#no more silly side quests until my wizard is back and i can get him cool equipment and shit

[lixbf]

honestly the fact that gale got kidnapped is mildly ruining how i wanna play the game bc like. i wanna do all the side quests first and Then get to gortash and orin but like i wanna have gale back? i dont want him to just miss out on so much stuff?? like hes been there since the very beginning and now when hes gonna come back it's already like oh yeah cazador is dead and shadowheart got her parents back no big deal. we got another guy to join our team tgt w his tiny giant space hamster and btw mizora now just hangs out here. oh and we fought and killed ethel again but for real this time.

[littlebird-99]

Dreams into Reality

Thorin Oakenshield x Tay

Summary: What's going through Thorin's mind as Warg scouts start attacking those he loves? And what exactly is going on with Tay?

Warnings: Swearing, Wargs (They are terrifying leave me alone), Injury.

Masterlist

"Thieves! Fire! Murder!"

"Radagast. It's Radagast the Brown!" Ganfald walks towards the other wizard, looking him over, "Well. What on earth are you doing here?"

"I was looking for you Gandalf. Somethings wrong. Somethings terribly wrong."

"yes?"

"Obviously somethings terribly wrong... look at him" I hear Kili mutter and I jab my knee into the back of his glaring at him, "shut it. Be nice."

I watch as Radagast has trouble remembering what he was trying to tell us all, "Just give me a moment. Oh, I had a thought and now I've lost it" The wizard pouts, "It was right there on the tip of my tongue. Oh, it's not a thought at all." He grinned opening his mouth and pulling a stick bug out, "It's a silly old stick insect."

With that, Gandalf and Radagast walk away from the group leaving us all to wonder what is going on. 

"I don't like this... somethings not right" I whisper, scratching at my arm, making Fili quickly pull my hand back with a shake of his head.

I hear a howl and I feel the hairs on my neck stand and I can't breath.

"Was that a wolf? Are there wolves out there?" Bilbo looks around to everyone, trying to see if he could be any more terrified then he already was.

"Wolves? No, that is not a wolf" Bofur responds, I turn as I hear the warg growling and I let out a scream without realizing it, there were even more terrifying in person then on screen. It charged right for me and landed on me, I kicked and screamed, until I heard a thunk and the beast was pushed off after Thorin slices his sword through its neck.

"Kili!" Thorins voice rose through the different yells and cries out as another Warg approaches from behind.

"Warg scouts! Which means an orc pack is not far behind."

"Orc pack?" Bilbo and I ask together, earning a weird look directed at me from Dwalin and Gandalf.

"Who did you tell about your quest beyond your kin?"

"No one."

"Who did you tell?!"

"No one, I swear. What in Durins name is going on?"

"You are being hunted."

"We have to get out of here."

"I second that, can we please leave?" My panicked voice speaks out through the crowd.

"We can't! We have no ponies!" Ori runs back to us, "They bolted!"

"I'll draw them off."

"These are Gundabad Wargs. They will outrun you."

"These are Rhosogbel Rabbits. I'd like to see them try."

After Radagast quickly takes off, I feel someone taking my hand and pulling me quickly. I look at the hand holding mine, before moving my eyes up to spot the long back hair of the king pulling me behind him, electricity piling in my fingers sending waves to my heart.

'Mahal please don't, not right now’ I try telling myself, ‘he's a king and you're not even from here’ I look down before trying to pull my hand away, hearing a growl come from the king's lips, I quickly stop trying.

"Come on!" Gandalf yells, earning the 13 dwarves, one hobbit and a human to follow him quickly. "Stay together."

"Ori no!" I yell along with Thorin, helping him pull the Dwarf back tugging him against us both.

I could feel Kili and Fili's eyes on us, knowing that a smirk crowded both their faces.

"All of you, come on! Come on. Quick."

"Where are you leading us?" Gandalf ignores Thorin's question and presses forward quickly earning a growl from the dwarven king.

Thorin quickly presses me up against a rock, shielding my body from the Warg and Orc scout that stands about the boulder we're up against. He nods towards Kili who knocks an arrow and quickly shoots it towards the Orc about us, only wounding the warg, before shooting the Orc, knocking it down with another shot, sending Dwalin to get him with his Axe.

"MOVE! RUN!"

Thorin grabs my hand again, dragging me alongside him, making sure to keep me at his side. "There they are!" Gloin's voice echoes around us.

"This way! Quickly!"

"There's more coming!" Kilis voice rang out, I could barely keep track of who was yelling what anymore, with the wargs howls, my heart pounding in my ear, I couldn't focus.

"Kili! Shoot them!" Thorin's voice brought me back, I squeeze his hand gently, taking a deep breath.

“WE’RE SURROUNDED!”

“Where's Gandalf?!” Dori questions,

"He's abandoned us!" Dwalin yells after, I look around as I feel thorin push me behind him, "Hold your ground!"

"This way you fools!" Gandalf's voice speaks from behind us, I quickly turn around and run for the opening, feeling something pierce my skin, I let out a cry before jumping through the opening, ignoring the feeling of pain. "Come on move!" I hear Thorin's voice from above, "Quickly! All of you!" I count everyone as they fall through the hole."Kili!" I hear Thorin yell out to his younger nephew, "Run!"

I soon hear horns blaring and the sound of fighting above us, along with horses. Soon a body of an Orc falls down the hole, causing us to move quickly and duck out of the way, thorin moves to the body, pulling the arrow out.

“Elves?” His voice was low with anger but all I could feel was my leg going numb, I wince slightly grabbing onto Fili, looking down I see blood pooling on my pant leg, I glance up at Fili who was already looking down.

"I cannot see where the pathway leads! Do we follow it or no?!"

"Follow it, of course!" Bofur yells out, quickly moving through the tunnel.

I try staying in front of people, keeping my leg hidden as Bofur and Dwalin start leading us out of the tunnel.

“Are you okay? There's blood on y-” His voice is above a whisper as he leans forward to speak to me, I nod softly.

“I’m aware, I can feel the pain Fili…”

“Pain? Who’s in pain?”

Dammit Kili, why do you have to listen in at this time. “Aye, who’s hurt?” A gruff voice from the back, meaning Thorin had been listening, if I survive this, I’m killing Kili, I think to myself as I take a deep breath in.

“I am, my ribs hurt from the trolls is all,” I speak gently.

Bilbo speaks up softly, “They did have a grip, didn’t they?” I let out a painful laugh, nodding, “aye, that they did,” I smile wincing softly clutching my arm softly. I look up meeting Balins eyes, before he glances down at my leg, “good mahal lassie! When did you get shot by an arrow?!” I look down finally seeing the arrow, “oh shit..” I whisper, grabbing it slightly until my hand is pulled off the arrow.

“Don't pull that out. Not yet.” I look up, meeting blue eyes that didn't belong to my friend, “Thorin I'm fine,” I whispered to the grumpy dwarf who just held my hand by the wrist, the pain from my mistake earlier from when I was in my world was starting to sting from his grip, causing a slight flinch from me, which I thought went unnoticed by the dwarf king until his grip loosens and he starts pushing me through the tunnels until we reached the end.

I saw everyone pause once we reached the sun, looking out at the valley below us and I pulled away from Thorin, pushing my way to the front, eyes wide.

“The Valley of Imladris!” Gandalf starts, “in the common tongue, it's known by another name.” 

“Rivendell.” 

I look at Bilbo who has the same awe expression as my own. “Here lies the last homely house east of the sea,” Gandalf explains.

I could feel Thorin's anger radiating off his body so I turn and see the dwarf moving towards Gandalf, “this was your plan all along. To seek refuge with our enemy.”

“You have no enemy here, Thorin Oakenshield. The only I'll will to be found in this valley is that which you bring yourself!”

“You think the elves will give our quest their blessing? They will try to stop us.”

“Of course they will,” I could hear the mocking tone in Gandalf's voice as he spoke and I couldn't help but roll my eyes, “but we have questions that need to be answered. If we are to be successful, this will need to be handled with tact. And respect. And no small degree of charm. Which is why you will leave the talking to me.” 

I look at the old wizard as we descend down the mountain, me being out between the two young princes, “you know, I can protect myself,” I mutter out, flinching slightly as I look down at my knee, “o-or.. m-maybe not,” I manage to mutter out as I fumble forward into Kili’s back. “Tay!” I hear a yell before everything turns black.

Tags: @tschrist1

[marbleheavy]

I did Nico so here are some Will Solace headcanons that have bouncing around my brain for a while now

He goes through a sweater phase where he wears almost exclusively slightly too big, brightly colored, knit sweaters with thick collars and cinched sleeves

He read that fact about how if your tongue sticks to a rock it’s actually a bone, and now he licks every rock he finds because “What if it’s the bone of a dinosaur? What if I’m licking part of a T-Rex right now?” (and Nico just lets him do it even though he knows they aren’t bones)

REALLY into pinkie promises. Like, he takes them so seriously. Pinkie promise > swearing on the Styx

He takes a lot of chaotic self timer pictures and always ropes everyone else into them. They always end up looking like an album cover and he looks like he’s the lead singer. It’s not even that he’s always front and center, it’s just the way that he’s holding himself in every picture. When he gets his own apartment or house or whatever, he makes a collage of them all and he has every one of his friends choose a picture and write what the name of the album would be on it.

Going off of that, he is really into crafts but specifically memory crafts (does that make sense???). He makes keepsake boxes and friendship bracelets and so many things because he feels like it doesn’t matter if those things actually look good because the most important part of them is the memory attached.

He uses either 🤠 or ✨ (sometimes 🤪) in almost every text and uses them to convey any emotion. Rachel is the only one who ever understands exactly what he means.

A million friendship and bead bracelets just all the way up his arms. Probably some silly bands too.

He carries a backpack with him almost all the time and it somehow holds every possible necessity but always looks nearly empty. Obviously a first aid kit, but also like snacks and a hat and sunscreen and a million pens and the list goes on and on. It’s kind of in a mom friend way but more of a thing where someone sees “i need x item” and Will just hands it to them wordlessly without even stopping his sentence.

He adores the face masks that are supposed to make you look like an animal but they’re mostly just scary. They make him giggle like a toddler. (Imagine him and Nico with the fluffy headbands with the ears and then the face masks and Will just absolutely losing his shit)

Hozier!! Will loves Hozier!! Also country music (but he has a whole spiel about new age, american exceptionalist pop country because he h a t e s that). Also, and this is the really important one, 80s music but the really synth-y stuff (see my 80s cover band au for more details)

His ideal outfit is a chunky sweater, a jean jacket, jeans that don’t match the jacket, and rain boots. He loves rain boots. He’s got multiple pairs and at least one of them have frogs on them. If he can’t wear rain boots, flip flops in the summer and vans in the other seasons (He’s definitely got a pair of these yellow Vans)

He dresses like a dad but a dad that was born in the 80s and is also three years old

Will has at least three flavors of chapstick on him at any given time

Will Solace with a gun is wonderful, truly. I would like to add to this by introducing the concept of him wearing the side holsters on either this legs or his arms. He wants to go on quests so he can live his dreams of being a cowboy with thigh gun holsters and a hat and boots and all of it. (Also, Nico with knives strapped to his thighs and Will with guns) (Also, also, there’s a Cards Against Humanity card that says “Shooting a wizard with a gun” and that screams Will Solace)

Will is very much a “Let’s not resort to violence” person but in a way where like, Person A tries to punch B and Will is like “hey, we can talk this out” but then B doubles down and says something really out of line and Will just backs up and is like “You know what? Never mind, you do what you need to do” (And also in a “Let’s not fight… except for Nico because isn’t he so pretty with his sword?)

speaking of pretty, Will l o v e s to be called pretty. It makes his sweet summer child heart go brrr

He is obviously very into nicknames and terms of endearment but calling someone “Hon” or “Sweet pea” is always passive aggressive (that’s less of a Will thing and more of a Southern thing)

I would like to bring up the licking rocks thing again because I really do just believe it with my whole heart

For a while, the idea of Will’s grandparents (obviously Naomi’s side) being French has been bouncing around my head and I really do love the idea of Will speaking French fluently but not at all formally. It’s a lot of slang and has a Texas drawl mixed in with it but it’s definitely French (and it definitely makes Nico melt). He will just deadpan look at someone and go “Quoi?” and he counts the infirmary inventory stock in French but only up until sixty, then he switches to English (soixante-dix can suck it, sorry if you’re french but like, just make a new word. there’s no need for me to have to do math while already counting. don’t even get me started on anything in the 90s. quatre-vingt-dix-sept?? excuse me??)

Will and Persephone being buddies!! They just get along well and very much understand being summer people in love with anti-sun people and just, ugh, family dinners in the Underworld and Will always, always brings a gift for her. Will and Nico come in and anyone can hear Persephone yell “Is that Will? Is Will here?” and Will just grins and calls back “Yes ma’am, and I brought you some brownies from my Mama and some of the flowers from her garden”

Also, Nico knows all the deities and Will brings them cookies because they’re a team like that

He either plays soccer or lacrosse but either way he’s very good at it and it’s honestly intimidating (jock will solace <3)

Not to say Will isn’t his fair share of chaotic, but he’s friends with a lot of very chaotic or at the least eccentric people (Cecil and his pranks, Lou Ellen and her pig balls, Rachel and herself, Nico and himself, etc.) so he’s very good at turning on the Southern charm and just smiling his way out of any situation so he can get himself and everyone else away without any consequences

I think that’s all for now!! If you have any additions, please feel free to add them on, I love seeing other people’s ideas!

[daydream-believin]

The Never-Ending Roadtrip (St. Louis)

summary: (pt 1) Reader joins Douxie in the quest for Nari’s safety. He’ll need company won’t he? - part 4) Doux and Reader get out of Missouri finally but not before one last stop      (part 5)

warnings: swearing

word count: 6205

a/n: im getting a smidge impatient on my planned mutual pining slow burn as you can see. mmm i want a piece of st louis butter cake. @blixeon​ gets credit for putting the douxie trying to keep y/n away from moppet!douxie idea in my head. its not a big plot point here but idk felt i should still mention it

Douxie stared up at the ceiling with dry, unblinking eyes. There were many interesting cracks in the ceiling, barely illuminated by the light streaming in from the bathroom door. He was wide awake, despite not being able to convince himself to move. He was never a morning person, but once he remembered where he was, it was like someone had poured a bucket of ice water on him. Y/n was no longer clinging to him when he woke up, albeit, she was not even in the bed at all when he woke up. That had gave him a fright before he realized he could hear the shower running. Somehow, this was worse than if she’d still been there when he woke up. This meant she woke, untangled herself from him, and was probably going to pretend like it didn’t happen, since she couldn’t possibly know he stayed awake long enough to know about it. Which, while waking up in her arms would have been a little awkward, at least he would have gotten a conversation out of it. An acknowledgement. Something.

Speaking of the shower, somehow that was doing a number on him too. It was so strange. They’ve lived together for years now; they’ve shared a bathroom for years now. He’s heard her shower so many fucking times. No sweat. These feelings were making him silly. Perhaps it was this fucking room. The domesticity of it all, which was a weird thing to say when you literally lived with said person. Yet, he couldn’t stop imagining that he was waking up in His Home, listening to His Wife get ready for work in the en suite of Their Bedroom. She didn’t want to wake him, how sweet. She was always worried about him getting more sleep. He’d go help her with her hair, braid it for her. His hands would run through her soft hair as he styled it. She’d kiss him on the nose before she left to go make him a cup of coffee while he got ready. She knew just how he liked it. They’d brush their teeth together, every morning, just like they did last night.

Bleeding balroths, last night. What was he going to do about last night. His dumb heart wouldn’t just be able to leave well enough alone, apparently. Does he,,, say something? Perhaps he should wait to see if she says something. That would be,, the safer route. He knew one thing for sure though. He wasn’t going to act like he didn’t love every second of it. He’d made up his mind. His life has been way too long and lonely for him to keep this ‘it’s not like I like you’ act up. And for Merlin’s sake, he had died not even three days ago. He had almost been gone, and would have never known the love of his beloved. And family wasn’t just who you have, it was also who you’re with. And he was with Y/n. She was already his family, so why not be his family? Like he dreamed of? Yes, he was going to come clean. If she said something. Yes.

Suddenly, he was aware of a noise. Someone had just knocked on the front door of the room. Or less of a knocking and more of a rapping. Archie’s ear’s flicked, but he didn’t stir. Douxie held his breath. The rapping stopped, but now whoever it was trying to open the door. Thank Merlin he warded that thing up. It couldn’t open from the outside, he made sure of it. The door handle stopped moving. Doux still made no noise. Hopefully whoever or whatever that was had decided to move on to easier prey.

Y/n combed her fingers through her wet hair. It was the best she could do at the moment. She’d try and braid it back while it was still wet, so it wouldn’t get even worse. Y/n pulled on the same clothes she’d been wearing for a week. Well, actually she had been wearing a medieval dress for most of it, but still. She looked in the mirror. Not bad for someone on the run. But they did need to make a shopping trip. As much as Y/n did not want to waste an entire other day to a store (thanks Kmart), and didn’t want to spend more of their small savings they were living off of, they did need some things. Backpacks to keep their few belongings close, one more set of clothes each so they could have something to be wearing while they wash the other set, maybe some pajama pants would be nice, although nonessential, a couple of toothbrushes that weren’t the motel provided ones, plus a tube of toothpaste, soap, a hairbrush, phone chargers, some emergency food that wouldn’t spoil, some reusable water bottles, a fucking first aid kit even, lots of stuff. It’s not like they were able to pack for this trip. Hell, they should probably get Nari an outfit that would cover up her, eh, forest spirit-ness. Her running around in leaves isn’t exactly helping their conspicuousness. Despite Y/n not wanting to add to that list, she sure was getting cold in her short-sleeved top. She needed a jacket. She’d been borrowing Douxie’s a bit for the last few days, but if she just stole it then he would be cold. She needed one of her own, she supposed.

Y/n walked out of the bathroom. Archie and Nari were still snoozing, but Doux looked like he was awake. He sat up as soon as he realized Y/n had come out. He looked, troubled. And he had every right to be, she thought. He had just suffered the loss of his mentor and died himself. He had been blankly staring at the ceiling when she’d first came into the room. He probably had so much on his mind. Thankfully he had Archie and herself. They’d be there for him, she’d make sure of it. It’d be best to give him some more time to think, though. She didn’t want to push too hard. He’d tell her if he was struggling, she was sure of it. He’d been so open lately. And they’d had plenty of talks in the past about not expressing frustrations in their lives. He hadn’t been too open with her when they first started living together and it had made being roommates stressful at first. It wasn’t a problem anymore though. They’d worked through it, and it had even brought them closer.

She told him it was his turn for the bathroom now. He looked like he wanted to say something, but then quietly nodded as he got out of bed and headed for the shower. Strangely, this inn stay has been the most normal things had been all week. It was almost like they were home. She was back in her routine of waking, getting ready, telling Douxie it was his turn to get ready. He was so sweet, he always let her have the bathroom first. So chivalrous, although, she had a sneaking suspicion it was more of his excuse to sleep in a little longer.

It was nice, living with Douxie. It was the first time she’d been on her own. Or, well, not on her own per se, since Douxie was there, but at least away from her aunt. Her aunt had practically raised her, but that didn’t mean she was too grateful for it. She felt guilty about that last part, but not too guilty. Her aunt was pretty cold. It was clear that Y/n was just a charity case to her, a beggar who wouldn’t be looked at twice if not for blood relation. She hadn’t even bothered telling Y/n about their family’s magic until Y/n had stumbled face first into it herself. And even then, she only taught Y/n a minimal number of spells, just enough to control it, so she could successfully hide it. Didn’t need some troublesome untrained wizard ruining the family name and scaring the party guests. Y/n didn’t even know that wizards were pretty much immortal at a certain point until she noticed it herself. The people she had grown up with were all out there getting their pretty adult faces, and she was stuck with a baby face. Her aunt only told her once she questioned it. She was well past being nineteen now, but was going to be stuck like this forever apparently. What a great way to live.

Of course, she was absolutely thrilled when she found out her new roommate was in the same boat as her in that department. It was serendipity. The whole thing with Douxie was perfect, really. She had heard through her friend who worked at Hextech that someone had put up a roommate ad flyer on the company’s bulletin board and she called right away. She hadn’t been having any luck apartment hunting. She couldn’t afford rent on her own with her bookstore job, and Arcadia Oaks wasn’t exactly a college town teeming with people looking for roommates. A wizard roommate would be perfect, and the price was right. So imagine her surprise when said new roommate also turned out to be her boss. Y/n hadn’t even known he was looking for a roommate, let alone that he was a fellow wizard. His old roommate, Jack, had gotten married and moved out last month, he told her. Y/n was surprised at how very easy it was getting into this agreement too, Doux already knew her so he didn’t even interview her. And she didn’t have to worry about new person awkwardness. It really was serendipity. Of course, it hadn’t been all rosy, as mentioned before, but they were really groovin’ together now.

Y/n stretched out on the bed. She could hear the water running through the wall. It had been so awesome living right above her job. She got to sleep in, and she’d get ready, eat some breakfast, and be able to instantly step into the bookstore. She’d never be late ever again. Or she never was late again. That was a depressing thought. But hey, bright side, now they could have all the fun of starting up a new bookstore. Perhaps she could convince Douxie to add on a tea shop this time too. One that had cute little round tables with pretty gingham table cloths and flower vases, filled with flowers that they grew themselves in the pots on their balcony. They’d make sure the new bookstore had a nice window that was meant for a display but they’d leave as a place for Archie to sleep in and make snarky comments as he watched the people go by. Douxie could paint the letters on the signs and window, he was great at that. It’d be a task, but truly, they had to remake their bookstore. Even if not in Arcadia. A new bookstore they could fill up with love, that’d be an idea Y/n could hold on to.

Stars, she loved their bookstore. She loved the smell. She loved the peaceful homey vibe. She loved the man who owned it. Whoops, forget about that last part. She even loved the quirky characters it drew in. One time, she encountered this really crazy lady, and she wasn’t even sure if this lady was real or if she dreamt her, since she was the only witness. But Mordrax’s miracles, was this lady something. It started normally enough, Y/n picking up the store’s landline.

“GDT Arcane Bookstore! Please state your grievances.” She knew in the back of her mind that she was the only person who found her dumb jokes funny, but she still made them to brighten up her own day. Also to piss off Hisirdoux with her unprofessionalism. He made the same passive-aggressive ‘I’m disappointed in you’ face every time. It was fun.

“Yes, Hello. I would like to know if you carry any children’s books.”

“Yes ma’am, we sure do. A whole section.”

“Great. And are you child friendly?”

“Are we-, child friendly? I-, Yes I suppose we are ma’am.”

“Perfect. And you’re open until eight?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Thank you, young lady.”

The whole phone call was odd. Y/n wasn’t too jazzed about being called ‘young lady’ either. She had mocked the lady as soon as the phone call ended, but she shrugged it off, and had forgotten that the whole thing had even happened as she went about her day. Then, at about seven, this lady rolls up. She was dressed to the nines but like, in an old rich person way. Long fur coat, black dress underneath with pearls around her neck. On one arm, she had a fancy purse covered in the logo of a fashion brand Y/n wasn’t going to admit she recognized. In the other, she carried a large porcelain doll, the size of a five-year-old, which was dressed in a frilly pink dress that remined her of the dresses her aunt used to make her wear. When Y/n greeted her, she recognized the voice as the strange caller from earlier. Y/n got the feeling that some sort of shit was about to go down, and couldn’t wait. If only Archie was here.

Fur coat lady sat her doll down on the old loveseat in the sitting area and asked Y/n to keep an eye on the doll while she went to go pick out some books. Emily could be so mischievous sometimes, she told Y/n. She assured fur coat lady that she’d watch Emily like a hawk. The doll’s painted eyes stared into Y/n’s soul. Fur coat lady came back far longer than Y/n was comfortable with. She asked Y/n if Emily had been a good-mannered girl. Y/n just nodded, not sure if she should be encouraging this, on second thought. Fur coat lady then preceded to read the doll nine children’s books in a row, pausing in between only to ask the doll if she had liked it. Y/n was too baffled to even tell this lady to scram, we aren’t a library, you know. It crept closer to eight, and Y/n was actually dreading what was going to happen when she’d have to kick this lady out, but thank the stars, fur coat lady starts telling her doll about how it was close to its bedtime so they couldn’t read any more stories, aww darn, and they had to go now. She thanked Y/n as she walked out of the door. Y/n flipped that closed sign behind her and quickly retreated upstairs for the night. She’d go make a cup of tea to relax her nerves after that encounter. Y/n had plenty of other wild stories of people who’ve stopped by their bookstore. It was great for conversation at parties.

Y/n loved parties. With Douxie came all his friends, and she didn’t mind that one bit. They were always over whenever Doux had time off. It was so nice; it kept their place lively. Y/n cooked and baked a lot, it was one of those skills her aunt insist she have, and having so many mouths to enjoy her food felt good. And whether it was band practice or game night, she was happy to play hostess. Douxie’s friends were fun to talk to. She suddenly had the freedom to invite her own friends over too. Having so many people around all the time had helped her loneliness big time when she first moved in. Her aunt’s house may have been big, but it was empty. Her aunt threw a fancy party a month, but none of the people there were people worth talking to. It was so cold. Their apartment was warm.

Honestly, as insane as it was to think about, Y/n couldn’t see herself ever leaving Douxie to live on her own anymore. At first, this arrangement was supposed to be a temporary thing until she could find a better job and go off on her own. But somehow along the way, ‘the apartment we share’ became Their Apartment, and the bookstore that she happened to operate with him became Their Bookstore. It was nuts, and also the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to Y/n. It was the home she’d never had. Douxie and Archie were her family. Way more so than her aunt ever was. It was beautiful, magical, marvelous. She no longer worked, she just lived. Hell, she couldn’t even remember the last time Doux had formally assigned her a shift. She was just kind of always there. Which she was glad to do. She loved it. And when it was time to stop working, she’d just head upstairs and get to spend even more time with her favourite person. That is, if he wasn’t on one of his bistro shifts. She felt so safe and cared for. She no longer felt alone.

If Douxie wanted to make that, how you say, a little more official, Y/n wouldn’t be opposed to that. She had a hunch that he had some sort of feelings for her, if his recent actions were anything to go by. Although, just like she didn’t want to push him about the angst feelings, she didn’t want to push him in these feelings either. He’d tell her when he was good and ready. Slow and steady wins the race after all. Besides, if she was wrong and he didn’t have feelings for her, she’d definitely be tossing this good thing they had going out the window directly into the dumpster. She had to admit though, waking up this morning cuddled into him was the loveliest way she’d ever woken up in her life. She could get used to that.

