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mobagehelllocal · 3 years

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“lucky ending” extra notes i & iii

Hi, I said I would do it but then I released ver i so long ago that I felt I shouldn't do this unless I had another version out at least so yay! finally! ... I'll add ver ii here when I get around to writing it... *shifty eyes* So as usual, this is just my thought process and ideas while writing lol.

*please do not read if you haven’t read “lucky ending” ver i (dorm leaders) & ver iii (rook & lilia).

It was inspired by an anon ask and the button tradition from Japanese schools.

The anon ask went like this: First at all, I like do much your writing and I hope you are doing well. Second, I was wondering what would happen if the MC (Fem!s/o I guess) decided to not go back to her world, like she decide stay with her villain? Can you do make headcanons of this for the dorm leaders? Thank you very much. – from Anonymous

The button tradition, as narrated by the first years, is done when one person confesses and the other responds by giving them the button closest to their heart. In most Japanese uniforms it’s the second uniform, but in Twisted Wonderland--I looked at the ceremonial robes and the closest button should be the fifth. Maybe. I could be wrong.

The songs I listened to while writing this!

The original dorm leaders (and Rook) was written while listening to “Lucky Ending”, the ending theme of Fruits Basket. The English lyrics (translated by otenkiame!) are:

“Change is important. I want to do it well,/ but I wanna cry. It's still bad. I wanna cry”

“The word "goodbye" has disappeared completely from this world/ All that remains is me fooling around next to you/A day you don't laugh won't come anymore”

“I've understood it since being here/ These feelings of wanting to protect you aren't a misunderstanding/ If we can call what connects us bonds,/ everything changes/ everybody changes/ Even if in a different world, it'll never be different/ everything changes/ everybody changes/ Don't change, ever/ Stay here, stay here”

I think it’s obvious why I chose to use this as the title of the series. It’s a story about change but it’s also a story about the things you don’t want to change... And I think it’s not wrong to want to hold onto things.

I also listened to the same playlist that I listened to while writing “wendy?” “hello peter pan”:

“Can’t help falling in love” cover by Annapantsu, “If you’re not the one” by David Beddingfield, “Who Knew” by P!nk and “All Too Well” by Taylor Swift.

For Lilia in particular, I was listening to three Beauty and the Beast songs on loop. “Evermore” by Josh Groban, “Days in the Sun” by the live action cast and, of course--”How does a moment last forever” by Celine Dion.

“How does a moment last forever?/ How can a story never die?/ It is love we must hold onto/ Never easy, but we try/ Sometimes our happiness is captured/ Somehow, our time and place stand still/ Love lives on inside our hearts and always will”

Also for Lilia, Tolerate It by Taylor Swift.

“You're so much older and wiser and I/ I wait by the door like I'm just a kid”

“I made you my temple, my mural, my sky/Now I'm begging for footnotes in the story of your life”

Malleus was definitely the first piece finished. Closely followed by Vil’s. I believe there was a gap inbetween them before I did the others? I wrote bits and pieces of Leona, Idia, Kalim and Azul’s. I think I finished Leona, Idia, Kalim then Riddle because I distinctly remember saving Azul for last.

One of the most important things for me, is that each story stands distinct of each other. So I gave myself a really hard time trying to figure out how each one uniquely belonged to each of the characters.

For the Prologue... I think because it’s set at the graduation of certain characters, I used that to my advantage and implied the stronger bonds between the Yuu!Reader and the entirety of the cast. Because a lot of time has passed and I feel like--regardless of what other people believe, bonds will be made and relationships will have strengthened enough for it to happen.

Riddle is honestly another really difficult character for me to write. I generally do love him and I enjoy his story, but something about him is difficult and I’m not sure why.

I think a part of me is also really miffed because from Heartslabyul-Savanaclaw, you could feel that Riddle really cared for Yuu on some level but then he just straight up disappears come Octavinelle chapter. I feel like there was potential to develop their relationship even more.

He WENT UP AND TIED YOUR RIBBON I REMEMBER I WENT DOKI DOKI OVER THAT.

I feel like because I’ve established that it’s a Yuu!Reader, it’s impossible for this story to not include both Ace and Deuce. So of course they featured in really big roles for this one, being responsible for telling Riddle the story.

I have to thank my friend, Mes, for bouncing ideas with me. They were the one who suggested what I could do with Riddle’s story by having ADeuce play such a big part!

I also tried my hardest to include Trey and Cater, and I’m pretty happy with their cameo. In a way, they definitely helped Riddle figure out his own feelings for you.

My favourite lines are: “I think you earned that much. I don’t believe anyone’s ever been in your situation before so—there’s no right or wrong about what you’re doing. It’s all about what you want to do.”

I wish someone would tell this to Yuu in general though. They’re the only one who has ever been in their situation (to our knowledge at least) and like... they’re definitely allowed to be even more selfish.

Leona is someone who I used to dislike a lot. I never hid that. It’s primarily because of how disappointed I am in the story of Savanaclaw probably. But like, I was always concerned about writing him properly because I thought that it was only right that I did right by him, because there would be people reading these stories who loved him. And I felt like I had to do right by that love.

I think... it’s wrong to believe that characters... villains... cannot fall in love or “won’t fall in love.” I think it’s wrong also to think that “people don’t change for love.”

In fact, people do change. You definitely shouldn’t change yourself to be loved, but... people change all the time to be their “better” selves. So whose to say that a good person, who you love, will not make you want to improve yourself? Isn’t that what we want when we meet people? To fall in love with someone who will ultimately make you better and never worse.

Or so that’s how I try to write the Twisted characters when they fall in love... With an understanding that “morally” the person they are falling for is “kind” and “good” and how a part of them might just want to be better just for that person. (Especially Leona and Azul). They don’t necessarily have to be nice to everyone, but if they can be better for one person... We stan healthy character growth.

But yeah, Leona is driven by understanding that he’s a very selfish person. But that he’s also very unfortunate and he doesn’t want tie you with someone who, he thinks, is actually worthless. He probably, deeply, thinks you deserve more.

Though his selfishness eventually wins out and well... Won’t you forgive him for it? :) For tying you down to this worthless second prince?

I think his own self-awareness does make him try harder. Not for everyone or everything... but for you. Just for you. I think that would be Leona’s love language--spending time with you, trying for you.

He’d appreciate if you didn’t call him out on it though, that would be very embarrassing.

Looking back, I’m surprised that it was the only version where none of the other boys from his dorm showed up lol. Which means Ruggie is the sole character who has yet to appear in the “lucky ending” series, huh.

My favourite lines from his story that still leaves me breathless and patting my past self in the back: ““I’m home—” you said—even if a part of you felt that home should have been two green eyes, a cocky smirk, and a warm patch of sunlight on the grassy ground.”

Like honestly, what was I on? Who was she?

Azul is, like Leona, someone who is so keenly aware of the things he’s lacking. In fact, he’s someone who thinks he’s lacking when he’s probably perfect in some aspects. He might act proud but a part of him--I think--thinks its not enough. It’s never enough. He can certainly do better still.

In that light, it’s why he thinks he’s undeserving of a partner. Especially one who is “kind” and “understanding.” While ultimately, Azul deserves people in his life who are that and “accepting” of him--I think he still thinks he doesn’t.

And thats why he lets go of the Yuu!Reader. It’s why he doesn’t “chase” after her like Leona did.

It’s because he’s selfish, because he wants her--that he forces himself to let go.

Azul needs someone who’ll tell him that he is worth something and that he’s definitely worth the effort. So please praise him a lot until he’s crying in happiness. I’m sure it’s the one thing he’s always wanted to hear from people around him.

Also my Poly!Octavinelle Agenda has never died and I am pleased Past!Ai got away with so much Poly!Octa hints in this story lol. But honestly, regardless of wht Octavinelle says... god, you can tell they genuinely care about each other.

I recently rewatched Octavinelle’s chapter and... by god, the amount of things I missed out on first watch. Jade’s concern when he realized Azul wanted to get rid of that photo... The fact Floyd was so willing to drop the fight to return to Azul too... Anyways, Poly!Octa Agenda for life.

Favourite lines: “Azul’s pathetic whimpers turned into guttural sobs. His fingers spread to cover his eyes—and his glasses slid off his face, down to his lap and then to the ground—at his actions. His whole body shook as he cried his heart out.”

It’s not as poetic as a lot of my other favourites, but for some reason these lines always get me when I reread them. There’s something so visceral about it.

Azul’s piece is probably the least visually stimulating out of all these stories? His was so emotionally driven compared to the others and I worried a lot about that.

I think I remember I was crying so badly as I was writing this.

Kalim is really hard for me because I feel like I struggle a lot with finding conflict in his character? He’s such a genuinely nice person, I find it hard to believe that the Yuu!Reader would feel alienated from him or something. So I brought in “environment” to get in the way.

My use of celestial imagery for Kalim is because of the Scarabia trailer! I really loved how it put Kalim as the sun and Jamil as the moon. I definitely will take advantage of that when I get around to writing for Jamil.

So because I wanted to use the sun, I chose to use the idea of comets for Kalim? I think I remember something about how meteors are drawn to the gravitation pull of the sun and can “escape” it or “be destroyed” by it. Haha, hot.

Jamil is someone who ultimately cares about Kalim too and I had fun writing his banter with the Yuu!Reader. I think I wanted to decribe the shadows licking his face reminscent to the marks from his Overblot but... I felt like doing that would give Jamil too much focus so I ultimately decided against it.

It would’ve been hot though.

Oh yes, one thing I wanted to talk about is Kalim’s rushed proposal. I remember people talking about it in the tags, comments... even in asks at that time. The reason he does it is because he’s someone who didn’t realize his feelings until you spelled out your own. It was a sort of: “Oh. Right. That is the word I’d use to describe my feelings.”

My favourite lines from his story is: “How does one bid goodbye to the sun?” and “No one ever willingly bids goodbye to the sun.They spend the rest of their lives trying to find the right way back to it.”

My god, who was this genius.

Vil is probably the most visually stunning out of all these stories. I feel like my stories go from super vivid imagery and setting to just complete emotional disasters lol. (Vil being the former and Azul’s being the latter... not that it’s bad, it actually suits the characters).

Oh man, I remember thinking that Vil is such a hard character to write because we don’t know what his motivation for perfection is. All we knows is that he wants to be the best but, why?

It’s like, for example, Idia. His motivations could be otaku-related. He doesn’t want to go to class because he’d rather go play or something. That sounds in character--but Vil was so hard because he wanted perfection.

But we already see him as such a perfect character, so what else did he need to be even more perfect? In that light, Chapter 5 did a really good job on presenting Vil’s motivations.

But honestly, I think I can comfortably say that the Vil I’ve written so far is pretty accurate? To his character. I’m really grateful I read his chat lines because his comment about intelligence really got me thinking about his possible motivations. It made it really easy to understand that Vil wasn’t like majority of the real world’s influencers.

One other thing that I was really happy about with his story is the use of the flower language. It’s something I hope I can use more because it’s so beautiful.

Oh! And the roses the Yuu!Reader talks about are double delight roses. They are specifically bred to have two colors--yellow in the center and pink on the outside. I thought it fitting that the Yuu!Reader breed special roses for Vil.

They can be called... err... Vil Roses?

My favourite lines from his story is: ““My happiness will not be dictated by others—no, Vil Schoenheit is a person who will grasp happiness with his own hands.” [...] “I’m giving you this button because I’ve already found happiness by your side.””

This line was actually inspired by Zelda C.W.’s MYth series. Specifically Hera’s story, Will.

Idia ...for him, I somehow had a very hard time imagining him trying to tell the reader to stay. Like that didn’t compute for me? I felt like his version was better approached in a more comedic light somehow.

I also felt that it would be cuter if the Yuu!Reader had already chosen to stay and Idia would need to hastily retrack his confession... Unfortunately, Yuu!Reader won’t let him.

Honestly looking back on it, I wonder how much of Chapter 6 is going to make me scream and want to rewrite Idia’s part?

My favourite lines from his story is: “He was never particularly good at lying—nor was he good at keeping secrets from you. You were a person he considered a dear friend—and he was always the type of person who ended up spilling everything to you. He liked being able to talk about the things he enjoyed—he liked that he had found someone who wanted to hear him out.”

A lot of my interpretation for Idia is closely linked to personal experience as an anime, manga and gaming fan. It was just a couple of years ago where people would actually be bullied for liking these things--but nowadays its become a norm. It’s... stunning actually but it makes me happy to know that maybe nobody will be judged for loving anime.

That being said, Idia’s longing to find someone he can talk to is something I really relate too--back then, it was so difficult to find someone to talk to about my interests... So I interpreted Idia as much the same. That what he enjoys about the Yuu!Reader is their ability to simply sit and listen to him talk.

Malleus... man, recently I’ve been starting to fall in love with him all over again. He was my first oshi ever... Anyways, moving on. You think I’ve talked enough about immortal x mortal but nope, we are not done. I love this theme in general, romantic or platonic.

I will never shut up about it you can’t make me.

Sebek having a good enough friendship with Yuu!Reader is such a delicious concept. Like mutual respect and Sebek understanding that Yuu!Reader gives Malleus a different type of companionship that Sebek, Silver or Lilia couldn’t...

And also, ultimately, Sebek and Yuu!Reader do love Malleus. In different ways, but I like the thought of Sebek respecting that and respecting the Yuu!Reader.

Me realizing just now that Silver joins Ruggie in the: “has never appeared in a lucky ending fic club.”... Sorry Silver, I swear soon. Once we get more content on you.

Celestial themes for Malleus are primarily, again, because he only ever seemed to meet you at night. And I thought it would be wonderful, if you were a bright spark to him.

Favourite lines are definitely: “Oh, bright light… I would prefer to live the rest of your life by your side… rather than spend centuries contemplating what it could have felt… to hold you in my arms.”

I am, always, going to be such a big sucker for the idea of immortals constantly remembering and loving mortals. Always holding them close in their memories, because in that way--their lovers have become immortal with them.

I also like to imagine that he eventually figures out a way to connect your worlds together so you can still talk to your friends and family from that world. He is one of the most powerful magicians around, I’m sure its possible.

Rook was honestly the most difficult piece for me to write because he’s so hard(?) for me to understand. He’s a mess of contradictions honestly and I... guess I’m excited to see what he’ll do come Chapter 6.

I actually rewrote his story so much. I got about 500 words with a different idea/plot in mind before deleting that completely and restarting from scratch.

I feel like Rook is someone who talks big and talks about love without actually knowing what it truly might feel like. He’s someone who doesn’t understand it and ends up mistaking it for his fascination.

Aside from me enjoying inserting other characters from the same dorm as much as possible, I felt that Vil was the perfect person to snap some sense into Rook.

Epel’s appearance there is basically to reflect how much I really hope the first year kids get really close to one another.

Rook is also someone who I think, doesn’t try to explain himself too much. He’s someone who I think talks a lot, but if people don’t understand him then he doesn’t need to be understood? That’s my impression. Lol, when “lucky ending” became a character study.

I also really loved the idea that Rook was fine with people running from him--to him that makes it all the more thrilling. But then you start running away from him and that just ends up making dread pool in his stomach.

My favourite lines from his story: “‘When something ends, it must be sad. So, tell me then, how an ending could be so beautiful?’ [...] .‘But there was one ending that was beautiful, non?’ [...] ‘That’s right. ‘They lived happily ever after’—are those not the words that define a beautiful ending?’”

I used the dusk metaphor for Rook. My idea is that he starts seeing dusk as an ending and how he can’t fathom how any “ending” is beautiful. When a story ends, it’s not beautiful to him, humu. But when that ending is the happily ever after then... That makes all the difference.

Lilia was actually easier than Rook’s but also fairly difficult. I had written the middle of Lilia’s piece while stumped on Rook’s actually. Lilia’s was probably easier because I love the idea of immortals and mortals.

I don’t really like the idea of mortals becoming immortals. Like, yes, it’s certainly sweet and spending eternity with a one true love is definitely the best possible ending but... I think there’s so much weight in an immortal choosing to love a mortal while knowing that they will ultimately lose them.

The biggest theme for Lilia is definitely time.

Thinking about it now... There’s been a lot of things in real life that’s just... Made me think about how we have less time than we actually think we have. And I think I ended up channeling that through Lilia... Though I feel like it is ultimately things Lilia would think about though.

The most important imagery would probably be the stars.

I honestly wanted to avoid it because I used celestial imagery for both Kalim and Malleus but the words just flowed out in a way that I felt that I couldn’t replace. So I went with it.

Lilia is no stranger to loneliness. One of the reasons he feels less alone is because he has family now and he doesn’t want to rob you of that. Family is so important to him because they are people who are meant to be with you--they are people who will make you less lonely--or so thats how I think? he thinks.

My favourite lines from his story: “He would relish in the way—You made the world pause. You made a moment extend into an eternity. You made an immortal crave just a little more time.”

I’m so immensely proud of this one? I don’t really have much else to say. There’s something so raw about it that I love. Also the part where it continues on to say that “Because there is never enough time.”

Me realizing my extra notes is just half me simping over these characters, half sharing headcanons, have actually giving good advice? perspective?, half song lyrics, half character study/analysis?

“lucky ending” is about change. Whether we want them to happen or not it’s... the human condition to change. For better or worse, we change--day by day. I think we all operate under a small panic about how everyday things are changing...

But “lucky ending” is also about the things that don’t change. Won’t change. Will never change. The things worth holding onto, the thing worth fighting for... or so I’d like to think.

#aimuses #ainotes #ai lucky series #twst #twisted wonderland #its 6 AM HEEHOOO

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phoenixyfriend · 3 years

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I am seized by a fatal need for courtroom ninja drama fic

But not serious courtroom drama. I'm talking Phoenix Wright style Nonsense.

(Some of this was provided by the folks over in @sloaners‘ server, but the bulk of it was me spitballing nonsense at people who actually know the games, which I do not. I do paraphrase a few times to make it more feasible as a tumblr post/fic concept, rather than a rapidfire text conversation.)

Or one of those like. Reality TV paternity test things? But specifically in my mind the people involved in the actual paternity are a married couple and someone that joined them to be their third, and Clan Elders are throwing a fit about how the baby might not be the heir by blood! while the actual parents are like "I could not care less, this is our child, all three of us, please stop getting involved."

HashiMitoMada would be a VERY good option for the paternity nonsense, mostly because I can see Madara screeching at his own elders about how he already said Izuna would be his heir and he's not changing his mind!

Tobirama is just begging the paternity test to work faster off-screen because he's the only person with the machines to make it happen.

(Hashirama is just. Moping in a corner.)

"I just had to INVENT a paternity test that works before the birth! I had to figure out how to test amniotic fluid! If you assholes make me do something this stupid on such short notice again, I will be digging some shallow graves!" "...for who?" "I haven't decided yet."

Anyway, jumping back to like a Phoenix Wright-style murder investigation.

The victim was Danzo. Even the prosecution isn't actually that interested in making sure someone gets arrested, but they're legally obligated to do at least try. A bunch of people all acting really suspicious about who killed him. There is at least one shitty fake mustache-on-glasses disguise to provide a paper-thin alibi.

WAIT The other thing this gives us is ninjas in three-piece-suits but half of them wear the suits wrong. I’m talking mismatched buttons. The wrong way of tying their tie. Sewn-on-cufflinks. This is Naruto, for instance.

Tobirama would wear it properly, except he's rushing about in a lab coat, screaming at everyone to get out of his way because he's The Entire Forensics Team.

(This is the part where I have to confess that I have only seen the live-action movie of Phoenix Wright, as I don't game, so I just have the live action and tumblr osmosis.)

At this point, of course, we gotta ask: Who is the most Belligerent Witness And who is the Helpful™️ Witness that's super enthusiastic but entirely useless

I can see, say, Mito being a solid witness that both defense and prosecution are really thankful for.

Modern gen you have like... Sasuke and Neji are both incredibly belligerent witnesses. Neji at least is polite about it but pulls the "only answers with the absolute minimum of information."

