#poor Jareth HELP HIM

[sierracolorstheworldofwords]

The garden-- Jareth x reader

“Darling!” Jareth called, waving towards you, “Come and join me!” 

You looked away from your dirt covered hands and towards him, raising an eyebrow at the fact that he not only sat underneath an overly large umbrella, but that said umbrella was currently parked underneath a tree. He adjusted his large sunglasses, and you felt bad for the poor goblin fanning him with a large leaf as if he was some ancient pharaoh. The chair Jareth lounged upon added to the image, a luxurious throne carved out of golden swirls that towered above his head, only to peek into a carved owl. 

You never said your husband was humble. 

“You know I'm gardening,” you called back, feeling the sun stain your shoulders and the breeze stroke your face, “I don't see why you insisted on coming out here!”

He crossed his arms, and you knew he rolled his eyes by the way he moved his head. Of course, he faked a pout a few feet away from you. 

“Do you not wish to see me dearest?” he asked. 

“Of course I do! But I wish–”

“Be careful what you wish for!”

“I wish you could come and garden with me. But I know you don't like dirt!” now, you pouted, “So, I’ll do it myself.” 

With this, he crossed one leg over the other, now tapping his fingers against the arms of the chair as he watched you, lips pulled into a frown. You were covered in dirt! Your hair, which of course had been beautifully done this morning, woven with flowers, was now affray– a sigh escaped his lips. He rested his chin on his hand, now, lips pulling up at the corners. 

The way the sun shone on you made his heart quiver. The way your eyebrows knitted in concentration, and another sigh left his lips. His gaze traveled to the goblin fanning him. He wished to see the sight of you here, alone, without that idiot who was so eager to please. Jareth frowned at the creature. 

“Go get lemonade. Two glasses. Filled with ice.” 

“But who will–” 

Jareth leaned over his chair, “Did I stutter?” 

The goblin dashed off just as you wiped the sweat off your brow, letting out a breath. You turned towards him, and your cheeks flushed. His gaze made your heart buzz and despite being peeved at being all alone, you couldn’t help but feel your tummy flip. Oh, how could you be such a love sick puppy around him? Every time you two were around each other, it was as if you were children playing a game only you understood. Perhaps, in some way or another, all relationships were a game, or just the ones with his kind, anyway. 

“Precious!” he crooned, “Are your cheeks getting flushed?” 

“No!” 

He smirked, tutting, “Oh but I know you too well, don’t I darling? How dare you try and hide how flustered you are around me! Tell me, won’t you sweetness, what I did to make you so bashful?” He then stopped, before frowning, “The flowers better not be trying to flirt!” 

You sent him a look, giggling, “No!”

“Then, what is it?”

You side eyed him, before going back to work, causing him to scoff.

“You cannot ignore me!”

You ignored him. It was a part of the game, afterall. 

“Darling!”

You stabbed the dirt and dug it up.  You'd been working on the soil here for months now, gently nudging Jareth to let it rain more within the labyrinth, while also making piles of compost. Much to your surprise, there were talking worms who loved the stuff, and happily help you revitalize the soil within the garden. 

“Dearest!”

You hummed softly, a smile spreading across your features. The soil was a dark, earthy brown, and you couldn't help but admire your work. Done with the digging, you grabbed a plant and plopped it into the earth. Flowers really did brighten up the place, though you felt bad for having the goblins steal these. 

“My love!” Jareth called.

You started to dig another hole. 

“Don't ignore me!” He exclaimed, sounding like an annoyed kitten, before rising from his seat, stomping towards you.

His cape billowed behind him like a black shadow, and the sun caused his hair to shimmer like spun sunlight. You couldn’t help but watch the way his shirt exposed his chest, and ignored the urge to slide your hands underneath the silky fabric. Jareth sighed, hands on his hips as he glowered at you. 

“Did you call me, my love?” You asked, voice tilting. 

Towering over you, he scowled, before leaning over and poking your forehead. You laughed. 

“You ignored me!” He cried, “how dare you ignore me?”

“I heard you,” you shrugged,” but I just didn't respond!”

He stomped his foot.

“Don't be upset, lovey,” you cooed, “I’d make it up with a kiss, but we both know you despise dirt. You'd hate to get your clothes dirty.”

He scoffed, and much to your surprise, he grabbed the collar of your shirt, bringing you into a passionate kiss. It made your stomach roll, it took your breath away, and for a moment– you were falling. 

Then, he pulled away with a smirk.

He was so cruel! Doing that to you! Yet, you smiled anyway, and your cheeks heated, and giggles left you. Chuckling, he tutted as you tried to hide behind your hands.

“Oh no, you won't cover your face, darling, especially from me.”

He grabbed your wrists, pulling your hands away, before capturing his lips within yours. It was like meeting the universe. Or perhaps, meeting home. His lips were warm, soft, inviting, and you heard a soft intangible thud as he landed upon his knees. 

Now, you pulled away, “You've gotten dirty.”

He frowned, “I don't give a damn. Kiss me again.”

Despite your messy hands, you grabbed his collar, kissing him again, again, again. It was so fun, this game, or whatever this was. Was love supposed to be fun? In response to your forwardness, soft noises escaped him, and you couldn't help the smirk coating your lips. Of course, you had to pull away. Teasing was a part of the fun, after all.

“Oh dear,” you murmured, “there’s dirt on your shirt!” He narrowed his eyes, “Yes, my beloved. And there’s dirt on yours! Now, I must demand you abandon this task, don’t you see how it has exhausted you so?” “What’s in it for me?” He groaned, rolling his eyes,  “If you let the goblins plant this garden for you, my dear, I will kiss you.”

“Is that it?”

“Oh my darling, my world, my moon and stars! What else could you want?”

“I will let the gardener plant the rest of these blossoms, but you will plant one before I do. Deal?”

He gasped, hands traveling to his face, “My love!”

“Just one.”

“Oh, how you torture me!” 

“Then I'll do the rest.” You replied, turning away from him, only for him to pull you into his lap.

“Fine!”

“Then, my darling, do we have a deal?” 

“Yes, my beloved, we have a deal. How you test me.” 

You felt your lips curling upwards as a gasp left you. 

“Really?!”

“Yes.” he mumbled, arms crossed.

You wrapped your arms around his neck and kissed his glittered cheek, before grabbing a plant and shoving it into his hands. He sighed dramatically.

“We have a deal.”

“I do.”

With that, you dug a hole in the dirt with your spade, before he plopped the plant into it. You covered it for him, before smiling at him again.

“We have a deal, darling.” he said.

You chuckled, playing along, “I know, dearest.” 

“You really ought to reward me for the strenuous work.” 

Jareth stood, dusting off his pants with a frown, before offering you a gloved hand. Once you took it, he smirked as the both of you walked out of the garden together, knowing he’d won. Though, he never quite knew he could share a victory until he met you, and he knew that despite his best instincts, he’d kneel in the dirt just to relish you once more. 

[fanfiction101]

Jareth x fem! reader

Hi everyone, another Jareth x fem! reader fanfic. If you have any requests feel free to let me know! :) love you!

Warnings: Mentions of child abuse, other than that there is fluff

It was a cloudy day in the goblin city.

From the moment I woke up, no sun had made an appearance. But, I didn't mind... at least until Jareth notified me that he had a runner in the labyrinth.

Now, usually if it were a child or a defenseless old person, I would scold him and beg him to send them back without any harm or memory of it. But, the majority of the time, it was someone who truly deserved it.

"Who is it today?" I asked over breakfast.

Jareth frowned, "A man, about middle age. He wished his child away because he had stated that he didn't want her anymore."

I stood up quickly, "Where is the poor thing?"

"In one of the guest rooms is asleep. She should be waking up sometime soon. I'll have the goblins see to her care." He said taking a sip of his drink.

I frowned. I was a sister myself and as much as I love the goblins, I don't exactly trust a child's safety with them.

I said, "Um, dear, since you are going to be busy, would you at all mind if I care for her during her stay. I don't know if the goblins-"

And on that note we heard a crash in the kitchen next door and shouts of laughter and cusses. I looked at Jareth with a knowing look and he exchanged the same one.

"I see your point darling. You may."

I smiled, "Thank you love."

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It wasn't long before the small girl woke up.

She was understandably frightened. I wore a simple dress, not to scare the poor thing even more.

I approached her slowly and with a soft voice said, "Hello sleepy head. Did you sleep well?" I crouched down to her height sitting on the bed.

"Where am I?" She said in a worried tone. "Where is my daddy?"

My smile slightly faltered. How could I explain such a complicated thing to such a small child. "Well, this is the Goblin City and your daddy is playing a game at the moment."

"What kind of game?" the small girl asked in a curious tone.

"A complicated game for grown ups. My name is Queen (y/n). What is yours?" I said, trying to change the subject.

"Mandy." she said. "And I'm four!" She proudly held up three fingers in the air.

"Four? My, aren't you a big girl?" I said in an up beat tone.

"Mhm!" She said with a proud look.

"Well Mandy, while your daddy is away, how would you like to be a princess for the day?"

I knew I played the right move when her eyes lit up.

"Really?" She asked.

"Absolutely!" I responded.

Throughout the day, I hope that I treated Mandy to a wonderful day. We did every activity that Mandy wanted, even if I was constantly detouring her from the throne room as I didn't want to overwhelm her.

It wasn't until Mandy wanted to play dress up in my gowns did I notice something that made my blood boil. As she was playing, her shirt lifted up and I noticed a red streak along her back.

I gasped and asked Mandy to come over. I accidentally touched her back and she squeaked in pain.

"Honey, are you hurt?"

She didn't say anything.

"Can I help you heal it?"

She nodded and I told her to stay put. I rushed to the bathroom and grabbed a first aid kit. On my way back, I stopped by the throne room, hoping Jareth was there. I threw open the door and was relieved that he was there.

"Jareth!" I yelled, slightly startling him.

His face turned concerned. "is everything alright? Is the girl alright?"

"Is that son of a bitch near the end?" I asked.

Jareth laughed. "Not even close! the lazy lump is sitting against a wall, not doing a thing!"

I sighed in relief, "Good."

Jareth then asked, "Is everything okay? You have the first aid kit."

"He beats her. Her skin is red and raw. I'm on my way to treat it. But Jareth, what is going to happen to her?" I asked.

"I don't know." Jareth admitted.

I sighed in frustration. "If she stayed here, I don't know how to raise a child. I barely know what I'm doing at the moment. Does she have a mother on earth?"

Jareth shook his head. He pulled me into a hug and brushed my hair with his fingers. "It'll be okay. We will figure something out, okay?"

I nodded into his chest, "Okay." I pulled my head and he kissed my forehead. "I love you."

"I love you too." He said.

I stepped away and rushed back towards the clothing closet.

I treated Mandy's woulds with a magic cream and some bandages.

"Okay hon, in 10 minutes it'll stop hurting, but don't remove the bandages until I say so, alright?" I said taping her bandages closed.

"Okay." She said.

A little while later, it was dinner time. I asked what Mandy's favorite foods were and requested them to the goblin cooks. Right before dinner, Jareth pulled me aside and told me that the father failed.

"So what do we do now with the kid?" I asked in a panic.

"Calm down," Jareth said putting his hand on my shoulders. "I found a couple above ground who desperately wants a child but can't have one. We will erase and create memories of them. They seem like good people and will treat her right. She can start over in a happy family."

I breathed out. I smiled and hand in hand we walked into the dinning room. Mandy was by now, not shy to talk. She inquired Jareth about how he got his hair co "crazy" and proudly stated how she was four and the tallest in her friend group.

After dinner was done, me and Jareth shared a look.

We told her that we were going to see her dad but when we sat her down, we gave her a cookie that wiped her memories. Jareth shifted the memories that were good to be of the couple.

He then traveled to the couple's home and shifted their memories to place Mandy in as well as their house to make it seem that Mandy was there all along.

When he came back, we were both exhausted.

I took a shower and when I came back to our bedroom, I saw him sitting on the bed, reading a book. I walked over to the massive walk-in closet and grabbed a short, silk green sleeping gown. I changed and walked to the bed.

Jareth looked up and had a mischievous smile on his face. "Hello gorgeous."

I smiled, "Hey." I flopped onto the cushy comforter on my side of the bed. As I crawled under the covers, I hear Jareth put his book aside and turn off the light.

He shifted towards me and I felt his arms snake around my waist and his body against mine.

He kissed my neck, slowly kissing down my shoulder.

Out of the blue I said, "Thank you."

Jareth stopped and said "For what?"

"For giving Mandy a good home."

Jareth was quiet for a moment and then said, "You know you did a wonderful job with Mandy."

I had a small smile on my face.

"You would be a great mother one day, you know?"Jareth continued.

"I don't know. I just felt so, unprepared. Like I didn't know what I was doing."

"Still, you were amazing. You always are."

I giggled when I realised something. "Jareth... do you have baby fever?"

He scoffed, "Maybe."

"You would be a great father."

"Two parents who don't know what they are doing then." He said.

"Maybe someday." I said almost in a whisper. I leaned over to kiss him. As I tried to pull away, he only leaned in more, making this kiss deeper and more passionate. He lifted his hand to my cheek and his other hand migrated towards my thigh.

"Maybe..."Jareth whisper into the kiss

[acourtofwhatthefuck]

Fireleaf (Part Eight)

Lucien Vanserra x Reader

Hiiii everyone. Hope you’re all doing well! So sorry that this part took a little while longer than usual to get out — I’ve been quite unwell for the past week and have been writing in between bouts of intense pain 😅 I also wanted to get this chapter just right because I think it was one of the first ideas @greeneyedivy and I bounced around right at the beginning of planning Fireleaf — the Hunting Trip 😏we’ve had a good few conversations mapping this one out in detail and hope you enjoy!

Sorry if there’s any mistakes or poor writing along the way! This chapter ended up being so long that we decided to split it into two parts, so the next part will be up tomorrow or the day after! <3

Warnings: Some angst, mentions of homophobia, Jareth Vanserra being a first class cunt.

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It was a rare occasion on which all the Vanserras sat down to dine together.

Perched between Dion and Eris, with Lucien directly opposite you, you couldn’t help but long for the private dinners that you and Dion usually shared alone. Sometimes with the addition of a brother or two, but — never usually with the High Lord at the head of the table. The Lady of Autumn sat silently opposite.

And certainly never, ever with Lucien.

You were so uncomfortable, so tense, it was a wonder you didn’t bend your fork out of shape with how hard you gripped it. And with the heavy silence around the table, the lack of conversation, your heartbeats were a heavy drumbeat in your ears. Probably everyone else’s, too.

It seemed like ages — ages — before Dion cleared his throat and dragged everyone’s attention to him.

“So, father,” He said, helping himself to a portion of potatoes and dishing some onto your plate, also, “may I ask what you wished to speak with us about?”

You hated the formality with which he spoken to his own father. No love, no tenderness. You couldn’t help wondering if Beron had ever hugged any of them.

Beron nodded, sipping from his chalice of wine. “The Hunt is coming up.”

Around the table, a small murmur of enthusiasm broke out between Rian and Jareth. They grinned at each other, and even Eris seemed to sit up with interest.

“I won’t be attending this year, unfortunately,” Beron said. “There are far more pressing matters at hand that I need to prioritise. But I still expect you to attend. To represent our household.”

Beside you, Dion dipped his chin. “Of course. We wouldn’t miss it.”

“What’s The Hunt?” You blurted. The mere sound of your voice dragged a steely gaze from Beron, straight onto you.

He studied you — like he was weighing up whether you were even worth answering — before swirling another mouthful of wine. “I suppose the event wouldn’t be on your radar, given that your household is overrun with females, and your father is more brain than muscle.” He sat back, resting his hands on the arm of his chair. “On the same three days every year, it’s said that certain ancient Autumn beasts roam the woodlands – different beasts to the ones we made offerings to during the Harvest Festival. Darker ones. The males of the court partake in a hunt and attempt to ensnare said beasts to bring home victory.”

No — you’d never heard of it. Never been aware of an influx of males gathering in the wild at the same time every year. But then, your family’s estate wasn’t particularly wooded, and he wasn’t wrong about your father…

It was just an example of how sheltered your life had been so far. One hundred and thirty one years in a court, and you were still learning new things about it. And that sheltering would no doubt get worse when you became a Vanserra.

