#i need to give some of my current mains siblings

[unlikelysaintdelele]

I don't often read stories where sibling relationships are accurate. They either hate each other or would never even think to raise a hand against each other. I've punched my brother in the face and he's attempted to drown me, but we become a team the moment we have a common enemy. I would use my body as a shield to protect him in a life or death situation, but I know in my heart I would never be friends with or even tolerate him if we weren't related. Y'know? I wanna read more sibling relationships like that.

[oosleepyfaeoo]

A Kiss Is All I Need

Modern!Aemond Targaryen x Fem!Reader

Chapter One

Summary: 2 months ago, Alys, the love of his life, broke up with him. Their relationship of five years gone by a simple farewell note that she left on their, well now his, penthouse. 2 months crying and feeling like shit but that all stopped when he meet you on that dreadful clothing store.

Warnings: Some angst, Aegon being the wingman, she/her pronouns, slow burn, eventual smut

Words: 2k

Masterlist

A/N: English is not my main language so i apologize for bad grammar but i hope you still like it! Feel free to reblog and comment! It would make me really happy to know you guys thoughts (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)

“Seriously, Aemond. Relax a little.” Aegon drawls, eyeing his little brother carefully.

Aemond stood beside his brother, tense as a rock, contemplating his surroundings while his long pale fingers toy with his old, stained t-shirt. They currently stood in the middle of the clothing store, waiting for their sister Helaena while she chose some new and clean clothes for Aemond.

His siblings finally, after a month of rotting in his penthouse, dragged him out of the house to get some fresh air and apparently, some new clothes.

Aemond just shot his brother a glare and continued nervously toying with his t-shirt. Aegon rolls his eyes. “She did a number on you, didn’t she?” He says with a small frown.

2 months ago, Alys, the love of his life, broke up with him. Their relationship of five years gone by a simple farewell note that she left on their, well now his, penthouse. He still remembers how his heart beat so fast against his ribcages while he searched the whole house for her, noticing that all her clothes and jewelry (which he gifted to her) were gone.

He met her at one of his family company parties. Alys was the secretary of Lyonel Strong. Aemond was completely in awe with her when his eye landed on her, the way she moved so gracefully, and how her green eyes sparkled with mischief and wisdom.

When they made their relationship public, it was quite a shock for everyone, especially his mother. He was 23 and she was 35 at the time which was entirely understandable since they had a big age gap, twelve years to be precise.

“I don’t want to talk about her.” Aemond murmurs, trying his hardest to not think about Alys.

Aegon sighs and wraps his arm around his brother's shoulders. “I know you don’t... But try to loosen up a little.” He looks at Aemond worriedly. “Everyone is worried about you... Seven Hells, even Jace, and Luke are worried-”

Aemond looked down with a frown when suddenly he felt a gentle pull on his jeans. By his feet was a little girl dressed in a princess costume, full of pink and sparkly glitter. Her black hair hangs in two cute pigtails and a small simple tiara on top of her head.

The child looks carefully at Aemond, her eyes fixed on his eyepatch. “Are you a pirate?” She asks with an excited grin, her big round eyes shining in mischief.

Aegon burst out laughing while Aemond just stood there, looking down at the small girl in shock.

She huffs in annoyance and pulls the fabric of his jeans again. “Well?”

Noticing that Aemond does not intend to answer the poor girl, Aegon kneels beside the girl and gives her a kind smile.

“Sorry kid but he’s no pirate.” His answer made the girl frown in disappointment. “But he’s a Prince!” Now that made her look at Aemond in surprise and then back at Aegon, eyeing carefully.

“If he’s a Prince then why he doesn't smile?” She asks.

That pierce a little Aemond’s heart. Kneeling, he grabbed her small hand and gave her a small smile. “I’m sad... So that’s why I don’t smile much, little Princess.”

The girl giggles at her nickname but quickly disappears as she frowns, looking into his eye intensely. Then she took a step forward, placed her tiny hands on his cheeks, and kissed the point of his nose. Aemond stood very still, his eye wide in surprise at the girl's gesture.

She pulls back and smiles in excitement. “There! A kiss always pushes the sadness away!” The girl says proudly. “My mommy always kisses me whenever I'm sad or hurt.”

//// \\\\

“Em!” You call while looking everywhere in the clothing store for your daughter. “Emily! Where are you?!”

You can’t take that girl anywhere without getting a panic attack. You love to the death, she was your sun and moon but sometimes you wish that your daughter wasn't so adventurous. You were finishing a client order when you noticed your daughter leaving the bakery and running into the clothing store right in front. This made you leave everything that you were doing and run after her.

Sighing in relief, you spot her by the men's section talking to 2 silver-headed men. “Emily!” You breathe out as you kneel and pull her into a hug. “Don’t you ever disappear on me again! Mommy’s heart can’t handle any more surprise adventures.”

Your daughter grins at you and points to the man with an eyepatch. “Mommy I found a Prince!” She says excitedly. “Don’t worry, he’s not a pirate.” She whispers that part to you which makes you chuckle.

You stood up, holding Emily in your arms. “I’m so sorry. I hope my daughter didn���t bother you too much.” You apologize.

The handsome eyepatch man stood still looking down at you. A light blush appears on your face as you study his face properly. He was tall, really tall, with beautiful silky long silver hair that was loosely braided. His features were sharp which made him even more attractive. His eye was colored in a lovely ice blue shade with a hint of light purple. A black eyepatch covers his other eye, and you notice a long scar coming out of it down to his cheek. He was dressed in a simple green t-shirt (which seems to have seen better days) some black jeans, and black Doctor Martens.

He seemed nervous as he began playing with his fingers. “Huh... It’s no problem. Your daughter is a very sweet child.” he smiles softly.

“Mommy! Mommy! The Prince was sad so I kissed his nose like you do to me when I'm sad or hurt. And now he’s happy!” Emily giggles while resting her head on your shoulder.

“That’s very sweet of you, Em... But you can’t go wander off and kiss strangers.” You sigh while giving an apologetic look to the silver-headed man. “You know that while mommy is working, you need to stay with Maria.”

Emily rolls her eyes and pouts. “Ugh, but Maria is boring! She stays in front of the computer all day and does nothing... I much prefer staying at home, at least I could play with Pumpkin.”

You adjust her tiara on her head and kiss her forehead gently. “I know but I can’t let you be at home alone, sweetheart.”

While you scold your daughter, trying to convince her to stay with your employee. Aegon stays silent studying the scene before him. He had noticed how Aemond suddenly couldn’t take his eye off you or how his pale cheeks suddenly turned pink when you smiled gently at him.

Aegon also noticed you eyeing his little brother which made him grin mischiefly. Oh, he had a plan forming in his head. A BIG plan.

“Excuse me, I don’t mean to intrude but it seems you are in need of a babysitter for this lovely Princess,” Aegon says while smiling at Emily who grins at him. He wraps his arm around Aemond’s shoulders and pulls him to his side. “My baby brother, Aemond, is in need of a job and he’s great with kids. He usually babysits our nephews. So, he knows how to take care of children.”

Aemond shot Aegon a glare and opened his lips to disagree with whatever his brother had in mind, but Aegon just smiled at him and stepped on his foot to silence him.

“So, what do you think?” Aegon grins down at you.

You frown gently. It’s true that you seriously needed a babysitter for Emily, but you don’t have time to look for one since being a single mother and owning a bakery occupy your days. Also, it’s hard to trust a stranger to look after your kid. Your friend, Nat, tried to convince you to hire a babysitter after Emily turned one year old but you quickly refused, saying that you could perfectly manage taking care of Emily and your business alone.

Oh boy, how wrong you were. Since Emily started walking, your life has been a nightmare. She was like a ninja. One minute she was there and the next, she was gone. Every day you would have to run off from your work to go find her. She loves exploring and she makes sure you know that, every, single, day.

Maybe Nat is right.

“Okay,” You sigh. Aegon clapped in victory and smiled at his brother. “But I will be needing an interview with Aemond. To see if he has the training that is needed to look after a child.”

“Of course! When?” Aegon asked while Aemond just stood there petrified.

“Tomorrow at 2 pm.” You took your business card and gave it to Aemond. “You will find me in my bakery shop. It’s right in front of this store.”

Aemond nodded and took your card. “Thank you... I’ll be there.”

You smile gently and say your goodbyes, taking Emily back to your shop. “Bye Bye Prince!” The girl waved to him with a toothless smile which made Aemond smile gently and wave back.

When you and Emily are out of the clothing store, Aemond turns to his brother and slaps roughly on his shoulder. “What in the actual fuck was that, Aegon?!” He growled.

Aegon hissed in pain and pouted. “Ouch!... Is this how you thank your big brother for getting you a date with that hot girl?!”

Aemond rolls his eye. “By making me a babysitter?” He sighs. “Look Aegon, I'm not ready to be with someone yet... Also, did you not think that maybe she has a husband?”

Aegon grins at him. “No ring on her finger so she’s probably single. And you are more than ready to be with someone... It’s been two months since you and Alys broke up, you had your time weep and now it’s time to go back into action.”

Helaena pops beside Aegon with her arms full of clothes that she chooses for Aemond. “Our little brother has a date tomorrow!” Aegon claps excitedly.

Helaena gasps in surprise and then looks back to the clothes in her arms and back to Aemond, frowning gently. “We need more clothes.” She whispers while going back into the clothing store with Aegon on her trail.

Aemond sighs in defeat but a tiny smile appears on his thin lips. He’s not going to lie, you seem really interesting. 

Tag list is open!

Thank you for reading! Hope you like it! ε(´｡•᎑•`)っ 💕

[overdecorated-furniture]

Dead Parents - How to avoid them.

We are all very familiar with the notion of dead parents in fiction. For example, Harry Potter’s parents are dead before the first book even starts. Or in Portrait of Dorian Gray, the protagonist is brought up by an absentee and very neglectful grandfather. It’s a trope used again and again. And it does kind of work. It certainly allows your young protagonists the opportunity to gain agency and find their own way in the adventure thrown at them. But it’s also rather predictable. As a reader, we don’t sympathise as much because it’s such a used trope.

So, here are some of my thoughts about how to avoid the dead parents trope, and still propel your characters into the action.

Kill Someone Else.

I know, violence isn’t supposed to be the answer. But characters don’t only have close relationships with their parents. If your plot centres around a revenge quest for a dead loved one, it doesn’t have to be a parent.

Siblings who got caught in the crossfire trying to protect your MC, or an aunt/uncle they were close to being poisoned works just as well. Best friends are also a useful source of grief, and the fact it’s someone outside the family perhaps gives your MC more of a push. Equally, a significant other may work, although that is a used trope too. It might even just be a beloved pet.

Use their Morals.

People in the real world do not simply act out of revenge for the death of a loved one. Character morals can be just as powerful a motive for action, and Young people in particular are just beginning to discover what matters to them, and so it feels at its most important.

Perhaps your MC feels that the magic system in your fantasy world does not allow for people with disabilities to have access, and so uses that as their springboard. Or in an apocalypse setting, the desire to protect fellow humans against a threat may act as the MC’s launch pad for setting up a safe base somewhere. Concerns over equality, safety, climate change, government choices and even things as small as how cereal is marketed can motivate a character into changing their world/current situation.

Create Conflict.

Arguments, breakups, scrappy fistfights with someone in a back alley. Conflict is one of the spokes of a story, as it creates opportunities for moving the plot forward, and can hold the characters back from achieving their aims. Using this to start your character’s story arc makes for an explosive scene, and allows immediate sympathy with the situation they are in. Everyone argues, has had someone they care about walk out of their lives, or has at least been punched, so the familiarity of a minor but important conflict helps the reader associate with the character, as well as setting up any skills the character has or may need in order to defeat the foe at the climax of the story.

Parental Encouragement.

In a good family situation, parents will want to support their children and young people in achieving their goals. And the same can be true in stories. Perhaps your character wants to learn to play hockey, for example. Their parents can very easily encourage them to join a practice group, help them buy kit, and encourage them to play in matches. Having a supportive adult can mean as much to an MC as having said support removed, and although this doesn’t work for epic fantasy revenge quests, it does create a welcoming atmosphere for a reader.

Those are the main ones I can think of off the top of my head. Do add in comments/tags any you know of!

Happy writing!🌿

[amerricanartwork]

Hewwo!

I just want to say that I LOVE your lilypad and Moon and Pebbles being adorable siblings drawings and headcanons! 🥺❤

Have a great day :3

Awww, thanks! It's always nice to see your support, Tanya!

Although, since you decided to mention both Lilypad AND the siblings, mind if I take this opportunity to actually introduce some more character headcanons and story plans tying both of these character relationships together?

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

First of all I want to establish, if I haven’t depicted it in my other content thus far, that in my general interpretation Five Pebbles and No Significant Harassment do not like each other. A lot. I won’t go into detail as to why right now (it’s based on a lot of deeper character knowledge that I’ll save for an official headcanon post), but I’ll say that Sig likes to tease Pebbles a lot — which given what I just said about him hating being disrespected, especially by older iterators, already creates tension easily — and while Pebbles’s stubbornness alone isn’t too unbearable, the arrogance and excessive pride he carries into his endeavors really ticks off Sig. 

Now, this conflict alone I headcanon as having played a part in the Moon’s collapse/Pebbles’s rot situation, but this issue will likely come to a head once again in my AU story because of one factor: Lilypad. 

You see, I currently expect Lilypad to become official pretty early on in the story for character development reasons, and because with my character headcanons on Sig and Moon and their relationship it just seems like a natural choice for them to make in that situation. However, this occurrence would definitely also heighten the tension between Sig, who doesn’t trust the guy who literally killed his new lover anywhere around her, and Pebbles, who really doesn’t like the idea of one of his least favorite people snuggling up with the one person he’s actually somewhat willing to open up to. Although for a while he won’t directly admit that he takes issue with it (which is an example of another, more fundamental problem of his in-and-of itself), and that last part isn't saying too much considering how awful all of Pebbles’s relations are by the story’s start. 

I also want to reiterate that Lilypad alone isn’t the biggest reason why Pebbles and Sig hate each other so much. Rather, the relationship and their reactions to it are the clearest physical manifestation of what I headcanon as the actual main reasons for their conflict and frequent disagreement on various matters.

But anyway, the “debate” over Lilypad ends up being another conflict between these two, and of course poor Moon struggles a lot trying to keep the peace when her little brother and new boyfriend are frequently threatening to throw hands (metaphorically), while also trying to work through some of her own issues that this development highlights. She feels horribly guilty for re-igniting their conflicts, and is afraid of siding too much with one of them and making the other feel ignored or attacked, but it also gets harder and harder to hide how much it hurts her to see them hate each other so much. Although now that I think about it, this situation could end up being something aiding Moon’s character arc as well. But once again, I don’t wanna give away too much here, so that’s something for another time!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

I hope I didn't bombard you with this, Tanya! I kinda just saw the opportunity and wanted to talk more about these characters and their relationship. I definitely plan for it to get a lot better, but I thought I needed to give a bit of the setup first.

Regardless, thanks again for the ask! I can't wait to start unpacking my major headcanons regarding these characters' psychology, especially Five Pebbles's...!

[hantenguclonesimp-minuszoha]

Happy Wife, Happy Life.

Hantengu clones x Fem!Reader [Yandere-Angst-Fluff]

Part one.

Dividers by Saradika

Dividers by Saradika

Synopsis: Another punishment causes her to finally go cold with her 'beloveds'. They finally know what has been bubbling up inside of her after the many harsh punishments given to her.

Warnings: Possessiveness (duh), gaslighting(?), manipulation, coddling, isolation, monophobia, stalking, reader loses her shit at them, ANGST, more suffering! :D

Requested by: luvcOree

Ps: I didn't notice that my tumblr auto updated and I had saved this on schedule only to find out that I couldn't edit it, so I had to delete the whole thing and rewrite it only to find out later that you could edit the post 😭 so that's why I have to reset to this- I'M SORRY

Y/N inhaled deeply before timidly asking him the question. "May I go spend some time with my family for today? I promise I'll be home early! I just... want to see them. It's been too long..." To Y/N, this was nothing more than a simple request and perhaps even a reward for having been the obedient wife they wanted and giving them all an equal amount of attention, keeping them all satisfied. To the Hantengus however, this was a question they all dreaded. Their dear wife asking to go outside, even more so to visit someone? What was wrong with staying home? They provide her with everything she needs, get her everything she asks for one way or another. What more does she want? Cowardly as the demon may be, he could not let his dear go. Not the one who he knows believes in his innocence. Not the one he needs. "N.. No... You can't! W-What if you get hurt and.. and I'm not... there?" "But it's just my family! I'll just be there for today and nowhere else! Please, let me go visit them!" But the wife was desperate. She doesn't ask much of neither him or the clones, much less Zohakuten, who she knows is more strict and harsh. Y/N does as she is told, stays home where she is safe and gives them attention.