Lee and Gai would have the over enthusiasm but forget to say actual vital testimony until pressed, and Naruto would love to help but might not be entirely sure what the case even is.

Shikamaru falls asleep when the lawyers consult their partners. Prosecution A consults Prosecution B for thirty-seven seconds, then turns around and the witness is asleep at the stand.

Tobi (as in Obito with mask) is an incredibly frustrating witness. They have to declare a recess just so all the lawyers can recover their blood pressure. "Can we please get someone up on the stand with this guy as a handler? I'm--I'm going to explode."

Gaara: Helpful. Polite. Answers with detail. Answers the spirit of the question as well as the letter. Includes more detail. That's too much detail. Gaara please stop telling us about the sounds that bones make.

His testimony just drags on forever.

Ninken can and will take the stand! Pakkun even enjoys it! Some ninken require translators.

ABURAME TRANSLATING FOR A RANDOM GIANT CENTIPEDE THAT WITNESSED A MURDER IN THE FOREST OF DEATH

There are arguments about whether or not the testimony can count since nobody else can confirm the translation except Other Aburame so how do they know the Aburame aren't part of the coverup.

"Okay, so this Danzo guy had like fifty shell companies but I think I found the route that leads back to him?" "Nah, that one goes to a guy that died eighty years ago that's still collecting pensions: his family lied and said he was still alive for the money." "Fuck!"

Also I just. I love the idea of Sasuke and Madara being the exact opposite kind of belligerent witness.

Also, Orochimaru answers with pretty much the exact kind of wording as Gaara, but where Gaara is trying to be helpful and provide detail for the sake of the case, and failing to see that it's maybe not necessary, Orochimaru just wants to see people squirm. ...similar thing happens with Sakura and Kabuto. Similar phrasing, very different energy.

I keep picturing all of Team Taka as part of Forensics and Evidence Collecting ajshakshjd

Juugo, holding up a rabbit: I found a witness.

Karin joins forensics and Tobirama nearly weeps from joy until he finds her criminal record "Shit, that was supposed to get thrown out when I turned eighteen."

Tobirama: I asked for an assistant, not a criminal. Karin: I'm on parole. Tobirama: That makes things worse. Karin: I know how to use a [concerningly advanced machine that I, a business major, cannot name]. Tobirama: ...never mind, I'm keeping you.

Karin: I know how to DNA sequence AND use LA-ICP-MS Tobirama: [weeps with joy]

Suigetsu would be great at blood splatter analysis. ...I think I read somewhere that blood spatter analysis is actually over in 'fake science that's pushed by cops and media but actually doesn't work' BUT apparently it’s in the Ace Attorney games so we’re going to ignore reality a bit. We’ve already got dogs and rabbits and centipedes as witnesses, what’s a bit of blood spatter?

He's also probably really good at cause of death stuff? Like looking at corpse and figuring out how long it took the victim to die, which blow did it, whether any damage was inflicted post-mortem, etc.

Sasuke is usually too busy playing Belligerent Witness but sometimes goes to join Taka for... uh... reasons.

Juugo: [takes the stand] Lawyer: Hey, uh, why's that Uchiha guy with him? The witness-- Judge: No, no, we need Uchiha Sasuke on hand when questioning Expert Animal Handler Juugo. Lawyer: ...why? Judge: Property damage.

(Sasuke as a work partner with Juugo, also moonlighting as a witness/suspect in Danzo's murder.)

One time they need Juugo but can't find him even though court is already in session and he said he'd be here, turns out he was lured away by Kakashi's army of dogs. Kakashi didn't notice until he turned to ask Pakkun if he could help find the missing expert.

Juugo is a decent lab assistant, I think?

Anyway.

Tobirama taking on Team Taka as his forensics team while Orochimaru is... hm... traveling the country to promote his new autobiography, which is outselling the newest Icha Icha to Jiraiya's ire.

Sloane suggested “a case where it's all the Sannin as suspects in a murder. They would be THE WORST, say... the murder of Hanzo.”

To which I suggested “The Sannin are all suspects but the people on trial are the Ame trio, maybe?”

Which garnered the response of “It could be a surprise upset IN COURT that the trio should be on trial.”

We love a court upset.

Suigetsu finds out that the cause of death was actually an entirely natural heart attack, but while he was determining this, the rest of the team and the lawyers found like eight conspiracies by Zetsu, three by Danzo, four by Orochimaru, and an entire network of nonsense by Sasori.

INO IS THE PSYCHIC. I know her thing in canon is reading minds but pls. Ino is Maya. The Spirit Medium.

Is the judge: 1. Hiruzen 2. Hashirama 3. Hagoromo 4. Mifune 5. The Daimyou

(Old dude with authority, optionally easily distracted/questionably competent. I'd have gone for impressive facial hair but only Mifune and Hagoromo have more than like... Hiruzen's weird soul patch.)

It's not a soul patch but I don't know what facial hair is called and I can't just call it a goat beard

Response commentary was as follows: The Daimyou would unfortunately be closer to the personality of the ace attorney judge, more blindly agreeing with things that sound good :joy: Hiruzen could be fun if only for the competing facial hair for a beard, yes xD Hagoromo would possibly be most buckwild tho WELCOME TO MOON COURT

I managed to get this far with like... NO idea who the judges were except “IDK maybe Kakashi?” but consider:

...HashiMada rival lawyers

Dropping over to Izuna vs. Touka for when Hashirama and Madara inevitably become suspects of something or other themselves and have to be witnesses.

(Tobirama's too busy running blood tests, Anija, let Touka handle it, she's better at people anyway.)

...Hashirama is like. Marginally more put-together than Madara, right? So that... makes him Edgeworth... somehow... That feels wrong but Madara as Edgeworth feels even more wrong.

Madara is very into screaming OBJECTION

ALSO consider: Friction when a doctor from a nearby hospital gets called in to provide expert testimony on something because Karin is like "no hey I should be the one doing this" and then she sees how cute Sakura is.

But also at some point Kakashi vs. Gai for a nonsense case. Their personalities are both VERY FUN for this sort of thing.

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itsclydebitches · 4 years

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RWBY Recaps: “ACE Operatives”

We’re back, folks! I have to say, I think overall this is one of the strongest episodes we’ve gotten since “The Lost Fable.” Are there still concerns? You know it, but on the whole I’ve got to give credit where credit’s due. So with that unexpectedly optimistic mindset, let’s dive in.

We open right on the group’s first mission and for a moment I was worried that, like with Oscar’s shopping, this time skip would be passed right over. Especially after we hear Pietro apologize for “holding onto your weapons for so long,” telling us that between the Academy tour at the end of last episode and this mission today, at least a few weeks have passed. Long enough for one guy to re-design multiple combat outfits and weaponry, plus an additional boost here and there. Luckily, the first part of the episode cuts among three distinct times: when they got their weapons, when they first heard about the mission, and this present day flight/landing, which as a technique I like quite a bit. It gives us a sense of each time while keeping us moving forward. No one is thinking, “Ugh. Do we really need to hear a mission briefing when most of last episode was learning about this plan in the first place?” because we already know this is taking place in the past. Just sit through the snippet and then the rest of the info will come through voice-overs while the group jumps out of an airship. Good balance of exposition and action.

What we learn in these flashbacks is that Ironwood wants to use an abandoned dust mine for the satellite’s launch. Only problem? It’s inhabited by a very old, extremely dangerous geist. Kudos to the writing team for the Volume Two callback. I’ve always been intrigued by Oobleck’s comment that grimm are capable of learning if they continue to survive and here we finally see an example of that. This geist isn’t just strong, it’s smart enough to hide in the mines themselves.

Shot over all this we see Atlas military personnel taking out the everyday grimm in the surrounding area, proving that their weapons can handle that task in most situations. Why doesn’t Ironwood’s robots have that then? Or as others have pointed out, something even more powerful like Penny’s lasers, or some of the upgrades the team gets? Chock it up to lack of funds... or simple plot setup. If the robots had been able to take out a bunch of grimm easy-peasy then there wouldn’t have been any cool premiere fight for our group. Then again, all of this casts their snarky comments about Ironwood’s defenses in a new light. Clearly they’re a force to be reckoned with when the plot actually allows it.

We likewise see the group receiving their new gear and... okay. Here’s where the griping starts. Though it’s admittedly small compared to most of my criticisms. First off, why is Jaune receiving a random scrap of Pyrrha’s outfit? Logically this makes no sense to me. Pyrrha’s body disintegrated into a bunch of dust. I can buy Jaune incorporating other armor and fabric into his gear because they were living together and Pyrrha must have spares, but where did this come from? Did Pietro go ask a family member for a random memento for the (from his perspective) equally random teen that showed up? It’s entirely possible that I’m missing something---I’m sick as a dog at the moment and am probably one fever degree away from mild hallucinations---but the whole setup seems incredibly weird. We see Jaune open his box. We see his look of shock. He see him fingering a torn piece of Pyrrha’s skirt. But how does all that come together in any logical way?

More importantly... why? Why is this still a thing? I get it, Jaune is grieving, but to be frank this has been his one-note characterization for over three volumes now. More importantly, everyone else is grieving too. This is another case of the writing prioritizing what the audience knows over what characters know. Meaning, we got to see how close Jaune and Pyrrha were. We know they were in love, but outsiders like Ironwood and Pietro see them as a unified team. Why not give a scrap to Jaune, Nora, and Ren? Really, that’s what rankles the most: this continuing focus on Jaune over the rest of his team. Especially when that focus just leads us in circles of the ‘Jaune is sad’ variety. I thought we were supposed to be learning more about Nora this volume, so why not give her something to remember Pyrrha by? I realize we’re only through the third episode, but in a series that averages twelve each volume, that’s a fourth of our material gone. Please. I’m begging you. Enough about Jaune. We’ve watched him cry and rage and lash out for three years now. He’s gotten to move through every type of grief the writing could throw at him. Let someone else take the spotlight for a change.

(It’s also just all around weird because Jaune is smiling sadly, implying he’s moving on, but then we have Clover narrating about how they’re “going to kill this thing...” which reminds us of Pyrrha’s murder in a way not really conducive to the whole ‘moving on’ vibe... it’s just odd.)

Second gripe: why doesn’t Oscar get anything? I’ve written before about how overall the group still treats Oscar as the outsider and boy oh boy, do we see that trend continuing here. I’ll speak about this more in a moment when we get to the Ozpin situation, but for this scene in particular there’s no reason he shouldn’t be included. If Jaune can get a cool addition to his shield after updating his own outfit, Oscar can get a cool addition too. Take five seconds to have Pietro point out that, as a random farm kid buying combat gear for the first time, he didn’t totally hit the mark. Here are a few things to keep you safer. Hell, you could even have Pietro---who we have established goes above and beyond in his inventions---pull Oscar aside with an updated weapon and Oscar could have gotten all quiet, examining his cane, eventually thanking Pietro, but emphasizing that he doesn’t think he should change things just yet. Or without anther’s input. Or, if Atlas doesn’t want to waste funds on the farm boy let him get a haircut like literally everyone else! We could have allotted Oscar a few seconds of screen time instead of getting what we always get: the team banding together and him nowhere to be seen.

He’s a part of this mission. He’s integral to this mission. He is a main character now. It’s about time the writing started acknowledging that.

The final flashback, at least, includes Oscar a little more. I realize my screenshot isn’t the best, but the expressions here really do say it all: Ruby mindlessly geeking out over new tech while Oscar stands sadly in another doorway.

We hear him say, “Hey... Ruby?” before he’s cut off and we return to the present.

We’ll get back to him in just a moment. For now, the airship opens to reveal everyone’s new look, which isn’t actually a reveal because this scene dominated the trailer.

Ah well. I have to say though, from here on out one of the main reasons why this episode feels strong to me is because of the overall dynamic among the characters. First, it was smart to break everyone up into different teams to search for a hidden grimm. If they’d tried to cram twelve characters into the same shot for the rest of the episode it would have been a disaster. Second, these smaller teams allow for the sort of teasing/comfort/playfulness we’ve grown used to among these characters, but have largely lost over the last two volumes. One of my favorite moments is when Yang is caught staring at Blake’s new haircut and we get a look at this massive blush.

Not to ship on main, but please note the parallel between this moment and Nora/Ren, two characters who are more firmly established as a canonical couple. Although... here when Nora compliments Ren’s hair he shuts her down pretty hard. There’s none of the casual indulgence we’re used to from him. Since when does Ren insist that Nora take a mission seriously, outside of making those requests in an equally teasing manner? Nora notices as much too, clearly upset, and Jaune is just... dense. It makes me wonder though if this is the direction they’re heading in for Nora. Give her romance troubles in the form of Ren pulling away now that their relationship has had a chance to sink in.

Not sure I’m a big fan of that. Granted, it depends on how they handle it, but on the whole I’m not really invested in reducing Nora’s rare and much needed development down to a cliche ‘Oh no. A boy doesn’t like me’ plot-line. We’ll have to see though.

I also really liked the moment between Weiss and Blake a little later. This is how you tackle racism in your story. Not by having the group risk their world-saving mission by Weiss impulsively throwing civilians into the trash, but by having an incredibly privileged woman acknowledge her privilege. Weiss mentions how angry this mine’s failure made her father, but she doesn’t use the abuse she suffered as any sort of excuse, like she would have in the earlier volumes. Instead, Weiss acknowledges for herself how hard that time was and then apologizes not only for what he’s done to the faunus, but also for “all my complacency in it.” Weiss was a child. We can’t hold her to the same level of responsibility as Jacques. But as a privileged woman in this world Weiss’ complacency does perpetuate her father’s active sins. So it’s fantastic that she admits as much to Blake. In front of all the others, no less. To me, that’s a far better sign of growth than what we got last week.

It’s also during this time that we see Blake eyeing the SDC boxes with anxiety. It could just be bad memories. It could imply that she had some hand in this particular attack. I hope it implies that she’s thinking about Adam because... is anyone going to bring him up? Seriously? Two teammates killed a guy. The self-defense aspect doesn’t erase the fact that they each rammed a piece of a blade through his stomach and watched him topple over a waterfall. We should be dealing with this! Not reducing it to one hug from Ruby right before a major battle. Hopefully this is setup for some (now long overdue) reflection.

Meanwhile, an interaction that doesn’t work as well is when Ruby comments on how freezing she is and Weiss notes that without proper equipment or aura insulation you can freeze to death in an hour. So... is that what the group is doing then? Wasting precious aura whenever they’re outside because Blake wants her arms unzipped, Weiss wants bare spots around her chest, and Yang needs to artistically keep one leg and one arm totally unclothed? The issue is not, “How does the group stay warm?” because plenty of stories have logistical questions like that and unless you’re a fan overly invested in the minutiae, you shrug it off. When is the group going to the bathroom during these endless missions? Who’s carrying pads for when three of them hit their periods at once? No one cares. Rather, the issue is that the writing draws attention to the question and then fails to answer it. Just like they did when suddenly death via cold was something that had to keep them in the creepy town when death via cold was never a concern up until then. Where was hypothermia when Yang insisted Ozpin hash out all his secrets in the snow? It’s a rather convenient ‘Sometimes it’s an issue, sometimes not,” situation. Obviously aura isn’t doing much to keep them toasty though if Ruby feels the need to comment on how cold she still is. And that attention then invites further questions like, “Why then are they still dressed inappropriately for the weather? Should we expect them to fall more quickly in battle because aura is going towards making sure they don’t freeze to death in under an hour?” Better to just leave it alone.

Talk of the cold leads into Oscar though because Yang comments, “I suddenly don’t feel so bad about leaving Oscar behind.” Which... no. You did leave him behind. Don’t try to make that palatable with stupid upsides like, ‘Well at least he’s warm!’ Worse, the group does nothing to justify that decision. Realistically I can buy why they’d leave Oscar out of this mission. We’ve established that this particular grimm has already taken out a lot of people and, without Ozpin, Oscar is still a newbie fighter. With the exception of the train and one grimm in the premier, I don’t think Oscar has fought many grimm at all. So really, it would take two sentences to establish this. Tell us that this mission is way out of his skill range and throw out that he’s training with Ironwood or something. That’s it. That’s all it takes, but the writing bypasses that and leaves us with, ‘The group left Oscar behind... for reasons?’ Which, in the context of his entire time with them looks really, really bad. Because they left him out of the dinner in Haven. And the hunt for supplies at the farm. And in retrieving the relic. And left him alone at the Argus house. And left him out of the upgrade joy. We’ve now established a trend of the group outright ignoring Oscar, whether it’s during bright celebratory moments or agonizing traumatic ones. Doesn’t matter, he’s left out of the loop, and now we see the same thing happening here. Rather than a simple and logical, ‘Oscar isn’t ready to fight a super old geist,’ what we’re left with paints the situation as, ‘Oscar is left behind because Ruby disagrees with him.’

Because without clarification, that’s the context. We get another (very short) flashback where he (thank you, thank you) points out that what they’re doing to Ironwood is precisely what Ozpin did to them. (Although Oscar tries to soften this by saying it only “feels like” the same thing.) Ruby looks guilty for a second... and then that’s it. We’re back to at least a day later where they’re on this mission, they’ve left Oscar behind, and Ruby is re-explaining why her morals are sound.

I’ll admit I’m pleased that Yang points out that they agreed no more lies and no more half-truths. I honestly didn’t expect her to say even that much against her precious sister. But still, on the whole this dilemma isn’t much of a dilemma at all. It’s reading precisely like the airship debacle: a few characters giving token disagreements but when push comes to shove whatever Ruby wants, Ruby gets. You know how above I pointed out how much I like the split present/past business so that we can have a balance between talking and action? Yeah, that only works if the talking is generic exposition. We don’t need a long-winded discussion about the details of this mission. We do need a substantial discussion about the absolute hypocrisy the group has fallen into. That split between past and present is important. Are you honestly going to tell me that over all these days---if not, arguably, weeks---the group never once had a conversation about this? That we don’t get to see that downtime filled with some actual growth? And we could have easily achieved that with the current setup. Extend Oscar’s flashback into something significant, leaving the geist battle for next week. Let him be angry for once, furious that after all the shit they put Ozpin through, and by extension him, they’re just going to turn around and do the exact same thing without even an apology? An acknowledgment that they were wrong? Or create space to have that discussion now. Harriet comes out of the mine saying a part of it has collapsed and they need time to clear it, giving Team RWBY the chance to really hash some things out and disagree for once. Instead, as expected, secret keeping is framed as the right decision without anyone but Oscar acknowledging the hypocrisy in that. They even go so far as to say, “Why don’t we play along for a while before me make any major decisions.” Newsflash:

Graphic design is my passion, all.

Overall it’s not quite as pro-protagonist as it could have been, but it’s not great either. We’re left with the fact that the group has this time sitting with their own lies and apparently, after all that, what they’ve settled on is denial. Great. Fantastic. I hope Oscar finds new friends at the Academy who encourage him to really call them out on this later.

We also learn that Ruby gave the relic back to Oscar. So the writing is self-aware enough for her to acknowledge that carrying it around on her belt is a horrendously bad idea, but not self-aware enough to keep her getting it back in the first place? Imagine you hired someone to transport a priceless painting to your super safe vault and then when it finally arrives you go, “Actually, you did such a good job getting that here I think it’ll be safer in your hands as you go about your life. Rather than the vault I specifically built for it.” Except the painting is a magic relic, the vault is also nearly impenetrable via magic, and the transporter is now a 14yo who, as established, is the weakest fighter of the group. For the love of Ironwood’s characterization, please let that relic be a fake.

Really, on the whole that moment could have been touching... but again, context. ‘Here’s the relic back that I basically stole and then ripped all Ozpin’s trauma from him by wasting an invaluable question.’ Yeah. All the while everyone is still talking as if Ozpin isn’t even there. Ironwood, in his ignorance, has been the one person to actually address him, despite the fact that the entire group knows he’s listening in. You know that feeling when you’re sitting with a bunch of people you’re not particularly close with and it’s clear they’re deliberately not including you in the conversation? Yeah, it’s like that only a thousand times worse. No wonder Ozpin still hasn’t tried to come out. No one cares about his vessel, they still actively hate him, and they’re all hypocritical to boot. I’d stay hidden too.

