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veilofvliens · 2 years

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Chapter 1

The world was far too big and all too small for the girl in the car.

The trees went by so fast they began to blur, but the moon stayed steady and stationary, not moving at all.

Oh how she wished to live like the moon; changing, day by day, in small, barely noticeable ways, never the same for long, but always constant in the way it's always there in the sky, even if you don't see it.

Alas, fate's humor is dark and her longing wish seems farther each day.

And today is the day it seems the farthest.

58 kilometers far to be exact.

58 kilometers behind her is the home she lived in for more than 10 years.

And 8 kilometers in front of her is the "Welcome to Seattle" signboard that seemed fatalistic in it's bright but faded colors.

Seattle had done nothing to her, yet she hated all that it stood for.

Hated the schools it boasted about where she knew no one and would be all alone. Hated the streets that she has never walked before and held none of her favorite shops. Hated the vast number of stores that she had to explore, on a quest to find comfort she couldn't in her home. She hated that everything was new and she couldn't find an ounce of familiarity in any inch of this new city.

A little girl with pigtails stomped her glitter covered shoe in her ribcage; again and again, saying the same thing again and again in a pitiful tantrum; *i hate it, i hate it, i hate hate hate hate hate hate hate it*

*i want to go home* she whined.

*oh little one, it doesn't exist anymore* her jaded older self thought.

*the home you were born into is now an empty apartment that will be filled with another's life soon*

*you have to build a new home for the first time in your life*

*i don't want to, that's not how it's supposed to be* the little girl stomped

*and to that i reply with grief's words "oh, but that's how it is"*

tears swam in the little girls eyes, and dribbled down in thick drops, as big as the pearls her dad says they are

the older girl blinks her own dry eyes quickly

the little girl, safe in her chest, can cry all she wants without a second thought

but the older one that sat unguarded in the car had her parents to worry about

parents that would dive in with their recorded positivity that couldn't drown out their wails of regret no matter how loud they turned up the volume

she didn't rebuke her parents for their decision

she knew that they didn't have a choice

but at some point in her past years, when she was that little girl in pigtails, they had a choice

they had the choice that they didn't have now

but perhaps they never did

they never stood a chance against their own disposition

they were a crooked slave to themselves

they resented their actions and performed some more

you can't change who a person is, she had learnt

but if she could only have one wish for her entire life

it would be to make it so that she could

people are a product of their place

the place they grew up in, their place in the arbitrary societal hierarchy

if she could only have one wish for her entire life

one wish that all the gods, all big and small, had to grant

she'd wish she had the power to change

change her fate

change her parent's past

change the world

she wish the world was as malleable as the dirt it was meant to be

and her hands, so slick with tears, could create people and places and pasts and presents

all with a twist of her wrist

the power, the security that no matter what happens she had the means to change would save her from so much heartache, so much regret, so much pain

*but that would make you god, and you are but a mere mortal, it is mortal fate to feel regret and pain and feel a heart break*

*then let me be god* she thought *i am made in his image am i not? let me be god, i do not want to be human*

*this humanity that was spoken of, that was gifted at the price of Prometheus's liver, this humanity that is innate and humane, is not as kind as my teacher taught me it was*

*the way most humans are, you would think humanity is a synonym of tyranny, of cruelty and needless violence, humanity is wars and wins, humanity is dynasty's that fall beneath pride, humanity is stolen pleasures and unpaid debts, humanity is greed and hunger, humanity is fear for an after where our consequences finally affect us,*

*humanity is hubris with a soul*

*the soul makes it salvageable, does it not?*

she dismissed the voice with a shake of her head

*does the fact that a human, no matter how cruel, still has a soul, not leave a chance for redemption?* the voice persisted

*their idea of redemption is a 5 minute prayer and a disregard for religion outside of their benefit*

*they seek shelter in the arms of their protector in times of danger, is that so wrong?*

*they seek shelter but do not follow the rules of the shelter, every religion has only common rule; be kind to all, and yet the one thing that one is, regardless of religion, is unkind*

*unkindliness prevails more than death*

*do you presume you can avoid death if you are kind?*

*i assume less people would be afraid of death if they were kind*

*most of the fear stems from the judgement they'll face, if they're kind, make the effort to be unfalteringly kind, they wouldn't be afraid of judgment*

*do you think most are purposefully unkind?*

*that's what i see*

*so it is your presumption, you're set of traits that you compare them against, that yields the result that they are unkind*

*...i guess*

*are you not being unkind here then?*

*such is the plight of being human i guess*

*cop out*

*you aren't even real, shut up*

*you're the one who listens, no?*

*shut up*

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loveatfirstwriteblog · 3 years

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A Complete Analysis of Harry Potter

Like a lot of kids, we probably grew up on Harry potter. We were obsessed and rightly so. The universe created in the world of Harry Potter was, and is, a hugely successful one because of the fact it gave kids a world where magic exists! It seemed to be a great world to live in and it made even better with the fact that it included elements of empowerment, Whether it be showing girls can be just as successful if not more in various pursuits(Hermione), or the fact that even if you have a history of bad events, you can have a good heart(Hagrid), Harry Potter teaches us a lot.

JKR has written a mind-blowing plot in a world of magic, wizards, witches, wands, potions, friendship, love. Our inner-five-year olds--and actually most of our young adult selves too--jumps around excitedly at the beautifully penned words that creates an exit out of this world and into one where magic does exist.

As you get older, though, you begin to think of Harry Potter in a more critical fashion. The thought of “oh my god, it’s magic” no longer completely overrides my mind, but more of “but what are the laws regarding this? Can people just do this whenever they want? Are there no ethics?”

No matter how much we’re going to expose the flaws and plot holes in HP now, we’ll always love the books--we grew up on them! But some things just niggle you as you get older, and that’s what we’re going to be focusing on in this post.

Something I adore about the HP books is that everyone, including the “good guys”, has flaws. Harry has a “save the world alone, do first, think later” complex, a driving force that makes him go save Sirius, Ron is very, very insecure to a point where he ditches Harry twice, probably when Harry needed him the most, Hermione is a judgemental, narrow-minded nag (her thoughts on Luna, divination, Trelawney, basically anything that doesn’t fit her black and white world), Molly Weasley is misogynistic and blatantly favourites her children—probably being one of the main factors behind Ron’s insecurities, Arthur is condescending towards Muggles and makes several comments you cringe at while reading the books as a young adult/adult, Sirius, Snape, and Lupin still haven’t let go of their childhood grudges and hatred, etc etc etc.

These flaws are what make these characters so three-dimensional, so layered, so human. But the problem was, most of these flaws are never intentionally acknowledged. And honestly, that could have been such a good character arc, because the main characters are mostly students. No student is the same through their teenage years—they change, they evolve, they get over their flaws, they try to better themselves. I would have loved to see Ron becoming his own person, Hermione opening her mind up a little, etc.

Neville is not one of my favourites, but I love his growth and development, from someone who was scared of his potions professor to a man who faced down Lord Voldemort. Ginny Weasley could have had character development, from the trauma she went through in second year, but that was never written in. She went through this terrifying ordeal when she was only twelve years old, and jump to a year or two later and she’s absolutely fine, with no transition from her trauma whatsoever.

Some of JKR’s characters are brilliantly written and fleshed out, but some of her others lack the structure and complexity that usually comes with being vital to the plot—Ginny Weasley for one. Her internalised misogyny also plays a huge part in the way her female characters are written. We see this again in the case of how she wrote the character of Ginny.

Ginny Weasley is not a favourite of ours (if you don’t know that by now). She feels a lot like a convenient male daydream—when she waits for Harry to notice her by dating other guys, gets annoyed by Hermione “not knowing quidditch”, etc etc—and fits the “not like other girls” archetype too much, almost like she was made for it (hint hint). She’s portrayed to be strong-willed, spunky, and independent, and I love the idea, but I really don’t see it. To me, she’s a very shallow character, the least fleshed out one.

Just like James Potter wasn’t necessarily redeemed just because JKR said he was, and Ginny isn’t interesting just because JKR writes that she is.

Hermione also fits the archetype, but she’s JKR’s self-insert, so we really can’t say much about that.

To make things worse, Ginny and Hermione are pitted against each other in a very subtle way. Ginny is the sporty, pretty, flirty girl who’s never single from book 4. Hermione is the not-conventionally-attractive, nerdy girl who’s had a few dates here and there but never a relationship. They’re very different characters (the only thing they have in common is the archetype) but they’re against each other in the defence of Harry.

Another place where JKR’s misogyny shows up is the way other girls are written. Lavender Brown is shown as vapid and immature, just because she likes clothes and boys and didn’t know how to handle her first relationship. Cho Chang is perceived as shallow because she’s emotional. Pansy Parkinson is seen to be throwing herself at Draco Malfoy. The Weasleys hated Fleur because she was beautiful and sexy and French, and that was ever really resolved in the end (Molly accepted her, but we never got Ginny’s and Hermione’s opinions again). You see where we’re getting at? The typical “girly girls” are portrayed as insipid, shallow, emotional, and boring, while girls like Hermione and Ginny are seen to be fun and multilayered.

The problems with Harry Potter don’t just stop with non-fleshed out characters. There are plot devices that go unacknowledged, issues like blood purity—which is the basis of Voldemort’s tyranny—are never really resolved, huge Chekhov’s guns that aren’t fired.

A common misconception, which if cleared up could probably expose a load of problems in wizarding society by itself, is that the wizarding world is racist. It’s not racist. Muggles and Muggleborns are not a different race, they’re a different class, at least according to pureblood wizards. Mudblood is a classist insult (a direct reference to nobility blueblood and aristocracy).

Another factor that wasn’t talked about but made the HP world so complex and realistic is the inherent classism in every single pureblooded wizard, including the Weasleys.

The “Light” wizards all operate on the notion “at least I don’t kill or torture Muggles”. The Weasleys refuse to talk about Molly’s squib cousin who’s an accountant, the Longbottoms were so desperate for Neville to not be a squib they nearly killed him trying to force magic out of him, Ron makes fun of Filch for being a squib, thinks house-elves are beneath him, and confounds his driving instructor in his mid-thirties, the ministry workers kept obliviating that muggle at the quidditch World Cup, etc.

This could have been a metaphor for how small prejudices and microaggressions (kind of the wizarding equivalent of white privilege) enable discrimination and murder, if JKR had actually acknowledged it.

The parallel to Nazi Germany is very twisted and definitely shouldn’t be taken too far, but the Nazi ideology grew on the basis of everyday antisemitism, “that’s not that bad” little things. Voldemort’s circle and army grew because the wizard superiority complex festered and blew up in some people, egged on by a deeply classist society.

Ultimately, Harry Potter has very, very shoddy worldbuilding, the kind of worldbuilding that’s obsessed with answering the “what” of the wizarding world, rather than the “how” or the “why”, which is strange, considering that fantasy or dystopian-era novels’ driving plots and conflicts are usually answering the questions the worldbuilding raises--The Hunger Games and The Shadowhunter Chronicles are two of the best examples of brilliantly written YA fantasy and dystopian novels.

In HP, however, the main plot just avoids the questions the worldbuilding brings up like the bubonic plague.

Voldemort’s agenda is built on prejudice towards Muggles and Muggleborns, but the plot just validates the negative perception of them—at the end of the day, being a wizard is what’s special. The Statute of Secrecy is the foundation of the main concept—blood supremacists believe wizards shouldn’t be hidden away—but only vague, barely-there answers are given to why it exists (a Chekhov’s gun that was never fired).

There are love potions that function like date rape drugs (even Harry was given one by a girl who wanted him to ask her out), potions that force people to tell the truth, potions that literally let you disguise yourself as another person, but the ethics are never talked about, and the laws are so lax that three twelve-year-olds broke them and were never caught.

But at the same time, the worldbuilding is so authentic, because it transforms the wizarding world into straight-up fridge horror. The everyday horrors are just accepted and rolled with. A corrupt government, constant obliviation of Muggles, slavery that isn’t even talked about. These things aren’t obvious to us as readers, or to the wizards as characters, because they match up to the real world, which is filled with things that are horrifying if you dig deeper. The multiple, normalised forms of abuse, police brutality, the violence in prisons that nothing is done about, the glaringly obvious cultural problems we have with consent, etc.

The abusive authoritative figures in HP, like Rufus Scrimgeour, Cornelius Fudge, Dumbledore, Umbridge, etc, are so authentic because real-life politicians and people in high places of power behave that way, and their abuse is excused.

The wizarding world is just like the real world. Corrupt, prejudiced, messed up, but if you’re privileged, or at least have certain privileges, you’re probably not going to notice. The ultimate problem is that the plot doesn’t acknowledge a lot of fridge horror things are messed up either, which is why it miserably fails.

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aquitainequeen · 3 years

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All Is Bliss (Until Someone Loses An Eye): Chapter One: This Is A Glorious Day/Nightmare; Strike Out As Appropriate

Special thanks to @fairy-anon-godmother and @yototothelalafell for being rubber ducks to my rant about this chapter, and to @ellynneversweet for so kindly reading it through several times as it hinged on completion!

(Previous Chapter)

When Vlad closes the doors behind Marial, that’s when Catharine asks her, ‘The Sun Summoner. Is she the real thing, or a fake?’

Marial halts so quickly that the items on the breakfast tray rattle. ‘Really? You’re asking me this?’

‘’Well, yes. Of course.’

Marial sets down the tray and promptly starts raiding it. ‘Real. Kirigan wouldn’t have any part of this if she were a fraud, and he would’ve tested her the moment she was brought before him. She’s real.’

So: Yes, yes, yes! Catherine finally releases all the bubbling joy and it’s flowing everywhere like sparkling wine foaming out of her glass . It’s like the time when she was lording it over Angelique about going to the East to be Empress; it’s the moment she went to her knees and first kissed the ground of East Ravka, greeting it, marrying it. Saints, saints, thanks to you all, how you love me!

What to say, how to say it? Upon this cornerstone she’ll build her claim. ‘The Sun Summoner. Ravka’s shining blazing hope, rising to banish the darkness and the divide in our beautiful land.’ Catherine thumps her clenched first against her breast, that will be most affecting. ‘So soon after I crossed the Fold from West to East, the Sun Summoner rose up to help me light the path ahead, for Ravka and my people —’

‘Who are you talking to?’ Marial says through a mouth full of soft cheese, lounging against the settee. It does not bode well for future speeches.

Nonetheless, Catherine persists: ‘Practising. For when the time is ripe. This is an auspicious beginning for my journey to true power. Ravka’s saviours have emerged together to free our land and our people from tyranny and shadow.’

‘Maybe get some food in you, before you go any further with the speechmaking and the grand plans?’

Impudent; but, Marial is right. This is going to need a full belly and some careful thought. She will have so many blinis with sweetened soured clotted cream and jam, oh, and some tea filled with more jam, sweetness galore!

Marial sticks with the cheese and a plain cup of tea. ‘What did Kirigan say about her? In his letter?’

‘Apparently not much; Orlo says he likely dashed it off before starting back to Os Alta from the Fold. He’s sent the Sun Summoner ahead of him, heavily guarded. Her name’s Alina Starkova, isn’t that just so perfect? She’s young, she’s a cartographer in the First Army. Or,’ Catherine’s throat twitches, a gulp of tea to moisten it up, ‘she was a cartographer. She’ll never have to sketch a map again.’

‘So…’ Marial makes Catherine wait while she takes her own sip of tea. ‘The Sun Summoner just happens to emerge, right at this point, after escaping notice in the First Army for years?’

‘Evidently. What about it?’

Marial fusses with her cup. ‘Seems a bit convenient. How was she able to go without being discovered for so long?’

‘By the Grisha testers?’

‘They test every child in Ravka. Every child. How did they miss her? How did she hide her powers for so long?’

Catherine swallows more of her tea and her why does it matter? because clearly Marial thinks it does and if she’s going to be Empress in her own right, she needs to start thinking beyond the first flush of joy, the fantasy of a storybook romance and a cute pet bear. ‘Maybe she wasn’t tested. There are so many people in East Ravka and the records are shoddy, some people are bound to slip through the cracks.’ Not that this will happen in the future. When she is in power there will be bread, freedom and security for all, never mind what Marial and Orlo say, and all voices will be heard.

Marial sits on the chaise’s arm. ‘And she’s never shown her powers before now? The baby Grisha in the Little Palace are always losing their tempers and causing uproar. One of them killed a man by accident, once, right in front of me.’

‘You’re not serious.’

‘I’m absolutely serious. Though admittedly Count Kireyev was an absolute cunt, and the Emperor thought it was hilarious, so all was forgiven.’

Catherine is not going to ask what exactly happened to the cuntish Count Kireyev , if Peter of all people found it amusing. ‘Well. If she couldn’t control her powers, then she would have been found before now.’ She twists about in her seat and manages to catch and hold Marial’s eye. ‘And if you’re suggesting she’s a spy, then she wouldn’t have survived in Fjerda and in Kerch they’d have enslaved her.’

‘Granted. What do you think she’s like?’ The last question is a little less sour and more intrigued, so it deserves some consideration.

Cuddling into cushions, Catherine licks up jam and thinks. All those old performances of Sun Summoner plays from her girlhood, before the independence movement began stirring and they fell out of fashion. A girl in yellow, fighting and bashing other dancers in black, and now the story those girls performed has stepped out of myths and legends! It’s all too much! What’s most important now?

‘She will be… tall. Golden haired,’ as she tucks her hair strand back in place and takes up her cup again. ‘Graceful...polite, delicate, refined, poised, punctual.’

‘Did you get that from another one of your books? What was it on, deportment?’

‘From my mother. She gave me a grand speech about how I should make myself pleasing to my husband. She said they were the ideal qualities of a perfect wife.’

Catherine could picture her mother’s face. She could imagine her standing tall, golden and graceful, refined and poised, splendid and outshining her scant finery. She’d rather fantasize about grabbing her mother, shaking her, knocking her to the ground, getting in her face and screaming what were you thinking to send me here, to him, so unprepared; did you know, did you know what he was?

Best just to focus on the bright sunshine coming through the window, and to sip her tea.

They both chew and swallow several times before Marial speaks again: ‘If the Sun Summoner’s from the First Army, she’ll likely be none of what you just mentioned. Chances are she’s a foul mouthed, filthy peasant, with mud coloured hair underneath all the dirt. You really want to ally yourself with something like that?’

Marial’s only being her usual sour and snarkish self, true, but Catherine bites down hard on I’m allied with you right now, aren’t I? Marial might technically be all of those things at this very point in time (save the filthiness) but Catherine herself is not one of the bitchy court ladies. Though, need Marial be so sour and snarkish about everything again?

‘Of course I do. And why are you so determined to be gloomy, when a new hope has dawned over Ravka?’

‘Gloom is my refuge, Empress. A servant has no right to react, even to the country’s salvation.’

Catherine’s fingers are sticky from the jam, but Marial needs a hand on her wrist to shake her out of staring at nothing and her desolation, right now. ‘You’re not going to be a servant for much longer, Marial. Don’t let it grind you down.’

Marial smiles all sharp. ‘I’m already placing my hope in you, Empress. Placing it in the Sun Summoner as well is deadly. Hope’s such a dangerous thing.’ And she’s keeping her hand limp in Catherine’s, like a loose glove filled with long stones, too wary to grasp.

