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axdently · 1 year

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𝑱𝑼𝑺𝑻𝑰𝑪𝑬 𝑺𝑴𝑰𝑻𝑯, 𝑯𝑬/𝑯𝑰𝑴 𝑷𝑹𝑶𝑵𝑶𝑼𝑵𝑺, 𝑫𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑴𝑺𝑯𝑨𝑫𝑬

To KYLE TODD, the whole world looks like an open page. With a leap of faith, their ability of EQUID ( HORSE ) SUMMONING grows a little stronger. They are a HORSE shade aligned to NO ONE. For TWENTY TWO years, they have survived a world of magic with both their CRAFTINESS and OVER-CONFIDENCE. They work as an INSURANCE AGENT, but if they could change their fate, they’d want to BE A GOOD ROLE MODEL FOR HIS CLONES.

─── 𝐃𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐒.

As the winds of change sweep through the landscape, the cadence of "Welcome to the Party" by Diplo, French Montana, Zhavia Ward, and Lil Pump seems to accompany you and your little army of Toddlings, but this is nothing compared to the times when Old Town Road by Lil Nax X pumps through the stereo speakers. The echoes of your presence multiply with the presence of your Toddlings – clones born of a serendipitous encounter with a cloning mushroom. A product of eating the wrong thing at the wrong time is what allows the miracle that is replication. Their presence lends an illusion of fatherhood, disguising the temporal intricacies of their origin. You grace State Farm as an insurance luminary, ever-willing to bestow a deal upon those in need, and your diligence fuels your work to support your toddlings. You have help–– your adopted mother, Jessie, who embarked on a flight from Sombertown alongside you when you were just 16 loans her efforts as an adopted mother to all three of the extra Toddlings ( Aged 5, 7, and 12 ) Your lexicon dances in memes, your speech a modern linguistic web of internet culture. Uninhibited in your pursuit of the extraordinary, you've etched a reputation as a maestro of audacious exploits, a quality inherently you. Yet, within the bold facade simmers a traitorous overconfidence and capriciousness, a yin to your yang. Beyond the humdrum, you revel in clubbing and treasure hunts within thrift stores, savoring the simple joys.

─── 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐒.

NAME: Kyle Todd NICKNAME: Kyle, or Todd DATE OF BIRTH: November 2nd GENDER: genderqueer– doesn’t follow binary gender norms and uses any pronouns. HEIGHT: 5’10” MARKINGS: a scar on his forehead from liquid stitches, and a couple of marks to suggest he��s once had a broken arm. TATTOOS: none PIERCINGS: he’s got a couple he takes out for work, he once had an eyebrow piercing for a couple of years, but it’s currently healed up. DECORUM: when he’s not at work it’s T-shirts from Goodwill which he un-ironically likes, socks and sandals, he also likes his denim jacket, also whatever Gabs and Ren dress him in. SCENT: stolen samples of Kenneth Cole’s Black, Gain dryer sheets, & faint lingerings of ketchup on his fingers GOALS: To become a role model for his Toddlings, to pay Jessie back for all her kindness and generosity, and to find his twin, Annabelle FEARS: Losing his Toddlings & Imprisonment. POSITIVE TRAITS: loyal, confident, daring NEUTRAL TRAITS: deceptive, mellow, unaggressive NEGATIVE TRAITS: finicky, hubristic, over confident ZODIAC: Scorpio Sun, Leo Moon, Taurus Rising ALIGNMENT: Lawful Evil TEMPERAMENT: sanguine ELEMENT: Fire PRIMARY VICE: Greed PRIMARY VIRTUE: Humility TROPE: Big Eater, The Trickster,, The Sleight of Hand, Desperately Craves Affection, Hurricane of Puns, Hidden Depths, Adult Child, Brilliant But Lazy, Daddy AND Mommy Issues INSPIRATION: This guy & this guy. OCCUPATION: Insurance Agent at State Farm RESIDENCE: With Jessie & Ren, depending on if Jessie needs help with the Toddlings HOBBIES: Tennis, card tricks, chess, beatboxing, dinosaur enthusiast, video games, electronics– he used to be a part of the robotics club in High School & DnD. HABITS: chewing with his mouth open, falling asleep during any kind of lecture, pretending not to speak english to get out of speaking to people he doesn’t want to talk to, saying yo un-ironically, and calling dibs or not it for the smallest of things.

─── 𝐀𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐄𝐒.

EQUID SUMMONING

The power to call forth Equids from anywhere no matter where they are to help them with a task. The user can create or summon large forces of horses to overtake an entire area and to overwhelm an enemy with vast numbers. The large force is connected through a Hive Mind. The strength of the resulting horde is associated with the very large quantity and is not necessarily reflective of any coordinated actions or tactics. Individual members of the hoard/swarm are usually treated as expendable.

VARIATION 1. EQUID COMPANIONSHIP

The users can form a powerful connection and bond with an equid companion or multiple Equids. The bond between the user and their Equid companion is so strong that nothing can drive them apart. The user either has a natural connection to Equids or is proficient in training and forming a bond with them. This ability doesn't just apply to the Horse (Equus caballus); this ability also extends to any and all other members of the Equine Family. E.G., the Donkey (Equus asinus), Mule (Equus caballus), Pony (Equus ferus caballus), and the Zebra (Equus zebra), etc. in addition to mythical members of the Equine Family such as Abadas, Alicorns, Bicorns, Carnivorous Horses, Fire Horses, Hippalectryons, Hippocampuses, Hippogriffs, Kelpies and their eviler and advanced version Each-uisge, Longmas, Pegasi, Sleipnir, Qilin, Uchchaihshravas, Unicorns, White Horses, etc. in addition to Horse-like creatures.

VARIATION 2. EQUID EMPATHY

The user can sense and/or understand the emotions of equine beings (Horses, Donkeys, Zebras, Mules, Unicorns, Pegasi and Hippocampi and others) and vice versa. This also works as Hive Mind where the herd "share" the same mind. In some cases, one person could take control of another separate body to add to the hive. Each can work autonomously, though they think the same thing at the same time. The members have little individuality, more or less they are only marionettes controlled by a puppeteer.

─── 𝐈𝐍𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘.

LIAR'S LOCKET: This locket holds a small illusionary gem that Todd can use to create minor illusions. He can project images, sounds, or even mimic voices to deceive enemies or manipulate situations.

CHAMELEON CAP: This ball cap can change its appearance to match its surroundings, effectively granting Todd invisibility when he wears it. Perfect for slipping past enemies or hiding in plain sight.

INFINITE SNACK BAG: This bag always contains Todd's favorite snacks, magically replenishing itself. It serves as a source of comfort and nourishment during his adventures.

MIMIC'S COIN: A coin that can transform into an exact replica of any object it touches. It allows Todd to create decoys, forge documents, or even mimic magical items temporarily.

KETCHUP SLINGER GAUNTLETS: These gauntlets shoot streams of magical ketchup, allowing Todd to create distractions, blind opponents, or leave slippery surfaces in his wake.

DABBING CAPE OF EVASION: When Todd flips the cape dramatically while dabbing, he gains increased agility and evasion capabilities for a short duration. It helps him dodge attacks and escape tricky situations.

LUCKY RABBIT'S PAW KEYCHAIN: A keychain adorned with a rabbit's paw that brings luck to Todd when touched. It grants him advantages on skill checks and saving throws, emulating his reliance on luck and chance.

DICE OF DECEPTION: These dice allow Todd to manipulate outcomes by shaking them and willing the desired result. However, the dice have a mischievous nature and might sometimes backfire with unpredictable results.

─── 𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒.

CHARMED CONVERSATIONS: This spell allows Todd to enhance his natural charisma, making him irresistibly charming in conversation. People are more likely to open up to him, share information, or be swayed by his words.

GUILT TRIP: With this spell, Todd can amplify feelings of guilt and remorse in others. It helps him manipulate opponents or extract information by making them feel morally responsible for their actions.

POCKET PORTAL: Todd can create a small temporary portal that leads to his favorite food place. This allows him to grab a quick meal or snack, no matter where he is, which can provide comfort and sustenance during his journeys.

POCKET DIMENSION STASH: Todd can open a small pocket dimension where he can store items, allowing him to carry a vast array of supplies without the burden of weight. He can retrieve items by reaching into thin air.

EGG CONJURATION: This spell creates a delectable hard boiled egg in Todd's hand that he can use to distract enemies or offer as a gesture of peace. The egg’s smooth exterior and aroma have a calming effect on those nearby.

LUCK'S GAMBIT: With this spell, Todd can manipulate luck in his favor for a brief period. He gains advantage on rolls and can reroll any failed checks, representing his reliance on fortunate outcomes.

SIBLINGS' LINk: By casting this spell on his Toddlings, Todd establishes a mental connection with them, enabling them to communicate telepathically over short distances. It ensures they're always in sync during missions.

SPECTRAL SIBLING: Todd can summon a ghostly image of a horse to temporarily fight by his side. The spectral sibling mimics his attacks and can provide support in combat, reflecting his protective nature.

#cag: intro #cagintro #⸻ 𝒏𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉-𝒊𝒔𝒎𝒔 ; INTRO

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zeewritez · 2 years

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What Our Fotune Holds

Next Chapter >

Fandom: Star Wars

Era: Post Clone Wars (Set during Kenobi Series)

Pairing: Obi-Wan Kenobi x GN! Reader

Summary: Y/n, a former Jedi youngling, is gifted with a unique ability to tell the future in detail. When they are asked by a fellow survivor of the purge, Nari, to help him find Master Kenobi, they are skeptical but decide to share their vision with him.

Warnings: Mentions of a corpse, alluding to violence

Cool winds whipped through the air. The weather, scorching by day, was always brisk once the suns had set. The dry air of Tatooine didn’t retain much heat. I pulled my cloak shut as I continued walking through the back allies of town.

Once I heard the tell-tale drunken laughter of the cantina, I knew I was there. I knocked thrice on the back door like I was told to. There was some shuffeling and soon enough the owner opened the door to let me in.

“You’re the person Nari spoke of?” he asked as I entered.

“I am,” I replied.

“Why don’t you show your face?” he said with a soft smile. “You’re safe here.”

“You can’t unsee me once I show myself,” I told him.

He nodded and gestured for me to follow him. He took me through a narrow corridor. At the end of it was an attic door, which he pulled down to open.

“They’re here,” he called up then looked back at me. “Go ahead.”

I gave him a quiet thank you as I climbed up the shaky ladder. It squeaked with every step I made.

The attic was sparse. There was a mattress, a rug, and a light saber scattered along the floor. The only source of light was some small candles in the corner. Nari sat cross-legged in the center of the room, his eyes trained on me as I entered.

“So you came this time?” he asked. If his tone hadn’t sounded so hopeful I would’ve taken it as snark.

“Yes,” I told him. “The road was clear tonight.”

”I see,” he said. “Please,” - he gestured to a cushion in front of him - “have a seat.”

I did, mirroring him by crossing my legs.

“What is it you wish to know?” I asked, removing the scarf that covered my face. I had come to trust him enough to show myself while using my abilities. “The future of a friend? Where an old lover resides? How you will die?”

He shook his head. “I need to know where I can find Master Kenobi.”

I sharply inhaled when I heard that name. I’d never met him personally, but I heard many tales of him through whispered rumors of the Jedi temple. Even in my near isolation, stories found their way through the walls. I’d even caught glances of him through cracked doors and flowing curtains.

Why? I wondered. Why would he possibly need to find him? The man that raised Darth Vader? I thought, but I didn’t ask. I never asked too many questions when telling someone of the future. It was really none of my business.

“Okay,” I agreed and closed my eyes.

I reached out into the force and called for his name. In the dead of night, I saw him, dressed in tattered robes, making his way through the desert, towards a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. I knew that house, I’d been there. I opened my eyes once again.

“He’s going to be at the Skywalker’s house later tonight. A few hours from now. It’s a small moisture farm northeast from here,” I told him. “You should leave soon if you want to make it.”

I wouldn’t see Nari again until the next day when his corpse hung in the center of town. He had been found by inquisitors and made an example of. Years ago, still a strict follower of the Jedi code, I would not have let it phase me. Yet I no longer followed those rules and was left shocked and horrified by the sight.

I knew better than to let anyone see my reaction, however, and marched forward through the street. I came out for fruits, and I wouldn’t leave until got some. My Loth-Cat and I had both been peckish that afternoon, and Lu-Lu wasn’t so cute when she was hungry. I made my way to my favorite fruit stand as though Nari’s corpse wasn’t hanging over me as an omen.

Focused on not making myself seem suspicious, I must’ve been blind to the people around me. I walked straight into a passerby.

“Oh, my apologies, sir,” I spoke, lifting my head just enough to make eye contact with him.

“All good,” he said with a smile.

That accent - he was from Coruscant. His face -- it was the one I’d seen glimpses of years ago as a child. His force signature - a Jedi.

It was Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Author’s Note: Hey, y’all, I’m back! I watched the first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi yesterday, and I just had to write a story about it. I don’t usually write stories that go along with episodes, but I might for this one.

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clanoffetts · 4 years

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someday. | paz vizsla x fem!reader

chapter I

masterlist

synopsis: Paz Vizsla finds himself stuck on Dantooine with a broken ship and no credits. Luckily, he finds you, a mechanic that will fix his ship for passage to Hosnian Prime. Over the course of your time together, a courtship blooms.

warnings/things to note: star wars swear words; reader has hints of PTSD that will be expanded on in further chapters (and those will be tagged with stronger warnings); blatant lack of knowledge of ship mechanics; only one use of ‘Y/N’

word count: 5.1k

Dirt kicked up behind heavy boots. Hands stopped their work so heads could turn. It wasn’t often a Mandalorian showed up. Actually, one had never showed up. And this one was huge. A buff man, covered in heavy armor that had been painted blue. Even his helmet evoked fear. The townspeople were watching myth become reality.

The large man walked into Aliria’s Shop. The shop had a name once, when Aliria’s parents had opened it, but that was some 80 years ago now. The shop had survived the Clone Wars and the Empire, not to mention the constant flow of smugglers and thieves customary to the Outer Rim. Aliria’s Shop wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon.

It was a fairly small shop, especially considering all the things packed into it. Aliria carried food, clothes, a small array of weaponry, and medical supplies. There wasn’t much in the little town, a droid mechanic, a ship mechanic, a small infirmary, and a bar. Aliria’s Shop was the hub, she had the essentials.

The Mandalorian was like a bull in a china shop inside the store. Aliria had crammed crates, tables, and shelves into every crevice of the store. Not to mention the various pieces of merchandise hanging from the ceiling.

“Watch it, Mandalorian!” Aliria yelled at the man as he almost hit the shelf of fruits with the huge gun on his back. She may look like a frail older woman at the age of 75, but her voice didn’t show it. Aliria’s tan skin was weathered and her body was tired, but her voice held life. She was the backbone of the community.

The armored man let out a gruff sorry before moving on. He was looking down at his gauntlet, reading some kind of list. “Kriffing hell, how do I find anything in here?”

“We don’t get many outsiders, Mandalorian,” she said. “But my sales associate can help you. She was an outsider once, too.”

The pitch black of his visor shifted to you. Your hair was a bit messy, as you’d just helped your co-worker unload a speeder of goods. But you smiled at him. A change of pace is always nice. You walked from behind the counter to be in front of the Mandalorian and you asked, “What are you looking for, sir?” Your customer service voice was rough, you never needed to use it with most of the customers. They knew you personally, everyone knew everyone here.

“You got ration bars?” His voice was gruff and deep, but you couldn’t tell if that was just because of the helmet.

“Not many,” you told him. “Maybe ten? Aliria has such good prices, no one ever needs to buy a ration bar in place of real food.” It was a sales pitch you’d been taught when training here, but it was the truth. Why pay a credit for a ration bar when you can pay a credit for instant noodles?

He huffed a little. “I’ll take all ten.” This man was weird, you decided. “Non-perishables? Do you have any?”

“We’ve got some beans, some vegetables that won’t go bad for at least a few years, rice, and a few other things. They’re all kind of scattered around.”

“Of course they are,” he was annoyed. “Where’s the vegetables?”

You pointed through a door at the back of the shop. “Greenhouse out back. Tell me what you need, I’ll go grab it.” Reluctantly, he showed you his gauntlet. It was a grocery list. You locked the information into your mind, grabbed a basket and headed to the greenhouse.

When you got back, he was in the same place. He must’ve seen your confusion because he said, “I��d rather not waste time looking for things myself. I figure you’d be better at it.” And you were. You helped him get everything he needed, but the list just got weirder. Baby formula, toddler sized coveralls, ammunition, a journal, and more miscellaneous items that made no sense to you. You didn’t believe a Mandalorian was going to hand write something and in a journal, no less.

You wanted to know more, but you had a feeling he wouldn’t be keen on questions. Before you’d come to Dantooine, you’d been all over the galaxy and heard stories of Mandalorians and their secrecy.

“What brings you to Dantooine, Mando?” You ask as you ring up the last of his items, putting them in the up-cycled grain bag grocery bags. You were tired of the tense silence, Aliria had gone into the back to do Maker knows what, and the Mandalorian’s stare was unnerving.

“Work,” he said. His visor remained unmoving, his eyes were on you. You had a feeling that ‘work’ was something either illegal or close to it. “You?”

You were surprised. And, again, he must’ve noticed. “The old lady said you are an outsider, too.”

“Was an outsider, Mando,” you correct, bringing up his total. “I came here for work, too.” He could tell you were lying, or at least not sharing the whole truth. “It’s two-hundred credits, Mando.”

