#so she thinks well maybe now is the time to go back to Gil's

[softquietsteadylove]

Would love to read more form the wildfire one? Maybe something funny and soft?

"Thena?"

She jumped, fumbling with the key in her hands. She managed to catch it, at least. Gil did give her this key himself, after all. It was quite a leap of faith, considering how isolated anyone and everyone was out here.

"Everything okay?" Gil asked as he closed his truck door and walked up his driveway to the cabin.

She fidgeted with the key in her hands. She had somewhat been hoping to slip in and out while he was on duty, maybe at the station. She was going to leave him something as a thanks, of course! But she had been hoping to...keep to herself.

"Yeah, everything's fine," she insisted, still somewhat more agitated than he usual demeanour. She gripped her key, "sorry to...drop in."

"No, it's okay," Gil shook his head, smiling slowly, "that's why I gave you the spare."

She had been cleared to return to patrol weeks ago. And as her parting gift, she had left him a little bear carving she had made. It was crude and rough, but in her own words, she had little option for whittling lessons when she was stuck in his fucking bed all day.

In return, he had given her a spare key to the cabin, saying she could come any time she needed a break from the wilderness.

"How was duty?" she asked in hopes of appearing more normal, even moving aside as Gil used his own key on his belt clip to get in.

"Pretty routine," he smiled and spoke over his shoulder, a subconscious invitation for her to follow him in. "Not too many idiots looking to start a fire when it's this wet out."

"Hm," she nodded as she stepped into the both eerily and comfortingly familiar cabin behind him. Despite any and all circumstances, it smelled like home. Well, it smelled like 'a' home, whether hers or not was beside the point.

"Are you hungry?" Gil asked, still fishing for the reason to find her at his doorstep at the end of the workday. "I can make something."

"Uh," she paused, her eyes darting away just for a second, "y-yeah, that would be nice, Gil."

He gave her this look, like she was trying to bullshit her way out of something. He crossed those stupid arms of his and shifted his weight on his feet, "that'd be...nice?"

She rolled her eyes at him, "I can't be fucking nice?"

"You can be nice," he countered easily with a chuckle. If anything, she doubted that was the true part. "But that's not what you're here for."

She looked up at the ceiling, which also felt very familiar to her. Why was this so hard?--why did it feel so embarrassing to say? "I was hoping...to use the shower."

That obviously surprised Gil, and she couldn't even blame him a little bit for it. "The shower?"

She sighed, feeling as if he'd unearthed this horrible thing about her, when really it was very logical! "I guess I got used to it - or something - while I was here. Sometimes it's hard to go back to the lake knowing I could have nice warm water for it again."

"Right," he nodded slowly, visibly thinking through whatever litany of things he had on the brain. She had told him about going to the lake to bathe, and he had of course very chivalrously asked if that was safe for her. Guy was a gentleman even in hypotheticals.

"I mean," she cleared her throat, unsure herself as to why she was still explaining herself. There was a time when she would have walked right in, used his shower as she liked, and gotten the fuck out of there. And she wouldn't have felt the need to tell him shit either. "It won't be every time. Just, uh, it was pretty cold today and-"

"Thena."

God, those eyes were just so brown, and big and sad looking--like a puppy whining to be loved. She rolled her eyes at him, which was basically a physical reflex of hers, now.

"Use it any time you want," he shook his head, as if he couldn't believe she would even feel the need to ask. He uncrossed his arms, "when I said use your key any time, I meant it. I had it made for you and everything."

Fuck. That was...really sweet. Thena looked down at the key in her hands, her gut twisting and flipping and doing all sorts of things. She gulped, "fuck."

He just chuckled.

She tried to look him in the eyes, but her gaze kept sliding around everywhere else. "Thanks, Gil, that's...really nice."

"I did tell you that before you left, right?" he tilted his head, and there was the asshole who liked to tease her about her sweater habits and tell some of the worst jokes she'd ever heard in her life. "Or did I hallucinate that morning we had breakfast and you even let me hug-"

"Okay, okay, dry your eyes, Mister Sentimental. I'm just gonna wash my disgusting hair and be on my way."

"Your hair is beautiful."

"Hm?" she looked back before dropping her bag in the bathroom. She tilted her head; she couldn't have heard what she thought she heard. "Sorry, what-?"

"Spaghetti--do you want spaghetti?" he asked, also halfway into the kitchen, over his shoulder.

She must have heard wrong. She nodded, "uh, yeah, that's--sure."

"Okay."

"Okay."

The two stared one another down for another second before continuing on. Thena set her bag down and unclipped it to fish out her fresh clothes. She tried to replay what she had thought she heard in her head but it was no clearer than the damn inkblot tests in a psych eval. "Whatever."

If he had something to say, he could say it to her face. Even if it was something like that.

[lendmyboyfriendahand]

Crack fic where Maedhros and Maglor have no concept of half elven ages

__

"We can't take them back with us," Maedhros said.

"They're just children though, they won't survive on their own!"

"That's exactly the point!"

"What do you mean? I know children won't be much use in the fortress, but we can feed two spare mouths."

"They're far too young for us to be able to care for them."

"Come on, they look like they're at least twenty. I'm sure they know calculus and how to spin by now, even if they're not yet tall and strong enough for more."

"You haven't been keeping track of diplomatic news, or indeed of time at all. We sacked Doriath not three decades ago, and Elwing their mother was an infant then."

"Humans grow fast." Maglor shrugged. "She obviously grew enough to have children, and within a year or two."

"Gil-Galad mentioned that Elwing gave birth to twin boys in a letter only six years ago. And before you ask, I'm sure she didn't also have older children, these were very clearly the first heirs for the Iathrim."

"What? But - they're so tall!"

"Like you say, men grow fast. They grow unevenly though, without enough time to learn everything properly. Those boys may not even know their letters, or how to identify pewter from lead."

"At six years old, what do they even eat? Celebrimbor nursed until he was nearly eight!"

"They might be old enough to survive weaning, but I'm not sure, and we have no one breastfeeding in our camp at the moment, without anyone born since the Nirnaeth."

"I've heard of using cow's milk or sheep's milk to feed babies, rather than just making cheese. Do you think they'd tolerate it?"

"Maybe, but we can't be sure. It's better to leave them here with all the other people who's homes we destroyed; there were enough babies wailing during the battle someone can surely take in the princes."

"Perhaps, if anyone finds them in the next day. Most people fled the city, and I doubt they'll return before the fires die down."

"I'm not going to take in infants just to let them starve."

"Me neither! But I can ask them if they're weaned. They understand Sindarin, and talk, at least enough to call for their mother."

"A child that young will just say they eat nothing but honey and cake, if you let them choose their diet."

"If they know they like cake, that means they can eat solids, and I'll give them normal food."

"Fine. You can ask them, and if they're weaned they'll survive as well with us as any where else."

"And if they're not?"

"I send a couple scouts to follow the sounds of screaming children and deliver two more."

"Maedhros!"

"What? I can't bring their mother back, nor can my most imperious command make someone lactate."

"So you're giving up?"

"No, I already told you my plan." Maedhros sighed. "And I will send a few people to look for goats or ewes we can take with us. We already sacked the city; might as well loot it."

"You're convinced to make everything the most horrible possible."

"Excuse me for being pessimistic when our brothers just died for nothing."

"Fine, I'm going."

"Good."

[glassofspoiledmilk]

New years kiss

Synopsis: Victor nikiforov throws a New Year’s party, and your friend Yuri plisetsky is having girl problems.

WC: 1.8k

“Alright what do we think about..this one!” I say as I spin around, holding a dress by the hanger in front of my body.

“Hmmm..I don’t know..maybe try that silver one behind you” Mila advises.

Today was the day of victors party, and this being my first year in the senior division, it was my first time being invited.

“You know that the party really isn’t all that right? It’s just a bunch of drunk people playing cards against humanity and dancing” she adds as you turn around to put the dress back.

“I know but it’s my first time going and I don’t wanna look lame” I reply, the sound of clashing hangers echoing in my closet.

“Orrr is the real reason you wanna look good because Yuris gonna be there” Mila teased.

“Ughh are you kidding me he’s gonna be there too!” I say as I whip my head around to look back at her.

“Well yea it’s for all the seniors sooo” she adds.

I groan and turn around to reveal the dress.

“How does it look?” I ask.

“It looks perfect….for Yuri” she laughs.

“Cmon Mila you know how I feel about him! He’s arrogant and rude and I do not like him” I scold, my cheeks burning red in embarrassment.

“Yea I’m sure you feel veeeery stronglyyy about him” Mila adds as she continues laughing.

“Ugh I hate you” I say as I roll my eyes.

“Love you too!” She winks.

“So are we going with this one?” I ask with a huff.

“Yup!”

“Mila are you sure I look ok?” I say as I walk out of the bathroom.

I had on the silver dress we picked out earlier, and a matching pair of heels. My hair was pulled back and my makeup was done with iridescent eyeshadow and pounds of glitter.

“You look gorgeous, don’t worry” Mila says as she tosses on a fur coat.

“Now cmon, we’re gonna be late” she adds, opening the door.

I grab a black coat off the rack and follow her out of the door.

The air was freezing when we stepped outside, I shivered as Mila unlocked the car. I climbed into the passengers seat turned on the heater.

“I’m kinda nervous” I blurt out as we started moving.

“Whaaat? Don’t be, I’m sure Yuri will dance with you” she jokes.

“Cmon Mila im behind serious, I hate him” I say, unamused.

“You say that but then whenever the two of you are together you’re all buddy buddy” she adds, pulling up to a stop sign.

“Ugh you are so annoying” I reply, rolling my eyes.

“But in all seriousness there’s nothing to be nervous about, like I said it’s just a bunch of drunk people doing weird shit” Mila says with a laugh.

“Yea I guess you’re right” I add as I pull out my phone.

Around 20 minutes later Mila and I arrived at Victors house.

“Hey you guys made it!” He says, opening the door with a glass of champagne in his hand.

Me and Mila step Inside and she is immediately pulled aside by georgi, who is obviously drunk, complaining about his ex.

“Mila she posted on her instagram, she got a new boyfriend…hic…I’m going to go beat him up…” he slurs.

“Ok yea let’s not do that..” she says, grabbing a red plastic cup out of his hand.

“Um I’ll be right back I’m gonna go handle this..” Mila adds, looking back at me.

“Mila please don’t leave me I have no idea what I’m doing” I say awkwardly.

“You’ll be fine, I’ll be gone for like a few minutes” she replied.

“Let’s go Georgi” she adds, placing a hand in his shoulder.

She leads him into the kitchen and then completely out of my sight.

I decide to walk down the hallway and into victors living room.

The live countdown was on the TV and Victor, Chris, Yuuri, and Pitchit were all sitting on the couch playing cards against humanity.

Leo, Seung-Gil, and Guang-Hong were all standing in the corner loudly talking.

I leaned against the wall and huffed.

I was friends with none of the people here and the only person I knew was currently handling drunk Georgi.

I scan the room until I see Yuri standing against the opposing wall, talking to one of the girls in my division.

She was twirling her dark brown hair and she bitting her lip as she talked to him.

It infuriated me.

I waited until she left to go talk to him.

“Who’s that” I say, leaning on the wall next to Yuri.

He jumps at the sound of my voice.

“None of your business” he says, looking away from me.

“Jeez what’s your problem” I add.

He took a sip from whatever was in his plastic cup.

“Are you drinking??” I say in shock.

“No it’s water dipshit” he says as rudely as ever.

I scoff and roll my eyes.

“So again why were you talking to that girl” I persist.

“Since when do you care who I talk to?” He adds.

“Since now” I reply.

He lets out a loud sigh.

“She’s some girl from the US, she just came up to me and started talking” he says, taking another swig of water.

“She seems pretty into you” I reply with a twinge of jealousy.

“Well I’m not really that into her, she’s weird I don’t know why she keeps coming up to me” he adds.

“Oh shit I think she’s coming back” he says in a panic.

“Uhh we can go in the basement?i think I saw the door next to the stairs” I quickly suggest.

“Yea whatever just get me away from her”

I take a firm grasp on his hand and lead him down the hall to a white door.

I open it up and flick on the light.

Me and Yuri walked over to a corner and sat down on the carpet.

“I swear if I get caught in another conversation with her I think I might jump off the roof” he says dramatically.

I roll my eyes and laugh at his childish antics.

I never really got to have a good look at what Yuri was wearing. His hair was down and he was wearing a black button down and black dress pants.

As I examined his body I felt my face start heating up.

“Are you ok?” He asks.

“Oh yea I’m fine it’s just uh hot in here” I reply, embarrassed.

“So why did you decide to come?” I ask.

“I was bored, and Mila kept pestering me until I said yes” he said with an annoyed tone.

“She did the same to me, she asked me literally every day until I said yes” I laugh.

He lets out a slight laugh.

I open my phone to check the time and it’s roughly 11:50.

“Shit we gotta go back up” I say.

“No please I don’t wanna talk to that weirdo anymore” he whines.

“Just uh..say I’m your girlfriend” I blurt out.

His face flushes red.

“A-are you sure?” He stutters out.

“I mean it’ll for sure keep her away” I say awkwardly, realizing what I had just said.

“I guess it’s worth a shot”

I grabbed his hand again and we climbed back up the stairs to the main area.

Everyone was dancing, and the girl Yuri was talking to was leaning against the wall talking to Sara.

Me and Yuri walked to the center of the living room and started dancing.

I held both of his hands as I swayed along to the music.

“Hey Yuri~ who’s this?” The brunette girl said as she snuck up behind me.

I watched yuris face go white.

“It’s my girlfriend” he says as he removes his hands from mine.

She looks me up and down and gives me a nasty look.

“Hi, I’m Jessica” she says, forcing a fake smile on her face.

“Uh im Y/N” i add awkwardly.

“You know you’d be really pretty if you like..didn’t put on so much makeup. Guys don’t really like try hards..” she says with a snarky tone of voice.

“Well I don’t think my boyfriend has an issue with the amount of makeup I wear” I spat back at her.

“Hmph what a pity, I’m sure he’d like a more natural girl..like me” she says with a sarcastic smile.

“Well I guess I’ll leave you two to it..but I’ll be back” she adds as she winks and walks off.

Yuri shivers in discomfort.

“What a megabitch” i say angrily.

“Tell me about it” he replies with a scoff.

After the song ended, I watched the TV to see who was performing next.

A singer I didn’t know got up on stage and started singing “take my breath away”

All the couples started slow dancing with the song while I started awkwardly at Yuri.

We were both completely still, faces bright red.

Out of the corner of my eye I see the brunette girl making her way towards Yuri again.

I quickly wrap my arms around his neck and in response he gently wraps his hands around my waist.

I lean my head on his chest and whisper “she was walking over, go with it”.

We sway slowly to the music, starting to melt into each others touch.

In the middle of the song I look up at him, our faces almost touching.

He was so close I could feel the heat radiating off his face. His eyes were glistening as beautifuly as ever, and he smelled like expensive cologne.

His eyes were peering into mine, almost like he was about to kiss me.

“q-quit looking at me like that..” he stutters, quickly returning to reality.

His face was redder than ever as he turned to avoid my gaze.

“Shit sorry…I started zoneing out” I say as I return my head to its place on his chest.

As soon and my head hit the fabric, I felt him pull me closer and rest his head on mine.

My breath hitched at the sudden gesture.

Thank god he couldn’t see my face, it was as red as a tomato.

As the song slowly ended, I felt him lift off of me.

I felt an ache in my heart, like I didn’t want the moment to stop.

I removed my arms from around his neck as the TV reverted to the ball about to drop.

The countdown started.

60…

59..

“Y/N.. I need to talk to you about something” Yuri says as everyone chanted the numbers around us.

48..

47..

“Yea what’s up?” I reply as I look up at him.

39..

38..

“Promise me we’ll always be friends ok?” He says, his face red and his eyes glassy.

28..

27..

“Yea I promise..are you ok?” I reply concerned.

17..

18..

“I..uh” he stutters.