‘I will kill Peter. And you will be free.’ Catherine tears off a bit of blini with her teeth, just to prove her point, and it does get Marial smiling a little softer!

That’s enough touching, now; time to let Marial go, time to be Empress again. ‘And if Alina Starkova has served in the First Army, she’s no doubt brave, noble, bold, courteous and devoted to her mother country.’

‘No doubt. Have you ever spoken to one of the First Army’s soldiers, Empress?’

‘No?’

‘Then you’re in for a treat.’

Catherine sniffs and looks back to the window, the sunshine quite lovely on her cheeks. ‘Alina Starkova will also naturally be tender, compassionate and joyous.’

‘That I do doubt. It’s been a long war, Empress, and no one has gotten much joy from it, save the Emperor.’

‘Then that is one more thing I will have to remedy, when I take the throne. I should make some notes. Where’s the paper? This is a glorious day.’

***

‘This is a fucking nightmare.’ Thus, Orlo opens their latest council of war. It is not glorious.

‘Orlo, not you too! She’ll banish the Fold, she’ll help me reunite Ravka.’ And when Orlo raises a finger to try and cut in or tell her to just wait a moment while he waffles on, Catherine only says louder, ‘In what way, pray tell, is this a nightmare?’

‘It’s!’ Orlo actually seems close to panicking; listen, listen. It must be important. ‘It’s not the Sun Summoner, that’s actually very good. But I hoped we’d have months. I thought you would be far more established at court by the time Kirigan got back, you would have been able to meet him fully secured in your role. Right now Peter’s only barely been persuaded out of killing you, the Apparat’s support is fleeting, all the court ladies are wary of you, and the Little Palace thinks you’re an utter joke.’

Well. Hardly a pleasant thing to hear, but regrettably true for his first three points. Marial gets there before Catherine when it comes to the fourth: ‘How the fuck do you know what they’re saying about her in the Little Palace?’

Orlo clearly already regrets everything. ‘I. Well. I have a few acquaintances there.’

‘What kind of acquaintances? Is it a Heartrender? Big, beefy Heartrender? I can see the appeal; the best ones can make you come without even touching you.’ Marial tries her best to bring her lips to Orlo’s ear as he tries his best to get away. ‘Multiple. Times.’

‘Fuck’s sake!’ Orlo decamps to a place of greater safety, so Marial gets the whole of the settee to lounge upon. ‘I have to discuss aspects of Peter’s policy with Kirigan’s delegates on occasion. You know, my job.’

‘Oh, disappointing. Once again I’m reminded just how boring a life you lead.’

Once Marial shuts up, Catherine can finally get her word in. ‘So, wait, you actually talk to the Grisha, Orlo?

They stare at her like she’s a pet bear.

‘Well, yes. Of course. If we wish.’

‘They can even talk back, if they wish. They’re not servants.' Marial stands up all of a sudden at that, just in case someone bursts in and catches her lounging.

‘Do you not talk to them? Empress?’ This from Orlo, beginning to look most worried. Is Catherine the cause of that? She can’t lose him now! What does he want her to say?

‘Our estate wasn’t near enough to the border, or wealthy enough, to merit one being in residence. And any children on our land who were discovered were sent to the Little Palace right away. The first time I ever saw a Grisha up close was during the journey through the Fold, and then I wasn’t allowed to talk to them for fear they’d get distracted and we’d all die with the Volcra chewing our guts.’

They all nod. Indeed, something to be avoided at all costs.

‘And then I saw some of them were at the wedding banquet, but none of them got near enough.’

‘Empress, may I just ask –’ No, no! Orlo is worried by her now. By what she’ll say. What did she do wrong? ‘What are your attitudes towards the Grisha?’

Careful, careful. ‘How do you mean?’

Marial, casting her eyes up in thought: ‘Well, let’s see; do you think they’re demons walking around in human skins and devoid of souls?’

‘What? No!’

‘There, you see?’ Marial ignores Catherine to look at Orlo. ‘Already she’s doing better than the Church.’

‘Oh saints, do people here actually still believe that?’

‘A few.’ Marial considers. ‘Mmm, more than a few. Most of the peasants. Some of the more devout and stupid nobles. The Apparat, on his bad days.’ She spots Catherine’s face and grimaces. ‘Yeah, he and Kirigan don’t really get along.’’

This from Orlo, clasping his hands like he’s ready to rub them in glee — not worried now, is he?! ‘What is your position on the rise of indentured servitude inflicted upon the Grisha in Kerch, and particularly Ketterdam?’

‘Abominable, of course!’

Orlo hisses Yes! and pumps his fist. ‘And if Kirigan should ask what you think of the fact that General Zlatan’s likely turning a blind eye to Fjerda raiding West Ravkan ports, and abducting Grisha?’

Catherine bites down hard on He’s fucking doing what? because she isn’t talking to Orlo now, this is merely a prompt for when she will be speaking to Kirigan, who will be judging her and cannot find her wanting when it comes to the Second Army, his army, her army. ‘I would say that — that Zlatan is a fool and a traitor towards Ravka, to not only let her subjects be captured and slaughtered by her enemies, but to actually permit it.’

‘All right. That’s wonderful! Oh saints, that’s such a relief.’ Orlo almost falls into a chair, takes off his glasses and rubs away the sweat.

While he recovers, Catherine turns to Marial. ‘I just thought, because Peter was the only one to speak to them at the banquet, no one else was of high enough rank? Or we both are, as Emperor and Empress. But the nobility can talk to them as well?’

Marial shrugs. ‘Even we servants can; but, that’s the thing. You can, but why would you want to?’

Catherine meets Orlo’s eye. Once more she feels his kindred spirit, how he pleads with all his soul for her to deliver him from this uneducated hellhole, he hates it here too.

‘Aside from the fact that I need to get the Second Army on my side, why would you not want to? When they practise the Small Science? When their existence so thoroughly shapes and affects the universe, and they have fought so hard to protect Ravka against her enemies?!’

Marial, she who has no romance in her soul, snorts. ‘Again, watched a baby Grisha kill a man before my very eyes. And they’re all arrogant pricks.’

‘Which you clearly have plenty of experience with.’ Orlo stands and twists out of reach of Marial, snarling and trying to land a blow on his arm. ‘The Grisha rarely come to the Grand Palace save on official business, and non-Grisha are only welcome in the Little Palace by special invitation. I was hoping we’d have a chance to improve your reputation with the Grisha, before Kirigan returned; I know certain of them will have written to him about your — ’

He gestures helplessly at the entirety of Catherine. ‘Your everything.’

‘But now he’ll return to find me with a husband who barely tolerates me. A court that hates me.’ Strange, that Catherine only really starts thinking of the Black General himself when he’s opposed to her, rather than serving her. She should be terrified. Should she be terrified?

‘He’ll judge you, and – forgive me, Empress, but he’ll find you wanting. And you’ll be a weakling in his eyes forever. He might not be able to fob off Peter, but he’ll never allow you to touch the Sun Summoner’s train if he deems you worthless.’

Think of being the object of disdain, for a man like that! Enough to make one shrivel and die. But if she’s going to be Empress she cannot be afraid of anything. She especially can’t be jumping at, hah, at shadows. Not when the sunlight is so warm on her hair and skin, even through a window and her gown.

Marial breaks the silence in her own special way. ‘Besides which, he’ll be inclined to fuck you over regardless, since he can’t get at General Zlatan.’

Ah. Zlatan. Of course he would still be cocking things up for her, even on this side of the Fold. ‘Zlatan protested my betrothal at every turn, and I shall see him dealt with. But why would Kirigan hate me, if my marriage unifies Ravka?’

‘Therein lies the problem-’ This from Orlo, palms facing upwards and empty- ‘-he dearly wants West Ravka brought back into the Emperor’s bosom-'

‘Brought to heel, ‘ Marial mutters.

‘-but not at the expense of the East. Peter’s already far too obsessed with the West and western thinking for Kirigan’s liking as it is. He’ll worry that you’ve brought dangerous ideas to court that could threaten his position.’

‘Plus his Little Palace and his army.’

Orlo nods agreement with Marial. ‘The General is a most fervent protector of the Second Army and the Grisha. When the search for Peter’s bride moved to West Ravka, Kirigan did voice his concerns about an Empress with western attitudes towards Grisha.’

Frankly, Catherine’s flattered that Kirigan might think her attitude has any weight whatsoever right now; and more flattered Orlo believes that Kirigan would think it. ‘His concern is misplaced. All people of Ravka are my children, West and East, Grisha and non-Grisha alike. Every Ravkan child has the right to live without fear, in the knowledge that Mother Ravka is their staunchest defender.’

Marial groans — she actually rolls her eyes, the cow. ‘Pretty words, but he’s heard such things a thousand times before, signifying nothing. You’ll need to back up all your grand speeches.’

Catherine marches over to the table so that she can at least finish her bloody breakfast. ‘Fine. Then how am I to do that, if he’s apt to “fuck me over ” rather than listen to me?’

‘Marial’s being ridiculous; there would be no fucking.’ Orlo pauses, distracted, and shudders like a startled horse. ‘And you do have some advantages — the chief being that you aren’t Peter.’

‘That is not the least bit encouraging, Orlo.’ Catherine bites into the last blini, looking him dead in the eye and chewing hard.

‘I meant that Kirigan’s known Peter for nearly all of his life, and any hopes he had for him are thoroughly burned. You, now, are an entirely new and unknown factor. You can woo him with your ideas and plans. You need to show him that when you take the throne, you have the drive and capacity to bring about the change he desires.’

‘Right.’ Catherine nods, swallows, sets her best foot forward in her mind. ‘So. What exactly does he want?’

‘Basically, just promise him whatever he asks for when it comes to the Grisha, and you’ll have him eating out of your hand.’ Marial’s voice gets lighter as she stares off into the distance: ‘Maybe even eating from further down.’

What?

Orlo chimes in thank the saints. ‘Whatever he asks, within reason. Remember, it has to be believable. And you do not want Kirigan angry at you, if you fail to keep your promises right away when you come to power.’

Catherine waits for the terror to finally arrive. Think of one of the most dangerous men in Ravka, in the world, furious with her! And yet think, too, of making deals with the Black General, of being able to lure and hook and reel him in, of having the ability to grant his desires! ‘He’s the leader of the entire Second Army, he won’t be satisfied with small promises.’

‘All right then. Forget wooing him, try seducing him.’

Catherine glares at bloody Marial. ‘Two minutes ago, you were saying he’d gladly fuck me out of spite because he can’t get at Zlatan. Now you’re saying I should spread my legs for him? How is this in any way an improvement?’

‘This is quite different . Make him want to fuck you out of raw desire, as opposed to revenge by proxy.’

‘Yes, because that worked so well last time.’ And they both look at Orlo. Who looks at his shoes and also looks like he wishes to shrivel up and disappear, but he manages to squeak, ‘He’ll never go for it.’

‘Unlike some people around here, Kirigan actually knows what to do with a woman. And he has a definite taste for royalty.’

Not Peter. Don’t let it be Peter. Please, Sankt Valentin, don’t let her have to compete with her husband over another one of his bed mates.

‘Supposedly he was one of Elizabeth’s lovers for a time, back in the day.’

That…is marginally better. ‘Really?’ Somewhere behind Catherine, Orlo’s saying ‘oh saints’.

‘Oh, yeah. Sometimes when she’s more off her tits than usual, she says he ruined her for anyone else, no matter how she searches, and I do believe she’s serious. So, he must have left quite the impression.’

Which means Catherine might have to try and seduce the deadliest man in Ravka, who is also old enough to have swived her aunt-by-marriage in her girlhood…so, old enough to be her own father, at least. Saints. At least Peter’s young and easy on the eye, and he smells like something living. Plus Kirigan was able to satisfy Aunt Elizabeth; who knows what kind of bizarre tricks he’ll expect in bed, or against a wall? And she fucked it all up with just virgin Orlo, fuck.

Orlo breaks out of whatever had him so horrified and enthralled (likely also the act of satisfying Aunt Elizabeth) to say in desperation, ‘Why does she have to seduce anyone?’

Catherine suddenly might just love Orlo, though not enough to kiss him.

Marial hmms and nods. ‘That’s true. If you threw yourself at Kirigan right now, with how little you still know of sex, you’d just look utterly desperate.’

‘…as opposed to when I threw myself at Orlo?’

‘Orlo knows nothing of sex and was far more frightened of you than you were of him. The General, now, would either be amused or despise you, and we’d go right back to “being weak in his eyes for eternity”.’

‘Well.’ Her voice cracks, shit. Catherine swallows and tries again. ‘Well, first I must meet with him, and then I can decide if it is a route I will take. In due course.’

‘No, first you must decide on how to win back the approval of the ladies. Get your court in order before you start courting the armies!’

‘Fine; but, Orlo, I cannot lose sight of the Sun Summoner. I will not let Peter take the credit for her!’

‘I know, I know. We can plan for that, we’ll start right now, she’s not going to arrive for at least a few days yet. Where’s the paper?’

‘And there is this.’ Marial goes to tidy up the breakfast tray and clear the table for plotting purposes. ‘Kirigan’s going to hate sharing his big find with Peter and the Apparat. You’ll look like a saint incarnate when the Emperor starts screaming and throwing a tantrum.’

‘Indeed. Praise saints for once that I’m married to a fucking moron.’

(Next Chapter)

#shadow and bone fic #shadow and bone #the great #the great fic #catherine the great #count orlo #marial #the great hulu #hulu the great #cw language #fic: all is bliss #alina and Kirigan will be in the next one

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sokayisaidiot · 3 years

Text

Dream SMP Assumption #7

Today’s topic: Everybody is suffering and you know it.

Please DO NOT read if you’re uncomfortable with the themes of death, depression and suicide. It’s a very complicated theme. I did NOT study it and do NOT know some aspects of it. I just go off the things I saw in the smp and made my own theories about it. If you’re even slightly triggered by this, please stop and do NOT try to read it. Please do NOT put yourself in some kind of uncomfortable zone.

Please do not. Thank you

(This is all assumptioning from the fictional world of dream smp)

(Heavy spoilers on the resent events)

(Also just assumptions, when you know something, you can always drop it :))

(Mainly around the lmanburg way, sadly need to learn more about badlands ): )

(This Series is created by another person, that’s just too fuckin lazy to move her butt)

Trigger warning today:

Suicide thoughts

(PTSD)

Depression

War

Child Neglect

Betrayal and Trust Issues

Death

Lets get this straight, no one is pure evil just because. Everybody has something happening and BOOM, finished chaos and sadness and strange behavior and aggressiveness and- You get me? Good. I will take on EVERYBODY who says that a person in the story didn't suffer. I aint a Apologist either. I just want to make some things clear who suffered how. Understand? Good.

Stop saying “[Character] didn't suffer!” Hell yes somehow everybody, close in the lore, fuckin did.

LET’S GET STARTED

__________________________

Tommyinnit

Lets start with one, who should be pretty obvious. Tommy. In my second Assumption, I explained symptoms of PTSD and Depression.

He was never really trusted by any point

Was just as used as Techno, because who had Tommy controlled was pretty powerful

He was exiled by a country, he HELPED saving MULTIPLE times

He saw his brother get killed by his father

He experienced so many deaths (Tubbo’s, in the final control room, Schlatts,

He lost his pets

He lost his belongings

Has to be on edge constantly

Gets accused by someone and then MOSTLY EVERYBODY believes, it was him

He isn’t really taken seriously

He gets seen as power-hungry person

People literally having him on the Hitlist

He nearly saw his best friend dying, on a mission, that was started by him

His older Brother, who he has an confused relationship with, doesn't even want to be revived.

Lost his brother to insanity and had to sit in the FRONT ROW of this spiral

PTSD

Depression

Suicidal thoughts

Betrayal

next to no one on his actual side

got left by almost everyone

was stuck on a island with an amnesiac ghost, who is a shell of his older brother

gets told his comfort items he had before everything else didn't matter

constantly has to live on the edge because he runs around with one just fuckin heart

Tubbo

Next to Tommy, he also suffers from PTSD, Depression and Suicidal tendencies. And that doesn't mean you kill yourself. It means you are too careless to give a fuck. And that can happen. TUbbo was way too easy to give up his OWN LIVE for something his best friend has passion in it.

He got publicly executed in a place HE DECORATED by someone he considered his Allie

Had the burden of Presidency on his YOUNG shoulders

The People who had to teach him about it, were also there for the tyranny

Got constantly considered a pawn, a throwable item

The adults use him as a figure head and proceed then to use him

He HAD to exile his best friend, or Tommy would have died sooner than ever

PTSD

Suicidal in a way of being okay for dying

Depression

Betrayal

Never gets taken seriously

Gets over-spoken a LOT

GETS COMPARED TO FUCKIN MANIACS OFTEN

Didn’t get nice words after his manipulator told him down, just SILENCE

He nearly died

He heard

Got left by everyone, when they didn't see anything in this place anymore

got told by his best friend, that the discs were more worth than him

As Tommy, he is always on the edge of death

Technoblade

Techno is one of the most powerful people here on the server. No doubt about it. However, if someone, even a God, tries to refuse they have feelings, it’s impossible. And those feelings, when they get something terrible done to them, get hurt.

BETRAYAL

Loneliness

A bloodlust he sometimes seriously can't control, no matter how much he tries

His best friend (Wilbur), died before his eyes

He thought he could trust his (little brother figure) friend

Gets used often for material

betrayal

Has a hard time understanding his feelings

Gets talked over

Is socially avoiding talking

Gets seen as a bad guy many times

Trust issues, yay!

Also BETRAYAL

has at least some people who want to kill him

Wilbur Soot

Our favorite maniac! Yay! We can all see how he fell from a proud Leader of a family to an lost in himself man, with nothing left to loose

Had to countdown his brothers death

Was killed by his father

His OWN SON disowned him

He wasn't able to get help, especially not from his younger brother

His Allies were not really trust worthy

He got betrayed by a close comerade

His dear Brother was sometimes really chaotic

He had to lead an army to war, not one, but two times

He lost the election

He had to run away from a country he helped create

Had a hard time with this father (with how it’s shown, that he maybe was neglected and had to raise Tommy)

Ranboo

Our favorite Memory-Minutes-Boi! I think EVERYBODY in this community will protect him

His first days on the server were pure Chaos

Had to see a person, he considers a friend, being rotten away and not being able to do anything about it

A sister figure who just went angry

He isn’t trusted by anyone really

He knows things others don’t

ALSO LOSING YOUR MEMORY AND HAVING CONSTANT MEMORY LOSS FUCKIN SUCKS, TRUST ME

Has serious issues

GETS TALKED OVER

Is often forced to take a side, even if he's against it

Phil

He has a hard time. Especially with the death, failed resurrection, disowning one of his son, he didn't got even close to. Being

Also on the edge of death every day

Was in the end peer pressured into killing his own son

Suffering from the loss of his son

Couldn't help his youngest son in exile, because he thought Tommy hated him

Wasn’t there for L’Manburg glory days

was ridiculed in his house arrest

Dream

Of course, we all know how mad he is now and shit, but you gotta think, he has some points here, that are infecting his behavior LARGELY

His friends left him, without considering helping him

He had lost his dear pet before

He actually wanted peace, but fell into the fun of destruction and chaos without someone knowing or helping him

He is homeless

Probably, he is a old being, that already suffered for millions of years

Sapnap

He’s actually one of my favorite Characters and I think we know he has a place in here.

