#that's the house noelle grew up in! her sister inherited it since their parents passed away )^'':

[simgerale]

noelle announced the pregnancy to her sister (and only living relative in bridgeport)! along with the fact that the baby was a vampire...... because they were vampires. after a moment of anger, they made up!

[acacia-may]

Ooo for the WIPs; what are the Time Next gen fics 👀? And the Vanessa’s father one? Those sound interesting 🥰!

Hi Lyra! It's so nice to hear from you. Thank you so much for your ask and for your interest in my wips, dear! 💕

I will confess that I haven't worked on any of my Black Clover Next Gen fics in a while (I have one, Portals and Potatoes) that has been in progress on AO3 since last year that I really need to go back to one of these days), but I am very fond of the two with "Time" in the titles (which are both from the same "Future Problems" series).

"Crossing the Time Line" is Spatial Brothers-centric. Kalon, Finral's time-traveling son in my AU, accidentally sends his father and Uncle Langris (who get along now) back to the Royal Knights Exam which they have to try their best to recreate without anyone finding out they are from the future--shenanigans ensue.

"Find Me In Time" is more angsty and serious in tone and is about the next generation of magic knights (mostly everyone's kids plus a few others) especially the Black Bulls squad when Yami's son, Katsu, is the captain. In a desperate attempt to retreat from a terrible battle with a Zogratis descendant (A/N: do not ask me which Zogratis the villain is related to--I honestly never thought about it because I don't wanna know lol), Kalon accidentally brings his captain several members of his squad [including Henry's daughter, Summer, Gauche and Grey's daughter, Mira, and Asta & Noelle's son, Kai], his best friend, Anni Boismortier (Charmy & Rill's daughter who is on the Aqua Deer), and his sister, Lia, (who is in the Golden Dawn) to safety in the past for a short respite in which they are comforted by their (young) parents.

As a bonus (to end on a happier note), "Captain Magna" is also a Next Gen story about the next generation Black Bulls squad but it takes place earlier (or in a different timeline) when Magna is the Black Bulls' captain. Trying to get his squad back to their base, Kalon accidentally takes them to the Black Bulls' hideout nearly two decades in the past where they are discovered by (canon-age) Magna and Luck. It's all lighthearted shenanigans.

The "Vanessa's Father" fic is one I would really love to come back to someday, but it became such a big (multi-chapter) project that I think I got a little intimidated and had to leave it for a while after it hit around 5,000 words. In briefest summary, Vanessa finds her biological father, Cyril Swann (OC), and agrees to meet him. Most of the story is told through flashbacks in which Cyril explains how he came to have Vanessa and, ultimately, was (forcibly) separated from her by the Queen of Witches.

I'll put the basic backstory and also a snippet from the wip under the cut since I'm not sure how to explain more without a lot of ramblings. 😅 (Warnings: mentions really unhealthy arranged marriage for the purpose of producing children only)

Vanessa's father, Cyril, grew up as the youngest child of the House of Swann, a lower-tier noble house in the Clover Kingdom. His family's only claim to fame was their mediocre wind magic, and the fact that Cyril's older sister, Channary, married into the Noble House of Sandler (eventually becoming the mother of Alecdora). Cyril is the only member of the Swann family in nearly a century not to have wind magic, having inherited string magic from his mother (who was specifically chosen to marry into the family because her magic was so weak it was not suspected to be passed down to the children). Cyril was close to his mother whose name was also Vanessa, but after she dies, he is treated as an outsider by his father and three older siblings: Cecil, Crispin, and Channary, as his string magic is considered fairly useless by everyone including Cyril himself who mainly uses it to change the strings on his violin.

Cyril lives next-door to Finral's (eventual) mother, Calia, who is his dearest friend and like a sister to him. Calia has what is considered a weak "summoning magic" that lets her move things with her mind (both in her line of sight and by picturing them), but it attracts the attention of the Noble House of Vaude and a marriage is arranged between her and the current heir, Ledior (like with Cyril's parents, the hope is that Calia's magic will be so weak that it won't prevent the Vaude spatial magic from being passed down to any children). Calia is a very sweet, if a bit naive, young lady and a talented pianist who loves to play accompanied by Cyril's violin (she considers him quite talented when Cyril just thinks of himself as mediocre). They also love to have tea in Calia's garden and to play with Cyril's cat, Reddington.