“It’s not really a serious thing,” Dion explained beside you, a soft smile playing on his lips. “The beasts everyone hunts for probably don’t even exist. None of us has ever seen them. But it’s all in good fun.”

“Three whole days of exchanging luxury for nature and fresh air.” Eris nodded. “There’s nothing more freeing than being out in the wild.”

Freeing. Your heart flipped at the thought. Of being away from the estate. Of breathing in the fresh air and sleeping under the stars and not having to behave a certain way. It was just what you needed—

“And what about you?” Beron said, his voice dripping with distaste as he pointed his fork at Lucien. “Will you be joining your brothers?”

Lucien cocked an eyebrow. “I never choose to partake. Why would I do so now?”

“I’d like to go,” You blurted, sitting up.

Everyone turned their eyes on you. Nobody said a word.

Until, across the table, Jareth snorted. “Females can’t partake in The Hunt.”

The statement didn’t surprise you in the least. You’d heard enough comments like it, in the time you’d been at the Vanserra Estate, to last you a lifetime.

You’d learned that there were apparently very few things a female could do, besides bear children. But that didn’t sit right with you.

“Oh?” You cocked your head at Jareth. “And why is that? Do you fear the exertion will cause our wombs to fall out?”

Someone spluttered around the table, and it was an effort for you not to snort. Your attention was drawn away from Jareth and back to Beron as he very pointedly placed his chalice down.

He seemed to be trying hard to stop his lip from curling as he said, “It’s a male-only event. No females.”

You…you stared back at him — just like you had in his office, that morning after the hamlet fire. A stare that told him that he didn’t intimidate you. You weren’t scared of him, his opinions. And he hated it.

“What’s the worst that could happen?” You forced a ditzy, saccharine smile onto your face. “I won’t get in the way while the big, tough males chase after the beasts. Perhaps I’ll find a rock to perch myself upon and make pretty friendship bracelets for everyone out of the wildflowers.”

Silence. Such tense, thick silence. You were trying not to smirk. Beron’s jaw was ticking—

A kick landed on your leg beneath the table, and you jolted. Looked up to glare at Lucien. He didn’t meet your eyes, but the action in itself had been warning enough. Stop baiting the damn High Lord.

Beside you, Dion cleared his throat. “Actually, father,” he said, “it might not be such a bad idea to take Y/N along with us. For her to see more of the court before we marry. She’ll be expected to travel with me on occasion, anyway, as my wife.”

Beron’s gaze barely flickered to Dion before he stared at you once more. Assessing. His eyes were so, so cold; you wondered if they were capable of holding warmth.

“You know,” He said, picking an invisible piece of lint from his jacket, “After Barric visited your family’s estate, he warned me about you. Told me all about you and your sisters.” The room was so, so still, barely sharing a breath as he smirked. “You have Molly — the beautiful one. A true lady. And Sara — not as pretty, but still dashing, even if she doesn’t have anything but air between her ears. Clementine was a little harder to suss out; very private, that one, but the rumour is that she only married to cover up the fact that she favours females. And Willow, the quiet and kind one. Perhaps a bit of a dark horse…”

Both you and Dion stiffened. Beneath the table, you squeezed his leg once.

“And then there’s you,” Beron’s eyes flicked over you, down and back up, their lifeless depths landing on your face, “the feral one. The one who didn’t seem to have secured herself a husband, because she was too busy running her family ragged with her wild antics. It confused me, I must say, why Dion insisted on volunteering your name above real, respectable ladies. But then it struck me — how he always had an affinity, as a boy, for taking in stray animals and trying to tame them. Domesticate them. It seems he never grew out of that.”

You could have heard a pin drop around the table, from the way everyone seemed to be holding their breaths. And you tried — tried so hard to not let it show on your face, how his words got to you. You didn’t care about his opinion of you, but…to be compared to your sisters. To be singled out as the imperfect, unwanted one…

You supposed it hit a sore spot.

Beron suddenly rose from his chair. With a wave of his hand, all plates disappeared from the table; nobody so much as blinked.

“This meal is over.” He said, turning his steeled gaze onto Dion. “If you wish to take the feral cat on The Hunt with you, by all means, be my guest.” He strode to the door without a look back, merely spitting, “but on your head be it, son, when it lashes out.”

⤲

“Fancy a game of cards?”

Dion’s hand hovered at the small of your back. The tension seemed to have followed you out of the dining room, Beron’s words leaving a gaping wound that you wanted to prod at alone. You had a feeling that Dion had sensed how withdrawn you’d become in the last half hour.

“I’m actually really tired, so…I’m gonna go to bed.” The two of you stopped at the frosted glass doors to the games room. “…but you were serious, right? About me coming on The Hunt?”

“Completely serious.” He nodded. “There’s absolutely no reason that a female can’t partake. And besides,” he nudged you gently, “I’ll need you to keep me sane, with Jareth to contend with.”

Laughing softly, you squeezed his hand. “Goodnight, then.”

With a smile, he slipped into the games room, where Eris, Jareth and Rian were already waiting with glasses of whiskey in hand. Where Lucien had disappeared to straight after dinner, you had no clue.

Nor did you know why you even bothered to wonder about it.

You heaved a soft sigh as you dragged your tired feet up the grand staircase. You hated letting Beron get to you, but…ignoring his vicious words was no easy feat, when he seemed to know exactly which ones to wield to cut you deepest. It was why you couldn’t help baiting him, even if it was a fucking terrible idea to do so.

Upstairs, you turned into the hallway that peeled off into your suite.

And stopped dead at the sight of Lucien leaning against your door.

He cut a casual figure — the sleeves of his white shirt rolled up, the first few buttons undone. His hair flowed brilliantly around him, and in the dim lighting, his eyes seemed even darker. Or perhaps that was the taut expression that pulled at his features.

You cast a subtle glance over your shoulder — just to check nobody lingered nearby — before you shook off your surprise and approached him.

“Why are you outside my room?” You demanded, forcing yourself to making eye contact. And to keep visions of his cock and your mouth out of your head.

“I was waiting,” he pushed off the door, “to ask what the fuck is wrong with you.”

You stopped again. Raised your eyebrows. “Pardon me?”

“Baiting my father like that. Do you have a death wish?”

“Huh.” You tilted your head. You could see damn well how much it irritated him. “Good question. Perhaps I do. Excuse me.”

You pushed past him, your hand barely touching the door knob before he was shoving into your way again.

“You’re not going on that hunt.” He said.

You stared up at him, raising your eyebrows. And the severity that lined his face told you how serious he was — that he actually believed he could make such statements and order you around.

But Lucien Vanserra, of all people, was not going to tell you what you could or couldn’t do.

And you could have told him that, but…you knew what would irritate him most. What would goad him, in whatever game this was that you were playing.

So you said nothing. Simply looked him up and down, and snickered a quiet laugh.

And then you stepped around him, shoving into your room, and shut the door in his face.

⤲

She was actually going on that godsdamn hunt.

Lucien laid sprawled across his bed, a book pressed to his bare chest as he stared up at the ceiling.

The fucking Hunt. Lucien hated it — had hated it the first time he partook, and had hated it just as much the last time. It was around two decades earlier that he’d put his foot down and refused to attend any longer. Fuck what his father or brothers thought.

It was just an excuse for males to flounce through the forests for a few days, pretending to search for creatures that didn’t even exist while they egged each other on to become their most vulgar, sexist selves. Lucien had been privy to one too many conversations of said males gloating about various sexual conquests and talking about females like utter brutes. He hated it. Hated the environment. Hated that those were the kinds of males that Beron had always wished Lucien would be. Beasts and creatures themselves.

And if Y/N were to throw herself into the middle of that…

He didn’t know why he was thinking about it so much. There was no guarantee that their hunting party would even come across any others; Lucien, himself, had been on plenty of hunts where it had just been him and his brothers for those three days, not once running into the males of other Autumn houses.

But suppose they did, this time, with Y/N alongside them. The only female. A female who didn’t seem to know how to keep her damn mouth shut.

That fucking mouth, indeed. Lucien needed to stop thinking about it. To stop imagining it wrapped around his cock and sucking him dry. If he fisted himself to release over it any more times, he’d be no better than he had been in his youth.

He was getting sick of this — of every night ending the same. Him brooding about her. Thinking what to say the next time he saw her that would stick the knife in deep and make her stay away from him. That was all he wanted. For her to stay away. For her to stop having whatever this influence was, that she had on him.

That made him do something so appalling as fucking his brother’s fiancée.

Life was so much easier before she’d turned up. When he didn’t have to worry about running into her, about putting up with her smart mouth and quick temper—

And now she was going on The Hunt. The Mother knew what kind of trouble she would no doubt get herself into. He was almost tempted to tag along just for the amusement…

But the amusement was held at bay by the thing that was gnawing at his mind – brought on entirely by her words. She’d pretty much admitted back there that she did have a death wish. Did she mean it? He couldn’t decide. Couldn’t wrap his head around it.

Couldn’t bear the thought of things seeming so dire and grim, for her, that death would be a better alternative.

And if that were the case, well…it was an even worse idea for her to go on The Hunt. Who knew what reckless shit she would try without Lucien’s watchful gaze?

Did he want to go? Fuck no. Absolutely not. He totally didn’t give a shit about her spending three days in the wild with a group of males, his brothers or not.

He sighed softly to himself. Rubbed a hand over his bare, toned stomach and stroked the spine of his book. He couldn’t keep his thoughts from the matter at hand. Because if she was going…if they ran into the vile males that Lucien knew partook in the event…

He tried to shove it out of his mind, picking his book back up. Tried to focus on the words, the poetry that always clenched him beautifully within its fist and left him lost for words.

And in the storm, however brief

He bared himself for soil and leaf

And skin-to-skin, he branded her deep

With all his flames that burned beneath

He glared at the words. And they seemed to glare back. Something about them clanged around loudly in his head. Made something twist in his stomach, his heart.

If she went on that hunt—

He groaned to himself. Threw his book aside and rolled onto his front, burying into his pillow. He needed to stop fucking thinking about her. To get her far, far away from him. The sooner she married Dion, and they moved to their own territory, the better. Much better. Way better.

You keep telling yourself that, a voice in his head laughed at him. You know damn well you’re going on that hunt, too.

⤲

By the end of that week, cold, dry weather had begun to transform, and grey clouds were crowding the sky.

“We’ll only be gone three days,” Dion said, glancing up at the sky as he fastened your cloak around you. “Hopefully the storms will hold off until then.”

It was Friday morning — and far earlier than you usually liked to rise. But the excitement of getting away from the estate had made your sleep fitful, and you’d found yourself awake and ready before anyone else.

“Dion and I have to be back by Monday morning, anyway, for a meeting,” Eris explained from atop his horse. He rubbed the neck of the filly as he also peered at the darkening sky. “The storm is supposed to hit Sunday night, if that old crone in the village is to be believed.”

Dion snorted, watching as you mounted your own horse. “I’d take what she says with a pinch of salt, but…hopefully she’s right this time.”

“Mother above, can we go?” Jareth whined. “What’s with all the dawdling?”

You’d not even set off on the road yet, and he was already irritating you. Something about the look in his eyes when you’d entered the stables…it made you uneasy. He’d looked you up and down with a smirk, as though he was looking forward to your company for his own reasons.

Dion finally climbed up onto his mount, settling himself with stunning ease. “Quit your whining, you—”

His words were promptly cut off by the sudden figure approaching the stables

Every one of you looked up to see Lucien striding over, dressed appropriately for the chill air, sturdy boots on his feet, weapons strapped to his body. His hair was tied into a low ponytail at the nape of his neck.

Your eyes snagged on him. His muscled thighs in those tight riding breeches. The stark gold of his skin against the early morning light. All of his brothers blinked at him.

“Where are you going?” Eris asked.

Lucien barely glanced up as he approached his horse. “On The Hunt.”

“What?” Rian snorted. “You hate The Hunt.”

“Yeah. Well.” Lucien’s eyes briefly flashed to you — but not so brief that they didn’t burn. “I’ve decided to give it another try.”

“You—”

“That’s great, brother,” Dion quickly cut Jareth’s retort off. “The more the merrier. Ready your horse and we’ll go.”

Lucien dipped his chin, pushing into his horse’s stable. And you…you tried not to stare. To watch. To linger on the way he moved with such fluidity, such grace. Those strong fingers fastening the reins—

You swallowed, facing forward.

Unbeknownst to him, Lucien Vanserra had just made the next three days very difficult for you.

⤲

The first day wasn’t so bad.

Everyone was so eager, so pumped-up, that your group mainly spread out through the forest. Jareth and Rian went off alone, leaving you with Dion, Eris and Lucien. And — thankfully — you hadn’t run into any other hunting parties.

It didn’t even bother you that you were, essentially, fruitlessly hunting for nonexistent beings. After the four of you had successfully captured something real and tangible for your meal that night, it’d mostly been travel, languid rides through the woodlands and sprawls of green — and you loved it. The freedom was so heady, you felt giddy with it.

Lucien didn’t say much, though.

That first night, Jareth and Rian were still hunting while you and the other three Vanserras got settled into your camp and ate. It was peaceful without the two of them — the conversation sparse and easy and quiet, leaving you to sit in your thoughts by the fire with a full belly, your eyes already heavy with the day’s exertion. You were drifting off sat up, leant against Dion’s side, when Rian and Jareth finally burst through the trees; an unwanted injection of noise and ruckus.

“I’m telling you, you little shit.” Jareth said, slumping down opposite you. “I know what I saw.”

Rian snorted, grabbing for what was left of the food that you and the others had cooked. “You saw a deer.”

“It was way bigger than a deer. Huge.”

Stretching his arms behind his head, Eris raised an eyebrow in vague interest. “You saw something, Jareth?”

“He saw a deer—”

“It was massive. Some huge, horned beast, prowling through the trees.” Jareth’s eyes bounced over his brothers, as though he was looking for some indication of belief. When they landed on Lucien, though, he smirked. “Hey—maybe it was Lucien’s lover.”

You felt yourself stiffen. Felt the mild humour and ease around the fire fizzle out in seconds. What lurked in Jareth’s gaze was a beast in itself.

Lucien merely rolled his eyes. “What.”

“Tamlin.” Jareth shrugged. “He has horns in his beast form, doesn’t he? And the two of you are so close. All those solitary trips you’ve taken to the Spring Court, do you really expect us to believe you’re not letting the High Lord stick those horns somewhere where the sun doesn’t shine?”

You blinked — at the sheer viciousness in Jareth’s tone. Beside you, you heard Dion exhale a small sigh.

“You know, Jareth,” Lucien said. The casual tone of his voice suggested to you that this wasn’t the first time such words had been wielded. “You seem mighty fond of those horns. I can put in a good word for you, if you like.”

“Don’t make me sick—”

“Would that be a problem?” You snapped, your tone pure ice.

Everyone fell silent. Turned to look at you.

You ignored the rest of them. Locked eyes with Jareth. “What, exactly, would the issue be, Jareth, to have a family member who favours people of the same sex?”

“My father taught me — all of us — to have morals.”

“And yet,” you tilted your head, “you don’t believe everyone should be free to love who they love. Interesting.”

“I believe,” he gritted his teeth, “that females exist for males.”

Dion gently squeezed your arm. “Believe me, there’s no point—”

“And how’s that working out for you, Jareth?” You ignored him. “Because in the couple of months I’ve been around you, now, no female seems to exist for you. Perhaps they’re put off by the utter shit that comes out of your mouth.”

“You—”

“Unless the problem is a downstairs one, of course.” You cut him off, pointedly glancing at his crotch. “In which case, you needn’t fret. There are all sorts of enhancement tonics around these days. Although…if I were you, I’d request the highest dose.”

Across from you, Eris snorted — and Jareth…Jareth just gaped at you. Seemed to be scrambling to think of a response.

You didn’t give him a chance. You needed to walk away before you really ripped into him. Without a word, you stood from the log you were perched on.

Dion glanced up at you. “Y/N—”

“I need to pee.” Was all you said, not glancing back as you headed for the trees.

You’d only taken a few steps when behind you, Jareth had finally mustered a retort. Aimed at Dion, though, instead of you.