He reached into a pouch on his belt, and pulled out all the credits. “That should be two-hundred.” It was. Exact change and everything. Once you’d counted the money and placed it in the register, he grabbed all his bags with ease and turned to walk out.

“Have a nice day!” you tell him, remembering your lines Aliria insisted on. He said nothing in return.

Paz Vizsla arrived back at his ship far out from the town. He put the bags of supplies for the covert in the cargo hold and cleared the message from Armorer that detailed what they needed. After the covert had to relocate, they were in desperate need of supplies. Especially for all the children who lost a buir or, Maker forbid, both buire. The children who had basically become foundlings. Paz’s heart broke for them, he tried to be the best ba’vodu, but there some things that even stories from Uncle Paz couldn’t fix.

He’d spent the little bit of left over change from the bounty on something for each kid, even Bezza, who was old enough to be treated as an adult at seventeen. She’d lost her buire, and the least Paz could do was get her a nice, leather-bound journal that she’d been pining for. Something hard to come by in a galaxy that had moved on from physical writing.

Paz closed the cargo hold and began moving himself towards the cockpit. He was tired, and though no one else agreed, he was getting old. Nearing 44, he was ready to just be Mr. Vizsla the teacher, Uncle Paz, and hopefully buir someday. But he was one of the Tribe’s best fighters. They needed him to keep hunting, so he did. This is the Way.

He moved to start up the ship. It gave a groan, but lit up all the same. Paz began his takeoff procedures, but the ship wouldn’t budge. Kriff, he thought. This can’t happen. Paz Vizsla was a capable fighter, fluent in Mando’a, and a brilliant teacher, but he was no mechanic. That had always been his biggest shortcoming. I have no credits, he realized. Stuck on Dantooine with no credits.

Dirt kicked up behind heavy boots. Hands stopped their work so heads could turn. It wasn’t often a Mandalorian showed up. But this one had now shown up twice. The awe of the townsfolk was still the same. He trudged back into Aliria’s Shop. This old woman would know someone willing to fix a ship for some food, he thought. She seems to know everything.

Except, when he walked in he was greeted by a new face. Not the saleswoman who’d helped him a few hours ago, nor was it the old woman. “How can I help you?” The boy asked. He couldn’t be more than sixteen.

“You know anyone who’d be willing to fix a ship for a meal? Or maybe a small blaster?”

The kid shook his head. “No one around here is that desperate. I’ll go get Aliria, though. She might know someone I don’t.” The kid retreated into the back room without fully taking his eyes off Paz.

When he returned, he had Aliria hobbling along next to him, bony hands around his arm. “Zenith says you need a mechanic? There’s a shop down the road but what he charges won’t be worth what you get,” the woman says.

“I need someone who will work for something other than credits,” he says. “I don’t have any.”

You looked up from the datapad in the backroom. You had experience as a mechanic, you were rusty after all these years, but better than the other option, who probably learned by seeing a few pictures on the holonet. Maybe this was your ticket back out of the Outer Rim. You’d amassed enough credits to at least get an apartment for a bit until you can get work. Core Worlds always had open jobs, and you have connections. You hated to leave the little town, but it had always been the goal. You just thought it’d be many more years.

You stepped out of the back room. “I’ll do it, Mando. I’ve got experience, I can probably fix it.” Zenith seemed surprised, but Aliria just smiled.

“I can’t pay,” he reiterated.

You rolled your eyes. “Yeah, you’ve said. We’ll negotiate the price on the way to your ship. You got tools?” He nodded. “I’ll be back tonight, Aliria. I’ll finish up inventory then.” The old woman told you not to worry about it and shooed both of you off, ready to get back to whatever she was up to in the storage room.

As soon as the door shut behind you, you said, “Passage to Hosnian Prime. That’s all I’m asking.”

“Hosnian Prime? Do you know how long it’s going to take me to get from Dantooine to Hosnian Prime?” He was annoyed. The ship must be having a minor issue, but you were wanting a major payment. “And so far out of my way, my home is in the Outer Rim. And I’ll have no credits to refuel.”

Now you were the annoyed one. “I’m fixing your ship, Mando. You said anything but credits. My offer is passage to Hosnian Prime for the fixing of your ship.”

“How do I know you can even fix my ship? Why aren’t you the town mechanic?”

This wasn’t something you wanted to get into. You hadn’t talked about it in so long. Not since you got to Dantooine and Aliria took you in, vowing to help you back to wherever you wanted to be. “I was done being a mechanic, Mando, that’s why.”

“So you decided to work in a dingy little shop? With the galaxy’s oldest woman?”

You felt anger grow stem from the seed of annoyance. Aliria was like your grandmother. Like the whole town’s grandmother. And here comes an outsider, insulting Aliria’s shop. Aliria’s family built that town from the ground up. And this outsider insults her. “Do not speak of Aliria or her shop like that again, Mando. Or I won’t fix your ship and you’ll be stuck on Dantooine forever.”

Paz felt bad. He’d cut too deep, he’d only meant it to be a friendly dig about your job, a job most people weren’t ever satisfied with. He’d thought you’d laugh. He’d thought wrong. You walked in silence the rest of the way.

“This is your ship?” you asked. No wonder it wouldn’t get off the ground. “Maker, Mando, what have you put this thing through?” It was dented, covered in carbon scoring, and there were chunks of it missing. You could only guess how bad the inner workings were.

“A few altercations,” he replied. You couldn’t see his face, but you knew he was looking at this sorry excuse for a Mandalorian’s ship with love and pride.

You laughed a little and shook your head. “I haven’t even looked at the wiring, but I think taking me to Hosnian Prime is the absolute least you could do for the work I’m going to have to do on this thing.”

“I just need it to fly,” he told you. “Nothing fancy.”

“Mando, this thing is going to pull itself apart when you try to leave the atmosphere. I’m surprised it even made it through,” you told him.

The ship always groaned a little when Paz asked it to do things, but it always had obeyed. Without fail. Until now, of course. “It did sound a bit...pained when I arrived.” He left out the whole being fired at by ex-Imps and the harsh landing he’d made that’d landed him here.

“Alright, I’ll go take a look, if that’s ok? And I’ll try to tell you when I think I’ll have it done.” He nodded, and pushed a button on his gauntlet, giving you access to the ship.

“Bad news and good news,” you told him as you reemerged from the ship. “Bad news is this is a piece of junk and you should replace it. Good news is I can fix it and it’ll only take a few days.”

A few days. He needed to get these things back to the covert, they needed them. “Ok,” he said. “But before I take you to Hosnian Prime, we’ll need to make a pit stop on Yavin IV. I gotta get these supplies back.” You nodded, just as long as you’d be getting to Hosnian Prime at some point.

“I’ll get started, if that’s ok?” He nodded and you retreated back inside. The external damage wasn’t as crucial as the internal, your job was going to be rough.

It was a long, hard rest of your day. The blasted ship held the humidity of the planet tightly and your coveralls were thick. You’d brought down the top half to tie around your waist, leaving you in your tank top and bra. You caught glimpses of the Mandalorian as you moved past the port holes, and he just sat there on a rock, not moving. All day. You couldn’t imagine the heat under that armor.

When you came out of the ship again, it was night. “I’ve made good progress. It won’t be done tomorrow, but maybe the day after. If I’m lucky, of course.” And worked almost non-stop, you silently added.

“Good,” he says. “Go home and rest, dal’ika.”

You furrowed your brow. “My name isn’t dal’ika.”

“I know,” he said, and then he moved past you onto his ship.

“Good night to you, too!” You called.

You walked to Aliria’s small home once you got back into town. She deserved to know your plans, you thought. She’d probably even help.

“Ah! Dear! You’re back!” she said. “I was worried the Mandalorian would take you, but then I figured you’d comm if he’d try anything.”

You smiled. “He didn’t do much of anything. Just sat there.”

“What did you tell him your price is, dear?”

You took a deep breath and sat on the sofa next to her. “Passage to Hosnian Prime.”

“You’re leaving?”

You nodded. “It’s time,” you said. “I have enough credits, especially since I won’t have to pay for transportation.”

“What will you do there, dear?” Aliria was worried. You were a grown woman, yes, but she felt protective.

“Find General Organa,” you said. “See if she keeps promises.” You knew she would. She always had.

Aliria gave a bittersweet smile. “I knew you’d leave someday, but I never thought of how it would feel.” Her heart was breaking, and so was yours. This woman took you in when you showed up a mess on Dantooine, she held you during nightmares, and she helped you buy the little hut you now call your own. She gave you a job and a place in the community. “You’ll do much good on Hosnian Prime, dear. I know you will.”

You didn’t know what she meant, but somehow you believed her. “Thank you, Aliria. Thank you.” You couldn’t seem to say anything else, but it wasn’t adequate to what you were feeling. You needed a stronger phrase, but you didn’t know one.

“Take care of that Mandalorian, now,” she said, trying to be a bit more lighthearted. “I’ve always thought you’d like a warrior husband.”

You rolled your eyes. All the old women in town were like this. “He barely even talks to me and calls me dal’ika instead of my name, which he hasn’t asked for, by the way.”

“He’ll warm up to you, I’m sure. Especially if he’s got to take you from here to Hosnian Prime,” Aliria said. “You didn’t talk much when you arrived, either, remember?”

Aliria always had a way of finding the good in people, even if it was hardly there. That was rare, especially this far out in the galaxy, and you cherished it. You’d learned early on not to do that, but Aliria helped you open up more. Maybe she was right, this journey would result in a new friend.

“Ok, Ali, I will take care of the Mando,” you said. “Now I think I’m going to go home. Want to be up early tomorrow to fix his ship.”

She nodded and patted your knee. “Take the speeder bike tomorrow, it seems like a long walk.” You nodded, and placed your hand over hers for a moment. “Good night, dear. Sleep well,” she said and then she shooed you out in the way only an old lady could.

The next morning it was cooler outside. The trees swayed gently in the soft wind, and you became grateful for the coveralls as you picked up speed on the bike. You looked the same as you did the day before, just a little less rested. There was a little sunlight, but not much, and there were still a few nocturnal animals on the path.

Arriving at the ship, everything was still closed up, and the big Mando nowhere in sight. You contemplated banging on the door, but before you made a decision the door lowered into a ramp and he walked out. “You’re very early, dal’ika.”

“Told you I would be. Need all the daylight I can get.”

“Indeed.”

His gaze bore down on you again. You really took in how large he was. He had to be over six feet tall and maybe even closer to seven in the armor. A few people in town speculated that he wasn’t actually as buff as he seemed and that it was just the armor, but you doubted that.

“I’ll go ahead and get started, if that’s ok?”

He nodded. “You don’t have to keep asking, dal’ika.”

“That’s still not my name,” you said in a singsong voice over your shoulder as you walked up the ramp. He walked over towards some of the denser areas of trees.

You tried to watch him as discreetly as possible through one of the port holes, but you had a suspicion that, somehow, he could tell you were watching. He walked over some of the logs of fallen trees that had piled up towards the edge of the clearing. He picked two large ones, one in each arm, and set them upright. Then, he placed the large stones on the top of and behind them to keep them standing.

He retreated a few yards, and his hands slid down to his thighs. He brought two blasters back up. Ah, you thought. Target practice.

As much as you knew you needed to begin your day’s work, you stood at the port hole and watched him fire blast after blast, and you knew he hit each spot he intended to. He moved back farther, fired some more, and then moved off at angles. You never thought you’d be attracted to a man whose face you’d never seen and name you didn’t know, but here you are.

Finally, you tore your gaze from the beskar-covered man and began your work, getting the tool box from where you’d left it yesterday.

It was noon when you walked down the ramp again. The Mandalorian had finished his shooting hours ago, and had now shed his shin and thigh armor, along with the heavy cannon he carried on his back. He was already looking at you when you stepped into the doorway.

“Need something, dal’ika?”

You shook your head. “Lunch time, Mando.” You pulled some kind of bar out of your pocket. “It’s got meiloorun filling,” you brag.

“Sounds good,” he said, a little amused at what you considered something to brag about.

You sat down on the rock opposite him. “You want one? I’ve got an extra.”

“No, thank you, dal’ika,” he replied.

You sunk your teeth into the grain and meiloorun bar, chewed, and swallowed. “What language even is that?”

“Mando’a,” he said. “The language of my people.”

“The Mandalorians?” You ask dumbly.

He let out a chuckle, it was small, but the vocoder processed it. “Yes, dal’ika, but I thought that was obvious.”

“What’s that mean? That word you’re calling me?”

He contemplated for a moment, but finally told you. “Dal’ika means woman in Mando’a. Well, dala means woman. The ‘ika bit just means it's a nickname. It implies that you’re, well, small. It’s used for kids a lot but also for friends.” He regretted saying that, in case you found it insulting or weird. He quickly moved on. “And I definitely consider you more than an acquaintance, especially since we’ll be spending some time together.”

You looked at him. You’d never thought of yourself as small. “Well, that’s good to hear. And I think everyone is small next to you, Mando.”

He laughed again, and you took another bite. “I suppose so. What is your actual name?” You tell him, and he nods. “I can call you that, if you’d like?”

“Dal’ika is fine,” you say. You’d never really had a nickname before. “But you can call me my name, too, if you want.”

“Ok, dal’ika,” he said. “Where are you from?”

You looked at him. Why all the questions? You briefly thought of home, but closed your eyes. “Rather not say.”

He nodded, understanding. “I’m sorry that I keep saying the wrong things. I really should know better, considering I don’t like too many questions, either.”

“It’s ok, it’s not like you know what will strike a cord,” you tell him. You hurriedly finished your lunch, eager to get back on the ship in case memories of home flooded back into your mind and tears flooded your eyes. “Well, I’m off,” you say, standing awkwardly and walking back to the ship, leaving the Mando by himself again.

You sat on the floor of the ship, one of the flooring panels removed, working on some wiring. In the back of your mind you saw your childhood home, the mountain peaks you could see from the backyard, and the neighbor kids that you’d played with every day after school. You remembered leaving. You remembered never being able to go back.

Your hands are still in the wire compartment in the floor. You took a deep breath, closed your eyes, and smiled to yourself. Aliria always said smiling makes you feel better. It worked, and your hands began moving again, replacing and connecting wires.

Again, it was nightfall when you came out of the ship. The Mandalorian had all his armor on again, and he stood as you emerged. “I should’ve walked you home last night, dal’ika. It was dark when you left, I’m sorry for not offering.”

You felt your heart swell a little. He was a gentle giant, you decided. “Thank you, Mando, but I can take care of myself. Besides, it’s not like there’s dangerous people here.”

“Still,” he insisted. “I should have.”

You gave up and replied, “That would’ve been a kind gesture. I would take you up on the offer tonight, but Aliria lent me her speeder, so I don’t need an escort today.”

“As you wish,” he replied. “Just be careful, dal’ika. Hosnian Prime awaits.” He walked past you and onto the ship, just like he had the night before.

The next day was almost the same, except you had to walk. Aliria needed the speeder for Zenith and supplies he was picking up from a nearby farm, but apart from that, everything was the same. You made small talk with the Mandalorian over your lunch (a star fruit bar today), and watched him shoot his blasters from afar. You got a lot of work done today, most of the hard stuff was finished and now just needed some tweaking. You moved on to the exterior of the ship a few hours before nightfall.

“Dal’ika,” he said as you started working on the exterior. “Only do what you absolutely need to on the outside. I’d hate to see your hard work go to waste when I get into another altercation.”

You nodded, but replied, “I hope you don’t plan on getting into one of your altercations while I’m aboard.”

“Well, I never really plan on them, but I’ll be extra careful if it makes you feel better,” he told you.

You smiled. “It does.”

“It’s going to get dark soon,” he said.

You nodded, opening one of the exterior panels and examining it. “I know. I just have a few more things,” you assured him. “And then I’ll take you up on your offer to walk me home.” You turned your head towards him and smiled, but what you didn’t know was that your smile brought the slightest blush to his cheeks.

Paz sat back down on his rock while you worked on the exterior. He thought about the smile you’d given him, how you weren’t afraid of him. There’s something more to this one, he thought. Something’s made her tough, and it wasn’t this village.

Finally, you finished. “Alright,” you told the Mando as you exited the ship after putting the tools up. “It should fly, but we can test that tomorrow. For now, I need to go home.”

He nodded and stood from the rock. “Lead the way, mechanic,” he said.

You walked a pace or two in front of him, even though he didn’t really need to be led to the town. It wasn’t like there were many of those around here, but he let you, and you rambled about the place with pride. About Aliria with pride.

After a few beats of silence, he spoke up. “May I ask what’s on Hosnian Prime? If you don’t want to answer, just tell me.”

“An old friend,” you said and looked back at him again. This smile was different, he noticed, but he wasn’t sure how. “I haven’t seen her in a long time, but I know she still cares.” You were telling him the truth, so why did you feel like you were lying? He didn’t need to know that General Organa was the friend or why you knew her. But you almost wanted him to know. Still, you held back.

“Oh,” he said. “Sounds nice. I’ve heard good things about Hosnian Prime.” Truthfully, he hadn’t heard anything about Hosnian Prime except that it was the new capital of the New Republic.

“I have, too,” you agreed. “What about you? What’s on Yavin IV?”

“Family,” he said. He was telling the truth, so why did he feel like he was lying? And why was he trusting you with the planet of the covert?

You nodded. “I figured, with all the baby stuff you bought. Is your wife a Mandalorian, too? I heard Mandos can only marry Mandos.”

He was shocked a little, forgetting that you didn’t know much about his culture. “No, I don’t have a wife. Or kids of my own. My Tribe is my family, and there are kids in the Tribe. They’re just not mine.”