Even Urami and Zohakuten on the rare occasions they reveal themselves. Y/N is a good wife, never asks for anything, but this time, she was desperate. She even said that she'll be home before dusk. But the husbands, they disagree. She cannot leave. She'd be out of their sights, vulnerable, in danger. They cannot risk their lovely wife dying, the risk is too grave. "No! You c-cannot go! You'll... You'll get hurt!" What would he do without her? What they do without her? All he would offer is to stay home and spend some time with him which she reluctantly agreed to. Y/N wasn't happy. She could never be happy. Her family! She needs to see them at least once after having left without much of a valid explanation.This morning was no different from the others except for a little bit of harsh weather. Y/N was simply cooking for herself while also being deep in thought. She's been thinking about her family for some time now, especially her sibling. She's been missing her mother and father dearly and it's been eating up at her for too long, she can't take it anymore. After having finished making herself her meal, the woman took a deep, nervous breath and left for the dark room her husbands stayed during daytime.

Walking up the stairs, Y/N was certain that they had already heard her since she was in the kitchen and by the time she arrived, they were all in the darkest corners of the room, or in this case, he was. "Dear?" He was quick to flinch at the mere sound of her voice, but that was just him in general which did not surprise Y/N in the slightest. Hantengu, the main body of the clones, was currently the only one present due to the clones not being seperated. They often stayed merged together with Hantengu to avoid the sun and only revealed themselves at night. This gave Hantengu time to spend with her since his clones would all simply want her attention to themselves (if you like the clones, love him too beuz they're all the same person). "Y.. Yes?" The demon answered timidly to his wife as she entered the room, closing the shōji door behind her.

If they wouldn't let her see them once, then she'll go herself with or without their permission.

For the entire day until dark, Y/N was with Hantengu and didn't really do much. She did have some surprisingly pleasant conversations (and with his constant complaining of the evil around him and that he is an innocent demon), cuddled with him the same way she would with the clones, took a day nap and so on. However, while she was a sweet and loving wife towards him, she was waiting for him to leave in search for humans to eat and to find the Blue Spider Lily for his master. Soon, evening would arrive and Hantengu would go out for his hunt and mission leaving Y/N alone until he would return. She watched him shrink and leave through the dark forest of where their shared home is located. When she was sure she was alone, she too would leave. Y/N would pack her delicious sweets for her parents and sibling before then leaving her home.

After almost forty five minutes of travelling by foot, Y/N finally made it to the home of her parents. luckily for her, her sibling was there as well. Running up to the door excitedly, Y/N knocked and waited for one of her family members to open for her. Eventually, all would go as she had hoped. Y/N managed to see her parents after so long, caught up with her sibling and would finally be able to spend some time with them after not having seen them in so long. She laughed, she conversed, she cooked with her father/ mother, played with her sibling like children once more knowing that Hantengu would return at midnight. But that wasn't the case this time.

___

The clones were beyond furious that their wife was not where they had left her. They were all lucky enough to have returned home early after successfully killing demon slayers and humans, but another unsuccessful scavenge for the Blue Spider Lily. The entire ordeal had left them all irritated as usual and they simply wanted to be comforted by the loving embrace of their betrothed only to find out that she wasn't there. Sekido yelled and threw a fit, as expected from the clone of anger, and in a desperate attempt to have her back, he forcefully fused. The only reasons the others did not have a problem with Sekido's rather daring stunt is of course for none other than Y/N. Once Zohakuten was formed and Urami had revealed himself, both clones immediately went for the search of their beloved wife. They immediately knew where she was anyways and she would return by choice or by force.

___

Both clones watched from afar as Y/N laughed loudly with a person who they assume is their sibling. Neither of them could believe she would ever do such a thing despite having been told that she wasn't allowed to go! Both would soon close in on the home of where she was, but would keep their distance. Zohakuten would hit one of his drums and would command one of his wooden dragon heads to close in and for Y/N to return. He was still quite furious at the fact that she left despite having been told not to and Urami even more so. It wouldn't be long before Y/N noticed a strange piece of wood moving and eventually realise who it was. Soon, she would bid her family farewell and leave as they hoped she would. Without wasting any more time, she went to the forested area where Urami and Zohakuten stood and would timidly approach. Zohakuten gave her a steely glare and simply pointed towards his wooden dragon head while Urami would already begin his scolding. "How dare you leave! You had us all worried sick! Did we not tell you that you could not visit your family? You could've gotten hurt or worse! Do you know how much it would've broken us if you did?" That is all she heard until she arrived home.

Urami carried her inside and placed her down before shrinking back to Hantengu, who began to bawl his eyes out. Zohakuten eyed Hantengu for a moment with pity before returning his intimidating gaze back to her. "How dare you leave me, woman. Have you no shame? I thought you were hurt!" Zohakuten continued to go off angrily at Y/N, blaming her for his anxiety and worry. Being the foul-mouthed boy he is, he cursed in his sentences. "You ungrateful wench! This time, punishment will be longer and harsher! You want to disobey me? Fine! I've been too lenient with your behavior!" Said the boy while dragging her by the wrist to the solitary room. "I'm sorry! I just wanted to-" "Silence! I won't hear it!" The door to her punishment once again opened as Zohakuten then so rudely shoved her into the room, this time without a candle before slamming and locking the door shut. "No... No!" Begging would get her nowhere. Not this time.

"Sweet thing... You've disappointed me."

"When we tell you something, you listen. You will regret disobeying us."

"My little songbird, I thought we had an agreement!"

"... Perhaps a harsher treatment shall remind you not to disobey us again, dewdrop."

And it starts again.

But she didn't beg this time. Perhaps a few tears, but Y/N didn't beg nor did she scream or cry. It dawned on her that perhaps they truly don't care for her feelings and only their own. Perhaps they are selfish monsters who only want to hurt her for their own amusement. At least, that's what their wife began to think. Y/N dragged her futon to the corner and made herself comfortable (as comfortable as she could get in a cold, dark and solitary room), simply staring up at the ceiling in the pitch black room deep in thought of the husbands she loved so much. Before long, the woman fell asleep with a new hatred for her husbands.

The punishment went on for three days instead of the usual two hours. Three entire days of no social interaction, not a word from them and almost no food or water as well. The clones truly did consider depriving her of human necessities, but Urogi had convinced them to be more merciful on their poor wife, having convinced them that she would learn her lesson.

The end of her punishment had arrived. It was over and the clones couldn't wait to hear her say that she had learned her lesson. That she would be a good wife and admit that she will be home where it's safe. That she'll apologise for her misbehaviour. But no, that's not what happened. The clones were absolutely shocked at her behavior when they finally let her out of the room. She was irritable, scornful and suddenly sharp-tongued almost as if someone had flipped a switch and changed her personality entirely. She didn't even want to be in his same room as them, much less have them look at her. Even Sekido began trying the gentle treatment to get closer to her, but that didn't work. "Dewdrop... What happened to her... This isn't the woman I married..." Aizetsu's sapphire coloured eyes began tearing up as he thought of her disrespectful behavior. Y/N would spout hurtful comments at them and express her hatred towards them as if they had hurt her in some way and Aizetsu, he hated that very much. It made him quite sad.

"How dare she speak to us that way!" Sekido growled angrily while thinking of her new behavior towards them. Karaku and Urogi stayed mostly silent about the situation, thinking of what could've happened for her to act like this (hm, I wonder why). They would all continue to discuss among themselves, trying to figure out a way to get closer to her without being met with scorn. "It doesn't matter if either three of us say it, she won't believe us. She'll just shove us away and continue with this." Urogi argues while looking at Sekido. It is true, any apology from either Karaku or Urogi would sound fake and from Aizetsu would sound merely like something to ease her hard feelings. "He's right, you know..." Karaku mumbles quietly while playing around with his uchiwa. Aizetsu knew Sekido would have a huge problem with apologising since he finds it pathetic for someone such as himself, and considering the emotion he is, he would absolutely refuse due to his pride and brash personality. "I already told you fools, I'm not going to apologise!" "Then how do you want her to trust us again, Sekido? If we want our dear back, we have to apologise." Said the relaxed clone in a rather stern tone. Karaku would be the last clone to ever speak in such a stern and serious tone due to his mischievous behavior, but there were times even he knew when it was needed.

He got up from where he said and got face-to-face with his older self, staring at him with a blank expression. "You do it. You'd be the most convincing out of all of us. That or we risk losing her, because then, we'd have to move to measures that we would all like to avoid for her sake." Sekido knew exactly what Karaku meant, he wasn't stupid. If they let her continue this, she would grow more reckless and rebellious, and they couldn't risk that. The vexed clone huffed reluctantly, acknowledging the fact that what his clone stated was indeed correct. He, out of every clone, is least likely to apologise and admit that he was wrong. It's a rather stupid solution in his eyes, but the one that they've come up with currently and they will act on it.So, with a deep breath and some preparation from his clone brethren, he walks to the room where his lovely wife is to apologise.

"Y/N-" "You again? I told you not to even look at me, you disgusting demon!" Those hurtful comments irked him, yes, but if he wanted to get on her good side again, he would have to swallow his pride and apologise like a mature adult. "What do you want from me? Just looking at your hellish eyes makes me sick! How did I even fall in love with you?" Her crude comments continue to flow freely and uncensored as if he were a mere stranger to her. The woman didn't even give him a chance to speak which led him to approach her in the blink of an eye, gripping her shoulders tightly. "Will you let me speak, woman?" Sekido asked and as usual, his snappy tone seemed to slip through. This did not come off well to the wife, as she merely continued to berate him and his clones. Finally, Sekido lost it and yelled at her, shutting her up for the moment. "LISTEN TO ME. I..."

It was a struggle trying to utter those embarrassing words. A demon doesn't apologise, much less an Upper Moon! How dare she make him seem like a fool! How dare she make him be so- so... so weak! This wasn't how things were supposed to be! But... Sekido will play nice, for now, suck it up and apologise. "I'm... sor... I..." Sekido huffs again while interally cursing at himself for being so pathetic. ["It's just a damn sentence...!"] His monstrous grip tightens, but he remembers to tone it down for her fragile human body. After almost a minute of struggling to get out a simple sentence, Sekido does it. It was the simple thought of Y/N leaving him that pushed him to do so. What would they do without her? Who would calm him down when he would have one of his rage fits? Who would Karaku tell his hunts and mission to? Who would keep Aizetsu from sulking? Who would preen Urogi's wings? Who would love him?

There was no one like you. Not in their demented eyes.

"I'm sorry."

Her expression immediately went from annoyed and hateful to shocked and confused. Sekido apologising? What possessed him to do such a 'shameful' act? "I... Understand that what we did to you was too far... My dear wife." It was rough at first, but soon, the words flowed out flawlessly. "My dear wife, I apologise for my and Zohakuten's brash behavior. In a moment of desperation I lost my composure and did not realise what the consequences of my actions would lead to." It was pathetic, but better to seem like a fool than lose the one thing you cannot live without. But she wouldn't fall for it a second time. "How dare you..." Sekido was understandably surprised. "You think a simple apology would have me running back into your arms like the many, many times before? Have you forgotten what you did to me, Sekido? Have you forgotten the many tears I cried because of my fear?" No, he did not. Did they really think she was going to forget it all just like that? All the torture, the punishment just because they did not see whatever she did that time fit? "How many times have you lied to me? How many times have you guilt tripped me into thinking it was my fault even though it was yours?!" "Y/N I-"

"DON'T interrupt ME while I'm TALKING!!"

It was practically trauma at that point and the clones had no one to blame but themselves. What did they expect? The pain and fear would've caught up eventually.

"I'm afraid of you... I don't love you anymore. I-I..." But even then, does she truly believe her own words? Is she that naive that she truly can't see what is wrong here?

"You put me alone in a room without a single thing but a futon and a chamberstick. You're insane...! All of you know I hate being alone! I'm afraid of being alone!! Do my endless screams and cries, begging and hitting the door entertain any of you?" Y/N hoped it wasn't true, but at this point, she was smart to know it was. Her fear entertained them. They were after all still demons and a human fearing a demon is the greatest sight and feeling a demon can get. "No-" "Don't lie to me..." He knew he needed to tell the truth eventually. "... Yes." The thick streams of tears continued more and more like a raging river crashing down a dam and flowing freely. "Get away from me..."

They can't lose you.

She was in their arms faster than she could blink. "Dewdrop... I'm sorry... Don't leave us... please." The sight of his betrothed's beautiful face stained with tears was enough to shatter Aizetsu. He didn't mean to push her this far. What kind of husband tortures his wife? Oh, how wrong they were. "Songbird, you can do anything but leave. You can scream and yell at us, hit and stab us, we will take it all with grace, but please, I beg of you don't leave. I swear on my lord's name we will be better!" The all clung onto her as if she were their lifeline. They will beg, scream and cry if they must in order to get her to stay. She cannot leave. "I'll never laugh at your tears again, I'll never make you cry. Sweet thing, don't leave. I will get on my knees if I have to..." The woman can put them all on a leash if it meant that she'd stay. They might have been all high and mighty then, but the moment she even hints at leaving for good, suddenly they're her lapdogs. It would crush them if she were to leave for good. They cannot lose that one good feeling not even they can describe. It wasn't joy or pleasure... What it was? They did not know, but it felt too good to be let go and she was the cause of this. Neither dignity or pride was no longer of importance to them, only Y/N was.

"You can put me on a leash and I'd say 'Thank you'... Do whatever you want, but you will not leave me." The lengths these psychopaths would go for one woman is near insanity. They were all demented and she was the one person keeping them sane. Possessiveness in a human can only go so far, but a demon is a new thing entirely. Considering their power, they will do what they must for their love, for that one person. They cannot leave, who said they could leave? Some may hurt them and prevent them from doing so, others may become their servants. Whatever works is what they will do. That one person is their entire life. They cannot live without that one person.

"Don't leave me, please."

No, she could never. They had gotten her too far in. She was theirs, she was already claimed by them. Y/N was going nowhere and she accepted that. Horrid as their actions may be, these man-eating demons loved her. They love her.

"I won't."

So it all starts again. Y/N goes back to them, rushing into their arms as they had hoped for. Their arms clung onto to her as if she would disappear if they didn't hold her. They hugged her tightly, not daring to let go of her in fear of her disappearing. They all told her how much they loved her, how they would sell their soul for her to be happy. The clones and their wife cuddled together for the entire night, not daring to let go of her. She was constantly met with kisses, small love bites, licks, whatever, as long as it expressed their love and affection to her.

She wouldn't ever leave them. She was theirs and it was written in stone.

Which still begs the question Sekido had asked last time.

"... Would you like to bear us a child?"

Ps: I added Zohakuten, because he too is a clone. Yes, he does see reader as his wife, but that doesn't mean he engages in those acts with reader. He loves her too, but only in a romantic sense. He has the physical build of a child, yes, but that doesn't mean it's sexual. Just thought I'd clear it up for you snowflakes out there.

Note: Yes daddy, I would love for you to breed me.

[thecraftyninjacat]

Mahoro, Matakara, Aladdin and the Princess

I think Episode 8 finally confirmed to me that the role of the Princess in the Aladdin allusion was actually split between Mahoro and Matakara, rather than it being one or the other. There's a reason why they're both represented by Jasmine-chan during the Nyan Nyaight Love cutaways!

Preface; imo Bucchigiri's narrative takes inspiration from both Disney's Aladdin and the original Aladdin story, so I'm going to switch the Princess's name depending on which version of her I'm referring to. So Jasmine -> Disney's Aladdin, and Badroulbadour -> 1001 Nights Aladdin.

From what I saw in the 1001 Nights Aladdin, Badroulbadour didn't have much of a personality, so it makes sense that a lot of Mahoro and Matakara's personalities were taken from Jasmine, while their roles in the story were slightly more influenced by Badroulbadour.

Mahoro: The feistier side of Jasmine. She has a sharp tongue and always speaks her mind, regardless of potential danger. Eg. Mahoro stands up to Akutaro after he gains the upper hand on both gangs, similarly to how Jasmine refuses to bow to Jafar when he becomes Sultan.

She's also regarded as pretty desirable, and has charmed several men to get them to do what she wants (something that both Jasmine and Badroulbadour do at some point to trick Jafar/the sorcerer). Arajin falls for Mahoro at first sight, similarly to how both versions of Aladdin fell for both versions of the Princess, and like Aladdin his crush on her becomes his driving motivation throughout the series. Akutaro also talks about turning her into a NG Girl and…abusing her, a la Jafar. Ik it's just to trigger Arajin but yk what I mean!

Matakara: The gentler, more naive side of Jasmine, in that he trusts/believes in Arajin...a lot more than he should, really. The main 'lying' plot point between Disney's Aladdin and Jasmine is directly implemented into Matakara and Arajin's relationship. On a surface level there's also their blue colour schemes and phonetically similar names (Asamine -> Jasmine). Near the climax of the 1001 Nights version, the sorcerer tricks Badroulbadour into giving him the lamp with the genie in it, similarly to how Akutaro manipulates Matakara into shooting himself with Ichiya. Both actions trigger a Very Bad Turn of Events that Aladdin stops/will have to stop with the help of his own genie.

Also very interesting how Ichiya has a moon motif, and Badroulbadour's name is a metaphor for female beauty meaning 'full moon of full moons'. Totally not losing my fucking mind over that no sir

Though they both fit the Princess allusion, the entire show is screaming that Matakara is Arajin's true Jasmine, and Arajin is going to realise he was what he needed all along. Honestly, it doesn't get more obvious than Episode 9.