Third wheels a l o t

Constantly being referred as the THIRD person, who isn't important

Fought his friend, who took the side of a child

Said friend had one of his beloved fishes by his side the hole time

Said Fish got thought as dead

Fundy

Some of you guys forgot how sad actually Fundy’s character is. He IS one of the most hurt characters. And he gave up hope

constantly being talked over

disowned by his hole family

GREW UP IN OLD L’MANBURG, WHICH WAS AT WAR

doesn’t think he is a part of a group

had to disown his father, to help fight a tyrannt

Got babied his whole life

His dead father is still running away from their problems

Doesn’t know where his mum is

Lost his home so often

Nihachu

Actually the person I watched for the first long time as in the SMP

Again, being talked over

Doesn’t get taken seriously

Lost her Best friend (Wilbur)

Got betrayed by her friend, Karl, by him selling their Land to L’Manburg

Gets used as a hostage or Maid in Distress, even when she isn’t

Got her pets killed

Then constantly being used for her niceness

Jack Manifold

He has a pretty big Role now, and he's very VERY angry. And you might ask why

Got left behind by his country

doesn’t get taken seriously

Got his most powerful items removed in one thing

His land somehow is near a crater

got told he didn't suffer somehow

Went to mf hell

Quackity

Quackity, despite his funny demeanor, he's one of the hurt character

with him staying with Schlatt, he had a uncomfortable relationship a long time

got killed by the festival

somehow helped organize the death of a child

Said kid helped a revolution against him

he helped a tyrant come to power and will probably never get it live down

fought for a country so often, but, two times, it got exploded in front of his face

had to face war, also in a young age

Eret

Our favorite King is here too! Yes, he may have started the distrust spiral of Eret, but somehow, someone would still have led them to the FINAL CONTROL ROOM. Somehow History will always be happening.

Had one of the hardest time, getting forgiven

Was never really given a chance

got accused of something

gets used as a pawn

He has shown often regret

got left alone

I think we all can say they are just having MULTIPLE communicate, trust and self worth issues. Like goddamn, Puffy, please help them, you’re one of the only sane people in the lore-

#Dream SMP #Quackity #Wilbur Soot #Tommyinnit #technoblade #tubbo #Philza #Nihachu #Fundy #Eret #Jack Manifold #Sapnap #Dreamwastaken #Ranboo #mcyt #dream smp assumption #Dream SMP Lore

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meadow-roses · 3 years

Note

aske time :) for the writing asks: A1, A2, A10, A12, A14, your choice of anything in B, C8 ( :^) ), C11, D6

A1: Introduce the characters from one of your current WIPs in one or two sentences each.

Okay let's gooo,,, I'll do The Keepers cause I haven't talked about that one as much. These aren't gonna be the best descriptions but whatever

Ketsler: Quirky, fun-loving, everyone's weird grandpa, but also the most powerful person to have ever lived. He's old- so very, very old- and he's seen so much over all the centuries he has been protecting the worlds from Chaos, but he still makes an effort to slow down and appreciate the little things around him, because he knows better than most how fleeting life is.

Skylar: Skylar is from a world where faerie circles are real and witches turn people into frogs and trolls live in great, big castles and are slain by talking cats, a world where there's too much adventure to stay in one place, too many people to meet, and too many monsters to slay to stop running. He may be only a human (ooo mystery!!) but he is proficient in Wind magic and carries around a good bit of rune stones he and his pet dragon have found along his adventures.

Felix: Felix is just a normal human from a small town after the earth becomes united under one world power. He wasn't born with superpowers like most soldiers are, but he was still skilled enough to join a special force working behind enemy lines when the rebellion made its move to free the planet from the tyranny that built this dystopian reality.

Betty: A very sweet young lady, she's from a planet that was colonized by humans centuries ago. She may seem naive, but Betty can read anyone like a book and uses her gift to help those who are lost find themselves again.

There's more characters but I'll just stick with those main ones cause I really struggle with descriptions xD

A2: Who's your favorite character to write and why?

Probably Joden? I haven't written most of my characters, but I looove writing his dialogue. He also makes me think so I can keep him clever lol

A10: What’s your character development process like? (As in how you develop them, not necessarily their development in-story)

I roleplay them! The more developed they are, the more I've acted as them. It really gets me inside their head to try and think like how they think, and that results in me being more equipped to "discover" why they are like that.

A12: What kind of internal conflict does your character go through (want versus need, personality complexes or strong personality flaws/”fatal flaw” kinda thing)? How does this affect them?

It really varies depending on the character? For example Joden has this need to always have a plan, always be in control, and a breaking moment for him comes in when he finally just,,, doesn't know what to do. He's in over his head and the only thing he can do is trust Jacer to do what he can- knowing Jacer doesn't have things under control.

So that's an example of a flaw that the character gets to overcome, but there also characters whose flaws are part of who they are. Skylar wouldn't be Skylar if he weren't stubborn. Ketsler wouldn't be Ketsler if he weren't arrogant. They never grow out of these flaws, they just learn to control them. Or I guess not be controlled by the flaw.

This is actually something I think I struggle with for my characters, giving them those visable flaws. I see other people's characters that start out "bad" and grow into heroes, but it kinda seems like all my characters start out as heroes. 😅 I mean, they have flaws, but in comparison to other people's characters they feel really bland in that aspect. Idk

A14: Ramble about your characters. Anything special you like about them? Random little details you’ve added that you enjoy?

Uh,,, I don't even know where to start I just love all of them for so many various reasons. Joden is just a clever little genius but he still can be so naive. He just has simple pleasures and it's not hard to make him laugh or smile and practically impossible to discourage him. He starts off just,,, wanting his old life back and then he sees what the world is like outside his little bubble and the bubble pops. He sees the atrocities for what they are and to be able to settle down again, he has to fix it. He can't just smile and do as he's told, he can't let the bad guys win. It I just his mother and wife and son he's fighting for, it's the entire wood and the idea of being actually, truly, free.

Jacer is so savvy, he knows what to do and what to say to get into and out of any situation, but at the same time he's just clueless when it comes to genuine connection. He's a princeling who's really never had a friend and now he's saving the world with Joden who only knows how to make genuine connections. Why does he have to keep hugging me??

And Twylla who's ready to fight anything so she can get her clever idiot husband back?

Adric who's just doing his best to be a good leader but everything keeps going wrong. He wasn't born to be a king, he wasn't born to lead an army, he always had his big brother to help him do these things and he's gone- he's gone and he's not coming back he messed up again so bad and yet here he is with everyone looking to him for answers and he doesn't know what to tell them. But he's got his friends, and he's got a good heart, and he genuinely cares and they're going to figure it out.

Skylar just keeps running forward and he never looks back at the past he just jumps from one adventure to another stopping the monsters and saving the day. He's got Gigi what more does he need?

Felix is just,,, he's just such a nice guy. Over and over he stepped into the gap because someone's gotta fly that fighter, someone's got to fire that gun, someone's got to stabilize the bomb, someone's going to lose their life to ensure the victory, why shouldn't it be him? But he never actually dies, somehow he always survives and lives to fight the next day, and the next day and the next day, and then they win the war- the world is free. And even though he's been through so much he still hasn't lost that kindness, that love for all life that makes him himself. He still falls in love and starts a family and has his own beloved children… and even when he loses them he still doesn't become cynical. He still stands in the gap and is the one to fire the gun, to hold the hand of the one who's mourning, to scoop up the orphan child and carry them home. He fights, so others don't have to. Father to the fatherless and hero for all. Also he puts up with Skylar's time traveling craziness lol

And Ketsler? Unlike everyone else he never chose to be a hero. What are you supposed to do when you're a four year old boy and everyone tells you you're the hero they've been waiting for, praying for, you have to save them. It wasn't at all his choice to be born with the power of the universe running through his veins. To hold the Inness in his hands and bend reality to his will. But he didn't run away. He never hid from his destiny. He took the world onto his shoulders and never set it down. Only once- and he's never going to do it again. Never going to ask someone to fill in his role for him, it is his burden to bear… Except not anymore. Despite being multi-millenniums old, all that time didn't dull his appreciation for the little things. A baby's smile, sunshine through the leaves, the change of the seasons. The union of two souls in marriage, or the colors of the sunset streaking a foreign sky. He still sees these things, loves these things, fights for these things. Cause it's the little things he's fighting for, not just the big things. The precious moments and precious lives that make up the worlds. One of his apprentices asked him once, he'd been fighting for so long, when was it going to end? It's not his job to strike the final blow, to end the suffering and bloodshed, just to help. He saves the world, so that he can save it again.

I have… several more characters I'd love to ramble about but that answer's gotten pretty long so I'll cut it off there. XD

B3: Do you have any plot twists? No need to describe them, just think about what kind of reaction you want from your readers.

Oh I was just talking to August about this the other day. XD There is one plot twist in the Keeper's story I'm reeaaally looking forward to hehe I want to make people confused and then really mad when the whole thing is stretched out. >:)

C8: Does magic exist in your world? Who can use it? How does it work?

It really depends on which WIP, but in general I like to keep magic restricted with rules. Joden's story and the Keeper's story are in the same universe (along with ThRoG) and follows that magic system. It's too complicated to go in depth here, but "magic" exists in another plane of existence, and things in the material world have varying levels of connection with it. It's kinda the energy that holds all worlds together and sustains life. The magic realm- the Inness is not a place where physical matter should exist, only spirits can walk there.

Wizards are creatures that stand with one foot in the physical realm and the other in the Inness. Tevlar is destroying the world basically by turning it inside out- pulling the Inness out.

C11: Have you developed historical figures? How do you develop them? How in-depth do you go?

Oh yes. I am a complete history nerd so if any world EXISTS it has history, and history only happens because people.

Sometimes it's a thought through process of "somebody needs to go here" and sometimes it's an npc from a time travel rp that took on more importance than I originally intended.

It really varies how in depth it will go? Sometimes it's just a name to fill a spot and other times it's like, man I could write a whole book about this guy!

One historical figure would be Ares of the Pegasus. He was a powerful warrior that won a bunch of wars and united the different pegasus clans under his leadership and became the first king. He's really famous and people like naming their kids after him in a kinda superstitious hope they'll grow into attributes of his character. Ares is the male form of the name, Aris is for girls. It's like, the most common Pegasian name. XD

D6: Are there any writing styles that inspire you?

Probably the first writing style I wanted to emulate was Tolkien's, but I also really liked Andrew Peterson's? Tolkien is so dramatic, and Peterson isn't heavy on location descriptions, so I'm kinda aiming for in between I guess.

#thanks for the ask!!#sorry that took so long to answer 😅#reblog #text #writing #keepers #deepwood #shifters #ask

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shadowofthelamp · 3 years

Text

Wrong

Zib's plan goes off without a hitch. There's no meddling alternates to stop it. Everything is perfect.

Or at least, it should be.

Sort of a sequel to both Best-Laid Plans and Oh Perfect Dib. It could follow either, just assume comic!Zim and Dib never stumbled into the Zimvoid. Likes, reblogs, and comments appreciated both here and on ao3!

Warnings: Some violence, Zib kills Zims carelessly but without any graphic detail.

Wordcount: 2069

Ao3 link

He snapped his fingers. “Drone.”

“Yes, Number One?” Five’s wings fluttered as he stared at Dib with wide eyes.

“Report.”

“Two universal cleansings completed. Zims two and twelve have completed their missions. Seven and nine are waiting for your orders, sir.”

“Good, good.” Dib nodded at Five, who gave a single nod back before stepping back against the wall and looking down to the floor. He was a good little minion. About an inch taller than the average Zim. A good foot shorter than Two had been.

Why was he thinking of that? Two was gone. He’d fulfilled his purpose. There was no need for him anymore. There were literally thousands of other Zims that could take his place.

“Drone.”

“Yes, Number One?”

“Do you…” He trailed off. “Nevermind.”

____

He circled Five, boots squeaking on the shiny floor. Five stayed still as he could with only a mere involuntary twitch of his gossamer wings. Other than those, his antennae bent forward. Dib didn’t like that. They made it look like he wasn’t listening.

“Five, put yourself in line next, and find me a replacement second in command.”

Five’s eye twitched before he nodded.

____

Fourteen was good. Dib liked Fourteen. He was a bit on the taller end but knelt down on one knee when addressing Dib, and was from some kind of medieval dimension. Very loyal so the virus had plenty to work with, meaning there was no delay in his responses.

He kept calling Dib ‘liege’ though, and while ‘Lord Dib’ was kind of nice, it also just struck him as a bit much. Plus the clanking of the armor got annoying and he made a whining noise when it came off when Dib wanted to do tests on him. (He did tests on his second in command a lot. It was more a matter of them being the one that was physically in the room than anything. Two had jumped at the chance even before the virus, and Dib had never dropped the habit.)

____

Twenty-One wore a maid’s outfit. Dib wanted to keep that one just for laughs, but his chest felt funny when he bent over so he had him thrown out with the rest of the Elite.

____

Nineteen, the skater Zim, had an obnoxious accent. Dib didn’t know where he’d picked it up from. He sent him out within the day.

____

Three was literally an animal. Dib has no idea how it had gotten that high in the rankings other than the fact that Zims were morons, although the fact that it foamed at the mouth sometimes told him that it was probably just really violent. He had it incinerated instead of working for the cleansing plan, since it would probably muck things up anyway.

____

Thirty-Two was…

Dib liked him. He wore a tutu, but other than sort of fluttering around as he walked, there wasn’t really anything that bothered Dib about him other than the fact that he was a Zim, and he thought that he was, unfortunately, getting pretty used to Zims by now, especially ones that obeyed his every whim.

“Your drink.” Thirty-Two was down on one knee, head down, and Dib scooped the soda up before setting a hand on Thirty-Two’s head. A rumble echoed around him and he looked up.

“Huh?”

Thirty-Two didn’t say anything, and Dib looked down, realizing that the head under his palm was vibrating slightly. He was purring. Dib blinked down at him, hand drifting to the side to stroke up at his antenna, and Thirty-Two leaned into the touch, purring louder. It sounded like a dying engine.

He had him replaced within the week.

He told himself that he just didn’t like the orange of his leotard, and that was good enough.

____

Just because the only help he had was Zims didn’t mean he shouldn’t expect them to work perfectly well. He’d drained them of all that pesky resistance with the virus and their screw-ups generally disappeared with their control, so why did they keep driving him up the wall? They looked like Zims, but didn’t act like them, that should have been more than enough! He had an army now!

Dib tried surrounding himself with just the ones that weren’t irken, but their voices, even devoid of personality, rubbed a grater in his guts, shredding all the meaty bits up whenever they addressed him.

“Right away, Number One.”

“Of course, glorious Dib.”

“As you wish, sir.”

“You’ve got it-”

“Shut up!” Dib only realized when it left his hand that he’d chucked a piece of scrap metal at- he didn’t even know what number it was. It was some kind of vampire Zim, with a hooded cloak that hung over his eyes and the number collar. The Zim didn’t dodge, the metal smacking into him with a wet thud, and a moment later his eyeball popped out, pink blood trailing down his face. “Just shut up, I don’t want to listen to you, I don’t want to listen to any Zim. Zim, Zim Zim, there’s only you and I’m sick of it!”

The Zim didn’t say anything, and Dib’s fists balled up, nails digging into the soft flesh. He could feel the crescent dips from the last time he’d made fists, nails sharp enough to dig in and it hadn’t been enough time for the Pak to have healed them. He was getting annoyed more and more easily these days.

“Well? Going to take me insulting you?”

“You told me not to speak,” the Zim droned, cloak rustling as he shifted slightly. The eyeball was still dangling loosely from the optic nerve.

“Right. Right, I did do that…” He waved his hand. “Pop your eyeball back in.”

The Zim did.

"Tell me what you think of me."

"You're perfect and I'm honored to serve you, Dib." Blood kept dripping down his face, sliding under the cloak and out of sight.

He was sent off for the plan a few hours later. The fact that he was injured and that might affect his usefulness for the plan didn’t really cross Dib’s mind, he just wanted him gone for how he made something churn in his stomach. (Especially when he saw him from the corner of his eye.)

____

None lasted for more than two days. Why would they? Dib had a very large supply of puppets to use, why would he waste time on any individual one that wasn’t measuring up? He deserved the best, after all.

(His left eye had started to develop a persistent twitch.)

He tweaked the programming, made them slightly less robotic. It was just for something to talk to. He was sacrificing his own time to help cleanse the universe, he should have someone to talk with, even if it wasn't very intelligent conversation. He was still talking to himself in essence, but it was a little less blatant, at least. It wasn’t like they had enough will left to pry away, especially not now that he was on the fourth iteration of the virus.

“What do you plan to do when this is done?”

“Hmm?” Dib pulled his goggles up from welding something on one of the newer ships. “Oh! That’s easy. I’ll just…” He trailed off, the confidence in his sentence dying in his throat. “I’ll find another universe to call home. Maybe I’ll find some cute ghost-hunting girl or something, I dunno.”

Zim- some kind of supervillain one, he had a cape- tilted his head to the side. “Ah. What would you want in a companion?”

“Easy. I’d want someone who listens to everything I say, but also has ideas of their own so I’m not just talking to a brick wall. Talented in combat and fun to spar with, I’d need that if I take them on paranormal expeditions. They have to put me first, I don’t want to be ignored ever again. It doesn’t even need to be a human, honestly- I’m sick of people, and all I have to do is take one of the ships and go into one of the cleansed dimensions. Maybe a vortian or something.” He patted the Voot he’d been fixing up.

“That makes sense, Number One. You would find someone who deserved you, I’m sure.”

The Zim gave a strained, programmed smile, and there was a flash of purple.

“So, what’s the plan when we’re ready?”

Dib’s heel bounced, toes settled down inside of the heavy metal Zim-suit as he shifted on his throne.

“I’ll be sending you all out to make things right. You’ll be changing everything, and conquering those inferior people.”

Two grinned. “Oooh, I can’t wait! It’s lucky I followed that signal here to you, Number One! Your training is shaping us all up, and I really feel like the statue out in the lobby is really helping raise morale. I’d follow you anywhere. You’re really doing something special, and I’m honored to be a part of it!”

Dib leaned forward, petting between Two’s antennae, and heard as much as he felt a purr rumble through his body. It took him a few minutes to pull away.

“Number One?” Zim sounded concerned, and Dib shook his head to clear it, the memory falling away like pixels in an etch a sketch.

He wasn’t concerned, though, was he? He had a program telling him to sound that way.

The same program that had told a thousand other Zims to march to their deaths for him.

Well, they were useful now, why should Dib care? A Zim lost was a world gained, a universe saved from irken tyranny! He was doing the right thing! There was a sharp pain in his temple, and Dib automatically aimed a gun at Zim, sure it was his fault, before realizing that he was tugging at his own hair spikes.

He shot Zim anyway.

It didn’t help.

(It didn’t help the next three times either, Zims walking in, falling back, and getting hauled off by the next one in line.)

____

His chest ached as he hung over the balcony, watching the Zims toiling on the ships below. The murmur of noise as they repeated what they were supposed to be doing was a dull drone, making his ears antennae head hurt.

“Two would have done this better,” he muttered to himself as one of them ran into another, and then a chill ran up his spine.

Two had died months ago, why was he thinking of him now? He’d fulfilled his purpose. He’d done more than enough.