“Oh, interesting,” you said, kicking a rock in front of you. You were surprised to find yourself relieved that he did not have a wife. “So, like, can you only marry inside your tribe?”

“No, dal’ika,” he laughed. “We’d end up with some interesting children if we kept it in the tribe. Some people marry within the tribe, some never marry, and others marry outsiders.” He didn’t really know how accurate his answer was. Maybe, in big tribes, people did just marry in the tribe. But the covert he belonged to was too small for that.

You kicked the rock again as you arrived at the place it had landed. “Huh,” you said. “Guess I never thought about that.”

“We prefer people not think about us at all,” he replied. His tone was solemn when he said this, and you instinctively placed a hand on his armored arm to comfort him. The Mandalorian was brought to a blush under his helmet again. Maker, he thought. How’s she doing this to me?

You walked into the town in comfortable silence, your arm now wrapped around his, fingers lightly rubbing the armor. It was meant as a soothing technique, but you doubt he could feel it under the layers of metal and cloth. Eventually, you neared your home. “That one’s mine,” you pointed. The house’s door was painted blue, and your flowerbed was filled with blue flowers.

“Your house matches my armor, kebiin’ika,” he said.

A new nickname. “What’s that mean?”

“Kebiin is blue. And, you know, ‘ika is ‘small’ and an endearment.”

“Little blue?” You ask.

He nodded. “Ding, ding, ding,” he said. “You’d pick up Mando’a quickly, I think.” You smiled at him, you spoke Basic and Huttese already, why not learn a third? He smiled back, though all you could see was metal and visor. “Are we leaving tomorrow?”

“Yes, I think that’d be good. Tomorrow after lunch, maybe? I’ve got to pack up my stuff and say good-bye to everyone.” He nodded. He’d forgotten that you’re leaving your life behind. “I don’t have much stuff, by the way, so don’t worry about that.”

He chuckled again. “Even if you did, I wouldn’t worry. We’d find the space.” There was a warmth in his voice that made your whole body warm. You could tell he cared about the people close to him deeply if he cared about a stranger like this.

You unlocked your door and stepped inside. You weren’t expecting a good night, as you had no reason to, but you did stop yourself from closing the door all the way.

You looked up at him through the half-open blue door. “Thank you,” you said quietly. “For walking me home. It’s very kind.”

“You deserve kindness, Y/N,” he replies, as if it was painfully obvious. Then, you realized he said your name. Your real name, not some Mandalorian nickname.

You smiled again, your lips were beginning to hurt but your face wouldn’t let you stop. “Will I ever get to know your name, Mando?”

“Someday.”

#paz vizla x reader #paz vizsla x reader #paz vizla #paz vizsla #mandalorian x reader #mandalorian fanfiction #star wars #mandalorian #Star Wars fanfiction #star wars fanfic

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labyrinth-runner · 4 years

Note

“Are you scared? Don’t be. ‘ll protect you from today onwards.” For Obi x Reader please?

Title: King of Hearts

Summary: When you’re sent to a neighboring kingdom to marry the king, things do not go as planned. Warnings: None. Word Count: 5400

Tag List: @blackirisposts, @star-whores-a-new-hoe, @nerd-without-a-cause, @all-hallows-evie, @darthserling

As always, thanks to @the-mandalorian-clone-lover for being a low-key Beta.

You could hear the sound of the wheels running over the forest floor. It had been hours since your carriage had set off on its journey towards the kingdom that was to be your new home. Your legs ached from being in the same position for so long, but there was nothing you could do. Stopping now was out of the question, as you had driven into enemy territory an hour ago. Your guards had even advised against looking out the window. After all, the Princess of the neighboring kingdom would be a prime target for the warlord ravaging your kingdom. That was why it was imperative that you got to your new kingdom in one piece. Your marriage to the King would unite your two kingdoms and act as an alliance that would hopefully end the war.

Resting your head against the wall, you absentmindedly played with your pendant as you tried to picture the man you were to marry. You’d met him once, a long time ago. The two of you had both been young when his father, Qui-Gon, had come to your kingdom for a summit. You couldn’t have been more than ten at the time. You remembered meeting an awkward teenager who would talk you out of all the mischief you had planned. He was so serious, with those crystalline blue eyes that looked like they were wise beyond their years. Most of all, you remember he was kind, having an affinity for animals that led him to spend most of his visit in the menagerie.

Now, you wondered what he was like, having been King for a few years since the death of his father at the hands of a warlord. Would he still be kind? Or would years of a harsh life have turned his heart cold? A sigh breezed through your lips as you tried to stretch in the small space.

Thwip.

Thud.

Screaming.

You froze, hearing the unmistakable sound of an arrow being loosed into the air, and the carnage that it no doubt had caused. The horses were startled and strayed from the path, causing the carriage to run over a boulder. It started to list to the side until it was tumbling. You braced for impact as the carriage landed on its side. Peeking out of the window, you noticed you were at the bottom of a ravine.

“I’m a sitting duck,” you realized in horror as you struggled to get the door open, let alone crawl out of the carriage. Part of you wanted to stay put, to play dead, but you knew better than to trust your attackers with your body. If they were thorough, they would finish the job. With that knowledge to steel your nerves, you used all the strength in your arms to pull yourself up through the doorway.

Once on the other side, you closed the door so that it would take them a while to notice anything was amiss. Swiftly, you moved across the clearing towards the tree line. You could hear running water nearby. If you passed through it, then they would loose your trail. Your feet propelled you further and further, vowing to yourself with each step that you would not die here, that the hope of your people’s salvation would not die here, alone, in the forest.

The water was cold on your calves as you plunged into a running river. It was deeper than you expected, but nothing you couldn’t handle. Wading through the waist-deep water, you trudged to the opposite bank and pulled yourself up.

The foliage on that side of the river was dense enough to conceal you from your attackers. Your heart thudded in your chest as you listened to the sounds of footfalls. Through a gap in the trees, you watched as men in dark cloaks came into view, searching for you. When they passed by without incident, you released a breath that you hadn’t realized you were holding.

On the horizon, the sun was starting to set. You knew you couldn’t stay in the woods forever, but you couldn’t travel as you were either. Your clothes were much too rich for the area. No, you’d have to go back to the carriage and hope to salvage some of the clothes that your maid had packed.

Mary, you thought sadly. She had been riding on the front of the carriage when you were attacked. There was no way she would have survived. A pang of guilt washed over you, but you had to shove it aside. Your feelings, as valid as they were, would not enable you to survive if you dwelled in sadness.

Somehow, the water seemed colder the second time around. It felt like tiny knives stabbing into your skin as you made your way back, retracing your steps as best you could in the falling darkness.

Eventually, the carriage came into view, it’s dark form rising out of the shadows. Your luggage was strewn across the ground, with some crates leaking fabrics. Surprisingly, your treasure was untouched.

“So it was never about the money,” you sighed, “It was always about me.”

With a shake of your head, you started to root around for a plain outfit that would be warm enough in the cool night air. You found a blue servants gown and a brown wool cloak that would suit you nicely. Quickly, you changed into it.

Laying on the ground a few feet away was a crumpled body of one of your soldiers. With some care, you removed his dagger and attached it to your own body. You hoped you would never have to use it, but you would rather have and not need, than need and not have.

Lastly, you took your pendant in your hand, a wedding gift from your fiancé. On it was his crest along with your family’s motto on the back. Ad astra per aspera. You tucked it under the neckline of your dress before looking up at the stars. Giving the guiding lights a resolute nod, you started to walk.

You walked for what felt like miles with no end in sight until dawn started to break over the horizon. Streaks of light cut through the canopy overhead washing everything in a warm amber glow. The trees started to thin out and a small town could be seen past the fields and farms on the outskirts near the forest. To your dismay, you could see that the town was crawling with enemy troops. You pulled your cloak further down your forehead to hopefully obscure your face. As much as you just wanted to walk past the town, your stomach was growling and would not be ignored.

Trudging into the tavern, you slipped into a seat in the corner hoping to avoid detection.

The gods were not smiling upon you.

As soon as you sat, a group of soldiers sauntered over towards you.

“Well, sweetheart, aren’t you a new face?” one of them purred as the barkeep placed a bowl of soup in front of you.

You pointedly ignored them, hoping they would take the hint and leave.

Instead, another soldier sat across from you. “Are you traveling alone? You know that’s dangerous with a war on. Wouldn’t want someone as pretty as you to get caught in the cross fires.”

“You know, when a lass ignores you, that’s usually a sign that you should stop talking,” a man said from behind them.

“Yeah? And what are you going to do about it?” The soldier taunted back.

“This,” the man simply stated before punching him in the face.

A brawl soon broke out in front of you. With a sigh of annoyance, you picked up your bowl of soup and side-stepped the kerfuffle to finish eating your soup at the bar.

The men continued to brawl until the owner kicked them out. Then, the owner turned towards you, “And you, too.”

“But I-” you started to protest.

“Out! You’re bad for business,” he said sternly.

You sighed. At least you’d finished eating. It was time to move on from here, anyway. Pulling your hood back over your head, you made your way out of the tavern and into the street, seeing the man and a younger boy nursing their wounds as the soldiers stalked off down the road.

“Are you alright, lass?” the man called out. He looked like a farmer, based off his clothing. The boy with him must be his farmhand, you surmised.

“Yes, but you didn’t have to do that. I was capable of handling it myself.”

“Were you just going to sit in silence and suffer their presence?” he asked, a slight smirk tugging at his lips. He had a scruffy beard, but the most amazing eyes.

Your face felt hot as you looked away, “I suppose I should thank you, then. For saving me the trouble of their company.”

“You’re welcome,” he said with a kind smile. “Where are you headed, lass?”

“Stewjon,” you said before pausing. Thinking on your feet, you came up with a reasonable lie. After all, you weren’t sure how they would treat the princess of a neighboring kingdom, even if they had just defended your right to eat in silence. “I’m an ambassador from a neighboring kingdom looking to bend the king’s ear.”

It wasn’t exactly a lie. You technically were a representative of your kingdom, and you were hoping the King would listen and help his new wife’s homeland. You absentmindedly played with your necklace while you waited to see if he’d accept your lie.

The farmer nodded, “We’ll take you there.” He cast a suspicious look at the pendant in your hand, squinting at it slightly.

Quickly, you tucked it back into your neckline.

They started to walk and you followed them in silence, sizing them up. The two men seemed to have an unspoken language between them, knowing how the other would tackle the stumbling blocks in the road or which path to take to get to the right place. Their’s was an easy companionship from what you could see. Every once in a while they’d crack jokes when they tripped or slipped.

“No wonder you aren’t a knight, if a tree limb can trip you up,” the farmer teased.

“Better me than you,” the younger man quipped. “I don’t know if your old bones could handle a tumble.”

The man thwacked him up the side of his head.

“Ow!” the boy complained.

“Respect your elders,” the man simply stated, sending you a wink.

A chuckle breezed through your lips at their banter.

“See? Even the lady thinks you’re a fool,” the farmer smirked.

“Or maybe she just happens to find my antics amusing,” the boy straightened. “After all, she does have Anakin Skywalker at her service.” He affected a low bow, waggling his eyebrows at you as he looked up.

You giggled, “Lovely to make your acquaintance, Mr. Skywalker. And you, Sir?” you turned towards the farmer. “I should like to know the name of my savior.”

“Oh, should you now?” he asked, his smile slipping slightly. “It’s Ben.”

You nodded, “Ben and Ani.”

Ben looked up at the sky and cursed, “We’ll have to make camp.”

“But it’s midday,” you replied.

He pointed towards the horizon, “Those clouds spell a storm. We’ll want to find a nice, dry cave to stop in until it passes.”

“There’s a mountain ridge up ahead,” Anakin added. “There should be a cave there.”

“The river’s a bit to the south. If the lass wouldn’t mind getting some water?” Ben asked, handing you a canteen.

You nodded, taking it from him going off towards the direction he indicated. You could hear Ben ordering Anakin about as you left.

The stream wasn’t too hard to find, and it was significantly less cold than the one you had found yourself in the day before. As you dipped the canteen in the river to gather water, you caught sight of your reflection. There were trees in your once-neat hair, dirt was caked on your limbs, and bits of blood were dried here and there from where you had been nicked by brambles and branches.

Casting a look from side to side, you realized you were alone. You may not get another moment like this, and you certainly did not want to show up to the palace in such a state. In moments, you had undressed and waded into the running water. Taking a handkerchief from your clothes, you used it to scrub yourself clean, marveling in the fresh feeling of once again being spotless. You leaned back, floating for a moment as you let yourself relax.

“Lass, we found a cave,” Ben called out as he came trudging through the bushes. Then, he caught sight of the clothes on the riverbank and his eyes briefly flicked to your floating body before he averted his gaze.

You straightened immediately. “I’m sorry. I-”

“Please, don’t apologize. I should have been more discreet. I averted my gaze as quickly as I could,” he replied, keeping his back towards you as you got out of the river and dressed.

“How far is the cave?”

“Not very far,” he replied.

Gently, you took his hand to hide the look of embarrassment. His hand was warm around yours, comforting. “Lead the way.”

Soon you found yourself standing at the mouth of a cave. Inside, Anakin had started a small fire and spread out their cloaks to cover the ground to make it softer.

The three of you sat as the start of the storm could be heard outside.

“I guess you were right,” you murmured.

“He’s always right,” Anakin said pointedly.

Ben rolled his eyes, “I just had to learn this from my father at a young age.”

“Because of working in the fields?” you asked.

He blinked, “Y-yes.”

You stared out the mouth of the cave at the steadily growing storm. “Can you tell me a bit about the king?”

“Haven’t you met him before?” Ben asked.

“A long time ago,” you said wistfully. “It’s been a while. People can change. Life changes them.”

“He’s a hard ass,” Anakin smirked. That earned him another thwack from Ben. “Alright, I lied. He’s kind. He’s a real people’s man.” The younger man laid down on his cloak and turned away from you. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take a nap.”

That just left you and Ben.

At first, the silence was deafening, but then the ice broke and conversation became easy.

The two of you talked for hours about anything and everything under the sun, from childhood experiences to the things you did for fun. There was so much that you two had in common, and talking to him was so easy. You’d never felt more at ease. As you talked, you noticed little things about him. The crinkle near the corner of his eyes from smiling was your first observation. Then, it was how beautiful the color of his eyes were. In the back of your mind, you wondered how soft his beard was. Still, all the while you kept swapping stories and learning more and more about this handsome man who had rescued you. When you woke up on his shoulder later on, you didn’t even remember falling asleep.

“Morning, sunshine,” he murmured.

The rain had stopped, leaving a clean smell hanging in the air. Anakin was snoring softly across the cave. The fire casted Ben in a warm amber glow that you found entrancing. Gently, you reached up to smooth a piece of hair out of his face. His eyes softened as he looked down at you. He leaned into your touch, eyes closing as his cheek pressed into your palm. Your thumb caressed the edge of his beard as you found your eyes settling on his lips. In the back of your mind, a voice said you probably shouldn’t be doing this, but you found yourself leaning in anyway. Your lips connected with his, pressing firmly against him. He kissed back almost immediately, slipping his hand to your neck as his fingers snaked into your hair. The cave was suddenly warmer than you could handle and you pulled back, eyes wide at what you’d done.

Anakin stretched behind you, waking up. “Well, I suppose we should start walking again?”

Ben answered, not taking his eyes off you. “Yes, we should. Then we’ll at least reach the city limits by daybreak tomorrow.”

“We’re going to walk through the night?” you asked in dismay.

“It’s best that we make haste,” Ben replied, getting up and pulling his cloak back on.

“R-right,” Anakin seconded, his brow furrowed as he glanced between the two of you.

“If we make it to the city limits by dawn, then we’ll be able to rent a horse for the last leg of the journey,” Ben added, as a consolation.

You nodded, getting yourself together to follow them out into the late afternoon sun.

The walk was harder now, with the ground slick with wet grass and mud. It was slower going, and somehow you managed to hold onto Ben’s hand the entire time. He kept you from falling, and pulled you out of the mud when you got stuck. He barely looked at you as you went until you needed help. Then, there was concern in his eyes as he steadied you, an extra hand on your arm to make sure that you were in fact alright.

It confused you. You were to be married to a man you hadn’t known in a long time, and yet here you were falling for a farmer who couldn’t even look at you for longer that ten seconds since you’d kissed. Still, you knew that nothing you’d have with the King would ever be as easy as with this farmer, but there was nothing you could do. Your kingdom needed this alliance. However, that didn’t mean you couldn’t stumble or slip a bit more so that you could spend more time with the farmer. All you were doing was prolonging the inevitable, you knew that. Yet, you wanted to do it. You were enjoying this sense of freedom before being bogged down with the needs of a kingdom again.

As night drew nearer, you held his hand tighter, not wanting to get separated in the dark. Ben gave your hand reassuring squeezes intermittently. Once, although you could not see it, you felt him bring your hand to his lips and kiss it when you’d stopped at a fork in the road.

Somehow, they knew the way in the dark. It was almost as if they’d spent years traveling these roads, which you thought was odd for a farmer. Then again, he probably traveled to sell his wares. As it got darker, it grew colder. That was when you felt a cloak being dropped on your shoulders. You nestled into it, squeezing his hand in response.

Your feet were so tired you felt like they would fall off of your body and abandon you. At that point, you realized that you had been walked the majority of the way to the palace, a trip that took about six hours by carriage, but a day and a half on foot. You wanted to stop. You wanted to rest. But, you knew that if you were tired, then so were they. Yet, they kept going to get you to your destination. They didn’t give up, and neither would you.

Finally, dawn started to break. You’d broken out onto wide open road a while ago, but now in the early morning rays, you could see the city sprawling before you and the ocean beyond it. You nestled further into your layers as the sea breeze ruffled the fabric.

