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pixiedoodlein · 3 years

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I’m so fucking mad that a year and a half into this pandemic I am back to 11th hour debating another year of homeschool. The first stretch of homeschool, in NYC, when the toddler was a baby, and husband was home on unemployment, was good, nice even, a quiet piece of something good when the world outside was falling apart. The next stretch, the Oklahoma stretch, with a particularly climby toddler, husband working 10 hour days, me doing remote contract work, somewhere we had no family around to help w/ childcare, was challenging. I was not always my best self. Some days were delightful, muffins and math games. Other days I was more Miss Trunchbull than Miss Honey, fractions were squeezed in between crying (usually mine) and netflix (way too much of hers), and I held on to any shred of sanity by telling myself “just a little longer, just until the vaccines.”

Well here we are. Husband & I have been vaccinated for months, but the kids aren’t yet. The upstate NY town we moved to is a very small town (pop: 838), was mostly untouched by previous waves. When we got here, I couldn’t understand why everyone was so lax about it- no masks, no panic. Our first day here, when I came home from the market and saw through the window a gaggle of unmasked kids in my living room (the neighbors coming to welcome us, they heard a kid moved in) I almost had a heart attack. In fact, I was so tired from the drive from OKC that for a moment I actually thought I was at the wrong house, that I was hallucinating, because how in the world could there be unmasked bodies in my living room.

Then I started talking to people here. And I realized that the way I thought they were insane for not being deathly afraid of covid, they thought I was insane for being petrified. Because the disease hadn’t hit here; their businesses were destroyed and their kids were out of school (in a rural area with barely functional internet, remote school = a lost year) and their lives were totally fucked up, for a disease that never arrived at their doorstep. I came to understand why they weren’t worried, why here life looked (almost) normal. I told them about what it was like to live somewhere covid tore through, the freezer trucks of bodies on the FDR Drive and my previously healthy 27yld brother so sick with it the first spring he thought he was about to die (but too scared to go to a hospital), my dad’s relative in the next NYC wave on a vent for months and lucky to be alive but may never walk again, the doctors in OKC pleading on the news to please wear a fucking mask because the hospitals were fucking full, and the neighbors stopped thinking I was psycho when I carried extra masks for their kids, and made them put them on, when I took them to town for ice cream. I never stopped masking. But we did indoor dine here (once, BBQ, it wasn’t delicious enough for how anxious I felt) and I did bring all the kids, including my toddler, to a fairly crowded children’s museum in the big (small) city an hour away, where the rest of us were masked but the one with his hands in his mouth, who was all up in other kids’ faces, the one who really should be masked, wasn’t because he won’t leave it on for more than a minute.

Actually it’s a lie to say that I never stopped masking- I have dashed into little stores here, without one, because I’m vaxed! It’s safe here! Covid felt done. We had friends come here to visit this summer. Friends who are vaxed, but that doesn’t seem to really matter enough anymore. We had the neighbors over for meals, indoors (you see, more indoor dining! A minute ago I was just thinking restaurants, but why would plagues only spread in restaurants?). They had us for meals. The girls are a crew, new best friends, making my daughter’s life here so, so much happier, constant sleepovers (their kids were at our house this afternoon; my kid is at their house right now). The parents and grandparents are wonderful, making my life here, and husband’s life here, so much easier, so much better. We help them with stuff, they help us with stuff, there isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t see each other, unmasked. Some of the adults in their household are vaxed; some of the adults in their household are not. The kids are all too young to be vaxed. But it (living, doing shit again, seeing people again) really stopped feeling scary; it really felt like everything was fine, normal-ish, normal-er. The end of the pandemic felt in sight.

I signed my child up for school here. Real school, not mommy school, school with a school bus. She was a little anxious, I had to talk her into it, I sold it hard, I bought her whatever pair of new sneakers she wanted for her new school (she hasn’t had gym class in a year and a half; for a phase in Oklahoma she wore one boot and one sandal every day, why not). She wasn’t anxious about sneakers or covid; she was anxious that maybe she hadn’t learned enough in homeschool (I am not a teacher! I did not homeschool because I am good at it or love it or wanted to, I homeschooled because I was scared of her getting covid at school and dying), that she would be behind. She isn’t behind. I followed the real school curriculum as best I could (as in: sometimes totally and sometimes not at all), and somehow, when I gave her the standardized “real school” test “at the end of the year” (aka the day I couldn’t take it anymore, I had to focus on my work or I wasn’t going to have an income, the day I’d decided we’d done as much as we could and it was time to be done), she sailed through it, this kid is smart. Smart as in needs to be in actual real fucking school to stay smart and learn and reach her potential.

She got excited- one of the neighbor kids is in her grade. The other kid is older- but the school is small, she’d see her tons. She was excited; I was excited. I registered her for school. Her new teacher sent a nice note. We all were excited. She’s never taken the school bus before but the neighbors take it and she’d be fine on the bus with her besties, the bus would pick her up in front of their house since there’s nowhere to turn around up our hill (we are VERY rural), they’d all get on and off the bus together. She has been backpack shopping. We have been discussing what she’ll have for breakfast (honey nut Cheerios), what she wants me to pack for lunch (she says just Goldfish, I say turkey sandwich, we’re working on it).

But now, 18 days before school starts here, I am thisclose to pulling her out, to embarking on another lovely (not), gratifying (not) year of homeschool, because of covid, delta. When we got to our new home in our new tiny town in June, there was no covid here. Now, our county is listed by the CDC as a high transmission area (is there anywhere in the US that isn’t?). 80% of senior citizens here are vaxed; 50% of the total population is, well below the national average. 15 cases per 100,000, in a county of 100,000. I guess this is less rampant than our previous pandemic locales, NYC (currently 25/100K), OKC (49/100K). This is splitting hairs, everywhere is bad. This is what panic does to me: are we better or worse for every decision we’ve made in the past year and a half, every decision that got us here? There are fewer cases here but fewer people and fewer vaccinated people and fewer ICU beds. We aren’t safe even here, but at least we are happy (happy aside from fear of delta death).

I don’t know whether to send my kid to school in 18 days. There will be masks but masks aren’t enough (how many masks do I make her wear? two, ten, a thousand?). This choice feels crazy— in March 2020, when that covid was mostly sparing kids, I yanked her out of school. Now, this covid does hurt kids. How much longer, how many more years, can parents be in this position to make this nightmare choice? What will hurt her more: school or no school? There are vaccines, more than enough in America. We shouldn’t be having to make this choice.

As it is, because of toddler— not because of toddler, because of being a parent to children in a pandemic— my work life, and husband’s, will be severely impacted this year, again. I can’t send him to daycare because he’s too little to leave a mask on (he won’t even leave his pants on!) in a room full of other unmasked toddlers, whose families may or may not be vaxd, may or may not wear masks (there has been a noticeable increase in supermarket mask wearing since we got here, but still not enough, is any of it enough?), may or may not be going to parties and weddings and funerals, daycare providers who may or may not be doing all the same. This means I can only apply to remote jobs, so I can be home with him. Husband has some flexibility, more than he did in OKC, but god forbid he has to work while I have a work call or meeting or work due I didn’t manage to get done at 4am or 11pm when the house is quiet. He can’t bring toddler to work with him, his work is up on scaffold, stenciling ceilings. This will be another year of me muting myself on Zooms while toddler pulls his diaper off and hurls poop at the cat. Would it really be so much harder to also be trying to teach parts of speech to our daughter at the same time? Yes, it would, but I don’t know if I can send my kids back out into the world until they’re vaccinated. I am counting the days, holding my breath, until they can be.

I used to believe in personal choice. I don’t anymore. I want this shit to be mandated, I want the government to line us up and force mRNA into holdouts’ arms, I want it to be required, to be able to function in and interact with and benefit from society in any way, shape, or form. I have been very lucky in the pandemic. Privilege stacked on privilege on privilege, to be fussing over my Zooms in my hamlet. I had been pretty pandemic perky, baking my pies and playing with my pandemic pets and (thinking about) doing puzzles, but I’ve reached my breaking point. This shit could be done, but it’s not, and I’m scared it never will be.

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mirkwoodshewolf · 3 years

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A new kind of competition; RA on the Masked singer pt. 2

*Author’s note*

Okay I know I’m kinda doin this out of order but I was posting this part on Wattpad and since it was still in my copying memory I decided to post this part up first but no worries, pt. 1 will be posted up in just a minute. And I wanna tell you all that there will be only TWO MORE chapters left before I finally complete the Rock Angel series. Enjoy this chapter until next time my dears :)

Taglist:

@plethora-of-things

@waddles03

@psychosupernatural

@ixchel-9275

@simonedk

@queensdivas

@queen-paladin

@jd-johndeacon-or-jackdaniels

@geek-and-proud

@starswin

@queendeakyy

@5sos-wdw

@onebigfangirlworld

@isabella-bby

@labessieisallama

@ssa-sadboi

@naturalswifty89

@wormzteef

@bohemiansweede

_________________________________________________________

*Round 5. THE SUPER 8*

Now it was starting to get serious, this was now the Super 8 and this was the first time this season that 2 people were gonna get eliminated. I took a deep breath and gave a silent prayer to God and Freddie above to give me strength.