That's not to mention how Mahoro and Matakara also have many, many parallels to each other via their relationships with Arajin. (Both visit him one-on-one at his mom's restaurant to convince him to do something and order the exact same dish, Arajin thinks of child Matakara after seeing both current Matakara and Mahoro get hurt, his meetings with both of them are juxtaposed with one another and described as a 'fated meeting' in this trailer, etc.)

Aside from that, there's also a lot of little stuff that the two have in common! (Both suck at cooking, both deeply care about their older siblings, both are cute as hell etc etc.)

(it's also pretty neat how they're technically both the respective 'princesses' of Minato Kai and Siguma, being the younger siblings of the leader/former leader of each gang!)

[falloutjuli]

Hey I love your blog! That post that you wrote with y/n moving in with Chuuya had me kicking my feet and screaming it’s just *chefs kiss* perfect ❤️‍🔥 if your requests are open can I ask for Chuuya and Dazai with an artsy reader who loves to crochet and make them small clothing pieces/plushies? I’m so down bad for these men istg

Thank you so much for your nice words! It really means a lot to me to hear that you like it. Chuuyas part is shorter (no pun intended :D), since I struggled to write more. If I later come up with more ill come back to edit this post. For now, I hope you enjoy this! Dazais scenario was a lot of fun specifically!

_______________ Chuuya Nakahara/Dazai Osamu x artist!Reader!

Warnings: Dazai typical suicide mentions, Crack _______________

Requests are currently open!

Masterlist - Rules for Requests

Dazai:

Adores his plushie mini-me.

Definitely showed it around the ADA, asking everyone “You see this? They made it for me! Me! The similarity is striking, isn’t it?”

Requested a crocheted noose for his mini-me, so that “He can live the dream.”

Kunikida eventually got annoyed because instead of working Dazai kept playing with his plush, so he banished it to Dazais locker.

He now hangs it in there by the noose every time, not wanting Kunikida to potentially confiscate it.

You invited Dazai to make more mini plushies with you, which he did take you up on.

And while your skilled hands got Mini Ranpo, Atsushi, Yosano, Fukuzawa, Kyouka, Kenji and the Tanizaki siblings done, Dazai worked on Kunikidas mini me.

Definitely drew angry eyebrows on Kunikidas already rough looking doll, giggling like a madman.

“Hey there!”You called into the office, quickly slipping in with a giftbag and some baked goods. You were immediately greeted by the ADA staff who coincidentally were all gathered in the main room.

Dazai already knew why you were here, so he happily spun in his chair, his sly grin ever so present on his face. Before you could even set the plates of muffins down, Ranpo had already stolen two off it, peeking in the giftbag as he did. “As a thanks for helping me out last month, I made all of you something!” You proclaimed and started giving everyone their mini-me.

Fukuzawa thanked you wholeheartedly, unable to hide the big smile when he spotted the cat you made extra for him. Kenji and Yosano both inspected the cute plushes, marveling at the details, like Yosanos Butterfly accessories and chainsaw and Kenjis little hat and street sign.

Ranpos Mini-me was promptly placed on his desk, while he was busy eating the muffins you had brought along. Atsushi kept asking how you were able to do that and if he could learn it too and Kyouka just starred at hers with a blushing face, only able to mutter a quiet “Thank you!”when you passed her a muffin.

As you shuffled to Kunikida, you whispered your apologies to him, while Dazai presented Mini-Kunikida. The proportions looked off, it wasn’t as well made as the others and the big black marker made eyebrows had the ADA laugh as the blond took it from your boyfriend.

“Thank you..I’m guessing you made it, Dazai?”He asked, unsure what to say to the plush.

“Yes! One hundred percent handmade, with these Hands!”Dazais said, showing off his hands.

While everyone was talking, showing off their gifts to one another, Dazai pulled you close, hugging you from behind.

----

Chuuya:

His plushie sits on his work desk and if someone makes it fall off, he will pretend to not care, but he will softly pick it up to put it back on its place once they leave.

Normally not the kind of guy to integrate crotched clothing into his styles but he changes it a little so he can wear something you made when hes casually out and about.

Became a big fan of the socks you made for him, all with patterns to match him of course.

Tried crocheting with you once, but its not really his thing. He does like watching you though or helping you if you need it, while he sits next to you doing his own thing.

Offers you to buy anything you need. Need new materials? Well get ready to be taken shopping and if you as much as look at something, it’ll be put in your basket.

Would 100% ask for a crotched dog, made to look like the one from his favorite movie.

“Doll?”He asks, watching as you resumed your pattern, after taking a sip from your share of the wine. “Yes Chuu?”

”You think you could make me a dog plush? Like the one from ‘The boy and The Puppy’?”

You laughed, leaning onto his shoulder as you continued. “Sure! I’ll finish this one and then see what I can do.”

He pressed a kiss on top of your head, smiling already just thinking about the tiny plush.

It took a while until you had it ready, you did the final steps while enjoying a nice evening with him on the couch, watching said movie.

“There. It’s all done!” You finally proclaimed and sat your material down, before handing Chuuya the newly made plush.

You thought you had outdone youreself this time, it looked so much like the dog from the movie, so you hoped Chuuya would love it just as much.

The ginger spun it around looking at it in awe.

“I still can’t believe you can just create things like this. Thank you so much!”

He quickly gave you a kiss, pulling you close to cuddle with you, as his eyes kept darting from his plush to the movie template.

"I am so lucky to have you, doll." He mumbled, still not believing that his partner could make all these lovely presents for him.

From his mini-me plush, to the wine themed socks you made and now this plushie he will forever treasure all these little things you made specifically for him.

[everythingne]

KINTSUGI - AKIN TO A PRIDE VERSE - MV1

When brought to panic by ruthless reporters, Reina snaps and hits a reporter out of instinct. In desperation, Hana flies Max to London help her daughter out of a depressive episode caused by Reina thinking that she's more like her father than she ever wants to be. And Max realizes some things about who you call family.

warnings: reporters grabbing reina, mentioned rumors of domestic abuse, mentions of child abuse and past/current broken metacarpal (hand) bones (wow look at me being sciency?), many assumptions about max's childhood, reina has a whole break down, reminder this isn’t a romance series, also btw I changed reina's age to make her 20 (legit go back and look LOL) and that totally isn't something for silly foreshadowing purposes no no, my comeback after going to college LMAO

I'M FUCKING SCREWED. I'm so fucking screwed. I can feel the anxiety coursing through my arms as I stand there, my teammates off to my side as we try and fight through the media pen. We weren't even supposed to be here but Ollie Bearman had decided he was bored and dragged me and Kimi Antonelli along to see some other drivers by wandering along the pit lane. We were all pretty civil with one another, save for one or two weird rivalries here or there, so we were quick to amass a group that eventually Trident broke up when they needed Richard back.

And then media had shown up, and we'd gotten quickly swarmed with no real way out.

Luckily, Kimi had called someone from the paddock to come get us and help us out so as we slowly pushed through the crowd as politely as possible, someone was actively coming to us.

And then I had gotten split off.

"Ollie!" I shouted, trying to grab his attention, but my voice is lost among those of the reporters who chase after him. How theres so many reporters here, I have no idea. It's not normal. And then again, nothing about this season really was normal because of the whole siblings thing.

"Miss Matsumoto!" someone shouts and a camera is shoved in my face, I try to keep a calm composure, nodding sharply in greeting as I try to continue through the crowd, "How are you feeling about your race tonight?"

"I think I'll be alright," I nod, pulling the rim of my hat down a bit further, "My team has grown a bit with Max's personal trainer giving us some tips for my physical training and it's been really interesting seeing how just changing my diet and training has made drive different."

"How is your relationship with Max?" Someone else shouts and a smile happily crosses my face, okay, I can do this. Just keep talking and just keep pushing forward. Do what Max taught you.

"He's been incredible, a lot kinder than people give him credit for." I make sure to point that out as I walk. A few more questions about Max are tossed my way, what exactly he's been teaching me (how to train for Formula One specifically, different ways to keep my brain sharp, physical training adjustments, how to cope with the drastic difference between F2 and F1, which both Logan and Oscar had already told me about), if I've met Kelly and Penelope (I have, Penelope adores me for some reason), who I've met in Red Bull (Daniel, Max, Christian, Geri, a few engineers, some other drivers who now raced for other teams, and such.)

And then someone asks something that makes my stomach crawl, "Can you tell us why we haven't seen your father in the paddock this season even though his racing company is one of your main sponsors?"

"It's only the third race. I'm sure we'll see him in Sakura." I smile, trying to keep my voice level, but the reporters have found something to latch onto. I took too long to respond.

"How is your relationship with him been impacted since moving in with your mother?"

"The timezones make it hard to speak, but he is still my father, so," I shrug, trying now a bit more desperately to shove through the crowd. They're not letting me go. I can hear Kimi telling someone to move, his voice is sharp and annoyed, but the reporter doesn't listen.

"Is it true your father abused you?"

"What?" I gape, but reporters flash cameras and shove over each other to get to me. My reaction fuels them.

"Is Project Matsumoto a real thing, or just a mimic of Project Verstappen?"

I can't even recover from the last question as I gasp out, "I'm sorry?" I don't even know what they're referencing.

"Did Red Bull pick you to be Max's sibling due to your similar childhoods?"

I can't get words out now, the berating is on, and all I can do is try and back away. I can see Ollie waving a hand, trying to beckon me through the crowd, and now FIA officials are coming to move the reporters away. It's a mess of shoving and screaming, people in my face as they repeat themselves until their voices pitch to shouts and screams. I can't move through because any step I take is immediately countered by a shift in the tide of cameras and voices, blocking my path.

"Was your fathers attitude is Sakhir last year reflective of your childhood with him?" "How did your parents divorce effect your racing career?" "Is it hard to be living away from your Japanese roots?" "Why did your mother accuse your father of emotional and physical domestic abuse when they divorced?"

A reporter steps forward and grabs me and I rip back from him. Ollie's shoving a reporter to the side, trying to grab me before he's closed off by the ocean of people around me.

"Is the rumor of your fathers mistreatment of you true?" The man asks again, trying to grab me and I stumble back in a panic. My hat is pulled off by him instead, and I just let it go as I bring my arms to my stomach and wrap around myself.

"Please! Everyone, wait--!" I cry out, the obvious panic in my tone making my skin flame with embarrassment.

"Answer the question!" The same man shouts, shoving a reporter aside as raising his hand with his microphone. All I see is the raising of a fist in the shadow of my father, and my brain reacts before I can really think about what I'm about to do.

Crack!

I gasp as soon as I make the connection. It's hard. Max's training paying off well. Ollie's infront of me, grabbing my wrists and gently pulling me to the side until he can get me out of the crowd. Prema's around me in seconds, closing me off as I stare at my hands and feel the blood seeping across my knuckles.

I'm so screwed.

They get me into the paddock, voices over my head and slipping through my ears. I'm sat in my drivers room, Ollie and Kimi being peeled from my sides to go off and get ready for the race. I can't hear, can't think, a constant ringing ruining any conscious thought. My knuckle is split. My ring finger. I stare as one of the medics begins to clean up the wound.

Not even the sting can pull me from the thoughts racing through my head.

I hit someone. Struck a man out of fear. He had grabbed me, knocked my hat off, I had every reason to hit him. Yet, I had hit someone. I could hear my father's voice ringing in the back of my head, warnings of inheritance and passing down genetics I had shaken off to make myself feel better.

I was not my father. Never would be my father. I was so sure of that. Until today.

When the medic lets go of my hand and sets it on my lap, I feel fear strike my bones. And when René comes to get me, my silence is terrifying to everyone. I stand silent, straight faced, not even cracking a smile. The cameras watch me twice as much, I react a thousand times less.

Max is sitting on his bed, Penelope happily napping on his chest as he watches the pre-race bullshit for Reina. He had off today, oddly enough, and Kelly had gone out to do some sort of PR management event which left him to watch little Penelope. No problem at all.

The pre-race is what he's expecting, he can see Ollie dragging Reina and Kimi around and amassing a small group of F2 drivers outside of Trident. He laughs when Kimi hoists Reina into his arms, loudly announcing her by her nickname of Little Lion and making the rest of the boys cheer. What he isn't expecting is when they break up from the rest of the drivers to return to their paddock. Ollie's leading Kimi and Reina back when they get cut off by a mass of reporters. F2 hadn't been prepared for their usual amount of media to almost multiply by ten, and apparently it had been causing all sorts of issues.

Like this.

The questions are easy enough. He feels a weird swell of pride when he notices how easily Reina answers the reporters compared to before he'd started teaching her some media techniques.

And then the questions shift.

He can see Reina's panic after the first question, actually he sees it as soon as the word 'father' is brought up. He sits up a bit, gently readjusting Penelope as he turns the TV a bit louder. The camera swings away for a moment to show Ollie and Kimi pause when they realize Reina's not there, and their quick turn around before the camera swaps to show Reina.

She looks horrified. Max feels a burn in his chest as he sits up and leans forward, almost willing Ollie through the crowd. He can see multiple Prema people attempting to shove through, but every attempt is in vain. Nothing is working. It's a Sisyphean task.

Then the reporter tries to grab Reina and Max has to hold himself back from getting up and shouting at the TV. Not that it's gonna change anything. Reina steps back, and her eyes are darting around, trying to find a weak spot to escape. She can't, Max realizes, as the reporters close in.

The next thing he sees is her arm jut forward, a loud crack sounding over the speakers. His jaw drops, the sight of Reina hitting someone so foreign to him. Silence falls over the crowd as Ollie grabs her and pulls her away, someone else shouting for her to come on as Prema swarms her in a protective bubble. The feed cuts there and leaves Max on a cliff hanger for thirty minutes until they are just about to start the race. The anthem is playing. But, the Reina he sees on the screen is not his Reina.

She's silent, stone faced, frozen still and almost robotic. She moves soft as a dancer, but her gaze is sharper than an ice skaters blades. She wins, sure, but he can't get her haunted look out of his brain. She carries it even through her podium, not even able to smile when she hoists the trophy above her head.

The call from Hana the next day is expected. The invite to their flat in London is not.

"She just needs someone who understands what she's going through." Hana had pleaded on the phone, "I know it's wrong of me to say it, but you were treated a very similar way when you first got into F1 and especially when you started winning. You had a similar past, you both have similar struggles. She needs your help, Max.”

Max had wanted to suggest a therapist, a psychiatrist even, but he knew Reina would rather throw herself in front of a Le Mans car, probably the Porsche 936, than talk about her problems. Which left the question of if she would even talk to him.

But he tells Christian and Geri what's happening for a second opinion, and he is told he should go.

So he's on a flight to London three hours later, about a weeks worth of clothing packed haphazardly. He thinks he forgot a toothbrush and aftershave, but he doesn't care to check. After careful conversation, Hana had agreed to let him get a hotel close by, so he could give Reina space. Hana had been so certain Reina needed him, but Max wasn't even sure if Hana had tried to reach out to her daughter herself. Apparently Reina wasn't eating, doing her training, or even the sim. She had been in bed except for when she was forced out, and luckily there was a bit longer break than usual, it gave Max time.

He gets to the flat around eleven in the morning, twirling the keys of his rental car in his hand. He tells Hana he's coming inside and she gives him the code to the lobby and to the flat. The second one isn't needed, the woman is waiting for him in the hall.

“Thank you so much for coming out here.” Hana sighs when she sees Max and he’s shocked to see the usually classy woman in such a disheveled state, he gives her a hug in greeting but allows her to ramble through it.

“I’m sorry that I’m such a mess, I just—Reina hasn’t done this in so long it’s genuinely frightening to see it again.” Hana wipes her face, sniffling as she shakes her hands to sort of shake it off, “I’ve been trying to get her to do anything and she just won’t, she’s usually twice as active after a race, not sedimentary! I don’t know what to do—“

Max cuts off her rambling with a soft, “Hey, relax. You’ve done all you can. You go and take care of yourself, I’ll talk to Reina.”

It must be what Hana needs to hear (it’s something he’d been told by his mom when comforting Victoria growing up) because Hana barrels into his chest in a hug, thanking him probably thirty times in a row before stepping back and letting him in.

The apartment is gorgeous, Max can’t lie. It’s got big windows and tons of natural lighting, bright bold colors in decorations he’s sure Reina picked out. Which, he guesses, makes sense, because it will become her apartment soon. Hana points him in the direction of Reina’s room, but seems so genuinely distraught she can’t go near.

And this is where he’s stepping off the dock.

He hesitates to knock, but does eventually. It’s soft enough he’s sure Reina won’t hear it, but then he hears the most broken, teary and bitter, “what?” from the other side of the door.

“It’s Max.” He presses his hand to the handle, eyes staring through the wood as he leans in to the door itself, almost as if trying to see Reina through it, “can I come in?”

There’s a long enough pause he thinks she’ll say no. But theres a soft, "okay."

He pushes the door open to the darkness of Reina's room. One Himalayan salt lamp is on in the corner, providing a slightly warm glow to the room. The blinds are drawn tight, blackout curtains hastily thrown over them, and Reina's head is the only part of her body that's visible under her mass of blankets. Her room isn't quite messy, just cluttered with partially empty water bottles and a plate of cold breakfast. He remembers this. The shutting yourself off part of this all, of being raised like they had. Or, the lack thereof.

"Mornin'." He says simply, walking over to sit on the edge of her bed. Reina blinks a few times, like she can't even believe Max is there, and slowly sits up.

