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thecandywrites · 1 year ago

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Monster March 2024- Day 11- Angel- Adjacent.

Angelicos Fortunadas

Is this based on Halo? Yes. Is Fortuna my verson of Cortana? Yes. A Halo crossover that no one asked for? Bring it on. It's close enough to the prompt to count. lol.

As always, thanks to @borealwrites for their amazing Monster March 2024 Prompt List.

Monster March 2024- Day 11- Angel- Adjacent

Angelicos Fortunadas.

“You’re an angel, Fortuna.” Dr. Hash praised once you finished with the simulations and gave him the best and most successful approaches that had the best outcomes. You were only an hour into your own existence and yet you had consumed entire archives worth of information. And still had room for so much more. But you were now tasked with using the vast wealth of knowledge to provide solutions to problems being handed to you in real time with constantly changing variables, yet it was as if you were a child, being asked to count the number of toys you had.

“Thank you Dr. Hash.” You smiled happily, pleased that he was pleased with your perfect performance.

“Is there any other problem you wish for me to solve?” You asked.

“Not necessarily a problem for you to solve, but an assignment. I need you to care for and assist the person I’m going to pair you to. Could you do that for me?” He asked hopefully.

“Do I have a choice of who I’m paired to? Or do you already have a particular subject in mind?” You asked.

“While you would be a guardian angel to anyone you chose. There is one- who needs you above all others. I’m going to pair you with Commander Callum Raize.” Dr. Hash informed you as you did your best to hide any kind of emotion or reaction to the assignment as you brought up his file and service record to become acquainted with this subject as well as you could.

“Ready to pair.” You complied, knowing that was the right response to give. But also, knowing why you were being paired with Commander Callum Raize. Commander Raize was the greatest elite soldier in the fleet. A point of pride, both foreign and domestic. Practically a star, was on a lot of propaganda posters- but one who hid behind a mask of his helmet. Everyone knew him in his full armor, but out of it, he was just another soldier. Whose face, only other elite super soldiers knew, in and out of his official gear and uniform. But he didn’t need the fame, or a fortune. He just needed his orders from his chain of command, and an objective to achieve. Which she respected.

A leader among the forces. He understood how to take down any number of enemies from all across the galaxy. His team of elite supersoldiers, worked like a hive of bees, but instead of being a queen, he was their king and his rule had never been questioned. Or had any threat of usurpation. Dr. Hash saw to it that Commander Raize had an almost unlimited supply of soldier drones outside of his own group of elites. Like a king commanding his own empire of war.

“That’s a good girl, Fortuna. He will be happy to have you watching over him and guiding him and assisting him. And if his body ever fails you. I will let you have your pick of who you will want to work with then.” Dr. Hash praised before he called you back to your home matrix within an organic superchip. And while you weren’t incredibly fond of the idea of your own sense of self in that chip being within the confines of a glorified and enhanced meat suit- who could very easily perish. But, he was still just a mortal man, and in the grand scheme of things, a temporary situation that you could easily endure and only gain valuable first hand experience because you appreciated the fact that there was a failsafe if he did die. If you sensed his imminent death, you could disconnect from him before the pairing could be disconnected, and you could be retrieved, your organics revived and renewed for a new implantation, or could be stripped of the organics and rest in any other super computer or any other vessel of your choosing- and survive Callum. Or when and if you needed upgrades, your chip could be removed and added to if necessary.

However, it wasn’t like Dr. Hash didn’t have hundreds, and maybe thousands of more copies of you, simply sleeping, waiting in stasis, the same brilliant mind, stuck in so many copies of the original- The Mother of the Elite Program Dr. Angelica Fortuna. She had died, nearly a century ago. But she lived on- in her clones and in you. A woman ahead of her time, a mother gone before her children could really yet live, a dream before it was realized. There was however only ever one Angelica, the rest were Angie's, Angelas, Angels. That’s what had happened to the clones who had survived Angelica’s death. And now, there was a new generation of Dr. Angelica’s flash clones, which were, for her time, the best that she could do. But were obviously, incredibly temporary. And subsequently, there had been many generations since her passing. And you were only the third of this latest generation.

Even still, with all of that- when you gained consciousness, when Dr. Hash had called you Angel, because you were, in his mind, practically angelic in every sense, thus the name- Angelicos Fortunadas. You corrected him when he did call you Angel- you preferred Fortuna. A nod to your mother, but also a nod to what you were, her progeny in a sense. And he had accepted it, and if anything, thought it was rather fitting. That you were the first who wanted to be known as Fortuna, and not some derivative of Angel, or even Angelica. Just- Fortuna.

You knew, from the records Dr. Hash had given you- that you yourself had two predecessors that were “woken up” from the Angelicos Fortunadas. And so far- Dr. Hash had insisted that you were The Charm. Since this was the third successful attempt at capturing the real essence of Dr. Angelica Fortuna.

The first attempt, led to the host going insane and the program becoming corrupted right alongside them. And a suicide and the destruction of the corrupt copy was inevitable when it threatened all Angelicos Fortunados.

The second attempt, ended when they grew so entangled that they could not untangle once the host died and she had “died” with the host. And refused to unpair with the host. The two had been, as you heard, “in love” murmured. Which was romantic- according to the dictionary. But dangerous. Because the Angelicos had found a way to become “real” in the sense that not just the subject, but all who saw the Angelicos, could see her, touch her, she was “real”. But only because her subject wished her to be so and not be ‘a figment of her imagination’.

And you knew, that- that was always going to be a slippery slope. You needed to be just “real” enough to be seen as your own entity, and trusted and believed. But a hologram, that was “real enough” to suit you just fine and you did not wish for anything else beyond that. You even kept certain features to really hold onto the ‘hologram’ look when you took your perceived form.

But, all you could do was to trust Dr. Hash’s new barrier around the chip. The barrier was there to both serve as the pairing platform. And, should the host die, could die with the host, without harming you in the chip itself. It was constructed to help ease the implantation process and make it so that should the host reject you, neither you or him- would be ruined and finished for good and Dr. Hash wouldn’t have to try a fourth time with another clone.

So far, you had noticed that luck, even as mathematically preposterous as such a concept seemed, had seemed to be on your side so far since your clone’s awakening, you being harvested from the clone and synthesized and then upgraded to your hyper digital form now. And, because you came from a clone, you still remembered having emotions like pride, joy, fear and even pain at the point of your clone’s physical death. But the relief you felt once you transitioned from that former, purely physical and severely limiting form- to your current one- eclipsed them all. You now had the choice to feel or not feel at your whim and desire and were essentially self-sustaining as long as your own super organic chip- was intact. You could do little but check and recheck your own chip, as well as the platform, making sure it would pair with the organic compound that was Commander Callum Raize’s brain. And you could only hope that he would not reject you, nor- become hopelessly intertwined with you. That you would simply pair and better the other. Because while you had simulations, he had real world experience. But because of his enhancements, his own greater emotions were lessoned. Which would hopefully help him to accept you- essentially- sharing his body with you. And tolerating or even accepting your presence in his mind.

You used your connection to the computer system to watch as Commander Callum Raize was brought in, given a physical, and given the order to accept the enhancement, which he accepted without hesitation, or even wanting or needing to fully see, or understand what it meant, what it involved. You. As far as he knew, he was getting an AI assistant implanted into his head to help with strategy and help him keep his communications intact.

So at least, he seemed, at least from the view of the camera, willing.

You swallowed down your strange sense of loss of individuality and sense of independence as you hunkered down in your own private “room” in your own inner sanctum and wiped a stray tear from your eye as you felt like his answer sealed your fate. Callum and yourself were about to be almost impossibly close and intimate, whether it was liked or not. You looked in the mirror of your sanctum and touched your face and tracing the halo around your head.

“You’re not going to lose yourself.” You told your reflection.

You had to withdraw from the system around you completely in order to be fully in your chip and its confines before you were given one last upgrade- a universal docking interface. That, when and if Commander Raize ever came aboard any other ship, of any other species of being, that you would be able to wirelessly interface with it- most likely to both assist Commander Callum Raize and gain valuable intel for yourself. But this docking interface, would give you- limitless platforms to connect with any other forms that were like you, that you’d be able to pair even with them- and gain their knowledge, without losing yourself either. It was essentially a way to build bridges to other islands of information, pull all you could before disconnecting the bridge to keep anything from crossing it to get to you. Oh this was epic. And your chip practically zinged with glee. You were so happy and delighted and too entranced to notice that Commander Raize was now being sedated and prepped for surgery, as were your organic components. It wasn’t until you were submerged in a bath of fatty acids, peptides and proteins to mimic brain matter that you realized that your implantation was imminent.

Commander Callum Raize’s skull was drilled open and your chip was inserted in his brain before your coating was accepted by the brain matter, then you began the pairing and interfacing sequence as his brain, at first, seemed a bit put off when it interfaced with your shell like coating- but then got underneath it, to the interface. It was like it sensed the platform, but was still deciding whether this was new to itself, or a foreign body, needing to be destroyed.

You were able to manipulate the organic compound enough to mimic his brain- enough that his brain, in a sense, recognized itself in the mirror you put up in the organic compound in order to be accepted and not attacked.

It worked.

Within moments, you could meet with his brain in a sense on the platform and be accepted as both- part of him, yet- something new to make him better before you left the “neutral” space of the platform and then from there, could gain access to his entire brain. It was like walking into a new home, from having lived in an apartment as you mentally added your space to his, by adding a door in the hallway, just off of his bedroom as his subconscious seemed happy to give you more than enough room to do so as you were welcomed into the house, like a roommate moving in. And from here, you could interface and re-pair with the system outside of him once you were secured, you materialized in the operating room, at his feet.

“Fully paired.” You reported before Dr. Hash smiled and nodded before Callum’s head was closed up. And while, it felt almost like a door behind you being shut. You felt you didn’t need it as you were content to disappear back into him. You were welcome and at home here. You would be ok. You quickly “set up house” in his mind. You even helped his body to heal from the surgery and not lose so much blood.

And then you found yourself in his dreams, simply watching from the eyes of one of his projections as you knew you would have to choose the right time to introduce yourself. As you tried to see, what he liked, what he appreciated, what he found appealing. He would need to like your appearance, as well as respect it. Find it attractive enough to be favorable, without being too attractive to threaten Commander Callum Raize’s sense of masculinity or distract him, by becoming ‘sexy’ either. You would have to figure out a balance. But where would your balance lie? Only Callum would be able to tell you, or show you- once he awoke. In the meantime, all you could do is watch- watch from your vantage point of his dreams as you flitted from projection to projection, getting closer and closer, with him completely unaware of your presence or your proximity as you explored his mind as he slept as you began to narrow down his likes from finding his dislikes. Because what he really liked and what he truly desired, was locked tightly away into a safe, that was too heavily guarded for you to break in and see just yet. He needed to let you in- in order for this to really work.

He woke up and blinked as he seemed to become aware of himself as you had to retreat to the platform because if he felt your presence elsewhere, he would most likely not like it. And feel that it would be an invasion.

“Congratulations Commander Raize, the implantation was a success. Would you like to meet your Guardian Angel?” Dr. Hash asked.

“Are they gonna have the whole- wings and halo thing?” Callum asked as he gingerly got up tilted his head to the side, feeling the tug from the stitches on the back of his head.

“Only if you want them to.” Dr. Hash answered.

“No, I would prefer not to have a damn religious experience whenever I need backup or support.” Callum offered.

“Ok, then call to her.” Dr. Hash invited.

“Her?” Callum frowned in confusion.

“Yes, her name is Fortuna.” Dr. Hash informed him.

“Fortuna?” Callum asked before you started to materialize in front of him.

“Hello Commander Callum Raize. I’m Fortuna. How can I help?” You asked pleasantly as you stood before him in what you had assumed would be acceptable attire. Something akin to a uniform. Familiar in details but new in overall presentation. Nothing too form fitting and your form, while feminine, wasn’t so overly so that it would be a distraction.

“So, am I just a meat suit for her?” Callum asked Dr. Hash as he quickly looked away from you to look at Dr. Hash intently.

“No, far from it. She, like all other augmentations, enhances you. You are still in control and she is as much a part of you as any other enhancement you’ve received.” Dr. Hash reassured him before he spared you a reassuring look and even a small, subtle wink to you.

“Then how come, I get the sense that there’s two of us in here?” Callum asked it seemed he became acutely aware of your implant in his head. He associated it with the pain he currently had in the back of his head.

“Do you get the sense there is more than just you in your head when you hear music from an earbud? Or when someone speaks over the comms? Or when you read a book? Imagine the characters saying their lines of dialog in your head?” Dr. Hash posed.

“I see your point.” Callum nodded.

“So is there a failsafe with Fortuna? Is this a temporary thing or a permanent thing? Is she with me until I die? Or can I just take her out if I don’t want her in me anymore?” Callum asked.

“You can remove the implant, and still keep yourself intact. Her root base existence is in the computer chip. And if you feel your own sanity begin to break, or are too unnerved by her presence, this operation can be reversed. But how about you give Fortuna a chance before you decide anything more. Give this new arrangement time to prove out.” Dr. Hash explained.

“Can she control me? My body? My mind?” Callum asked.

“No, she does not control any of your motor function, your mind is still your own to think what you will, she is only there to help, to assist you.” Dr. Hash reassured him.

“But she can read my mind? Is she your spy?” Callum asked as he continued to look at Dr. Hash and avoided your general direction entirely.

“Yes she can, in a sense, read your mind. But she is not my spy or anyone else’s spy. She is simply there to help,. Like all other augmentations and enhancements. You might actually be more correct in thinking of her like a built-in accomplice.” Dr. Hash repeated.

“So what’s your programming’s primary objective?” Callum finally asked as he turned to scrutinize your holographic form.

“To help and assist you. However you need or want me to. If all you will need from me is to run diagnostics, run possible scenarios, give you the likelihood and probable outcomes from various simulations, or to help you heal yourself, or to give you directions and help you read star charts as you fight wars across the universe, I can.” You answered.

“You can heal me?” He repeated with a look of skepticism.

“I do have some sway with your cells. I can focus them to a small degree, but anything more than the cellular level or even the atomic one- I do not have access to, because you have not given me access yet.” You answered.

“But if you would like for your head not to hurt so bad, or the stitches not to itch, I can change those inputs into your nervous system as you could feel the itchiness from those stitches even in holographic form.

“Do it.” He nodded before you did just that, focused his body’s healing response to his latest surgery incision and healed it to the point it never happened in the first place and relieved his itchiness as he closed his eyes serenely to feel the relief.

“Better?” You asked as you tilted your head and gave him a small, hopeful smile as you took a couple of steps towards him to see your handiwork on the back of his head and smiled when not even a scar remained.

“Yes, much.” He smiled appreciatively.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Fortuna.” He tried to shake your hand but while your hologram could imitate the motion, you did not dare to have him feel anything.

“Right, AI hologram.” Callum realized as he let his hand and arm drop to his side.

“Yes, a hologram that everyone can see is the safest form I can take.” You supplied.

“Safest?” He repeated.

“Something only you can see- and you might see me as a figment of your imagination and doubt the reality of me. Something for all to not only see, but to touch and be touched- is too deep in the uncanny valley. So something that everyone can see, gives a sense of realism. But, something no one can touch, means that you can not be hurt through me. And I can’t be hurt through you. But this is a happy medium. To prove I’m real, that I’m alive, just, a different form of life than you are used to. But not so real- that your own grip on reality is ever challenged or called into question.” You explained as you sat beside him on the bed as he continued to appraise your form as he listened to you with rapt attention as it was now- Dr. Hash he was ignoring.

“Isn’t that right Dr. Hash?” You brought the focus back to Dr. Hash as Callum stopped ogling you to remember that Dr. Hash was still in the room.

“Yes. Lessons my predecessors have learned the hard way with the former clone line- through trial and error. But the Angelicos Fortunadas are the best. And what Dr. Angelica Fortuna would have been happy, and perfectly satisfied with- had she lived long enough to see it. They are what she truly intended to preserve her legacy.” Dr. Hash explained.

“Oh, so that’s…you’re…that’s why.” Callum stuttered as several trains of thought nearly all ran into each other, as they all tried to leave his mouth at the same time as you couldn’t help but giggle at the chaos in his head.

“Yes, that is why I look the way I do. I’m the newest generation clone of her. And she always meant for the best soldiers who fight in this war- to have the best partner to assist them- herself. But her mind could only take her body so far. Thankfully she preserved as much as she did, that we could preserve her legacy. It’s why I have the same brown hair, the same hazel green colored eyes, the same button nose, the same cadence in voice, the same brilliant mind. But now, I have not only, all she knew, but now, all of everything now known. At your fingertips so to speak.” You offered as you nodded to his hands resting in his lap as you simply folded your hands in your own lap.

“So I’m not your meat suit?” He asked as you gave him an unimpressed look.

“No, you are still yourself. This is still your body, and still your mind. Think of me as that music on that earbud. You can request my presence at will and only listen to me if you want to. You can shut me out and lock me in as you wish to. But the more you do that, the less I can help you. You can still take out the earbud and unpair them altogether. That is still your choice. And my current physical form is such that I can- essentially be “uninstalled” and “unpaired” with you and re-paired- with another. But, I’m willing to give us a chance at success. Are you?” You asked.

“I am.” He nodded.

“Then how about you get dressed while Dr. Hash clears you for active duty. When you are ready, you can introduce me to your team, if you prefer for my presence to stay a secret between the three of us, you can. But know, that if we start to have conversations, you will look like you’re going insane and talking to yourself. Think of this arrangement as a trial run. If you don’t like it or grow to resent me or even hate me, the trial will end. But, if it ends up being successful you may not be the only one with such an enhancement. Dr. Hash chose you and he chose me and he chose this pairing for a reason. But we have to give it time to prove out, that’s all.” You explained.

“Ok. Thank you, I’d like…some privacy to get dressed.” He nodded with a blush.

“I’ll come back when you call me.” You offered before you let your hologram dissolve and disappear.

“Did you have to make her that beautiful?” Callum asked Dr. Hash.

“What she is, is a clone of the original. The real Dr. Angelica Fortuna was just as beautiful in her youth. She was called the Angel of Vadole, the Full Metal Bitch, she killed thousands of reverend soldiers on her own. And that halo around her head? Is simply the stylized head gear the original wore everywhere. But your Fortuna is capable of changing her appearance if you feel she’s too attractive that it’s a distraction for you.” Dr. Hash laughed in response.

“No, no. she’s…she’s fine. She’ll be fine, she’s lovely and great just the way she is. I just…now I’m afraid to have her appear to anyone who isn’t an elite, because they’d want to copy her holographic form and fuck her brains out.” Callum offered as he rubbed his face. Not believing that in an instant, he was sharing his body with a knockout like her. As he felt, oddly, self conscious, and particularly unworthy.

“Then you better impress upon them that she’s your AI and a part of you. And needs to be respected. And to a degree, protected. Because anyone who would debase her, is essentially debasing you.” Dr. Hash.

“And that’s not going to be tolerated.” Callum insisted as he felt a surge of protectiveness towards you as you smiled within him and were happy to simply lounge on the couch in your sanctuary inside his “home” that his inner mind was as you lazily read a book that was one of Angelica’s favorites in the bright sunshine of your joy and happiness that he liked you and accepted you as well as he did.

And just like that, it was as if the entire house’s outside doors locked you in while all the doors inside the “house” unlocked to allow you safety and security while in essence, opening himself up to you to explore as you wished to while he got dressed in his uniform and then reported back to his chain of command and report that he was cleared for active duty and even reconvened with his other friends and fellow troop and squadrons.

It was, almost as if, you were like a secret girlfriend or something. You grinned when you approached the safe in the bedroom and with just a twist of the handle, it opened to reveal all the girls who he had ever liked, who he had ever fucked. And…to your surprise, they didn’t look anything like each other, or even, like you.

But, he did have a personality type. He liked the badass. He liked his women to be as strong in character as he was, to be as focused and motivated as he was. And, he liked the wild ride. Because it was always for a good time. But he also knew that with his career, it was dangerous to have anything more than that. And it was too risky to go for the soft mother type or the steady girlfriend type. So the bratty, mouthy, difficult, complicated, scarred and complex women who thought it was a notch on their belts to bed elites like him. Even when such instincts were almost non-existent in him. But he did so- not for any real relationships- but for that post- nut clarity.

You just shook your head, put it back in the safe, close it up, lock it up.

Instead you retreated back to your own addition to his mind’s house. Your space, a place for you and only you. Even in this abstract of a place and didn’t even realize he was getting ready for bed as he laid in bed and closed his eyes and in a sense- came home.

“Fortuna?” He inwardly called for you in his mind.

“Yeah?” You answered from your space as you created art for your walls that were in your favorite colors. You had the ocean just outside your own windows. And your massive library on the other side of that door. You had already decorated the room how you wanted it.

“Where are you?” He asked as he walked through his own mind’s house before he came upon a door that had not been there the night before.

He knocked, you answered.

“Hello. I hope you don't mind. I simply built onto what you already had. But if this is too close I can separate your space from mine even farther.” You offered.

“No, this is great. This is just fine. You don't have to keep this door closed if you don't want to though. It's… like it or not, we're basically roommates huh?” He offered as he leaned against the door frame.

“Basically, yes.” You nodded.

“Would you like to come in?” You invited as you gestured to your space, that was in actuality, that porch like platform, that the two of you could be in together when you weren’t in all of his head.

“Sure.” He smiled as he came over the threshold.

“This is nice. Really comfortable.” He praised as he came and smiled when the carpet was soft and padded. And he really appreciated how nice the room itself was. As well as the art on the walls.

“Oh, nice. The ocean.” He complimented when he looked out of the windows of the room.

“Thanks. Dr. Fortuna grew up on the shore of a Great Lake that mimicked the ocean. She always had the sounds of the waves crashing on the shore to soothe her. The rhythm always lulled her to sleep. Both in childhood and in adulthood. When I came into existence, I built this for myself, as a way to comfort me, even when the world outside is uncomfortable, harsh even.” You said as you hugged the oversized sweater over you as the windows were open, letting in the fresh air and the scents of the sea.

“So, where does Dr. Fortuna stop, and you begin?” He asked.

“That’s a good question. Dr. Fortuna was for as beautiful as her form was, and as amazing as her intellect was, she had remarkably low ethics, very little sympathy or empathy. She was incredibly intimidating and manipulative. She was also, extremely ambitious, and emotionally unavailable. She was, thankfully, never a mother. This new wave of clones, still has her intellect. But with boosted and augmented sympathy and empathy and of course, a high moral and ethical code protocols, along with- even for an AI- enhanced emotional capabilities. We can not lie, but we can not be deceived either.” You explained as you sat on the sofa with him and appreciated the view from your bay window.

“We?” Callum asked.

“I am not the only one. According to the records and archives. Dr. Hash has at least 300 more of me. And from those, thousands and possibly hundreds of thousands more could be made. Each one, capable of being just like me, if not more.” You answered.

“So, where I begin- is whenever I am sympathetic, empathetic, understanding, supportive and helpful? That’s not Dr. Angelica Fortuna, that’s me. Because the real her, was none of those things.” You informed him.

“Well in that case, I’m really happy to have you. And I look forward to working with you more.” He offered.

“Me too.” You smiled happily.

“Did you want to take a walk on the beach?” You asked as you nodded to it.

“We can do that?” He asked.

“You’re falling asleep and about to go into a dream state. Anything is possible in dreams.” You grinned.

“I’d love to.” He agreed.

“Then let’s go, here’s a sweater, it’ll get chilly out there.” You offered him a sweater before you both got up and left to take a walk on the beach as you walked him into his own dream with you.

#Monster March #Monster March 2024 #Monster March 2024- Day 11- Angel #New!#Halo crossover

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tired-twili · 3 years ago

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Zelink Week Day 2: Age

Thanks to @zelinkweekofficial once again for hosting<3

Here's some tp zelink shenanigans >:). Can also be read on Ao3~

-“The soil shall need to be tilled and workers found, but if these outer fields are prepared within these few weeks we won’t have to send as many supplies to the further regions.”

Zelda hummed in agreement, one slik-clad finger sliding along her lip as she thought, “I wholly agree, Sir Daltus. We must cultivate the land near the borders before planting season if we hope for the out regions of Hyrule to be self sufficient.” Zelda jotted down a note on the large roll of parchment laid out before her, its page nearly full with her neat script.

The day thus far had been exhausting, but extremely productive. Zelda could feel her back beginning to ache from hours seated in a hard wooden chair, her only consolation was the boxes checked and the content nods from her council.

It was gratifying to see. Her self-esteem had wavered greatly after the Twilight Invasion- after her failure as a ruler and the pain she had inflicted on her people. The only thing she had ever known were the stone walls of the castle and dusty books filled with politics and old ledgers or journals. Ever since she was a young girl she’d been raised to be one thing: a queen. Though she had been warry, it hadn’t taken long for her to gain back a steady rhythm while on the throne, handling the various repairs needed and delegating work as she saw fit. Hyrule was slowly regaining its footing, and she couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride knowing her hard work had helped them come this far.

Yes, she was well equipped for the life of royalty. Every problem had a solution and every quarrel amongst the nobles could be solved by decorum and perhaps a bit of wordplay. Handling these situations and her everyday tasks seemed quite easy. She could fall back on years of preparation and study in these instances or call upon a lesson she had heard while sitting in the garden with her beloved teacher. But there was something no number of books or hours of lessons could prepare her for; or rather a certain someone.

Zelda chanced another glance to the hero seated next to her, silently cursing wherever allowed his seat to be so close to her own. He looked bored, eyes not really focusing on anything, his chin on his palm, and slouched in his seat. Link was never fond of council meetings, he said they were boring and was convinced the job could be done in the half the time if the council simply didn’t exist. It was a charming idea, but Link tended to forget things like decorum and the history or laws that lay behind the council. Despite his few unorthodox ideas, Link’s presence was greatly sought after in such meetings. The councilors enjoyed his simple solutions and easy-going personality, his small jokes and quips able to lighten any mood. Zelda, on the other hand, found him to be an unwelcome distraction. Link rarely bothered to pay attention unless directly asked a question, and this led to him entertaining himself in other ways.