“And here to give us yet another star-stellar performance and another few hints as to who this mega star could be under the mask. Here’s the Lioness.”

The LIONESS; CLUE PACKAGE

“What very few people don’t know about me is that I didn’t always have that good of a homelife as a child.” I said as I walked through a child’s room. I took hold of my stuffed lion and hugged him tightly as I continued, “The people who raised me were well—let’s just say they weren’t the nicest of people. The remainder of my childhood into adolescence was toxic for me.”

“Oh my god.” Nicole muttered sympathetically.

“Growing up with that much toxicity it really damaged my self-esteem. No matter how hard I tried, it just wasn’t enough for them.”

“Growing up in an abusive home.” Robin noted. “Wonder if she’s an advocate for domestic abuse?”

“But I knew I couldn’t let myself be buried underneath all that hatred. It took a long, long, long, long time. But I forgave them. Because in a way without them, I wouldn’t have found this inner strength within me.”

“You go Lioness.” Cheered Jenny.

“That’s why for this performance, if you or a loved one is dealing with toxic family members or partners. There’s no shame in admitting they’re in the wrong. Because if you continue to listen to their toxic lies, it’ll only lead you down one way. And you’re too good to leave this world just yet.” I set the stuffed lion down and punched the wall which shattered as I let out a proud roar.

I stood there on stage with the mic on hand as my girl Pink’s “Beautiful trauma” came on and I began singing in a ballad like tone first. Slowly walking across the stage till I came upon a beautifully decorated swing (much like the Black Swan used a couple rounds ago).

*Me*

We were on fire I slashed your tires It's like we burned so bright we burned out I made you chase me I wasn't that friendly My love, my drug, we burn out

I got on the swing and it slowly raised up, lifting me all the way high above the audience as I sang the 2nd chorus. As the mantra part of the chorus came up, silk extended from the ends of the swing and I slowly swung back and forth making the silks dance gracefully in the wind. When the bridge came up, I turned on my semi-good rapping skills. As I rapped out the bridge, the swing lowered me down towards the catwalk that stood in front of the judges.

Once my feet touched the ground and I sung the last verse, I walked towards the judges and sung before each of them.

*Me*

The pill I keep taking The nightmare I'm waking There's nothing, no nothing, nothing but you My perfect rock bottom Beautiful trauma My love (my love), my love, my drug, oh

My love, my love, my love, my drug, oh My love, my love, my love, my drug, oh My love, my love, my love, my drug, oh My love, my love, my drug.

Mmm tough times they keep coming All night laughing and knackered Some days like I'm barely breathing Then after we were high and the love dope died, it was you

The pill I keep taking The nightmare I'm waking There's nothing, no nothing, nothing but you My perfect rock bottom My beautiful trauma My love, my love, my drug, oh

After walking back on stage with Nick standing at my side, he congratulated me on another amazing performance.

“The Lioness is pulling our heartstrings once again.”

“I agree Nick. Especially after hearing that story of her going through domestic abuse that—that’s never an easy thing to go through. But Lioness let me just say you are a strong woman underneath. Because I can tell you’ve overcome that trauma and made a name for yourself.” Nicole told me.

I pounded my heart and raised my hand towards her. She gave me a heart back.

“Now we raided through your fridge and found out just what exactly the Lioness loves to eat.”

“Oh come on Nick this is easy! She eats meat!” Ken exclaimed.

“Sit your butt down Ken!” Nick exclaimed. “Men in Black, bring out the Lioness’s favorite meal.” One of them came pulling out a cooler and sat it right beside Nick and he said. “Alright, let’s see what we’ve got in here.” There was a drumroll before he opened it to reveal a thermos that read JASMINE TEA.

“What’s that say on the thermos?” asked Jenny.

“Jasmine tea.”

“But there’s no food there!” complained Ken.

“To answer your Question Kenneth.” I scolded. That got the rest of the panel as well as Nick laughing. “Any type of food is good for me, but it’s this tea that will give you a clue. As to who I am.”

The audience and Nick ooed. Jenny’s mouth opened widely as she rapidly pounded her stack of notes.

“Jenny it looks like you’ve got something.”

“I do! I do! I do! I do! I do! Okay so in the clue package she talked about her abusive childhood. Rough upbringing, but she didn’t say parents were the ones doing it. And the number code that was given to us awhile back, that 149121. I have been running through my head various codes as to what that could mean. Until the TEA is what gave me the idea.”

“Who is it?!” Ken demanded.

“At least she’s making more sense than you do Ken!” Robin dissed.

“Okay the code actually stands for 11-24-91. And this Rockstar has a tattoo of it on her shoulder with Angel Wings to remember her friend and mentor Freddie Mercury. This is most definitely the ROCK ANGEL (Y/N) KLINE!!!”

“Oh yeah that’s right. She does have a tattoo with that date on it.” Robin agreed with her.

“Nah I’m gonna disagree with you on that Jenny.” Ken said. Oh boy here we go. “Now going off based off the clue package we saw domestic abuse. And on the number code the first few numbers I picked out were 911. This actress started in a movie known as “The Call”. Welcome to the Masked Singer Halle Berry!”

I shook my head and crossed my arms at him.

“Look at her she’s agreeing with me.”

“Ken this is not Halle Berry!” Nick Cannon said. I then waved bye to Nick as I proceeded to walk off the stage but he told me to come back, so I had no choice but to stand there. “See Ken you made the Lioness upset just like you did with Nick Carter last season.”

“Hey like I said before then. This isn’t the first time someone’s walked away from my guesses, and it won’t be the last.”

“I think I might have an idea on who it might be.” Nicole piped in.

“Go head Nicole.”

“Okay so we saw the domestic abuse, growing up in an abusive home. But I also remember from a few weeks back there was a sign that said AIDS. So I’m thinking she’s also an advocate for AIDS/HIV awareness. I’m gonna put my money on Rihanna.”

Oh wow that’s impressive. But sadly she’s wrong. Although I have helped Rihanna with some of her AIDS awareness promotion when the two of us were at a party together for MTV. She told me she wanted to start a campaign for it but had no idea where to begin with it. So I gave her some of my well known contacts and gave her some business advice that I remember learning from Deacy on how to handle everything.

“That’s not a bad guess. But Rihanna’s got a different voice. But whoever you are, you wowed us once again Lioness.” I bowed and blew them a kiss as Nick told me that I could head backstage.

“The judges are slowly but surely getting a grip with my identity. But I’m not ready to go home just yet. And if I somehow make it through, I’ll give them a performance that’ll definitely throw them off my scent.”

Thankfully, I was safe from being unmasked in this double elimination, however Seashell and the Yeti weren’t as lucky.

*Round 6. THE SPICY 6*

It’s down to the wire now. This song might just make me or break me, especially since it’s the hardest song I’ll ever do in my entire singing career. But like Freddie and I always say, “It’s go big or go home darling.” Plus this is another special performance that I’m dedicating to.

“Now then we actually got to sit down and actually talk with this Megastar. Here’s what we managed to find out about the Lioness.”

THE LIONESS CLUE PACKAGE AND INTERVIEW.

This clue package showed me getting my mask taken off but I still had a black face cover hiding my entire face.

“Oh yes that feels so much better.” I praised at feeling the cool air on my face. The Producer then asked me.

“So how has it been being the Lioness so far?”

“A lot of fun. She’s given me the courage to do things I never thought I could do before.” The screens would show some of my previous performances from getting on a wrecking ball to being lifted well over 10ft above an audience.

“What would winning the Masked Singer mean for you?”

“Well I’m not just doing it for myself. But for my pride as well. Especially my dad.”

“You’re dad?” I nodded. The screens would then show me walking around my den with a picture of me and a shadow figure of a male lion.

“Not related by blood but he’s been my father figure for as long as I’ve known him. In fact without his love, I never would’ve found true love on my own. My husband, my kids, even my grandkids. They wouldn’t have existed had he not given me the love that I was denied growing up.” I stroked the picture of the shadow figure of the lion beside me. The screen also showed my real family with my husband lion, 4 adult kids and 2 young grandkid cubs.

I pressed the frame up to my mouth and gave it a kiss, the screen even made a kiss sound effect as little hearts danced around it.

“So Papa Lion, this song is for you. I love you so much and thank you for everything you’ve done for me.” I blew a kiss to the camera as my clue package and interview ended.

The ballad opening for “I don’t wanna miss a thing” by Aerosmith came on and I took a deep breath. This was it, but you’re doing it for Roger here (n/n). Even though he won’t know it, this song is for him. I opened my mouth and soon began singing.

Once the bridge came around and the most difficult part of the song came on, I unleashed every ounce of alto rawness I had within me and just belted out that last yeah which made fireworks rain down from the ceiling and the audience seemed to enjoy it.