"Why are you here?" Her voice is groggy but not in the sense of just waking up, it sounds more like shes been sobbing for hours. A claim backed up by the redness of her swollen eyes and sniffly nose.

"Your mom called." He doesn't sugarcoat, never has, "I saw the punch. What did the FIA give you for that?"

“Five second penalty. Kimi was behind by six. Didn’t matter.” She grumbled, looking over at him from where she’s bundled up. She looks miserable, and though Max knows he’s started to crack through to get her to talk, he needs to keep trying.

“Did they fix your brakes?” Max asks and Reina nods, then sits up and sighs.

“I know you didn't fly all the way from Monaco to London for small talk. What’s wrong?” She asks, scrubbing at her red cheeks as she crosses her legs and grabs a large plush Hello Kitty and buries her face in it.

“Your mom said you’re not handling it well,” Max hums, leaning back on his hand and looking over at Reina as she curls a little bit tighter around her plushie.

“I hit someone.” She whines, “I hit him.”

“He grabbed you.” Max says, looking over at Reina and letting out a tiny non-committal hum, “the reason the FIA gave you such a little punishment is because it’s self defense.”

“But Max, I hit him.” Reina emphasized and Max blinked. What the fuck was she getting at here? His confusion must be all over his face because she shifts slightly closer and he can see where she'd split one of her knuckles open. Hana hold told him the finger was technically broken, but Reina refused to wear her brace on it. Something about having already worn one in the past. Not that Max would know. But when Reina goes to ball her hand into a fist, he notes her pinkie and ring finger don't close. Daniel's injury rings in his mind for a second, but he shoves the thought away as Reina continues to repeat herself, more broken, more panicked.

“Reina," Max attempts to soothe her, scooting a a bit closer to place a hand on hers, hiding the injury from her sight, "what are you getting at here?"

"I..." She stammers, eyes darting around his face, and then she huffs out a question he's not expecting, "Are you afraid of being like your father?"

Max blinks. The silence encompassing the room for a long while before he sighs out a soft, "Yeah, terrified."

"Me too." Reina nods, flexing her hand again. Max watches the way her eyes dart down to her injury and he realizes she's trying to cue him in. It's like a puzzle, and he has to put together the pieces to get the picture. She doesn't say anything next, leaving Max to figure it out himself, so he just watches Reina.

She's fidgety, fingers tapping along her injured hand, but he notes she keeps poking her pinkie. She'd injured her right ring finger, not the pinkie, so he's not sure what she's trying to do. She's not concerned over her current injury, but the past one. His eyes trail along her clothing, her mothers old NASCAR jersey, the rest of her hidden under mass amounts of fuzzy blankets. Her hair is braided back, greasy, and knotted, her skin is dull but still clear save for one or two pimples in her hairline. She wasn't taking care of herself, he could see that, it was a classic depressive episode.

Max meets her eyes and sees shes trying to pick him apart too.

But why? What did she need to know? Max was pretty open with her, he'd told her more than he told most people. Geri had encouraged it, hell she'd even asked if she could tell Hana some stuff from when he first got to Red Bull. The first time he'd snapped at Christian, expecting to be shouted back at, but was shocked at his calm tone. The first Christmas, when he had no one to go to, and Christian invited him to their home and though Max was slightly out of place he'd stolen the attention of the kids in a heartbeat. That was the day he'd become almost like a fifth kid to the Horners. Geri had asked if he was comfortable talking about his childhood with Hana, and he had, though it was a difficult conversation. She'd asked wonderful questions about healing and growing up and moving on, asked how much moving to Monaco and being on his own at eighteen had helped. Being on his own was freeing, he'd said that much, and though he kept some parts out he knew Hana could piece it together.

Hold on.

Max had snapped because he thought Christian would be like Jos when he'd failed to overtake on a turn.

Max hadn't had anywhere to go that Christmas because it was the first time he was celebrating without any family in the same home.

Max became an unofficial Horner because his own familial issues.

Max had moved to Monaco to get away from his father.

Reina was afraid to be like her father.

Reina was always looking to Max for validation, even with how short they had known each other.

Reina's injury, from what little Max knew, was caused after she had crashed out of a race--in heer drivers room. The last time she'd seen her dad after she'd left their house in Fukushima.

Shit.

"Reina." Max starts, not sure if he even knows how to approach this. He'd been the messy one, the one to snap, the one to shout, the one to lash out. It was evident of an 'avoidant attachment style' from his childhood or whatever the hell that meant, therapists always confused him with technicalities. Max wasn't gentle, he wasn't soft like this, he was hard edges and half-broken promises. How does one avoid their own sharp edges when trying to handle something so soft? How can Max be sure he won't break Reina?

"What happened to your pinkie?" He asks, gently prodding the knuckle with his own. Reina meets his eyes. He can't find her in her own gaze.

"Boxer's fracture." She murmurs, "Like Daniel's."

"I know that, but how did it happen?" He pushes and when Reina freezes up, he whispers, "Listen, it's just us right now. I'm gonna keep you safe, yeah? Like a real brother would."

Max had enough experience protecting Victoria.

"My dad." Reina starts, then swallows and closes her eyes. She leans forward, seeking out Max, and he moves so she can rest her head on his shoulder, staring down at her hands covered by his, "Last year, when I crashed out towards the end of the season. I was living with my mom by then, so I never really saw him. I didn't even know he was at the race. I got to my drivers room and we got in an argument. My mom tried to split us up and he slapped her so hard she fell over. I pushed him to get him to leave her alone and..."

Reina struggles to find the words and whatever she had gone through is a thousand times worse than Max could've ever expected.

"He grabbed me by the wrist, I grabbed a door to get away and he slammed it on my hand. Broke my metacarpal in two places, I needed surgery, so I never finished the season. Finished thirteenth."

Max is still. So still he's not even sure he's still breathing. Reina sniffles, and Max feels her tears hit the back of his hand.

"You don't wanna wear the brace because it takes you back." He says and Reina just lets out a soft hum. He doesn't know what to do. So, he does what Geri had done the few times she'd had to comfort him. One arm around her shoulders, the other on her head, and he pulls her taught to his chest to cradle her there.

The sob she lets out shatters his heart and he tries to pull her impossibly closer. They're flush to one another, theres no more space to close, but he still tries as Reina breaks and shatters in his hands like fine china. He attempts to piece her back together but there's not enough of him intact to repair her. Max, for his benefit, has dealt with Penelope's tired melt downs and so he gives Reina a waterbottle and wipes her tears, lays her down admist her blankets and tucks her in tightly. He sits on the floor by her face, running his fingers through her hair as best he can, gently running his thumb along her shoulder.

He can tell shes not just crying because she'd hit someone, but theres more to it. And an hour or so later, when the tears subside, she finally opens her heart to him.

"I hate my dad." She whispers after maybe five minutes of silence, no longer broken by her sniffles.

"I do too." Hate his dad? Hate hers? He's not sure. But he stands up to open her curtains and blinds, hands itching to do something rather than just sit silent. The noon sun warms the room almost instantly, and Reina lifts her head to shift into the sun. He turns and speaks as he bends down to pick up a stray bottle, "Why do you hate him?"

"Just... everything he put me and my mom through." Reina sighs, "There's a lot he did I can never forgive him for."

"What did he do?" Max sits down again and Reina reaches out to his hand, which he obliges, and she pokes at his fingers.

"When I was growing up, I started karting in Japan with my father. He wanted me to race rally cars since I was born, even with his obvious disappointment I wasn’t a son. I competed for the first time on my fifth birthday, and won. I got scouted that day and my dad completely changed. It went from a little hobby I could have to a future career, especially when my mother learned she was infertile after my birth." Reina speaks monotonously, eyes distant as she recalls, and though Max has read up on her past he knows he's getting a new raw look at her life.

"My dad finally got me in rally when I was ten, a year before the divorce. I did it for three years. The worst three years of my life." Reina shifts so she's laying on her back, looking up at the ceiling and avoiding Max's eyes, "everything that my father had just simply said became physical. Every single time I made a mistake, I was hit. Every time I talked back, ignored him, walked away, did anything he deemed to be incorrect, I was hit. Sometimes just a whack to the back of my head in annoyance, most of the time closed fists. The only thing I was allowed to do was race, extracurriculars, and school. And that includes sleeping, eating, showering, and such."

"On my thirteenth birthday, my mom came to visit us in Japan for a race I had in Fukushima. I finished second because of some dirty play and my dad was so angry at the company for not catching that, he took it out on me completely. My mom and her boyfriend at the time saw the entire thing, a huge fight broke out, the cops got called, it was a whole thing.

"My mom sued my dad for only my custody, no payment, nothing. And he dug his own hole, the court found out he was spending all the money my mom sent for me on himself, I had saved years of evidence... my mom ended up getting full custody without a challenge, and a payment that amounted to all her payments of child support and then two years worth of payments of my fathers child support in advance. That all happened around the time I switched to Formula racing. The entire time I've been racing Formula I've been living with my mom and my dad has been sending child support."

"When he got... aggressive with you, was it always physical?" Max hums and Reina shakes her head. Max slowly starts to undo one of the braids to redo it, trying to ignore the greasy feeling on his hands, and she leans into his touch so much he has to pause as he feels her face rest against his arm.

"No, it was just shouting until I got into rally and then every once and a while he’d hit me. And the most he did before I got into rally was slap me once when I was like, six? But it was mostly just him ignoring me or screaming at me, or making me race to exhaustion." Reina sighs as she then rolls to curl up against his side and Max adjusts so that he's half laying down with Reina curled up on his chest. It's similar to the way he'd gotten the youngest Horner kids to sleep when he'd visit or babysit over the years.

"My father is one of the worst people on the planet," Reina stares out the window. Max hums non-committedly, moving a little bit closer as Reina speaks in the most dead tone he's ever heard as she says, "and I have always been his favorite punching bag."

"I was my father's favorite too." Max admits and Reina nods.

"What was he like?"

"Just a lot more manipulative and way less physical. A lot of it was just him ignoring me, leaving me places, shouting at me, pressuring me. A lot of manipulation when I'd call him out on it." Max hums, finding the braid he'd half undone to fully pull it out. Reina grabs a brush off her nightstand and hands it to him so he can start to brush out her hair. It's weirdly remnant of Victoria and Penelope. Reina hums and as Max brushes out her hair, he feels the way her body relaxes.

“So did you pick me or did Red Bull?” Reina asks maybe five minutes later and Max hums, fingers finding loops of her hair to slowly braid it again. Practically hearing Geri’s voice instructing him on how to braid because it was ‘something good to know for Penelope.’ He was glad he had listened to her. It was a good thing to know.

“They told me I was gonna train you, then told me I was gonna train Ollie.” Max hums, “Ollie’s great but… I dunno. I just knew I should mentor you. Call it divine intervention but I knew.”

“Im glad you chose me.” Reina murmurs against the fabric of his hoodie and he realizes how odd this moment is. He’d packed up in thirty minutes, gotten on a two hour flight, and spent an hour coaxing his mentees trauma out so he can help her. He could’ve just said he was busy, and yet he’d already given so much of his heart to Hana and Reina he knew he couldn’t just abandon them. Reina needed him just as much as he needed her.

"I'm glad I did too. And... listen, Rei, you hitting this guy because he scared you doesn't make you an abuser." Max watches as Reina picks her head up, resting her chin on his sternum to watch him, "and Reina, you being afraid of being like your father tells me you will never be."

"But I just... I hit someone like he hit me and it was just an echo. He always told me I would grow up to be like him." Reina closes her eyes and Max takes a hand to cup her face, running his thumb along her wet undereyes.

"But you hit out of fear, not out of anger or with the intention of abusing someone, thats the thing that will never make you like him."

Reina nods, and Max knows it'll probably take him the whole week to convince her of that. But, as Reina lays her head back down with a soft thank you, he feels like he's done enough. Only twenty four hours ago he had Penelope sleeping on his chest. Now Reina’s in the same spot, her hand reaching out to cup the setting sun with her injured hand.

“Kintsugi.” She says softly, then sits up. Max watches her, head tilting as she moves to her closet and swings the door open. Grabbing a stool, she clambers up to the top shelf and starts rustling around. From his vantage point on the bed, Max can see deep scars running the inside of her leg and wonders briefly where they’re from before Reina settled back in front of him on the couch. She sees him looking and swallows, digging something out of a box from her closet.

“Also from my dad.” She says, eyes flickering up, “same day my mom was in Fukushima.”

“Ah.” Max nods, and lets Reina continue to rustle. He wants to ask questions, but he’s curious as to what she’s doing. She sets down her brace and a thing of gold paint and hands a brush to him.

“What is this?”

“Okay. It’s kinda stupid because this is no where close to what you’re supposed to do, but hear me out,” Reina raises her hands in defense. Max let’s her have the floor, he’s not gonna judge her.

“Kintsugi, it’s a Japanese art of repairing broken pottery or dishes or whatever with urushi lacquer mixed with powered gold or whatever and I don’t have lacquer and this isn’t technically broken but!” Reina pauses her rambling, chews her lip, and looks away from Max and to the window, “When I had my first hand brace, my Jiji—my grandmother, she painted it with this beautiful gold design. She told me it was my kintsugi. That I was broken, and that she was mending me. And… she’s always been my biggest support. Besides my mom, Jiji sacrificed so much for me, almost all her salary went to helping me get into F4 because my dad stopped helping me pay for racing until he started sponsoring me last year. And… Kintsugi is our thing. If she breaks anything she waits for me to fix it.”

There’s something hanging here, something so vulnerable, so Max asks with plenty of pause to show his trepidation, “Why did you give me the brush, then? Where’s Jiji?”

“In Washington.” Reina hums, “And… you… you’re a really big supporter to me. And you mean a lot to me, Max. I’ve only known you for half a year now but… you’ve helped me with a lot. And you sacrifice a lot for me. You flew all the way here to help me because my Mom asked. And don’t think Christian didn’t tell me about you trying to anonymously sponsor me.”

Max laughs softly, “Guilty as charged.”

“I want you to paint something on it. Anything. I have a—“ Reina starts to dig again, “a gold marker too. I do this all the time with things I break—like my phone cases or my hair ties. This is a whole bin of knockoff Kintsugi.”

She hands Max the marker and then rolls off to the side to curl back into her blankets, but rests her head on his thigh. Max sits and stares at the brace in his hand, rolling it around in his grasp as he thinks of what to write. There’s about a thousand things that ring through his head, and none he can settle on.

And then he gets an idea.

While Reina watches him focus, the golden light of the sun haloing him, she wonders briefly if she’s found her own form of Kintsugi in him. Sure they weren’t perfect, and both deeply troubled in their own right, traumas rooted deep within them, but they had each other and that was what they needed.

And Max knew he found Kintsugi in Reina.

Reina sits up when Max hands her the brace back, making an odd face when she sees its written in Dutch.

“laat u niet definiëren door uw naam. Do not be defined by your name.” Max says simply, and Reina looks up at him and tears prick in her eyes immediately. When Max helps her put it on, he adds a bit more gold flare to the boring black brace and smiles.

“Now you can wear it, yeah?” he says, and Reina leans up to wrap her arms taught around him. He laughs softly and hugs her back, letting her bury her face in the side of his neck.

If she sobs, he doesn’t comment, just lets her lay there until she’s run dry.

A week later, Max is unpacking in Monaco when he notices something new in his bag. He finds a small little keychain, a little blue ribbon tied to a clasp he knows he can snag on his keys. It’s in Japanese, but the note attached makes him smile a little watery smile.

‘Max,

Thank you. That’s all I can say. For everything you were supposed to help me with, and everything you chose to do on your own. I hope I can return the favor.

Reina.

ps. it says ‘do not be defined by your name.’ just like my brace,’

The keychain hangs off the zipper of his work jacket instead. And if anyone asks—and Yuki is the first to ask the meaning since he knows what it actually says, he simply smiles and says it’s a gift. No other explanation needed.

Except for when Geri asks, and he tells her the whole story, and then Christian ‘yells’ at him for making Geri cry.

reinamatsumoto made a new post!

liked by gerihorner, logansargeant, maxverstappen, and 458k others...

reinamatsumoto: [come back soon, big brother]!!

viewing translation from japanese

tagged: maxverstappen

misshanatanaka: [so sweet! glad having him by helped sweetheart!!]

user1: CAPTOIN HAS ME IN FUCKING TEARS

user2: MAX IS HER BROTHER !!!!!!

logansargeant: did our sushi date meaning NOTHING.

⤷ reinamatsumoto: GOD YOU WANT A POST FOR FUCKING SUSHI??

⤷ logansargeant: YES?

⤷ oscarpiastri: please rei he's pouting.

⤷ reinamatsumoto: fine. anything for my favorite white boys.

⤷ user6: my favorite prema survivors <3

user3: CRYING OVER HER CALLING MAX HER BROTHER. OH. IM SO NOT WELL.

user4: so are we gonna talk ab her punching a reporter? bc shes hot for that.

oscarpiastri: PERONI??? FOUL.

gerihorner: so so so cute!!!!!

⤷ reinamatsumoto: thanks mom!!!

⤷ maxverstappen: thanks mom

user5: logan crying in the comments is so real

yukitsunoda: [max is a big softie!]