More than enough. He’d been throwing himself at Dib even before the virus, so eager for a leader but one of the only competent ones of the lot on his own, the leader of the elites but happily subservient to Dib nevertheless.

Dib had rewarded him by having him kill himself and every single member of his own filthy race. Saliva welled up in his throat, but he swallowed it down, claws nails clacking on the metal of the railing before gripping it tight enough to twist it beneath his palms.

“I was right,” he said aloud, staring down at the Zims working. They were practically a singular mass, none of them important enough to matter. He’d throw them all out into the void of space in a second. None of them had ever done anything worthwhile.

(None of them had spent months talking to him like Two had, complimenting and worshipping and admiring him, bringing him sodas when he coughed and making him laugh by frying the weaker Zims in the flamethrowers a few extra times.)

“I was right.” The words were a little louder this time. None of the Zims turned. They had more important things to do.

“I was right.” He’d just been following his plan, and it had worked, hadn’t it? Everything had been exactly as he’d imagined it would.

“I was right.” Two hadn’t even turned back when he’d sent him off. Why would he have? He was following orders, and the virus was flawless. Dib had complete control of everything. He still did. He was fine. It was fine. It was perfect!

“I was right.” He was right. He was perfect. He had done something good. He was right. He was right.

Right?

The metal in his fist crumpled like tissue paper as he stared down, down, down, and vomit welled up in his throat.

#zib #za2r #invader zim #shadow writes stuff #iz #iz blogging

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quicksandblock · 3 years

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I'm curious to hear your thoughts as to whether Wilbur did originally start off with good intentions with L'Manburg that got corrupted through trauma and whatnot, or if he was always "corrupt" and we just didn't see it until now. Mainly because Tommy seems firmly in the first camp but other characters not so much

oh man, that is a complicated question and I think the answer really depends on your thoughts about Wilbur’s backstory. That is where his motivations come from, after all.

For starters, I don’t think it’s such a clear binary between “good intentions” and “always corrupt.” I’m pretty sure that the potential for that madness was always in Wilbur and even if things had gone differently and he hadn’t gone off the deep end, it still would have been there. Wilbur was a complicated person. His motivations were both selfless and selfish. At the end of his life the worst was brought out in him and eventually that led to his self-destruction. In another universe maybe life and the people around him brought out the best in him instead and he lived up to the best of his potential.

(Edit: just realized how long this is so I’m moving the rest under a cut.)

I’ve written a bit about this before, but I think that Wilbur’s character is driven by his fear of loss. You could explain this in any number of ways. Philza’s parenting is certainly a factor - there is no way that Wilbur grew up secure in the knowledge that his home and family would always be there for him. (I have more to say about Phil’s parenting and the SBI but that is a topic for another post.)

Personally I think that Schlatt was also a big part of why Wilbur became the person he was. Not just Schlatt at the end of his life, but Schlatt when they were young (see: the water rising/lava rising videos). For me, Wilbur’s character is inextricably tied to Schlatt. They were childhood best friends the same way Tommy and Tubbo are: they loved each other, they were inseparable, and they were eventually torn apart by differences in their ideals that couldn’t be reconciled. (Hopefully Tommy and Tubbo have a happier ending.)

Schlatt taught Wilbur that love isn’t enough. You can’t trust that the people who care about you won’t betray you if they decide they need something else more. If you want the people you love to stay with you you have to keep them there. You have to make sure they don’t just love you, they need you, your love is more important to them than the other things they need.

(Again, this definitely built on the groundwork Wilbur’s childhood laid. Phil, I love you, but you fucked up in some kind of way :/)

So there’s Wilbur as a young adult, after he and Schlatt parted ways. He hadn’t necessarily articulated these thoughts to himself - if he knew in so many words that this is how he thought of his relationships, he probably would have been kind of unsettled. But it’s the lesson that life had taught him, so it’s how he lived. To be clear, he wasn’t a bad person. He was just... messed up.

I think Wilbur spent his whole life searching for permanence and control. Those are the two things he was hoping to find in L’Manburg. He saw an unclaimed land full of people without a purpose, and he knew that he could build them into a protective shell around himself. And this is making him sound much more selfish than it should - he honestly did believe in L’Manburg! He loved and believed in its people! But love isn’t enough.

So he made sure they needed him. Tommy and Tubbo especially - out of everyone there they needed purpose and guidance the most. (I’m not touching on Fundy here bc I’m still not sure of my headcanons about him but he falls into that category as well.) He became the brave leader of their new land, standing between them and the brutality and the tyranny of their rulers. Standing behind them and inspiring them to greatness. Making them love him and L’Manburg as much as he loved them, far too much to ever betray or leave him.

It could have been good. He built something truly beautiful on the dubious foundations of the stupid drug van. Maybe he was motivated by fear as much as love, but everyone has flaws. It doesn’t keep them from doing incredible good in the world. If it hadn’t been for Dream, for the return of Schlatt, it would have been good.

The thing about Wilbur’s fear of loss is that when he realizes that he is going to lose something, there’s no way around it, he gives it up. Immediately. He rejects it before it can reject him. He’ll still have lost it, but at least it won’t have power over him. It won’t hurt him as much as it could. You can see this in how he dealt with Fundy’s betrayal - he did a 180 from heartbroken shock to “I despise you.” But something like L’Manburg was too big for him to pretend to himself that it didn’t matter.

He’d finally built something bigger than himself, the way he’d always wanted to, but it hadn’t worked. It hadn’t kept him safe from loss. It had made him lose more than ever before. He’d made a terrible mistake. His L’Manburg didn’t need him.

The fight to get it back didn’t come naturally. Tommy, Tommy inspired him, Tommy was the reason he lasted as long as he did - but ultimately Wilbur only knew how to do one thing, and that was give up. And just leaving and pretending not to care anymore wasn’t enough this time. In order to exorcise L’Manburg from his soul, he needed to hurt it as much as it had hurt him.

From there, well. We all know how it went. To say that Wilbur wasn’t thinking straight during the last months of his life would be an understatement. The Wilbur who built L’Manburg would have been horrified, would have done anything to stop himself, would rather have died. But a lot had happened to him between then and now. So he ended a shell of himself, embodying all his worst qualities, killed by the man who had planted the first seeds of those flaws in him.

There’s a lot more to say about how the various people in Wilbur’s life influenced him to become the person he died as - Dream, Technoblade, Tommy and the rest of the citizens of L’Manburg, and of course Phil and Schlatt. There’s a lot more to say about the SBI family and how they damaged each other. But anon, I have written you an essay today, so I think I’ll save that for now. I need to let my thoughts percolate a little more anyway :P

If you want more of my thoughts on Wilbur you should check out that post I linked at the top about how Ghostbur is dealing with his loss and trauma!! And please, please feel free to ask me more things, because this ask helped me articulate a lot of things I’ve been thinking about Wilbur and his arc :D

#wilbur soot #dream smp #meta #my meta #my writing #ask #anon #talk #THANK YOU for this ask anon you made my whole afternoon #Wilbur has got to be my favorite character on the SMP right now next to Dream #I really want to make that post about the SBI because my thoughts about Phil's family have been going so many places recently #Anonymous #askbox

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akampana · 3 years

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Very well, you have seen several possible ships. Now let's go to the extreme: Arturia Lancer Alter x Cu Chulainn Alter. The end of the world is coming!

Thank you for the ask!

Oh, Anon, if you only knew how many miles this little ask has run in my head. I worked hard on this, so I hope you like what I wrote or that I at least gave you a good read :)

This is long, and reads more like an essay, so I put it under the cut. Enjoy!

What made you ship it?

Cuturia. I will never tire of exploring this pairing, and damn did I fall deep into the rabbit hole researching for this ask.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

Good and Evil - Always a bloody good trope.

I find it interesting how their Alter-ations work

Larturia Alter side:

If you've read through the last ask involving Larturia Alter, I briefly touched upon how I view her as a character, and how she is the older, more realistic, tyrannical version of Arturia, and yet she is not evil. Rather, she fully accepts the incredible weight of her duty, taking in all the hatred from the masses because she believes Camelot's only way forward is if she rules with a vicious hand. I also shortly alluded that she seems to me like the more mature version of the OG Saber, much more so than the Lion King, since Larturia Alter still technically shares Arturia's dream. What differs is the method she used trying to achieve it.

As a Servant, Larturia Alter becomes a loyal spear. She's still brutal in her speech and certainly to her enemies, but most especially to herself.

Cu Alter side:

(I can speak more about him cause of more material, and he was one of the first five stars I rolled so, I've had him almost the entire time I've been playing fgo)

Cú Alter, on the other hand, is altered in such a way that he's literally Medb's wet dream, except...he doesn't exactly end up like the Cú she hates, loves, and hates to love. According to the material, Cú Alter is the product of a wish for "A wicked monarch similar to both myself and Cú Chulainn", and what is birthed from that wish is a twisted misunderstanding of what Medb thinks a king is, forced onto the valiant Cú Chulainn template.

Except there will never ever be a world where Cú Chulainn would want to be a ruler. The sheer dissonance of Cú's essence corrupted by such a wish results in what we got: A dispassionate fighting machine that desires nothing, enjoys nothing, and only remains alive because he has to fulfil the twisted, vision of a "king" the deranged princess made for him. And Cú, he thinks her vision so vile and his position so ugly, that the only way he could see it met was to seal his emotions away and destroy all that contest his claim to that title.

Playing through his interlude and as a Servant, Cú Alter is generally prickly and rather adamant about solo-ing things like the murder machine he believes himself to be, but he does have the capacity to get attached.

So, what happens when the King of Storms and the Mad King collide?

Complete and utter chaos.

On the one side, we have a "good" king who willfully shoulders all the hatred in the world as she accepts her demonic title for the sake of her kingdom and on the other, a reluctant warrior who rejects everything about the title thrust upon him and would sooner decimate an entire continent than have its people live under the evil that is himself.

All they seem to share is tyranny, heavy crowns, and a dislike for themselves, that couldn't work, right?

Not unless you consider this:

Cú will never ever get over how Arturia can stand there, crushed under the weight of her diadem, and still wish to save humanity. No matter how much she was loathed, no matter how much she was detested, the Once and Future King accepted it all, ruling with her iron fist for the good of her people.

He isn't supposed to care. He isn't supposed to give a damn about bloody anything except cutting down Master's enemies, and yet here before him is a Servant he cannot ignore. She, by her existence alone, shakes Cú Alter right down to his very spirit origin, threatening to split the hero from the monster.

Because she is the personification of kind brutality.

She is his exact antithesis.

Apathy to Enemies to Lovers to Something neither can define

In Chaldea, their dynamic would begin with literally nothing, because surface level, they are pretty similar in their vicious conduct. In fact, fielding them together initially gives the Master the impression that they'd get along.

They don't, not after they find out each other's philosophy.

In fact, what occurs between them is bitter rejection, all the way until Cú Alter finally finds himself at the other end of Larturia Alter's definition of kindness and all his barriers crack as if struck by her lightning.

And Cú, cynical, deceptively unfeeling Cú, decides there were enough in the world that hated her, and he would not let himself be one of them.

They still clash, over and over, but eventually it's no longer a war. How can it be, when both sides were beginning to accept their differences? When both sides were beginning to understand?

Everyone questions Master why they're no longer truly at each other's throats, when the evidence suggests that they should be. But Master understands what Lancer Alter and Berserker would never realize, nor admit.

There were never any barriers between good and evil. Not for love.

On a less serious note. uhm. smut.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have about your ship?

I rewrote this ask a few times. Initially, I answered that I thought they'd get along swimmingly, both being instruments of mass destruction, and then I realized wait, no. Lancer Alter's frame of mind is completely different. That argument would apply better to Salter, maybe.

So yeah, the opinion that these two probably really can't fully agree with one another. They could still be brutal baddies together of course, and be the hailstorm power couple of our dreams, but their motivations as individuals would still pretty much differ.

They would annihilate the junk food stash before anyone can blink. Larturia would take it from the others in the interest of their health, Cú would probably just do it because he knew it made them angry.

#akampana asks #cu alter #cu chulainn alter #lartoria alter #arturia pendragon #artoria pendragon #arturia #artoria #lartoria #lancer alter #berserker #cutoria #cuturia #long post

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noobsomeexagerjunk · 3 years

Text

we wake with the intent to find enlightenment

Eret was what any sensible Minecraft server would call a "player of games," descending from the first slayers of the Dragon that dreamed hard enough to achieve the highest level. He was the epitome of what the voices whispered in their little poem.

Well, he was supposed to be.

In a sudden new development of powers, Eret converses and looks back on conversations to finally figure himself out, to finally wake up.

(read on AO3)

chapter 1: and all those sparkles in my eyes still remain

When you talk with enough people, you are forced to think.

When you think hard enough, you are forced to change.

Eret did not mean to trim away (or make disappear, based on his witness) all the leaves from the trees in his castle garden with a flick of his hand, but he just did.

He neared one bald trunk and touched the branches. It was odd how clean the cut was.

He reckoned that something about his person changed that caused the phenomenon to happen.

That kind of change had not happened since he was still growing up when he was as young as the few children on the server, most of whom he loved fervently.

The first time he knew he was different from the other children, human or otherwise, was the white of his eyes, which were aglow perpetually and unnatural enough to make people, who didn’t have the family eyes, unnerved around him. At some point, people began to flee at the sight of him.

Perhaps it’s the legend that one relative of his that he had made for himself— yeah, that’s right.

That said relative had remarkable power and chose to make himself a nightmare amongst servers, which was a feat no one in his immediate family, with their own powers, chose to do. None of them had that kind of audacity.

Neither did he, who then just decided to chop down the naked trees, planting new ones in their place.

The mystery of the kin who had Eret’s blood could make monsters, villains, but also heroes, leaders, gods even! They’re the epitome of dreaming, of what man should be in the sandboxes that Minecraft offered. Eret, by blood, descended from those who lived fully through uncovering the hidden truths from that so-called poem, the poem a server would whisper to those who, when the dragon of that server’s End is slain, actually save the End in question.

Eret’s power gave him a particular knowledge when he first stepped into the Dream SMP, a knowledge that framed him as an alien god trapped in the fragile clay that was the average Dream SMP mortal. It’s knowledge of the End but knowing the art of respect (and in that knowledge, not breaking the rules concerning its restriction).

Despite all that, Eret was left still trying to figure whatever the fuck he was. She was? They were?

Eret was, as far as he knew, something .

Wilbur said he was a traitor.

Dream said he was a king.

Everyone else said he was a puppet.

He made himself a historian.

He was something. Some...things?

Eret knew that he and he alone dictated his identity. He did not know whether he was happy with what he gathered, with what he made, with what he was.

Blinking back into reality, Eret dropped his enchanted netherite axe, leaves now restored. He hadn’t even begun cutting down the trunks!

“Okay, this is getting weird,” He remarked, picking up his axe and placing it back in his inventory.

He then walked back into the quarters of his castle, heading into that hidden boudoir where he did his more private and intimate matters concerning his person.

Armor off, then after some consideration, robe off as well.

In his regality and decoration, Eret always felt most like himself wearing gray shirts and blue jeans. It was bland, (as one drunk Wilbur Soot once whispered to him playfully, during one of those nights before everything went wrong,) but it was comfortable.

The mirror of the boudoir was massive, reaching the room’s high ceilings, making Eret’s figure so small from within the room’s walls.

Eret picked up his crown from off his head and took a good look at it. The marks of enchantment on the golden material resembled blood splatter, the pretty, intricately-carved jewels covered in beautifully contrasting impurities.

Now, the SMP’s other known leaders, or at least those most fascinated by its powers? They were intriguing to Eret, many of them possessing skills he wished he himself had. In their crafts and games, it was odd how Eret never could hold his own against them.

Eret’s craft was a museum. Unlike symphonies, it had the right to remain forever unfinished. It depended on housing so many stories—there were too many stories left unsalvageable.

Eret’s game was the game of Jacks. As bad as he was at the game, it was the game he can’t help but choose to play. The ball is bouncy just as his crown is heavy, the bones in hands as little as the friends he actually had.

The (let’s be real here,) crown of thorns—the Crown which was currently in Eret’s possession—both allured and terrified, like a bomb waiting to be used, waiting to blow up.

Bombs made Eret remember a conversation with Tubbo and Captain Puffy on a visit to Snowchester.

“Independent?” Eret picked up the Declaration of Independence on the podium, reading the haphazard handwriting of the founder of Snowchester.

“Have you come to contest it, your majesty?” Tubbo approached from behind him with a snarking tone; pulling with him on a lead was a bay horse that Puffy was riding on.

“Well, no, as nothing of any harm is,” The nukes, ”um, well-“

“Yes, we are peaceful, aren’t we?” Tubbo maintained his tone.

“Besides the nukes, Tubbo?” Puffy interjected.

“It’s a deterrent!” The teen repeated, “Like I said earlier, Eret. I’ve got them decommissioned and we don’t want any trouble.”

“Yeah, I can see how you’d come to that kind of protection,” Eret remembered Doomsday, “though I would request—actually no, recommend you communicate with me if you are going to use them at any point.”

“For what?”

“The help would be needed. You never know.” Eret was reminded of an equally alien red. Tubbo had mentioned seeing some growths on his land during their earlier conversation.

“I never do know, don’t I?”

Eret chuckled lightly, “Well, Tub-”

Tubbo suddenly smacked the ewe off the horse, much to her dismay.

“Tubbo! That hurt!”

“Thank you for getting off my horse,” Tubbo said, absurdly and frankly.

“Are you alright, Puffy?” Eret quickly went to pick her up, only for Puffy to be standing when he was at a reasonable distance from her.

“I’m good, I’m good.”

Puffy was quite a character. Her request of resignation was something he happily allowed, as her disillusionment with the server certainly coincided with his. He made no public spectacle of it (though to be fair, he never made a spectacle of his knight table, to begin with,) but had a meal with Puffy for it.

This was the price of an unannounced excursion. You leave for a month to make sense of all the chaos you’ve had to endure healthily only to come back to an even worse Dream SMP.

You have come back negligent. Wasn’t the break supposed to make you a better ruler?

Eret remembered welcoming Puffy when she first arrived, disheveled and a bit of a klutz, though nonetheless friendly.

Of course, who wouldn’t be a mess joining the Greater SMP, most especially after a historical act of political terrorism?

Eret quickly repressed the thought of Wilbur, though the dead fellow’s charisma seemed to leak out of Puffy’s excitability. She acted much like him, much like he was before Eret had hurt him: quick to founding family, being a shoulder to cry on, quick to burn when necessary, being a paragon of hope against tyranny and towards peace.

Captain Puffy had long wooly locks, brown and highlighted with a prismatic shade of white. She hid her eyes behind glasses like his, enigmatic like himself, surely? This ewe walked into the server with a friendly, warm wool onesie of many colors, reflected in her horns and hooves.

Eret’s shock was reasonable when she came to their little arranged meal together in a brand new costume.

She looked so much like Wilbur, as attractive as him, even. This was the man who had the ambition to fight tyranny through a division Eret thought at the time as dangerous.

The reminder can no longer be avoided.

In some way, Eret felt he was correct about the effect of L’Manburg, of it being a further cause of division in a server that didn’t need to create factions but to simply negotiate with words—to coexist and be passive and not be so Goddamn stubborn.