When it came to personal interactions Zelda always felt that she was able to predict whether someone might get angry, or what their next move may even be. It seemed the goddesses had plotted and laughed with one another before sending Link her way. His actions were always unpredictable to her, and every word that left his mouth was a surprise. She hated the way he flustered her- how she had no idea what to do with him or how to handle him when he would let his hands stray before slipping away with a grin on his face. He loved to tease her. Like when he showed up at her office unexpectedly with a stray animal tucked in his arms, or spontaneously invited her to tea in the gardens.

Though he had his fun, he was always incredibly gentle and kind to her. He would sometimes get close to tease her, muttering things in her ear when they both should have their attention forwards. His behavior was easily on the border of flirtatious; but he always pulled away at the right moments, leaving her with flushed cheeks and perhaps a wink. As irritating as it may be, it was also refreshing. Zelda had only ever read of such things before when she was a young girl- the way young adults teased one another and tiptoed along the line of friends and lovers. Never before had anyone dared to treat her as what she truly was; a girl not even yet in adulthood.

No, Zelda certainly wasn’t prepared to deal with such a charming and unpredictable hero.

Again her eyes found their way onto Link, glancing cautiously as he smiled to himself before scribbling away on the paper in front of him. It was probably the first time Zelda had seen him actually use the provided materials. She smiled and returned to her own note-making as another counselor stood up to ramble on about the shortage of silk. Maybe there was hope for Link yet.

The princess jotted down a few points made by the noble. It was in these rare instances that she almost agreed with Link’s drastic idea that all irrelevant topics would be thrown into Lake Hylia. At the moment, the least of Hyrule’s problems was Sir Lorrull being unable to buy his spoiled daughters new evening gowns.

Zelda kept a composed disposition as she patiently waited for him to finish, only loosely paying attention. She read over her notes, adding new details here and there while nodding along in agreement as the noble’s scratchy voice continued to grate her ears. Her patience was wearing thin when he refused to stop and she was almost tempted to speak up, but stopped when a scrap of paper landed near her hand, folded neatly into a thick square.

Zelda looked at the odd scrap, then to the hero, her eyebrows raising in question. Sure enough, Link was staring at her, grin giddy as his eyes flicked between her and the paper. He wiggled his eyebrows and widened his eyes, his message loud and clear. He moved impatiently in his seat, like a child eager to open their birthday gifts.

It was against her better judgment that Zelda grabbed the note, glancing around the table warily before unfolding the corners. The note fell open, two simple letters staring back at her.

Hi.

That was it…a simple greeting. Zelda bit down on her lip, a smile creeping onto her face despite her efforts. She traced a finger over the small goat doodled in the corner, its tiny face comical as it smiled.

Zelda glanced at Link again, the hero watching her intently. She turned the note over and placed a hand to shield it from his eyes as she scribbled a reply. When she’d finished, she quickly folded it back up again and slid it as discreetly as she could, eyes trained forwards and praying no one saw them.

Link snatched the paper within seconds, making no attempt at secrecy as he unfolded it, eyes scanning. His shoulders dropped and he swung his head in her direction, flashing her the saddest pout she’d ever seen. Zelda pretended she didn’t notice, nor did she react to the small huff of indignation as the Hero shifted in his seat, his chin back against his fist.

Her note to him had been nearly as brief as his. ‘Pay attention’ was all she had said, the reminder more for herself than him. He may not have been happy about it, but Zelda was the queen, and she needed to be able to focus- no matter how trivial the problem presented to her was.

Link was fidgeting in his seat, slouching further into the cushion, his expression bored as he stared intensely at Sir Lorrull. Zelda told herself to pay him no mind, that her attention should be fully devoted to the meeting taking place- but as always her attention was captured by the young hero. It took all her willpower not to sneak a glance at him.

Link went still and Zelda retired to her notes once more for a distraction, relieved when Sir Lorrull finally retired to his seat. The next matter was brought up by Lady Thivis, as she voiced her concerns about the rubble still filling the corners of the capital. Once again she was an astute queen, mind clear and focused- that was, until she felt something nudge against her foot.

It was only a light tap, so Zelda brushed it aside as an accident or figment of her imagination. Then it happened again, this time harder and more sincere. Zelda glanced at Link, surprised to find him seemingly engrossed in Lady Thivis’ speech. He looked bored as usual, but paying attention as he should. Satisfied, Zelda brushed it aside- though the second tap was closely followed by a third. It nudged her foot, then her ankle, always inching up her leg and never staying long enough to get stepped on

When the pestering didn’t stop, Zelda leaned back in her chair and peeked under the table. Shure enough, a familiar brown boot was inching closer to her foot, quickly tapping against it before pulling away. When Zelda straightened in her seat Link still hadn’t moved, his eyes trained forward and expression blank.

The princess smiled, biting her lip to hide the expression and bowing her head over her notes, hoping no one saw her as she tried to discreetly slide down her seat. He would have been easier to reach if he’d been seated directly next to her rather than around the corner, but Zelda was determined to reciprocate his antics. When she was certain she’d be able to reach, Zelda struck out a leg and came into solid contact with Link’s shin. The kick wasn’t all that hard, but certainly painful enough to be noticeable.

Link flinched in his seat, sucking in a deep breath and sneaking a glance at her from the corner of his eye. He had to cover his mouth to hide a smile and stifle a laugh before it came. A few of the counselors sitting near him gave an odd look, but quickly brushed it aside and returned to their duties.

Zelda allowed herself a moment of victory, her smirk subtle but still seen by Link. The moment didn’t last long though. Before Zelda knew what had happened she felt a sharp pain in her leg. She gasped and her fist tightened around the pen in her hand, nearly splitting it in two. Link was the one who looked victorious now, sending her a wink when she glared daggers in his direction. Only the Hero would be cheeky enough to dare kick the queen of Hyrule under the table.

Zelda swung her leg out again, this time finding nothing. She glared at the young hero who was trying to hold back his snickers with his hand. He gained some composure and cupped his mouth with a hand, blocking it from the view of the others, his lips mouthing one word.

‘Truce’

If they hadn’t been in a meeting Zelda would have stubbornly said no, but her head nodded in agreement. She could easily get back at the hero on a later date, seeing as now wasn’t exactly the best time.

Link smiled and settled back into his usual stooped position, though his foot still found it’s way over by hers. There wasn’t any more shin kicking as the two exchanged sly smiles before returning their attention to where it was needed.

Zelda could still feel small taps from him every once in a while, and even returned a few. It was comforting to have the small assurance of his company when his shoe rubbed against hers. Sometimes, he would excitedly tap in fast succession when something amusing was said or a counselor was falling asleep, eyes darting in the guilty party’s direction. Other times she could feel him tapping out the beat to a popular song, or he would give her a small nudge of encouragement when she spoke up. These small touches that the two traded helped ease the tension in Zelda’s shoulders and made the unbearable parts of her duty seem considerably much lighter.

It wasn’t often that Zelda could act like this. If any of the councilors had dared look under the table or happen to glance in their direction at the wrong time they would have been appalled. Appalled that the mature queen should be acting so childish. But she enjoyed those moments when she could pretend she was simply another normal young adult, whose only care was who was courting who, or what the latest gossip was. Link helped her to act her age, and it was so incredibly freeing.

Life was fleeting and youth fled even faster. She’d grown up thinking all her days would simply be courts and stacks of papers- but once Link showed her life through the lenses of childish glee, she never wanted to look back.

#let them be childish holligans #thank you~thats all I need to say #zelink week 2022 #zelink tp #loz #zelink #legend of zelda #twilight princess #tp zelink fanfic #tp zelink #tp link #tp zelda #tp fanfic

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imjustheretoseetheprivateblogs · 3 years ago

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Sailor Moon Rarepair Week 2022 - Day 5: Costume

Stupid Usagi.

Shingo turned the mask over in his hands again and grimaced. White with navy blue rhinestones decorating the edges and around the eyes, with a matching ribbon to tie around the back of his head. On its forehead (do masks have a forehead?) in the same color was a crescent moon, just like the one on the forehead of his sister’s cat. Just like the one that was now on his sister’s forehead.

Except the ribbon had snapped unevenly and now the mask was unwearable. She couldn’t have picked a sturdier material for costuming?

Shingo looked back up towards the open doors of the Crystal Palace’s grand ballroom, where dozens of people in masks mingled and danced, all dressed in their own costumes.

Leave it to Usagi to want to invite every person in the country to a party

The First Anniversary of the Great Thaw, the media had called it. A three-day celebration, one for each Century that the queen kept everyone safe in a crystalline stasis. And today, the first day, the day for when Neo-Queen Serenity saved humanity from a slow and painful death from starvation and frostbite.

Shingo could still remember when the same young woman whom the media was hailing as the greatest thing since sliced bread ran to school late each day with a piece of sliced bread gripped between her teeth.

The great freeze had been a surprise to all humanity, coming right out of nowhere and laying waste to the entire planet. Food stocks had dwindled, days and nights ran together, and soon some people were becoming desperate for a miracle.

The majority had thought that it was the last day any human would see.

At least, that’s what they had thought.

Apparently, all of humanity had been frozen in crystal before their food had run out using the power of the Sailor Crystals, to allow time for the Senshi to discover a permanent solution (Sailor Mercury had let them know this at a large media conference held on the day of the Thaw).

If he was being completely honest, Shingo had never lost hope that Sailor Moon would come through for everyone. He’d always believed she could solve any problem.

Left-over optimism from a happy childhood.

But it was still a shock when a woman in a long white dress with an incredibly familiar bun-head style burst through the door after they’d been un-crystaled, blubbering and hugging all of them.

Looking back, it was obvious. Usagi had started becoming more responsible at the time Sailor Moon showed up. Usagi always disappeared whenever there was a monster causing havoc and who should appear to save the day when that happened but Sailor Moon?

He must have either been face blind or more like Usagi than he thought if he hadn’t caught on to the fact his big sister was a superhero.

Fanfare sounded in the ballroom, announcing the arrival of Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endymion.

Usagi and Mamoru. His sister and brother-in-law.

From his spot by the door, he could see his sister, a grown woman now with a grace no-one thought she could possibly possess, descend the staircase arm in arm with her husband, who carried a bundle in the other arm.

His new niece. A delicate little girl with hair the color of quartz.

Usagi made a speech, some fluff thanking everyone for being here and to enjoy the party, then made a joke asking if anyone had a Hostess snack cake.

In spite of the crowd’s phoney courtesy laugh, Shingo risked a chuckle himself. He’d always thought that if Usagi had gained phenomenal cosmic power, her first order of business would be to use it to devour the world’s supply Twinkies.

Not that she’d ever be greedy. Usagi wouldn’t want to pig out unless there were people pigging out with her. She could be selfish, but her first order of business had always been to make sure everyone else had a good time.

She’d given up three centuries of her life to save a planet of people she didn’t know even 5% of. The scientific and creative advancements her friends had made in that time were open sourced, posted to every social media site, newspaper, and magazine that would accept them. Tokyo had been transformed into the most advanced city on the planet and she didn’t even care if you thought you didn’t deserve it. Neo-Queen Serenity insisted that everyone, even her worst enemies, had the best, even when it made certain parties consider her too soft (so she didn’t put Jeff Bezos in a guillotine? Isn’t it enough that she made sure all the Amazon workers in Japan got enough benefits to quit in masse? and turned the photo of him sulking at the event into a meme?).

She’d even made him a duke.

Duke.

He tugged on the high collar of the shirt he wore at the thought.

The title still did not feel like it suited him.

What had he ever done to really deserve a royal title? He hadn’t even started thinking about a career path before everything froze over. And fourteen to fifteen years of teasing and ribbing his sister? Usagi wasn’t even going to take him down a peg for that now that she was basically everyone’s new Jesus?

It didn’t make sense.

Besides, he was just Shingo Tsukino, video game player and student.

He wasn’t royalty.

Things had changed so much now. Were changing so much now.

Laughter from inside the doorway caught his ear and he looked up.

His parents danced in an awkward waltz, the kind that only two people who’d spent married for years could feel comfortable dancing. They were dressed in matched outfits of gold and white, the colors reversed for each of them.

How could they be so cool with this, he thought as they spun only half out of step with the music (something electronic he didn’t recognize).

How could they be so cool about all of this? People they thought they’d known their whole lives turned out to be… well, they were the same, but they were also someone different.

God, this was confusing.

“Why are you out here all by yourself?”

The voice was quiet, but Shingo couldn’t really imagine what kind of person made it. When he turned to look, he was struck with the surety that the voice suited her perfectly.

A girl, just about his age, dressed in a gown of blacks and violets, a pair of butterfly wings on her back fanning out. On her face, a mask with a pair of antennae rested on pale purple cheeks, her complexion standing out even in the dim moonlight.

But then there were those eyes; lustrous, dark eyes that seemed to sparkle with youth and speak of wisdom beyond her years. Shingo felt his face flush as she gazed at him expectant.

“N… no reason,” Shingo said, averting his gaze, “just… got a lot on my mind.”

The girl sat down beside him. In the yellow glow coming from inside the palace, he could see her better now. Her short black hair was decorated with purple ribbons matched to her dress. Really, it just made her look better.

“It is a big change,” the girl said, “waking up after all those years asleep.”

“And finding out the people you thought you knew were different than we thought,” Shingo added under his breath.

“Is that really so bad?”

He looked at the girl now, hoping he didn’t look too much like an addled schoolboy to her.

“Sometimes, people feel like they need to keep secrets even if they don’t. For a long time, I thought I was…”

Her eyes fell and Shingo’s heart clenched at the sight. No-one this beautiful should look that sad.

“… I thought I was broken. But I met people who loved me when they found out about my condition. And who helped me have a better life.”

The girl looked back into the doorway where people continued to dance.

“Isn’t that what we’re celebrating? Someone loving giving people a better life?”

“But what did I ever do to deserve that?”

The girl looked at him, surprise behind her mask.

“I didn’t do anything,” said Shingo, “I just sort of… was there at the right place, right time. My sister did all the work. I just woke up. So, why do I deserve this?”

He held up the mask as he said ‘this’ as if it represented everything he was having trouble wrapping his mind around.

The girl sat quietly for a moment, as if deep in thought, and Shingo worried that he had offended her. Finally, she spoke.

“Well, she told me you were a fan of Sailor Moon for a long time,” she said.

It was true. Sailor Moon had been his biggest hero growing up. Someone who stood up to monsters and evil doers with nothing but her wits and her friends by her side. It was something any child would find… inspiring.

“And I remember when she told me that it made her feel so proud that you always believed in her, even if you didn’t know who she was. And that it made her want to try to be a better hero.”

He’d made Usagi feel proud? He’d made Sailor Moon feel proud? He’d never thought that much about how he affected his sister beyond just ribbing her or calling out her bull, but to think that to hold his admiration had been something his own hero was reluctant to let go of.

“To me,” the girl said, “I think that’s worthy of a royal title.”

She stood then.

“I think we should go back inside,” the girl said, “we don’t want to be missed.”

“I’d like to,” said Shingo, “but I don’t exactly have the… proper attire.”

He held up his mask for her to see the ruined strap.

“It’s broken,” he said.

The girl smiled and took the mask from him, undoing the shorter broken ribbon from the mask’s corner. From her hair, she took one of her own ribbons and tied it in place.

Soon, her hands were around the back of Shingo’s head, securing the mask while he thanked God that it covered his cheeks.

When it was securely tied, she stepped back and made her way towards the ballroom.

“Aren’t you coming?” she asked.

The music had changed to something slow and classical on violin.

“I don’t think I know how to dance to that,” he said. God, he was just an excuse machine tonight!

The girl only smiled enigmatically.

“Then why don’t I teach you?” she asked.

Shingo stared at the girl, open mouthed like a goldfish, as she held her hand out to him. Bracketed by the golden light of the ballroom and Shingo was worried his heart would stop from the sight.

“Handsome Duke,” the girl said, “would you have this dance with me tonight?”

Wild horses couldn’t pull him away

#my writing #smrarepairweek2022 #sailor moon #sailor moon rare pair week 2022 #tomoe hotaru x tsukino shingo #Hotaru Tomoe #Shingo Tsukino #Crystal Tokyo

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cynicalrainbows · 5 years ago

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An incredibly late happy birthday fic for the very lovely and very talented @shut-up-heather-d, who has been patiently waiting for this for weeks. After you read this, you should also take yourself to AO3 to read her OWN writing too, because it’s really excellent.

But here’s some fluff in the meantime. The request was for Kitty being taken care of by Catalina and Jane, and Catalina being the stricter ‘parent’.

‘I’m dying-’

Kitty rolls dramatically onto her stomach and buries her face in the couch cushion, displacing Cathy (who falls off the couch with a squeak and retreats hastily to the kitchen for paper towels to mop up the spilled coffee from her shirt).

‘You’re not dying Kit.’

Kitty lifts up her flushed face and tries to muster up the energy to glare at Catalina.

‘I AM.’

Catalina raises an unimpressed eyebrow. ‘You’re not dying, you have cramps. And if you’d just take the aspirin-’

‘But it tastes HORRIBLE-’

‘So you keep saying.’

Kitty flops back down with another groan and Catalina carries on tidying up.

‘I hate today, I’m really stressed and I have to make that phone call to the bank, on top of everything-’

Catalina sighs. She isn’t really sure how to help and she doesn’t like it- it feels like Kitty’s blaming her for her not being able to fix it. Of course, she knows this isn’t Kitty’s fault at all, just her own stupid brain but still…

Even so, she’ll do the best she can, even if advice IS all she can do.

‘Well, maybe if you go and get it done rather than putting it off….and you know it’s going to hurt until you take some painkiller, so you’re only hurting yourself by putting that off too.’

There. Sensible and hopefully enough to spur Kitty into action.

Kitty though just gives her a slightly wounded look and rolls onto her side.

After a while, the silence stretches out a little too long. She returns to the couch.

‘Kit?’

‘Mmm?’

Kitty doesn’t move from where her head is buried in the cushions- Catalina gently tucks a few locks of hair back behind her ear to get a look at slightly more of Kitty’s face, and her fingers brush against dampness on the girl's cheek.

‘Mija, are you alright?’

‘’M fine.’ It’s more indistinct than it should be- Catalina frowns. She starts to feel the first gnawings of guilt in the pit of her stomach.

‘Kitty?’

‘- I’m sorry.’

‘Oh Kit.’

Catalina pushes a few cushions aside and makes herself a space at the end of the sofa. The guilt grows, and she wonders if maybe advice hadn’t been what was needed after all.

‘You have nothing to apologise for. It’s ok.’

‘’M sorry. You don’t have to take care of me.’ It’s so small and wavery that Catalina immediately feels like the worst person in the world. It’s not her fault- she isn’t used to this, she’s used to dramatics needing to be curbed, she’s used to plain speaking and advice. That’s what she’s good at. Kitty half sits up as Catalina sits down, as if she’s going to retreat to her bedroom, and Catalina sighs. She’s fucked up.

‘Come here mija.’ Catalina tugs until Kitty reluctantly rests her head against Catalina’s leg, and begins to smooth her hair back from her warm forehead. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be so snappish and unhelpful. I was trying to help and I think I just made it worse, didn’t I?’

‘It’s ok.’

‘I’m not actually cross with you, you know that don’t you?’

Kitty makes a small non-commital noise.

‘Don’t you?’

‘...I suppose.’

‘Good. Now what I can get to help you feel better, hm?’

Kitty’s face sinks into resignation. ‘I’ll take the aspirin. Is it still in the cabinet?’

It’s mildly painful to Catalina to actually witness this- how Kitty’s resistance, her own wants and needs, are ready to crumble in an instant if it means that she’ll be restored to favour (in the early days, she’d taken it for a pleasant compliance until Jane had set her straight.)

‘You don’t have to-’ Catalina stops herself; Kitty blinks at her warily, confusedly. She can see the question in Kitty’s eyes as to whether or not this is some sort of trick or trap. She doesn’t take it personally (mostly, usually)- she knows this wariness was bred into the girl a long, long time ago. ‘That is, I still think you should. But that wasn’t what I meant- I was just trying to think of an alternative.’

‘Oh.’

‘I could run you a bath? Or make you up a hot water bottle. The heat might help. Only if you want to though. You can stay here if you like.’

‘You don’t have to.’

‘I know. And you don’t have to either mija. But it might make you feel better.’

Kitty opens her mouth to give her usual polite refusal and then a cramp makes her tense- her eyes close for a moment and a nod is wrung out of her.

‘Ok. Thank you.’

‘You’re welcome.’

Catalina insists Kitty stay on the couch while she turns on the bath. (She intends to use some of her own special fancy bubble bath in it, as a sort of apology, but realises to her chagrin that she’s run out. She uses some of Anne’s instead and tells herself it still counts.)

While Kitty soaks Catalina decides to make the hot water bottle anyway. Save them having to do the same rigmarole over whether or not she goes to all the trouble of boiling the kettle or not.

If Kitty doesn’t want it, it can just go on the floor or something.

Jane comes home just as the kettles switch flips off. Her cheeks are red from the wind- or possibly just from the three supermarket bags she’s laden down with.

Catalina stares.

‘Are you sure you got EVERYTHING?’

Jane nods, opening cupboards and pulling out draws as she stashes boxes and jars.

‘I think so- probably.’

‘Jane, you were picking up milk and bread.’

‘Oh!’ Jane catches the sarcasm too late, as she always does and colour rises in her cheeks as it always does. (She does not however either fly off the handle at Catalina for teasing her- as she used to, in the very early days- or shut down entirely and go silent and drawn in on herself- as she still does on very bad days, although they happily are getting rarer.) ‘Well I KNOW- but then I remembered it’s Cathy’s turn to cook tomorrow and she probably won’t have time to get to the supermarket before supper-’

‘You mean she’ll keep writing til the last minute and then panic like last time?’

Jane ignores her. ‘-SO I thought I’d get some staples just in case. And they had some of that pate Anna really likes on offer, and it seemed silly to not take advantage of THAT. And Anne finished the last of the cereal this morning so-’

‘We have at least three different kinds of cereal in the patry Jane.’

‘Yes but not the one that she really LIKES. And there were fresh muffins in the bread aisle, and sometimes it’s nice to have a bit of a treat for breakfast even if it ISN’T a weekend day, and THEN I thought that it would be a good idea to get stuff for making that shortbread that Joan really likes because she’s having a bit of a stressful week, poor thing-’

Catalina smiles despite herself and starts to help put things away.

‘I see…’

‘Don’t be jealous Catty, I got you some green tea.’

‘I do have green tea already.’

‘Yes but this is a special fancy looking NEW kind of green tea because I thought you might like a treat. Also a mango.’

‘Did you get anything for yourself?’

‘Yes.’ There’s only the slightest of hesitations and Catalina resists the urge to ask what: they both know it’ll just send Jane into a spiral of defensiveness as she tries to justify her spending money on herself to the insatiable long dead ghosts of the past.

‘Good. Well done.’

‘Thank you.’

‘And thank you for my treats- and for everything else. The others will be thrilled.’

‘I hope so. I got some stuff for Kitty and I to bake with too, there’s a recipe we saw on Bake Off that Anna liked the look of and Kit wanted to try it-’

‘I don’t think she’ll be quite up to that for the moment.’

‘Why? Why not?’ Jane looks suddenly urgently panicked and Catalina hastens to reassure her.

‘Nothing to worry about. Period pain, that’s all.’

‘Oh the poor little thing.’ Jane’s face creases into sympathy even as the anxiety leaves it. ‘Where is she?’

‘Taking a bath. I’m going to bring her a hot water bottle when she’s done. Actually-’ They hear the rush of water down the drain rattle the loose guttering. ‘I think that’s her now.’

‘Has she taken anything?’

‘She didn’t want the aspirin…’

Jane nods. ‘She doesn’t like the taste. I usually just end up bribing her. What did you do?’

‘....I- um- I told her to stop complaining.’

‘Catty!’

‘Sorry! I didn’t say it exactly like that.’

When she glances up at Jane, she’s supremely relieved to see that Jane looks more amused than vengeful.

‘What’s funny?’

‘Sorry. Nothing. Just…’ Jane bites back a smile. ‘You looked SO guilty when you admitted that. I don’t think you’re as cut out for the strict parent role as you think you are…’

Catalina can’t help but smile back. ‘Maybe not. I do want to make it clear I did apologise. And I WAS about to make her a hot chocolate to take up when you came in.’

Jane chuckles and hands over the bag of mini marshmallows. ‘Better get started then.’

Kitty’s struggling with her wet hair- cursing herself for her ill-thought out decision to lay back in the water and wondering whether to just leave it and lie down with it wet- when Jane taps on the door.

‘How are you feeling love?’

‘You’re back!’ For the first time since being struck down, Kitty feels actually, properly happy: she can’t quite explain it, but somehow, having Jane in the vicinity during a crisis just makes things better. Easier.

It didn’t even mean things were fixed or solved- for that, all the queens agreed, you needed Catalina or Anne or Anna (or Cathy if the problem involved etymology or linguistics or the interpretation of scripture). Jane was not the person you had around to fix things, they all knew.

But Jane was the person you’d position yourself close to once the solution to the problem had been identified and needed putting into place.

(Her role in this respect- always fairly clear- had been absolutely cemented the day that Anna had come home to find Catalina miserably struggling through a phone call, her head in Jane’s lap while Jane did needlepoint and fed her white chocolate buttons. Catalina had been slightly flushed upon discovery but determinedly insouciant, and to their eternal credit, the others had refrained from commenting.)

Kitty struggles to her feet to pull Jane properly into the room. ‘I’m fine! How was your shopping trip?!’

‘It was alright. They had those special dark chocolate biscuits I was waiting for them to restock at LAST-’

(Jane isn’t quite sure why talking about things she’s brought for herself to Kitty doesn’t set off the same anxiety as it does when admitting to having done so to anyone else. It doesn’t, and that’s enough for her.)

Kitty knows better than to comment on the purchase, but she beams proudly at her all the same and Jane shoots a small, grateful smile back- which fades quickly when she notices how tense the girl is.