She wondered if Douxie would be a wedding person or an elopement person. Not that she expected him to marry her. But it would be nice. She rolled over and found her phone on the nightstand. There wasn’t any harm in looking at some wedding dresses, right? Just in case. Y/n listened to Nari yawn and shuffle over to the bed. She opened an arm for the forest child who snuggled in, curious at what Y/n was looking at. Y/n tilted the phone for her to see. Nari really liked the poufy dresses. She’d point excitedly to the one’s she thought were pretty while Y/n scrolled. While Y/n wasn’t a fan of big frilly stuff herself, she had to admit, those poufy dresses would make her feel like Cinderella, which was never something she’d have thought appealing, but somehow it was. There were some really gorgeous not poufy ones also, and even a cool black one. Some that Douxie might like too. Y/n leaned more towards those, but wasn’t gonna tell Nari that. The veggie lady sure was having as much fun as her right now, surprisingly. Hopefully she wouldn’t blab any of this to Hisirdoux though.

Speak of the devil, he came out of the bathroom and sat on the end of the bed. Y/n quickly closed the app she was scrolling through. She sat up, taking Nari with her. Archie yawned and stretched, after sensing movement in the room. He moved from the chair into Douxie’s lap. After giving Arch a good scratch behind the ears, Douxie turned to Y/n.

“So, what’s today’s itinerary?”

“I-, wait, why do I have to be the one who decides what we do?”

“Because you’re the one who likes to have a plan when it comes to these things.”

“Fair enough.” Y/n pulled up google maps. If she had known she would have to do this she would have done it while he got dressed instead of fantasizing about their wedding. “Okay, so as much as I hate to say this, but we gotta go back to the store today.”

Douxie groaned as he laid back. His still wet hair was gonna dry funky like this, but he didn’t care. “Fine. We’ll do that in Illinois. We gotta get out of this town before anything else.”

“I agree,” she paused, seeing something that caught her eye. It would be frivolous, but she couldn’t help herself from asking “Ooh! Can we stop in St. Louis?”

“St. Louis?”

“Yeah! It’ll be fun, Douxie. We can go sit in those cafés that people go to in the black and white movies, we can go take a cheesy tourist picture of us by the arch thing, and I’m really craving some St. Louis butter cake now.”

Doux laughed. “Okay, but only for a few hours, Love.” The least he could do was let her have a little down time to relax and have fun after this hell week. Highly populated cities were good for throwing off their scent too.

“Thank you,” she went back to her map, snickering, “And we’ll stop in Effingham to shop.” She snorted.

“Effingham?” Douxie said it correctly, in his proper accent, which was not as amusing.

“Effing. Ham. Baby.” He rolled his eyes.

They booked it out of that motel and out of that town. Douxie all but tossed the room key into the creepy innkeeper’s hands as they rushed out. Back on the boat, safe at last. He ran a mental headcount once they boarded. Y/n always held Nari’s hand when they went places, so they wouldn’t have to worry about her wandering off, but it still made Douxie feel better to go over his tiny mental list and make sure they were both still safe and with him. Archie, he didn’t have to worry about as much. Even if the cat-dragon wandered he’d always come back. He could track Douxie by scent for a hundred miles too. Y/n had a habit of getting lost, though. He had to keep an eye on her. He didn’t need her and Nari off in fairyland where the Order could find and abduct them at any given time.

Douxie’s hair had still been damp when they set off, but the wind took care of that for him. Sure, wind-tousled bangs were in, but not bangs tousled by real wind. He was sure he was rocking it though. He could pass it off as something he did on purpose. People already thought his relatively tame style was outlandish, they’d just think the messy hair was part of the look. His only qualm was Y/n. He didn’t want to embarrass himself to her any further. His Camelot self already inflicted so much damage in that department this week. That moppet with a man bun had messed up spells, quoted sappy poetry to her, bragged about being Merlin’s apprentice, and even tried serenading her with his lute in attempts to impress her. It was mortifying. He had spent the first part of their Camelot adventure distracted by having to keep Y/n away from his younger self. It was not good for the whole ‘save time’ mission. Thankfully, he had Claire there with him, who had agreed to help him once she had buggered the information out of him. Thank Merlin for nosy teen girls. Claire was a godsend.

He had to admit, he was a smidge disappointed that she didn’t bring up the cuddling. Y/n hadn’t even made a joking reference to it in passing. He would have to bring it up then. But when, how? It wasn’t exactly something that would come up in natural conversation.

He watched her, hanging over the ship’s railing again. They passed a field with some cows and she made sure to point at them and say cows. He smiled at that; Y/n always managed to make him smile. He could recall how bad he had felt when Jack left and he thought he was going to have to fire her, his only employee, to keep up with rent. He had asked Zoe if he could put up a flyer in Hextech in a desperate attempt to find someone before that had to happen. And low and behold, among the three answers he got to the ad was miss L/n herself. It was an easy decision really, and it took away the uncertainty since he knew she was someone that he already liked. As a bonus, Y/n didn’t have a familiar of her own that might fight with Archie, because let’s be real, as much as Douxie loved Archie, the dragon-cat wasn’t afraid of stepping on toes. Although, it did feel kind of strange to give Y/n her paycheck and then for her to hand a little more than half of it back to him on rent day. But it just worked.

He remembered the first time he walked by the fridge to see that not only had Y/n added some fridge magnets to the kitchen, but she had taken the time to write a message to him. It, um, was sort of a rude note, meant to tease, an inside joke. Which he thought was funny, he just wished Zoe hadn’t seen it. It was hard to explain, and Zoe never let him hear the end of it. Archie got a kick out of it too. Y/n would switch the message almost daily, and it never failed to make him smile. He still had to deal with his friends seeing them and teasing him about it, but he’d never change her magnet jokes for anything. They would stay there until she replaced them with equally embarrassing messages meant just for him. It felt sweet to know someone was thinking about him enough to come up words meant to make him laugh on a daily basis.

They had just passed by a town called Eureka, which meant they were coming up on St. Louis. Good. Douxie couldn’t wait for lunch. He had the appetite of a winning fat bear these past few days. Probably the stress. That butter cake Y/n had mentioned was sounding so tasty. He could almost smell it. What Douxie hadn’t considered when he agreed to this was that the magic flying ship couldn’t go through metropolitan areas. Well, it could, but it’d be seen. So despite his growling stomach, he wound up taking the ship around the entire concrete jungle of Missouri, staying in the forested areas. He figured he could park the boat over in Illinois, just outside of St. Louis. This added a whole other hour to the trip than he was expecting, but now at least he knew to take large cities into consideration when choosing routes.

After hiding the boat in a heavily wooded area, the four took the bus into downtown. So when Y/n said she wanted to go to an old café from a movie, she had meant a very specific old café from a specific movie. She had told him it wasn’t a big deal and there were plenty of other cafes, but Douxie was gonna get her there by golly. And he did. The happiness written on her face was worth the extra bus miles. And wow, this café had some delicious food. They had salmon, which Archie enjoyed a little more than usual. Said something about paying himself back. As if he paid for anything, being a cat. That St. Louis butter cake did not disappoint. Archie was pretty fond of the cake too. It was too sweet for Nari, though. Y/n savored every bite. Doux watched her, while he ate his own, and it was so cute how smiley this was making her. He’d learn the recipe for this cake so he could make it for her once they got… home.

Douxie was still trying to shake off that depressing thought when Y/n finished up and was already trying to get the move on. Not without getting a picture first, of course. Not satisfied with just the scenery of the café itself, she begged Douxie to pose for her in various spots around it. He obliged, despite his scruffy appearance. She didn’t think he was that scruffy, and what was better than pictures of her favourite person in a cool place she’d always wanted to go. She also snapped one of Archie to post to her cat insta she secretly kept of him. Douxie knew about it, and contributed pictures to it himself, but neither of them were about to tell Archie he was internet famous as archie_the_emo_kitty. These pictures were going to hold good memories in them. All pictures do.

There was one more photo Y/n wanted to get. Silly cliché tourist picture with the gateway arch in the background. She wanted at least one of just her and Douxie, after the group photo. She’d have to somehow get one of Archie too, since she wasn’t about to pass up the chance to make a pun in the caption about Archie being in front of the arch. As she pulled Douxie close to get the picture, she got an idea. She asked him if they could get just one more. He was holding the phone since his arms were longer so he was able to get better angles with them both in it. He agreed, happy to do anything to keep that grin on her face longer. This time, when he leaned down to make their faces closer together, Y/n gave him a kiss on the cheek. The shutter snapped. Look, she wasn’t going to push, but she could nudge. Y/n pulled away and grabbed the phone to look at how it turned out, so cute, and Douxie just stayed there, leaning over, still as a statue, with wide eyes.

“Did you just- k-kiss me?” He didn’t so ecstatic. Maybe she was reading him wrong after all. Okay, time to deny.

“Yeah, it was just a cheek kiss, Doux. It was a cute pose for our picture, see,” She showed him the picture. A perfectly captured moment where they looked so happy. Where her lips would forever be on his still burning face. “Friends do it all the time.”

“Oh. Ah, okay.” That sounded disappointed, and his face wasn’t the picture of joy before, but now he just looked crestfallen. Okay so she wasn’t reading him wrong before. Good to know. She’d,, have to fix this now. She casually grabbed his hand and laced their fingers. That got him looking back up from the ground.

“C’mon, we’ve got about ten minutes to catch the next bus.”

~ ~ ~

Effingham was a quaint place. Y/n had only chosen it for it’s funny name, but it was surprisingly pretty okay. It was home to the world’s largest cross. Which would be cool, for it’s target audience, Y/n supposed. And they had a train depot. Fun. And exactly one singular popular restaurant. Which wasn’t that much more than Arcadia had, Y/n had to give it to them. They were in this tiny little mall, to see about finding some spare clothes. Y/n stopped dead in her tracks to gawk at a store that’s sign identified itself as Rural King. She tugged Douxie’s hand.

“Oh we gotta go in there.”

Douxie took one look at it and shook his head, “Are you really going to drag us into a hunting store just because it has a silly name?”

“No, I guess not,” Y/n took one last look at the place, “Can I at least get a pic of you posing in front of it?”

“Fine.” Douxie suppressed a grin as he complied with her silly request.

Once they got into a real store though, Douxie leaned over to Y/n to tell her something without the clerk hearing. “Oh, I’ve been meaning to tell you, I’ve got an appearance modifier spell I’ve perfected over the years. We’re not actually here to buy anything, just get some inspiration.”

Y/n nodded, fascinated. Well, that’ll take care of the extra spending problems. Now came the fun part, finding a new look for Nari. Speaking of whom, she was over at a rack, trying on those fake fashion glasses without real lenses in them. She looked really cute in every pair she tried on, and they helped obscure her face. Good. She really took a liking to this square tortoiseshell pair. Y/n took a mental note. It was going to be getting cold soon, and plants tend to freeze in the cold, so they took the veggie lady over to go check out the winter coats. Nari picked out a puffer that looked pretty comfy, but she didn’t like that it was red. It reminded her of Bellroc. Douxie assured her that the one he’d make could be any color she liked. Not surprisingly, she wanted it to be green.

Y/n just decided on a simple outfit for herself, consisting of a black and white striped long-sleeved tee, a black short sleeve tee to layer over that, and a classic pair of jeans. It was easy, comfortable, and didn’t draw much attention. A band kid staple too. Nari wanted to be similar to Y/n and also decided on a striped tee and jeans to go under her coat. Now they just needed to find her something to contain that gorgeous head of grass. Y/n glanced over to see Douxie trying on a cap in the hat section. Perfect. They’d make her a hat. It’d be a big hat, but nothing too much.

Douxie actually did buy a couple of backpacks from the shop. Y/n was a bit confused but he told her how for some reason he couldn’t enchant something that was technically an illusion itself so he had to buy physical bags since he wanted to enchant them to be infinite vessels or something. Y/n nodded. This was interesting. She was pretty good at the magic she did know but it was mostly by instinct. No one had really taught her the technical side of it like this. She never really knew how stuff worked, just that it worked. They headed to the dollar store after finishing up with the clothing, which surprisingly, this little mall had in it for some reason. They quickly found all those necessity items they needed and got out of there fast. They were burning daylight after all.

Once back at the boat, greeted by Archie who was glad they came back within a decent time this go around, Douxie got to work. First, he enchanted those backpacks. Y/n watched his every move, fascinated, and taking mental notes. He stuffed the supplies into the bags, making sure each had emergency food and medicine just in case they’d ever get separated. The first aid kits were a great idea, considering he didn’t know much healing magic himself and Y/n could only do a temporary pain relief spell. Having stuff to bandage up wounds in their bags made Douxie feel slightly better.

Y/n filled Douxie in on the specifics of Nari chosen disguise, and he set to work on that. It came out pretty cute. Nari liked her new duds, taking her time to look over herself. Y/n handed the veggie lady her phone with the front facing camera on so Nari could use it as a mirror. She really liked that. Y/n snickered at Nari trying out different angles.

He moved onto Y/n. He didn’t magically fairy godmother her like he did the forest child, he just made her a spare set of clothes to go in that backpack. He made them according to her request, but paused at the tee shirt. “Do you want me to put a logo or something on this?”

Y/n twirled her hair around her finger. “Hmm. I’m thinking, Ash Dispersal Pattern. They’re my favourite band, ever heard of them?”

Douxie laughed as conjured up the tee. He picked one of his favourite designs from past merch. It could be considered vintage now, but it wasn’t that long ago to Doux. He fancied the idea of getting to see her in his merch a lot more now. She did have one of their tee shirts back in the bookstore, but she didn’t wear it often as it was in rotation with other band’s tees. He didn’t have competition anymore, it seems. He grinned as finished up.

“Anything else?”

“Yes, actually. Now that I know you can just magic up clothes for yourself, I would like your hoodie.”

“I can make you a hoodie like thi-“

“No, no, I want the one you’re wearing, thank you. It’s warm and familiar and it smells like you.” She said half-joking, half-serious. “It would make me feel safer.”

Douxie couldn’t believe what he was hearing. In fact some part of him thought he may have just daydreamed that. He wordlessly forked over the hoodie. She took it merrily and put it on, giving it a sniff for good measure. Now he really was daydreaming.

“Thank you, Dewdrop!” Oh, he had a pet name now. He’d hadn’t heard that one yet. Frisky people had called him all sorts of strange and embarrassing things over the centuries. But this one was a first. He guessed it was a play on his name. Dewdrop, ay? That was so soft and sweet. A shiny little dewdrop, the first thing you see in the morning. Ah. It seems that miss L/n was plotting to kill him. She was succeeding.

[middleearthpixie]

Someone to Watch Over Me ~ Chapter Thirteen

Summary: The Company seeks aid from Beorn and Seren finds herself jealous of Bilbo, even as she insists to Thorin they must keep their distance from one another. Oh, and spiders. Big. Evil. Spiders.

Pairing: Thorin Oakenshield/Seren (female OC, formerly of Dale)

Characters: The Company, Gandalf, the Spiders of Mirkwood

Rating: T

Warnings: Some battle violence, creepy spiders, and cocoons

Word Count: 2,266

Additional Information: If you’d like to be added to the tag list, please let me know!

@tschrist1 - I hope you are having a nice weekend...

Everything in the barn was far bigger than all of them save for Gandalf, but he assured them they were safe there and that the bear who had chased them all into said barn would help them. A skin-changer, Gandalf described him. A fellow named Beorn. They were to sleep in the barn for the night and come morning, Gandalf would carefully (and he emphasized the word carefully) introduce them. And it had to be done carefully (again, he emphasized carefully) for apparently Beorn was none too fond of dwarves.

Wonderful.

But that didn’t stop others from falling asleep. She was the only awake body, as sleep mocked her. It didn’t help that she could hear the faint cries of wargs, which seemed to be growing closer at a fairly steady pace.

Even Thorin slept, which didn’t surprise her. His had been the roughest of days and as she gazed across the barn at where he lay nestled in a pile of hay, all she could think about was how he sought out Bilbo. If she’d been the one to slay the orc, he’d have looked for her, but no. She was useless dangling from a burning, listing tree instead.

She was being silly and childish and she knew it, but she wanted only to stretch out beside Thorin, to let him rest his head in her lap, and stroke his hair. Which was equally silly and childish.

Coming after him had been a terrible idea. She hadn’t stopped to think what would happen once she found him and really hadn’t thought about what being part of this company would mean for her, either.

She gave up trying to sleep and stood up, carefully picking her way around the sleeping dwarves, toward the rear of the barn. There, she climbed up onto the edge of a stall and peered out the small window that overlooked a beautiful lake and from her vantage point, the moon’s light cut a silver swath across the middle and the rippling water reminded her of sparkling diamonds against a bed of silver and black velvet.

“Having trouble sleeping?”

She nearly leapt from her skin at Thorin’s unexpected whisper and she spun about to glare at him. “Must you sneak up on me?”

“I apologize,” he said with a hint of a smile. “I didn’t mean to startle you. What can you see?”

She turned back toward the window. “There’s a lake out behind this barn. And the moon shines across it.”

“It sounds peaceful.”

“It looks peaceful.” With a sigh, she eased down from the side of the stall and leaned against it instead. “I’m surprised you’re awake. You look… exhausted.”

A rueful smile came to his lips as he reached up to touch the ugly-looking cut across his nose. “I’ve had better days.”

Her throat tightened and her belly did a strange flip as she gazed up at him. In addition to the cut, his right cheek bore a large bruise, and the left side of his forehead sported a smaller one. There were also nearly half a dozen smaller scrapes along his left cheek and jawline. Without thinking, she reached up and brushed his hair away from his face. “I thought he was going to kill you.”

“As did I. Thank the maker for Master Baggins.”

“Exactly.”

“And what about you?” He caught her by the hands to turn hers palm up. They were red and scraped from the pine tree’s branch and trunk. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. I was a little surprised when the eagle caught me, because I was certain I was going to splat against the mountainside, but I’m fine otherwise.”

“Good.”

He made no move to release her hands, and instead, his thumbs moved lightly over her palms to send a rush of tingles up both arms. Part of her wanted to pull away, but it was far weaker than the side that wished him to keep touching her.

A soft snore rose from Bilbo, who slept in the far corner, curled up with two goats. She looked up back up at Thorin. “I think your burglar has a crush on you, Mr. Oakenshield. When you hugged him, he lit up like the sun.”

Thorin peered over his shoulder at the hobbit. “I think perhaps you’ve read a bit much into his reaction, Seren.”

“Perhaps, but I don’t think so. You should be careful where he is concerned.”

“Careful?” He turned back to her. “My interests lie not with other men.”

“Well, I know that, but he doesn’t. So you need to take care. Don’t hurt him.”

“How could I hurt him?”

“You could let him think there is more to your feelings toward him than camaraderie.”

He let out a soft sigh, and when his gaze met hers, she actually felt it. “I could tell him another has claimed my heart.”

“Thorin…” She shook her head slowly. “Please, don’t…”

“Don’t what?” He stepped closer, out of the moonlight and into the darkness. His eyes glittered pale blue as he backed her up against the stall’s wall. “Perhaps I made a mistake, Seren.”

“You have to finish what you’ve set out to do,” she told him softly, flattening one hand in the middle of his chest to halt him.

For all the good it did, as he closed the space between them, his lips hovering by a fraction of an inch above hers. “I will. But—“

“No. No but.”

He bent toward her, his lips brushed hers softly. Her eyes closed as he swept those lips along her jaw, as he nuzzled her gently, sliding an arm about her waist. Her hand came to rest on his upper arm, his biceps like granite beneath his dark blue tunic. Her eyes closed, her head lolling back until it came to rest against the wall with the softest of thuds.

Heat coursed through her, delicious and teasing, and she wanted only to melt against him, to pull him down into the sweet-smelling hay and let whatever happened, happen.

But they were not alone and nothing had changed.

Her eyes opened as she pushed him away. “We cannot do this. We agreed, last evening was a beautiful thing, but now, reality intrudes and—”

“And I don’t think I can stay away from you,” he confessed, catching her face in his hands, his thumbs skimming along her cheekbones. “And I don’t think I wish to, either.”

“Thorin, you must.”

“Seren.”

“No.” She pulled free again. “We need to go back to how we were, or else I need to leave, because I will not be the reason why your quest fails.”

“Seren.”

“I mean it, Thorin. You need to leave me be.” She stepped to the side to move around him. “Perhaps I should just leave. Everyone would be fine without me.”

“There is an orc pack in those woods, Seren. You wouldn’t survive to their edge.” He came up behind her, easing his arms about her waist. “You will stay with us and when this is over, we see what we have here.”

As he spoke, he lifted one hand to catch her braid and moved it to let it fall over her left shoulder. Her eyes closed at the first sweep of his lips against the side of her neck. For a moment, she savored the sensations he sent running rampant through her, and wondered if he had any idea of the havoc he wrought upon a woman’s senses. No one would ever believe it possible for him to be this gentle, this tender, as he was right then, and she wished with everything she had she could change for him, that she could give herself to him and hope for a future.

But she couldn’t and that wasn’t going to change.

One of the other dwarves stirred and murmured, “Thorin? Is something wrong?”

Thorin straightened, his arms falling away from her as he stepped around her and said, “Everything is fine, Ori. Go back to sleep. Morning will be here before you know it.”

He glanced back at her. “You should get some sleep as well, Seren. You look exhausted.”

“I will.” She tried to smile, but couldn’t. Her heart hurt far too much for her to pretend otherwise and no one had ever warned her just how much it could hurt, to want something so badly that she knew she could never have. “Good night, Thorin.”

He walked away without looking back. “Good night, Seren.”

***

Gandalf woke them at dawn and warned them that he would introduce them one or two at a time to Beorn, then took Bilbo with him as he went out to prepare Beorn for the houseguests he didn’t know he had.

Seren held her breath as she, Fili, and Kili emerged from the barn at the same time, after Beorn had already been gobsmacked by the wizard’s hiding twelve dwarves, a hobbit, and a boy in his barn.

As for Seren, she hoped Gandalf knew what he was doing, for Beorn was at least ten feet tall and hugely muscled. He also was, as he said, none too fond of dwarves. He glared at the Company as he growled, “Is this all?”

Thorin stepped out of the barn then, arms folded, and leaned against a post to stare down their host. Gandalf quickly explained their story, and over breakfast, Beorn agreed to help them out. He offered ponies and supplies and warned them of the dangers to be found in Mirkwood, their next destination. After that, came Lake-town and finally, Erebor. They were almost there.

Some time later, the Company, astride beautiful ponies with flowing white manes, were on their way to Mirkwood and as they reached it, and climbed down from their saddles, Gandalf said, “Set the ponies free and back to their master.”

Nori moved to set Gandalf’s horse free as well, only to have Gandalf stop him. “No, not that one. I’ll need him.”

Thorin looked up at him. “You’re leaving?”

“You will be fine and I wouldn’t if I didn’t have to.” Gandalf swung up into his saddle. “You need only remember to be on your guard and stay on the path. Do not under any circumstances, venture from it.”

And with that, he was off, leaving Thorin staring at him in disgust as he said, “Well, come on then.”

Bilbo shook his head. “These woods feel sick.”

“Just stick to the path and we will be fine.” Thorin looked over at her. “Let’s go, Seren.”

“I’m coming.” She brushed by him, and hurried to catch up to Bofur. “Where are we even going?”

He glanced down. “To Laketown, I suppose. It must be on the far side of these woods.”

She looked around. They were the most confusing woods she’d ever encountered. The trees looked half-dead, with vines wrapping all about their trunks, stretching like tentacles across the leaf-and-debris strewn forest floor. Bilbo was right. These woods did feel sick. Sickness. Death. Dismay. Doom. They all lay heavy in the air, like cheap perfumes wore by women with loose morals, as Mama liked to say.

Even the air felt odd. It left her feeling dizzy, a bit disoriented. More than once, she stumbled over an exposed tree root or vine, or sometimes nothing at all—it was if the forest itself grabbed her foot—and caught Bofur. Then he tripped, grabbed her, and pulled her down to the floor atop him.

She lay there for a long minute, her thoughts a tangled up ball of knots as she tried to remember where they were. Tried to remember why they were there. But it all clouded in her brain and she stared down at Bombur as if she had never seen him before. “Why are you holding me?”

“You’re holding me.”

A hand snagged in the back of her tunic and roughly tugged her off him and Thorin said, “Enough. I thought you wished your secret kept.”

“My what?” She stared up at him. His eyes seemed far bluer than usual. Her gaze fell to the pulse beating in his neck, to the scruff that was the beginning of his beard, and then she reached for him. Grabbed his shirtsleeve as the others stumbled along ahead of them. She rose onto her toes and as gently as she knew how, bit the side of his neck.

He jumped back. “What the deuce?”

“You didn’t mind that the other night.”

“There weren’t thirteen other people within eyesight of us, either.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “What are you about?”

“I—I don’t know.” Dizziness washed over her. She felt drunk, reckless, not herself. She wanted to grab him and pull him down, but at the same time, was afraid she’d be sick if she did. Her head spun. Her eyes wanted only to close. She stumbled again.

Thorin caught her. “Take care, Seren.”

“I—I don’t feel well,” she muttered.

He stopped then, and growled, “Everyone, stop.”

The Company did, all staring up at him as Balin said, “What is it?”

He let go of Seren, who stumbled into Dwalin, who said, “Where even are we?”

“Quiet,” Thorin whispered. “We’re being watched.”

Seren righted herself. “What?”

As if having been given a signal, spiders dropped from all around them. Seren screamed involuntarily as something grabbed her from behind and a moment later, she could barely breathe or see and she fought down her rising panic as she realized she was being wrapped in a thick, sticky cocoon.

[gobsnacc]

The wizards tower

(Looks something sort of like this, but not exactly. This is just a reference photo from my sims game)

HISTORY:

The wizards tower is actually an old prison tower that used to house all of river rock ridges most notorious criminals. It was a solitary grey stone tower made to look like a castle turret, (but with a spire hood. ) placed on an island in the middle of a lake infested with crocdillians and piranha, in the middle of a dark forest said to be cursed by a witch.

The tower fell into ruin and disuse after the last warden was killed in a riot, the remaining prisoners trying to flee in the lake were killed by the deadly creatures within, and their spirits haunted the tower, island, lake and surrounding forest. But that was over fifty years before svetza was even born.

DISCOVERY:

Everyone in river rock ridge avoided the area, save for the stupid or the brave. (Is there really a difference?) that is until Svetza graduated magic school and came home with an odd cast of friends. The goblin now wizard took her merry band of misfits into the forest, across the lake, and right into the tower.And this is what they found.

