that pretty girl from the shops standing there, escorted in by the guards. The one whose name he never learned. The one he kept getting tummy-butterflies over. Not only that, he's devastated for the captured girl, for she seemed so sweet and undeserving of this. (But at least it's not Zoe, right?)

He's even more confused when he sees Merlin trying very hard to sway Arthur's mind to the side of mercy. Of course, he does try to protect magic users when he can, but he's especially trying hard to defend the shop girl. Not that he's complaining. It's just strange.

What's more strange is the way she's looking at him from where she has knelt down, like she knows him. She really knows him. And he's supposed to really know her. It's nothing like the awkward, sheepish exchanges at the marketplace, and he doesn't get it until-

"ENOUGH!" Arthur roars, and Douxie's confusion is once again drowned out by devastation when he realizes that Merlin's defense of the girl was fruitless.

Arthur casts his gaze down to her.

"Your sentence is death, Zoennelle."

Everything - everything clicks.

Douxie gasps at the revelation. The identities of "Zoe" and the girl from the marketplace in front of him merge in his mind, but terror follows when a sword is raised and-

"NO!"

Whether his magic had been backlogged by those shackles or this was just his raw power of the moment, a huge blast of blue magic bursts out in the moppet's desperation.

It's enough to knock away the guards at Zoe's sides, to cut through her bindings, and to stun King Arthur to the ground.

Zoe darts right out of the throne room, and Douxie gives chase, ignoring a stunned Merlin's shouts from the room as he darts down the hall after the maiden.

"Wait!" he cries, "Where are you going?"

"What's it to you?" She keeps running. Douxie catches up.

"They'll ask me where you ran to. I want to know what not to say." he says in as hushed a voice he can manage while he pants.

"You... you're going to lie for my sake?"

"I would still be shackled, blind, and deaf out there alone if it weren't for you! Of course!" he says, "Besides... this isn't fair. Not to you. Not to anyone. Let me mislead them! Let me keep you safe, Zoe, just like you did for me."

Neither have them stop running, but Zoe pulls Douxie in and whispers in his ear...

"...The Wild Wood."

Douxie nods. Now he knows what not to disclose under any circumstances.

They dart into a dark little passage.

"Before you go..."

He holds her hand. It feels just like it did before. By now, he knows the feeling well.

"...Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you let me know who you were?"

Zoe huffed, putting a hand on his face, "You were already so frazzled. I didn't wanna make you all sheepish and awkward too."

Douxie blushes.

"Well, er... thank you, Zoe." he smiles, "It's nice to finally put a name to a face. A-and to a voice. Both very... very pretty ones."

Zoe smooches his cheek and darts off.

Douxie heads in the opposite direction to slow the guards. When he does crash into them, he plays up that he "tried to chase after her, but ohhhh, she was too fast! Tooooo fast... urgh. My legs hurt."

(Douxie's blast stunned them before they could realize it was his magic. They figure it was Zoe's. He isn't seen as an accomplice.)

When he's later asked where Zoe might have gone, Douxie says his best guess is the marketplace. They look there fruitlessly, while Merlin - much to Douxie's surprise - tells the boy he was rather impressive in doing what he himself couldn't: protect her.

Zoe is never caught.

[strawberrysoup]

Let’s Review || Chapter 22

Peter Parker knew that his big sister would do anything for him to be safe and happy. She’d given up everything for him twice over already and would do it again in a heartbeat. And that’s why, when the criminal mastermind Tony Stark started inextricably following him around, he didn’t say a word. Because he knew without a doubt Penny would do whatever she had to if it meant keeping Peter safe. He had to protect her, just like she always protected him. He never considered what would happen if Stark decided both Parker siblings were worth taking. Never considered who else in Stark’s inner circle would agree. He just wanted to protect her and yet somehow, they both ended up with needles in their necks.

relationship: Steve Rogers/Original Female Character/Bucky Barnes, background Peter Parker/Tony Stark rating: Explicit warnings: Dark Steve Rogers, Dark Bucky Barnes, Dark Tony Stark, Dark Avengers, kidnapping, non-consensual&dark sexual situations, underage Peter Parker, emotional and psychological abuse, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat  additional warnings: open the read more, CTRL + F and search “content warnings” to skip to the additional "spoiler-y" tags for trigger warnings

hey guys! i made a ko-fi! if you enjoy this and have some cash you could spare to help me out with my bills, id really appreciate it! if you follow the link and check out the ‘posts’, there’s a snippet for ch. 4 of posies! 

Their parents had died a few months after her thirteenth birthday and Penny essentially blacked out for the next 8 months. She didn’t remember anything from that school year, although she’d evidently scraped by in all of her classes—actually, Penny was still convinced that little Peter, who was already showing signs of being a tiny genius, had done at least half of her homework. She didn’t remember Hanukkah that year, or the first Christmas she’d ever celebrated with Aunt May and Uncle Ben. She had zero friends coming out of that year, having accidentally pushed everyone away in fits of rage or sadness that she couldn’t even remember. The pain cut just as deep every time she remembered showing up to school the first day of her freshman year only to receive the cold shoulder from half her grade.

That was actually one of the first memories she’d retained after coming out of 7 months and 3 weeks of complete emptiness, how none of her best friends wanted anything to do with her. Everything had been confusing, somehow devastating all over again but… it was less. Her parents were gone and it hurt so much but it was nothing compared to the agony that had beset her form seconds after being informed her mom and dad were dead. When Penny racked her brain she could almost remember Aunt May crouched in front of her while she sat on the couch at home, holding her hands.

Somewhere in her brain, Penny had known that plane crashes were possible. Like, as a concept she understood the idea. The plane that was flying through the air stops doing that, and all the people inside the plane die. But it couldn’t possibly happen to her parents—they were her parents, they were infallible. Plane crashes happened, yeah, but her parents couldn’t be gone. Aunt May had told her several years later that she and Ben had been petrified she would try to kill herself, especially when the state tried to take the young girl away from the Parker’s.

They’d never had the money for therapy and Penny figured she’d never regain the memories from those months but honestly, she didn’t want them. The gaps were reprieves, the missing conversations, the absence of any and all detail. Wasn’t she sad to not remember her eighth-grade graduation? Fuck no, it was a blessing to forget how she’d felt like everyone in existence had their eyes on her—except for the ones she wanted.

There were times she absently wondered how disappointed her parents would be that she didn’t finish college, let alone get an actual high school degree. Her dad had been so smart, a genius in his own right. And her mom… Penny tried not to think of her mom often, not when it hurt so deeply. Mary Parker had been a gentle soul with an IQ of 150 who made Penny feel safe and loved and understood every day of her life. Her mother would’ve been understanding, she would’ve seen the necessity in her dropping out but it would’ve hurt that gentle soul to know the opportunities her baby had missed.

It hurt Penny in a special way that neither of Mary and Richard Parker’s children would be graduating from high school. Neither would attend university. They wouldn’t go on to press the limits of their parent’s knowledge or make an impact on the world. Somehow despite everything she’d sacrificed, Peter would never get the opportunity that he deserved. Her genius baby brother, his potential capped before he had a chance to try. God, it was an agonizing burn in her chest, a searing pain that made her nauseous and light-headed.

Her heart was pounding so hard she wondered if her ribs would crack. The cabin was lovely. Dark wood and an A-frame, a nice deck in the back and lots of windows. It was surrounded by trees, with dark needles or thin pale trunks, the purple mountains of the Rockies a lovely backdrop. It was colder than she’d expect for summer, especially considering the overcast sky and the breeze. The clouds moved so fast at such a high altitude and Penny watched trembling as a shadow passed over the house, chasing the light away before the sun followed its path ravenously once more.

Steve and Bucky were unloading suitcases from the back of the SUV, passing each other calculating looks as Penny stood practically frozen in place. Her shoulders were hunched almost to her ears, arms wrapped gently but tightly around the white kitten in her arms. It was purring quietly, the same way it had been for hours now. The little thing had cried the first few hours after they’d left the tower and subsequently the chubby cheeked orange kitten behind, only settling when Penny laid down across the middle seat in the SUV and let it burrow into the crook of her neck.

If Penny turned around she would’ve recognized the mournful looks on their faces, the pain in the lines of their eyes. The soldiers knew the hurt she felt, to be separated from their most important person—they understood that Peter was the most important person in Penny’s world. This separation was on their heads, but what could they do? They’d worked themselves into a rut, the three of them, wearing such deep treads into their negative behaviors that they couldn’t climb out. A complete shakeup was the only solution.

Both winced when she abruptly folded at the waist, clutching the kitten to her chest, and vomited over the pine needle strewn dirt of the driveway. Her hair fell in heavy, curly curtains around her face as she heaved again, hiding her tear-streaked face from the soldiers’ view. The sound of them setting the bags they held down registered in Penny’s ears but she couldn’t find the strength to collect herself before they converged on her.

“Come ‘ere doll, lemme take you up to the bathroom,” Bucky stated quietly, sweeping her and the cat up into his arms as gently as he could, “you can take a bath while me and Steve get everything unloaded. I think you’ll really like the cabin baby, we… well, we designed it just for you. If there’s anything you want to change, you just tell us. We want it to be perfect for you.”

She mostly caught flashes of green and white and brown, tucking her chin to look at the kitten snuggled into her cleavage. It felt cruel, to have taken the white one and left the orange, but the little chubby-cheeked kitten had taken to her brother so well—better than it had taken to her, even. Peter had named it Malcah and while it still didn’t like being picked up or held, it twined his ankles and meowed at him for love.

“Sit here baby,” the soldier set her carefully on the lid of the toilet, after having climbed a set of stairs and turned multiple blurry corners, “let me run your bath.”