‘Are you sure you’re ok? Is it still hurting? Catalina said you were having a really hard time of it.’

Kitty blushes slightly. ‘Yeah. Did she tell you I was making a fuss?’

She looks so forlorn, Jane thinks it would almost be funny if it wasn’t so very sad. She makes her voice as gentle as possible. ‘Of course not, sweetheart.’ She wraps an arm around Kitty’s shoulders, guides her to sit on the edge of the bed and then picks up the abandoned comb. ‘She said that you were in pain and that she was concerned. That’s all.’

‘Oh.’ Kitty keeps her head down as Jane begins to patiently work through the tangles. ‘I WAS making a fuss though…’

‘Actually, she told me that she feels awful for not being more sympathetic at first.’

‘But she doesn’t need to! She ran me a bath and everything. And I shouldn’t be so whiney anyway.’

‘Love-’ Jane keeps combing, and Kitty unconsciously relaxes back into her touch, enjoying it. ‘Remember what we told you? You don’t need to feel bad about being taken care of sometimes. We all want to help. Especially if you’re not feeling good.’

‘But I’m an adult, I-’

‘Yes?’

‘I-’ Kitty bites her lip miserably. ‘I should be able to just...handle myself, you know?’

Jane shrugs. ‘Is that what you think the rest of us should do then?’

‘What?’

‘Like, I should just handle myself and stop bothering Anna or you when I need help doing a form? Or how Cathy should just get over it when she gets overwhelmed and keep going?’

‘No of course not-’

‘Or how Anne should just stop being late for things and finish jobs when she starts them?’

‘No! That would be horrible, that’s-’

Jane nods. ‘So why is it any different for you? Why wouldn’t we be just as eager to help you when we love you just as much? Hm?’

Kitty sighs in defeat, and then winces as the comb is tugged. ‘I know. I know that really. I suppose. It’s just….hard to know it properly sometimes.’

‘I know love.’ Jane leans down and kisses the top of her head, then begins to plait her hair back. ‘We’ll remind you though. As much as you need.’

Kitty opens her mouth to reply but she’s interrupted by another tap on the door- Catalina, bearing a tray and looking slightly awkward.

‘I thought you might like a hot drink-’ As she puts the tray down on the nightstand, Kitty sees that it bears one fuzzy hot water bottle, one plate of shortbread, two mugs of tea- and possibly the most decadent hot chocolate she has ever seen in her life.

She’d been about to apologise again- she still can’t quite shake the anxiety that Catalina might maybe still be annoyed at her despite her reassurances- but the elaborateness of the drink surprises a laugh out of her instead.

‘Catty! It looks-’

Jane’s laughing too. ‘That’s….oh my goodness!’

Catalina tries and fails to frown. ‘Hey! I worked very hard on this. It is NOT easy to get that many marshmallows into one mug-’

‘You look like you managed though-’

‘Just about-’ She glances at Kitty, slightly anxiously. ‘Is it ok? Do you like it?’

‘I love it!’ Kitty bounces off the bed to hug Catalina in gratitude and then winces. ‘Argh. Bad idea. Sorry.’

‘It’s ok-’ Catalina hands her the hot water bottle and Kitty presses it thankfully to her stomach. ‘Why don’t you get comfortable? It might feel better if you lie down.’

Jane starts to arrange pillows as Kitty settles onto the bed. ‘Jane, I’m not an invalid you know, I honestly can do it myself-’

‘I know love.’ She doesn’t stop. ‘But you’re sick so-’

‘I’m not sick.’

‘Being in pain is a kind of sick.’ Catalina chips in. ‘Just indulge us mija. Now, do you want some peace and quiet so you can rest? Or do you want company?’

Kitty hesitates. ‘It’s ok love, whichever you prefer. We won’t take it personally if you’d rather have some space-’

Kitty nods; Jane and Catalina wait a moment and then pick up their tea and start for the door. As Jane opens it, they’re stopped by a squeak from the bed.

‘Kit?’

‘Do- do you mind staying? If you’re not too busy?’ She squeezes the hot water bottle case anxiously. ‘Just, it really hurts and it’s nice to have a distraction and-’ Despite their reassurance, Kitty still half expects to catch an eye roll or a reluctant sigh. Of course they don’t want to stay really, of course they’re busy…

But instead, Jane smiles as she closes the door; Catalina squeezes her hand as she settles onto the bed.

‘Well done mija. I know that wasn’t easy.’

It’s a silly thing to need validation for but it makes the anxious bands that have seized around Kitty’s chest loosen anyway.

They get comfortable on the bed either side of her and Jane reaches for Kitty’s laptop.

‘How about some trash tv? That usually makes me feel better.’

Kitty settles back, letting her head rest against Catalina’s shoulder. It feels warm and comfortable, a good place to rest. ‘Sure. Not Love Island though, I feel too gross to enjoy watching people in bikinis.’

‘Fine.’ Jane pouts slightly and Catalina chuckles. ‘Bake Off?’

‘Ok.’

They watch in silence for a few minutes, as the sprightly music plays and mouth watering images of sponges and tarts fill the screen. Catalina hands Kitty her hot chocolate and it’s very bit as good as it looks; Jane’s arm around her is pleasantly soothing.

‘Catty?’

‘Hm?’

‘Thanks.’

‘You’re welcome mija.’

(Kitty doesn’t just mean for the hot chocolate. But she thinks Catalina probably knows this.)

#six #six the musical fanfiction #sixfic #six fanfiction

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maybeacrowdedmind · 4 years ago

Text

My Top Seven Favorite Musical Moments In Shows That Aren't Musically Driven* and why (in no particular order)**

*By not musically driven I mean shows that do not have plots driven by music (i.e. Glee, Smash, etc. etc.)

**I know I said top seven, but I just mean out of the many I have seen, these seven are the ones I like the most.

Note: None of the images used are mine; they belong to various internet gods.

Legacies Season 1 Episode 11: We're Gonna Need a Spotlight

Kaleb and the Vampire faction singing "Feeling Good" by Nina Simone at the Salvatore School talent show.

While the entirety of the talent show was amazing (Kaylee Bryant's singing voice, Raf's slightly awkward yet still appropriately dramatic poetry), it was Kaleb and the vampires who stole the show. Chris Lee has an incredible voice and his rendition of Nina Simone's "Feeling Good" was stunning, both visually and vocally. I'm also a great lover of epic dance moves, so it was no contest.

Gilmore Girls Season 7 Episode 20: Lorelai? Lorelai?

Lorelai singing "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton originally (Whitney Houston covered) at Stars Hollow karaoke to Luke, despite beginning the song as a dedication to Rory.

Lorelai and Luke may be broken up, but Lorelai's beautiful (and slightly alcohol-fueled) version of Dolly Parton's kind of cheesy yet nonetheless tender "if you love someone, set them free" ballad that was later made into an iconic cover by Whitney Houston was proof that they'd never really be over. Sure, she says she's singing it to Rory, but the moment Luke walks in and they lock eyes, everyone knows. Lauren Graham also has a good voice, and the emotion that comes through is so real, a cheesy karaoke moment becomes a heartfelt cheesy karaoke moment.

Everything's Gonna Be Okay Season 1 Episode 5: West African Giant Black Millipedes

Nicholas doing a drag queen routine to Thelma Houston's disco hit "Don't Leave Me This Way" for Alex and his friends.

Okay, so I love this scene so much, because not only is it done to an incredibly fun song, it also showcases Nicholas doing something so utterly entertaining for Alex and a bunch of people he was nervous about meeting. The fact that just a few days before watching this episode I had watched an episode of Ru Paul's Drag Race where two queens had to lip sync for their lives to the very same song made the scene that much more enjoyable to watch. Nicholas looks amazing, his dance moves are to die for, and his lip syncing game is strong. I also appreciated the fact that when he did this scene, Josh Thomas committed to it. The scene is done in full, not going for a bit and then fading out before we get to see the end. Also, I know that Nicholas isn't technically singing, but it still totally counts.

The Magicians Season 1 Episode 4: The World in the Walls

Quentin starting up a group sing-along to Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" to get Penny's attention in the mental hospital while under Julia and Marina's spell.

I just started watching this show after having read the first two books, and this scene was HILARIOUS! I loved that the show used a random interaction between Quentin and Penny from a previous episode and turned it into something more because usually shows ignore one-off interactions between characters. Also, Quentin singing off-key at the top of his lungs with everyone else joining in and dancing while Penny suddenly hears it in the real world was so funny and a huge break in an otherwise extremely dramatic and rather dark episode.

Skam Season 2 Episode 3: Er det noe du skjuler for oss? (Are You Hiding Someone From Us?)

Noora singing Extreme's "More Than Words" on William's guitar, initially doing so to make fun of him, but quickly turning into a super sweet and romantic moment between the two.

Skam is another show I started watching recently, and Noora quickly became one of my favorite characters. Now, I'll admit, I wasn't too fond of the idea of William and Noora at first, but this scene changed my mind immediately. I'm also very into the whole "enemies to lovers" thing these two have with one another. All of the songs Noora sings in this scene are good, but "More Than Words" is the one where you really begin to see that William's feelings for Noora are not as one-sided as she says they are. Josefine Frida Petterson, who plays Noora, has an absolutely beautiful voice, and the vocalization and soft musicality throughout are stunning. This is one of my favorite scenes in this show to date, and everything about it was perfect.

New Girl Season 1 Episode 1: Pilot

Coach, Schmidt, and Nick singing "(I've Had) The Time Of My Life" by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes from Dirty Dancing to Jess, who eventually joins in, after her date stands her up.

Poor Jess had just broken up with her boyfriend, moved into an apartment with three guys who have little to know emotional know-how when it comes to women, and had her first date since her breakup stand her up at a fancy restaurant. The situation was made worse by the fact that she was told to give up her table. When the boys showed up and claimed to be her boyfriends, it was sweet, but the moment they began singing "(I've Had) The Time Of My Life", they showed that they really did care about her. What makes this scene so funny is the fact that Nick (who begins it) and Coach (who joins in after Nick elbows him) don't really know the words, they're both singing different parts in different tunes at different volumes, and then Schmidt (who initially says he's not singing), comes out of nowhere belting the song with the correct words and tune. Then Jess joins in and they have a great time until the restaurant makes them leave. They head back to the apartment, watch Dirty Dancing, and show that any problem can be solved with good friends and 80s movies.

Angel Season 2 Episode 11: Redefinition

Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn sing "We Are The Champions" by Queen at Caritas after Angel fires them.

Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn had just been fired by Angel so he could kill Darla and Drusilla without their interference and the trio was at a loss for what to do next. Angel Investigations was disbanded, and none of them had any clue what to do about it. Their solution? Terribly sing Queen's "We Are The Champions" at Lorne's bar Caritas and drown their sorrows. While an extremely short scene, Cordy, Wes, and Gunn's reaction to being fired was super relatable, and you can never go wrong with Queen. They also have three very different personalities; Cordelia is snarky, has a lot of wit, and tends to be rather superficial, but she has so much heart beneath the surface, Wesley is a stuffy English professor type, and being a former Watcher means he couldn't be hip and cool if he tried, and Gunn is a hardened vampire hunter with a strong resolution and loyal to the core, who was still relatively new to the group when Angel gave them the boot. As such, seeing them all be together with arms around shoulders singing their hearts out was immensely fun to see.

Honorable Mentions:

Legacies: Alaric singing "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" terribly off-key before Kaleb and Cleo swooped in and saved the day with their improvised song.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Giles Singing "Free Bird" while playing his guitar in his home.

How I Met Your Mother: Lily and Marshall singing "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" at karaoke, effectively making up after Marshall accepts a corporate job rather than one that fits his morals.

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thestarsaroundyourscars · 5 years ago

Note

For the word and pairing: caught and Reddie :P

Thank you for the prompt! You can also read it on AO3 if you want

"Fair warning Rich, if we get caught I'm blaming you."

Richie gave a loud snort, pushing open the door to Bill's bedroom. Eddie shushed him, landing a swat on his arm.

"Ow! Bill's not even home, why are you shushing me?" He complained. Eddie simply shrugged, Richie was right, they were alone but he couldn’t help feeling like they should be doing this quietly. "Besides Eds, it's not like he would believe me if I said this was your idea."

"Because it wasn't."

"Whatever, help me strip the bed sheets."

Reluctantly, Eddie helped him. They worked in silence, except for the occasional snicker from Richie while they wrapped the mattress in tin foil. When Richie showed up at the apartment Eddie shared with Bill, carrying supplies and a mischievous grin, Eddie said no before he could even explain what he wanted to do. But Richie could be very persuasive and, for all their friends liked to tease him with how Richie was unable to say no to him, Eddie knew he was the same. All Richie needed to do was give Eddie one of his cute crooked smiles and he would agree to the stupidest shit⎯ like helping him play a prank on Bill.

They had just finished carefully placing a layer of whipped cream and syrup on the mattress when they heard the apartment door open, and Richie and Eddie both froze.

"I thought you said he would be out for another hour," Richie hissed.

"I thought he would! His classes don’t end until six!" Eddie frantically looked around until he found the blanket and threw it over the mess. Then Richie was grabbing his wrist and dragging him towards Bill’s closet.

“Seriously?” Eddie huffed, and Richie glared at him.

“Did you have a better idea?”

But before Eddie could try to come up with something else, they heard footsteps in the hallway. “Fine,” he sighed and let Richie lock them inside the closet.

Which was⎯ tiny. Seriously, incredibly tiny.

And Eddie should know, the closet in his own room was the same size. But then again, Eddie had never tried hiding in it before.

“Damn it,” Richie muttered, trying to make space for his long limbs. One knobby elbow connected with Eddie’s ribs and honestly, between the size of the closet and the amount of shit Bill kept inside, it would be harder not to elbow him but Eddie still glared at him and pinched his side in revenge.

“This is your fault.”

“My fault?” Richie repeated, it was dark but Eddie could still see his eyebrows shot up. He was very, very close. “You told me we had a whole hour before Bill was back!”

“Yeah, but this was your stupid idea!”

“An idea you agreed to help me with.”

“Only because you threatened to prank me⎯”

The door opened and Richie lifted his hand to cover Eddie’s mouth, shutting him up just as Bill walked into his room. They heard the light switch click, Bill taking off his shoes, his bag hitting the floor.

Eddie closed his eyes and prayed that Bill wouldn’t feel the need to change his clothes or they were both done for. When he opened them, Richie was staring hard at him. And⎯ had he moved closer? Eddie could feel him pressed against him, Richie’s hand still over his mouth.

Eddie felt his heart speeding up at the proximity. He tried to avoid being so close to Richie⎯ it made him nervous and it made hiding his feelings that much harder. He wished he could take a step back but he was already pressed against the closet wall and, short of jumping out of the closet and exposing them to Bill, there was nothing he could do to put some distance between them.

Richie had zoned out while staring at him, Eddie gave him a little nudge and he moved his hand away slowly. Eddie had adjusted enough to the dark of the closet to see the way Richie licked his lips while staring directly at Eddie’s mouth. There was a small crease between his eyebrows, like he was trying to solve a really hard problem. And Eddie didn’t think he was trying to come up with a solution for the fact that they were trapped in a closet.

Slowly, like he was trying not to spook Eddie, Richie lifted his hand again. This time he cupped Eddie’s cheek while pressing even closer, flush against him. Eddie’s mouth went suddenly dry, heart hammering in his chest.

Then Richie was mouthing Okay? at him and there was no way to misread the situation or the expression on his face. He gave a short nod, unable to do anything else while he watched Richie lean in.

That was when Bill screamed.

They jumped apart, or as much as they could in the small space. Eddie worried that they weren’t quiet enough, but with how loud Bill was cursing, he realized it didn’t matter.

“Fuck Richie and his stupid fucking pranks. I’m going to kill him.”

Eddie bit his lip, trying to keep his laughter in. Maybe he didn’t want to help Richie at first, but he had to admit that Bill falling for their prank was absolutely hilarious. Richie had a hand clamped over his mouth, clearly thinking the same. He shifted and Eddie saw him pull out his phone and show it to him. The screen was lighting up with an incoming call from Bill. Since he couldn’t answer without betraying their location, the call went to voicemail.

“Tozier, you better watch your back. I’m getting back at you for this shit.” Bill hissed into the phone and Eddie felt another giggle rise in his throat and he had to bite his lip harder to keep it in.

He heard the sound of running feet and then the door slammed shut. Richie and Eddie exchanged a look but it wasn’t until they heard the apartment door open and close that they both burst into laughter.

Eddie leaned back against the wall, giggling. Richie doubled over, shaking with laughter. Eddie loved it when he laughed like that, with his whole body and with tears welling up in his pretty blue eyes. He dropped his head on Eddie’s shoulder, one of his hands falling to his hip. Eddie was suddenly reminded of how close they were and what they were about to do before Bill fell victim to their prank.

“Do you think it’s safe?” Richie whispered against his neck, Eddie suppressed a shiver. He tried not to pay attention to Richie’s breath against his skin and instead, focused on trying to figure out if Bill really left the apartment. It was silent and Eddie nodded, grabbing for the doorknob.

The room was empty. The bed was stripped, revealing the mess underneath and the blanket was lying on the floor, fat dollops of whipped cream and syrup next to it. Eddie wrinkled his nose, feeling bad for Bill⎯ that would be a nightmare to clean up.

Richie snickered, staring at the mess. “Bill is going to kill us.”

Eddie whirled on him. “Excuse me? Bill’s going to kill you. I wasn’t here, I didn’t help. This,” He gestured wildly between them. “Never happened.”

Richie bit the inside of his cheek, eyes darting towards the closet. “Um, what do you mean⎯ this? Like you helping me with the prank or⎯”

“What?”

“You know, the thing that almost happened in the closet?” Richie said, nervously scratching the back of his neck. Eddie’s stomach fluttered when he remembered that the thing that almost happened was Richie kissing him. “Because if you want to pretend that it didn’t happen that’s cool. I’m cool with that. Cool, cool, cool. Cool as a cucumber.”

Eddie chuckled softly at Richie’s nervous rambling. He copied Richie’s move from before, reaching up to cup his cheek and shutting him up. “I don’t want to pretend it didn’t happen⎯ well, almost happened.”

“Oh. That’s⎯”

“Cool?” Eddie cut in with a smirk.

“Very cool.” Richie agreed, and it was like déjà vu when he leaned down. Except this time, Bill wasn’t there to interrupt them.

The kiss was soft, slow, perfect.

Eddie sighed happily against Richie’s lips, tangling his fingers in his curls. Richie’s hands settled on Eddie’s waist and he used his grip to crowd Eddie against the desk⎯ Bill’s desk. It reminded Eddie of where they were. And that they should probably get out of there. They barely escaped before and Eddie doubted they would have the same luck a second time.

“We should go to my room.” He said and Richie hummed in agreement but instead of stopping, he trailed his mouth down Eddie’s jaw to his neck. “Seriously Rich, when Bill doesn’t find you in your apartment he will probably come back, I don’t think we can get away again.”

“I don’t care.”

But Eddie did care⎯ the last thing he wanted was to end up involved in a prank war with his roommate. He would never know peace if he did. He gave Richie a meaningful look, “My room has a bed without syrup and whipped cream in it.” He told him and Richie pulled back, his eyes sparkling with interest. Eddie smirked, “And a really cramped closet, if tight enclosed spaces are more your thing.”

Richie opened his mouth to say something but seemed to change his mind. Eddie narrowed his eyes at him, “What?”

“I’m just trying to figure out if I should wait until after I get laid to make a joke about your tight, enclosed spaces.” Eddie groaned, which only made Richie grin harder. He grabbed his hand and started walking him towards the door. “Yeah, I definitely think I should get laid first. Just to be on the safe side.”

And, really, it was very hard for Eddie to argue with that. He was very aware of how incredibly persuasive Richie could be.

Tag list: @daddyphantomtbh @yes-dillman-yes @richietoaster @beepbeeprichiellc @its-stranger-than-you-think @lemonaayyee @losers-gotta-stick-together @tinyarmedtrex @richiefuckfacetozier @sam-i-am2468 @stylesmelon @s-s-georgie @reddie-for-anything @eddiefuckinkaspbrak @constantreaderfool @hammockrichie @jesuschristsupruvestar @mirandonsky @reddie4diaster @alargedepresso @purplepoisonedgem @pan-ini @reddie-to-cryy @reddieforlove @trashmouthnick @multi-fandom-wby @wheezyeds @nancynwheeler @reddieslashgeneralhorror @madi-personal @reddie-tozibrak @lover-mouth @atownofeggs @that-weird-girls-blog @appojoos @castielwinovak @a-gay-treee @twoidiotsinl0ve @fcngirltrxsh @spirited-marvel @typewrxter @rebecca-the-queen @juhavs @thegoshdiddlydangdoor @soooobr @purebloodqueen @call-me-bread @britcorn @wickedlyweasley @derpyanimatesstuff @braverthanyathink @s-onora @reddie-stole-my-heart (if you want to be added, let me know!).

#reddie #Eddie lets Richie convince him to play a prank on Bill #they're two halves of the same idiot #monse writes #anon ask

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melissanovels · 5 years ago

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♡ Chapter 3 of TRANSIENT TIME TRAVELLER is out! ♡

○ Read on my Website ○ Read on Tumblr (below) ○ Read on Ao3 ○ Read on Royal Road ○

TTT is an LGBTQ+ historical fantasy novel about Aida, a time traveller hellbent on proving the innocence of a 1,200-year-old dead queen, and Lorian, an escaped princess-turned-officer who wants to drain the royal blood from their body, & the two coming together with the help of their mischievous future selves.

♡ Reblogs are appreciated! ♡

Read Chapter 3 Below:

The second Aida stepped off the boat, she was struck with awe, an intense yearning of something grander than she’d ever thought was possible.

Then the seasickness sullied the occasion, but she wouldn’t let her bodily issues ruin this once in a lifetime experience.

You could feel when you entered Rome, when you officially made it to the country you’d been dreaming about for months, years. The air was different, the energy warmer. Unlike Bělico, which sprawled out into farm valleys and snow-capped mountains with the occasional farm, Roma was anything but. Firstly, the people here had a place to be. They hauled barrels of water on to carriages, they sang for money, they bartered and sold their wares with the utmost power to their actions. The streets always seemed to be moving, something Aida had wished for in Bělico but didn’t know how in which to hold herself.

After exiting the carriage that brought her deeper into town, she kept herself small, the grip on her cane and rucksacks making her hands sweat. The buildings were ancient and tall, and the noise overwhelmed her to the point of freezing her in place. She knew there were taverns near the center of the city, which was where she was going to sleep until the semester started, but here, in the middle of the busy streets, she was stuck. All at once, it felt like people were staring at her and ignoring her, like she was an uninteresting problem they couldn’t be bothered to solve.

She took a breath, pressed her weight onto her cane, and carried on.

The architecture was dazzling. Rich period houses made of brick, cottages built around markets selling seasoned meats and sugary sweets. Unlike her time as a child, when she thought food was free and people were kind, she now knew what to use her money for and bought cheap food to keep herself alive.

The streets were decorated in triangular pennant flags and ancient art, not for a festival, just to preserve the ancient traditions, and in the center of the intersections, written on that rich paper Aida fancied, was a drawn illustration of that princess that went missing.

Aida heard Lucia’s name whispered in the streets. Women with their hands over their mouths. Men with their hands on their hips, nodding about the obvious as to why she’d left. There were more officers walking around, the men in the red jackets and black hats who kept Roma safe. They patrolled the streets with vigilant eyes, waiting to spot the hidden princess in her wedding dress.

An arranged marriage. Aida didn’t know much about the people of Aldaí, though she supposed one of her birth parents might’ve claimed a place of origin there. The prince sounded like a normal fellow with average values. Though, if she were to re-examine the predicament, she couldn’t blame the princess for escaping such a marriage. If Aida had been arrange married, she too would’ve run, though probably not the day of. The girl must’ve either been a juggernaut for chaos, or an incredibly indecisive person.

The streets winded and were made of cobblestone that the Siinans and Eve herself must’ve walked. It was difficult discerning which parts of the city belonged to Siina, which streets and plots of land had been claimed by the Roman crown after the city-state’s destruction. The city had white, ancient columns, fountains with Circa’s statue atop them, and even a few ancient buildings preserved from the Classical Era. She knew how to spot them with their white walls and timber frames. They must’ve been 1,000 years old, so close to Queen Eve’s timeline yet too far away for her to ever have seen them. Aida wondered how many ancient people had walked these same cobblestone streets, how many buildings Eve might’ve walked into. She’d have to plan a full day just to explore to take everything in.

No true Romans seemed to be paying attention to the history around them, but the notable tourists were looking up at the columns in the same fervor as Aida. She wanted to take a tour of every ancient building. She would’ve even dipped into the depths of the infamous Catacombs that lay underneath her feet, but she couldn’t make a spectacle of herself. She saw Visatorre roaming the streets, those with the circles over their forehead and those who were quite obviously hiding them in head wrappings. Most looked unfortunate, dirty. Some were begging for a bronze lyria. Aida gave them what she could, knowing she should’ve kept all of it for herself, being that she was, in a sense, homeless as well.

As she toured the shops and eyed the delectables of frosted cookies and her favorite, sugar bread, she came across an abandoned shop with its windows boarded and door signs stripped away. It looked like it hadn’t been touched in years, so she rested against its walls to catch her breath. How far had she made it, two kilometers? It was another three to the nearest taverns. Should she’ve called for another carriage? Would they stop for her? She needed to read up more about the unspoken rules in Roma, not ones from a millennia ago. Should she have hidden her marking? She would’ve rather died.

She went to clean off her glasses when a figure in white caught her eye. It—she—sat on the steps, a poor woman wrapped in rags. At first glance, she resembled more of a pile of laundry than a woman in need, she was so knelt over. She was tall, though, even when crouched down, and barefoot. Aida had no choice but to help her, she was drawn to her. How tall was she, two meters? Her sitting state was almost Aida’s full height.

Aida walked closer, eager to help yet keeping back in fear of the unknown. “Excuse me.”