“Is that...?” you asked.

“Yes,” he said with a fond smile on his face as he looked at it. “That’s Stewjon.”

“It’s massive,” you breathed.

“Which is why I said we’d get horses to take you to the palace,” he winked. “Besides, the best way to tour the city for the first time is on horse.”

“You’re going to give me a tour?” you asked, unable to keep the giddiness from your voice. Perhaps you didn’t have to say goodbye so soon, after all.

“If that is alright with you,” he grinned.

“You two go on ahead,” Anakin yawned. “I’m going to go home.”

Ben shot him a glare.

Your brow furrowed. Home? But they were farmers. There were no farms around the city.

“I mean... I’m going to find some lodgings,” Anakin chuckled nervously. “You know, my brain is so tired I should get some sleep so I can start making sense again.”

You raised a brow as the boy awkwardly backed away.

Ben gently took your hand and tugged you towards the stables. “Wait here.”

Bouncing on the balls of your feet, you waited for him to return with a horse. He helped you up into the saddle before climbing on behind you. His body was warm against your back and you found yourself leaning into him, resting your back against his chest.

He set the horse into a slow pace, pointing out various businesses and places all over the town. People waved to him as he passed and he waved back.

“You’re quite popular,” you teased.

“Nonsense,” he murmured, “They’re just friendly here.”

“I hope I’m well received,” you sighed.

“I’m sure you will be, lass,” he whispered in your ear.

His voice sent a shiver down your spine in a way you’d never felt before. As you closed your eyes, you pictured what it would be like to have him whisper sweet nothings to you in the dark of your bedroom. His hands were warm around yours as he held onto the reins. They were large and calloused. You couldn’t help but imagine what they would feel like against your skin, fingers splayed as they trailed up your sides.

Reluctantly, you opened your eyes, severing your connection to your daydream. You couldn’t be thinking like this. Not now.

“Take me to the palace, please,” you said with a sad smile.

“Of course,” Ben replied, but you thought there was a slight twinge of disappointment in his voice.

The rest of the ride was silent. He put you down in front of the palace steps. Each step up them put more and more distance between the two of you in more ways than just physically. With every step, you tried to wall up your heart to protect you. You didn’t dare to say goodbye for fear of not being able to let go. You felt foolish, loving a man so easily and so quickly, but it felt like you’d know him for years, not mere days.

You placed your hand on the door, fingers spread and pushed it in to enter a grand hall. A woman quickly flitted over to you, giving you a hard appraisal.

“I’m sorry, but the King isn’t seeing to the townspeople today.”

“Oh, I’m not....” you trailed off, trying to think of the best way to explain yourself as the woman raised an eyebrow at you. “I’m the King’s betrothed. My carriage was attacked and I had to walk the rest of the way here.” You dug out the necklace that the King had sent you as a gift and showed it to her.

Her eyes lit up in recognition and she curtseyed, “Of course, your highness. My apologies. My name is Padmé Amidala. I serve as an advisor to the King. Please, allow me to show you to your rooms.”

“May I not see the King first?” you asked. “I’ve traveled all this way.”

“Wouldn’t you like to make yourself look....presentable first?”

You looked down and took in your appearance. “I suppose I ought to.”

Padmé nodded and led you towards your rooms. They were grand rooms, richly furnished with all the finest pieces and fabrics. Yet, they lacked the warmth and familiarity of yours back home.

Servants came to draw a bath for you. Once it was full, you dismissed them and sunk into the tub. It’s nice to bathe in warm water again, you thought as you leaned your head against the rim of the tub.

Your eyes cast a critical glance back and forth as you took in your surroundings. As nice as the rooms were, part of you wondered if it were only a temporary arrangement. After all, you’d have to move into the King’s room eventually once you were married.

Quickly, you sunk below the water at the thought. Sharing a room with another person? Hell, sharing a room with a man? The thought was overwhelming.

When you broke back through the surface, you noticed that the sun was starting to set. It was then that you realized just how much time you had spent with Ben around town. It had gone by in the blink of an eye.

Your fingers started to wrinkle from the water and you decided to emerge from the tub. Wrapping a robe around you, you padded back towards your bedroom to find Padmé waiting for you.

“Your highness, we must take some measurements for your wedding dress,” she informed you as a group of handmaidens swarmed into the room.

You were guided up onto a pedestal and turned this way and that as they draped a gown around you, pinning and stitching things in place.

“How soon will this be finished?” you asked.

“Don’t fret, your highness, I’ll have the dress finished in time for your nuptials tomorrow,” the seamstress said as she packed up her things.

“Tomorrow?” you asked incredulously. It was so much sooner than you thought.

“Of course,” Padmé smiled, “The King will want to marry you at sunset tomorrow, as is tradition.”

“Isn’t that... quite soon?” you asked.

“You’ve known each other for years, have you not?”

“Well,” you sighed as you pulled your robe back on. “May I at least speak with the King first?”

“I’m afraid not, your highness,” she said with a sad smile, “His majesty is in a meeting with the war council tonight. It’s to go over plans for reinforcing your father’s troops. I don’t think he’ll be out any time soon.”

“I see,” you said, a frown of disappointment apparent on your face. “I’d like to enjoy dinner in my room tonight, Padmé. There’s no sense in eating in the dining room if I am to be eating alone.”

“Of course, your highness,” Padmé nodded, ushering everyone out the door. She paused in the doorway before turning back to you. “If it helps at all, your highness, please know that his majesty is a kind man. He is just as nervous about this as you, but I can promise you that everything he will ever do is to protect you. When you were late in arriving.... well, I have never seen him more distraught. I was sure he’d scour the kingdom just to find you.”

“I see,” you murmured, looking out the window at the vast kingdom. “Thank you, Padmé.”

She left without another word.

When dinner arrived, you hadn’t realized how hungry you were, but then you remembered that you hadn’t eaten since the tavern fiasco. Regardless of whether or not it actually was the best meal you’ve eaten, your hunger made it so.

By the time you’d finished eating, the sky had turned into the indigo depths of a lightless ocean. You settled on the window seat and opened the window to feel the chill night air on your face. Your farmer was out there somewhere, with his eyes like the sky in the morning when you have a whole day ahead of you, bright and nary a cloud in the sky. As you closed your eyes, you pictured his face, his strong jaw, his beard as it brushed the shell of your ear during the tour of the kingdom, his strong arms as they wrapped around you. Never had you felt more safe.

You fell asleep on the bench, dreaming of your farmer. It wasn’t until much later that you woke up to a pair of arms carrying you to bed.

Fluttering your eyelids, you noticed a shadow holding you. Your first instinct was to push back as you gasped in fear.

“Shhhhh, lass,” a man murmured as he tucked you into the covers. “Are you scared?” He gently smoothed your hair out of your face, “Don’t be. I’ll protect you from today onwards. Always.”

In your heart, you believed him. You couldn’t make out any of his features as he retreated towards the hall, but when he opened the door, the candlelight reflected off the crown on his head. By then, you could barely keep your eyes open and let yourself succumb to sleep.

Padmé let you sleep in the next morning, having guessed that you had been through quite the ordeal and were thoroughly exhausted. When they finally woke you up, it was around noon and they started to get you ready for your wedding.

It was all a blur as you felt your nerves begin to rise, settling into your chest like a weight. You couldn’t eat, instead just allowing yourself to be taken over by the process and trusting your new handmaidens and Padmé completely.

Soon, you found yourself at the chapel as the afternoon sun started to set, swathing you in colorful light from the stained glass. Your hand came up to squeeze your pendant in your hand, wishing that your father could have been there. Ahead of you stood a man with his back towards you, a crown nestled in his auburn hair. Part of you wondered if you could really go through with this, but then you remembered that this was for the good of the kingdom. Your life was never just yours. You lived for your people, and what your people needed was for you to solidify this alliance. For your own sake, you hoped that love would come later, once Ben was long forgotten. If you could ever manage that.

You walked with a measured gait towards the front of the chapel, coming to rest next to the man that would be your husband. Your heart was thumping in your chest, but then he turned to you and time stopped.

He watched with a smile as your eyes widened and your mouth parted slightly. He was so very handsome. His beard looked incredibly soft. His eyes were a brilliant blue and you were certain that you’d drown in them someday. He was your farmer, and here he was holding his hand out for you to take.

“I don’t understand,” you murmured as you took his hand.

“When you didn’t show up as expected, I had to go searching for you. We traveled the main road and found your carriage. Then, Anakin and I broke off to find you,” he explained.

“But I thought-”

“That I was a farmer,” he grinned, “I couldn’t put a target on my back when there was already one on yours. Traveling the way we did was better for all involved.”

“You could’ve told me,” you replied, squeezing his hand.

“I hadn’t seen you in years. I wanted to know you just as you are, and for you to know me in the same regard,” he replied, kissing your hand.

“And the name Ben?” you asked.

“A nickname from an old friend who lives in a cloister,” he explained.

“I love you,” you told him earnestly.

His hand came up to cup your cheek, “I love you, too, lass.”

The bishop cleared his throat in front of you and you both shared a wide grin before turning back towards him to finish the proceedings.

For the entire ceremony, you were thinking of the man standing next to you and how you knew that no matter what, everything would be alright. You recited your vows, exchanged your rings, and turned back towards each other.

“I now pronounce you man and wife. Your majesty, you may kiss your bride,” the bishop grinned.

Obi-Wan’s eyes trailed down your face towards your lips as his arm wrapped around your waist to pull you close. His other hand came up to tilt your face towards his. Gently, he stroked his thumb across your cheek.

You swallowed the lump in your throat as you settled your hands on his chest.

He leaned down to kiss you, pressing his lips against yours. To your surprise, he dipped you back, causing you to chuckle against his lips as he straightened the two of you out. Then, he scooped you up and carried you towards your castle so that you could live happily ever after.

#obi-wan kenobi #obi-wan fanfiction #obi-wan x reader #obi-wan x you #Obi-Wan x Fem! Reader #arranged marriage fic

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wornoutmouse · 4 years

Text

Illumi x Poc Reader

I wrote this cause I don't see any Poc readers with hxh like I do mha😫 Also not sure if I'll make this into a story what do you think?

You weren't the strongest nen user in the world, hell you weren't even in the top 50. So if someone were to ask you why you were currently having dinner with the most feared family in Padokea you would have no choice but to just shrug your shoulders. You glanced around quietly eating your meal as your posture became stiff as a board the longer the silence became. You were not naive to the fact that there were many eyes on you both literally and figuratively.

Sitting across from you was a rather large man with long white hair calmly eating his food. He was almost a mirror image of the older man to his left. Although shorter in stature you could practically taste the power radiating from him.

'This must be Illumi's grandfather' you thought

Next to the old man was a large boy with shiny black hair similar to Illumi's noisily chewing while focusing with a mobile game in his right hand. Someone you deducted to be his sister sat next to him in a black and pink kimono quite similar to the one your were forced to wear before arriving, she ate her food quietly. Finally turning towards the lady of the house who's hard gaze you could feel on your face ever since you arrived.

Clearing your throat you opted for small talk trying to lessen the tension. "Who made dinner, it's delicious." The woman clapped her hands together in a gleeful manor, "Do you really think so? The new butler prepared it but I found it a bit dry so they were promptly fired!" She replied voice getting hard at the word fired. It was not hard to understand that fired was Zoldyck for killed. You stared down incredulously at the rice and beef on the table that was practically oozing in tenderness and moisture. "Oh really?" You respond lightly trying to keep a blank face as the woman snapped her silver spoon in half bellowing a obnoxious, 'Oh dear!'

You swallowed shallowly as you watched a servant immediately present her a new fork. You came to a decided conclusion that this woman was off her rocker. You opened your mouth to speak again before a quick sharp pain spread up your leg piercing through all the layers of your kimono. Tensed you pluck some beef into your mouth at the same time you plucked the object out of your flesh. Based on the thin length leading to a round end you shuddered glacing at Illumi who was now missing one of his needless from his vest. This was obviously a warning to stay quiet.

After the meal Illumi ushered you down the hall and up many stairs before shoving you into a dark room causing you to trip and almost fall. You huff angrily turning to your captor, "What is this about Illumi?" You ask flicking his needle towards his face marveling at how easily he caught it gently between his long slender fingers returning it to his place above his heart. "It was only to get you to stop speaking. It wouldn't have been long before my mother threw a fit and that would be rather annoying." He replied nonchalantly his dark eyes staring into yours before promptly turning and walking towards a linen closet.

You combed your hand through your disheveled afro that you were unable to fix after Illumi had made you open his heavy ass 'front door' you personally called bullshit on that one. But had no choice since you were immediately threatened if you refused.

"If you are unable to open at least one of the doors then you are not worth my time and will be disposed of."

Plopping down on the plush bed you gasp as you sank down a few inches grasping at the silk sheets. "What could I have possibly done to upset your mama? I opened 2 of your stupid doors and I put on this kimono just like you asked!" You asked exasperated as you tugged on the kimono that had clung to your round figure no matter how much you loosened the sash. Illumi closed the closet turning with two stacks of purple linen in his hands perfectly folded. "That is true. Infact she was estatic at your efforts at first. But that all changed of course when I told her that I was open to marrying you."

Your heart sunk into your stomach like your body in the bed at those words. You shuttered at the thought of marrying this deranged man and bearing his fish eyed offspring. His monotone voice and blank face only fueled your reasoning as he spoke about marriage as though he was shopping for bread. "What the hell do you mean marriage!?" The only reaction you received was a show blink, "You managed to intrigue me, anyone capable of that needs to be monitored closely and what better way to do that than marriage?" You roll your eyes and gestured universally, "How about, I don't know, literally ANYTHING! Be roommates you know, like normal people!" Illumi looked almost as though he was pondering on the idea before shaking his head

"No, besides it's about time I've settled down don't you think." You dead panned absolutely positive that your ideas of settling down where vastly different. "I'm sure your mother does not approve of you marrying someone you just met." Illumi's mouth twitched up hinting at a smirk, "No, things like that are common around here, her problem is about how weak you are." He paused for a moment waking towards making you mean away as he sets his long arms on either side of you, caging you between the bed and himself examining your features before continuing, "And she's not too keen on mixing different backgrounds into our pure Japanese heritage." Your blink slowly trying to calm your heart beat at the proximity before scoffing looking towards the window to your left so you wouldn't cry in fear, "Offend me why don't you?"

He leaned away plopping one of the purple stacks into your lap, "Let's go shower." He says heading to the bathroom stopping when he realized you weren't following. "Well, come along." You looked at him like he'd lost his damn mind, which he had apparently. "You got me messed up if you think I'm getting in the shower with you Playboy continue your journey and leave me alone." You say rolling into your side facing away from him in order for you not to go back on your choice in fear only to relax at the sound of the bathroom door opening and closing.

FLASHBACK

You gasped in exhaustion as you ran as far as your legs would take you. Flying through the dense forest trying to keep a close ear on the sounds of twigs snapping at your right. 'I'm totally fucked' you thought as the sound easily caught up to you.

You didn't understand how you got into this situation. You were simply visiting your uncle at his new estate. You knew he got his wealth in greasy ways but not enough to put a hit on himself.

You propel yourself off of a branch trying to get higher into the trees. You wondered if your uncle was still alive. He was a more advanced nen user so if he doesn't survive you surely won't. You pushed yourself harder through the trees thinking back to seconds before the ambush.

Your uncle was giving you a saphire necklace that he had aquired through questionable means. The only thing that gave away something was wrong was the fact that the estate was completely silent with no sound of his rowdy partners celebrating through booze and marijuana. At that realization, he ushered you though the bedroom window just as his room door slammed open. All you saw before you jumped was long ebony hair and dull black eyes. You landed on the ground in a awkward way, spraining your ankle but wasted no time pushing through the pain; breifly recalling what your mother said when she sent you here.

"You just learned nen basics so you're not adept to protecting yourself. Your uncle Ricky messes around with dirty folk so if he tells you to run then run baby and don't look back."

So here you were, flying through the air just 2 months after your first nen training, putting everything you knew to the test. After long last, you burst through the trees finally able to see your surroundings illuminated with the moonlight.

You began bounding across the tops before something sharp stabbed through your sprained tendon, causing you to fall far and hard back into the forest.

You groaned, sitting up and blinking rapidly, you try to adjust your eyes to the change in scenery. Standing up shakily, you take a step forward before you feel a large weight land on your back, pushing you face down into dirt and dried leaves.

"There is no use resisting child. Stay still and I will consider making your death quick~" Came a silky voice above you. "Such wasted potential~" Before you could respond, everything went black signalling that your clone had met it's demise. You blinked yourself bringing your consiousness back into your real body. "Wow that nen trick really did work, maybe that old lady wasn't crazy." You mutter wincing at the ghost of pain you felt drumming through your ankle. Once you casted your nen on a pile of twigs, you quickly ran in the opposite direction. Only watching from it's own eyes so the movements would seem fluid.

"I should hurry it won't be long till they realise they were tricked."

You quickly ran into a small tourist town and headed to the nearest bar so you could ease your pain. Sliding onto the stool you wave over the bar keep. "A shot of vodka for the road!" You call out, already grimacing at the taste you'd have to force yourself through. The bartender looked at you and smirked before sliding you a root beer float.

You stared at the ice cream floating in your glass before looking at him like he was crazy. "Sorry sweety but your babysitter said to give you something light."

He gestures behind you, and you turn to look choking sightly as breath catches in your throat.