“Fucking hell.” He scowled. “Good luck marrying that, brother.”

⤲

Saturday was much the same. But something heavier hung in the air that second day. Perhaps the approaching storm, or…

Or perhaps the glares Jareth kept cutting you from his horse.

You left in the early morning once again, covering even greater distances than the day before. Areas of your own court that you’d never even heard about, let alone seen with your own eyes. You didn’t know how far from the Vanserra Estate you’d travelled when you reached your second location. More forestry awaited ahead, but you’d also glimpsed an outcropping of craggy cliffs and rocks jutting from within its belly, as though the trees had made their homes around the gaping pit of rocks and caves and refused to leave.

“It’s alleged,” Dion said from where he rode beside you on his horse, close enough to reach out and touch, “that a half-man-half-pig creature lives in these caves and can sniff out Fae blood from miles away.”

You snorted quietly. “Are you sure it’s not just Jareth?”

His head fell back as he snorted a laugh, leaning over to give a teasing prod to your side that had you yelping.

“We’ll split off into pairs to explore.” Eris said. “Me and Lucien. Rian and Jareth. And the happy couple. We’ll meet back here at sundown and find somewhere to camp.”

Your shoulders had thankfully relaxed at that. Not having to deal with Jareth all day — even his pathetic, icy stares — sounded like a good arrangement to you.

It turned out to be one of your favourite days with Dion yet. With the lines you’d drawn with each other clear and concise, all feelings out in the open, it gave you the opportunity to act like the friends that you were, without the pressure to force feelings and behave a certain way. You spent the day simply exploring, Dion regaling you with tales of previous hunts and you providing story after story about Willow. He swallowed the information greedily, and you knew from one flash of those sweet, brown eyes that he was utterly smitten.

The day, however, flew by. You couldn’t help feeling a knot of anticipation in your gut as you and Dion met back up with the other four.

Something in Jareth’s eyes told you he wasn’t too tired to stir up trouble. As usual.

“The storm should hold off,” Eris said, glancing up at the fading daylight as he mounted his horse. “Lucien and I found the perfect place to camp. It’s not too far from here.”

You could already feel the drop in temperature, the strange charge in the air that you could only assume was the gathering storm. Dion seemed to sense your discomfort, and he guided his mount closer to you as your party set off into a steady lope.

After a few minutes of silence, it was Dion who commented, “I take it nobody successfully hunted anything?”

Eris snorted from beside Jareth. “Nobody saw any horned beasts today?”

The quip dragged a light titter of laughter from the others — even Lucien. But Jareth glanced over his shoulder. Directly at you — as if you’d made the comment. And glared.

“You know,” He said, facing forward again. “From everything I’ve heard, Y/N, I expected you to have the most successful hunt. What with you having years of private training, and all.”

You could almost feel Dion stiffen beside you as you narrowed your eyes. Because your training…your skill…it wasn’t supposed to be common knowledge. Certainly not information that you wanted in Jareth’s brain, given what his twisted mind could no doubt do with it. You and Dion had specifically discussed it in one of the first conversations you’d had — that such things were not, under any circumstances, to get back to Beron. To end up in the wrong hands.

You turned your head to meet his gaze. He frowned at you, lifted his shoulders in a subtle shrug. “I haven’t told anyone anything,” he swore quietly.

“Anyway—”

“Your sister Molly and I,” Jareth cut off Eris’s interjection, “we had some mighty interesting conversations during the Harvest Festival. Tell me, Y/N, who is Linden, exactly?”

Even on horseback, you could feel the stillness that swept around the group — like the Vanserra males knew their brother all too well, and were holding their breaths for one of his showdowns. Lucien, who had been a few strides ahead, seemed to hang back, his eyes darting subtly to yours as he fell into stride with yours and Dion’s horses.

“…he’s a family friend.” You answered Jareth, your back ramrod straight.

There was an amused snort; from Jareth or Rian, you weren’t sure. But pure malice lurked within the sound.

“Huh. Right.” Jareth said, nodding. “Do you make a habit of fucking your family friends, then?”

Every single part of you went rigid.

You didn’t know where your tension ended and where Dion’s began. Didn’t know where to look or what to say or how to think, as you blinked forward, your body going ice-cold.

“See, Molly was telling me all about it. And she and I couldn’t exactly figure out what a lady such as yourself would want to fuck a brute for,” Jareth tilted his head. “But then…I suppose you’re not a lady, are you? Not really. Not like your sisters. I said it was probably payment. That you were whoring yourself out to Linden for his services. Am I right? I’m right, aren’t I?”

Rian threw his head back and barked a laugh.

Eris seemed to be just…gaping at Jareth, like he couldn’t quite believe the vitriol he was spewing.

And there was a growl. No — two growls, of pure, menacing anger. One from your right — Dion.

The other from your left. Lucien.

“I guess that’s why you’re not already married. Used goods, right?” Jareth smirked. “Lucky for you, Dion doesn’t seem to care about that. And quit your damn growling, Lucien. I’m sure if you ask nicely, Dion will let you have his leftovers—”

Eris struck so fast, you didn’t even register what he’d done until Jareth went tumbling from his horse. And you realised the eldest Vanserra had punched him off of it.

“Shut your damn mouth, you little prick.” He sneered at him. Jareth was too busy groaning and rolling on the floor to respond.

And the fact that the three of them — Dion, Eris and even Lucien — had come to your defence…it did soften the blow of Jareth’s words just slightly.

But…not enough. Not enough to prevent them hitting home, right where it hurt.

⤲

Lucien didn’t think he’d ever seen her so quiet.

Even listening to her mouth off about something was better than the preternatural stillness she now sat with around the fire, her eyes gazing off somewhere, unseeing. Whatever mark Jareth’s words had been intended for had truly hit home.

Lucien could kill him for it. Utterly kill him.

It was no secret to anyone that Jareth Vanserra was a nasty piece of work — a true copy of their father. But he’d really put his reputation to use on this hunting trip. Lucien couldn’t wait to go home. To get away from him.

She hadn’t wanted any of the food Eris had cooked, instead opting to sit quietly, huddled in her cloak, not contributing to the light conversation around the dwindling fire.

“I’m going to fetch some more wood.” Dion announced to no one in particular, rising from the log he was perched on. “I won’t be long.”

A lulling, soothing quiet settled into the camp, and yet Y/N’s silence was still the loudest amongst them all. Lucien settled back, watching, subtly, the way she tightened her cloak around her, bunching it within her fist so hard that her knuckles turned white. The fire reflected in her eyes, and Lucien could only imagine that her mind was burning just as fiercely. Whatever she was thinking had her flinching, as though she could feel the lick of the flames from inside her mind. Or maybe the effect of Jareth’s words.

She was…complicated. Perhaps the most complicated person Lucien had ever met. And he hated how it intrigued him. How it kept him awake until the early hours, thinking about what she might do next, how she might surprise him.

This was a surprise – seeing her recoil into herself like this. He didn’t…didn’t assume her capable, he supposed, of being bothered by somebody’s opinions. She usually seemed so sure of herself, so…quick-witted and silver tongued. Confident.

And perhaps that was utterly naive of him.

“There’s still some food left,” Eris spoke to her, scooting closer. “Why don’t you eat something? You’ll be even colder if you don’t.”

But Y/N merely shook her head, quietly insisting, “I’m not hungry.”

“I packed some of that chocolate–”

“I’m going to help Dion.” She rose from the log on which she’d perched, her movements slumped and weary as she followed in the direction Dion had wandered off in.

Eris sighed to himself softly. Seemed genuinely concerned as he raked a hand through his hair and stared at the fire.

But Lucien – Lucien settled back on his bedroll, his tension easing slightly. Perhaps it was good for her to get away from the camp, even if it was just for half an hour. Maybe she’d vent to Dion and get everything off her chest, and then return, once again the quipping, quick-witted person she was. If she needed to cry, she could cry to Dion, away from the others. Away from Lucien himself.

And he…he would try not to let the thought bother him. Because really, when it came down to it…it was for Dion to deal with, as Y/N’s fiancée. Dion’s responsibility.

So Lucien closed his eyes and steadied his breathing, attempting to expel the tension that had built up inside him. Dion and Y/N would be gone for a good while; if any tension remained upon their return, hopefully Lucien would be fast asleep by then. Too asleep to be aware of it.

With just the quiet hum of conversation between Rian and Jareth, the camp wound down, the fire’s dying embers pleasantly warm and soothing. The sky gradually transitioned from the threatening grey of daytime to a thick, inky black above them. Night swept through the forest, and Lucien was happy to embrace it. Just one more night to get through, and tomorrow they would travel home.

And he could go back to staying away. Staying far, far away from his brother’s fiancée. Far enough away to not be tempted by his stupid lust.

He was just teetering on that light precipice between sleep and wakefulness when Dion returned over thirty minutes later, strong arms carrying more wood than they probably needed.

“It feels like there’s rain in the air,” He said — and then stopped. “Where’s Y/N?”

Lucien lifted his head, rubbing at his eyes. Scanned the four figures around him; Rian, Jareth, Eris, Dion…sure enough — no Y/N.

“She went to help you.” Eris frowned.

“Well, she didn’t,” Dion allowed the logs to drop from his arms, thudding to the forest floor. “The last time I saw her was here.”

“Maybe she went for a walk?”

“It’s dark.”

“What’s the big deal?” Jareth sat up, rolling his eyes. “She can defend herself. She has the training, remember?”

“Run your smart mouth one more time, Jareth—”

“Can we not have another fight? We’ll find her.” Eris stood, wandering over to the small opening through the trees that Y/N had taken. His voice was an echoing boom as he called her name into the night. “Y/N?”

Dion immediately joined him, pushing branches and leaves out of the way. “Y/N?”

One look at Rian and Jareth told Lucien how unbothered they were, as they continued their conversation like nothing was happening. He gritted his teeth, brushing his hair back as he followed his other two brothers.

“You’re sure she went this way?” Dion pursed his lips, brown eyes peering around wildly.

“Positive.” Eris nodded. “She went the same way you did.”

Lucien also nodded. “Said she was going to help you with the wood.”

“Fuck.” The curse fell from Dion’s lips, his shoulders tense. “She doesn’t know these parts. We need…we need to look for her.”

Without a single moment’s hesitation, Eris was turning on his feet. “We’ll split up and search for her. You too, Jareth Rian can stay at the camp with Y/N’s horse in case she returns.” He shot Jareth and Rian a scathing glance. “And as leader of the hunting party, that’s an order. Get off your ass, now.”

When Jareth didn’t even twitch, both Eris and Dion yanked him up by his arms. Shoved him forward.

Lucien was already striding for his horse.

“Split off and cover every bit of ground until we find her.” Dion commanded, mounting his horse. “I don’t give a shit if the rain comes. We’re not leaving her with whatever lurks in these woods.”

Lucien didn’t bother to reply, didn’t bother to hide his panic, as he climbed up onto his horse and grabbed the reins. He didn’t look back, either.

Nor did he comment that he was worried, not only about the forest beasts finding her first.

But also about the possibility of Jareth finding her first.

And that worry only solidified inside him as he heard Jareth’s voice call from behind.

“Let the half-man-half-pig eat her, I say!”

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

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[rain-storm-witch]

Part 2

I can't remember the last time I didn't have a little shadow with pigtails

It's unnerving being alone with your own thoughts.

Looking around my surroundings it's as if all the plants died but are somehow still living, but who knows it's all magical bullshit anyways.

"57" following the harsh voice "58" it belongs to a man? Maybe? " hello " you call out trying to make yourself known "oh! Who.. oh it's you"

" Do you know me?" He looks me up and down as if he was trying to find a place where he had seen me before " Do I know who" " Sir do you know me?"

Facing me he takes a moment "Sir? No I ain't no sir I'm hoggle" he points a broken finger nail at me " Who are you" pointing back at him you take a moment to think if you should really be giving your name out.

But you give it anyways, slapping your hand away from his. He turns back to spraying something flying by "That's what I thought" looking forward at the labyrinth walls that seemed to have no way to get in "Do you know how I can get into the labyrinth?" I ask quietly

He looks over his shoulder at you " You gets in there" And just like that the wall I was looking at was suddenly a large door into the very labyrinth. "You really going in there? " He looked as if he was almost scared of the place himself "Yea I need to" with that I walked right into the labyrinth.

" dozy ain't it.. now which way would you go" not thinking he followed me in I jumped slightly at his voice "Right…right? That's what I always thought" he looked puzzled at that as if no one had ever given an actual answer " Well I wouldn't go either way"

"Thank you for helping me in hogwash" " It's hoggle!" He stomped out and the doors closed behind him really setting my fate in "Alright let's go "

Walking past branches and rumble it seems as if I haven't gone anywhere. Running doesn't work either, it's like I'm stuck in the same place no matter how far I run "This goes on forever.. how are there no turns" sliding down against the wall with my head in my hands. It's so stupid that I can't find a single turn

" ello" looking to my right there's a little guy who sits with his little scarf "Did you just say hello to me?" A blue worm? Really? "No I said ello but that's close enough" so adorable with his little scarf "Little worm you wouldn't happen to know where the turns are would ya?"

It felt silly to ask a worm, but hoggle had helped me so why couldn't this little guy " There's one right in front of ya" there was? "Come inside meet the missus?" " Oh no I can't but thank you truly "

Standing up as I put my hands out just in case I fall through something. And sure enough there was a hidden turn " Thank you so much little fella " I nod my head going towards the left "Hey hang on don't go that way" oh yea that's right always go right " Truly thank you again" giving him a half smile i head to the next part

Honestly everything about this place is just strange

And even stranger things were happening in the castle that lived at the center of the goblin city's

Jareth sat upon his curved throne deep in thought while the goblins around him tried their best to calm the sobbing young girl sat in the middle of the throne room.

Looking towards the poor girls red face as she tired wiping them as fast as the ran down her face. And finally taking pity on the child he stands and takes steps till he is at arms length with her "What has you so troubled little one?"

He asks crouching down brushing away the stray tears that fall faster, as Evie tries to get any words out she just breaks down even harder. Hiccups follow with mixed words that not even the goblins can understand.

Jareth not sure of what to do picks the small child up and holds her close to his chest "Things will be alright you're with your brother and sisters now petal" but his words did in fact not help in the slightest they actually made the sobs worse

Tiny hands clenching his shirt with a tight grip her wails grow louder. Sighing Jareth looks to any of his subjects for help, he hasn't had to deal with a child that could talk in ages usually it's small babes. Even the children the same age as the one in his arm didn't cry this much.

"Little one you are safe here I promise you" turning back towards his throne Jareth sets the girl down "You know what ? You remind me of someone" looking at him witn sad doe eyes waiting for him to speak while she tries to catch her breath

The goblins around start rushing to set something up as Jareth walks back to the center of the room pointing back at the girl "You remind of the babe" gaining the curiosity " The babe?" Evie asks through shaky breath and sniffles.

Jareth rushes to girl grabbing her hands in his as he dances her to a set of goblins who grab the girl and bounce around with her. Her sobs turning into giggles as goblin after goblin take turns dancing around the room with her singing with the king who also dances with them.

Back to a poor mother worried sick about her small child

Hearing Evie's cries I head towards the castle as fast as I can, but everything looks the exact same. Looking through my pockets I pull out kid lipstick from Evie's play makeup set "This is just going to have to work thank you Evie for sneaking things into my pockets" putting an X in the direction I was going next. Wait I've already gone this way? Didn't I? Turning around was another dead end "Wait wasn't this clear just a second ago? "

"No that was always a dead end " turning back the dead end I had just been at now showed two doors with dog like things? But there were four. One on the top and one upside down " how am I supposed to find Evie if everything in this damned labyrinth keeps changing " as the two dogs look at each other and back at me as if it was stupid to ask them

"Well there's only one way out of here and it's through one of these doors" " But one them leads straight to the castle at the center of the labyrinth and the other leads to… Certain death" the one below him added some noise for drama which was silly but not fun "So can you tell me which is which"

" uh we don't know" looking at them dumbfounded. That really had worked for me so far " But they do" the pair on the bottom say to the top " So can you tell me?" Shaking their heads "No you can't ask us, you can only ask one of us" nodding along the blue one quickly jumped in" yes, it's in the rules….but i should warn you, one of us always tells the truth and one of us always lies that's a rule too, he always lies" I'm sorry? As they argued I try thinking of how to loophole all of this.