Anyway, back to the actual plot. Qrow has been paired off with Clover and at first we get a really excellent conversation about teamwork. We as the audience know precisely why Qrow prefers to work alone, but when he slips and Clover manages to catch him, it functions as a fantastic counter. See? Qrow might have bad luck, but this is precisely why he does need to be around others. They can help him when things get tough.

However, that message is severely undermined when it’s later revealed that Clover’s semblance is good luck.

Not only does that remove the previously stated wonderful message---because now it’s not about Qrow learning to accept help, it’s about how Clover’s semblance just conveniently cancels his out---it’s just an iffy stretch of my suspension of disbelief. Really? Out of all the people they could have met, that Qrow could have been paired with, he happens to find the one guy with the exact opposite semblance to him? Clover is an incredibly handsome and charismatic guy. He’s the leader of the strongest kingdom’s strongest team. He just happens to have the best version of Qrow’s greatest weakness. I know I said I wanted more passive semblances, but I would have preferred something other than this heavy-handed introduction.

Although... are they passive? I had to pause the episode for a moment when Qrow throws out, “sometimes I can’t keep it under control” because excuse me?? There are times you can keep it under control? Since when? How? I know we’re loose on our semblance rules here, but c’mon. Is Qrow’s entire life governed by a trait outside of his control or not?

We see a similar issue cropping up at the end of the episode when Harriet informs Ruby that there’s “something else” going on with her semblance. Look. RWBY isn’t Dragon Ball Z. The characters don’t need to tap into unheard of powers every season to keep things interesting. As Yang herself points out, Ruby already has super special silver eyes.

Her semblance is speed and transformation and transforming other people along with her. Weiss is already a super special Schnee with a super special hereditary semblance that creates glyphs and summoned fighters of whatever she’s killed. Blake is already a super special Belladonna with ties to the world’s biggest resistance group. Yang... okay, Yang is admittedly an ordinary girl with an ordinary background and that’s one of the things I still love about her. She grows stronger through more training, better strategy, and turning any weaknesses into strengths---like her arm. It’s so much more powerful to give characters that kind of arc than to fall back on, “[gasp!] You were secretly special all along.” So who knows what else they’re going to add to Ruby’s semblance. Whatever it is, it’s not needed.

I will say though that semblance issues aside, I’m liking the Ace Ops way more than I thought I would. Given that introducing five more characters was, objectively, a bad move. But they’ve got real personality attached to them. I appreciated that Clover thanked Qrow for the save (they could have made a guy that ‘perfect’ way more arrogant) while the rest spent a good portion of the time teasing RWBYJNR like they’re little siblings. Which I adored. For the first time in volumes we got to see our heroes portrayed exactly as they are: teens in training. Nora says that it “feels like we’re an actual huntsmen team,” acknowledging that they’re not yet. They’re the students following the professionals, helping out without getting in the way. It stood out to me that the geist fight is identical to the one we got in Volume Four, with the exception that it’s way, way better. They come up with Jaune’s strategy to remove the limbs in an instant, rather than taking the entire fight trying and failing to do damage. I don’t think a single member of the Ace Ops took a hit, despite the fact that this geist was a huge threat to the rest of the Atlesian army. Like Team RWBY at times, there was seamless communication, perfect execution, and the one time they made a mistake? Ruby was there to help them out. I really appreciated that the writing had RWBYJNR sit this one out until their particular skills---in this case Ruby’s speed---was actually needed, as opposed to an arrogant, ‘How dare you not let us fight!’ where they endanger themselves and others by insisting that they know best.

This is the RWBYJNR I want to see more of. Ozpin remains a huge, glaring issue, but if the writer’s can keep this sort of attitude in mind we’ll be making good strides away from the horror that was Volume Six. No more, “We don’t need adults,” please. As a bunch of adults just demostrated, they’re way out of your league.

Finally, we end the episode on Tyrian again. Showcasing RWBY’s new love of horror tropes, he appears beneath the flickering lamp light (complimenting the jump scare we got with Blake earlier on). He approaches Forest, the activist from the airship, and we end with Tyrian’s tail coming his way. Did he just poison him? Did he kill him? What’s the end goal here? Just sow chaos by leaving a bunch of bodies lying around? It’s unclear, but whatever is going on, Tyrian sure is busy.

Also, RIP #FRWBY.

Until next week!

Minor Things of Note

I like that Jaune and Blake both looked at their hair before we cut to them with new looks. Still not over Jaune’s style though. He’s french fry head now and no one will convince me otherwise.

It looks like Blake’s blade has been welded back together with a bit of yellow something-or-other...

Bad execution on an otherwise cool introduction to Marrow’s semblance. That was epic how he managed to stop both centipede grimm at once, but then Harriet just... slams them? Awkwardly? They don’t even disintegrate? Idk. Her end of that team attack didn’t live up to Marrow’s.

Team JNR has a very “headfirst approach.” True enough. Although, it’s not like they had an easy way to stop like their Ace Operative teammates. They did the best they could under the circumstances lol.

Jaune also has a landing strategy! I would have rather the writing just acknowledge that than give us that weird moment with Pyrrha’s fabric.

Not sure if I like Qrow’s new outfit or not. To be fair, that man would look stunning in a paper bag, so I’m not sure I’m an objective judge of any change here. Also to be fair, my own fashion ‘skills’ leaves something to be desired. So I think I’ll just bow out of this particular conversation.

#rwby #rwby volume 7 #rwby volume 7 spoilers #mymetas #rwby recaps

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shestillhasherquill · 6 years

Text

At the Heart of Darkness (2/11)

Thank you, thank you all for the great reception for the fic. I hope that you continue to enjoy the following chapters as well. I'm sorry there was no update last week, but I was out of town for a wedding.

Here’s my next installment for the @captainswanbigbang. Big thanks to the Mods for working around my schedule for this, and for just being overall awesome and supportive.

This chapter has TWO ARTWORKS, WHAAAT. @sambethe was kind enough to draw one of my favorite scenes from this chapter, a moment of respite for Emma and Killian. And, she also made the banner. She's just the best, and she's captured the lightness of the scene, but the eagerness from Emma so perfectly. Check out her original post for said artwork, and for the banner!

AND @downeystarkjr has made a video. I can't even. It's soooo cool. It gives you a peek into what the whole fic is about without too many spoilers until you actually read the scene and go 'OH I GET IT NOW' which was how I felt. It's bloody incredible and amazing and just - go watch it.

As always, I'm in great debt to my beta, @accio-ambition for being such an Ace. There's so daddy-daughter fluff that she likes, and I'm pretty sure this is one of the easier chapters she had to edit, just based on the level of angst. Love you, baeeb. Go check out her own fic for CSBB, No Good Deed

Without further ado...

Summary: Killian Jones lives in the Land without Magic, with no memories of his family. Until Emma Swan comes into his life like a whirlwind, reminding about everything he had lost. He embarks on an adventure to destroy the Darkness, only to discover that Emma might not be telling him the whole story.

Rating: M

Content Warning: Mentions of Miscarriage, Angst, Gothel

Chapter 1: tumblr ao3 ff.net

Current Chapter: ao3/ff.net

-/-

Chapter 1: I’m waving through a window

21 years ago : Enchanted Forest

“Papa, can you tell me again about the sea monster?” Alice begged, clinging to Killian with all her five-year-old might. “Please?”

Killian chuckled, knowing that if he wanted to, he could very easily slip from her grasp. He knew he ought to be sterner with her and not concede every time she begged him, but one look at her pleading, wide eyes and he caved. It was hard for his to resist his child when she asked for little. “Starfish, it’s well past your bedtime. If you don’t sleep now, you will be cranky all morning tomorrow.”

“But, Papa ,” she insisted, climbing on his chest, sitting cross-legged on his stomach. Killian huffed a little, but she hardly weighed anything. “I won’t let you go until you tell me the story,” she said, much too smug for so tiny a child.

Killian did not have the heart to point out he could quite simply lift her off of him and force her to sleep. She was forced to stay in this wretched tower all day, every day of her life - the least he could do was tell her another story. He grabbed one of her small hands in his and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “Alright, my little pirate. You have me as your hostage. I will tell you the story about the sea monster.” He struggled not to laugh as she folded her arms, leaning back against his thighs, as he had had his knees raised. “Comfortable, are you?”

“Aye, aye, C’ptn,” she said, saluting him clumsily.

He laughed out right at that, tickling her belly and making her giggle. “Papa, stop,” she protested in between giggles. “I want story!”

“Alright, alright.” He was just about to start the tale, when he heard a scraping noise from outside, putting him on high alert. He strained his ears, hoping he had just imagined it, but when he heard it again, he sat up immediately. He lifted Alice off of him, despite her protests, and put her in bed. He reached for his cutlass from where he’d hid it, before turning to her. “Alice, I need you to listen carefully to Papa. Stay here and do not make a sound, alright?”

Alice stared at him wide-eyed before her eyes shifted to his cutlass. Killian turned her head gently with his hook so she was looking at him again. “Alice, love, listen to me. Do you want to have a real adventure?” he asked, forcing more than enough excitement in his tone.

“Yeah!” she exclaimed. “Let’s play pirates!”

“Aye, aye, my little fish. We are playing pirates, and now Papa’s gotta beat the bad guys. You need to stay here until it’s safe, alright?” he whispered, leaning closer to her and putting his finger to his lip.

“Alright, Papa,” she whispered back, mimicking his action. Killian smiled at her, before turning to face the only window in the tower, getting ready to battle whoever it was that came through.

He adjusted his grip on his blade, slipping into his old Captain Hook persona. While he was expecting all forms of danger and evil, including the woman who gave birth to his child, he was still surprised to see a blonde slip through the window, dressed in trousers and a shirt. She stopped in her tracks when she saw him, her eyes widening, in surprise or fear, he was not sure.

“Identify yourself, thief,” he demanded, moving towards her, keeping Alice hidden from her sight.

The blonde’s confusion turned into irritation. “I am no thief. I’m Princess Emma of Misthaven.”

Present : Land without Magic

It hadn’t been hard for Emma to follow Mr. Castle’s instructions. Take a flight - and public transit - to a sleepy town in Southeastern England, and she will find him. If she wasn’t so eager to be reunited with her love, she would have laughed at how simple it all seemed. She had been in this land for over a year, and she had quickly realised that money could buy her anything - even fake papers and identity. For all that she wanted for in life - being reunited with Killian and Alice, breaking the wretched curse that forced them apart, and getting her hands around Gothel’s neck - money was not one of them. Killian’s supply of gold had been seemingly endless, but just a pursefull has been more than enough for her to afford the luxury of a new identity and means of travel in this metal craft that flew.

To say she was wary of this mode of transportation would be a gross understatement. And as helpful as the wine the helpers on the craft had been pouring for her was, it was only enough to dull her anxiety, not quell it. When the plane seemed to get more turbulent than usual, she gripped the handrests tight, trying to think of anything but being stuck in something that seemed to fly without any magic.

21 years ago : The Enchanted Forest

Killian’s eyebrows raised incredulously. “You’re raving mad, lass. Princess Emma is but a child now. Who are you, really?” He stepped up to her now, pressing his blade against her throat before she could draw the sword at her hip.

Emma rolled her eyes, raising her hands in surrender. “I’m not from this reality,” she huffed. “I am a Princess. I am from Misthaven. I’m just not from the same reality as you.”

Killian’s brows furrowed, uncertain if he should trust this stranger. “If you really are who you say you are, why are you here?”

“Listen, friend. I have been on the run from the savages in the villages, and this was the first place I could find. I did not know it was occupied.”

Killian did not want to lower his weapon, especially when she claimed to be on the run. “Well, it is occupied. So you would do well to be on your way, lass. Unless you want to meet a worse fate.” But before Emma could retaliate, he heard Alice speak up, coming out from under the blankets.

“Papa, I don’t want to play pirates anymore.” Killian resisted the urge to groan out loud, ignoring the surprised look on Emma’s face as he turned to face his daughter.

“Darling, I told you to stay in bed, and stay quiet.” But Alice ignored him, her eyes wide as she noticed the presence of another person. Before he could grab a hold of her, Alice ran over to the newcomer, a big grin on her face.

“Are you a friend? I’m Alice,” she stated, with all the tact of a five-year-old, holding her hand out.

Emma gaped at Alice, trying and failing to come up with an appropriate response. Killian ran his hand through his hair, walking over to his daughter and pulling her to his side. “Like I said, lass, this tower is occupied. Whatever your grievances with the villagers, they are your own. I will not allow you to bring my daughter into any trouble.” His voice was low and soft, but the threat was clear.

Emma eyed his hook warily before she squared her shoulders. “They think me a witch. I’m not - I’m just -” Emma paused, composing herself. “I’m gifted with light magic. My parents were Snow White and Prince Charming, like in this reality - but they were defeated by The Evil Queen in mine. I had to escape.”

Killian’s expression softened, but as much as he empathised with this woman, he could not risk Alice’s safety. “I’m sorry to hear about your parents, lass. I really am. But I cannot let you stay here - I need to put my daughter first.” He felt Alice squirm in his hold, and he held her back.

Emma looked defeated, nodding in understanding. She backed away, getting ready to leave, when Alice’s voice stopped her.

“Can you really do magic?” the little girl asked, her curiosity and wonder blatant.

Emma smiled softly, looking to Killian questioningly. He reluctantly nodded, still keeping his grip on Alice. Emma crouched to Alice’s height, holding out her hand, drawing from the magic within her. Moments later, a daisy laden flower crown was dangling from her fingers.

Alice gasped, reaching out to it instinctively, but she quickly remembered her place and pulled her hand back. Emma couldn’t help but smile at her, holding the crown out to her. “May I?” Emma asked Alice, chuckling when the girl nodded eagerly.

Emma placed the crown delicately on Alice’s head, grinning at the bright smile that overtook Alice’s face. “There. Now you’re a princess, too,” Emma declared.

“I’m a pirate princess,” Alice corrected, prompting a chuckle from her father.

“That you are, Starfish. Now say goodbye to the kind lady, and get yourself in bed. It is well past your bedtime.”

Alice nodded; she reached for Emma’s hand, shaking it. “Thanks for my crown.” She paused, watching Emma contemplatively. “If you can do magic, can you get me out of this tower?” Alice wondered out loud, not realising her father’s sudden change in demeanor.

Emma’s brows furrowed at Alice’s question, before she turned to Killian. He sighed, perhaps for the hundredth time that night, kneeling beside Alice and turning her to face him. He smiled painfully at her, brushing wayward strands of hair from her eyes. “Alice, I’m not certain Emma here can do that, darling.”

“But she said she can do magic, Papa. You said magic was keeping me here,” Alice protested, scowling at him. He knew that look, that deep frown. She was trying to force her tears back, and she was getting ready to start a fight. It broke his heart to keep disappointing her, but he had no choice.

“What is she talking about?” Emma asked, drawing the attention of both father and daughter toward her again. “Is she being kept here against her will?” she demanded, raising to her full height, and her hand placed on the pommel of her sword threateningly.

Her response irked Killian, as irrational as it was. Emma had no inkling of his or Alice’s history, but she already seemed to have jumped to an unsavory conclusion. That just rubbed him wrong. He rose to his feet too, lifting Alice with him. “I’m not sure you have any right to imply whatever it is you are, lass,” he warned her. “My daughter was cursed to the confines of this wretched tower, but if you dare insinuate that I am holding her hostage, I-” Keeping in mind the presence of his child, he held back on his threats. “It would not end well for you, princess or not.”

He saw Emma’s stance relax, her guilt evident as she glanced away from his gaze. He was glad that no matter how long it had been since he had given up being a pirate, he was still able to exude an air of authority. “I-I’m sorry. I spoke out of turn,” Emma replied, sounding remorseful. She seemed to hesitate before adding. “I know you want me gone, but I am trained in magic and the mystical arts - I could see what I could do about the spell keeping your daughter in this tower.”

Alice’s face lit up at Emma’s offer, and she was nodding before Killian could even process what Emma had said. Emma looked to Killian then, sensing his reluctance. “My word may not mean much to you, but I swear, I will not do anything to harm you or your daughter.”

Killian swallowed thickly, knowing that he had no choice but to agree. There was no more harm this woman could do. Alice was already stuck in this tower. If there was even a small chance that Emma could free his child, he had to trust her. “Aye, you’re right. I will pay you handsomely for your work, lass - if there is any chance at all to free my girl of her imprisonment, I want to know.”

Alice leaned tiredly against his shoulder then, making him realise how late it was. “That can wait till morning. I should put this little lass to bed,” he said, adjusting his grip on Alice. “You can take the hammock, Emma. I can sleep on the bed here, with Alice.”

Emma nodded, smiling and waving goodnight to Alice. “Thank you…?”

“Killian Jones, milady. I’d bow, but I have precious cargo in my arms,” he joked. Emma waved him off, smiling at a now sleeping Alice.

“Thank you, Killian Jones . I appreciate you letting me stay the night.” Killian nodded, walking to the secluded corner that served as Alice’s room, drawing the heavy curtains to afford them some privacy.

He place Alice under her cover gently, trying not to jostle her awake. He knelt at her bedside, smiling at the peaceful look on his daughter’s face, knuckles tracing her cheek softly, before he brushed a kiss goodnight on her forehead. He then settled on the armchair next to her bed, keeping watch. As much as he would like to trust this woman, he knew better. No matter how noble she might portray her intentions as, magic always came with a price. He could not afford that price to be Alice.

-/-

Present : Land without Magic

It was quite late in the evening when Emma finally reached her destination, and she was weary from both the plane ride and her commute to this little town. She could not wait to see Killian; if she had a little less restraint, she would have gone knocking on his door, his lack of memories be damned. She was half-tempted to do that, but she couldn’t bring herself to disrupt his life so abruptly. She did need him to help her find Alice, yes, but selfishly, she wanted just a moment with him before he remembered.

She sat heavily on the bed at the inn where she was staying. Her hand once again reached for the ring around her neck, feeling the warmth of the magic residing in it. While she could not strictly use magic in this land, it did not mean she couldn’t channel magical objects. She wasn’t a fool, coming here with no way to defend herself against Gothel. She was certain that vile witch had own arsenal for her dark magic.

Emma brought her feet up, sitting more comfortably on the bed before she grabbed her journal. She made sure to record everything that had happened in the past twenty years, all of Alice’s milestones and about their adventures together. The first few weeks after Killian left them, when Alice was inconsolable, writing had been Emma’s solace, the only way she could talk about her own anger and frustration, her heartbreak and pain. A part of her was uncertain if she would ever show it to Killian, knowing how much it would hurt him. She would gladly tell him anything he wanted to know, but for now, this journal was for her eyes alone.

There had been days, in the beginning, when she had snuck back to the ruins of the tower sometimes, selfishly wishing for a moment that they had never tried to break the spell. The next, she would remember how miserable Alice had been, stuck within those walls, and hated herself for ever wanting to go back to such times. Days like that, her dark days, those were the hardest - when she was filled with nothing but anger and hate toward Killian, Gothel, the whole lot of them. But the person she hated the most was herself, for it was her idea that led to their downfall in the first place. Emma diligently penned her thoughts down, the self-loathing rising and cresting within her. She would take this moment now, to dwell and cry; tomorrow would be a new day. She had a pirate to find and a family to reunite, and hoped desperately that she was still welcome in that family.

-/-

21 years ago : The Enchanted Forest

Emma blinked against the too-bright light falling through the large window, stretching her arms above her head. She almost toppled over in her hammock, catching herself before she fell and managing to land on her feet with all the grace of a drunkard. She squinted at her surroundings, trying to catch her bearings; it took her a moment to remember where she was. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, looking around the room, searching for Killian Jones and his daughter. At that exact moment, the man himself walked from the alcove that served as Alice’s room, carrying the half-asleep child in his arms.

“Good morning, lass,” he greeted, his voice hoarse and quiet. “Alice is not a morning person,” he whispered in explanation as he headed to the small kitchen area, getting a fire going and setting water to boil, all one-handedly while holding his daughter, as if he had done it a thousand times before. He probably had.