⤷ reinamatsumoto: [I KNOW !!!]

taglist (thank you for your support!!)

@vellicora @justsomejess @struggling-with-delia

[markantonys]

a few more bridgerton thoughts! i've always been only a casual enjoyer who watches just for a few hours of fun and doesn't get super invested, but even so, i'm still feeling pretty underwhelmed by this season so far. i watched it in one sitting and enjoyed it while it was happening but just immediately forgot about it as soon as i was done. maybe all the memorable moments are going to be in the second half of the season, but for these first four episodes, i feel like it was all just kinda bland and forgettable (granted, of all the romance tropes in the world, m/f childhood-friends-to-lovers is just about the #1 most boring one to me, so this never would've been my favorite season regardless)

i adore romance and romcoms, always have, and am pretty happy to watch The Classic Marriage Plot play out a thousand times, yet i feel like bridgerton is maybe becoming TOO formulaic and repetitive. although, to be fair, i WAS giggling and kicking my feet during all the Classic Romance Scenes, but the problem was maybe just that there weren't enough of them, which brings me to my second point of too many subplots. too much padding and filler and not enough Classic Romance, which is what i'm here for.

8 hours is way more time than is needed to tell 1 love story, so to fill up the time they invent 17 random subplots that are ultimately pointless and have little relevance outside of the current season. i would way rather a season be only 4 episodes but tightly focused on the main love story, or that a season be about two siblings and two main love stories at a time, than have all this extra time they need to fill up with random unimportant shit. why have we had 3 seasons' worth of storylines about benedict having one-off non-endgame girlfriends that don't have a lasting impact on his character development? what's the point? he's been treading water for so long that i'm not even going to care about him anymore by the time he finally comes into the spotlight, and same with eloise. god, the thought of eloise's season potentially not being until like 2027 is insane. it's past time to start picking up the pace and doing 2 siblings per season!

and the kicker is that all these subplots, which were only invented to fill up the time, end up filling too MUCH time and taking away from the main love story, which is left feeling underbaked. this sort of happened last season, but it's way worse this season. penelope is an excellent character, but her back is breaking from trying to carry the season because colin is kinda giving us nothing due to lack of narrative attention given to him as an individual. he's supposed to be the co-lead, yet i couldn't tell you a single personality trait of his besides "vaguely nice" because he's just had no development and exists more as a prop for penelope to love than as a fleshed-out character in his own right. there was that whole scene where violet was talking about how he's a people pleaser who focuses on making others happy at the expense of his own wants and happiness, and i was just sitting there going "he is?" because i didn't feel i'd ever gotten to know him enough as a person to see this trait in him.

i also think the "dropping a season in 2 halves" model is just about the worst possible release model. if you drop 1 episode a week, that's constant engagement and allows for longer time to digest and appreciate each individual episode. if you drop the whole season at once, it's all over too fast but on the flipside you can experience the entire story at once without risking forgetting things or losing interest while waiting for new episodes. but dropping in two halves a month apart is the worst of both models (over too quickly yet also makes you wait too long to finish the story).

i do like some of the subplots, though. cressida getting to be more than just a mean girl caricature has been a particular highlight, the mondrich family going suddenly from working class to noble is interesting to see, and as a mega-introvert myself (and a music lover!) whose ideal partner would be someone who's happy to sit in silence with me, francesca and john's whole vibe is THE definition of romance to me and has me absolutely swooning (and it's a nice change of pace from all the loud dramatic romances on this show). violet potentially finding new love is also very sweet and i'm rooting hard for her! meanwhile i am not a fan of the featherington subplot; after s1 portraying regency girls' lack of sex education as a serious issue, it feels.........odd for the show to now be playing that very same thing for laughs this season and it just kinda makes me uncomfortable.

but otherwise there isn't much i dislike about the season, it's just kinda "meh" to me so far. the second half might turn things around if it's more memorable!

[sgiandubh]

Jottings: Season 7, episode 8. Just fucking try me

By TPTB's Sovereign Decree, this season is - as we all know - split in two, which proved to be at the same time abysmally disrespectful to ***'s subscribers, frustrating - to say the least- to Netflixers, but involuntarily prescient, given the current SAG-AFTRA stalemate. The protracted strike scenario (still a possibility) would have truly flunked OL, drowning it in a sea of irrelevance and effectively making all promo impossible. So, let us count our blessings and bide our time: it ain't over till the fat lady sings. For the time being, we are still haunted by Sinéad's moving huskiness. For the sake of speculation only, I wonder if they are going to stick with this option until the official end of Season 7, as an homage of sorts. Or promote somebody else, while time and space are still available to do so.

You are definitely going to need tissues for this one. And any random type of your favorite comfort food. It is intense. It is almost impeccable. SS & RR sketches are tolerably short. S is supercalifragilistic. C is giving it her all and she is just perfect. And all the rest are flawless. So, pardon the sarcasm deficit and perhaps also my less fluid quill: you surely know, by now, my struggle with encomium is real.

The bonnie wee swordsman moment immediately brought to this book outsider's mind the exceptional fanfic author on AO3. So, if you still missed Flood My Mornings, by some obscure glitch in the Matrix, do give it a try. It is one of my top 3 , with #1 being @zeya-zg's TRS (it packs a punch, takes great risks and does so with grace). And yes - blasphemy ensues - the swordsman's fic is simply better than Herself in so, so many ways. A good starting point for a Droughtlander of undetermined amplitude (what in the name of hoo-ha is 'the story continues next year' supposed to mean?), for example. But I digress.

With Saratoga 2.0 in plain, inevitable sight, I incorrectly presumed we would see the blue light mojo - is it in Bees...? more plausibly so - and I am glad C saved JAMMF's finger. My sick mind did try to imagine a mutilated limb at some point in time, failed to do so and had to reboot entirely. I am grateful to the writer for having spared me a potential ordeal, in this respect. I am, however, less grateful to the same writer for butchering up to the point of no return the very delicate scene between Rachel Hunter and Young Ian, who initially fail to get their (impossibly to reach) bearings. It feels contrived at first, reads as injudicious as trying to become proficient in Thai after spending three hours on Duolinguo and jumps on the storyline's windshield out of virtually nowhere. The main weak point of this season (spare SS/RR's endless death row sojourn) has to be the blatant injustice done by the writers to characters I wanted to see and hear more of: the Hunter siblings, Buck Mackenzie and yes, William himself.

Speaking of William, there is an epic but fleeting moment outside Simon Fraser's tent, just after Jamie gives him his tricorn hat, that made me wonder out loud. Who are you, first and foremost, Ellesmere: a courtier? a soldier? a son? All three avatars briefly cross his face and if that is not prowess, I don't know what is. Enthusiastic kudos, again.

Cynical, lunatic, despicable me ugly cried three times in a row. Laudanum. Simon Fraser. The Scottish shores. That is a lot for one single intake.

Spoiler: I must have eaten something that disagreed with me. For such an inconsistent character, Simon Fraser saved his soul with this intense, dignified and subdued moment. There is something akin to a Roman deathbed scene one could perhaps find in Tacitus' Histories, essentially thanks to S's perfectly mastered gravitas. So yes, you can cry for the sudden demise of a secondary character you had no sympathy for and on top of that be surprised by your own tears.

A death that proves instrumental for their return to Scotland. And maybe it is time we acknowledge the simple fact that Scotland never really was just a trope of all this intricate narrative scaffolding, but a character in its own right. It is alive and it prompts the kind of raw, irrational emotions able to make your tears well up all the same in Bilbao, in Vancouver, in Seattle, in Athens or in Cairo. And it doesn't matter if you could not place Inverness on a map before finding out that well, people do disappear all the time, or if you were haunted since forever by majestic visions of glens & lochs. You will fall and you will fall hard, despite all the misgivings and the shortcomings, of which there are many.

We leave them teary-eyed on a boat sailing near the Scottish shores. It is a carefully chosen and very effective parting moment. Overall, this was an excellent half-season, if you chose to ignore Mordor's endless, reckless and soulless bitching. I sometimes wish for all these people to suddenly develop an interest for origami or find another obsessable rookie duo or simply try to be happy on their own. Nothing more, but nothing less.

This Droughtlander will be a massive pain in the rear. Mark me. And I am finally allowed to hope for better sleep patterns. But hey, no regrets: it was worth it, always is. They are worth it. A lot.

Gif choice could only involve a ship. Credit given to @avasetocallmyown. Very elegant :)

[siampie]

Finding You || Chapter 1

Pairing: Michael Kinsella x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 3.6k

Warnings/tags: pinning, childhood trauma, eldest daughter syndrome

A/N: Okay, wrote this in two days and couldn’t wait to share it with you guys. Alright, hear me out. I’ve rewatched Kin while writing this chapter, and I realized that there is a house right next to Michael’s and they share the same driveway. After some research, I’ve learned they are called semi-detached house. They share a main wall. Usually, they are mirrored. It isn’t the case in Kin. And I kept it that way. So, be prepared for some shenanigans or not. I’m not really sure what I’m gonna do with that information. If you have some ideas just drop them in the comments. It could be fun for future chapters. So, I’m happy to share the result of my investigation. I also hope I did a good job in writing Michael’s brief POV. And forgive my attempt at writing an Irish accent. I don’t think I did a good job. But I’ll let you be the judge of that. Can you also tell that the only other person I really like from this family is Birdy? I hope you’ll like this first chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter List || Next chapter

Masterlist || join my taglist

Tag list: @marytheweefrenchie, @sunflowersandsapphires, @schneeflocky, @danzer8705, @shouldbestudying41

Dividers by @cafekitsune

Dublin, Ireland. When you decided a few months ago to move out, Dublin wasn’t even on your list of destination. You didn’t even think of it. But there you were. You jumped the sea, as they would say back home. You had crossed two oceans to reach this beautiful city. To start anew.

After your father passed away, a little over two years ago, you needed a fresh start. You had spent a decade taking care of him while he was sick and in recovery. Working small jobs, barely having any friends or barely going out. You lived to take care of him and nothing else. When he died, you were saddened, yes. But you had felt relief more than anything. And then, you had felt guilty for it. He was your father and you loved him. Although, resentment had taken over in the last few years. Not just towards your father, towards your siblings too. Still, you loved him.

Why Dublin? You did not know. Why not Dublin? As you were making the decision to move out of your current place—place you had shared with your father—you had seen an ad that promoted travels to Ireland. It looked so beautiful and so green. It looked so inviting and you thought to yourself; Ireland seemed like the perfect place to start over.

So, there you were, settling into your new home. Your father had not forgotten what you had sacrificed while you took care of him. In his last will, he had left you a significant amount of money to do as you pleased. He wasn’t rich by any means, the money he had left was significant for someone like you. A couple of hundred thousand euros. When you heard the news, you were surprised by that. You had not realized that your father had saved up so much money. You even wondered where it had come from since you were the one who had managed his financials in the later years. You were not complaining though. He had left you enough to start over. It had been enough for you to move country and buy your new house.

Of course, your siblings had been supportive in your decision. Giving you their blessings, not that you had needed it. Not really. It had made your decision to move easier though. The most supportive of them was your youngest brother; Matthew. It was funny to you that he was now your greatest support. Growing up you both hated each other. You were his eldest of five years. You fought constantly, always at each other’s throats. And now, you were the closest you had ever been. He was the one you turned to when you needed help. And every time, he needed help he turned to you. It wasn’t that you did not trust your two other siblings but you trusted him the most. And they knew it.

You had started a new job too. You worked at a call center for an insurance company. Providing people with the help they needed for their house after a housefire or for water damages, or even after they had been robbed. It was not your dream job but it was a job. It paid the bills and the groceries. You had no reason to complain really. Except about the people that were calling and sometimes being rude on the phone. You understood that it was taking too long for some of them but you couldn’t go against the system. There were rules you had to follow and you were doing your best to provide them the help they needed. However, some of them had a tendency to forget that you were also human. And yelling at you, was not going to make you go faster.

Funniest part about you working in a call center was that you hated talking on the phone. As an introvert, you hated phone conversation. Your sister; Mary knew it more than anyone. You had told her that you always get annoyed every time she called. You did talk to her on the phone and you always ended up having a good time on the phone. But it always felt as though she was being rude anytime she called you. So, that you chose to work in a call center, was a laughable idea. Because every time the phone rang, which was pretty often in your line of work, you hated it. Sure, you had a script to follow but some of those problems were specific and you needed to think on the spot. Which you weren’t really good at. That was why you loved texting more than you loved calling. At least, when you were texting you had time to think of an answer. On the phone, you were pulling answers out of your ass. And they weren’t sometimes the best. Also, staring at a screen all day was draining.

In spite of that, you loved your new house and your new life so far. It was all perfect. Except maybe for the fact that you were living next door to criminals. You knew you should have questioned it when the house was sold to you for a low price. You knew it was low because it was Dublin and houses all over the market were much more expensive. But this one went to you for a price you could actually afford. You had gone in expecting to have to rent the place and when they offered to sell it to you instead. You had agreed. However, the realtor had failed to tell you who were your neighbors.

As soon as you had moved into your new home, one of your neighbors had brought you a housewarming gift. A sweet lady that lived across the street from you. Her name was Bridget Goggins but she went by Birdy. She had long and dark curly hair. Blue eyes and a kind smile. She had shown you nothing but kindness and you had appreciated it. You immediately took a liking in her. She had told you that her nephew Jimmy, his wife and his two sons lived two houses down from yours. And she had briefly mentioned her nephew; Michael. Apparently, he lived right next to you. He had been gone for some time. And that explained why the house was empty. For you, at the time, you had not seen anything wrong with it. It was just a neighbor being friendly to you and making you feel welcome.

She had been nice. Very nice. Albeit a little too curious about you and your family. Your lips were tight. You did not like to share information about yourself. And you were protective of your family. You gave her very basic and vague information. It wasn’t against her. It was just a thing your father had trained you to do. He had drilled into your brain to not share information about your family, because people would use it against you. So, you mostly hid things about your family and even, lied to some. You didn’t lie to Birdy; you just didn’t tell her much. And neither did she. And you respected that.

You would later learn that the Kinsella, Birdy’s family, were notorious criminals. They dealt in drugs trafficking mostly and may have been involved in a few murders. Specifically, Michael Kinsella. He had been gone alright. Eight years in prison for manslaughter, of his own wife. And it all clicked. The low price, the empty house next door, Birdy being way too curious about you. It all made sense. And it also scared you. You did not want to get involved with the Kinsella. Not if they were going to create problems for you.

You kept to yourself mostly. You barely saw Jimmy and his wife anyway. It was easy to avoid them. As for Birdy, it was slightly more complicated. The woman seemed to always know when to find you. And since you did not want to be rude to her, not just because she was a criminal. But mainly because you were a pushover, you could not refuse her. You kept your distance as best as you could. Although, it was impossible for you not to take a liking in her. She was most of the time motherly towards you. And you had craved that sort of affection since the day your mother had walked out of your life. And as much as you wanted to avoid the Kinsella because of their line of work, you found it hard to just pull away from Birdy. You liked her very much. Against your better judgement.

Apart from living near the Kinsella, your life was quite good here in Dublin. You were settling in nicely. And you loved your house. It was yours, and you made it cozy and warm. It was your own little haven. You loved coming back to it after a long day of work.

Sitting on your couch, you were unwinding after the long day you just had. You heard a distant peel of laughter. When you crossed path with Birdy this morning and she had offered to drop you off, she had mentioned the return of her nephew Michael. She was going to buy some party food for the evening. So, you knew what it meant, your neighbors were celebrating the return of the prodigal son.

And soon, the empty house next door would not be so empty anymore.

It made you nervous for some reason. You were about to share a yard with a murderer. You did not know what to expect. Hopefully, with you two sharing a wall, you’d know how to avoid him. You groaned out loud realizing that Birdy might create problems in the future. You had grown closer to the woman in spite of yourself. And she made it a habit to come and visit you sometimes. Whether you liked it or not you may actually cross path with Michael Kinsella.

“That was a short reunion.” You mused out loud when you heard the distant goodbyes. You switched off your television before going upstairs, to get ready for bed.

You had fell into a fitful sleep that night. Knowing that a man capable of murder was sleeping next door to you, made you feel unsafe. You had lived months in your home, knowing well you lived next to criminals. And yet, it was the man next door that made you feel unsafe in your own bed. And you had not seen him yet. And you had no intention to.

Lack of sleep did not make for a good day at work. You prided yourself in being a very patient person. You had trained yourself though. When you were younger; in the years that followed your mother’s leaving; you had been a very short tempered and moody person. And being a teenager at the time did not help the matter. You would explode at random at the people around you. And it was always your family that was on the receiving end. Did it come from anger? Or grief? Or even sadness? You did not really know. You were pretty sure it was a combination of it all. What really helped though, was your family making fun of you every time you did lose your patience. They would apologize profusely, with a smile on their faces, while bowing to you. The overreaction from them made you laugh every single time. It made you realize how ridiculous you could be.  It made you realize you had no business being this enraged because they breathed in your direction.