Right behind you were familiar dull black eyes pearing down at you. This man was tall, at least 6 feet plus with pale white skin, and long hair. He was dressed like a Christmas tree with gold bulbs adorning his green top. "Can I help you?" You ask trying to feign innocence. The man stiffly sat down in the stool next to you ignoring you for the time being. "Barkeep please give me what you gave her." He said point to your float. Once he received his, he looked at it for a while as the ice cream sunk into the root beer. The silence was terrifying but you found yourself getting lost in his sharp features and his calculating hands as they wrapped around the tall glass.

"How did you do your little trick?" He asked pulling you out of your trance. You blink slowly, "What trick?" You ask tensing as his head turns towards you looking into your eyes almost daring you to lie

"I told my colleague to rid the area of any strays in the area. He informed me that he was persueing the 'cute Cocoa girl with the curly hair." He faced his drink swiping the dripping cream and slowly licking it off his finger never breaking eye contact. "So you can imagine my surprise when I find my self persueing the same girl. So I want to know how you did it."

You fold your arms and began drinking your float indignant to the situation. "Sorry, family secret, I can't tell you." You suddenly feel something thin yet sharp pressing into yout neck as a sultry voice chuckled from behind you. "How sneaky of you my dear, tricking me into following a ploy."

The ebony haired man watched your face looking for a reaction and you looked back the best you could without provoking your neck being slit. With a sigh the man drunk some of his float licking the ice cream from his lips, "Stand down Hisoka, we don't want a repeat of last time." And you could only imagine what that meant. There was a chuckle, "Oh Illumi my dear your no fun~" the mystery person replied. But the force was removed from your neck.

#illumi #hxh #illumi zoldyck #x reader #poc reader #hisoka

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writing-the-end · 4 years

Text

LoL Chapter 5- Milliara

Master Post

A Wizard Hermits tale (AU belongs to @theguardiansofredland )

Arriving in Milliara, the hermits are excited to finally share what they found with the Magistrate of Lairyon. Things....don't exactly go the way they plan, however. Meanwhile, on the hermit island of Eremita, an old friend returns.

___________________________________

The walls of the capitol stretch across the swampy marshes of mid-Lairyon, the only firm and permanent ground being the roads and city streets. During the winter months, when the marshes flood with snowmelt from the mountains both north and south, the walls protect the city from the rising waters as well as attacks from monsters and other enemies.

Entering through the massive Kindness Gates of the northeast wall, Scar can’t help but feel like the gates don’t reflect their names. The sharp iron teeth of the portcullis bear down over them as they walk through, just one pull of a chain and the bars would clamp down and bite him in half. He glances to the side, noting the sharp halberds each soldier stands at attention with as well- faces devoid of any emotion. It takes Scar a second to realize they aren’t real people- they’re all the multiplication of one man. Very real, but magical all the same. Clones, with the real man as the captain.

Scar scurries back to the group of hermits, looking around at the massive, sprawling city. A shadow casts over them, the pillar representing one of the eight core values set by the king. Kindness, casting it’s long shadow over the bright pennants and green canals of the streets. Wooden buildings stand on stilts, resting on the steppes and tiers of the city. From beside and beneath the houses, waterfalls pour over mossy and verdant lips of ground, water traveling through the city like blood through veins. Little boats carry messages, their fabric sails filled magically. They bob down the canals, bumping across lilypads and the flowers that live on circular islands, tipping over waterfalls but never losing it’s precious mail.

And already, the hermits can see the center of the city, the heart of Lairyon. Three large buildings, white as aged cypress trees, and just as old. The castle, with gleaming towers that stretch out like branches, home of King Sor.

In the center, a stout building with twin water wheels, spinning in their eternal race to nowhere. Moving water across all of Milliara, like a heart pumping blood. Water is the lifeblood of Lairyon, the island nation. The structure is a feat only completed through the help of all the cities. Metal from Dwarveil, flown in with cooperation from Foresta and Edenswell- their magic and animals. The mill, built by the brightest engineers from Darlon, and the water moved with the aid of Rivera and Watercrest’s magical affinity.

And to the right, the newest building. The capitol house, home of the magistrate and Council of Guilds. It’s they who make the laws, with the magistrate as the elected head of the people. Vaulting windows that spiral up the shortest building of the three, and the flag of Lairyon at every corner and trellis. That’s where the hermits are going. The capitol building, to meet with Magistrate Dolios. Some call him the People’s King- elected by the populace, but in power almost as long as the young king has been. The people just keep electing him every new season.

Doc rubs his shoulders, glancing out the corner of his eyes as they walk over a bridge, white twisted roots and pennants bearing Lairyon’s colors inviting the hermits into the city center. “Doesn’t this feel wrong, you guys?”

“What do you mean?” Jevin tilts his head, slime squishing and a lock of his blue semi-liquid hair falling into a cowlick.

“I mean...we should be more careful, man. We’re an illegal guild walking into the center of the law. Most of us have been on the wrong side of this man and his rules about guilds for years.” Doc tugs on the sleeves of his robes, the tattered ends sticking out like a sore thumb around high society.

“You’re just being paranoid, dude.” Ren snickers. “Not all of us are hardened criminals that have done time in prison. Just you, Doc.”

“Besides, the magistrate said if we investigated that mega problem in Gildara, we’d become a legal guild. Well, now here we are to claim our reward!” Iskall adds.

“Why now, is all I’m asking.” Doc picks up his pace, falling in step with Xisuma. “How many times have we been rejected to be a new guild? I mean, we tried to follow Dolios’s law and get a license, but we were always rejected for no freaking reason! It’s not a fair law, but now all of sudden he wants to give us what we were denied? And why not ask any other guild?”

Xisuma tightens his lip, though no one but him knows. His mask is on, protecting him from the sunlight. “We can’t go into this assuming anything. We did what the magistrate has asked, despite the clear violation we are in with his own laws.”

“Just...remember that.” Doc slinks back, falling into step with BDubs and Zedaph. Both of which would rather not be in the busy city center. Guilds have been restricted by law, one of Magistrate Dolios’s early orders passed. A licensed guild is moderated, inspected. Safer than an unlicensed guild. At least, according to the capitol, they are.

But unlicensed guilds have their reasons for existing. It’s expensive to run a legal guild, so missions often come with high expenses. The Hermit guild picks up work legal guilds would refuse, helping poor towns who can’t afford such high commission fees. To many of the hermits, the laws of guilds are too strict. They don’t allow for creativity, for individuality. To belong to a guild has become a status symbol few poorer or uneducated mages can attain. The knowledge stays within the guilds, and especially the Council of Guilds has become a country club of sorts. The new nobility.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve stood here.” Stress whispers, looking up the steps of the capitol building.

“Right there with ya, mate.” Mumbo runs his bottom lip over the hairs of his mustache, looking around. Hoping no one notices him. Stress ran away from the high life. Mumbo was abandoned by it. The guild walks up the steps, an odd crew seen at the crown of the kingdom. A mix of criminals and nobles, mischief makers and rule followers, quiet souls and crowd pleasers. And their magic is just as varied. Guild members and other government officials stare as they enter into the grand hall of the capitol, clean pressed robes a harsh contrast to the battle worn and road weary hermits. Grian still has hay sticking out of his hair.

The staircase, with velvety red carpet and marble steps, is blocked by giant magical swords. Guards wield the blades, keeping what they can only imagine to be riffraff out of the offices. “State your business, wizard.”

“We are here to meet with Magistrate Dolios.” Xisuma states, lifting his chin proudly. The guards don’t move, only glancing at one another. X rolls back on his heels, the awkward silence prolonging until he’s popping his lips just to fill the void. He typically likes that stuff too. “I expect he knows we’re coming, right?”

“Why would the magistrate, the leader of Lairyon, want to see a bunch of mongrels off the streets?” One guard hisses, nose wrinkling. “You all reek of backwater, why don’t you return to your-” The second guard is cut off as his sword pulls away from blocking the stairs to point at the hermits.

“What do you think you’re doing to my esteemed guests?” A clear, calm voice cuts through the air. A voice that demands the attention of every single person in the hall, including every hermit. The guards turn, looking up the stairs. And standing at the top, hand resting on the stone railing, is Magistrate Dolios.

Curly brown hair, the color of fertile soil fresh from a morning rainfall, sweeps down into a tame ponytail, framing a tanned face and charismatic blue-hazel eyes. A soft smile creases between the magistrate’s beard. Purple and red robes flow down the stairs, a golden tassled belt denoting the man as the magistrate of the Council. “You put those barbaric weapons away, and let these good people of Lairyon up the steps.” Dolios looks to Xisuma, nodding his head and placing a hand over his heart. “I have been anxiously awaiting your return.”

The guards don’t hesitate to follow the magistrate’s orders, sheathing the weapons and letting the hermits pass by. Most follow Magistrate Dolios up the stairs, though Doc can’t help but give the arcane guard some trouble on his way past. For once, they can’t do anything to arrest him. The hermits follow the magistrate up into the offices, walking along the velvet carpet with awe. Most have never seen such riches in their life. Dolios’s words are just din. “I’m so glad you arrived completely unharmed. But may I ask...where is your guildmaster?”

“TFC? He went back to our compound to research a specimen he found in Gildara. He didn’t want to waste a minute, so he left alone.” X responds, stepping through the door that Dolios opens.

They’re in his office. It’s large, but the space feels tight. It’s full of artifacts and trophies, both manmade and organic. Zedaph immediately shrinks in, the head of a bakunawa mounted on the wall beside him. Impulse and Tango look around as well, all three members of team ZIT unnerved by the office. Something doesn’t feel right. But Dolios is perfectly at home, sauntering behind his desk and sitting down. His eyes run across the hermits before him, picking up a white feather from his desk as his eyes pass over Grian. “So, tell me. What did you find in the town of Gildara?”

Joe steps up, repositioning his glasses on the bridge of his nose and clearing his throat. “When we reached about five kilometers from the town of Gildara, we became aware of the earth turning grey, like ash. But not just the top layer- the entire ground was devoid of life. Crops that grew died, and wooden poles were beginning to rot. When we reached the town, it was completely uninhabited. We soon discovered a crystal deep within the well of the town, which was unaffected by any magic we threw at it.”

Dolios nods his head slowly. “So how did you take care of the problem?”

“We...We didn’t. Two people- who we can only describe as being simple husks, devoid of thought, life, or energy beyond basic magic- appeared, attacking us. The crystal then lashed out, and we were only able to make it retreat before falling back ourselves.” Joe bites his lip.

“You asked us to investigate the disturbance, Magistrate Dolios.” Xisuma steps up, brushing out the top of his outfit. “We took care of the crystal, sending it into dormancy. But the people of Gildara are gone. I think this requires more researching before we can truly do something to break that crystal. Based on my albeit limited knowledge- they don’t really cover this kind of magic at the academy- I do believe this crystal was corrupted by dark magic.”

The office is silent, Dolios staring at the hermits. Finally, he sighs. “That is rather...disturbing news. Do you have any idea who could be behind this?” All of the hermits shake their heads in unison, thought team ZIT becomes distracted by something fluttering on the wall. “Unfortunate. Well, your work is valuable to my cause. I have learned a great deal from this.”

Dolios stands, hand waving. The door behind the hermits opens, allowing the harsh light of the hall into the dark office. False raises an eyebrow. “So...does that mean we’re a guild now? A legal guild?”

Mumbo steps back as he sees a dangerous glint enter Dolios’s gaze, though his lips never turn away from the charismatic smile he wears like jewelry. He closes his eyes, hand raising to cover his mouth. But it does nothing to hide the laughter, growing as his shoulders bounce and he leans back in his chair. It’s a low laugh, reverberating from the chest like a growl. “You really believed I would give you the honorable title of a licensed guild...just for that?”

Doc rips forward, hand waving across and nearly knocking half a dozen knicknacks from the Magistrate’s desk. A few papers lift up, but the magistrate places a hand over them without even looking away from the puppeteer. “We did what you contracted us to do! You said we’d be a legal guild!”

“You mean this contract?” Dolios’s fingers dance across a parchment paper, bearing the signature of the Order of Hermits’ guildmaster. TFC’s crawling, stout signature. He lifts it up, showing it to all the hermits with brazen eyes. A devious curl appears at the corner of his soft smile, and he snaps his fingers.

The contract goes up in flames. Ash sweeps past the hermits, carrying all their hopes and dreams along with it. “Why would this nation need a pack of roaches like you? I will let this unlawful congregation of...miscreants pass through Milliara for now. But you all are in direct violation of my laws, and must disband at once. You are dismissed.”

“That’s not fair!” Grian shouts, scrabbling up Mumbo to get a better view- a better place to yell from. “You contracted us to investigate Gildara, you contacted us yourself! You-”

“You need to learn to stop squawking your mouth, little bird.” Dolios cuts him off, twirling the feather in his hand. Zedaph notices red stains on the pure white barbs. “I recommend you all leave my office now, before your privilege as esteemed guests becomes the misfortune as unlawful intruders to the leader of Lairyon’s own office. I will repeat myself only once more. You are dismissed.”

Doc is the first one out. Storming through the guild, muttering “I told you so” under his breath. Zedaph races out next, tears pricking at the corner of his eyes. Tango and Impulse are close behind their friend. Once every last hermit is out, the door slams closed, and the same guards that met them at the bottom of the stairs have arrived to escort them out.

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

“TFC? Where is everyone?” TFC looks up, pulling the magnifying piece from his eye and setting down the black crystal. Before him, a knight in shining armor has appeared, or at least the closest version the hermits can find.

“Ahh, Wels. What took you so long?” TFC grumbles, returning to his inspection of the crystal. The short tone sets Wels aback, brows furrowing. Their guildmaster is typically overjoyed to have a hermit return from a mission. Hugging, checking them over for wounds, and asking about the job done.

“You know Alphasgard. Just a bunch of sticks in the asses.” Wels shrugs, feeling his shoulder ache where the bone and skin is still healing. Those rogues thought they could torture him for information, but they just made him mad. “Nothing I haven’t dealt with before. Got some pretty sick scars to show off when the others return. Where are they?”

But TFC isn’t listening, back to prodding the crystal with a metal needle. Scraping at the lustrous surface. Wels steps away, setting his shield down at False’s forge before returning to his home. He glances back at TFC’s crystalline cave. Something isn’t right. TFC would be hounding Wels to take a look at his scars. He always berates the younger members for being so reckless, but then pats them on the back- quite rough- and congratulates them on another great tavern tale earned. But TFC is alone, on the empty island. How long has he been the only one here? Just him and that strange crystal?

And what happened to the other Hermits?

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himjopper · 5 years

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the flea & the acrobat (jim hopper fic)

pairing: hopper x reader, stranger things chapter: 2/? chapter rating: teen, 18+ (mention of violence, fear, mild swearing, mention of sexual intentions) summary: you’re an FBI agent from the behavioral analysis unit, living in the big city and enjoying the hustle and bustle of the 80’s crime scene. you’ve worked your ass off to get respect around a male dominated field, earning yourself a promotion as the head of your department after you helped solve a missing persons case that swept the nation just short of a year ago. the case closed, but something happening in a small town in Hawkins, Indiana is making your bones chill with its similarities to your closed case. a young girl, barbara holland, is missing and you’ve got a hunch on how to bring her home. little do you know, Hawkins isn’t exactly textbook and you need the locals’s help. a/n: oh my goodness, I finally got a chapter 2 out and we’re getting to meet Hop. I know I only hinted at it in chapter 1, but I didn’t want to rush it! trying to build some tension before we head down the road of uh cough tension ;-) anyway! please enjoy and send me ideas or thoughts! also let me know if you’d like to be tagged! <3 gif credit & tagged: @chiefharbour

Indiana.

The air was drier than Seattle’s, certainly promising that you weren’t going to be rained on all morning. Your plane touched down in Indianapolis and the drive between the city to this nowhere town was vast. You saw less and less as the miles continued. However, there were definitely more corn fields. Your mind immediately jumped to the possibility Barbara Holland was tortured and thrown in one of those fields. Surrounded by husks, glasses broken, windpipe probably shattered, blunt force trauma to the back of the head and if this really is an admirer of Schwartzmen, they would have removed all her teeth and fingertips to try to keep her from being identified. That’s how the original killer stayed under the radar for so long and how this case earned the name Snake Hole. It felt like every time you had a lead on Schwartzmen and you were on his heel, another murdered redhead would pop up on nearly the other side of Alabama. Every time you had him, he’d disappear before he would strike, just like a snake you didn’t see on a path. He’d keep his victims for a period of two to three days of grooming before the torture, making them feel guilty for abandoning him as a baby as if he was their son, anything to get them to confess before he’d forgive them and eventually “save” them from their sins. He was fast, manipulative, cunning, and obsessive. You had every hope whoever had Barbara Holland was anything but.

· · ──── ·𖥸· ──── · ·

Pulling up to the Hawkins’s Police Department left you a bit nervous and you weren’t entirely sure why. You’ve done plenty of solo investigating in your career and if anything, you’re a better agent when you work alone, but the idea of speaking with people from a close knit small town has its up and downs. On one hand, they’re eager to get their local to return home safely. On the other, they have no idea what the FBI should be doing in their town, they think their local PD is more than capable, and they don’t trust the FBI with their personal information because there’s a conspiracy that you’re the government and you’re going to sample their DNA for cloning to breed with aliens in Area 51.

You take a deep breath as you kill the ignition in the rental and check your appearance in the rear view mirror.

Be positive. This could go over smoothly and quickly if you are confident and strong. God, listen to yourself. What a load of shit.

Eventually you’re greeted by a front desk and you’re already noticing the difference in volume this office was compared to yours back home in Seattle. The fax machine was quiet. The conversations were low. There was very subtle sounds of keyboards clicking. Somewhere there’s a radio, still quiet but humming today’s popular hits. Even your heels seemed too loud.