“Good morning,” Emma murmured. “If you want, I could hold Alice for you,” she offered, feeling useless as he went about his morning routine.

“That’s quite alright,” he said, refusing her as politely as he could. And if she noticed Killian’s grip on Alice tightening, she chose to ignore it. “Would you like some tea?”

“That would be lovely, thank you.” Emma observed him quietly, a pang in her chest as she saw him interact with a sleepy Alice, whispering to his child with a soft cadence to this voice.

As if sensing her eyes on him and Alice, Killian looked up and their gazes met. She held it for a moment too long before she averted her eyes, embarrassed at being caught staring. Killian cleared his throat, adjusting his hold on Alice. “The spell, ahem, how long would that take you?”

“It should not take me long to assess how strong the barrier that is keeping your daughter in here is. But do you mind telling me a bit more about how it happened? It might help me understand the original spell better.”

Killian, who had been pouring their tea, almost dropped the kettle at her question. He froze for a moment, looking down at Alice with a pained expression. He did not want to rehash it if she was awake, but fortunately, Alice was still asleep. He brushed a hand down his daughter’s locks, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead, and finally turned to Emma again. “A witch used blood magic to keep her trapped in here. I can leave the tower and come back - anyone can, as you know - but Alice cannot. She has been trapped in here from the moment she was born.”

Emma exhaled sharply, her heart hurting for the little girl. She knew well enough how unfair having one’s freedom and choice taken away could feel. She could not imagine knowing nothing beyond these walls from the moment she was born. “I am so sorry to hear that, Killian.” She hesitated before asking, “What about Alice’s mother?”

“She is no longer in the picture,” Killian snapped, startling Emma. He took a deep breath, calming himself before he continued. “She is not here. Now, I would appreciate it if you could get on with the spell, aye?”

-/-

Present : Land without magic

Killian woke up feeling extremely restless that morning. He spent an hour in the home gym working up a sweat. He wished he could work on his new book, but he had promised Will not to keep messing with it, to leave it be. It’s perfect as is, Jones. At some point, you need to stop editing , he’d said when Killian had called him last night with a few changes. All he had left was the dedication. After all these years of the same single line, he felt it was time to change it. He’d always dedicated his books to the people who struggle the same way he had with his alcoholism, and while that would remain the same, it just did not seem like enough this time around. He hadn’t told Will this yet, but this would be the last book in his series - The Davy Jones Chronicles. It felt like a good place to end Captain Hook’s story, as elusive as it was.

Maybe that was why he felt so restless. Or maybe you are still thrown off by Eloise , a voice at the back of his head said. Which he dismissed quickly, of course. There was nothing wrong with the woman: she just came on a little too strong. Maybe a walk into town would help clear his head, and help expel his restless energy. With the decision made, Killian had a quick shower, got dressed, and headed into town for the day.

After a quick stop for breakfast at his favorite little cafe at the bottom of the hill his cottage was on, he found himself wandering Main Street aimlessly. While he had been in this quaint town for a little over a month, he hadn’t taken the time to fully explore it. A Wednesday seemed like the perfect day to do just that - most people would be at work, and he could take his own sweet time. He ducked into a small alley, not unlike the one Eloise’s shop was in, surprised by the number of vintage and antiquities shops housed in the narrow lane.

He took his time exploring each one, with no agenda in mind. One of the stores seemed to have a nautical theme going on, intriguing him. He stepped in, looking around with a childlike wonder; he was hit with an odd sense of nostalgia, a certain longing for the life of a pirate that he only had written about so far. He hadn’t been out on the ocean in a long while, not since his brother passed. It never felt right to go without Liam at his side. He turned his back on that life a long time ago; it was only Captain Hook who now had adventures on the water, not Killian Jones.

He stopped short when he spotted a compass on the display case. It was a fairly ordinary one, but it gave him a strange sense of deja vu. He stood there staring at it for so long that the salesperson approached him, asking if he was interested in taking a closer look. For a moment, he was tempted, even perhaps to purchase it; but the moment passed and he decided against it. What could he possibly need a compass for?

He wandered out of the store, meandering through the same alley. It was only when he was passing a secondhand bookstore that something caught his eye in his periphery, making him halt in his tracks. He turned, eyes wide in disbelief, staring through the glass display window of the store at the person inside. It was the blonde haired woman from his dreams, he knew it. He had never seen her face, but he’d seen her from behind and this woman, whoever she was, was her. She had her back to him, so he made a quick decision, pushing his way through the door, his eyes never leaving her. She turned away from the person she was conversing with when she heard the bell, her eyes falling on his.

The moment his eyes met her sharp green ones, Killian’s breath hitched, and he could have sworn his heart had skipped a beat. She stared at him with the same kind of surprise, lips parted slightly, and Killian wondered if she was having a similar visceral reaction as he did. Before he could stop himself, he drew closer to her. “You...I…” He struggled to speak, not knowing how he could explain himself.

After watching him struggle for a moment longer, the woman finally spoke, a barely discernible tremble in her voice. “Are you alright, sir?” she asked, politely. With no recognition in her eyes. She didn’t know him and for some reason he could feel the disappointment swell deep in his chest.

When he realised the woman was still waiting for his response, he drew back from his thoughts. “Yes, yes. I’m fine,” he assured her, feeling the heat rise to his cheeks. “I’m sorry, you just look very familiar.” When he saw her shoulders tense, he felt the need to apologise. “I must be mistaken, forgive me. Killian Jones.” He held out his hand.

She seemed to hesitate for a moment, her hand clutching the chain around her neck briefly before she took his hand and said, “Emma. Swan. I-I’m sorry I wasn’t who you were looking for.”

Killian was not certain, but Emma seemed oddly upset at that. He noticed the book she had been holding, making him grin involuntarily. “ The Davy Jones Chronicles? Excellent choice,” he commented gleefully.

Emma laughed softly, clutching the book tighter. “I read the first book in the series and got, shall I say, hooked .”

Now it was his turn to laugh, rubbing at the back of his neck. Did she know ? he wondered. Did she know that I am the one who wrote it ?

It seemed to have dawned on Emma at the same time, as her eyes widened. “Wait, Killian Jones? As in the writer? This is your book?”

He chuckled in embarrassment, nodding at her. “Yeah, it is. I-I’m really glad you like it, Miss Swan.”

“Emma is fine,” she replied, waving at him dismissively.

“Right. Emma.” He felt a strange connection to this Emma Swan, but he did not want to come off too strong, again, and frighten her. He was so certain that she was the blonde haired woman from his dreams; as crazy as that sounded, he believed that with all his heart. “Perhaps, we could discuss books that aren’t mine over a cup of coffee?” he suggested, all while berating himself for being too forward.

Emma seemed like she wanted to decline, but she surprised him. “I’d like that, Killian.”

-/-

21 years ago : The Enchanted Forest

Killian returned from putting Alice back in bed, soothing her sleepy questions with assured murmurs. “I’ll be right back, love,” he whispered, extracting himself from her hold.

When he returned to the front room, he found Emma pacing, holding a small, weathered notebook in her hands. “Are you ready, Emma?” he asked, startling her.

She looked up at him contemplatively, before she nodded. “Yes, I am. But I’m going to need a small drop of Alice’s blood.”

“Absolutely not!” Killian protested, his fierce protectiveness rising to the fore. “You will not harm her.”

“Killian, she is trapped by blood magic,” Emma tried to explain, but he cut her off.

“I don’t bloody well care,” he snarled. “Find another way.”

“It’s just a drop-”

“Another. Way,” he growled out. “I am not going to wake my sleeping child just so you can take her blood. I thought you were going to assess how strong the barrier was.”

“I was just trying to think ahead,” Emma snapped, losing her patience. “Isn’t that the logical next step, to break the barrier?”

“We will come to that when we do,” he argued. “First tell me if we can break it.”

Emma seemed ready to counter, but she held her tongue, scowling at him. “Fine.” She walked toward the window, holding her hand out as if to touch the barrier. Killian knew from experience that only Alice would be able to see and touch it. It was meant only for her, after all. Which is why, when he saw the slight shimmer of the barrier, he was taken aback.

“Was that you?” he asked, standing next to Emma.

“Yes, now keep quiet. I need to concentrate,” she hissed, her eyes closed.

He watched her while she worked, a small furrow between her eyebrows. Killian felt a swell of gratitude for Emma, knowing that she could have lied about her magic, or even refused to humour Alice and help them. But she went out her way to try and find a way to break the spell, even without him asking that of her. And he had been nothing but curt and cutting. Liam would disapprove greatly of his behaviour, tell him it was bad form.

He was brought back to the present when he heard Emma gasp. He saw her pull her hands back, cradling them against her chest. He went on alert, turning her by the shoulder to face him, not thinking about how forward he was being. “What is it? Are you alright?”

Emma nodded unconvincingly, biting into her lip quite hard. “It’s nothing. Whoever put up the spell is pretty fucking awful,” she swore, walking to the cask of water in the kitchen, grabbing a bowl and filling it with water.

“Emma, what happened?” Killian asked, following her. He stopped when he saw her hands, his breath catching in his throat. They were burned, badly. “Bloody hell, lass.”

Emma ignored him, pouring the cold water over her wounds, wincing in pain.

“Let me help you with that, darling,” he said, grabbing the bowl from her. If either of the them noticed the change in endearment, they did not comment on it. He washed her wound more thoroughly, holding her hand firmly with his hook.

“You don’t have to do this,” Emma murmured, trying not to hiss. Killian did not respond, instead grabbing a box off a nearby shelf, opening it and grabbing some fresh cloth and a salve.

“This will help with the burns,” he explained, indicating her to hold her hand out. “This will sting,” he warned, applying the clear substance on her hands, shushing her when she cried out. “My Alice gets into a lot of scrapes, the little monkey. I always have medicine at hand.”

“Is that supposed to be funny?” Emma asked, wincing when he pressed the cloth over her hand, wrapping it around her hand.

He chuckled, shaking his head. “I try.” He shrugged. “Now hold still.” He finished wrapping the bandage, using his teeth to tie it, his eyes never leaving hers.

Emma swallowed thickly. She quickly looked away, letting him finish treating her other hand. When he did, she pulled her hands back, clearing her throat. “Thanks.”

“Emma, you just got burned doing magic for my daughter. Patching you up was the least I could do.” He pulled up a stool, making her sit, before he continued. “Now, what happened?”

“Well, the witch who put up the spell made sure it can’t be broken by another magic user. A great contingency plan, burn the magic right out of the other person,” she complained.

Killian sucked in a sharp breath. “Bloody hell, don’t tell me your magic-”

“No, no,” she assured him. “Light magic is not that easy to destroy. But that’s why I was burned. My magic is temporarily, let’s say, paralysed. I can’t use it for a while, but it’ll come back, don’t worry,” she said, much too flippantly for Killian’s taste.

“Of course I’ll worry, Emma. This- this happened because of me. I’m so sorry.”

She squeezed his arm reassuringly. “Hey, it’s alright. If I had to, I would do it again.”

“Why? Why help us? You don’t even know us.”

Emma breathed out deeply, looking down at her hands and avoiding his gaze. “I never got the chance to save my parents. I hated my magic for a long time...but I have a gift. I couldn’t waste it. Helping you and Alice is the right thing to do. It’s what they would have done. This is the only way I can honour them.”

-/-

Present: Land without Magic

“Since you know what I do for a living, I seem to be at a disadvantage here, lass. Care to share?” Killian asked, looking at her over his large cup of coffee.

Emma panicked, unsure what would pass for a proper job in this realm. “I- I’m in the business of helping people in need,” she said finally, hiding her own nerves by taking a large sip of her milkshake.

“A volunteer? That’s wonderful, Emma,” he praised, his eyes lighting up. Emma resisted the urge to lean over and kiss him. It was extremely hard, seeing the man she loved - who, in their world, in a world where he had his memories and no dark curse, loved her back - sitting across from her, right within arms reach, after twenty years of separation, and not be with him. Not be able to hold him, and kiss him. Not be able to share her troubles with him, and have him just be there for her. This was Killian Jones, the essence of him had not changed with the false memories and two decades, but it was not her Killian Jones - her pirate, her love, the father of her favorite child.

However, he was physically the same. Same handsome, soft features; same stormy eyes; same sharp jawline. If she hadn’t suffered through these years, she would not have believed that it’s been twenty years.

“Emma? Are you still with me?” Killian asked, waving a hand in front of her face, drawing her away from her reminiscing.

She shook her head, smiling at him. “Yeah, yeah. Sorry. Uh, what were you saying?”

“I was just asking what kind of volunteering do you do?”

And frankly, being put on the spot, the only thing Emma could think of was… “Hospital. I volunteer at the hospital.”

Killian looked impressed, and seemed like he was about to ask her more about her job. She had to divert him from that, lest she blurt something suspicious. So far she had been able to blend in well in this world, and not attract any attention to herself. The longer she stayed hidden, the less likely she would alert Gothel to her presence. She reached for his hand without further thought, drawing his attention away from whatever he was about to ask her.

“So, Killian Jones. What made you come up with the pirate story?” she asked, her smile coy.

He huffed out a chuckle, his hand scratching behind his ear. The move was something her Killian did, especially when he was embarrassed or shy. It made her heart constrict. No matter what, he was still in there. No curse or memory spell would take that away from him. She was so caught up in her own thoughts, again, she almost missed what he said. “-came to me in my dream. It felt so real, like they were my memories, from a past life or something.”

Emma looked up sharply, wondering if he actually remembered something. “Dreams? What kind of dreams?” she asked, hoping her tone conveyed mild curiosity and not the desperation that she felt.

He hesitated, and Emma hoped that he wasn’t regretting telling her. “Oh, just dreams, you know? That I was a pirate captain, Captain Hook,” he huffed, holding up his prosthetic. “Maybe my subconscious was trying to make me feel better about my lack of a hand,” he tried to joke, but Emma could sense the pain in his words. And so she did something she often used to do back home. She grabbed both his hand, real and prosthetic, in her hands, holding them with equal tenderness.

“You don’t need to play it off, Killian. It’s alright to mourn a loss,” she whispered, hoping that she was not overstepping. She was not used to stepping on eggshells around him, it was so odd for her to be careful of how familiar she was with him.

Thankfully, he did not seem to be offended by her forwardness, instead smiling at her gratefully. “Thank you, Emma. That was kind of you to say.”

She squeezed both his hands, her own heart swelling. It had been far too long since she could touch him, that something as simple as hand-holding made her want to never let go. A voice at the back of her head told her to get it over with, to give him his memories back. That he would want that, knowing Alice was in danger. Despite what Alice had told her, she really did want to, But he had been selfish once, forcing this on them. It was her turn to be selfish, to have this moment with him, just for a while, and not worry about Gothel or the curse or anything else. Just for a moment.

He would hate her for it later, she knew. But she had to do what was right, for her, just once.

-/-

Emma and Killian had spent the rest of the afternoon, and most of the evening, talking, sharing a couple of bottles of wine between the two of them. Emma listened, enraptured, as he told her about his travels. And Killian in turn asked her about her volunteer work, and she told him as much as she could without sounding crazy. They parted ways, albeit quite reluctantly, with each other’s numbers in their respective phones, with a promise of him calling her soon.

She walked back to where she was staying, a large smile on her face. She was practically skipping! But much like all good things, her happiness too was short lived. She rounded a corner, and ran into the last person she was expecting to see.

“Gothel,” she gasped, her hand flying to her ring, and drawing power from it. But before she could react, Gothel drove her hand through her chest.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Princess Emma,” she taunted, squeezing Emma’s heart and making her wheeze at the pressure, her hand clutching Gothel’s arm, trying to get her to budge.

“Let- let me go.”

“I might not be able to take your heart, Princess. But for what I have planned, I don’t need to remove your heart. I just need to poison it.”

Emma struggled in her hold, her eyes tearing up. “You can’t stop me,” Emma panted, shouting in pain when Gothel’s vile magic entered her heart.

“Oh, this is just to subdue you, dear. I’ll find Killian before you’ll get a chance to warn him.” And with that, she pulled her hand out of Emma’s chest, leaving her slumped against the wall, struggling to catch her breath. “You should have taken the chance when you had it, dear. Didn’t your mother teach you not to dawdle?”

Emma clutched at her chest, feeling the poison do its work. Despite the pain she was in, Emma couldn’t help the relief that spread through her. She might have waited to tell Killian the truth, but she was not a fool. He was protected by a very strong cloaking spell, and it would take Gothel a while to break it. Emma just hoped that she would recover before Gothel managed to find Killian.

That was her last thought before the world turned dark and Emma lay slumped against the alley wall, alone and powerless.

-/-

Later that night, Killian’s dreams were plagued by the same blonde woman. But this one was much different that the other dreams. The little girl, Alice, who called him Papa was not there. It was just the blonde, with her back turned to him, still. But before he could resign himself to the fact that he would yet again wake up before he could see who she was, she turned, making him gasp out loud when he saw her face.

“Emma,” he said, breathlessly. “I knew it.”

“Run,” she whispered back. “Run!”

Killian gasped awake, a sharp pain radiating through his chest. But despite the pain, and abruptly waking up, he remembered his dream very clearly. The blonde from his dreams was real, it was Emma.

Which meant….Which meant Alice must be real too.

#cs ff #knightrook #csbb #cs angst #csbb fic #csbb art

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thedefinitionofbts · 6 years

Text

Kingdom of Crystal Snow

↳ Christmas Special ❄️

Pairings: Kim Taehyung x Reader ft. Park Jimin

Genre: Comedy, Light Angst, Fluff, Royal Au (?)

Words: 10K

Description: A prince from a far off land is sent to earth to discover the meaning of crystal snow, and you are somehow just what he needs.

Jimin has always told you that you should change your awful habit of putting off studying for a test last minute. He calls it a bad case of procrastination. You call it “living on the edge”. And it’s not that you don’t want to change per se, it’s just hard when you’ve always relied on that rush of adrenaline from imminent doom to give you a push to take action. If it were easy to alter such an innate mindset, you’d actually be prepared to ace your final tomorrow.

“I’m going faaaaiiiil!” You groan, banging your head against the textbook laid opened in front of you.

“What did I say about trying to cram a semester’s worth of information in one night?” Jimin says, not even bothering to glance up from his own book.

You tsk in annoyance. “Can’t you just be a little more supportive?”

“Okay, okay” He gently closes his book and takes off his glasses to look at you. “You are not going to fail.” You can tell he’s not trying very hard to sound convincing. You’ve known him long enough to distinguish authentic support and just going through the motions to make you feel better.

“But I am!” You insist, more for the purpose of complaining out loud rather than actually getting another half-assed response from your friend of five years. “I barely understand the first chapter, how the hell am I going to learn the entire book by tomorrow morning!?”

You were right and wrong, more or less. You were right in thinking there was no way you were going to understand the entirety of your textbook by sunrise the next day, but you were wrong in believing you would fail the entire class.

Thank Jesus Lord.

Jimin would actually, maybe, perhaps be proud to know that you were a measly 2 points away from failing, but pulled through. 2 points away from having to repeat the course and having to graduate a year later (aka having to walk with Jungkook at graduation, which god knows will go down in the unofficial history books among your group of friends for the rest of eternity). It actually feels pretty good, knowing you were blisteringly close to being depressed over winter break only to be saved from said hellish nightmare by such a blessed margin.

2 points. Jimin would call it getting lucky, but you refer to it as “having talent”.

At the moment you are running through all the ways you can break the good news to him, debating whether you should pretend that you failed and psych him by telling him you didn’t whilst he was consoling you. But just as you were playing house with all of these hypothetical scenarios in your mind, you spot someone just appearing out of thin air on your way to the coffee shop near campus. Appearing out of thin air. Like poof, there’s your living, breathing human being delivered right under your nose. You could’ve sworn the public park wasn’t this tripped up the last time you were here, and last time you checked, you were awake and not dreaming.

Must be post-finals stress disorder.