*Me*

I could stay awake just to hear you breathing Watch you smile while you are sleeping While you're far away and dreaming

I could spend my life in this sweet surrender I could stay lost in this moment forever Cause moment spent with you is a moment I treasure

Don't want to close my eyes I don't want to fall asleep 'Cause I'd miss you, babe And I don't want to miss a thing

'Cause even when I dream of you The sweetest dream will never do I'd still miss you, babe And I don't want to miss a thing

And I don't want to miss one smile I don't want to miss one kiss

And just stay here in this moment For all of the rest of time Yeah, yeah, yeah!

Don't want to close my eyes Don't want to fall asleep 'Cause I'd miss you, babe And I don't want to miss a thing

After finishing the song, fireworks came up behind me as I punched my fist into the air and panted from within my mask.

“Oh my god where did that come from!?” exclaimed Jenny.

“The lioness taking us to the far reaches of outer space with Armageddon!” Nick proclaimed as he came up beside me.

“I wanna say something first Lioness. That was probably your best performance ever.” Robin told me. Oh my god seriously? I knew I had cracked up on that last ‘yeah’ but to hear him say this was my best performance surprised me. “You really laid it out on the line tonight with probably the hardest song but you executed it phenomenally.” He praised.

I bowed my hands in gesture to him telling him I wasn’t worthy.

“Alright now let’s see just who amongst our panel is the Lioness connected to.” The judges all looked up and soon my chute came down towards Ken but Nicole intercepted it from him and she said.

“Oh it’s for Jenny.” She passed it to Ken who passed it to Jenny and she saw the silver charm of a birthday cake.

“A birthday cake.” She told the crowd as she held the charm between her fingers.

“Jenny. I wanna thank your husband for performing at one of my kid’s birthday party.” At that the crowd got all suspicious and Jenny’s face was gaped wide in shock.

“Is Donny doing things behind your back?” Nicole accused Jenny.

“I hope not.” God these innuendos kill me. “Okay so apparently you know my husband Donny. But I-I don’t remember him ever telling me he performed at a kid’s birthday party.”

“What about the entire New Kids on the Block?” asked Robin.

“Possibly. Was it just my husband or the entire band that performed at your kid’s party?”

“You know she can’t answer that!” Nick snapped playfully.

“I’m sorry but I gotta know!”

“Alright panel. What’s this clue package doin for you?”

“Okay well in the clue package there was the picture of her family. I saw four grown kids and 2 grandkids. If she really is a grandma then I still gotta go with Rock Angel. Because her daughter Kelly just recently gave birth to a baby girl last year during the pandemic doing an at home birth.” Nicole said.

“Yeah and in the clue package she spoke about a father figure. And I read somewhere that she considers Roger Taylor from Queen her dad.”

“Okay, okay panel.” Damn they are starting to see it now. But I hope this performance keeps me in the game. “Well, all we know is was that was yet another killer performance. Make some noise for the Lioness. Go ahead and head on backstage.”

The judges really are seeming to close in on me. I really don’t wanna go home at this point but if I do then it is what it is. I still had a lot of fun doing this show and it was an amazing ride.

But at the votes, I was surprised to see that it wasn’t me that was going home. But the Russian Dolls, after doing Elton John’s song “I’m still standing”. I thought they did a hell of a lot better than me but I guess it’s not always the voices that count, but how you execute the performance.

Now it was onto the Semi-finals.

*SEMI-FINALS*

I’ve come too far to end this journey now. The Semi-finals is the last step to ensure that I can secure my spot in the finals. And I have just the song to get me there.

“Week after week she has astounded us with pure, unadulterated vocals. But can she claim her spot for the finals. Let’s dig up some more clues on……the Lioness.”

THE LIONESS; CLUE PACKAGE:

“Being in this competition has taught me a lot about myself. On one side there’s the Lioness I present before the media, when I preform or out in the public. Then there’s the Lioness I am around my pride. A mother, a daughter, a grandmother. And I think that’s really the best job compared to my career.”

“She’s definitely a family woman.” Jenny stated as she took down some notes.

“I wouldn’t be anywhere without my family. They are my rock. Even those that had left me I still see them throughout my life.” I stood before a funhouse mirror maze and saw various shadows surrounding me. “And it’s their voices that give me the courage to continue the fight. So for this performance I’m gonna pull out all the stops and just allow you all to see the real me. Nothing but my raw vocals. I’ve fought to hard and I’m just not ready to go home yet.”

The stage screens were lit up with a rain animation as well as rippling water. I stood there alone with the mic and the spotlight down on me as I sung the song that was once offered to me for the Original movie, but I recommended the Producers to Christina to do the song.

As the song grew more fiercer with the soft drumbeats and my voice became more powerful and intense, I could feel tears filling my eyes once more. I was gonna get to the finals even if it costs me my voice.

*Me*

Look at me You may think you see Who I really am But you'll never know me Every day It's as if I play a part

Now I see If I wear a mask I can fool the world But I cannot fool my heart

Who is that girl I see

Staring straight back at me?

Why is my reflection

Someone I don’t know?

There's a heart that must be free to fly That burns with a need to know the reason why

Why must we all conceal What we think, and how we feel?

I won't pretend that I'm Someone else for all time When will my reflection show Who I am inside? When will my reflection show Who I am inside?

At that last belt which I held longer than I ever held a note before. A 9 full seconds which made the crowd go berserk. I could see some people wiping their tears away as I sung the last couple of notes before finally ending it with a bow of my head.

“Heartfelt! Lioness once again pulling our heartstrings.”

“Okay I just need to say this Nick.” Ken said.

“Go ahead Kenneth.”

“Throughout this entire competition especially when it comes to the Semi-finals, it all comes down to who wants it most. And Lioness—” he wiped his tears away. “You didn’t just show us that you wanted a spot in the finals. You proved you’re worthy of the Rock Gods!”

Aww Dr. Ken. I blew him a kiss and patted my heart and he blew me multiple kisses back.

“For once I agree with Ken.” Robin said. “If people didn’t get teary eyed when you performed Whitney Houston’s hit song, they’re definitely not dry eyed by now.” The 2 women nodded in agreement.

“I agree with the guys. I grew up listening to this song. And to hear your voice do this song, not only did you just sing it. You felt it. And when a singer feels a song, it makes it that much more powerful.” Nicole added. I nodded and replied to her.

“Agreed Nicole. This song……it really spoke out to me when I first heard it. And…..during a really, really rough time in my life. It—got me through so much.” I spoke through my choked tears. Knowing the judges could sense that I was crying underneath the mask, they all awed at me as Nick rubbed my back.

“Lioness even getting emotional up here. Panel, any guesses as to who she might be?”

“All I can say and have been saying is that this is a true, professional performer. And just that belt alone showed us what you’ve got. A true fire within you. Now I know that I’ve said the Rock Angel a couple of rounds but just this week alone hearing the voice, I wanna say this is Christina Aguilera.” Jenny said.

“But wouldn’t it be risky for her to do her own song?” Robin asked.

“She could’ve disguised her tone in order to sing it. But that recognizable control of the belt has to be her.” Jenny reasoned with him.

“I don’t think so Jenny. Cause in the clue package she says she’s a grandmother and Christina ain’t no grandmother yet. I’m still gonna say this is the Rock Angel.” Nicole said.

“Alright well, another heartfelt performance. Give it up one last time for the Lioness.” I waved to the audience and blew kisses at them before exiting the stage.

By the end of the round (and finding out the identity of the infamous Cluedle-Doo being none other than Jenny’s husband Donnie Wahlberg) it was time to see just who was gonna get eliminated and find out who was going into the finals. I stood there with my hands in a prayer as I mouthed out a prayer before Nick finally said the contestant going home.

“The Black Swan!” oh no! She’s actually been my favorite singer in our group. Hell she and I were the only ladies representing Group B and now it was up to me. “So congrats to the Piglet, Chameleon and Lioness, we will see you three in the finals.” I walked up towards Black Swan and gave her a hug and she hugged me back. “Aww look at that, Lioness giving Black Swan a hug. Seems we’ve got a friendship up here.”

I patted the side of her face before bopping her beak and finally left behind Chameleon. Well it was up to me now, could I secure another female winner for the Masked Singer? Or be runner up? Only fate and the superfans will determine that.

*?????? POV*

I was reading the paper as per my morning routine. Nothing new except this whole COVID talk and false expectations on the vaccine delivery. The world really has gone to shit hasn’t it these past few years? That’s when I got a ding on my phone from my daughter Laura. I unlocked it and read her text with a link to a video.

Dad, is this who I think it is?

Video: MASKED SINGER THE LIONESS

I think I might’ve heard of this show. Yeah it started off in America and after it’s popularity, various of other countries began it. Here in the UK we just completed season 2, so this must be the American version. I’ll admit the costume on the thumbnail looked beautiful and the detail was astounding.

I clicked on the video and it read THE MASKED SINGER S.5 SEMI-FINALS LIONESS.