It was all white tile, the toilet built into the wall. The tub was a freestanding clawfoot, with a spray nozzle and high sides. It was surprisingly small, considering how large the tub in the tower had been. Penny idly speculated that only perhaps one of the soldiers would be able to fit at time and it would certainly be a tight squeeze if she was forced in with them. There was a standing shower on the other side, where the roof wasn’t so sharply sloped by the A-framed roof. The nice thing, that Penny would never admit was very nice, was all of the plants. The entire room was predominantly white but there was a long-vined philodendron hanging gracefully over the tub, snake plants sitting on the shelf before the toilet. She could see a rubber plant and another type of vine by the sinks, framing the mirror.

They’d obviously gone to great lengths to make sure it would be something she liked, clearly evidenced by the bathroom alone. There were even candles waiting to be used on the antique, hunter green shelves and bath bombs with lovely scents. If she’d been able to design a personal bathroom, Penny figured it would probably have looked something like this and that made her hate it all the more.

The bastards were so in their heads they could barely see the sunlight. Penny was convinced that they were so distracted orchestrating her nightmare they’d lost the plot. They kept throwing stuff at her; beautiful plants, nice clothing, cute cats, lovely homes—but it didn’t mean a single thing. All of the possessions in the world didn’t make up for the gaping, rotting hole in her chest.

“Alright doll, let’s get you undressed,” Bucky shifted towards her once the water was at the right temperature and filling the tub, a small smile on his stubbled face.

“Do you think I’m debilitated?” She rasped after a moment, rolling her eyes up to stare him in the face before spitting a vomit speckled wad of phlegm onto the rug by her feet and setting the kitten on the shelf next to the snake plants. “Last time I checked I didn’t need to be treated like a baby. Are you gonna keep standing over me like a pervert? Get out.”

The soldier’s eyebrows shot up his forehead, surprised by the calmness behind her cutting tongue. Usually, when Penny got an attitude, it came with fury and fists and resulted in broken bones or bleeding wounds. This was overwhelmingly controlled; a bitchy rebuttal. Her voice was the gravelly tone she usually got after screaming or crying, dark brown eyes nearly black.  When he didn’t move, Penny rolled her eyes and stood, whipping her t-shirt over her head and dropping it to the ground.

“You’re bein’ a little moody, babe,” Bucky watched calmly as she undressed, her clothes piling up on the floor. “Wanna think about reigning it in?”

Penny’s hair was big and curly around her face, framing the clenched jaw and sneering nose. “What are you gonna do, kill me? Whatever.”

“Penny, what—”

“Peter is a thousand miles away,” Penny’s voice started out sharp but very quickly faded into a tired drawl, “you can’t hurt him from here. And what do I care if you hurt me? So could you either get the fuck out and let me take a bath or fucking drown me in it? Whatever it takes for this interaction to be over.”  

“Are you looking for a punishment right now?” Bucky’s lips pulled down at the corners, eyebrows furrowing, “‘Cause you’re working your way towards one really quick.”

“What’re you gonna do? Kill someone in front of me?” She groaned, reaching up to dig her fingers into the roots of her hair, tugging sharply before dragging it into a tangled, thoughtless bun on the top of her head “Or spank me until I can’t sit? Rape me? Could you just get it over with? I want to be alone, please!”

Bucky was silent for several long seconds before sighing through his nose, pushing his sleeves up to his elbows. “Take your bath, think about your fuckin’ attitude. Steve and I are gonna bring the bags in.”

He left the door open and Penny was further irritated to learn he had too much dignity to stomp down the stairs the way she’d hoped he would. His break in composure had been so good for her it was unbelievable—but there was likely a punishment on the horizon and Steve wasn’t likely to let her off easy once the brunet told him what she’d said. The bastard was stone cold when it came to that shit.

She stared idly at the steaming bath, naked with her clothes piled around her feet—the question was whether she wanted a bath or if she’d been resigned to it? The water was scented, because of course it was. It was even one of her favorite citrusy scents, she noted disdainfully, another thing they had paid so much attention to while keeping her locked up in a tower like fucking Rapunzel. Now in a cabin, she figured she was a Jewish Goldilocks surrounded by hungry bears.

But it smelled nice and her body ached from the long car ride, it had already been run so why not hop in? Besides, it would keep her busy while the soldier’s fucked around and she wouldn’t have to see them for a bit. They were shuffling around and she could hear the sounds of bags being placed around the cabin. The door banged off the walls several times, always accompanied by a groan or a curse, one of which she recognized as a Yiddish swear—which she refused to find endearing. The kitten meowed at her from its position on the shelf, looking put out to be so far away but Penny shushed it quietly.

“You won’t like the water, just stay there,” she murmured quietly at the distraught little creature, picking up a washcloth and dunking it into the perfumed water. “If I come get you I’ll make a huge mess.”

She ignored the kitten as it continued to communicate with her, chittering in annoyance and pawing the edge of the ledge for several minutes before evidently surrendering and lying down with its little paws draped over the edge. Penny smiled to herself, the cat’s tail was roughly the size of its body and when it curled the fluffy mass of fur around itself it became unrecognizable as a cat. The orange one would’ve continued to complain until Penny let it down, would’ve just barely given her ankles a rub before running off to hide somewhere.

That’s why she decided to leave Malcah with Peter; the orange cat didn’t run from or scratch him. She twined his ankles, sat next to his thigh on the couch, kneaded her little paws against him. Peter had decided both kittens were female, based on the very reasonable basis that he wanted them to be. Penny wasn’t sure, didn’t quite care. The only thing she ever referred to the cats as was Chatul—which literally meant cat in Hebrew. She’d shortened it to Tuly for the white kitten, for the sake of ease, but refused to say it in front of the soldiers. The cat was hers, she didn’t have to share it with them.

The sounds of the soldiers were becoming more consistent throughout the cabin and Penny figured they must’ve brought in all of the bags and were focused on unpacking. She could hear someone down in the kitchen, unloading the masses of groceries they’d brought up the mountain while the other was in the bedroom. Penny rubbed the washcloth over her skin lightly, the oils from the fragrance making her skin soft and slippery.

She didn’t hear him come in, she felt Steve come in. The blond’s presence was just as overwhelming as Tony Stark’s, an aura bigger than his body that filled the room. She could feel the disappointed stare, even as she continued to wipe herself down with the washcloth. Her teeth ground together as he watched in silence, just waiting.

“Bucky said you’ve caught an attitude, baby doll.”

“Caught an attitude?” She rolled her eyes. “Wow, if only I hadn’t become desensitized to living in constant terror—you never would’ve realized I’ve had an attitude the whole time!”

“We’re supposed to be turning a new page, Pen.”

“Turning a—” Penny scoffed, face appalled as she abruptly stood from the bath and ignored the water going everywhere, “we’re not turning a new page—You burnt the fucking book!”

The blond’s eyes widened; Penny had gotten angry in the past, furious even. She’d broken things, broken skin, broken bones and it was always accompanied by outraged screaming. But Penny didn’t make unnervingly straight eye contact while she did it. She was barely coherent at the best of times, mostly she screamed to the room at large before flying into a violent frenzy—it was different. It was startling, the light in her eyes and the way her voice cracked.

“There is no page turning, there’s no fucking­—fucking reconciliation here, Steve,” she snatched a towel from the rack behind the tub, wrapping the light green fabric around her chest tightly, “I can’t believe after, fuck, how long has it been? A month and a half? Two months? What fucking day is it?”

“…It’s July 2nd,” he found himself choking out, still feeling shell shocked as she stepped out of the tub.

“A month and a half,” Penny’s face twitched, just barely concealing the distraught look he could see she wanted to make and she started shifting past him, “Jesus Christ after a month and a half you guys still don’t get it—you know what, never mind. After a month and a half, I should’ve been smart enough to realize what dumbasses you both are.”

“Penny—”

“God, fuck!” She shouted up at the ceiling, stopping in place halfway out the door. “I have listened to you two talk at length for what’s apparently been a month and a half! I have tried to listen to your stupid fucking rules, I put in the fucking effort and you still decided to take away the one thing I care about! I’m sick and tired of you saying my name in that fucking tone, I’m tired of constantly internalizing and I’m tired of being fucking walked on! So I’ll tell you what I told Bucky—either kill me or leave me alone, but for fucks’ sake just give me space!”

A low mew followed her statement and Penny made an abrupt about face, stomping past him to snatch up the kitten from where it had been sitting on the ledge and storming past him again. It was like getting brushed by a wildfire and Steve fought the urge to take a step back when her wet hair whipped against him.

She dug through one of the bags that held her belongings angrily, kitten on her shoulder, knowing that the blond continued to watch her from the bathroom doorway. Shorts, underwear, a sports bra, a t-shirt, and a hoodie over that. She would’ve put on socks but she knew it bothered Steve when she went barefoot.

“Come downstairs, precious,” he sighed after watching her dress, gesturing towards the stairs, “we’ve got to talk.”

“We’ve always got to talk,” Penny snorted derisively but started down the stairs anyway, Tuly back in her arms, “but it’s usually just you two telling me what I can and can’t do. Stop bossing me around.”

Steve followed after her, aghast and confused—Penny had always been brave in the situations she was forced into, whether it was taking custody of her fourteen year old brother or dealing with being kidnapped from her apartment by a billionaire criminal, but she hadn’t ever antagonized before. She’d talked back, got irritated, snapped, but she hadn’t ever just been flat out bitchy.

On the main floor, Bucky had already put away all of the groceries and was folding up the cloth shopping bags to tuck away for next time. The brunet’s eyes locked on Penny for several long calculating seconds and her hackles raised; whatever was coming was going to be annoying. She refused to be afraid though, not when there wasn’t anything to lose. Not anymore.

“Sit on the couch, let’s talk,” Steve directed, watching as she seemed to contemplate following the direction before doing so, “things are obviously going to be different here, precious.”