The forest had been cursed by a scorned lover who also happened to be a witch, his wife left him for the last warden of the tower. The curse was set to destroy the wardens life and work, it made the forest deadly with poison mist whick floated to the island across the lake, drove the prisoners mad and started the riot. The lake was already dying due to the over salinity of its waters and overpopulation of creatures. The tower, its grounds, the lake and forest were all indeed haunted by the spirits of the numerous dead men.

Healing

So Svetza and levi, set out to heal it.

Levi the vampire was well versed in the was of exorsims due to his many years of life and love of the occult. Cleansed the area of any spirits that remained tied to or were drawn to the towers forest.

Svetza being a wizard fresh from school, knew plenty of counter curses to help lift the curse on the area.

Svetza and levi having deep connections with the earth were able to use those connections to clense, heal, balance and bring nutriants back into the forest, its soil, the lake and its plants and waters, and the island with its rock, soil and plants.

Svetza being somewhat unhinged and Levi damn near unkillable, the pair then dove into the lake to catch all the terrible creatures with in that they then relocated to more appropriate areas needing those types of creatures. Finally employed a spell to clean all the salt from the water leaving it now a fresh water system. (Levi purified the salt and uses it in potions, svetza and uses it in her cooking)

Construction and landscaping

Levi having lived so long and owned so many properties, and svetza being a learn and fix it yourself kinda gal, they rebuilt the crumbling infrastructure of the stone tower, dug out/designed and built a large basement for the tower, in the islands heart.

Svetza modernized it with central heating/cooling. Electricity. Heated and cooled water. Temperature controlled the basement. Vaulted all the floos except the ground level floor.

Svetza then placing magical enhancements, wards and other magical defences.

Levi and svetza grew two gardents, the left a potions ingredients garden , the right one an edible garden for cooking.

The tower now and its setup

All manner of magical, non magical, human and nonhuman clientelle and gawkers can be found in and around the towers walls and premisis.

Basement level

Running Along the back wall is the potions storage. All ingredients for potions are catagorized and stored here.

To the left of the hallway

immediately under/behind the potions storeroom is Levis potions lab, Its where the vampiric apothecary makes his shops inventory.

Directly below his lab are two food storage rooms, the left most one a cold storage, refrigeration and freezer units can be found within. To the right of that is the dry storage room. Dry, canned, and jarred goods as well as extra kitchen equipment can be found in there.

To the right of the hallway

Immediately under/behind the potions storeroom is Svetzas potions lab, its where she makes specialty potions for whatever is needed wherever. Usually for journeys or jobs.

Drectly below that, connected by a shelved door is svetzas wizards lab. In here is where she does summonings, Or seances, spells items, counter hexes items, hexes items, makes wands m, staffs, and brooms or tweakes her own magical items and so on.

In the very front of the basement, also running along the wall is the Library, all manner of important or rare magical documents, books, maps and information can be found within. To the left of that is a reading nook where books can be read or copied into other books. But they can never leave the library. The librarian (yet un-created) frequently does restorations down there of old or damaged texts.

Random important basement facts.

Both potions labs are connected to the store room by conceked shelved doors.

The wizard lab can also be accessed by a halway door.

The labs are highly spelled, charmed, and warded to keep them exceptionally safe for the potions masters within, and all the rest of the rooms outside of them. They are BLAST, DEMON, FIRE, EARTHQUAKE and FLOOD, PROOF. They are arguably the most secure rooms in the tower, and for good reason.

Each potions lab has a plaque over the door that glows with the words “IN USE” when someones brewing potions or doing spellwork, that way they arent disturbed.

There is a doorway under the basement stairs that opens to a wall. (Ill tell you what it does later.)

The library is protected not only by the librarian, but by spelled suits of armor. They act as defenders of the library should anyone manage to break in or try to steal anything.

Not pictured: bathroom in the bottom left hand corner.

Ground floor

The ground floor is cozy cafe. Food and drink can be eaten while waiting to be directed to whomevers help you needed.

Svetza and levi rotate for the cooking or baking.

Everyone rotates on welcome duty.

An alarm chimes in the home and on everyones shell phones when someone enters the ground floor cafe should no one be around. That way SOMEONE can handle helping them.

The bookshelves inside are filled with fun reading material, like how to join a coven or what to do on a full moon to respect your werewolf neighbor. Silly things, magazines of various kinds, advertisements for shops in town, childrens books, board games and so on.

There is a back door that does not lead outside. (Ill tell you why later)

Not pictured: bathroom in the bottom left hand corner

Second floor - Apothecary shop

The shelves are filled with pre brewed and some mass produced potions.

The shelves in the upper left hand corner are special order potions and magical items.

The book on the podium is actually an in shop catalog folks can look at to help them find what they are looking for.

You use little cauldrons to shop with and all goodies are sent home in little coffins. Any bottles and coffins brought back get you a discount on your next order.

In case of spills there is a wash station in the upper right hand corner of the shop.

There is a back door despite being on the second floor that does not lead outside (Ill tell you why later)

Not pictured: bathroom in the bottom lefthand corner

Third floor - wizards office and antiquities shop and rentals

All the shelves in her office are filled with magical items. Some are cursed, some arent. Almost all of them are either for rent or sale depending on a case by case basis.

Svetzas desk where she does buisness with clients.

Her desk has little candy dispensers for clients. They do magical things like smoke or change colour to help keep things light hearted.

The shelves nearest her desk on either side are actually file cabnits with client information and requests.

In the upper right hand corner of her office is a set of cabnits with special order items (either quested or created) for clients, and the extremely dangerous items that are not to be rented or sold ever.

Behing her desk is a door, despite being on the third floor, and opens to the wall. (Tell you why soon)

Not pictured: bathroom in lower left hand corner.

Fouth floor - meditation and healing room

Bean bag chairs and beds can be found in this sterile environment. This floor is for folks suffering from but not limited too: magical maladies, natural sickness, mental illness, broken bones. Drug or drinking problems.

The room is actually seperate rooms in one made for the purpose of healing folks suffering from an array of problems.

Run by svetza and levi as they both have medicinal experience. Watched over by jasper and void (svetzas cats) who give off calming energies.

Not pictured: his and hers full baths.

Back door, despite being on the fourth floor that opens to the wall. (Just about to tell you why!)

Large windows that can be opened for fresh breeze!

Can be used as a makeshift place to stay if needed.

Random Tower facts

All chandeliers in the tower are electric.

There are spelled mops/ dusters and rags on every floor that keep the whole place clean.

There are floating jars all over the tower that have within them, small suns. A spell of svetzas own design.

Small suns can be purchased!

Those doors i kept telling you about are actually portals! BUT they can only be used by a holder of a crystal key enscribed with svetzas magic symbol. They lead to their house. Each door has a crystal above it that glows green when free or red when in use.

Each floor has a bathroom.

All above ground floors have windows

The tower is a cylindrical shape with only one balcony on the fourth floor. Meaning all rooms are actually circular in shape.

The basement is also a large circular shape.

There is a door in each of their homes that link to all the portals in the tower (and the travelers caravan). That door has a dial with all the places its linked too labeled on it. that can be turned to control where you end up at, from the house. Not the other way around. The portals from the tower are one way.

Handi accessible ways to

Outside the tower - on the island

There are well lit and marked foot paths and entrances leading from all around the island that lead to the front entrance.

The lights are svetzas spelled sun jars.

The gardens are actually kept in crystal green houses to keep them safe from eachother, and from guests.

Spelled flower boats made by the combined efforts of Svetza and unnamed partner, leave to and from all around the island to the edges of the whole lake at twenty muinets intervals with ten muinet rest times for loading and unloading. This happens 24/7

Pretty trees and flowers that are non magical and mostly non edible, grow along the paths and in flower boxes outside of windows.

The greenhouses house dangerous non magical and magical plants. Which is why they are not accessible to the public.

Outside the tower - the lake

The lake is still dangerous, just not as much as it once was. Since being cleaned and fixed up, some of the original inhabitants have moved back in.

The water IS drinkable (but its not reccomend)

Fish, aquatic mammals, mollusk, crustation and fowl live in, on, and around the fresh water lake.

The mermaids have moved back in. They have promised not sing siren songs in the lake. They must go to the ocean if they wish to do so. But they do SING. Just not siren songs.

The lake is surprisingly deep

The only safe place on the lake is the shore, boat, or island.

The mermaids bring fresh fish and clams to the island on a weekly basis. Large pots of stew are made as thankyous.

The crew are the only ones allowed in the water unmolested.

There are warning signs around the lake that tell of the creatures that live in it and the rules.

Mermaid watching is a popular activity along the shore, its not uncommon to find folks gathered around to talk or play or sing with the mer folk.

The mermaid act as security for the island as a thankyou and to keep their home safe!

Outside the tower - the forest

After reviving the forest its original inhabitants moved back in. So its not uncommon to find :

centaur and other taur creatures roaming about.

saytrs

Unicorns

There are even a few small dragons roaming around

The fae folk

Forest elves

Griphons (some smaller species of them)

And more not listed.

Svetza and company have made sure there are well marked, lit, warded and easily recognized foot paths and roads through the forest to get to the tower and around it.

The forest isnt as dangerous as it once was, but it still dangerous. Leaving the marked and protected foot paths and roads will possibly get you killed.

The forests inhabitants have all agreed to leave travelers along those paths alone as a thankyou to the crew for bringing back their homes. But anyone who strays off the path is free game depending on who finds them first.

Svetza and crew are the ONLY ones currently allowed to move through the forest freely and unmolested.

There are warning signs at all entrances and exists that tell you not to enter the forest for fear of death and what can be found in the forest.

Despite the warning signs, people do stick close to the edges of the safe zones to try and get glimpses of the creatures that live within.

Some of the more friendly creatures actively visit the safezones for interactions.

[jwillowwolf]

Magic and Miracles - Chapter 8

Sanders Sides Big Bang fic, Chapter 8!

< Previous Chapter | Next Chapter > | Masterlist

Summary: “Not a morning person?”

“Does staying up until five am count?”

“Wh- no! That’s actually a bit concerning. Please don’t tell me you were up until five then only slept two hours before we started walking.”

“I won’t tell you that then.”

Warning/s: food mention.

Characters: Logan, Virgil, OCs, Roman, Remy, Remus, Patton, Janus, Emile.

Tag List: @theimprobabledreamersworld @remy-please-come-back

Read on AO3

8 | Fondness

Logan stared at the ceiling above him. It seemed like just yesterday he had been doing this out of boredom, waiting for when everyone was supposed to tour the manor. He’d been so anxious about what studying here would mean and how he would socialise with his classmates. Now though, they were all his friends, and he found himself mildly amused that he’d ever been nervous about getting to know them.

This room that had seemed so strange before had become home. Everything from the view outside his window to the softness of the bed was as familiar as his room at the bakery. Soon though, this would no longer be his home.

With the upcoming license test, he would officially become a wizard, and therefore no longer need to remain a student. He’d miss being here and having his friends so close. Come to think of it, he would miss his friends greatly too. After the test, they would be returning to their far off homes. Virgil didn’t live very far off, but Logan felt that it wouldn’t be proper for someone like him to be visiting the prince.

In a couple of days, all of Logan’s dreams about being a wizard would come true, yet he would lose the dreams he never knew he had…

“Rise and shine, witches! You’ve got a big day ahead!”

Logan shook his head, as if that would clear it of any unwanted thoughts, and got out of bed. Today he couldn’t be distracted by silly emotions. Remy was sending them on a huge quest to refine their skills before the big test.

At breakfast, everyone seemed excited for the quest. It was going to be an overnight kind of thing and they were doing it on their own. They had all been taught to teleport and a special spell that would summon Remy if the need arose, but they were still going to be doing this entirely independent of any other adults.

“Hey, you okay L?” Virgil asked as they were walking down the hall.

“Hmm?”

“You look like you’re trying to solve the meaning of life.”

“...What?”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “You look broody, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing is… wrong, per se.”

“Per se?”

“I’m probably just feeling tired from staying up last night studying the notes Remy gave us.”

“Well, hopefully, breakfast lifts your energy, because we have a long walk ahead of us.”

Logan didn't have time to even respond to that as he was tackled to the ground by a hug. "Everleigh? What are you doing here?"

"I came to wish my friends good luck of course! Your dad is here too."

Sure enough, Emile was there in the dining room waiting on everyone else with a special spread of pastries for breakfast.

"Hey kids, I figured you'd want something good to start your big day."

"It's not even test-day yet Mr Picani, but thank you! Your pastries are incredible." Willow declared.

"Well, thanks kiddo. Today isn't your test but it's still a pretty big day. I will be sure to make pastries for test day too though."

"It's not that big a quest really," Remy said. "It's just a longer trip than I usually send them on for ingredient collecting."

"Considering it's a two-day journey to retrieve a rare fruit from a cave, I doubt calling today big would be an exaggeration." Virgil pointed out.

"Back when I was learning magic, we didn't even get teleportation spells for coming back. We'd have to walk there and back, and as quickly as we could too." Remy stated.

"Whatever you say, old man."

"Old? Did you just call me old?" Remy said in a greatly offended tone.

Virgil smirked. "Yup."

Remy turned to Emile. "See what disrespect I have to deal with? You know what, I'm not even going to miss you, sassy little ankle-biters."

The teens all snickered at Remy's dramatics and then dug into their breakfast.

“So, are you guys excited?” Emile asked.

“For the quest itself, not so much. But for the afterparty,” Roman said.

“Yeah, Remy promised us that we’d even get the next day off school, so we could stay up as late as we want!” Remus added.

“I have a feeling I’m going to regret that deal,” Remy whispered to Emile, who nodded with a giggle.

“Can I come to the party?” Everleigh asked.

“Of course,” Remy replied. “They seem to get into less trouble with you around. I’m half tempted to ask you to join them on this quest of theirs.”

“We’re not that accident prone, thank you very much. We’ve kept ourselves out of trouble all month,” Janus pointed out.

“Yeah, and I’m worried you’re due for a disaster,” Remy sighed.

Logan nodded. “Statistically speaking, it’s odd that we’ve gone this long without something happening.”

“That’s comforting…” Virgil muttered.

Janus shrugged. “We’re just getting better at self-preservation. We’ll be fine.”

---

“I retract my earlier statement,” Janus declared as they were walking. “We’re all going to die of exhaustion.”

“Don’t be so dramatic, Jan, that’s my job,” Roman stated.

“And we’ve barely been walking for half a day now,” Willow pointed out.

“Half a day, mainly uphill,” Janus reiterated.

“Perhaps if we all talk about something, our minds won’t be so concentrated on the tiredness,” Patton suggested.

Logan nodded. “Yes, doing something else should distract our brains from any pain or exhaustion. Either with a stimulating conversation or some kind of sing-along.”

“I know a good song!” Remus declared. “She’ll be coming around the mountain when she comes-!”

“No! You are not starting that nightmare up again,” Roman interrupted with a stern glare at his grinning twin.

“Oh, come on, Roro. You love this song!”

“I passionately despise that song.”

“All I heard was ‘passionately’, do you want to marry this song, Ro?” Remus asked. “Or do you just want to--”

“Shut up!” Roman shouted, his face turning as red as Remus’s eyes.

“What do you have against that song?” Willow inquired.

“It’s the way she sings it,” Roman explained. “It’s not appropriate.”

Remus rolled his eyes. “All I said was-”

“No! You have lost speaking privileges.” Roman declared.

“Well then, is there anything else we can talk about?” Janus asked,

“We could play a game,” Patton suggested.

“But not eye spy or word chain,” Virgil immediately added.

Roman huffed. “Alright then, how about you suggest a game, stormcloud?”

“A race.”

Janus stared at him dumbfounded. You’re kidding, right?

Virgil shook his head. “Nope. Let’s all race to… that archway, the winner gets first pick of the treats Mr Picani gave us for lunch.”

Everyone, despite their tiredness from walking, exchanged looks of determination.

“Let’s go!”

---

Once it was close to sunset, the seven finally halted their walking and made camp with the supplies they’d been given. They had two tents, a good amount of firewood, plenty of food to go around, and sleeping bags for each of them. Janus started the fire and began heating up a pot of stew for dinner.

Remus laid himself flat on the ground. “Gods, everything hurts.”

Patton sighed. “I told you not to jump through that bush.”

“I didn’t know it was hiding a steep incline.”

“I told you it was hiding a steep incline,” Roman huffed.

“Well, when have I ever listened to you?”

Roman just sighed in exasperation, too tired to continue arguing.

“The healing spell should only take a little longer to complete,” Virgil said. “So the pain will eventually fade.”

“Eventually?!”

“Remus, you basically jumped off a cliff, please stop complaining about the consequences of your actions,” Willow said.

Remus looked at her with a raised brow. “Someone’s in a bad mood.”

“They’re hangry,” Janus stated. “And so am I, when is this thing going to finish heating up?!”

“I still have some pastries from lunch to snack on,” Patton offered.

“Oh, Patty, you’re a saint!” Willow declared joyfully.

Logan watched his teammates with a faint smile. These interactions were starkly different from how they used to treat each other in the beginning. Well, Remus and Roman still bickered, but they were siblings. Janus and Roman no longer acted like they wanted to kill one another. Willow spoke with confidence to everyone instead of their meek tones. Virgil became more social and even laughed and smiled along with the group now. Patton was still his kind-hearted self, although now he was a lot more appreciated for it.

It was a far cry from the dysfunctional class of misfits that they had been. And in Logan’s opinion, it was a real improvement. He couldn’t believe that he’d once been so set on looking out only for himself when now he was so determined to help his team. His friends…

“-gan? Logan?”

“Hmm?”

Virgil gave him a small smile. “You spaced out, I was asking if you wanted your stew now.”

“Oh, um, yes, thank you.”

Virgil handed him one of the bowls in his hands and then sat beside him. “Mind if I ask what’s got you so deep in thought?”

“I was just thinking... about how much I’ll miss all of you,” Logan admitted. “Once we’ve all passed the test and can move on with our lives, the twins will sail off to their island, Janus and Willow will go back to Evergreen Valley, Patton will return to his parents and brother, and you’ll- well, you know…”

“Do you really think after all we’ve been through together, we’d abandon each other that easily?”

“It’s possible.”

“So is the end of the world, but tomorrow is just as possible as that.”

“I’m not sure I follow.”

“Well, look at it this way. If you throw a coin up in the air, there’s an equal chance of it landing on either heads or tails, right?”

“Yes.”

“So there is a chance that we’ll all grow apart, but there’s a bigger chance that we’ll stay friends despite the distance. We’ve got magic to take us back and forth anyway. Staying in touch will be easier than you think.”

“Well, what about your whole secret identity thing?”

“After the test, I’m going to finally show the kingdom who I am.”

Logan paused. “Wait, really?”

“Yeah, I feel like I’m finally ready to take on the responsibility of having a public image. That means I’ll need to surround myself with the right kinds of people, and you all are exactly the kinds of people I want by my side.”

“Even me? The non-noble?”

“Especially you, Logan. I mean, titles, they’re nothing more than titles. Just words that give a person a position. You, despite the position in life you were given, worked hard to become the first-ever non-noble mage. Title or no title, you are an incredible person Logan, and I’m grateful to have even met you.”

Logan searched Virgil’s face for any hint of insincerity but found none. Those stormy grey eyes held no dishonesty. Only… Fondness? Logan wasn’t good enough at understanding emotions to know exactly what Virgil was feeling, but he felt that it wasn’t anything malicious.

“Thank you, Virgil.”

“No problem. So, do you have any specific plans for what you want to do after the test?”

“Well, I wanted to open up a medical practice.”

“I thought you specialised in air magic? If you’re going into doctoring, why not take up healing magic?”

“I planned on specializing in helping people transition for an affordable price.”

“Oh? That sounds interesting.”

“It was the whole reason I got interested in studying magic. I remember that one day some people came into the bakery, talking about transitional magic. I knew then already that I wanted to do something about my body. The dysphoria was… difficult. So I looked into having someone do the spell for me, but even the cheapest of mages charged far too much for my dad or me to afford. So I took matters into my own hands and decided I would learn magic myself and help others like me to be comfortable in their own skin.”

“That’s a noble cause. It’s almost like what I wanted to do with having a magic school.”

“Oh?”

“I always felt like it was unfair that so many people missed out on the chance to use magic. Being half-fae, I was surrounded by it for my entire life. The council keeps track of who can use magic and is worthy of using it, but the only people able to use it are the rich nobles with all the access to tutors and stuff. It’s like having only certain men be knights, instead of allowing anyone who wants to fight to take up arms. There are so many people out there with the potential to be great, but because of how they were born, they will never have a chance to reach that potential.”

“You care a lot about people.”

“So do you.”

“I suppose that’s a good thing.”

The two sat silently as they ate, but the silence between them felt comfortable. However, Logan found himself once again questioning what he felt towards Virgil, whenever he glanced over at him. His heart seemed to both beat faster and sometimes skip beats altogether. Especially since they were sitting so close together at the moment. They were so close that their knees kept on brushing against each other.

"Uh, Logan?"

"Yes?"

Virgil tugged at his cape's hood. "Can I… ask you an important question?"

Logan tilted his head to the side curiously. "Sure."

"W-"

“Hey, do you two want seconds?” Remus yelled, interrupting the boy’s conversation. “Or can I have the rest?”

“Remus, if you eat all that you’ll get a stomach ache,” Patton warned.

Ignoring his boyfriend’s worry, Remus asked, “Who bets I can finish this in five minutes?”

“You’re an idiot,” Janus stated blankly.

“And a coward. Aim for three!” Roman encouraged.

Logan shook his head. “Well, hopefully, Remus’s antics are the worst things we’ll have to worry about.”

Virgil shrugged. “I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

---

The next morning, after an unpleasant wake-up call from Roman screaming, because Remus had drenched him in water, everyone got up and continued their trek to the cave where the special fruit Remy wanted, grew. Janus and Roman were taking the lead, bickering about something between themselves, with Willow, Remus and Patton walking close behind them, and Virgil and Logan tailing everyone. Willow and Remus would dash away from the group every now and again to grab flowers for Patton so that he could make them all flower crowns. Which was hard to do while walking but he seemed to be managing.

Logan noted that Virgil still seemed very tired. “Not a morning person?”

“Does staying up until five am count?”

“Wh- no! That’s actually a bit concerning. Please don’t tell me you were up until five then only slept two hours before we started walking.”

“I won’t tell you that then.”

“You need sleep, Virgil.”

“I’ll be fine. I have a bit of midnight elixir from Remy that should wake me up.”

Logan shook his head. “What on earth kept you up so late?”

Virgil shrugged. “Thoughts. My mind was feeling really busy last night. Thinking about… everything.”

“Are you worried about what’s going to happen when…” Logan trailed off.

“Kind of, but I’m sure it’ll be fine. After all, I’ve got both my parents to support me through it. Plus all of you… if the others are as accepting as you.”

“Your race won’t change how they see you, Virgil.”

“You can’t know for sure.”

“Perhaps it’s not a guarantee but the chance of them being loyal is infinitesimal.”

“So small.”

“What, no. That would be the chance of them rejecting you.”

“Then why would you say infinitesimal? It means extremely small.”

“Wait, what?”

“Y-yeah… Logan, did you not know what infinitesimal meant?”

“…”

“Oh my gods, you didn’t.”

“Don’t laugh at me! I don’t know everything and that’s perfectly normal.”

“Well, yeah, but you’re like a super genius.”

“You think I’m a genius.”

“Of course. You’ve proved it time and time again. You’re incredibly smart. In fact, the chances of you not knowing something are… infinitesimal.”

Logan glared. “How dare you use a compliment to tease me, you… sparkly-eyed jerk.”

“My eyes sparkle?”

“When you’re happy, yeah. They look kind of like stars.”

“Wow, I didn’t know you were such a romantic.”

Logan froze. “I didn’t mean to cross any boundaries-”

“You can say I have nice eyes, L. I only meant the poetic kind of romantic. I’m sure you weren’t trying to flirt. Unless you were?”

“I- uh, no. I mean you are quite attractive and I-” Logan stopped himself before he could accidentally confess anything more.

“So you do think I’m attractive at least.”

“...Yes.”

“Well, thanks. I feel the same way about you.”

Logan blushed. “O-oh… thank you...”

The rest of the walk was silent as Logan tried to calm his heart rate down. He was concerned with how fast it was going considering the casual pace they were travelling at. Subconsciously though, he knew that it was what Virgil had said that made him feel like this. He could pretend all he wanted, that there was something else wrong, but he knew that the cause of all this was his feelings towards a certain grey-eyed boy.

The fact that they had almost just flirted with each other was really not helping him. Especially since he wanted so badly to actually flirt with him. He wasn’t exactly sure of his full attraction to Virgil but he liked the idea of flirting with him. Exchanging compliments and maybe holding hands or even… kissing him? That idea made his heart skip a beat.

So basically he was having a gay panic all the way up to the cave. The one thing that distracted him from completely freezing was looking at his surroundings and categorizing all the plants he saw. Beside the cave entrance, he noted there were some berry bushes growing. Then, he saw a pebble fall from above the entrance and glanced up to see what had pushed it.

Time seemed to slow down when Logan saw the boulder perched there. It looked like it was about to fall and crush Virgil, Patton and him before they got into the cave. He grabbed Virgil’s wrist and pushed Patton ahead of them as quickly as possible to get inside of the cave before the boulder came tumbling down with a bunch of other large rocks that now sealed the entrance.

“Holy- are you guys okay?!” Willow asked.

“Pat!” Remus ran to Patton’s side immediately and helped him up.

“I’m okay, I’m okay. Logan saved us.”

Virgil stared wide-eyed at the rocks. "By Ysla’s bow, that was close. Are you alright, Logan?”

“I’m fine. Just glad I saw what was going to happen before we got squished.”

“How the hel did that even happen? There’s no way that was a coincidence,” Janus commented.

“Well, I don’t know what else it could have been. Maybe that was the big trouble that Remy was worried we’d get into,” Roman said.

“Good thing we have the porthole spell to get home then. I don’t think that there’s any way we could get back through here without it taking half an eternity,” Willow declared.

After that scare, the group continued on deeper into the cave. They knew the tree grew in a central chamber surrounded by glowing moss. There was some of this glowing moss on the walls, illuminating their path so they didn’t have to use a light spell or anything.

Soon enough, they reached the chamber. From there they just had to get the fruit from the tree, make a porthole, and go home for their after party. Except there was one problem.

A giant mole.

“I think we’re cursed.”

---

A/N: thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this. I'll be posting two chapters a day until the full fic is up, so if you want to be tagged, you can just ask.