The lights were dimmed and the second she opened her mouth to sing, my heart skipped a beat and I went frozen in my chair. Quick as I could I turned on our smart TV and opened up the YOUTUBE app on the TV and impatiently waited for it to open up.

“My love?” Veronica’s voice spoke as she came down.

“I’m fine dear!” I told her as the app finally uploaded. I went over to the mic icon and pressed down on it and spoke into the remote. “The Lioness Masked singer.”

Soon enough various videos popped up and soon the video that Laura sent me was the first option. I clicked on it and of course bloody ads had to come up. “Oh for god’s sake!” I sat down on my chair as the video finally played and I could hear the rest of the song.

“Reflection” by Christina Aguilera. This version was the recently updated one for the live action remake but just hearing this voice alone I knew only one person who could sing like that.

It had been decades since we last saw one another, shortly after 9-11 to be exact. But even though I’m no longer involved with the music business anymore, I’d always ask Brian or Rog to keep an eye on her and tell me everything about her.

And now seeing her perform as this Lioness creature for such a show, they didn’t know just how lucky they were to be in her presence. As the song got more powerful, I could feel these old bones of mine feeling warm and secure, tears filled my eyes and at that last belt, goosebumps came all over my body and a shiver ran up my spine.

There was a slight tremble in her voice as she ended the song. I knew it was because she was crying underneath that mask but as always she holds out strong and finished the song as beautiful as ever.

The audience roared with applause bringing back some memories of when she went on tour with us. Only her and one other person could get a crowd to sound just like that.

“She’s gotten stronger with her vocals.” My wife’s voice spoke from behind me.

“She was taught by the best. And she now coaches the best.” Ronnie took her place by my side, placing her hand on top of mine.

“You really should give her a ring sometime. I’m sure she’d love to hear from you.” I turned away from her. “You can’t have the boys and me be your messengers forever. I know for a fact she’d be happy to hear your voice again.” I sighed deeply. “At least think about it my love.”

“I will.” I placed my hand on top of hers and gave her a light peck on the cheek.

“Are there any more performances of her on this show? Luke says she’s been all over the media being the Lioness.”

“Well that was the Semi-finals performance, let’s see if someone collab all of her performances together.” I went back to the search box and soon found about a half hours’ worth of (Y/n)’s performances. I clicked play and soon her 1st performance came up.

Seeing her dance reminded me of our times on the dance floor back in the day. She was the only person able to keep up with my crazy dance moves, and that’s why she was always the perfect dance partner. Even Ronnie agreed to that statement.

“That girl never changes. She’s still got it even after all these years.” Ronnie smiled.

“That she does love, that she does.” God she has grown so much since the last time we parted. Her voice much more mature and able to do things she never did before. And some of the stuff that she’s doing on this show is bonkers.

Never did I think I’d see her on a makeshift wrecking ball or be lifted high above the stage on a swing with silk ropes dangling down from it.

I hope she takes the gold and win this little show of hers because she rightfully deserves it.

*FINALE*

It is time. Do or die now. It was me vs. Piglet vs. Chameleon. After performing a beautiful, angelic performance with last season’s winner LeAnn Rimes, the finals were finally ready to start.

After a couple months of going from 14 down to 3, it all came down to this moment right here, to determine who was gonna be this season’s Masked Singer champion. Chameleon went first and then I was going to be next. Chameleon had stuck to his rapping but I could hear more singing out of him this time around and he actually had a pretty good voice.

“Up next. She’s been putting us through a roller coaster of emotions. From hard rock to ballad. Here is the last performance and your last chance to guess at who is beneath, the Lioness.”

FINAL CLUE PACKAGE.

I was walking through a tunnel slowly. One foot in front of the other.

“Being on the Masked Singer has really been a lot of fun. When I first came on here, never did I think I was gonna make it this far.” The screen would show highlights of all my previous performances along with some additional clues.

Like a familiar band logo at the corner and season 3’s champion Night Angel’s wings. And the year 1981.

“This song was written by a very dear friend of mine. A friend that was taken from us far too soon. But it’s through this song that win or lose, I’ll always take with me till the day I die. Because no matter what, we will always make it through the tough times, especially with what we’re going through now with the Pandemic.”

The stage was dark except for a few lights as the familiar tune of Freddie’s last song he ever performed in the studio came on. I was having brief flashbacks of that day in the studio seeing him record this very song but I had to get my mind right as I sung the first verse.

Once the chorus kicked in, fire exploded from behind the stage as my rock and roll band came back on once more. The stage was mine to command one last time as I walked across it for the chorus, giving it my all, just like Freddie did.

By the time the bridge came on, my voice was starting to tremble but I kept my emotions under control till the end of the song. When I got around towards the end of the song, I would hold out a few of the notes till I finally belted out the last note much like Freddie did on the record.

And I swear it was like I could hear him singing alongside me, guiding me to hold the note out longer.

*Me*

Empty spaces, what are we living for? Abandoned places, I guess we know the score, on and on Does anybody know what we are looking for? Another hero, another mindless crime Behind the curtain, in the pantomime Hold the line Does anybody want to take it anymore?

The show must go on The show must go on, yeah Inside my heart is breaking My makeup may be flaking But my smile, still, stays on

My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies Fairy tales of yesterday, grow but never die I can fly, my friends

The show must go on

Yeah, yeah! The show must go on

Oh yeah! Yeah! I'll face it with a grin I'm never giving in On with the show

I'll top the bill I'll overkill I have to find the will to carry on. On with the show. Show. The show must go on.

As the song ended, fireworks fell down from the roof and fire and smoke exploded from the side of the stage as I panted heavily with my arms extended outward. With the last struck of the drums and guitar, I punched my fist into the air.

I sent a quick kiss to the Heavens as the audience went insane. I saw all five judges on their feet applauding me.

“The Rock and roll Lioness showin us that the Show must always go on.” Nick praised.

“I swear each and every performance you do, it just gets better and better! You could just be this season’s winner.” Jenny told me. I clenched my hands and did a victory gesture with them, I could only hope I’d win but it’s not up to me.

“I would agree. She just keeps escalating and escalating her performances and I’m just in awe whether it’s her rocking out or pulling our heartstrings with her raw voice.” Nicole said. Even last year’s winner LeAnne said.

“Hearing this voice alone makes me feel like I’m looking at a champion singer here.” I placed my hand over my heart in thanks.

The judges then proceeded to do some more guesses, Robin and Nicole were saying that I was the Rock Angel while Jenny was saying that I could be Christina Aguilera and of course Dr. Ken (out of the blue) decided that I was Beyonce.

“So tell us Lioness, what would it mean to you to win this competition?” Nick asked me.

“Well Nick, winning would mean that I’ve given my fans a whole new side of me that they’ve never seen before. But even if I don’t win, I still had a blast being here.”

“We were happy to have you here. Give it up one more time for the Lioness everybody!” I waved to the audience and walked backstage.

“This whole experience has been a wild ride. But I had a lot of fun, win or lose.” I told the camera with the Men in Black behind me.

The Piglet then did his song, “Faithfully” by Journey and man did he kill it. He definitely pulled my heartstrings with that performance. So it could be a close race between him and I, or there could be a game changer and Chameleon could take the trophy as the first rapper to sing solely Rap/Hip-hop songs.

“Tonight was a star-worthy performance, but as we know only one can take home the Masked Singer trophy. Now it’s up to our judges and Superfans at home to vote for your favorite now.” I stood between Chameleon and Piglet with my hands together in a prayer. “The votes are in. The contestant with the least amount of votes and in 3rd place is…….”

There was suspense in the air as I felt my foot shake just waiting for Nick to say which one of us got in 3rd place according to the votes of the judges as well as America.

“The Chameleon!” the audience gaped in shock. “That means Piglet and Lioness you both are safe and can head backstage before we call you both back out to crown a winner. Let’s make some noise for the Chameleon everybody!” I walked up to the Chameleon and extended my hand and we shook hands before I walked with Piglet at my tail as we both waited backstage.

About 10 minutes later, we were told to come back onto the stage to finally crown a winner of Season 5 of the Masked Singer. Piglet and I stood on opposite sides of Nick as he held in his hand, the envelope with the Winner’s name.

“Welcome back to the Masked Singer. It is now time to crown our new Season’s champion. Piglet, or Lioness. Which one of you will be taking the golden masked trophy home? The votes are in by the judges and the super fans. And the winner is……..” I could see Piglet’s legs shaking as he has made them every time throughout this entire season, while I was rubbing my hands together nervously.

Nick opened the envelope before proclaiming into his microphone.

“THE PIGLET!!” confetti soon exploded covering both me and Piglet up with strings of blue and silver confetti. Piglet stood there shocked while I clapped for him. He deserved the win, he did a great performance and a great song to close out this season with. He took the golden mask trophy and danced with it as Nick said. “Congrats again Piglet you are this season’s champion. Which means you can stand over there in the championship booth till it’s time to unmask you.”

Before Piglet left, I walked up to him and patted his shoulder before giving him a hug and he hugged me back.