I felt my face heat up in anticipation.

9..

8..

Yuri looks away from me.

7..

6..

I watch as he takes a deep breath.

5..

4..

“Seriously Yuri what’s wrong, are you ok?”

3..

2..

And just as the clock strikes midnight he cups my face and pulls me into a kiss.

I feel time stop around me, all the screams and cheers were completely muffled as I melted into his touch.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and returned the kiss.

It was sweet and gentle, and I wish the moment could last forever.

I pulled away as he looked me in the eyes.

“I love you..I always have” he says out of breath, a lovesick look in his eyes.

“I love you too yurio” I add as I jump back into his arms.

“Happy new years” he replies as he places a quick kiss on the top of my head.

A/N: happy new years!! So sorry for slow updates, I’ve been really busy with schoolwork but I have the next chapter of going gold almost finished so be ready for that! Love you guys!!

[hazelkjt]

The Moon and Her Sun

Hazel Kha, the Warrior of Light. Slayer of beasts, gods, and everything in between. And yet, this was somehow her greatest challenge yet: clothing shopping with Zero.

The Voidsent previously only had her armor as her only form of clothing, but if she was to have extended stays in the Source she would need something more to wear, and they even did go shopping once before...but what's the harm in having some extra clothes? So after convincing Zero that no, the Gil wouldn't be an issue and yes, she had the space to keep all Zero's outfits the two went on a bit of a spree in the Sapphire Avenue Exchange...or so Hazel thought it would be.

As it turns out, Zero doesn't know what she wants to wear. Or rather, Zero never considered what she wanted to wear before. Fashion in the Thirteenth was never really a priority over survival after all. And while Hazel could've for sure just taken the initiative and bought what she thought Zero would look good and be comfortable in, like the first time around she did this. Instead, she insisted that Zero pick for herself. But, as it turns out, this was the equivalent to pulling teeth.

Eventually, hours later, the two of them had acquired a good wardrobe for the Voidsent during her visits here: an array of clothes in blues and blacks. Enough for her current time in the Source, at the very least. "The two of them make their way "My apologies for this Hazel...as well as my thanks." Zero calls behind her as she begins to make her way down the street. Hazel speeds up a bit to keep pace with the Voidsent, the bags of clothes jostling as she picks up her pace. "Don't worry, Zee. It's no big deal." Hazel says out loud, thinking to herself how happy she is it's over.

The two continue on in silence down the avenue, Hazel stealing glances at Zero every few seconds. That is, until a glint from her stall catches her eye. She drops the bags and makes her way over to the jeweler, Zero taking notice and halting as well. "Did something catch your eye?" The Voidsent slowly takes a spot next to Hazel, who seems to ignore her question.

It was a pair of necklaces, a stylized sun and moon each with a gemstone incorporated. Hazel was certain they were supposed to represent Azeyma and Menphina...but just maybe...

"I'll take both of these!" She exclaims out loud, pointing to both necklaces. The merchant quickly swipes up Hazel's Gil and motions for Hazel to take the jewelry. Zero watches with curiosity as the Au Ra puts the moon necklace on and extends the sun to her. "Here...for you." Hazel motions for Zero to take the necklace out of her hand, her cheeks beginning to turn a bright red.

"Hazel...I..." Zero begins to stammer, a rarity for the ever stoic Voidsent. She knew what this meant to Hazel, having done her own research previously. The creation myth of the Xaela, Azim and Nhaama. It's not traditionally a love story except for the version told by the Oronir tribe, and while Hazel is of a different tribe she has a fondness for that iteration. Zero begins to feel her cheeks warm while staring at the sun necklace in the Au Ra's hand.

"Shouldn't...would it not make more sense for me to wear the moon?" Zero's voice was softer than usual, a detail both of them catch. Hazel brings her free hand to the moon medallion now around her neck. Her tail begins to flick back and forth. "Well, I, y'know..." The Au Ra begins, unsure of how to voice her thoughts.

"You're incredible, you know that Zero? And...I want everyone else to know that too. So I'll be the one showing how bright you shine when you're not here. You're the light of my life after all..." Hazel's words trail off to a whisper. Both her's and Zero's faces deepen in their shades of red, the two staring in silence for a moment. They lock eyes with one another for a good period before being brought back to the current moment by an awkward cough behind them: the jeweler.

Hazel looks behind herself and sheepishly gives an apologetic smile to the merchant, moving to pocket the necklace. "I'm sorry Zee...forget it." But before the Au Ra could slide the necklace into her skirt pocket Zero grabs her wrist with one hand and catches the falling necklace in the other.

"If that is what you desire..." She begins, starting to tie the sun necklace around her own neck. "...Then who am I to deny it?" Zero ends with a smile, her hand still clasped around the ornate sun. Hazel finally lets a smile appear on her face as well. "Hehah...alright then. Shall we get going my Sun?" Gods, that was such a BAD LINE, she thinks to herself immediately after.

Zero turns around and glances back to Hazel. "Of course, my Moon." She responds, beginning to walk to the airship landing. Hazel lets out the breath she didn't know what she was holding in. I guess it wasn't that bad a line after all...

[iguana-eyanna]

Hey I was wondering if you do requests? If you do could you do a Gil x reader where she’s Betty’s tutor in science and he swears he’s never seen her (but they go to the same school) and he is so smitten. Also some sibling antics between the Rizzo siblings like in the show haha! I also LOVE your writing!

Omg yes!!! Love this concept. Here’s a little one shot I thought of.

T🪽Birds request: Meeting… Again (Gil)

"Ma! I got the groceries!" Gil said out loud as he kicked his boots off at the doorway.

Gil's mom comes at the door, smiling at her eldest as he came to pick up groceries for their family.

"Gil, I told you i'd get them after Betty's tutor session is done." she lightly scolded him as she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Nah, it's not a problem. I dropped the guys off and had some time on my plate. Where is dear sister of mine?"

He asks, wanting to make fun of Betty as she failed her last science quiz at school.

"She's in the kitchen with her tutor. Don't interrupt, please." She said before making her way in their house. Once gone, Gil runs for the kitchen and starts his antics.

He was about to announce his presence till he saw you and Betty sitting at the table while you were pointing at the book.

"-and that's how you use the scientific method." You said, dropping your pencil as you pointed out the page with it.

Betty brightened up as she looks back at you.

"It's so easy to understand now! When Mr. Winslow explains it, my brain turns to mush."

"Yeah, I had Mr. Winslow when I was your grade. I thought he was from the planet Mars." You joke as both of you laugh.

"You had him too?" Gil asked out loud.

You and Betty look at him as you didn't realize he was in the room.

"Get away, Gil. I'm trying to study." Betty said sharply.

"Hey, I'm not the one failing science right now. I'm just trying to get to know this beautiful and smart lady in front of me who unfortunately had to take that old man's class." Gil said, offering his hand towards you.

You lightly scoff as you look at Gil.

"Well, we both took his class together at Betty's grade. Or have you forgotten that we've been going to the same schools since junior high?" You ask, slightly teasing him.

Gil's face falls and his sister tries to silence her giggles. One thing about you is that you're not afraid to say what's on your mind.

He thought that was so cool.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend." He said, trying to chuckle it off as he straightened up.

Your features become softer as you give him a sympathetic look.

"It's alright. We're not really in the same classes now. I don't usually stand out for fun people like you, Gil." You said, making him feel more at ease.

Gil pretended to ponder, a playful smirk dancing on his lips. "Hmm, maybe I just have a selective memory. But I'm definitely not forgetting you anytime soon."

You two silently stare at each other, smiling until Betty interrupted, waving her arm to grab your attention.

"Hello? I didn't realize this tutor session turned into a date." She slightly yells out loud.

You and Gil break out of your trance as you cough in embarrassment.

"Sorry. Let's focus on chapter 5." You said, staring down at the book. Gil waves a small goodbye as he leaves you both alone and heads to his room, not knowing you were looking at him leave.

He slumps on his bed and looks up at the ceiling, sighing contently as all he could do was think of your smile.

That’s when he realized you got him twirled around his finger.

And he’s more than okay with that.

[rey-jake-therapist]

Those who know me know I'm not usually a shipper, because fictional romances tend to bore me or make me roll my eyes lol So it's interesting how the only two ships that got me obsessed enough to write multiple posts about them, Hannigram and Saurondriel, both involve a male character that's literally the devil incarnate, and a "lover" who's revealed to be very complex, as far from perfect and "all pure and good".

Spoilers of Rings of Power S2 after the line!

The universes they originate from are of course very different, but I recognize similarities in the dynamics between Will Graham and Hannibal, and Galadriel and Sauron. Especially now that The Rings of Power season 2 is airing.

In Hannibal, Will keeps saying that he hates Hannibal and wants him dead or in jail, but he can't help being irrevocably drawn to him even knowing what he is. At some point it's very clear that he uses his "duty" as an excuse to get closer to Hannibal, because he can't find peace if he can't reach him. Part of him still believes Hannibal is the devil and must be slayed as the monster that he is, but he also recognizes the darkness in Hannibal as being in him as well, and is torn apart because Hannibal is the only being who truly knows him, and understands him. Hence why in season 3, he knows the only way to be free of his torments is to die with Hannibal (for the record, I still refuse the idea that they survived this. It was the perfect outcome!).

In Rings of Power, I feel the same thing happening to Galadriel. When in her first vision, she asks "he has returned already?", it's unclear if she's afraid of hopeful; actually, she looks and sounds as if she's both. I don't talk enough about Morfyd's flawless acting, she's amazing!

Her attitude when she talks about Sauron has changed from season 1: he's still the enemy to defeat, he's still the devil incarnate. But he's also still Halbrand in her heart, as the slip on the tongue she makes proves when she's discussing him with Gil-Galad. She won't admit it, but she's conflicted now. Worse maybe (from her point of her view), vulnerable. Despite everything, he's still the only being in the world who understands her, who knows her, just like for Will and Hannibal. She let him in because she felt seen at last, maybe for the first time...

Again Morfyd's acting... flawless. WOW.

Elrond is no fool and has figured her out better than she did: the problem is not that she might let him in again, but that "he never left". The darkness in Sauron resonated in her, they're now bonded. There's no turning back from that.

In season 1, there was no ambiguity: she wanted to find Sauron to destroy him, period. But now? Sure, she wants to prevent him to do damages in Eregion and all the Middle-Earth, so it's a good reason to go after him, but I think part of her also craves this precious connection she lost, and wants to find it again. I mean, the way she's always touching her ring? She acts like a drug addict always coming back for more. And we know there's no way Sauron couldn't have corrupted these rings. When the ring tumbled at her feet, it may have been a move made by Sauron himself, from afar. It also can be no coincidence that the vision she sees in Episode 4 is Sauron masquerading as Halbrand: it's a calling.

Now, of course there's no way Galadriel and Sauron's story end like Will and Hannibal. Galadriel will overcome this, she'll soon tell Sauron to fu*k off for good and they'll both spend the rest of their long lifetime sulking in their corner and being forever miserable content with what they have. Still, while it lasts, I'm enjoying the hell out of it!

[misty-moth]

*Gil route spoilers toward the end*

You know the isekai stories where the character reads a book at some point, doesn’t pay very close attention to it, but then is thrown into that book (and often are “born” into one of the book’s characters, so they start as a baby)?

Isekai AU where that happened to Chev.

He read a book outside of his usual genres on a whim, and he was launched into it soon after. He was an adult when it happened, and a rather competent one at that. Now he had been born into a position of royalty and was fairly convinced he could rule the entire continent with his knowledge. He just needed to win the story’s war against Obsidian, where the story’s timeline had ended.

So he knows *almost* everything that happens, especially key points that would otherwise be impossible to guess. He knows the tragic end of his mother, so he didn’t try to stop it. He knew about Bloodstained Rose Day, so he accepted his decision as necessary. The closer he stuck to the original plot, the longer he’d know what was going to happen.

The problem with the book for Chev was that he thought it was stupid. Because it was a romance novel. He hadn’t really considered looking for it until he came across a ~random~ romance novel in his stack of books, and soon he’s been reading every romance he can get his hands on, on the off chance he finds the book again. He’s hoping there’s a “rare book” somewhere that would become a prophetic treasure for him…

He knows about Emma the future Belle, but he’s convinced that Belle is a pointless position because he plans on firmly changing the plot once she comes into play. By the end of the book, he will no longer need to bother with romance— he’ll have secured an entire continent instead. Surely Emma can pick one of his brothers, so it’s fiiine…

So he’s pretty close to the original timeline, but he’s still a little thrown off when a woman in town slaps a drunkard in front of him. He wasn’t expecting to meet Belle on a random day and in such a weird way (did the original Chev point a sword at Emma’s throat? New Chev can’t seem to remember that part happening…)

Then he had to be on his game as far as pushing her away, toward any of his brothers (he was positive that whoever she chose, they would love and cherish her). He’s spent all of his new life preparing, so it should be easy enough to push one last person away. No time for kindness or love if he wants to rule this fictional world.

And, well, we’ve seen how well that went for him in his route 😅

And his route could end with loving Emma, how it was originally written, even having known everything beforehand. Dude’s a certified genius now, but he couldn’t destroy fate…

Sure would be a shame if another “genius” was isekai’d into an enemy prince’s body that would also want to take over the continent and meet Belle (essentially the perfect, ideal woman with the purest heart). A prince who ended up in a body/family/life that tore his own pure heart to shreds.

He’d read the romance novel because he liked happy stories, and he’d liked how lovely and strong Emma was. So ending up in the last possible person to meet her was a huge blow for him.

Gil couldn’t find the novel in the fictional world, either, though he didn’t try quite as hard as Chev (who he’d met as a child, not realizing that the gallant prince in the story was now the grumpy kid reading in a corner).

Gil gave up trying to find it after realizing survival had to be his ultimate priority. Eventually in his adult years he was able to think about her again. He’d looked back on the stories the bookseller told him, which were curiously similar to the Belle he had read about. Maybe if he couldn’t find the romance novel… he could write it?

And finding out that Emma had finally become Belle at the same time he’d learned he’d had nothing left to lose? Time to visit Rhodolite.

Two isekai’d princes, one the pre-destined lover of Belle, the other an enemy who was born into the life of a doomed side character who had to make himself a main character to survive.

Neither knows the other came from their original universe, so they are both pretty perplexed at how competent the other is. They’ve been side-eyeing the other their whole lives: Gil eventually realizes he’s talking to Chevalier, the ML, but that he’s a lot grumpier than he remembers. Chev doesn’t understand where this prominent enemy character came from or why he wasn’t mentioned in the books 🤔

[daphnebowen]

descendants rise of red thoughts

warning: these are probably nonsensical and just a lot of confusion/venting/random excitement?? but enjoy regardless:

I'm glad that they explained jay, evie, and mal's absence right off the bat 

Uma and mal's relationship >>>

Not me bawling my eyes out already at the mention of Carlos, we all know uma's tears were china's tears 😭😭

Wonderland is GORGEOUS

"DEVIL ON MY SHOULDER" WHERE THE ANGELS USED TO BE

this fight scene is so unrealistic 

LUCIUS MALFOY?!?! (nope it's a dupe)

can I just say Kylie is GORGEOUS in red??

MAD HATTER SON SIGHTING AND I LOVE HOW HIS NAME IS MADDOX

who would have guessed she used the hug with Maddox to steal the Time Machine - hmm, not me!!