Dream and Wilbur, in their disagreements, agreed they were both unbelievably stubborn. Too mortal, too measly, two mere men...Eret found it awful how they fashioned themselves as immovable objects. He, for one, belonged to a race of men far more powerful than that of the two, and yet they had the audacity! What are simple server owners and the children of angels to dreamers? To the descendants of those who had taken the universe’s whims to heart? To the same brood that begotten the nightmare known as Herobrine?

Eret was something, but that something was not Herobrine, that’s for sure.

Wilbur could only handle so much. L’Manburg could only handle so much.

The stains of betrayal still prod and cry at Eret before his very eyes.

Nevermind. Eret wasn’t as sure, now that he thought harder about it.

He huffed to himself. He was being fickle.

Captain Puffy was quite fickle. She bent and broke like him, if her resignation as a knight was of any indication. She mothers a god but is so ever mortal and yet is so humble. People and happiness mattered to her, and that was why Eret loved her.

The tricorn hat and the long coat, worn out by what seemed to be the waters of storms instead of the fires of war, were an ashen color, black like obsidian, and were punctuated with gold pads, embroidery, and buttons.

She wore glasses like his, in that through certain angles, semi-hid eyes of enchanted prismarine. As we know, Eret’s glasses hid a blinding, mythical pair of whites.

“That’s quite the look there,” Eret remarked at the sight of her, almost tempted to blush.

“Yeah,” Puffy failed to hide her hesitance, “I, um, thought I needed a wardrobe change.”

“You didn’t have to dress up for this, you know?”

“I know, I know,” Puffy put a lock behind her ear, “This is just—how do I put this? Um, a necessity.”

He was about to jokingly question whether she was going to war, but then stopped himself in realization.

“I see. Come,” He gestured to her to follow him towards the table and food he set up before her arrival.

#dream smp #dream smp fanfiction #we wake with the intent to find enlightenment #eret #captainpuffy #tubbo #wilbur soot #/roleplay

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livvywrites · 4 years

Note

“No one wearing a crown came in the name of peace” for whoever you want pls! :D

so sorry that this took so long!! this kind of. got buried, lol.

but!! have this piece :) it ended up being a non-Metanoia piece, lol, but i’m really proud of it!! i kind of want to continue it 🤔

anyway. most of it is under a cut because it got kind of long, but i hope you enjoy!!

The Free Council sits on the dais, each of them in a chair of wood. You sit in the center, as Founder and Leader—even though you insist that you are no such thing, your vote still sits heavy in your mouth, as you know it will sway the others. That is why you usually speak last.

But not today.

For today it is none other than Catherine di Asternon—the Queen of Blood.

She is the reason that this council was formed—the reason that you built the Free City, the reason that a country has grown up around you, filled with the refugees of her tyranny and her wars. The wars her family started ages ago, and that she continues without thought.

She kneels before you now; her tattered and singed gown a pale likeness of the grandiose thing it once was. There is a golden circlet on her brow, though her hair is loose from a once immaculate bun. “Asternon is no more,” she says, her voice trembling and weary. “The Pale King has taken it—and now I throw myself and my people upon the mercy of the Free Council and the kingdom of Haven.” She swallows. Bows her head further, chin touching her chest. “Please.”

The rest of the council looks at you. They do not speak. They will not. You know this. They will wash their hands of this decision and leave it all in your hands.

You look down at her. You feel the weight of everything you have built on your shoulders. You know how easy it would be to falter… and watch it all crumble about you.

“You come here seeking asylum, after all that you have done?” you ask. Your voice is strong. It fills the hall, over the crackling of the fire behind you. “Do you know what it is we call you here, Catherine di Asternon?”

She takes a shuddering breath. “Queen of Blood,” she says. You know once that name would have come with a smirk; pride filling every inch of her. Now she says it as if she is ashamed… but you are not fooled.

“Yes. And you come to us, wearing your crown, dressed in your finest—and you ask us to help you?” You stand and approach the edge of the dais. “Haven centers itself around one truth. It is the truth we write on our seals, the motto we have chosen for our fledgling nation—the truth we have etched into the very walls of this building.” You gesture, above your head. On a lowered part of the ceiling, above the dais. “No one wearing a crown ever came in the name of peace.

“So tell me Catherine, why it is you’re really here.”

The woman before you trembles, and for a moment, a moment, you are almost drawn in by her act. But you hold yourself strong.

“I speak the truth.” Her voice shakes almost as much as her frame. “My people… they have lost everything. Their homes. Their loved ones. Their innocence. Making it here alone was a journey that we barely survived. We will not survive if you send us away.

“They say that Haven was founded on… on the backs of refugees. That they do not turn away those seeking asylum, and I kneel here, now, begging you to prove that to be the truth. Please. Do not… do not turn them away.”

You have spent a lot of time thinking about what you would do, if Catherine ever had cause to throw herself upon your mercy. In those daydreams, though, she was alone; her people finally rising up and casting her out. She was still proud, then. Demanding. Not begging.

Seeing her before you now…

You want to feel the thrill of satisfaction. You know it’s wrong—but you don’t know what to do with… this. This choked feeling in your throat; the feeling of secondhand shame that comes from watching someone you have only ever known as prideful and vain knelt before you in supplication.

Still. Your voice is strong when you speaks, because it has to be. You have to be. “You say your people have lost their loved ones. Their innocence. They lost those things long before the ‘Pale King’ ever took your throne,” you say. “He didn’t take it from them. You did. You have thrown their loved ones, their kin, into war, time and time again. And the thing about war… sometimes those you love don’t come back.”

Her shoulders shake.

You stare at her—and after a moment, you realize that she is weeping.

Without meaning to, you find yourself taking a step back. You glance around, looking at your fellow councilors, but you find them staring at their hands—to the side—at the wall. Anywhere but at you and the queen begging you for mercy.

You drop your eyes back to her.

She is no longer kneeling. Both of her knees are on the ground; her hands touch the wooden floor. Her head is bowed so low that her circlet nearly touches the floor. “I know,” she says, and there are tears in her words, even if you cannot see them on her face. “I know what I have done. The things that I have brought upon them. I do not… I did not come here expecting you to understand that, nor to justify it.” Her words crack and break, little hiccups coming between them. She makes pretty speeches even as she’s crying.

“I did not come asking for asylum for me. I do not care what you do with me. Banish me, exile me, toss me into prison. I don’t care. But please.” Her hand comes up. The circlet comes off, and she throws it. It clatters somewhere, and her bare forehead touches the floor. “Do not turn away my people. My children.”

Your breath freezes in your lungs and your heart stills. Children. The word echoes through your mind like a drumbeat. You have never heard of the Queen of Blood having children.

You stare at her. At this woman, who has thrown curveball after curveball into your life.

You once served her. You were happy, then. Both of you just teenagers. She used to talk about peace. About ending the war that her father had started and forging a better life for you and her people. She used to hold your hand, and smile, and you thought—

It didn’t matter what you thought.

Because when her father died—so unexpectedly. Not in battle, not riding off into war. Something else. You never did learn why, only that Catherine called a meeting that same day. She walked in, pale as a ghost… and instead of calling off the war, as she had promised so many times. Instead of putting together a peace treaty… she sat at that table and she called a vicious, merciless strike on a land you knew, you all knew, was civilian land.

And then she sent you to lead it.

It was the ultimate betrayal, in your eyes. You defected then. Told her where she could stuff her plans. She just… looked at you.

You left the castle, and no one stopped you.

And for the next few years you watched as she tore through the surrounding lands, displacing people without a thought. Rivers of blood ran where ever she directed her people. Even more so when she visited in person.

It didn’t take long until you could no longer sit by and watch. You gathered up the refugees. The lost and the hopeless. You founded the first Free City and Haven unfolded around you. You lost people. Good people. People you loved, people you laughed with, people you ate with, people who saved your life on more than one occasion. But in the end, you have made this a sanctuary, a safe-haven for all those who need and now.

And now Catherine has come and she has invaded that safe haven and you can’t even be angry like you want to because all you see before you is a broken husk of a woman.

You turn your back on her. You look into the fire and for the first time in a very long time, you do not hear the screams of the damned and the dying. You hear the sound of children’s laughter. Your laughter. Yours and Catherine’s, from so long ago, when you used to sit together by the hearth and imagine what it would be like in a world where you didn’t have to be afraid.

“Your people… your children,” you say at long last, “are welcome here. But you. You will be transferred to the dungeons. You will see trial. You will explain your actions to all of the people that you have hurt, and then they will decide your fate.” You will decide her fate, because no one else will take that job. They will speak their pieces and they will wait for you to do something—only to condemn you once it is done. But if that is what must happen, then that is what must happen.

There is a shuddering sigh behind you. “Thank you,” Catherine breathes, and the sound of it shatters the heart you thought you turned to iron long ago.

You shut your eyes. “Guards.”

You do not look as they take her away, down the stairs and into the dark of the dungeons.

There is work to be done, and you will do it.

#fantasy fiction #original fiction #writelr #writeblr #writers of tumblr #amwriting #amwritingfantasy #asks and answers #idreamonpaper #my writing #queen of blood #prompt fills #promptfills

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oceanera12 · 4 years

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Cody Time Travel Fix-it AU (Part 2)

Part 1 here

Cody remembers where he heard the name “Qui-Gon Jinn” as the Jedi is questioning him on what happened to Xanatos and suddenly finds himself unable to breathe for a second. (Qui-Gon had offered to make him tea in such a General Kenobi way that it suddenly clicked in his head)

This man, this Jedi, who had all but abandoned Obi-Wan at the temple was Obi-Wan’s MASTER/TEACHER. The name had come up once and General Kenobi had explained to Cody that Qui-Gon and him had had a very… turbulent relationship.

He manages to keep his wits about him and to not raise too much suspicion from Jedi Jinn (and somehow keep his roll in Xanatos’ demise a secret) and is there when the Jedi asks Obi-Wan’s forgiveness and a retry on the whole “Padawan” thing

So Cody is slightly horrified and confused when Obi-Wan turns down Qui-Gon’s apprenticeship offer after everything on Bandomeer quiets down. Qui-Gon himself looks like he’s been slapped or something and Cody’s mouth drops open because “what the kriff kid you were talking about this in the fields all day about how you wanted to be a Jedi and why are you throwing this away you can’t throw it away there are people you have to meet, wars to fight in, brothers to find and then lead, Anakin to train, the KRIFFING–

He’s even more horrified when Obi-Wan explains to Qui-Gon that he already found a “master” of sorts which turns out to be Cody

Cody’s brain scrambles for a solution of some kind as he asks Jinn to leave the room for a second. The conversation with Obi is awkward at first, with Cody basically saying he’s not anyone’s “master” and calls Obi-Wan his “vodika” (little brother) and encourages him to go with the Jedi Jinn and be a Padawan and a Jedi because, “You’re going to do great things and I can’t be the reason you stay behind and miss them all.”

He leaves Obi to think about that and goes to see Jinn about trying to “fix” the situation. There is a lot of debating and the Jedi is clearly not entirely happy with the solution they come up with.

Cody wants to be around Obi-Wan (because he’s not failing his General again, no sir) and make sure he doesn’t get himself killed. He explains this to Jinn as simply wanting to protect the boy because he reminds him of his older brother who is now dead. But Cody also knows he can’t interfere with Obi-Wan’s training too much and does not want to ruin the boy’s chances at becoming a Jedi.

Basically, Cody signs up to be part of the Temple Security Force (the non-Force sensitive part of them) and is allowed to accompany Master Jinn and Padawan Kenobi on their missions as a “guard” (Jinn and Kenobi know he’s a soldier at this point).

*to keep things relatively simple, I’m just going to say that this arrangement works out pretty well and Obi-Wan bonds more with Qui-Gon and Cody is a friendly face and voice the boy can turn to if he wants*

Then Melida/Daan happens

Cody’s seen war. He’s seen the brink of war. And what he sees here is something that’s very close to imploding. Cody encourages Qui-Gon to leave as soon as possible from the planet with Master Tahl. But apparently, Obi-Wan doesn’t see the signs and tries to stay on the planet to help “The Young”

Poor Jinn looks as depressed as when Cody first saw him and the clone tells Qui-Gon to wait an hour to see if Cody could talk some sense into his Padawan.

Cody tells Obi about his experiences in war. He doesn’t say where or when or even give a planet name but he describes watching his brothers in arms fall, the horror he saw and felt, the traitors he saw and served, and losses they endured. He basically tells Obi-Wan that it is noble to want to help these kids but Kenobi needs to be better than fighting a war.

He also points out that leaving Qui-Gon like this is basically betraying him. Like Xanatos did. Did he really want to do that to his Master?

Obi ends up not leaving the Order (hooray!) and a few weeks later they receive news Melida/Dann has spiraled out of control that no one can fix and that most of The Young have been killed.

*since Xanatos is dead, Bruck doesn’t die/try and kill Obi-Wan and there is no trip to Telos*

*also, I don’t feel like plotting out everything so the next part is just going to be some random bullet-points that happen*

*Also a note for my own sanity: let’s say Cody’s advanced ageing metabolism is disabled by the Force when he gets sent to the past so he ages normally now*

Qui-Gon slowly learns to trust Cody over the years because everytime his apprentice is kidnapped/injured Cody throws himself full force into the mission. Cody would never say Qui-Gon is a brother (at first), but he respects the man and knows he cares for Obi-Wan. Basically, they get along because of their united goal of making sure this trouble magnet of a Jedi lives.

The three of them have tea together sometimes. Cody burst out laughing when Obi-Wan actually spat out the liquid (of his future favorite tea) which confused both Jedi to no end but whatever

Cody acts as a guard but also as an advisor to both Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon on certain missions. Obi listens to him more, but Qui has taken his advice from time to time (mostly it’s battle tactics. General Kenobi was always better with the negotiating and diplomacy. Cody’s better at strategies)

Cody teaches Obi-Wan some hand-to-hand combat and also a little target practice with blasters (“Yes, it’s uncivilized but it may save your life one day”)

The first time they meet Senator Palpatine, Cody resists the urge to shoot the man in the face but only barely. He very slowly and stubley points out things to Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan about the Senator that doesn’t really add up to him. It doesn’t go anywhere, but at least they can start seeing the signs of corruption if they choose to look hard enough.

Cody helps comfort Obi-Wan when he’s down.

When Tahl dies (which drives Qui-Gon into a depression spiral again), Cody is Obi’s emotional support and helps Obi-Wan let go of his emotions and accept loss (because he’s had a lot of experience with that)

Also after Tahl’s death, Cody also finds Qui-Gon, sits him down, and basically tells him to shut the kriff up, he’s a Jedi so act like one, he’s not the only one who’s lost someone close to them, what kind of example is he being to Obi-Wan right now, etc.

Qui does his thing of ignoring him and “you don’t understand” thing and Cody basically EXPLODES.

“You shut the kriff up, Jinn! I have watched brothers kill brothers! I have seen a free galaxy descend into tyranny and fear. And I took a part in that, not by choice! I was used to make the freedom I fought for die! I am responsible for killing my own brother! Everytime I look in the mirror I want to put a blaster bolt through my own head because of what I did! So don’t you EVER say I don’t know how you feel because I’ve been through KRIFFING Hell and back!”

It’s safe to say that’s when Jinn gets snapped out of his own head because of the waves of agony and pain that roll off of Cody. The clone is now crying and basically tells Jinn to get up, go see his apprentice, and tell him he matters because right now he thinks you don’t care about him at all. (Which Jinn does and they both get some well needed hugs)

Also Jinn trusts Cody better now and Cody considers Jinn as a true “General” (so not a “vod” but pretty darn close)

When they travel to Mandalore, Cody acts as a translator among civilians and is quite useful in keeping the future Duchess safe.

He also encourages Obi-Wan to have emotions/feelings for the Duchess, but also warns him about being able to let go and reminds him of Qui-Gon and Tahl. Basically, it’s okay to love but don’t forget your own duty and her duty as well.

*and we’re stopping here because again: LENGTH*

Part 3

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andrewmoocow · 3 years

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Steven Universe Alternate Future chapter 9: Little Graduation (originally posted on March 15, 2021)

AN: It's good to be back in business! Steven Universe: Alternate Future has returned at last, and with it, the plot begins to thicken. If I were to compare all four parts to RWBY, the previous one is Volume 1 (goofy fun times with some fighting), this one will be Volume 2 (a fine mix of both), Part 3 is Volume 3 (everything goes to hell), and finally Part 4 is a mix of Volumes 4 & 5 (dealing with the aftermath of Part 3, but things will get much better at the end.) Anyways, can Steven keep a lid on his negative emotions? How long before he learns what Black Rutile has planned for him? And will he be both physical and mentally strong enough to fight one last evil Gem? Tune in and find out!

Synopsis: As Steven prepares a party for Little Homeschool's first graduating class, his fears of growing apart from his friends slowly become reality.

Cast:

Zach Callison as Steven

Matthew Moy as Lars

Kate Micucci as Sadie

Indya Moore as Shep

Brian Posehn as Sour Cream

Lamar Abrams as Buck

Reagan Gomez Preston as Jenny

Erica Luttrell as Padparadscha Sapphire

Kathleen Fisher as Fluorite

Enuka Okuma as Rhodonite

Ashly Burch as Rutile Twins

Deedee Magno Hall as Morganite's Pearl

Charlyne Yi as Morganite's Ruby

Laura Bailey as Titanite

Michaela Dietz as Blue Lace Agate

Jinkx Monsoon as Emerald

"Teens by day, hey! We're all right." Steven began singing along to Sade Killer and the Suspects' hit song as he drove away from home one relaxing day in Beach City. "Teens by day, but every night we're Sadie Killer and the Suspects! Whoa, Sadie Killer and the Suspects!"

Steven continued singing as he drove through Beach City until he made a stop at Lars's interstellar pastry shop Spacetries. Today was a special day, and Lars was going to be an essential part of it.

"Hey, Blue Lace." Steven greeted the Agate as he entered the shop.

"Hey, Steven." Blue Lace replied with a wave. "If you're looking for Lars, he's right over there." She added before getting back to rolling some dough.

"Hey Steven, here to pick up the cake?" Lars asked while looking over the order Steven placed.

"Yeah," Steven answered. "but I also wanted to check up on you. How are things?"

"Oh, y'know, same old same old." The pink man replied just as the door opened behind the pair. "Wait, is that-"

"Hey Steven, hi Lars!" Sadie Miller cheerfully greeted the duo. When Steven and Lars turned around, they saw that Sadie had changed a lot since they last saw her. Sadie's hair was now fully blonde again and in a ponytail. She wore a pink headband, had a white shirt with a blue one tied around her waist, and black pants. "Long time no see, you two."

"Sadie!" Steven cheered at the sight of his old friend. "Oh my gosh, I can't remember the last time we were together in a pastry establishment!"

"Yo Sadie, I got your moon cakes." Lars said, presenting a box with a moon symbol on the sides to his former co-worker and handing it to her.

"Thanks, Lars." Sadie responded gratefully as she took the box of moon cakes.

"So, how are things going with you and Shep?" Lars followed up.

"What?" Steven asked, completely confused about who the pair were talking about. "Who's Shep?"

"Shep's my new partner." Sadie said to Steven. "They're real cool & chill, and I can't believe we've been dating for two months now!"

"That's cool, I guess." Lars said awkwardly. "Tell them I said hi for me."

"Will do, Lars." Sadie replied as she left the store. "See you again someday."