Maybe I could tell the hot goblin king I liked his unique hair? "Oh! Would the blue one tell me that this door leads to the castle?" Looking at each other then back at me " Um yes?" Ok I think I can figure this out "So that means this door leads to death and his leads to the castle? No? "

"How do ya know that? He could be telling the truth" " Yes but then you would be lying and the doors would still be the same" walking towards the blue door getting ready to push it " See it works no matter what, you always go to the right" pushing it felt really good knowing I would soon be at the castle but really I should have known that nothing in the place makes any sense

Falling down the dark hole with a bunch of rough hands grabbing at you. Only to hold on with a rough grip just to let go. Pleading calling for anyone to help you from falling

" Who are you calling for" anyone really "I just don't want to fall down" it's like the stuff of nightmares, bathed in darkness with only the dim light from where I fell through " We are helping" it's grip hurting my wrist and my ankles "We're helping hands" there's laughing all around me again. Shivers are sent up my spine at the creepy way the hands keep forming faces "You're hurting me" the hands lessen their grip just slightly "Would you like us to let go"

Then before I can say no I'm falling again "No No Please" then I'm still once again "Which way would you like to go" looking around it's either up or down "Like going down?" Before I can think of what I've said there's laughing again "You chose down" more of that god awful laughing "Wait what do you mean" I say in a panic "She chose down?" As I go to grab any of the hands to stop myself from falling

falling down twice as fast as before. The nails of the hands digging into my skin cutting me before letting go and just as fast as the panic comes and swarms my mind I hit the ground with a dull thud.

And with that the second part to this story is done. This one has been done for a long time but I really wanted to make sure that I felt like this part worked well enough as the last chapter that really followed the og script.

And yes sorry this chapter is small I kinda wanted to get out of the per set stuff and into the angst and stress of the other ones.

The next one will have theme's of claustrophobia and overs but that one is hopefully going to be out way sooner than this one.

And there will hopefully be more Jareth and his pov.

But really this story will now mostly be it's own timeline and have its own kinda world building with characters. But it will keep to the og world that the labyrinth takes place in.

[megankoumori]

Further "Labyrinth 2" thoughts...

If this sequel has to happen, there can be ways to make it less painful. Right off the bat, let's not pretend that it's going to live up to the original. Holding out and building up that hope is just going to end in disappointment.

Thank you very much.

My first fear is that instead of a new story with new ideas that explore the fantastic world of "Labyrinth" further, we're just going to get a bunch of lazy callbacks that are banking on nostalgia. "Hey, it's Hoggle and Ludo! Do ya remember those guys? Do ya? Sarah's falling into a hole! It's the Helping Hands! Do ya remember! Do ya do ya do ya do–"

A good sequel builds off of the original while expanding on the world and characters. New adventures mean potential new characters and new relationships to explore. New arcs, which mean new character growth. And considering "Labyrinth" is one of the most imaginative fantasy films ever made, it's a wonderful opportunity to give the audience something magical. Something they've never seen before.

Or just they could throw in Tim Curry and hope no one notices it's a rehash.

Of course it's not just story. We all know about the Horned Beast in the room...

No David Bowie, no Jareth. No Jareth, no "Labyrinth." So how does one fix this? How do you make a "Labyrinth" movie without its antagonist and arguably its most beloved character?

Well, one answer would be to recast. God help the poor schmuck who says yes. He'll constantly be compared to the original and degraded and mocked for failing to live up to one of the greatest musical icons of all time.

No, the best way to go about this, IMO, is to write Jareth out entirely.

Look, I love Jareth. I love David Bowie. I love his performance and his music. He's my all-time favorite artist up there with Cher. No one is going to live up to him.

So create a new antagonist.

I was originally thinking a Goblin Queen, but simply gender flipping is trite. I do think the new antagonist should be a woman, though. And since Jareth's character was conceived as being played by a rock star from the get-go, the same should be done here. I'm thinking Lady Gaga since she takes a lot of inspiration from David Bowie anyway. Perhaps her character was once a baby much like Toby, but unlike Toby, she never made it home. And somehow, in the nearly forty years since the original, she managed to stage a coup and take over.

Well those are my thoughts and ideas. And since I'm just an internet nobody with nary a Hollywood connection, none of them will come to fruition.

[jade-wyton]

Becky’s kids! Her and Jareth agreed on four, but then the last pregnancy ended up being twins. Their second oldest is half-tiefling, which was a surprise for everyone but probably shouldn’t have been (it’s fine though, his dad is a friend so they know the family medical history).

~~~~

Barbra “Barbie” (named after her late grandmother) 6 years old Has been able to wildshape since she was 3; says that Mimi taught her how. Becky is now getting a taste of what it was like on her parents’ side of her “I’m 6 and I’m going to run around in the woods on my own fully naked” phase. She does not like it. The BIGGEST daddy’s girl you will ever meet. LOVES her dad. Bites.

~~~~

Harley (old english for “meadow”, also the name of a motorbike brand) 5 years old Likes his biological dad a lot and enjoys seeing him (around once a week) but if he had to pick one dad he’d choose Jareth. Has a speech disorder and accidentally called his grandfather “Pee Pee Ken” instead of Pépé Ken once. Adults now tease poor Pee Pee Ken about it. REFUSES to wear shoes. WILL have a meltdown if made to wear them. Also very uncomfortable in clothes other than onesies, but (usually) won’t meltdown if he needs to wear a shirt and pants. Carries comfort blanket everywhere; it was originally a traditional drow mother-daughter blanket Becky made for Barbie, but Barbie gave it to him after a bad dream to help him feel better, and now he can’t be separated from it.

~~~~

Rousseau “Russ” (French for “little redhead”) 4 years old Aspires to be a horse when he grows up. Seems to somehow think this is viable as a profession, like being a police officer or astronaut. Cannot be talked out of it. LOVES bugs. Much to Becky’s dismay. Talks to the spiders that live in his room. Wants to visit the Underdark with his grandmother Isa. Wants to learn “every language in the world.” Besides his first language of English, he is learning some French with Ken. He also knows sign language from his best friend, Salami.