Brandy is absolutely KILLING IT her voice is majestic 

but where does Chad fit into all of this??? like isn't he the son of Cinderella but he doesn't look like his dad or mom?

the queen of hearts accent is soooo soothing

she (the queen of hearts) reminds me a LOT of Audrey, in her looks, her mannerisms, the way she speaks, her everything, it's kinda crazy 

A MENTION OF CHAD!!! Maybe it's possible! who cares about genetics!!

okay queen of hearts buggy is 🤩🤩

Chloe reminds me so much of evie and red reminds me so much of mal!! this is probably obvious to everyone and on purpose but oh well

WHATS MY NAME REMIXXXXX AHHHH

where's Harry and Gil bro not even a mention of them??? they were uma's best friends bffr

Omg I haven't seen Dara in a lot of other things but she is SLAYING the crazy uliana character 

Chloe running around fixing all the things red's messing around with is so accurate 

WICKED STEPMOM SIGHTING

anyways, the house Cinderella grew up in is soooo accurate to how I pictured it

I don't think poor chloe has ever touched a mop lol

Dara doesn't even sound like herself in this song

THAT EEL FREAKING SCARED ME GAGAHAGAGA IT LOOKS JUST LIKE FLOTSAM AND JETSAM which is probably the point but oh well here I am 

the way my heart DROPPED when she smashed the shoes!!!! 😢😢

oh snap. I did NOT expect red to go there (speaking about the "how did that end up for her?" talking about Chloe's mom) THATS SO AWFUL AND HORRIBLE MY JAW DROPPED

young Cinderella can SINGGGG

Love how they never showed Chloe's feet after she threw her glass shoes into the fireplace 😂 not important but I thought it was funny

love the kid barking and meowing and making Merlin rethink his life choices 

I definitely thought for a second that red was gonna be like "actually, I want to stay in this timeline"

OMG I HOPE THIS WORKS

YESSSS UMAAAA SLAYYYYYY ILYYYY

the costume change for queen of hearts is EVERYTHING

how is Chloe going to explain the broken glass shoes to her mom lol

nothing gets past Uma lol she's ALL KNOWING OUR QUEEN

final thoughts: reaaaalllyyyy wishing we could have brought back more of the og's or even got a little more closure about Carlos and his death. even though I know everyone's moving on and healing and dove especially is distancing herself from Disney and trying to be her own person without that (which, I respect) I still would have liked a cameo, a sort of "passing the torch" thing. without them it kinda was abrupt and strange, but having fairy godmother and Uma definitely benefited the movie. Red and Chloe were definitely well thought out and loveable and relatable characters for me, being a perfectionist myself and having three little troublemaking brothers who want nothing to do with me or my family at all. I feel like there was hardly any real time to get to know the other characters at all though! particularly young Bridget and ella, I definitely would have loved to see more of them. even uliana, although she made such a big impact and interest with her limited amount of screen time, put it to good use and made the most, though I would have wanted more. More backstory between her and Ursula's relationship, perhaps??? Uma and uliana reconciliation?? where is uliana now??? etc etc etc. I feel like the movie was so short there wasn't a ton of time to fully flesh things out and explore the characters and yet the pacing was great for the plot, so I don't know how those two things work together but somehow it felt rushed and yet perfect at the same time?? Like I don't know what they could have added to make it longer. definitely wanted more Uma and fairy godmother banter and updates on all the vks and auradon kids!!! how's Jane!!! ESPECIALLY NOW CARLOS IS NO LONGER WITH US?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? what about Lonnie!! and dizzy and the twins and Doug and Harry and Gil and all those other rascals. good to know Chad's off playing tourney in college and we know mal, Ben, evie, and jay are sailing around the world making amends with other countries and forming alliances. but yeah. overall I was pretty satisfied, obviously I don't think ANYTHING could top the iconic original descendants but I feel like this one did its job. it continued the story and introduced many new characters and a new timeline and plot line that was easy to follow while also leaving room for more and for wanting more. didn't even mention the music but I felt a lot of it was suuuuper repetitive and just this pop thing. where are my ballads!!! my if onlys!!! everything was just like "rotten to the core" or "chillin like a villain" and I wanted some emotional songs. Yes, I love a good pop upbeat song but I don't want an entire movie of them. everyone sang great I think, except I couldn't tell what was real and what was auto tune, but anyways. so yeah, I'd rate this movie a 7.5 out of 10. Pretty decent but still... not the greatest. as to almost be expected without our original cast.

side note: anyone wondering, if Cameron Boyce hadn't passed away, do we think they still would have continued adding on to that original trilogy and storyline or do we think that they would have brought in the new characters and storylines anyway? just a thought, I've always wondering what it would be like if cam hadn't passed. rest in peace xo 💋 

[thebluestbluewords]

Dunderback, oh Dunderback…

Somewhat graphic descriptions of injury, isle-related violence. Not actually that dark despite this.

+

"Dizzy," Evie asks sweetly. "You've been on the isle more recently than us. Do the twins..." 

She trails off meaningfully. 

Dizzy blinks up at her like a little red-headed bobble toy. "Do they what? I was thinking about the best ways to starch cobweb lace into shape for a hair bow and I think I stopped listening at the end there. Sorry. What did they do now?" 

Oh, little Dizzy. Never change. 

Mal puts down her spoon, and actually swallows her mouthful of cereal, instead of talking with her mouth open and full, because despite her insinuations otherwise she is aware that it's a disgusting habit and Evie hates it. "Do they talk, Diz? Because from where we are, it looks like they've been here for a week, and the only people we've seen them talk to is each other." 

They do talk!" Dizzy says quickly, putting down her own spoon as well. "Just. Not to other people." 

Great. Perfect. They'll have a great time explaining that one to Fairy Godmother. Their new kids, who are supposed to be a hand-picked selection of model citizens, fresh from the ferocious claws of Harriet Hook herself, only talk to each other. That'll go over great, Mal's sure of it. Nothing at all to make FG absolutely nutty there. 

Still. Mal's old and wise now, and the twins' issues aren't Dizzy's fault. 

"Do they talk to you, Diz?" she asks, trying to emulate Evie's sweet tone. "We thought maybe they like you better than us."

Dizzy frowns. Her whole face scrunches up when she does it. It's cute, but it's also a reminder that they have got to get that girl a new pair of glasses that aren't so broken they're falling off her face. Maybe there's a special Auradon glasses store out there somewhere, where they'll be able to achieve one of Evie's lifelong dreams and get glasses that are actually cute and functional for Dizzy. 

And maybe sheep will fly, and the twins will start talking, and they'll all get a pony. 

Dizzy pushes her glasses back up her nose with a practiced flick of her fingers. "Well, no. They used to talk to me more, but...  Evie, do we have to talk about it?" 

"We want to make sure they can communicate with us, Diz."

Dizzy sighs. Her sharp little elbows are resting on the table, which is another thing they're going to have to train her out of before the fall. Fairy Godmother is nuts about table manners. "They used to talk more, but there was a fight in March between Hook's crew and Harriet's crew, and it got so loud that a bunch of the unaffiliated pirates decided it was their problem to shut them all up before they all started burning buildings again, so they stepped in with their swords, which were fresh out of Gaston's fight club, the one he fired Gil from, remember?" 

"I remember.” 

Spirits bolstered by the acknowledgement, Dizzy nods, and flicks her glasses up her nose again. "So their swords were really sharp, and Mister Smee, he's the one who always tries to step between pirates and talk them down when they're getting loud, because he knows how mean the neighborhood is. But this time, the unaffiliated gang didn't let him get a word in, and they--" She stops. "Do I have to say it? I don't want to remember." 

Mal looks to Evie, who shrugs, and looks back to Dizzy again. They're not really equipped to deal with something so bad that even Dizzy won't talk about it, but if they don't know what they're dealing with, they're not going to be able to make a plan of action. "You can summarize."

"They made him into meat." Dizzy says bluntly, shuddering. "It was awful. Like sausages were spilling out of him, only it was just guts, and I had to go wash the blood off the front steps after, because Harriet dragged him out and brought him to the house, because she knows that Anthony keeps a guts needle in the house, and the twins were there when they were stitching him back up, and I don't think they saw everything that happened, but they were there when-- when he started dying for real, and I think that's when they stopped talking to other people." 

[felicitysmoaksx]

For @mslizzieforbes for the @secretsleuthexchange Surprise Riley! I'm your Secret Sleuth! Hope you enjoy this fic as much as I enjoy writing it! (Even though I stayed completely in my comfort zone haha) Huge shoutout to my beta from the Have a Nace Day Discord server because without them this would probably still be a 500-word scene!

Rating:  Teen

Summary: Following his break up with Amanda, Ace takes care of Nancy as best as he can during their trip to New York to get rid of the Wraith.

Word Count: 2.0k

Warnings: None that I can see besides the canon-typical stuff that happens in the show!

Read On AO3

Breathe Deep and Breathe Through

“She shouldn’t be by herself right now.” Bess frowned, staring at Nancy’s shivering form. She once again cursed the murky weather for preventing them from driving straight to New York. Instead, they were stuck at this sketchy hotel. 

Everyone murmured their quiet agreement and Bess was about to offer to stay with her because they had only been able to get a single room with three beds. It was the last one available. So Nick and George would share and Amanda would not like Ace sharing with either Bess or Nancy. (No matter how many times they told her Bess and Ace were platanchors.) 

But to her surprise, Ace held up his hand. “I’ll do it.”

“Ace, I’m not sure Amanda would like you doing that. She seemed sensitive to Nancy last time I saw her.” George stated bluntly. Once more saying what everyone was thinking but didn’t want to say. 

“Amanda won’t be a problem anymore. We broke up.” Ace told them before he grabbed an extra blanket to wrap around Nancy’s still shivering form. As if her shivering was from the cold and not from an invisible supernatural being wrapped around her like a leech, slowly draining her of, well, everything. 

“And you didn’t think to say anything to anybody?” Nick asked, turning with Ace’s movements. 

“To me? Ace, we’re platanchors for a reason!” Bess added, probably more shrill than necessary.

The technology savant of their group shrugged as he said quietly. “Didn’t seem important with everything going on. Besides, it's not a big deal. It was mutual.”

From the looks on George and Nick’s faces, they didn’t believe they were getting the whole story either. But everyone was too worried about Nancy and the wraith to press him any further. (No Bess would do that later when, you know, a supernatural entity wasn’t sucking their other friend out of their soul) 

[LINE BREAK] [LINE BREAK] [LINE BREAK] [LINE BREAK] [LINE BREAK]

“You and Amanda broke up?” Ace glanced down from where he was perched on the bed, at the quiet slurred words to see Nancy peering up at him with barely opened eyes. He frowned, removing his hand from her forehead. She was warm. Warmer than normal. He wanted to get her some ice or something but Ace worried that the wraith might try something more drastic when no one else was looking. And everyone else was asleep. 

“It was mutual,” Ace answered as nonchalantly as before. Then tried to distract the red-headed woman who as Amanda put it, “seemed to have parts of him that he wasn’t willing to give to anyone else.”

Or something like that. He had only been half listening to the phone call, as he packed for the trip to New York. (…which probably proved Amanda’s point but he wasn’t willing to think about that right now) 

“Why?” Ace met Nancy’s eyes again. Her eyes were still half closed, but at least her voice sounded stronger. 

“Why did you and Gil break up?” He shot back the question to her, not expecting an answer. So he was surprised when she sat up. 

“Nance, maybe you shouldn’t-” he started, worried about the energy she was exerting when she should be conserving it. 

“Is it cold or is it just me?” She asked, wrapping her arms around herself. Ace frowned when she started to shiver. She already had two blankets wrapped around her and a coat on. She shouldn’t be cold.

“You think it’s the wraith don’t you? Do you think I’m getting worse?” She pressed through chattering teeth when he didn’t answer her first question. 

Well, she certainly wasn’t getting better. Yet, Ace didn’t want to give a voice to the bleak thought. It felt too much like giving the wraith permission to do something worse. But she still needed to get warm, Ace thought, biting his lip as he weighed his options because there was something he could do. 

Nancy continued to shiver uncontrollably. The tech savant knew his decision was made. He couldn’t just let one of his best friends freeze to death. He would do the same for Bess, George and Nick too. His feelings for Nancy didn’t factor into this choice. (But they certainly didn’t hurt making this choice either.

“Scoot over a little,” he said before he slipped off his shoes and slipped under the two blankets, alongside the redhead. Then Ace scooted as close to Nancy as he could, wrapping his arms tightly around her frame. 

“Body heat should help a little,” he mumbled the explanation into her hair. Nancy nodded, which he felt more than saw, but didn’t say anything. But eventually, her tremors did slow and waver a little. Not completely gone though, so Ace stayed where he was with his arms wrapped tightly around her frame. Her breathing became even.

[LINE BREAK] [LINE BREAK] [LINE BREAK] [LINE BREAK] [LINE BREAK]

The next day they made it to New York and found Temperance Hudson in record time. Thankfully no one said anything about him being found in Nancy’s bed. Probably because he still had all of his clothes on…Or maybe it was because Nancy was paler than yesterday. If that was even possible.

They had more important things to worry about and deal with. Like getting the wraith to let go of Nancy. And that started with convincing the elder Hudson woman of the supernatural and letting them use the machine and her blood to help Nancy get rid of the wraith. 

It was a difficult thing to watch. The picture wasn’t exactly gruesome, but it did seem like something out of a horror film Ace thought, but that didn’t stop him from careening forward to grab Nancy’s hand. Even though she told everyone to stay back in case the wraith latched onto someone else.

The whole crew watched their red-headed sleuth with baited breath. She wasn’t moving, and it was almost like watching paint dry with how still she was. Save for how pale she was increasingly becoming. Ace squeezed her hand. 

Come on, Nancy.

No sooner than the plea entered his mind, Nancy jerked to life with a gasp as if she had been underwater.

“It’s gone,” she gasped, falling forward. He reached out to catch her. Nancy repeated, “It’s gone.”

[LINE BREAK] [LINE BREAK] [LINE BREAK] [LINE BREAK] [LINE BREAK]

Reassuring Temperance that Nancy would be okay was difficult but Ace left that to Bess and George (mainly Bess) as Nick helped him get Nancy out to Florence. 

“I can walk,” she protested and though a little color had returned to her since, she was still a little unsteady on her feet. 

“We know that, but humor us.” Nick reassured her, before he reached for the backdoor. 

“We just enjoy being your personal crutches.” Ace chimed, lowering her to sit inside the car. For his efforts at a joke, he received an exhausted grin. 

[LINE BREAK] [LINE BREAK] [LINE BREAK] [LINE BREAK] [LINE BREAK]

“I saw you, you know.” Bess finally spoke, after she watched Ace adjust Florence’s heat for the third time in thirty minutes. They were following behind Nick’s truck as they left New York.

Though she didn’t call her platanchor out for that. She knew his nerves were likely just as short as George’s nail beds. After what they just watched Nancy go through…

Bess shook her head and resisted the urge to turn and check on the red-headed mystery solver, who was understandably, sleeping quite soundly in the backseat after fighting off the supernatural’s equivalent of a tick. Instead, Bess looked at the rearview mirror, where she could just make out Nancy’s breathing, steady and even. She sighed a little in relief. Some of the tension coiled in her shoulders loosening.

“Saw what?” Ace questioned bringing Bess’ attention back to him. The British woman forced a light smirk to split her lips, trying for a lithe and teasing tone because her friend was fine. Nancy had defeated the wraith, they needed some normalcy now. Well, as normal as their friend group could get in Horseshoe Bay.

“You with Nancy earlier,” Bess looked over at Ace as she said this. To see if she’d get any reaction from him, but like usual when he was driving Florence, he was calm, cool, and collected. 

“I was giving her support,” he answered and it was back to the nonchalant, chill Ace now that one Nancy Drew was out of danger. 

“We were all there to support her,” Bess reminded him, thinking of how hard it had been to watch her cut her hand. The only color came from her blood because even Nancy’s fiery red hair was limp and seemed to dull into a coppery color. But the blood coming from the cut on their friend’s hand… was bright with life almost as if it was the wraith’s last chance to mock them. “But when she told us to stay back, you stepped forward and held her hand.”

“I was worried she wouldn’t be able to find her way back,” He said but it had to be more than that. Because Nancy could take care of herself, wraith or no wraith. Ace knew that. It was time to stop beating around the bush. Time for a more direct approach. 

“How long have you had more than just friendly feelings for her?” She questioned, finally jumping straight to the point. Then her eyes flicked to her platanchor, to study him. Bess could only see his side profile because Ace was driving, but a muscle moved in his jaw and his hands flexed on Florence’s steering wheel. 