"Shep, someday?" Steven continued asking, still unaware of what was going on. "Is there something I'm missing?"

"As Sadie said, Shep's her new partner." Lars reiterated for his ex-girlfriend. "They met while the Suspects were touring, and love was just in the air for them from there. I met them myself, and I find it nice Sadie fell for someone who isn't a real piece of work like I was back in the day."

"Yeah, you were kind of a jerk back then." Steven chuckled nostalgically. "Which reminds me, why did Sadie say "see you again someday"?"

"Oh, that." Lars said, nervously rubbing his neck. "Really wish I told you earlier, but I'm gonna be going back to space once the Off-Colors graduate tonight."

"Wait, you're leaving Earth so soon?!" Steven gasped at the shocking news. "But what about the shop?!"

"Don't worry, Steven, I'll cover for him!" Blue Lace called from her counter.

"Thanks, Blue Lace! I always could count on you." Lars said to his employee before returning to Steven. "I'm just ready to move on, cause that's just life. You get what I'm saying, right? I mean, now that Little Homeschool is all finished, what do you wanna do now?"

"I, uh…" Steven began stumbling over his words at the thought of thinking about what to do next now that he's saved the universe from the Diamonds' tyranny and resolving most of his issues with his family.

"Hey, graduation cake's ready!" Lars declared, derailing Steven's train of thought. "See you tonight, Steven, okay?"

"Okay." Steven replied.

"When me and my partners first discovered fusion, it was the most wonderful experience any of us had shared, and couldn't bear to be torn apart from then on." One of Fluorite's components, a large green Gem named Titanite, said to an audience of fellow Gems and humans later that night at the big graduation ceremony. Behind her stood her lovers, Lavender Jade, Iolite, Rubellite, Indicolite & Verdelite, along with the Ruby & Pearl that make up Rhodonite, the Rutile twins, and Padparadscha Sapphire. "Even when we declared pariahs for our love, we refused to let it get us down. Now, centuries later, we're finally free to express ourselves without fear of persecution, and we couldn't be happier. Thank you, Steven, for everything."

The audience began cheering as Titanite bowed and returned to her partners to give them all a big hug, which resulted in them all forming Fluorite once again. "Oh my." She said slowly. "It really has been so long since we've been apart."

As Fluorite took her place alongside the other Off-Colors, Ruby and Pearl were next. "As Titanite said, fusion was the most wonderful time we spent together." The Pearl stated. "In fact, Fluorite was the first cross-Gem fusion just like us that we encountered, and our little Off-Color family grew from there."

"The Morganite we formerly served refused to let us fuse because she feared it would endanger her status until she finally had us replaced." The Ruby added. "When we got the news, we fled as soon as it was broken to us while Shattering Robonoids chased us down. But thankfully, we were able to survive, and now, here we are."

The audience cheered again as the pair of Gems kissed on stage, once again merging into Rhodonite before she took her place alongside the Off-Colors. Next to make a speech were the Rutile twins.

"My sister here and I popped out as one Gem due to some incident with the Injectors that created us." The left Rutile explained. "We weren't even supposed to live, but we did anyways because all the other Rutiles ran from us."

"We were nearly shattered right then and there, but Fluorite found a way to help us escape, and there we stayed." The right Rutile added. "At least, until Steven and Lars came into our lives, on the run as well. We helped them out, and they helped us in return. And we couldn't be more grateful."

As the Rutiles left the mic, Padparadscha Sapphire became the last Off-Color to give a speech. However, hers was a lot shorter. "I'm going to give a grand speech at the graduation ceremony tonight!" she declared brightly. "Oh, what fun!"

The crowd began laughing before Steven took the mic for himself and led Padparadscha away. "Thank you, Paddy, that was very moving." He joked, prompting more laughter. "We're all so proud to see our graduates grow and stay together as everyone goes their separate ways while moving onto bigger and better things. Well, besides me, of course. I'll be staying right here in Beach City, teaching the next generation of Little Homeschool graduates. Okay, now move those tassels!"

The Off-Colors each moved the tassels on their caps.

"Now, let's give a hearty con-grad-ulations to our first alumnae of Little Homeschool!" Steven exclaimed, prompting everyone to cheer.

Soon after, the Off-Colors left the stage while a party celebrating the ceremony commenced. Steven wandered around the beach, looking around at Gems and humans interacting before seeing Sadie interacting with someone he never saw before. They were dark-skinned and wearing a backwards cap, a crop top, nose ring, purple joggers, blue and white high-tops, four colorful bracelets, and a dark green backpack.

"Oh, hey Steven, I never got the chance to introduce you to my new partner." Sadie called for Steven. "I'd like you to meet Shep."

"It's nice to meet you, Steven." Shep greeted Steven.

"So, is it true that you and Sadie have been dating for almost two months?" Steven asked Shep.

"Yeah, that's true." Shep replied. "We met during one of Sadie's concerts a while back, and after exchanging numbers, things just fell into place."

"You know, some people say you don't really get to know them until you get stranded on an island with them." Steven chuckled, though Shep didn't get his joke.

"Uh, do people really say that?" Shep wondered. "Whatever. Sadie and I are going to get cake; then we'll perform at 7."

"That's right." Sadie laughed before the two of them left for some graduation cake. "See you then Steven."

"Wait a sec; I thought you were performing with the Suspects?" Steven halted Sadie for a bit.

"Actually, Shep and I are planning to do a song together." The ex-donut girl said, gesturing to her non-binary partner.

"Uh, cool. Can't wait to get it." Steven replied nervously.

"Cool." Shep smiled as they left with Sadie. "Catch you later."

Steven noticed Lars was also going to get some cake and tried to block his path. "I wouldn't go over there if I were you."

"Is something the matter Steven?" Lars asked his younger friend. "I mean, the cake was just what you ordered."

"No, it's about Sadie and Shep." Steven revealed while gazing at the couple.

"Oh, nice." Lars grinned. "I'll stop by and say hey."

"But, aren't you okay?!" Steven tried to call for the pink man.

"Aren't you?" Lars repeated Steven's question, causing the half-Gem boy to put on a fake grin.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Steven replied before he spotted Jenny Pizza sitting on the stage, having herself a drink. "'sup, Jenny?"

"Hey Steven!" the Pizza girl greeted Steven. "Looks like everyone's enjoying the graduation so far."

"Yep, everyone but me." Steven said sorrowfully. "I guess it looks like everyone's got something new going on."

"Yeah, it's not a bad thing, though," Jenny replied before she began pointing at both of her fellow Cool Kids. "Sour Cream has regular gigs as a DJ in Empire City." She explained while Sour Cream laid on Fluorite's massive head, and Buck conversed with Rhodonite at the refreshments. "And Buck's got into medical school, so he's gonna be saving lives in like, 20 years. Meanwhile, I've been going all out on my new phone jackets."

"What's that?" Steven asked before Jenny pulled out her phone, which was wearing a miniature coat to demonstrate.

"It's my new online business," Jenny explained. "We, and I'm using the royal we here, make the finest jackets suited for your mobile device."

"Aw, it's got little pockets!" Steven cooed in amazement at the jacket's features before he made another discovery. "And it's got its own little phone too! How are you going to find time to make and sell these?"

"Well, I'm gonna have a lot of time now that the Suspects are breaking up." Jenny casually revealed to Steven's alarm.

"Seriously, what?!" Steven yelled in shock.

"I suppose Sadie didn't tell you." Jenny guessed, just as Sadie and Shep returned from eating cake.

"Hey Steven, you ready for us?" Sadie asked.

"Oh, yeah, sure!" Steven suddenly remembered and walked over to the microphone. "So, is everyone having a good time tonight?" he asked the audience, and they cheered in response. "Who here's a Sadie Killer and the Suspects fan?! Cause tonight's performance only has one member."

"Oh boy." Lars muttered.

"So, please welcome to the stage," Steven continued, but then stopped to ask the two musicians. "Uh, what's your band called again?"

"We haven't thought of a name yet." Sadie admitted.

"Uh-huh, well, could've asked me." Steven giggled nervously before he began to walk offstage. "I'm really good at naming bands."

As Steven left, Sadie turned the microphone to her. "This is a little something Shep and I have been working on lately." She announced. "We hope you all like it."

"We will accept any criticism afterward." Shep stated when Sadie pointed the microphone to them before playing their recorder, cuing Sadie to sing.

"When I was younger and I hated fun," Sadie sang. "I was always looking back on what I should've done. I used to live my life in fear, of all the bad performances that led me here. But, I'm looking forward, I'm looking forward. I'm looking forward now."

While the song continued, Lars turned away from his ex on stage and proceeded to walk away.

"Lars?" Steven said to the donut boy turned space hero.

"Oh, hey Steven." Lars calmly greeted his friend, who began to run after him.

"Lars, wait up!" Steven called. "Hey Lars, where are you going?"

"I'm just gonna bounce, only wanted to spend time with the old gang before the Off-Colors and I go off-world," Lars answered. "Big parties really ain't my thing."

"But, you're leaving Earth tomorrow!" Steven cried as his body began taking on a faded pink hue. "When can I ever see you again?"

"You can see me whenever." Lars tried to assure Steven. "I've got the same powers as that lion of yours, so you can just pop out of my hair whenever you want."

"W-w-w-wait, please don't go!" Steven begged the space captain.

"It's been real Steven." Lars said farewell, or so he thought.

"Lars," Steven muttered before he fully turned pink. "STOP!"

Suddenly, Lars found himself bumping into a pink wall that slowly grew into a massive dome that trapped everyone at the ceremony.

"Steven, what's happening?!" Lars yelled as he pounded on the wall of the dome.

"I have no idea either!" Steven exclaimed in response.

"Really, you got no idea where this dome came from?!" Sour Cream yelled.

"Let's hope it doesn't end up like in that book!" Buck replied.

"I think this dome was created by someone having some powerful emotions, and I think we all know who it is." Steven declared before pointing to who he thought it was. "Lars!"

"Wait, what?!" everyone else gasped in shock.

"I don't think that's right!" Lars said defensively.

"No, I'm sure I'm right!" Steven lied to get out of opening up about his own feelings. "We won't get out of here until you work things out with Sadie! I'm pretty sure you guys haven't even talked since you got back, Lars!"

"We actually did, a few times." Sadie revealed solemnly. "Look, Steven, we did try to reconnect, but things just didn't work out between us. Plus, there's also the fact that despite how much we changed, we just weren't right for each other."

"Sadie knows I miss her, and I'm just too happy that she found someone to love herself." Lars added, prompting a touched reaction from Shep.

"And I know Lars is happier being with the Off-Colors in space." Sadie said.

"But when did this happen?!" Steven cried in disbelief. "I wasn't there for any of that!"

"That's because it was private!" Sadie answered.

"Yeah, I mean, you can't just stick yourself into other people's lives like the universe revolves around you and things only happen with you around." Lars pointed out. "Trust me; I know what that's like. Mostly the universe revolving around you part."

The crowd inside the dome was silent for a tiny bit, except for Jenny letting out a cough.

"But, I thought you were leaving because you were jealous of Shep." Steven broke the silence.

"I'm leaving because traveling through space is tons of fun." Lars declared. "Adventure is out there, as they say, and there's still tons of adventures for me and the Off-Colors to go on. Heck, we can even teach other planets what you taught us!"

"Okay, so there's nothing to work out then." Steven realized, but then he noticed something. "Hey, is it getting claustrophobic in here, or is it just me?"

The dome began to shrink more and more, despite everyone's best efforts to push it back.

"Steven, you want to get rid of this dome already?!" Rhodonite panicked while helping the Cool Kids try to keep the dome from shrinking.

"I'm trying, okay?!" Steven yelled anxiously. "Just gotta concentrate real hard!"

"Hey, Steven?" Shep stepped forward to comfort Steven.

"Not now, Shep, still concentrating!" Steven tried to ignore Shep.

"Please, listen to me." Shep urged the boy.

"Look, if I don't get rid of this dome quick, all my friends will die!" Steven screamed, now on the verge of tears.

"Wouldn't be the first time." Lars quipped in the possible face of death.

"Okay, but your magic's connected to your feelings, correct?" Shep theorized as they looked around them. "This is just a hunch, but it seems you made this dome because you're sad your friends are leaving, and want them to stay with you."

"I don't see what you're talking about." Steven replied.

"No, listen, you'd be surprised at how observant I can be." Shep assured Steven. "I think maybe you're figuring yourself out, and you want some friends to help you."

"Okay, you're right!" Steven confessed. "I've always been trying to help my friends, but now it seems like they don't need me anymore! I don't know who I am without them!"

"Aw, Steven, you're great. But you still need to let us go and live our own lives." Sadie convinced him while the dome began to squeeze them all together.

"I know, but I don't want to hold any of you back." Steven let out his current feelings as he felt himself get crushed between the dome and Fluorite's body. "I just can't help it if my big ol' heart still loves you all."

"Awww, Steven!" Jenny squealed in delight.

"We'll all still be friends." Sadie assured her little friend.

"Even if some of us are lightyears away." Lars added hopefully.

"You guys." Steven giggled before he returned to his normal color, and the dome finally disappeared.

"Hm, that wasn't the worst party we've been to." Jenny stated before she began to leave.

"Yeah, see ya Steven." Sour Cream added, beginning to walk away as well.

"At least there was no toxic air involved." Buck concurred.

"It was nice seeing you again." Sadie said, hugging Steven.

"Yeah, it was nice seeing all of you again too," Steven replied, now happier than he was earlier. "You two make a good couple."

"Hey, thanks." Shep replied gratefully. "You want a CD of our song?"

"How about a tape?" Steven suggested to them.

"Got your back." Shep said, handing Steven a tape of the song they just played. "Okay, take it easy."

As the couple left, Steven was now left alone with Lars. "Uh, Lars?"

"Gotta make this quick, Steven." Lars answered. "Me and the Off-Colors gotta," He stuck his tongue out and made a raspberry sound.

"First off, I'm sorry for what happened," Steven said meekly. "And second, do you think I can be a bit too controlling?"

"This coming from the guy who took over my body because you wanted me to be a nicer person." Lars chuckled. "But it's still cute you didn't want me to leave."

"I don't want you to leave!" Steven exclaimed.

"Hey, buck up Steven." Lars comforted the half-Gem. "As I said earlier, you can visit me anytime."

"It's just, for a second, we were all together on Earth again." Steven sighed heavily. "Maybe I just don't like graduations. Maybe I should leave Little Homeschool."

"Hey, come here." Lars then brought Steven in for a hug while the Off-Colors stood by watching. "Are you going to let go anytime soon?"

"Just a couple more minutes." Steven replied.

The next day, the Crystal Gems had begun welcoming new students to Little Homeschool. But Steven, having now quit teaching at the school, was still a little gloomy from last night.

While Sadie and Shep's song played in Steven's car, he drove out into the woods and then laid down on the roof, gazing up at the night sky. Just what was next for him?

"Lars of the Stars is back in business, baby!" Lars cheered as he once again made himself comfortable in the captain's seat of the Sun Incinerator. "So, what should we do now gang? Something good? Something bad? A bit of both?"

"You lead the way, captain." Rhodonite turned back to her human captain with a smile.

"Y'know what, let's just fly around and see what happens!" Lars declared after giving it some thought and ordered the Incinerator to blast off into the starry yonder.

Close by, another spaceship loomed behind the Sun Incinerator, and its captain had the Off-Colors by the tail.

"Finally." Emerald declared to herself as she spied on her prized ship flying around. "After so much waiting, I have you in my sights."

Emerald then pulled up a holographic screen that presented her with Black Rutile, and she eagerly awaited further commands from her cape-wearing master.

So opens the curtain on Part 2. Will we see Lars and the Off-Colors again, and will Emerald finally get her precious Sun Incinerator back? But enough about them for now, wait until later this part while we start dealing with more Earth-based matters, like plants for example! See you then!

#steven universe #steven universe future #fanfiction #steven universe alternate future #steven quartz universe #lars barriga #sadie miller #shep #fluorite #rhodonite #rutile twins #padparadscha sapphire

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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10 Injustice Characters the DC Animated Movie Needs to Get Right

https://ift.tt/3fCncB7

As we wait an announcement pertaining to the existence of NetherRealm Studios’ Injustice 3, we at least know that Warner Bros. is set to adapt the games into a DC animated movie.

Ever since its release in 2013, the Injustice franchise has not only become a staple of NetherRealm’s roster, but the comic spinoffs have made it a beloved part of the DC multiverse. The plot revolves around a reality where the Joker was able to mess with Superman so badly that the Man of Steel gradually became a mass-murdering dictator, with the support of several members of the Justice League. Left without any other option, Batman brought in counterparts of the Justice League from the “mainstream” universe to help him fight a civil war against his former friend. It was a story that merged the Justice Lords two-parter from the Justice League cartoon with Marvel’s original Squadron Supreme comic series.

A popular prequel series was released, mostly written by Tom Taylor, that explained the five years in-between Superman killing the Joker in cold blood and Batman’s last stand. Sometime later, the game’s story was adapted into the comic Injustice: Ground Zero. And the Injustice universe has only continued to grow since then.

As snazzy as NetherRealm’s story modes are, they are going to have to make some changes to the narrative for the animated movie. It’s not like every character is going to stumble into exactly four best-two-out-of-three fights in a row before someone else is the focus. Knowing that there will be alterations, some characters are really going to need some tender love and care.

Superman (Both of Them)

Injustice: Gods Among Us didn’t invent the idea of an evil Superman, but things are a bit over-saturated these days. Face it, “Dark Superman” has been done to death, what with Brightburn, The Boys, Invincible, and everything Zack Snyder intended with his Justice League movies.

It’s important that the animated movie really get into the WHY of what turned Superman evil instead of the Joker just getting a tragic win over him. The Injustice comic nudged him over and over again with multiple betrayals and manipulations before he finally snapped and angrily broke every bone in Green Arrow’s body. Hit all that, or at least enough of it.

More importantly, Injustice is a story of two different Supermen. The mainstream Superman has to ring true. He has to be the beacon of hope and positivity that pop culture has been missing for the past decade.

Ultimately, as long as they don’t do that minigame where Superman blows up cars and the people in them with his eye-lasers, we’re cool.

Batman

In this DC take of Marvel’s Civil War, Batman is by default the better person when compared to Superman. He has a line he won’t cross and that means no murder and no tyranny. That said, he still needs to be portrayed as a flawed hero. He may be competent, but he still behaves like a total douche at times and deserves to take one to the chin every now and then.

Being a paranoid futurist who buries himself in contingency plans means alienating allies, friends, and even family members. There’s a great moment in the Injustice comic where he reveals that he infected Cyborg with a virus within a week of meeting (you know, just in case), which Killer Croc says is outright sinister. It’s this kind of behavior that led to Superman’s fall to darkness, because even if Bruce wasn’t behind any of the horrors, he still chose coldness and paranoia over being there for a friend who was going through some serious shit.

Harley Quinn

A hype trailer for Harley painted her as a major protagonist in the first game but the game’s story mode just didn’t measure up. The comics did a better job and the Ground Zero volume was specifically about telling the game’s story from Harley’s perspective. I’m not saying that she should be joined by her team of BFF henchmen from Ground Zero, but she should definitely be a prominent hero.

Similar to the Mark Waid comic series Irredeemable and Incorruptible (also about an evil take on Superman), Harley’s turn to heroism is the universe’s response to Superman’s actions. She’s done some horrible things and may never make up for her actions under the Joker’s thumb, but she’ll keep fighting to stop Superman’s atrocities.