“Ok, how the fuck did you do that?” You point at the man sprawled on the ground as if he had just flown through a time portal.

He groans in pain, rubbing the back of his head. “W-who are you?” He looks up at you, squinting due to the blinding rays of the sun that your head is conveniently just two inches away from blocking.

“I think I should be the one asking that question.” You observe suspiciously as he stands up. He’s much taller than you had expected, and slightly intimidating now that he’s towering over you.

“I am Kim Taehyung, crown prince of the Winter Kingdom.”

There are mainly two things that cross your mind as you casually register his words. 1.) It’s a shame this guy is high on drugs right now because he’s actually really attractive, and 2.) Did he actually just say what I thought he said?

It takes every last ounce of strength you had to not erupt into laughter.

“Uhhhh, is this supposed to be some cosplay thing for the holidays, cause I’m really not into that stuff, and I’d rather not deal with drunk strangers.” You start to walk away, eyebrow still raised even as you switch your attention onward and try to erase the thought of how realistic his costume actually looked. The dude must’ve spent hours putting something like that together, so you can’t blame him for trying so convincingly to stay in character.

“Please, you must help me.” He begs, following closely behind like a lost puppy. “I can’t return until I have discovered the meaning of crystal snow.”

You stop walking abruptly, causing him to almost crash into you head on. “Crystal snow?” You turn to him, raising your other eyebrow dubiously. “You mean like snowflakes and shit?”

He looks at you confused. “It’s not that simple. It’s something that has been at the core of our kingdom for centuries. Every ruler brings a different kind of snow to the wintry realm. I must find the meaning of mine. ”

“Don’t you guys have encyclopedias or some ratchet form of Google for things like that? I mean, how the hell are you going to find answers here, on earth, a place where crystal snow literally just means snowflakes?”

He sighs. “We do, but they do not contain the information I seek, and the sorceress has never been wrong.”

“The sorceress?” You furrow your brows even harder as you begin to grasp how ridiculous this conversation was getting. “Ok, listen buddy. I don’t know what you’re trying to do here, but I need to go.”

Taehyung opens his mouth to protest, but shuts it before the next words can escape his lips.

You flash him a weird look one last time before quickly running off. Finals were over, winter break is beginning, and you have a coffee date with Jimin to get to. There was no time to mess around with a random stranger who claims he’s from another world. What was the guy smoking anyways? He had to be high or something…right?

“You’re late.” Jimin’s familiar voice cuts through your reverie.

“Only by like five minutes.” You counter, setting your peppermint latte down on the table.

The café was festively ornamented the same way it is every year, with a large Christmas tree crammed in the corner and wall decorations hanging on a space that is clearly too small for so many objects to be juxtaposed. Despite looking cramped and messy, the atmosphere was earnest and cozy, reminiscent of nostalgic childhoods and charmingly intimate conversations with those you are closest to.

Jimin’s face breaks into a smile. “I’ll let you off the hook seeing as though you just went through a week of hell.”

“Ugh, story of my life.” You roll your eyes. “I’m surprised I managed to survive.”

You decide to not make a big deal about passing the exam. Whether it was because the events from this morning had shaken you up or because it seemed insignificant in the grand scheme of things, you figure you’d rather talk about winter break and Christmas plans.

“Namjoon and Yoongi are going back home, Hoseok has this dance camp he’s doing for the next three weeks, so it’s just me, Seokjin, and Jungkook.”

“Oh boy, that’s going to be interesting.”

“Tell me about it.” Jimin sighs.

…

You spent the rest of the day chatting with Jimin at the café, something you had grown accustomed to doing over the years. It was a good way to pass time, or waste time, depending on how you chose to view it. By the time the two of you leave, it’s already late afternoon, and since it’s winter, the prematurely setting sun gives off the impression that it’s a lot later than it really is.

However, it’s not completely dark yet; the sky is just reaching that magical twilight hour where it’s painted with baby blues and pastel pinks. The temperature is beginning to drop, but the crisp winter air is still and almost therapeutic. You don’t notice anything peculiar at first, not until you squint your eyes and spot the one person that you wished your mind could just allow you to ignore, and maybe you would’ve if you and Jimin had not carelessly walked so close to where he was sitting.

“Oh god, why is he still there?” You quickly attempt to hide behind Jimin, the latter being somewhat taken aback by your sudden change in demeanor.

“Who?” He looks around obliviously before his eyes land on the very person you were referring to. “Oh, him?”

Said “him” just happens to be Kim Taehyung, and he was quietly sitting on the bench by the same park you had saw him suddenly appear at this morning. He was just staring at the ground absentmindedly, not even noticing you and Jimin standing a mere ten feet away from him.

“Shhhh” You quickly reach up to cover Jimin’s mouth as if it would prevent Taehyung from spotting you, which seems downright futile in hindsight because honestly if Taehyung actually cared about your presence, he would’ve gotten up by now.

“You know him?” Jimin mumbles, speech muffled by your hands.

“He’s just some crazy guy I ran into this morning.” You explain, releasing your hold on his mouth. “The reason I was late in the first place was because I couldn’t get him off my back.”

“Was he insistent on getting your number?”

“No, no” You shake your head. “He kept asking for my help because he claimed to be a crown prince of this snow kingdom and was sent to earth to find something.”

There’s a fleeting pause before you hear Jimin laugh out loud, throwing his head back and everything.

“I’ll give him props for being creative.” Jimin says in between fading giggles.

You roll your eyes, slumping your shoulders in defeat. You hadn’t noticed until now, and you blame Jimin for laughing so loudly, but Taehyung had looked up from the ground and was now staring at you and Jimin.

“Hey, he’s looking at us” Jimin comments as you continue to make eye contact with Taehyung. “Should we, uh, go before he comes over?”

You can hear Jimin’s question loud and clear, but your eyes remain glued to the boy sitting on the bench. It’s strange that you’re just now noticing how odd and unearthly his appearance was. His sculpted, almost otherworldly, facial structure and flawlessly transparent skin was clearly not a result of makeup, and the way that his silver speckled irises expressed a sort of disorientation that made your heart clench ever so slightly should’ve been enough to convince you that he was maybe telling the truth. As absurd as his whole story was, you somehow begin to think he maybe wasn’t lying about being from another world, but it wasn’t his strikingly non-human features that made you want to help him, it was the way he dropped his gaze, not even making a motion to stand up, the pure hopelessness engulfing his entire being that compelled you to walk over to him, even though Jimin was baffled as fuck by now.

“Y/N” You vaguely hear Jimin call from behind you, but you don’t stop until you’re standing right in front of the male sitting on the bench, who by now is looking as confused as Jimin.

“Prince Taehyung, right?” You voice, crossing your arms as his head tilts up to look at you.

You watch Taehyung’s Adam’s apple bobble up and down as he swallows nervously while he nods.

“You’re very far from home and you can’t get back until you’ve discovered the meaning of crystal snow, correct?”

He nods again.

You let out a long sigh. “I’ll help you.” At this point, you don’t even know what possessed you to act so boldly. It was like you were in some role-playing mode where you had this urge to act all cool and pretend that the situation wasn’t completely ludicrous. But he did appear out of nowhere, so he was either telling the truth or just a really talented magician. You hope it's the former.

“You will??!!”

Both Jimin and Taehyung speak at the same time, almost making you jump out of your furry down jacket. It was almost amusing how similar their reactions were, but it evidently wasn’t the time to laugh.

You clear your throat and looked back and forth between the two of them. “Yeah.” You finally manage to say with poise before beginning to walk as they both scrambled to follow you.

“Will you take me to find crystal snow?” Taehyung’s deep voice is a clear contrast to Jimin’s slightly high-pitched tone.

“I would if I knew where that could be found.” You reply.

“Does it not snow on earth?”

“It does, but it’s just…snow.” You pause to think. This was going to be a lot harder than you had originally planned. You had completely forgotten the reason Taehyung had even asked for your aid, and truthfully, you didn’t really think this whole “offer help” thing through before just jumping into it. “There are places around the world where it snows more than others. Like the north and south pole…” You trail off.

“Can you take me there!?” Taehyung sounds too hopeful, and you almost want to tell him that people don’t actually go to those places and there was no way in hell you were going to accompany him in the event he decides to go.

“Whoa there, she’s not going anywhere with you.” Jimin interrupts, making you wonder why he was getting so protective all of a sudden. It’s not that he ever acted like he didn’t care or put on an absentminded façade when it came to you, in fact he had been your best friend for years and always looked out for you, but his particular reaction at that moment would have any outsider wondering if he was-

“Are you her suiter?” Taehyung’s direct question makes both you and Jimin fall silent. You’re cheeks begin to heat up, and judging by the way he was sinking deeper into his scarf to hide his face, Jimin was feeling quite embarrassed to.

An awkward silence falls over the three of you.

“We’re just friends.” You finally manage to voice, avoiding direct eye contact with either of them.

The rest of the walk to your apartment is strangely less dramatic, other than Taehyung explaining everything about the place he came from, and why he needed to find this mysterious crystal snow that you’re starting to think is going to be impossible now.

“Each ruler brings a different kind of snow to the kingdom. My father’s snow is opaque and white. The flecks of precipitate are large and float for long periods, dancing in midair before slowly drifting to the ground, which is why our nation is called the Kingdom of Ivory Petals while it is under his rule. The prophecy states mine will be crystal.” Taehyung’s explanation almost sounds like a fairytale, something too distant to grasp or even fully comprehend.

“So when you take the throne it will be called Crystal Snow?” You inquire, switching the lamp next to the couch in the living room on and allowing light to fill the previously dark room.

“Yes, the Kingdom of Crystal Snow.” Taehyung gazes wistfully out the window at the sparkling cityscape that is now twinkling in the distance.

Jimin nods slowly. “That sounds really cool, but we don’t really categorize our snow like that, or more accurately, it doesn’t hold as deep of a meaning here on earth.

“Are you sure it’s actual snow and not some sort of gemstone we have to dig up from the ground?” At this point, you’re just throwing out random ideas because you have this hunch that it’ll increase the chances of hitting a plausible target.

Taehyung shakes his head dismally. “I wish the sorceress told me more.”

You continue to run through anything and everything you can think of, but none of it sounded likely. By the time you were finished, it was already verging on midnight.

“Why don’t you spend a few days in the city, see if you can find anything here and then decide what to do next. I mean, you were sent here for a reason, right? Maybe what you’re looking for is closer than we think.” The tone of your voice sounds more encouraging than you actually feel, but it was the best decision you could come up with for now.

“Yeah, and it’s the holidays, maybe something magical will happen.” Jimin agrees and Taehyung doesn’t argue.

…

So it’s not that Jimin wanted to leave you with a stranger in your house, knowing him, he’d want anything but that. But the truth of the matter was, he lived with 5 other guys and there was just no way their tiny apartment could fit an extra person, not when Jungkook was already exiled to the couch.

And Taehyung seemed harmless enough, because by the next morning you wake up to him lying face flat on your couch, snoozing away like any other 20-something year old college student who had just pulled consecutive all-nighters right after finals.

You’d be doubting the validity of his royal claims if it weren’t for-

“We need to get you some new clothes.” You eye his princely wardrobe up and down. “This isn’t going to cut it if you don’t want to stick out like a sore thumb.” You tug on Taehyung’s blue and silver robe and scrunch your nose at how distasteful it looks. Don’t get you wrong, like it was gorgeous for a Halloween costume and all, but completely unfit to roam a modern city in.

“This” Taehyung holds his sleeve in front of your face. “is made from the finest silks harvested in the everlasting ice caves. Its fibers are crystalized for decades before they are deemed fit for our most skilled tailors to transform into fabric for the royal families.”

You can tell he’s mildly offended, but what else could you do? You couldn’t just let him walk around like that. “And it’s gorgeous, so wouldn’t it be better if it doesn’t get ruined on Earth?” You’re fairly proud of yourself for coming up with such a convincing argument, one that to your relief works because fortunately for you, Taehyung is relatively cooperative for a prince set to be king.

But you’ve spoken a bit too soon.

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that finding clothes on earth that Taehyung would actually be willing to wear is a challenge in and of itself. You sort of expected that a prince would have expensive tastes, but you had no idea he’d have such an affinity for luxury brands. In retrospect, maybe you shouldn’t have taken him down the street where only the wealthiest of city dwellers even dare to tread (or the poor who go to window shop in prospects of experiencing that sensation of being surrounded by gold).

It was supposed to be out of sight out of mind, but by the time you recognized your mistake, it was too late because his eyes literally lit up as you passed the likes of Saint Laurent, Valentino, Givenchy, and most notably…Gucci. And you most certainly can’t believe you are dropping 4K for an outfit you are buying for someone you just met yesterday, but at least you can return it as soon as he leaves earth…right?

“So how do you like it?” You watch as Taehyung examines his reflection in the mirror of the shop, turning and doing all of these model like poses that you swear he must have practiced, because how?!?

“It’s quite nice” Taehyung responds, fixing the collar of the floral button up and performing one last pose in the mirror. He then turns to you with a faint smile that makes your heart skip a beat. “Thank you.”

Fuck. Why does he look like he just walked off the cover of Vogue?

“Uh, yeah, n-no problem” You reply rather nervously, questioning why the room was getting so hot all of a sudden.

So maybe Taehyung didn’t force you to buy anything for him, you wanted to ok? You just couldn’t bring yourself to denying him of something he clearly wanted, clearly as in nonverbally spoke to you through his sultry eyes. Fuck.

People on the streets start doing double takes, even going as far as to ask what agency he models for. Taehyung doesn’t understand why everyone passing by is staring at him like he’s some circus freak, only blinking in a dumbfounded way when he flashes them an innocently shy smile that puts your maternal instincts on overdrive. Some girl runs up and asked for a picture with him, in which you have to kindly turn down through partly gritted teeth. You were beginning to wonder why you even bothered to buy him “normal” clothes when he’s drawing just as much attention as he would’ve had he been wearing his royal attire.

“So the weatherman said there’s an 80% chance of snow tomorrow.” You look up from your phone app.

“The weatherman?” Taehyung tilts his head as he looks at you like you had just spoken in a language he didn’t understand. “Is he the ruler of snow on this planet?”

You have to hold back a laugh at his childish statement that sounded downright silly yet came off endearing because he genuinely didn’t know. “No Tae, he’s uh, just some guy that makes predictions about the upcoming weather based on atmospheric readings and stuff.” You pause, realizing Taehyung is probably not going to understand any of what you just said.

“So like a wizard?”

“Uh, yeah sure” You lie, not wanting to go into an entire lesson on something that doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things.

“Will it be the first snow of the winter?”

“Huh?”

Whether it was because Taehyung’s question had caught you off guard or the way he was gently staring at you, crystal clear pupils with cerulean hues searching into yours like he waiting for a sign of recognition or anticipating something magical to happen. You find yourself with a blank mind, mouth waiting to relay a response but getting no signal from your brain. “I-I guess it will be.” You murmur, averting your eyes and clearing your throat before your body loses any more of its functionality.

“I really hope I make it back before the first snow hits the kingdom.” He’s not looking at you anymore, but instead staring at the clear sky.

“Does something happen if you don’t?” Your eyes follow his to some fictional place above.

He turns back to you. “I will lose my right to the throne.”

You swallow heavily. “Dang…that sounds pretty serious.”

“My father is prophesized to pass this winter.”

You don’t really know how to respond to such a revelation, not that you were ever good at consoling people to begin with. You literally tried to crack a joke when Jimin’s cat died two years ago and thought it would cheer him up, which ended up doing more harm than good.

“So basically the first snow will be your coronation.” You attempt to use reasoning this time around.

Taehyung nods. “If the flakes are not crystal, the people will not accept me as the new king.”

…

So as expected, the weatherman was wrong about the snow. You weren’t excessively disappointed because you had never put much faith into the accuracy of weather predictions, if anything you just felt kind of bad for Taehyung because you found him eagerly sitting by the window the next morning, waiting for white snowflakes to fall from the sky. Which they never do because weather readings are shitty, and nothing on earth is ever 100% guaranteed, even if it claims to be.

You don’t think you’ve ever hated the weatherman this much for being wrong.

“It’s bound to snow eventually.” You pat Taehyung on the shoulder, a weak form of comfort, but within the same category nonetheless. “We’ve always had a white Christmas, and even if the weather says it’s not going to snow, there are a lot of miracles around this time of year.” You personally don’t believe in miracles, but the words had flown out of your mouth before you had a chance to stop them.

Taehyung just nods, not fully understanding what Christmas miracles were since it’s probably not a cultural thing where he’s from, but he does understand what you’re trying to do, and you’re relieved you’ve managed to restore some of his optimism.

“So what’s the Winter Kingdom like?” You query, thinking that perhaps knowing more about him and where he’s from will reveal some clues as to why his snow is destined to be crystal…not that you understood the differences between the various types of snow or anything. But small talk, right?

“Cold.” He grins, mouth forming a rectangular shape and you wonder why you never noticed how distinct his smile is, but then you come to realize that this was the first time you’ve seen him smile in such a way, like really beam so brightly that his lips are stretching from ear to ear. “The land is blanketed in sheets of snow, and all of our infrastructure is made of diamond-like ice.”

“Do you miss it?”

Taehyung sighs. “In all honesty, I don’t.”

Your ears perk up, eyelids fluttering open wider. “So you don’t actually want to go back?”

“Not if I had a choice.” He looks at the floor and smiles less enthusiastically. “It’s not very fun tending to royal matters every day, but my people need me, and it is my duty to take the place of my father.”

“Oh, right…”

…

Jimin doesn’t think any of this is actually going to work out. He doesn’t have faith, and you don’t blame him. Heck, you more than fully agree with his doubt, but you were really being unlike yourself for not giving up despite the odds. You had spent the last weekend scouring the city for clues, nonexistent ones at that, but a little voice inside was threatening you with the belief that if you didn’t at least look like you were trying, Taehyung would leave and look for someone more “qualified”. He would finally come to terms with how useless you were, and leave you…not that you wanted him to stay…but you more than obviously do.

“I’m not trying to be a Debbie Downer, but Y/N, do you seriously think he’s going to find his ticket to the throne here on earth?”

“Well what am I supposed to do, Jimin?” You burry your head in his couch cushion that smells oddly like Jungkook, and you know exactly why. You scrunch your nose and toss it off to the side. “He’s all alone, and I barely had the guts to come over here today and just leave him by himself at my place.”

“You left him in you’re apartment…alone?” Jimin’s jaw hangs slightly.

You narrow your eyes suspiciously. “You’re point?”

“I dunno. Like what if he burns the whole place down or something?”

“Why are you acting like he’s a pyromaniac? He’s a winter prince.” You cross your arms protectively, frowning at how ridiculous you thought Jimin was being.

“You didn’t even trust me to be alone with your laptop until we had known each other for months, and now you’re just letting strangers stay at your place alone?” Jimin looks to be a mix of disbelief and a tinge of jealousy.

“Jimin, I’ve been sleeping with the guy for the past week, if he wanted to kidnap me or steal my stuff, he would’ve done it by now.”

“You’ve already slept with him?!” He probably didn’t intend for his voice to get so loud or for it to sound so alarmed, but it does and it makes you jump a little in your seat.

“Not like sleep, sleep…but just sleep, you know?” You quickly defend.

A look of relief washes over Jimin’s face, not that he really cared who you actually slept with…it’s just surprising to him that you would trust someone so easily, when he literally had to work his butt off to even get you to go out to eat with him and his buddies for the first few months you had met.

“But still…what does he have that I don’t?” He mutters.

“Height” Jungkook’s voice startles the both of you, but he was clearly unaware of what you two were actually talking about by the way he nonchalantly plops down on the couch and turns on the TV.

Jimin looks like he’s about to run up and kick the younger male’s ass, but refrains from doing so seeing as though you were still in the room.

“How did you know he was tall?” You inquire, astonished that Jimin would tell Jungkook about Taehyung without your permission.

Jungkook casually turns to look at you. “Who?”

“Taehyung”

“Who’s Taehyung?”