“Since her sophomore year of high school. I watched her homemade volcano explode at the science fair and I was a goner.”

Bess felt her mouth open a little at the new information. She thought it was just in the last year her best friend had developed his feelings. Maybe two if she tried to really look for the signs in Ace’s actions. But certainly not in the last five years. “Even when you were with Tiffany’s sister? Is that why you didn’t go with her to Paris?” 

“No, I mean I won’t lie and say my feelings for Nancy weren’t a factor there, but that wasn’t the only reason I didn’t go. I couldn’t just leave my family or you either.”

Despite the fact that Ace couldn’t see her because he was driving, Bess smiled warmly at her platanchor. She knew Ace was her best friend, but it was always nice to hear that he considered her his too. And that’s why Bess asked, “Then why haven’t you told her yet?” 

“Never the right time. Either she was dating someone else or I was or we were dealing with whatever supernatural force decided to curse or attach itself to us.”

“Well, you’re both single now and we defeated the wraith.” Bess reminded him softly, but Ace still shook his head as they turned left at a traffic light.

“It’s still too soon. I want to let the dust settle before I tell her anything.”

“But you are going to tell her,” Bess prodded a little, “Aren’t you?”  

“I think so,” 

The British woman barely managed to muffle her squeal so she wouldn’t wake up their red-headed friend sleeping in the backseat.

[LINE BREAK] [LINE BREAK] [LINE BREAK] [LINE BREAK] [LINE BREAK]

Nancy flattened her hands against her jeans and rubbed them back and forth against the fabric, trying to get rid of the sweat that just wouldn’t go away. She inhaled a breath and blew it out, her mouth twisting itself into a frown as she grew more frustrated with herself. Because she shouldn’t be nervous. This was Ace. Ace who was extremely laid back, smart, and who wasn’t just Ace anymore but Ace. 

Ace who had always been there. Even when the wraith tried to push him away and isolate her from everyone in her life. Ace, who now gave her butterflies when she met his gaze. (And had for longer than she cared to admit to.) 

Nancy shook her head at herself again. It had been a week since New York and the wraith and since then she had been recovering and processing and just letting everyone take a breather. But in that week, she had been agonizing over Ace, her more than platonic feelings for him, and what happened in her vision. She needed to talk to him, which meant she had to work up the courage to knock on the door. She had to knock on the door. She had to-the door opened and there stood Ace on the other side with a tupperware of cookies under his arms. 

“Hi,” she said, dropping her raised fist. Ace smiled back at her. “Hi, Nance.”

[jeniffercheck]

light blue (nothing's gonna stop me now)

shivlina fic exchange: exposed affair with a side of shiv becoming twitter's rich white lady of the month, s2 canon (until it's not), set during 'safe room' - 2x04, shivlina are established affair partners.

words: 7.7k

read here or on ao3

for @shivvroys<3

“Do you have a Goodreads?”

Shiv pauses in the bed. Karolina’s been scrolling through her phone, laughing every so often at a cat video that she desperately needs to show Shiv right now, asking her if she’s heard about some absurd foreign news that Karolina gathers from the pits of Reddit.

(Because Shiv desperately needed to know that a rolled truck in Canada covered an entire highway in celery.)

It’s the worst part of the night, when the hours turn into minutes and the minutes to seconds, and every passing moment becomes one less that they get to breathe the same air. One less that they get to sit next to one another and exist in their small bubble, away from all the bullshit that makes up their lives.

“What?” Shiv asks, flopping her head to face Karolina.

“A Goodreads account,” Karolina says. “Do you have one?”

“Yeah,” Shiv says. She shifts closer to Karolina, trying to get a better look at her phone. “Why?”

Karolina shifts the device into Shiv’s view. “I think you’ve been discovered.”

“What?” Shiv rips the phone out of Karolina’s hand, eyes quickly scanning the screen. It’s her account, and the numbers do look suspiciously higher than usual. She grabs her own phone and opens the app, and lo and behold, hundreds of notifications have rolled in throughout the day. Likes and comments on her reviews, followers on her account. She’s not not used to it, her Twitter and Instagram receiving a healthy amount of engagement compared to the average user, but those are staged. This is…fucking embarrassing.

“How the hell did they find this?” she grumbles, clicking through some of the followers.

“I don’t know,” Karolina says. “Maybe the one-star and very detailed review of that unauthorized biography on your father was a good hint?”

“My review?” Shiv asks, scrolling through her page.

“I mean,” Karolina continues, “I don’t think the words, ‘My dad,’ were very helpful in keeping yourself anonymous.”

It appears on Shiv’s screen, a review logged last week. Sloppy, choppy, and boring as hell—she deletes it before she has time to read the rest.

“Oh my god,” she says, covering her face with her hands. “I was drunk when I wrote that.”

“Well, you’re a tough critic when you’re plastered,” Karolina says. Shiv’s mouth curls upward in disbelief as she unveils herself to Karolina, who seems to be fighting a smirk of her own. Shiv can’t contain her laughter as she drops back onto the bed, and Karolina follows, perched on her elbow next to Shiv’s head.

“What are the optics on this?” Shiv asks. The last thing she needs is to start an internet war with some E-List author. Karolina pulls her phone back in front of her, the screen flashing as she swipes through different apps, her nails making that grating tapping sound that pisses Shiv off when she’s trying to go to sleep.

“Uh—” Karolina pauses, zooming in on something. “Well, looks to me like you’ve just become the internet’s newest white girl of the month.”

“The what?”

“I mean, just look—” Karolina holds out her phone again, urging Shiv to read whatever’s on the screen, Twitter coming into view as Shiv does so. She scrolls through a variety of tweets, phrases like feral and deranged and mommy punching through. “They’re going crazy over you.”

  @evermores: Does anyone else think Shiv Roy and Nate Sofrelli had something going on?

          ↳ @dazzlinghaze: why do you know random ass Gil staffers

                      ↳ @evermores: Spoken like a fake fan.

↳ @notromanroy1: they were definitely boning

 

@milfhotline: I mean I know she probably steals money but she’s hot, so.

          ↳ @moonhaven: ???

                   ↳ @Ryan2334657: Her dad is Logan Roy. Definitely a family of thieves.

                            ↳ @moonhaven: sorry are you their bank? maybe she hates him. we don’t know

                                     ↳ @milfhotline: oomf out here defending a capitalist?

 

@candlenights: I don’t care what y’all say. Shiv Roy is my new Caroline Calloway. If she wants to steal, let her. Who am I to deny a woman her wrongs?

“Why the fuck do they all think I’ve stolen money?”

“You’re a Roy. It obviously means you commit wire fraud for breakfast,” Karolina says, scrolling through more tweets. “You should reply to one of them. Fan the flames.”

“Why would I do that?”

Fanning the flames sounds like the opposite of what her years of PR experience have told her.

“It would look good, engaging with the culture,” Karolina argues. “You know ATN’s viewership is sixty-eight percent senior citizens? Imagine if you brought in the youth. Your father would salivate.”

Shiv sits up, looking at Karolina doubtfully. “You, Karolina Novotney, want to brainwash the youth with ATN?”

Karolina shrugs, that hint of a smirk still visible on her face. Shiv scoffs playfully.

“Fuck you. You just want to see what would happen.”

“Fine,” Karolina concedes. “Sue me.”

“Yeah,” Shiv says, leaning over to press a kiss on Karolina’s forehead before getting out of the bed. “You couldn’t afford that.”

Karolina gasps, throwing a pillow at Shiv. “Whatever,” she says. “I just think it would be a good temperature check. Organic.”

“Well, I’m not engaging,” Shiv says. “I’m disengaging, if anything. I’m deleting my Goodreads and leaving the rest to their imaginations.”

“Their imaginations certainly are impressive,” Karolina says, grimacing at her phone.

“What is it?” Shiv asks.

“I thought you were disengaging?”

Shiv rolls her eyes. “I am.”

“You’re no fun,” Karolina says, pouting as she stands, but Shiv walks back over to her, lightly pushing Karolina back on the bed.

“You hang around me because I’m fun?” she asks, hovering over Karolina. She stops just as she reaches Karolina’s lips, and Karolina’s breath hitches. It’s then that Karolina’s laptop chimes from the other end of the room, and both of them sigh, an unwelcome reminder that their time for the night is officially coming to a close.

“You’re so much fun,” Karolina says before she leans up, stealing a chaste kiss from Shiv’s lips. “What time is Tom expecting you?”

Shiv sighs, rising once again.

“Thirty minutes ago,” she says. She walks into Karolina’s bathroom, pursuing her things that are already there. It all feels so simple, having a toothbrush in Karolina’s holder, having pajamas in her drawers. It’s a second life, sure, a home away from home, but it doesn’t feel any less real than the other parts, the parts where wakes up in the middle of the night and wonders why Karolina’s hands feel so big, why her sink looks so different. She washes her face, pushing the thought away for another time.

“Shiv,” Karolina says, her accusatory tone following Shiv into the bathroom.

“What?” Shiv asks, drying her face. “He’s fine. Mondale’s there.”

Karolina’s silent as she leans against the door frame, watching Shiv freshen up. It’s one of the more humiliating parts of the routine, running home to her husband who thinks she’s well on her way to becoming the next Head of PR for Waystar, guiding his eager mouth through the dark to her already-bruising breastbone, lest he think the marks came from anyone other than himself. Karolina looks at her sadly. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s annoying when it does, the sour mood or separation catching them both by its vicious claws.

“Are you sure this is okay?” Karolina asks. She asks at least once a week. Shiv would find it endearing if it didn’t make her feel entirely suffocated by just the thought of her actions.

“I told you, we have an arrangement,” Shiv says.

“And you’re not lying to me?”

Shiv sighs. She’s not lying, not really. She and Tom do have an arrangement. She stays out of Tom’s business—not that he even makes an effort to participate—and he stays out of hers. It’s simple, and she wants it to stay that way, but still, a part of her knows things with Karolina have gone outside the parameters of the arrangement. So, she’s not lying, but she isn’t quite sure where the truth fits just yet.

“I’m not lying,” Shiv says. “And Tom doesn’t own me. If I’m late, I’m late.”

“Alright,” Karolina says, voice still weary.

“What, you want to get rid of me so soon?” Shiv teases.

“I wouldn’t let you hog my sheets all the time if I wanted to get rid of you,” Karolina says.

“I do not.”

“Prove it,” Karolina challenges, and Shiv laughs.

“Should I set up the cameras before, or after we fuck?” Shive asks, facing the mirror. Karolina laughs, but it’s small and she replies by hugging Shiv from behind and resting her chin on Shiv’s shoulder. They lock eyes through the mirror.

“Stay over tonight,” Karolina says.

It’s an easy ask, as easy as anything else Karolina ever asks Shiv to do for her, and a rare one at that, and it tugs at Shiv the way it always does when she has to deny Karolina of something that she wants. Karolina, a never-ending stream of goodwill and wonder, Shiv, a constant disappointment.

“What do you get out of this?” Shiv suddenly asks, and Karolina doesn’t hesitate with her response.

“I get you.”

“But—” Shiv stammers, unsatisfied by the answer. “Like, what do you get out of it?”

Surely Shiv is not the prize. She’s a consolation, a means to an end. Karolina should be lucky to have her, sure, but when luck runs out, what’s left? Shiv is convenient.

“You make me feel normal for a little while,” Karolina says. “Like I’ve finally done something right. You do.”

It feels like a cosmic joke, Karolina saying that Shiv makes her feel right when Karolina makes Shiv feel as though she’s done everything wrong, her mere presence causing Shiv to rethink every action she’s ever taken to lead up to their interactions. Not that it’s Karolina’s fault. It’s a mess that Shiv’s made, one she knows she has to clean up soon, before it all comes crashing down on her.

“Not what you wanted to hear?” Karolina asks, looking nervous in Shiv’s silence. Shiv reaches up to grab Karolina’s hand, squeezing it as she smiles softly.

“Just—not what I expected,” she says.

“What did you expect?” Karolina asks.

“I dunno,” Shiv says. “Maybe that my financial crimes get you off.”

Karolina’s lips curve gently, and a soft laugh escapes her. Shiv knows she’s laughing because Shiv wants her to. Because Shiv has to leave in fifteen minutes and if they get into it now, if they let their emotions get any further, they might go places they can never come back from. Shiv turns around, connecting their foreheads. By the time she leaves, Karolina is back to some late-night work, and Shiv, back to Tom.

 

—

The first thought Shiv has when the gunshot goes off, is that it doesn’t really sound like anything at all. One second she’s playing Connect the Dots while being babysat by the Old Guard, and the next she’s being rushed off through the executive floor to a safe room that she isn’t really sure is all that safe, given the fact that they’re on the top floor of a high rise in the Financial District, distinctly known for having zero issues involving life-endangering events and fucking high rises.

She stumbles her way through an increasingly irritating phone call with Tom, something about the wrong safe room and she realizes that she doesn’t have a clue where Karolina is, right safe room or wrong safe room, and she still doesn’t know if there’s a shooter in the building, and she still doesn’t know where she stands with Dad, and she doesn’t know shit about anything, because everybody wants to keep her around but nobody wants to keep her in the loop.

“Where’s Kendall?” her dad is immediately asking, winded and wilting, and only ever concerned about her older brother.

“I don’t know,” Shiv says. It doesn’t seem like the correct time to remind him that she’s not Kendall’s keeper, and she’s also got bigger concerns on her mind. “Were you with Karolina? Have you seen her?”

“Karolina?” he repeats, and at first, it’s a quickening of Shiv’s heart rate, wondering if she’s somehow said too much, gone too far, but then it’s a dismissive wave of her father’s hand, a welcome sign that she hasn’t completely screwed anything up just yet. “Get on the phone with her—figure this fucking mess out.”

She does, retreat to a corner and call Karolina several times, her pulse beating harder with every passing ring. It’s not until the third try that Karolina actually picks up, just as Kendall and Gerri enter the room, and she still has enough time to roll her eyes as her dad greets Kendall, his golden boy returned safely to the throne room.

“Shiv?” Karolina’s voice comes through the receiver.

“Karolina,” Shiv sighs, relieved. “Where are you?”

“I was on a lower floor dealing with a small fire—we were evacuated right away,” Karolina says. “I’m with the news crew now, they’re prepping to go live from outside. Where are you?”

Shiv looks around. Kendall doing God knows what in the bathroom, Rhea and Dad looking awkward as all fuck on the couch, Colin hovering creepily. Gerri, it seems, is heading right for Shiv.

“In the Kensington Palace of panic rooms,” Shiv says, losing her words with every step Gerri moves closer. “I just wanted—we, wanted to check in on the response. And I—you’re safe? With the protestors outside?”

“I’m pretty sure ANTIFA is the least of our safety concerns,” Karolina mumbles, her voice getting quieter as Shiv cups the phone, Gerri stopped in front of her, gesturing to the phone.

“Can I speak with her?” Gerri asks.

Shiv has half a mind to say no. Wants to take herself and her phone and Karolina’s voice and lock it all away from others. Wants to touch her hand and make sure it’s real, that Karolina’s right where she says she is, outside of Waystar HQ, prepping some corporate shill with eyelashes far too long for national news to tell the whole world that everything’s fine, that there’s a shooter inside of their workplace but they’re all fine because this is America and guns are our friends.

Instead, she holds her phone out to Gerri. She’s at least grateful to be rid of the vibrations from Tom’s texts coming through every twenty seconds.

“How’s it looking out there?” Gerri asks into the phone. She eyes Shiv and then turns her back, mumbling a yes, and a no, and a no, we’re not legally liable, and a yes, they can say that on-air, and when Gerri turns back around, she looks as though she’s about to hang up, and if things were different—if Shiv weren’t trapped in a room with five people who definitely can’t know that Karolina is anything more to Shiv than a corporate sounding board—she’d get Gerri to stop. She’d rip the phone out of Gerri’s hands and take Karolina back.

Except, Gerri pauses. Her eyes flash suspiciously at Shiv, and she bids Karolina goodbye before handing the phone back, Shiv, using everything in her power not to look as desperate as she feels.