“Good morning,” you began as you made eye contact with the older woman at the desk. Had to have been in her early sixties, been here since her thirties. Her nails were painted a fuchsia color, not a nail chipped, and her fingers decorated with jewelry including an older wedding ring. She seemed sweet, maternal, maybe a bit stern. Behind her thick rimmed glasses, her eyes looked up at you and she adjusted the frames to get a better look at your face before you spoke again.

“I’m special agent Scotch with the FBI, I spoke briefly with a Florence over the phone?”

Suddenly her hands fly up in excitement as she exclaims, “Oh! Yes!”

She stands up from her office chair to hold your hand over the counter, not even much of a shake but just a gentle grasp and supportive squeeze that took you off guard at first, but actually relieved a lot of your stress.

“It is so nice to meet you, I’m Florence, but please address me as Flo; my mother was Florence. I can’t tell you how much we appreciate you coming down here from your big city crimes to want to help us down here!” Your lips parted to speak, but she was already guiding you to the other side of her desk and towards a table decorated with various breakfast pastries and the smell of caffeine comforted you instantly. “Come, come, let’s get you a coffee and you tell me about your flight, is it a long trip from Washington? I don’t travel much, they’ve had me glued to this desk for nearly half my life now,” she trails off with a laugh to herself.

You make small talk over semi-stale croissants with jam and burnt coffee, but you’re grateful for her hospitality nonetheless. You notice there’s a couple other desks covered with stacks of paper thrown around haphazardly. The lack of organization and order was clear here. Your hear some men’s voices down the hall towards more office space.

“Flo, thank you for your kindness,” you start. “I just have a couple of questions, if that’s okay? Who was in charge here for the case on Barbara Holland’s disappearance?”

Immediately, she puts her paper plate down on the table you’ve been conversing next to and she sprinkles the crumbs off her fingertips onto the plate. She sighs, but it’s not out of frustration or exhaustion per say. Sympathy, maybe? “That’d be our chief of police here, Jim Hopper. It’s been a wild ride, I’ll tell you what. Seems like a bit of a dead end for our chief, but he’s a stubborn man, ehm ....?” she looks at you then, realizing she doesn’t know how to address you properly. Something about your last name and “agent” didn’t seem friendly enough for Flo, you’re inclined to introduce yourself again with your first name to which she then adds to her statement.

You squint in suspicion. “Stubborn?”

Flo nods feverishly with a comedic roll of her eyes. “Beyond belief,” she exasperates, “he has a hard time letting anything go or run its course. It’s difficult to see him at such a loss with Miss Holland’s disappearance. He’s been at that like a dog tied to a tree, I’ll tell you.“

Interesting.

By nature, you want to trust Flo’s judgement. However, the files she had faxed to you to read over with Hayes last week weren’t matching up with her words. The lack of information for Barbara’s disappearance made you believe this was a chief of police in charge who either got promoted too early and wasn’t sure how to investigate properly or he was a lazy cop who figured a sixteen year old girl ran away from her wholesome and structured square lifestyle to indulge in some teenage rebellion. Was it genuine carelessness or just sloppy law enforcement? There seemed to be nothing to really work with from Hawkins PD.

Your lips relieve themselves from the hard line you had pressed them together in, you make a hum sound of understanding.

“I see. Is your chief of police, Jim Hopper, available to speak to? I think he’d have more answers for me regarding this case.”

She shakes her head then and explains she hasn’t seen him since last night, your eyes catching the ticking clock above to see it was already a quarter passed ten. Incompetent as predicted, you think to yourself. “Ms. Flo,” your attempt at keeping your voice soft and patient was partially failing due to the frustration you were feeling in your chest. “I don’t mean to rush you or your team, however, this is a time sensitive case. Where is your chief of police?”

As if on cue, there’s a loud chime of the front doors opening and two men’s voices bellowing over each other in a heated discussion.

“For the last time, Mr. Larson, I don’t know where your damn gnomes are this time—“

“I think you do, chief, you’re just too lazy to do something about it—!”

There’s a louder roar from the first man’s voice, “Alright, alright! Enough!”

Flo excuses herself to see the problem, you assume. There’s some quieter bickering between the three of them now before the chime of the front door is heard again and one of the men comes into view first. He’s taller than you expected, clad in khakis and a pack of cigarettes is peeking from his pocket. Based off the scruff, off balance posture, and cold demeanor, you were left to assume this was the infamous chief.

Your breath catches in your throat when he catches your eye contact for the first time. You didn’t expect his eyes to be that blue, either.

“Who’re you.”

His voice is so gruff and flat, he doesn’t even ask it like a question. His brow is knitted together as he stares at you, you notice his eyes scan you up and down a few times.

Before you can speak, Flo rushes passed him and stands in front of you.

“Hopper, this is federal agent Scotch, she’s with the FBI-“ His hand flies up to stop her excitement and he has a clear look of distaste before he starts storming to his office with a string of grumbling, “No, no, no FBI, I don’t care where she’s from, I’ll be in my office, just show her out...”

This is where you lose your patience. “Excuse me, Chief.”

Hopper turns half way to look at you again, brows raised and obviously not expecting much from you. However, you’re unfortunately used to being patronized, especially in this field of work.

“My name is special agent Scotch, I’m with the behavioral analysis unit in the FBI located in Seattle. I really don’t care if you don’t want to talk with me, but I’ll have to rule you as a suspect if you keep me from information regarding the missing case of Barbara Holland, especially because you already fit our rough profile of an unsub from the matching murder cases from a year ago we believe is being mirrored here in Hawkins. Now, it’s just me and not the rest of my team, but I wouldn’t hesitate to make the call and have you arrested myself since you’re not in the position to refuse me, do I make myself clear?”

Flo’s widened eyes move from watching you to the chief. He looks skeptical and almost lets out a laugh with an unlit cigarette now dangling between his lips, “You think I took the missing kid?”

Your facial expression, however, doesn’t falter. You held his eye contact as he raised his lighter to his mouth.

“I said, do I make myself clear?” You repeat.

There’s a few small puffs of smoke while he continues to hold your gaze. There’s a different light in his eyes, the blue much darker than before. “Crystal,” he mutters.

As subtly as possible you exhale the breath you didn’t realize you had been holding. He draws in another drag before tilting his head towards a hall, motioning you to join.

“We’ll discuss this in my office. I don’t need the town gossiping about why there’s a goddamn FBI agent in my town.” With a turn on his heel, he doesn’t wait for you as he’s already halfway down the hall. You watch the muscles on his back and shoulders as he walks off.

Flo’s sudden grip on your wrist makes you flinch. Her smile is soft though and she gives you a reassuring squeeze. You return her smile for a moment before your heels match the rhythmic stomping of Hopper’s much heavier boots as you both entered his office. For a brief second, he was behind you and you could feel how much he really towered over you, it felt like nearly half your size. You could smell the cigarette smoke mixed with his aftershave and you became suddenly aware of how loud your heartbeat was. The slam of his office door that he kicked close woke you up from your senses quickly. Hopper went behind his desk, nudging several files and papers to the sides before he sat in front of you now, leaned back in the creaking chair and cigarette between his lips.

“You wanted to talk?”

You say nothing as he ashes his cigarette in the dish in front of you.

“Let’s talk.”

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pizzacentral · 4 years

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2020 ANNUAL FAVORITES

As always, any media that was widely released in the calendar year 2020, that I personally consumed within the calendar year 2020, was eligible. This was ranked on December 31st, 2020, and unchanged since then (no matter what I end up thinking about it in the future.)

The upside of spending a lot more time indoors this year was that I got to consume a lot more media and share it with my roommates. I’m nixing the blurbs going forward on my Annual Favorites list, but posting on time, which is almost unprecedented! Here’s to all the good stuff we’ll get to watch and hear and read in 2021!

Favorite Films

I watched 119 films in 2020, 44 of which were released this year. Film being more accessible and released straight to on demand meant I got to see a lot more new films than I usually do. I didn’t get to catch Never Rarely Sometimes Always, First Cow, The Nest, Sound of Metal, or Wolfwalkers - but that list is way smaller than most years.

If you’d like to hear more about my list, check out the podcast episode of Cinema Bums about it! You can subscribe to Cinema Bums to hear my thoughts about movies every week!

10. Lovers Rock 9. Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn 8. i'm thinking of ending things 7. Tenet 6. Straight Up 5. The Trial of the Chicago 7 4. Trolls World Tour 3. Onward 2. Bad Education 1. The Vast of Night

Favorite Records

10. What's Your Pleasure? - Jessie Ware 9. It Was Good Until It Wasn't - Kehlani 8. Imploding the Mirage - The Killers 7. Limbo - Aminé 6. Notes On a Conditional Form - The 1975 5. Future Nostalgia - Dua Lipa 4. evermore - Taylor Swift 3. Punisher - Phoebe Bridgers 2. RTJ4 - Run the Jewels 1. Manic - Halsey

Favorite Songs

As always, any song not included on one of my Favorite Records was eligible.

10. "Tattoos Together" - Lauv 9. "bus beat" - The Front Bottoms 8. "Malibu" - Kim Petras 7. "My Phone is Trying To Kill Me" - The Aces 6. "Hate the Other Side" - Juice WRLD with Marshmello, The Kid LAROI, and Polo G 5. “Fresh Out” - Mallory Merk 4. “The Steps” - HAIM 3. “invisible string” - Taylor Swift 2. “Ungodly Hour” - Chloe x Halle 1. “BLACK PARADE” - Beyoncé

Favorite Video Games

I finished playing 20 Nintendo Switch video games in 2020 (double my quota from 2019,) and 10 of those came out this year. Here are my favorites:

5. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity 4. A Short Hike 3. Paper Mario: The Origami King 2. Streets of Rage 4 1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Favorite Episodes of The Mandalorian (Season 2)

I liked all of these, and was glad for the chance to consistently look forward to them every week!

8. “Chapter 9: The Marshal” 7. “Chapter 11: The Heiress” 6. “Chapter 12: The Seige” 5. “Chapter 15: The Believer” 4. “Chapter 10: The Passenger” 3. “Chapter 13: The Jedi” 2. “Chapter 16: The Rescue” 1. “Chapter 14: The Tragedy”

Assorted Favorites

Newcomers (Podcast)

The Clone Wars (Season 7) (TV Show)

Reply All #158: The Case of the Missing Hit (Podcast Episode)

Middleditch and Schwartz (TV Show)

Sex Education (Season 2) (TV Show)

The Bachelor: Listen To Your Heart (TV Show)

Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” Remixes Performance at the Grammys (Video)

Phoebe Bridgers Performing “I Know the End” On Seth Meyers (Video)

The F9 Trailer

The Halloween Kills Teaser

The Judas and the Black Messiah Trailer

The Patty Jenkins Rogue Squadron Announcement

#feature #favorites #film #records #songs #music #star wars #the mandalorian #video games #nintendo switch #2020

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johannesviii · 5 years

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Top 10 Personal Favorite Hit Songs from 2019

The last list, for now. It’s been a wild ride.

Not the best of these lists, but some really refreshing stuff charted that year, and what was good was super good. And also, here’s a barely elligible #1 that nobody seemed to care about for some reason.

Disclaimers:

Keep in mind I’m using both the year-end top 100 lists from the US and from France while making these top 10 things. There’s songs in English that charted in my country way higher than they did in their home countries, or even earlier or later, so that might get surprising at times.

Of course there will be stuff in French. We suck. I know. It’s my list. Deal with it.

My musical tastes have always been terrible and I’m not a critic, just a listener and an idiot.

I have sound to color synesthesia which justifies nothing but might explain why I have trouble describing some songs in other terms than visual ones.

In 2019, my finger was fixed, I dropkicked depression in the garbage bin (with a little help from Eurovision because it was super good and full of hilarious shit), got married, and went on a roadtrip on Vancouver Island (BC, Canada), and that was my first real travel in 13 years. Met a lot of great people, seen amazing places, trees, bears and whales. And planes are also part of the adventure when you’re not used to them (you can watch movies on little screens from your seat now?? I had no idea. I watched so many movies). It was very exciting.

I also saw VNV Nation live in February, for the third time in six years. This time I had enough budget to buy a tshirt. I wasn’t expecting that concert to be even better than the previous two. At that point the new album had only been out for a couple of months and we still knew the lyrics of most of the new songs and Ronan’s face was constantly broadcasting a kind of “...........how” expression (face it guys, we like you. A lot). And they finished with All Of Our Sins and let me tell you, half the club was ready to start a revolution by the time that was over. Super intense.

Ok. 2019 albums! First, let’s talk about some negative things. Coldplay released Everyday Life at the end of the year. It was... uh. It was basically how I stopped loving their new stuff. That’s a very sad conclusion (for now) to this saga. This is exactly what I feared would have happened after Viva La Vida, aka them trying to go back to their earlier sound - except in the meantime we’ve got three fantastic albums with songs full of energy and joy. So I’m not too mad about this, just disappointed.

Within Temptation released Resist, and it wasn’t very good either, but I appreciated the general aesthetic of it. More SF-themed albums in symphonic metal, please. NF released The Search and while I’m still not a fan there’s a song on it that would have been #1 on this list if it had been elligible, so that’s something. And Carly Rae Jepsen released Dedicated and it was super good so why isn’t she getting new hits. Why. It feels unfair. Oh, and Avantasia made Moonglow and that’s the first time I’ve cared about their stuff in like a decade or so. Ghost In The Moon is super good, check it out.

But the big event of the year music-wise, as far as I’m concerned, was the return of two bands I thought we had lost forever. Of course My Chemical Romance reformed, but they don’t have new music yet, so the main event for this post is the return of Tool with Fear Inoculum. It’s not even their best album, but having a pretty good new Tool album in the year of our lord 2019 wasn’t at all something I was counting on. Of course, the hardcore fans are still as insufferable as ever (insert the “you need a pretty high IQ” copypasta here), but it didn’t spoil my enjoyment of it. Come on! Their first album in 13 years! 80 minutes of hypnotic heavy rhythms and weird shit, an album that trolled me when I opened it by playing a music video while I was looking somewhere else (yeah I jumped), and they even managed to land a track for one week on the US hot 100! Again, Tool! On the hot 100! in 2019! Unbelievable. Are we starting to return to the good timeline? I certainly hope so.

Unelligible songs, now. The Search by NF would have topped this list super easily. Might be one of the songs I listened to the most in 2019, actually. Now That I Found You by Carly Rae Jepsen, again, should have been a hit, and I beg you to watch this music video if you’ve never seen it. The 1975 released the super unexpected People, which was still good, and also Frail State of Mind. And most unexpected of all, three artists I didn’t care about at all teamed up and made absolute gold: I Think I’m OKAY, by Machine Gun Kelly, YUNGBLUD and Travis Barker. That would have been the second slot on this list if it had been elligible. Or maybe the first, even? Not sure. I’m just so happy this kind of angry but uplifting music is starting to become popular again. I just love everything about this song.

Here’s a short list of honorable mentions!

Roi (Bilal Hassani) - I don’t like this song a lot, but I do like it, I’m glad it was our song for the ESC 2019, and Bilal is a very nice and endearing person, and everyone who disrespects him on twitter is free to come fight me in the pit, where I’m still waiting with that tambourine from my 1992 list.

Con Calma (Daddy Yankee, Katy Perry, Snow) - You already know I liked the original Informer a lot, so I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t pleased to hear this clone of it on the radio.

Breathin’ (Ariana Grande) - Here’s the usual “if I had better taste this would be higher” honorable mention.

Summer Days (Martin Garrix) - In the absence of any new hit song from Macklemore this will do in a pinch.

Circles (Post Malone) - The fact that everyone seems to adore this and I’m over there saying “it’s ok I guess” probably means I will never love Post Malone nor understand the hype about him, and that’s okay, I can live with that.

High Hopes (Panic! At the Disco) - Still elligible. Still good but too borderline annoying to make the list.

How Do You Sleep (Sam Smith) - This year Sam Smith pulled a Viva La Vida and decided to stop making boring music all of a sudden and I’m LIVING FOR THIS. I certainly hope they continue in that direction.

And now, the list.

10 - La Grenade (Clara Luciani)

US: Not on the list / FR: #55

The only semi-filler on the list. I still like it a lot. Don’t have anything to say about it, though.

9 - Panini (Lil Nas X)

US: #40 / FR: Not on the list

Wasn’t too impressed by this at first and it took a while to grow on me, but the chorus is a nice little earworm, and “hey panini, don’t you be a meanie” has a tendency to pop in my head when I read hateful comments on the internet now. And Lil Nas X is just too endearing to be ignored. We’re so lucky to have someone who became famous so quickly and instantly decided to dress like a Jojo character and have the geekiest music videos possible and still be super nice and humble. We don’t deserve this guy.

8 - Dance Monkey (Tones And I)

US: Not on the list / FR: #6

I’m super glad the US are finally getting on the hype train in 2020 because this is a ton of fun. If the voice was juuuuuust a little less grating this would be even higher. Impossible to get it out of your head and somehow in this case that’s a good thing.

7 - Dancing With a Stranger (Sam Smith & Normani)

US: #14 / FR: Not on the list

As I said in the honorable mentions, Sam Smith pulled a Viva La Vida and decided to stop making boring music all of a sudden and I couldn’t be happier about that. This song is still a bit too calm for my taste most of the time, but when I’m in the right mood, it’s just fantastic.

Again, I hope Sam Smith continues in that direction, because if you had told me a couple of years ago that I would start to like their stuff one day, I would have laughed out loud.

6 - Bad Guy (Billie Eilish)

US: #4 / FR: #16

Duh.