“The cabin is equipped with the same AI as the tower but its restricted to monitoring and safety protocols,” Bucky explained, gesturing to the open layout of the main floor, “you’ll be able to go outside so long as you ask first, there’s plenty to do out there. When Steve bought it there was an overgrown vegetable garden out there, we had it cleaned up for you and the shed fixed up and stocked. A lot of good hiking around here too.”

“I can’t talk to JARVIS?” She asked, eyes tracking the way the soldier’s exchanged glances. “Of course not. Then I would have some sort of interaction beyond the pair of you. Damaging to your plan, huh?”

“Penny, the rules didn’t end just because we’re out of the tower,” Steve had one hand braced on his hip while the other rubbed over his forehead, “be—”

“If you say Be Sweet I’ll find a way to kill myself,” Penny intoned, a dry look on her face. “Jews don’t have an afterlife you know, I’m not afraid of going to Hell.”

“Penny, we’re trying—”

“Penny we’re trying,” she mocked in a high-pitched voice, dead eye stare once again boring into Bucky’s, “I’m not. I’m done trying. You’ll either kill me or drive me insane, I’ll never see Peter again—I…I failed. I couldn’t protect him, I couldn’t even keep him safe until he was an adult, isn’t that insane? Grand total of three years and some change and I fucked it up.”

Penny stood up from the couch, shaking her head as she went. The kitten was quick to jump off the couch and follow after her, meowing while that massive fluffy squirrel tail curled over its back. The open floor plan of the cabin came in handy for the soldiers though, because she couldn’t really escape even as she walked across the living room and into the kitchen.

It was hard to pretend she didn’t actually love the cabin. The kitchen was small, located beneath the loft that held the bedroom and bathroom. The railing to the loft was covered in live vines that hung down to create a tiny illusion of separation between the living room and kitchen, the kitchen itself was sage green with white and dark brown accents. There were more plants, open cabinets mounted to the walls, the sink was small but there was a dishwasher. She loved the spiral staircase that led up to the loft, framing the kitchen to the left with small shiny baubles hanging from it.

There was a hamsa and a cross, both stained glass and hanging from the tallest step. Pretty cat toys hung from the lower railings, just within the kitten’s reach. It made Penny’s skin itch, just how lovely and perfect the whole cabin was. More evidence that they were paying a freaky amount of attention to her and every move she made.

“You didn’t fail, doll,” Bucky’s tone was quiet and he hesitated for a moment before following after her several paces, ending up on the edge of the kitchen, “You didn’t fuck it up, Peter—”

“Peter is trapped in a prison in New York with a creep more than twice his age who wants to violate and brainwash him,” Penny was on her knees in front of the fridge, digging through the crisper drawer in the bottom. “Literally all I had to do to prevent that from happening was pay more attention to his daily life. Fuck, kid was practically raising himself with how often I was gone—never stood a chance, you know?”

“Don’t think like that Penny,” Steve sighed, leaning down to pick up the kitten that had circled back to his ankles and setting it on his shoulder, “there’s nothing you could’ve done. You know who Tony Stark is, you know what he’s capable of. You can’t heap that guilt on your shoulders.”

“Oh, can’t I?” She hummed, absently throwing a package of bacon onto the floor, followed by a flat of raw chicken and beef. “There can be dairy in here or there can be meat, not both.”

“We might need a second fridge,” Bucky observed quietly, watching Penny drop a couple of deli bags with sandwich meat onto the ground before she started shuffling everything into different places within the cooler. “We could keep it in the shed?”

“No room,” Steve shook his head absently, “garage?”

Penny had collected a stack of items from the fridge and piled them onto the counter, not even bothering to look back on the soldiers as she began puttering around. The open-faced cabinets on the walls held mostly dishes and containers filled with ingredients and she ducked down, opening the lower cabinets and digging out several pans.

“Do you… do you want a hand, doll?” Bucky asked hesitantly after several moments, watching her collect ingredients and tools and turn on the stove.

“No.”

“Penny—”

“Can I make lunch please?” She whipped around, an irritated look on her face and a spatula in hand, looking like she was about to use it to beat them both, “I’m hungry and I want to die, I figure you’ll only allow me to fulfill one of those wants so can you let me cook?”

The next thing she knew, Penny had been swept up into Bucky’s arms. The solider looked confused, lips curled in frustration but his brow furrowed with dismay. She stiffened at the action when he stomped back to the couch and sat down roughly, dropping her over his knees and landing a smarting blow to her ass through her shorts without warning.

“Thirty for this fucking attitude,” he barked, yanking the shorts down until the waistband settled under the curve of her ass against the tops of her thighs, “count.”

A sharp inhale followed the first skin to skin hit and Penny snarled in response, “one.”

“Apologize,” Steve’s fingers tangled into her hair, extracting the hair tie and letting the curls fall in chaotic waves over her shoulders and face.

“Two,” she counted dutifully and angrily, narrowed eyes landing on Steve’s face, “I’m sorry you’re a fucking monster!”

“That just added ten more, Penny,” Bucky sighed through gritted teeth, “you better reign it in.”

“You better just kill me,” she rasped, nails digging into his leg where she was holding on for balance through the hits, “because I won’t reign it in. I’m sick to death of you motherfuckers—Oh, fuck, three!”

“No cursing during punishments, start from one,” Steve ordered darkly, the hand in her hair pulling taught as he glanced into Bucky’s eyes—the baffling combination of anger and dismay and loss in the brunet’s eyes let him know he wasn’t the only one scrambling.

“Fuck you!” Penny shook her head roughly as if to dislodge his hand, canting her head to the side the best she could manage to look him in the eye, “beat me black and blue, I don’t fucking care. Don’t you get it? It doesn’t matter anymore! Nothing fucking matters.”

content warnings: spanking *edit, addition content warning: disrespectful terminology for Jewish people 

[fyeahfantasticfour]

Aswssfardcrf THANK YOU for that long lovely response❤️❤️ if it’s not too repetitive of me to ask, could you give a fantastic 4 comic rec?

Well, if you’d like more of a beginner’s guide to how to tackle FF comics, you can look here. Waid’s the best place to start!

But here are some recs for arcs, one-shots, and miniseries that I personally adore and that you should be able to understand without further context:

Mythos: Fantastic Four: A beautifully-drawn, AU retelling of the FF’s origin story.

Fantastic Four: Season One: An AU retelling of the rocket crash and early days of the FF. This is the universe where Reed’s canonically autistic.

Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four #1-#48: This is an AU but it’s really fun – if you want to get a quick sense of the FF’s personalities, this is a good way to go. Also, Sue is the leader of the Fantastic Four in this universe, and later on, from Marvel Superheroes Vol 1 #17-#21 and Vol 2 #1-#11, leader of the Avengers too.

X-Men: First Class Vol 2 #1: "The Job Shadow": Sue agrees to mentor a teenage Jean Grey.

Fantastic Four Vol 3 #60: “Inside Out”: This is from Waid’s run and it reintroduces the FF as a team from an outsider’s perspective.

Marvel Knights 4 Vol 1 #1-#4: “Wolf at the Door”: The FF are swindled out of their fortune and have to reinvent themselves in order to survive. It’s a beautiful little character study of who they are outside of superherodom!

Marvel Knights 4 Vol 1 #5-#7: “The Pine Barrens”: Ben, Reed, and Sue take Franklin and his friends on a camping trip in the woods that goes very, very wrong.

Marvel Knights 4 #28: “Private Lives, Public Faces”: Reed follows through on a promise he made in “Wolf at the Door,” while Sue protects one of her employees from the employee’s abusive husband. (Major warnings for a pretty gruesome case of marital rape and abuse.)

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #527-#532: “Distant Music” to “Any Day Now I Shall Be Released” — Reed gives his fortune to the U.S. government to avoid being charged with treason and agrees to collaborate on a military project that seeks to recreate the accident that gave the FF their powers (…and he maybe commits treason again. For like the 10th time).

Fantastic Four: The Wedding Special: A celebration of Reed and Sue’s fortieth anniversary, as elderly versions of Reed and Sue invite versions of themselves from throughout their timeline to a party.

Fantastic Four in Isla de la Muerte, Ataque del M.O.D.O.K., and Spider-Man and the Human Torch in…Bahia de los Muertos: Three one-shots, each focusing on a different member of the FF. 

Fantastic Four: Death in the Family: Johnny journeys back in time to save the life of his sister when she’s tragically killed.

Fantastic Four Special 2005: “My Dinner With Doom” – Victor and Reed meet for a candlelit dinner to celebrate the birthday of Victor’s mother.

X-23 Vol 3 #13-19: The FF meet Laura Kinney, and she ends up babysitting Franklin and Val for Reed and Sue on their romantic night out.

Spider-Man/Human Torch #1-#5: A look through five decades of friendship between Peter and Johnny. Includes the identity reveal.

FF Vol 1 #17: Johnny becomes Peter’s roommate; Peter struggles to adjust. 

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #512-#513: Johnny struggles to deal with the FF’s loss of popularity, so he turns to Peter Parker for advice and ends up naked in the middle of a water park. 

Human Torch Vol 2 #1-#6: “Burn, Parts 1-6″: Johnny’s past comes back to haunt him. This is a great look at his fraught relationship with his powers and his fears of the damage he could do with them.

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #551-553: “Epilogue”: Future Namor, T’Challa, and Doom show up to warn the FF about their future.

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #605: “End of Line”: Reed’s immortal, time-traveling father takes him throughout time to see Ben’s lonely future.

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #606: “Adventures in Red”: The FF go on one of the most important missions of their career.

Fantastic Four Vol 3 #51-#54: “Eye of the Beholder” to “A Choice of Dooms!”: The Inhuman Royal Family seeks sanctuary on Earth after having been enslaved by the Kree; the FF advocate for them despite widespread bigotry; Sue’s pregnancy is once again life-threatening. Val is born!