~~~~

Alvara (Italian, means “elf warrior”) 3 years old Will make any excuse to see her grandparents; especially Dolly. Likes to make “potions” out of literally anything she finds around the house. Shampoo is not safe. Inherited her dad’s love of the ocean/beach. Wants to have physical contact at ALL TIMES. If someone is not holding her or touching her she will seek out someone who will and climb on them. She has attempted to cling to total strangers before. Mimi often turns into a scarf to cuddle her so she will behave.

~~~~

Cannelle (French name meaning strong in battle. Translates to “cinnamon”) 3 years old. Starts fights with older kids (and usually wins). If you pick on Harley for dressing funny she will pin you down and hit you with a big stick until you cry. Then she will make fun of you for being a baby. Has a best friend in daycare, whether they like it or NOT. Bit Uncle Orson hard enough to draw blood.

[fae-fucker]

Review: Of Goblins and Gold by Emma Hamm

Oops forgor to post this review here lmao :')

So ... I read the prequel to this book and hated it with a passion of a thousand suns. You might be asking, "Ok you hater, why go back to read the actual book it's based on?"

Mutliple reasons. 1) I am a hater. 2) I wanted to see if the author would put more effort into her solo projects/proper books. 3) A friend of mine tried to read it and failed, and I am nothing if not a martyr. 4) Yeah?? Maybe I want to read a story with a hot Goblin King in it? I didn't grow up watching The Labyrinth, I'm a little younger than most who did (and also not American), but just the words "Goblin King" are enough to perk my cat ear headphones.

Basically, I was curious, and I wanted to give this book a chance. Against my better judgment, clearly.

I'll cut to the chase: the writing is very poor. Like, to the point where I wasn't sure about the target demographic of this book, that's how juvenile and simplistic it was. Slightly better than the prose in the prequel short story, but only marginally. It reads like something for lower middle grade kids, it has this fairytale quality that's less dreamy and more "Oh, this could be a picture book." To illustrate my point, I literally, physically recoiled when I read the word "fuck" being uttered by a character, because it was so sudden and jarring amidst what had been, up to that point, Freya sees ball, see Freya run.

The writing isn't helped by quite poor and derivative characterization, the nonsense worldbuilding, and the shaky and confusing plot.

Freya is a fae-hating, determined young woman who totally isn't an off-brand Feyre (and I say this as an SJM hater, so being an off-brand copy of a shitty character is not great), and the Gerblin Shmerblin is a ... star-themed hot guy in a billowing shirt. Cool. Great. They don't have chemistry as much as they have scenes together and interact with each other. I understand Jareth and his magic bulge was the sexual awakening for many, and you will not get that here.

My biggest problem with this here book is the plot, and the ... themes? Morals? Where do I even begin?

Freya is understandably distrustful of goblins because her parents taught her to be. Esther is ... not. So Esther runs away with a goblin boy, and Freya thinks that she's been kidnapped because she finds a threatening note saying so (that I don't remember if it's ever explained who wrote it), and sets out to save her. She encounters the Gorblin Shmorblin, who challenges her to a game to fetch mystical artefacts from each of the four courts. Which she does, very easily. It apparently takes her weeks, though some of that time she spends brainwashed, I suppose. We then find out that it was easy on purpose, because the Gablin Mamblin wanted her to win for some reason?

Spoiler warning because I have to go into some very confusing things that honestly won't really spoil anything because it's hard to make sense of what's exactly being spoiled.

[Spoiler start]

Basically, the Gobbo Bobbo knew Esther came willingly, but also wanted Freya to think she didn't so she would fight to get her back, but also he wanted her to succeed along the way, but also he tried to trick her into getting frozen for eternity, but also he wanted to get her to join him in his court, but also he didn't care about Esther at all and was just doing this to amuse Freya because he saw that she was too special for her mundane life and wanted more from it and he was there to provide that excitement by being the villain in her story? I honestly could not tell you his motivations at all. I don't understand why he didn't just show Esther to Freya right away, cleared up the misunderstanding, and then try to seduce/lure Freya in the way he attempts it at the end of the book, while Freya still believes he stole Esther? Of course he'd fail then! It's made clear that Freya staying with him is very important, so why did he waste all that time toying with her for shits and giggles? It makes no sense. And at the end, when it shows that Freya winning was a huge mistake, him toying around with Freya like this made no sense at all. If so much was at stake, why did he fuck around? What was his actual motivation? What did he want? Yeah, read the sequels etc, but the reader still needs to have some idea of a character's motivations in order to connect with them and, important in a romance novel, root for the romance to happen! The narrative attempts to paint him as this manipulative mastermind, and yeah, he's one of those things, but we have no idea what goal he's manipulating Freya towards at all. In the end, it just looks like he fucked up real bad. Tried to swing his dick around and got it stuck in a blender type shit.

[Spoiler end]

The way this book handles Freya's prejudice leaves a weird taste in my mouth. As per my review of Stolen Goblin Bride, Esther is an insufferable brat who is always right and who never gets punished for hurting those around her, particularly Freya. The narrative and other characters encourage Esther to act like an asshole, because Esther is Good and Pure and Righteous and anything she does is automatically correct, even when she knows it'll hurt her sister. And even in Freya's own story, Esther is vindicated in the end. This book confirms what was hinted at in Stolen Goblin Bride: Esther is always right, and Freya is always wrong. It's honestly kind of gross and uncomfortable to read, like the author had a grudge against Freya and thus didn't want to afford her any sort of depth or complexity.

We're led to believe that Freya, who was raised to believe goblins were dangerous and had no reason to believe otherwise, is actually a close-minded bigot who is in denial about how great the fae are and how much she longs for the adventure the fae world provides.

I get what the author was going for, but it falls really flat for many interconnected reasons. Freya spends the entire book warring against the idea of goblins/fae being good people and the fae world being wonderful, believing they stole her sister, and denying her (supposed) attraction to the Gabby Babby, up until the last pages of the book. But when she finally meets Esther and sees that she wants to be there, Freya's like "Oh ok. Nevermind then. I was wrong and you were right." Like, she kept denying it for so long, to the point it became unrealistic, but all it actually took was Esther, the paragon of righteousness, to tell her to calm down?

It's not even a bad idea, it's fine to have Freya's sister be the final nail in the bigot coffin, but the way Freya folds and doesn't even doubt or give up or feel bitter or anything? She spends the majority of the book being in denial, then flips on a dime and goes "Ok! This is fine actually! Whatever my little sister wants, uwu!" It's the author showing her hand very blatantly. Like, ok, the book is over, time for the finale and for tying a nice bow on the character development. Freya is done with her arc, which was less an arc and more of a 90 degree angle, so now her anger and denial are just gone despite being her main characterization throughout. Freya's entire character gives way for Esther's wants and needs, and it's framed like Esther is doing Freya a favor by opening her eyes to the wonders of the goblins.

And the thing is, Freya being in denial isn't even that convincing, either? Obviously, she needs to be in denial for this particular plot, I get it, and the part that doesn't work for me is the idea that there is something to deny at all. Pretty much every fae creature she encounters wants to hurt her, except for the one side character she forces into servitude who doesn't, at any point, show that he wants to help her out of the kindness of his heart and nothing else, and one character who Freya admits herself seems nice but harbors some threatening edge deep down (not even that deep down, tbh).

So all the things Freya sees that she needs to deny are ... pretty landscapes. The mere existence of magic. The supposed kindness of the fae? The promise of adventure, the type she's on right now trying to save her sister from a creep who, as far as she knows, kidnapped said sister?

Freya's in very unconvincing denial about things that nobody in their right mind would actually be in denial about. Are we supposed to believe she doesn't care about her sister and just wants adventure? That she's convincing herself the goblins are evil to have a righteous thing to war against, to make herself a hero in her own story, and Esther's kidnapping is just an excuse to go on a quest? I think that angle would've worked, and there's hints of that in the book, but it's clearly not the point. Mostly it's Freya's bigotry we're supposed to dislike about her, and her wanting to be a hero is painted as a good thing she's repressing.

Now, I'm not saying that bigotry is somehow justified if the people you're bigoted against "prove" that they're as bad as you think they are. Nor am I saying that it's on them to prove you wrong. But this is a book, and Freya unlearning these things needs to be shown convincingly to the reader. Here, the fae are in obvious positions of power over Freya throughout and several of them attempt to kill her, yet her reacting negatively to this is painted as irrational? Why purposefully write cruel and threatening fae and then punish your character for thinking they're cruel and threatening? It doesn't make any sense.

The fae: We stole your sister and you need to do a bunch of dangerous shit to get her back. Also, a bunch of us will drug you, dehumanize you, insult and belittle you, and generally treat you like disposable garbage. The one guy who doesn't hate your guts is in charge of all of us.

Freya: Hmm ... Yeah that matches what I know about you. Kinda shitty tbh.

The fae: Omg how racist! Open your heart to how great we are!

In the end, Freya wins, but we're meant to dislike that. Because Freya winning means the Gabba Babba loses, and he's correct about everything always, just like Esther. The narrative tells us Freya is wrong, Esther tells Freya she's wrong, the Gorblo Borblo tells Freya she's wrong. You just end up reading about this poor woman who's gaslit into being the villain by everyone around her, and she ends up blaming herself when shit goes to hell, and then Esther is the one who's like "it wasn't your fault uwu" and I'm not sure if we're meant to agree?

Freya somehow ends up being the butt monkey of the entire book despite also being the most interesting human ever (according to the Gebble Pebble) and having the easiest epic quest of all time. She's a bigot but we never see her get any reason to unlearn said bigotry, but she's still punished for her beliefs, ones she got from her dead parents and never had reason to question. Her love interest tells us she's the most fascinating human he's ever met (and he's met millions, despite being a thousand years old? That's a lot of humans for a guy who mostly seems to live on non-human soil) despite her never doing anything extraordinary.

This is a very confusing read. I'm leaving two stars because it baffled me more than it infuriated me, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're really desperate for lukewarm goblin content. On that note, let's talk about Stolen Goblin Bride and the way these two books together open up a well of wack-ass worldbuilding.

First of all, the events in this book do not match up with the events in Goblin Bride. Lux "kidnaps" Esther in that one, but here, she says she went willingly. The Gobbo Shobbo also distinctly helps Lux kidnap Esther, all while claiming he didn't, and that goblins don't do that. Here, it's also established that only children go out to the human world to sell their wares (???), but in Goblin Bride, there were named characters who were clearly adults. Lux himself can't be a child, either. Assuming he's not much older than Esther's 16, and also that he lives and travels alone and owns a home, he's probably around that same age. That does not make him a child. It seems like the author just retroactively made those goblins kids in order to make Freya look even worse. We also find out that the King Gob is well-loved by his people, despite there being a bunch of starving people that Lux has to personally feed on the king's orders? Man must have one hell of a propaganda team. We also don't really know, generally, what sort of world Esther and Freya come from? They talk about being peasants and living in a small village, but at some point Freya mentions a zoo? Huh??? And again, why are the goblins sending their kids to trade with humans that hate and fear them? What kind of sense does that make? Goblin Bride establishes that they trade mainly with nobles, but this book outright says that human nobles left Freya's village centuries ago. Why are the goblins still sending their kids to remote human villages?

All in all, it's a shambles of a book. Nothing really works, and the protagonist seems to be punished for existing, a pawn in a heavy-handed moral that doesn't really work at all. The characters are bland amalgamations of tropes, the worldbuilding is wacky and nonsensical in a bad way, and the plot has the integrity of string cheese. There are tiny glimpses of a vision, of a goal in there somewhere, that might be enough to please some, but I don't know if I'm masochistic or mean enough to pick up the rest of the series.

[bravewolfvesperia]

Making myself a pre-game timeline for my muse! This will apply to any default interactions and will affect interactions as needed.

Note: this is not intended to be a full, direct summary of the novels/FS drama CD. this is just a timeline for my muse with key points in his life that directly impact my muse and may come up in threads.

Note 2: I have a lot more detail with the novels/drama CD because they are relatively unknown content in the western fandom, but again, these are not full summaries of all the events of either. due to them being more unknown, I wanted to give enough detail for people to get a feel for those parts of my muse)

Childhood timeline (based off his and Flynn's novel which I count as canon):

Flynn moves to the LQ

Befriends Flynn and gets his brothers to get along with Flynn

Yuri buys Flynn's sword back with all their accumulated savings and they share the sword until they grow up and Yuri has his own sword

Norein/Flynn's mother teaches the LQ to read/write

Knights raid the LQ. Yuri already hated the knights, but this is something he doesn't forget

Norein falls ill, so Yuri, Flynn and the other kids work odd jobs trying to raise money to get her medicine, but because of an illness breakout the prices keep increasing and they can't afford it

Yuri's foster mother, Jiri, attempts to steal medicine for Norein, where she's seen injured by Yuri and Flynn in the process of getting it. They realize she is the rumored "Dark Wings" who steals for the poor from the rich (between this and his teenage timeline, he had been trying to get her to teach him to do the same things she does, which she denied)

Norein refuses the medicine due to it being stolen and her knowing it was stolen (as she believed there was no way the kids could have actually made enough money to afford to buy it). She decided her morals meant more to her than taking the medicine, choosing to die instead. Yuri finds out about this when he's with Jiri and Flynn

Teenage timeline (based off his and Flynn's novel which I count as canon):

Raises the younger orphans with Flynn and Jiri, including with the help of the other teenagers, though most of them have moved out of the orphanage itself and live with others or alone.

Yuri works in the Public Quarter and gives part of his money to the orphanage, where he still lives

The fountain is given a core and the residents now use this water and not the waterfall's water. They are also "officially" going to be residents of the capital now

Eventually a noble wants the LQ's lands for herself and has a henchman noble (whose goal is to be on the council and he wants her backing) that Jareth works for do her dirty work. This results in him attempting to pay the residents of the LQ to leave. When they don't end up leaving, the nobleman attempts violent force to get them to leave, which Yuri ends up directly trying to help the other residents ward off. At this point Yuri is capable of using a real sword, while most of the residents are only able to wield wooden sticks/swords

Due to the direct violence not working, the woman makes a plot to poison the residents and kill them. Jareth is tricked into doing this by switching the fountain's core, which poisons all the drinking water. Yuri almost dies from this (as do all the residents, and some do die), but is saved by Jareth who realized what was really going on, was stabbed by the butler of the noblewoman, and forced himself back home to tell them the truth of what was happening. Jiri still has an antidote for poison in the house, asks Jareth to get it, and Jareth feeds the antidote to Yuri, Flynn and Jiri to save them just long enough to get more medicine. He asks them to use all of his money to buy medicine for all the residents and save everyone, which Yuri and Flynn do as soon as they can walk again

Several residents still end up dying, including an orphan child that Yuri lived with. This angers Yuri enough that he tries to go off to get revenge, but Jiri finds him and stops him. He waits outside for her to get back, as she takes his place in getting revenge, where the noblewoman ends up dying because her "tamed" monster ends up killing both her and the butler

Jiri brings Yuri and Flynn to the woman's grave the next day, where the woman's daughter is sobbing over her grave. Jiri teaches Yuri and Flynn that nothing is black and white and wants them to think for themselves

A month after these events, Jiri dies. Yuri is very shaken up by losing his foster mother

Yuri starts realizing there's nobody left to protect the LQ. She was their protector through and through, and they need someone to keep watching out for them

Eventually Yuri does come to a decision on what to do, which is to join the knights to protect the LQ and make their people smile. When he gets there to sign his name to join, he runs into Flynn, and Flynn insists they make a vow on Yuri's goals after he asks Yuri what his goals are

Teen to adult/knighthood timeline:

At some point after signing their names to become knights, Flynn moved away (if not before, though I don't recall the novel being clear about if Flynn moved away prior)

Due to it being unknown exactly when Yuri moved out of the orphanage, for my muse, he moved out not too long after Flynn left. Everyone he knew and grew up around was gone, and he was still very jaded about everything that happened

At this point the timeline is going into the FS drama CD. Yuri regularly gets into fights at this point, so between the novel and FS drama CD's timeline, he's gotten more reckless and impulsive (likely due to all the issues that occurred when he was a teenager in the novels)

Muse specific / partially canon (partially due to wonky timelines and overlapping context in various material): Yuri has not been called on to train as a knight yet at this point despite signing his name. For my muse, basically he's signed his name but has not taken any exams yet (and being dispatched for training comes after the exams in the CD)

(I'd also like to mention this is where the overlap gets extremely wonky and why, among other things, some people see FS as more of an AU. Yuri signed up to be a knight on the same day as Flynn, but they for some reason for at least another couple of years don't take the exams. Yuri still had his teen hair/clothing on when he signed up for the knights, as did Flynn. This indicates they signed up not all that long after Jiri died, but Yuri is very different in behavior and attitude by the time of the FS drama CD, which takes place before FS. The amount of change he and Flynn both went through as people between the end of the novel and the FS drama CD would not have happened in just a few months, thus indicating a time gap. This also means they signed up but did not actually bother taking the exams to get into training for what was likely a couple of years (especially if I'm basing off their physical appearances from the end of the novel to FS). Why would they sign up but not take the exams immediately is what I question, so my personal headcanon for my muse here is that he didn't feel quite ready for it and just wanted to sign up to take the exams at another time. Again, wonky, but I'm trying to match things up.

^ in relation to Yuri waiting so long to take the exams, my headcanon for my muse is that he was extremely depressed after all the deaths in the LQ and in his family, and then Flynn moving away on top of that. At this point he still had Hanks and the other little orphan kids that relied on and cared about him, but otherwise, he was in a very depressed state and not quite ready to take on the responsibility of being a knight. Eventually he started thinking about it again, seeing how the LQ was still treated like utter dirt

So Yuri starts thinking again about joining the knights and wants to go in for the exams. He talks to Hanks about it after Hanks has to drag him out of starting a fight with someone bullying an LQ resident, but Hanks doesn't believe he has it in him to be a knight. Yuri is insistent though because he genuinely wants to protect the LQ, and he also wants to prove to Hanks now that he can do it