Shortly after Calia's marriage is arranged, one of Cyril's elder brothers, Crispin, trespasses in the Forest of Witches thereby breaking a treaty between the Witch Queen and the Clover Kingdom. Her Majesty the Queen of Witches is going to have him executed for breaking the treaty until Lord Swann (Cyril's father) negotiates with her and basically gives her Cyril/his hand in marriage in exchange for Crispin's release since she's interested in his string magic. The Witch Queen wants the power to control destiny, and with her Future Sight Magic, she has been able to see the future in which her daughter, Vanessa, exists, has the power to control fate, and uses a string-like magic. Having this power over destiny is far more important to the Witch Queen than her hatred of men so Her Majesty essentially wants to use Cyril to have Vanessa and then agrees to let him go.

Cyril eventually fancies himself in love with Her Majesty (and calls her Regina ("Queen") even though he isn't entirely sure if that is even her real name), so he agrees to the arrangement, marries her, and never feels forced into the relationship or into having children. Even though their "relationship" is cold, business-like, and more than a little problematic, Cyril tries his best to make it work and get Her Majesty to love him but, of course that doesn't work out. Her Majesty pities him, but that is really as much affection as she is capable of. [A/N: Their dynamic is very much "I Love You (As Much As Someone Like Me Can Love Anyone)" (YouTube) Warnings: some language and a few spicier/suggestive jokes in that song].

Eventually they have Vanessa together, and Cyril loves his daughter dearly, more than he could have imagined he could love anyone. He is actually the one who names her--naming her Vanessa after his beloved mother. His daughter is Cyril's pride and joy, but Her Majesty thinks he is a bad influence (being a man and all) so she tries her best to keep them separated from each other until eventually she kicks him out of the Forest of Witches altogether after Vanessa presents with her magic meaning the Queen has no more use for him. He isn't sure what happened exactly: one night he fell asleep in the Forest of Witches, the next night he woke up back in his old room at House Swann. The forest is well hidden so he could never find it again and even if he could, Her Majesty would never let him back in and he wouldn’t be able to break through her magical barrier (that Asta eventually breaks through his anti-magic).

When Cyril gets back to Clover, several years have passed. In that time, his best friend, Calia, has died from complications giving birth to Finral (and her husband has remarried quickly which doesn’t sit right with him). Cyril’s eldest brother, Cecil, died in the line of duty as a magic knight, and his other elder brother, Crispin, (who is kind of responsible for this whole mess in the first place) has taken over House Swann as next in line, but he can’t/doesn’t want to run anything so Cyril has to step in & actually keep their House going behind the scene (all the logistical things like making sure servants get paid, money is properly invested ect.). He spends his most of his days being touted around and shown off by his family (seeing as he’s technically a ‘prince consort’). Cyril is a very unpretentious and straight-forward person who hates the limelight, but his older brother and sister, Crispin and Channary, are not above using him and his status as a ‘prince consort’ to further their own standing & influence. Though Cyril tries to explain, nobody quite understands (or wants to understand) that he isn’t actually a prince consort so, unfortunately for him, he gets dragged around to a lot of fancy dinners and noble parties he doesn’t want to be at where sycophants try to suck up to him and/or try to arrange marriages with the daughter they’ve heard he has. [A/N: I actually played around with the idea of him ending up at a party at House Vaude at one point and running into a tiny Finral & Langris, but never did anything with it].

Eventually, Cyril reaches a certain breaking point where he just retreats from the public eye and tries to live a quiet life with his cat(s) while missing his daughter terribly and playing a lot of sad violin music, which is how no one has ever really heard of him before. House Swann was always a lower tier Noble House on the outskirts of the Noble Realm anyway so he was quickly and easily forgotten. He visits his sister & his nephew, Alecdora, from time to time, but he does not get out much.

Cyril is very heartbroken over losing his daughter and has never really forgiven himself for having to leave Vanessa, even though he didn't have a choice. Cyril suspected that Vanessa was in Clover and heard rumors about a powerful magic knight from the Forest of Witches with the power to control destiny, but he felt like he didn’t have the right to just show up out of nowhere and infringe on her life. He thinks she probably hates him for abandoning her and being absent and that there isn’t anything he can do to make it up to her, so he just lets it be and leaves her alone.

Eventually, however, he runs into Langris at a party hosted by Cyril's nephew and Langris' squad mate, Alecdora, and Langris recognizes Cyril's unique magic. After talking to him, he sort of puts together that he must be related to Vanessa and mentions it to her. Vanessa debates it for a little bit but eventually reaches out to Cyril and asks if they can meet. He explains the whole story, and Vanessa realizes that they're both victims of Her Majesty and that she has always been connected to him.