Fantastic Four Vol 3 #55: Johnny and Ben get sent on a wild goose chase. I don’t want to say too much, but this issue’s pretty cute.

Fantastic Four: First Family: This takes place between the rocket crash and Fantastic Four Vol 1 #1. Showcases the devastating effects of the crash on every member of the FF.

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #564-#565: “The Christmas Monster / Don’t Eat Valeria!”: The FF travel to Scotland to stay with Reed’s cousin for Christmas; Valeria ends up getting kidnapped by an ancient monster.

FF Vol 2: When the FF take off on a trip in space, they leave their kids in the care of a replacement FF composed of She-Hulk, Scott Lang, Medusa, and Darla Deering. It is really cute.

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #334-#336: “Shadows of Alarm” to “Dark Congress” — From Simonson’s run. The FF testify before Congress and singlehandedly defeat an early version of the Super Human Registration Act.

Marvel Fanfare Vol 1 #2: “Annihilation”: Reed works tirelessly on a cure for Ben, all while mulling over his guilt over the rocket crash. This is maybe my all-time favorite BenReed story. 

Marvel Fanfare Vol 1 #15: Johnny plays an April Fool’s prank on Ben. Or tries to.

Marvel Comics Presents #13: “Reed’s on the Roof and We Can’t Get Him Down”: This takes place while Reed and Sue were living undercover in the suburbs as the Benjamins -- Reed, an incorrigible troublemaker, gets trapped hanging off the roof, but he can’t use his powers to get down without revealing his secret identity. Luckily, but much to his annoyance, the Invisible Girl comes to his rescue just to teach him a lesson.

These are mostly from post-1998 FF, but if anyone would like recommendations for FF comics before that, just let me know!

[minijenn]

Never Forever, but still Together (Reverse Diamond)

Okay, so before I start, just know that I stand by the idea that Diamond Steven is an irredeemable character. This is just a little AU possibility I thought of. Enjoy

In the deep confines of a busted and broken green ship, one little diamond couldn't do a damn thing about it.

His ship, broken. His alliances, broken. He connection to homeworld, broken. Any relationships he had managed to form, broken into so many little pieces that you'd need a microscope to see any of it.

This was truly the lowest point of the diamond.

Even lower than being half human, even lower than a pearl, even lower than the bottomless pit. That was how pathetic his existence has gotten. He couldn't even call his own life a life, it was just an existence, struggling to exist against so many things that were trying to kill him.

There was nothing in his existence worth anything. He life was worth nothing to himself, and it was definitely not worth a crap to anyone around him.

Maybe at one point, he believed that Blue Diamond needed him as much as he needed her. Maybe at one point he thought her giant, gentle touch was all the comfort that he needed, that it didn't matter how large the pain was. Maybe he thought she loved him, and that, for as much as someone like him could, he loved more than anything, more, than all the power he held in his fingertips, more than he hated the fleshbag.

He couldn't allow himself, or Blue Diamond for that matter, to live such a lie. Better to save her the pain and to take it all on his own.

Wait, their was one person who valued him more than anyone. Someone who would follow him to the ends of the earth, and he didn't even have to ask.

It was definitely the last, last, last thing the diamond had on his mind. He hurled at the very thought of such a repulsive idea. It was something he would, never in a million years, think about doing.

But, he really had no other choice. Day after day, week after week, year after year, everything he had built for himself, it all turned on him. Pain, suffering, that was his entire life, that's what he had to look forward to everyday. Every drop of blood, every scratch, every night he spent alone, that was what life had in store for him.

Turning his attention to his communication device, more specifically the primitive earth device that was given to him as a 'gift', he turned it on a dialed the only number on the phone, as well as the only one he actually had a use for knowing.

"I'm so going to regret this."

Wondering in the show tent that she's come to know as home, the malicious showgirl known as Mabel Pines starred up aimless at the 'ceiling' above her. She had no real purpose for doing so, sometimes after putting on a show and maiming a few unsuspecting members of the audience, she felt like doing nothing. She asked herself mostly meaningless questions, like why a pig goes oink and not moo, how can such fragile bodies hold in so much blood and guts, and how in the hell did her brother manage to get a girlfriend? There was just some things that would always go unsolved.

Her brother was definitely someone she rather try to forget about every day. Ever since his betrayal, he's been living at that eyesore of a temple, or living in the woods with that hippie girlfriend or whatever weird thing her parents were into. It didn't concern her in the slightest.

Her own brother didn't concern her in the slightest. Their was always a distinct divide between them ever since they were born. Her earliest memory of them together wasn't a clear one, only that it involved a lot of screaming, hair-pulling, and possibly some spilled blood. It was all her brothers fault, at least that's the story she was sticking with. Her brother, the teachers pet, the prodigy in math, literature, and magic, and the biggest buzzkill of all time.

She thought about all those nights they were alone together, all the times they were left alone, the cold, hard nights they promised to be together forever. All the times they promised to always stand together, all the times they held each other whenever one would feel lower than dirt, whenever someone would hurt them and they swore to hurt that someone back times 100. The promises made to never be weaker than anybody, to let no one control them.

She was an idiot. For the last 6 years, all he's ever done is try to control her. Ford, Dipper, they were trying to contain the fire inside. She didn't want to be a candle that that barely grazed people's skin, she wanted to be a wildfire that slowly and painfully consumed anyone that dared cross her uncontrollable path. A blazing, white hot fire that wouldn't stop until the entire world was engulfed in flames, and she would be their, standing above everyone, laughing, dominating, destroying everyone that ever..

Pfft

While in the mist of her sinister inner monologue, she had failed to notice the fire now surrounding her bed, slowly making it way up to the tent. "Great." She muttered with as must disinterest as she could. The smell of smoke soured her nostrils, making her get up from her fiery accident and made her way outside. "I can't so much as think about Dipper without something going wrong." Nothing about him concerned herself in anyway, and the next time she saw him, it will definitely be the last time, she'll personally see to that.

Before see could even think of a way to put out the fire, a ring from her phone erupted from her pocket. Curious as to why, she absentmindedly picked it up and answered. "Hello."

"Hey, so after many hours of contemplation I've decided to abandon everything that's made me who I am and give up on life." The Diamond's voice answered as clearly and bluntly as he could. Not that his tone of voice was surprising, given how very open he was when it came to his own thoughts and opinions, but to here it over the phone, and after such a devastating phone, she herself was a bit doubtful when and if they would even continue this alliance they had. "So want to come over and join me in miserable failure?"

The words coming out of the Diamond's mouth were practically alien coming from him. It was something she thought she never see, never not ever in a million years.

Her precious Diamond was asking her out!

"Yes, yes, yes!" She elatedly shouted at the top of her lungs, levitating her in the air as the fire behind began to grow more and more. She continued to ignore, as well as the screams of agony made by the dozens of people trapped inside the gift shop of the tent. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting to here those words."

"That somehow makes this call even more pathetic." The Diamond sighed before abruptly hanging up on the girl. Despite the rather rude send off, the girl was to far off on cloud 9 to even care about it. Finally, after every daydream, day after stalking, pestering, after every hypnosis and mindwipe, the Diamond had finally given in to her advances. They were finally going steady after all this time.

"Nothing could make this any more perfect." She announced as she started floating away, swooning in the air, completely oblivious to the fiery mayhem that was occurring down below on her own place of business, or the fact that the blue blaze was starting to make it's way towards the town.

The green ship was just as beaten up and busted as she remembered. She didn't have a particular disdain for it being broken, it just meant she had more time to spend with her Diamond, but she at least figured he would've gotten Peridot to start fixing it about now.

Trying to straighten out her thoughts for what was definitely going to be the biggest moment of her life until her wedding day( she would forgive him for being a little late than her original plans, but love was all about compromising, and sacrifice, and doing whatever it took to make sure he was perfect), she entered the broken contraption with little effort. Not that entering his little fortress was difficult, she always managed to bypass any security measures he made to specifically keep her out. In her defense, her Diamond just had to accept that they were going to share the rest of their lives together, so that meant they had to be with each other nearly 24/7 with no secrets withheld or omitted.

In any case, the ship, which usually had one or two gems in to greet her as she came in, was nearly barren as she furthered the space machine like it was some sort of mechanical jungle. Wire and cables hung on the ceiling like wild vines, spreading everywhere from the wall to the floor, sparking electricity every few seconds. The main control room had nor doors blocking it's entrance, so passing through was easy enough.

She remembered every moment she spent here with her dear Diamond, the way his little body would sit in that high chair, being all important and cute in all the power that he had. He never let his size demote or demean the level of power and control he had. He held everything he had with pride, and strength, and a body that she could just rip..

"Focus Mabel, your fantasies will all come true after today." She controlled herself as she headed towards where she her Diamond was. Forget her Brother's betrayal, forget the many disappointment and failures that they've suffered recently, forget all the self-loathing that both were very prone to, today was all about them, and the bright, loving future they had ahead."

She headed to the control chair, where he sat in a state of depression and laziness. The smell emitting from him was enough to assume that he hadn't freshened up in quite a while, as could also be told by the still torn-up clothes he hadn't changed out of, or the big poofy puffs of hair that use to be the three spike on his head. In his hand was a glass that was filled with a thick, dark substance that smelled even worst than the Diamond.

'Okay, just got to reel him in slowly'. Just got to be subtle.' She internally thought to herself "Haha, heh, Dear Diamond, you look pathetic." She shouted bluntly, resulting in the Diamond moaning in response. 'Nailed it.' "Defeat is so not a good look on you." Mabel prided herself on how honest she was to him.

The Diamond, after standing up from his seat, continued to moan as he held his head up like it was going to roll right off. "I, appreciate your tactless approach as always." He responded once he stop waltzing his way up to the showgirl. The dizziness still had yet to wear off, as he tripped over himself and leaned on Mabel for support.