I'd love to hear what you thought about the chapter if you wouldn't mind commenting. Thanks again for reading! Here's hoping you have a magical day 💜

[umbry-fic]

A Palette Full of You (2)

Summary: Glimpses into Colette and Lloyd's lives as they grow up together, learn who they are, and fall in love with each other.

(Written for Colloyd Week 2021)

Fandom: Tales of Symphonia Characters: Lloyd Irving, Colette Brunel Relationships: Colette Brunel & Lloyd Irving, Colette Brunel/Lloyd Irving Rating: G Chapter: 2 of 6 Word Count: 4212 Mirror Link: AO3 Original Post Date: 10/06/2021

Chapter Title: Save the Children!

Chapter Summary: Lloyd and Colette take a break from studying and decide to play a video game. Colette starts to ruminate a little on how she's different from the rest of her classmates...

(Colloyd Week Day 2: Sidequest)

Notes+Warnings: Chapter 2 of my multi-chapter Colloyd week fic! Colette and Lloyd play a bunch of Kameo: Elements of Power. Lloyd is bisexual. This chapter might have a bit of internalised acephobia so beware.

Chapter list Full fic Previous chapter Next chapter

~~~

12-years-old

"There! Over there!" Colette shouted, dropping the Xbox controller onto her lap and gesturing frantically towards a corner of the television screen. In her frantic excitement, she completely forgot that Lloyd was sitting right next to her on the sofa, her elbow banging straight into Lloyd's arm.

Lloyd, startled, pitched to the side and pushed the joystick on his Xbox controller in the same direction.

Major Ruin, who Lloyd had been controlling to charge up a Bolder Rush, executed the move at this exact moment as Lloyd let go of the right trigger.

And so Major Ruin careened right off the edge of the platform, as per the directions Lloyd had just inputted into the game. The tragic end to a glorious adventure. Kameo would never rescue her father from her sister’s evil clutches, for she had fallen to her death from a high height... by complete accident. Or maybe it would be better to class this as incompetence?

Oops.

"Oh, no," they both muttered at the same time, staring with their mouths open in horror. Colette reached out uselessly towards the TV, as if she could reach into the game and stop Major Ruin’s fall.

As if.

The armadillo look-alike Earth elemental (except a lot spikier) continued to fall while flailing their stubby limbs uselessly, eventually hitting the ground with the familiar and resonant "thud", accompanied with the dreaded snapping sound that had populated much of their playtime in the Snow-top Village. The thin and winding ice paths throughout that area had led to many a death from fall damage as they had tried to get their hands on the elemental fruits hidden away among various corners. Now that they were in the Ancient Tower, with its dark, foreboding, narrow stone corridors lit only by the sparest of torches sitting in sconces, where there was only one path forward and they were caged in by walls, Colette thought their falling episodes would be over. It was a bit claustrophobic, really.

It appeared that was not the case. Fall damage was eternal, and it would haunt them always, following them everywhere and showing its face at the most inopportune of moments.

Major Ruin morphed back into Kameo's petite, winged form, collapsing to the ground with a pained groan. Lloyd's side of the screen faded to black before he respawned at the last checkpoint, erasing a full 20 minutes of progress. The Kameo that Colette controlled was now completely alone in the chamber, performing her idle animations as Colette’s controller went untouched. Lloyd dropped his Xbox controller into his lap as well, leaning back against the sofa as he let out a groan of his own.

There was no sound apart from the whirring coming from the Xbox under the TV, the game music, and the "whup-whup" of the blades of the ancient standing fan in the corner of the living room, struggling in its job to blow "cool" air at them and combat the viciously hot weather.

Lloyd had every right to be frustrated with her; she had a tendency to kill him in-game. It wasn't murder, just manslaughter: knocking him off the cliff, setting both of them on fire, or startling him in general. It wasn't just in Kameo. Her clumsiness and butterfingers translated to every genre. No matter the game - Mario, Minecraft, Maplestory - she always found some way to cause a game over.

But he'd never directed any frustration or anger towards her. These are just silly games, he said every time. Much easier to laugh over the mirthful consequences together than get mad. Whenever they had the time to play video games together, the air was filled with nothing but laughter, a few frustrated grumbles from when they were struggling at a particular level, and the occasional rib from Lloyd’s end when she messed up. That's what made it incredibly fun. What the two of them had termed "game-time" never failed to put a smile on their faces.

And it was an effective destresser! It was a great relief to be able to channel all the stress from studying for PSLE into beating up trolls in Kameo. That appeared to be Lloyd's favourite part of the game - racking up combos with his favourite character Pummel Weed. Though she had to say her favourite part of the game so far was watching the cutscenes that played after rescuing the baby elementals from the prisons created by the nefarious shadow trolls. The wacky transformation from adorable blob to full-fledged elemental, complete with the blob sprouting arms and growing claws or shells, was… interesting to witness.

"Sorry," she sheepishly said, still feeling the need to apologise as she patted his hand. "Didn't mean to startle you. It's just that I found the last child!"

"Oh, really? Where?” Lloyd asked eagerly, attention turning back to the TV. “I couldn't see anything. It's all so dark."

"Over there." More calmly this time, Colette pointed out the child encased in a translucent ice crystal, tucked away in a corner of the platform hidden in shadow. She’d forgotten the name of this species, and could only describe them as cuttlefish that had taken human form. What were they were doing so far from the Mountain Falls? Weren't they native to that location? "We need to free them quickly! This is the last child."

“The last - you’ve been keeping count?!” Lloyd asked, voice rising in volume and shock written clearly across his face.

“Yeah! The mother said there were three, and we’ve rescued two. She must have been really worried, or she wouldn’t have begged us to save her children. I want to reunite them as soon as possible!”

"Alright. Ice, huh? It'd be similar to the other crystals we got rid of in the snow area. So just turn into Ash!" Lloyd suggested.

"Oh, you're right! Thanks for the reminder!" Colette opened the transformation wheel with a quick press of a button and proceeded to fumble with the joystick for a full minute while Lloyd slowly crawled his way back up the tower. She kept pushing too far to the right and overshooting Ash's dragon head on the wheel to land on Thermite, before overcorrecting to the left and landing on 40 Below. Frustration slowly piled up until she groaned, burying her head in her lap. This was embarrassing. She couldn't even navigate a simple menu like this, even after months of playing this game. Butterfingers, once again.

"Lloyd, can you open the main menu? I'll just pick Ash from there."

"Nah, we don't need to open Wotnot. Let's give Ortho a break for now," Lloyd replied. She knew that wasn't the real reason. Lloyd just didn’t want to hear from the eccentric wizard trapped within the paperback book that doubled as the main menu. "Here, let me help. But you need to get up first!" She straightened up, still sulking as he smiled at her, looking like he was holding back laughter at her predicament.

Lloyd stretched out his hand and placed his index finger over her thumb, gently guiding her thumb on the joystick so that the selection square landed right on Ash's head. Colette watched as Kameo hunched over and transformed into the red, clawed, scaly dragon that was the fire elemental Ash, tail slowly swaying from side-to-side as his wings flapped.

"You're so good at this..." she muttered, glancing down at her controller where Lloyd's hand was still placed over hers. They were only 12, but his hands were already slightly bigger than hers. He'd gotten his growth spurt in the earlier part of this year and shot up in height; now half a head taller than her. It was a slightly startling change after being the same height for the six years they'd known each other. He would likely only grow taller as time went on. As for herself... Maybe she'd gain another 5 centimetres by the time she was 18, if she was lucky. Given the actual state of her luck, she'd probably stagnate at her current height. Tallness was just not in the cards for her.

Not that she minded. The added height made him rather comfortable to lie on. If he gained just a few more centimetres, his shoulder would be the perfect height to rest her head on… That would make movie nights all the more comfortable.

Plus, the height change was just that. A physical change. Inside, Lloyd was still the same person - the boy who loved playing with Noishe but hated doing his homework, and would do everything in the world to avoid it. He hadn't changed. Not a single bit.

"Don’t sweat it. There are so many things you’re good at too! If it weren’t for your keen eye, I would’ve missed the kid entirely… So don’t be too bothered!” Lloyd gave her hand one squeeze before removing his hand, returning to his quest of returning to Colette's location. "Now, melt the ice!”

Colette did exactly that, leading the lumbering Ash over to the entrapped child and unleashing his fire breath. She watched with bated breath as the ice slowly melted, causing more of the child to be exposed to the air. They had previously used this exact same technique to unearth elemental fruits in the icy caverns filled with those icky bugs that exploded when defeated and obscured the screen with blue juice. It had been exciting then, to stumble upon secrets because of their penchant for exploration. But watching the child slowly be freed, watching their tentacles slowly start to move as they came into contact with warm air, was an entirely different experience, one that filled her with joy.

When was the last time the two of them completed a side objective like this, one that had direct effects on a citizen of this magical world? Casting her mind back informed her that that would be the starting town, when they returned to water the farmer’s crops with Deep Blue.

Now that the last child had been fully freed, all the children went running back to their worried mother, who proceeded to pull them into a giant group hug. Colette dropped her controller, clapping her hands together at such a sweet sight. Lloyd did laugh, then, a chuckle that she could feel rumble through her as well from where their shoulders touched. "What are you so excited about?" he asked.

"We did it! We saved all the children!" she exclaimed, watching the mother pull out one of the large elemental fruit in thanks. "Doesn't that make you happy? That we were able to help someone... That's what makes these side objectives fulfilling, right?"

"Yeah, I guess. It's just like you to get like this over a video game,” Lloyd replied, watching Kameo hoist the elemental fruit into the air, where it magically shrunk in size to fit in her bag. Colette wondered how Kameo’s bag even worked - how did it store Wotnot and dozens of elemental fruits? It was like a black hole. Just like Noishe's stomach.

“Though..." Lloyd frowned, staring up at the clock that hung on the wall, whose hands indicated that it was 2 pm. "Time’s up. We should get back to revising before Mom gets home from the vet with Noishe."

"Oh, you're right..." That was a downer. Time had flown so fast; their 20 minutes were up already!

The moment had come to return to the dining table and the assessment books that sat open on it. Studying was never fun, but it just had to be math today, and the chapter just had to be nets. Her most hated subject, combined with the topic she hated most. It was a headache all around.

But Lloyd was surprisingly good at nets, and he'd been a great help the whole day. Even if he still hated math with a passion and always got stuck on algebra questions, where it was her turn to assist him. That was why studying together was effective! They could fill in the gaps for each other, and motivate each other to keep going. Just three months left to go until it was all over! They could do this, and they would get through it. Together, just as they would every predicament that came to pass in the future.

"Um, and before you go home today, could you help me with something else?"

"What is it?" Colette asked, reaching for the TV remote on the coffee table. Lloyd was staring at the carpet, his hand absent-mindedly pulling at the hem of his singlet, separating the fabric from sweaty skin.

“Ellum’s birthday present,” Lloyd muttered, his voice getting softer with each word he spoke, until she could barely make out the words. “His birthday is in two weeks, and I…”

Ohhh.

They had a habit of telling each other almost everything, for any secret was always safe with the other. So she knew why Lloyd was clamming up. Ellum was his current crush, after all.

“Say no more. Of course I’ll help you! We can do whatever you want!” she replied with enthusiasm. She'd be happy to help.

"Thank you," Lloyd replied, meeting her gaze again with a tiny smile lighting up his face. "Now, let's get back to studying."

They made the short walk to the dining table, taking their seats across from each other. Lloyd's face was already starting to twist into a grimace, resigning himself to another few hours of torture at the hands of the twisted people who made their livelihood setting math questions.

Clearing away the Kit Kat wrappers on her assessment book, she glanced down at a question about nets she'd been working on before the break. Yet not a single word on the page was being absorbed. They were all running away from her.

The downside of Lloyd confiding in her for all of his crushes was that it was a stark reminder that she hadn't had her first one yet. And then, inevitably, her mind would drift further to all the little ways she stood out from her classmates.

It was like everyone around her had changed drastically overnight at some unknown point in time. The jokesters of the class had just started making dirty jokes one day, prompting scandalised glares from the rest of the class but also prompting snickers. She herself didn't get the joke half the time, just laughed to go along with everyone else.

Then there was the shift in daily conversation. Instead of discussing their favourite Pokémon, more often than not the other girls would now discuss in hushed voices while giggling which celebrity was the most attractive. She herself would sit quietly, trying to melt into the wall as she observed without interjecting, half fascinated and half horrified. Weren't they all too young for this?

Things got even more awkward when she was forcibly pulled into the conversation when someone directed a question at her. She had no idea what to say whenever someone showed her a picture of a celebrity and asked her to rate them. The only thing she ever managed to stutter out was that their eyes were a nice colour, and so was their hair. That... was how you judged a person on how attractive they were, right? Everyone else, though, seemed to think she was weird. But how was she supposed to be feeling? No one had ever taught her. It felt like everyone was keeping a secret from her on how these things were supposed to work, then making fun of her for not getting it.

She only got more confused every time something like that happened. All she wanted to do was go back to talking about her favourite cartoons, but that didn't seem to be an option. Lloyd wasn't in the same class as her, so she couldn't even sit with him and ignore everyone else. The only time she could meet up with him during school hours was at recess. She didn't know what Lloyd talked about with the rest of his friends. Maybe the same stuff. But she didn't really care, because, with him, she could just be herself. There was no need for tiring pretence.

All she could do when the girls were in a mood to discuss celebrities again was sit a little outside of their circle, counting down the seconds remaining for class to start while she tried to look as occupied as possible. She couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief every time the topic of conversation turned back to something a little easier to understand, like video games.

But surely, someday, she would understand.

She was waiting. For that day. For her to finally catch up to everyone else in the race she hadn’t even known she’d entered until everyone had left her in the dust, still standing with her mouth agape at the starting line. To finally be like everyone else, to be able to fit in seamlessly. But there was no use getting down about it!

She just had to meet The One. Then everything would change, everything would fix itself. That's what happened in all the stories, the shows, the movies, after all.

Because everyone, in the end, learned to feel the same way, right?

~~~

19-years-old

"Right! I think that’s enough for now.” Colette’s voice shattered the serenity of her room from where she was sitting on the bed with her laptop balanced in her lap, cutting through the sleepy fog that was starting to fill Lloyd’s head. The peaceful Ghibli tunes that had been filling the room cut off abruptly as she shut her laptop screen, reaching a hand up to undo her messy hair bun.

Lloyd yawned, rubbing his eyes and hoping that would make his eyelids feel less heavy. Pushing himself up from his belly-down position on the bed, he caught one last glance of the back of Colette's neck before her hair covered it again. Doing prep for uni was not the most exciting way to pass the afternoon, and it certainly wasn't normal fare for a date. But it had to be done, so they might as well do it together, as they did all things.

Though he'd gotten distracted and started scrolling through YouTube about an hour ago.

"Are you going to change out of pyjamas?” Lloyd asked, stretching, his shirt hiking up slightly. He’d taken the lift down the three floors that separated his apartment and hers in the old HDB block that they’d stayed in all their lives, rang the doorbell while staring at the Chinese New Year decorations that were still hung up despite the month now being April, and waited for Colette to open the door… Only to be met with the sight of Colette in her favourite doggie pyjamas, the baby blue button-up ones that covered every inch of her skin. She'd shrugged and said it was cold from the non-stop rain, but he knew the real reason was the lazy post-A-levels haze, that affected him as well. These days, sleeping in until noon was the norm. Or sleeping in until one of his parents came into his bedroom to knock him awake.

“Yeah,” she replied, grabbing a towel and a few articles of clothing from the open wardrobe and heading towards the doorway.

“Alright.”

Lloyd closed his laptop slowly, not wanting a repeat of the time in Secondary 3 he’d shattered the screen because Zelos had sneaked up on him and caught him unawares. He rolled off the bed, making the small trip of barely a few steps to the study table, passing the various objects Colette had up on the walls - the Disney posters she’d gotten ages ago, and the random stickers she’d amassed over the years from school club sales and donations - and the bay window filled to the brim with cute and huggable soft toys, a familiar Siberian Husky that showed the signs of being well-loved sitting atop the pile.

Lying on the study table was Colette’s Nintendo Switch, plugged into a socket to charge. Right next to it was a jar holding paintbrushes of all sizes, all of them as clean of paint as possible, for he knew Colette took extremely good care of her art supplies. The sketchbook no one was allowed to peek into was sticking out of the table’s drawer, half-used pads of foolscap and sheets of paper with pencils rolling in them visible within. Files that he’d nearly kicked, containing lecture notes and worksheets, were shoved into messy piles under the table, unneeded after the conclusion of examinations but having no convenient place to be stored. The tiny shelf sitting on the table still had her Junior College badge housed on one of the layers, silver in colour and reflecting the light from the windows, despite her having no use for it ever since they had graduated in November. (Perhaps she liked looking at it? She was something of a magpie sometimes.) He could spot a familiar conch shell, placed among other knick-knacks, mostly birthday presents.

Picking up the handheld (with its lime green and cyan JoyCons firmly attached), he unplugged the charger and watched the screen light up - and frowned at what it showed him.

"Hey, Colette!" he yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth. He hoped he could catch her before she entered the bathroom. Uncle Frank was working in the master bedroom no more than five metres away and had been nothing less than incredibly nice, as he always was, providing tons of refreshments and snacks. Lloyd would like to prevent a shouting relay if possible.

If Colette had been walking, she shouldn't have reached the bathroom yet...

The fast pitter-patter of bare feet against the floor informed him that he was right. "What is it, Lloyd?" Colette's head poked its way into the doorframe, her golden hair reaching down towards the floor, her blue eyes wide and questioning.

"You left Animal Crossing on," he answered, waving the Switch in the air.

Her eyes lit up in understanding. "Oh. You know what to do, right?"

Control the playable character and put her to sleep, then save the game. He'd done it before.

"Yeah, but, I was thinking... I haven't taken a walk on your island since last year. How about I take another tour while you're in the bathroom? If you're okay with it, of course."

"Oh, sure! I trust you." Colette smiled sweetly, turning to leave before pausing and turning back. "But remember -"

"- remember not to step on the flowers." Lloyd finished her sentence easily, stating that fact very seriously. He knew about Colette's concerns about her precious flowers, which she’d spent hours arranging around her little island until they were in just the right spot - fields of rainbows to welcome any guests and guide them around. He hadn't known that the stems of the flowers could break from being trampled multiple times when he first explored her quaint world - the fictional flowers were just as fragile as their real-life counterparts. He’d kept that in mind ever since, adding it to the many rules to follow to ensure no harm came to all the hard work Colette had put in to make her island perfect.

"Yep. Um…” Colette wrung her hands together, bowing her head so her hair formed a veil over her face.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, taking a step towards her.

“No, nothing’s wrong!” Colette hurriedly replied, lifting her head again. She screwed her eyes shut, hands clenching into fists. “I - uh, just wanted to say… I love you!”

The last three words came out in a shout, so quick that he almost didn’t catch them.

Lloyd froze, trying to process what he’d just heard - and before he could reply, Colette was already gone, having fled down the corridor and out of sight.

He slowly shut his mouth, which he hadn’t even realised was open.

This was the first time she’d said those coveted three words since they'd started dating. Her voice had been dripping with uncertainty, her posture betraying her shyness, but no matter how contradictory, she’d said it with sincerity, with all her heart. And even though he didn't need to hear them from her to know she loved him, for it was actions that counted, and certainly didn't need to hear them from her for him to love her, it still made him smile, his whole soul filled with a light warmth.

They’d travelled such a long way from all the checkpoints in life that they'd passed together. They still had a long way to go, but they’d do it together. As they always had.

"I love you too, silly," he said into empty space, knowing Colette couldn't hear him but wanting to say it anyway.

Lloyd unlocked the Switch screen, staring down at Colette's intricate creation. Flowers filled the screen, black, grey, white, purple, that he found familiar but couldn't put a name to. Oh, well. He would just tour the island and check out any new changes while he walked to the living room and waited for Colette to come back. Maybe he'd visit the town centre as well.