However, what made you really snap out of it, though, was your sister. You did not remember what was said or when it was really. All you remembered was that one morning during breakfast, your sister was speaking to you and you snapped at her. For no reason at all. And it had brought tears to her eyes. It had hurt her. And it made you realize that you never wanted to make your sister feel this way ever again. She was your only sister and your best-friend, and you needed to treat her better. You needed to treat the people around you better. So, you took it upon yourself to think before you spoke. You stopped yourself before you could snap. Always, taking a deep breath and gave yourself a few seconds before opening your mouth. And sometimes, you just kept quiet and walked away. It had helped you over the years in growing more patient. And also, nowadays, you did not give as much of a fuck as you did back then. It took a lot more for you to lose your temper.

Lack of sleep, on the other hand—never made a good friend when it came to keeping yourself in check. Everything and everyone irritated you. If they glanced at you or even opened their mouth to speak to you, you would get annoyed. But you did keep yourself in control the whole day. You kept yourself in control with your colleagues and with the clients on the phone. And now, you were terribly exhausted. You couldn’t wait to just drop in your bed and be dead to the world for the next twelve hours.

“Hey, Birdy.” You greeted quietly as you got to your house. She was on your neighbor’s doorstep about to go in.

“Hello, pet.” She smiled at you. “You look properly tired, dear. What happened to ya?”

“I feel like it too.” You snorted. “I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. But I’m going to make up for it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” You nodded. “You’re visiting the new neighbor?”

“I’m bringing him some proper food.” She showed you the trays she was holding. “There’s some here fer ya.”

You sighed. “You didn’t have to, Birdy.”

“I like taking care of ya.” Birdy answered with a soft smile. “Come on, take it.”

“Alright.” You yielded before taking the tray off of her hands.

“Have you met Mikey yet?”

“Can’t say I had the pleasure.” You shook your head, fishing for your keys.

“Wanna come and say hi?” She offered.

Your lips twitched up in the corners. “Not really. Another time, perhaps?” You unlocked your door.

“Yeah, another time.” Birdy smiled at you as you disappeared into your house. As she, herself, disappeared into your neighbor’s house.

Michael was sitting on his sofa, a book in his lap. He had not been reading, not really. His thoughts kept going back to his daughter Anna. He couldn't resist the temptation to go and see her. He had kept his distance but he had taken everything in him to not get up and run to her.

She had looked so grown since he last saw her. She was no longer a child; she was growing to be a young and beautiful woman. Eight years had been a long time away from her. He had missed out on so much. He missed her so much it was hard to breathe sometimes. He had to do things right by her. He needed to do what was right, if he wanted to have her back in his life.

He would straighten out his act. He would stop dealing with the family business. He would keep out of it. He would do everything he could just so he could have her back in his life. It was the most important thing to him at this moment. Anna was the most important thing to him at this time. He must do right by her.

Muffled voices from outside drew his attention away from his own thoughts. He had recognized Birdy but the second voice did not belong to someone he knew. He couldn’t hear much of what was being said. But Birdy and you had seemed really close by the sound of it.

Birdy had pushed the door open and stepped in. “Good evenin’ Mickey.” She greeted him softly. “Brought ya some proper food.” She said showing him the covered dish she had in her hands.

Michael smiled back at her. “Thank ya, Birdy. But ya didn’t have to do that.”

Birdy walked into the kitchen. “Of course, I had to.” She placed the dish on the kitchen counter.

“Who were ya talking to?” Michael couldn’t help but ask. He was curious to know more about you. Especially if Birdy seemed to be close to you.

“Your new neighbor.” She replied taking off her coat. And then gave him your name.

So, that was you; Michael thought. He had caught a brief glimpse of your shadow through your large window, after he had come back from Jimmy’s. The curtains were drawn. But he had seen you through them as you moved around your kitchen. For as far as he could remember, the house next door had always been empty. People tend to refuse to buy once they knew who would be their neighbor. And he couldn’t blame them. It was now strange for him to suddenly have a neighbor after all those years.

The empty house next door would not be so empty anymore.

“She’s a real sweet girl, ya know. A hard worker too. But a bit lonely.” Birdy opened his fridge. “She could use some more friends.”

“Yeah?”

“So could ya.” Birdy wore a small smirk on her face. “I’ll put this in the fridge. Ya can have it later. I’ll get you a few more bits, Mikey. Fill this up for ya.”

“Nah, ya don’t have to go to any trouble. I could do that.” Michael moved to the sofa’s armrest.

“It’s not trouble.” Birdy told him strongly. Before moving next to the stairs. “Not for family.” She smiled at him. “Missed havin’ ya around, Mikey. We all have. We’ve all been waitin’ for ya to get out.” Michael hummed in response. “Especially Frank and your brother. It’s been tough on them without you.” She said softly, gazing back at him. “Carryin’’ the load all on their own. I mean Eric is—he’s a good boy. But he’s not you.” She gave a small shrug.

Frank had put her up to this. Michael just knew it. He knew what she was getting at. Frank wanted him back, in the family business. But he couldn’t do that. Not if he wanted to see Anna again. He wouldn’t change his mind about this.

“But you’re back now,” Birdy said and Michael nodded in response. “That’s the main thing.”

“Yeah.”

Birdy walked up to him. “You understand what I’m sayin’. I know you do. You’re not like your mother. You’re a Kinsella. And we stick together.” And she leaned and rested a light peck to his lips. “Always.”

You probably would have gone another night with a restless sleep if your body was not so exhausted. You had heated up some of the food Birdy had brought you. Although, living next to crime lords was not ideal, Birdy made it easier by taking care of you. As much as you had taken a liking in her. She had taken one in you. Always showing up at your door with extra food or inviting you over to share a cup of tea or coffee. The only issue was that you did not know if she was being sincere with you. You didn’t entirely trust her. Your lack of trust may not have been entirely due to her being a Kinsella. It was also due to your past. You had been burned too many times before and you didn’t know whether she had ulterior motives or not. But you had wanted to trust her more. You really wanted to.

Although, you knew you shouldn’t want that.

 You were in a better state of mind that morning. You had your coffee; you were awake and rested. And you hoped for a better day at work.

“Good mornin’.”

You gasped as you turned sharply to face your neighbor. You had not paid attention to your surroundings, too focused on going through your morning routine.

“M’ sorry. Didn’t mean to scare ya.” He softly chuckled.

“It’s okay.” You shook your head quickly. “I just—wasn’t expecting you, that’s all.”

Your heart started to gallop like a wild horse under your ribcage. You were facing the neighbor; you did not want to face. The man who had been sent to prison for manslaughter. You had to remind yourself of that. Because in spite of what you knew, the man standing in front of you was quite handsome. with his thick beard and dark hair. And his hazel eyes were beautiful and seemed kind.  

“I’m Michael.” He put out his hand.

Your eyes snapped to his hand. You should probably take it. You really shouldn’t but this would be rude, wouldn’t it? “I know.” You said and introduced yourself. Making the final decision to put your hand in his. His calloused fingers felt rough against yours but his grip was warm and gentle. “Your new neighbor.”

“I know. Birdy told me.”

“Yeah.” You smiled quickly. You pulled your hand out of his grip. “I have to go. I—I don’t want to be late for work.”

“Okay.” His face fell slighty, and you momentarily felt bad.

“It was nice meeting you, Michael.” You said. You did not want him to think that you were running away from him.

“Yeah, you too.” He gave you a tight smile.

“Yeah, bye.” You turned away quickly and made your way to the end of your street where your colleague was waiting for you.

Real criminals didn’t look like criminals, you needed to remind yourself of that. No matter what you may think, Michael still killed people. He only got caught for the murder of his wife. He didn’t matter that he seemed kind. He didn’t matter that he looked handsome. He was still dangerous.

“Fuck!” You cussed as you were getting closer to your colleague’s car. “I’m in trouble.”

Chapter List || Next chapter

[sheeple]

Lady Strong | Part 2

PHOTO NOT MINE. THIS IS ALL FICTION. Genre(s): Strong!reader / Angst? Fandom(s): House of the Dragon (TV series) Pairing(s): Aemond Targaryan x Strong!reader / Jacaerys Velaryon x Strong!reader (platonic/siblings) Summary: It's not easy being a Strong; with a mother who committed suicide, a father who sired three children out of wedlock and then died for it, and a creepy uncle who has nefarious plans for his niece, it's hard to find people who truly mean the best for you. Luckily there are your brothers and your fiance... right? Warning(s): Murder of a man  A/n: I may or may not went a bit overboard with the second part. [Masterlist] [Mini masterlist] [Part One] [Part Three]

Six years have passed. The wound took a long time to heal and left a big scar. It sometimes throbs, like the memory. 

Harrenhal is almost finished with its reconstruction. After the fire, not all was lost. The main pillars of the castle still stood upright once the fire was extinguished. And after six years it's almost rebuilt to its former glory.

The flapping of wings pulls your attention and you look up. From a distance, the distinct green colour of Vermax is easily spotted. Jace circles the tower you stand in before flying down and landing in the courtyard.

You run down the endless flights of stairs and into Jace's arms. He holds you tight to his chest, laying a hand on the back of your head. "Jace! It's been too long. How is your mother? And how is Luke?"

Jace laughs as you lead him into the castle. You ask a couple of servants to make both of you tea and some tarts. Taking place in one of the informal reception rooms, Jace and you take a couch.

"You would know how mother and Luke were if you came by more often..." Jace gives you a slight glance over his mug, but you wave his comment away.

"My dear lord uncle knew when I snuck off with you to go to Dragonstone every time. He has rats everywhere. I'm convinced he's locked me up in Harrenhal to either kill me by boredom or marry me off to the highest bidder." You slump down in your seat and huff.

The oldest Valeryon prince puts down his cup and turns to you. "If finding the right suitor makes you worried, I could..."

A gag escapes your mouth. "I respect your Targaryen traditions and customs, but no. Gross. Can't you ask your mother if she knows some houses with lads of my age? Isn't the Lord of Winterfell of our age?" You give Jace a teasing smile, but it drops as you see the serious look on his face.

"I didn't come here to catch up, my dear sister. We have a favour to ask of you." He grabs both of your hands. "Luke's claim to the Drifmark throne is being challenged by the brother of our Grandsire. We ask of you to stand by the Blacks to bolden Luke's claim."

"What does Luke want? What do you want?", you ask, peering into Jace's eyes.

He sighs. "Luke had been preparing most of his life to take the Driftmark throne. Is he ready? No. He still is young. And I? I just... want you safe and not in the middle of the family conflict."

You hum, nibbling on your bottom lip. "I already took a knife for him, so why not? When are we leaving?"

Jace jumps up from the couch and pulls you along the corridors. "Now, mother and Luke are almost at King's Landing."

"Couldn't you get to me sooner? What if I said no? I need to change first into a red or black dress!", you motion to the soft orange tone of the dress your currently wearing. Jace huffs but lets you change into something more appropriate.

Jace lifts you up on Vermax by your middle and secures you to the saddle before climbing behind you. And with that, you are off to the capital. 

For your first time riding a dragon, it wasn't that bad. It was nice to feel the wind through your hair and it felt incredibly freeing, soaring above the water and through clouds. If you had a dragon, you would be flying every day.

Jace rushes past a ship, the one his mother and prince Daemon are on. A dragon flies next to the both of you. Arrax, Luke's dragon. He waves at you happily before taking a nosedive towards the water and nearly missing it.

As much fun as it is to fly on a dragon, you are happy that your feet are touching the muddy ground of the Red Keep. There is nobody to greet the Princess and her family and they huff in annoyance.

The two princes rush off towards the training grounds, but you stick around Rhaenyra. 

"My Princess", you say while curtsying deeply. "You practically glow."

She waves you off with a smile and grabs the arm of her husband as she motions for you to walk with her. "How are you dear? Is Harrenhal good to you?"

You nod. "Yes, your Highness. It can be a tad boring, but it's good and safe."

Princess Rhaenyra seems content with that answer and you let her and her husband go to her father. You chose to follow her sons and go to the training field.

There is a crowd collected around one fight; Ser Criston against Prince Aemond. You grimace. You kinda hoped to not see the prince. Or at least the bear minimum. Both Luke and Jace watch gleefully the match.

As you want to turn around, a voice stops you. "Lady Strong, nephews, what a pleasure."

With a scowl, you turn around and give the prince the slightest smile. "My Prince. Well done, you'll be winning tourneys in no time." You curtsey slightly. 

Aemond Targaryen has grown quite a lot over the years. He has grown taller, and leaner, and his hair resembles that of his forefathers. A true Targaryen prince if you have ever seen one.

What clashes with his fair complexion is the leather eyepatch over his left eye. A scar creeps from both under and above the patch. 

You can feel his stare do the same to you, sizing you up, seeing how you've changed over the years, and then landing on the scar that cuts into your upper lip and goes over your left cheek.

You turn your face away, chewing on your bottom lip. Jace comes to stand next to you in support. 

"I don't give a shit about tourneys, Lady Strong." 

With a nod and a curtsy, you turn around, not caring to stick around any longer.

Knowing that the Princess is with the King, Princess Heleana is with her children, and your brothers are at the training grounds. So you aimlessly wander about the castle, seeing how much it has changed through the years.

The clicking of a cane you can hear come closer to you from down the hall, and you let out a sigh. "Uncle."

Larys Strong stops in front of you, his face without emotion. "What are you doing here? Didn't I order you to stay put at Harrenhal?"

Straightening your back, you answer back, "I am here to show my support to Prince Lucerys' claim to Driftmark."

Your uncle tightens his grip on the cane he holds, his jaw ticked. He looks like he wants to make words foul. But instead, he turns around and limps away.

"You for sure are not your uncle's favourite niece." Aemond appears behind you.

Feeling on edge, you bow. "Prince Aemond."

The corners of his lips turn up, a mischievous look in his eyes. "So, you're here to defend the little bastard? How brave of you, Lady Strong."

"How so, my Prince?" Your eyes narrow at him. The mention of your brothers' parentage is still a sore spot for the family. People still doubt they're late Leanor Valeryon's sons. And you're all too glad to say that all three of your brothers are Valeryon's to spare them a hard life.

Aemond takes an unexpected step towards you and reaches out a hand, softly trailing over the scar above your exposed collarbone. You pull away, the touch scorning hot against your skin.

His lips part to say something but at that moment the announcement of the vote beginning makes him snap out of his trance. 

You bow and hurry away. Once the coast is clear, you lean against a wall and hold your chest, cursing your heart for beating so rapidly and the flutters in your stomach to calm down. You shouldn't be feeling this way about the one who constantly insults and speaks blasphemy about your brothers.

Making your way into the throne room, you stand at the back of the small group, squeezing Luke's hand in support. He gives you a grateful smile and turns back to the throne, holding onto his mother for dear life.

As you're not even listening to Vaemond Valeryon, you look around the throne room. 

The Hand of the King, Otto Hightower, is seated on the throne, nodding along with Vaemond. The Queen stands with her children, and Uncle Larrys is somewhere in the crowd, his judgemental eyes burning to the back of your head. 

From the hand full of sentences you shared, you know he isn't happy with your decision to stand by the Blacks. But you don't care. This is the family that truly cares about you, even if it needs to be a secret.

This is the family that celebrates your name day every year. And you are invited to spend every one of theirs in their company. This is the family that makes sure you don't wilt away in that damned castle like your mother. 

This is the family, even if you weren't related by blood, still would be your family.

Another pair of eyes ─ or rather one eye and an eyepatch ─ have their unwavering attention on you. Aemond's. You glance at him and you lock eyes with him. He smirks slightly, his tongue darting out to wet his lips. His smirk unnerves you.

Jace also notices his uncle's full attention on you and he takes a small step backwards, standing protectively in front of you. His own eyes challenged that of the prince's to dare something, now or later.

As it is the turn of princess Rhaenyra to speak for her son and defend his claim, the doors open and in comes the King, hunched over and leaning heavily on his cane. 

"King Viserys I Targaryen, the King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men", announces a King's Guard and a gasp of surprise ripples through the throne room.

As the King drags himself into the room, everybody bows, just like you. 

His breath is laboured and he has half of his face covered by a plate of gold, an imprint of a face decorating it.

The Greens share borderline panicked looks like this isn't supposed to happen. Which you guess shouldn't, seeing the state of the King.

Otto Hightower quickly moves off the throne and stands on the right side, with his family.

Before the King moves up the steps, he turns towards his hand. "I'll sit the throne today", he wheezes out before struggling upwards. He waves away a guard and continues on.

Halfway there, the crown falls off his head, and the King rests tiredly on his cane. Prince Daemon moves out of the crowd to help the King. He helps him sit on the throne before placing the crown back on the King's head.

After a moment of collecting his breath, the King speaks. "I must... admit... my confusion. I do not understand why petitions are being heard over a settled succession."

The voice of the King, although weak, echoes with power through the throne room.

"The only one present... who might offer keener insight into Lord Corlys's wishes, is the Princess Rhaenys."

At the words of the King, everyone turns to the Princess, who stands with one of her granddaughters. "Indeed, Your Grace."

She moves to the middle of the room. "It was ever my husband's will that Driftmark pass through Ser Laenor to his trueborn son... Lucerys Velaryon. His mind never changed. Nor did my support of him.

"As a matter of fact, the Princess Rhaenyra has just informed me of her desire to marry her sons Jace and Luke to Lord Corlys's granddaughters, Baela and Rhaena. A proposal which I heartily agree."

You turn towards Jace, and he towards you, questions in his eyes. 