While trying to suppress the exploding happiness about to erupt, she still couldn't help but feel a bit, turned off at the sight of her Diamond at the moment. This clearly wasn't him. "What, what have you been drinking?"

An almost alien smile crept up on the Diamond's face. "It's, it's the only thing I've ever allowed myself to ingest in liquid form, that delicious beverage you keep sending me." He answered with a huge slur.

"Okay, I see what the problem is." She grabs the glass he was holding and examines it. "Yep, you've been drinking expired Mabel juice. While I'm extremely flattered and even more eager to have your babies, I think you've had a bit too much to drink." She takes a huge whiff at it. "Have you even refrigerated this stuff?"

The Diamond semi-listens to what she had said, and responds with the most appropriate answer he could muster up. "I don't know, don't know, don't know what you're talking about. I'm drinking th-that stuff because I can relate to it. It sums up my life in a nutshell." He snatches the glass away from her and drowns it all down in one gulp. "It's highly toxic, deadly, painful to endure, is known to scorch several parts of the body..." He drowned on and own with a dialogue of self pity.

"Look, Dear Diamond.." The Show girl shook the Diamond to grab his attention. "I came here because you told me to, so unless we're about to get serious right now, I think I should depart for the day." She threatened. In truth, she probably would've just sat outside the ship for about 30 minutes until she came back in, expecting to see a much more compliant Diamond that would bow down to her for showing such mercy.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on the perspective, the Diamond slapped himself in the face rather uncharacteristically, and his expression started to slowly form one that was a little more familiar to her. "You're right, I called you here because your the only one I can trust to follow through." Reaching for something that seemed to be buried somewhere in his cape, he kept his attention on Mable as he searched. "You've been like a shadow to me for this entire escapade we've been on, and I, I, I" He struggled to spit out. "..I don't think my time here would've been nearly as, 'enjoyable' as it could've been." He forced out of himself.

That seemed to be all she needed to cast away any doubt. 'Finally, it's all going to begin today'

"What I'm about to purpose is something you might find silly, and maybe a little crazy.."

"I'm already those things, my Diamond."

"It's something that will change everything..

"I'm more than willing to change for you."

"It could prove to be dangerous, even fatal to both of us.."

"Look at me my Diamond." She clenched his cheeks together as she made her point. "I am 100% committed to you. I stood by you because this is where I need to be. This is where I belong by your side, together, with you, forever."

"Than I hope your ready for this." The diamond said as Mabel closed her eyes and leaned forward. One kiss, in one quick act of love, they would officiate their love for one another and finally be able to..

"Okay, than take it." The Diamond, completely oblivious to what the girl was doing, finally stretched out his hand and held something in front of her. "In one move, you can finally end our lives as we know it."

"Yes, of course, we can finally start.." The girl paused for a moment, making her eyes pop out of her socket once she processed what the Diamond had said to her. "End, what do you.." Finally turning her attention to what the Diamond was holding.

It was the memory gun.

"I was thinking about how we were going to go about it." The Diamond mumbled on, dismissing Mabel's confusion. I figured you would shoot me first, and then you would shoot yourself.."

"But.."

"I know, I know, that seems to be a little more uncomfortable, and you'd be least likely to follow through..."

"Dear Diamond.."

"I suppose I can construct another one and we shoot each other at the same time. Of course, that'll probably take some time, and I don't want to drag this on for longer than it needs to be."

"Steven.."

"Of course, I can just set a timer on it, and we can blast ourselves like we're taking a picture. That way, we both get blasted at the same time, and there's no way for either of us to.."

"STEVEN!" Mabel was finally able to interrupt his droning. "What are you talking about, why do you have that thing with you?"

"I said I've given up on life. What did you think that meant?" He asked as if the answer should've been obvious.

"I just thought that meant you've finally soaked up the courage to ask me out, duh." She answered in a similar obnoxious tone. "But what's with the gun? Why all the drama, why bring me here why.."

"Why, why, why anything at all?" The diamond interrupts her once again with a booming voice. "Why life, why prolong it, why are we born, why do we do, why give life a purpose when we're eventually all going to die in the end? Why give in to all the chaos it subjects us to? That's the whole point of this, Mabel" Holding up the memory gun, he points it right to his head. "I've done a lot of thinking, and this, this is out only out. This is how we can end it all." His wide and tired eyes spoke even louder than his words, showing how much thought he had put into this. "If we are going to do anything that matters in the long run, then ending our lives is the only way to do it."

"Okay, okay, you are making this sound way more dreadful with the way you're phrasing this, so please stop." Mabel spoke up once more. She was use to her dear Diamond's blunt nature and disregard for subtlety, even admired it greatly, but this was a bit too much to take in at once. "And are, are you really suggesting that we erase your memories? Leave you with nothing about you"

"Not all of them, just the one's that matter the most." The diamond was quick to answer. "I've rigged it so that we'll be able to keep basic functions and currently levels of intelligence, but lose every defining moment we've had, family, friends, allies, enemies, betrayals, pleasure, pain, everything that makes life what it is. So yes, in a sense, we're going to end our lives today."

"Again, that sounds way too dreadful for you to be so happy about." She augured in slight displeasure. "And why would I want to erase my memories? How will I ever remember the people I've tortured and killed and those that I need to torture and kill later. That includes Dipper you know? Do you really want to forget how much you hate him, how much you want to squeeze the life out of him while also making Pacifica watch? Do you want to give that up."

"Mabel, as satisfying as that sounds, I've already made up my mind about this." He straightened out his posture a little, trying to stand as tall as he could. "Our lives are worthless and don't mean a damn thing to anyone, so if we're going to do anything about the crappiness in our lives, we need to..

SLAP.

The action taken next was quick, but the seconds afterword felt like hours. Neither of them could look at each other without some form of maliciousness taking over. The ends of her nails had drips of blood laced on her, and the mark made on the Diamond face was all too clear.

"You are talking crazy, even more so than usual, Diamond! She continued to speak with the growing fire inside her. "I have had my entire life, leached away by people trying to control my life, and I'm not about to let the pathetic paranoia of the only person I care about ruin what I have!"

"What, what is it about your life that makes it so damn special?!" The Diamond lashed out, ready to fire on the girl if needed to. "If I never came to this planet, if you never met me, what about your life makes it so amazing!? Answer that, and I'll be yours!" That made Mabel's eye's widen. "Yeah, if you give me one reason, than I'll forget the whole thing and be yours, unconditionally forever."

"That's not fair, you know that the only good thing about my life is you!" Mabel lashed back, igniting herself in blue flame once more. "You've actually given my life a reason to exist, I care about something now, and not just the care I had for my brother just because we live together. I have a reason to care about dominating others and subjecting them under my rule."

"Than you have no answer for me, do you?" The diamond asked confidently. "There's nothing about your life that you like, is there?"

"OF COURSE THERE ISN'T, YOU DIAMOND HEADED IDIOT!" Mabel blurted as she unleashed a fireball towards the Diamond. He hardly bothered to doge it as he let it hit him, sending him across the room. "My parents, killed before I could even I could even remember their names. My Uncles, one's an over caring idiot that that'll get himself killed and the other's a control freak that couldn't bother to adopt me the first time around with my brother!" The flames get hotter and hotter as she approached him. "And don't even mention him, that self-serving egotistical buzzkill that did nothing by my side other than use me when it was most coinvent. I don't mind being other peoples tool, but I'm not a tool that you can just cast to the side once your done with it, I'm always here, always serving others in some way, while I always end up alone!" She exploded in a blazing glory, burning her nearby surrounds, including the roof of the ship before finally dying down after taking one long breath. "Except you. You continued to use me, always found a use for me to be around." She chuckles to herself before dropping on the floor, exhausted. "Your the worst person I've ever met, and your the only one who gets me."

"Heheha, this really is pathetic, isn't it." The diamond, staying on the grounds, scoots right next to her. "We're two broken pieces that belong together, but we still remain broken. We're not complete, yet nothing else is able to fit."

The two just laid there in silence for a while, not commenting on anything, just staring at the charred remains of what was left of the ship. It was Mabel who finally broke the silence again. "What made you decide to erase your memories? I know you didn't do that on a whim."

"Heh, remember when I told you why I never look in a mirror, why I always smash one to bits every time I come across one?"

"Yeah, you said you never saw yourself, just the image of your mother, who you hate for making you." She glumly remembered. She sighed sadly. This guy really had no happiness in his life.

"I saw my reflection when I was trying to repair the ship. It was on broken meatal, but still visible." He starts to get uncomfortable at the next part. "I saw her, judging me, scowling me at every action I make. It never went away, no matter how much I pounded it or pleaded with it. So, I closed my eyes, and imagined my life if Yellow Diamond was never in the picture." He smiles a little more. "No homeworld, no Diamonds, no training, no abuse, and for the first time, I saw what was underneath everything."

"What?"

"Nothing. My entire life is nothing but the hand of Yellow Diamond stretching over me!" He shouted elatedly. "So I thought, if I rid myself of her, If I rid myself of everything that was started by her manipulations, I could start clean, no manipulations, no other forces making do what I want. Just nothing!"

"But, you'll only be nothing." She said with concern. The idea seemed to make him happy, but it was hard to understand why.

"Exactly! Humans are nothing, they go about their lives, living by morals and standards they pick out for themselves. There's nothing, no pain attached, no anything, and I'm half Diamond. I could fixate my own path that has nothing to do with Yellow Diamond. Finally, I'll be free from her.!" He finally allowed himself to breathed as he slowed down. "My whole life, I could see everything coming a mile away. I could only see pain and agony, even when I was little. But if I take this route now, I could at least forget what's ahead, no past, no present, nothing but unseen future ahead."