“Aww Lioness is being all cuddly with our contestants here.” Piglet and I shook hands with each other for a good competition while I went back to my spot to be unmasked once and for all. “Lioness you’ve wowed us week after week and as sad as we are to see you go, I think I speak for everybody here, we cannot wait to see who you are!”

The judges all agreed as well as the audience.

“But first, let’s bring out the first Impression guesses. Men in Black! Bring ‘em out!” I could already see the judges pleading for them to not to. “Yeah it’s been like—months since you guys wrote these down.”

“Can we please not do this Nick?” pleaded Jenny.

“Too late. And the first guess is from…..Nicole.”

“Oh god.”

“You guessed……Christina Aguilera. Not a bad guess.”

“Yeah that really isn’t a bad guess. However I’m not gonna stick with that. Based off the clue package of LGBTQ, and growing up in a domestic abusive home, plus the recent clue package with the symbol of the band Queen’s logo and the Rock n Roll hall of fame right beside that. I’m gonna go with the Rock Angel (Y/n) Kline.”

“Okay. Okay. Let’s see who else we’ve got here……Robin!”

“Oh no.”

“You guessed……Pink.”

“Oh that’s not too bad.” He shrugged.

“You stickin with it?”

“I am not gonna stick with that. Like Nicole I did see the Queen logo in this week’s clue package and just going off by the voice alone. I re-listened to some old records and this is clearly the Rock Angel herself.”

“Alright 2 votes for the Rock Angel. Mrs. Jenny McCarthy.” Jenny sunk down in her chair as Nick grabbed her envelope and opened it up. “Your first impression of the Lioness was……also Pink.”

“Oh thank god I thought I had pulled a Ken guess.” She wiped her hand across her forehead as Ken exclaimed.

“Hey!”

“Ken sit down! Are you sticking with that guess.”

“No. The number code we were give, the 149121. Which I’ve coded as her tattoo for the date of Nov. 24th, 1991, the date when Freddie Mercury sadly passed away from complications from AIDS. And seeing how she talks about her family, her kids, her papa Lion. I’m going for (Y/n) Kline the Rock Angel!”

“Alright, alright, alright. Dr. Ken……” oh this outta be interesting to see who he thought I was at the first performance. He opened Ken’s envelope and laughed.

“What? What did he write!?”

“Janet Jackson!” oh my god! That even got me weak in my knees as I laughed.

“With those dance moves I thought it could be her! No one could’ve done that dance better than she could! DON’T LAUGH AT ME!!”

“Are you sticking with that guess?”

“No because the clue package doesn’t support it. Okay so we’ve had LGBTQ, domestic abuse. She’s a family woman with 4 kids and apparently 2 grandkids. Although I think the grandkids is a lie. She went through some tough times throughout her personal life. This is none other than Lady Gaga! Welcome to the Masked Singer!”

“What?!” Nicole exclaimed. “But she’s not a mom!”

“Well then she could be lying about the kids then too all I know is that the rest of my brilliant theories lead to Lady gaga!” I shook my head and placed my hands over my mask shaking my head in defeat. “See! She’s even admitting I’m right!”

“No she’s not she’s just done with how ridiculous your guess is.” Nick said.

“Well I don’t care. This is Lady Gaga and I’ll take it to my grave!”

“Alright. Ms. LeAnne. As our guest panelist you have the last say in who you think this might be.”

“First of all let me just say you are a super star whoever you are under there. If we had competed against each other last year, I would’ve been quaking in my boots.” We all laughed. “This is truly a rock legend under here with the few rare female rockstars that came with the time. And I actually got the privilege to see her perform with the band Queen one year for a birthday party. And there’s only one person that I’ve seen on stage that can sing with as much fire as you Lioness. And that is the Rock Angel herself.”

“Okay Panel. Everyone except for Ken Jong has agreed on their final guesses. Lioness! It is time for the moment we’ve all been waiting for. We wanna know—whose behind the mask. It is time for you to Take it off!”

“Take it off! Take it off! Take it off! Take it off!” everyone soon started chanting. I held my arms out in a shrug before shrugging my shoulders and finally reaching for my mask and tried to lift it off. Nick was helping me as the audience and the judges kept chanting. I could tell I was keeping them in suspense, just wait until they see it’s really me.

Finally the mask came off.

I shook my head and pulled my hair out of my face and the crowd went nuts, the judges all jumped up and cheered.

“THE ANGEL OF ROCK HERSELF! ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAMER! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN THE ONE AND ONLY (Y/N) KLINE!! THE ROCK ANGEL!!!”

“OH MY GOD!!” I heard some of the judges exclaim.

“Look how beautiful she is!” Nicole praised me. I waved to the audience and gave them a “Freddie Mercury” like bow with a twirl of my hand.

“Hello LA!” I said.

“Angel! Angel! Angel! Angel!” I heard the crowd chanting out.

“Wow it is such an honor and a privilege to be standing here next to a true Rockstar.”

“It’s an honor to be here Nick. Thank you all for having me here.” I told him.

“Tell us why did you choose to be in this show?”

“I know this answer gets told a lot but for me personally I speak from the hard truth that we should all strive to do different things cause—you never know which days are gonna be your last.” I hinted my potential death scare almost 20 years ago. The judges all nodded in understandment.

“And I’m told that you also wanted to say something about this performance in particular?”

“Yes. The song I had done wasn’t originally my choice.” The audience as well as the judges all looked at me in surprise. “Originally the Producers wanted me to do a Katy Perry song, but……this coming November will mark the 30th anniversary of the day my boys and I lost our beloved Freddie. And…….being there the day he recorded this song in only one take. I felt in my soul that I had to do this for him. To give him a grand performance because due to this covid Queen and I aren’t touring till we feel it’s safe to start touring again, like many artists are. So I really wanted to honor Freddie with a performance that I hope did him proud.”

“Well you did just that.” Jenny told me.

“Thank you. And I’m glad you managed to catch that Jenny, you truly are the Masked Singer detective.” She pointed out to me and that’s when last season’s winner LeAnne said.

“I grew up listening, to both you and Queen. And—I can say for a fact that you definitely did Freddie Mercury proud. And it’s good that you and the remaining members of Queen continue his legacy. Sure it’s not the same as it was before but you don’t refer to him just in the past. But in the present.”

“Thank you LeAnne dear.” I thanked her as I blew her a quick kiss.

“I just gotta say (Y/n). You absolutely crushed the choreography with Janet’s song for your first performance as well as your wrecking ball routine. I think those were my favorite performances of yours, will we expect any of that once you start your solo tours back up?” Nicole asked me. I laughed along with the audience.

“You never know.”

“Well it has truly been an honor to have you on our show. Now then ladies and gentlemen, to sing for us one last time give it up. For the artist formerly known as the Lioness, the Rock Angel (Y/n) Kline!” the audience applauded and I sung “The Show must go on” one final time for the audience. Putting my heart and soul into the lyrics before finally belting out that last note in a different key before punching my fist into the air and sending a kiss towards the heavens for Freddie.

After the show all ended and a few days passed by, I did a livestream on my Instagram as well as my Youtube page telling my fans that I was indeed the Lioness and just talking about my experience on the show. Of course Bri, Rog and Adam blew up my phone with calls/texts/DM’s (mostly Adam. Bri and Rog still don’t quite get DM’s) telling me why I lied and did that show in the first place.

I gave them my straight answer that I wanted to have a bit of fun and do some type of performance and show the audience a whole new side of me when it came to performing.

I was just about to go to bed after bidding Georgie goodnight (he had to work a late nightshift tonight) when my phone rang. I picked it up to see it was an unknown number from London. Curiously, I pressed the answer button and said.

“Hello?”

‘Sister dear.’ My heart stopped and I sat down on the bed.

“Brother mine?” I choked out.

‘Hey love. It’s uhh—been awhile, hadn’t it?’

“Try 20 years yah rotter.” I teased as we both softly chuckled. “What—how…..”

‘Laura sent me a video of you on the Masked Singer. The American one. You were beautiful up there.’ I placed my hand over my heart. ‘Although I do wish you had won. That—boy band person couldn’t hold a candle to you.’

“Oi now, Nick Lachey did just as well as I did.” I softly lectured him.

‘Well I still feel like you should’ve won.’ I smiled solemnly.

“Was it just because of the Masked Singer that you wanted to call me?”

‘That and…..’ he trailed off. I lay against my bed and softly spoke to him.

“Deacy?”

‘I…….’ he sighed heavily. ‘I know I haven’t been the best at keeping contact.’

“John.” For the first time since……probably back when I was an intern for Miami all the way back in the autumn of 1980, I called him by his first name (unless I referred to him him by his full name did I call him John, most of the time it was Deacy). “I get it. Plus my schedule has been quite hectic. And you—you’ve been busy yourself. After all Queen would’ve fallen decades ago without your financial brain.” We both shared another laugh.

From then one we talked pretty much the entire night up until it was almost 6am my time before we finally said our goodbyes. It was sweet to hear from him once again after so long. Now whether or not I’ll ever hear from him again, I don’t know.