When Yuri arrives for the exams, he meets Ushio who is all around a very kind, sweet guy. Ushio's exam number is close to Yuri's, which makes Ushio happy. Turns out Flynn showed up the same day for the exams (meaning that yes, he also put this off after signing up if you try to combine this CD with the end of the novel), and found the two of them talking. Ushio realized Flynn's number is close to theirs and that they'll be taking the exams basically together (Ushio ends up taking his alone and Flynn and Yuri were set to do theirs at the same time, so don't ask me how that shit works LOL)

At first Flynn is still pretty much the same with Yuri and they have brief lighthearted banter

Yuri is almost failed for interfering with Ushio's exam (he was protecting him from a monster, which was the exam but Yuri panicked and didn't realize that) which completely terrified him after he'd insisted to Hanks that he could do this. At this point his relationship with Flynn starts getting very rocky, with Flynn insisting it's for the best that he isn't here/a knight

^ my personal headcanon for this is that rumors about Yuri getting into frequent fights probably got back to Flynn after he'd moved away, and he started thinking Yuri wasn't fit to be a knight anymore. Obviously this is up to any Flynn muns to interpret how they please, but this is basically my descriptor for why Flynn's demeanor toward Yuri completely changed after he witnessed firsthand how impulsive and careless Yuri had gotten

Another knight prevents the guy who was going to fail Yuri from failing him (technically Yuri passed the exam by defeating a monster and proved himself, even if it wasn't his exam at that moment), and Flynn and Yuri have their training and then are shipped off to another town

Yuri's attitude and behavior is about what you see in the movie, though the drama CD featured him originally not having gotten along with Erwin and getting into frequent arguments with him

Yuri finds Repede, who immediately takes to him. Niren expresses how it's rare for Repede to take to people so he leaves Repede in Yuri's care

Personal headcanon about Repede is that Repede did have a previous owner with Lambert before they were in the knights, to fit in with the Repede sidequest in the game. Repede would have probably been an infant or so around that time based on his age in FS and how he's only about four by the end of the game

Yuri and Flynn witness Niren interacting with the people of the town in the actual movie, but I'm moving it to this point in the timeline for consistency.

Yuri almost quits the knights early, but the girls convince him to hold off

Yuri goes with Niren and Flynn to stop a bandit attack and helps the citizens (one of which is a former knight who deeply respects Niren). This cements his decision to stay longer

Yuri and Flynn take care of Repede for the first time together, who doesn't feel well (due to accidentally swallowing a button off Yuri's uniform, which he previously ripped a chunk of off)

First Strike (some things between the movie and CD itself conflict despite the CD being a supplement to the movie, so I'll be weeding some stuff out):

Previously, in the drama CD, Yuri hadn't actually gone on any official missions (something he complained about bc they weren't actually helping people). Due to FS opening with his "first" mission, I'll consider the bandit incident to have been an unofficial mission that Niren used to help Yuri

The following scene has Yuri and Flynn just rehashing being in the same room and Flynn asking why he's in the knights, so we're scrubbing that completely from this point in the timeline. Obviously Flynn knows why Yuri's in the knights (and to my understanding the movie was made at the same time as the game by different groups, so there was some inconsistency and the novel is favored for this conflict)

Yuri still doesn't really get along with Erwin, but at this point, muse-wise, tolerates him... but still gets riled up at his attitude

At this point Repede is under Yuri's watch, so that's a safely consistent follow up

Yuri gets into that bar fight and meets the guild members, so uh, if any Ravens ever feel like mentioning that scene in a thread, you've got my go ahead!

The attack on the town happens and Lambert dies. As far as my muse goes, this adds to the headcount of people he's lost

After this point, my muse has a slightly higher opinion of the guilds but wonders if it's simply because the man in charge of the guild he knew now was friends with Niren. He still considers guilds to generally seem thuggish

Speaks with Niren about following orders, which helps him work things out for himself in his head like Jiri had hoped he would

Niren decides to set out for a mission instead of waiting for reinforcements, where he dies

Yuri attends Niren's funeral

Yuri and Flynn kill Garista, and Flynn and Yurgis cover the situation up

Yuri leaves the knights

Pre-game/muse only:

Around this time Yuri would be about 18-19 years old

Yuri works odd jobs again in the LQ to sustain himself and his stay at the inn, as he has nowhere else to go

Yuri finds that he isn't sure what to do with himself anymore, determining that he doesn't have much of anything, both for himself and for goals. At this point Yuri is also completely alone - no family around him, no knights, and nobody who really needs him anymore

This leads to a severe depression and Yuri continues to make nothing of himself, seeing little to no value in himself

Yuri devolves back into getting into fights often to protect the LQ

This eventually leads him to committing smalltime crimes and repeatedly ending up in jail (as a side note, in the novel when the LQ became officially part of Zaphias, it was determined people who couldn't pay their taxes were jailed, which explains why in the game Yuri is literally fighting knights who are collecting taxes. Chances are they're trying to collect from people who can't afford it and he's trying to stop those citizens from being arrested, ultimately getting arrested himself to distract them from remembering about the taxes)

Though he stills sees Flynn from time to time when Flynn is available/around/off duty, there's strain between them due to Yuri's regular law breaking. When things are fine, things can be slightly awkward but not quite so strained. On rare occasions things are just fine and they can hang out normally. This can of course vary by any Flynn mun, but this is my generalized version for this timeline

By now Yuri is pretty much emotionally unavailable and has a neck deep terrible opinion of himself

Brief non pre-game things:

During the events of the game, it's meeting Karol and seeing how isolated and lonely he is and how helpless he is that starts getting Yuri to become emotionally available again. Meeting someone in basically the same place as him with similar problems helped, but being able to care for a kid again was also familiar enough territory that it brought back some of his old self. Meeting Karol was the beginning of Yuri coming back and growing from there during the game's story

Post game, Yuri lives in both Zaphias and Dahngrest. He will also be living partially in Aurnion in threads where he and Karol (and Judith) have set their base up there (the tenth anni skit covers some post game "what is everyone doing now" things, so this is partially inspired by that but also what I wanted to do anyway)

[reefer-reelz-n-reviews]

Labyrinth (1986)

Smoking: Cones with my Hubby

 

This week’s entry I’m watching with my Husband. He would be so mad if I watched it without him. It came out before both of us were born, but it is a BIG favorite. Who doesn’t love David Bowie? I confused Jennifer Connelly with Demi Moore for a while. She looks like what I would imagine she looked like in her younger years.

Sarah, Jennifer, pulls a book out of her sleeve. I’ve always been curious about that, because I wasn’t extra pockets lolol. Anyway, we start off with Sarah in a park reciting the book Labyrinth when she realizes the time and races home.

Fun fact 1; Toby, played by Toby Froud, is the son of the Conceptual designer for the movie. I of course have the movie on DVD. I actually bought it right after Bowie died. I watched the special features; it has like a whole documentary almost.

Sarah acts like a spoiled brat in the beginning of the movie. And ends up wishing that the Goblin King take away her half brother Toby. So of course Jareth, Bowie, accepted and took him back to his castle.

Fun fact 2; The glass ball work that Jareth does is actually done by a person behind him that is being his hands.

There is sooo much glitter in this movie (laughing face) Poor Hoggle, he just gets his name mispronounced throughout the whole movie.

When Sarah falls into the pit of helping hands its so creepy! Like just imagine all of these hands grabbing you. *shudder* The talking walls are one of my favorites “Oh please, I haven’t said it in such a long time!”

A little aways into the movie we meet Ludo. He’s a very big creature. Very loveable. Hubby and I name pets after shows/movies and had said if we ever got a dog that was a big lug we would name him Ludo. I also want a tattoo of a clock that has 13 hours on it.

Now for the crazy Fire Gang. They sure like to have a good time! Singing dancing, removing body parts, all the good stuff ya know? Then it leads them to The Bog of Eternal Stench! I can tell you that is one fictional place I DEFINETELY don’t want to go to.

Time for the final stretch! She has made it to the town outside the castle. Sarah and her friends have to fight their way through a ton of goblin underlings to get to the castle. Another one of my favorite things in this movie is that Ambrosia the dog goes back and forth between a real dog and a puppet. It is so cute how they use it to get the dogs reaction to be shown.

Sarah goes in to fight Jareth alone. She knows she can have her friends help, but she needs to do it on her own. She has all of these stairs all over the place. It is based off of a painting Relativity by M.C. Escher. But it is all different directions and she is trying to get to Toby while trying to defy gravity and save her brother.

In the end everything falls away and Sarah has her final stand off with Jareth. And still in the spirit of trying not to ruin these completely I will leave it here.

Thanks for stopping by for this week’s review!

Till next time!

 

-RRR

[jarethsconcubine]

Please look at this Easter themed fan art by Pika-la-Cynique on Deviantart

Title: PEEP PEEP*uncomfortable hoot* PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEPS

[whiskehorange]

@fierysins

Jareth

This is 100% the most included figure when it comes to Jareth. He's going to be in his life one way or another and takes pride in that role

The moment you even offer him the title he's more than happy to oblige, it's about time that you even gave it to him anyways. He probably watches your child more than you do, but not in a creepy way

This child will be the most spoiled, if you couldn't tell. Jareth himself makes up for just about every role the poor kid could have in his life, this is how dedicated he is to helping you raise them

Matching godfather & godson clothes. Bib and all, they most make it known how dedicated he is. Praise Jareth or perish

Barbara & Adam

They certainly don't mind, but its all so new for them. You know, the whole parenting thing. Barbara didn't really know how she felt about having kids anyways so when Lydia was around that was just about her only experience

Nonetheless they are more than excited once the idea of a little one running around such a quiet house creeps in. Adam especially, he's going to be the absolute worse when it comes to spoiling. Absolutely attached the moment they meet

Barbara takes a while to warm up to admitting she enjoys such a small child, but she loves spending time with them alone to hold and cradle. When no ones looking, of course

Together they are the perfect godparent couple and will do anything for the baby/child if you really needed

Gomez & Morticia

They are no strangers to raising children and will happily accept yours as their own. Come to think of it, the entire family has absolutely no problem with the newcomer

The baby is beyond spoiled and has it's own entire wardrobe, cradle, room, toys, and playtime split between everyone. Morticia is the most perfect godmother for when you happen to get overwhelmed or need to have someone take over for a bit. She'll swing in quick and handle any crying child in a flash

Gomez, on the other hand, will get in all sorts of trouble with the little one. Rides, adventures, parties, dangerous activities, you name it. Anything the two of them could get into they will and Gomez loves it

Much like the Maitlands, they're practically the perfect fit and have no problems sorting anything out to make sure you and the baby are safe and taken care of

[megs-mostly-past-random-fandoms]

Owl

Based on this request: Oh! What about a Jareth fic? Where Jareth comes to the Aboveground in his owl form and gets hurt. Reader(Sarah’s old babysitter) takes him in and she nurses him back to health? Maybe while he’s there, Sarah comes over for some reason and recognizes Jareth and freaks?

Here you are! *Familiar characters are NEVER mine!*

Fandom: Labyrinth

Warnings: mentions of injury, a little arguing, a little happiness.

Pairings/Characters: Jareth x fem!reader, Sarah

When you first found the owl, you were confused. Owls were nocturnal creatures after all, but it was the middle of the day. Upon closer inspection, you realized the poor bird was hurt. Part of you wanted to leave him there. You weren't sure your landlord would be okay with a strange bird in the house. But you really couldn't just let him get worse. So, you approached him again.

"It's alright," you cooed, "I won't hurt you. I'm going to help you." The owl looked at you like he understood everything you were saying. It let out a miserable sound that broke your heart. It was chilly, so you took your scarf from your neck and used it wrap the owl up. "Come on." You scooped him up and headed home.

As you carried him home, you glanced down to see him looking back at you. You smiled. "It'll be fine. My house is warm and I have space where you can sleep and heal." He made that same noise again and you sighed. "Poor thing." You were grateful you lived close to the park so the trip didn't take long and you were soon carefully shrugging out of your jacket while balancing the owl in one arm.

Once you were situated, you took the owl into the kitchen so you could get a better look at him. "I need to see where you're hurt. Can I look at you?" You had no idea why you were asking as you were certain he wouldn't reply, but you didn't want to give him a reason to bite you. Was he even a he? You didn't know how to tell! The owl stayed still, eyeing you as you reached out to inspect its injuries. When you touched the top part of its leg, the bird of prey let out a terrifying shriek of pain and tried to bite you.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! But now I know what hurts. I won't touch it again unless I have to, okay? Let me call a friend of my. She's a vet and may know what I can do to help you." You gently picked him up again and took him to the living room. After setting him up in a comfortable "nest", you left him to call your friend. You didn't realize the owl was watching you with rapt attention.

Jareth's POV

Jareth was irritated. This mortal, this human, had harmed him. Granted, you hadn't meant to, but still. It was enough to ruffle his feathers. He watched as you paced the room, your brows furrowed in concentration. Occasionally, you say something, but otherwise you remained quiet. It gave Jareth time to study you for a moment. You would glance back at him once in a while and smile as if trying to bring him comfort.

After a few minutes, you returned to him with another smile. "Okay, my friend gave me some pointers on how to take care of you. I've got to get some supplies, but I'll be back. While I'm gone, I've got some fruits and things that you can snack on. I know owls are birds of prey, but I'm afraid I'm fresh out of mice and things like that." You gave a little chuckle as Jareth really did ruffle his feathers at you. Taking that as approval, you prepared some fresh fruits for him before walking out the door.

As soon as you were out of sight, Jareth tried to turn back into his normal form. Unfortunately for him, his injuries made that impossible for the time being. He cursed in his head. He needed to get back to the Underground. He'd only come up to see if there was another he deemed worthy to see his kingdom. The excitement and dismay of Sarah's victory over him had worn off and Jareth was becoming lonely again. He hadn't meant to get hurt.

Since he couldn't move much, Jareth took the opportunity you were gone to glance around the room, studying the portraits and other decorations. He couldn't move well so that's pretty much what he was limited to. Well, that and eating the fruit you'd given him. It wasn't the feast he'd had in mind, but it was something and he was rather hungry.

Jareth didn't know how long had passed before you returned, but when you did, your arms were full of what Jareth assumed were the supplies you'd said you needed. "Hey there," you greeted softly with another one of your smiles. You set everything down and approached him again. "Did you enjoy your food?" You took away the tray then came back again. You moved so quickly, it almost made Jareth dizzy. But before he could truly react, you were knelt down in front of him.

"Is it okay if I look at your injury again? I know what to do and I'll try not to hurt you anymore." Jareth looked into your eyes and gently lifted his wing so you could access the injury. You blinked in disbelief. If Jareth could have laughed, he would have.

Your POV

The owl stared into your eyes with such intensity, it sent shivers down your spine. Its gaze was almost…human. You shook off the eerie feeling and went to work patching up the bird the way your friend had suggested. To his credit, the owl sat still, only occasionally letting out little sounds when what you were doing was painful. Every time, you winced a little and apologized. You didn't know why, but you felt the need to and, a few days later, you would learn why.

*time skip*

You woke up that morning and nearly jumped out of your skin. The owl was sitting on the pillow next to your head, watching you with rapt attention. "You are the weirdest bird I have ever encountered," you muttered, rubbing the sleep from your eyes. It took a moment for your brain to connect the dots. "Wait a minute! You got up in the bed!" The owl preened and fluffed its feathers again. You sat upright and gently reached out a hand silently asking permission. Once again, the owl raised its wing.

You didn't have a chance to look before there was a knock at your door. "Who could that be?" You called out to your visitor to wait a moment quickly got dressed. As soon as you were dressed, the owl hopped up onto your shoulder. "OUCH! What the talons, buddy!" you scolded. It surprised you again by loosening its grip ever so slightly. You shook your head and went to answer the door.

"Sarah! What a surprise! What brings you here at…9 in the morning. Oops." You noticed the tightening of the claws in your shoulder and winced. Clearly the owl was distressed by Sarah's appearance. "Y/N, I-" Sarah cut off as she noticed the owl. "What are you doing here?! Y/N, put him down now!" Your brows furrowed.

"Sarah, what are you talking about? He's harmless. Well, as harmless as an owl can be." Sarah shook her head as the owl hopped off your shoulder. "That's not an owl. It's the Goblin King." You let out a soft laugh. "Sarah, really? I read the book to your for years whenever I babysat. I know it was one of your favorites, but it's just…" you trailed off as you felt a presence behind you.

"Just a book?" You whirled around, coming face-to-face with a man. A gorgeous man. "Hello again, Sarah. Let me properly introduce myself, Y/N. My name is Jareth and I am who she says." Sarah came and stood next to you. "Leave. You aren't welcome here." Jareth gave her a toothy grin. "Now, now, Sarah. I see adulthood has done nothing for your manners." He turned back to you.

"I want to thank you for your service as a nurse, dear Y/N. Anything you desire." Sarah grabbed your arm. "Y/N, don't. His deals always come with strings attached. Please. He kidnapped Toby. I ran his Labyrinth and beat him. He's angry and…and…"

"Oh, please do continue, Sarah. I did not kidnap your brother. You wished him away. I simply did as you asked. Running the Labyrinth was the price you paid for not thinking before you spoke." Sarah had nothing to say to that as her mouth clamped shut. Meanwhile, you're still staring at the man now in your living room. You were mortified. Not at the fact that he was there. No, at the fact that he had not only seen you in your underwear, but had also watched you dance around your house, putting on pretend concerts for yourself.

The two were still arguing when you finally shook yourself out of your stupor. "Enough. Both of you," you finally said. "Sarah, Jareth has done nothing to show me that I'm in any danger from him. Jareth, I understand you were simply doing as Sarah asked all those years ago, but she was a child. Children don't exactly always think before they speak. But both of those are beside the point. Sarah, go home. I can take care of myself." Sarah looked like she wanted to protest, but you gave her the look you'd always given her when you were her babysitter and she bolted.

You turned back to Jareth who was watching you again. "Anything I desire?" you asked and he smiled once more. "Anything." You pondered for a moment as you gazed into those seemingly mismatched eyes of his and you thought about the story you'd read to Sarah. A thought came to you. "A dance." Jareth beamed. "A dance it is, precious." Without another word, Jareth took you in his arms and began to dance as the world around you fell away.

(a/n: I hope you like it!)

[unmaskedagain]

Marinette: Stone Cold

Ok so i love this prompt but it took forever to get to. And as soon as I did its like suddenly I was swamped with everything. So frustrating. But I finally finished it. And I love it. @vixen-uchiha​

              Marinette was six-years-old when her parents died in a car crash. She had been at school when the vice principle, Mrs. Valmontes, stopped by and pulled her out of class. The little black haired girl had known something was wrong instantly as Valmontes had smiled just a little hard at her and much more gently than what she was known for.