"Then, why me? Why do you want both of our memories taken?"

"Like I said, we're two broken pieces that somehow are able to connect." Both of the kids fell got up and stared at each other, the Diamond clearly having more difficulty doing so. "We belong to nothing else, and if I'm about to restart everything, I would rather be complete than broken alone."

Taking her hand, she rubbed it against the scarred face of the Diamond. He was way beyond his marbles by this point. Then again, she didn't exactly have any to begin with. "That may be the most crapped up thing someone's ever said to me." Both of them chuckled at the dysfunction of the situation. "But it's also the sweetest thing you've ever said to me."

"So this fall wont kill us?" Mabel said as she looked down from the height. Going through on the Diamond's desperate plan, she sat at the edge and stared out at the town. The blue blaze hadn't stopped, and had only spread across, showing no sign of stopping.

"No. There's way to much trees and foliage. They'll soften out landing before we hit the ground." The diamond explained as he set up the Memory gun. "Once the gun fires at us, whatever's left of the ship will self-destruct, and the resulting shockwave will send out disoriented bodies off the cliff and into the unknowns of the forest."

"Right, because if the explosion doesn't kill us, the many monsters and creatures that live in the woods definitely will." She said sarcastically.

"It's the only secluded spot I could find that doesn't lead back here, and once our memories are gone, I want to make sure we're as far away from the spot as possible to prevent any chance of memory recoil." He responded as he final got the gun ready and sat down beside her. "Everything's ready now. All there is to do is to wait out the timer."

"Hah, this should be fun." Both kids, sharing the same concern and uncertainty, couldn't help but look at each other. They've treated each other so horribly in the past, one more than the other. Every sign pointed in the opposite direction, they were people that should never be with each other.

But they were the only comfort the other had. They didn't have anyone one else but each other. "We're stuck in a giant crack, aren't we?" The diamond asked her. "We're stuck in the middle of a giant crack. We're either going to get out of it or fall into the darkness of it once that timer goes off."

"I guess." She shrugged with discomfort. This was far from what she had planned for today, or tomorrow, or the rest of her future. "Do you think we've could've been better if given the chance?"

"Personally, not really." He sighed sadly. "I always thought I was born broken, the cracks that formed throughout my life creating leaks that drained away whatever goodness I had inside, giving me no chance whatsoever on whatever it threw in my direction." He bluntly said with a small frown. "But I guess this whole memory erase thing's going to prove whether or not that's true.

"Life just a series of closing doors that just slams you in the face, right?" The Diamond nodded as the both stared out at the blue flame that had only now started to die down. "I guess this is goodbye."

"Not it's not, technically. Sure, when we meet again, we won't know who we are, but we'll still be together I guess, unless we decide to split up.." She spoke, bringing up a lot more holes in this plan than she meant to. "Let's just say this isn't a goobye, just a see you later." She held out her hand.

In probably the only kind gesture he's given since she's known him, he took her hand, and held it in his end. "Alright, see you lat..."

FLASH

[ruffsficstuffplace]

The Keeper of the Grove (Part 58)

Note: It is time.

Up until puberty came with all its raging hormones and confusing changes to her body, Weiss had never really been interested in romance.

Didn't have crushes on her classmates, adults, celebrities, fictional characters, or androids; rolled her eyes and tuned out whenever any of her classmates began to gush over how attractive someone was; and only participated in the Valentino's Day events because she didn't want to get lumped in with the pretentious and insufferable crowd who loved bragging about how they were exercising their right to do whatever the hell they wanted, oftentimes claiming some form of inherent superiority for not “following outdated traditions like blind sheep,” or something to that effect.

It didn't really help that her father's only concern about her crushes was that she either get involved with the children of Avalon's other elite, famous, and ridiculously wealthy (sans the ones of those that were even more controversial than him), and Winter only ever seemed to have crushes on soldiers, professional athletes, and of course, Guadalupe Garron, who Weiss now knew was both the sole official voice actress of Eluna, and the actual “mythological” figure herself.

(In retrospect, there was something quite different about Winter's gushing over the Eluna plushie.)

But all that changed when Clarita Nguyen literally came swinging into her life.

To kick-off the start of the school year, the various instructors, facilitators, and some alumni had a live show of the many extra-curricular activities Arcturus offered. The students either watched with mixed levels of interest, or hacked their holo-projectors to watch something more to their interest on HV.

Weiss herself was seriously tempted to follow suit, until the Dance Clubs segment ended.

“And now, for a very different sort of dance, combining grace, coordination, and violence!” the MC said. “Kicking off the Combat and Martial Arts Clubs is Ms. Clarita Nguyen, of the Swordplay Society!”

A replica of an Ancient Old World pirate ship was warped in on stage, holo-dummies of ferocious (if historically inaccurate) buccaneers appearing on deck, armed with cutlasses and pistols. The lights began to dim except for the stage's. All was quiet but for the murmurs of students still chatting with each other.

Then, laughter—excited, confident, and just the right amount of unhinged.

A spotlight tracked Clarita as she swung in on a rope, flying over just over the students' heads before she somersaulted through the air, and made a graceful landing right in the center of the deck.

The buccaneers all readied their weapons and cried out in pirate slang, more Hollywood than history. Like the knights when Abner had cranked the difficulty up to max, there was no fairness here, all hands on deck swarming her and climbing out from the rest of the ship to drown her in a sea of marauders.

But Clarita was more than ready for them, unsheathing her own sword and proceeding to decimate the entire crew.

Weiss was transfixed as Clarita effortlessly weaved around the pirates attacks be they blade or bullet, somersaulting through the air, maneuvering through every space she could squeeze in through, launching of walls or balancing on the rails to use every advantage available to her as she took them with perfectly timed thrusts and swings, oftentimes hitting them where they least expected it.

Weiss heart beat faster as dramatic music played alongside the sounds of violence and fallen pirates—though in retrospect, that was probably more because of the way Clarita laughed and smiled, the way her ruffled shirt and tight pants fit on her lithe and muscular figure, the incredible flexibility, acrobatics, and fighting skill she was gladly showing off.

She devastated the entire crew in less than two minutes, dozens of combat-grade holo dummies disappearing one after the other, and her never taking a single slash nor shot. The crew's Captain burst out of his quarters, roaring with anger as he unsheathed his blade, fire in his eyes and his mouth og rotten teeth curled into a snarl.

Clarita merely laughed and taunted him, drawing a C with a little N in the air.

The two clashed, swords sparking, blades locking, so close they could see the whites in her eyes and the tell-tale distortion of holo-dummies. The music swelled to a crescendo just as the Captain got the upper hand on Clarita, knocking her off balance.

The Captain let out a mighty laugh as he thrusted his sword for the kill…

… Only for his opponent to suddenly “regain” her footing, twisting and dodging the attack by less than an inch, raising her sword up to his neck and making him slit his own throat from his momentum.

The Captain fell, surprise on his face before dissipated.

The music reached its end and faded away.

The audience erupted into cheers.

Clarita turned to the audience and bowed, her eyes sparkling, sweat dripping down her caramel skin. “And those, students, are the kinds of moves you can learn at the Swordfighting Society!”

Weiss signed up as soon as the prompt came up.

She had a plan all thought up in her head: become one of the best students in class, challenge Clarita to a duel, and the moment she bested her in combat, confess her love for her!

… And it all fell apart her first day in the Society, when a much calmer but no less cheerful Clarita put down her and the many other lovestruck hopefuls as gently as she could, explaining it would be illegal for her to get into a relationship with any of her underage students, it would feel wrong for her to become their mentor then their lover, and most importantly, she was already taken, and happily so by a woman who had already bested her in one-to-one combat two decades ago.

Some quit on the spot, unable to face such rejection—oftentimes the first they'd ever experienced in their lives with how sheltered Arcturus kids tended to be.

Weiss stayed, if only because she didn't want her to know that her heart had been rapidly hacked apart like Clarita did a block of wood for the first day presentation.

The sessions passed, Clarita trained her and others in all the many types of blades, until they finally found her specialty in fencing. She taught her the proper form, the technique, and the rules, helped her discover just how fluidly and gracefully she could move, how devastating her well-aimed rapier thrusts could be, refine them both until Weiss was on track to becoming one of the best students in the Society.

It started to look like the plan might not have crashed and burned after all, that dogged persistence had paid off for her as it had for her grandfather, and she could challenge her to that duel after all. (People fell in and out of love all the time, she reasoned with herself.)

… And then, Clarita called her into her office in private, to discuss what she thought was stagnating her performance in the Society.

“Weiss, are you in love with me?” Clarita asked.

There was no malice, no annoyance, no slyness or suggestive undertones. Just curiosity, like she was asking her how her grades were.

Weiss began to sweat and blush. “N-No, absolutely not!” she stammered, lying poorly in the see-through, blatantly obvious, and poorly thought out way adolescents could. “What makes you…?”

“Once upon a time, I was a teenager too, Weiss, and I remember very well how I acted when I was in love with a woman I could never have—exactly how you've been acting.”

Weiss hung her head, ashamed, angry, but most of all, hurt.

“Do you wish to change instructors, Weiss?” Clarita asked softly. “I feel that I’m only holding you back because of how you feel about me, and I how feel about that.”

Weiss looked her in the eyes, and said “Yes.”

Her own eyes were red and welling up with tears, but there was proper decorum to be followed, even if your heart had been sliced up into ribbons, just after you'd finally sewn it back together.

Clarita nodded. “I’ll go ask my colleagues and see who would be willing to take you on instead.” Then, she opened her drawer and pulled out a physical business card—a real rarity those days. “And also: a recommendation for someone who can help you out.”