The woman’s eyes were completely bound by bandages. She wasn’t injured—they weren’t bloody or stained—they just looked like a reminder to show the public that she simply did not have eyes.

Aida pulled back. Most Visatorre, when the time travelled, only travelled back a few decades. The farther back you went, the more messed up you came back. Five years back would get you a bad cough or a throbbing joint. Fifty years and you’d end up with a permanent injury, like her shitty leg or a fucked up eye. 200 years back and who knew. You could lose your leg, your head might fall off. Aida had known one girl from her village that travelled back 150 years, give or take a decade. She had regular bleeding from the brain. It lasted two months before she died an agonizing death.

People had theories as to why a time traveller jumped, and scholars and medics have tried their damnedest to find a solution to why travelling hurt the traveller once they returned, but all signs pointed to the Heavens above. Those who still believed in the Gods—very few in her generation—believed that these things happened simply because the Gods willed them to happen. Why did it happen? Why did the Gods take away children right when they were born? Why couldn’t humans live as long as trees or Aldaían turtles? It was simply nature, a nature human beings had yet to understand.

Taking in the woman’s differences, Aida closed her hand around the coins. “Here,” she said, “it’s ten bronze lyria.”

The woman slowly lifted her head, showing Aida a wide, unnerving smile that seemed otherworldly. Wildly, wickedly, reaching from ear to ear. Despite being homeless, her teeth were perfectly white. They were almost blue.

Aida slowly retracted her offered hand, but still dropped the ten lyria next to her hip. Roma was incredibly different from Bělico. It was grand as well as poor. Beautiful as well as filthy.

Interesting as well as confusing.

She couldn’t imagine what she’d see near the Palace, and the Colosseum.

Where Siina once lay.

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

Students were given access to Durante Academy a day before classes officially started. This was mostly for students and their families to tour the campus, to admire the plaques of royal statues and feast in the dining hall together. Aida had no family to see her off and she’d already known everything that was written on the plaques, so she’d taken to just moving in without any spectacle. Alone. Up four flights of stairs. Without anyone to help her.

It was fine. She was fine. It didn’t matter that nobody helped her or that her mother hadn’t come looking for her. It’d been three weeks, sure, and maybe communication between Bělico and Roma would take that long. And it could’ve snowed, so the post might’ve been halted or stopped temporarily.

Maybe her mother had never come searching for her, and who cared? Finally, Aida had become unburdened by the weight of family life. It was all she’d ever wanted.

She just wished, against her better judgement, that she had somebody to pay and help her. She’d spent most of her savings on lodging at a nearby inn before the Academy opened. She would’ve paid for the help with what little money she had left, but she was carrying the weight of every Visatorre in Roma City. Out of the 2,500 people attending this Academy, she’d sniffed out that only six of those 2,500 students were Visatorre. .2 percent. Ten years ago and no Visatorre had the rights to attend higher education. She couldn’t let this opportunity be tainted by her own missteps and selfishness.

Stepping onto the soil of the Durante Academy didn’t feel real, like she was stepping into a painting. It was built up like the Roman Palace, with arches and red brick holding centuries worth of knowledge. It’d been built at the turn of the Neoclassical Era—the Era they were in now—but it was still more than 200 years old. It’d been named Scoppio Erutus Academy in honor of the first king of Roma, but then King Durante had been so arrogant, he forced his wife to rename a historic foundation after himself. What she would’ve done if she meant the man himself. Gouge out his eyes, she would.

She touched the iron-clad gates, then where her acceptance letter was in her bag. She’d done it. All without her family’s help.

She’d taken all but four steps through the Academy gates when she felt her body tense. She’d familiarized herself with her normal bodily aches apart from these ones. When she felt like this, when the world shifted around her like someone was tilting it with both hands, that’s when she knew. That’s when she knew a jump was about to occur.

The first thing she did was take off her glasses. Nothing came with you when you teleported into the past, not even your clothes, so it did right by you to make sure you secured any loose valuables or breakables on your person before you left. Stumbling across piles of clothes was commonplace, and it was a jackpot for thieves or terrible people to loot a defenseless, temporarily lost person of their money.

When she travelled backwards into time, her only concern was someone stealing her books and throwing them into a fountain.

A loud zap of energy stole her from the present. The travelling itself didn’t hurt, not at first, but it left her feeling floaty. That’s the only way she could describe it. You left the Earth that grounded you and was brought somewhere, somehow, against your will and into Circa’s hands. It was magic, Aida knew that, but everything magical about going into the past was stripped from her when she knew it’d leave her with a bloody nose or worse.

She dropped into a forest. Nothing spectacular, just an endless sea of untamed land and pine cones. She would’ve preferred something a little more interesting like a town or even a house. When you went back in time, you couldn’t interact with anything around you, so if you jumped into someone’s room, there you were, and you were stuck there until someone from that time period happened to open a door or window big enough for you to squeeze through. Open spaces like this, while bereft of anything eye-catching, made Aida thankful that she hadn’t jumped anywhere too stifling.

She wandered. It was all you could do for one, two hours in this pause in your life. She heard the birds chirping to each other, she heard the skittering of squirrels and rabbits who didn’t know a traveller was meters away from them. And she felt the wind, heard it flutter through the leaves and branches. But it was strange, distant. And smell, that was something you had trouble with. It was like walking through a moving painting. You were there, you were exploring, but you couldn’t interact with this painted scene before you. It was better, in that sense, if you came across something important. A meeting between generals, an unsolved murder with a new key witness. You could learn about the world in a way most people couldn’t.

And all she got was a forest. Just. Her. Luck.

After maneuvering around a fallen tree, she did come across something prominent: a crystal lake that sparkled with the bright blue sky. It perfectly reflected the white clouds and the treetops around them. Bugs danced across the water and frogs leapt atop their lilypads. And curled within the lake’s natural perimeter lived a cabin that honestly looked like it’d seen better days. It was modern, giving Aida context as to how far she’d jumped back, but some of the windows had cracks in it, and a natural ecosystem grew where its cut lawn should’ve been. It looked cozy, if not a little worn.

The sound of hammering skipped across the lake. Without her glasses, Aida guessed that there were two people sitting on the roof, patching up a hole.

She circled the lake. She heard them speaking, but she couldn’t make out their words or accents, leaving her lost as to who they were and where she was. She almost called out to them before remembering neither of them would hear, see, or acknowledge her.

She tried anyway. “Hey,” she called out. “Where are you in the world?”

Just when she was able to make out their faces, she felt her body being pulled back into the present. She tried to step out of the pull, to find out more about this abandoned cabin, but no Visatorre could do that. They could only go where Circa desired them to go and left when Circa wanted them gone.

When she fell back to the present, reality slammed down with her. Her aches, her bodily pain, the weight of being alive. She was a mass that affected the world, and it sucked and hurt. She was dizzy and it was hard to keep her eyes from spinning, but all in all, she was fine, meaning that she’d only travelled a short way for an even shorter time.

Then she tried to sit up and immediately crashed back down, her legs too tired to hold herself up. Yeah, she wasn’t dead, but check back in two hours when she had a bag of ice on her lower back and a migraine beginning to form.

The Sun had long since set. Night bugs chirped from the bushes around her and most of the lanterns were out. With the Moon’s help, she patted the ground for her glasses, and found them and her bags, shoes. They were all still there, but she’d have to double-check just to make sure. She’d needed to know her books were still with her, otherwise, what was the point of all of this? If she lost her journals…

“Miss, are you alright?”

She lunged for her dress. One-pieces were the easiest clothing for Visatorre to wear to regain their modesty, or what they had left of it, but someone had already seen her, and they sounded like her age. What a great first impression to make at the Academy.

The person coming up to her was a blur without her glasses, but she saw that they were tall—everyone was tall to her, being that she was only 144 centimeters tall—and they had blond hair and fair skin, wearing…

An officer uniform.

Just. Her. Fucking. Luck.

“Here, let me assist you,” they said, this time with a noticeable lisp.

“I can assist myself, thank you. Sir,” she added, hoping she wouldn’t get written up for being too crass with an officer, and got dressed in front of him. She didn’t worry about her undergarments or socks, she just needed to cover her body in front of this person.

A piece of fabric draped over her shoulders: his jacket.

“Please, allow me,” he said, and now, he was way too close. She had a thing about that, about people touching her, getting into her personal space without her consent.

“Not really helping,” she said, and shrugged it off to button up her dress. When she still felt his presence behind her, she said, “Give a woman some privacy?”

“Oh, of course.” He turned on his heel with his hands behind his back. “My apologies. I was keeping watch over your things in case you came back. I heard a loud snap, then saw all these clothes on the ground. I thought it’d be best to help you once you returned.”

“Were you expecting me to disappear?” She flicked out her glasses and put them back on.

“No, I just didn’t want you to be frightened once you returned.”

He was indeed an officer, wearing that gaudy fit the crown made all officers wear—a red jacket studded with gold buttons, black boots that reached their knees—but he was an officer-in-training: no medals or aiguillettes to signify rank, a short rapier attached to his belt as opposed to the long ones real officers used. He was another young fool pulled into the system meant to serve a monarchy who couldn’t be bothered about you.

His green eyes shot down at her naked legs. A hint of red was scratched across his long face. “Forgive me, Miss. I’ve never seen someone jump into the past before. It’s like you were there, then in a flash, you were taken away.”

Ah, so he was pampered. Aida saw his whole life: sheltered, kept away from real life. Most Visatorre weren’t rich, so you either saw them on the streets, working in the fields, or doing manual work to get by. Given that, and by how clean and posh this boy sounded, he’d probably never fought a day in his life.

He stepped back, taking her in from a different angle, then gasped and knelt down to collect her things. “It must be hard,” he said, “disappearing like that and all.” He handed her her shoes, taking note of her right one that weighed heavier than the other. He checked inside for any rocks.

“It’s fine,” she said, and put them on. If the cane didn’t give away her ailments from being a Visatorre, her mismatched shoes would’ve. “The right one has a larger heel due to my limp. Keeps me balanced.”

“Oh.” If he had anything else to say on that, he didn’t.

She sighed. She didn’t need this kid’s pity tonight. She moved to gather her own shit and strained something down her leg. Her right one was worse, the dead weight that made her limp so bad. Sometimes it radiated its anger up her spine and left her toes numb and body with feverish aches for the whole day. This boy didn’t need to know that, he didn’t need to know anything about her. Lucky for her that he’d just seen a part of her that she hadn’t meant neither a man nor woman to ever see. She picked up her bags, her upper lip curled.

“Please, Miss, it’s no problem at all,” he said. “I can help you take them to your dorm if you’d like. Which house is it?”

“…Willows,” she said, though she was unsure if she should’ve been telling this boy where she’d now live.

“That’s across the campus. Here.” He picked up all three of her bags with one arm, as well as her books and uniforms she’d received earlier that week. The Academy almost sent them to her stepmother’s house before she’d intervened.

Aida stepped away from him. “Why’re you helping me?”

“Because I’m an officer.”

“But…” She sighed again. It was too late and she was too tired to argue. “If you do anything insidious, I’ll scream so loud, I’ll make you deaf.”

“Oh.” He frowned. “Please don’t think so ill of me, Miss…”

“Aida. Mirko,” she added, and curtsied shortly, shoeless with her braids coming undone. “What a first impression to make, ’ey?”

The boy chuckled shortly, then bowed, a hand over his stomach. “Lorian Ashwell. A pleasure to meet you.”

Aida scoffed and started walking towards her dorm, her bloomers tucked over her arm. “Not so much from my end. What a bastard of a way to see your first jump.”

“I’ve heard many different tales of it, no doubt. My father is rather…orthodox when it comes to the views of Visatorre.”

“So he’s a cock.”

Lorian choked on his own spit, then burst into a laugh that Aida couldn’t help but smile at. “How bold of you! I’ve never heard a woman speak so crassly as you do.”

“You must not meet many girls.”

He turned away, still chuckling. “That is true, yes.”

Her forced confidence shrunk. Wasn’t she supposed to make a good impression on this school? This kid must’ve been a hired officer to patrol the grounds at night. He’d report her behavior back to the dean. She needed to watch her mouth.

“So, where are you from?” Lorian asked. “No one from Roma would speak as confidently as you do, and your accent is quite unique.”

Aida arched a brow at him. “And you call me bold, asking for my name first, then asking where I’m from based off of my accent? What about your accent? Wouldn’t that be invasive if I asked you about that?”

He lost a step beside her and touched his lips. “My lisp isn’t something I can control, Miss Mirko, though I have been taking therapy lessons to correct it. I’m sorry it offends you in some way.”

Aida cocked her head at the sudden dip into aggressiveness. “When did I say anything about your lisp? I ain’t that rude despite what everything thinks of me. I said ‘accent’. You speak properly, so one can assume you came from wealth, but I wasn’t gonna say that out loud.”

“Oh.” Lorian shot her a look she couldn’t read, then he smirked and dropped his hand. “You are quite something, Miss Mirko.”

“You just met me, Lorian Ashwell, so cool it with the conclusions.”

“Please do forgive me. I haven’t met many people my age. I’m still getting used to the acclimation.”

“Were you living under a rock up until now?”

“You could say that, yes.”

Aida harrumphed. Rich and ignorant. She didn’t know a worse combination.

But she couldn’t knock him. He was kind, doing all of this for her. Her hands almost relaxed out of their fists, but she kept her guard up. She still had her cane to dig into his eye sockets if he fucked up.

He helped her all the way up the spiral staircase, stopping whenever she needed to. He never mentioned her cane or how she sometimes walked into him due to her balance problem. For a boy who hadn’t properly met a Visatorre before, he was taking it better than most. Most threw questions, insults. Rocks, if they were truly cowards.

Her dorm room was small yet curved along with the edge of the building, giving her an extra window. She also had a writing desk, a small poster bed, a wardrobe, and a sofa. Her radiator had been polished and her bedsheets smelled of freshly cleaned linen. It didn’t yet smell like her, but it would, in time.

She took it in in a circle. No longer would she shiver upstairs in a house she didn’t feel like she belonged in, waiting for a better tomorrow she thought would never come. She’d gotten it.

She turned to Lorian, who’d invited himself in and was placing her things on her bed.

“You can go,” she told him. “Don’t need you sniffing my clothes and seeing my journals.”

“Journals?” He dropped her bags. One of her thickest journals dropped on his boot.

“Hey, careful.”

“My apologies.” He picked it up and scanned the cover, noticing the tiny drawings and carvings she’d etched into the old binding.

She’d gotten that journal from school in which to write assignments, but she’d used it to write down her actual thoughts instead. After a few weeks, she’d torn out the older pages and spliced in new ones about her interests in history. Timelines, character sheets, her own theories about what she thought might’ve happened in Siina. By now, the journal was near bursting, the original pages yellowed and loose, with thousands of furious writings smudged around her crude drawings.

Lorian smiled at the dried flowers kept between the pages. “What a beautiful piece.”

She grimaced. He didn’t even know what it was.

He didn’t know, yet he still called it beautiful, this handmade book that meant so much to her.

“Thanks,” she said. “It’s what I do when my brain isn’t broken.”

“Is it for school?”

“No. It’s my thoughts on history.”

“Which part of history?”

“All of Lyrica.”

He weighed the book between both hands. “May I?” he asked, and went to open the first page but stopped for Aida’s consent.

She didn’t know. Back home, her sisters had never cared for it, and her mother hated that she wasted her time writing when she could’ve been tending to the farm.

No, she had to stop thinking that way. That place was no longer a home, it was a place, a memory.

“If you can read my handwriting,” she said.

He crossed his ankles as he flipped through the first few pages, skipping over a few centuries worth of notes about the founding of Lyrica, then Roma, then Roma City. He focused on her doodles of all things, the clothing styles and landscapes she thought Siina would’ve had throughout the eras. Not that she was embarrassed because she wasn’t, she just thought the word told a better picture than the, well, pictures.

When he didn’t say anything, Aida, feeling restless by silence, took to decorating her space to fit her needs. She threw her clothes off to one side and organized a few of her books onto the shelves. She stacked her playbooks one the table and centered a figure of a glass ballerina on the windowsill. After getting everything out of her bags and Lorian still standing there, Aida caved to her desires and lit a blunt she’d pre-rolled for the trip.

When she struck her lighter and realized that there was, shockingly, an officer still in her room, Lorian looked up at her.

She took the blunt out of her mouth. “Oops.”

Lorian checked that it was indeed a blunt and not a cigarette that might’ve gotten her off easier. Then he chuckled that damn chuckle of his. Was it irritating? She couldn’t tell. “Oops, indeed.”

“Don’t nark on me. I thought you were cool.”

“And what if I do? It’s in my job description to relate all illegal activity to Dean Falco, and I recently got this job on a whim. I wouldn’t want to disappoint anyone.”

“Nor would I. I have a reputation to uphold. So.” She crossed her arms, joint in-between two fingers. “Whatcha gonna do, officer?”

Lorian’s smile widened, something Aida noticed about him more than anything, and he held out his hand.

Aida smiled back and handed him her joint.

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

The hours kind of…passed, which was something Aida wasn’t used to. She usually had her daily chores to grind the day to a halt. Wake up, feed the animals, make breakfast, do dishes. Work, clean, attend. Only at night could she waste her sleeping hours doing what she wanted to do, and that was to get high and study her craft.

Things were different with Lorian, this shit stain of a dude. He wasn’t an officer. She didn’t believe it. Officers were prissy rich boys who wanted to fight because of their terrible childhoods. This kid was, in every way, normal. He didn’t react volatile to the blunt. He was interested in her take on history. She ended up rambling about her life, her mother, her sisters, her desire to become a historian, and she didn’t fear that she was speaking too loudly or too much. What was this, a set-up? Good things rarely came her way, especially in the form of people. Maybe it was a dream.

“So, you’ve tried Nectar before, I reckon?” she asked. They were both on her bed, but for some reason, she didn’t feel embarrassed by it. Lorian didn’t seem so either. His cheeks had returned to their normal shade.

“I have dabbled in it, yes, though I’m more used to drinking it rather than smoking it.”

“Isn’t there less of a high when you drink it?” she asked. Nectar was the golden honey from Aldaí. When mixed with the Aldaían poppy flower that often grew near the beehives, it left you with an incredible high that could last for hours.

“Yes, but I lived in a household where it was frowned upon to smoke,” Lorian said, “so I snuck it in with luncheons and dinners. I feel like my mother knew about it, but as long as my father wasn’t aware, I was fine.”

“And the raw shit is more expensive,” she noted.

He just shrugged and motioned for her joint, which she gladly passed to him. “My household was…it was fine, you know? Once you strip away its policies and protocols, we were normal. But sometime’s life’s just, like, you know, shit? Like it’s all shit, like you can’t get out of it, no matter what you do.”

“I absolutely hear you,” Aida said. “My mo’mma’s the same way. When I become queen, all this shit? Changing immediately. Effective immediately. Life’s not gonna be what we thought it was.”

“You’re going to be queen?” he asked.

“Absolutely.”

“Then you can take my pl…” He paused. “You can’t become a queen. You must be born into it, unless you marry someone who’s high enough in rank, but why would you?” He kept using air quotes as he talked, like it wasn’t obvious that that’s how you became an official royal person. “Royal life sucks.”

“I can take care of it. Those two princesses or whatever ain’t gonna be it like I am. One’s off in Bělico, the other’s…somewhere. Did you hear she died?”

Lorian took another drag, his eyes half-closed. “That’s what they’re saying now, huh?”

“That’s what I hear from the latest paper. Hey, you know what? You don’t seem like an officer to me.”

Lorian dropped his hand. “I am.”

“How?”

“I received a recommendation from His Majesty the king that the dean stupidly took. It was very generous, and I’m not letting the opportunity of a lifetime go to waste.”

“But—”

“I’m an officer.”

Aida glanced over to him, curious that that got a reaction out of him. Here she thought he was a prissy officer, but now, not only was he a stoner, he had a mouth.

He was looking over at her, his cheek pressed against the ruffled covers. “I’m an officer now,” he said, adding on the needed adverb. “I know I may not be as refined or as skilled as the others, but I’m trying my best, and I want nothing more than to show what I can do.”

Aida’s lips parted. Finally, something that clicked. Finally, something she understood. “Good,” she told him. “Maybe you’ll be the officer to finally fuck over the king and make Roma a better place, because I know I’m going to be the historian to rewrite this country’s history.”

“Rewrite history?”

“Yeah. I know so much more than any historian’s in Roma, and I’m going to change the world with what I know.”

“What do you know, Miss Mirko?”

She got up and started pacing. “Well, I know that Queen Eve’s full name is Eve Hyuang Costa, ‘Costa’ coming from her Siinan heritage, and ‘Hyuang’ comes from a province in Aldaí, specifically from the eastern provinces, meaning that she was multi-racial. Not many historians bring that up, but I’ve cross-referenced diary entries from King Julius II and his wife where they both mention her middle name in passing, and how she truly was ‘a blossoming flower’, which is what ‘Hyuang’ translates to. Her full name means ‘a blossoming flower in the river of life’. Isn’t that pretty? They also wash her mother’s heritage from the history texts, you know. I’ve even read texts where they change her surname from Zhao to Zangari. Isn’t that messed up?”

Lorian nodded along to everything in confusion. “It is, but, pray tell, who’s Eve?”

Aida’s jaw dropped, a hand to her heart.

“Did I offend—”

“Yes!” She swiped back her joint. “How dare you say that in my presence? All of my work rests on that woman’s shoulders. She’s the reason I want to be a historian because the history books have her history wrong—No, sit down,” she said as he began to stand. He plopped back down. “Unless you have somewhere to be at—” She checked the watch that wasn’t on her wrist. “God knows what time it is, you’re sitting your ass down and listening to me.”

People her age didn’t look at her like an equal, or someone of much worth, so the way Lorian kept doing that with Aida, it terrified her. She’d built herself up with barriers and outcast people before she got to know them. She didn’t know how this boy had gotten past her, this Lorian Ashwell. Maybe he’d be the one officer Roma City needed, just like she was the best person to fix the country.

“Please, continue,” Lorian said, and she did.

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

She spent the next two hours talking to him about Queen Eve and how much this dead queen meant to her. She talked about the queen’s upbringing, her beliefs, how her older sister was supposed to have married King Meyeso but Eve had persuaded him to marry her instead. She was passionate, outspoken, energetic, youthful, and she never let any ruling stop her from achieving what she craved. And she’d done it all as a Visatorre, before the Roman king had murdered her for allegedly murdering his wife.

“Isn’t that fucked?” Aida asked, needing some sort of validation from this boy.

Lorian just kept staring at her. His hand never left his lips.

“Well? Isn’t it?”

He kept staring at her.

“What?”

“I like the way you speak,” he told her.

She faltered. Scratch anyone listening to her rambles, nobody had ever told her they liked the way she spoke, or thought, valuing her thoughts and brain as something to be admired. She pulled down on her dress cuffs, feeling exposed. “Okay.”

“You know so much.”

“It’s one of the things I pride myself in.”

“Do you pride yourself in many things?”

“Of sorts.”

He rolled around. “What about this?” He pointed his boot at her playbooks. “En Tempore Rose. What a collection of playbooks.”

“Woah, wait.” She leaned over Lorian’s figure, the ends of her newly done braids tickling his nose. “You know about Pinnacle Isle?

Lorian pressed himself deeper into her bed. He held his lips in a tight line. “Not the, uhm, book series, no. But I do enjoy the opera—”

“I love the book series!” Aida interrupted. “I have a first edition of the first book in my bag. What’s your favorite chapter? Who’s your favorite character? Mine’s the Goddess, but Pinnacle is always a close second, as is with the Red Dragon, of course.”

Lorian looked down at Aida’s lips. “Sorry, I’ve only known the opera. My parents always took me to see it when—”

“Oh!” Aida moaned. “Oh, for shame! For shame that Roman sensibilities have negated you from indulging in the purest form of art that is Pinnacle Isle and the utter perfection of the hero’s journey.”

She stepped back, a drunken high making her unstable. “Pinnacle, our orphan boy dropped on a forgotten, desolate island. He thinks he’s alone and so unbelievably screwed, but at the end of chapter three, he finds that a feral dragon is being kept at the top of the island’s tower, and it’s up to him, his guardian/Goddess, Sempre, and the dragon’s own two scaly children to find a way off the island before the storm comes. How could you only indulge in the opera, a mere fanfare of what the books truly means to us readers? Have you no shame, good sir?”

Lorian looked Aida up and down. He sucked in his lips as he gave her a simple shrug. “Not really, no.”

She pointed down at him. “You, Lorian Ashwell, are a fake fan, just watching the enormously inaccurate opera instead of enjoying the pages and pages of Pinnacle’s and the Goddess’ story. I need you to stay with me tonight so I can tell you the greatest story told on Roman soil. Do you hear me? You’re staying with me.”

Lorian bit his soft lips. “I wouldn’t mind that in the slightest, Miss Mirko.”

“It’s Aida,” she reminded him.

“Aida, then,” he said, and she didn’t know why, but she liked the way that sounded in his mouth.

#transient time traveller #art #original character #lgbtq #cottagecore #queer #aida #lorian #fantasy #original art #oc #novel #writing #ttt #royal road #ao3 #archive of our own

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the-east-art · 5 years ago

Text

Easts Story Ideas

Just so lots of these are in one place. Not comprehensive. I’m hoping this will help with my anxiety. Go under the read more and see why I’m losing it literally all the time.

WTGP - Kyle, a college drop out, accidentally gets sucked into the magical underground of his town thanks to his housemates.

The Rovers - Four humans travel across space back to the Local System (the Solar System where humankind originated from). A short story.

A Nether Time - The life force of the world is dying, so Silas journeys to the other worlds in an attempt to find a solution. Timeloop.

Supernaturalists - When Briar gets shot, his heart stops. And then starts again. Starting from that day, his hair turns green, his eyes turn red, and he develops incredible powers.

The Dragon House - a set of pre-teens find themselves in the forests of Maine brought to the Dragon House, needing to find out what is wrong with the mana of the world.

Ghost Squad - A group of college friends come together to form a ghost hunting, paranormal investigating team. In the process they get in over their heads, and things go south.