“The guy-” You stop yourself before continuing. “Wait, so who were you referring to when you said he had height over Jimin.”

“Well, I mean, isn’t every one taller than Jimin?” Jungkook cackles obnoxiously, leaning back against the couch.

“Do you want me to kick you in the balls?” Jimin’s voice is strained as he tries to hold back his annoyance.

“Can you guys not do this now?” You roll your eyes at their childishness.

“So who’s this Taehyung guy?” Jungkook cocks a brow. “New boyfriend?”

“He’s a prince.” Jimin mutters.

“A prince?” Jungkook huffs dubiously.

“He’s not from around here.” You explain.

It takes a good half an hour for you and Jimin to convince Jungkook that the two of you weren’t pulling some lame prank on him. Jungkook isn’t exactly the type to cast aside something just because it sounds outlandish, but he’s also not going to readily believe in whatever his friends tell him, especially something as unbelievable as this.

“Crystal Snow huh?” Jungkook’s eyes are wide as he stares into oblivion, nodding his head as he pokes his tongue in his cheek. “Like snowflakes?”

You shake your head. “That’s what I thought at first too, but apparently there’s a deeper meaning.”

“Of course there’s a deeper meaning. If it was just snow, I doubt he’d be sent to earth to find something his entire kingdom is covered in, literally.” Jimin tosses a couch cushion to the side and leans forward against his knees. “It has to be something he can only find here…like love or something.”

“As expected from the romantic one…” Jungkook mutters.

“Last time I checked, you wanted to meet your soulmate by hearing a bell in your head.” You comment, knowing fully well that it’s something your group of friends still make fun of him for, playfully of course. Jungkook’s face heats up, but you decide to not see how red it can get.

You turn to Jimin instead. “So you’re saying love doesn’t exist back in his kingdom?”

Jimin furrows his brows. “I’m just saying it’s probably not something tangible and snow is always portrayed as romantic or at least somewhat along those lines, right?”

“Wow, you two are really determined.” Jungkook comments before getting up and heading to the kitchen to grab something to eat. The room feels a lot dimmer now that the television screen is back to black.

“Maybe make him watch some romantic winter movies?” Jimin suggests. “And if that doesn’t work-“

“If that doesn’t work, I guess I’ll just have to hope he’ll have an ‘ah-ha’ moment when it actually snows.” You sigh, finishing the sentence for him.

…

So maybe Jimin was right about leaving strangers alone in your apartment, or maybe you should’ve told Taehyung how to turn on the lights because by the time you make it back, the entire place was pitch black. But that couldn’t be it because you could’ve sworn he had seen you turn on the light switch before and he was definitely intelligent enough to put one and one together.

Then you realize the power must’ve gone out because the entire complex was void of light and freezing cold because the heating had ceased as well.

“Taehyung?” You call out, feeling against the walls with your outstretched arms.

“I’m in the bedroom” You hear a familiar baritone voice drift over, and sure enough there he is, overgrown bangs covering his glossy eyes.

“What are you doing in here?” You question, barely able to make out the silhouette of the man standing by the window where the smallest amount of moonlight was filtering in through the blinds.

“Sorry, I was just looking through some of your old pictures.” He murmurs. “And then the lights went out and I thought I had angered the gods, but they won’t seem to listen to my apology.”

He genuinely sounded scared, and you have to try and not run up to give him a hug. “It’s just a power outage. The lights will be back in no time.” You reassure him, despite knowing that the electricity won’t be back until tomorrow at the earliest.

“So it wasn’t me?”

You shake your head. “Of course not!”

“Oh, ok, that’s good.” He slowly puts the photo he was still nervously holding in his hands back in to the bedside drawer. “Well, I’ll just let you rest…”

He starts to walk out the room, but something about being left alone in a cold dark room makes you-

“Do you want to sleep here tonight?” Your question hangs in midair, long enough to notice, but not long enough to make you retract your offer before Taehyung could accept it.

And you didn’t know why you were expecting him to be icy cold, but he was actually inexplicably warm. Warmer than the rays of sun hitting your skin on a chilly winter day, warmer than the wisps of heat from a crackling fireplace in the middle of a snowstorm, and certainly warmer than you imagined a winter prince would be.

“Is this ok?” Taehyung’s voice is low and creamy, and it makes you wonder if you are dreaming as you nuzzle closer to his chest. You don’t really know how it happened, but somehow you ended up in a position where you were enveloped in Taehyung’s arms, but you have a hunch it’s because you were shivering so hard he felt obligated to offer you some warmth. Or maybe there was more to it than that.

“Are you uncomfortable?” You murmur lazily, pulling back a little out of courtesy.

“No, no” Taehyung replies quickly. “It’s just…I-I’ve never shared a bed with a woman.” His statement is so soft you almost couldn’t make out the last part.

“Oh right, royal marriages are arranged” If you weren’t already half asleep your heart would be racing by now and you’d be tripping over your words like there’s no tomorrow. “Don’t over think it. Just do whatever feels right.”

You’re lucky Taehyung’s a gentleman, or more accurately a noble prince because two practical strangers doing whatever feels right in bed usually doesn’t end up being right.

Taehyung shifts into a more comfortable position, one in which your face is buried into the crook of his neck and his chin is resting gently on top of your head. The world was still moving at its regular pace, and the room was icy cold, but the heat of his body is lulling you into the realm of slumber.

…

“It’s called science”

You didn’t really know what you were doing with a glass cup and silver spoon, mixing a whole bunch of salt in not enough water, an attempt to create an oversaturated solution.

“Science?” He says it in that same confused tone he always does, and it makes you flash him an assertive look that is not fitting of your randomly conjured idea.

“If it’s not going to snow, we’re going to make crystals some other way.” You reason in an attempt to sound like you know what you are doing.

Confidence is key.

You even had a rock candy jar set up in the kitchen this morning, and you were planning on going window shopping in some of the jewelry stores downtown right after you set up the evaporation apparatus.

Maybe you were just insane and maybe all of your efforts are useless, but you didn’t want to give up. And despite never being the type to clutch onto unrealistic expectations or endure through things that you knew you’d never succeed in, you were somehow persuading yourself that as long as you kept trying, something was bound to come out of it. As pathetic as it sounds, you were also secretly enjoying all of this just, success or failure, because it meant spending more time with Taehyung. Seriously, what was wrong with you?

Impractical logic aside, thank goodness the jewelry shops downtown are not on the same street as the luxury fashion brands, because your wallet still hasn’t recovered from being sucked dry at Gucci, and you know for a fact that another look of longing from Taehyung’s glittery eyes will weaken your already crumbling resolve to not put yourself deeper in financial debt.

Strolling along the shop lined streets; you gradually forget why you were looking at jewelry to begin with because Taehyung starts humming this beautiful melody that you are sure isn’t from Earth, and it urges you to allow yourself to enjoy his soothing company, freed from all the concerns that had subconsciously plagued your mind, even if it’s just for a little while.

There was virtually no one in the area, sans the occasional car and dog walker. You presume it’s because everyone had already finished doing all of their Christmas shopping by now and were probably all waiting to exchange gifts in 2 days. It’s serene and relieving to know you don’t find the need to fill in the silence, because just walking alongside Taehyung was comfortable enough to feel at home, something you don’t think you’ve ever experienced before, because even with Jimin, things get a bit awkward if neither of you talk for longer than 10 minutes.

Hours pass by and you start to wonder if the salt water from this morning has already evaporated from the shallow dish you had poured it in, or if sugar crystals have latched onto the string inside the Mason jar. Just as you were pondering over these things, Taehyung stops in front of one of the jewelry shops, staring at a stunning gemstone through the freshly cleaned glass window.

“It’s a diamond wedding ring.” You explain casually, glancing over at the piece he was observing. “Cause diamonds are supposed to be a symbol of forever and stuff.” You shrug, not really interested in these kind of things since marriage was leagues away from your current very, solo, single life.

“A diamond wedding ring?” Taehyung’s curiosity surprises you.

“Yeah, in our world we used those for marriage.”

“Ah, the union of two lovers.” Taehyung nods in understanding. “We have something similar back in the kingdom, but it’s made of a kind of ice that never melts.”

This time it’s your turn to nod, and although you are trying to avoid eye contact for reasons you claim you aren’t aware of, you can feel his attention settle on you once more. “So ummm, have you-uh…do you know who…” You bite your lip, regretting even bringing the topic up. How the hell did that question slip out?

Taehyung shakes his head. “There was another part to the prophecy…” He inhales deeply before proceeding. “I will rule without a queen.”

Your eyes widen at his statement. “Wait, what? Why?” You don’t know why you’re getting so worked up over something that doesn’t even really affect you, or at least, isn’t supposed to. But it isn’t even just you; because who wouldn’t find a prophecy like that beyond unbelievable? Not only was it was unfair, but it also made no sense whatsoever because doesn’t every ruler have to procreate? What King rules without a Queen? How else are they supposed to continue the royal bloodline?

Taehyung huffs a weak laugh, one that gives off a powerless sort of acceptance. “When I first heard about this, I thought I was surely cursed. But the sorceress told me that I end up living a happy life, so maybe it’s not as bad as it sounds.”

“Geez” You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding. “This prophecy sounds more and more like some evil doctrine written by the angry gods.”

Taehyung turns to you with a playful glint in his eyes, and you’re caught between a storm of pity and endearment. “Because I looked through your old photographs without your permission, right?” You know he’s trying to lighten the mood, and you’re more than grateful you don’t have to use you nonexistent comforting skills.

You laugh lightheartedly. “Eh, it’s fine. I don’t have any dark secrets that need to remain buried. Although I would prefer that one photo of me with birthday cake all over my face to remain anonymous.”

“You were very cute as a child,” He unexpectedly says before pausing and adding- “Still are.”

“W-what?” Your heart skips a beat and you can sense the heat rapidly flooding your cheeks. “I-I, uh…thanks?” You mentally face palm at your own awkward response, but what were you supposed to say when he just blurts stuff out like it was the most normal compliment he could’ve given you in that not-so-suitable moment?

You almost feel attacked (in a good way, you guess…). It’s definitely not how you ever imagined being complimented, but it makes a kind of giddy warmth spread throughout your chest, and you almost forget about the bitter cold wind that is blowing towards your face.

…

You were originally planning on going home for Christmas, but you didn’t think introducing Taehyung to your family and extended family would be a very good idea. Not that you wouldn’t love to see the jealous look on all of you female cousins’ faces if they assumed you had found a new boyfriend who was hot as hell, with visuals that were literally unreal if you had to describe it in not-so-poetic words.

“Can we go there?” Taehyung points at the scene in the television where one of your favorite Christmas movies was flashing across the screen.

So yeah, the Grinch isn’t exactly a romantic winter movie, but you really wanted to watch something festive and traditional, especially since Christmas films were something you looked forward to watching every year.

“It’s just a movie. Whoville isn’t real.” Your eyes remained glued to the screen where the people of Whoville were waking up and realizing all of their presents and Christmas decorations were stolen.

“Oh…it’s not?”

There’s a certain amount of disappointment tangled in his voice, tearing your attention away from the movie. You never felt bad about being direct with Taehyung, and he never took your blatant honesty offensively (minus that time with his silk robe), but it’s been an entire two weeks and the two of you had not come any closer to finding crystal snow, or any snow at all for that matter. You could tell he was starting to lose hope, and you can’t help but feel regretful about how limited your aid to him was.

“Listen Tae, I’m sorry I’ve been the shittiest form of help you had the misfortune of finding on this planet-” You’re not allowed to finish what you were going to say because the hand that reaches up and caresses your cheek makes you stop mid-sentence, mouth still hanging agape.

Lifting your gaze you are met with a pair of eyes so tender that you swear your breathing has stopped all together. There is a stillness that falls over your living room, and even the subtle flashing of the TV in your peripheral is not enough to convince you that time has not stopped as well.

“Your kindness was more than I could’ve asked for.” His eyes are now tracing along the contours of your face as he continues to cup your jaw in his graceful hands, skin smooth and soft. You vaguely see his tongue poke out and wet his lips from the corner of your eye, but your attention was too focused on his glistening pupils in that moment to notice him leaning closer and closer, until the distance between the two of you was nonexistent.

His lips envelope yours in slow and steady strides. Taking his time to taste you like the most opulent fruit in the forbidden garden, and allowing you to subside from initial shock and fall into the realm of relishing in the sweetness of his enchanting touch. You lose track of the seconds that pass by, and you don’t notice the movie ending and the screen fading to black. Fuzzy clouds that are too nebulous to make out are gradually beginning to cover the moon, and that’s when the magic happens.

“It’s snowing!” You gasp as he breaks away from the kiss.

Taehyung’s gaze trails after the finger you had lifted to point out the window.

…

Once upon a time, a winter prince fell in love and crystals fell from the sky.

You don’t remember what happened after it started snowing last night. You do, however, recall running out the door without your coat and forgetting about how easy it was to catch a cold because you were too excited over nothing as you soon came to discover the next day.

“You should be glad I called Seokjin right away.” Jimin says as he feeds you a spoonful of hot soup, courtesy of the resident chef.

“I could’ve just called him myself.” You defend, voice hindered by your stuffy nose.

“But then I still would’ve had to bring it over.” Jimin counters. “Am I right or am I right?”

You mildly roll your eyes. “Yes, Jimin, thank you for the kindness you have shown me.”

“Well, at least I know you’d do the same for me.” His eyes transform into half moons as he beams, choosing to ignore your sarcastic tone.

“Would I though?”

Jimin’s crescents narrow into slits, and he stops feeding you.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Of course I would!”

His smile makes a return. “By the way, where’s Taehyung?”

You nod your head towards the bedroom window, facing the area where Taehyung was still outside watching the snowfall.

“I’m still banking on that ‘ah-ha’ moment, because after this, I’m all out of ideas.”

“Did you make him watch romantic winter movies?”

“Umm, not exactly…” Your mind has a flashback of scenes from the Grinch, and subsequently the kiss that happened less than 12 hours ago. You inform Jimin of what had happened, skipping the unnecessary details for obvious reasons.

“You kissed?!” He shouts so loudly you swear Taehyung could hear him from outside.

“Yeah… about that… I don’t know how it happened, but I didn’t pull away and it was actually…quite nice….” You scratch the back of your neck awkwardly.

“Oh my fucking god.”

“Why are you acting like I did something illegal?”

“It’s not that…” Jimin sighs. “It’s just…you’ve really fallen hard.”

You cross your arms defensively, pursing your lips and scrunching your nose in distaste. “And you would know because…?”

“Y/N, you’re friends with six of the hottest guys in the country, and we’ve all tried to get in your pants at one point or another. Minus Jungkook who couldn’t talk to girls until a year ago.” He lays out the facts on the table.

Your face twists in mild disgust. “Stop stroking your ego. And ewww, can you not put it so vulgarly?”

Jimin lets out a prolonged sigh. “The point is, you don’t fall for people easily, and the fact that you were soft for him from the start really says something.”

You ponder over what Jimin had said- the conclusion that he, as your friend of many years, had come to- and deem it not incorrect, yes, double negative. But you also weren’t so keen on readily accepting the indisputable fact that you had fallen for someone who was not even of your world, and a prince of all unearthly beings you could’ve had the chance of stumbling upon.

Completely absurd, right?

Taehyung comes back inside shortly after Jimin leaves in the evening. He had been outside all day and yet his body temperature is still as warm as it always is. He slips into bed quietly, assuming that you were asleep but you stir a little to signal to him that you were still awake. For once you are glad that your fever can act as an excuse for how flushed your cheeks are looking, not that it would’ve been obvious in the dark room anyways.

“So did you find it?” You inquire meekly, face still half covered by your blanket.

He hums delicately, eyes still concentrated on the wintry scenery outside.

“I think I’m leaving soon.”

You poke your head above the covers in minor shock. You obviously hadn’t expected this moment to come so quickly, but then again, you had been hoping the snow would provide him the answers he was searching for, and it was supposed to be a relief that it did. It’s just you had anticipated to have more time to at least say goodbye, but it seems that you will not be granted that kind of closing fulfillment.

“I can sense her approach.” Taehyung says, voice not giving away any sort of emotion from what you could tell.

“Holy shit, the sorceress?”

He nods and you can hear the friction of his head against the pillow.

“Am I going to like, meet her? Is she scary?”

“No and no” He chuckles lightly. “She will not appear in her physical form when she comes to take me, but she is very beautiful.”

“So the Winter Kingdom is just full of ethereal creatures.”

“That’s one way to put it.” The both of you laugh, but it doesn’t wash away the subtle stinging that lodges itself in your throat.

A long silent passes, and neither of you make a move to address the unknown fate that is drifting in the space between you.

At one point you almost do it, just ask the question that is burning on the tip of your tongue, but you’re afraid to hear the answer you fear he’s going to give you. Maybe it’s best that you don’t know, so that you can continue to believe in happy endings.

…

When Taehyung does leave, he does so soundlessly. Early the next morning in those seconds before dawn where the sky is the darkest but the sun is just around the corner.

To him the feeling is foreign even though he is being taken home, and there is a certain amount of uncertainty and hesitation even though the sorceress reassures him the prophecy has, indeed, been fulfilled.

“You understand now, don’t you?” The elderly woman’s voice echoes under the ethereal light raining down from above, colors splitting into their respective wavelengths and casting rainbows in the space around him.

Taehyung only nods at her words, not entirely paying attention to how he was being transported back to the Winter Kingdom. But it didn’t really matter because he’s preparing to re-enter the palace, to be welcomed by his family, and to fall back into his old life.

The palace has not changed one bit, walls still as smooth and icy as they were when he left, albeit he has not been gone for all that long. His mother is ecstatic to have him back, and his father only nods in acceptance knowing his reign will soon come to an end.

“Welcome back, my son.” The King is perched on his throne, looking down at the prince who will soon be inheriting his kingdom.

“Thank you father” Taehyung bows ceremoniously.

“I assume you have learned what you needed?” The King’s voice is not harsh, but laced with a hue of sympathy that is unlike his usual demanding self, like he knew the destiny that was to befall his son and was feeling rather apologetic.

“Yes, father.”

“Very well then.” He exhales before calling for one of the royal servants to bring Taehyung up to his bedroom, a magnificent chamber located on the second floor of the Winter Palace.

Taehyung bows one last time before taking his leave back to his room where he can have time to think over all that has happened. Never had his legs felt this heavy walking up the grand staircase, and never has he felt this reluctant to walk into his room as if he had never left, as if the past few weeks was nothing more than a distant dream.

“Your majesty, would you like change out of those… rags?” The servant lady’s comment was not intended to be offensive, but the way she referred to his earthly garments sparked a flame of anger in Taehyung, one that he would’ve acted upon had his mother not walked in before he could contest.

“He most certainly would.” Her voice is commanding but not forceful enough to come off as aggressive.

“Mother” Taehyung gasps.

“My son, I’m so glad you are back.” She walks over and embraced Taehyung warmly, a hug he eagerly returns. “How was it? How do you feel? Were the people on Earth kind to you?” The questions come quicker than he can answer.

“It was amazing, mother. I was so happy.” He rests his head against her shoulder, staying in that position for just a tad bit longer.

“You met her, didn’t you?” She murmurs.

Taehyung nods tenderly, trying to come to terms with the muted aching that has settled in his chest, making a home at the center of his heart.

The layers of contiguous white expanse covering the land are waiting to welcome the snow his heartfelt yearning will bring as the frozen trees and icy cottages display the timelessly enthralling scenery he has known since he was born.

The people of his kingdom will never know the true meaning behind the snow he is destined to gift the wintry world, but he knows, and despite the hidden sadness that lies at the root of its beauty, he’s holding onto the conviction that it will become less painful one day.

You had defied every expectation he had for the meaning of his snow; every possible explanation the world could have given him an answer for, as well as everything he ever knew about himself and what his heart is capable of creating. His snow that is breathtakingly beautiful and different from that of all of his predecessors is a precious fairytale that will remain engraved in history books for several millennia.

The yearning of star-crossed lovers who have not given up on the hope that they will one day meet again, like crystals that have yet to melt into tears.