The most vital question to be answered was... Had Colette gotten those froggy chairs that she wanted for the townspeople?

~~~

Next chapter

[adrunkgiraffe]

I have been through this journey before, so I get to be actually frustrated about it.

IUnder a read more because im not subjecting y’all to this. Also: I should caveat I haven’t watched the episode cause I’m waiting till its on Netflix but I have watched way too many other episodes of Supernatural so I have a right to say these things. 

TL;DR: I mean you all knew Cas’ confession was fucking bullshit and that SPN is...hm. But I’d like to actually express my genuine frustration, for a moment? I’m going to say things you already know, but I have too much knowledge of this show and too much stupid meta in my brain about a series I haven’t genuinely enjoyed for at least 5 years which makes this not just blandly bad but disgustingly insulting to me not even as a gay just as like. A writer?

Or, even shorter: Cas’ confession is just a Charlie Bradbury Speedrun 

So. As some of you may know if, for some reason, you followed me back in 2013 (and till...okay fine 2015), I used to be, uh. Really into SPN. Really, I was into Destiel. Like, as in, I slogged through seasons 1-3 to get to Cas and am also really vulnerable to the Sunk Cost Fallacy and projecting onto characters. (I was in 8th grade in 2013, okay? Get off my back)

Also, because I monopolised use of the TV, I kind of...also got my parents into it? In a “this is silly but fun” kind of way.

Over time, critiques of the show from viewers, learning what queerbaiting is at all, fatigue with how long it was going, and also fatigue from how characters I enjoyed, like Rufus, or Crowley, or Ellen, or Jo, or Kevin, or Charlie, or Cas a few times, kept getting killed off. As time went on, it didn’t escape my notice that, aside from Cas, all of these characters fit one or more of the following criteria:

They were a woman

They were a person of color

Were Queer or Queer-coded in some way (listen Crowley was bad rep but at least Mark Sheppard actually kissed a man on screen)

I also just...generally got tired of the way the show treats women and sidelines people of color. 

The final straw really came with Charlie’s death. It got us all excited, because she hadn’t been back in a bit! And it was interesting to see how reuniting with her dark side from Oz had changed her! (yeah remember the fucking Wizard of Oz storyline? The writers sure don’t!) And maybe she’d get developed! Because at this point, Charlie and the fairly good writing of her character was a major upside for the series! Charlie was cool, fun, gay, and morally complex in a way...none of the female characters had been before her, in large part because by definition, her relationship with the boys would always be platonic.

And then. Offscreen. She is violently murdered. For no damn good reason. Like, literally, her being brought back in this episode after fucking off to europe after having returned from fucking off to Oz seems to have filled two purposes in total. 

The codex is solved (but Sam doesn’t know till next episode)

Charlie is dead, which means Dean can be angry, specifically at Sam, and kill more people because he’s the big bad this season. 

That’s it. Two things. Twooooo whole reasons to do this episode. Whoopee. 

But you didn’t come here for this, you came here for me to rip this reveal to shreds. Don’t worry, I’ll get there. What I want in your minds is that Supernatural already had a really good anddynamic queer character. And then they killed her off to make Dean angry. No, it doesn’t matter that they brought her back in season 13 or whatever. They made that decision. 

After the rage this incited, I started realizing general flaws in the writing (I had probably already noticed them but now I was angry enough to complain.) Every conflict is born of Sam and Dean not communicating/taking on burdens and Dean being angry at Cas for reasons that ranged from good to ridiculous, but in a way that always went way too fucking long, (which...yes, does make the “you do it for love” gifs fucking hilarious). It didn’t help that seasons 11 and 12 were next, which meant Demon Dean and GOD’S FUCKING SISTER, plus the decision to resurrect Mary, which, while I do like her later scenes, as a season 12 finale it...well I’ll be honest it kinda sucked. It undercut the majority of the Winchester’s’ arcs and their slow and painful journey out of their father’s toxic vengeance quest and knowing Mary as a person when it’s too late to know her was one of the last semi-compelling grounders of the narrative. 

By this point it was a hate-watch for my parents and I.

So then, I’m at college, and I’m not watching anymore cause I don’t have the motivation or access to Hulu to continue, and SPN is bad. I watch the Scooby Doo crossover when it comes out and my friend and I make fun of it, and we also continue making jokes about Dean and Cas and queerbaiting because we’re queer, but I don’t keep up. My Dad does though, so when I return, I watch some with the fam and lads. It’s even more tiring without context. 

So flash forward to Quarantine, my sister, the only one with taste, has left, and we have run out of netflix to watch. So we return to the well, and seasons 13-14 are. I’m gonna say it. Bad. Really fucking bad. The cycle of bad communication continues, season 14 has like seven antagonists and the way it’s structured makes it so I literally cannot remember the timeline of a season I watched 3 months ago. Oh also, they have a queer coded cannibal snake monster for...well I guess Jack’s snake bud was cool but like. Huh wow it’s almost like these writers don’t handle queers well. 

Our one saving grace is Cas, but he’s barely in any episodes, though I did note that his deal with the empty, being happy completely for one moment killing him, that struck me as “this has potential and I know they’re gonna half-ass it somehow.” Also Jack and Mary, but then oh...plot….The most compelling it gets is literally the finale.

But then, 3 days later, the first half of season 15 comes out on Netflix and it’s...actually kind of acceptable. The new character they give Jack’s actor is fun to watch him play until they make him evil. Exploring just how toxic Chuck can be gave the series direction again. The alternate future was genuinely scarring, and Eileen’s return was genuinely moving. Most of all, though, Cas got the opportunity to tell Dean no, that Dean was being unfair to him, had always been unfair to him, and he was sick of it. I had no illusions, I knew Destiel was never gonna happen, and Cas was gonna die, but giving him that bit of agency, letting Cas grow and be self-sufficient, and be angry with Dean not for existential reasons but interpersonal ones, was such a good sign for me, and Dean grew too! Dean fucking apologized for being horrible and Jensen Ackles had a...yknow what, ill give it to him, he had a good acting moment. 

But the thing. About. The “I love you.” 

Let’s take it in parts.

What was good: I’m gonna admit it, lads, “Wanting what I can’t have” - AS A LINE - is good, and, structurally, there is something to the Empty Deal that could have been an interesting aspect of Cas’ arc when it comes to self actualization and being on even footing with Dean. The problem is, this is Supernatural, and that arc only comes up when I bring it up because character study, even in bad media, is fun for me. 

What was bad:

I mean. Like. All of it? All of it. 

Okay. Fine. I’ll be specific. 

Cas dies immediately when - possibly because- he is revealed as having feelings for Dean. They kill him as they queer him, that’s a Bury Your Gays Speedrun right there.

Like the least they could have done is have him mention it to someone in another scene or something to establish some romantic feelings on the part of canon a full episode beforehand. That would have been the literal bare minimum. 

When Cas starts praising Dean, for some reason both the writing and Misha’s acting take a bit of a downswing (from...where it already was). Cas, whose most powerful moment this season was acknowledging that Dean’s anger at him is cruel and unfair, flatly praises him for doing everything out of love and it reads with a misunderstanding of both Dean as a character and Cas’ understanding of Dean. Dean is angry! VERY ANGRY! And it’s a problem he needs to work on and rarely does. 

Talking out of my ass, a better speech would have been about how Dean is angry because of his love for Sam, family, and the people around him, how, for better or for worse, he can’t help but be angry on behalf of others, and that his journey of moving that tendency towards the better is what made Cas care so much. Guys this alteration to the metaphor took 2 minutes to write tops I am an Art History student and these are TV WRITERS WITH YEARS OF EXPERIENCE CAN YOU TELL THEYRE NOT TRYING YET? 

A better speech would, of course, have come out of a better series. My point: this part was half-assed. Poorly written. Wow it’s almost like the series is also poorly written. 

 Also, Misha is the better actor of the three(***OF THE THREE), but his choices in that scene are jarringly out of character which. Makes the bad writing worse. It doesn’t help that they cut to the same fucking shot of Dean 3 times. The chemistry in that scene makes it feel so fucking hackneyed. Because it is. 

This combines lead me to the point: (wait there was a point to this?)

As someone who does not have the luxury of watching this capsized ship fall into boiling seas from a distance, it is less insulting to me that they did this so last minute and then sent Cas to the Void than it is how they did it. They had ingredients for something that could have been compelling enough to me as a former fan of the show to think that they had put effort into it, that they had decided months, perhaps even years ago to do this, and had crafted a storyline around it. That this was an intentional decision they cared about. It wasn’t. It was barely even pandering, because it’s almost insultingly blatant. 

SPN kinda proved to me that it didn’t care about queers when Charlie was killed off. It proved it to me again when Cas, not only died in confessing his love for Dean but did it in the weakest result of what could have been a surprisingly strong story.

[tessatechaitea]

Justice Society of America #8

Oh no! Hate! It must be stopped!

That caption sounded sarcastic, didn't it? It sort of sounds like a centrist arguing against somebody saying something that nobody should be on the other side of. "Of course Black Lives Matter! Nobody is saying they don't! Why even bother bringing it up?! You're just causing trouble!" is the kind of thing that has made me hate people who identify as "non-political" or "centrist" or "libertarian" or "Proud Husband. Father. Christian." Nobody needs to hear from you if the only thing you have to say is that nobody needs to be fighting for the things they need to be fighting for! "If it's already a crime, why do we need more stringent laws for punishing crimes motivated by hate. Aren't all criminal acts hateful?" says the person ignoring reality for their own selfish interests of which I can't even begin to guess. Enough about people who have chosen to be non-people. Let's discuss a comic book from 1993 that probably takes a stronger stance against fascism than a frightening large number of Americans today.

This advert on the inside front cover would be better if the picture over "very rare" was a cow. I mean, it wouldn't work for baseball cards but I would like it better.

I think the best part about actually living in a world where superheroes are real is that day in 5th Grade when Hawkman and Hawkwoman visit your class to talk about Egyptian archaeology. The issue begins by catching up with Hawkman and Hawkwoman as they continue their quest to steal Egyptian cultural artifacts. You have to give them a pass on this though! In 1993, people just believed archaeology was a thrilling way to bring treasures into museums for everybody to share! It's not like we had hundreds of years to reflect on how terrible this practice was. You have to do some cultural math by subtracting the number of years Western culture believed whatever it did was right and just from, I don't, negative 100? Do you think we'll have learned some humbleness and respect in one hundred years? Most kids who grew up in the 70s wanted to be boring ass truck drivers but by the 80s, thanks to Indiana Jones, they wanted to be boring ass archaeologists. Kids aren't the greatest at determining what a fun adult job might be. Did you know there are people who get angry at the supposition that digging up and taking cultural artifacts and treasures from other countries to bring back to your own might be theft? Generally they're the same type of people who believe that all advances to civilization were brought about by white culture. They hold this opinion through absolutely no evidence at all. How do I know they don't have any evidence? Because if they looked for evidence, they'd wind up reading history and realize their claim was too ludicrous to continue defending.

You might think Hawkgirl is commenting on the gigantic sarcophagus the native archaeologists are opening but I know she's making an innuendo about Hawkman's cock because she's doing that thing with her hat where she lifts it up and down and waggles her eyebrows.

It's not really much of a joke though because nobody expects Hawkman's penis to be as large as a fifty foot long sarcophagus. I mean, I'm sure it's big but it's not going to be unwieldy! It's probably almost exactly the same size and shape as his mace. Interlude: here are some Facebook posts I made on several different July 26thes because I guess I think of it as a holiday to entertain my future self every July 26th? Whatever the case, I love Past Me more than Future Me and possibly even more than Present Me. Because of the Hays Code, Alfred Fatcock had to change his name to keep making films. How patriotic would you consider a person who got a flag pregnant? War Games is my favorite movie because it taught me that trying is pointless. The first item on my bucket list is to buy a bucket. End of Interlude. Can you tell I'm stalling because maybe eight issues of this comic book was too much? Here's an adult riddle: What's twenty-five feet long, wrapped in bandages, and has an eye in the middle of its head?

This guy's penis!

I don't recognize the guy with three eyes but I'm sure he's some immortal wizard named Amn Thoth or something. While the Carters discover ancient mummy curses, Johnny Quick tries to convince Rex that his hour of strength doesn't come from a drug at all but deep inside him. He doesn't need to pop pills to be a superhero; he just needs to balance his chakras and figure out his mantra. Then he'll tap into some deep spiritual part of himself that is probably just a meta(l)gene and whammo! Hourman is back and straight edge! But Rex doesn't buy it. Especially since learning his mantra isn't going to cure his son's cancer (which he got from taking Miraclo). Also in the hospital is Wesley Dodd who is doing therapy to recover from his stroke. Plus his friend Bishop Tumutuu who was some guy who fought against Apartheid. And because the Bishop is in the hospital, the white supremacists are gathering outside to not wish him well.

Shouldn't they hear what they have to say and debate them to better strengthen their own side of the argument on why all people should have equal opportunity with all rights and freedoms promised by this country?

I'm absolutely for freedom of all speech. But the problem that the American media and a lot of people on the Internet have fallen into is the idea that all speech needs to be discussed and debated equally. That's the whole "freedom of speech" trap. Whenever somebody on Twitter wants to debate some terrible topic that nearly all kind and forward thinking people realize is a monstrous and terrible idea and you simply mock them for their terrible beliefs or tell them to shut up, they think you're clamping down on their free speech. No, sir. You were able to say the stupid thing you wanted to say. What you actually want is for a Constitutional Amendment that forces me tor respect what you said and debate it as if the matter has yet to be resolved. The media does this all the time by allowing both sides of an opinion to debate which only legitimizes the side with the terrible take. Sure, we should allow racists to go on CNN and declare their stance on race relations. But the people on the other side shouldn't be debating that topic with them. They should just laugh at them and point and tell them how terrible they are. Maybe get some of that slime from You Can't Do That on Television for rebuttals. Freedom of speech needs way more mockery and far less debate if it's going to recover. Hourman responds to the white supremacists with a "None of my business!" because he's a terrible centrist who believes that if the status quo isn't making his life rough, why rock the boat? Also his son is dying of cancer so maybe he's a bit distracted. I shouldn't be so hard on him when he's wracked with the guilt of probably killing his son with his drugs. The white supremacists begin making trouble so it's time for the JSA to put an end to hate! Or will hate win out? I mean, this comic book was written in 1993 and I don't feel like hate has backed down.

Sure, he's against metahumans now. But just wait until one of them decides to wear on of those stupid hats and silly robes!

Watching the speedsters begin to get pummeled by the huge mass of white supremacists, Hourman accidentally balances his chakras! He's suddenly powerful without the drugs or the black lights or the Doctor Fate deep muscle massages! Now if he can convince his son that the power of Miraclo has been inside him all along, his son will have the strength to battle the cancer! Why did I use an exclamation point on that previous sentence when I don't really fucking care about Rex Tyler and his son! Hourman crashes out of the hospital window to save Johnny Quick. He lets Jesse do her own thing because he's heard about women's lib and also she's not an old man whose powers have significantly dwindled over time.

My adrenal gland just got bigger too!

In the end, the Bishop is saved and even Wesley Dodd joins the fight! Or he just absentmindedly shot off his sandman gun and coincidentally put the Bishop's assassin to sleep. It's hard to tell since he's still suffering from his retirement party stroke. The issue ends with Green Lantern surfing the television when he comes upon Carter Hall's interview program where he's interviewing the mummy they dug up, a man named Edmund Kulak. Since Green Lantern recognizes him, I guess he's one of the JSA's foes. According to the Who's Who, Kulak can use his third eye to cause everybody on Earth to hate each other. I guess that's why the white supremacists were acting up (and also wearing eyes on their hats and robes). Having a magical reason for racism is always a better comic book story than acknowledging a lot of people are racist of their own free will. Imagine all the angry letters that the pre-Comicsgate generation would have had to write in! "I'm not racist but I don't think you should portray all white people as racist because that is racist! Logic for the win!" That might seem like I created a 1993 Strawman but have you read the letters reacting to the Tales of the Teen Titans Spotlight on Starfire about Apartheid? My pretend letter was practically verbatim of one or two of the letters Mike Gold had to respond to on that series! Justice Society of America #8 Rating: B-. I think I've read enough old stories about old people fighting immortals. The whole mortality angle is really bringing me down!

[pepperstrawberry]

Verdant Flame (working title)

Okay, I’m running with the suggested title.

This post is going to be just putting thoughts out there about how I’m going to do this project, possible ideas of how to publish, and what major changes I’m going to roll with.

I’m going to put it all under the cut so I’m not wreaking havoc on your dash. X3

Before the cut: For those somehow not in the know (like, how could any of my followers on Tumblr or Twitter not have caught wind of the bonfire of gnashing teeth much of the Magic LGBT+ community is dealing with right now, I don’t know, but just in case, and especially if this post is seen later): WAR Forsaken dropped and with it Gruulfriends went from canon to retcon in a way I didn’t expect: Biphobia and erasure among other issues. I’ll talk about the mess itself later, but for now, lets adress what we are doing as a community and what I”m doing in particular.

The basics is that we are kinda rebelling against Wizards in what small way we can; but being creative, interesting and having fun with the canon. Take the means of production, canon is ours now!

But for me in specific, I’ve been playing with using Chandra and Nissa as well as the world of Magic to create frame works for stories I wanted to tell, but until now I boiled down everything to its basics because I just wanted to use frame works and use tropes as jumping off points. But now? Fuck that, I’m thinking about pulling an E.L. James, but good.

What does that mean? Well, E.L. James literally wrote a fanfic, changed some names, and published it. So screw it, going to do the same over here. I’m going to take a step or two further back then she did, since 1) Wizards/Hasbro might not be as nice as Stephenie Meyer and 2) I feel like I can be a better writer then E.L. James.

So, how will this project play out? This is where I make a cut and we get down to business:

First: How to publish?

I think if I’m going to make this a thing, I’m going to have to go with self publishing and do these in short stories. I’m not sure how short, but I feel like once I get the ball rolling, I want to just keep going. If I’m taking years to put out one book and you guys are waiting that long for it, I’m going to loose steam and you are going to loose interest. This is definitely a ‘strike while the irons hot’ situation.

And the iron is near melting right now.

Second: What is going to be the basics and how will it differ from MtG Lore ‘Canon’?

First and most obvious is that I need to figure out what I can keep and what needs to be changed.

As I said above, while I am definitely in the mood of ‘you know what, this is ours now, fuck off’, the fact is, the law is the law. If your work is too similar to another, you can get in some heavy trouble.

I’ve covered some of this in my other posts about this, but I’m pulling this into one spot with the new info to make it easier for me and others to find.

World: I’m going to use analogs of each of the planes of MtG to make countries and kingdoms. It’s a lovely short hand and will make the world building go that much faster... Tricky part (much as the characters) is renaming things and setting it enough apart that it isn’t exactly the worlds and what not from MtG.

The main ones I’m going to use are:

Zendikar: Still going to be the land my ‘Not-Nissa’ hails from. First step is to just fully expunge the eldrazi history and effect. I am thinking about having some sort of ancient thing buried there, but in a very adventure-y feel of like an old dragon or some other powerful creature.

Kaladesh: Still home to ‘Not-Chandra’, still a place of one-ness with nature and artifice. Debating on how much I should carry over the sense of Indian aesthetic. Like, I don’t want to be window dressing like the actual Kaladesh is, but at the same time I’m not sure how well I can make it feel ‘right’ in that regard. I think I’ll keep the plot idea they started, but carry it through right.

Theros: Not-Gideon and Not-Elspeth will definately have history here. There won’t be actual gods, though a great power they attribute -to- gods will exsist. Which brings me to wonder how I should handle the cosmology... especially when we are talking about

Innistrad: I envision a very gothic, germanic country side, probably bordering Not-Theros. There will be a cult that worships a great power hidden on the moon. I’m going to use this as an opportunity to do a thing that came to mind when Emrakul locked herself away...

Vryn: I’m not sure if or how I’ll use this since we know so little about it. Might just cut it and have my ‘Not-Jace’ come from somewhere else. Hell, might just cut to the chase and make him connected with my Not-Ravnica. And speaking of...

Ravnica: Obviously a major trade hub and likely a center piece of the setting. Not-Jace, Not-Vraska, Not-Kaya, and Not-Ral all would be seen here. I think i’d also take all of the Fiora stuff and fold it into this so that I don’t have too much going on in the world and can pull together a lot of neat characters from that set too. Not-Marchessa might be fun as a side... well not ‘villain’, but definitely not helpful to our heroes... usually. X3

Ixalan: Pretty easy; coastline adventure. Just use any ideas from the block for pirate based shenanigans. Not sure if I will write enough to get to this sort of craziness, but it would be a lot of fun if I do.

Amonkhet: Not sure if, when, or how I am going to use this. Though a desert region might be fun. Might combine this with Regatha and that plan that Teyo comes from.

Kamigawa: I mean, really, this is ‘japan: the setting’. They went so hard on the Japanese lore here that it’s not going to be hard to make my own with little effort or consideration. Do expect there to be a Not-Tamiyo. X3

Alara: To be honest, I was never too big on this plane, but then it was a big deal years ago and I never really ‘set foot’ there. I mean if I did use it, I could use it to sorta map the bigger world’s zones? But that feels too much like the silly ‘elemental nations’ angle. Worked well for Avatar, but won’t work here.

Eldraine: I’m thinking about using this as a rough overlay of the main areas and goverment and what not tied to and surrounding my not-ravnica. Not sure. I haven’t finished the book yet, and it’s hard to get a solid bead on the details of the world without the old uploads, the clear posting of lore that used to happen (remember how we all knew what was going on with the color pie/race spread of Kaladesh?) and just having mostly the cards to go one leaves me wanting a bit. Not to mention they aren’t making the art books anymore. FUCK. I liked those. They needed to be improved not canceled T3T ... anyhoo...

Dominaria: Given what Dominaria now is to magic lore, I think I’ll set it as the history past. This world IS my Not-Dominaria.

I’ll figure out other planes as I go along, though I might just stick with what I got here. Adding in more is going to muck up the world I’m crafting. I may be taking parts that aready exist and remixing it (which, if we are honest with ourselves, is really how we tell stories in the first place, I’m just leaving my ‘mix’ lumpy XD), but I do need to concetrate more on the characters. I can’t introduce a new land every book. I need familiar ground, routes that readers can follow, places characters can be from that matter.

Speaking of characters:

Characters: Again, the idea here is that you should be able to recognize them to some extent, but I sitll have to work with the ‘legally distinct’ Not-Gatewatch... So here is what I got so far:

Chandra: What we keep: Fire based magics, brashness, cute. What we change: Not much. Most of her changes are going to be involved with the way I change the world around her. I think the big difference is instead of having her ‘planeswalk’, when her family gets hunted, they end up traveling toward the border, and she ends up running, getting lost, and finding herself on the steps of a (monastery). Also... no one would hate me for going ahead and making her trans, would they? Like, by the story proper’s start, she’ll have a woman’s body (or maybe that could be a part of her quest?), but I do like the idea. X3 It adds more of a personal touch to my Chandra.

Nissa: Debating on if I should keep her an elf. Keeping her an elf AND keeping the nature magic might be too alike. If not Elf, what should I make her? Still, the basics of her story are that she is looked down on, shunted to the side. stuff that leads her into being more comfortable on her own. Chandra is going to help her out of her shell, but only due to her honesty and clarity.

Gideon: No inviciblity. But definately going to keep him being the classic hero type, but with a genuine heart of gold. Going to change up his armorments from the sural to a short sword, buckler, and a lance/javalin? something like that. Hails from Not-Theros, has taken residence in Not-Ravnica

Jace: Trans man. Doing that right from the start. I know it was some folks head canon for a long time, and I see nothing wrong with making it canon here. Going to have to play with his past a bit. I think I’m not going to bother with the memory erasure. Instead, he trained as a spy with some mental powers and illusions. After betraying his original handler (someone that was a part of a different country), he defects to the not-ravnica and gets wrapped up with that stuff, eventually going out to help other nations in an effort to unite the continent or something... I’m kinda forming stuff as I write this. XD

Liliana: Still a necromancer. Going to cut out the deals with the devils. Maybe one, but not four. Might still have marks, but it will be more from her own magics rather then a contract. Still served a terrible master, but maybe with less strings attatched (or at least she thinks so). A friend in a discord suggested I have her have a binding on her bother as a lich vampire hunter. I’m warming to the idea, but still need to work out the details. I like the idea of her regaining her youth, that might even be the first story where Not-Chandra and Not-Nissa interact.

Vraska: Will end up in a relationship with Not-Jace... but I’m not too keen on keeping her a gorgon. I like the look of her ‘hair’, but I might just go with straight up dreads. Someone suggested making her some form of Naga, and though I’m not big on taking away her legs, the idea of some snakish relation is not out.

Ral: Inventor. Jackass. Friend of Not-Jace, has a Gay lover? yep, keeping all that. I think most of his changes, like Chandra, will be more about how the world around him shifts do to how I write rather then actual character changes.

Kaya: Keeping the Assassin, and can fight Ghosts. Still fleshing this one out. Likely to have ties with whatever I do with the Orzhov still. I adored the whole being hired by Teysa and ending up in charge thing, though I’m not sure I’ll go quiet that far? Mmm

Jaya: Still a mentor to Chandra. Less mystery around her though. It’s going to be less ‘she was the founder of our group’ and more ‘an adventurer that chose to settle down in her old age’ or something. And yes, the cookie scene I drew a comic for a while back will be in the story X3

Karn: Golems are a thing in fantasy, I don’t see a reason to stop now. But the Urza history is going to be retired. I think he might be an invention of someone in the current world and ends up as a helper to Not-Chandra and Not-Nissa at some point. 

Jhoira: I’m thinking grand daughter to Not-Jaya. I like her and I want to keep her, but I like the adventure her. Might have a rivalry between her and Not-Chandra. like a friendly one. She might even have a bit of a chip on her shoulder as she doesn’t have fire magic, but Not-Chandra does.

Rat and Teyo: Might might not. The cast is getting big already, we’ll see. Might have them as a duo from the start with a sort of ‘adventures in the sewers’ thing going on.

Ugin: Not a dragon, but definately a powerful being. and still has that stick up his ass. Often wrong about what he thinks should be done, but his heart is genuinely in the right place. Going to make Not-Mizzet his son maybe?

Nicol Bolas: Bastard, got a plan, and it will be similarly a slow build, but he is going to be less ‘has his hands in everything’ and more a ‘mmm, I could use this’ sort.

Alesha: Fuck timelines! This woman is a friend of Not-Chandra and helped her discover herself. Whether she rides with her people near... wait... OH GOD I LOVE IT: Something I literally thought up while writing. She and her nomadic bandit team travel the roads between many lands, and they find young not-Chandra. After coming out as being a girl, Not-Alesha is what helps solidify her sense of Identity. After showing off her fire magics and how uncontroled they are, adding in how young she still is, they drop her off with the (monastery) XD I’m loving this change already.

Oviya: Still Chandra’s Auntie. Big change? Her lover is still alive, because fuck that noise.