Reprise and Repeat - The year is 1965. After the death of her uncle, Sen becomes the owner of her families estate. Returning back to her family after spending years in an orphanage, Sen learns to inherit the family magic that rests inside of her. (In truth mostly brownies story idea)

Project Babel - Two girls are chosen by their people to control two giant and powerful robots in an attempt to kill the cruel god that rules over them.

In The Eye - A girl gains extraordinary abilities by aligning herself with a magic source, until she discover its’ true nature (in very rough stages).

Children of the Sea - The strange children of the sea become lost on land and must rely on the kindness found in the worlds people to finish their journeys (in very rough stages)

Cumulus - In a post-post apocalyptic earth, Dmitri is the last of the cloud boys, cowboys that were sent to the skies to watch over the clouds that take the form of horses. One stormy night the entire team of horses is taken and he falls from his land in the sky. Airren, a boy from the land, finds him, and journeys with him to repair things.

Wires Twisted Like DNA - Red, a young prodigy, created the first AI robot, named Twone. Years later, they create the second AI robot, Delta. Twone struggles to deal with envy and the concept of siblings.

The Stars - Zvezda, an intrepid space explorer haunted by a ghost, journeys as an independent thief across the universe. (in very rough stages)

In Our Shadows - A mother makes a pact with a demon in order to keep it away from her son (in very rough stages)

To Stumble - After the death of her parents, young Lily is sent to live with her college age cousin Kay, who now has to juggle school and teaching the family magic to his younger cousin.

Cinder and Ash - A Cinderella story where Cinder is a boy and works in the stables, accidentally falling in love with the prince. (a verse novel)

Snow Queen - (there’s nothing here, but I want to do an adaptation of this story)

The Barracks - The chosen one is missing, sent to earth to prepare for the battle in three years. But this isn’t about him, this is about the birth and the fight of the rebellion in the years while he is gone.

And We Forget Ourselves - When you turn 18, you forget your childhood (in very rough stages, probably a short story)

How High Must Men Pile Mud To Ask God A Question And Get An Answer

The Mother and The Beast - Kaviron gives birth to a child destined to wreck havoc on the land. But she cannot bring herself to kill him, so instead she raises him, trying to keep him safe from those that would harm him.

Retrograde - the planet is hurt and loses it’s long term memory. This results in a world wide time loop. A rag tag group (Including a lawyer, an old man, and a kid who works at Chili’s) must find out how to heal the memory of the world.

Space Dust - A rag tag space group each has a reason to break into a highly protecting space facility (in very rough stages, a podcast)

Road Trip - A handful of preteens and young teenagers are charged with saving the world. They need Casey for one reason - she’s old enough to drive.

Little Red Wolf Slayer - Little Red Riding Hood takes up a sword and goes to save other folklore characters, while also searching for someone important to her.

Horse Crew - A group of horse girls (in very rough stages, only characters)

Law of Pelts - Selkies (in very rough stage, only characters)

Candle Queen - (in very rough stages, only characters

Silk Skin - A Naga and a young researcher fall in love (In very rough stages)

Frog Cadet - (in very rough stages, only characters)

Hello, it’s me, the space station - after seeing their crew in danger from human enemies, the space station accidentally creates a robotic body for itself and breaks through any programming blocks they had (in very rough stages, only characters)

Libra - (in very rough stages, only character)

Marina - The story of five friends who spend the summer on a house boat and the surrounding area. About facing the future, learning about the past, and the uneasy feeling of summer.

Moodboard Characters - just a set of characters I made up from moodboards a while back

Exulansis - a series of short, wordless comics about different people solving the problems of different worlds.

Eat Crow - The story of a crow girl with a sword (in very rough stages, only characters)

Inktober - characters from inktober prompts

Letters From No One - A boy is put in charge of delivering letters from the afterlife to the living

In The Rubble - Surviving in the apocalypse (very rough stages, only characters (caterpillar girl))

Breeze - a man and the soft fairy that accompanies him (very rough stages, only characters)

Mystery Dungeon The Comic - more of an honorable mention, an adaptation of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon.

Emily and Paxton - A witch and her familiar (very rough stages, only characters)

Of Magical Things - a hunter moves into an apartment building that is well known for hosting magical creatures and people in hopes to infiltrate and destroy them from the inside. She poses as a witch, and things get sticky when she starts to actually become one (very early stages)

Up Old Hawk Road - (Supernaturalists side story) Lynn lives in a home full of other supernaturalists, wander the property, and falls in love with a boy. Now how to keep the true nature of her ‘family’ a secret from him.

Arius and Enoch - two brother (very early stages)

Lady of the Estate - the many murders of Lady Macbeth (preferably a series of painting exploring the character)

Aerodynamic - The story of superheroes, human experiments, and found family.

The Sun Warrior - fighting until she is burnt out (very early stages, only vague concept)

Stardust - after fighting the darkness, a deity falls to the planet, becoming a young child.

#the easts stories #story ideas #plotbunny #plot bunny

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chevalierene · 6 years ago

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The PRxPRince Experience

It’s been nearly five months so it’s high time I finally wrote up my review ^^; In April of this year I had the pleasure to see Machida Nanoka’s directorial debut show, PRxPRince. This show was also the first solo lead for Snow Troupe’s Towaki Sea (Hitoko). As this was the first bow hall show I have seen the theatre is much smaller than the Grand Theatres with no balcony and holds a little over 500 people.

The intimacy of the show is doubled with the cast of 30 people who all get to shine during the show. There are enough additional scenes for everyone in the cast to play important roles and it also showcases a lot of the younger actresses as well.

All bias aside, PRxPRince is a fantastic show and is possibly my favorite Takarazuka show that I have seen yet. With the combined powers of Machida sensei’s writing and Hitoko’s sensual charm onstage they somehow created a show that is both very fun and extremely lethal. Before the show premiered just from the interviews it was evident that Machida sensei knew exactly what she was doing. She had been a fan of Takarazuka for a number of years and it shows in the final result.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

The show opens with the three ministers of Pecchieno, the Genovia-like country in which the story takes place, who are trying to figure out a way to get the country out of financial difficulties. Caspar (Kanou Yuuri) and Elias (Ichika Ao) have very different views on how to go about this dilemma with Caspar being very old-fashioned and Elias being a Millennial and very social media savvy. Damian (Yume Maoto) is kind of the moderator between them and the one who ends up suggesting the ultimate way to solve the country’s issues (which will be revealed later on).

The next scene is a PR campaign video that introduces Victor (Hitoko), the oldest prince of Pecchieno as well as his two younger brothers, Valentin (Aya Ouka) and Valtteri (Ayami Sera). The opening song “Welcome to Pecchieno” is one of the catchiest songs in the show and gets reprised later on, inevitably becoming an earworm for anyone who hears it. What should be noted about the opening is that Victor’s glasses are removed before the start of the PR campaign video so Hitoko’s blue contact lenses and smooth blonde hair are on full display. And it is truly devastating! (Sidenote: I had no idea that the intro song actually introduces the rest of the cast who come onstage briefly until my last time seeing the show because I had my opera glasses focused on Hitoko for the other 6).

The next time we see Victor he is dressed in a parka, tennis shoes, a lab coat, and has large round glasses and messy hair. Victor is the leader of a group of scientists whose goal it is to find a solution to the polluting problems from the neighboring country (though this plotline might have changed since the director’s talk cause there was probably something I missed but I tried my best to follow along with the laboratory scenes). Elle (Jun Hana) is one of the scientists who really likes Victor and Victor really likes her. They are very adorable and awkward together. They are also both incredibly intelligent. Elle is seen as very smart but also fierce and is not one you want to mess with (she does Karate poses).

During another PR campaign tactic the princes are literally being mobbed by fangirls (listed as Fangirl 1-6 in the program) in order to promote tourism. At one point during a struggle Victor’s glasses fall off and he falls to the ground. He then emits a very unsumire moan. Suddenly, the lights change to a vivid bright green and music starts. Victor lifts up his head but his entire demeanor has changed. It is revealed during this song that this is in fact Christopher and he is searching for his goddess. The awkward prince Victor is replaced by Christopher, a very handsome, cocky, and aggressive version who makes every girl around him fall to the ground in delight. This reveal was so secret during the press for PRxPRince before I saw the show that I knew that Hitoko would be both extremely kawaii and extremely ikemen but I didn’t realize that Victor would change into a completely different person!

Through a flashback scene told by Alice (Sahana Mako), the family’s nurse, it is revealed that because Victor was just TOO BEAUTIFUL and maids had to flee the room because they just couldn’t handle it, a hypnotist is brought in to put a spell on Victor that allows his ikemen side to stay hidden when he has the glasses on. However, the side effect is that when the glasses get removed his ikemen side is so extra and over the top that he is literally a completely different person. In the show there are two songs that feature Victor and his Shadow which is the other side of him. The Shadow (Houka Haruna) is distant for the first song and represents Christopher behind him in the background. The second song is started by Christopher and the Shadow comes out wearing glasses. In the middle of the song the Shadow puts the glasses on Christopher. When he turns around he is once again Victor. The glasses are then removed completely and they have a duet dance together. The transitions from one to the other are incredible and it shows off Hitoko’s acting skills in the best possible way. It isn’t just the glasses that make the change. As Victor, Hitoko speaks and sings in a higher register that is closer to her natural speaking voice, she stutters more, her posture is often bent forward, has more outbursts and exclamations and is also portrayed as very sensitive. As Christopher, Hitoko is in full dangerous otokoyaku-killing mode; her speaking and singing voice is deeper, her posture is straight, she is more confident, aggressive, and controlling. Christopher also speaks in a very old-fashioned way and gives off an air as otherworldly in many ways. Another neat thing is that Victor addresses himself as “Boku” and addresses Elle as “Elle-san”. Christopher uses “Ore” when referring to himself and just says “Elle”.

Elle faces a crisis at one point when Christopher tries to make a move and she slaps him. She immediately panics when she thinks that she has hurt Victor though and tries to figure out what happened to her sweet awkward boyfriend. Her and Victor sing a duet towards the audience in separate rooms. The song is later reprised after Victor admits that he likes Elle and they sing it to each other in a very tender moment. Jun Hana has a very Disney princess vibe to her which is exemplified whenever she’s around Hitoko who has an equally Disney prince vibe. They are characters who could literally be in a shoujo manga. While Jun Hana does not have the strongest singing voice per se, she makes it work here.

Victor’s brothers, Valentin and Valterri are also rather amusing to watch. I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed watching Aya’s performance as Valentin. She was VERY extra. Valentin is a true narcissist and has long flowing locks. He also tends to play with the ends of his hair and is the MOST dramatic person I have ever seen. He pines after a girl he once knew called Diana and throughout the show tries to pursue a girl of the same name played by Seina Nozomi who he’s convinced is the same one he once loved. Valterri is the youngest brother and is obsessed with working out. He’s very impulsive and doesn’t really think things through which gets him in trouble later on (Victor and Valentin silently scold him at one point which is funny since both of them are using big gestures on the side of the stage while other characters are talking). He is also head over heels in love with Marie (Irodori Michiru), the sister of the rival country’s ruler, Queen Lily (Ai Sumire). Ayami Sera did a really good job at playing the bratty younger brother who just wants to have fun. This was probably her biggest role to date so far too so she got to show off her singing as well.

Speaking of Ai Sumire I need to talk about her because she was one of the most phenomenal parts of this show! She is portrayed as a campy villain with a very extra evil laugh. But DANG the girl has the most powerful voice and even gets the only vocal song in the finale! Catch me singing “IKEMEN! I-KE-MEN!” constantly. Lily is almost always surrounded by her posse made up of Rose (Shouno Chio) who is more or less her secretary who always carries an iPad with her to let Queen Lily know about the latest thing that their neighboring country is up to and Garrett (Kiraha Reo) who is Lily’s erm...really hot boytoy/bodyguard? What was quite surprising for me the first time I saw it was that Garrett does not speak AT ALL in the show. He whispers behind his hands to Lily but other than that he is completely silent and yet, the way that Kiraha (Kari) presents herself onstage even without saying a word is mesmerizing to watch. She just emits the most brooding otokoyaku energy that is mostly reserved for kuroenbis in revues. Garrett smokes, casually checks his watch, and performs a tango with Lily and I cannot stop LOOKING AT HIM ONSTAGE! Even when other characters are talking onstage if Garrett is there (save for when Victor is present) my eyes would float over to him just to watch him stare into the ether and make the slowest and most deliberate of gestures.

Of course, no true royal comedy would happen without the king and queen themselves. King Anselm (Souno Haruto) and Queen Beatrice (Maisaki Rin) are the parents of the V3 (the campaign name for the three hot princes). King Anselm is very attached to everything he owns especially his expensive collection of various artifacts. Queen Beatrice is just trying to have a nice time and wants everyone to be happy again. They are also IMMENSELY in love and get very lovey-dovey in front of their boys who are all grossed out by their displays of affection. Given that the two actresses are also classmates they play off of each other really well and have a very nice relationship that is enhanced through that. They play an important role to the story and Maisaki Rin (Hime) even gets a moment of adlibbing.

One of the great things about PRxPRince was actually the amount of adlibs that were included with each performance. There are several moments in the script where adlibs occur for each performance, similar in the way of the adlibs in shows like Lupin III and Bakumatsu Taiyouden occur. Even though you can tell these adlibs are planned out somewhat in advance it’s nice to see the actresses work with things that are also on the spot sometimes since not everything is completely planned out. Some were funnier than others but that’s all part of the fun of the show and just finding a good balance with the audience. Personally I loved the adlibs even though I couldn’t understand some of them sometimes. Other things that were adlibbed were little gestures here and there that the characters would do that were different with each performance. One of my favorites was watching Kari scold Michiru at one point and one performance Kari leaned over Michiru so much that Michiru’s tiara had bounced back onto her head as she came up. The adlibs definitely made each performance I saw unique and lots of fun especially when the show was in the middle of Japan’s naming for the new era and suddenly 平成 (Heisei) and 令和 (Reiwa) adlibs were added to the mix.

As the ministers figure out the next part in the V3 PR campaign Damian suggests that they host a ball in order to find eligible matches for the princes. A lot of stuff goes down in Act 2 during the ball including Marie showing off her pet bug to literally everyone within range, Elle finding said bug and actually communicating with it, Garrett and Rose playing musical instruments, Valentin doing a slow baywatch walk, and Victor expressing his true feelings towards Elle. At the very end of the show Victor and Elle actually go into the audience to do high-touches with those lucky to be on the aisle seats (alas, I was not one of them). One of the best moments was from the final performance when Top Stars Nozomi Fuuto and Maya Kiho were in the audience and I was able to see Hitoko shake both of their hands in a very sincere gesture since she was so happy both of them could make it to the show.

I talked a bit about the music before but OH MY GOD this show’s music is incredible! It’s very catchy and pleasing to the ear. A lot of the songs are slightly reminiscent of older Takarazuka shows but are also not too old-fashioned sounding. A lot of brass and strings are used in the songs which is very enjoyable. The finale takes it one step further though and incorporates electric guitar.

Yes, I am going to spend an entire paragraph just on the finale because it deserves to be talked about. After the happy ending of the show intense rock music is played as the curtain rises to three figures: Ai Sumire, Kari, and Shouno Chio. A rock version of “Lily’s Song” is played and it is THE BEST THING EVER! After my first viewing I always looked forward to the finale because it starts off super strong and doesn’t disappoint. Ai Sumire is the only one who gets to sing in the finale which is appropriate considering her voice is amazing and is one of the best singers in Yukigumi imo (Daikiho aside, of course). After the villainous trio have their number Hitoko sneakily walks onstage to stand on a platform. She is dressed in a dark blue coat with gold trim and a silk wine red shirt on beneath it. Her blonde wig stays on for the entire time. An instrumental rendition of “Two souls” is played as she descends the stairs, dancing fluidly and gracefully like a swan and takes front and center. The “fuu!” that emits from her lips is enough to make the audience shatter into 1000 pieces. They have fallen under their prince’s spell with the lure of Hitoko’s sanpakugan (this was so effective I was unable to watch this part of the finale with the opera glasses because it was THAT powerful). The rest of the otokoyaku join her shortly afterwards in a dance which evolves into an instrumental “Diana” as Hitoko takes off to change into her next costume while Ayana leads. After the otokoyaku dance they scatter and the musumeyaku all appear in lovely pink dresses. Hitoko has changed into a Prince Charming white military uniform and dances in the center, surrounded by beautiful women, which honestly, the dream. A shift in the music starts and one by one the ladies leave the stage until there is one remaining. But even SHE isn’t the goddess that our prince seeks. Jun Hana makes her way onto a small platform in a gold ball gown similar in style to Belle’s from Beauty and the Beast. When Hitoko turns around and sees her it’s like a wave of happiness rolls through them both and they have a classic waltz set to an instrumental version of “Someday My Prince Will Come” from Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs. It is canonically one of the purest moments in the entire show even though the entire time I watched it I prayed that Hitoko would not trip over Jun Hana’s massive ballgown. The only mishap I saw was on the first day when while twirling Jun Hana to the side she slipped ever so slightly but managed to catch herself gracefully. After their intimate dance they exit together and the curtain call rolls.

This show brought together so many hearts and it was so refreshing to see Yukigumi do a comedy bow hall since it has not been done since the early 2000s. I love this show more than I have loved any Takarazuka show and I feel blessed that I was able to see it live as many times as I did and to be able to share this wonderful experience with others.

#PRxPRince #Yukigumi #Takarazuka #Towaki Sea #Jun Hana #review #Omg this took forever to write up #Congrats if you made it to the end of my rambling #This show means the world to me so thank you for reading

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mrneighbourlove · 6 years ago

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Red Typhoon: Ch 1. Dreaming of the Coming Storm

Revy took a silent breath as she crept through the snow with her pack. Although she wasn't a Direnor by blood, she developed their sense of being a successful hunter and warrior through her mother. The wilds of Uskar were wide, but full of danger that could creep up at any moment. Food was always a gamble to acquire, but Revy held faith in her skills, her spirit, and the support of her pack.

"Watch closely," Borghild whispered to Revy as the pair watched Boof from the other side of the frozen meadow. Deer were grazing on some twigs off the trees. The Avalanchel hound was waiting for the signal from his human. As soon as it was given, he would chase one deer in her direction. This would give Revy the chance to strike their prey with her weapon. "Breathe steadily. Only when you're ready."

Revy blinked only once in anticipation. The air was chilling, but she was prepared. The deer were massive, but it lead to a unique problem to solve. Unless one was incredible lucky, arrows would have difficulty taking down her prey at the first strike. For Direnor's, one could transform into a mighty beast to wrestle their prey down, but for Revy, she only had to tools in her hands, and the body and mind to support herself. She readied her axe. The blade would be able to get off a deep and long cut if she could strike properly. Feeling the shift in the air, she felt it was time. Throwing her hand down, she gave the signal to her companion.

"GRRR BARK BARK BOOF WOOF WOOF!!!" Boof charged out of his hiding place and toward the deer. The dog was smart, and chose the biggest prey. The larger the prey, the more meat for his family. He nipped at the heels of the buck, and led it right to Revy.

Revy wanted to impress her mom. She wanted to do her friends and family and clan proud. Give her little brother a symbol to look up too. Praying for her energy to not fail, sparks flew around her axe as she jumped from her cover, and with a mighty swing, she sliced off one of the back legs off the deer.

As soon as Revy sliced off the leg, the buck went down into the snow. It struggled to get back up, but Boof took this as his opportunity. He chomped his large jaws around the deer's throat, and pulled, hard. With a crack, the buck's neck snapped and then he released the prey. Sniffing it to make sure the buck was dead, Boof then sat on his haunches, and wagged his tail, awaiting his praise.

Revy waited for the electric magic to stop sizzling around her axe. She only recently discovered her new talent, and it was still difficult to find an instant off switch on it. Sheathing her weapon, she ran up to Boof, kneeled down, and hugged him around his neck. "You were amazing boy! Great work! You can have the whole leg I cut clean off!"

The Gerudo woman had recently turned twenty. Her growth was fast through her teenage years, now just coming over Borghild in height. With a smile, she gave her mom a grin. "How'd we do?"

"Boof boof bork!" Boof licked Revy's cheek several times as he stood on his back legs, putting his fore paws on her shoulders. Even though the dog was older in age, he still could hunt with the best of them. Panting, the dog then resumed his original sitting position.

"I think you and Boof did perfectly," Borghild smiled at Revy's accomplishment. "However, I think you need to be really careful with the electricity, sweetie. You don't want to accidentally electrocute yourself or Boof now."

"I know. I just feel I need to practice it now. Last thing we need is to be in a real fight, and for it to not be completely under control."

Revy gave a small grunt as she heaved the deer over her shoulder. "How long do you think we can keep this deer going on for?"

"Between your father and Trygve, we'll be lucky if it lasts us a week and a half." Borghild laughed, knowing how much her men loved meat. "I'm beginning to believe your brother eats more than your father."

"Bork!"

"Excuse me, your father, your brother, and your dog."

"Well, they are just hungry boys at heart." Revy grinned down at her companion. "That includes you too boy~"

"Bork!"

"Next time, I think you and your brother will do just fine hunting together without my supervision." Borghild tromped back through the snow with Revy and Boof. "What do you think?"

"That better not happen soon. He's only seven mom. You know how long I had to wait. It was exhausting just waiting for the years to count down."

"Ha! I meant he observes, and you hunt." Borghild laughed. "He still turns into a grizzly when he gets too excited or scared."

"Well, we know the real reason why we have to wait till we're of age to come out here." Even now, Revy kept her eyes open for the slightest sign of the scourge of the undead to rise. She took her lessons and stories on Frost Ones deadly seriously. The Gerudo hoped that it would be a safe trip back to the wall.

"Hopefully the reign of the Frost King will soon be over," Borghild sighed as she kept her hand on her blade at all times. "We both know that the King and Queen have been working with the rulers of Hyrule for a solution. Though, nothing can be done unless we first find where his lair is."

"When that happens, I'll lead the packs to strike him down myself." Revy gave herself a proud bump on the chest. With the growth of age, her dream of being a hero never faded.

"When that happens, we'll formulate a plan before you go charging in." Borghild booped Revy on the nose. "You're too reckless like your father sometimes. Remember what I told you all these years. A female bear only charges when protecting her cubs or feeling threatened." Then she added. "Otherwise, thinks carefully before striking her prey."

Revy's mouth was a gap as she gave a pout. "I-I'm not reckless! I just give it my all sometimes. I have YOUR brains you know."

"Oh? Then what did you call diving into the freezing cold river after that huge sturgeon after I told you not to?"

"I call that a moderate success. I caught it, didn't I?"

"You caught it, but you had a cold for two weeks." Borghild snorted in amusement. "Do you call that a success?"

"....It was completely worth it."

"See? Reckless and stubborn, just like your father."

"But I wouldn't have caught it without calculating its pattern. Like you do. So I think it evens out."

Reaching the wall, Scarlet kept watch. The Gerudo woman wore shining white and thick iron knuckle armour, her battle axe shimmering silver in the snowy sun. Seeing the two woman gave her relief. Her daughter and Borghild traveling out into those wild wilderness gave her heart pause every time they traveled out. She instructed the men on the wall to open the gates. Jogging down the steps, Scarlet was glad her helmet gave her plenty of heat in the icy temperature. "Congratulations on the hunt you two. There wasn't any complications, was there?"

"No mother. There wasn't. As you can see, I did just fine." Revy received a bark from Boof, the dog wagging his tail. "Correction. We did a good job."

"Bork!" Boof agreed with his human, both of them did a fine job.

"Revy here is getting to be a fine hunter." Borghild complimented her daughter. "I know she's eager to please and wants to fight Frost Ones, but I'd rather her be a scout or a hunter." She then added. "Though her and Boof make a great team, Scarlet. You should have seen them take down the deer."

"I bet it was amazing. You better run along kiddo."

"Moms. I'm not a kid anymore. I can handle myself as a fighter and I don't need the nicknames anymore."

"You'll always be our little girl."

"The only reason I'm letting you get away with that is because no one else is around to hear that." As Revy ran off with Boof, Scarlet gave a sigh. "She's grown up so fast. And she's set her sights for accomplishments so high."

"I know, I think it's good that she has dreams and wants to make something of herself, but..." Borghild sighed as she watched Revy head toward the house with Boof. "I just don't want her to get hurt or feel like she's failed."

"I don't think she'll ever believe herself to be a failure. It's getting killed that worries me. Don't really have anyone else besides her."

"Aw, come on now, that's bullshit, you got me and Rat." Borghild nudged Scarlet in the shoulder. "And little Trygve."

"I know... It's just..." Scarlet looked out to the wilderness. How many times had she thought about just walking out and never coming back? "I don't have a Voe or even a Vai in my life. I gambled everything on Revy. If I lose her... I can't lose her."

"If you want a Voe or a Vai, then there are plenty of eligible folks here, Scarlet." Borghild walked with the Gerudo back to her position. "Maybe you should settle down with a grizzly. I got a few friends I could introduce you to, unless you prefer your partner less... furry."

"I don't know if anyone would want to be with me, furry or not." Scarlet had been given the nickname the cold iron giant. The metal armour, obviously, but also how she seemed to brood and be introverted around Uskar. When people challenged her to feats of strengths, she usually beat them with indifference. She only tended to show excitement with people she found interest in, but they had yet to show interest in her back.

"You should go after her. I'll make my final rounds here than head back home."

"Don't give up, all right? Someone will come along." Borghild assured Scarlet and then chased after Revy. The girl was becoming a fantastic hunter, but still could not skin a deer that well. Besides, she wanted her girl to keep the fur to make into a blanket. As she neared the house, Rat was there with little Trygve, trying to teach his son how to polish a knife.

"Now, lad, you have to learn to take care of your weapons, because if you don't, they won't take care of you." Rat was carefully showing the boy how to sharpen the dagger, then wipe with clover oil for a finish. "Understand?"

"Yes, Daddy."

It seemed though, that Revy had not yet returned to the house. Borghild knew how her daughter liked to show off, and exactly where to find her.