“Shiv?” Karolina says. “You there?”

“I’m with you,” Shiv says, trying her best to sound inconspicuous. Dad, Kendall, and Rhea are still deep in talks, but Gerri’s ears are her, even if she’s pretending they aren’t.

“I stepped away for a moment,” Karolina says. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, we’re all good here,” Shiv says. “I’m glad we got in touch quickly. It’s best if we get a statement out soon.”

“I was worried,” Karolina says, and Shiv bites the inside of her lip. “When they said there’d been shots fired, you know, I-I didn’t know—”

“Uh-huh,” Shiv cuts her off. “You’re right, we should wait a little. Don’t want to sound too haste.”

There’s a bit of silence on the other end, and Shiv feels bad. Feels awful, actually, because she’s worried too but she can’t show that. Not right here, not in front of everyone. She can’t cry or panic, can’t tell Karolina that if something had happened to her it would’ve been the end of Shiv, that the entire time she was speaking to her husband the only thing that was on Shiv’s mind was Karolina. She can’t tell Karolina any of this, ever.

“Can I see you tonight?” Karolina then asks.

It’s small and slightly hesitant, and feels far too fragile for the circumstances, feels too fragile to be aimed at Shiv. She can’t help it. Shiv might explode if she has to deny Karolina anything ever again.

“Yes, of course,” she says. “I’ll send you the details when we’re out of here.”

“Okay, Shiv. Be safe,” Karolina says, and it feels like the words are hanging, like there are so many more they should be saying that are inhibited by time and space and circumstance, and Shiv can’t help when the spell is broken, when she forgets that she isn’t the only person in the room and her lips curl to say something irrevocable, until at the last second she looks at Gerri, perceptive eyes still plainly on her and she does remember. The destructive words swallowed, and replaced with a cordial, “You too.”

She avoids Gerri’s gaze as she hangs up, opting to read through the abundance of texts from Tom that she’s received within the last twenty minutes. He’s going to be stuck at ATN all night, and the paperwork is, “Horrendous,” considering the shooter was revealed to be one of his employees. She schedules a car for Karolina and a separate car for herself, both to be taken to her apartment. It doesn’t feel entirely right, but it doesn’t feel wrong either, wanting to just sit on her own couch in her own place and bask in the silence with Karolina.

“What did Karolina want from you?” Gerri asks suddenly, voice quiet so as not to interrupt the Boys Club still trying to land a deal.

“Uh—just wanted my opinion on some words,” Shiv says. “That’s all.”

“Right,” Gerri says. “Because it doesn’t make sense to speak with the people who are actually on her payroll.”

“Look, Gerri, if you have a problem, then take it up with Karolina,” Shiv says. “I’m sure she’d love to explain.”

She locks eyes with Gerri this time, smiling her Shiv Roy best, and Gerri just sighs. “She’s not a toy, Shiv.”

Shiv can’t help it as she laughs under her breath.

“Are you my godmother, or hers?”

Colin whispers in Dad’s ear. He stands, Rhea joining him. They’re all shaking hands, smiling as Colin opens the door.

“If I were Karolina’s, I’d be telling her to run rather than telling you not to fuck things up.”

—

Relief.

It’s the only thing Shiv feels when there’s finally a knock on her door and she opens it to find Karolina on the other side, a little more disheveled than Shiv is used to, but her Karolina, nonetheless. Shiv normally wouldn't have her over like this, not when it’s so late and Tom could be in even when she knows he won’t be, but she finds that she’s running out of reasons to care.

The second Karolina is inside and situated, she’s pulling Shiv into a hug. It’s not her first hug of the day, but it’s the first one where she feels like she’s being held. Like her hands aren’t the only two things doing the lifting, like her body isn’t a vessel for someone else to consume and spit out and mold—like she’s being hugged because someone cares. Like someone is wrapping her in their arms, not because it’s where they want her, but because it’s where she fits. With Karolina, everything fits.

“Eventful day,” Karolina says, brushing a thumb across Shiv’s cheek.

“Not really a good reflection of Waystar,” Shiv says, frowning. “An employee blowing their brains out in the bullpen.”

“We’re lucky that’s all it was,” Karolina says, and her hands tighten around Shiv, voice thick with the emotional toll of the day. “Three Roys in the building an active shooter, I mean—it could’ve been anything, Shiv.”

“Hey,” Shiv instantly says, attempting to calm the concern in Karolina’s words. “It wasn’t that. I’m fine, and you’re fine—we’re all good. Right?”

Karolina looks at her, furrowed brows and scrunched lips holding back like they always do, and she just nods. It comes over Shiv again, that wave of protectiveness that she pretends hasn’t recently become exclusive only to Karolina, and she takes control of the embrace, bringing the side of Karolina’s temple to her lips and holding her tightly in return. She wants to say something, wants to make more promises that she can’t keep, and ask more questions that she doesn’t want the answers to, but her phone buzzes in her pocket.

“It’s Tom,” Shiv says, pulling away from Karolina, and then into the receiver, “Hello?”

“Hey, honey,” Tom’s voice comes through. “Are you home yet?”

“Yeah,” Shiv says. “Yeah, I got in about an hour ago.”

“Okay, good,” Tom says. “Will you make sure to feed Mondale? I’m afraid I’m going to be in the studio for a while.”

“Yeah,” Shiv says. “Can do.”

She’s being short. It’s not fair, but so many things aren’t fair. Which safe room are you in, Shiv? Are you sure there’s only one? I think they brought me to the wrong one, Shiv. I thought that it was something we wanted for me. What happened to the plan, Shiv?

“Alright, well. Everything—everything’s good?”

“Yeah, Tom,” Shiv sighs. “Your safe room kept you safe, I guess?”

“Oh, yeah,” Tom says. “Very spacious. It was nice to have some quiet time, you know? Hard to come by these days.”

“Right, no—yeah,” Shiv says. “Ours was—it was quiet too.”

“Good, good.”

There’s a lull of silence between them that Shiv often worries is a permanent fixture, but she knows Karolina looming behind her isn’t the best fuel for a conversation with her husband.

“Well,” Tom says, filling the silence, “I’ll see you later?”

“Sure, honey,” Shiv says. “Just let me know when you’re on your way, yeah?”

“Alright,” Tom says. “Love you.”

“Love you too, Tom.”

She keeps her back turned, scrolling through the calls on her phone. Tom, incoming. Karolina (3), outgoing. Tom, incoming. Roman, missed. Tom (2), missed. Karolina, incoming. Karolina, outgoing. She locks her phone, sliding it into her pocket without another glance. She finds Karolina’s set herself up at the kitchen counter, laptop out in front of her, fingers typing away. She looks up as Shiv returns, and Shiv wonders where her determined energy comes from, how Karolina can always keep going, despite it all.

“ATN putting out the fire for us?” Karolina asks.

“Yeah,” Shiv laughs sarcastically. “They’re gonna own the libs and turn a suicide into a men’s rights issue.”

“As long as the ATN audience believes it, I couldn’t care less,” Karolina says. “Waystar will provide its condolences and ATN can do…whatever the hell it does.”

Shiv knows Karolina doesn’t mean that. That she’ll be watching the news broadcast and she’ll send a scathing email to ATN’s PR department when their story doesn’t align with the professional public image that Waystar needs to maintain, and she’ll work long and extra hours just to make it right, even though there are plenty of people on her payroll that can do it just as well with her guidance.

Shiv wonders if Karolina thinks the same way about her. That whenever she asks if they can spend the night together or if they can see each other, if there’s not always a part of her that couldn’t care less. A part of her that can’t afford to care more.

“Well, with a Nazi on the news desk, I’m sure they’ll do just fine,” Shiv says. Karolina sighs and leans her elbow on the counter, head in her hand. She continues to type with one hand, a skill Shiv would find laughable on any other day, and Shiv pulls another seat closer to Karolina, resting her own body across the countertop as she watches Karolina work. Suddenly, Karolina’s typing furiously, sitting up straighter and switching through tabs at a rapid pace. Her phone dings a few times, and an unsettling feeling comes over Shiv.

“Fuck.”

Karolina’s expression has grown from slightly annoyed to exceedingly worried within seconds, and Shiv sits up instantly.

“What is it?” she asks. “Ken get high and shoplift with the Naked Cowboy?”

Except, Karolina doesn’t laugh, which worries Shiv, because Karolina always laughs at her jokes, no matter how stupid or ill-timed or horrible they are.

“Um, no, Shiv,” Karolina says. “It—it’s about you.”

Shiv goes through her mental calendar, trying to remember the events of the last week. She can’t remember stealing candy or vape fluid or murdering a fucking homeless person though, so whatever it is, surely can’t be as bad as Karolina’s frantic typing is having her believe. Karolina continues to type, and then pauses, turning her laptop screen to face Shiv, a gaudy email taking up the screen.

Email: breakingnews@six.com

Subject: Heavy is the Head

Message: Married heiress to a popular American news conglomerate spotted cozying up to a mystery woman at a gala.

Shiv tries to make sense of the words. “What am I looking at?”

“It’s a blind,” Karolina says, and Shiv attempts to calm her panic. A blind is a blind. They’re bullshit, even when true.

“It’s just the same thing as last night,” Shiv says. “Nobody’s going to believe it.”

“Scroll.”

Shiv does, hesitantly, and her heart sinks as she makes it to the next part. There’s a photo. A fucking photo of her kissing Karolina t that stupid charity gala that she didn’t even want to be at, taken by some sleazeball with an iPhone 14 and a dream. But still, it’s not the end of the world, right?

“Nobody can see your face,” Shiv says. “I mean, fine, fuck, I’m kissing a woman—that doesn’t mean anything—”

Karolina slides her second phone over to Shiv, a screen that’s usually reserved for the most desperate of occasions, and on it is a thread with a different photo, Karolina’s face and dress circled out of a crowd.

“Fuck,” Shiv repeats, because what exactly is the proper word to being outed to millions of people at once, and also, by the way, the person you’re kissing is one of your dad’s most trusted advisors, and, oh, you’re also fucking married! She looks to Karolina, who seems to be flitting between passing out and figuring out where she can purchase a military-grade machine gun to mow down the Reddit headquarters.

“Is someone on this?” Shiv asks, and she’ll admit it, she’s panicking, because normally it’s Karolina who’s on these stories and squashing them before they’ve seen an ounce of daylight, but Karolina is here, and the story’s already broken, and her eyes are a little frantic and her hands a little shaky and Shiv’s slowly losing faith that they’re making it out of this one unscathed. Shiv grabs one of Karolina’s hands, and the contact springs her into action.

“I—I don’t know, Shiv,” Karolina says, puffing her cheeks. She pulls her hand away, standing. “I need to make some calls.”

“You can use my office,” Shiv says, and Karolina nods, walking away without so much as another word. It’s a lot, a shooting and an exposé all in one day, and Shiv doesn’t even want to begin to think of the fallout. The thought of checking her phone makes her feel sick, and if the universe is at all on her side (which, it’s decidedly not, considering this is happening at all) then Dad is already asleep and he’ll never have to find out about this mess. There’s no way Roman hasn’t already found out, and she makes a mental note to come up with a list of things to blackmail him with if he enjoys his life as it is currently. And then, as if on cue, Tom is walking into the apartment, either blissfully unaware, or entirely all too excited.

“Shiv?” his voice calls out, and she steels herself, not at all ready for the first wave of consequence.

“In here,” she calls from the kitchen. It’s a little while before Tom actually enters, his slow, tentative steps confirming her suspicions.

“Hey, honey,” Tom says as he approaches. He doesn’t greet her like he normally does, his inviting arms usually engulfing her, and she’s troubled by the fact that it doesn’t bother her. The distance almost feels welcome.

“Hey,” she says. The tension is thick.

“Crazy day, huh?” he asks. He looks at her expectantly, and she imagines what he’s thinking. Maybe he wants her to fall to her knees, to beg for forgiveness. Maybe he wants her to serve him with divorce papers, to annul the marriage having violated the terms of the prenup. Maybe he wants to pretend it never happened, to forbid Shiv from seeing Karolina ever again even though they both know that Shiv would never listen to that order. She can’t tell, because she never knows what Tom wants. He pretends to want what she wants, or he says he wants less when he always wants more, or he wants things that simply don't exist, things that can’t ever exist, and she just has to stumble her way through his needs, catering to him without completely destroying her own desires.

She feels that urge again, to hide Karolina somewhere far away, somewhere where Shiv wanting can’t be used against them. Where she doesn’t have to suppress her desires just to make everyone else around her feel whole.

“Yeah,” she says stiffly. “Wild.”

Tom nods, still playing his cards close to his chest. He eyes the mess of screens on the counter, not lingering for too long on any device. It’s likely he spent his entire car ride home memorizing every detail of the news.

“So—what’s the plan?” he asks, like he’s somehow a part of it. Like it’s a business move that they’re making together and now they have to figure it out. Like it’s not Shiv’s livelihood at stake.

“The plan?” she asks. She knows it’s not the time to be dense, but he’s already pissing her off and they haven’t even begun. She doesn’t need a Tom-solution to her own mess.

“Shiv,” he says, her name coming out like a warning.

“I don’t know, Tom,” she says. “I have to—you know, I need to talk—”

It’s not the admitting that’s hard. She’s admitted plenty before. Admitted worse. It’s saying her name. It’s giving Tom that piece of her, that version of Karolina that up until now, had only belonged to Shiv. If she says her name, then it’s real. They belong to everybody. It leaves her control.

“Her,” Shiv finally says. Tom’s current state of mind is elusive. She never prided him much in the way of not wearing his heart on his sleeve, but he’s doing a good job currently, and it’s unnerving, not being able to suss out what he’s thinking.

“When will—I mean, is that—are you in contact with her?” he asks. “Because we should really all be on the same page.”

We. Us. All.

“She’s in the study,” Shiv says, and Tom’s eyebrows shoot upward.

“She’s here? Now?”

“Well, yeah, Tom. Did you want me to drop her off in front of Waystar?” she asks. “See how many different ways the paparazzi can ask her what it feels like to fuck your wife?”

“Okay, Shiv—I understand you’re upset—”

“Oh, fuck off,” Shiv says, turning away from him. “Can you just—stop, being so nice right now?”

“Well—I mean, this was a part of it, right?” he asks, that sickeningly dumbfounded expression slapped across his face. “The arrangement?”

Shiv hopes her face isn’t conveying the paralyzing lapse of nausea that she feels course through her. She can feel the boyish hurt seep through his words, pretending like the arrangement is still something he’s okay with. If she were being completely honest, it doesn’t feel like a part of the arrangement. If it were a part of the arrangement, it wouldn’t have been Karolina in that photo. It would’ve been some hot, young guy, just barely taller than Tom; enough to make her feel like he should be jealous, enough to make him jealous. Karolina is different. He wasn’t supposed to find out about her. She was supposed to be Shiv’s secret, her life away from Tom that he couldn’t touch, couldn’t steal. She won’t let him steal her now, either.

“Right,” she says. Silly. How could she have forgotten? “The arrangement, yeah no—sorry. It’s been a long day.”

Tom pouts and steps forward, Shiv’s lie like some kind of spell cast on him. It feels more morose than usual, his desperation for her bare minimum commitment to him. He pulls her into him, as if the arrangement means it’s not real. She isn’t sure either of them believes that, but she knows he wants to, and Shiv, as always, is beholden to his wants.

“It was frightening being in danger,” Tom says. “And this, on top of it all. We’ll get Rat-Fucker Sam on it. Ruin some Silicon Valley tech mogul’s life.”

“I think it’s too late for Sam, Tom. It went viral instantly,” she says. “I just need to figure this out.”

“Well, has she gotten the call yet?”

Shiv looks up. The call?

“What call?”

“You know,” Tom shrugs, and Shiv wildly shakes her head, because, no, she doesn’t know. She’s not some clairvoyant psychic put on Earth just to be able to read Tom Wambsgans’ mind when he decides the middle of a conversation is a good time to play fucking charades.