Olivia: Plans. Hungry. 

Avacyn: Doesn’t exists at the start of the story, but thinking about having her be created during it.

Sorin: Not sure....

Still thinking about a lot of other characters. I’ll get to them as I go.

There is also the Guilds of Ravnica to consider... With those, I think I’m going to keep the identity but not quite the orginizations. At least not so directly. Like not all of them are absolute ‘guilds’. There is less straight up organization. But there are definately a strong sense of jobs and a loyalty to those you work with...

Story:

And then there is the story itself. I think I’m going to start it with Not-Chandra meeting Not-Gideon much like before, but the goals are that he is traveling on a mission to see what is going on in Not-Zendikar. The seers/mages/whatever have been sensing some shit going down in that area and it’s close enough to the boarders of not-ravnica to check out. He and Not-Jace pass through and Not-Chandra gets curious and follows. She is going to meet Not-Nissa on the way. The four become a team and face down a nasty threat to the land and uncover a old history of Not-Zendikar that might need to be followed up on.

That can be book one.

Book two can be Not-Liliana’s introduction. The four, having worked so well together, are made a team by Not-Ugin and charged with trouble shooting all around the realm and seeing about maybe making more allies for Not-Ravnica. They find an old woman and they help her regain her youth... and in her they find an old villain. But the world has changed since last Not-Liliana walked the lands outside her keep. And it turns out that Not-Olivia, a vampire queen, has been making a name for herself. There are other darknesses afoot in her territory. For now, she would offer the team aid... as long as it suits her.

I think that can be book two

A return home would be the third story. Yes, this is kinda following how the stories were flowing at first, but after this one things are going to shift. The return home will bring Not-Chandra in direct confrontation with her past. The big changes I made to that and to Not-Kaladesh become big here. I’m thinking this is also where Not-Jhoira hangs out. The war behind the scenes is brewing, but it’s only starting. The all out mess won’t be till a later book.

What will happen in the story though is the confrontation with Not-Baral, Not-Chandra almost nuking herself in grief, and Not-Nissa being the anchor she needed. This will be the point of confession.

And so on... I’m not sure how far I’m going to go with this, but I want to try to push as many stories, but with as high quality as I can. Can I do it? I have no freaking clue.

I’ll post more as I go. For now, the working title is Verdant Flame. If I change it, I’ll continue to use the title to tag all the stuff I do till I go back and add the new title to old posts.

Now to transfer these notes... and figure out names. you don’t know how tiring it was getting adding ‘Not’ to everything.

And for those really keeping score: Why yes, some of this -was- what Dragon Quixotic was. There is enough difference between the two worlds that I feel confident that I can keep them as separate stories now.

[winchesterandpie]

Part of the Company Part 1 (Thorin x Reader)

Pairing: Thorin Oakenshield x Reader

Word count: 2268

Warnings: None

A/N: I was looking through my drive and found the start of a series, and I’m feeling in a Middle-Earth mood at the moment. Reader is from our world, shoved suddenly into Middle Earth a long time before the quest to Erebor. Let me know if y’all want me to continue it! If my plans hold out, it’d be a bit of a slow burn! Love you guys!!! Gif isn’t mine.

Riding through the Shire on the way to the home of our soon-to-be burglar, I was thoroughly amused by my companion’s unwillingness to ask for directions. The dark-haired dwarf simply refused to get help, even if he hadn’t the faintest idea where he was going.

“Thorin, just ask where to go. We’ll be late if you don’t!” I finally became frustrated enough to exclaim at him.

“Well, if you’re so keen for directions, get them yourself,” he replied, a little miffed at my apparent lack of faith in his direction seeking capabilities.

“Fine, then. I’ll meet you there,” I was completely exasperated with Thorin and nudged the stallion I rode into an easy lope. “If you ever make it, that is,” I couldn’t resist adding over my shoulder with a grin, barely catching his answering smile before he was lost to my sight. Recalling what I had seen so very many years ago, I navigated my way through the maze of houses until I came to the one on top of the hill with a large, green door.

“Take that, you stubborn dwarf, you,” I muttered under my breath, glad I had seen all of the movies of Middle Earth before I had been abruptly transported into Middle Earth many years ago, before the dragon took Erebor. Somehow, I had managed to become best friends with the dwarven prince, having landed in a time that he was approximately my equivalent in years. Oddly enough, I never aged at the speed of a human. Instead, I seemed to age even slightly slower than the dwarves I was surrounded by, possibly even as slowly as an elf if my youthful complexion was anything to go by. Shaking my head a bit at that silly dwarf’s stubbornness, I slid off the silky black pony’s back and tied him to a fence post, next to the ponies already tied there, loosening his girth before turning to the door and raising a hand to knock.

“Y/N, at your service,” I said with a bow when the door was finally opened by a curly haired halfling. “You must be Mr. Baggins, correct?” He only nodded in response, seeming a little shell-shocked as he stepped aside to allow me in. I had barely hung up my cloak and weapons on a peg by the door when I was captured in a hug from behind.

“Y/N!” I instantly recognized the voice of Fili, one of Thorin’s nephews. Laughing, I squirmed in his hold until he let go, allowing me to turn and throw my arms around his neck, burying my face against his mane of golden hair. All of the dwarves were crowding into the hall, cheering heartily that I had arrived as Fili picked me up and spun me around in a circle. In my time in Middle Earth, I had grown close friendships with all the dwarves in the hobbit hole, but Fili and Kili in particular, often being referred to as their partner in crime.

“My dear y/n. I’m glad you made it,” Gandalf greeted me, and I grinned back at him.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, old friend.”

“Good to see ya, lass,” Dwalin could be heard over the din of voices as the other dwarves stepped up to take their turn greeting me. “Is he with you?”

“You know him. Never asks for directions, that one,” I replied with a chuckle. “He told me to go on ahead if I was so keen on directions. We’ll see if he ever arrives.” Everyone joined your chuckle except for the hobbit, who didn’t know particularly much of Oakenshield’s character.

“You must be hungry after your trip.” It wasn’t so much a question as it was a statement.

“Aye, that I am,” I replied, laughing internally at the sort of speech I had picked up from the dwarves of Middle Earth. To my credit, I had been in Middle Earth now for over a century.

“Well don’t just stand there gawking at her,” the tattooed warrior urged. “D’you want to eat or not?” No one seemed against his statement, and all, myself included, made for the fully stocked table, finding a seat on the benches. I found myself next to Kili, with room for his brother on my other side as the food was passed and tossed across the table.

“Bombur, catch!” I looked up from the sausage I was taking a bite from just in time to watch the wider dwarf catch the piece of food Bofur had tossed squarely in his mouth. Everyone cheered at the successful toss, and then began the food fight. I was fully used to this sort of gathering, having been around the dwarves long enough to know that this was just how they were, but the hobbit was not quite so used to them. I flashed a sympathetic smile at him, and he grimaced in return before turning to walk down the hall toward his pantry

“Who wants an ale?” Fili came walking along the tabletop, laden down with mugs of ale. “There you go.” His brother smacked his leg when the blond dwarf stepped on Kili’s food. I had a moment of amusement, because we had been eating for a while now, and Thorin still hadn’t shown up, apparently remaining too stubborn to ask for directions.

“Let him have another drink,” Dwalin called to Fili.

“Here you go,” the prince replied, handing him a mug. Dwalin then proceeded to pour it in Oin’s ear trumpet thing, who then had to blow it out which caused a hilarious squeak, rousing choruses of laughter among the company. Then came my least favorite bit of the whole meal - the drinking/burping contest. In all my time with them, one thing that never vanished was my sense of table manners. Something that burping contests did not fit well with. I must say, I agreed with Bilbo’s looking away from the disgusting sight of ale running down the dwarves’ beards.

Eventually the meal was finished, and everyone went about tidying up after the group, myself included. Bilbo was becoming increasingly agitated at the dwarves rowdy behaviour, and I caught a glimpse of him venting to Gandalf, the wizard who had made this whole thing happen, bless him.

“Excuse me. I’m sorry to interrupt, but what should I do with my plate?” Ori asked, approaching the hobbit.

“Here you go, Ori, give it to me,” Fili replied, who happened to be standing close at hand. I couldn’t prevent another smile from breaking over my features, recalling the incredible display of hand-eye coordination and teamwork that was fast approaching. Fili threw the dish to Kili, who in turn threw it to Bifur, standing at the sink, who caught it without a single glance at the plate. Pretty soon, the entire company was hurling their dishes around the room, and I was no exception, thoroughly enjoying myself as I threw and caught dish after dish.

“Excuse me, that’s my mother’s West Farthing crockery, it’s over a hundred years old!” the hobbit exclaimed indignantly, at which the dwarves began banging their forks, knives, and fists on the table in front of them with a defined rhythm.

“And can-can you not do that? You’ll blunt them!” This would bring on an impromptu song that I had never forgotten, even after the many years since I had heard it sung, except for the occasions when I would mumble it to myself.

“Ooh, d’hear that, lads? He says we’ll blunt the knives,” Bofur’s voice broke through my reverie

“Blunt the knives, bend the forks,” Kili began with his signature crooked grin displayed widely across his face.

“Smash the bottles and burn the corks,” Fili continued, a mischievous sparkle in his eyes.

“Chip the glasses and crack the plates,” the rest of the dwarves joined in now, voices growing to a dull roar.

“That’s what Bilbo Baggins hates!

Cut the cloth and tread on the fat

Leave the bones on the bedroom mat

Pour the milk on the pantry floor

Splash the wine on every door

Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl

Pound them up with a thumping pole

When you’ve finished, if any are whole

Send them down the hall to roll!” The dwarves paused in their singing, but the flying dishes continued, never hesitating in the defined beat with which Bofur now played his wooden flute, bouncing dishes off his elbows at the same time.

“That’s what Bilbo Baggins hates!” the song finished, everyone laughing as the hobbit came around to see his dishes cleaned, neatly stacked, and completely unbroken. Even Gandalf was chuckling at the sight. Kili slapped my shoulder in his enjoyment and we grinned at each other, still laughing as Fili joined us. I had an arm around the shoulders of each brother, and they both had an arm around me as the company shared the chuckle. Thank heavens for that, I thought, for there will be precious little laughter as the quest goes on. We were all startled into silence by three loud knocks on the door.

“He is here,” Gandalf said solemnly. Everyone went to the area surrounding the door as the hobbit opened it to admit the dwarf that we had all been waiting on, looking as majestic as ever. He stepped in, a small smile gracing his features as his gaze fell on me.

“Gandalf,” he acknowledged the wizard. “I thought you said this place would be easy to find. I lost my way, twice. Wouldn’t have found it at all had it not been for the mark on the door.”

“Of course you wouldn’t, you great buffoon. And do you wanna know why?” I stage muttered under my breath. “Because you can’t be bothered to ask for directions!” Thorin was trying so very hard not to chuckle at that, but the rest of the gathered group didn’t bother restraining their laughter at my remark. Even the little hobbit managed to find a smile at that, then remembered the conversation at hand, and his expression became confused once more

“Mark? There’s no mark on that door! It was painted a week ago!” Poor Bilbo was so confused as to what the dark-and-silver-haired dwarf in front of him was talking about.

“There is a mark; I put it there myself,” Gandalf seemed to be trying to cover that Bilbo did not in fact particularly want to go on a quest to reclaim a mountain. “Bilbo Baggins, allow me to introduce the leader of our company, Thorin Oakenshield.” Thorin scanned the little hobbit up and down, as a hunter would examine a piece of prey, to which I rolled my eyes.

“So, this is the Hobbit. Tell me, Mr. Baggins, have you done much fighting?” Rude though Thorin’s way about it may have been, it was a question that needed asking.

“Pardon me?” Bilbo really had no idea what Thorin wanted from him.

“Axe or sword? What’s your weapon of choice?” Though I quite liked the dwarf, I couldn’t help but be more than a little irritated at his lack of tact.

“Well, I have some skill at Conkers, if you must know, but I fail to see why that’s relevant,” Bilbo seemed to be a little flustered as he answered.

“Thought as much. He looks more like a grocer than a burglar,” At his overly rude remark, I shot Thorin a glare that would turn orcs to stone at a hundred paces and kill them at anything less than fifty. He caught my look and seemed to apologize with his eyes, almost as though he were asking forgiveness. I pretended not to have seen that look, thinking that he was lucky he wasn’t an orc. He would have to apologize vocally to the hobbit if he wanted it to count for anything by me. Especially as his remark had caused general amusement for the other dwarves at the expense of the hobbit whose services Thorin was requesting.

Everyone moved back to the table, and food was acquired for Thorin. He sat at the head of the table, eating with more manners than I had seen from the other dwarves, but he had been less rambunctious than the rest ever since the dragon had come. Poor dwarf felt he had to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders, even that he must bear such a burden on his own.

“What news from the meeting in Ered Luin? Did they all come?” Balin asked once Thorin had had a chance to eat at least a little bit.

“Aye. Envoys from all seven kingdoms,” the dwarf looked a little disconsolate, but apparently I was the only one who noticed, for the others seemed glad at the news. Then again, I had traveled with him the whole way, and so had known his disappointment for the whole trip to the Shire.

“What do the dwarves of the Iron Hills say? Is Dain with us?” Dwalin went straight to it, as was the warrior’s way.

“They will not come,” here, I could hear the tiniest shred of despair in his voice, but he masked it well. If I had not known him for so long, I would not have heard it myself. Everyone murmured their own disappointment at his statement. “They say this quest is ours, and ours alone.” I slipped silently from the room, knowing how the rest of the conversation was going to go, between their explanation of the quest and Bofur’s overly detailed description of a dragon, figuring I would return in time for Misty Mountains.

And that’s it for Part 1! Tell me what you thought HERE! 

PART TWO IS HERE

Forever Tags:

@riddikulus-obsessions @addictionmarvel @peppermint--teas @angel-with-broken-wings @mercedesbarnes @javapeach

Tag list is open, and I’ll do a tag list for this series if people are interested!

[butterflyheart-me]

My Top BL online stories (part 1)

Warning: There will be very naughty scenes 

1.  I never knew the World was this Bright

Theme: Online Gaming, School/College Life

Synopsis:

An Lian never thought he would make friends online when he started playing Red Dragon Quest for the first time. But as it turned out, he finds more than a friend... He finds a husband!

Little does An Lian know, this 'husband' in game is much closer to him in real life than he first suspects...

At the same time, in the real world, An Lian encounters a man named Jian Chen. An Lian remains oblivious to Jian Chen's advances until it is too late, and he is already too deep in the lion's den.

My thoughts:

Very Fluffy, some angst, it really makes the world bright. The MC is such a cinnamon roll while the ML is so protective of MC. Very cute couple

Side couple is super cute too. It was a nice surprise. Supportive friends FTW

2. A Lotus Born of Mud

Theme: Transmigration, Cultivation, Disciple x Master

Trigger Warning: contains sensitive themes such as child abuse, rape and self-harm

Synopsis:

"Lu ShiZun... I like you."

"I like you too XiaoYin."

"... My kind of like is where we'd tumble in bed all day all night kind of like ShiZun..."

*ferociously runs in the opposite direction

...........................................

 Lu BiMing was born in the modern ages. However due to orphaned and adopted by cruel people at a young age, his life was as miserable as any life could get. When he finally escapes looking to start a new life he slips up and drowns.

 Whilst in JiangHu lives a man has money and reputation.  He is murdered... by drowning...

 Lu BiMing's life changes after he wakes up in another body. Now he really has literally found a new life where no one knows of his past, his secrets or his fears. However, with a new body comes responsibility too and he soon discovers that twisted secrets exist in this world also.

 He goes out of character,

 He bends the rules,

 But most of all, he's caught the eye of a troubling disciple...

My thoughts:

The MC is very naive and adorable but he’s not weak. He can protect himself. He’s just very dense and unable to realize how attractive he is. He has a very sad life but he still have the strength to fight and make himself and other people he care about happy. 

ML is like a little lost puppy without his master. He can be sexy yet cute at the same time. He is very possesive to the point that he’s showing yandere-ish actions. He’s still sane tho. 

The story itself is very detailed. The characters aren’t one dimensional. Full of gray area. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and in some cases you might get turned on

3.  I Love You from Alpha to Omega

Theme: Fantasy, Werewolves/Werecat

Trigger: contains scenes of abuse, PTSD

Ezra believed he would never find his mate, until he met Blair. While Ezra was away, training to become an Alpha strong enough to lead his pack, his mother and father adopted a new son into their home. When Ezra returnd home, he worried about competition from his new brother, Blair, for both his title and his parent's love and affection. It comes as a complete surprise to him that Blair is interested in neither. The small, skittish shifter is just a little neko, and above all, Ezra's mate.

    Ezra becomes concerned when his parents, the current Alpha and Luna of his pack, explain to him what little they know about Blair's devastating past. At first Ezra believes his only obstacle is to get his mate to accept him, but as Blair's previous life comes to light, blindsiding the couple, Ezra realizes he may have bit off more than he could chew. Ezra hopes his unconditional love for Blair will guide him in his quest to avenge his mate's honor. Follow Ezra and Blair as together they learn to trust in each other and develop a relationship unlike any other.

"I love you."

"How Much?" He breathlessly questioned.

"From A to Z, from Alpha to Omega." I confessed sincerely.

My Thoughts:

Very sensitive themes but you can really see that love exists between the main characters. It’s a little slow burn romance due to Blair’s past but you can really see how Ezra tries to become patient and understanding for his mate. I like that this story involves other kinds of love such as family/ parental love. Ezra’s parents are just the best. So pure.

2MOONS (Phayo/MingKit/ForthBeam) :

1. Last Descendant 

Theme: Fantasy, Magic, Kinda Avatar: Last Airbender inspired

Summary/ Description:

My name is Wayo Daichapanya. I am a non-magi. I can't seem to awaken my elemental powers. I envy my brother Ming who has awakened his earth magic since he was 5. He is going to go to a college in neutral lands so he can join the Wizards Rumble, a tournament of magic users. He is a powerful earth magic user, I believe he will win. I decided to come along with him to that college because I am quite attached to my brother. I always feel safe when I am with him, I can't imagine going to a different college.

I feel like someone has been stalking me in the college, but I can't seem to find who it is. Who is stalking me?

My thoughts:

Wayo is so such a cinnamon roll. He’s so lovable and innocent. Phana is such a bad ass here and also a possessive perv. 

TONS of MINGYO BROTHERLY cuteness!!!!!!!!

Mingkit is such a cute couple. Literally Fiery Kit and the adorable puppy Ming its just so funny

ForthBeam= trust issues storyline, mostly Beam’s. A very romantic Forth here. 

2. Two Planets

Summary/ Description:

He takes off his mask and what I see next is beyond awesome. Perfect face! He is so handsome. There is no way he is from Earth. Well, he is from Venus. His name is Phana, from the royal family Kongthanin.

My name is Wayo, from the royal family Panitchayasawad. Both of us got chosen as our respective planet's representative to enroll in the Intergalactic School. There will be other students from other planets too!

It has been my dream to know about other planets! But wait. Why is P'Pha holding my hands like this? This is in the school! This is embarrassing! *facepalms*

This story tells about Phana and Wayo, along with their friends from other planets in the Intergalactic School. Phana is from Venus, while Wayo is from Earth. What is about to bloom between the two planets?

My thoughts:

PREPARE TO DIE FROM EXTREME FLUFF AND CUTENESS. Sweet and loving yet possessive and perverted Phana X Innocent and lovable Prince Wayo

I just kept smiling while reading every chapter. THEY ARE BOTH CINNAMON ROLLS HERE! PLUS Phana is NOT A PLAYBOY here! He’s a virgin here.

There will be cameos

3.  Howling at the Moons

Theme: Fantasy,Supernatural, Werewolves, Omegaverse

Summary/ Description:

Yo is a young werewolf who wants nothing more than to experience life. To live, laugh, and love beyond the restrictions he has always known. Will college be his chance to do that?

 In a world where werewolves exist but are still 'in the closet' so to speak, how will our 6 boys handle their lives and loves while hiding one small secret from the world?

My Thoughts:

Very sweet loving couples. Full of Suprises. Cute funny scenes between the side couples (MingKit/ ForthBeam). MINGYO FRIENDSHIP FTW!!!!!! Very smexy scenes. 

4.  Taking a Bite Out of the Moons

Theme: Fantasy, Supernatural, Werewolves, Vampires, Fae

Trigger: School Bullying

Summay/Description:

Wayo is a simple human boy trapped in a lonely little world, until he makes friends with Ming and Forth, werewolves from the local pack. What adventures will they experience on their journey from secondary school students to college kids? And what awaits them at college?

 In a world where werewolves, vampires, and Fae exist and are 'out of the closet' so to speak, can our six boys find happiness and love?

My Thoughts:

Tons of twists and turns. Some light smexy threesome scenes but not all the way. There were actually scenes that made me cry. There will be character developments especially Wayo, Kit and of course Beam. 

CRACK/ GHOSTSHIPS

1. TEARS OF THE MOON (Forthyo)

The storyline is similar to 2moons but with Forth as lead

Summary/Description:

Ming being Ming  told me surely I had misunderstood and I so wanted it to be true, so I gladly accepted this point of view  although I knew without a shadow of doubt that I  had not misheard neither did I misunderstand.  That  night I chose to lie to myself  since I was not  prepared  to let go of P' Pha.

My Thoughts:

Seriously ship Forthyo here. Healthy relationship!!!

2.  Circus Freak (Mingyo)

Theme: Vampire, School Life

My Thoughts:

Sweet, lovely. Classic Besties turned Lovers with a twist

3. Guardian Angel (Mingyo)

Theme: School life

Summary/Description:

Ming blinks. This is this frist day in his new school and he has to witness a kid being hanged upside down in his one feet up the tree.

A thick glasses are dropped on the grass.

"Hey, do you know where the principal office is?" Ming asked him.

"Uhm. I want to show you but my sight is no use without my glasses." He said. His braces is colored blue.

Ming get the glasses from the grass and put it in the boy's eyes. Still with him hanging upside down.

He blinks several times to get used of the sudden clear sight. "Wow. You are handsome."

Ming blinks several times. "Wha...t...."

"There...." the boy points at one of the dirrection.

Ming blinks. "Why don't you just show me?" He said.

"I would like to, but if you haven't notice yet, I am hanged upside down here." He said. "Beside, you better not seen with me. You'll get trouble."

"Like what?"

"This."

Ming blinks. "Yeah... maybe my trouble would be much bigger than that. But hell with that." He puts down his back pack and then climbs up the tree.

Not long after, the boy with glasses and braces hit the ground with a loud thump sound.

Ming laughs. "You are so silly."

My Thoughts:

Bad boy/ Naughty Ming x Openly gay and sassy Wayo. Daddy kinks

This is all for now. Sorry all of them are on wattpad. the ones from other sites such as novelupdates are still ongoing so i couldn’t complete them yet

i’ll post more once i finished some more and depends if you guys want me to post more of these. 

I still haven’t finished tons of webnovels and fanfic coz they are either still updating or i got really distracted. ANY WAY PLEASE SUPPORT THE AUTHORS THEY DESERVE LOVE! 

let’s talk and discuss more love!!!

[preserving-ferretbrain]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapters 1-12

by Dan H

Wednesday, 01 August 2007

Dan reviews the final Harry Potter book chapter by painful chapter.~

I really liked the first three Harry Potter books. They were brilliant, engaging, cleverly written, masterfully paced and - as AS Byatt put it - just scary enough. They were genuinely good children's fiction, of the kind that a grown up wouldn't feel too bad about reading in public.  Then JKR got famous, and her editors stopped doing their job. And she got sucked into a nightmare whirlwind of publicity. And it went downhill from there.  I hate Potter now. Genuinely, vehemently hate it. I hate it precisely because I used to love it, and it angers me no end that the books I enjoyed, about a boy wizard and his boarding-school adventures, have been swallowed by this "phenomenon." 

The Harry Potter books aren't "books" any more. They're events. That's why people queue outside a bookshop at midnight to buy a copy, as if somehow starting to read a book an hour later than somebody else makes the reading experience different.  Anyway, to cut a long story short, I have a burning desire to exorcise the spirit of Potter from my soul, and I intend to do it by writing a chapter-by-chapter review of the final instalment. There may be some delays while I fling the book across the room.  So, without further ado...  Chapter One: The Dark Lord Ascending In which Voldemort borrows Lucius Malfoy's wand. I should first take a quick moment to say that his book managed to piss me off before chapter one even started by having a quote from Aeschylus at the start. I mean for fuck's sake, what is this, a 1993 Vampire sourcebook?  Anyway, chapter one is called The Dark Lord Ascending although it should more properly be called "The Dark Lord Sitting In A Dining Room And Being A Bit Mean To The Malfoys But Basically Doing Nothing."  Fans of the series will of course be intimately familiar with scenes of Voldemort Doing Nothing. He's been at it for three books now. This chapter is particularly full of fine examples of the Dark Lord's sinister aptitude for inactivity.  The action - or rather inaction - takes place in the pleasingly alliterative grounds of Malfoy Manor. Voldemort and his wacky minions discuss the progress of their sinister plan to take over the Wizarding World. They bicker about when Harry is going to be moved from his present location, and then they do a lot of exposition about how they are going to take over the Ministry of Magic.  This is particularly heavy handed. 

"It's a start," said Voldemort. "But Thicknesse is only one man. Scrimgeour must be surrounded by our people before I act. One failed attempt on the Minister's life will set me back a long way." "Yes, my Lord - that is true - but you know, as the head of the department of magical law enforcement, Thicknesse has regular contact not only with the Minister himself, but also with the heads of all the other Ministry departments. It will, I think, be easy now that we have such a high-ranking official under our control, to subjugate the others, and then we can all work together to bring Scrimgeour down."

Just in case you didn't catch that, they've got control of a man named Thicknesse, got that, Thicknesse, who is head of the department of magical law enforcement, and they are going to use him to get control over all the other ministers, and use that to take down Scrimgeour, and then take control of the ministry of magic.  Remember in the first book, where the Philosopher's Stone was barely seen, seldom discussed, and it wasn't until the very end of the book that you actually found out why Lord Voldemort wanted it so badly? Remember how cool and exciting that was. Damn I miss that.  While the Death Eaters bicker about whether their dastardly plan which they could have enacted at any time over the past three years is actually going to work or not, we are painfully aware that there is a figure, horribly suspended above the table in the centre of the room. Helpless and silent, we are forced to watch the black-hearted villains discuss their tedious-but-horrific plans, while this figure suffers above us.  Imagine, then, how our horror is compounded when we discover that this innocent creature who the Dark Lord torments so casually is none other than ...  ... Charity Burbage!  You know. Charity Burbage. She taught Muggle Studies at Hogwarts. Remember Muggle Studies? I think Hermione takes it in her third year. Or something.  So anyway, she dies. And this makes a Meaningful Statement About The Nature Of Death. Students of literary history will of course recall that up until 2000's Goblet of Fire, there had never been a death in any children's book ever written.  The Death Eaters talk some more. They make Nazi salutes (seriously: "in silence, both raised their left arms in a kind of salute") and are racist about Muggles and Mudbloods.  Chapter Two: In Memoriam In which Harry gets angry at a Daily Prophet article and shouts "Lies!" For chapter two, we are back following Harry Potter. I confidently predict that we shall never leave his side again.  In chapter two, Harry cuts his finger on the mirror that Sirius gave him. Then he reads two articles about Albus Dumbledore. These give us more information than we could possibly want about the plot-dumping old coot. Tragically, it seems fated to be but the tip of a very large Dumbledore-shaped iceberg.  And these articles are long. Like really, really long. It's basically like JK Rowling took her fifteen-year old notes about the character of Dumbledore, copy-pasted them into the text, and attributed them to a guy with a silly name.  The purpose of this chapter, it seems, is to make us believe that there was more to Dumbledore than we ever expected.  He had thought he knew Dumbledore quite well, but ever since reading this obituary he had been forced to recognise that he had barely known him at all. Never once had he imagined Dumbledore's childhood or youth; it was as though he had sprung into being as Harry had known him, venerable and silver-haired and old.  Now I'm sorry, but that's just cheating.  Dumbledore spends six books being a moderately entertaining but utterly generic White Haired Old Mentor Figure. Harry's belief that Dumbledore had "sprung into being ... venerable and silver-haired and old" is of course literally true. JK Rowling invented him to be a mentor to her protagonist, and at no point does he act like anything else. Dumbledore spends six books as a plot device. Asking us to suddenly see him as a real person is pathetic. She might as well have gone the whole hog and written "Suddenly, Harry realised that JK Rowling was a really brilliant writer, and all her characters were really complex and interesting."  Harry packs his bags, and prepares to leave on his Epic Quest To Defeat Voldemort Using The Spells He Learned In His Second Year Duelling Class.  Chapter Three: The Dursleys Departing In which the Dursleys Depart, and it's actually quite touching. This chapter, unlike the previous two chapters, is not a waste of good wood pulp. We see Harry being taken away from the Dursleys for the last time, and the Dursleys themselves being taken into hiding so that Voldemort cannot target them.  This chapter actually contains something approaching a significant event, and even more rarely, some actual semblance of character development on behalf of the otherwise zero-dimensional Dursley family. 