Lex pampered her face with makeup after cleaning her lips. She took satisfaction looking back at the man she just drained. It was like he never felt the touch of woman before. Well, probably not of her caliber. Turning her body back to him, he was entranced by her tits. Lex gave them a bounce to keep his attention. “Ok big boy, a deals a deal.”

The man in question was a Hasai soldier, having been recently transferred to the Uskar defence force. Before that, he was bragging about fighting pirates. “Well, the details are simple. We fought a group of pirates on the black sea.”

“I want complicated details. Specific map points. The goddamn beards on your opponents if you have to. That’s what I worked for after all~”

“Hmmm, damn right you did. Alright, kid. I’ll tell you what you wanna know.”

Ever since she hit the ripe age of 18, Lex had being using her skills as the ‘most attractive woman of Uskar’ for the past two years to acquire information from sailors and travelers on any information that could lead to finding her mother and Seer. Every lead she marked on a makeshift map. She felt confident that she was narrowing in on a location. Giving the Hasai man a deep kiss, she moved him quickly along out of the brothel.

Daddy Bakura let her travel to Hyrule for five months to be with Revy and get a change of pace from Uskar. During that time, the white haired Gerudo learned as many tricks and trades in exotic businesses to get any man to talk. Sex was ok, sometimes great, but it was mostly just a tool for her. She was still waiting for one of the princes to take up her offer of some beautiful love making.

Today her sister was supposed to arrive in shore with Uncle Corsaire. Maybe they could exchange information if Liz was in a good mood. Almost never was these days though. How her sister made Prince Halvar her boyfriend with her constant travel was a complete mystery to Lex. Didn’t stop her from trying to convince the prince to settle down with a more stay at home girl.

Going outside, Lex noticed Revy carrying a massive deer into town. “Oh cool! That’s a big boy you got there!”

Revy gave a chuckle, not above flexing her muscles in front of the townsfolk. She liked to contribute and give hope where she could. “Yeah, it wasn’t that much of a challenge.”

“Ok Ms. Hero. Let’s all bow in your glowing righteousness.”

“Haha. Liz arrive yet?”

“No, not quite. I think she’ll be home soon though. Grandpa misses her. And I bet Halvar cries himself to sleep due to the worries he has over her.”

Revy gave a cheeky grin back. “You’re just jealous he doesn’t cry over you~”

“Well he totally should.”

It was never easy for Corsaire to be away from his wife for too long. After this journey, the captain was eager to stay at home for a few months. It would not be so bad to run some new sea tactics with the recruits for a while and let the others do a cargo trip. However, Orana asked him to take his niece, Liz, back home safely for Seer's sake. Having the little tyke follow him everywhere after Seer's kidnapping was annoying for a while, always having to watch her. Though, she did surprise him at her determination to get better, to be the best she could be. So it was vigorous training consisting of sword fighting on the top yards, swinging on a rope while aiming to shoot, and most of all, how to take a punch and get back up. The girl preserved all these years, and was now a fine sailor. The ex-pirate was still concerned about sailing to Uskar. The sea ice was getting harder to penetrate with each voyage. Soon, even the upgraded ships from Danjur would not be able to pierce it.

"Miss Frode," Captain Corsaire stood at the wheel and then called her forth. "Guide us to the port. I need to be ready to receive the royals."

"Yes sir." Liz called out, taking the wheel. The years had been hard on her without Seer being a light in her life. She made a pact with her sister and Revy to rescue Seer and defeat their mother. All these years of training was hard on Liz, but her fiery determination made her fiercely dedicated to improvement. A few years back, Prince Halvar asked her on a date. The young Gerudo accepted, and despite not being able to see each other often, they somehow made it work as a couple. Liz gave out orders to the crew, just like she was taught, as they pulled into the docks.

Halvar was there to see Liz. He was pacing back and forth, impatiently, trying to peer onto the ship to see her. He waited until she was of age to ask her to date. That was Rat's rule, and had been Seer's rule before... well, before he was kidnapped. His family never lost hope that Seer was out there somewhere, still alive. As soon as the ship was docked, and the planks were set to unload the cargo, Halvar bolted up onto the boat and looked for the beautiful Gerudo.

"Liz!!!" Halvar ran up to her, swung her around, and planted a deep kiss on her lips... and then turned blood red, and put her back on her feet. "I... um... I missed you."

A few of the crew whistled on the boat.

"Knock it off, that's my niece!" Captain Corsaire barked at them. "Do your damn jobs and unload the cargo before we all get frostbite."

Liz gave the crew a look of pure murder for the catty whistles. If they wanted that particular fantasy they could go bother her sister. Turning back to Halvar, she gave a warm smile back. Deep kisses was as far as they had taken their relationship so far, and perhaps a little cuddling from time to time. “I’m glad to see you too. You’ve been ok?”

"Been on more hunts and scouts, fought a couple of Frost Ones, but it's odd." Halvar shrugged his shoulders. "Lately, we haven't seen too many of them. We're not sure if the Frost King is having trouble finding more bodies or if they're not approaching because of our allies now. Either way, we're a little grateful for the break." He then asked. "But you, I'm sure you have some adventures to tell everyone?"

"I'm glad that the Undead King of the North is letting his grip loose. As for me, I helped lead my first engagement against Adda's pirate forces. We interrogated one of the prisoners we took in hopes of finding Dad. All we learned is that Adda's forces are placed strategically so that a long search would be disastrous to try and break her power up. I just wish we could find a proper location. That way we could save our resources and go in hard."

"It's been so long now." Halvar thought back to the day of when everyone learned Seer had been taken by Adda. Liz and Lex were beyond consolable for a while, until swearing to get their father back. Then, it was a race against time. "I'm sure your search will come to a close soon, but... have you given thought to what you're going to do if you catch Adda?" Halvar knew better than to refer to Adda as Liz's mom. She always gave him a glare for that.

"I want to kill her, but Lex is still salty about that whenever I bring it up. So I'll just settle with her facing the courts of Danjur, Hyrule, and Uskar." Liz squeezed her fist just thinking about it. She spent so many years preparing for the day, dreaming in detail about her revenge and bringing justice.

"Either way, the courts of our kingdom, Danjur, and Hyrule will all arrive to the same verdict; death." Halvar walked with Liz off the ship the docks. "For now, let's focus on a more happy note, your return home. Besides, I have something for you." The prince fidgeted slightly as he approached the guards waiting on him. No matter where he went, Halvar still had protection. Grasping a wrapped package, he undid the string and there was the traditional courtship gift; a cloak of fur. Turning back to Liz, Halvar held it up for her to see, blushing darkly. "I... I hunted this when you left for sea and have been working on sewing it into a presentable cloak and um..." He offered it to Liz, hoping, praying she'd accept, as he said the age old line. "I offer you this gift of courtship... if you'll accept?"

Liz froze up, her mouth hanging open. Such a public display of affection was so bold of Halvar. Was this the same man she left behind on her training? She thought from a pure intellectual viewpoint on this, as it helped her calm down. Don't panic. He loves you. You adore him. Most of all, he has your trust. That's right. You trust him. He won't leave or hurt you. Snapping back into reality, Liz realized she must have left him hanging on an answer for a while due to the worry that started to form on his brow. "I'm so sorry. You just sprung it up. Yes. I accept."

"Oh thank Rotar." Halvar released the breath he was holding. She just stared at him for a moment, and for a brief time, the prince thought Liz was going to run back onto the ship and sail away. He then smiled widely and wrapped the warm cloak around her shoulders. Liz was not like the other female Direnors who would only accept a white cloak, no, she preferred the darker colors. For that reason, he had hunted for weeks until he found the perfect shade of red-brown for his girlfriend. "I... I hope you like it."

"I do. You took the time to carefully choose the fur for me. I'm grateful for that." She gave him another kiss. Lex and Revy were running to the port, the latter still carrying the deer, when they saw Halvar offer his courtship. Lex gave a small pout. "Great, lost that love boat."

"Lex. You never HAD that love boat. And chin up, you can still score one of the older brothers. Maybe."

"Thanks for the confidence Rev."

With big smiles, both girls ran to Liz. Revy threw her deer to one of Halvar's guards and they each hugged Liz. "Good to see you!"

Liz hugged them back, trying to keep a professional air about her with so many people arriving at the dock. "Good to see you both as well."

Lex gave Halvar a wink. "See you finally did it. Congrats on netting my sister~"

The guard nearly fell over when Revy simply tossed him the deer without warning.

"It was her choice to accept or not." Halvar turned red again at Lex's comment. "Besides, I feel so lucky to have her at my side. She's a good woman, a strong woman."

"Bork!" Boof nudged Liz for pets, being demanding. He was the fluffy, adorable one, he should be the center of attention.

Revy held Boof back, rubbing his neck. "You can have pets later boy."

The white haired Gerudo gave a mischievous grin, eying the young couple together. "So when you two gonna bang one out?~"

Liz's expression grew with pure horror. "Don't say shit like that so loud!"

Lex received a hard punch to the shoulder from her sister for that. "OW! Settle down! Just a joke!"

"Whu-whu, we um, we uh..." Halvar blushed dark red all the way up to his ears. Intimacy was still foreign to Liz and him, and he was not about to make advances just yet. After all, it was the lady who said yes or no. The last thing he wanted was to get slapped.

"I can always teach you what a lady wants~"

"THAT'S IT!"

Liz tackled Lex to the ground, and started to slap at her face, with Lex giving giggles and grunts. Revy quickly intervened, pulling the sisters away from each other. "Hey, hey, hey! Enough! Lex, no trying to make Halvar hard and your sister mad!"

"Fine, geeze."

"You are insufferable sometimes Lex."

"But you love me anyways~ And if it wasn't for my knowledge of pleasing men, I wouldn't have come up with an accurate map on tracking mom down."

That caught Liz off by guard. "You've been doing what?"

While the prince was used to the sisters fighting a bit, he was not prepared to hear what Lex said about pleasure.

"I think... I'm going to um..." Halvar gestured to the land. "Yeah, I'm going to go and wait over there. That seems like a grand idea."

"Yeah! I've been getting information from sailors and travelers who seen mom and her forces. I've narrowed it down to a triangle of coordinates."

Liz wanted to argue about her sister whoring out to get information, but she was too tired to argue. "I'll take a look at it later. Just stay out of trouble. Have you seen Bakura?"

Lex took a sigh. "He's been doing 'deep mediation' out by the cave. Can't get him to come out some days. Kind of sad, but he says it he'll find Daddy through the 'spirits'."

Revy clapped her hands. “Well, we better get going. Who wants to help me skin this deer?”

In three days, it would be seven years. Seer felt of the calendar with his fingers and sighed. He was older now. Adda had never released him. Despite his pleas and trying to find means of escape, nothing ever worked. The one kindness she did allow him was that old mage. He could listen to Liz and Lex through her magic. At least he was able to keep tabs on their lives. Still, it was not the same as holding them close, giving them kisses on the forehead, and fixing them a decent meal. He wanted to feel their warmth on his hands again. Though, his little girls were not so little anymore.

Outside of the magic barrier that gave that hid her paradise, Captain Adda flicked the wind waker to open the imaginary gate that allowed her to sail safely to her paradise home. Her latest skirmish was bloody and brutal. Every once in a while she had to put her foot down on the island she controlled. Rebels were such a nuisance. Her trade agreements were fair, so who cared if she was a little hard on them. Everyone was finally at peace. Besides the major continents, she ruled the oceans. Flicking the wind waker again, her ship went past the barrier as it closed. It took another good hour to sail to the island's north port side.

Docking, she took another hour greeting her people, handing out and ordering who got what food and drinks, made orders for her lieutenants to carry out, and got herself a martini. Finally, she opened the door to her chambers, giving Seer a whistle. "Miss me handsome?"

"No."

The longer his time on the island, the more bitter Seer became towards Adda. He would begrudgingly amuse her with sex, the random conversation, and sometimes have to accompany her to see the rest of her people. That he hated the most, feeling like a pet on a chain once more. She wouldn't kill him, but rather keep him alive to torment him with the fact that he could not get away with her.

"Oh don't be like that." Adda sat down on the bed, yawning with exhaustion. "Tell me, girls treating you ok? Little Beck wanted to see you do whale tricks with a ball. Went on about seeing it in a book. I think the little gal likes you.”

"I'm not a pet." Seer snapped at her with a glare about the whale tricks. "And I'm not going to play with a ball for fish. You got me doing that already."

"She was just a six year old girl with a curiosity. What's up your ass?" Adda slugged back her drink and fell back on the bed. "It's not like you been shot recently or anything. Now that's something to be cranky about."

"I'd rather be shot than have to stay here. Then again, you know that, I've told you that, but it's like you have too much saltwater in your ears to properly listen." Seer got up off the bed, in a particularly bad mood since the anniversary of his kidnapping was coming up. "Tell your people to stay the hell away from me. I'm going for a swim." He then stopped and added as an afterthought. "Do not join me."

"They're just ordinary folks. You really want to be the one to crush the dreams of little girls who never seen a man transform into a whale? God, you are such a pussy. You want me to shoot you? I can do that, right now."

"Then do it!!!" Seer turned around, screaming at her. "I've been trapped here for seven damn years now, Adda! I haven't held my girls, told them I love them, I have no freedom! I'm a slave again! Shoot me, right here, through the heart! Put me out of my misery! Your crew missed the first time, but I doubt you will!" He demanded. "Do it! I can't take another day of hearing my girls from that blasted ball saying they're wondering if I'm dead or alive, hearing them cry because of me!"

"Oh fuck you, you blind piece of shit." Adda rose to her feet. "I had a plan. A really simple and easy plan that kept the girls safe for a while. I own the fucking oceans now. I am the Queen of the seas. I'm the greatest Gerudo chieftain that's ever lived. My people are happy. They're in a state of nirvana that has never been seen before. And all those that stand against me have no possible power to beat me or my forces. And I was going to give that to the girls. I knocked on your door to bring all of you with me. But you acted like a petty child. You ran from Hyrule, cheating me years to track you down, than you had the gull to tell me to leave. This 'suffering' you're feeling is nothing. I missed thirteen years, and now the additional seven years on top of that. Now that they're tough and smart woman, maybe they'll find there way here. Grow the fuck up, or shut the fuck up." Curious, she handed him an unloaded, cocked gun. "What you gonna do about it? You wanna rob them of one of their parents?"

"You're nothing but a murderer and a greedy soul who decides all your wrongs are righted by what you do for your people. Think what you want of me, but my girls will never be like you. Besides for all I know, you didn't want them." Seer sneered at her. "Dump them with me to get back at Bakura. Classy move, mother, using your daughters like they're dispensable. That's all they are to you, something to use." When Adda handed him the gun, Seer frowned at her. "You think I'm an idiot? This isn't loaded. I spent years with Corsaire on a ship, I know an unloaded gun to a loaded one." He threw the gun to the side with a huff. "The only reason you won't give me bullets is because you still want your toy at your side. Just like the girls, that's all I am to you; an object." The blind Direnor stomped outside, tossing his shirt and pants wherever before the water hit his feet. As soon as he was neck deep, he started to shift.

"YOU DON'T KNOW ME!!! I NEVER USED MY GIRLS!!! I SAVED THEM!!! HOPE YOU DROWN OUT THERE!!!!!"

The moonlight fell on the ocean as Seer swam around. All the life he ever found in the calm area of water he was free to swim in were the odd colourful fish that came and went. So, on this night, it was a shocking sight when he chanced an encounter with a whale under water. It was colourful as a rainbow, and had angel wings on its back.

Seer had never seen another whale here, despite his many years of swimming trying to find an exit.

"Can you understand me?"

"Hmmm? Of course I can understand you. Nice night for a swim, isn't it."

"Oh, I agree, the water is very nice this night." Seer felt relieved, but wondered if he was about to lose his break on sanity. Either way, it supposed this was not too bad. Talking to an angelic whale was the least of his worries, even if he was going insane. "I don't suppose you're a... messenger? The wings?"

"I'm the Wind Fish. Who are you?"

"Wind Fish? I think I've heard of you in Hyrule's tales..." Seer then realized he was being rather rude. "Oh, my apologies. My name is Erling Frode, but my friends call me Seer. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

The Wind Fish looked deep into Seer, his tone unchanging. "You seem tired Seer."

"I think tired is an understatement, Wind Fish." Seer, in reality, felt exhausted. He wanted to give up. Holding onto hope was such a lost cause. Adda would never let him go. "I'm trapped here and I cannot leave to see my family. No matter what I do, I cannot find freedom. My only way out of this place is death, and I'm denied even that."

"What is your wish for life?"

"My wish for life?" Seer repeated. "What I would want if I could have it?"

"You have great pain in your heart. What wish is on your mind? What do you dream of?"

"I only wish to be with my girls again, my family, back in Uskar." Seer sighed heavily. "I dream of hearing my girls laugh again instead of crying for my sake. I dream of us fixing food together in the kitchen again. I dream of telling Alexandra and Elizabeth to stop arguing and go do their chores. Memories of the past mix with what I want for the future. Seems silly, doesn't it?"

"Not at all. Dreams are a beautiful thing. And it's funny how they can come true. I have to go now." The Wind Fish started to fly away, surging out of the water and above the defence ships on the surface, not seeming to mind getting spotted or not.

"H-Hey, wait!" Seer shot up toward the surface after the Wind Fish. Though by the time he breached, the Wind Fish was already long gone. He couldn't sense him anymore. Dejectedly, Seer just lounged on the surface of the waves. "Don't leave me here alone..."

Seer heard a voice echo in his head. "You are never alone Seer. And your heart won't feel alone for long. Now wake up. Wake up…. Wake up….."

~ Seer woke up in bed, rested like never before, but both a hopeful happiness and yet some sadness in him. Beside him, Adda was stirring in bed, drying her face.

Seer did wake with a jolt. Was the entire encounter a dream?

"... either I drowned and you came to fetch me, or I fell asleep in the waves again."

"You went for a swim and than you must have came back yourself. I went to bed before you came back." Adda was oddly monotone this morning.

"Oh. I don't recall." Seer sat up in bed, rubbing his head, feeling for a knot or a scrape. No, he definitely did not knock his skull. The entire encounter must have been a dream. "I don't remember much... I must have stayed in my other form too long again."

"Did you have any weird dreams last night?" Adda kept her attention away from him, still looking to her left at the wall.

"I'm certain I did, though I'm not able to recall them all. Why? Talking in my sleep and disturbing your beauty rest again?"

Adda didn't give him a smartass remark. "I dreamed I wanted to be with girls and I wasn't a monster to Bakura. It was so... peaceful. I wanted it to be so real..."

"Sounds like you wish to turn back time." Seer stretched his body, feeling stiff from being in his other form.

"Maybe. I saw this... giant colourful fish in the sky. No idea why. It asked what I wanted. I said to have the family I always wanted and-" Adda paused. For a moment of vulnerability she shook with emotion before reeling it in. "Forget it. The whole things stupid. I just got this feeling I'm going to see them again soon."

"You have the family you've always wanted out there, Adda." Seer pointed in the general direction of the door. "You even told me it was your dream to create this paradise for the Gerudo."

"That's different. I'm their Queen. A Queen who was chosen for this life. I'm talking about being a mother to my own kids."

"You had that chance too, before you pursued the war." Seer fixed his long hair back into a tail. "Just like Scarlet did."

"Don't say her name." Adda turned to him, her brow curling with anger. "I'm tired of having the same argument with you over and over regarding my choices."

"Then let me go and you'll never hear my voice again to remind you of said poor choices."

"So you can lead your forces right back to me? No thanks."

"Now you're the one being stupid. I don't even know where the hell I am."

"That's the whole idea. To keep your pod of savage whales away from the innocents of this island."

"Those savage whales don't attack innocents, only those who dare to hurt their own." Seer retaliated at her remark. "You took the girls, and in return, we attacked."

"I had the right to those girls. If you really thought I was a monster, you would have killed me in that ice cold water, or here in my sleep." Adda spat back bitterly.

"Just because you're their biological mother doesn't give you any right to them. The people who love them, take care of them, doesn't have to be blood to be their family." Seer argued with narrowed eyes. "And I never said you were a monster." He leaned a little closer and said bluntly. "I just hate your guts. If I killed you, Lex would hate me. That's the last thing I want. I think more of those girls than you ever will. I gave my life to them. You? You decided to make yourself Queen and to hell with everything else. Want me to shut up? Then turn me loose."

"I was going to make them both royalty of the seas. You have no idea about what I think of them." Adda snorted back. With a shrug of her shoulders, she tried to change the conversation. "You wanna stop talking and fuck for a while?"

"Well, you screamed at me to drown yesterday, so I think I might go back out for a long swim and see if that happens." Seer replied sarcastically. "Seeing you're a self proclaimed queen and all, I think you can handle waiting to fuck for a day or so." He then added, just to mess with Adda. "Besides, Bakura is a better fuck than you."

"Seer, don't be an ass." Adda pushed him to the side and went to her wardrobe. At Bakura though, she turned her head to him. "You did not."

"He slapped my ass, I buried my face in his abs, the rest is history."

“Tell me than. What did it feel like?” Adda stared coldly at him.

"Why do you want to know? Jealous I'm a better lay?"

“To see you bullshitting me. What was it like Seer?”

"A fight for dominance, that's for sure. You know Bakura has a fetish of grabbing the neck a bit?" Seer was going off of what he sensed from the man. While Seth was always in the back of Bakura's mind, the other soul residing in the assassin's body still influenced a few actions. For once, Seer was grateful for his powerful sense of smell and echolocation. He could read Bakura's body language and predict his thoughts without a single word. "Burying my face into a pillow, muffling my moans just until he senses I'm ready to cum. Sometimes, he even denies me that, wanting me to beg a little."

“You know what it was like for me? It was knowing that he the someone I could trust. He made me feel vulnerable like no other man. When he fucked me, I didn’t care about anything else. Because he was naive enough, stupid enough, or maybe kind enough to be so open and gentle too.” Adda punched Seer back onto the bed. “But you would have said that if you ever made love with a man like Bakura. You’d know he made you feel complete.”

"Now that's a steaming pile of shit right there, Adda," Seer actually snickered. "Because if you were so complete with him, then you really screwed up by leaving him, and better yet, dumping his daughters with me. You know he told me he wanted to kill you for what you did to him? Making him lose years of his daughters' lives too? Isn't it funny how these things turn out." He was now full out laughing, almost a hysterical tint to it. "And you! You kidnapped me out of petty revenge! Not on him, but on your own daughters!!!"

“Shut your fucking mouth Seer.” Adda was so close to beating the life out of the man. How many times did she have to say her case over and over? Bakura threatened her. Hurt her deeply due to that psychotic personality in him. How could she ever leave her kids with him?

"Oh, I thought I was fucked up, but compared to you? Nah." Seer managed to get his laughing under control and then got up off the bed. "I almost, almost feel sorry for you, Adda." He walked outside to the beach, feeling the sand underneath his toes. "A lonely paradise is all you have now."

“And a lonely prison is all you have. If I’m not happy, I’ll make sure you’ll never be either you prick.”

"Heh, you might keep me trapped here forever, but remember this, Adda," Seer was not going to let her get to him. Oddly enough, the tiny break of hysterics might have been what he needed to release some stress. Besides, the dream he had with the whale left him feeling optimistic of sorts. "Whether I die here or see my girls again, at least I know I have their love."

“You robbed me of that chance for twenty years. I’ll earn their love soon. And with you stuck here, you can’t stop me.”

"It's your own fault for dumping them off without a word." Seer countered. "Think that all you want, Adda. Though you're forgetting that I'm not the only one who loves Elizabeth and Alexandria."

Adda whirled on Seer, decking him hard against the face, knocking him out. She was so sick and tired of listening to his bullshit. No more. She was going to give her girls the world.

#new crossover #ridersoftheapocalypse #New Adda Arc!#Captain Adda #Seer #Bakura Saibot #Revy #Liz and Lex #Borghild #Scarlet #Halvar #Final Adda Arc!#The Adult Arc #Big Drama coming!

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thelaughingduchess · 6 years ago

Text

Hope For Everything

SPOILERS: Basically an AU ending for season 3. Takes place post 3x20, The Fallen, and then picks and chooses storylines from the remainder of the season.

DISCLAIMER: Arrow belongs to DC Comics. Title from Euripides.

AUTHOR’S NOTES: While doing a little work on another story, I found this drabble I'd written in 2015 sitting on my hard drive. It's kind of a silly alternate ending for Season 3 and I'm not sure it's post-worthy, but realityisoverrated, my incredibly talented sister, read it and said I should, so here we are.

The familiar piece of dialogue towards the end is blatantly stolen from 3x23, My Name Is Oliver Queen.

LINK:

AO3

Nothing is hopeless; we must hope for everything.

~Euripides, Hypsipyle

Felicity's apartment is empty. Which is a good thing because it should be. Having just come back from Nandar Parbat it would have been bad if someone had been inside when she'd gotten home. Very bad, actually. But still. The silence of her apartment seems loud.

Ray had stayed over the night before their lives had blown up, and his water glass is still sitting on the nightstand in her bedroom, along with his tablet. He'd been struggling with some coding before they'd fallen asleep, but she sees the solution to the problem as soon as her eyes run over it. She picks up the phone to explain what the fix is, but the pang of guilt twisting her heart tells her not to call. He's a smart guy. Surely, he's solved it by now.

She walks through the rooms of her house aimlessly. It's odd to feel the absence of someone who hadn't ever been there before, but flashes of a life she never had keep popping into her head. She can see Oliver there. See him fitting so perfectly into her space. He should be there.

She shakes off the idea because should be doesn't mean he ever will be. They hadn't said goodbye, but it was still what they'd done. The odds of escape had been overwhelming, but it had been his choice to stay in Nandar Parbat. The plane had been less than a mile away- so close and yet so far. It's the story of their relationship in a nutshell.

There's not enough ice cream in the world to process this. But there's a bottle of tequila with a few shots left in it and she drinks it fast, standing over the kitchen sink, letting the burn rush through her and then fade before she finally lets the tears fall.

She'd had everything. For one fleeting moment they'd belonged to each other.

And now she was back to square one.