“What call, Tom?” she says again, stepping away. He looks around to make sure it’s just the two of them, which, Shiv’s pretty sure they are, considering she can still hear Karolina’s commanding voice leave the confines of the study every few minutes, and he leans in, lowering his voice.

“The fucking axe, Shiv!”

He says it like it’s break room gossip. Like Karolina isn’t one of the few people at Waystar who’s actually decent at their job, like she’s dispensable and that’s why Shiv chose her. Not a real person. She wonders if that boyish hurt isn’t just a glint of zeal, like maybe he’s finally found his opportunity for payback. Shiv gets to cheat, and Tom gets to watch the destruction. She wonders if this might not have been his play all along, let her run herself through brick walls over and over again, and watch silently until one of them finally takes her down, bruised and bloody and begging for mercy. Something tugs inside of her then, and she realizes there is a wall worth salvaging, and it’s not the one in front of her.

“She’s not getting fired, Tom,” Shiv says, hoping the blood and the cement seep through, spoken proof that even knocked down, the fragments of Karolina are deep within her now.

Tom just stares at her, open-mouthed with that stupid, disbelieving smile.

“If you’re worried about the optics, Shiv—we’ll have her sign papers. This won’t come down on you,” he says. “It’ll be quick and painless, I mean, you won’t even have to be a part of it—”

“Tom,” Shiv snaps, he closes his mouth, jaw set. “I said, she’s not fucking getting fired.”

In come the theatrics.

“Oh, oh, I mean, of course, Shiv, I don’t—I mean, I wouldn’t really think of it as a firing, more so as a sort of, Witness Protection situation,” he says. “I mean, she can’t possibly come back to the office, right? That could be, well—sort of disastrous, if you think about it.”

She tries to imagine it, tries to picture either of them returning to Waystar with a shred of their dignity, and she wants to believe that there is a way, somehow.

“She can,” Shiv says. “It was just a part of the arrangement, right? If we don’t treat it like a big deal, then it’s not. Firing her looks sloppy, Tom. It’s guilty.”

“Yeah, Shiv, it’s fine,” Tom says, finally letting some of his anger come through. “Maybe I should walk in with her tomorrow, then everyone can know I’m friends with the woman from whom I got cucked.”

“I don’t really want that any more than you do,” Karolina says, and Shiv looks past Tom, his head immediately turning towards the sound of her voice.

“Karolina, hello—”

“Hi, Tom,” Karolina says.

She’s a new kind of silent. Shiv isn’t sure how long Karolina has been standing there, doesn’t know how much of the conversation Karolina heard, but however much, Shiv wishes she hadn’t.

“Uh, hey—Tom?” Shiv says, Tom now looking back at her. “Can you just, maybe?” She nods in the direction of the door, and he raises his eyebrows before a light, “Oh,” escapes him, suddenly cordial again now that Karolina’s in the room.

“Sure, sure, yeah, I’ll just—I need to take Mondale out. All of this…energy isn’t good for his sleep schedule, so. I’ll, um, I’ll leave you two to…it,” he says, wincing near the end.

They both wait for him to leave, Karolina not daring to move closer until she hears the door shut, and even then, it’s a minimal attempt at closing the distance.

“He seemed mad,” Karolina says.

“Yeah, well,” Shiv sighs. He reacted how she’d expected. Highly upset but too desperate to actually show it.

“I thought he knew,” Karolina says, her tone slightly accusatory.

“He knew, yeah,” Shiv says, trying to sound sure. “I guess, he just—didn’t know who with, is the problem.”

She doesn’t expect Karolina to believe her, not in the way she expects Tom to take her words at face value, and Karolina doesn’t. She never does.

“So, we’ve been having an affair,” Karolina states.

“I told you, Tom and I have—”

“An arrangement. Yeah, Shiv, I got it,” Karolina says. The silence isn’t awkward more than it is uncomfortable. There are too many things to say, too many questions and strategies and unknowns. Shiv starts with what’s simple.

“Who was on the phone?” she asks.

“It was Gerri,” Karolina says. “She, um—well, she chewed me out, and then she, you know. Advice.”

“And what was her advice?”

“She told me I should stock my arsenal,” Karolina says. “HR, journalists, lawyers. She gave me some numbers.”

“Are you going to call?” Shiv asks, a knot forming in the pit of her stomach.

“I don’t know, Shiv,” Karolina says. “I might.”

Shiv nods, unsure of what other response she could give. Of course, she doesn’t want Karolina to call those numbers. Of course, she wants Karolina to trust her, to believe that Shiv will do the right thing, to believe that Shiv would stand by her, would choose her. The longer this bullshit goes on, the more Shiv thinks that she would.

“Don’t,” Shiv says. “I’m not going to hang you out to dry. I wouldn’t do that.”

“Shiv,” Karolina sighs, and her face falls almost sympathetically. She moves closer to Shiv, though they still feel worlds apart, and Shiv wants nothing more than to reach out, to grab her hand and never let go. “It’s not you that I’m worried about.”

Dad. Shiv had nearly forgotten about him while trying to handle Tom.

“Did Gerri say—”

“He hasn’t called her about it,” Karolina says. “So, he either hasn’t seen it, or he’s ignoring it.”

Shiv lets out a sigh of relief at the information. This gives them time, a lot more time than she initially thought they’d have.

“So, we still have a chance to get ahead of it,” Shiv says. “Or he doesn’t believe it. Both work in our favor.”

“It doesn’t really matter whether he hasn’t seen it, Shiv, there’s a photo,” Karolina says. “Everyone else has seen it. The entire fucking internet has already seen it.”

“He’s the only person that matters, though,” Shiv says.

“The only person?” Karolina asks. “What about my subordinates? My boss, fucking—Hugo? There are people who want to see me fail. This could ruin me, Shiv.”

“It won’t ruin you,” Shiv says.

“I’ve been fucking the married daughter of the fucking CEO, Shiv. This is a PR disaster from hell,” Karolina says. “Who’s going to want to hire me? I’m a fucking liability now.”

Shiv waits for Karolina to say more. Waits for her to say that she regrets this, and that she never should’ve done it, and that it was a bad idea from the start. That Shiv’s malignant, a festering presence that bursts into people's lives and does her bidding and then leaves right before things go to shit, that she somehow makes it out unharmed every time, a body count living in her wake. She won’t let that happen to Karolina. Won’t even give her a chance to think it.

“I’ll handle it, Karolina,” Shiv says. “I’ll fucking, I’ll figure it out, okay?”

“How?” Karolina asks. Her voice is sharp and jagged and Shiv doesn’t think she’s ever heard it sound so unsure before, so small in the face of something so large.

“I don’t know, I’ll offer my soul to Shanghai, I’ll do the fucking management program, I’ll do whatever he wants—”

“What?” Karolina interrupts. “Shiv you’re not even in the company—”

“Why do you think I was in the office today?” Shiv asks. “It’s me. It’s fucking me, Karolina.”

Karolina shakes her head, confusion taking over her face. “Seriously?”

“I don’t know if he meant it, but he said it, and it’s something,” Shiv says. “If he wants me out of his precious politics, then it’s fucking something, okay? We have to try.”

Because if this is rock bottom, then Shiv has nothing left to lose, and she knows the Dems on Capitol Hill would kill to have the gay fucking Roy child on their campaigns. She can work with this; she just has to convince Karolina.

“Even if that did—it’s not a Get Out of Jail Free, Shiv,” Karolina says. She goes silent, her arms crossing gently. Her expression softens, her anger at the situation replaced with something sadder. She looks up at Shiv again, eyes boring into her from across the room, “Did he really choose you?”

“He said it,” Shiv shrugs. Karolina still doesn’t look convinced.

“It’ll never work,” Karolina says. “It just won’t, Shiv. The CEO of Waystar—home of ATN—with a woman?”

“Then we’ll go to Pierce,” Shiv says instantly. “Get them to agree to an exclusive sit down. Dad will be so mad he’ll back off. Fuckin’ extort the hell out of him. I’m from a crime family, right?”

Karolina’s brows furrow so thoughtfully, Shiv might think Karolina were pitying her. “No, Shiv.”

“Why the hell not?” Shiv asks, growing irritated when Karolina laughs.

“Shiv, you can’t ruin your life for me.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Shiv asks.

“That I can’t let myself get in the way of you becoming CEO.”

And it’s that. That sentence right there, when the decision’s already been made for her. She doesn’t care if Karolina hates her for the rest of her life and they never speak again; Shiv won’t let anything happen to her. Karolina, who didn’t go running to the papers right away. Karolina, a top PR strategist who could’ve spun the story in her favor within minutes of its release. Karolina, who desperately wants what’s in Shiv’s best interests. Karolina, who’s willing to throw away her tenure for a fucking vanity title Shiv isn’t sure she’ll ever actually get. Karolina, who cares about Shiv. Who’s worried about how it’ll affect her, sure, but who cares about how it’ll affect Shiv.

“And what if I told you that it wouldn’t even be worth being CEO unless you were there, by my side?” Shiv asks, finally moving closer to Karolina. Karolina's arms are still crossed, but she doesn’t move away as Shiv does so.

“I’d tell you that’s a stupid thing to say.” Karolina looks down, and Shiv lays a hand over her arms, squeezing lightly.

“I know this is bad, Karolina,” Shiv whispers, ducking her head as well. “I know that. But I don’t want any solution that doesn’t involve you. You’re non-negotiable.”

“I’m not an acquisition, Shiv,” Karolina says. “I’m a person and this is my life.”

“I have a life too,” Shiv says. “I want you in it.”

Karolina looks up, her eyes misty. “You have a husband.”

“I don’t have to,” she says, and it’s the first time she’s admitted those words out loud. The first time she verbalizes to another person that maybe she has made some wrong choices along the way.

“You’d leave him?” Karolina asks. Shiv looks into Karolina’s eyes and knows it’s not about leaving Tom. It’s about choosing Karolina.

“You make me feel like I’ve finally done something right, too,” Shiv says, tugging Karolina’s arms free. She presses their foreheads together, and Karolina’s hands grab at Shiv’s waist. They stand there in the silence, connected, and Shiv prepares herself for it to be the end, until Karolina’s voice rings out one final time.

“Shiv—are you sure?”

Shiv kisses Karolina, and it feels like nothing could ever go wrong again.

“I’ve never been more sure of anything.”

 

—

“Look at this one,” Karolina says, rolling over in the bed. It’s been like this every morning since the divorce went through, Karolina doing her morning doom-scrolling and subjecting Shiv to the first round of daily tweets. She assumes one day it’ll get old, but for now, the only thing Shiv cares about is the peaceful glint in Karolina’s eyes and the easy smile she adorns, and Shiv lays her head on Karolina’s chest, giving her undivided attention to Karolina’s selection.

 

@milfupthesun: shiv roy has game like that ?

          ↳ @chaostheory: i mean we’ve all seen her girlfriend

                   ↳ @milfhotline: want a waystar baddie soooo bad now

          ↳ @onemintjulep: need her to teach me her ways

          ↳ @notromanroy1: shiv is definitely not the one with game

 

“Wait a minute—” Shiv snatches the phone and sits up, squinting at the screen. “Is that fucking Roman?”

[softquietsteadylove]

thenamesh has rotted my brain so much that 4th of july fireworks spooking my dog obviously made me think of how thena would probably get spooked by them too — so of course i had to bring it to you as a prompt! maybe featuring our sweet jack and some comfort?

Thena squinted as yet another firework went off. Terrible, incessant things, she thought. They were loud and made a mess. But ever since their conception - for which they had all been present - humans loved them.

They had declined to attend the show at its source, mostly out of consideration for the Eternals and their heightened senses. Thena, especially, although she did offer to attend for Jack's sake.

In years past, Phastos and Ben had taken Jack to all of the typical Fourth of July festivities, as Americans wishing to take part in the celebrations. They went to the parade, they attended things in the city or had backyard activities at their home for the neighbours. They had also declined that, this year.

It was determined to be too much, the possibility of strange kids running around and screaming with water guns and sparklers. Phastos and Gil did cook on the grill just for them. They had all attempted to lure Jack outside with the promise of baseball and soccer and football. But all day, Jack was busy inside making a fort.

By this time it was taking up most of the living room, constructed with couch cushions and the futon from Phastos' home office and plenty of pillows and blankets. It was somewhat hard to navigate, but Jack was adamant that it not be disturbed all weekend. Thena had defended his magnum opus.

Another one went off, and even Ben and Phastos admired the twinkle of it, each with a beer in hand. Ben looked around their chairs all lined up on their back deck to see the display at a distance. "Jack?"

Phastos shook his head. "He's still working on that fort."

"He's missing the show," Ben frowned.

Gil leaned forward in his own chair, mindful of Thena in his lap. "We told him it was starting, but he said it was almost ready."

"Ready for what?"

None of them knew. Phastos was especially put out that his son was seemingly over the childhood wonder and joy of the fireworks show. "This is how it starts. Next, he's gonna be in his room all day and night and we'll never see him except-"

"Habibi," Ben chided his husband, reaching over and rubbing his hand. "We have discussed this."

"Yeah," Phastos sighed heavily, though, taking another swig of light beer. "Just wait, he's eleven now, but he'll be thirteen before we even know it."

Thena pressed her ear more firmly against Gil's chest as another one burst in the air. She blinked rapidly at the red colour of this one. She was doing respectably well, though. She had the odd moment of swearing she could smell gunpowder and smoke, but she could still correct herself. They weren't witnessing the slaughter of Tenochtitlan, they were visiting their brother's family in America.

Gilgamesh ran his hand over her hair, whispering soft nothings to her to help her weather the storm. "You sure you wanna do this? Jack isn't even here."

As with most other things, she had agreed for Jack's sake. She was still overly conscious of potentially ruining any fun for him because of the gentility with which she needed to navigate human life. Of course she would deny it, but it did melt her heart completely every time he showed concern for her state of mind.

She gripped the lapel of Gil's shirt, but nodded with her head under his chin. "I'm sure he'll join us. If I go inside, he'll just offer to keep me company."

Gil chuckled, kissing her temple. She was right, and he knew she was.

Phastos looked at his watch, "well, if he doesn't get out here he might miss the end of it."

Thena lifted her head from Gil's chest. "It is odd for him to be so reclusive. I'll find him."

Gil let his hand trail down her back as she lifted herself from his embrace. "If he doesn't wanna come out, you two can have fun in there."

She smiled at him, letting their hands drag apart reluctantly.

"Sure, if she goes he'll come right out. If I do it, it's 'Dad, I'm busy!'."

Thena ignored her brother's lamenting over his child's growing independence. She slid the patio door closed behind her. "Jack?"

"In here!"

She walked into the living room, finding the lamps were on, illuminating the truly impressive sprawl of the fort. She tilted her head before bending at the waist. "Jack?"

"Aunt Thena, in here," he whispered, a hand sticking out just to wave.

She crouched down, bending her knees in her skirt so she could crawl into the small tunnel leading to his domain. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's finally ready!"

What was finally ready? Thena crawled on her hands and knees over the carpet and into the fort's main body. Never before - and never again - would she have to crawl like this. It was unbecoming of a warrior. But this was for her nephew.

"What do you think?"

It was actually quite remarkable. The far 'wall' actually was connected to the large window of the living room, offering a glimpse outside that looked in the direction of the city's epicentre. The rest of the fort was cushioned by thick blankets and using the plush structures of couches and chairs and automans.

"This is rather well done, Jack," she praised with a smile. He truly was a remarkable human--nothing short of brilliant, the son of the Fabricator Eternal.

"Here," he said gently, sitting himself on a pillow set up by the window. There was one beside him, which he patted for her. "The view is perfect."

"The view?"

But Jack was right. It was possible to see the more distant fireworks that were being displayed over the city harbour. They were more distant, therefore not as bright against the dark sky. And within the house, they were much quieter.

"Is this what you've been doing?" she asked as she watched the tiny but still beautiful display within the window.

He nodded, also watching, captivated. "Baba said there were two fireworks shows, this one just started."