But at least I know my Brother Mine is still keeping his eye out for me, in one way or another.

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pl-panda · 4 years

Text

The Vines that bind us - Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don’t own Miraculous Ladybug or any DC characters. I own only the plot, and even that is inspired by the amazing story "Marigold Ivy" by @lwandile13 on Wattpad. Go check it. It's great. He allowed me to take some inspiration, for which I'm grateful. Also, don't translate the french words maybe. Or at least do it on your own responsibility. Big thanks to @Liza! on Discord for being my Beta :)

Marinette Dupain-Cheng was a normal girl, with a normal life. But she had a secret. Her real name was Marigold Isley. She was born under that name in Gotham city sixteen years ago. Her mother never revealed to her who was her father, but Mari never cared. She was happy with her mom and several aunts and uncles. Technically, none of them were related to her by blood, but Rogues were quite close to each other (excluding some outcasts like Joker or the Menagerie). They taught her many interesting things such as lockpicking, stealth 101, or hand-to-hand combat. She was five when it started, so her first-ever practical test was breaking into a kitchen cupboard and stealing a jar of cookies. Overall, she was very happy.

It changed when she was eight. One very tired social service person named Elizabeth Barrow got wind of a child of a villain. That Elizabeth was new to Gotham after being reassigned from Metropolis and didn’t yet get the wind of how things worked. Maybe her colleagues didn’t like her, or maybe she was just too overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the problem in Gotham. Previously, there was an unspoken agreement in the government that they wouldn’t notice Marigold. In exchange, rogues were calmer. Or at least tried to keep the death toll down. For a time, Gotham even started to slowly heal. But then, Elizabeth took the case of Marigold Isley. Ivy tried to fight. To protect her daughter. For three days, the city was held hostage by giant plants. It was only the fear in her daughter’s eyes that made Poison Ivy relent and let go. She didn’t want that life for Marigold. The one condition she gave was that the girl would leave America as a whole, to ensure she would be safe from all the madness.

And so Marigold ended up in the care of baker’s couple in Paris. She never showed any powers thus far and the adoption agency kept the parentage a secret. That’s when Marinette Dupain-Cheng was born. She continued with martial arts training and stealth training, but now only as fun and reminder of her mother and extended family, as opposed to actual necessary survival tool. She also picked up designing as another hobby, which soon turned into a kind of obsession. She was generally a ray of sunshine.

The one black spot in the happy world of Marinette was the Mayor’s daughter. Chloe Bourgeoise considered herself above others and just couldn’t stand sunshine girl. She ruined her clothes, sometimes damaged her homework, or verbally assaulted her. While Chloe was generally disliked, she was more of a nuance. Overall, Marinette was happy. At least until two events changed that.

When she was twelve, Paris was attacked by Hawkmoth for the first time. Marinette found herself becoming Ladybug, a superhero with magical powers that protected the city from harm. She received a partner in form of Chat Noir. It took some time before she got hang of it, and then more time before she and Chat became an actual team. Over time, more heroes joined them, even if temporarily only. She had people she could count on. She became Happy again.

Privately, she started her own brand: MDC, managed to become a class representative, and became best friends with Alya, who joined around the same time she became Ladybug. It was quite ironic. The superhero was best friends with one person whose greatest dream was to unmask the hero. Marinette also developed a huge (and a bit unhealthy) crush on Adrien Agreste, a famous model who was in her class. She spent years vying for his attention, but nothing ever came from her attempts. She was unable to even say a word around him and her face always became red like her mother’s hair. Overall, she couldn’t complain.

Then, when she was fifteen another black spot appeared. It was Lila (Liela) Rossi. She came to their school and immediately started sporting lies with every breath. Surprisingly, everyone seemed to buy into that, believing her like she spoke the gospel. Everyone but Marinette. She tried to expose Lila, but it only backfired. She became an outcast, disliked by everyone, and universally hated. Suddenly, it became okay to bully her because she was a bully herself and deserved it. It became okay to shun her and no longer include her in anything. The worst was Alya, her former best friend. At first, she just tried to nudge Marinette to give Lila a chance. When Marinette tried to show the truth, Alya practically attacked her. She was just as much responsible for Mari being cast out as Lila was. The fact that her best friend abandoned her only fueled the gossip and allowed Lila to drive the final nail in. In the span of a few weeks, Marinette was left alone.

Around the same time, Chat Noir became more persistent in his pursuit of her while Adrien, who Marinette knew was aware of the lies, was only telling her to keep the high road (do nothing). She could understand him. As a famous model and son of a well-known fashion designer, he was always taught to not provoke the press. It still served as a wake-up call on her crush.

--------

Marinette was packing her things after lessons when she noticed someone approach her from behind. Immediately, she tensed. After eleven years of martial arts practice, it was an instinct. Before she had time to turn around, something heavy landed on her desk with a loud Thud!. She turned to see Chloe standing over a large book, a single thick envelope, and a puffy bag that content Marinette couldn’t guess.

“What’s a…” She started, but Chloe cut her off. She had her usual ‘resting witch’ expression.

“The book contains every single instance I verbally assaulted you, destroyed something of yours, talked about you behind your back, or in any way otherwise did something wrong toward you. Here are the materials for the damaged clothes,” she pushed the bag toward her, “and here is money for other things.” Chloe gave her the envelope. “I apologize for all of that. I was jealous of all the attention you kept getting even though I thought I deserved it. I now realize that my behavior was wrong and hurtful. I will understand if you’ll never speak to me again. I kept acting ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous!” With that, she turned and started to walk again. Marinette idly noticed that there was no Sabrina nearby. Thinking back, Chloe was no longer acting (overly) mean toward anyone as of late.

Making a split-second decision, Marinette raced after the blonde and pulled her into a hug.

“Wha…” Chloe yelped before sinking into the hug. Neither girl realized they were crying until they finally separated. Blonde had her lite make-up in total ruin while Marinette had tears still going down her cheeks. “Does that mean you accept my apologies?”

Marinette didn’t answer immediately. She stood there with open mouth for a moment before smiling weakly. “Yes, Chloe.”

Since that day, they were best friends. It turned out to be a blessing. Chloe, once she finally allowed someone to truly know her, turned out to be a highly intelligent, funny, and very much still overbearing person. She still acted high and mighty, but it no longer felt mean, rather just… felt. She took to defending Marinette from the rest of the class. She was aware of Lila’s lies from day one but never acted on it until it was too late. Sabina abandoned her for the liar. Dealing with loneliness was hard on her. She didn’t even have parents that cared. Her father would probably move sun if she asked, but he had an emotional range of a toothpick. Her mother didn’t even know her name, so she didn’t bother.

Something about their friendship must’ve upset Lila because the girl upped her game. Marinette’s parents suddenly found themselves facing strong critique and constant inspection from the sanitary department and child protection questioning their parenting abilities. MDC, who was slowly becoming one of the go-to fashion designers for famous found herself in the middle of several fake media scandals, including one lawsuit over defamation. If it wasn’t for Jagged Stone and Penny rallying her customers, Marinette and her parents would end up broke. He managed to save MDC and practically made her untouchable. Still, Alya and Lila got off scot-free as nothing could be linked to them.

Perhaps what pushed Lila over the edge was Chloe confronting Adrien. She yelled at him for good two hours straight about responsibility and morality, pointing in detail exactly what he did wrong. She would probably go on if Marinette didn’t stop her. After that, Adrien finally apologized and tried to make things right, but it only turned against him. By then, Lila had everyone so deep into it, that he was powerless. She didn’t go after him as her partnership with Gabriel Agreste was too important, but she did tattle to the Fashion Mogul about it. Gabriel tried to get his son under control, but this was one thing that he couldn’t achieve.

It did inspire a whole youth fashion line ‘rebel’, which became a global hit.

All this time, Marinette kept two secrets. One was her identity as Ladybug and the guardian, the other was her true name and family. Until she kept neither.

----------

Marinette returned home after another day at school. Recently, her mother revealed she was pregnant with another child, even though she was believed to be barren. Everyone in the bakery was overjoyed and the couple even started to hand out small treats to any guest that came. The free samples helped the business return to a better standing.

When she entered, strangely there was no sound in the bakery. It was empty. Usually, her parents would both be very busy as it was still business hours. Slightly worried, she went upstairs. When she entered the living room, she found an envelope addressed to her.

Isley

We tried, but we can no longer tolerate you. We turned a blind eye when we learned how improper you act, trying to drag every boy you meet for some, and we quote, “alone time”. We didn’t react to the bullying accusations, believing them to be overexaggerated. Even when you were expelled, we still had hoped you’ll turn out into a fine young lady. But now, we must think of the baby. Today was the last straw. Hearing about how you ruined that poor impaired girl’s birthday was both cruel and against everything we taught you.

We held hope you won’t follow in your mother’s footsteps, but you proved us wrong several times. We supported your obsession over fashion, even with the drama it caused, because it was actually non-violent. At first, we didn’t want to teach you how to fight, but we convinced ourselves that you would have a way to vent the emotions somewhere away from us.