I’m not as enthusiastic about When The Party’s Over as a ton of people are, mostly because, well, it’s a slow emotional song with little to no colour in it and by now you’re already aware I tend to have next to zero interest in that kind of songs. Bad Guy, on the other hand, is half hilarious half scary in equal doses, and even if I’m not super fond of the weird outro, it’s still a fantastic, weird as shit song, and I’m really glad Billie Eilish exists. Can’t wait to see where she goes from there.

I’m super glad this song didn’t come out when I was a teenager myself though. Come to think of it, I’m not sure I would have survived if the musical landscape from 16 years ago had been as depressed as it currently is. Thank god music is slowly getting more energetic again in 2020. Let’s stay on that track.

5 - Hey Look Ma I Made It (Panic! At The Disco)

US: #61 / FR: Not on the list

I follow several music critics on youtube and over the course of 2019, I’ve seen undiluted vitriol and hatred against this song (Spectrum Pulse even made a list of his “worst hit songs” of the decade and put this one at #10! TEN!!). And... I don’t really get where it’s coming from? Maybe I’m too literal-minded to see what the problem is with a sarcastic song saying “look I sold out and now I found success again! And it’s not that great!”. I just think it’s a lot of fun. Thank god Todd put it on his best list, at least we can agree on one thing for once.

It is hilarious that after putting so many Fall Out Boy songs on my lists, the one that I love the most from Panic! is the sellout song. Not sure why this was huge while the even better Say Amen wasn’t, though.

4 - Sunflower (Swae Lee & Post Malone)

US: #2 / FR: Not on the list

I usually don’t get the “chill” songs that tend to be successful these days but this one, unlike most Post Malone songs (bar Circles), has lovely pastel colors and a cloudy texture and it’s a really good vibe. It took several months to grow on me but it sure did.

In about ten years, people will listen to Sunflower and be submerged by nostalgia, mark my words.

3 - Old Town Road (Lil Nas X)

US: #1 / FR: #1 (see, everyone agrees for once)

Everyone on the planet already wrote a thinkpiece about this song and yet I’ve only seen maybe one out of five mentioning, just in passing, that the entire song is based on a Nine Inch Nail track from Ghosts I-IV, superbly re-used to make a weird and insanely catchy country hip hop song out of it. Ghosts has been one of my go-to albums to listen to while I’m painting for about ten years now. I’m saying all this because hearing a track from Ghosts on the radio for months was absolute bliss for me, especially in a new and improved version.

Thank you Lil Nas X for everything you’ve been doing and I wish you a long and successful career. You deserve it. I love this and I love you.

2 - Bury A Friend (Billie Eilish)

US: #73 / FR: Not on the list

Hello again, Billie Eilish.

This song is absolutely terrifying and that was before I even saw the music video. This is the soundtrack of your nightmares right there. I’m not even sure it deserves to be so high on the list, but frankly I’m too terrified to care. Maybe Old Town Road should be higher. I don’t know.

Also you have to know that when I’m super tired I go into echolalia mode and automatically repeat words or entire sentences that my brain considers interesting, like “potiron” (pumpkin) or “dramatique” ; and recently, my brain decided “when we all fall asleep, where do we go?”, sung exactly like it’s sung in this song, was its new favorite sentence. So. Hearing yourself saying that to an empty room while you’re drawing or folding clothes or cleaning plates is not a very pleasant experience, and it makes this song extra scary to me.

And now, here’s the last #1 of the last one of these lists (for now), and I’m glad to announce it closes this series of posts in a super fitting way.

Check this out. It’s so perfect in every way.

1 - Walk Me Home (Pink)

US: #99 / FR: Not on the list

Nobody seemed to care about this song over the course of 2019, and it's barely elligible, and I still have no idea why. The music reviewers I follow only either talked about it super briefly when it came out, or not at all. The rare ones who were making top 100s at the end of the year instead of top 10s usually put it somewhere in the middle of their lists. And yet it’s the elligible song I’ve listened to the most.

If you’ve been reading this series of posts for a while now, you probably already know exactly why it’s here, but here’s a quick recap.

The second album I ever bought in my life was Pink’s Missundaztood in 2002, and I loved her music a lot:

I was still really fond of her stuff in 2007:

Then she started to become less interesting and I basically ignored her apart from a brief blip on my radar in 2017:

Meanwhile, in 2012, fun. made some of the best songs of the entire decade before vanishing instantly, and I’ve been mourning them ever since:

And in the middle of last year, here I am, listening to the radio, and suddenly I hear something that sounds exactly like a fun. song, except I’ve never heard it before and it’s sung by a female singer, and, most importantly, it’s 2019 and fun. broke up more than six years earlier. And I’m like, what’s going on. This is so good. What the hell. What is this.

And I hear it a second time weeks later, and I google it, and I discovered that 1) it was Pink singing this, which made it my favorite Pink song in literally more than ten years, and 2) it was, indeed, written by one of the guys from fun., among other people who’s influence is less obvious.

I guess the main lesson from 2019, between newcomers making great music based on dead trends, old groups reforming, and this song, is that nothing’s gone forever, and things you used to enjoy can come back at the most unexpected time and in the most unexpected form.

There’s always, always gonna be new music to love, and it’s just a question of time.

Quick note

And with this, these lists are over... for now.

I don’t regret making them even if they were a ton of work, because that was super useful for a lot of different reasons.

They helped me get a better understanding of my own life’s chronology. That may sound stupid but I tend to link events to the music I was listening to at the time, and putting all that music in chronological order helped a lot.

I rediscovered a ton of songs I had completely forgotten about, and a lot of new ones. My playlist is much richer now and I’m happy about that.

I also discovered a few artists I knew nothing about.

It forced me to analyse two depressive episodes in my life and just because everything was now in exact chronological order, it accidentally helped me pinpoint what caused both of them. Better and cheaper than therapy. Impressive.

It made me realise how important some bands and artists had been in my life, and I relistened to some of their catalogue while making these lists. For some it was really obvious (Indochine, Placebo, Mylène Farmer, My Chemical Romance among some others), and for some others (Moby, Linkin Park, Mika in particular), it was a real surprise.

It made me realise that Placebo might have been huge in France but weirdly enough not that huge in the UK nor in the US. It’s especially striking when you look at their wikipedia page in English then in French and realise how detailed the French one is compared to the English one. Can’t believe Sleeping With Ghosts was a n°1 album here and basically nowhere else. That was the band where that discrepency was the most obvious but it wasn’t the only one like that. Really puts stuff in perspective.

It also helped me realise how cyclical popular music is. 1) trends tend to die near the end of every decade and the worst year is usually somewhere between the 8th and the 9th year. 2008 and 2018 tend to confirm this. 2) For the same reason, some new & interesting stuff appears at the beginning of every decade, and reaches its high point of quality between the 2nd and 4th year of the decade. 3) Basically I’m saying we’ve now passed the lowest musical quality in recent memory and 2022-2023 will have some exceptional music.

See you in December 2020. I have no doubt there’s a ton of great music coming up in the near future.

#Johannes’ bad not good pretty terrible music lists #music #long post #the last one #I can't believe this is over #I loved making these lists #spider tw #eye contact tw

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underachievers-please-try-harder · 5 years

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Best of 2019 // Songs

My favourite songs of 2019:

Kano - Class of Deja ft D Double E and Ghetts

Rosalia & J Balvin - Con Altura ft El Guincho

Lil Nas X - Old Town Road (Remix)

Little Simz - Venom

Dave - Black

Normani - Motivation

FKA Twigs - Cellophane

Georgia - About Work The Dancefloor

Purple Mountains - Snow Is Falling In Manhattan

Clairo - Bags

Shygirl - BB

Jessie Ware - Adore You

Angel Olsen - Lark

Tierra Whack - Clones

Nakhane ft ANOHNI - New Brighton

Nils Frahm - Sweet Little Lie

Scalping - Ruptured

Kate Tempest - People's Faces

Fontaines D.C. - Boys In The Better Land

Capulets - Annie

Squid - Houseplants

AJ Tracey - Ladbroke Grove

Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell

Pet Shop Boys - Dreamland

Metronomy - Lately

Spotify playlist of the top 25 below:

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thetelevillain · 5 years

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MY AWESOME PLAYLIST: 2019

This is the tenth year I’ve posted my Top 100 Songs of the Year. This will also be my last post on Tumblr. Feel free to follow me on Twitter. Later! ✌🏾

[SPOTIFY LINK: HERE]

100. Lil Nas X - Old Town Road [Feat. Billy Ray Cyrus]

99. Daniel Caesar, Brandy - Love Again

98. Maren Morris - Kingdom of One

97. Danielle Brooks - Black Woman

96. PUBLIC - Make You Mine (Acoustic)

95. Vanlves - Pyramids

94. Annie Murphy - A Little Bit Alexis (From Schitt’s Creek)

93. Davido - D & G [Feat. Summer Walker]

92. Denzel Curry - RICKY

91. The Lumineers - Salt And The Sea

90. YUNGBLUD - original me [Feat. Dan Reynolds]

89. Wiley, Stefflon Don, Sean Paul, Idris Elba - Boasty

88. Cynthia Eviro - Stand Up

87. HVOB - Sync

86. Camden Cox - Somebody Else

85. Sho Madjozi - John Cena

84. Flume, London Grammar - Let You Know

83. Dua Lipa - Don’t Start Now

82. Majid Jordan - Caught Up [Feat. Khalid]

81. Ben Platt - River

80. Bon Iver - Hey, Ma

79. Emily King - Caliche

78. Jenifer - On oublie le reste [Feat. Kylie Minogue]

77. The Rescues - Hold On

76. H.E.R. - Could’ve Been (Remix) [Feat. Tone Stith]

75. Summer Walker - Come Thru [Feat. Usher]

74. Ólafur Arnalds - momentary

73. Kim Petras - There Will Be Blood

72. P Money, Giggs - Where & When

71. Stormzy - Don’t Forget To Breathe [Feat. YEBBA]

70. Celeste - She’s My Sunshine

69. Nathy Peluso - Natikillah

68. Lana Del Rey - Fuck it I love you

67. FKA twigs - holy terrain [Feat. Future]

66. Panic! At The Disco - Into the Unknown

65. Skrillex, Boys Noize, Ty Dolla $ign - Midnight Hour

64. FINNEAS - I Lost A Friend (Marian Hill Remix)

63. Sleeping At Last - Atlas: Eight

62. James Blake - Tell Them [Feat. Moses Sumney & Metro Boomin]

61. Freya Ridings - Lost Without You

60. City Girls - Twerk [Feat. Cardi B]

59. Megan Thee Stallion - Cash Shit [Feat. Da Baby]

58. BTS – Make It RIght

57. Klergy - World On Fire

56. Sasha Sloan - at least i look cool

55. Jolin Tsai - 玫瑰少年 "Womxnly"

54. Kimberley Tell - Lo Que No Me Dices

53. Chris Brown - No Guidance [Feat. Drake]

52. Missy Elliott - Throw It Back

51. Banks - Till Now

50. Cassian - Same Things [Feat Gabrielle Current]

49. Lennon Stella - Love Can Kill

48. RY X - YaYaYa

47. Selena Gomez - Look At Her Now

46. SHAED, ZAYN - Trampoline

45. Lauren Jauregui - More Than That

44. Sam Smith, Normani - Dancing With A Stranger

43. ROSALÍA - Con Altura [Feat. J Balvin, El Guincho]

42. Leikeli47 - Bad Gyal Flex

41. Felix Jaehn - Love On Myself (Keanu Silva Remix) [Feat. Calum Scott]

40. Harry Styles - Lights Up

39. Lizzo - Tempo [Feat. Missy Elliott]

38. Alex Benjamin - Let Me Down Slowly [Feat. Alessia Cara]

37. Tierra Whack - CLONES

36. Marques Martin - Dinner Date [Feat. KAMAUU & Brandon Black]

35. Dua Saleh - Sugar Mama

34. Ashley O (aka Miley Cyrus) - On A Roll

33. Beyoncé - Before I Let Go

32. Kasawn Woods, Tinashe - Don’t Stop

31. Tinashe - Know Better

30. DaBaby - BOP

29. Gemitaiz, Madman - Karate [Feat. Mahmood]

28. Normani - Motivation

27. Solange - Way to the Show

26. EXO - Obsession

25. Mark Ronson - Don’t Leave Me Lonely [Feat. YEBBA]

24. Raiche - Complicated

23. Billie Eilish - listen before i go

22. Cardi B - Press

21. Ina Wroldsen, Dynoro - Obsessed

20. Ms Banks - Snack [Feat. Kida Kudz]

19. Logic, Eminem - Homicide

18. Doja Cat - Rules

17. The Bonfyre - U Say [Feat. 6lack]

16. Dawn Richard - Sauce

15. Beyoncé - ALREADY [Feat. Major Lazer, Shatta Wale]

14. Teyana Taylor - How You Want It?

13. Ariana Grande - needy

12. Patrick Watson - Here Comes The River

11. Billie Eilish - i love you

10. ROSALÍA - A Palé

9. BLACKPINK - Kill This Love

8. Ariana Grande - break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored

7. Summer Walker - Girls Need Love [Feat. Drake]

6. Beyoncé - BIGGER

5. Billie Eilish - WHEN I WAS OLDER

4. Diplo, IAMDDB - Mira

3. Clairo - Bags

2. Mahmood - Soldi

1. Labrinth, Zendaya - All For Us

#MUSIC #top 100 songs of 2019 #Billie Eilish #beyonce #bts #exo #blackpink #summer walker #euphoria #zendaya #rosalia #ariana grande #mahmood #dababy #game of thrones #cardi b

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therealtboc · 5 years

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I was tagged by @adamnimoy. i havent done one of these in years so bear with me

top three ships: the Low Altitude Assault Transport/infantry takes the cake by far with just simply amazing design, practical usage, and the funny little ball turrets. while i don’t personally align with the separatist movement, the Armored Assault Tank was an extremely useful ship during both the invasion of naboo and the active battlefields of the clone wars. lastly the T-65B X-Wing Starfighter really just takes the cake in terms of interesting visual design. incom corp. really hit it outta the park with this one

lipstick or chapstick: lipstick. its just cool

last song i listened to: old town road. can you believe i didn’t ever hear it before like a week ago? what the fuck

last movie i watched: a japanese film called “Sweet Bean” for class. a very very good movie

currently reading: i don’t have time to read bc i work and am a senior in college but when that stops happening i should finally read Ancillary Justice since i own it

i guess technically I’m also reading One Piece, Komi-San Has a Communication Disorder, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 8: Jojolion, Inuyasha, My Hero Academia, Yotsuba&, Way of the House Husband, and Dungeon Meshi. Current with all but Inuyasha.

(i read them when I have time)

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hazusreaderinserts · 6 years

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Legacy [Naruto Reader-Insert]

You’re definitely a Yamanaka, aren’t you?

Family and Village secrets run rampant. All you wanna do is survive long enough to see Naruto become Hokage and to find out who you really are.

[Fem! Reader x Various]

Warnings: Long Plot, Slow-burn, the slowest of burns

Crossposted on Wattpad and Quotev Masterlist

Chapter 5

You quickly walk through the narrow roads to the Uchiha compound. The journey was long and winding but it didn't stop the enthusiasm that you had about the visit. Despite being one of the biggest clans in Konoha, their main residence was much more further away compared to the other big clans.

But the strange thing is that their clan compound is close to the outer edges of Konoha. Normally all the big clan's would be stuck near the inner circle but not the Uchiha.

The Uchiha Clan is huge. Bigger than your own. You had heard of the stories that they tell of the clan, how it produces elite shinobi, generation after generation. The Hyuuga clan comes a close contender to the Uchiha, but they will insist that they're better. It's all subjective, really. The Byakugan makes it easier to track and figure out enemy weak spots while the Sharingan makes it easier to perceive your enemies' movements? You don't know. You'll check it out in depth later.

You feel jealous. You would have preferred being born in such a clan with a powerful kekkei-genkai. But you play with the cards you were dealt and you didn't get a good draw. You had read about Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Itachi in a couple of the Intel reports (that were definitely not for you to read) and mission logs stored in your clan's private library. Relics of the Third Shinobi War. The reports, you mean, not the boys.

They are prodigies. One of the elite. Elite even among the elites. E with a capital letter.

Shisui is famous for his shunshin. A war vet. He is said to be so proficient in his technique that it became his title in the bingo books. The reports you read also mentions that his shunshin is so fast that he could produce solid afterimages that he used like shadow clones. He is almost as fast as the Fourth.

Itachi is a war vet too. Experienced war in the front lines at four. Proficient in almost all categories and graduated the first year of academy four months after enrollment at the top of his class. Intelligent and strong, with the experience to prove it.

How is that fair? Facts say Uchiha are genetically superior.

You have always wanted to learn Shunshin to that level of proficiency. And you do. Courtesy of Shisui.

You ambush him on your first visit. He was coincidentally at Itachi's house at the time, just a quick visit to drop off some equipment for him. You take advantage of his kind and trusting nature and he eventually agrees to train you in shunshin techniques, some genjutsu and the basics in kenjutsu.

You didn't know that he only agreed to teach you because you were persistent. Persistent to the point of using petty manipulation tactics that he is sure is too advanced for a seven year old like you. He's taking a really big gamble, to train you like this.

The both of you meet after your classes and if he was free for a couple of hours on a daily basis for training.

Itachi joined the both of you once and you saw them spar against each other. It was safe to say that you were lucky that they were both shinobi of Konoha. You would have been obliterated in a couple of seconds. They moved faster than your eyes could follow and performed feats beyond your wildest imaginations.