She gave her young nephew a look, attempting to appear stern with his utterly adorable face. "Did you construct this just for me?"

"Well," he cast a sheepish glance to his sock feet, wiggling his toes and twisting his lips.

"Jack," she frowned. "You mustn't worry about me so much. You should be enjoying the fireworks with your fathers as intended."

He looked at her with big, pleading eyes, shrugging his shoulders. "But I can't have fun if I know you're scared."

She sighed. Such a sweet boy, with such a big, human heart. She put her hand on his head gently, not quite patting his head and not quite ruffling his hair. "It is not your place to quell my fears. And discomfort is not a fear."

He scooched a little closer to her pillow. "Can I tell you a secret?"

She nodded, leaning down for him to whisper to her, even within the protection of the fort. He moved her hair out of his way, his little hand feeling barely bigger than her ear.

"The fireworks are too loud for me, too. But I never wanted to say 'cause Dad and Baba like watching them."

She watched him sit back on his own pillow again. The thought crossed her mind if he was lying in order to spare her feelings, or her pride. But Jack wasn't a very good liar (she had seen him try to lie about reading comic books after bed time). "Is that so?"

He turned his attention back to the window. "We always go, ever since I was little. But it gets cold, and they're cool and all, but they kinda look the same except for the start and the end. And they're really loud if you're too close."

Thena looked away from the lights display to her brother's son. His maturity and knowledge of himself never ceased to impress her. She truly thought human children were less intelligent than this. Although it was possible Jack was an exception among human offspring. "And here I was, out there so that you wouldn't feel the need to stay inside with me."

He looked at her, illuminated by the far off show. "I like being inside with you."

She put her hand on his shoulder, allowing him to lean against her arm. "I like being inside with you too, Jack."

The boy went quiet, perhaps bashful of the quiet affection passing between them. But he made himself comfortable against her, as affectionately as a boy his age could allow.

She held back a laugh as she heard a small yawn escape him. "It has grown late."

"That's okay," he excused, although he was leaning more heavily on her by the second.

It was indeed late. The summer made the sun set so late that the fireworks couldn't start until rather close to Jack's bed time anyway. Thena moved her arm, allowing Jack to fold himself against her more comfortably. This was also something she never imagined herself doing as the Warrior Eternal. But as the boy's 'Aunt Thena', she would be quite capable of anything.

She continued watching the display, checking every few minutes if Jack's eyes were still open. Perhaps partway through the display, he was completely asleep. She ran her hand over his forehead, resolving not to move and disturb his sleep, no matter the cost.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Estimated $100m second weekend for INSIDE OUT 2... Really out here breaking some records, eh? Rare for a movie, and the first time for an animated movie, should the estimates be on the low end. Very possible the actual is like $98-99m, which is still very impressive, and only an approx. 35% drop.

If it gets over $100m over the three-day, it'll sit with all-timers THE FORCE AWAKENS, ENDGAME, INFINITY WAR, BLACK PANTHER, JURASSIC WORLD, and THE AVENGERS...

Really shows that the original INSIDE OUT is beloved after its blockbuster run in 2015, and it shows that audiences quite like this movie and are back for more. Might even make a play for INCREDIBLES 2's $608m domestic total, unadjusted of course. (The actual total in today's ticket prices is around $720m, per The-Numbers.) That would make it the highest-earning animated movie domestically, but right now, Pixar's Supers hold that title. Adjusted, it will always belong to SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS.

But if anybody was gonna beat Pixar, it was gonna be Pixar. I don't see another studio getting a shot at this, maybe except cousin studio Disney Animation and their MOANA 2... Or DreamWorks if SHREK 5 really lands like a meteor in a few years from now.

Worldwide, INSIDE OUT 2 sits at $724m. Again, within two weeks of release. Already circling the original's $857m take. (Before anyone says it, the film saw a small re-release in July 2020 that pushed the take to... $858m. Know that I refer to original release grosses, lol.)

And with this movie doing so well, I see all the Chicken Little-ing... Over the wrong problem.

"We're NEVER getting an original movie from this studio again"

Okay... Let me try to debunk this.

I don't think an animation studio of this size can feasibly ONLY make sequels, because eventually... Wells run dry. Also, the people who yell this often online... Are they aware that ELIO exists and will be released next summer? Are they aware that Domee Shi, director of TURNING RED, has a new movie in the works at Pixar? (It's not ELIO, she is likely just doing story/script on that one.) Are they aware that Pixar has a movie slotted for release in late winter 2026 between ELIO and TOY STORY 5?

I'll tell you something funny... There was a fellow who insisted to me in December 2015 that Pixar was going to be done with original movies after THE GOOD DINOSAUR became the studio's first money-loser. That they'd put COCO on hold, and that would be it... LOL. This person also claimed to be a shareholder... That speaks volumes.

But no, really... You need to keep making untested or original movies in order to have things to make sequels to in the first place. And one of Pixar's recent losses was... A spin-off of TOY STORY featuring a version of one of their most recognizable, practically synonymous-with-their-name characters. Yeah, that epic movie about Lenny the binoculars!

So, please... Never making originals again? That's just a bad business plan and completely not feasible.

When originals/non-sequels don't meet the corporations' expectations (because I refuse to call SOUL, LUCA, TURNING RED and ELEMENTAL "flops" in any way, shape, or form... *Especially* the first three), the studios don't stop making them... They stop making them in a specific way.

Hence, Pete Docter - likely with Bob Iger pointing a gun at his head - saying Pixar won't make "autobiographical" movies anymore. Basically no more TURNING REDs, and more... Well, whatever the early 2026 movie is going to be. (Which is not this "Ducks" thing people keep insisting it is, as far as I know.)

The other studios do that, too. Off the top of my head... DreamWorks had a bunch of these fantasy movie in the works circa 2011. Stuff like THE GRIMM LEGACY, RUMBLEWICK, ALMA, fantastical stories with something of a darker bent to them. They were also considering adapting GIL'S ALL FRIGHT DINER... They had all these really cool movies in the works that would've redefined what a DreamWorks movie could be, post-SHREK. And then after a movie called RISE OF THE GUARDIANS lost money (even though it had good legs and became a cult hit thereafter), all of it never happened. ME AND MY SHADOW, which was in some form of production and was HOTLY anticipated by the animation community, got canceled. They proceeded to finish TURBO and MR. PEABODY & SHERMAN.

Both of which also "flopped"... I remember Jeffrey Katzenberg, when he was still running that place, saying something to the tune of: "Well those failed because we tried to aim at preteens and teenagers." Really? TURBO and PEABODY, which were overpriced to begin with, were aiming for that age group? The plan going forward was "We're going to make movies for kids and their parents." Whatever the hell that meant. Eventually, Comcast bought DreamWorks, a little over a year later. And the flightplan constantly changed after that.

Studios don't give up on movies that aren't sequels, they just re-route them. They find "reasons" for previous movie failures, and usually it's the fault of the filmmakers and the stories they chose to tell. It's never any outside circumstances, which are actually often the case with money-losing movies. The very movies that go on to be big on home video and streaming, and attain cult followings. With today's line of thinking, Walt Disney wouldn't have even gotten past PINOCCHIO's disastrous original release results.

So instead of yelling "we'll never get original movies again", I direct my energy elsewhere... And I say "Well, hopefully the future movies - both original and sequel - don't fall flat because of needless executive interference that attempts to *correct* a perceived problem." That to me is the issue, not the fantasy of Pixar completely stopping making original movies altogether.

[fivekrystalpetals]

Glen, Children of Misfortune, Juries and the Baskervilles

[When I say Glen, I am referring all Glens- past and present: Levi, Oswald, Gil and Leo. Hella lot of lore is here that I wanna write about ;-; so I might divide this into different posts let's see. Also fair warning: I might criticize Oswald's actions-past and present- a bit, since I love looking at characters from an unbiased pov. Also, maybe some characters' past actions in order to point to their character development so that too.]

[ Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4]

3] Oswald and his sin of passivity

Coming back to Oswald—just like Gil and Leo, Oswald too had to choose between being a big brother or being the Glen and he chooses the latter. (honestly, he had the choice of being both as I said in Part 1, I will elaborate here)

And, he decides to become the Glen and casts Lacie into the Abyss.

Well, if he has chosen a side, he should stick to it, right? Just like in Leo’s case, no matter how painful your choice is, you should stick to it, right? He should put all of himself into his duties as Glen, right?

But he doesn’t.

See, this scene is played off for giggles— (Retrace 69)

—however, it is very telling of something: Oswald doesn’t even know who the rest of his people are. He wonders if Charlotte arrived after he became Glen,, but seeing how she raised her voice at him before realizing who it was, she must hold a senior position among the Baskervilles. True she arrived after he became Glen (mainly because she didn’t know Jack at the time); even in that case, does it mean the new Glen is not getting acquainted with the people that walk into the Baskerville estate?

Yeah. Because Oswald never moved on from the day of Lacie’s execution. He continued to exist “passively” and waited for time to pass. After Alice arrived at the Baskerville estate, he added one duty to his otherwise empty schedule: to bring up food for her. Otherwise, most of the time, during the past memories, whether they be Jack’s or actual, Oswald is simply… sleeping. Closing his eyes to his mistakes he doesn’t want to relive or regret. If he sleeps, he doesn’t have to take responsibility for his actions or his duties as Glen that he never wanted from the beginning.

You might think he was more “active” when he returned and took over Leo’s body,, actually no…. (Retrace 94)

This is what he says to Vincent. How exactly did his “stop thinking, do nothing,” attitude help him? Jack took advantage of it to the max, yeah. Now, here, Vincent, who has been self-destructive all throughout this story, gains a spark of desire to live, because of Break (again!); he saves him from the consequence of his own “inaction” (when he surrendered to Glen and would have got killed at his hands) and scolded him to stop looking into the past for salvation. 

Those words coming from someone he least expected (see here: how antagonist Vince has always been to Break for no reason) “wrap around him like a coil”;—in other words, Vince had subconsciously been seeking to hear “it’s okay to live” from someone. Even though those words came from someone as unlikely as Break, his mind immediately grasped onto it, shaking to the core what he had imagined was a sincerely firm decision on his behalf.

I don’t even know... what I want anymore. But... there was no deceit in the vow I took then.

Vincent is in a sensitive situation here, a sort of make-or-break. He doesn't know what he wants because what he thought he wanted all along was not what he really wanted. His mind is in complete turmoil; that's why he keeps asking others (Leo, Oswald etc.) what he should do. Break already gave his answer and confirmed what he had been scared of all along—that he did want to live on and... be forgiven for his past sins. Whereas Oswald... continues to cling onto his passivity. Do nothing, stop thinking, go to sleep.

.

In fact, once Jack took charge of Alice (Retrace 70):

—I believe, Oswald dropped visiting Alice as well. Perhaps, she reminded him too much of Lacie (and so, his mistakes) or he so unconditionally trusted Jack to watch over Lacie's child or what,, but see, the only memories Alice has of Oswald are from pre-Jack-re-appearance period. That'd also explain why Oswald was so utterly caught off-guard and didn't suspect any foul play from Jack till the very eve of the Tragedy of Sablier.

Had Oswald been regularly talking to Alice, he'd have known the Core of the Abyss could visit their world through the shared body too and had he realized how dangerous it is to let an outsider (a human) deal with the Core, he would have curbed Jack's visits to Alice.

He had been neglecting his duties as the Glen after he picked the choice to become Glen.

As I said, it's this exact passivity that helped Jack to take full advantage of his cracks and his weakness. Because Jack was the only person who remembered Lacie, Oswald wanted to continue being his “friend”. For him, Jack was the sole anchor for him to cling onto a lost past. Once again, in Break’s words, Oswald was trying to “look for a future in his past,” and it'll never work. Once you have decided on a course of action, you gotta pick up your pieces and move on, not stay stuck in the past of your mistakes and regrets.

Also, about Jack and Oswald. Jack was never his friend, to begin with. Jack came over to see Lacie and befriended Oswald in the process. Later, on his return after Lacie’s death, he was there, already with all plans of backstabbing him. Oswald, who could see through people so well that he compared Jack to water on their very first meeting, decided to close his eyes to Jack's intentions and hoped that if he does nothing, everything will return to normal.

Unfortunately, life doesn't go that way. Remember Lottie's words: It's impossible to keep living without hurting anybody? Yeah. It works the other way round too; if you stay still and do nothing, others will hurt you to keep living.

.

The sad thing here is that Oswald was so desperately trying to befriend Jack while he had actual good and loyal people around him, whom he ignored (just like he ignored his duties of Glen) for the sake of Jack (to continue sharing memories of Lacie who didn't exist anywhere because of his own fault.)

Charlotte of course (I have written an entire post about her here) and Fang and the other Baskervilles who could have been loyal and caring retainers to him

but also..... the then Duke Nightray. (Retrace 73)

See? This guy warned Oswald to not invite Jack and Miranda to their residence anymore. He was looking out for Oswald; he had the right hunch about Jack and if only Oswald had listened to him and not invited Jack on the day of Gil's ceremony?

But, Oswald is so desperate to cling on to his past, to Lacie, to Jack and of all the good memories they shared (and which will never return because the magic was gone with Lacie) that he values the words of a young, impressionable, gullible child over an experienced well-wisher.

In the end, his passivity not only caused the Tragedy of Sablier, but also tarnished the reputation of the Baskervilles as well as the Nightray Dukedom while the families of those who he considered 'friends' moved way up in the world.

[ Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 ]

[addictedtostorytelling]

I’ve been doing a bit of a csi watch lately and i’ve just finished blood drops. It really is such a close parallel to sara’s own past. I think at the time, they perhaps didnt know quite what was going on with sara’s past or maybe hadn’t narrowed down details - i don’t know writer decisions! But watching back, i think its a shame that this ep was done so early because itcould have provided such a fantastic thing for sara once her background was more well established - or perhaps, as the gateway for her bg to be told. Either could have worked well. Not that i want to see her suffer more, but from a storytelling pov i think it could have been interesting for this ep to play out in a later season and really affect sara, have her experience flashbacks or panic and back out of the scene. Basically for it to be clear that something about this scene is really getting to her. It could be we already know as the details of her situation have already been said, so we can draw an obvious connection, or that we don’t and upon asking why she’s so affected, she explains. Either way it also would have been prime gsr material, as gil could comfort her. It also might have been a good oppertunity for someone other than gil to do so, perhaps catherine or greg, since most of sara’s show of /healing of trauma is gil related. It would have been nice to see support (knowing support) come from somewhere else.

Bit of a ramble, sorry! Hope it made sense aaaa! Suppose i was just wondering if you felt the same in that the episode was so perfect that it might have been better used further down the line, rather than at the start of season 1? <3

hi, anon!

i can definitely see where you’re coming from and think that experimenting with the premises you put forward in your ask—i.e., moving the events of the episode back in the timeline and/or using them as an inroad to explore sara’s trauma in more detail—could be really fun in a fic setting.

that said, in canon, i'm pretty okay with episode 01x07 “blood drops” occurring both when and how it does.

i don’t consider it a wasted opportunity.

if you're interested in my reasoning, i've got it after the "keep reading."