That someone turned out to be Dr. Coriander “Connie” Corazon, a therapist who specialized in counseling people questioning their sexuality identities and orientations but mostly for women. In her words, “Society may stop blinking an eye at queer couples doing basically anything, but there will always be girls wondering if they have a girl crush or just an actual crush.”

Jacques was willing to pay for the therapy, if only because he probably made a cost-benefit analysis, and the price of a scandal of his adolescent daughter pining after a married woman three times her age (who had also been her instructor, and was notably close to her) did not even come close to the price of keeping Dr. Connie on for a decade or more.

It all worked out wonderfully for Weiss, as the first handful of sessions were spent in painful, awkward silence, making small talk, and squirming and fidgeting when she ran out of meaningless topics. Dr. Connie had the patience of a saint, was a firm believer in the value of waiting for your clients to come forward with their issues on their own volition, and was still getting paid handsomely regardless of whatever happened.

Then, Weiss' broke like a dam and out came everything in a messy, disastrous flood of Teenage Angst, one that Dr. Connie dutifully waded through, sorted out, and tried to help funnel into healthy, mature drains and pathways so Weiss wouldn't drown in hormones, stupid impulses, and poorly thought-out plans.

The one session she remembered the most was when Weiss admitted that she wanted to try to ask a girl out--”and for clarification, we're in the same grade, she's less than a year older than me, and she's also a member of the Natural Body Improvement Club!” she snapped, her cheeks burning red.

“So, have you thought of what you're going to do on your date?” Dr. Connie replied.

“I… haven't actually thought of that yet...” Weiss admitted.

“Well why haven't you?” Dr. Connie asked.

And so began the recurring structure of their meetings: Dr. Connie asking questions, Weiss answering them, and the process repeating itself for however long it took for Weiss to finally admit or figure out just what exactly was the problem, if Dr. Connie didn't step in to explain to fill in the gaps of her knowledge and emotional maturity.

“… So what if she does say yes, she will go out on a date with you?” Dr. Connie asked.

Weiss groaned, her neatly tied hair now frazzled and a two strands less than when the session started. “I… I… I don't know!” she cried. “I guess we'll go out for chocolate shakes, or something? I haven't thought that far yet!”

“Because…?”

“Because what if she realizes what a giant bag of issues I am, and she decides to just lie her way out of the date, and say an emergency came up?! What'll it look like if I don't just take her on her word and decide to go launch an investigation, find out if she really did have something come up and she wasn't lying?! And what if she did have something come up, and she finds out that I made like a creepy stalker, and that just makes her so glad she couldn't go on that date because who knows what would have happened, now that she knows all these new horrible things about me?!

“How do I find out this a relationship with her isn't just going to crash and burn?!”

Dr. Connie smiled. “Ask her out on a date.”

Weiss groaned. “Isn't there some other way?! Preferably one I can use BEFORE I ask her out?”

Dr. Connie shook her head. “Last I heard, no one has cracked the perfect algorithm that'll completely, accurately decide who's going to be your 'perfect match,' and all the dating companies are still legally required to say that their algorithms can't 100% guarantee said match.

“So, we still have to find it out the tried and tested way: ask someone out, date them for a while, and see if you two will work out to the best of your abilities.”

“There has to be a better way!”

Dr. Connie smiled. “If there is, then none of us have figured it out yet.”

So now here Weiss was, sitting on the side of her hammock and hoping that the Fae had cracked the code.

It was morning when Ruby stepped back into their room, looking roughed up and tired, her clothes and scythe still faintly stained with blood and other stains. “Morning Weiss!” she said, waving lazily with one hand as she put away her scythe with the other.

She frowned as she began to pulled out her wrapped up mask from inside her cloak. “Rough night?”

“To put it lightly...” Weiss muttered.“… Hey, Ruby...? Can I ask you a question?”

“Could you make it an easy one?” she replied as she put away her mask and cloak. “I kinda really need to crash soon.”

Weiss blushed. “How do you know if you're in love with someone?”

“Oh, that's easy!” Ruby said as she walked over to her nest. “I kiss them.”

Weiss blushed. “Just like that…?”

“No, I ask them first, and most of the time there's a date before that!” she said as she sat down among her cushions. “Anyway, if it turns out I really like kissing them and want to do more of that in the future, I know I love them, not just like them.”

“Is that a Fae thing?” Weiss asked.

Ruby shook her head. “Just me. I can't be in a serious relationship with someone I can't kiss, let alone have fun making-out with.”

Weiss blushed even more. “How do you know that?”

Ruby sheepishly looked away, before she turned back to Weiss. “… Do you promise not to tell anyone?”

“Promise.”

“I tried making out with Lifira one time,” Ruby replied. “I hadn't kissed anyone real before, and I was really curious about how it was like, so I tried it on her.”

Weiss' face betrayed nothing. “So how did it feel like?”

“Awful. And I asked her to be really into it, and man, she was! But the thing is, there wasn't that something, and it just felt weird and unnatural, and then Yang caught me, and…” Ruby trailed off. “… Yeah.”

“Do you Fae have a word for that for that 'something'?”

Ruby shook her head. “Nah, it's all on you on whatever you want to call it. I don't know what it is for me yet, exactly, but I know it's not just kissing because Lifira was a pretty great kisser, just not for me.”

She yawned. “Was that all you wanted, Weiss? Because I don't think I can stay up much longer...”

Weiss opened her mouth. “No--” she blurted, before she shut her mouth.

Ruby looked at her. “No…?”

“No… I…” Weiss' face felt like it was melting. “Ruby, do you promise not to tell anyone, either?”

Ruby nodded, her sleepy face turning alert and serious. “Absolutely.”

Weiss sheepishly looked away, before reluctantly looking back at Ruby. “Could you… kiss me...?”

Ruby's eyes widened, her ears perked up.

Weiss started to sweat. “I-I know you like me, and I'm not sure if I like you back, and I'm kinda leaning on yes, but also no, and I just want to--”

She stopped as Ruby got up off her nest, walked over, and sat down beside Weiss.

Weiss gulped. “… Make... sure...” she finished, her voice barely a whisper.

“Someone please walk in on us,” she thought to herself. “Please, please, please...”

Ruby smiled at her, her sleepy eyes twinkling in the morning sun. “You can say no if you don't want to, Weiss.”

Weiss took a deep, not-at-all calming breath, then forced herself to bring her lips right up to Ruby's, careful not to smash their noses or foreheads together in decidedly unromantic and painful ways.

Her whole body began to tremble, sweat poured down her face as she closed her eyes, her face so close to Ruby's she just knew she could feel the intense heat radiating from her cheeks.

“Do you still want to…?” Ruby whispered.

“Y-yes...” Weiss whispered back.

She felt Ruby hold the back of her head, fingers threading through her hair, her touch only light enough to keep her steady, so much of her power and strength being held back because she knew any more would hurt her.

Weiss swallowed the lump in her throat.

She always knew that Ruby was powerful, in combat skill and in physical strength. She could and had crushed an entire armed mercenary company of rank 6 Queensguard Nominees without resorting to killing any of them if crippling most instead; easily wiped the floor with Cardin and his men while unarmed if invisible; and fought the dangerous creatures of the Valley on a daily basis without the slightest hint of serious injury, and from what she'd seen of her at the hot springs, any injury at all.

She could crush her, easily.

And yet she wouldn't, being very, very careful, holding back so much of her power, putting this much conscious effort and attention to make sure she didn't hurt her.

And Weiss found that she really, really, really liked that.

She closed the distance between their lips, surprising them both.

Weiss frowned, feeling like she was kissing a rock: solid and unmoving.

Then, Ruby got over the shock, started kissing back, physically pushing Weiss back from the strength she put behind it, before she quickly toned it down to just enough for her to really feel her lips on hers. She began to move her mouth against hers, now soft and warm, feeling like it was yielding exactly to the shape of Weiss' till they were a perfect fit.

Weiss felt a rush like the first time she'd held Myrtenaster, only instead of a dam breaking and her magic flooding out of her body, into the sword then back again several times as potent, she felt herself melt, delicious warmth spreading to every single part of her body, turning her into jelly.

Ruby caught her before she could fall and break the kiss, cradling the back of her head, cupping her lower back. Weiss could feel the touch of each finger send ripples across her skin, her grip tightening and loosening, too hard, too soft, until she found just right.

Weiss threw her arms around Ruby, pulled herself into her body, feeling her densely-woven muscles constantly shifting and tightening under her clothes. She made a noise, a sound she'd never made in her entire life, what sounded like a deep and guttural…

… Not a threat, but an invitation.

Ruby opened her eyes, half-lidded and with a mischievous look Weiss hadn't seen before. She broke away from the kiss for air…

… Or she would have, if she could.

Weiss' eyes fluttered open. She tried to ask Ruby what was wrong, before she found she couldn't move her lips anymore.

“Whut da phuck?!” Weiss mumbled.

“Ay fink yuu frovz arr lipsth togeverr!” Ruby replied. “Ay geth datz wut da tinggling wath!”

“Gonthlet! Nid tu get my gonthlet!” Weiss said, her eyes opening wide in alarm, her face burning bright red—sadly, it didn't do anything to melt the enchanted ice sealing their lips together.

Knock-knock.

“Weiss? Ruby?” Qrow asked. “I'm not about to walk in on anything, am I?”

They tried to answer him, but it only managed to come out as panicked, unintelligible, and muffled mumbling.

“… Okay: I'm giving you guys till the count of five to cover up, or try to make whatever is going on in there look less awful, then I'm opening the door. One… two… three...”

Weiss made a little dying noise.

Ruby tried to give her a reassuring look, but it was difficult to do so with just her eyes and eyebrows, and more so with their lips frozen together.

“… Four… five!”

Qrow carefully opened the door, and peered in.

Weiss squeezed her eyes shut.

Ruby sheepishly waved.

Qrow stared blankly at them.

“… I'll go get Penny...”