He'd told her to live, so that's what she decides to do, starting with rebuilding the lair. She goes back to the Foundry and heads down the stairs with nervous steps. There's nothing really left to salvage since Captain Lance had seized everything they needed to function as Team Arrow. Her chair rests on its side on the ground so she rights it and then sits, spinning around and around while she thinks. They could always break into the SCPD warehouse and steal everything back. Her feet lift off the floor and she smiles softly, letting the momentum carry her in slow circles. She wonders what Oliver is doing. Maybe, a half a world away, he's dreaming about her.

The chair slows and eventually stops. Sitting directly in her line of sight is the stupid plant she'd bought in a moment of whimsy the previous September. She'd been at a farmer's market picking up the last of the sweet summer corn when she'd seen it. Something had told her to buy it, had told her that Oliver needed a little more life down there in the darkness. She'd been happy that morning, excited about working with him to get back QC. She'd had no idea how thoroughly the rug was about to be ripped out from under them.

She rises from the chair and picks up the fern, a few fronds falling off as it moves through the air. The soil is loose around the base and she pats it down until the roots are covered. It's a miracle it's survived- god only knows the last time someone watered it.

It feels wrong to take it out of the Foundry, but it feels more wrong to leave it. In the end, she thinks Oliver won't mind if it comes to live at her house for a while.

She tucks it under her arm and climbs up the stairs, pausing in the empty doorframe. Her free hand grips the splintered wood. "We're never coming back here," she whispers into the silent air. "Never."

She doesn't look back.

Thea is a handful. She doesn't understand why they're not moving heaven and earth to get her brother back. In all honesty, Felicity doesn't either. Diggle had said something about respecting choices and figuring out a long-term plan and Malcolm had been firm about not making a move until they had a strategy in place. She's not sure when he suddenly got a vote in their decision-making process, but somehow he has and it doesn't sit right. Thea doesn't seem to like it either.

It's odd to finally spend time with her. Thea has always been a vague blur in Felicity's mind, an interesting puzzle whose pieces never quite lined up. She owned two Birkin bags, but was in love with Roy. It was all kinds of confusing. Since they'd returned from Nandar Parbat, she and Thea had been talking every day, the two of them forming a tentative bond over how much they missed Oliver. Now that she's starting to see the measure of the girl, Felicity finds that she likes her.

Thea is still feeling her out.

"You want to do what Oliver asked, but what he asked is ridiculous."

"I know."

"My brother is kind of an idiot."

Her first impulse is to defend him, but Thea's not exactly wrong. "Based on what I've seen, that kind of goes hand in hand with being a hero."

The brunette rolls her eyes, dismissing Felicity as she walks to the fridge in the loft. "So, you're what? Some sycophant who does whatever he tells you? Oliver needs a girl with some fight in her."

Felicity tries not to let the words sting. Thea doesn't really know her. Not yet.

Malcolm Merlyn stands at the island in the kitchen humming while he chops up vegetables for their dinner. He looks completely at home and it's the creepiest thing Felicity's ever seen. Oliver wouldn't want him there. She doesn't either, but she can't exactly run him out of town with a pitchfork and an angry mob. At least not yet.

"I think Miss Smoak has more than enough fight in her to keep Oliver on his toes, Thea." He smiles at Felicity and oh man does she need to retract her previous statement. A smile being sent her way by Malcolm Merlyn is absolutely the creepiest thing she's ever seen. She'll be having nightmares for months.

She opens her mouth to argue his point because agreeing with a mass murderer is something she'll be comfortable doing never, but it would be counterproductive to do so in this case. "We can't move until we're ready. There's nowhere to run, Thea. Ra's wants his heir and Oliver's the only one that fits the bill."

Thea slams her hand against the stainless-steel door of the fridge, her eyes flashing hot. "That's not true."

It's possible that Thea's anger is a side effect of being resurrected via the world's worst in-depth spa treatment, but it's also possible that Felicity's reading into these outbursts. Maybe there's nothing more there than a sister missing her brother. "It is true, Thea. I wish that it wasn't. He'll find Oliver, or he'll come after-"

"That's not what I mean."

Malcolm Merlyn stops chopping. "Thea," he warns.

Felicity stands, feeling like something is about to change and hope blooms in her chest. "Tell me."

"Oliver isn't the only one that can fulfill the prophecy. I survived Ra's' blade too."

A joke about a souvenir t-shirt being the only thing they'd gotten for their troubles flits through Felicity's mind and she almost laughs. Not from the joke- that was terrible, it's just that this revelation is the opposite of helpful. Thea being the heir would be an even bigger nightmare. Oliver would burn down the world to stop it from happening.

Felicity shakes her head. "But you're not a man. If Ra's won't accept his own daughter as the heir, I'm pretty sure he won't accept you."

Malcolm changes his grip on the knife and for a moment Felicity feels threatened as if he's deciding whether or not he needs to kill her because of what she's just said. It's weird because it's not like Felicity is about to go telling anyone that Thea also fulfills the prophecy. "And technically, you did die from his blade. Totally flatlined. It was modern science that saved you. That really doesn't mesh with ancient prophecies."

"Yeah, well ancient prophecies are bullshit," Thea says.

"Ain't that the truth," Felicity says softly. Merlyn eyes her for a long moment and Felicity fights the urge to shiver. He finally goes back to chopping, but goosebumps continue to break out over her skin as she rises and slides on her coat.

Thea crosses to her quickly. "Please stay." There's desperation in her eyes, as if she knows that Malcolm is more devil than dad. "There's enough for all three of us and you said you'd tell me about your trips to Lian Yu."

Thea tilts her head and the movement is so like Oliver that Felicity's breath catches. "Sure."

Thea hugs her tightly. "Thank you," she whispers and that isn't like Oliver at all.

The new lair Felicity sets them up in is an abandoned subway tunnel that's blocked off on one side by rubble. Something feels right about starting over in the location that was central to the mission that had brought them all together in the first place. It's dark and damp and dirty as hell, but it also has high enough ceilings for a salmon ladder. She's not embarrassed to admit it's the first thing she thought of.

She redirects power from the buildings above them, and then builds a new system with computers generously provided by Palmer Technologies. And by generously provided she means stolen, but it's not like Ray would have said no if she'd asked him. It's nowhere near as flashy as the basement of Verdant, but it makes getting around the city easier and the first night Laurel and Thea start sparring on the mats behind her, Felicity smiles. If she closes her eyes, it almost feels like home.

Oliver returns on a Tuesday and whatever joyful reunion she'd imagined in her own mind is wiped away by the cold, calculating look in his eyes as he shoots a second arrow into Nyssa. He's definitely been brainwashed. Felicity should have learned by now not to get her hopes up.

She's never been afraid of him, though. Not once. Not back in the beginning when he was a killer and not ten minutes ago when he'd used her as a shield to escape the threat of Digg's weapon. She won't be afraid now. As soon as she fears him it's over.

He lifts his bow at Laurel and Felicity doesn't hesitate as she steps between them, her arms stretched out as if she can create a safe space on each side. "Oliver. Stop!"

Nyssa is badly wounded, the arrows through her thigh and shoulder dripping with blood. The metallic smell of it hangs in the air and good god, when had the scent become more familiar than alarming?

Laurel picks up on Felicity's cue and decides to ignore Oliver as she kneels down beside Nyssa. Her hands fumble a little as she unzips her jacket but her voice is strong as she orders the other woman to stay still. She peels away the leather and then whips off her shirt as Diggle cautiously makes his way to them, his gun in his hand but not aimed at anyone. Laurel uses her top to make a tourniquet around Nyssa's upper thigh and Diggle rests the gun on the ground before cutting off the tip of the arrow.

Nyssa curses at Oliver as Diggle lifts her. At least Felicity assumes that's what she's doing. It's in Arabic, but the sentiment seems clear enough.

When Felicity turns to fully face him she finds that Oliver hasn't moved. His bow is still taut, the arrow ready to loose and she knows the muscles in his arm must be burning. "Oliver. Put down your bow."

She can hear the crunch of gravel behind her as Diggle starts walking away and then she hears the zip of Laurel's jacket. She doesn't look back at either of them. Laurel walks towards her and Felicity shakes her head at the sound of the approaching footsteps. "Laurel, go with Digg."

"I'm not leaving you with him."

Oliver raises the bow a fraction of an inch, and Felicity knows he's calculating a way to shoot around her. It's comforting in a very strange way. He's still in there.

She turns away from him and looks at Laurel. "I'm fine. You should go."

Laurel's eyes dart back and forth between them before she nods. "Come back to us, Ollie. We need you." She spins on her heel, running off before he can respond.

They're alone on the street now, just the two of them. And it should feel scary, but it mostly feels amazing. He's alive and he's there and she can still feel the ghost of his hands on her body.

He lowers the bow. "You shouldn't have interfered."

"Surprisingly, all evidence points to the contrary. What are you doing?"

Oliver's head drops and the contrast between the defeated pose and the menacing uniform is a little bit funny. His head comes back up and she can see the coldness sliding back into place. "She still calls herself the heir. I have to kill her."

"There are a lot of things you might think you have to do, but I can tell you right now that is not one of them."

He shakes his head and it's unnerving not to be able to see the lower half of his face. At least with the mask, she could read him. Now it's all darkness.

His hand flexes tightly around the bow, the leather of his glove creaking loudly. "Next time I won't hesitate. Not even for you."

"I don't believe that for one second."

Instead of arguing he stalks off. She can't physically stop him or fight him or get him to do what she wants, but she does have a hold on him. It's the same hold he has on her and she's not afraid to use it. "I love you, Oliver."

He stops in his tracks and then turns back to face her. "Oliver Queen is dead. My name is Al Sah-him."

"You can call yourself Barney the Dinosaur for all I care. I love you. And I'm not giving up."

Oliver's head cocks to the side and somehow she knows that he's fighting a smile behind that mask. At that moment she decides- she's going to win. "You'll have to live with your actions, so don't kill anyone else if you can help it. I'll see you soon. I promise."

He walks away without comment. The moon is large and bright in the sky above and a few pigeons fly off the ledge of a building as he goes. Felicity waits until the night is still before heading in the opposite direction.

"Sara lives."

Felicity's head snaps up from her computer as a recently healed Nyssa seems to magically appear in the lair. It would be super cool if it also weren't super annoying. She needs Cisco to make them some sort of perimet- "Wait. What?"

"Ta-er al-Safar is alive."

"That's what I thought you said, but then I thought you couldn't have said that because Sara is dead."

"No."

It's too much to hope for. "Nyssa," she says gently. "This wasn't like the other times when Oliver just thought she was dead. I saw her. I washed the blood out of her hair with my own hands."

Nyssa stares at her for a long moment, taking in this information. Her eyes soften before she speaks. "My father has gifted me her life."

Felicity doesn't need to ask how. The world seems to spin and she slumps back heavily in her chair, which actually does start to spin. Not that the world isn't spinning too, because it is, all the time, but she can't feel that. The movement of the chair, however, is too much. She grabs the edge of her desk because if she doesn't she's going to vomit and she can't embarrass herself like that in front of Nyssa. "Why?"

"I will give him the thing he wants most in the world."

Felicity had thought that was Oliver. What more could Ra's want? "And what exactly is that?"

"The price does not matter."

Felicity nods, because what else can she do? Sara is alive. Their Sara. She picks up her phone and calls Laurel.

It takes almost a day to travel to Nandar Parbat, but this time when Nyssa, Diggle, Laurel, and Felicity walk up to the fortress, there isn't a throng of people waiting for them to arrive. The place feels eerily empty.

Malcolm and Thea are back on the plane, waiting to hear if they can be useful and it's odd to feel comforted by the fact that they're there. Thea hadn't wanted to stay behind and so she had come as a way to ensure Malcolm wouldn't betray them at the first opportunity. Felicity just hopes the idea won't come back to bite her in the ass. While they're apart, Malcolm could always steal Thea away to somewhere they can't find her and Felicity's pretty sure Oliver won't love her all the more if this plan goes awry.

Nyssa blends in with the dark of the landscape and Felicity takes a deep breath, the air cold in her lungs as the four of them approach the imposing doors of the fortress. She hasn't seen Oliver in weeks and she can't help the nervous excitement that fills her at the idea of him being close by. She'd shaved her legs before leaving Starling City. It was a ridiculous thing to have done, but she had to have hope. Last time she'd been there she'd been sad not to have on cuter underwear. You never knew what could happen.

Dig seems calm enough when they come to a stop, but Laurel is bristling with anxiety, her hands clenching and unclenching as she waits for something to happen. The moment Nyssa steps forward the doors creak open. It feels to Felicity as if she willed them to.

When they pass through the threshold Oliver is waiting and it takes all her strength not to run to him. His hood is pulled back and, with his now close-cropped hair and minimal stubble, he looks thinner. His eyes scan over her without emotion but he almost blanches when he sees Laurel. He turns to face Nyssa. "You shouldn't have brought them. I told you to wait."

"I am no servant awaiting your orders."

"But you will be my wife."

"I fail to understand what one has to do with the other," Nyssa snaps.

"I'm sorry, what?" Laurel asks and Felicity couldn't be more grateful to have her there because her lungs have stopped working and that is an excellent question.

Nyssa turns and faces them, her lips twisting into a smirk. "In exchange for Ta-er al-Safar's life, I have agreed to marry Al Sah-Him."

Diggle coughs lightly and Felicity almost smacks him. "Oliver?" she asks, too shaken to be ashamed of the way her voice cracks over his name.

Nyssa steps towards her, placing her hand on Felicity's shoulder. "There is no need to mourn for the loss of your love, Felicity. I will name you his consort."

Digg does more than cough this time and Oliver takes a menacing step towards him, which is ridiculous. But not more ridiculous than what Nyssa is saying.

"It is a great honor. You will help raise our children," Nyssa continues.

Laurel slaps a hand to her own forehead and turns in a circle, clearly wondering what terrible thing she'd done in her life to end up there. "Sorry to intrude on your little soap opera over there, but where exactly is my sister?"

Oliver hesitantly steps towards her and it's then that Felicity knows something is very, very wrong. "Laurel," he says, his hand wrapping around her elbow. "You shouldn't be here."

"Take me to her," Laurel says, yanking her arm from his grasp. "Now, Oliver."

Feral is the only word to describe her. Their Sara is now a monster trapped in a sunken pit at the center of a room that must have been some sort of amphitheater. Sara's hands are covered in blood, her fingernails ripped out by her attempts to claw away at the door and there is a chain around her neck. When she sees them watching, she howls.

Laurel goes very still, but Nyssa collapses down hard onto one of the curved stone benches. Felicity is stunned by the show of emotion. In all honesty, her first instinct is to fall apart too, but she slides her hand into Laurel's and squeezes instead. "Thea had some trouble at first," she tells her softly. "Not this much trouble, but she jumped out of the Lazarus Pit like a flying squirrel and attacked Oliver. It passed in a few days. Sara was dead a lot longer than her. She probably just needs more time."

Laurel nods and takes a deep breath, her eyes never leaving her sister. "How do I get down there?"

Oliver leads the way.

"I want to take her to Star Labs," Laurel announces later, when they're sitting in Nyssa's room.

"It's a good idea," Felicity says. "But we can't right now." Laurel's eyes narrow at her, but she waits for Felicity to explain. "There's some stuff going on there involving some truly bad people. We don't want Sara to fall into the wrong hands. Not again."

Laurel's eyes fill with tears. "She can't stay here, Felicity. She can't stay in that hole."

"I know."

Oliver stands guard in one corner without offering any words of comfort and it's this silence that starts really pissing Felicity off. "I can't believe you let them put her in there," she lashes out, not even attempting to hide her disappointment. He hasn't apologized once, hasn't offered up any explanation for how or why Sara had been left in the dirt and the dark. For three days she'd been in there, terrified and alone. The idea that Oliver allowed it scares the hell out of her.

He doesn't explain himself. He just turns and walks out.

Digg stops her from rising with a hand to her shoulder. "Let him go, Felicity."

She's afraid that he doesn't just mean for right now. "Keep an eye on Laurel," she tells him and Digg's hand falls away. She's out in the hallway chasing after Oliver in the blink of an eye.

"Oliver!"

He doesn't slow down.

"Oliver!" She runs, her legs shaking with anger and adrenaline as she races to his side and grabs at his arm.

He wrenches it away. "Not here."

"Fine." She falls in line beside him, refusing to shorten her strides or to let him take the lead. He's not the heir to anything in her mind and she'll be damned if she's going to scamper after him.

He pushes open the door to his room and walks in and when she shuts it behind them her anger falters. She'd come to him with wildly different intentions the last time she'd been there.

Oliver yanks off the outer leather coat of his League uniform, tossing it onto the small red sofa, and she swallows hard, refusing to take any enjoyment from the way his shirt skims over his body. "You'd better start explaining."

"The Heir to the Demon doesn't explain himself to anyone."

"Well Oliver Queen does, so start talking."

He stalks towards her, which is all hot and manly, but she's not going to focus on that. No she's going to focus on the fact that he's being a jackass. And not even a regular jackass- a huge jackass. A super huge jackass who is also slowly backing her up against the door they'd just walked through. "What are you doing?"

Her back bumps the wood and he rests a hand on either side of her, trapping her in place. He stares at her with dark eyes and she waits for them to soften, for him to show her some sort of sign that it's Oliver she's dealing with and not Al Sa-him. The coldness doesn't dissipate, though, even when he glances down at her mouth.

"I hate your hair," she whispers defiantly.

Oliver's mouth is on hers in an instant, fierce and strong as he kisses her deeply. Felicity is still pissed, but that's no reason to not kiss him back. His hands slide through her hair roughly, getting caught in some tangles as they travel but she welcomes the tugs- at least she knows she's not dreaming. She steps towards him, wrapping her own arms around his shoulders, her hands skimming his head and then roaming wherever they can reach. He's alive. He's alive and he's there and she loves him. It's enough somehow, even though there's no way it actually can be.

The need for air eventually causes Oliver's lips to still and they both breathe deeply as he tips his head forward. He rests his forehead against hers and closes his eyes. "It's good to see you," he murmurs.

Felicity couldn't agree more. It's good to see him, too.

Felicity wasn't joking with Ra's when she said she'd go to war to get Oliver back, but now that she really knows what she's giving up if he stays, her focus seems sharper. Her mind races with ways to take the man down. She's already got feelers out for the League's bank accounts because there's nothing she'd like more than to wipe that balance to zero. She imagines stranding the League in Nandar Parbat and smiles at how satisfying it's going to feel. She won't even leave enough cash to keep them in candles.

Right now though, she needs to bide her time and lay low. Somehow Ra's Al Guhl doesn't know he has visitors and Nyssa and Oliver both want to keep it that way.

She sits on Oliver's bed and watches him dress, fascinated by the shift in his personality once the uniform goes back on. Oliver has always been fluid, but this is crazy. It's like he has a Pavlovian response when the coat zips closed. A minute ago he was nuzzling her neck, but the warmth is gone now. He's still him. But he's not. She doesn't get it at all, but then she's never been good at compartmentalizing.

"Don't leave the room," he says gruffly.

She nods, even though she has no intention of obeying him. She needs to talk to Diggle and Laurel and she wants to check on Sara at some point.

Oliver pauses at the door, turning to look back at her and she smiles at him softly. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

He nods his head but she knows it's not a promise he intends to keep either.

Ten minutes later Nyssa knocks on the door. "Oliver is to be titled today. As his future bride, I am expected to be there."

"Sounds like a hoot."

"The entire League will be in attendance. It is an optimal time for me to remove Sara."

Felicity nods, a bubble of nervous excitement starting to rise. "What can I do?"

The other woman smiles.

Nyssa has some serious explaining to do.

That's all Felicity can think as she and Oliver stand together at the head of a room full of assassins. Ra's Al Guhl sits on a throne a few feet in front of them watching whatever is going on with interest. Felicity is wearing the bulky leather garb of Nyssa's uniform and her face is covered, her hood pulled down low and her mask pulled up high. This is not what she'd signed up for.

The priestess lady she'd stolen the knock out powder from on their last trip is chanting something and wafting a bunch of smoke over them and Felicity is pretty sure that Nyssa has lied. This doesn't really seem like an official Heir To the Demon naming ceremony. If she didn't know better, she'd say this was a wedding.

She is not going to panic.

The chanting cuts off and the lady steps in front of her. After a few seconds, Oliver shifts beside her in the silence, the leather of his own uniform creaking with the movement. They're clearly waiting for her to do something.

The lady repeats herself, which isn't helpful at all because Felicity has no idea what she's saying. She catches Ra's al Guhl's ringed hand sliding to the hilt of his sword and she swallows hard. Nyssa had told her to say something if prompted. She hopes she gets the pronunciation right.

"أنا افعل" She says quietly.

Oliver's posture shifts instantly, going from at ease to attention at the sound of her voice. He turns his body slightly towards her as the priestess addresses him, but, with the hood pulled so low, Felicity can't see anything more than his leather-clad chest.

When the priestess stops talking again, Oliver reaches over and takes Felicity's hand. "أنا افعل," he says.

The moment feels huge.

One of the priestess' minions pulls out a leather cord and starts binding her wrist together with Oliver's and oh god, this is a wedding. She totally just got married. Her mother is going to kill her.

She gulps in some air, sweating a little under all the leather as the enormity of what's going on sinks in. Her heart races in her chest as Oliver squeezes her hand gently.

She needs to calm down. It's not so bad, really. There are millions of women who'd agree to marry Oliver Queen no matter what the circumstances. Besides, it's not like the marriage is legal or anything. They hadn't had a blood test for one thing, which was kind of ridiculous on Ra's part. Surely, he wanted Oliver to start popping out some mini heirs to the demon and what if it turned out they were related or something?

Oh god. There's no way they're related, is there?

She runs down her family tree in her mind as the minion ties off the binding and decides that even though her dad's side is a bit hazy, it's safe to assume that they're not. Ra's doesn't know that, though. He's leaving an awful lot up to chance. Except, it suddenly dawns on her, he isn't, because Nyssa is the one supposed to be marrying Oliver. Ra's thinks she's Nyssa. Oh, god.

The minion pulls her and Oliver forward and when he places their clasped hands on a giant slab, Felicity's heart leaps into her throat. It all seems very ominous.

The priestess whips out a small blade and every instinct in Felicity's body starts telling her to run. Oliver must know what she's thinking because his hand slides to her wrist and tightens around it like a vice as he holds her in place. She can feel his panic over her reaction and she screws her eyes shut, thinking she'll handle it better if she can't see.

The cut, when it comes, is exactly as painful as she thinks it will be and Felicity bites her lip hard, knowing she absolutely can't scream. Her eyes open in time for her to see the knife slashing down onto Oliver's palm and then their hands are being pressed together, their blood mixing.

The priestess pulls their hands apart before sprinkling some sort of powder onto their gashes. The burn of it makes Felicity's knees buckle. The wound on her hand seems to seal in an instant, leaving a deep red scar permanently seared along her lifeline.

She's panting behind the mask now, the leather making it difficult to breathe, and she stands in a daze as Oliver reaches over to undo the cord around their wrists. The priestess takes it from him and then throws it in the air. Felicity looks up and watches as it bursts into flames.

Her hood falls back and the hall erupts into chaos.

Oliver grabs her hand and they run, but they don't get far.

Ra's is behind them, and then suddenly in front of them, his sword whirling as Oliver dodges and parries with his own. It's weird to see him without the bow, but it's not like he's bad with the sword.

He's just not as good.

She takes the first opportunity that presents itself to run for backup, ignoring the guilt of abandoning Oliver as she shouts for Diggle. She weaves through the maze-like halls and her relief when Dig comes flying around a corner is palpable. He has his gun out already and she reminds herself that a gun trumps a sword. At least she hopes it does.

Laurel is behind him and the three of them race back towards the sound of the fighting.

When they get back to Oliver, he's no longer fighting alone. Malcolm Merlyn and Thea are beside him, the three of them fending off attackers as they pour into the space like a swarm of bees.

Felicity circles around, feeling useless without a weapon and is just about to yank a torch from the wall when a pair of arms wrap around her.

She knows it's Ra's, because of course it is, and in her mind she travels back to the way it felt when Slade held her like that. Back then she hadn't panicked. Of course, back then she'd also had a plan.

Ra's shoves her against a wall, and she stumbles as she turns, watching in horror as his sword flies up. She's going to die. She's going to die thousands of miles from home in Nandar Parbat. Hopefully her mother will take some comfort in the fact that she'd died a married woman.

Felicity shuts her eyes, but the sound of metal hitting metal clangs loudly in front of her and her eyes fly open again.

It's possible she's dead because what she's seeing can't be real. Sara stands between her and Ra's, her escrima stick knocking the sword from his hand.

Felicity had dreamed of this type of moment more than once in her life, but it had always seemed ridiculous. She'd lost a lot of people and none of them had ever come back.

Well, Cooper. But she didn't really count him. The guy running around in her first love's skin was a totally different person than the one she had mourned. A lesser person, actually. And it wasn't like he'd come back for her.

Sara cracks her staff across Ra's' face and he whirls with the movement, completely off balance. Nyssa is behind him and she raises her sword to strike, but he uses his momentum to dodge the blow. Still, he can't get away from them.

Sara is a whirl, with long blonde hair and toned arms that haven't lost their muscle definition in death. She looks pale and wild, but it's clearly their friend. None of them had ever thought they'd see her again. Felicity is beyond glad to be wrong.

The three of them fight, and there is something so strong about Sara, so powerful that it strikes a note of fear in Felicity's chest. This is Sara, their Sara, but the Pit has also made its mark.

Oliver is beside the younger Lance sister in an instant and Felicity knows that he must be fighting a wave of emotion, pushing it down so he can focus on the fight at hand. Later, things will hit him. Later he'll let himself feel.

He attacks mercilessly, the two of them driving Ra's backward towards Nyssa, who suddenly lunges towards her father and drives her sword through his chest. Blood starts pouring out of his mouth.

It takes Felicity a moment to realize she doesn't want to see this. She turns away, only to find Diggle standing beside her. He wraps an arm around her shoulder and it's the safest she's felt in months.