Now, there might be an author-given, actual reason why Vanessa’s fate power presents as a cat but in this story, but for this backstory, I kind of linked it back to her dad in a way. The strings are his power after all & even if this fate manipulation is combination magic (her majesty’s future sight + dad’s strings), it is powered by love. It’s the strong bonds she has with her Black Bulls family that help her unlock it, but in my mind (in this universe anyway) there might be something subconscious there where she’s pulling on a happy memory & bonds she doesn’t quite remember with a father who loves her which is why Rouge looks like her father's cat, Reddington (I was a little worried that naming the cat “Reddington” would be a bit on the nose though...)

Cyril and Vanessa reconcile and start to rebuild their relationship and really become part of each other's lives. Cyril would have been a wonderful father if he had been given the chance, but Her Majesty stole that from him. I like to think that going forward they get to have a close bond with each other, and if Vanessa ever has children, Cyril becomes a wonderful grandpa to them.

But I think I have rambled enough about all of this. 😅 Here's a small snippet from a scene that takes place when Vanessa is very little and Cyril is still in the Forest of Witches (and sneaking out to see her).

WIP SNIPPET:

“Papa!” Vanessa called to him excitedly before Cyril held a finger to his lips and shushed her gently—carefully tiptoeing over to the small bed which had recently replaced her crib. Since Her Majesty did not want him to spend a lot of time with her—often citing the corruption that would likely accompany a more masculine influence, Cyril had used to sneak out in the middle of the night to curl up next to his daughter’s cradle. Now that his little girl was getting older, however, he was having to find more creative ways to sneak out to visit her when Regina was too preoccupied with other things to care to stop him. After all, Cyril was sure she saw everything in her Forest and especially in her own palace so there was no hiding from her, but there was definitely a hierarchy to her concerns so he learned to schedule his visits around those. Now, for instance, it was very late, and Regina was holding court. She wouldn’t be bothered with coming to stop him from playing with his daughter. 

“How are you, Nessie?” he whispered with a bright smile as he gave her a gentle kiss on the top of her head. 

Vanessa beamed at him. “Happy.” 

“I’m glad.”  

“You are happy, Papa?” she asked, slipping her tiny hand into his. 

It was probably her favorite question, and like always, he smiled and assured her, “Of course, I’m happy. I’m with you” before he kissed her cheek causing her to giggle and laugh. Cyril stifled his own laughter so as not to draw too much unnecessary attention—a bit difficult seeing as Vanessa’s constant cheerfulness and beaming smile were simply infectious. Cyril remembered fondly that even when she was still a baby, Vanessa had this way of staring at a person with a bright smile until they smiled back at her—almost like a little game, as if she wanted everyone around her to be happy. When she got older, she took to asking them outright. 

Before he could say anything more, Reddington jumped up into bed curling up next to Vanessa with a contented purr. The otherwise grumpy cat was particularly protective of the little princess, though Cyril was sure he would deny it if he was able. Even so, he was often snuggled up next to Vanessa relishing her attention and adoration—until she playfully pulled on his tail, that is, causing him to yelp and hiss before Cyril once again reminded her how to pet him gently and soothed him with an extra helping of catnip. Reddington purred again as Vanessa pet his soft fur. 

“Happy, Red?” she asked—tilting her head as if genuinely waiting for the cat’s response. The cat mewed, and Vanessa smiled, seemingly pleased with this answer. 

“I have something new to show you,” said Cyril, taking a seat at his daughter’s bedside. 

“New amimals?” Her eyes seemed to light up when she asked, and Cyril nodded. Vanessa was always delighted by the little dolls and animals he made for her to play with out of his thread magic, particularly when Reddington had tired of them or was off sulking somewhere and no longer wanted to play. When Cyril wasn’t able to visit her, he was thinking of new things he could create and practiced making them with his magic. He had actually gotten pretty good at making them move as well, entertaining her with kittens that arched their backs, puppies that wagged their tails, fish that wiggled their fins, and little birds that flapped their wings causing Vanessa to giggle with glee for hours. 

Vanessa’s eyes widened in wonder as Cyril held out his hands to her, forming his threads into the shape of a cow that moved its head up and down as if it was grazing in a pasture. 

“What’s this?” she asked curiously. 

“It’s called a cow. They make a silly sound: 'moo’,” he demonstrated, and his heart could have melted as his little girl burst into laughter and stared up at him with wide, joyful eyes. Her violet eyes were the one feature she had inherited from him. Cyril couldn’t help but wonder if someday when she got older, if he was no longer around, she might look at herself in the mirror and wonder where those eyes had come from and think of him, if only just for a moment. The thought caused his chest to ache and filled him with an unbelievable sadness, but he knew it was only a matter of time before Regina dissolved their arrangement.