Please, don’t try looking for us. We will probably have already left the country or even the continent. The bakery is yours. We don’t want to have anything to do with the spawn of evil such as you.

We hoped you would turn out better

Sincerely,

Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng

Marinette tried to read it over and over again, but her eyes welled with tears. She had no idea she was screaming until her throat was coarse. Rationally, she knew she needed to keep calm or she would attract the Akuma, but emotions made her not care.

Unknowingly to her, the plants all around Paris responded to her cry. They started growing and spreading, trying to get to their queen and comfort her. The Akuma that would’ve come for her stumbled into one of the vines, corrupting it. Hawkmoth was surprised, it was not something anyone ever seen in Paris except on TV or some strange Japanese shows that play after midnight. The more important thing was that even though he akumatized the plants, he had no control over them. He couldn’t even recall his Akuma.

Back in Marinette’s living room, she started to feel the ground rumble. Soon, plants exploded from the ground and broke windows. She slowly looked at her hands to see them tinted with green. They were not the same as her mother’s, but close. She looked to the floor where pieces of glass littered everything. Her face was the same, but her hair became blue and her eyes were now the most vibrant iridescent green she’s ever seen, exactly the same color her mother’s eyes were.

She started to panic even more. Tikki floated next to her, talking to her, but Marinette couldn’t hear her. Or maybe process it. She could hear the plants call to her. She could hear them speak. They promised her revenge. They promised retribution on those who attacked her. God’s wrath would rain upon them from the sky and hell’s fury would consume them from beneath.

Impaired girl…

“Liar Rossi.” Marigold seethed. She knew there was only one person who would do such a thing. Only one talented enough to convince her parents she was a villain. If they wanted a villain, they would get one. Her mind was being clouded. Her clothes were already torn, replaced by a skintight outfit made of leaves, much like her mother wore. Then, Marinette remembered another part of the letter. She added a skirt made of purple petals that complimented her blue hair nicely and long sleeves that reached to her hands, ending with a triangle that reached her middle finger and surrounded it at the base. She left the decolletage as it was.

Exiting her house, she allowed the vines to carry her. There were only so many places The Liar could hide. First, she went toward School, as it was closest. She made plants carry her over the roof right into the courtyard while more of them broke the doors and blocked any exit. The fencing class was still going on, but The Liar was not there. She looked over the scared crowd, spotting two people she wanted to find. She needed to protect them from The Liar, else they end like her. She grabbed the fencer in a red outfit and her partner, knocking their masks to reveal Kagami and Adrien. The plants wrapped around them, forming a sort of cocoon before dragging them to the heart. Marinette then turned her sight to Eifel tower. She knew The Liar liked to drag the class there.

As she moved through town, she passed the Hotel where Chloe lived. Pausing, she made the plants lift her toward the balcony. Her best friend was indeed there, right next to the lit-up Bee-signal. Honeystly…

“Marinette!?” The blonde jumped in surprise

“Marinette is gone. She should’ve never even been. I’m Marigold, the daughter of Poison Ivy.” For a moment, the fog thickened, but Mari shook it off quickly enough, before whatever caused it managed to get the hold of her.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng! If you got yourself akumatized, I’m telling my daddy!” Chloe shouted. Seeing the tears form in the iridescent green eyes, she looked at her friend with pity. “Oh, Mari! Is this the Liar again? Come here right now!” The blonde spread her arms for a hug. She didn’t care about the Akuma. Her friend needed her and she would help her conquer the world if she asked. Chloe owed Mari… everything. She helped her evolve beyond being the queen witch. In response to the gesture, the plants in the garden started to grow until they surrounded the two of them in a tight cocoon. Marinette stepped onto the balcony. She affectionately petted the vine that carried her so far before allowing it to return to its hunt for the Liar.

“Chloeee!” Mari launched herself at the girl. She sunk into the embrace, allowing tears to start flowing again. She sobbed her heart out while pushing a piece of paper she constantly held in her clutched fist before. The blonde took it and read while patting Marinette on the back of her head.

“Salauds! Ridiculous! Utterly Ridiculous! How dare that cochons! And the chienne! Wait till I tell daddy about this! Don’t worry Mari. I will protect you! I will ruin her! Merde!” The rant made Marigold pause. She never heard Chloe curse. Like… never. “But first. Mari. You know I love you and I would help you hide the body, but drop the Akuma. It’s making you look Ridiculous. Utterly Ridiculous! I mean the dress is so much spot on and so you, but the whole take over Paris is more my style. I can let you be my faithful sidekick while we take over the world if you want.”

For a moment, Marigold continued to stare at Chloe before she burst out in a fit of laughter. It wasn’t a nervous chuckle or the villain cackle, but genuine pearly laughter. It was just so… Chloe-ish. She couldn’t imagine anyone trying to dissuade an Akuma by offering to become a sidekick.

“You… You… Never change Chlo.” Mari smiled at her friend.

“Whoa. You… didn’t make me a fertilizer? I mean, of course, you wouldn’t. You are just too good of a person, but Hawkmoth…”

“I’m not akumatized Chloe.” Mari smiled. “It’s me.” As if to prove her point, she stood up and spun, allowing the blonde to see her from all sides. “This is how I really look. Apparently, I do take some after my mom.”

“Your… mom?”

“Pamela Isley, she was a famous biologist. Mom was brilliant. She used to be one of the smartest people in the world.” Mari praised. “There was this one accident that she is now famous for…”

“Pamela Isley? I remember reading about her.”

“Yeah… She is…”

“Didn’t she create this environment-friendly line of cosmetics?” Chloe asked in her typical fashion

“Yes! I have no idea why everyone remembers her only for the ‘Poison Ivy’ thing!”

“I know, right?” Chloe nodded. “Wait a…”

“Tada!” Mari said weakly before trying to look away, doing everything not to look her friend in the eyes. The blonde gently grabbed her chin and moved it so she could look right into the beautiful green eyes of her best friend.

“Mari! If you think I would abandon you just because your mother took veganism too far… You’re utterly ridiculous!”

Marigold smiled slightly. Slowly, the green receded and her eyes turned back to normal. The dress remained, as without it she would end up naked and she didn’t fancy trying to explain to anyone that.

She then turned to the plants and tried to order them to return to normal, only for them to resist. For a moment, her mind started to feel fogged, but it didn’t hold at all now.

“As much as I like the scenery, maybe we stop the plantpocalypse?”

“Um… Remember how I told you I wasn’t akumatized?”

“Yeah?”

“I think the plants are…”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Chloe shouted. “Listen here Hawkmoth! Get this Akuma the heck away! I don’t care about some fancy Jewels that will totally clash with your suit! I mean purple and white with red earrings? Are you colorblind?”

There was no visible reaction to the plants.

“Strange…” Marigold ran her hand over the plants. “They still respond, just refuse to yield.” Inside, Mari cursed that she couldn’t consult Tikki.

“So… Want some cookies?” Chloe asked. “We just have to wait for Ladybug to save the day. At least the damage will be repaired.”

‘Except Ladybug it trapped here…’

Suddenly, something small and black slipped through the vines and entered their small peaceful enclave. It zoomed between items on the balcony, trying to avoid being seen. It would’ve been successful if Chloe didn’t know about Kwamis.

“What was that!?” She shouted pointing at Plagg’s hiding place.

“What? I didn’t see anything!” Mari tried to lie. It was the one skill she never had. She did compensate for it by never getting caught.

“A Kwami! I’m sure I’ve seen one.”

“Kwami? Who’s Kwami? Is that some bird? How would a bird get here? I mean we are trapped in…”

“Ugh! I don’t have time for games!” Plagg suddenly floated before the pair. “Chat is trapped and can’t help without revealing himself. Paris is being destroyed mindlessly and nobody can do anything as the vines are harder than steel.” The cat summarized. “And I’m hungry. Give me cheese!” He looked at Chloe. “Camembert would be the best, but I’m not that picky.”

“Why come to us? Ladybug took away my miraculous.” The blonde asked.

“I didn’t come to you. I came to her.” The god pointed at Mari.

“Me?! Why? It’s not like…”

“We don’t have time for charades guardian! The Akuma is out of control! Literally! Hawkmoth’s connection was somehow severed and now you have a giant plant that knows only the rage. This is serious!”

Mari wanted to protest or try to save some of her identity, but then Tikki floated out of her purse.

“Oh no! Marinette! He is right! We have a huge problem.”

“Why?” The girl asked resigned.

“You’re Ladybug!” Chloe shouted but was subsequently ignored

“Hawkmoth must’ve akumatized the plant, hoping to control you, but he had no idea it was sentient. But it stopped being sentient the moment you let it go. I… It never happened before.”

“You’re Ladybug!!!” Chloe shouted so loud that everyone had to look at her.

“We can talk later. Now we need to somehow deal with the plants. Maybe… No. What about… But they are too tough… What if…” Marigold started to run through various scenarios and plans.