“Someday…” Taehyung whispers, gazing at the crystal flowers that are now starting to gently fall from the sky.

On particularly cold winter days you still think about him.

You don’t draw upon those memories on purpose, and they aren’t called forth as often as they used to be, but there are times when you are walking on untouched white expanses or when you experience the first snowfall of the season, that you are reminded of the enchanting circumstances in which you met him.

Sometimes you wonder if any of it actually happened. If he was real and still exists somewhere…out there, in the prisms of crystallized snowflakes that hold entire stories within their multidimensional crevices, and if he is perhaps thinking of you.

“Someday…” You voice into the wind.

You close your eyes, basking amidst the warm sunlight cascading from the clear, cloudless firmament, but you can’t seem to be left in peace because-

“Are you just talking to yourself?”

Your eyes flutter open, whipping your head around to see Jimin trudging up the path that is now covered in 6 inches of freshly fallen snow.

“I-uh, umm” You’re at loss for words because you swear you were alone, and no one has ever caught you in your most private moments. “I was just clearing my head.”

“You’re thinking about him aren’t you?” His question was so direct you find yourself at loss for words for the second time in a row.

“Does it matter? He’s gone.”

“Have you tried calling him back?”

You scoff. “Are you indirectly making fun of me right now?”

Jimin shakes his head violently. “No! Why would I do that?”

“Jimin, he’s from another world. It’s not like I have any way of reaching him now.”

“But still, you can’t give up hope that easily.”

As pathetic as it sounds, truthfully, you really haven’t given up hope. Because if you did, you wouldn’t still be thinking about him in your loneliest moments, and as much as you want to wave off thoughts of him returning, you can’t help but clutch onto that thread of possibility still shining brilliantly like diamonds under the sun.

And it is on a particularly chilly day, characteristic of all winters, that Jimin’s words prove themselves right, although you refuse to give him credit for anything.

“Y/N!”

The all too familiar baritone voice startles you to the point where you find yourself stumbling backwards, slipping on a small patch of ice, and landing flat on your butt. Normally you’d be cursing in pain, but you’re too busy staring in awe of the man standing before you that you completely forget about the excruciatingly embarrassing fall you had just taken part in.

“T-Taehyung?”

“Are you ok?” He furrows his eyebrows in concern, causing you to realize you were still sprawled on the ground.

“I-uh, yeah I’m fine. B-but how-?” You cautiously stand up, dusting the snow off your pants, eyes never leaving the face of the impossibly ethereal person positioned before you.

“I decided to come back.” The boxy smile that causes warmth to spread throughout your entire being makes an appearance and lights up his face. You have to blink several times to make sure you are not seeing things, and that he is indeed not a figment of your imagination in that split second.

You can barely digest the situation you were in. “But what about you’re family? Your people! The Kingdom!?”

He chuckles. “I left it in good hands.” He voices proudly. “And it’s still snowing crystals.”

“But, but, but…” There was so much you wanted to ask. So much you didn’t understand, and it didn’t help that you were both now standing the middle of the park that has now transformed into a winter wonderland.

Taehyung reaches up to cups your cheeks in his hands, melting your frost bitten skin. “I missed you.” He whispers. “And I finally found the meaning of my snow.”

Snowflakes that freeze slowly into the clearest form of ice, pure and gentle, the way tender emotions develop into deep, everlasting love.

You aren’t able to hear the rest of what he says, or maybe he doesn’t even bother to finish because he obviously can’t kiss you and speak at the same time. All you can remember is him momentarily breaking away to ask-

“Can I be your one?”

-and you nodding before feeling the gentle touch of his lips connected to yours once again.

So yeah, you were right about believing in happy endings.

...

#bts fanfic #bts scenarios #bangtan bookclub #sfwbangtan #btswriters #taehyung scenarios #taehyung fanfic #kim taehyung #kim taehyung x reader #bts crystal snow #prince!taehyung #royal au #this was supposed to be super angsty #but i made the ending happy for the holidays #please enjoy!

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thorne93 · 6 years

Text

Insulting

Prompt: Imagine Constantine meeting your boyfriend and finding him utterly ridiculous and boring. He even teases you about it and makes fun of him which genuinely pisses you off and it leads to a serious argument. John tells you that you should be with a smarter man and it all ends in an angry kiss between the two of you. ( @keanu-c-reeves and @theartofimagining13)

Word Count: 1749

Warning: verbal fight, anger, cheating, language

Note: First Constantine fic. I love Keanu....Just..a note, lol. Beta’d by my other half @like-a-bag-of-potatoes

Forever Tags: @capsmuscles @cocosierra94 @essie1876 @magpiegirl80 @letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked @harleyquinnandscarletwitch @iamwarrenspeace @marvel-imagines-yes-please@superwholocked527 @myparadise1982sand @missinstantgratification @thejemersoninferno @rda1989 @marvelloushamilton @munlis @thefridgeismybestie @bubblyanarocks3 @random-fluffy-pink-unicorn @hardcollectionworldtrash @igiveupicantthinkofausername @kaliforniacoastalteens @feelmyroarrrr @kaeling

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Thanks for dinner,” you said sweetly as you put your hair behind your ear, walking down the sidewalk, as a chill swept through the air, a sign that autumn was gaining power.

“Anytime,” Ryan noted with a smile as he walked beside you, looking handsome in a dark long coat and sensible scarf. He could certainly afford to look dapper on a CFO salary. “I’m glad I got to see you this week,” he remarked. “I’m sorry, I’ve been so busy with meetings and work and deadlines…”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” you assured, the two of you still strolling side by side. You glanced up, for some unknown reason and saw the street you were on and stopped dead in your tracks. “Oh, hey, would you care if we stopped in on my friend? I’d love for you to meet him.”

“You mean Constantine?” he asked, recalling the hundreds of times you’d brought up your best friend, the guy you’d known for what seemed like ages.

“That’s the one. Please? It would mean a lot,” you nearly begged with puppy dog eyes. “We’ve been going out for three months. I think it’s time.”

He seemed to hesitate for just a moment before nodding his head. “Alright. Sure. Let’s go see this infamous Constantine.”

Beaming at him and hooking your arm through his, you showed him to the apartment. Knocking on the dingy door, only to be greeted by the best man you’d ever known -- John Constantine, clad in a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a black tie, and black suit pants. He was your rock. There for you through thick and thin. He was a bit of a drunk, a bit of an ass, but a really good guy deep down, he just had a funny way of showing it.

“Y/N, kind of late for a house call,” he greeted, his dry tone so familiar to you that you could probably recite what he would say.

“Not a house call, Constantine. I want you to meet someone!” you said with a wide grin.

His eyes went from yours to your boyfriend. The look of total disdain swirling into his dark eyes as he assessed the man on your arm.

“Why?” he asked, his eyes sliding back to yours, his lip slightly curling up in disgust.

“Because he’s my boyfriend. I told you about him,” you reminded in a kind tone.

“Ah, right, the glorified accountant. Come on in,” he offered with a taste of sarcasm as gestured while he opened the door wider and stepped to the side.

“Thank you,” you kindly said. No matter how rude Constantine was, no matter how cruel, or mean, or apathetic, or sarcastic he ever got, you always countered it with a full on ray of sunshine, refusing to be anything but positive around him, he already had it hard enough as it was.

“So Constantine, this is Ryan. Ryan this is Constantine, or John but--”

“But don’t ever call me John,” he cut you off, looking directly at Ryan, and you could swear he flinched.

“Oh, okay. No problem. Nice to meet you, Constantine. Any friend of Y/N…” he trailed off, holding out his hand for John to shake it, but John just looked at it as if it were leftover scraps. Utterly uninterested and unappealing. Instead, he reached over onto his table, grabbed a cigarette, and lit up, forcing Ryan to awkwardly drop his hand and shove it into his pocket.

“What do you do for a living, Constantine?” Ryan asked, trying to get conversation going.

“I work,” he responded in a short, clipped tone before taking a hit of the cigarette.

“Uh, yes, but I meant what do you do for--”

“Hey, you want a drink?” Constantine asked, interrupting yet again. “You look like you could use a drink. Let me get you one.” He pretended to be kind and polite for a moment before going to his dingy kitchen, pulling out two small glasses, pouring the scotch, and then brought them back. One for you and Ryan, and his was already half empty on the small table where he’d been leaning. The three of you sat down at the table.

“So, you work with numbers, huh?” John asked before taking another puff, letting the cigarette rest between his lips as he eyed your boyfriend. “Must just be a fucking thrill.”

“John,” you chastised lightly.

Ryan eyed you for a moment before peeling them off of you to look at your friend. “Uh, yes. I’m a CFO for Leaflin and Co. It makes pretty good money and--”

“Something you can’t take with you when you die.”

Ryan frowned and leaned forward a tad, as if he hadn’t heard John. “Beg your pardon?”

“Money. You think you can take that shit with you when you die? Any of your thousands or millions? You think any of that matters when you’re in Hell with demons clawing at your eyes and fire setting your skin ablaze for eternity?” John was leaning closer now, his tone more harsh, more serious than it had been. When his rant was done, he took another puff and leaned back.

“I..I don’t think I follow,” Ryan meekly said.

“No, of course you don’t,” John remarked, looking down, ashing his cigarette into the ashtray you’d gotten him about five years ago as a Christmas gift. “How did you wrangle this one up, Y/N?”

The three of you talked about how you met Ryan and a little more about what Ryan was interested in, and what you two did together on your dates, hoping maybe he’d warm up to him.

“Really, Y/N? This is him? This is the guy you’ve been telling me about? I hate to break it to you, but he’s another money hungry, trophy wife hunter.”

“John,” you chided again. He’d only ever met one of your other boyfriends and this is why you didn’t introduce them. Because he always behaved like an ass.

His dark brown orbs shot over to you. “What? I’m just saying. You could do better.”

“I’ll have you know I care very much for Y/N,” Ryan responded.

“That’s all fine and dandy, but she could do a hell of a lot better than some dude in a suit that will either end up with a coke habit, fuck his secretary when you tire of her, or embezzle so much money you become filthy rich, giving Y/N a life she never dreamed of just to have it all ripped away by feds because you were too fucking stupid to keep it hidden.” He leaned forward, a satisfied smirk on his face as he stared intensely at your boyfriend. “Am I in the ballpark, ace?”

“I don’t have to stand for this,” Ryan said as he stood up, angry.

“Wait, Ryan. Don’t go,” you requested.

“I’ll see you later, Y/N. Some company you keep,” he remarked, glancing between you and Constantine, before storming out.

Constantine got up and poured himself another drink.

“What the hell? Why did you do that?” you asked, standing up.

“He’s a douche.” He got done pouring the drink, setting the bottle down before looking at you. “I did you a favor.”

“What is so wrong with him?” you demanded, your kindness slipping away, desperation in your voice.

“Nothing, if you like the absolute mundane,” he responded.

“Don’t be a dick, John. At least I have someone,” you said, a bit of exhaustion in your voice. You always wondered if he was a bitter ass because he was alone at night. “You just want me to be alone like you.”

“If my choices were between that--” he pointed at the door where Ryan had exited just moments ago--”and no one, I’d pick nothing, every time.” His smugness was nearly irritating as it saturated the atmosphere between you two.

“What is so wrong with wanting normal?” you asked, your hands on your hips as you stood before him.

John rolled his eyes. “Because you’re not normal. Because you deserve someone smart, and frankly more worth your time.”

Your eyebrows shot up, wondering where this concerned attitude was coming from. For years, you assumed John could care less who you were with. But sometimes you wondered if the reason he acted the way he did about all of your boyfriends or dates was because….he wanted to be one. And his actions and words now were merely enforcing that.

“Oh? And where do you suppose I find someone who is so worthy of such a thing?” you inquired, your sarcasm heavy as you crossed your arms. Seeing what his answer would be was a mystery to you.

“I don’t know. But it’s not him,” he answered, his eyes down, looking at his cigarette.

You shook your head, a small, humorless laugh escaping your lips. “Coward. You’re so god damn afraid to feel and let someone in, you’d rather just be alone and miserable than put any risk in being happy.”

He was taking a sip of his drink as you spoke. When you were done, he slammed the glass on the table, amber liquid splashing out of the side and spilling onto his fingers. “I’m a coward?” he demanded, standing up and getting in your face. “I’m not afraid of a damn thing. You're the one who would rather be with anyone than…” He trailed off, his eyes slowly drifting from your face, the words hanging in the air between you two.

“Than what, John?” you wondered, your voice barely above a whisper, praying and hoping he’d just say what the fuck was on his mind for once.

He muttered a “fuck it” quickly and quietly before his hands flashed to the sides of your head and his lips crashed on yours, the sensation lighting you up from within. Every nerve felt awakened has his mouth hungrily molded around yours and you melted into his form, kissing back with as much fervor. The heated moment ended, both of you panting slightly.

“Than risk being happy with me,” he breathed, his eyes closed as the two of you rested your foreheads against each other.

“It’s not the happiness I’m afraid of,” you admitted quietly.

“Let’s scare the shit out of ourselves, then,” he suggested, his mouth finding yours again, both of you knowing exactly what you wanted. Knowing that you’d rather risk it all for each other, than not at all.

#insulting #john constantine #constantine #constantine fic #john constantine fic #keanu reeves

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ultraspideysense-blog · 7 years

Text

In Dire Need of a Tutor (Peter Parker Imagine)

request: nope just an idea i had off the dome last week

short summary: you need a tutor for AP Physics…Peter Parker is your boy for the job. stuff happens from there LOL

word count: 1.8k

warnings: a little swearing but idk if people got a problem w that *shrugs*

A/N: lowkey not sure if anyone will like this lmao but this is going to be a 3 or 4 part series, so this first part is primarily to set the stage for the next part, which will have a larger focus on peter himself. if you’d liked to be tagged in future parts or my works in general pls lmk!

“Jesus Christ, Flash, you’re so full of yourself!” you exclaimed as you quickly gathered your notebook and shoved it in your backpack. You were beyond frustrated and infuriated.

AP Physics wasn’t your strong suit, but you’d be damned if you didn’t ace both the class and its subsequent AP exam. The more you worked, the more hopeless your quest to find a tutor seemed to become. Your friend MJ tried first and it didn’t work out. Then you had tried Flash when he had offered. He wasn’t exactly the ideal person you had in mind, but you were desperate. Too desperate.

“At least I’m not as hopeless as you, how do you not understand the most basic of formulas? You’ll need a goddamn miracle to pass this exam,” he replied arrogantly. You simply showed him the finger and exited the empty classroom he’d been tutoring you in. There were still a good 5 minutes left of lunch and you were in dire need of some junk food from one of the vending machines.

As you opened the door, you collided with another person, with the contents of your backpack flying everywhere. Textbooks, notebooks, pens, everything.

“Shit,” you both exclaimed simultaneously. “This day could not get any worse,” you muttered to yourself with a humorless laugh as you bent over to collect your things.

“I-I’m really sorry,” said the boy you’d run into. He knelt down next to you and was hurriedly gathering your things. Taking a quick glance up at him, you recognized him from somewhere, but couldn’t place which class.

“No, it was my fault,” you replied softly. “You don’t have to help me, it’s totally fine—“ you stopped mid-sentence as he handed you your latest Physics test that had fallen out of your bag, a big fat D+ adorning the upper right corner of the paper. You felt your cheeks redden as you slowly took it back.

The two of you worked in silence until all of your things were gathered off of the linoleum floor of the hallway. Getting up and brushing your knees off, you were still slightly embarrassed he’d seen the test that you’d bombed.

“Thank you, uhm,” you paused, not really know his name.

“Peter…Parker. Peter Parker,” he introduced quietly, not quite meeting your eyes. They were looking down at the floor actually.

“Right..well thank you Peter. I’m Y/N Y/L/N,” you held out your hand for him to shake.

“I know, we have AP Physics together,” Peter stated. His cheeks reddened and his eyes widened as he continued, “I think, I mean I don’t know for sure.” He then quickly took your outstretched hand to shake.

You looked him over for a brief moment. Messy dark hair, but kind brown eyes. His t-shirt was a physics joke that, of course, you didn’t understand. But recognition slowly made its way into your features as your eyes widened.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry, we do have physics together,” you exclaimed sheepishly. He shrugged it off nervously.

“It’s okay, I’m kind of invisible,” Peter replied quietly. After a few more brief moments he extracted his hand from yours and handed you your backpack. As you were about to shuffle away awkwardly he grabbed your arm.

“I could maybe…tutor you in Physics if you want? I kind of overheard your situation with Flash and it looks like you need help.” You could tell he was referencing the abomination of a test he had seen while helping you clean up. His eyes widened again. “Not that you’re stupid or anything, quite the opposite, I just, uh,” he stammered. You smiled at him.

“No I completely get it, I’m desperate for help honestly. Would you mind tutoring me, Peter?” you asked sweetly. If you recalled correctly, he was quite smart, and never got an answer wrong when the teacher would call on him in class.

“Sure, okay,” he said, sounding a bit breathless. You thanked the Gods above and prayed that he would be able to help you pass.

Before you could give a response, the bell rang signaling the end of lunch. Quickly grabbing a pen from your backpack and Peter’s arm, you scrawled your number on his arm. Students started to fill up the hallways, walking towards their next classes.

“Text and let me know what times work best for you, I’m pretty much free all the time, bye Peter!” you called as you scurried off to your next class, leaving him staring at his arm with a dumbfounded look on his face.

~2 weeks later~

Peter had been tutoring you late in the evenings after his Stark Internship, which worked out since you two lived in the same building, him being two floors up from your apartment. And, you were actually starting to understand physics. There was another test tomorrow, and tonight Peter was supposed to help you do some last minute cramming.

You couldn’t help but notice how nervous he seemed every time you were over at his apartment, or how often he would blush when you’d scoot closer to him to get a better look at a problem or concept. Any time that your shoulders would brush you’d see him visibly stiffen or jump a little bit. You considered questioning him on it, but thought that maybe he’d quit tutoring you if you did. And lord knows you couldn’t afford for that to happen.

He’d told you in school earlier that day he might be a bit late, but you still made your way up to his apartment anyway and knocked on the door. His Aunt May opened the door and smiled when she saw it was you.

“Y/N! Is Peter expecting you?” she inquired as she gestured you in. Every time you were over in the past few weeks she was nothing but warm and nice to you, and unbeknownst to you shooting Peter suggestive glances every time he led you to his room for a tutoring session.

“Yeah, we have a test tomorrow, so we’re planning on some last minute cramming so I can actually retain this information,” you joked lightly. May gave you a reassuring pat on the back.

“With Peter’s help I’m sure you’ll definitely ace it. That boy’s as smart as they come, and cute too,” she replied with a wink. You blushed.

“Definitely true.” You didn’t specify which of her statements you were agreeing with, and she didn’t ask. Instead, she mentioned you were free to wait for Peter in his room and to help yourself to anything in the kitchen before retreating to her own bedroom.

You opted to just take a glass of water and made your way to Peter’s room, taking a seat on his bed and pulling out some study materials. Though, about 20 minutes later while deep into a multi-step pendulum problem, the window slowly started creeping open. You froze, not knowing what to do or how to react to the situation and waited to see what would unfold.

A figure slowly came in and started climbing on the ceiling…climbing on the ceiling!! You threw your hand over your mouth when realizing that none other than Spider-Man was crawling on the fucking ceiling. His mask was off and your heart raced with anticipation as you craned your neck to get a clear look at the face.

As the figure looked down and outstretched their arm to slowly close the slightly open door, it hit you like a truck: it was Peter Parker, Peter fucking Parker was the Spider-Man. In shock with a million questions running through your head, Peter finally saw you as he made his descent to the floor, shock painting his features perfectly. After 30 seconds of silence you were the first to speak.

“What the fuck, you’re Spider-Man? How do you? Why do you?” your mouth kept opening and closing as more and more questions popped into your head. You got up off of his bed and started pacing around the room, slightly annoyed and extremely confused. “Do you even have anything to say or are you just going to stand there and ignore my questions?” you all but yelled. Peter finally sprung into action throwing a hand over your mouth, realizing the severity of the situation.