           Still, she had been really surprised to see Office Raincomprix, her classmate Sabrina’s dad, waiting for her in the principle. Marinette always thought he was really nice; always jolly and quick to lend a hand to the teacher at the end of the day if he got to class early to pick up Sabrina. However, he too, seemed rather despondent when Marinette entered the room. His partner, a rookie named Lorna, looked really sad too.

           They took her down to the station where she was led to one of the back offices. Sabrina’s dad waited with her there. And then woman name Susanna LeFlont, who Marinette would later learn was a grief counselor. Then they told her.

           Susanna held her as she cried and begged and called them liars, until she couldn’t cry anymore. And then they gave her a stuffed animal, and said they would try calling her relatives to pick her up.

           They came back an hour later, saying they got ahold of her parents’ emergency contact…

           Marinette’s Uncle Jareth Dupain.

           She had frowned when they said his name because to her he had never been Jareth Dupain. No, he was always her cool Uncle Jagged. So it took her a second to remember that his real name was Jareth Dupain-Stone, her father’s younger half-brother. Marinette even briefly remember her dad mentioning having to change their emergency contact after his mom, Gina, passed away a few ago.

           He was only 20 when Marinette born and he was always a budding Rockstar so he wasn’t around too much. And 6 years later he was the biggest rockstar in the world. Still, that didn’t stop him from rushing to the police station, Penny hot on his trail, and pulled his sweet niece into the biggest hug he could.

           Jagged took his niece to the hotel room to get her settled and had Penny go back to the bakery to get some of her things. He didn’t think it was a smart idea to take her there yet; not when the wounds were still so fresh.

           Still as the twenty-six year old Rockstar stared at the small form cuddled up to Fang, he realized for the first time that he was all Marinette had in the world; the only family she had left. The only family he had left.

           So he knew, despite the lawyers taking days to contact him regarding who Marinette’s guardian would be, that it was him. Jagged was the person Tom had entrusted to protect and watch the most precious thing he had the entire world; his daughter. And he wouldn’t let his brother down.

Tom had always been the best big brother anyone could have. And when Jagged’s own father, Tom’s Stepfather (as tom’s own father had suffered a heartache when Tom was a teen), had walked out, Tom had stepped up. He showed Jagged, who was still called Jareth at the time, how to be a man. He believed in Jagged’s rockstar dream when Jagged didn’t even believe in them himself.

Jagged would do right Tom, by Sabine; he would do what they would do if the situation was reversed and they were given Jagged’s kid to care for.

He would raise Marinette as he own. And though he knew would never come close to being the father that Tom Dupain had been…

Jagged would damn well try to be.

…

…

Jagged Stone, Shattered Roses, Nightmare’s Hail Mary, Unmasked Dragon, True Born Rejects, and Emancipated Mirrors were some of the biggest rock band in the world. Whenever, they went on tour together, they were the epitome of what people thought Rock Stars were. They were loud. They partied all night. Groupies hung around everywhere. To them, it was paradise. When all the bands were invited to go on the Kings of Neverland tour, with Jagged Stone headlining, they expected very much the same as they were used to. Jagged always had the most Rockin tour bus. His parties were legendary. They came to expect it.

However, when Neon Savage (front man of the Shattered Roses), Austin Knight (Leader of Unmasked dragon and lead Guitarist), and Niklaus Bane (Lead vocalist of True Born Rejects) showed up with beers and all other sorts of alcohol the day before their opening concert for the tour, they came across something very unexpected.

Or rather someone.

A little Asian girl with pigtails in her Blue hair, a tiara on her head, in a rainbow tutu paired with a black too large Guns N Roses shirt, her hand on her hips, no shoes, and a rather large crocodile next to her.

“What’s with the ballerina?” Austin asked. He had dyed silver hair done in a stereotypical emo style, grey eyes, and too many piercings. He was slim and tall.

           Niklaus sighed in relief, “Oh good, you see her too!” He had curly blond hair, dark brown eyes, and wore mostly black. He had ripped jeans and a red tie. The tie was as red as the whites of his looked. “Why is your hair blue?”

“Because Uncle said I could,” She answered and pointed a figure at them, “You’re not supposed to be here.”

Savage scoffed, “You got that twisted, kid.” He was a bulk guy, with long dark hair, and a severe expression on his face. His arms were covered in tattoos. He played in a metal band, and it was obvious. “Where’s your mommy?”

“Dead,” The little girl said bluntly. “I live with my Uncle Jagged now. This his tour bus, and you’re not supposed to be here.” She glared at them. “Fang, Stranger Danger!”

           What happened next was a bit of a blur. One minute they were fine, the next they were being chased around Jagged’s tour bus by a rather vicious crocodile while pint-sized twerp laughed.

           Lucky for them, their yells for help were overheard by Penny and Jagged who had been working in back, “What’s going on?” Penny asked as she ran in.

“Mates, what the h. e. double hockey sticks is going on?” Jagged asked right on his assistant’s tail.

           Austin, who had jumped on top one of the shelves, gave Jagged a confused look, “Better question; what the hell did you just say?”

“Ooohhhh! There’s five bucks for the swear jar!” The little girl taunted.

           Jagged glared at rockstar, “Watch it! A Kid’s in the room!”

           Savage glared at his longtime friend, “Who the fuck do you think set Fang on us?!” He cast a dark look at the crocodile. “Stranger danger my ass! I’ve known you sent you hatched, you overgrown cheap pair of boots.”

“That’s ten buck for the swear jar!” The girl said.

“Ten bucks?” Austin frowned. “Kinda of steep for just two swear words.”

“I swear to God-” Savage growled but was cut off.

“Chill, mate,” Jagged said. “This is my niece Marinette.” He gave her a loving smile. She beamed up at him brightly. He had been taking care of her for a year now. “I told ya about her.”

“You didn’t say she was Satan!” Austin whined. Fang had bitten him, the slowest of the three, quite a lot, and he had a giant hole in his jacket.

“I’m not Satan,” Marinette huffed. “I’m a ballerina, princess, Rockstar on my way to a tea party with Duchess Rosy Sparkles, of the Unicorn Fairies. And guess what, you’re not invited!”

“Oh that’s just mean,” Niklaus complained.

“She sicked a mini dinosaur on us,” Savaged hissed.

“Yeah, well, now she hurt my feelings.”

           Jagged sighed. The guys were some of his closest friends, and by the look up the “entertainment” they brought, they were ready to raze it up like always. But things had changed. Jagged couldn’t be that guy anymore. “Marinette’s staying with me from now on,” He reminded them. “No parties on the tour. She has a bedtime. And doesn’t need to see “us” at our finest, no matter how Rockin we are.” Jagged shrugged. “Spread the world, my bus is off limits.”

The rock stars grumbled a bit but didn’t leave. They could hang with Jagged without presence of booze, weed, loud music, and groupies. It would be a little weird but they’d managed. Jagged was their friend; they’d known him before any of them became famous and stayed close well after. They hadn’t been there for him as much as they wanted to after Tom died; too many commitments, too many required appearances in different countries that had taken them away. But they were there now. And if being there for one of their best friends meant regularly chilling with a six-year-old, then they’d deal.

Savage grunted, “Austin, get rid of the booze.”

“By ‘get rid of’, I assume you meant put back in my tour bus,” The silver haired guitarist corrected.

           Niklaus raised his hand like he was a student in class, “I get the whole no alcohol thing; that stuff will kill ya. But what your feelings on pot?”

           Jagged just sighed. It was going to be a long summer.

           The three musician, and even the other Rockers on tour, slowly but surely got used to the seemingly near constant presence of a six-year-old around Jagged or running around backstage. And the swear jar was a serious thing. It didn’t count when they were singing on stage but off it and anywhere near Marinette and they found themselves forking over five dollars for ever swear word. It added up a lot. And quickly.

           Jagged’s tour bus, instead of being the Party palace it used to be, now was the chill zone. It was also the cleanest of all the tour buses. No empty beer bottles everywhere. No one random passed out anywhere. No having to watch out for throw up. No rabid fans, as Jagged had increased his security to Tony Stark worthy levels.

           All they had to do was mind their manners and remember that Marinette was very impressionable at her age.

“OH screw you!!!!!!” Savage roared as he jumped up and frantically mashed buttons on his controller. “I’m not losing!”

           They had been babysitting Marinette all day while Jagged did an interview Buzzfeed.

           Austin snickered, “Says you.” His character raced past Savage’s. Only for something to hit him and send poor little Yoshi spinning out of control. “Did you- did you just blue shell me, bitch?” He hissed at Niklaus.

“Nooo!” Niklaus said sarcastically. “Hey!!! Not nice, brat!” He told Marinette after a banana caused him to slip off the ice.

           Marinette smiled easily, but there was a determined look in her eyes. Her hair was jelled into a faux-hawk courtesy of Ashley Crimson, from lead singer for Emancipated Mirrors, an all-girl punk rock band.

“Die, scumbag!” Ashley roared as her racer zoomed by. She was a vivacious redhead. Her and her bandmates got used to being some of the only girls around that weren’t either working for one of the rock stars or were scantily clad fangirls who do “anything” to get backstage.

“You’re going down, twerp!” Savage told Marinette.

“Bite me!” She snapped back just as Jagged and Penny walked into the tour bus.

           Jagged crossed his arms, “What did you morons do to my sweet little niece?”

“Nothing!” Niklaus, Ashley, Savage, and Austin chimed together.

“Savage taught me to throw a punch, and or kill a man.” Marinette smiled happily. “I helped Austin set up a glitter bomb in Nightmare’s Hail Mary tour bus. Niklaus and I are banned from Chuckie Cheese. Ashley and I spray painted her ex boyfriend’s car. Cleo and I got arrested. We disturbed the peace!!” Cleo was a pink haired girl who played drummer from Nightmare’s Hail Mary. She had to rush off for her own interview. “Oh and we’ve only been Playing Mario kart for an hour but they each owe like a hundred bucks to the swear jar.”

           There was silence as the words were processed.

“And not one of us taught her how to keep a freaking secret?” Ashley face palmed.

           Jagged just sighed.

…

…

           For the next few years that was Marinette’s life. Austin, Niklaus, Savage and Ashley became pseudo Uncles and Aunt to Marinette.

She spent most of her childhood on tour with her Uncle; going from to place, concert after concert. Marinette was homeschooled and didn’t mind it. Jagged went on tour with a bunch of different people over the years and she got to meet all sorts musicians; Clara Nightingale, Ed Sheeran, Adam Levine, Brendon Urie from Panic! At the Disco, Taylor Swift. Her favorite were the award shows though. Through them, she got to meet all her favorite actors. And was inspired to start designing on her own clothes after seeing so many fabulous looks. She got to model and do some acting. In her free time, she ran a very popular fashion blog/youtube channel.

The press had always loved her. To them, she was Marinette Stone (Jagged didn’t want her real name released to the media). She was always on the best dressed list, frequently seen with various celebrities, and could be found on the cover of various magazine.

However, when Marinette was eleven, she begged her Uncle to let her go to school with other kids. She was getting older and she wanted to have some type of normal childhood. It took him a year to agree. Her uncle Jagged had become quite protective over the years.

So Marinette went back to Paris. She cut her hair, used her given name of Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Her Uncle bought a grand penthouse not too far away from her new school, and whenever he was gone her bodyguard, a sweet woman named Harlow who was former CIA, was in charge of her. She started at her new school with a smile on her face.

Not long after, she became the hero Ladybug.

Everything was great. She had friends, a normal social life, went to school with other kids her age. She wasn’t constantly being followed around by paparazzi. She still ran her fashion blog and had frequently updates. It was perfect.

It took two years for it to go bust.

The reason’s name was Lila Rossi.

And she was the biggest liar Marinette had ever met. And Marinette had grown up in the entertainment industry.

Lila made wild claims that the other kids just ate up. A simple google search could refute all of them. The ones Marinette could stand was always about Jagged. Like her Uncle, or an airline, would be reckless enough to let a kid race on to an airport to save a cat; not that Jagged had ever own one. Fang was territorial.

Lila made her out to be a bully, and slowly Marinette lost all her friends. Her only one left was Adrien, her partner Chat Noir. The blond and Marinette had modeled together a few times and he had recognized Marinette despite her new looked but he kept it a secret. Because of their history, Marinette developed a crush on the other and Adrien was quick to lose his crush on Ladybug once he found out it was his dear friend behind the mask.

When Marinette was exiled to the back, Adrien was quick to join her (much to Lila’s fury) and nothing could change his mind. Mostly because he was sick of Lila always touching him despite his vocal protests, and Bustier not doing anything about it.

Soon Marinette things started being messed up or destroyed; her homework, her sketchbooks and pencils, her jacket. She was tripped and called rude names. Her cellphone, (Well one of her phones. She had two; one she used as Marinette Stone. One for Marinette Dupain-Cheng; a number only her classmates had.) was filled with mean texts.

Bustier caved to demands and had her excluded from class trips and events due to being a negative influence; again Adrien decided not to go either, and Lila was Akumatized once he said this. Marinette hadn’t been surprised. Bustier always ignored the bullying and harassment clearly happening in front of her. Still, Marinette decided to start recording her classes a hidden camera on her desk, on the corner of the celling and even on top of the whiteboard behind Bustier. It was just in case anything took a serious turn.

Still losing all her friends because of a few promises and dreams of glitz and glamour had been a wakeup call. Her Uncle had warned her. Her Aunt Penny, who Jagged had married with Marinette was ten, had warned her. So did Savage, Ashley, Cleo, Austin, Clara, and Niklaus. They told Marinette to watch out for fake friends and gold diggers, coattail clingers and desperate wannabes; people who would sell out every secret she had to the paparazzi behind her back just for five minutes in the spot light. So called friends who would do anything to get ahead, to get famous.

And it was clear that’s who most of her ex-friends were. Even Lila learned the hard way. When she told Alya about her mom meeting with some important celebrity about their Go Green initiative, this wasn’t a lie as it would turn out. However, the glasses-wearing girl posted it online, despite Lila legitimately asking her to keep it a secret. Lila got in big trouble with her mom apparently.

The teacher, Bustier, was awful but she always had been. Marinette ignored it in the past because at least she had her friends. But if that witch told Marinette to be a better example one more time, it was over.

           Everything came to a head after Marinette got expelled, granted she was brought back after evidence that it was impossible for her to have cheated surfaced, and the bluenette decided enough was enough. She finally gave in and told her Uncle everything.

           Jagged was pissed. He cursed up a storm; enough to fill the swear jar ten times over and buy Marinette a car.

           It took a while to get him to calm down. And to convince him that Marinette could handle it. She had a plan.

           Still, she remembered that Uncle was a wild card.

           Friday, during lunch, Marinette was eating in the cafeteria, when suddenly the lunchroom doors burst open, “Marinette,” Jagged called as he entered, trailed by a happy Penny and bodyguards “Where’s my favorite little fashion designer?”

           Marinette just sighed.

Adrien smirked at her; looking way too amused. The jerk must’ve known. She had thought it was strange that he wanted to eat in the cafeteria. The two rarely ate on the school grounds, opting and preferring to go to local restaurants rather than deal with terrible food and pesky classmates. Still Marinette didn’t mind as long as they away from her classmates. And they did.

Kagami, Aurore, and Claude gave her perplexed looks.

           The students in the cafeteria went wild. Girls and guys screamed, and tried to get pictures. Jagged ignored them and went straight to Marinette’s table, walking passed where Bustier’s student at lunch. Alya shook Lila’s shoulder and pointed at Jagged, and loudly asked if Lila could get her an interview. Lila looked horrified.

Jagged beamed when he reached Marinette, “There you are, you’ve been ignoring my texts,” He accused. Which to be fair, Marinette had been. Her Uncle had been coming up with way too many revenge plots to be healthy. “I decided I need a new look for the VMAs; something rockin, something tasteful, something to show remind the world the amazingness that the Rock Gods have blessed them with.”

“I’m at school,” Marinette told him.

           He smirked, “Then Learn to answer a text,” The Rock star shrugged. “But fine; we can talk later. How about at my concert, yeah. You and your friends” he motioned to the kids at Marinette’s table, “Can have backstage passes. We’ll talk then. But I really want you to wow me. Maybe get a matching hat for Fang too.”

“Fang?” Adrien asked innocently. Still Marinette could practically hear see the script he was reading off of.  “Is that your cat?”

           Jagged gasped as if insulted, “Cat? Do you think I’d ever own anything as ordinary as a cat? Me? Jagged Stone?! I should be insulted, mate. I hate cats, always have. Never owned one, never will. Fang’s a crocodile. Marinette’s knows. Fang loves her.”

“That is strange,” Kagami shot Marinette a smirk which caused Marinette to nearly hiss at the betrayal. Kagami knew too?! “Lila said you did.”

“Lila?” Jagged asked. “Who’s Lila? I don’t know a Lila.”

“Lila Rossi?” Aurore offered. “The Ladyblog practically swears in an interview that Lila Rossi saved your cat from being hit by a plane or something.”

           Jagged scoffed, “What a loud of bull! Any journalist that believes that is not worth the pen they write with.” Gasps were heard. “But I heard that rumor. Didn’t know where it was from. Thanks for letting me know who I should sue. This Ladyblog and Lila Rossi will be hearing from my lawyers.”

           It was a photo finish as to who fainted first; Alya or Lila.

           Lila went home right after that. This caused the reactions of the class to be split. Half the class still defended Lila; refusing to believe their golden ticket was lying. The other half was ready to burn her at the stake; they had carried her books, done her homework, wrote her notes, nearly everything for her.

           Marinette just sat back and watched with amused eyes. If they thought this was bad, they hadn’t seen anything yet.

           That weekend Marinette Stone released a video on her blog about bullying. She had been mentioning her own trouble with bullying for months and people had asked her for more information.

           The title of the video was:

           Bullying Stone: The Expose

           In it Marinette revealed that at her school she went by Marinette Dupain-Cheng, her real name, and had a new look. She told about how much she liked school at first. And they what changed; that it all started when a new girl arrived and started telling lies about celebrities about Marinette. She told the story of how she was expelled; and just how many procedures were broken when it happened.

           Marinette used the recordings she had of class, and even showed up the horrible texts she got.

“As you can see the teacher does nothing,” Marinette frowned. “It’s all happening right in front of her and she does nothing. In the next video, you’ll see someone being sexually harassed, in front of the teacher and she doing nothing about it. And then what victim blaming looks like. Again, as a reminder, all these videos and pictures are unedited.” She had offered to blur Adrien’s face but he declined, and even appeared in the video too and talked about his own experience.

           At the end of the video, Marinette looked straight at the camera, “Anyone can be bullied; famous or otherwise. If you’re being bullied; speak up. Tell your parents, your Aunts, your Uncles, your siblings, your cousins, teachers who you know will actually do something about it. I waited too long to tell someone. I regret that. They thought what they were doing was hurting me.  They thought I’d be miserable without them. They thought I’d cry and break and come crawling back to them. They thought wrong. You can bully Stone but it takes a hell of a lot more than that to break it.”

           The video went viral in an hour. And people were angry. The people who knew Marinette and loved her were beyond furious. Jagged, even more so, as he hadn’t seen the videos before, read the texts.