"I don't think you're a waste of space."

It's a touch of the old style. The Dursleys remain, to the end, a rather pathetic caricature of a middle class family (and really, is there any easier target in the world than the middle class suburbanite?) but Dudley's admission that he doesn't entirely hate Harry, and that Harry did in fact save his life, carries a genuine emotional weight.  So the Dursleys depart in the company of two utterly forgettable Order of the Phoenix members, and we never hear from them again. From here on in we live forever in the magical world of Hogwarts, where fourteen year olds fight dragons, and Dark Lords are desperate to get teaching gigs.  Chapter Four: The Seven Potters In which Harry's mail client goes down. After the Dursleys leave, the Order of the Phoenix show up, and explain that Potter can't escape by magic, because he's still underage, and the "Trace" which detects magic being performed around underage wizards would allow the Ministry to locate him instantly.  So instead they decide to go by broomstick / Thestral / flying motorbike, with six "decoy" Potters, created using Polyjuice potion.  It all goes a bit tits up. They run into a pack of thirty Death Eaters, who start flinging killing curses at them.  Harry responds with the spells he learned in his second year duelling class, and manages to take out about half a dozen of the pursuing Death Eaters with Stupefy and Impedimentia charms, which they are clearly incapable of blocking. Note that since Harry is "still under the Trace," his use of underaged magic should have immediately notified the Ministry to his presence, allowing them to track him trivially. After all, that's why they couldn't just Apparate out of there in the first place. Right?  So Harry and the rest of the Order fight the Death Eaters. During this battle, however, the Order of the Phoenix suffers a Terrible Loss. 

"Hedwig - Hedwig -" But the owl lay motionless and pathetic as a toy on the floor of her cage. He could not take it in, and his terror for the others was paramount.

Leaving aside the fact that I've seen better writing on fanfiction.net (I mean really "He could not take it in and his terror for the others was paramount," what the fuck?), I think it's telling that so far the casualties of this most dark and terrible war are a teacher who we never actually saw in a previous book, and Harry's pet owl. But the whole thing is presented in this massively portentous way that says This Is A Significant Event. I'm sorry, but it's an owl. Not only is it an owl, but it's an owl whose sole function is to deliver Harry's post.  So they fight the Death Eaters, and one of them gets his cowl knocked off to reveal that he is none other than ...  ... ready for this? There's a lot of these big revelations coming up...  ... he is none other than Stanley Shunpike!  Stanley Shunpike ... the guy off Knight Bus? Yeah, I don't care either.  Harry tries to disarm Stan with his trademark Expelliarmus curse, at which point Stan can identify him immediately. This is apparently significant, although since the Ministry is supposed to be able to tell the moment he performs underage magic of any sort anyway, I'm not sure why he's so shocked.  Some thing go wrong, and Hagrid flying tackles a Death Eater and gets all badly hurt and stuff. The next chapter is called "Fallen Warrior." But don't worry, Hagrid doesn't die. Because people only die if it won't get in the way of the plot. I wish I'd had JK Rowling to explain death to me when I was a child.  Chapter Five: Fallen Warrior  In which JK Rowling talks to us about the nature of death. Hagrid doesn't die. He and Harry are taken in by Mr and Mrs Tonks, Harry's tooth (which got knocked out in the previous chapter) is regrown by magic.  Harry and Hagrid travel by Portkey to the Burrow. Everybody else shows up one at a time, taking much longer than they needed to.  Lupin gives Harry a stern talking to about not trying to disarm his enemies. You see, the Death Eaters don't understand the idea of disarming your opponent. They're far too evil to consider the advantages of being armed when your opponent isn't. Or something. 

"Of course not," said Lupin, "but the Death Eaters - frankly most people! - would have expected you to attack back! Expelliarmus is a useful spell, Harry, but the Death Eaters seem to think it is your signature move, and I urge you not to let it become so!"

Essentially this little speech, like the bit about Dumbledore in chapter two, reads a lot like JK Rowling trying to pretend that her weaknesses as a writer are really deliberate character traits. The fact that Harry always uses Expelliarmus in a fight is a limitation of miss Rowling's imagination, her idea of non-evil things to do in a fight is strictly limited. Trying to claim that this is somehow saying something profound about Harry's naivete or his merciful nature is hogwash.  Most everybody makes it back in one piece. George (of Fred and George) loses an ear, which apparently can't be cured because it's "Dark Magic". And Mad-Eye-Moody dies. Now, I kinda liked Mad-Eye, but the character I actually liked was Mad-Eye as played by Barty Crouch under the influence of Polyjuice potion. Now admittedly, that character is pretty much identical to the "real" Mad-Eye, but that's rather strong testimony to how poorly developed he actually was.  This would all be fair enough, but JK then insists on making it very clear to us that there is Death happening and that Death is a very important part of the book, because it's important that children be told about Death.  So we get glorious lines like: 

Harry could not quite believe it. Mad-Eye dead; it could not be ... Mad-Eye, so tough, so brave, the consummate survivor ...

And... 

Nobody seemed to know what to do. Tonks was crying silently into a hand-kerchief: she had been close to Mad-Eye, Harry knew, his favourite and his protegee at the Ministry of Magic.

And of course the execrable: 

The suddenness and completeness of death was with them like a presence.

The first two are just the old show-don't tell problem, which JK never really got over. She's never really worked out how to convey something to her audience without just telling it to them directly. The last line, though, is just completely fucking amateurish. It's up there with "From my point of view, the Jedi are evil."  Leaving aside the fact that, yet again, she's attempting to convey the information that the people in the room have been struck by the suddenness and completeness of death by saying "the suddenness and completeness of death was with them" she also seems to think that "was with them like a presence" is anything other than nonsense. I mean, how can something be with you without being like a presence? It's a completely empty simile. It's functionally equivalent to saying "the suddenness and completeness of death was with them like a thing" or "the suddenness and completeness of death was with them like a thing that was with them."  I really hate this book.  Chapter Six: The Ghoul In Pyjamas In which we get a plot dump about Horcruxes. In chapter six we have a refreshing change of pace. And by "refreshing" I mean "frustrating" and by "change of pace" I mean "slow to a painful crawl as we watch Harry and co sit around doing nothing for several days."  So Bill and Fleur are getting married. We spend an inordinate amount of time talking about this. Mrs Weasley is entirely preoccupied with it. Presumably because she's a woman and therefore doesn't understand important things like war, death, and her son losing an ear.  In chapter six, Harry Ron and Hermione explain to each other in great detail the plans they have made for their upcoming battle against Voldemort. So we learn how Hermione mind-raped her parents in order to keep them safe (she cries about this for four seconds, Harry and Ron do not comment). We learn how Ron has dressed up the Weasleys' pet Ghoul in an unconvincing red wig, so that nobody will suspect that he's really out to kill Voldemort.  The thing that bugs me about this chapter is that it tries to provide answers to questions which I wouldn't have thought were important until JK drew attention to them. If the book had just been about Messers Potter, Weasley and Granger hunting some Dark Lord ass, I'd be totally onside. Putting this chapter in to "explain" why Voldemort doesn't just capture the Weasleys and torture the hell out of them just highlights how ludicrous it is that he doesn't. Hell, once he's taken over the Ministry of Magic, he could very easily haul in everybody Potter has ever cared about, and start hacking bits off of them until Harry gives himself up.  But he doesn't. Because Ron has cunningly disguised a Ghoul as "Ron With a horrible disease and a completely different face". So they'll leave the Weasleys alone. They're considerate, those Death Eaters.  The other thing we find out is that Hermione has a copy of Secrets of the Darkest Art, otherwise known as the Big Book of Horcruxes. She proceeds to explain in excruciating detail exactly how Horcruxes work. Because lord knows we wouldn't want anybody reading the book to draw their own conclusions about that sort of thing. That would imply that reading a work of fiction was something other than the process of learning facts about the author's world. We can't have that now can we.  Similarly, we get things like: 

"I wonder when Dumbledore removed it from the library ... if he didn't do it until he was headmaster, I bet Voldemort got all the instruction he needed from here." "Why did he have to ask Slughorn how to make a Horcrux then, if he'd already read that?" asked Ron. "He only approached Slughorn to find out what would happen if you split your soul into seven," said Harry.

Which, let's face it, reads like the Q&A section from JKR's official website. This isn't Harry talking to Ron, this is Rowling talking to her readers. At least, to the sorts of readers who ask that sort of question.  The chapter ends with no progress having been made towards finding any of the Horcruxes.  Chapter Seven: The Will of Albus Dumbledore In which Ginny kisses Harry Like She Has Never Kissed Him Before Chapter seven is a mystery dump. Harry wakes up shouting "Grigorovitch!" and we are left to wonder what this mysterious name means.  It's Harry's birthday. Ron gets him a book about pulling chicks. Ginny kisses him as she has never kissed him before. The Minister for Magic shows up and tells Harry, Ron and Hermione that they have all been left stuff in Dumbledore's will. Then he makes an inept attempt to grill them for information.  In Dumbledore's Will, Ron is left the Deluminator (the thing Dumbledore uses at the start of the first book to put out the lights in Privet Drive), Hermione is left a book of fairy tales, and Harry is left the Snitch from his first ever game of Quidditch. And the Sword of Godric Gryffindor, but he's not given that. We are then told that all of these gifts are Very Very Mysterious but that Dumbledore Must Have Had A Plan and therefore it is Important To Work Out What Each Of The Gifts Means.  Once again, nothing happens. Ron tells Harry to keep his filthy vacillating hands out of his sister's long, sweet-smelling hair. Team Potter wonders why Dumbledore left them the bunch of crap he left them. And of course they wonder why the irritating old coot didn't tell them what was going on while he was still alive, or give Harry the Sword of Godric Gryffindor when he still had the chance. 

"And why couldn't he have just told me?" Harry said quietly. "It was there, it was right there on the wall of his office during all our talks last year! If he wanted me to have it, why didn't he give it to me then?"

Going by previous form, the answer to this all important question about Dumbledore's already spurious motivation probably has something to do with love.  Everybody gets ready for the wedding. Because a wedding is exactly what you should be thinking about when a Nazi wizard with no nose is taking over the world.  Chapter Eight: The Wedding In which Voldemort takes over the world while Harry is at a wedding. One of the Weasleys marries one of the characters with a stupid accent. Harry is Polyjuiced into a red-headed stepchild so that he can hide amongst the guests. Harry then has to babysit an offensive aunt of the Weasley clan, who says horrible things about everybody.  Harry, being a man who has his priorities sorted out, decides that the best use of his time, seeing as how he's destined to destroy the Dark Lord and everything, is to get really obsessive about Dumbledore's family history. To be fair to the kid, it's not like he was going to be able to get anything done at the wedding anyway.  So we learn more tedious crap about how Dumbledore's mother was like evil or something, and he had a sister who was a squib. We also learn ...  ... get ready for another big revelation ...  ... this one's really big ...  ... no seriously ...  we also learn that the Dumbledores used to live in Godric's Hollow! Doesn't that shed a whole new light on the other books? Can't you just see it all now, how Dumbledore's every glance, every gesture was just screaming "Harry! My family once lived in the same general location as your family!" Truly, we are in the presence of a master storyteller.  We also find out that Grigorovitch was a wandmaker, that Voldemort is still evil, and that Voldemort has killed the Minister of Magic and taken control of the Wizarding government. 

The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming.

Okay, I get it. It's punchy. But for the love of all that is holy, we're a hundred and thirty-three pages in, the Death Eaters have finally done something interesting, and we miss it because we're stuck following Harry, who is stuck at a wedding and angsting about his old headmaster.  Chapter Nine: A Place To Hide In which Team Potter sits around doing nothing.  Potter and his pals flee the wedding and hide out in a greasy spoon cafe, where they are set upon by Dolohov and Thorfin Rowle. Presumably these names mean something to somebody - perhaps to people who have religiously followed JK Rowling's "Wizard of the Month" updates on her website. These two Death Eaters fail to capture the Potterites, which should come as no surprise to anybody.  They decide to modify the memories of these two men, in order to cover their escape. Because lord knows a couple of mindless zombies won't attract attention. 

"But I've never done a memory charm." "Nor have I," said Hermione, "but I know the theory."

By "but I know the theory" she of course means "I mind-raped my parents into thinking they were completely different people who wanted to move to Australia, and by the way I told you fuckers that - like - two chapters ago and you didn't offer me any support or sympathy."  They decide they need somewhere safe, and they decide to go to Grimmauld Place, which is apparently safe because the late, lamented Mad-Eye had set up "protections" there, so that Snape couldn't get in and kill them all (remember that, although JK Rowling told us categorically that Snape was a good guy, we're supposed to ignore this information and keep acting like we think he's a villain). These "protections" turn out to be a tongue-tying curse that lasts for eight seconds (and can't Snape cast spells silently anyway?) and a Spooky Dumbledore Ghost, which goes away once you tell it you aren't Snape.  This chapter is mercifully short.  Chapter Ten: Kreacher's Tale In which we are told firmly that Sirius black was NOT GAY. Harry pokes around Grimmauld place, finding Sirius' old collection of bikini model posters, photograph of himself at the age of one, and a letter from Lily Potter which basically reads:  "Dear Sirius, I'm really glad we aren't going get horribly killed in the next six months. Baby Harry is wonderful and I love him very much. So much that I'll make him immune to dark magic by the sheer loving power of my loving loving love. Love Lily."  And of course, the letter ends on this note: 

Bathilda drops in most days, she's a fascinating old thing with the most amazing stories about Dumbledore, I'm not sure he'd be pleased if he knew! I don't know how much to believe, actually, because it seems incredible that Dumbledore...

The rest of the letter is missing.  You fucking hack, JK Rowling. Look, I get it. You've got a bunch of Dumbledore backplot you want to give us. You've told us that. Just give us the plot dump, or don't give us the plot dump. I don't care at this stage. Nothing's going to be as cool as "he was Ron from the future" anyway.  Next to Sirius' room is the bedroom of ...  ... wait for it ...  ... Sirius's brother: Regulus Arcturus Black.  It's a good thing that he put his middle name on his door really. And a good thing that no two people in the entire Wizarding world have the same initials.  So they've found RAB, but no magic locket of Horcruxness. They ransack the house, then realise that Mundungus probably nicked off with it. Bastard.  So they go to Kreacher, and he gives them a bit of backstory which, unusually is genuinely touching. It turns out that crotchety old Kreacher was given to Lord Voldemort by Regulus, and Voldemort used him to "test" the defences around his locket Horcrux, making Kreacher drink the poison so that he could hide the artefact underneath it. Curiously, this led the Dark Lord to believe that his defences were completely secure, instead of the more sensible opinion that his defences could be breached by anybody with access to a tractable house-elf.  Anyway, Kreacher was all wrecked by this, and when Regulus found out he turned against Voldemort (possibly the genocide was giving him the willies as well). He got Kreacher to take him back to the cave, drank the poison himself, and gave Kreacher the Horcrux with instructions that he should destroy it.  Which is actually kind of sweet, and I'm damned certain Harry and co would never dream of sacrificing themselves for a house-elf.  So they decide to be nice to Kreacher, and this gets him onside. They then send Kreacher looking for Mundugus, so they can get the Horcrux back off him.  Chapter Eleven: The Bribe In which Harry Potter bravely lets a house-elf do his job for him.  Harry Potter, realising that in order to defeat Voldemort he must use the Dark Lord's own methods, however despicable they might be, spends this chapter sitting on his arse doing nothing. Not that Voldemort has anything to fear: he's had decades to practice his sitting-on-his-arse-doing-nothing, and Harry's arse-sitting seems amateurish by comparison.  So anyway. Harry sends Kreacher to get Mundungus back, so he can ask for the Horcrux. While he is sitting around waiting, Remus Lupin shows up and acts like an asshole. He informs Harry that Tonks is now pregnant, and therefore he has decided to join Harry on his quest, because werewolves shouldn't be allowed near small children or something.  We also find out that Voldemort and his minions have continued their cunning plan to imitate the Nazis and have started making Muggle-Borns "register", and presumably wear little yellow stars as well, because in case you hadn't noticed the Death Eaters are a little bit like the Nazis and Voldemort's desire to wipe out the Muggle-Borns is a little bit like the Holocaust. Clever that, isn't it. Kudos to you JK Rowling. It's about time somebody took a stand against genocide.  Anyway, I digress. Remus shows up and acts like an asshole. Harry acts like an asshole back, and they get into this huge "who can be the biggest asshole" competition. This shows us that Harry has "grown up" over the course of the books. We know this because he is now acting like a forty year old novelist thinks a teenager would act, rather than actually displaying any form of personality or motivation.  Remus leaves to go back to his "wife and child", but not before giving us another one of the by now familiar "this is why this book totally makes sense and doesn't suck" speeches. When asked (very sensibly) why Voldemort doesn't just come into the open now that he's - y'know - taken over the goddamned world already, Lupin insists that: 

"Voldemort is playing a very clever game. Declaring himself might have provoked open rebellion: remaining masked has crafted confusion, uncertainty and fear."

Once again, JK drops the "show, don't tell" ball, by having somebody inform us that Voldemort is being clever, when in fact all he's doing is letting Harry slip through his fingers by pulling his punches when he should be rounding people up by the truckload. I mean what, precisely, does Voldemort have to fear from open rebellion? And if he wants to create confusion uncertainty and fear, then I'm sure a couple of senseless massacres could do the same job with fewer administrative overheads.  Eventually Kreacher, who is the only person around here still doing his job right, brings Mundungus back, and he reveals that he gave the amulet to Dolores "Wasn't I Killed by Centaurs Already?" Umbridge as a bribe.  So Harry is off to the Ministry of magic.  Chapter Twelve: Magic is Might  In which we get yet another Polyjuice sequence. One thing I'll say for JK Rowling: you've got to respect her plot devices. While nothing will ever top the Room of Requirement for sheer brass-bollocked "yeah, this thing does whatever the hell I need it to" style, Polyjuice potion pulls its weight and then some.  So Harry, Ron and Hermione polyjuice themselves into Ministry employees and walk right in through the front door. This reminds us, as if we didn't know already, that the Ministry is run by morons who, despite Polyjuice potion being common enough that an above-average twelve year old can whip up a batch, haven't thought to take any precautions against their members being waylaid and replaced by rebellious seventeen year olds. Perhaps Voldemort couldn't increase security too much on account of his not wanting to "provoke open rebellion." He's just too damned clever for his own good, that Lord Voldemort.  This chapter is almost Tolkeinesque in its irrelevance. It essentially chronicles, in painstaking detail, the way in which Team Potter knock out some Ministry officials, polyjuice into them, and walk into the ministry. On their way in they hear terrible things about Mudbloods and Blood-Traitors being put on trial. For a Dark Lord, Voldemort is clearly very concerned about due process.  The chapter takes its name from an irrelevant but kinda cool piece of window-dressing. The phrase "Magic is Might" is engraved onto the base of the new (black) statue which has replaced the old frolicking magical creatures motif. 

Harry looked more closely and realised that what he had thought were decoratively carved thrones were actually mounds of carved humans: hundreds and hundreds of naked bodies, men, women and children, all with rather stupid, ugly faces, twisted and pressed together to support the weight of the handsomely robed wizards.

Now that's some serious Dark Lord style. But you'd think with his overall agenda of world conquest and crushing the Muggles and the Muggle-born beneath his pallid iron-shod heel, he'd be less concerned about hiding in the shadows.  Oh, also in this chapter we find out some more shit about Dumbledore or something. And Snape has been made headmaster of Hogwarts. And Voldemort is still looking for this wand-maker guy.  Next: The return of Dolores Umbridge, and more pointless backplot.

Themes: J.K. Rowling, Books, Young Adult / Children

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Comments (go to latest)

http://pozorvlak.livejournal.com/ at 20:39 on 2009-02-08

That, my friend, was awesome. You had at least twice as many quotable lines in that piece as JKR managed throughout the entire book.

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Rami at 06:53 on 2009-02-09

Welcome to Dan's Fans -- meetings are every Saturday at 11... ;-)

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Arthur B at 09:16 on 2009-02-09

You realise, of course, that there's only one way this can end: sooner or later someone, somewhere, is going to write Harry Potter fanfic where Dan is a character. (He could teach all the kids physics and he could be in a big snark feud with Snape and Snape will challenge him to a duel and Harry will be all GO DAN SHOW THAT MEANY WHO'S BOSS and Hermione will be all OH WOW PHYSICS IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN MAGIC I AM TOTALLY A SCIENCE NERD NOW and Ron is all MAN IF I WERE GROWN UP I WOULD TOTALLY SMOOCH DAN RIGHT NOW and Dumbledore is all MAN IF EVERYONE I KISSED DIDN'T TURN INTO HITLER I WOULD TOTALLY SMOOCH DAN RIGHT NOW and Dan beats Snape in duel with science and Snape is all I WAS WRONG TO SAY SCIENCE IS LAME YOU SHOULD STAY HERE AT HOGWARTS AND TEACH US ALL THE WAY OF THE MUGGLES and Dan is all like NO WAY THE KIDS OF ALL NATIONS NEED ME and he turns around and punches Voldemort in the jaw so hard his head comes off and then he takes off and flies away to the Moooooooooooooon....)

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Wardog at 10:54 on 2009-02-09

But Dan doesn't have long dark hair, skin like freshly poured cream and violet eyes....

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Arthur B at 11:03 on 2009-02-09

Aaaand there's my cue to post a link to the Sparklypoo comic.

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https://me.yahoo.com/a/tjLTVHEducFb4rKDHU5DukBHtQcCbTVMEEq55v0CxV4-#5e156 at 19:43 on 2009-07-29

Brilliant, absolutely hilarious, I want to show the rest of the Harry Potter fanbase your review. I wonder if my inertia could ever be on a par with Voldemort's. "My inertia is with me like something that is with me."

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http://lunabell14.myopenid.com/ at 22:50 on 2010-07-27

I wonder if cutting out all of that unnecessary Dumbledore backstory would've helped the pacing, or at least cut down some of the reading. Seriously, even when it was first introduced, I couldn't help but think "Why are you telling us about this? How will this help with Harry's quest, at all?" And every time it was brought up, it just continued to irritate me. I honestly don't understand why her editors didn't insist she cut it out.

[darnloveablecharacters]

Prove Me Wrong, Part Eight: A True Friend

Series Summary:  Caithwistë, born from the only known pairing of an elf and a dwarf has spent most of her life in hiding. When an old friend, (or a certain meddling wizard) finds her in the woods, everything changes. Now, she will have the chance to prove the world wrong about her value. A ‘The Hobbit’ fanfiction based off of the following imagines from @imaginexhobbit: This One is the basis of the story, and This One and This One will be added in later. If you recognize it, it belongs to Professor Tolkien or Peter Jackson. But, as usual, the story and all of the mistakes are my own!

Prove Me Wrong - Masterlist

Chapter Notes: Balin is just such a wonderful person in every version of The Hobbit. He’s another one of those characters that just doesn’t seem to get near the credit he deserves. I think he would be my best friend too :-) Fun fact, her parents’ names are actually my parents’ converted names.

On a side note... I just started school, and am going to attempt to fast track it so once I really start getting going with my school work, I may be posting less. We shall see though. I love writing and it will probably be my break from the work/school craziness.

Warnings for this chapter: angst

Translations:  none

Tagged: @imaginesreblogged

It had been raining for a few days now, and the entire Company was soaked and miserable. Caithwistë was deeply preoccupied while Mithrandir spoke of the other wizards in the world. Her thoughts were centered around Thorin, as they always seemed to be as of late. She had avoided being alone with him since the night he followed her to the woods. There was a time, and a place, for the feelings she was trying to work through. Unfortunately, this quest was neither of those.

The only words they had shared were simple greetings, or his praise when she would return from a successful hunt. Even with the limited contact, he managed to invade her every waking thought and even her dreams. She tried to distance herself, but the more she pulled away, the more vivid the dreams became.

As time passed, she found herself sleeping less and less. She took a long watch every night, trying to avoid the dreams. But even then, as soon as her eyes would close, he would be there waiting for her.

She was so exhausted, that she hadn’t even realized that Balin had been trying to speak to her until he gently nudged her. “I’m sorry Balin.” She said, shaking her head. “What did you say?”

“I was just wondering Miss, would you mind if I ask something personal of you?” He asked kindly.

She couldn’t help the surprise from showing on her face. “Of course, Balin. Anything.” She said, unsure of what he could possibly be curious about.

“Thorin mentioned in passing that you spoke in khuzdul.” He said.

Caithwistë raised her eyebrows. She didn’t expect to hear that Thorin would have told anyone about their conversation. “I suppose I did. Is that uncommon?”

Balin gave her a curious glance, then nodded. “The language has been a secret for ages, only passed between dwarves you see. How did you come to learn it?”

Caithwistë glanced at him silently, suddenly fearful of what he may have guessed already. Her father had never explained that the language had never been passed to a non-dwarf.

“You don’t have to tell me of course. But I am rather curious and would love to know your story.” He smiled at her and winked. “I promise I will speak of it with no one else if that is your wish.”

She looked forward to the head of the Company, where Thorin rode next to Dwalin and sighed. She knew the old dwarf was trustworthy, but she was still afraid of what the truth could bring. She had already grown close to the dwarves, and even the hobbit, and didn’t want to ruin what she had. Still, she wanted nothing more than to be accepted as she was. “I will tell you Balin.” She said cautiously. “But not with this many ears around.”

He smiled as if he had been given a great gift. “May we speak tonight? We can find a place away from the Company after we stop.”

Caithwistë couldn’t help but return the smile at his enthusiasm, and nodded.

The rain finally had quit, and they stopped at an abandoned farmhouse to rest for the night. As she took in the surrounding area, Caithwistë felt uneasy. She associated the feeling with the pending conversation with Balin until Mithrandir stormed away from Thorin, cursing dwarves.

Startled, Bilbo tried to catch up with him. “Everything alright? Gandalf, where are you going?”

“To seek the company of the only one around here who’s got any sense.” Mithrandir grumbled.

Bilbo stopped in his tracks as Mithrandir climbed on his horse. “Who’s that?”

“Myself, Mr. Baggins! I’ve had enough of dwarves for one day.” Mithrandir snapped, wheeling his horse around and riding away.

“Come on, Bombur, we’re hungry.” Thorin called from behind them, startling Caithwistë.

She watched as Bilbo whispered something to Balin, who shrugged and walked away. He caught Caithwistë’s eyes, and motioned toward the forest.