Wonder Woman

While Batman did a bad job trying to pull Superman from the darkness, Wonder Woman succeeded in pushing him in. It’s noted here and there, but this Wonder Woman was also altered by tragedy. In this timeline, Steve Trevor turned out to be a Nazi traitor. His betrayal left Diana feeling much less optimistic and hopeful than her mainstream self.

Wonder Woman’s villainy isn’t as pronounced as Superman’s, but she’s definitely the friendly face who eggs him on and wants him to stand over all mankind. As Superman uses her to fill the void left from Lois Lane’s death, the power couple become very good at bringing out the worst in each other.

Damian Wayne

The Injustice game did Damian a little dirty, revealing deep into the story that the Nightwing fighting on Superman’s side was not Dick Grayson, but Damian. According to Batman, Damian murdered Dick. The comics dove deeper into that and made it more of a freak accident brought on by Damian being an impulsive and angry child. Still, Bruce and his son were unable to make amends due to their shared lack of warmth.

Later stories, and even Injustice 2, added more depth to Damian. It always made sense that he’d join Superman’s Regime, but there was a soul in there who would eventually see that this wasn’t the right path. In the comic Injustice vs. Masters of the Universe, which was treated as a sequel to Injustice 2’s dark ending, Damian took up the mantle of Batman to oppose Superman and even grew a long-missing sense of humor in the process.

Lex Luthor

The great tragedy of the DC multiverse is that Superman and Lex Luthor just can’t get along. They will always be at odds no matter what Earth they come from. The Injustice universe was the one exception, as Luthor was portrayed as fairly warm and altruistic. Much like Batman, he has contingency plans up the wazoo, but they don’t come off as creepy.

Seeing him there as Superman’s longtime friend who sadly has to stab him in the back brings back that multiversal truth about the duo. Just because this is a world where Superman kills and things get very bleak doesn’t mean it’s the worst world and that it isn’t worth saving. The mainstream Cyborg is reluctant to come to terms with this heroic Luthor, but he ultimately accepts the miracle that this universe created a Luthor worth befriending and even looking up to.

Hal Jordan

Maybe it’s just me, but I was never a fan of how Geoff Johns retconned Hal’s past and gave him deniability for everything he did as Parallax. I liked that a boring hero dude like Hal snapped, did some bad stuff, and then had to accept his failures in an attempt to be better. With Injustice, they gave us that exact Hal.

Games

Injustice Beat Zack Snyder’s Justice League to the Punch

By Matthew Byrd

Comics

Injustice: Year Zero Brings the Justice Society to DC Alternate Universe

By Jim Dandy

Overflowing with willpower and being an otherwise competent space cop, Hal is still something of a dunce at times, and he’s susceptible to manipulation in the right situation. He’s already following Superman’s lead, but having Sinestro pop in to indoctrinate him into the Sinestro Corps makes him actually interesting. Let Hal be the worst version of himself here so he can double back on it in the sequel and beg Guy Gardner’s ghost for forgiveness.

Shazam

Injustice may be the B-side to Mortal Kombat, but the game itself is fairly tame on the violence. Joker’s death isn’t actually shown on screen, Luthor’s end is fairly clean, and Grodd taking a trident to the torso is relatively tame.

But what we absolutely, positively have to see in the animated movie is Shazam’s death scene to really give an idea of how far gone Superman is. It’s bloodless from our point of view, but it’s grisly as hell and made worse when you remember that Shazam is a literal child under all the mystical power.

Batgirl

The Barbara Gordon version of Batgirl was one of the first DLC characters added to Injustice, but it’s unfortunate that she’s not in the main story mode — something the animated movie could fix by giving her a more prominent role in the fight against the Regime. Her ending gives her a kickass backstory where she returns to the cowl after her father dies at Superman’s hands. The comics go deeper into this, even making it so that Superman doesn’t directly kill Commissioner Gordon.

In this continuity, she was already wheelchair-bound as Oracle. She had to go under a very dangerous procedure under Luthor’s care in order to walk again. This is one of the storylines that could make for a captivating arc in the movie.

Alfred Pennyworth

Alfred isn’t in either Injustice game. He’s already dead by the start of the first game. But I don’t care. Alfred needs to be in the animated movie because he is the heart and soul of the Injustice comics. While others bow to Superman, follow him, or even try to reason with him, Alfred Pennyworth doesn’t play those games. He will straight-up verbally clown Superman for his actions without flinching. He is not afraid of the Kryptonian, no matter how red his glowing eyes get.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

This comes to a head in the comics when Alfred takes a pill that gives him Kryptonian strength and he kicks the absolute shit out of Superman for ruining his family. I know I’m asking for a lot, but I simply need to see Alfred stomp a mudhole in Superman so hard that his own shoe explodes from the impact.

The post 10 Injustice Characters the DC Animated Movie Needs to Get Right appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3hIQH7h

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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kinetic-elaboration · 3 years

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December 2: 1x26 Errand of Mercy

Errand of Mercy is truly a trip. I’m swiftly losing my ability to be coherent because I need to go to sleep but here are some attempts:

First of all this is, of course, a straight-up, pure, unfiltered Kirk/Spock episode with a tiny bit of unrequited Kor/Kirk on the side. Like, we’re not even going to pretend to find stuff for the rest of the crew today. I see you, Gene Coon.

This is the first Klingon ep. I just... the actual Klingon-centric episodes ARE good, but the Klingons in general are pretty boring and I legit don’t understand why they became the standard Star Trek villain. (DC Fontana apparently thought that it was because their make up was simpler v. the Romulans, acc. to Amazon trivia and....I’ll buy that.)

Is the “cultural scale” called the Richter cultural scale? I seem to recall another scale with the exact same name....

I get why there would be such a scale but they are dead wrong about where the Organians fall on it.

Anyway not to harp on this yet again but @ fanom this isn’t the military right?? Lol

Oh, no, it’s Code One! No idea what that means but the music tells me it’s a big deal and it’s bad!

“Curious how often you humans manage to obtain that which you do not want.” He’s talking about war but I can think of some other things that fall into this category.

I think it’s pretty funny that Kirk records his Captain’s logs in public.

CAPTAIN SULU.

“There’s a war happening, so Mr. Spock and I will just leave the ship... together.”

“You’ll get out of here, Sulu, and leave Spock and I... alone.”

“You’ll fall back to rendezvous with the rest of the Fleet in the Laurentian system.”

Why do these people show no interest in us beaming down into their village? Hmmm, I wonder. If the Organians really were what K and S think they are, beaming down in that way would be uh a bad idea.

Spock seems much less awkward at gesturing than Kirk does.

Finally, by the end of the season, they’ve figured out the context for the Enterprise: Starfleet, the Federation, etc.

I wish the Organians were our alien overlords and taylor.

So the Klingons are a military dictatorship.

Kirk finds them so frustrating. I feel like this ep falls into the genre “Kirk is frustrated by hippies.” All this generic peace talk and faultlessly chill attitudes are just not him.

“I’m a soldier, not a diplomat.” That’s why Spock likes him so much.

The Organians are trying to follow the Prime Directive but Kirk is making it SO HARD.

“Space vehicles.”

I know the Klingons are actually supposed to be in yellow face but you know what it looks like black face to me and I RE-ALLY wish they had not done that.

They look good in those Organian outfits. Love that they kept their command and science colors lol. I feel like this is the sort of outfit AOS Kirk wishes he had in that boring ass closet of his.

Mr. Spock does not look like an Organian.

I MUST know more about these “not uncommon” Vulcan merchants. “Dealing in kevas and trillium.”

KOR IS SO INTO KIRK. This flirting is the least subtle. “You’ll be taught to use your tongue.” “Where is your smile?” “You’re a ram among sheep.” “I need your obedience.” “You seem to be in command.” Is all of this supposed to sound sexual or...?

Right up there with “a stallion must first be broken.”

Whereas Kirk is so not into this. That expression says, “Don’t even think about talking about Spock’s tongue.”

The mind sifter is actually a crazy advanced sci fi machine and STID wanted us to think Klingons don’t have warp usdfsf go fuck yourself.

Kirk is so turned on by Spock’s mental strength.

Every spare moment of this ep is given over to K/S flirting. They legit act like an old married couple. “I thought you were going to fight that guy.” “I just might.” Or whatever.

I love that Kirk’s method of fighting is to literally launch his WHOLE BODY at enemies.

Whereas Spock’s there just running awkwardly in the background. He is Not coordinated friends.

Kirk’s speeches ARE admirable. He is lacking context here but in general if they WERE an oppressed people, this should be inspiring.

“For some reason, he feels as though he must destroy you.”

This Kor and Kirk scene... Kirk literally canNOT stop himself from flirting. His default smile is Charming. “Nothing...inconsequential [was destroyed] I hope...” Flirty smile, wink.

GO CLIMB A TREE I MEAN WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT.

We are the same species...tigers...hunters

Is this not the same cell they always use?

I feel an “and there was only one cell” fic coming on...

The Organians are actually kind of hilarious. They’ll basically let these rando aliens do whatever they want, as long as they do no violence. That’s it, that’s the one rule.”Your captors planned to do violence to you, and to that I said...naw.”

THIS is real Pacifism @ Commander Spock.

Kirk ready to go out in a blaze of fire for a bunch of annoying hippies like “I’m going to white savior you now, ungrateful Organians.”(I say this with love; I love him.)

Can you believe Kirk and Spock are about to die in an unwinnable fight of 2 against Lots of Klingons, and they’re using their last moments to FLIRT AGAIN?

Gene Coon loves writing dialogue in which Spock calculates statistics and Kirk is turned on.

Also can you BELIEVE he just pulls Spock along by the arm? Any excuse to touch him.

Okay the Organians are officially tired of your bullshit.

Too hot! Hot damn!

“We find interference in others’ affairs most disgusting.” Prime Directive! Like I said!

This is basically the plot of A Taste of Armageddon except in that ep Kirk was the Organians.

“People have the right to handle their own affairs.” Is he wrong though??

The Organians are like “okay, we all had our fun here, now get out. Seriously.”

Can you imagine how fucking weird it would be to just randomly see this alien dude materialize in the White House, or, like, Starfleet San Francisco HQ, or wherever the “home world” of the Federation is supposed to be? Just a little throwaway line in there.

By the end Kor is just straight up hilarious. He’s giving off real Ian McKellan in Vicious vibes when he says “I can handle them.”

“I guess that takes care of the war.” Yep! Very efficient!

The “it” in “It would have been glorious” is DEFINITELY not the war lol.

Good game, good game.

“I was furious with the Organians for stopping a war I didn’t want.” I’m sorry but could not THAT have been the plot of STID?

“Spock, your math was wrong the whole time.” And now Spock and Kirk can BOTH sulk lol.

Those were all of my liveblog thoughts and it’s late but.... I had so many additional thoughts on this episode... Like a lot more.

First, I love when humanoids turn out to not be humanoids, that’s one of the best things.

Second, I think this is a very gutsy episode to air at the time, and that it would still be a gutsy episode to air now. I feel like it’s one of the peanut gallery’s favorite criticisms of ST nowadays to say it’s “colonialist” but this ep makes it pretty clear it’s not--that’s the opposite of the lesson of this story.

To attempt to explain better: I completely and unironically love Kirk but I do recognize that like all 3 dimensional characters he has flaws. In this ep, I thought that while his speeches and general point of view and strategic plan were definitely right for situations a population is oppressed--that people do have the power to fight back against dictatorships, even when the odds are bad, and that it is worth it to have the courage to fight back against such oppression--he was ultimately shown to be wrong in this instance because he wasn’t actually coming into that situation. He didn’t understand as much as he thought he did. He thought he was going to be the savior here: taking control for peoples who didn't know better, saving them from oppression, and then gifting them with technology and advancement as he understood it. The Federation wouldn't have enslaved them, but the Federation did want to use them. But the Organians really truly didn't need help--the native people understood their own needs better than the outside people. That's the lesson I took from the episode. Your intentions can be good but if you're coming into a foreign situation looking to control it, without understanding the actual people involved, you’re not being a true friend or ally, and you're likely to do no more harm than good. Opposition to tyranny has to come from the source, the oppressed peoples themselves.

When he refers to “weak, innocent people” standing in the way of superpowers in the beginning--he’s not attempting to derogatory, but that is a pretty demeaning characterization.

I also thought it interesting that the Organians can take any form they want and put their society at any stage of "advancement" they want and they chose a basic agrarian aesthetic. Cottagecore rights.

Kirk really had a confirmation bias when it came to the Organians. He had an image of them--innocent, weak, oppressed--and he only took information that fit with that characterization, rather than listening to them and what they were saying.

My mom and I also discussed whether this was IC or OOC of Kirk. I’m of two minds, myself. I think Kirk at his best is much more open-minded than this. His core morality is good faith, peace, friendliness, and care for all life forms, and there are plenty of examples of this (Charlie X, Mud’s Women, and The Corbomite Maneuver all immediately come to mind.) But he does have a blind spot that I think comes up often enough to be canonically part of his character: if something is threatening or killing his crew, or his people more broadly (the Federation), then ALL he cares about is neutralizing the threat. Rare alien? Possible scientific discovery? Might not have the full details of the situation? Doesn’t matter. I’m thinking The Man Trap, The Devil in the Dark, Arena. He wants to protect aliens, but not if the alien is killing his crew. He wants to make overtures of friendship, but not if the new being has already been aggressive.

I mean like I said... a part of me is like "no he is better than this!" but another part is like... well he does have that 'soldier' side of him, he is intensely loyal to his people. The “evil” Kirk of The Enemy Within. I think he just sometimes gets these blinders in certain situations when he's just sure he's right, which is very human.

Also although he's between McCoy and Spock on the continuum of "an objective right thing exists for all people and in all situations and we should always follow that morality" and "morality itself is relative, we should be respectful of alien ways of living even when we don’t understand them" I think in general Kirk and the show is more like McCoy. There IS a right morality here. (I’m thinking of The Apple or even A Taste of Armageddon.)

I also maintain that to say in 1967 "the very personality trait of being warlike is a common denominator between enemies at war" is a dramatic statement.

My mother suggested that Kirk was “strangely appealing” in his desire to save the Organians, with or without their help, and I do agree... I think that’s the complexity of the episode. The overall thrust of the plot is that Kirk was wrong--he’s left embarrassed at the end. I stand by what I said above. And they certainly go out of their way to show that the Klingons and Federation have something in common--namely, as I said, their very capacity to wage war, and interest in waging war.

BUT, as much as I get the point that they have certain similarities with the Federation--and I think this concept of 'these war-worthy disagreements seem trivial to an advanced and neutral species' is interesting, and even more so in comparison with A Taste of Armageddon which, as I said, is this same scenario from the Organians' POV essentially--at the same time it's a bit irritating to hear the democratic Federation compared to the oppressive dictatorship of the Klingons. Like yeah, okay, none of them are light beings and they both wanted to destroy each other--point taken. But would the Federation park itself on a random planet and kill 200 people the first day? I think not. So in this sense Kirk IS right. The Klingons are an adversary worth fighting, just not over the Organians.

I don’t know what I would think of his position if the Organians were being harmed but were also just...actually sheep. Like I guess I would say "well they have to have a reason.” And in fact they did--their bodies cannot be harmed, so they really don't care if the Klingons pretend to harm them. But I just can't comprehend people being like really honestly okay with that level of oppression, as opposed to too scared or too beaten down or too brainwashed to fight it, which is different.

...And from there we went into a discussion of curative v transformative fandom and yet more on what’s wrong with AOS sdfasfjsaldf it’s past 1 am I can’t be stopped BUT I SHOULD BE STOPPED.

#star trek tos #the year 2020 #2020: fandom thoughts #2020: star trek #omg this is long

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theangriestpea · 4 years

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In the Shadows : Twelve

Summary: Jughead Jones, resident werewolf, just wants to protect his family and his pack from the incoming doom of The Red Circle. Sweet Pea and Lily join him to help keep the Southside safe from human tyranny. Meanwhile a demon princess named Myra and succubus named Lavender had a plan to bring on the apocalypse. <ao3> <masterlist> <playlist>

Rating: Mature // Explicit

Pairings: Jughead Jones x OC, Sweet Pea x OC, Kurtz x OC

Warnings: Very minor character death, kidnapping??, mentions of forced prostitution/sex slavery

Word Count: 5k+

A/N: This took SO LONG for me to write. i was just very stuck for the longest time. But now I think I've got some good ideas for the future of this fic! I will likely be updating this series once a month from here on out as I am going back to work and will not have as much time to write. Apologies for that in advance! I wrote so much during the last three months though that the break will be a little nice.

Chapter Twelve : The Descent

“I’m not going to let it happen, Shanna.” Sweet Pea said as him and his soulmate argued for the dozenth time. Lavender was convinced that he’d keep his loyalty with his coven and not with her. That he’d willingly give up their child to honor the deal that Lily had made.

Sweet Pea had no intention of doing anything of the sort. While, yes, he had once aligned himself fiercely with Lily and that witches were more powerful together, she had spurned him too greatly this time. He loved Daisy with every fiber of his being and he fully intended on loving his second daughter with the exact same ferocity. As of now there was no one who he was more devoted to than the hybrid, but he was getting increasingly aggravated by her insinuation that he wasn’t.

Lavender was quiet, hand on her stomach as she continued to fear the worse. She trusted Sweet Pea, of course she did, however there was just this nagging feeling in the back of her mind that he was going to betray her. That she needed to get out while she could. That keeping herself rooted in Riverdale was a grave mistake especially now that The Red Circle had put a target on her back.

Feeding was becoming more and more dangerous. While she could disguise her identity with ease, disposing of bodies without the help of the Jones pack was becoming difficult. Before she never spent enough time in one place to really bother with the cover-up. She hadn’t realized when she decided to stay that life would keep throwing curve-balls. Her only saving grace was that Riverdale was the murder capital of the world. People died all the time under suspicious circumstances. Unfortunately the supernatural were the ones always blamed for the inexplicable deaths.

The more she showed, the more difficult it would be. She could only alter herself, she couldn’t alter the child within her. Whatever form she took would be showing just as much as she was, and while at eight weeks that wasn’t much it wouldn’t stay that way for much longer.

Sweet Pea parted the blinds with his fingers to peer outside. He had been expecting Lily and Jughead to show up all day. That night there would be a full moon. In order to keep the pack safe, they would need both Sweet Pea and Lavender to cast a spell strong enough to cover the entire. Lily was stronger now, sure, but not strong enough yet to do it all on her own.

Lavender was not on the side of helping. She thought the forest should just burn. Along with everyone else inside of it. Sweet Pea, on the other hand, feared for the safety of his first born. While he knew that Lily would protect her with her life, he still didn’t like the idea of her life being in danger in the first place.

And though Lavender adored Daisy and didn’t want any harm to come to her, she was fiercely upset with Lily too much at the moment to even want to see her face. Sweet Pea was missing his daughter more now than ever. He hadn’t seen her since the pact because Lily had taken her and they currently weren’t on speaking terms. He knew he’d have to break down eventually and call her or else risk ruining the relationship he had with Daisy.

“She threw our child away, Pea, why do we need to help her protect the forest?” Lavender asked, becoming increasingly frustrated with him. “I just don’t understand why you still want to cater to someone who was going to just give away your child.”