The din of the fighting dies off as everyone focuses on the history being made in front of them. Diggle whispers her name and Felicity looks up. Ra's is dead on the ground, Nyssa standing over him with a smile.

Another attacker charges towards them but then falls to his knees in front of Nyssa. All around them members of the league are dropping their swords and falling down in supposition. Nyssa turns to Oliver, who lays his sword at her feet and kneels like a knight from a storybook.

Malcolm Merlyn snarls.

"Who knew he'd be so easy to get rid of?" Felicity asks later, stepping beside Sara and Oliver as they watch Malcolm exit the heavy doors of the fortress.

"I doubt it's the last that we'll see of him," Sara says.

Oliver nods. "He was supposed to be Ra's. We'd made a deal. He's not going to accept this."

Nyssa approaches them slowly, a bag slung over her shoulder. "I do not fear Malcolm Merlyn."

Felicity doesn't share her confidence. Malcolm scares her to the depths of her bones. Ra's, for all his brutality, never came close to inspiring the same level of fear in her. He'll be back someday and she's not looking forward to it.

Nyssa stops in front of Oliver and drops the bag at his feet. "Your time here is over, Oliver Queen. Do not return."

Oliver smiles sharply, his eyes glinting steel in the dim light. "Don't give me a reason to."

They gather up Digg, Thea, Sara, and Laurel and the six of them head to the jet. The entire walk there, Felicity fears that Malcolm will have stolen it, but when they make their way around the final bend, the plane is still sitting there waiting.

Sara hesitates as Digg and Thea make their way on board, looking back in the darkness and searching for something. Laurel takes her hand and leads her up the steps. "You'll see her again, Sara. Just come home for now." They follow Thea into the plane.

Felicity and Oliver stand in the moonlight of the desert, the wind lightly sliding around them. She smiles at him. "You ready to go home?"

Oliver tenses and looks out at the horizon. "Felicity, I need to tell you something."

She raises her newly scarred hand and shows him her palm. "We got married, right? That's what this means?"

Oliver takes a deep breath, his eyes wary as he nods. "Yes."

There's an odd rush of excitement in her, a flutter of joy, but she tamps it down quickly. They'd been given no choice- it was a marriage forced onto both of them. She wants to be with Oliver, maybe someday she'll want to be with him forever, but not like this. "Should we fix that before we go? I'm not sure we can get a quickie divorce in Vegas for a marriage made in Nandar Parbat. We didn't even get any paperwork."

Oliver shifts on his feet. "It can't be undone."

It makes sense, she supposes, except that it really doesn't. "That priestess lady can't just say a few words and dissolve it?"

Oliver crosses his arms over his chest. "No."

Felicity nods, trying to wrap her mind around it. She's married to Oliver. Once upon a time, it would have been her wildest fantasy, but now it's the most terrifying thing that's ever happened to her. "Guess we're stuck with each other then."

Oliver grimaces as he gives her a curt nod, which only serves to make anger flare in her belly. It wasn't her fault they were married. Nyssa had tricked her. "Nyssa didn't tell me what was going on, Oliver. She told me it was like your coronation or something. I'm sure none of it is legal. It doesn't have to mean anything."

Oliver reaches for her hand. "What if I want it to?"

Felicity's heart stutters in her chest as the blood rushes to her head. For a second the world doesn't make sense, but then she remembers. Oliver loves her. "Oh."

Oliver takes a step towards her, crowding in closer. "I know I have a lot to explain and that this isn't the way either of us would have wanted it to happen, but…"

Felicity nods waiting for him to continue. When he stays silent her anger surges. Oliver loves her and she loves him, but they can't stay in the same limbo they'd been living in. Things could be good, but only if he'd try.

Oliver takes a deep breath, his free hand coming up to cup her face. "Every night since the mountain, I've had the same dream. You are pleading with me not to go face Ra's and I listen to you. Sometimes the dream still ends badly; I still end up with that sword in my chest, but most of the time we escape and we're just driving. And all this seems…it seems so far away because it's just…it's the two of us."

It's a nice thought and his sincerity is clear, but it's just a dream. A fantasy. "That's not the real world though, Oliver."

Oliver's thumb strokes over her cheek. "But what if it could be?"

It would be so easy to indulge him, so easy to say yes to leaving everything behind and just driving off into the sunset. But it's not him. And it's not her, either. "Oliver, I would go anywhere with you, you have to know that, but we can't just walk away. The bad guys don't stop just because we need a break. Malcolm will-"

"Why does it have to be us? There's Laurel, and Digg, and Sara now too. There are other people who can do what we do." He leans in to brush his lips against hers. "Come away with me."

This is the moment. The moment she'd imagined for months now. Oliver deciding that he wanted her more than the mission. But what would they be without a city to save? Would they even work?

Oliver is looking at her softly, his eyes full of hope and it stuns her to see the truth. What he wants more than anything, is her.

"Where would we go?"

Oliver shakes his head. "Anywhere. I don't care, so long as you're with me."

Felicity smiles. "Then let's go."

#olicity fic #olicity fanfiction #olicity fanfic #arrow fanfiction #arrow fanfic #arrow #olicity #my fic: hope for everything

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prosebushpatch · 6 years ago

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Okay I have to talk about the latest miraculous episode because OH BOY that’s not how you maintain stakes in the plot.

What do I mean by stakes? Well, when a story has a FORBIDDEN thing that CAN NEVER HAPPEN or else extreme consequence will happen, that’s a stake. It can be an emotional stake, like the fact that Ladybug and Chat can’t know their identities even though that would solve the love square. An emotional stake where Mari and Adrien’s love lives would be easier but in exchange, something horrible will happen.

What horrible thing will happen?

Well, for the first season and half of season two, it was a typical, “oh we must protect our loved ones and so to reveal our identities would be to endanger those we love most.” This is used in superhero stories a lot and is used so much that it’s fair, but honestly it leaves a lot to be desired. It can work as a reason but now that we have so many superheroes without secret identities (Kim Possible for example) we need more to back up the fact that sharing identities would be catastrophic. And you know what? Miraculous did that at first! Hawkmoth can turn anyone’s emotions against them so if Ladybug gets akumatized and knows who Chat is, that would be bad! So it made sense for them to keep it secret.

But then the show started to introduce more heroes.

Marinette met Fu and he taught her all about the miraculous. Fair. Good. Mari will be the next chosen one. Plot build up. BUT then Mari goes to Fu for help because her lucky charm told her. He has her choose a new hero.

This is the moment that changes everything.

One could argue that Marinette knowing Fu’s identity messed up the reason for keeping identities because now that Marinette knows who and WHERE the guardian is, if she gets akumatized, Hawkmoth knows where all the miraculous and how to get them. The only safe miraculous is Chat’s but that won’t mean much if Hawkmoth gets to the guardian too and ends up getting Fu to confess who Chat is. BUT we can give this a pass because in theory, Fu is able to protect the miraculous box himself. (Though this is not the case, as seen by his inability to transform so far but hey we can stretch it more to Fu has centuries of wisdom to protect himself from akumatized ladybug/he can choose more chosens, ect.)

But then Mari chooses Alya to be a hero. The system makes sense. Ladybug chooses a hero and takes back the kwami. If Ladybug gets akumatized, she has no reason to go after Alya since Alya does not carry Trixx everywhere with her.

Okay. They maintain this for Carapace. No one can know each other. Only Ladybug knows and she delivers the miraculous back to Fu. We know why they have to do it like this and there’s a safety net in case one of them gets akumatized.

But then Chloe happens. Chloe reveals her identity to the whole of Paris in season two. Everyone knows who Queen Bee is. Queen Bee is able to use the miraculous still and is not told she has to give up her miraculous until LATE into season three. (Late because this is something Marinette should have dealt with ASAP as in the second that Chloe gives back the miraculous for the first time.) If Chloe endangered herself because Hawkmoth now knows her identity and where to find her, this should be addressed the MOMENT Ladybug gets the bee miraculous back. Marinette SHOULD NOT have given the bee miraculous back to Chloe to fight her akumatized dad because by the logic they use in season three, Hawkmoth could have easily set up a trap at Chloe’s home to steal the bee miraculous before Ladybug can even deliver it.

The problem isn’t that Chloe got the bee miraculous, the problem is that the story changed the rules to keep her from using the miraculous in future episodes (and spoilers for season three finale I guess but this leads up to make her a villain again so whoops, there goes that character development out the window.)

Also we should mention the moment in the season two finale where Ladybug presents Alya and Nino the miraculouses at the same time and makes an off hand comment like “I should wait to do this separately but lol ain’t nobody got time.” Sure they made some emotional errors in the final battle but here’s the key take away. Alya and Nino get to know who they are and still get to be superheroes.

Now, let’s jump to season three. Kagami using the dragon miraculous is made known to Hawkmoth and Kagami is told she can never be the dragon miraculous holder again. Okay. Same as Chloe (though can we talk about how all of Mari’s love rivals are reduced to being unable to be a miraculous holder ever again?) but at least this is consistent. Hawkmoth knowing the holder’s identity is a HUGE problem. That is obvious.

There are more miraculous holders and while I don’t think Chat finds out the identity of anyone he does know that Ladybug takes the miraculous back (I think?) AND WAIT he does find out that Max is a miraculous holder for sure because of Startrain.

Okay so Chat knows Max’s identity. That’s not bad, of course, Chat is a member of the team, after all, and he knows Max doesn’t always have the miraculous. Chat knows to keep it secret. This falls under the same thing as Alya and Nino. Maybe not the best situation, but ultimately not dangerous.

And I want to bring up when Ladybug wants to give Adrien the snake miraculous. Note; she reveals this to Chat Noir BEFORE she gives Adrien the miraculous (for story plot, of course because how else would Chat know to detransform) BUT hold onto this. Ladybug mentions Chat shouldn’t know but Chat knows Adrien’s identity as the snake now. (From Ladybug’s perspective, of course.)

Okay so now jump to this mess of an episode, Kwami Buster.

We are introduced to a new stake; If Ladybug or Chat Noir learns of the other’s identity, they have to give up their miraculous.

What? Why? Let’s break it down. Ladybug and Chat Noir have their miraculous all the time. If Chat gets akumatized, Hawkmoth basically gets the cat miraculous at least until Ladybug saves the day. If Chat knows Ladybug is Mari and gets akumatized then this could cause problems! Clearly! But actually not really.

Here’s where other stakes come in. Ladybug is never going to fail. The most Chat could do is hurt Mari’s loved ones but because of the magic butterflies, Marinette can heal everyone. Marinette is also incredibly smart. She can casually wear, what? SIXTEEN MIRACULOUS AT ONCE?????? Something that Fu is like “oh no, you mustn’t, too many miraculous can destroy presumably the most practiced miraculous holder mentally and physically and you’re what 12? this can’t be good” AND LETS NOT FORGET if Mari fails WHICH WE ARE TOLD IS POSSIBLE BECAUSE THIS SHOULD DESTROY HER then Hawkmoth got it all. Wow. He would get every single miraculous because Marinette IS WEARING ALL OF THEM. This is an extreme situation where one misstep leads to the end of the show. Period.

So wait, if Chat Noir gets akumatized and knows that Mari is Ladybug he can do what exactly? Nothing. Literally nothing. The most he can hope for is a surprise attack if he knows her identity and she doesn’t know he knows but even then this fourteen year old girl is smart enough and capable enough to wield 16 miraculous at once so like? Chat Noir can’t touch her. No one can.

So why would she have to give up her miraculous if he found out?

Especially since if MARINETTE GETS AKUMATIZED everyone’s done for. I can understand not wanting to share Chat’s identity with her because Chat’s is the only miraculous she doesn’t know the location of. So her being akumatized would have to have Chat somehow cataclysming her object and getting her back to being ladybug to purify the akuma otherwise Paris is SOL.

But we’ve seen Mari get akumatized and she immediately goes to remove her earrings. So whenever Hawkmoth gets Mari akumatized long enough to have Mari spill the beans, so like more than one second, the show is over. If Chat noir can’t know Mari’s identity, what happens when Hawkmoth finds her out?

(Oh gosh, I’m picturing Fu going, “Oh now that Hawkmoth knows, the safest thing is for you to KEEP the miraculous to protect yourself since he’ll keep coming after you anyway to find out about me!” and if that happens I will scream)

Anyway, to make things worse, Mari tricks Chat into thinking Marinette cannot possibly be Ladybug which is clever but then she adds “Oh no, since Chat knows Marinette’s identity, she can never be Multimouse again. Oh nooooo” BUT THERE’S NO REASON FOR THAT. If Chat knowing any other miraculous holder is enough for Ladybug to never give them the miraculous holder again, then Max and Adrien should be SOL. Ladybug should have NEVER given Adrien the snake miraculous in the first place since she blew the secret to Chat immediately and then in Startrain Ladybug should have been like “Max you were awesome but also you can’t do this ever again since Chat knows you sorry”

The only reason that Mari wouldn’t want Chat to think she could be Multimouse again is because she doesn’t want to have to have multimouse be a thing again but the solution is simple, “Oh Mari wasn’t available so I got someone new woo” and he has to accept it. Or “oh the mouse miraculous wouldn’t help here, oh nooo.”

And this seems like a weird thing to nitpick but this episode was a clear example of how often this show tries to throw in high stakes but constantly undermines them to make a single episode work or to do something that looks cool.

tl;dr: This show changes the rules as it goes. This is not good for stakes because by having Mari know everything and be able to wield so many miraculous at once, it takes away any excuse that Chat Noir can’t know her identity to the extreme that they changed the rules to keep Marinette from ever getting a miraculous again.

And, ultimately, the more this show changes the rules, the less impactful any huge reveal will be. This is a disservice to every one of the characters and the reason for most of the inconsistent writing.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug spoilers #ml salt #i just had to get this out there #it was cool to see Mari use the mouse miraculous but #the whole identity thing is getting so so old #The show knows that the reason to keep them from knowing each other's identities is getting weaker by the moment #but it's the love square that keeps everyone interested and its all the writers seem to care about as well

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laytonscreencaps · 8 years ago

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Character Spotlight: Amelia Ruth

The 2,000+ word analysis of Amelia's character and role in Eternal Diva that no one asked for. Watching Eternal Diva beforehand would be helpful, but it’s not necessary if you're fairly familiar with the plot. Enjoy~

Some Background

At only 16 years of age (according to the World of Professor Layton Fanbook), Amelia Ruth is a British Chess Champion, naturally gifted at the game. She is invited to the Eternal Kingdom opera by Oswald Whistler under the pretense of Whistler wishing talented young girls to enjoy the opera in place of his deceased daughter, Melina. In actuality, Whistler invites girls like Amelia in hopes of finding a suitable host for his daughter's memories.

The name "Amelia" is a variant of "Amalia" which itself comes from the German "Amala" derived from the German "amal" meaning 'work'. The name connotes industriousness, someone who strives.

"Ruth" originates from Middle English, a rather rare, archaic word nowadays, which means sorrow, pity, compassion, (and even older) regret, repentance, or remorse. So, basically the opposite of ruthless.

Both fitting names. As we will see, Amelia stands out as one of the most determined players in Descole's game, focusing her attention almost exclusively on solving puzzles. In this way, she could be said to be a hard worker, tackling the task of winning eternal life with great concentration and mental effort.

Although cold at first, her concern for her granddad, for Layton and co, and finally, Melina reveal her to be a compassionate individual as her last name would suggest. The impending loss of her granddad also adds an element of sorrow to her character and her motive. Perhaps there is even an element of regret in the fact that, in the end, she is not able to save her granddad.

Her outfit (which could very well be a school uniform) stands in contrast to the formal attire of most of the other contestants, labeling her as a student and perhaps hinting at her practicality and studiousness.

Notice her tie is clipped and tucked into her skirt. There is nothing loose or extraneous about her attire, save for her ribbon, nothing that would provide a distraction. Even her hair is pulled back in a tight braid. There is a trim, professional severity to her outfit, but her boots and over-sized ribbon are more personal touches that add a splash of character. The ribbon hints at a more delicate side and the fact that, despite her intelligence and drive, Amelia is still fairly young. The boots? Your guess is as good as mine, but they're adorable.

Very interesting that her color palette is mainly warm, with her yellow-orange skirt, red tie and bow, and pale blonde hair. Orange, especially, is a very energetic, lively color which is a real contrast with Amelia's solemn personality.

Like her attire, Amelia's dialogue is trim and terse, consisting mostly of questions.

"Puzzle-solving?"

We first see Amelia watching the Eternal Kingdom opera from the audience. She is shown right after a performer holds aloft the elixir of eternal life. This action immediately gains Amelia's full attention. She is visibly moved by the sight of it and absolutely fixated. Did Amelia know about the rumors of gaining eternal life prior to the opera? This reaction suggests she did. In fact, it implies that this elixir was the primary reason she decided to attend the opera.

Layton's narration of the opera might also apply to Amelia's own situation to some degree.

"The people of the kingdom adored their queen.

But one day, she fell terribly ill.

Her people tried everything to save her.

But they did not succeed."

It may be a bit of a stretch, but I can't help but see elements and foreshadowing of Amelia's own quest to save her ailing grandfather in this brief narrative.

It's significant that Amelia solves the first puzzle even before Layton and co. Here, the first hints of her sharp intellect and dedication to saving her grandfather are seen. As a chess prodigy, Amelia is undoubtedly a very logical thinker adept at examining problems from different angles and ruling out faulty solutions, often under the pressure of the clock. It makes sense that she would be a quick puzzle-solver.

“The largest crown?”

Like the rest of the remaining contestants, Amelia is initially stumped by the second puzzle (this part also reveals her habit of tugging at her hair when she's thinking. Not that significant to the movie, but I love when characters are given small quirks like this). With perhaps some help from Luke's outburst, she makes her way to the life-boats and boards with Layton and Luke.

“You're the one who shouted out the ship's name and yet you still don't get it?”

The first time Amelia addresses another character is when she questions Luke about being unable to figure out the puzzle's solution. This line comes across as cold and even condescending. Amelia doesn't even make eye-contact with Luke as she speaks. Perhaps she is annoyed that Luke, a mere child, was able to figure out the answer before her, despite the fact that he doesn't quite understand it himself. Maybe there’s a bit of a know-it-all in her. Or perhaps she is simply curious, but her serious, distant nature makes the question sound harsher than she intends. Maybe a combination of all three.

At any rate, this question draws Layton's attention to her and we learn some background. Amelia is very tight-lipped herself. Unlike most of the other contestants, she does not yet reveal her reason for seeking eternal life. In fact, the only thing she reveals herself is her name in answer to Layton's, "Miss, uh...?". Her reply is terse and might indicate she is uncomfortable/embarrassed being addressed as “Miss” (or being addressed by a stranger at all). Notice she refrains from answering the other questions addressed to her. She is very private about her reasons for attending the opera.

It’s a small scene, but effectively establishes Amelia as private, quiet, guarded, and a little cold. It also establishes her connection with Whistler (important).

“A reward or a new puzzle, perhaps?”

Amelia is always asking questions (most of her dialogue is in the form of questions), always thinking, always observing, always trying to figure out the game and remain one step ahead (because of all this, I'd wager she's probably an INTP). She never engages in idle chitchat with the other contestants, never tries to befriend or introduce herself to anyone, but keeps entirely to herself unless it relates to one of the puzzles. Amelia has clearly come to win and she rules out most interactions as irrelevant and a mere distraction to her goal. Of course, I'm sure her being an introvert also contributes to her wanting to keep to herself.

Amelia is skeptical about the food Descole lays out for the contestants on Ambrosia, guessing that it's probably another puzzle. While the other contestants are understandably hungry and relieved at the sight of the feast, Amelia still has the game at the forefront of her mind. To her, the food is just another layer of distraction, another challenge to be considered analytically. Playing chess takes incredible focus and Amelia has obviously applied the full extent of her ability to do so in Descole's game. This is also seen in Puzzle 003. She immediately catches on to Layton's plan to release the cages and continues to pay attention to his actions, ensuring her group successfully solves the puzzle.

“Mr. Whistler? So you're involved in all this.”

Amelia solves the final puzzle and is the obvious candidate for Descole to choose, seeing as Mr. Whistler had hand-picked her himself. Initially alarmed when she is taken away by Descole's henchman, Amelia regains her composure by the time she is escorted to Descole and Whistler, asking, again, a number of questions in order to get a full grasp on the situation.

“Wait! I don't want Eternal Life! I want to give it to my granddad! He only has a month to live. He should be here. He has to drink the elixir of life!”

Finally, Amelia's motive is revealed and it turns out it is rather a selfless one. She was not playing the game for herself like so many of the other contestants, but her ill granddad. That she suddenly reveals something so private to Whistler highlights her desperation and alarm at this turn of events. Amelia has managed to remain cool and composed throughout the game, even when chased by wolves, but now, having come so far, she begins to panic when things don't go the way she imagined. At this point, Amelia abruptly switches from aloof contestant who has remained ahead of the game, to a frightened young girl in a situation spiralling out of her control.

Some might argue this is another case of a female character in the Layton series becoming a helpless damsel, but the tense unraveling of this scene as Mr. Whistler goes from speaking kindly to Amelia, trying to convince her to accept her "prize", to having her restrained by Descole's henchmen as he stoically approaches with the creepy helmet helps to establish his own desperation and how consumed he has become with the notion of preserving his daughter eternally. The whole scene, music and all, significantly raises the stakes. Amelia's realization, too, that she has failed to procure a means of saving her granddad catches her off guard and for a time she loses her ability to think clearly. In this way, we get to see another side to her character. The scene serves several specific purposes, then.

There is also an interesting parallel between Amelia and Whistler, here. Both have become ensnared in Descole's game in order to preserve the life of a loved one and in this scene both reveal their true intentions somewhat abruptly. Of course, the difference is Amelia sought to do so simply by winning the game fairly, while Whistler was ready and willing to sacrifice one daughter in exchange for his own in order to achieve his goal.

Something else interesting. Amelia is obviously a very logical and practical individual. Why would she ever believe in the elixir of life to begin with? She may be a genius at chess, but Amelia is still fairly young and her granddad's time is very short. It's very possible she researched other, more conventional, ways to extend his life, but failed and became desperate as her granddad's illness worsened. That she was willing to attempt so risky a method reveals how much she loves him and desires to save him. The two no doubt shared a close relationship and perhaps her granddad was even the one who raised her.

“We have to help them!”

After being rescued, Amelia slips into the background as the climax unfolds. She remains a part of the group until the end, not having any dialogue, apart from two significant lines. After Descole destroys the Detra-Gigant and it begins to self-destruct she races after the machines along with Emmy and co exclaiming, "We have to help them!" How exactly she intends to help, probably not even she knows, but this is one of her most emotional lines in the entire movie. Despite how cold and focused she can be, Amelia does genuinely care for others and feels a drive to help them even in situations beyond her control.

“I'll remember, as well.”

By Amelia's final line she has returned to her quiet, pensive self. Janice vows to remember Melina “for always” and Amelia quietly states that she will remember as well. It may not seem it at this point, but Amelia is deeply impacted by Melina's final conversation and farewell to her father. This is seen in the credits. Amelia is shown gazing at her grandfather's grave with a small smile, quite a contrast to how desperate she was to save him earlier. The implication is that she has been able to come to terms with his loss, in part, through Melina’s farewell to her father.

One of the major themes of Eternal Diva is coping with loss. Whistler could not handle the death of his daughter, could not stand the thought of living without her, so he tried to preserve her memories through clearly unjustifiable methods that involved stealing the lives of others. Ironically, his attempts are thwarted by the very person he was trying to save and succeeded in bringing back to life. Despite her love for her father, Melina cannot bear the thought of taking another's life, especially that of her best friend, so she voluntarily departs. She promises she will remain with her father in his heart, or, more specifically, his memories. As long as he remembers her, she lives on in a certain sense. A bittersweet thought, of course, because memories are only a pale shadow of the actual life of a person and can also fade with time. Yet the importance and role of memories remains another significant theme of the movie.

The movie presents memories as ties that can connect individuals both living and deceased, bringing individuals together just as the Eternal Kingdom story brought so many to the island of Ambrosia (remember that it is also Melina's memory, of the Song of the Sea, that brings Ambrosia back). Memories cannot replace a person, but memories of those deceased, through their past actions, words, thoughts, and relationships, can continue to shape and influence lives. It was through memory that the Queen of Ambrosia lived on, through memory that Whistler, Janice and the others promise to honor Melina, and through her memories of her grandfather that Amelia is able to find closure and peace after his death. Again, through this, her own story reflects the larger themes of the movie as well as the story of the Eternal Kingdom.

I think it's notable she's smiling in both credits pictures she's featured in. She never once smiles throughout the entire movie. She's that dedicated and dead-set on saving her grandfather, maybe to the point where winning the game (the most important game she's ever been a part of) has become this mission that's consumed her life. She's put this huge burden on herself, this nearly impossible goal, and by the end of the movie she has started to come to terms with the fact that he won't live forever. Painful, but this realization also allows her to stop pushing herself so hard and find some joy again.

In the end, Amelia is not able to save her grandfather, but by remembering him, she retains a small piece of him, symbolized by the chess piece she puts by his grave. Not only does this piece indicate that her granddad taught (or at least encouraged her love for) chess, but it is a reminder that her granddad will live on in this aspect of her life. The love of chess he helped foster in her will continue to be seen as she plays the game and even teaches others. The memory of his life will continue to influence her own and allow her to grow and, in turn, influence and shape others.

Notice how the events of Eternal Diva have changed all of the contestants in the credits images. Pierre and Ceila appear to be a couple, Marco and Curtis have forged a friendship, and Annie keeps Frederich company in his last days. Amelia did not personally connect with anyone during the game for eternal life. It seems Layton and Luke may have befriended her since the events, but notice how they still remain in the background instead of directly interacting with Amelia. The primary change in Amelia's character relates to a relationship that is gone now, though the effects of this relationship will undoubtedly follow her far into the future.

#professor layton #amelia ruth #eternal diva #character spotlight #thinking about doing one of these character spotlights each month or something because this was a lot of fun #of course I had to start with my daughter #anyway I'm open to suggestions :)

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