           Marinette Stone’s phone blew up with texts and calls. She was tweeted and retweeted thousands of times. And she got far too many, ‘You want me to kick their asses for you. I can kick their asses for you,” texts. But she had known she’d get them.

           The Ladyblog was ripped for lies by celebrities who been lied about on site and fans.

           Gabriel Agreste, Adrien told her, was pissed about what had been happening to Adrien, in front of a teacher no less. Lila Rossi fired. And if Lila ever had dreams about working in the fashion industry, they were over.

           Savage, after berating her for not kicking Lila’s ass, told her he and the gang (Austin, Cleo, Ashley, and And Niklaus) was coming over for some Mario Kart and artery clogging fast food.

           When the call disconnect, Marinette got a text from him.

Why did you sic Fang on them?

And that’s a five for the swear jar!

           Marinette couldn’t stop laughing.    

[bowieandqueen11]

Birthday Queen / Jareth Headcanons

Request: Hiii, love! I just fell in love with your last Jareth headcanons, you’re simply awesome! I was wondering when you have time could you please write some headcanons about our dear Goblin King celebrating his girl’s birthday? I have a birthday at the end of August and this will be just amazing! 😘😘😘😘 

Ahh happy early birthday, I hope you have a wonderful day my dear! <3

Jareth, of course, would spoil you in the only way he knows how, by going completely over the top.

He manages to find some old decorations stored away in one of the dusty old rooms of the castle. It was definitely an interesting sight, walking in on him and about a dozen goblins on ladders, or trying to jump onto the ceiling, gold and bronze streamers hanging down around your head. Jareth would be half standing off one of the ladders, elbow resting on a step as he huffs, shouting directions at the poor goblins who are running about the place trying to put up banners.

The sentiment was nice - the execution, perhaps, not so great when one of the goblins runs into the ladder Jareth was resting on and sends them both tumbling to the floor at your feet.

He would also make his goblins help him bake a massive cake, about eight tiers, in all your favourite flavours. Baking it in his tight black trousers and nice white dress shirt was perhaps not the best idea though, as he ends up covered from head to toe in chocolate, sprinkles, cream, as if he had rolled around in all the ingredients first before baking them.

In the end, when the huge cake finally collapses under its own weight and slides in a wet lump onto the floor, he decides to bake you a more manageable one himself.

Swiping a bit of cream off the floor and placing it onto his nose was fun though. His frown instantly turned into a grin, and you laughed and turned on your heel to run when he started scooping up bits of cake and throwing it at you in a massive food fight.

Kissing it off his lips when the two of you were covered was definitely the best present of all.

He would spend the whole morning of your birthday with you, cuddling up to you in bed. He would be the big spoon, his hair tickling your cheeks as he pressed warm, slow kisses up your neck and pulled you against his chest. When he finally decides to entangle his legs from yours, and leaves you sighing on the four poster bed, he returns after a few minutes with your favourite breakfast on a tray.

He would bring you a really rare flower as a present, one only to be found in the hidden forests right at the edge of the Labyrinth, saying it reminded him of you, his precious flower.

He also gives you a locket with your initials carved into it, to remind you of him whenever he had to go away for a while.

Coming towards the end of the evening, he would surprise you with a massive ball he had thrown in your honour. Ignoring all the beautiful ballgowns and the sparkles that seemed to float through the light like stardust, he kept his eyes on you the whole evening with such a gentle, from the heart smile. His hand never led your waist, his lips brushing your forehead as the two of you spent the whole night dancing as the King and the beloved Queen of the Labyrinth.

[aion-rsa]

Labyrinth: How Did Jareth Become the Goblin King? His Comic Book Origin Story Explains

https://ift.tt/3DPFnil

Warning: contains spoilers for the Labyrinth: Coronation Comics.

Maybe yours is the kind of mind that’s never worried about why in the 1986 film Labyrinth, Goblin King Jareth – ostensibly a human man, albeit one who can turn into an owl – rules a species with which he shares zero physical characteristics. If so, then go in peace, friend, and enjoy life. You likely already are. If, however, yours is the sort of mind that regularly lets you leave home in slippers because it’s busy wondering how they get the horses to the Olympics, then step this way. The Labyrinth mystery has been answered!

In March 2018, Boom! Studios published the first of Simon Spurrier and Daniel Bayliss’ delightful 12-part Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: Coronation series. The solicitation trailed the books as the untold history of the Goblin King, offering “a striking look into the history of the Labyrinth itself, and what happens to the little boys who don’t get rescued.” That’s right, “little boys who don’t get rescued”. Prepare to forgive Jareth for kidnapping that baby and trying to get its teenage sister to be his slave; that poor puff-haired sexpot didn’t know any better. 

Fans of Labyrinth should absolutely read the Spurrier/Bayliss series (Spurrier also wrote another Henson film sequel series for Boom! Studios in The Power of the Dark Crystal). Coronation cannily weaves itself around the film’s existing plot, retelling it from a different angle while layering a prequel story over the top. It’s an extremely pretty companion piece to the film, with glints of Labyrinth’s pythonesque humour (one of the characters, for instance, is a sentient rose bush) and brims with love for the original (there’s an evil Ludo!). Story spoilers for it start below.

Jareth and Toby in Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: Coronation (Spurrier/Bayliss)

Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: Coronation is set in the Goblin Castle within the timeline of the film. It goes behind the scenes to show what Jareth was up to while Sarah was arguing with door knockers and getting down with the Fireys. As a framing narrative, Jareth tells baby Toby a story about another young woman who fought her way to the Goblin Castle to take back a stolen child. Only this one – Maria – wouldn’t succeed.

Jareth’s story starts in Venice in 1797, with troubled young English nobleman Lord Albert Tyton (‘Tyto’ is the genus of birds that make up the barn owl family, linking Jareth’s paternal line to owls. It also sounds pleasingly like ‘Titan’, suggesting the family’s social status). He’s spent the past year on a hedonistic gad around Europe, avoiding familial responsibility and his stern father, who is demanding his return home. Deep in gambling debt with nowhere to turn, Albert accepted a magical deal from the Goblins, who want him to live in their realm. The Owl King who rules the Labyrinth, is ancient, say the Goblins, and needs an heir. They covet Albert’s good looks and noble bloodline and want him to assume the Goblin throne. 

Read more

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By Louisa Mellor

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Labyrinth Sequel in the Works, Doctor Strange’s Scott Derrickson to Direct

By Joseph Baxter

In Europe, Albert had an illegitimate son with a taverna linen maid named Maria. In Venetian society, they’d been living as man and wife, count and countess, but it was all an unofficial fantasy. When Albert finally ran out of money and options, he made the desperate decision to return to England and leave Maria behind, knowing that his cruel father would never accept her. He told Maria that their son will be placed in an orphanage, so she won’t be able to use him to bring scandal on the family name, but instead offered the baby to the Goblins to rule in his stead. They transported the child in Maria’s arms to the Labyrinth, where the Owl King snatched him and sent Maria back to the real world.

Maria didn’t give up. She begged the Owl King, who relented and struck a deal: she has 13 hours to solve the Labyrinth until her baby son becomes one of them forever. Thus begins a packed adventure in which Maria learns about the Labyrinth’s cruelty and whimsy, and the extent of her own power, and finds herself a motley crew of companions to help her quest, just like Sarah in the film. It all plays out against the political backdrop of a simmering Goblin rebellion against the tyrannical Owl King, who stands for stifling control and surrounds himself with steampunk machinery, in contrast to the Goblins’ natural love of fun. 

Maria in Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: Coronation (Spurrier/Bayliss)

In the final issue, Maria makes it to the castle, where we see that the Owl King had no intention of making baby Jareth his heir. He uses a crystal orb device to start to drain Jareth’s youth, enabling the Owl King to rule forever. Maria and her companions manage to break the Owl King’s spell, but not before the clock strikes 13. She’s too late. The Labyrinth has already started to change Jareth, and it’s explained that if she takes him back to the real world, they’re destined for a tragic end in which Albert drowns and Maria and the boy are destitute until Albert’s cruel father snatches the child and raises him in his image, without Maria. 

Maria takes baby Jareth through a portal, and he soon returns fully grown and ready to assume the Goblin throne. Some doubt is cast on the reliability of Jareth’s narrative, and a few fun options are suggested for what happened in the interim. We’re shown, however, that Maria and an ersatz version of Albert who’d been conjured by the Owl King as part of a trick to stop Maria from solving the Labyrinth, have spent their time living in a fantasy ballroom inside a crystal orb – the same fantasy masquerade ball Sarah escapes from in the film. They’ve been there, not ageing, for three hundred years, meaning that two of the masked dancers at Sarah’s masquerade ball are actually Jareth’s parents. Unlike Sarah, Maria failed in her quest, and so choose fantasy – and a fantasy version of the lover who’d betrayed and spurned her – over reality. 

So that’s the story of the first time a wish was made to the Goblins and a baby boy was taken to the Labyrinth, and now we know Jareth’s full name: he’s the Lord Jareth Tyton, Goblin King. Unlike Toby, who probably grew up to be an accountant plagued by some really odd dreams, little Jareth was never rescued and was changed forever by the magic of the Labyrinth, where he’s lived for centuries. When Sarah wished for the Goblins to take her baby brother away, history repeated itself as Jareth attempted to trap Sarah and Toby in the Labyrinth with him. Read much more about it all in the Spurrier/Bayliss spin-off comics. And in case you were still wondering: they just put them on planes. The horses. For the Olympics. 

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

Labyrinth is out now on Netflix.

The post Labyrinth: How Did Jareth Become the Goblin King? His Comic Book Origin Story Explains appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3n6kucE

[imagine-loki]

Soulbonds and Fairy Dust

TITLE: Soulbonds and Fairy Dust (rewrite) CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: 36/?

AUTHOR: nekoamamori ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine one of the fae has been helping the Avengers, jumping in to help them on missions and vanishing before Shield can bring her in.  Loki joins the team and convinces her to come talk to the team and consider joining before Shield takes more drastic measures. RATING: M NOTES/WARNINGS:  This is a rewrite of the original work of the same name.  Also on AO3 here

Loki looked impressed. No wonder she could truename so much stronger than the other fae.  “Are you the only one with that power?” he asked.  He was always so curious and that didn’t change now.

Sig nodded. “I am, which makes it more dangerous when I truename things and when oaths are sworn in my presence,”

“Why is that?”

She paused and considered how to best explain that.  “Well, I can identify anyone and anything’s truename, which is dangerous enough, since that gives me at least some power over that being, as you saw me do to Jareth,” Loki was nodding along, so she continued.  “The other thing very, very few people know I can do and it takes a lot of power to do so, but I can change something’s true name, change their nature entirely,” she told him softly, sharing one of her secrets with him.  No one outside of Underhill knew she could do that and she wanted to keep it that way.  

Loki’s brows furrowed in confusion and disbelief. “Change their nature? That shouldn’t be possible,” he protested.

“And yet, I can,” she told him with a shrug. “I’ve only done it a couple of times, and it’s not something to be done lightly, especially since it takes a lot of power to do, but I can,”

“That is quite impressive,” Loki commented and thought it over before he found his next question. “What natures have you changed?” he asked gently, feeling that it might not be an easy story.   

She sighed before she started, but she had agreed to answer questions, and she wouldn’t hide her past from him.  “Once by accident when I was a child, I changed the nature of one of the hunt hounds so it would be my friend instead of the savage hunter it was being trained to be.  I didn’t understand what it was I’d done at the time,” she explained.  Loki nodded.  Accidental magic among children was common and understood.  She hesitated before she continued.  “The other time, I’m not proud of…,” she told him softly, letting him know how difficult this story would be to tell.

“Tell me when you’re ready, darling. I won’t force you into anything,” he reassured her quickly, making sure she knew that he wouldn’t force or pressure her to tell him things that she wasn’t ready to. He was here to support her, not pressure her.  

She sighed, but pressed on.  “It was when I was being evaluated for my place in the court when I came of age.  One of the gray ladies had an evening with one of the lords of the unseelie court and her child wasn’t up to seelie perfection.  She claimed she had been unable to see through his illusion, but that didn’t change that the child was born covered in feathers. I was told to change the child’s nature to fit the standards of the seelie court or she would be killed for her imperfection,” she told Loki, admitting what she’d done with sorrow in her tone.  She hadn’t wanted to change her nature, but there had been no choice.

“What happened?” he pressed gently.

“I gave the child a new truename,” she told him simply.  She’d changed her to be seelie perfect as required.  It had been the only way to save her life. “The last time I saw her, she was a toddler with bright gold hair and eyes,” she told him, then sighed.  “Her mother catches her staring longingly at the sky though and I know I took it from that girl.  She will never fly, because of my meddling,” she told him softly, sorrow haunting her eyes at what she had done, though it was awhile ago.

“I’m sorry, love,” Loki told her gently, pulling her into his arms.  

Sig let him, accepting the comfort he offered.  “As I said, I’m not proud of it, but it was a choice between changing her nature or letting her be killed.  I made the only choice I could,” she said with a hitch in her voice.  It had been a difficult decision at best and she knew she cost the girl her wings and stripped the sky from her.  

“I understand, darling,” she heard his own haunted past in his words. “Some choices are not easy but they must be made,” he told her gently.

She nodded, glad that he understood, though she wouldn’t press him for the details on how.  He would tell her when he was ready. “The oath thing can have some interesting results depending on my mood.  I’ve had to witness thousands of weddings since coming into my dominion.  Needless to say couples who vow to remain faithful in my presence, will remain faithful,” she told him with a smirk and mischief in her eyes.  The fae weren’t known for their fidelity.

“That’s amazing,” Loki told her, sounding truly impressed.

She nodded.  “But it takes a touch of power and me actually feeling like enforcing the oaths, so normal everyday promises are usually safe in my presence.  Usually,”

“So I should be careful what oaths I make in her presence?” he teased.

“You’re safe.  I like you too much.  The moron who cheated on his girlfriend and swore to eat a million beetles to prove himself to her should have been more careful who was in the room when he made that oath…” she laughed at the old memory.  

Loki’s eyebrows shot up in shock.  “Oh wow. Note to self: never piss off Sigyn,” he teased, laughing at the poor fool’s misfortune.

She giggled.  “You’re just now figuring that out?” she asked him just as teasingly.

“No, but that really brings it to the forefront. You can be terrifying when you want to be,” he was teasing, but also shocked and awed that she’d done that to someone. 

“It’s not my fault he swore to eat a million beetles!” she protested indignantly.

Loki laughed.  “Did you stay and watch him follow through?” He asked, genuinely curious as to what had become of the man who had vexed Sig.

She laughed.  “That was a hundred years ago.  I think he’s still working on it.  He was halfway through last I heard,”

“Wow. And the girl? Has she stuck around?”

“Hell no. She was never going to forgive him anyway,” she said with a shrug. He’d been moronic to think she would.

“What an idiot. And now he’s stuck eating beetles for a few centuries,” Loki mused.  

She laughed.  “So he is.  Maybe he’ll learn not to cheat again when another girl deigns to allow him to court her,”

“If that ever happens. I’m sure rumors have spread about his infidelity,”

“They have.  He keeps having to explain why he’s eating beetles, and the fae can’t lie,” she reminded him. Sig was among the exceptions to that rule and she couldn’t lie well at all. “The court also learned to watch who was in the room before making rash promises.  I may have enforced some just because they sounded like fun…” she added with a hint of mischief in her voice.

He grinned childishly.  He loved mischief after all.  It was in his nature.  “Tell me about them? I love a little mischief,”

“A young lordling promised to profess his love for his lady in front of the entire court.  He had no intention of actually doing so and was just saying the words as romantic fluff,” she giggled at the memory.  “The poetry he read her was awful and the queen was livid at being interrupted by a lordling demanding he be allowed to recite poetry for his lady,” she told him as she laughed over it. 

Loki joined in her laughter. “He must have been so embarrassed,”

“So very, very embarrassed,” she agreed. “And then he was scolded by the queen for making such a rash promise in the first place,”

“Especially with you present,”

She nodded, then smirked when she thought of something.  “You’re not going to warn the warrior boys about that skill of mine, are you?” she teased.

“Not a chance,” he replied with a smirk of his own. 

She giggled. “Wonder what stupid thing Fandral’s going to say,” she paused.  “Or what stupid thing you’re going to goad him into saying,” she corrected herself quickly.

Loki chuckled.  “It could be anything. That man is the definition of the word imbecile,”

She paused in her laughter.  “Hopefully it’s not something Mama Frigga will be too upset with me for enforcing,” no one wanted to upset Mama Frigga.

“Don’t worry, love. I wouldn’t do anything to get you in trouble with Mother,”

“No, but Fandral might.  I think he’s offended I’m not swooning over him like the feather brained noble ladies,” she made a face, letting him know exactly what she thought of that behavior.  She wasn’t one to swoon and she liked to believe that she wasn’t one of the feather brained noble ladies who Loki so despised. 

“I would agree. Though the noble ladies love the attention,”

She rolled her eyes.  “He’s annoying and as featherbrained as the rest of them.  Not my type,” she made another face to solidify that point.

“I agree. I can barely stand being in his presence for a long period of time without wanting to smite him where he stands,” Loki grumbled.  He hated Thor’s moronic friends.  With the exception of Sif.

“Or drug him with fairy wine?” she teased with a grin.

He chuckled. “Or that,”

“Speaking of, did you want to try it?” she asked as she summoned the bottle.  The magic in the wine would help her recover. It wouldn’t help much, but any little bit was helpful, especially with how worried Loki was. 

Loki looked interested.  He was curious about everything, including the magic wine. “Sure,” he agreed.

Sig nodded and looked him over, gauging him and his magic before carefully pouring out a small glass.  She handed the glass over to him and poured a much larger wine glass for herself.  The wine wouldn’t hurt her and if Loki was careful, it wouldn’t hurt him. He took a small sip and she saw in his eyes that it was the sweetest, most delicious wine he’d ever tasted. On top of that it was mixed with magic, making it even better. Loki hmmed in pleasure over it. “That is exquisite,” he purred

She nodded and sipped on her own wine.  “That it is,” she agreed. 

Loki looked concerned as he took another sip. “How dangerous is this wine?”

“You saw what it did to the morons,” she reminded him.  “It’s dangerous, especially to those without magic.  It’s easy for them to get drunk on it, or addicted to the magic within it.  It’s also easy to influence them while they’re drunk on it.  They’ll follow whatever orders are given to them,”

He blinked and she saw his worry. “And to those with magic?” he asked, concerned, though he knew she wouldn’t hurt him, the concern was still there.

“Don’t fret, love.  I wouldn’t give you anything that would hurt you.  You’ll be fine as long as you don’t drink too much of it.  And it replenishes magic. Worst it’ll do to a fae is get us drunk,” she added before he could ask if she was in any danger from it.  

He seemed relieved but still said: “I know. I trust you,”