"Well", begins the King again, "the matter is settled. Again, I hereby reaffirm Prince Lucerys of House Velaryon as heir to Driftmark, the Driftwood Throne, and the next Lord of the Tides."

A silent relief goes through my body and a smile breaks out on my face. Luke's future is safe, as heir to Driftwood, but also in marriage to his cousin.

Vaemond Velaryon lashed out, angry at the decision of the King. He starts screaming around, pointing towards Luke angrily. 

"You may run your house as you see fit, but you will not decide the future of mine. My house survived the Doom, and a thousand tribulations besides, and gods be damned, I will not see it ended on the account of this b..." Vaemond stops just in time before he can utter that dreaded word.

On Prince Daemon's face grows a sadistic smirk. "Say it."

He turns towards Prince Daemon with a smile. "Her children... are BASTARDS! And she is a whore."

Gasps are going around the crowd. You want to go to Vaemond, fight him, claw his eyes out to even dare to claim such a thing. 

Suddenly, Vaemond turns towards you. "And we all know why they kept that wench around. I would bet on my life she’s also one of her BASTARD children."

Prince Daemon sneaks behind the lord and hacks off his head, only his tongue staying in place.

A whimper leaves your lips and you turn to hide on Jace's shoulder. He puts a protective arm around you as he leads you away, Luke in tow. 

You are fully prepared to spend your evening supper alone, not too keen on company after witnessing such a brutal sight. A knock on your door however informs you that you are to be expected in the dining room.

A handmaiden helps you in a formal dress and put your hair up before you make your way down, fully aware of your lateness. 

As the doors get opened for you, you see the entire royal family seated at the table, King Viserys in the middle flanked by his wife and his daughter. Eyes fall upon you and you grow uncomfortable, picking at the edge of your long sleeve, covering most of the burn.

Jace raises out of his chair, a smile forming on his face.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Your Graces." You bow, ashamed. 

The queen stands up, a bright smile on her face. "None sense, my child. Let us pull up a chair for you." She motions for you to come in.

Servants move quickly to set up a place next to Prince Aemond, the only free place left at the table. You make eye contact with Jace before moving towards the seat.

Aemond shoots up and moves to push your chair once you are seated on it. Sending a quick smile towards the Hand and Prince Aegon, you look at your plate.

The Queen grabs her goblet and raises it in the air. "I am proud to announce the betrothal of my son, Prince Aemond Targaryen and Lady (Y/n) Strong."

Taglist: @jeyramarie |  @fuckinglittlekitten | @neenieweenie | @myspotofcraziness | @tired-ninfa | @yoshiplushie | @percyjacksonspeen | @lol-im-done | @manitskatrina​ | @myspotofcraziness​ |  

[catt-nuevenor]

Location Change

Right, quick update on the stories. I'm currently on my final read through before submission on the fixed narrative story. Hopefully I'll be sending it off to literary agents within the month.

That means more and more of my brain is tip-toeing its way back to Myrk Mire, and it's had some thoughts.

I don't really consider them spoilers, but treat this as a soft warning for story content.

As you may recall, I want the story of Myrk Mire to be 100% cannon with the fixed narrative story, this presents certain problems I didn't have to contemplate in the previous iteration of the story or characters. Previously you were able to pick the genders of the romantic interests and for those choices to have rather large implications for the continuing narrative. I still want to give folks that choice, but, it means I have eight characters to integrate instead of four.

Let's have a quick refresher:

Previously:

Peyton (M) or Peidyn (F)

Anadora (F) or Abelyn (M)

Louis (M) or Leila (F)

Kelda (F) or Keldan (M)

New Characters:

Plehtin (M) and Pursa (F) Starling, cousins.

Anadora (F) and Abjalin (M) Webja, siblings born roughly seven months apart.

Leiz (M) and Leila (F) Fyls, twins.

Cwylla (F) and Celd (M), friends.

Right, with that lot out in the open, don't you think the old setting of the lodging house would get a touch, cramped with all these folks crammed inside? Plus, of course, our protagonist and their offspring. Speaking of which, I have another post to write-up about the protagonist. Or rather protagonists...

Anywho, my thought is this: rather than setting the main events in the lodging house, I'd set them in the tavern/pub instead. Mawkin's Watch for those who need the prompt. Previously this was run by Myne (Myrna), cousin to the main character's landlord/lady. I'm now planning for it to be a joint Starling enterprise between Myne, Plehtin, and Pursa, with rooms attached for rent. The Fyl siblings, the main character and littlun, and our eventual swampy lurkers, can all pile into said rooms, while the Webja siblings can live with Erda just across the marketplace but spend all their free time with the folks in the tavern. Keeps the cosy atmosphere without the elbowing for space, and helps me explain why the Starlings are all under one roof all the time without contrivance.

More details on storylines and some pronunciation help on the new names can be found in this post:

Intertwining Fictions

Now to figure out the post about the MC... eeep.

[fragaria-imagines]

First Impressions + My Predictions/Headcanons (Noir Bouquet Version)

So this is a very self-indulgent list that is basically my first impression of the character, and what are my predictions of how that character is going to act like based on their appearance, their description, and just overall vibes.

In this post, I said it would be very fun to see how accurate (or inaccurate) this list would turn out, once the project finally comes out. It would also give you an insight on my interpretation of the character, and how I’ll go about writing them (until the project comes out and we get some actual canon material to go of ofc)

Badobarm:

Okay so when I found about Fragaria Memories when the main trio was already released, and tbh none of them really caught my eye. I was never a Badtz Maru fan, so I really didn’t pay much attention to his knight, and I think we can all agree that Badobarm’s design might not be the best either

But after reading his description, I became more intrigued with him because to my knowledge, he’s the only knight that is described as having a “selfish, self-centered, and rough personality”, which is a complete 180 from most of the other knights, who are all more or less, described as having a friendly and caring personality.

His description also says, that he wishes to be King, and has a good relationship with his subordinates since he’s the one that’s running the kingdom essentially, in place of Badtz Maru. I get the feeling that as much as he respects Badtz Maru, he feels like he can do the job better than he can, which may or may not cause some tension between him and Badtz Maru.

This is an interesting dynamic to think about because all the other knights, seem very satisfied and okay with their current position, and don’t seem like the type to question their lords or their King (or at least not to their face), Badobarm is the only knight that has said he wants to be more than a knight, that he wants to be King. I kinda feel like their relationship is akin to Beelzebub and Bael from WHB, where Badtz Maru kinda leaves all the kingly duties to Badobarm, similarly how Beezlebub does to Bael, but like in a less severe way.

Badobarm seems like the type to have so much ambition and drive, he’s a hard worker, and is probably really stubborn. But he does deeply care about his subordinates, even if he does have a funny way of showing it, so I can’t imagine him being a bad ruler or someone who’s like “it’s either my way or the high way!”

But I do think that because he’s so stubborn, and truly believes in what he’s saying and believe that he’s going at it in the right way, often times he gets tunnel vision, and doesn’t really always see the perspective from the other party, so that’s why he needs someone like Chaco or Hangyon to reel him in and bring him back to reality, when he gets too carried away.

Also his relationship with his bouquet members! I think he’ll be closest with Hangyon and Chaco, in Hangyon’s description it literally states that he thinks as Badobarm as a younger brother, and I also think that’s the case for Badobarm as well. But like with any sibling relationship, there are times where Badobarm would get annoyed with Hangyon (because let’s be honest this man looks like such a tease), and probably has said the phrase “shut up old man/pervert”, more than a couple of dozen times

As for Chaco and his relationship, I have no solid proof that they’re close, but given that Chaco is the only other knight that helps his lord run the kingdom, he could probably relate to what Badobarm is going through in some capacity.

Chaco

So when I first saw Chaco, again I wasn’t really blown away by his character design or anything, and just thought “he’s pretty cute” and moved on.

But when Chaco was revealed, his tagline was “A dog with hidden intentions who takes the long way around”, so obviously that peeked my interest and there were even theories floating around about him, that he was sent to the Strawberry Kingdom by SEED to spy on the lords but got too attached to Pochacco, and became a knight/double agent.

I don’t know if I fully believe that theory, I do have my predictions and what I want to see from SEED (who we know are the antagonist of the story but I’ll save that for another time), and it would be really interesting to see if a knight double crossing their lord and kingdom, which would be a really cool twist to see, but idk if I’m on board with that theory yet!

If I could describe how I interpret Chaco in one meme, it would be, “never let them know your next move”, because just looking at his face, you would never expect him to be so good at reading people or already knowing their every move before they even do it.

And as we go through the list, I think that’s a recurring theme of the Noir Bouquet, just a bunch of characters who are so good reading at people, and are so mysterious in their own ways, that you never know what to expect.

Like he seems to be always on top of everything, and I think that’s one of the reasons as to why, Pochacco was so intrigued with him and why they get along so well.

I also believe that unlike Batz Maru and Badobarm, him and Chaco, kind of rule the kingdom side by side, so it’s not like he’s burden with the task of ruling an entire kingdom by himself.

Idk I feel like he’s so nonchalant about everything and just a calming person to be around when you’re going through it. He just feels so big brother coded, like if Pikero is the brains of Noir, Badaborm is the brawn, then Chaco is the heart that keeps Noir together.

Arupek

Out of everybody in this list, I can confidentially say that Arupek is the character that I’m for sure certain is going to be nothing like I imagine him to be, and I’m okay with that!

Ngl my first impression of him is that he smokes weed 😭😭 I have absolutely NO evidence to back this up, but this is what my gut is telling me, like just look at his eyes,, something about them looks like they seen some t h i n g s 💀💀

From his character description, Arupek seems to be a very blunt and honest individual, not like in a rude way, he just doesn’t have a filter nor does he fully grasp social norms and whatnot.

I kind of see him like Kanata Shinkai from Enstars, someone who is easygoing and eccentric, and does the most weirdest and randomest things that nobody really understands (also because I can just imagine him sitting in a freezing pond to be one with the ducks-)

He has a lot of ambition but is kind of naive and is too trusting to people that he just met, it’s kind of the reason as to why he gets taken advantage a lot of the times :((

I also see him as the Baby™ of the group, not because he’s the youngest or is soft and innocent like Myunna is, its mostly because he gets in trouble with a lot of people because he has no filter.

Plus he’s always wandering around town doing God knows what, and he just seems like the type to be very forgetful and not be careful of his surroundings, so often times the Noir members have to keep close tabs on him, to make sure he doesn’t wander off to the sunset.

Tuxam

Ngl when I first saw Tuxam, I was kind of miffed at his design, mostly because the expectations I had for him based on his silhouette and the actual reality of what he looked like, was a bit disappointing tbh.

He’s also a class president, type A, kind of character and those kind of characters aren’t really my type. Funnily enough, it wasn’t until I got my first request for Tuxam, that I started to like him. I guess writing for him, opened my eyes to him and I started seeing the appeal of him.

He kind of gives me Riddle Roseheart vibes, someone who cares about the rules a lot and is very strict about it, but unlike Riddle, he doesn’t have the power to punish people to follow the rules nor is anybody intimidated by Tuxam, so often times he gets ignored.

He doesn’t have one intimidating bone in his body, so his bouquet members literally view him as like an annoying chihuahua that keeps yapping about the knight’s code of honor (affectionately) 😭😭

From what I’m seeing Noir Bouquet has a lot of characters that are really smart and are capable of making smart eloquent decisions, but they like the chaos that comes from being a pot stirrer, so they just don’t 😭😭

But from what I’ve read in his description, Tuxam doesn’t want to be seen or view as an authoritative dictating figure, in fact his advice that he gives out does come from a good place, and he just wants everybody to be the best that they can be.

But it’s his delivery and his constant nagging that turns people off from his message, the way he delivers his message almost sounds pompous and pretentious in a way. Like in his description, he’s described as a “gentleman”, with air quotes, so that could mean that contrary to how he views and sees himself, in actuality, he’s not that great of a gentleman as much he’s portrayed to be. Or it could be just a translation error, and I’m reading too much into it.

I think he butts heads the most with Badobarm, Arupek, and Hangyon. He butts heads with Hangyon because their way of thinking doesn’t align, with Hangyon putting more emphasis on indulging in pleasure and doing whatever he wants, and not caring about logic and thinks pragmatic’s are boring, and that obviously doesn’t go well with Tuxam’s logical and rational way of thinking.

For Badobarm, it’s not like he doesn’t agree with Tuxam view point and his logical way of thinking, but it’s more so, that Tuxam nags a lot, and if there’s one thing Badobarm can’t stand, is having someone tell him what to do. Like Tuxam could be fully in the right, and making some good points, but it’s the way he goes about his ideas that are so off putting, that make Badobarm not want to listen to him to spite him.

And for Arupek, it’s not because he’s rebellious or is looking to cause trouble like the other two, he’s just always has his head up in the clouds, and that can be really frustrating to deal with for a logical thinker like Tuxam.

Hangyon

NOW ONTO THE MAN THAT INSPIRED THIS WHOLE LIST TO BEGIN WITH! I fell in love with this man the moment he was revealed to the public, like something inside of me told me he’s going to be such a little shithead pot stirrer and I’m here for it!

So when I first saw his design, I thought he was going to be like a Wataru Hibiki type of character, someone who is very flamboyant, eccentric, and a bit of a flirt! And I still think that may be true, but after reading his character description for the umpteenth time, I think the whole flamboyant/flirty personality type that I previously perceived him to have, might be more of a ruse and a persona that he puts on.

“Mysterious”, “weird”, “suspicious”, and “never truly know his intentions”, are words that are mostly used to describe him, so because of that, we don’t really know much about Hangyon, but we can infer that he’s very good at reading people, able to mask his true intentions and feelings, and is a very charming individual and knows he’s very charming, so he uses that to his advantage.

I mean just going by his character design and description, Hangyon feels like a friendly guy, a social butterfly, and seems to get along with most people, so there has to be some kind of manipulation or deception at play, for him to have so many friends (?), that know nothing about him at all.

It’s kind of like that saying, “a friend to all is a friend to none”, and I think that perfectly encompasses who Hangyon is as a whole.

I feel similarly with Merold, and I honestly think that him, Hangyon, and Pikero, all fall under the spectrum of “gaslight, manipulate, girlboss, manwhore”, but just in different ways sekekjej

I get the feeling that Hangyon likes the fact that nobody fully understand him, that nobody knows what his true intentions are, because it gives him the upper hand to control and manipulate the situation on how he see fits.

Pikero

I don’t talk about Pikero a lot, but he’s right up there with my top faves! His design really caught my eyes, because I was not expecting that mad scientist vibe from Keroppi’s knight of all people.

Pikero is so interesting to me because you can literally tell from his description that he just likes to play mind games on people for the fun on it. Unlike, Hangyon or even Merold, who are more discreet with their cunningness and manipulation, Pikero doesn’t care enough to hide it.

Like this man literally made a contract with Keroppi because he wanted to study his way of life (whatever that means), so he clearly is making his intentions very clear. However, that’s not to say he’s not a master manipulator or anything of the sorts, he can be very subtle when he wants to be!

With Hangyon, he relies on his friendliness and eccentricity to lure people in, with Merold, he relies on his cuteness and friendliness to lure people in, but with Pikero he doesn’t have to do all that, he doesn’t have to put a facade on or put a mask on to lure in people, because people just naturally come to him.

Like most people know or have heard that they shouldn’t be involved with him, but he’s so polite, so calm, so smart, what could possibly go wrong?

It’s the Vyn Ricther affect, where you know you he’s bad news and know you shouldn’t get so close with him, but there’s something about him that draws you in, and peeks your curiosity.

[nanamin-nah-nanamine]

This is for the matchmaking, I'm a non-binary person in my early 20 who is extremely introverted, i struggle with social situations when I'm alone, i also struggle with depression and anxiety which makes life rather hard, i have been diagnosed with autism so when i get interested in something that tends to be my main interest for months if not a year or more. I am a very emotional person i cry at everything and anything honestly, due to being diagnosed with Autism very late in my life i have spent a lot of time masking, to make myself appear as normal as possible, so much so that i don't even know what I'm actually like normally. Even though i am a very anxious person i have a major case of Resting Bitch face, so much so that some of my friends told me they were scared of talking to me at first because they thought i look mean.

I'm a very creative person, i love expressing myself in ways that don't have anything to do with talking, i also love fashion and i usually dress in a mix of goth and comfy clothes, though comfy clothes usually overtake my need to look fancy due to major dysphoria so i usually opt for large hoodies. My hair is currently in a chin long undercut which is a kind of very light pink/purple due to the colour fading over time, i have green eyes, wear glasses and have a septum as well as tattoos. I'm also currently a major in art and Theatre, mostly focused on painting. I am a theater kid at heart, i love musicals and have acted in a few myself. I'm also Pansexual so i will literally just go for anyone I'm interested in no matter the gender.

Hi pookie! I apologize for the wait cause finals were a bitch but they’re finally DONE

Aight now lets get into this

Due to the information provided you will be matched up with…🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁

My lovely chosito osito!!(ignore everything that’s happened in 259😀)

Okay now walk with me🚶🏾‍♀️

I feel like you and Choso would really vibe together for numerous reasons. Choso is an eldest sibling so he’s incredibly patient and he’s proven to be very nurturing so I feel as though it would be second nature for him to always be thinking about you and how things might affect you. I think lil homie also has anxiety so he would be able to relate to you on that level, and since so much of this world is completely new to him you guys would be able to bond over the lovely overstimulation of day to day life.