Everyone was busy either setting up the camp, and they wouldn’t immediately notice their absence. Steeling herself, she followed him to a spot in the trees where they could still see the Company, but they would not be overheard.

“So, lass.” He said, sitting on a fallen tree. He still smiled as if he were a child about to receive a treat. “How did you come to learn khuzdul.”

She leaned against a tree, and closed her eyes trying to center herself. When she opened her eyes again, Balin was still on the tree waiting patiently. She sighed, and finally said. “My father taught me.”

Balin’s eyebrows raised, “Oh? He must have been very well traveled for a hobbit?”

Caithwistë bit her lip. “He wasn’t a hobbit.” She said slowly, gauging his reaction.

Balin continued to smile, and gestured for her to continue.

“My father… he was a dwarf.” She said, biting her lip again preparing for the worst.

Against her expectations, Balin showed no signs of anger. He simply nodded thoughtfully, still smiling. “I thought as much.” She raised her eyebrows at this, shocked. “You don’t carry yourself much like the hobbits do. And, though it is exceptionally rare, I have heard of some dwarves finding their One in hobbits. You’re the first child of such a pairing that I have met though.” He explained.

She nodded, afraid to continue again.

He furrowed his brows thoughtfully. “Who was your father?”

Caithwistë took a deep breath again. “Rofur, son of…”

“Lofur.” Balin finished suddenly. His eyes widened, and Caithwistë tensed seeing the recognition on his face.

“You know my father?” She asked quietly.

He nodded solemly. “I know of him.” She glanced at him quizzically, and he continued. “I read of him when I was just a lad. I fear there are few left who would remember his name though.” He glanced toward the camp with a sad look.

“Why wouldn’t they?” She asked, even though she was sure that she already knew the answer.

“His name had been removed from all of the ancestral records my dear, save for a few.” He said, now watching her warily.

Even though his words were what she had expected to hear, she could feel the untapped anger bubbling inside her. She nodded silently, feeling the sting of tears in her eyes. Her father deserved better.

“Will you permit me one more question lass?” Balin asked, drawing her out of her thoughts.

She looked at him with glassy eyes, and nodded again.

Balin sighed. “Your mother...” He began slowly, “she was an elf?”

She knew, even then, that Balin didn’t deserve the brunt of her anger. At his question though, she suddenly couldn’t contain it. “My mother has a name.” Caithwistë said angrily. “Calyniel Aranel. She loved my father with all of her heart, even though he was a dwarf. She loved him so much that when he was murdered she was left heartbroken, and sailed to the undying lands.” The tears had started to fall from her eyes, but she wasn’t finished. “They gave up everything for each other, and the world hated them for it. Now they’re both gone, and I’m alone in the same world who hates me for existing.” The tears were flowing freely now, and she dropped to her knees burying her face in her hands. Even though her emotions had flown out of control, it felt good to finally tell someone what she had been holding back.

She tensed when she felt Balin patting her gently on the shoulder. “I don’t hate you. In fact, I think that you may be the bravest person I have ever met.” She glanced at him with tears still in her eyes as he continued. “I have grown very fond of you my dear, and I think the others have as well.” He said, glancing toward the camp again.

Caithwistë followed his gaze. The sun was now setting, and the others were conversing jovially around a fire. “I am very fond of all of you as well. But, none of them even know what I am.” She choked out.

“Perhaps not.” He said thoughtfully. “But I think they know who you are, and that’s what really matters. Isn’t it?” He said smiling at her.

She gave him a small smile, and nodded back.

“I must admit though, I think it would be wise to keep this between us for now. I would like to believe that they will accept you as I do, but I think they need more time to adjust. I would hate to lose the reason for the meat in our meals over a silly feud.” He said, winking at her.

She felt tears in her eyes again, and hugged him fiercely causing him to gasp in surprise. “Thank you Balin. You’re the first true friend I believe I have ever had.”

He returned the embrace and chuckled softly. “It’s my pleasure lass.” He said cheerfully.

She pulled away from him, and was about to speak again when Fili suddenly burst through the trees. “Bilbo!” He shouted breathlessly. “They’ve taken Bilbo!”

Caithwistë and Balin shared a worried glance, and they dashed to the camp to retrieve their weapons.

[anyway-i-love-vanderwood]

✿ For those of you who asked, here you are - written out versions of Yoosung Kim’s Heart Events from my Harvest Moon AU! More to follow.

If you enjoy the art, this is the kind of stuff I’ve been streaming on my channel! Feel free to come take a peek whenever I have it up.

Black Heart Event

Time: 6-12AM; Any Season but Winter

Weather: Sunny

Location: Kim Family Ranch

[You walk into the area containing the Kim Family Ranch, where Yoosung is outside, feeding the chickens. He notices you after he tosses a few handfuls of seed for them, and immediately runs over, dropping the bag in the process].

Yoosung: Oh hey, you’re the new farmer! Hello!

Yoosung: Were you going in to town, or were you coming by to look at the animals?

Yoosung: We could sell you some chickens, if you’d like. Or some goats. We’ve got cows, too! And sheep. And rabbits.

Yoosung: Maybe you’d like the horses? They’re fun to ride; I could teach you how!

> [Choice 1] “I was just passing through.”

(-200 Yoosung)

Yoosung: I see…

Yoosung: Well, I don’t want to keep you, but if you have the time, can I ask you something?

[go to 1]

> [Choice 2] “I came to see you.”

(+500 Yoosung)

Yoosung: Really? Wow… that makes me so happy!

Yoosung: I was actually really hoping you’d come by. I have so much to ask you.

(go to A)

> [Choice 3]  I wanted to visit the ranch.

(+ 200 Yoosung)

Yoosung: Well, here you are! Hehe.

Yoosung: Since you’re here, I really wanted to ask you…

(go to A)

A

Yoosung: What was it like, living in the city?

Yoosung: Was it big? Exciting? …Scary?

Yoosung: I’ve lived in Mystic Valley my entire life, so I can’t imagine being around so many people everyday!

[It was...]

> [Choice 1] Big

Yoosung: Oh man, isn’t it?

Yoosung: I traveled to the city every so often with Rika, and I couldn’t believe how tall everything was.

Yoosung: Like those skyscrapers! How do they stand up? It seems like the wind should blow them down!

Yoosung: I asked the wizard on the hill about it and he told me that the workers pour milk into the concrete because calcium ‘makes things strong’.

Yoosung: …That isn’t true though, right?

> [Choice 1] “Right.”

Yoosung: Haha… I knew it. I’m glad I can trust you.

(go to 2)

> [Choice 2] “Wrong.”

Yoosung: R-Really? I can’t believe it! But I guess you’d know…

(go to B)

> [Choice 2]  Exciting

Yoosung: I bet it must be, there’s so much stuff to do. And see. And eat!

Yoosung: Rika took me to get gelato once. Can you believe it? It was so tasty. Mine was pink and tasted like a watermelon. And there were so many museums!

Yoosung: And parks... and schools… and stores! We just have a couple here in Mystic Valley, but it seemed like there were thousands in the city!

Yoosung: Why did you move away?

> [Choice 1] "Something bad happened...”

Yoosung: O-Oh! I – I, gosh. I’m sorry. You can talk to me about it, if you want…? I know how good it feels when someone actually cares about your problems…

Yoosung: And I care! I mean, I just met you, so maybe that sounds silly but –

(go to B)

> [Choice 2] “I just wanted a change of pace.”

Yoosung: Change of pace, huh? I guess I know what it’s like, to fall into a rut…

Yoosung: And to feel like everything will change if you live somewhere new…

Yoosung: Well, I’m really rooting for you!

(go to B)

> [Choice 3] Scary

Yoosung: I guess I could see that. All those people that you don’t know… they could do anything to you.

Yoosung: You could get robbed. Beaten up. Hurt…

Yoosung: Sometimes I think the city sounds really fun and cool, but other times I think about how safe I feel here, and how everyone is looking out for me in Mystic Valley.

Yoosung: It makes it hard to leave.

Yoosung: Well – since you were scared in the city, let me assure you, that I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you have a great time here!

Yoosung: If you’re ever in trouble, I’ll definitely protect you!

[go to B]

B

[During the conversation, the chickens have been pecking at the bag Yoosung dropped. His mother comes out, sees this, and appears angry.]

Mrs. Kim: Yoosung!

Mrs. Kim: What have I told you about getting distracted? The chickens are getting into the feed!

Yoosung: But mom… I was talking to the new farmer!

Mrs. Kim: Don’t “but mom” me, young man! Finish your chores, then you can talk to <him/her/them>!

Yoosung: Okay…

Yoosung: I’m sorry, I have to go. But feel free to go inside and shop, if you want! I really hope I see you around.

[The rest of the events are under the read-more!]

Purple Heart Event

Time: 12PM – 6PM, Any Season

Weather: Sunny

Location: North of town, near the abandoned community center

[You walk in from the south and see Yoosung, hammer in hand, banging on the wall of the broken down community center. He doesn’t notice you until you walk up, whereupon he wipes at his forehead and looks at you.]

Yoosung: Oh, hey <MC!>

Yoosung: Did you hear the noise and wonder what was going on?

Yoosung: Sometimes when I’m free, I’ll bring dad’s tools up here and work on the old Community Center a bit. Y’know.

Yoosung: Do some repairs, try to patch some of the holes…

Yoosung: It’s not much, but it makes it decay just a little bit slower.

Yoosung: Rika and I used to – I mean… when Rika was still alive…

Yoosung: We used to talk about this place a lot. It’s been left to rot for years and years – since before I was born! – and she had all these dreams of fixing it up and using it to bring the community together.

Yoosung: She wanted an art gallery to showcase the local artists, she wanted to hold plays here, she wanted…

Yoosung: She wanted to make this a place that the whole town could be proud of. That we could love.

Yoosung: I really believed in her dream. I thought we could do it, too, but then…

Yoosung: Sorry. That’s all stuff that’s in the past, I guess. I don’t really know why I cling on to this place, but…

> [Choice 1] I think it’s wonderful that you’re doing this!

[+200 Yoosung]

Yoosung: Really? You think?

Yoosung: V keeps telling me to stop, to let it rest…

Yoosung: And Mayor Jumin – he stopped caring about all our efforts the second Rika died!

Yoosung: Zen… He used to help me, but I think even he’s lost hope… so that – hearing you say that… means a lot to me.

Yoosung: That you still think believing in a better town for us all is worth it. I’m not sure anyone else does.

Yoosung: Thank you, <MC>. It’s always really nice to talk to you.

Yoosung: I’m glad you moved here. I think… people are starting to cheer up a little because of you.

Yoosung: I’m, uh, kinda getting tired though. Wanna come back to the ranch with me and play a few rounds of Buddha Kart? It’s hard to get video games here, but I saved up and had it shipped from the city!

[You nod, and the two of you walk off screen together.]

> [Choice 2] “There’s not a lot you can do alone. Why don’t you come play with me, instead?”

[-200 Yoosung]

Yoosung: I… guess you’re right.

Yoosung: I know it’s silly. Everyone tells me its silly – Jumin. Zen. Jaehee. Seven… Even V, who I thought believed in this town most of all.

Yoosung: But… I guess… people show their true colors when tragedy hits, huh?

Yoosung: Everyone does…

Yoosung: …

Yoosung: Sorry, that’s super gloomy! You’re right. Let’s go put these tools away. I’ve got a new game to show you! It’s called Ph. D Pepper’s Exotic Quest. I saved up and had it shipped from the city!

[You nod, and the two of you walk off screen together.]

> [Choice 3] “Do you want some help?”

[+500 Yoosung]

Yoosung: Help? I couldn’t ask that of you. You’re probably tired from all the farmwork. And I bet you’re really busy!

[You shake your head]

Yoosung: You really want to help?

[You nod]

Yoosung: MC... That means so much to me, you don’t even know!

Yoosung: Everyone else stopped helping me ages ago. Zen, Jumin – V flat out says that I need to stop!

Yoosung: But you’re willing to help me? You think building a better town for us is worth it?

Yoosung: I’m so happy, I could cry!

Yoosung: But I’m not going to. Crying makes it very hard to use a hammer safely.

Yoosung: Have you ever done work on a building before? Here, I’ll show you…

[The screen fades to black. After the event, your energy is halved.]

Blue Heart Event

Time: 4PM-10PM, Any Season

Weather: Any

Location: The Dark Woods

[You enter the initial area of the Dark Woods and see Yoosung up ahead of you on the path.]

Yoosung: Okay, you can do this.

Yoosung: You’re the great Yoosung★! Master of many worlds, wielder of every weapon imaginable... Owner of the second-highest score in Sanic the Speedy Pig!

Yoosung: It’s just like a video game, it’s just like a video game...

[There’s a large roar from the depths of the forest, and Yoosung freaks out and runs back out of the forest, only stopping when he sees you standing in the middle of the path.]

Yoosung: <M-MC!> What - what are you doing here?

Yoosung: It’s late... and - *gulp!* - there are monsters!

> [Choice 1] I’m curious about what lives there.

Yoosung: Wow. You’re really brave, <MC>.

> [Choice 2] There’s something I need.

Yoosung: What could you possibly need from the forest?!

> [Choice 3] I’m just exploring.

Yoosung: Exploring? In the woods? At night? You’re really brave, <MC>.

Yoosung: I guess if you’re going in... I could go with you?

[You seem pleased, and the two of you walk deeper into the woods side-by-side. On the next screen, Yoosung begins to talk again.]

Yoosung: This is the last place Rika went before she...

Yoosung: Well, before V said she died. None of us really know what happened. They went to the city together to get things for the wedding. Did I tell you that? V and Rika were going to get married.

Yoosung: But he said there was an accident there. That she got hit by a car. He didn’t bring the body back, and... Gosh. I’m sorry.

Yoosung: I don’t know why I’m talking about this.

> [Choice 1] Yeah, I’d really rather not hear about your dead cousin. Let’s talk about something fun!

[-200 Yoosung]

Yoosung: Yeah, I - yeah. Okay. Okay, fun things. What fun things can we talk about in the dark, scary woods.

Yoosung: Those... trees, huh? They’re certainly whimsical. Those dark, spooky trees.

Yoosung: And those menacing rocks! The ones that look like teeth, sticking out of the maw of a giant, carnivorous -

[go to A]

> [Choice 2] It’s okay, Yoosung. Did you come here because you’re thinking about her?

[+200 Yoosung]

Yoosung: How did you know? Yeah. I just - I can’t stop thinking about it. 

Yoosung: You might think it’s silly, but there’s this little... voice in my head that keeps saying, it’s related! That Rika was trying to do something here, and it lead to her death. Or - or maybe... maybe she’s actually been here all along, waiting for someone to -

Yoosung: Save her, I guess. I dunno. 

Yoosung: I just want to know why Rika came to the woods that day. We were supposed to hang out, but she called off our plans so suddenly that I thought something was really wrong...

Yoosung: But she seemed fine the next day.

Yoosung: And then she was dead.

Yoosung: Goddess, I’m sorry. Really. I think I... I think i should maybe...

[go to A]

A

[Suddenly, the bushes near Yoosung begin to shake, and an ominous moaning starts up from the woods.]

???: Turn back! You are not ready for paradise.

[Yoosung backs away, clearly terrified,]

Yoosung: W-wh-who are -

???: Look at you, like a mewling kitten afraid of the dark.

???: LEAVE.

[There’s a moment of pause, and then Yoosung steps forward and puts himself in between MC and the rustling bushes.]

Yoosung: I don’t know who - or what - you are, but you’re not going to hurt <MC>!

> [Choice 1] - Hide behind Yoosung.

Yoosung: I promise you, I’ll keep you safe...!

> [Choice 2] Stand beside Yoosung.

Yoosung: <MC>?! What are you doing?

Yoosung: Let me protect you!

???: Hahaha... hahaha...!

[The entire forest starts to shake, the menacing sounds increase in volume, and the screen grows darker. Then, suddenly, everything stops at once, and there is a shimmering sparkle from the dark.]

???: What? But -

???: ...As you wish, savior.

Yoosung: What the...?

[Without being prompted, you grab Yoosung’s hand and book it out of the woods. The scene resumes by the sign in front of the forest entrance, and the both of you are panting.]

Yoosung: <MC>... huff.... are you alright?

[You nod.]

Yoosung: What... was that? Who was that...?

Yoosung: And - no. I’m going to walk you home, first. We can talk about whatever that was later.

[Yoosung notices that he’s still holding your hand, before he flinches back and blushes.]

Yoosung: Ahh - ah, I’m sorry. Sorry. I’m kind of dazed, er.

Yoosung: Let’s go.

[You walk off-screen with Yoosung, and the scene resumes again in front of your house.]

Yoosung: You should be safe now. 

Yoosung: I’ve... got some things to think about. So, um. Goodnight. And if you see anything weird, please come to the ranch!

Yoosung: I might not look tough, but hay can be really heavy and I can lift a lot of it!

[A heart appears over your head, and you bid Yoosung goodnight before entering your house. The camera lingers on him, and he says a final line before the scene ends.]

Yoosung: That couldn’t have been Rika... could it?

Green Heart

There is no event at the green heart level, however to see the final two heart events, a token of affection must be given in the form of a ‘heart gem’ to the object of your affections. This makes the relationship ‘official’, and the rest of the town acknowledges you as dating your chosen candidate.

Yoosung: Is that - what I think it is?

Yoosung: You want to - I mean - you really - I -

Yoosung: Yes!

[Yoosung jumps up in the air.]

Yoosung: Yes, yes, yes! Oh, <MC>, I’m glad you feel the same way! I’ve been thinking about you so much lately. 

Yoosung: Your hair, your mouth, your eyes, how much I want to k-ki--

Yoosung: Um. Anyway! I can’t wait to tell everyone! Oh, mom is going to be so happy. Say, would you... come with me, help me break the news?

Yoosung: She’ll want to celebrate. With dinner, probably, and - oh no...

Yoosung: She’s going to want me to help cook...

Yoosung: ...Well, that’s okay! I really want you to taste my cooking, after all.

[Hearts appear over the both of your heads, and the scene fades to black. When it  comes back, you’re standing outside the Kim Family Ranch, in the evening, with full energy.]

[Note: Before this event, interacting with the game console in Yoosung’s room displays a list of high scores, all names Yoosung★. However, after this event, they’ll all change to I ❤<MC>]

Yellow Heart Event

Time: 8AM - 4PM

Weather: Raining or Snowing

Location: North of town, near the abandoned community center

[You enter from the south and, surprisingly enough, Yoosung has his toolbox and is near the abandoned community center... but next to him is V. As you approach, they seem to be having an argument.]

V: Yoosung, all I’m saying is...

Yoosung: That you want me to give up! That you’ve always wanted me to give up! You’ve never believed in me. You always thought I was going to be a failure, even before Rika died!

V: No, I -

Yoosung: I worked so hard! Every single day, trying my best... because I had something I believed in! Because I believed in her, and - and you! And what the two of you were doing together!

Yoosung: But it must have all been a lie, huh? As soon as you didn’t have Rika to impress, you gave it all up! 

Yoosung: You never really cared about this town at all! About fixing it, about... protecting it. And you never cared that I was giving up so much of myself for your cause.

Yoosung:  You didn’t care when I lost my drive, either. You tore me down, instead of helping me stand back up!

Yoosung If you ever really thought I could be something, V... you’ll support me now! When I need it the most.

Yoosung: I don’t want to be that stupid kid anymore, who just... plays video games in his free time and flounders around, trying to be something but failing.

Yoosung: Trying to fill the void and failing.

Yoosung: It hurt me so much when she died. People keep telling me it hurt you, too... but then why don’t you seem like you care?

Yoosung: If you miss her so much, why don’t you want to honor her memory...?

[There’s a round of ellipses from both of them.]

Yoosung: Say something, V! Say anything! Explain it, because I don’t want anything I’ve said to be true...!

Yoosung: But if you don’t give me another explanation, then I have no choice but to think the worst!

V: Yoosung... I just... want you to be happy. So badly, I...

V: ...

V: I’m sorry.

[V starts to walk away (and towards you) when Yoosung stops him with a final shout.]

Yoosung: And now you’re running away! Like you always do!

Yoosung: I don’t understand why everyone defends you all the time!

V: ...

[V continues walking, and Yoosung turns away. The camera pans down to him meeting you by the entrance of the area, and he stops to say a few short words to you.]

V: Please... I know he cares for you deeply. 

V: Get him out of the <rain/snow>...

[V leaves, and MC walks up to stand next to Yoosung, who’s crying.]

Yoosung: <M-MC>? How long have you been there? Yuh-...you didn’t see anything, did you?

> [Choice 1] “I saw you be horrible to V.”

(-500 Yoosung)

Yoosung: H-Horrible to - no, no, not you too, <MC>...!

Yoosung: I’m not - he’s - I’m not being irrational! I used to come out here every single day after Rika died, b-because I didn’t want to see everything she worked for go down the drain!

Yoosung: But he told me to stop! To give it up! That we didn’t have the resources and that we shouldn’t even try, and, and it, it wore on me!

Yoosung: The sadness from losing her... the hopelessness of everyone around me... it got to me, and I started...

Yoosung: W-Wasting my time, spending so much of it playing video games...

Yoosung: It’s hurt the relationship between me and my parents. It’s...

Yoosung: And it’s all his fault! Why won’t... he just... support me like he used to...?

Yoosung: I cared about him so much, and - it all feels like it was a lie!  ...But if... even you’re saying that, then... maybe he’s right?

Yoosung: I don’t... I’m so tired, <MC>, and - shoot. It really is <pouring/snowing>, huh? Let’s go back to my place. I’ll get you a towel, and we can... I guess...

Yoosung: A few games would be fine.

Yoosung: You deserve to do something fun after work, not hear me babble, haha.

[You walk off screen with Yoosung, and when the camera fades in again, you’re standing outside the Kim Family Ranch.]

> [Choice 2] “I didn’t see anything.”

[+200 Yoosung]

Yoosung: That’s... good. Sorry, I, uh.

Yoosung: V was just here, and we talked for a bit. He was trying to get me to stop work today.

Yoosung: I don’t get him! Everyone says that he’s just sad, but... the way he’s acting...

Yoosung: It seems more like he doesn’t care than is sad.

Yoosung: I was sad, too! And that made me work hard, so hard, trying to carry on her legacy...

Yoosung: I mean. Yeah, I stopped after a while, because it all felt pointless and I didn’t know what to do...

Yoosung: And I didn’t really feel competent enough to carry on everything she’d been doing...

Yoosung: But - but if he’d just - if he’d just said nice things and helped me, instead of telling me to “leave it be” and “you’re not accomplishing anything right now, you’re just tiring yourself out”...

Yoosung: I wouldn’t be like this now! I wouldn’t be t-trying to fix myself after so much time spent being useless...

> [Choice 1] “Maybe he’s expressing sadness differently than you? It might hurt him to see something he worked on with Rika being completed without her.”

Yoosung: You mean...?

Yoosung: But...

Yoosung: ...

Yoosung: ...I...

Yoosung: But that still... why won’t he just tell me?

Yoosung: I - I... I’m sorry, <MC>. It’s <raining/snowing>, you shouldn’t be out in this.

Yoosung: I need to think about things, but... I’ll walk you home, ok?

[You leave the scene with Yoosung, and when it fades back in again, you’re standing in front of your farm.]

> [Choice 2] “Trying to fix yourself?”

Yoosung: Yeah. I haven’t... always been the most driven guy. I used to be! I used to have so many dreams...

Yoosung: I was going to go to college in the city! Rika and I talked about it a lot. I wanted to learn things that I could bring back home and use to help the town...

Yoosung: But after she died, I got scared. I stopped working as hard. I started, well... just wanting to play video games all the time.

Yoosung: But not anymore! It doesn’t matter what anyone says. It doesn’t matter that V stopped supporting me. Because, I, uh -

Yoosung: I have you, now! And that makes me want to try my best at everything, so I can be the best guy possible for you.

[Hearts appear over the both of your heads.]

Yoosung: It’s... <raining/snowing>, though. You really shouldn’t be out in this!

Yoosung: I could use a little break, too. How about I walk you home?

[You leave the scene with Yoosung, and when it fades back in again, you’re standing in front of your farm.]

> [Choice 3] “I saw you have a fight with V. Are you okay?”

[+500 Yoosung]

Yoosung: Yeah, I’m... I’m okay. It’s just...

Yoosung: Ever since Rika died, he hasn’t approved of me trying to continue her old projects. He says that I’m just wasting my energy, and we don’t have the resources now to finish what was started.

Yoosung: It hurts. The Community Center is in even worse condition than when we started, and it’s because he and Jumin have been dragging their heels about the whole thing!

Yoosung: And the worst bit is... V technically owns the building. So I can’t really do anything major to it without his permission, which he won’t give me...

Yoosung: I’m frustrated. I don’t understand him, and he won’t defend himself, so it really does seem like everything I think is true.

Yoosung: I wanted to go to college, y’know. In the city. Rika and I talked about it a lot, I was going to go to school and learn how to do something that would help our town grow.

Yoosung: But after she died... my parents wanted me to stay home, V wanted me to give up on this building, and nobody else really seemed to have time to encourage me, so...

Yoosung: I stopped caring.

Yoosung: I started playing lots of video games, because I felt like I could actually accomplish something in the digital world.

Yoosung: I don’t want to be like that anymore. I have you, now. I want to protect you, I want to hold you... and I want to be a guy worthy of your affections!

Yoosung: So I’m not going to give up again! I’m going to keep working. I want to make this town a better place!

Yoosung: <MC>, thank you. Thank you for being you. I don’t think I’d have come anywhere near this far without you by my side.

[Hearts appear over the both of your heads.]

Yoosung: ...It’s <raining/snowing>. How about I walk you home? 

Yoosung: I’d hate it if you caught a cold because of me!

[You leave the scene with Yoosung, and when it fades back in again, you’re standing in front of your farm.]

Pink Heart Event

Time: 6AM - 12PM, Any Season but Winter

Weather: Sunny

Location: Kim Family Ranch

[In a callback to the first event, you walk into the Kim Family Ranch, and Yoosung is outside feeding the chickens. This time, he notices you almost immediately, but does not run over.]

Yoosung: <MC!> Wait just a second, I’ll be right there.

[He finishes feeding the chickens, before putting the bag away and then sprinting over to you.]

Yoosung: You have such good timing. There’s something I really want to show you!

[Yoosung takes your hand and brings you over to the coop, which the both of you enter. A little chick peeps at you, and Yoosung takes you to stand by it.]

Yoosung: Look at her! She was born a few days ago. Hehe. It’s always so satisfying, seeing a new life come into this world...

Yoosung: It makes me think of how much I want to make this world a better place, so everyone and everything born into it can have a better existence.

Yoosung: And, well, when I thought of that... I immediately thought of you, so I wanted you to see her!

Yoosung: What do you think?

> [Choice 1] “She’s so cute!”

Yoosung: Isn’t she? She’s so small, and fluffy, and... cute! 

Yoosung: Something this cute should have a name just as cute to match. 

(go to A)

> [Choice 2] “She’s so small...”

Yoosung: Isn’t she? She’s so small, she doesn’t even have a name yet!

(go to A)

> [Choice 3] “What’s her name?”

Yoosung: Actually, I was hoping...

(go to A)

A

Yoosung: Could you could help me come up with one?

Yoosung: It might be silly, but when I thought of giving you the chance to name her, I got... really happy inside!

Yoosung: So, what do you think?

[A name selection screen appears, and you’re given the chance to name Yoosung’s new chick.]

Yoosung: <CHICKNAME>, huh? I love it! It’s perfect!

Yoosung: You’re so perfect, <MC>!

[Hearts appear over both your heads.]

Yoosung: Hehe... It kinda... feels like... naming a kid, doesn’t it?

Yoosung: I mean! Not that I’m thinking about that quite yet!

Yoosung: Being chicken parents is way different than being real parents!

Yoosung: But... I hope... that little <CHICKNAME> can see how much we love each other and know that she was born into a world full of beautiful things.

Yoosung: <MC>... I love you so much.

Yoosung: Ah! Is that - is that the first time I’ve said it? Oh no! I didn’t... and we’re in the coop! I wanted to say it on a date, or while we were doing something special!

Yoosung: Oh no, I’m such a dummy...

[You laugh.]

Yoosung: It’s not funny...!

Yoosung: Well, I guess I just need to say it more often, then! In every kind of place. I want to say “I love you” by a waterfall, underneath a rainbow, in front of a lake... to the whole town, even!

Yoosung: Maybe, er. Maybe not in the woods, though...

[Choice 1] Kiss Yoosung

[You lean forward, kissing Yoosung. At first he’s surprised, but he soon returns the kiss.]

Yoosung: <MC>... We’re in front of the kids!

Yoosung: Is that the kind of couple you want to be? Hehe~

Yoosung: Are you hungry? I was thinking of making lunch... and I’d love to make you some, too!

[You nod, and the both of you exit the coop, hand-in-hand.]

Yoosung: I really love you, <MC>...

[Choice 2] Don’t kiss Yoosung.

Yoosung: And I won’t just say it with words, either! I’ll do things for you too!

Yoosung: Like cook! In fact... Are you hungry? I have a new recipe that I really think you’ll like.

[You nod, and the both of you exit the coop, hand-in-hand.]

Yoosung: I really love you, <MC>...

Marriage:

After seeing Yoosung’s final heart event, you can propose to him using a Prismatic Letter Opener, which is a longstanding tradition in Mystic Valley. A few things change after marrying Yoosung. He moves in with you, and proceeds to take care of all of your animals as part of your daily tasks. You can eat lunch with him, he’ll prepare you meals... And he’ll work on the Community Center more as part of his daily routine.

The day after you’re married, a letter arrives for the both of you from V. Inside is the key to the Community Center, and included with it is the deed (which has been signed over to Yoosung). If V has not reached Green heart level with a rival character, the letter is also a short goodbye message, apologizing to Yoosung and telling him that V was always so proud. He expects great things of Yoosung, and he’s happy to leave the future in his hands.

V disappears from town, and one of the other characters working at the restaurant becomes the owner.

If V has reached Green Heart level with a rival character, V doesn’t leave, and the letter is a bit longer. It says that he’s sorry about how he behaved, and that he’s incredibly proud of Yoosung for everything he’s accomplished. This unlocks another event that can be seen in the Bar, where Yoosung and V hash things out a bit. After that, Yoosung will go to the bar on the weekends.

Thank you so much for reading this long, long post. Please, feel free to ask about it, or other aspects of this AU! I’m enjoying it a lot. Please look forward to more character posts like this~