This was your fourth-no, fifth time visiting them since these couple of weeks were really busy for Brother and Mother.

Mother is attending a series of medical jutsu conventions where the heads of all the hospitals in the Land of Fire come together to compare notes about any recent findings or research and the such. They are held on a bi-annual basis.

Having Mother away from home was normal for you. She hasn't been home for longer than three months since your seventh birthday.

Brother is sent to many long missions consecutively. He gets back, rests for barely a day or so, then gets shipped off with Hound, the person that brought him back that time he was drunk. He doesn't tell you Hound's real name of course. ANBU protocol.

Brother doesn't seem to like him that much anymore after all those missions.

No rest for the wicked, Brother says.

There seems to be some disturbance within the political powers of Konoha itself. Some whispers here and there from the adults in your clan, and you only had the vaguest of information.

But you know for sure that waves of unrest will hit Konoha soon. The Uchiha are starting to grow discontent.

The Uzumaki kid wasn't the the most talked about in town anymore.

Regarding Uzumaki Naruto. To you, he seems like a kid who is looking for attention in the worst ways possible. He pulled pranks on almost all the Sensei, pulled pranks on the Academy principal and you even heard about the time where he pranked the Hokage. You had doubts about the latter, but you don't put it past him to try.

You don't talk to him much but you knew that Shikamaru and Choji invites him to hang out and play ninja with them on occasion. The sight of the Uchiha gates breaks you out of your thoughts. Your lips curl into a smile. You are pretty excited to be here despite the fact that Sasuke hangs around and is generally being a pest. You know that he hates that his brother showed you courtesy since you were his senpai's kid sister. He has a pretty big brother-complex in your eyes, and nothing could change your perception of him.

You have every intention of teasing him with it in class later.

Class ended pretty fast and you skipped Kunoichi lessons for like the nth time today. Ah well, you'll just tell Ino that you were at Sasuke's house and give her something to squeal about.

You put away your slippers by the porch and made your way further inside, past the dinner table and living room.

" ... A hazard to Konoha and her people.. "

You strain your ears at the sound of a voice but you only manage to catch some words. The doors were thin. Paper thin.

" Father, Hokage-sama let them in for a reason, " A more youthful voice protests. A boy. He continues, "They're in the care of Konoha's best. You shouldn't talk about them that way."

Your throat becomes drier than the dunes of Suna. Were they talking about what you think they were?

You push closer to the shoji door, as close as you could get without creaking the floorboards that will alert them to your presence. You strain your ears, they don't seem to be talking as loudly anymore.

" The sword is a wild card and should not be in here with us. The demon child is bad enou-"

A hand clamps down hard on your shoulder, shocking you out of the focused state that you needed to be in to hear the rest of the conversation. You almost let out a scream. Your heart jumps and you had to will yourself not to make a sound. Both of your hands clamp over your mouth to not make a sound. The skin around the surface of your skin crackles with static as you feel your chakra coils twist and tighten within you.

Please don't be Sasuke. Please don't be Sasuke. Sasuke will tell on you. Please, please don't be Sasuke.

You pray to whatever god above that this wouldn't get you into trouble. An odd feeling in your stomach makes you feel like you need to throw up. You don't think you prayed for your life as much as this moment. The idea of being caught eavesdropping in the Uchiha house makes you feel very unsafe.

The hallway is dark, but you recognize the eyeliner on his eyelids anywhere. A sigh of relief that you didn't know that you were holding escapes from between your lips.

Bright red eyes stare back at you, his hand still firmly around your right shoulder. The smile dancing on his lips contrasts the hard look he has in his eyes. Hurt festers in your chest when you realize that he has his Sharingan out.

He places a finger to his lips and single-handedly signs in a language that you didn't recognize. He signs again when you don't respond. The conversation happening behind the paper door dulls. The loud thumping in your heart drowns everything else down. You couldn't hear anything else between the sound of your heart beating against your rib cage and his slow breathing.

He furrows his eyebrows in annoyance when you realize that you couldn't understand what he is saying and tries again. This time in a language that you do recognize.

Hostile? Objective? Shisui gestures with both of his hands faster than your eyes could see under the dim lighting, but you could deduce what he wants to ask you. A language that was developed in the Third War. Brother had taught this to you when you were young. Well, younger than now.

He is suspicious of you.

You don't blame him. A stranger enters your household with your best friend and demands you, a famous shinobi, to teach them your strongest non-kekkei-genkai jutsu and you catch them snooping around in said best friend's home. You yourself would be pissed.

Area. Clear. Canvassing surroundings. Friendly. You fumble a bit with your fingers because of your nervousness but you hope that he can make out what you are trying to say. He searches your eyes for ill-will or anything other than fear but finds none.

The shoji door shakes and slides open. Shisui drags your body into his arms and shunshin away. The world melts before your eyes and the colours seem to blur together in a mishmash of blobs. The scenery stabilises and your feet touch the ground. Shisui lets go and you drop to your knees, clutching at the grassy greens beneath your palms. Your pupils were shaking, and it wasn't because of the speed.

The killing intent that was coming off Shisui made your coils go out of whack. You couldn't get up.

"You know there's a time and place for everything right, little mouse?" He kneels down on one knee and taps your forehead with his fingers.

Your pupils were still shaking. Scared. Scared. So scared. Your body doesn't want to obey you. Your arms and back tenses up as you dry heave onto the grass. It was mostly bile, you haven't eaten for the day. Shisui lifts your chin up with a finger and looks into your eyes.

You don't resist. You couldn't.

He dispels the genjutsu that you are under and your body sends you a meter away. You reach for the kunai that you hid under your skirt and hold it in front of you in a defensive kata. It was an immediate reaction. Your legs react as soon as you regain control over your physique.

Your eyes are trained to his figure and he doesn't seem to be following up with an attack.

Shisui looks at you with a proud expression on his face. You blink twice to check that your eyes weren't playing tricks on you. He shunshins again, closing the gap between the both of you. This time you appreciate the hours and love he put into his famed technique. From the time he used his jutsu, you didn't see him move, only the after-image of his body was left behind. Before you close your eyes to blink. he is standing before you.

If he were an enemy. Your life would have ended even before you saw him move.

"You could've killed me." You admit.

Shisui laughs and places an affectionate hand on your head, "It's good that you can discern your opponent's strength. But next time do something about your chakra when you wanna eavesdrop. It's different from everyone else's you see. Consider this your last lesson."

You swallow and look towards your feet. What did he mean that your chakra is different? Was it a hint? A warning? But most importantly, what did he mean by last?

Your chakra control is meager at this point, nobody had taught you how to use any jutsu yet so you didn't see the point of training. You lack knowledge about chakra. Did that mean sensors could sense you no matter where you are in the village? It would make sense. Nobody seemed to care when you didn't turn up for certain classes. Now you know why.

The fact that you were lacking in so many ways burned bitterly into your brain.

Both of Shisui's palms cup your cheeks and forces you to meet his gaze. "I'm going to tell you this only once, got it?" He says under his breath, like he was speaking to an accomplice about something that he is plotting. You nod as much as you can in his firm grip. He brings his lips to your right ear and whispers.

"I'm going to die soon. Someone is going to take my life."

You grip his wrists. No, you can't let it happen. You can't afford him dying. Was these few months that he had been training you, a waste?

People don't just tell you that they were going to die out of nowhere. There has to be a reason. Was this a trick? A test? Was he testing you? Your will? Your abilities? To check if you could be trusted with his secrets?

Someone, he says. Who is this someone? Someone from his clan? Someone close? Someone from higher up?

"I know that look, little mouse. " Shisui murmurs your nickname dearly. He has never used this intimate tone before. "This can't be helped, I can't change my fate and the fate of my clan. " Emotion swims in his black, black eyes and you feel a knot forming in your throat. His tone is so soft. And so sad.

"Don't go." You manage to choke out a few words from your uncooperative larynx. "Don't leave me." Your heart feels desolate. Desolate like an empty vessel in a large expanse of water, unable to be filled.

Shisui shushes you with a finger to your lips. "I'm going to give you something as a farewell gift, okay?" He studies your features closely and adds, "I'll miss you." Like any gift could heal your heart of what was going to happen.

You sense chakra flaring from him and you see pinwheels in his red eyes. He allows you a moment to take in the situation.

"Goodbye."

A gentle brush against your forehead and he is gone.

��The youngest Uchiha boy finds you staring into space with a vacant expression in one of the fields he and Itachi frequent. He furrows his eyebrows as he looks at your curled up form, squatting by the side of a particularly gravelly part of the road. You looked small. Even smaller than usual. Smaller than your nickname reminds him of.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Sasuke says, after a long silence. He stuffs his arms in his pockets and adjusted his weight to his other leg. He doesn't really know what to do with a girl who seems like she is upset.

You wipe your face with the hem of your haori and turn around. Sasuke could see the puffiness of your eyes. He wasn't dumb. He knew you were crying.

You bite your lower lip, contemplating whether to tell him or not. This is his clan business, he should have the right to know. But you don't think he will believe you. It was Shisui's word against yours and Shisui would win.

Sasuke's eyes pierces into you. Something in you snaps, and you run. Run as fast as your stubby little legs could carry you. The Uchiha boy says nothing as he follows your figure into the distance with his eyes.

The sun has set and the cawing crows are echoing in your ears. Like they were laughing at you.

You go back to an empty home crying your eyes out, as much as your shinobi pride will let you. Regardless of what he said, Shisui has made it clear that he didn't want to see you anymore.

That night, you dream of Shisui.

His hair is dark and shaggy like you remember. It had only been less than a day but you want to forget. Forget everything. And just pretend like he never existed. Like he never taught you in the first place. It had been pure luck that he had agreed in the first place. Manipulation was not your forte but you like using it to get what you want.

ForgetforgetIwanttoforgetgoawaygoawayyoudontmatter.

The moon is bright and it lights up Konoha's dark streets and he is there by your wooden windowsill. Eyes, well, eye hard and red, red like the blood moon. His left eye is hollow and empty. Just darkness. The way he carries his left hand makes you think he is holding something.

Shisui is by your bed now. His body looming over yours. His fingers dig deep into your left eye-socket and you let out a blood curdling scream.

You wake up to nothing of course. Shisui isn't there. Nobody is. Your room is empty. No tracks. No sign of anybody being in here. It is just you, your futon and your sparsely decorated desk by your window. A bitter laugh escapes your lips. Of course you dream of him. You miss him. It's a given. You didn't expect it to be a nightmare though.

You press your fingers to your cheeks. It's damp.

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allspark · 6 years

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It’s time for our weekly Diamond Comics Shipping List! Check out some great titles IDW has in store for us next week like the dawn of a new era with Transformers, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, Star Trek, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and much more! All coming your way for March 13th!

TRANSFORMERS #1

Brian Ruckley (A/CVR B) Angel Hernandez, Ron Joseph (CVR A) Gabriel Rodriguez

A NEW ERA DAWNS! In the infinite universe, there exists a planet like no other: Cybertron! Home to the Transformers, and a thriving hub for inter-stellar commerce, it is a world brimming with organic and constructed diversity. Immense structures line its landscape. Mechanical giants roam across its surface. Starship-sized titans orbit its skies, keeping a constant protective watch above and below. Ancient Transformers merge into its very fabric. Small, mysterious creatures skulk in its shadows. It is a truly amazing realm, long untouched by war, and exuberantly reaching for the stars. This is the Cybertron that Optimus Prime and Megatron vie for in this bold new origin-a world of seemingly endless peace! All that changes when Bumblebee and Windblade take a newly-forged Cybertronian on his first voyage through this world of wonders-they are confronted by the hard reality of the first murder to have occurred on Cybertron in living memory!

All that changes when Bumblebee and Windblade take a newly-forged Cybertronian on his first voyage through this world of wonders-they are confronted by the hard reality of the first murder to have occurred on Cybertron in living memory!

GI JOE A REAL AMERICAN HERO SILENT OPTION #4

Larry Hama, Ryan Ferrier (A/CVR A) Netho Diaz (A/CVR B) Kenneth Loh

“Silent Option,” Part 4! The mission is off the books and off the hook for Bombstrike and her covert team of G.I. JOE special operators-including new Snake Eyes, Dawn Moreno-as they battle human traffickers that have taken the enigmatic Agent Helix hostage. Join living legend Larry Hama and superstar artist Netho Diaz for the EXPLOSIVE FINALE of their latest team-up! Plus, Ryan Ferrier and Kenneth Loh conclude Helix’s amazing origin tale in “Codename: Helix,” Part 4!

• Explosive final issue! • The return of breakout character Dawn Moreno (Snake Eyes) to the pages of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero! • The introduction of Agent Helix to the G.I Joe: A Real American Hero universe! • Each oversized issue includes the 20-page main story by the “Dawn of the Arashikage” superstar creative team of Larry Hama and Netho Diaz, and a four-page backup “Codename: Helix” origin story by Ryan Ferrier (G.I. Joe vs. Six Million Dollar Man) and Kenneth Loh (Dead Rising: Road to Fortune)!

GI JOE PACKAGE ART PORTFOLIO SET

(A) Various

The legendary packaging artwork from G.I. Joe! Each print has been scanned from the original packaging artwork held within the Hasbro vault. Contents include ten 11″ x 17″ prints featuring classic packaging art from the original G.I. Joe toyline! Contents include 10 prints.

HOUSE AMOK #5

Christopher Sebela (A/CVR A) Shawn McManus (CVR B) Gabriel Rodriguez

Ten-year-old twin Dylan Sandifer is now in the driver’s seat of more than the converted old school bus her family called home for a summer murder spree. Will she turn on her family and the sacred bond between twins and break free from the shared madness? Conspiracy theories, organ thieves, and secret histories collide in the explosive final issue!

MARVEL ACTION SPIDER-MAN #2

Delilah S Dawson (A/CVR A) Fico Ossio

Readers of all ages can get tangled up in these all-new adventures of Spider-Man and his astonishing friends! Peter Parker has thrown down with deadly villains and legendary heroes, but high school life might be his greatest challenge yet! Luckily, he has a shot at making the grade with a little help from his new friends… Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy!

THE MAXX 100 PAGE GIANT

Sam Keith (A/CA) Sam Kieth

Sam Kieth’s The Maxx is one of the quirkiest characters ever conceived in comics. Beautiful, touching stories, crafted by one of our most innovative storytellers, this oversized book culls together a sampling from throughout The Maxx’s run, offering a perfect place to get reacquainted with an old friend or an excellent chance to delve into a world like no other for the first time!

MY LITTLE PONY NIGHTMARE KNIGHTS #5

Jeremy Whitley (A/CVR A) Tony Fleecs (CVR B) Brenda Hickey

Princess Luna and the Nightmare Knights face the ultimate test! With the fate of the heist-and Luna’s powers-in the hands of Eris, will the bond between sisters be enough to overcome her chaotic plans?! The quest for Luna’s stolen magic reaches its epic conclusion! Tables turn and truths are brought to light as the Nightmare Knights’ heist comes to a close!

RADIO DELLEY GN

Alex Martinez (A/CVR) Xavier Bonet

For three best friends, a small town, endless days of summer and an old radio form the recipe for an unforgettable adventure.

It’s summer in Delley, a quiet town in the American Midwest. Perhaps too quiet for Jeremy, Stella, and Sam, three inquisitive kids with a desire to solve mysteries and seek adventure in a place that, to be honest, doesn’t offer a lot of either. However, when Jeremy gets an old radio that connects him and his friends to a girl who needs their help, the adventure they find themselves in may be a bit more dangerous than they hoped for.

• If Stand By Me met Stranger Things!

STAR TREK DISCOVERY CAPTAIN SARU

Kirsten Beyer, Mike Johnson (A) Angel Hernandez (CVR) Paul Shipper

An all-new Discovery adventure that ties directly into season 1 of the hit CBS All Access show! Soon after the events on Q’onoS, the Discovery receives a distress call from someone from Tilly’s past. It’s up to Commander Saru to lead the crew against this sinister alien threat in his first mission as acting captain!

STAR WARS ADVENTURES TP VOL 05 MECHANICAL MAYHEM

John Barber, Pierrick Colinet, Elsa Charretier, Nick Brokenshire, Scott Peterson (A) Nick Brokenshire, Elsa Charretier, Mauricet (A/CVR) Chad Thomas

ADVANCE SOLICITED FOR MARCH RELEASE! These ARE the droids you’re looking for! Your favorite dysfunctional droid team, R2-D2 and C-3PO, bumbles through the Star Wars universe in these kid-friendly tales. First, R2-D2 tries to stop an Imperial spy from revealing a rebel secret. But will C-3PO help, or just get in the way? Then, in a story set in the time of the Clone Wars, Anakin and Padme are desperate to get away from the endless fights, both on the battlefield, and the floor of the Senate. But when their vacation goes haywire, will R2-D2 and C-3PO be able to set things right? Collects issues #9, 12, and 13.

TMNT SHREDDER IN HELL #1 2ND PTG

Mateus Santolouco (A/CVR) Mateus Santolouco

TMNT SHREDDER IN HELL #2

Mateus Santolouco (A/CVR A) Mateus Santolouco (CVR B) Kevin Eastman

Oroku Saki’s hellish journey continues. As his twisted path leads him deeper through the underworld, will he be able to survive an onslaught of demonic forces? Or, more importantly-the truth revealed about his own soul?! Fan-favorite artist Mateus Santolouco returns to the world of TMNT! The most infamous villain in the TMNT universe gets his own mini-series!

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IDW Comics Shipping List for March 13th! It’s time for our weekly Diamond Comics Shipping List! Check out some great titles IDW has in store for us next week like the dawn of a new era with

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