__

so.

every story has to start somewhere, and, the way i see things, episode 01x07 “blood drops” provides the right start to sara’s trauma arc.

to me, the point of that episode (sara-wise) is to introduce the sense that there is something going on with her beneath the surface but not to fully elucidate what that something is as of yet.

to that point in s1, the sara we’ve seen has been ambitious about her cases and somewhat brusque with her new colleagues, with the exception of grissom, whom she softens around. while she hasn’t been dispassionate by any means and has even at times shown some emotional vulnerability—like in episode 01x03 “crate n’ burial,” when finding the “victim” buried alive causes her to despair the cruelty of people—there hasn’t, until now, been any sense that her reactions have been anything more than just the normal kinds of beats for a compassionate, justice-minded investigator.

episode 01x07 “blood drops” is where we see that assumption challenged.

a first crack in the armor.

it is the initial leg in a narrative that is meant to be a marathon, not a sprint, and it succeeds in its objective of kicking off that distance race, showing that what is happening to brenda clearly strikes a personal chord with sara, provoking an emotional response beyond even what the tragedy of the case might be expected to elicit from her, though not explaining wherefore, leaving that explanation off to be expounded on later, in subsequent episodes and seasons.

i think the episode does its job when you watch it through the first time: it makes you (along with grissom) go, “what’s going on here? what's driving sara's behavior?”

but then the real beauty of the thing is when you rewatch it again after having seen episode 05x13 “nesting dolls,” and you can see, in retrospect, all of those parallels and connections, the way the one story informs the other.

imo, the episode isn’t any less significant to sara’s arc or any less revealing of her because it happens early on in the timeline. the parallel isn’t less effective because it works reaching backward from episode 05x13 “nesting dolls” to episode 01x07 “blood drops” as opposed to going in the other direction.

it still exists. it's still recognizable. it still informs our understanding of sara’s story.

the necessary information is all there; it’s just sublimated.

like a fossil buried beneath the surface of the earth, with only just one tiny fragment of bone sticking out, the shape and size of what’s there will become more apparent upon further excavation.   

while the writers didn’t know sara's full story at that point—according to ann donahue and josh berman, they first started to piece together what would eventually become sara’s canonical backstory circa the writing of episode 01x10 “sex, lies, & larvae”—they did know enough to show that her reaction to the case (and, specifically, to brenda) wasn’t just the normal compassion of an investigator but rather something more deeply personal, pressing up against some very raw nerves for her. they also knew enough to make grissom her touchpoint—the character who is on the receiving end of her belligerent, aloof weirdness at the crime scene and who most noticeably reacts to her uncomfortable jokes at the team meeting.

and in doing so, they set a precedent, laying the foundations for both sara’s character and the gsr relationship.

though neither grissom as a character in the story nor we as the audience outside of it yet realize as much at the time when the events of episode 01x07 "blood drops" are taking place, with repeated exposure, both he and we come to recognize that that abrasiveness in sara, that in-your-faceness, that poke-the-bear behavior, is actually what a trauma response looks like from her.

we’ll see it time and time again with her in subsequent episodes such as 01x10 “sex, lies, & larvae,” 01x16 “too tough to die,” 01x23 “the strip strangler,” 03x14 “one hit wonder,” 04x03 “homebodies,” and 04x23 “bloodlines,” until finally we get to its most blatant example, episode 05x13 “nesting dolls,” which serves as the climax to the storyline—and the point at which grissom has finally accumulated enough evidence to draw a conclusion about sara and approach her with it, showing up on her doorstep to say, "here's what i know, now please tell me the rest. i promise i'll be gentle with it."

by then, that moment of revelation is a thoroughly earned one, both for sara as an individual character—because after so long spent desperately trying to keep this huge, painful secret, to the point of alienating everyone she cares about from her, she is finally at a place where she just can’t anymore; she doesn’t want to; she needs to give voice to those memories and name the terrible thing; to confide in someone—and for grissom and sara as a couple—because for all of his many missteps over the years, something grissom has always done right is that he has consistently shown up for sara, proving to her through his patience, persistence, and refusal to allow her to push him away that he cares about her unconditionally and that he wants to be there for her, come what may.

the fact that episode 05x13 “nesting dolls” brings not only that moment of catharsis for sara but also paves the way for grissom and sara’s romantic relationship in vegas is so narratively satisfying; a culmination of so many plot threads, finally woven together.

and the way i see things, we might not have gotten to the moment of sara tearfully telling the story of her family tragedy to grissom as he sits across from her on her living room sofa in 2005 had he not first witnessed her acting ~off~ about the child survivor of a domestic homicide case back in 2000, you know?

episode 01x07 “blood drops” was that first domino to topple over.

and as for the issue of the sara never letting more people than just grissom in on her trauma of her own volition, honestly? i don’t necessarily see that part of the story needing to change, either.

we can discuss the healthiness or unhealthiness of sara’s decision to only ever (of her own volition) confide in just one person about her trauma elsewise, but at the end of the day it’s true to her character that she would never choose to open up about her childhood to her wider circle of friends.

given her private nature, her deep-seated fears of rejection, the way she trusts, what intimacy really means for her, how she wants to portray herself in public, how close to the surface her emotions run, how deep the pain of her trauma really is, how she attempts to cope, what her aspirations are for herself, etc., etc., that behavior on her part just tracks.

i likewise don't regret the fact we never get any flashbacks to sara's childhood (barring the audio ones in episode 05x13 "nesting dolls") or see her having the "classic tv panic attack" because i think her trauma is clearly articulated as is; what is implied is implied well enough.

i actually appreciate that her trauma responses are different (and even less straightforwardly "sympathetic") than the ones more frequently portrayed in media, as not all ptsd looks the same and some responses are quieter and harder to clock—more on the level of changes to the demeanor, isolation from others, engaging in risk-taking behaviors, etc.

so.

like i said up front: i could imagine some really interesting fics that might involve moving the events of episode 01x07 “blood drops” to occur later on sara’s timeline, using them either to directly precipitate her first confession regarding her past or to follow up on it (a la episode 05x21 “committed” in canon). i can likewise imagine some really interesting fics that made the episode more sara and/or gsr-centric and/or where other characters than grissom became involved in responding to sara’s behavior. there could be lots of cool storytelling avenues to explore along those lines.

@bartramcat used to wish we could have gotten an episode 01x07 "blood drops" callback featuring a teenage or young adult brenda collins in the later seasons of the show, maybe in place of the storyline we got in episode 15x12 "dead woods," and i can see how that option could be a very intriguing one to fic, as well.

but ultimately i'm glad to have the episode as is in canon.

of all of the complaints i have about writing decisions on csi, the way sara’s s1-s5 trauma arc plays out isn’t generally one of them. i think both its pacing and the way sara is characterized as behaving throughout works. ditto for the gsr aspect.

your mileage may—and from the sounds of things, probably does—vary, but, personally, i'm satisfied leaving episode 01x07 “blood drops” as is.

anyway.

i'm rambling now.

thanks for the question! please feel welcome to send another any time.

[elronds-pointy-ears]

At your Mercy Chapter 5

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 6

Pairing: Gil-Galad x human! fem! Reader

Warnings: angst, violence

Word Count:  2298

Summary: Reader needs some fresh air and walks a few minutes only to experience something not so nice. We meet a blonde ellon who safes the day.

Thank you for reading 💜

The Valar help me. Can he not take a hint? Of course it had to be the one person you wanted not to speak to Hamlin. Thinking about it you figured it only made sense that he wanted to speak to you. Now you only needed to find out how this wa gonna go and what he was up to. There were really only two possible ways. Either he wanted to apologise for his rude behavior or he wanted to plague you once more and try to persuade you into his arms.

You hoped he would make the right choice here or else your fun evening out would be absolutely screwed. “Y/N” he called your name once more. You turned around gazing up at him, waiting for him to continue. “I.. I was going to apologise. I did not mean to be so awfully ill-mannered.”With that he waited for you to answer him. A few seconds passed and you let out a sigh into the fresh air. “It is fine I guess.” You kind of hated yourself for forgiving him that fast. You always had been so overly friendly and forgiving it was just a part of you. Seeing the good in everyone was something that you carried on for all your life. Your father always said it was a gift but your mother insisted that the world was not that fair and beautiful and you should learn to adept sooner rather than later. But nonetheless you kept to that and tried to make the world a better place by treating everyone equally.

You truly wanted to make clear that he was overstepping massively last time and you would have had every right to do so. “Just please never treat me or anyone else that way ever again.” At that he nodded. “So uh.. would you let me buy you a drink or no?” He scratched the back of his head. “Give me a few more minutes and I’ll come back inside. I just need a bit more fresh air.” “Alright.” He turned around and went back inside.

Thank god. You thought maybe he had learned his lesson. You decided to take a little walk for a few more minutes. The crisp night air seemed to sober you up a little and was doing wonders to your heated skin. Mithlond at night was a sight to see as well. The stars above were clear and bright. Something you adored greatly. Your feet carried you through town on a route you had not wandered before and you neared the woods. The alehouse was not far from here and you thought you could walk just to the edge of the forest and then turn around and join your friends again.

Just as you decided to turn around and head back you heard a voice calling out to you. “Aye look at that fellas we got something here.” A slimy voice rang through your ears. Followed by laughter. There must have been at least two or three there. You turned your head around to see where they were coming from.

The voices were coming from a dark alley to your right. And approaching footsteps signaled they were on their way to you. Shit You hurried to walk back to the alehouse that would be a few minutes away. They called after you “Hey no need to run away. We don’t mean any harm.” Their voices only made you pick up the pace and soon you were sprinting through the streets.

The next thing you knew was someone yanking you right back and you fell to the ground with a loud thud. Groaning you saw the silhouette of two cloaked men coming closer to your frail body lying on the ground. “I told you no need to run away from us, pretty one. Now you got what was coming to you.” The one closest to you snarled. “Stay away from me.” You warned, which made him chuckle. A disgusting sound that scared you even more. “Little bird here has no idea what she has gotten herself into.” The second one with a deep oily voice said. “Truly. Now what do we do with you.” The first one pondered. “Such a pretty face should not be wasted.” And he grabbed your elbow and pulled you up into his arms. You wriggled and tried your hardest to fight him. Many thoughts crossed your mind at once and you wished you had never left the alehouse to wander around at night alone. The streets of Mithlond you imagined were safe. Apparently you were wrong. Regret filled you and panic took over you. “Eh stop it little one. Stop fighting, you are far too weak for us.” His warm and wet breath made you feel all sorts of disgust and hatred. Kicking your feet wildly you tried everything. You were not ready to surrender. The other man was coming closer to you, fixing you with a lustful glint in his eyes.

He looked at your body up and down smiling to himself. You wanted to throw up then and there. With every step he took you tried to fight the one holding you more. When the man stood right in front of you he took your chin and made you look up into his ugly face. “You’re going to be a lot of fun.” He smirked. With that you pulled up your leg and kneed him in his crotch. The man groaned and fell to his knees doubled over in pain. The man holding you strengthened his hold on you “Oh that was a mistake. You’re a feisty one eh.” “Let me go.” You demanded but they would not listen. His friend on the ground seemed to get up again and he was angry now. He rushed towards you, slapping you across the face. “You whore. You’ll get what you deserve.” His hands started roaming over your body and you tried screaming for help. You just barely made a sound when the one holding you covered your mouth with his dirty hand.

You closed your eyes trying to just zone out of this situation when suddenly the guy groping you stopped and you could no longer feel his dirty hands on you. The arms wrapped around and the body behind you also let go of you and you opened your eyes jumping to the side. That’s when you saw an ellon with golden hair fighting off the men. He had already knocked out the one you previously kneed in the balls and was now going after the one who held you all the time. He was fleeing but seeing the young elf going after him he would not get far. They made it about 50 m when the blonde elf grabbed him and hauled him back, punching him in the face and successfully knocking him out on the spot.

You stood there in silence, not moving, just staring and watching as the handsome ellon made his way back to you. As he neared you you backed away slightly, not ready to trust him and his intentions. He stopped immediately taking in your shocked and scared figure. “Are you okay? Please, I do not wish to harm you.” He said. “That is what they told me.” You gestured to the two men on the ground fixing the ellon with mistrusting eyes.

“I am Glorfindel. Captain of the High Kings Watch. I hope these men did not harm you more than what I have seen.” He asked, concern lacing his words. “Is it ok if I come a little closer?” You hesitated but your instinct told you he was truly harmless. You nodded and he made his way over to you, keeping a distance to not startle you further. “Now would you tell me if you are okay?” He insisted. “I am fine, just a little shaken is all.” You waved him off “I’ve never experienced something like this.” You said wrapping your arms around yourself. Glorfindel took off his cloak and handed it to you. You silently took it and wrapped it around your shoulders, thankful for the kind gesture. “You should have never been exposed to that. These men were beasts. I want to apologise for my late arrival. If not me one of the guards should have been close. Seeing rogue men like that inside the city is alarming. I need to inform the King immediately.” You walked along the streets when Glorfindel asked you where you lived so he could escort you home before he had to fulfill his duty and inform the High King. You told him to bring you to the alehouse instead because your friends must be worried by now.

He was about to protest your plea when Mallahir called your name from the other side of the street a few feet away from you. He jogged over to you, holding your face to gaze into your eyes. “Bless the Valar you’re here. You had me worried sick Y/N. What happened, you look like someone punched you in the face.” He wrapped his arms around you. Only after he released you, he acknowledged Glorfindel's presence. “Glorfindel have you done this to Y/N” Mallahir wanted to know, fixing Glorfindel with a furious glare. “Of course not Mal. I was patrolling the outer streets of the city when I heard muffled voices and someone struggling. She was ambushed by two cloaked men. I was going to escort her home and inform the High King.” The Captain explained. “You were what?” Mal stared at you. “Y/N are you ok?” Your friend looked at you making sure you were not physically hurt in any way. “No I am alright Mal.” You insisted. “I am mentally shaken but I will be ok.” Mallahir watched Glorfindel. “We need to tell the High King. Fast. Who knows what else is lurking in the dark in the streets of Mithlond.” The Captain agreed. “Indeed. It is of utmost importance to tell him.” “What are you waiting for then?” You questioned. “You should get home first. Mallahir, can you escort her back home. The High King most definitely will call for a meeting so you should join us after she is safely home.” “I am alright. Besides, if the High King calls for a meeting I have to be there as well.” Glorfindel raised his eyebrows at that. He did not know you were required at court. But then again he had been away for a few months now. “Alright let’s go then.” With that you paced through the streets toward the royal part of town.

As Glorfindel said the High King commenced an emergency Meeting with his most trusted advisers. Honestly speaking you were surprised you were one allowed to be here since you were relatively new and a human at that. At first you thought it was just because you had been the victim and your side of the story was of interest to them. But even after you explained everything you were allowed to stay. The High King seemed to trust you enough and that made you feel a little proud and special. The High King sent a few guards to capture the knocked out men from the streets only to find them gone. It worried you a little that these men were still freely roaming the area somewhere and you made sure to watch out more from now on.

“Glorfindel make sure to double the Guards inside the city and on the outskirts of town. Whatever is going on needs to be stopped. This city is supposed to be a safe haven for everyone living within its walls.” He fleetingly gazed at you and turned around. “Mallahir make sure your friend is checked in the medical wing. Glorfindel I’d like to speak to you privately. The rest of you may retreat back to your quarters”

The meeting ended and Mal practically had to drag you to the medical part of the royal part. You reluctantly agreed to get checked and turned out you were alright except for some bruises and an added amount of anxiety and mistrust you would carry around for a while. On the way back to your home you and Mallahir did not speak, too lost in your own thoughts. “I am so sorry Y/N. I should have been there and I should have protected you.” Mallahir spoke, successfully distracting you from your own thoughts. “What? Mal no it was not your fault. If any one is responsible it’s me. I should have never strayed that far from the alehouse.” You added. “I guess it’s not your or my fault it’s their fault. They did this to you.” A silence fell over you until Mal decided to speak again. “Honestly I think you should get trained.” He looked at you “Just so you can defend yourself better. I mean you were lucky Glorfindel was there to help you. He is a great elven soldier but apparently not even the streets of Mithlond are safe and a little combat training might help you.” You pondered his statement. Knowing more about defensive fighting would definitely come in handy at some point or another. You were not a big fighter but you sure would like to learn one or two things about self defense. “You are right. Would you teach me?” You knew he was trained in combat. He rarely ever had to fight though. “I am probably not the right one to train you but I could ask Glorfindel if that’s alright with you. He would definitely not mind and he is a great teacher.”

It was decided then. Glorfindel would teach you the basics in combat and defense.

Tagging @lotrnonsense​ / @captainbutterflygirl2​ @thesolarangel​ @lazymeriadoc​ @bananaphanta​ @betty-not-boop​ @fenharel-enaste @eowyn7023​