“It’s deeper than that, and you know it.” Sweet Pea said, his own aggravation starting to show. “They’ll come here too. They may take you next time instead of Lily.”

The demoness frowned. “You know that Myra would not let any harm come with this child. Not when she is so important to her.” Lav responded. “If they did take me, then they wouldn’t kill me. They’d let me live out the rest of my pregnancy at least.”

“And then what?” He snapped back, “They take her and kill you when you’re weak from giving birth? Then I lose both of you.” He wish she could understand how her carelessness was hurting him just as much as Lily’s stupid pact did.

Lav was quiet. She hadn’t quite thought that far ahead. Him being right for once did not make her feel any better about what he was asking of her. “Then we run away. We go somewhere else entirely.”

“And leave Daisy?” Sweet Pea asked, his tone turning harsh. “I’m not going to do that, she’s my daughter.”

She let out a frustrated sigh, clearly nothing she was going to come up with was going to satisfy him. The only path he saw was helping Lily which Lavender absolutely was not going to do. “Then you help her, Sweet Pea. You two can do it by yourselves. I need to go feed anyway.” She got up and went into their bedroom to get ready to go out as the witch fumed with fury in the living room still. He grabbed his keys and went to take his bike to the cottage.

When he arrived at his old home, he noticed the wind seemed to be picking up already. He figured Lily was working on conjuring another storm. Rain allowed for the hardiest of protection spells. It was easier to transmute magic through water rather than through air. The polar properties made it the best particularly for barrier spells. It would rain again tonight, he was sure of it.

He didn’t knock, just entered through the door and slammed it behind him. “Daddy!” He heard his little girl squeal as she ran to greet him, clinging to his leg tightly. He couldn’t help the soft smile that spread across his features as he bent down to pick her up.

Jughead approached him cautiously. “I wasn’t sure if you’d come.” He murmured, not wanting to feel the witch’s wrath. It was harder to contain his own visceral emotions so close to the full moon. “She’s already set up.”

Sweet Pea nodded his head silently as he walked into the living room. He saw there were places set for three. “She’s not coming.” He said as Daisy babbled on in his arms in some unknown language.

A hurt look crossed Lily’s face. She had hoped to try and patch things up with her friend, maybe make some kind of peace offering. However, she should have known better. If someone had bartered with Daisy, then she’d be on a warpath too. What she did was unfair, but she had been backed into a corner. What was she supposed to do? Really?

“I’m sorry,” She said softly, not sure what else to really say. Her best friend wouldn’t even look at her. He simply stared at the middle of the sigil on the floor. Sweet Pea knew he’d have to forgive her eventually, for Daisy’s sake, but right now he just wasn’t ready to take that step.

“I know.” Was all he said back, unable to articulate through his anger towards not only Lily but also towards Lavender. She was acting so selfishly but he could not get through to her no matter what. She was hell bent on doing things her own way, including how she gathered souls. He found spell work he could do to make something close to what Myra had made. It wouldn’t be as powerful and he wouldn’t use innocent souls, but it would be better than her risking her life going out every night.

She couldn’t give up the hunt. Not yet, it seemed. She was determined to do it without help, saying that it would be a waste of his magic. That he needed to reserve it in case of an attack. His reserves were filled to the brim now that they were together, now that their souls were together. He didn’t need to save anything when all he needed to refill them was to fuck her.

But she insisted over and over that Myra wouldn’t let anything happen to her. That Myra would protect her. That she didn’t have to worry. But where the hell was Myra when she was stabbed? When she almost died before Lily could save her? If she was so great, then why did they bother releasing her soul in the first place?!

Sweet Pea set Daisy down as he got into place, taking a seat on a small cushion. It was going to be a long night.

Lavender was on the Northside, looking like a pretty little redhead with nowhere to go. She walked into a bar and ordered a virgin drink, something that looked as though it could pass for alcoholic. The hungrier she was, the less control she had over her influence. The bar seemed to be flooded with men. Men that all seemed to want a piece of her .

They offered to buy her drinks, offered phone numbers and pick-up lines. However, none seemed to quite suit her fancy. At least, no single one. She needed more tonight. One soul just simply wouldn’t do. She was growing a child, after all.

She settled on two men that were somehow linked with The Red Circle. One would only call himself Moose and the other was a rather smooth talking fuck-boy named Chuck. While neither were really her type, jocks, she figured that beggars simply couldn’t be choosers.

They took her to a nearby pay-per-hour motel where Chuck graciously paid for a room. For once in her life, Lavender had no desire to have sex. Whether it was from the sadness of losing her friend or the intense love she felt for Sweet Pea, she wasn’t sure. The only thing that kept pressing her forward was the simple demonic drive to feed. Maybe she should have let Sweet Pea try that spell after all...Maybe she could be at home with a cup of tea in bed instead of in this bug infested room.

But the stars and moon were just right tonight, Lav could feel it perfectly in her soul. She wouldn’t need to bed these two. She could force out their souls through sheer will, and while that wasn’t nearly as fun it was just as effective.

Lavender smiled at the two, grabbing each by the wrist before letting her eyes fade to black. They two instantly attempted to pull from her, but were unable to break free from her grip. Lavender reached out with her energy and forcibly yanked their souls away from their mortal tether, taking them into herself through their skin-to-skin contact.

While the two did not die from the soul removal, they did fall unconscious from the force of it. Lavender pondered whether or not to kill them. True, they were outlying members of The Red Circle, however they were in no positions of power. Though, she figured two less meatheads to carry torches and pitchforks would be better overall.

She slipped a pocket knife out from the inside of her purse and slid it open. In a quick, sweeping motion, she slit the throats of both men before painting a message on the nicotine stained wall. If Archie Andrews wanted a war. Then he’d have a war.

As she left the motel, having carefully cleaned her hands of blood, she noticed that the air seemed...different. There was a kind of static electricity about it that she couldn’t quite pinpoint. True, she knew the witches would conjure a storm to protect the southside with, however she was north of the tracks. It shouldn’t be able to reach this far. There would be no reason for her to sense magical energy on the Northside. Not when magic was strictly prohibited here.

She knew she needed to get home fast. While she had taken a new face, somehow Archie had seen through her last time. If she ran into him then he may be able to do it again. While she was sure Myra would somehow keep the minimum protections around the child, that didn’t stop her from letting the human stab her the other week.

The demon princess needed the apocalypse to happen, and for that she needed Lavender. In theory she could always have another child if she were to lose this one (Satan forbid), she herself could not be replaced. And hybrids weren’t a common occurrence.

Lavender just had the sinking feeling that she wasn’t as safe as she thought she was. It suddenly occurred to her that there was nothing stopping Myra from just taking what she wanted. Whisking her off to hell and forcing her to sit alone in a cell, force fed innocent souls, until she gave birth. It wasn’t as if anyone could rescue her there. Taking a physical being out of the realm that was the underworld was virtually impossible for anyone besides a high ranking demon.

The intensity of the air intensified and Lavender felt her senses go into overdrive. Every small change of environment was making her jump. As she attempted to make her way back to her home, she noticed that the atmosphere seemed to get more and more dense. It was becoming harder to breathe and storm clouds completely blocked out the setting sun.

Crackles of energy were starting to surround her, tiny flecks of light that acted as a window into another dimension. A dimension that only her soul seemed to recognize. She fought to avoid them. No one else around her seemed to even see it. The rifts became more and more prominent until the fabric of reality appeared to tear right before her eyes and static overwhelmed her, shooting through her body while she was plunged into darkness.

Everything went cold and black. She couldn’t even see her breath condense in front of her face as every source of light disappeared until a small blue flame budded and blossomed to her left. Once it was bright enough, her eyes adjusted and Lavender found herself in a freezing jail cell with solid metal walls.

An illusion? Lavender wondered to herself as she dared to touch the seamless wall that the torch appeared to be attached to. It didn’t feel like magic. It felt familiar somehow in some way. Something was chilling about this place. Not just the lower temperature but just the heaviness that seemed around it.

“Welcome home, Shoshanna.”

Miles away, deep within Fox Forrest, Sweet Pea’s concentration suddenly broke as he felt something ethereal being ripped away from him. The air was knocked from his chest as the knowledge of what this feeling meant swept over him.

A cry erupted from him as he stood, unable to stop the tears that flooded his eyes and spilled down his cheeks. She was gone. Completely and totally gone. Their bond was completely broken and he no longer felt any connection to the love of his life.

Lily could feel a fraction of his pain as terror struck her deeply. She gasped for air, wishing that Jughead were here to help them. Sweet Pea’s pain was so incredible that his magical energy totally stunted. The spell was broken and the forest was no longer a safe haven.

“Sweet Pea!” She yelped, attempting to bring him out of whatever personal hell he had been sent into at the sudden loss of his mate. “We have to protect the forest! For Daisy!” She cried, trying to get through to him in some way.

But all Sweet Pea could think about was his unborn daughter. The little girl that never even made it out. She was gone just as Lavender was and his fractioning mind couldn’t think of a way to bring either of them out. The worst came over him, the sheer dread that they were dead. If he could find them, maybe he could resurrect them. Maybe he could give his soul for him. Maybe-

Lily attempted to regain her strength as she invoked the spell one more time. To cover the entire forest, she had to spread herself incredibly thin. It wasn’t nearly as strong as she needed it to be, but it was something. She needed him more than ever but there was a phenomenon that deeply depressed witches lost their connection to their magic. It was possible that he couldn’t help her.

Rage filled the witch as he punched anything that got into his way, trashing the living room as Lily continued to work. He screamed to his patrons, begging for them to bring her back or to take him instead. Anything to not feel the way he was currently feeling.

Daisy hid under her bed, afraid of the tornado that was currently her father. She whimpered as she curled tightly into a ball, trying her best to make herself invisible so as to not be hurt even by accident.

Lily was pulled between trying to calm the bull and trying to save the forest. Unfortunately her loyalty laid fully with her daughter as she dropped what she was doing. She sprung up from her place on the floor and grabbed Sweet Pea by the arm, forcing her white magic into him in an attempt to calm him.

His incoherent screaming ceased as she brought him back to reality. The reality that was just too painful for him to bear in the moment. “She wouldn’t kill her,” Lily said in an attempt to lessen his pain. “She’s not dead, you know that. She’s just hidden somewhere from us.”

He furiously wiped his tears and snot away, not wanting anyone to see him in such a disastrous state. “I shouldn’t have let her go alone.” He said through heavy puffs of air. “I should have followed after her like I always do. Or make her come here. Oh god, why didn’t I-”

“Pea,” Lily said, forcing more magic into him. “You were trying to protect Daisy and me, it’ll be okay. We’ll get her back as soon as we can locate her, okay? Myra needs that baby more than anything in the entire world and the only one that can bring it to term is Lavender. She would get nothing if she killed her.”

Sweet Pea stared at her, “what if she thinks I chose you over her?” He asked, beginning to feel numb from his loss. “She will hate me.”

“She will not think that.” Lily consoled. “She will know that you needed to protect Daisy. I’m sure she’s more worried about getting out of whatever situation she’s in. If anything this is my fault for offering her up on a silver platter to begin with.”

He was silent, unable to counter that. He did still blame Lily for making the agreement she had made, however none of them could have expected for this to be the outcome. Lily returned to her spot, determined to try and still protect the pack with what energy she had left while Sweet Pea went to fetch Daisy to make sure she knew everything would be alright.

“Lavie?” She whimpered as he pulled her out from under the bed. His heart felt as though it had fallen deep down inside of his chest. All he could do was hold Daisy close as he tried his best not to cry again.

Three days passed on the mortal realm, and with each one Sweet Pea became more and more weary. He didn’t eat, he barely slept, and most of his time was spent hunched over a desk, speed reading through magical manuscripts on how to look through a magical veil. How to locate someone who had been hidden from all normal sights. He was tempted, so tempted to offer his soul back to Asmodeus for the return of his soulmate. The only thing stopping him was Lily’s reminder of how much he had hurt both of them during the time he was soulless. He couldn’t expect her to stay with him if he abused her any more than he already had.

It was late afternoon when Lily called him with somewhat good news. She had managed to locate the hybrid in a deep part of Hell. However, pulling a physical being out of one realm and placing them into another took a lot of magic. A lot of black magic that Sweet Pea just didn’t have.

And that is where Jughead Jones came in. There was a member of the pack that needed to be taken care of. Punishment for something terrible that he had done. While pure souls were more sought after, typically any old one would do in a pinch. If they offered one life for another, then a trade could be made with a demon other than Myra. It would give them enough leverage to get into Hell and get Lavender out.

But who to call upon was the problem. The decision was left to Sweet Pea. While in the past he had obviously catered to Asmodeus, another prince could be called upon to enact a trade. Sweet Pea had chosen Asmodeus as he used sex magic to fulfill his needs. Invoking the demon of lust to give him power through his sexual conquests. It was only fitting for him to have taken Sweet Pea’s soul through the very thing he used to gain power.

But Myra was his daughter. And she was acting on his will. Asmodeus wanted Lavender in his clutches (she was a sex demon after all, the epitome of a lust-filled being) just as much if not more than the blonde princess.

He would need someone of equal power that would take a soul of any condition. As he drove to the cottage, he knew who it had to be. He would offer this rogue wolf to Prince Mammon, the embodiment of greed.

He parked his bike out front before going inside. This was perhaps the most dangerous thing he had ever done in terms of magic. The need to see his lover again somehow overpowered the incredible amount of anxiety he felt. He walked in, seeing a tall and bulky man tied to one of the wooden kitchen chairs. Lily must have cast a silencing spell on him, as his lips were moving furiously but no sound was coming out.

Sweet Pea wore a dark expression on his face as he slipped off his leather jacket before pulling off his flannel shirt and white tank top. Lily picked up a jar of paint that had been colored black with mountain ash. She began to paint different runes across his torso, embedding her protective white magic into the symbols to help keep him safe when he went into hell.

“Who did you decide to call upon?” She asked, her voice a low whisper as if the question itself was forbidden. Sweet Pea had done plenty of idiotic things when it came to magic, but this was an entirely new level. She feared for his safety more than Lavender. Even a half-demon could survive hell. A human, witch or otherwise, could not. He’d need to be swift.

“Mammon.” Sweet Pea replied gruffly, knowing she would not like that answer. Lily stiffened, her touch slackening against his pectoral. Green eyes stared up at him, full of worry and doubt. If he didn’t know any better then he would have thought he saw love in there too. Jughead also seemed to notice and let out a small, feral growl in return.

Lily glanced at her mate before shaking her head. She really didn’t need him being possessive at a time like this. “There, it’s done.” She said, choosing not to comment on what she felt was a bad choice in demons. Not that there were any good ones they could call upon. She placed an old brass compass in his hand. “This will lead you to her. If you lose focus, then so will the needle. Your soul should be able to sense her once you’re there. You won’t have much time so you’ll need to hurry.”

She paused, looking back up at him as her hands trembled. “Pea, he’s going to ask for more. You know that, right? One wolf will not be enough. You do this once, he will want you to do it again and again.”

His expression steeled, “I’ll give him whatever the fuck he wants if it gets me Shanna and our daughter back.”

“And if he wants the apocalypse?” She dared to ask.

“Then the world as we know it will burn.” He replied, completely stoic.

Lily heaved a heavy sigh. The whole point of this was to stop the world from ending, but she couldn’t deny him this. She couldn’t stand to see him spiral downward anymore. This had to be done regardless of consequences.

They took each other’s hands, closing their eyes as Sweet Pea began to chant. He called for Mammon, told him to take this wolf as sacrifice to do as he pleased, and in return to open a gateway to hell.

The cottage shook as Jughead held Daisy protectively in his arms. His hair stood on end as the air pressure within the room started to increase. There was an infernal pop along with a gusting of air that came with the flapping of wings.

The witches opened their eyes to see a tall man with shaggy beard and hair. His eyes were clouded as if he were blind, however both witches knew fully well that he could see just fine. His black feathered wings pulled in close to his body, partially shielding him as he observed the scene in front of him. The tarnished crown on his head was lopsided as if it had been placed there without care. The only thing glittering on it were the rare gemstones fastened within the blackened metal.

He peered upon them with his glossy eyes. “My, my, if it isn’t Asmodeus’ little headaches.” He said, clearly amused by the two mortals that had been giving his brother such a hard time. “Offering me just one puny soul for the entrance to hell? Do you not know how to temp the god of greed?”

“I will give you whatever you desire, Mammon.” Sweet Pea spoke distinctly. The only defensive power he had over the demon was the knowledge of his name. “I must get her back.”

“The little succubus.” He mused out loud, “pretty little thing. Apparently, my brother plans to pimp her out after she’s brought about the end of times. Something about demons loving a mortal that can take their damned cocks.” He waved his hand around as he spoke, as if he were conjuring his words with the motions. “I have to admit, I am a little jealous. How much more rich he could become using her.”

Sweet Pea sneered. “Well, he can’t have her. I’ll make sure of that.”

Mammon gave him an amused look, sizing him up as if he were nothing but a fragile puppy. “It is always sad when the faithful lose faith, isn’t it?” He probed. “Once so devoted to Asmodeus and now here you are, at my feet, begging for my help to strong arm my brother into giving you back your love. It would be amusing if it weren’t so damn tragic.”

Lily had a sinking feeling in her stomach. Their offering wasn’t nearly enough to appease him. It was all that they could manage. Why in hell’s name did he choose the demon on greed? She wished she could stop this, however she knew that it was too late. Mammon would not leave without taking his fill.

“Are you going to help or not?” Sweet Pea asked, a fire raging in his eyes as his hands clenched tightly over Lily’s making her wince in pain. “Or should I call someone else?”

“Oh no, dark witch. I will help. You see, I want what Asmodeus has. In fact, I want it all . And you can help me, small mortal. I’ll find a use for you, I’m sure. Give me time to think. I will take this soul and body back to hell with me, and when I leave the doorway open you may slip in to get that delicacy of a soulmate of yours. You will have one hour to return. One Earth hour. If you’re not back by then, then the gate will close.”

“Is that all?” Sweet Pea asked, knowing that demons tended to slip in unnecessary bullshit with their contracts. He knew he was being asked for more than what he was already giving. He wasn’t that dense.

“Be ready when I call on you, dark witch.” Mammon said. “I can see a great destiny with you if you were to indeed stop the impending doom of the mortal realm’s destruction. I can teach you so much more than what you’ll find in your little books. Give me time. I’ll ring when I’m ready to take you on.”

Naturally it didn’t sit well with Sweet Pea that he was being asked to give something so vague as his loyalty and devotion. It wasn’t something tangible and that could be tricky. Still, it was better the possible alternative of giving his unborn child to him. This was what he thought to be a best case scenario. Sweet Pea nodded, his mouth suddenly dry as if he had been sucking on a mouthful of cotton.

A pleased and cruel smile twisted upon Mammon’s dark features as he used a blackened claw to tear open the fabric of reality, much as Myra had done on the night of the moon. “One mortal hour.” He reminded, voice echoing with a sinister tone as he stepped into the void, wings flexing behind him to fit through the narrow pathway into hell.

Sweet Pea released Lily’s hands. He grabbed the compass and a pocket watch. He started towards the sparking entryway.

“Pea,” Lily called out to him, her voice wavering. He turned his head to the side to look at her from the corner of his eye. “Be safe.” She murmured, “and hurry .”

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