“Y/N please calm down, don’t hate me just let me explain, okay, just hear me out? Please?” he begged. He started making some hardcore puppy dog eyes at you and your annoyance began to falter. You removed his hand from your mouth and once again sat on his bed, taking a deep breath. “Fine, you have 60 seconds before I start freaking out again,” you said dramatically.

Honestly inside you knew that there was no reason for you to be this worked up, you’d only known Peter almost two weeks now. But you were just…scared for him. You brushed it off as normal human compassion as he took off his Spider-Man suit.

As he changed into some normal clothes it took everything in you to look away as he revealed his rock hard abs, you wouldn’t be surprised if your cheeks were insanely red. Heaving a sigh he sat next to you on his bed, his knee bouncing up and down nervously.

“I am…Spider-Man,” he started slowly. Yeah no shit Sherlock, you thought to yourself. But didn’t dare interrupt.

“I got bit by a spider a while ago and I developed all these super human powers and it just sort of turned into this big thing, and pretty much every day I work hard to protect everyone in Queens and just be this friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man and I know I tell everyone I have this big Stark internship but it’s just I can’t tell people about this, not even Aunt May or else she wouldn’t let me do this anymore, and I just have to do this. I can’t just have these powers to help and look out for people and neglect to use them. And I’m so sorry about lying to you but it’s just…I couldn’t risk it. I really couldn’t,” he rushed out in one single breath.

You could see slight relief in his features as everything in his mind came out of his mouth. You felt for him a little bit, evidently having nobody to confide in about this major secret in his life. Before you could formulate a response you saw tears forming in his eyes.

“Oh, Peter,” you replied softly, pulling him into a hug. “Please stop crying, it’s okay, I’m not mad at you, you’re okay.” He was sniffling against your shoulder with his arms wrapped around your waist, as you stroked one of your hands through his hair. “Your secret’s safe with me, I promise.”

After a few minutes he had composed himself and looked at you deeply. “Thank you, Y/N.” You felt a shiver run down your spine at how genuine he sounded…but in a good way. Brushing it off, you wiped a few stray tears off of his cheeks.

“So…you actually know Tony Stark?” you asked, trying to change the mood. He laughed a little bit, causing you to laugh too. And the two of you spent the rest of the night talking about his Spider-Man lifestyle instead of studying.

#peter parker x reader #peter parker x you #tom holland #tom holland x reader #tom holland x you #imagine #spider-man: homecoming #spiderman #spiderman imagine #peter Parker #spider-man imagine #fic #marvel #marvel characters #marvel imagine #peter parker imagine #tom holland imagine #peter parker imagines #tom holland imagines

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asylum-miniatures · 6 years

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Entry 12 - a new job

Session 12, part 1 the trip back

We start off the session with a quick explanation what happened on the journey back. We investigated the equipment we had gotten off the poachers and found: • a large quantity of various pelts and firs • many sets of snowshoes and warm winter clothing • several vials, including a vial of sparkly dust and a vial of black sludge • 20 sets of elven rations • A double sided cloak • 2 “laser” pistols We investigated the best we could and found that the vial of sparkly dust was diamond dust, while the guns had some kind of crystal on the end that allows them to cast a scorching ray like attack. Ocelot hands me one of the guns for me to figure out how it works (and even lets me keep it afterwards) and I proceed to teach him what the activation while we both aim at the cover Draspher is hiding behind, and much fun is had by all.

We also do all our levelling up on the journey: I (Jaune) use my ninja trick to learn improved two weapon fighting, and as we had hit level 8 I place the point to boost my intelligence to 14, spending the extra skill points in intimidate and sense motive to make myself an even better party face

Occelot boosted his dex to 19 and spent the combat feat he got as a gunslinger to get twf. He now had a gun in each hand, using his belt to reload the single shot pistol in his left hand while relying on the extra revolver cartridges in his right to keep up the rate of fire

Draspher got a level 1 and a level 4 spell. He decided to go with Adhesive Spittle and summon monster IV

Yurion got a silence spell as her new learned spell

Vex took another level in paladin and upon receiving her new sheet was surprised to realise the range of feats and abilities she had, and the fact she was a spellcaster

Sim got another level in druid and here ability to wildshape has now improved. I fully intend to milk her for all the poison I can get at the first downtime opportunity. She has also decided to follow her true life calling by taking ranks in profession courtesan.

After the last session the DM considered how he had been running things and had realised a huge flaw in what he had been doing. For our HP he had just given us all the maximum roll for our hit dice every level. This meant that that every party member had a HUGE number of hit points and it was ridiculously hard to take us down (see last entry with Draspher the pincushion as evidence of this). To remedy this, he decided to have everyone roll new HP values, leaving everyone at about half their previous values (funnily enough, I now have 1 more HP than the paladin and the same AC).

Part 2, call to action

As we get back to the hideout we see a flurry of activity. By the looks of it there packing up shop ready to move out fast, with ninja-san arguing with someone outside the building. We go over and ask ninja-san what’s going on.

It turns out that thanks to reports of the “mad bomber” being seen in the area (whole group glares at Draspher who claims innocence on account of his hat of disguise making him look nothing like himself) he’s having to close up shop and move to a new safe house. Unfortunately, despite my questioning on whether Draspher was spotted, or if it was a copycat Ninja-san doesn’t have time to investigate. That also means he doesn’t have anyone who could help the fellow he’s talking to. As a group we decide to volunteer our services, so long as it didn’t interfere with the other mission. Ninja-san thinks about it and reluctantly acknowledge that although it’s not ideal, we are the only free agents and having us away from the safe house was actually useful when the authorities came around. He agrees to send us out and introduces us to Sayid.

Sayid is a merchant from . He had been making his way home from a long trip when he felt a terrible presence approaching the place. He came to the guild for help, but found that ninja-san had no free agents until we arrived. Ninja san warns us to take supplies and water with us. We take the rations captured from the poachers, give Sim the vials and leave ninja san with most of the rest. Ocelot also takes the captured snowshoes, thinking that they could be useful in crossing the desert sands.

We head off in the guild glider (a small faster airship that the guild uses mostly as a taxi service) and soon arrive on the outskirts of the desert. We will walk along one of the main roads and arrive into town by the afternoon.

As we are walking we notice a number of corpses lining the roads. We examine them and Draspher becomes increasingly paranoid zombies throughout this, insisting on casting detect magic constantly to try and spot them early while throwing out various theories about everything he hears. All we can tell about the bodies is that there not magic, they were running from town, and they seem incredibly malnourished. We see more bodies in fresher conditions the closer we get to town, and we hear noises just ahead.

Part 3, under the same sun

As we approach, we start to plan as we roll initiative. Yurian decides she wants to cast silence on Ocelots guns so he can snipe quietly, and I attempt to outline a plan where he flanks one side away from us (so our casters can still cast), Draspher casts a fireball in the middle of them and Sim immediately after summons something big to distract them before we move in. Unfortunately, a combination of no-one caring and the silence spell going up makes this pointless. This single silence spell messes up a lot of our actions in this coming battle.

Our targets are three Giant Scorpions feasting on a body. Ocelot does go to one side and opens fire with his new laser gun (which he and I insist on calling them despite the DM frequently saying that there not) and it’s pretty effective. I go out on the other side and prepare my shadow clones for defence, hoping to move into flanking afterwards. One of the scorpions immediately goes for the guy who shot it with lasers, just falling short of hitting him until the DM shows us that the claws have reach, slashing Ocelot quite painfully. Seeing this, Vex charged in for a bull rush, getting in between Ocelot and the Scorpion.

Following this a second Scorpion goes to the first one’s side and both engage Vex, while the third decides the 4 or 5 guys who look a lot alike are good enough targets. Draspher desides to test out his new spell, and summons a salt mephit behind the scorpions, and Yurion moves up to cast a bless spell while Sim summons a constrictor behind the first scorpion giving Vex flanking. Unfortunatly, Vex had completely forgotten that Ocelot’s pistols still had a silence spell cast on them, completely negating her own spell as she moved behind him. At the DM’s suggestion, Vex decides to try out her twf and tw cleave feats by drawing her wakazahi alongside her keen katana and, alongside a volley of fire from Ocelot, devastates the first scorpion in a single round.

I re-manoeuvre myself, one of my shadow clones taking a scorpion stinger to the face, to get behind the second scorpion in flanking. This messes up Drasphers plan, so re re-positions his salt mephit so it is in range of the second and third scorpion and tries to use its special ability. The DM asks him to roll wisdom.

He gets a 0.

The group collapses in laughter.

So, he uses the mephit’s ability to draw all the moisture from other creatures around itself against the scorpions. Unfortunately, either (as the DM had tried to say) such abilities are ineffective against creatures who live in the desert, or he just rolled terribly, as it has virtually no effect. For his turn he tries out ghost sounds to make the sound of a dragon focused on the mephit in an attempt to intimidate them. Luckily most of the party was inside a silence spell, so only Sim and myself were affected.

Yurion happens to look across the giant scorpion to see me turning pale, and start shouting and gesturing wildly, unable to hear a word about “the damn desert dragons are here”

The next few rounds were very disappointing for me personally. Just as I am about to try out my new twf feat on the scorpion vex and ocelot have an encore, finishing it in a single round. Just as I position myself next turn behind the last scorpion, Ocelot has his first Critical roll in the entire campaign, and devastated it with a x4 critical pistol shot.

We clean up after the battle, the scorpions feasting on a body with no major traits separating it from the previous bodies. Despite my best efforts I was unable to get even a drop of poison out of the scorpions stingers. The only thing of note was that even the scorpions seemed malnourished like every other body here. We re-convene with Sayid and head to town.

Part 4, bust up at the mediocre camp- corral

As we are headed into town, we pass by a couple of camps that line the city and we hear a commotion. We see one guy being held back by two others while a third is trying to talk him down. As we approach, we hear the three begging there “captain” to please pull himself back together and stop this, before he throws off the two holding his arms and jumps on top of the third, raining blows down while yelling frenziedly.

Immediately we dash over. I try shoulder bashing him off, but he barely notices I’m there. Draspher uses his adhesive spittle to bind the guy, but he breaks out of it in a moment and attacks again. Ocelot pulls of a fairly acrobatic leap over everyone to get behind the guy so we can start flanking him, but one of the others gets between him and the captain. My own attempts to knock him out prove pointless. Yurian ideally ponders the point she could stop this whole encounter with a single command spell, then goes back to reading her book. The conflict finally ends when Vex comes over and in a single motion grabs and restrains him. We drag him over to a tree and tie him up. While we talk with the other men, vex decides to heal the fallen guy.

It’s at this point OOC that vex decides she wants to play a lesbian. The DM gives her a look, then continues, explaining that the guy vex saved is actually a girl, and she looks up at her with an awestruck expression. (nothing to do with anything really, but it was a funny/odd moment I felt worth documenting)

While this was going on, the rest of us start trying to get answers about what’s going on in town. The guys are mercenaries and have only been in town a few weeks. It turns out that the whole town is built around an oasis run by the “white-water” group. The town used to be doing really well, up until the point where the group started raising the price of water. Slowly but surely the town started to decline as people and companies couldn’t keep up and had to move elsewhere to live. The farmers couldn’t produce crops properly due to costs and everywhere started feeling the effects of the famine.

Then A couple of weeks ago people started getting this new sickness. They are hungry all the time but they just can’t eat, and soon they just snap losing all coherent thought and attacking anything and anyone around them just like with their captain. The white-water group locked themselves in their main base, and now the entire town must get water from the public troughs. This illness is spreading and no-one know how or why and the town guard is doing all they can to prevent a panic. The only person who claimed that they could cure it was the minister of the local church, but he went missing about two weeks ago.

We suddenly hear a noise from the tree we tied the captain to. He’s regained some rationality, and now he’s begging us to kill him. Things have certainly taken a dark turn indeed.

Part 5, town sights

We decide to head to the church on the other side of town, but upon looking at the map we decide to drop by the white-water compound and see what’s there first. Along the way we see the town crazy person. She’s and old woman who is ranting about how we have all angered the “scarab king” and this illness is his punishment on us. We start trying to ask her more about it, but Ocelot tells her “I was also sent by the scarab king, and he told me to tell you that if you don’t knock it off then I’ll kill you” so we didn’t get much out of her.

As we approach the massive walls of the white-water group, two guards accost us with crossbows. They tell us if we get any closer they will shoot, so I try and tell them “we’re the new hired help”, “of course you haven’t seen us before, your running out of guys in the town to hire” but there suspicious and one goes in to check while the other just keeps us covered. A passer-by comes up to us and flat out tells us “it’s no use, they’ve locked themselves in there for weeks, no-one comes in and out. Last person anyone saw go in was that priest, and that was two weeks ago”. Seeing this as a dead end, we decide to head up to Sayid’s shop. Just as we’re going down one of the streets, we see tons of city guards piling body bags into a ditch. Next to them are several very large barrels of oil. Some of the bodies are still moving. We approach the captain in charge of this to ask what’s going on. The moment she realises we’re new in town, she has every guard surround us, and utilising all the military power she can bring to bear, she tells us to strip.

As a group we all a little reluctant to start stripping in public surrounded by heavily armed guards. Draspher biggest worry is that they will force him to remove the freshly attuned ring of sustenance making him wait another week for it to work. The captain tells us that there is an area we can strip in private, and that the sorcerer can keep the ring on. As we are stripping she explains that she’s in charge of trying to keep the infection contained, so she needs to check us for bite marks (she doesn’t know that that’s what’s spreading the illness, but it’s all she’s got to go on for the moment). The body’s outside are the dead/infected that she has no choice but destroy in a hope of preventing the continued spread of the illness. Fortunately, none of us have bite wounds, unfortunately Ocelot did get wounded by the scorpions, so he needs more examining. As we wait outside, we here voices from the pit, and amongst them are a cry for help

Part six, dispose with caution

We immediately try and figure out who said that, but calling out to the person results in six bodies starting to wriggle. So I shout down that if the person is still sane stop wriggling, and two oblige. An argument breaks out in the group over what to do. I tell Yurion to just levitate the two still ones and we’ll examine them, unable to bear the thought of leaving someone to burn to death, but she and Draspher are both reluctant to do anything, figuring that they might be infected and not wanting to risk any contact with them. Ocelot and the captain come out of the tent, and the men start pouring the oil onto the bodies. As we are arguing more and more intensely as time runs out, Ocelot takes things into his own hands, and jumps into the pit, Sim quickly throwing a rope down to help him out.

(as the DM noted at the time, the lawful Neutral character is arguing for saving people’s lives, and the chaotic good/rest of the party is arguing to just stand back and let them burn, even if there mistaken)

We pull them out (draspher summoning a giant bat to grab one that Ocelot dropped) and Yurian goes over to examine them. One of them, probably the one we heard, says “please help me, I’m so hungry” so she slices his throat and drops the body back in. The second one though just seems manic, and a charm person spell from draspher just makes him quiet. It’s pretty clear he’s not infected, just ill with something along the line of Alzheimer’s. We all decide to take him to the church previously mentioned, as the captain mentioned that this would be the best place to take him.

When we arrive, we find the whole main area filled with bodies tied to stretchers, all writhing and a tired looking nun with arms covered in bite marks taking one look at us before complaining about us bringing another one.

Part seven, nun trouble, nun worries

We drop of our recued homeless guy and start trying to get some info out of her. She’s a bit annoyed at the interruption at first, a quick examination showing the bites on her arms are starting to go septic and she apparently has barely slept since this whole thing began. Luckily Vex has the fatigue curing mercy, so a quick lay on hands from her and our promises that we are here to help leave her in in much better spirits.

Our interrogation reveals a few interesting points. The first incident of note was a traveller coming into town. He had several STD’s, and became extremely irate when told he would have to wait for treatment, then left town with Sayid’s son on some kind of expedition. Shortly after that the first person with the illness was a girl from the brothels. Aside from that there seems to be no rhyme or reasoning behind who gets infected (we deduce from the wounds old enough to become infected on her arms, yet lack of the illness that it can’t be the bites). The priest who said he could cure people was summoned by the white-water group, he went in and never came out leaving the nun and the other sisters to run the increasingly manic situation by themselves. After a bit more prodding, she leaves and comes back with a box. Yurion, Sim and I go with her into a small private room, while the others examine the other patients. The only thing they find is that they seem to be completely immune to Drasphers charm person spell.

In the room the nun shows us what’s in the box. It’s a human bone, covered in glowing carved runes. Yurian notices that the runes are a language close to abyssal but not quite. Apparently, there have been more than a few people who have been infected carrying bones just like this one. They have been storing them because they are obviously evil but they don’t know what they are, what they are for or how they are used. She’s willing to let us have this one to study in the hopes of learning what they are and if they are connected to the illness, but she denies Yurians request to have all the bones to compare differences in the symbols between bones.

As we leave the room one of the patients has a particularly violent struggle against her bonds, and breaks loose although breaking an arm in the process. As she makes a break for the door Ocelot and I run in pursuit of her. Ocelot attempts to pull out his dragon pistol to slow her with an entangling shot, but the sprint makes him fumble and drop the pistol. Draspher picks up the gun and makes to pursue as well, with vex following after (slowed down by her weighted armour) as we all chase the girl running with breath-taking speed down the street.

Part eight, beating for everyone

We pursue, but she is fast. Luckily, I can tap into my ki, allowing me to move far faster than my normal speed. Although this isn’t quite fast enough to grab her, 10’ away is still close enough to hit her with a tanglefoot bag. It works, tripping her up and letting the two of us catch up, but she manages to break out a moment later. Ocelot then attempts a stunning trick shot by throwing one of his tanglefoot cartridges at her, then shooting that cartridge with a bullet to spread the gunk over her. However, running at that kind of speed tends to mess up your aim something awful, and he ends up killing a civilian, sending everyone watching the scene running and screaming.

I attempt to knock her out, but feints don’t work too well against crazy people and I don’t hit all that hard. But it does get her attention solely on me, and she jumps on top of me, sitting on my chest as she rains down blows taking a fifth of my health in one round. Ocelot decides his priority is covering up his tracks, so leaves me at the mercy of the crazy woman:

Occelot – I’ll be right back Jaune – Ocelot you ####er, where are you going? Draspher – Don’t worry, I’m coming to help Jaune – NO! DON’T LEAVE ME ALONE WITH HIM!

And Draspher lives up to his hard-earned reputation. He tries to stop the mad-woman by firing off an adhesive spittle. Say what you will about his intent, the results fully justify my actions. We both get covered in the stuff, unable to move. Then she breaks out of her bonds. I am trapped under the crazy woman, now literally glued to my chest, who took out a fifth of my health in one turn, unable to move and completely helpless against her.

Just as death seems inevitable, Vex charges in and successfully knocks her off me. Ocelot finally finishes PLANTING A DAGGER ON THE CIVILIAN HE KILLED, and seeing the commotion sends a double tap into the woman’s back, killing her instantly and covering myself and vex in blood (draspher having be shielded by my body).

Draspher attempts to defend his actions, saying “at least I didn’t abandon you, would you rather I did nothing and leave you to die?”. I show him EXACTLY how much I appreciate his help. I punch him, and I don’t stop till I’ve knocked his foolish ass out (in a single round too, thanks sneak attack dice and improved twf). The DM thinks this is both appropriate, and the funniest thing he’s seen, so he allows it. [/SPOILER] And that’s where we ended that session. No hard feelings between me and Draspher, although this may come back to bite me in the ass later.

Days in city – 1 Lives saved – 2.5, the Girl being mauled by his commander, the crazy homeless person that almost burnt and the nun we healed (.5) Lives killed – 3, the one guy we pulled up to stab, the civilian that got shot (she went at him with a knife) and the broken armed escapee that got shot Vex’s Harem – 2, the Girl being mauled by her commander and the nun Times Drilled over by Draspher – 2, he convinced me there was a dragon in the desert and got me glued to the ground with a crazy infected woman ready to beat me to death

#ain't our fault #main story

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