[evelyn-foresis]

posting a marker series. I swear 90% of my art is traditional, mostly pen drawings.

1/3 individual characters

------Kan’qa------------

Aan’a was a lumber worker from Penbrook in the central foothills of excelltrix. she was strong like most of her kind, and chopped and loaded wood no matter the weather or sturdiness and tall the tree. so it would seem odd for a domineering strong woman, growing up along the forest edge, to meet an just as impressive harvester of the lands resources. He was a miner named Tel’eeq from Emb’rlnd in the north border mountains. He had stopped by town for trade of his impressive harvest from a far away mine. She found him stunning, if not incredibly filthy. she offered him room, board and a bath in return for a topaz the size of a tennis ball. She rejected the trade an asked that he only come back to marry her. He said he was off to school to learn more of geology in another realm. She stood by her offer. He found this amusing and surprisingly enticing. He agreed.

He returned two years later as promised. He had a friend from school with him, a boy of the same age who grew up in the palace in the capitol as his parents were both members of the government and servant there. He was a talented healer named Look’qa’zar, or just Luq. he called Tel’eeq by the English translation of his name; Rabbit. and he looked at Tel’eeq like an unattainable dream. Tel’eeq was straighter then a 9-iron. Aan’a felt like a kid in a candy shop. oh yes, she though, both of those handsome cinnamon rolls will be mine.

they ended up being bound in a three way, where; Luq liked Tel’eeq and friended Aan’a, Tel’eeq liked Aan’a and friended Luq, and Aan’a was all in in every way possible. after a few months of being practically married, Luq a local healer, her chopping down trees and Tel’eeq returning from mining in his home village, she requested children. she requested both of them take part as she wanted a baby fathered by each of them. Luq, if your not aware by now was gayer then a group of dandies playing leap frog in a field and eyes only for the physically impressive earth mongrel he befriended. But Aan’a ran the house and he was weak willed to anyone's request.

she gave a child to each of them, an elder daughter from Luq who was to become a lapidarie, and a little boy from Tel’eeq who wanted to be a a healer. Their kind are tough and it is unlikely they ever have trouble bearing children, but as much as Luq tried she was sick, and there is only so much archeic semi-magic healing could do. her death was devastating to everyone. None of them will forget the rowdy strong willed lumber jack that always smelled of sod, pine and ceder that they loved.

[hexarcana-archived]

Here’s that fucked up AU I mentioned.

Ok so this is like... More of an alternate dimension?  Like, this is a situation that I would LOVE to write and it would mean that your muses could easily exist in it in a dimension hopping sense?  Like, I have a set up reality, but just because i have an idea for say... idk Gideon, doesnt mean that another Gideon couldnt visit this dimension.  So, here we go.

So, this dimension it literally situated on the egde of the nightmare realm.  During this reality’s version of Weirdmageddon, after Bill couldnt break out of gravity falls, he essentially dragged Gravity Falls into a horrible middle ground between the nightmare realm.  This made it impossible for the people within Gravity Falls to leave.  Slowly, more towns and communities were added simply because so many people in GF perished or... Switched sides, so to speak.

When I say switched sides, I mean they underwent a sort of horrible transformation.  When Bill took the falls out of actual reality, something in him snapped (even more then he already snapped) and he made a game out of taking the mortals and warping them into more demon buddies and accomplices, as well as taking an eye out of every person he comes across so everyone has one eye.  Very few people embrace the triangular overloard, most rebel and fight back.  Many are captured and are mutilated by lesser demons, or are turned to demons themselves by the greater zodiac demons.

There are the more common demons and there are zodiac demons, which line up with the zodiac that could have ended it all (plus some extras that bill and co. deemed... important.)

If anybody entered this dimension you’d be met wit ha very small unit of people.  Most everyone in the main cast of the show are gone, so it opens the world up for interaction and adds to the ANGST of the ordeal.  What follows is what happened to our main cast, but before that I have to tell you the fate of my beloved matriarch oc, Aggie.

Aggie was one of the first people to be turned to a Zodiac demon.  True to her protective nature, she essentially sacrificed herself to protect Olive and the kids (who were with her at the time) with the combined power of Bill as well as Hex Arcana, the demon who effectively owns Aggie, our sweet loving witch lady is turned to nothing short of a monster.  She shifts shape between a terrifying dog-beast with white fur and six eyes, to a semblance of her formal self but covered in bloody hexagons, and with no ounce of humanity behind.  Zodiac demon known as The Mongrel and she mostly stays around her old house.

Dipper and Mabel survived weirdmageddon and for some time after, the got by with the help of their uncles.  Devastated by the fact they’d likely never see their parents again, they were determined to do all they could to defeat Bill.  This proved to be impossible for them.  During a raid, Mabel was taken by Bill himself, and she was warped from sweet girl to a firey demon with a sadistic streak.  Mabel no more, she became a zodiac demon; Shooting Star.  

After the loss of Mabel, Dipper became even more determined.  Together with Ford, they developed as much technology and protective measures their two brilliant minds could manage.  Ford wanted to do more tests, but Dipper wanted to stop the madness and save everyone who’d been lost.  He went out (followed by Olive, Wendy and Gideon) and was taken by his sister.  He became the zodiac demon, Pine Tree and instantly turned on the others.  Dipper attacked Olive and fulfilled Bil’s order for each person alive to only have one eye, leaving her bleeding on the ground as Wendy tried to fight back and Gideon tried to get her back to camp.  Wendy was nearly turned to a Zodiac, but she managed to get away by ‘killing’ Pine Tree, but not before one of her arms warped into a sort of ice claw, showing what she’d become if she wasn’t careful.  To her horror, Pine Tree regenerated and continued the chase.  The twins were pushed back thanks to some magic measures Aggie put on the town before she died.  

Wendy returned and essentially ascended rather quickly to the roll of leader, along with her family.  Her father was taken within the first year, so Wendy really did take charge.  To this day she still is considered to be the leader.  She, like the rest of the population, only have one eye.

Gideon managed to get Olive back to the shack, which was a base of operations.  Ford and Stan desperately try to find out where Dipper is, but Gideon explains that Dipper was gone, like Mabel was.  This effectively breaks the older twins.  They argue, blame is tossed around, rage mounts.  Ford breaks down, he runs out of the shack.  By now, Olive has come to and witnessed all of this, and she pleads with Stan to go find Ford and get him back, he could be hurt and they need him.  Stan says nothing, clearly he’s a bit overcome with grief.  Olive wearily gets up and goes ater Ford.  She’s injured and half blind, but she manages to track him down.  He’s shouting to no on out in the woods that he wont be like the rest, he wont let Bill use him to hurt anyone.  He is shoutign about how its all his fault, and before Olive can run out and stop him, he took his gun and turns it on himself.

The loss of Ford breaks the community.  He was their greatest hope to defeat the evil.  After he died it became more a matter of survival rather than victory.  After his funeral, Stan left.  Without much of a word, he was gone.  Olive tried to stop him but she was too weak, and he vanished into the woods, never to be seen again.  It is unknown currently if he’s live, met a fate like Fords, or is in the woods somewhere lurking as a zodiac demon.

With the Pines family gone, things just got worse.  Mind you, all of this happened over the span of about a year.  More people either followed Ford or were taken and transformed.  Just to make this easy, here is the Zodiac +Bonus Characters and their fates, currently.

Dipper: Zodiac Demon Pine Tree A great spiked beast that has the ability to enter trees and control them to attack. Mabel: Zodiac Demon Shooting Star  A violent firey demon who leaps into the air and comes crashing down like a comet to obliterate her enemies. Stan: Unknown Ford: Deceased Soos:  Alive, handyman of the apocolypse.  He tried to go after Stan, but Stan begged him to stay back, that he couldnt stand the thought ofl osing anyone else, especially not Soos. Gideon: Alive, living al ot like he did in Weirdmageddon.  A sort of Mad Max big rig guy who aids in going out of the town in the events of compromises of the barrier.

Wendy: Alive, but part of her body has been turned to ice reflecting her Zodiac, Ice Robbie: Zodiac Demon The Bleeding Heart Working in tandem with his demonized parents, Robbie unleases hoards of regenerating undead to plague the town for Bills amusement. Pacifica: Alive, she’s become somewhat of a medic.  She still has two eyes, but keeps one covered. Fiddleford: Zodiac Demon Spectacles A large, mechanized demon with shards of glass protruding from it.  He’s essentially the shaktron but evil.

Aggie Yearling: Zodiac Demon The Mongrel A giant six eyed wolf beast that shifts shape into a semblance of Aggie to mess with anyone who crosses her. Olive Yearling: Alive, works directly under Wendy and often works with Gideon. Steven Yearling:  Zodiac Demon Fangs Hangs around the caves he once lived in.  Murderous, violent and hungry.  He resembles a bat.

Surviving townsfolk:  Wendy’s brothers, Ma Gleeful, Durland, Tate McGucket, Priscilla Northwest, Mayor Tyler, Waddles, Grenda, Candy’s parents, Grenda’s parents, all of Sev’ral Timez except Deep Chris, Gompers, Jeff the Gnome, Celestabelleabethabelle, Thompson, Toby Determined, any remaining side characters.

Demi-demons:  The Valentinos, Manly Dan, Lazy Susan, Ghost Eyes, Candy, Tambry, Lee, Deep Chris, Blubbs, Abuelita, Bud Gleeful, most of the remaining gnomes, the Multibear, nearly all of the manotaurs, Blendin Blandin, Poolcheck, Shandra Jimenez, Free Pizza Guy, Tad Strange,  and the Shapeshifter.

Bill’s squad is still running around too.

The present in the dimension is in present day for us, 2017.  Five years ahead of 2012.

I might just write this into a fucking fic???  I came up with all of this during a CAR RIDE today.  ALL OF IT.