From one autistic person to another I really feel like Choso would understand a lot more than some of the other characters? Idk I just get that vibe from him. He’s very blunt and straightforward, doesn’t cut corners in his explanations and he’s also got one hell of a resting face so I feel like he wouldn’t take lack of expression personally if you’re ever feeling burnt out.

Like I mentioned prior this boy is 🗣️NURTURING

He basically had to sub in as mom,dad,brother for all of those siblings so he’s got you bby don’t worry. I feel like he can be really protective and overbearing at times though but if that crosses a like for you then you just need to let him know. He’s no stranger to tears and he has no problem scooping you up in his arms and letting you cry it out.

If you wanna yap about a new hyper fixation you better believe Choso will listen!! The world is new and exciting and even though the bright lights and media tend to give him headaches, he can’t get enough of you relaying him the information because he’s kinda obsessed with you ngl.

Y’all with be THAT alt introverted couple who everybody is kind of scared of but are actually sweethearts. Once Choso figured out about department stores and piercing parlors it’s over for you bitches.

He thinks your tattoos are so cool and he’s kinda just like fascinated by the entire process. If you ever choose to get more he would wanna go with you but he’d be holding your hand and staring at the tattoo artist like this 😠

I also feel like he would definitely respect your pronouns once he wrapped his head around them because he is just not from this era so it’ll take him a bit😭 it’s genuinely just pure ignorance and not disrespect but he WILL get the hang of it.

Activities you do together include….

•going to see musicals and live theatre(he will be enchanted or overstimulated, it’s a 50/50 on this one)

•staying inside✨(a fan favorite)

•p i e r c i n g d a t e s

•painting!! More or less so him watching you paint but it’s the thought that counts🥰

[tafferling]

Dying Light 2: Game Story Rewrite

I have been tempted (and have since given in to this temptation) to write out one of the alternate Dying Light 2 story campaigns that'd been knocking around in my head ever since I started playing the game.

It sticks to the characters we already know, but aims to- I dunno. Add Taff flavour, I guess.

Enjoy!

Dying Light 2, an alternate main campaign story, by Taff.

While this is not Latchkey Hero, a lot of the main plot rewrites in this does draw from what I cooked up for Monsters, We. So, if you don’t want spoilers for the MW endgame, skip this.

The player character is either Aiden or Mia Caldwell. Because who hasn’t wanted a little more versatility? We start by choosing which one we’d like to play.

The Caldwell siblings are Pilgrims (I love the Pilgrims, okay? The world needs more Dying Light Pilgrims, please send me your Pilgrim OCs so I can give them platonic smooches) and they’re currently doing what they do best: helping people move across the territories. Specifically, you’re escorting a troupe (actors and musicians) from New Paris, who’re headed to Villedor to perform.

You get to know the siblings in the introduction, and see how they interact with not only each other, but the people around them, too. My aim here would’ve been to establish a relationship between Aiden and Mia, giving what’ll happen later more meaning. We learn about the Pilgrims, how they hold a fearful sort of respect from others, and just how good they are at this.

We even get a bit of combat! Defend against a bunch of biters. Fend off a banshee before nightfall. And, hey, we might even get to know some of the troupe a bit better! We’re having a great time.

Once we reach Villedor, we find out that there’s a bit of trouble brewing right now and that the troupe won’t be able to get to its actual destination (The Fish Eye), since there’s a blockade up. We don’t much care, we are getting paid already and we don’t plan on staying. So we stash them at the second best place, the Bazaar.

After that, our plan is to pick up some more work and then be on our way. Explore time! We find out that there are two different types of safe zones/holds in Villedor: Some which require a biomarker to get into, some which do not. The Bazaar, for example, has a no biomarker zone and a main only biomarker zone. We also find out that a lot of people here are infected. In our initial exploration, we get to go anywhere in Old Villedor except into holds that require biomarkers and places which have been sealed by the GRE.

We can do a few side quests! If we pay attention, we’ll also pick up on how there’s trouble brewing in Central Villedor, and also how, oof, be careful, newcomers, lotsa new people who come to Villedor just straight up vanish. Until one quest pops up for another escort. A man who’d like someone to help him get to New Paris. Fair. We’ve just been there, we can do the trip again, no sweat. Aiden and Mia agree and take the man (Dylan) back the same way they’d originally come in.

Things don’t go well.

We’re attacked by masked men (Renegades), who are trying to get something back from Dylan, who is wounded gravely at the start of the ambush. Aiden and Mia fight them off, but the noise attracts attention they don’t need (Volatiles!). It is clear they can’t do much, but before they run off, Dylan gives them something and tells them to take it and go and not let Waltz have it (whoever that may be, our two Pilgrims are not clued in).

As we try to escape, we’re eventually overwhelmed and both of our Pilgrims are (drum rolls) bitten. But before the GAME OVER screen can roll in, a set of Renegades and Waltz show up, ultimately saving their lives. Which may sound neat at first, not so much when we get punched out and dragged off. When our player character comes to again, it’s a vague affair at first. A bit of swimming in and out of it, really, where we realise we are in a lab (spooky) and have been injected with something (cue the OOOOOOOooOOO!). But never you fret! After overhearing a conversation that they’d be taken back to Central Villedor since they haven’t died and something something they have potential, our player character frees themselves. They get their sibling too and try to escape. During this escape, we see hints that some of those “vanished newcomers” may have met their end here, wherever here may be.

We also get our stuff. Which includes the GRE key (no one bothered checking our backpack, wee!).

But, once again, things do not go well. Waltz’s goons chase us, and while our player character manages to escape, our sibling sacrifices themselves and, for all we know, has just died. We want to do something about this, but we have our first full blown seizure, which leads to us falling to what everyone assumes is our death.

All of this is followed with an Oh no, am I turning? sequence, which ends similarly to the original intro of the game, where we are about to get lynched by a mob. Hakon to the rescue! Except this time the rescue is somewhat motivated by how we’ve already made some friends previously: the troupe! They recognized us and they are what we find after Hakon jabs us with our first inhibitor.

Afterwards, this version of the story follows the Bazaar VS PK story line, somewhat, with our player character motivated to reach Central Villedor to get revenge. Why revenge and why not have our sibling recaptured? ‘cause revenge can wait a little and it won’t feel so weird when we get side tracked by side quests.

To get to Central Villedor we must help Aitor solve his murder mystery of their slain commander and to do that we have to get a biomarker (which we can do since we have a GRE key). As we solve the mystery, we find out that the conflict with the bandits and whatnot and the PK’s hand being forced to suspect or even attack the Bazaar was being orchestrated by someone else.

Who, we aren’t sure.

There’s choices to be made of course! Some siding with the PK, or with the Bazaar, and all the while we also have our troupe friends to report back to and help with little side quests. Hey, we may even have a little devil and an angle in our troupe who try and sway us towards specific decision. Plus, Hakon, of course (who, by the way, is telling us he has an idea of where to go once we are in Central Villedor so we can get our sweet SWEET revenge). We also meet the usual suspects of the Bazaar, including Sophie, Alberto, and Co.

And in-between our chores, we are on the hunt for those inhibitors and like to jab ourselves with them like the dumdum we are. SURELY nothing bad can come out of this?!

Anyway.

Now that we have a biomarker, we can access other regions in Old Villedor. More exploring! And, eventually, we get the choice to help the PK see the Bazaar was innocent (and give the Bazaar their water tower back), or we claim the water tower for the PK cause we have a crush on Aitor (why else would you do this?!), OR we can cause absolute mayhem and botch the whole deal, leading to a war between the Bazaar the PK, which the PK narrowly win.

Then off we go into Central Villedor. Escorting our troupe, of course. Gee, maybe we get an LI in there?! I’m thinking too much about the troupe now. Down, Taff. But, seriously, there is someone in the troupe who is defo trying to win us over to “troupe life” maybe and sway us away from all the revenge talk. We aren’t having it though. We loved our sibling.

(No one blows up the windmill, btw. That thing is too damn pretty to die. Taff has spoken. Oh and we probably had another turning scare at some point and are figuring out that something may not be entirely right with us.)

Once we’ve survived some tense escort mission shenanigans (HEY those can be fun if done right, I promise), and as we are nearing the Fish Eye, we get into an argument about our desire to Do Revenge, which leads to use pointing the troupe to the Fish Eye and the fucking off with Hakon.

Cause we trust Hakon.

Hakon who has become a bit quiet now that we are alone with him.

Hakon who is getting a bit weird.

HAKON WHO LED US INTO AN AMBUSH TO GET THE DAMN KEY FROM US.

We are not happy. Especially since we are facing what seems to be a trio of WAY TOO strong people who remind us far too much of volatiles. Gee. Anyway, we manage to get away! Mostly thanks to the timely intervention of a crossbow woman (Lawan).

Fast forward, we end up at the Fish Eye, with Lawan giving us a bit of exposition about Hakon (who she was tracking when she spotted him near the Fish Eye), about Waltz and how he does some really creepy science stuff with young people.

We reunite with the troupe and get to know the Fish Eye. We meet Frank.

The Renegades attack.

Our valiant defense of it goes down just like in the game, which introduces us to the PK and properly begins ACT 2. ACT 3? Look, I am not counting. Also, I need a snack, be right back.

[one snack later; beware, Monsters, We. spoilers ahead cause all of this is ripped right out of my fic]

This act is all about Bringing back some light! The right (or wrong) people have noticed that we have a GRE key and are floating the idea by us that we should take our shapely ass over to the solar farm (ex “Tesla competitor” car factory) and do Villedor a solid. This is a big one, because we get to pick our team to do that. Do we go back to the Bazaar and bring Alberto and Co (if we didn’t botch Old Villedor), or do we go with the PK, organized by Aitor, and bring Tolga and Fatim? I mean Mitaf and Aglot, sorry.

Either way, Lawan comes with us.

As we gear up for this venture (which will not be an easy venture) we begin to also unravel some of the mystery around Waltz. The name X 13 is being floated by us at this point, too, which we begin to ask around about and are told to go get friendly with the Carriers (can I PLEASE rename them to Couriers?) since they hoarded a lot of communications and maps.

Anyway. POWER PLANT. Depending on how we left Old Villedor, our efforts at the power plant are challenged by either: The Renegades (if we prevented a war between the PK and the Bazaar) or the Bazaar (if we botched Old Villedor and the PK beat down the Bazaar).

This is when the “Renegade Mini Bosses” start showing up: Daylight proof volayouths. 20-somethings turned into weapons by Waltz.

During that particular fight, we experience another turning scare, but we’re good. Heheehehe. Yeah. We’re good. :sweating:

Then, after we’ve made it, cause, of course we made it: LET THERE BE LIGHT! This time, racing up to the top of a skyscraper is payoff and Lawan’s joy something we can relate to. We’ve seen Villedor dipped in darkness. Now we see it come alive with way more lights than our Pilgrim has ever seen in their life. It’s an emotional moment, ya’all.

We get a little hear to heart with Lawan, where she reveals some more about Hakon. This is driven by the VNC tower light coming on and her briefly recounting how Hakon betrayed the Nightrunners, the very people who took in Lawan when she was a child. She was a kid back then, but she will never forget the loss Frank (and therefore her family) suffered and she will always blame Hakon for it. Hakon was, in effect, outcast after this, and eventually fell in with Waltz. A lot of people do these days, mostly out of desperation.

After that:

The Courier quest line is turned into a bit of a main quest line this time around, at which end we find out what X 13 is: a massive GRE vault. And Waltz and his Renegades are looking for it. If they are able to crack it open, Villedor is in for a BAD time. Not only will he have all the supplies he needs to keep his operation running when it comes to turning people into whatever it is he is doing, but also because: guns. There is absolutely going to be a stockpile of them in there. Even working together, the PK and the survivors wouldn’t stand a chance against the Renegades.

And thus, the race is on!

To get there first, we need intel. And intel needs communication.

VNC tower time!

Frank and Lawan think its a terrible idea, but the PK are happy to help us; this one goes down pretty much identical to the original climb. I loved that mission, and hanging out with Rowe and his group was absolutely necessary to give the PK some much needed depth which they kinda lost after you lose track of Aitor.

The difference is though that Lawan doesn’t come after us. I felt her easily catching up with Aiden cheapened not only the player’s accomplishment, but the death of Rowe’s squad and the death of the Nightrunners. We do get help from Frank though, which is a big deal, since at that moment, Frank is facing his demons. He is going back to that day when his men died – and in doing so, he saves our life.

We celebrate.

We’re almost feeling at home, really. Our troupe performs at the Fish Eye. We get to see it all, and yeah, we still want revenge, but maybe we’re home?Maybe this is better than revenge? Maybe we don’t have to go back out onto the road (and how can we, we are infected, we are screwed anyway, we can’t go back to our old life, can we?).

Maybe this is good.

If you like romance, maybe there’s a bit of romance there (someone from the troupe? Lawan? BIG SHRUG! You choose!).

The next day the hunt begins: For X 13 and Waltz. This leads to us crossing paths with Hakon again (and a fight not unlike the one in the church in the game). Though this time, the fight ends in a revelation: Hakon tells us that (DRUM ROLL PLEASE) our sibling is alive! Yeah, I know you all saw this one coming.

We then get to choose to kill him or to let him live, but not before he tells us where they are.

And we see red.

Heeding no warnings, we head into what could easily be a trap (as Lawan tells us, cause Hakon is a bleeding liar, don’t trust him), but we don’t care. We go. We HAVE to go. Lawan, since we’ve grown on her, comes with us.

THIS IS THE POINT OF NO RETURN, FINISH ALL YOUR SIDE QUESTS

Surprisingly – it is not a trap. Not really. Not intentionally. We find our sibling, but they aren’t altogether themselves anymore, much as any of the other volayouths we find. They also aren’t leaving with us – and as we try and break them out anyway, Waltz gets in the way.

Forced to abandon our sibling, Lawan manages to get us to flee and come back later, with Waltz and one of his other volayouths chasing us. We manage to kill the volayouth, but Waltz is too much – but thankfully, Lawan is crafty, and she manages to get us out.

Except now its night. And we are kinda in the middle of nowhere with no UV light and– oh no, you know exactly where this is going.

We (as in you, the player, not Lawan) turn.

Look, Veronika was sweet, but I had absolutely 0 emotional connection to her. Let this moment matter.

We kill her.

:RECORD SCRATCH:

Unless! We allowed Hakon to live, in which case he realized just how harebrained we were and shadowed us, swooping in at the last second to jab us with an inhibitor, saving Lawan’s life.

The happiness we were so close to his absolutely shattered now. Regardless of whether Hakon helped save Lawan or not. What happened, happened. There is no coming back from that.

If Lawan is dead, we do not go back to the Fish Eye. We crawl into a hole after we come to and hope to die.

If Lawan is alive, we also do not go back to the Fish Eye. We refuse, even though both Hakon and Lawan insist.

It’s not until Waltz contacts us and says he will trade our sibling for the key and the location of X 13 that we spring (or crawl) back into action.

It is decision time.

We can now choose to either: (a) give up, betray all our friends, and leave Villedor with a half-feral sibling, or (b) return to the Fish Eye and go to claim X 13 for Frank or (c) go to Missy and claim X 13 for the PK.

(a) If we betray our friends, the game ends here and the credits are us returning years later to find Villedor in the worst shape it can possibly be in.

(b) If we go to the Fish Eye, and Lawan and Hakon are alive, Frank will put the Nightrunners back together and they come with us to X 13. If not, we go alone and it will be a lot harder than (c). In this case, Matt leads a squad (which includes Aitor) after us and what happens in that confrontation depends on how we handled Aitor and his situation in Old Villedor. Either Aitor sides with us and turns on Matt, or the Nightrunners stay behind to hold off the PK. If the Nightrunners have not reunited (Lawan is dead), we have to fight the PK alone.

(c) If we go to to Missy, Aitor and one of his squads will come with us. No one challenges us.

Assuming (b) and (c), we manage to claim X 13 in what I would hope is an epic battle. One where we fight through Renegades, volayouths, and, eventually Waltz, who has brought our sibling along and pits us against them. We fight both Waltz and our sister or brother, kill him, and are left to choose to subdue or kill what’s left of our family.

Credits!

If we claimed X 13 for the survivors, Frank has taken a reluctant leadership position and oversees things from the Fish Eye. If Lawan is alive, the Nightrunners have been reestablished for good. They control Villedor’s firearms and the supplies coming out of X 13..

If we claimed it for the PK, the PK control Villedor’s firearms and the supplies coming out of X 13, though the outcome itself depends once again on how we handled Aitor’s situation. If we have Aitor on our side, Matt is overthrown after being overzealous and Aitor takes charge and the survivors and the PK enter a reasonable time of peace. If not, Matt brings Villedor under a militant rule (before he dies).

If we have killed our sibling and/or Lawan, we leave Villedor, unable to cope with what we’ve done.

If, however, Lawan is alive and we subdued our sibling, our own credit is us looking for a way to help not only our sibling, but all the other volayouths still out there. Including ourselves.

EDIT! I forgot to mention that NG+ has you have guns.