“Can’t you just order them to expel the Akuma?” Plagg asked bored.

“It… It might work.” Mari had a focused expression. In her head, she was running through all her knowledge of biology, miraculous magic, and how her mom’s powers worked. Hesitantly, she walked to the edge of the cocoon and called the main vine to her. The wall spread slightly and allowed the tip of it to enter. Mari touched it and started gently caressing it.

“you’re a good boy. Yeah! Who’s a good boy? You’re. Yes! You’re a good boy. But Good Boys don’t have Akuma. Do you want to be a good boy? Of course, you do…”

Chloe stood there and watched how Marigold kept talking to the plant like it was a puppy. She felt something fall into her hand. Opening the palm, she saw two earrings.

“I… I can’t!” She protested, but Plagg floated before her eyes.

“She can’t do it. If Akuma escapes, we will have plantmagedon on a larger scale.”

“Fine. Spots on!”

Just as Mari finally talked the plant into expelling the Akuma, Chloe caught it.

“Bye Bye Little Butterfly!” She released the pure white bug. “Lucky charm!” Chloe shouted. A red and black folder fell into her hands. She looked at it curiously. Inside, she found a complete set of adoption papers for her father to sign. She quickly pulled out the sheets and tossed the folder itself, releasing a swarm of ladybugs that repaired Paris to how it was before plants. The sheet stayed.

Transformation dropped after that and Chloe handed the jewel back to the true owner.

“You still have sooo much explaining to do!”

Nobody remembered about Adrien and Kagami being carried together to safety, which turned out to be Mari’s basement. And while Ladybug Cure should’ve restored them to where they were taken from, for some unknown reason they remained locked there until Mari returned late into the evening to spend the last night at the bakery. It would be some time until Tikki admitted that it was an act of revenge on Plagg for revealing her chosen’s identity. He had to go the whole day without cheese. The one good thing that came from it was that Kagami and Adrien had a long frank talk and ended up as friends. The relationship just wasn’t working.

----------

When Mari was adopted by the Mayor, she decided to keep using the Dupain-Cheng name at least for now. At first, Chloe’s father was against it, but once the girl presented it as a way of getting good press of mayor who personally looks after his citizens he practically ripped the papers to sign them. Although on paper he was the adopter, Chloe was the real parent/sister that took care of Mari. Lila seethed and spitted, but couldn’t really do much more. Adrien and Chloe roped Jagged Stone and Penny into Marinette Protection Squad. Luka and Kagami, who somehow hooked up, also joined. At some point, Mari entrusted Luka and Kagami with permanent Miraculous and Gave Chloe the Bee miraculous back. Some Fox illusion of Chloe publically applauding new heroine helped hide her identity. The hardest part was revealing to Chat, Viperion, and Ryuko her true identity. Adrien was a big surprise, but at least they finally dealt with their crushes once and for all. The fact that they were in love square in two people was way too awkward. Chloe and Mari did notice Adrien sometimes looking at Luka, but he was happy with Kagami. The only person that disproved of ‘Lukagami’ was Kagami’s mother, but she warmed up to him when he accepted the challenge to a duel and was completely pacified when she learned that Luka is apprenticing under Jagged Stone.

Jagged and Penny wanted to Adopt Mari, but ended up filling the role of uncle and aunt. After some time, Mari realized that she rebuilt what she once had in Gotham. These people might not have been her family by blood, but it mattered little. That family might’ve been damaged, maybe even broken, but they were happy together. They found solace in one another. Once more, Marinette was happy.

Until a trip to Gotham came knocking on the front doors.

#maribat #miraculous ladybug #miraculous lb #Miraculous #Batman #DC #MLB x DC #Mother!Ivy

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itsclydebitches · 3 years

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ngl voyager gets a whole lot of very disproportional hate from the fandom and i'd hazard a guess that a lot of that is just garden-variety misogyny (and probably racism mixed in, considering how many of the most prominent characters are women, poc, or both). like, is voyager perfect? absolutely not. and no spoilers but there was a lot of executive meddling that wound up leading to the finale/conclusion being lacking and there's a lot of reasonable dissatisfaction with that--but again that was largely thanks to the execs fucking the show over and i recommend looking into that if you can once you've finished the show. but overall? voyager is trek right to its very core--it has heart, it's about family, and it never loses sight of that imo, even if some episodes are weaker or just duds (but, like, would it be a trek series without some episodes that just kinda suck but are still fun to watch???)

anyway, i absolutely love that you're getting into voyager, it is my all-time favorite trek series to this day for a lot of reasons, and i hope that ppl like that anon dont put you off bc i'd love to continue to see your thoughts as you watch the series!

Oh, it would take a whole lot more than some anons being salty that others enjoy things to turn me off :D

Thus far (I lost internet last night so I’m still only on Episode 7 of Season 2), Voyager is the Trekiest Trek I’ve watched. Which is a weird sentence, but I mean it in the way you said it’s “trek right to its very core.” What is Star Trek, if we strip the intent of the story down to its basics? It’s about exploration, discovery, that “wagon train to the stars,” wrapped up in the argument that life is fundamentally good. We have problems, but we can work past them. We have differences, but they strengthen us. Diversity is the lifeblood of the universe and the future will continue to improve so long as we embrace that.

Voyager is (again, from what I’ve seen so far!) basically a love song to that premise. I didn’t do too deep a dive because I’m trying to avoid spoilers, but I did look at a couple threads discussing why Voyager is so hated. Again and again I saw the same reason pop up: wasted potential. Now, a lot of fans left it at that (as if the answer to what potential Voyager apparently missed out on is self-evident. It’s not), but those who did expand on the idea consistently claimed that the show needed to be darker than it was, even if they rarely said it like that. Why aren’t the Federation and the Marquis at each other’s throats? Why isn’t the crew going crazy under these circumstances? Why aren’t characters getting killed off left and right in hostile space? “Anything could have happened out there and they played it safe!” but the “anything” here is always... awful. There’s this very pervasive idea that the world is inherently cruel, people are inherently divisive, that when pushed to the brink everything will fall apart... and that (while making for one kind of great story) is very much not Star Trek.

See, Voyager created an unimaginable scenario--lost in space, 75 years from home, forced to live indefinitely with strangers--and their answer to the question of “What happens?” is “People make it work.” They learn to respect one another, they uphold their ideals, they maintain a love of life and discovery, and they create a family. And that’s fucking fantastic. That’s Star Trek! I’m not going to pretend there aren’t problems with the show, with plenty more to come, I’m sure, but I don’t think this is one of them. Why do so many viewers think that hatred, horror, death, and growing jaded is the only potential here? Why would they expect that in a Star Trek show whose premise is the very antithesis of those things?

“But they don’t do enough with those things, even if they have happy outcomes.” They do plenty, they just do it in an episodic rather than serialized nature. I can point to multiple episodes where the replicator rations or Maquis differences are driving the characters’ actions. “But without that horror there’s no conflict.” There’s plenty of conflict. Hostile aliens aside, I just watched an episode where Tuvok and Chakotay are pissed as hell at one another because they fundamentally disagree over how to handle problems, but--because they’re adults with a well-tested respect for one another--they apologize and work through it. “But the characters don’t develop at all.” You mean they don’t grow harder. That’s not the same thing as no development. Tuvok is figuring out how to be more flexible, Chakotay is becoming more willing to accept cultures he doesn’t agree with, Harry is growing more confident now that he’s far from home, the Doctor is learning to see himself as a person, Paris is grabbing his second chance with both hands by making strong ties, and Janeway is learning to command and care for her crew simultaneously. I honestly believe that a lot of people think of “character development” as the character becoming a fundamentally different person, unrecognizable from where they started out. But characters can also grow into the people they wanted to be in the first place. “We’re far from home, in hostile territory, tempted to do horrific things to survive... but no. Right now at least, we’re holding onto who we are. We’re scientists, so we’re going to explore and learn. We’re peaceful, so we’re going to make friends with as many species as we can. We’re members of a society that teaches acceptance, so we’re going to form a family on this spaceship.” That’s incredible!! Did fans miss why Seska was an antagonist in the episode she was unmasked? Because she was trying to convince them to give up everything they believe in in the name of survival, an ends justify the means argument. And the crew said no, we will not give up what we believe in just to make it through. I legit saw a ton of fans saying some version of, “I can’t believe they were that far from home and actually followed Starfleet’s rulebook.” It’s because those rules don’t exist for the hell of it. Overlooking their practical function, they’re a philosophy that the characters believe in, and they’re figuring out how important that part of their identity is to them under these circumstances. Am I willing to steal a specie’s technology if it gets us home? Am I willing to die to help another uphold their own philosophy? (Chakotay in “Imitations”). What regulations should we bend or change to accommodate our new situation? The first two things Janeway does are a) giving the guy who just came out of a penal colony a rank and b) deciding that she needs to be more familiar with her crew than is normally encouraged for a captain because she’s essentially their mom now. Developing doesn’t have to mean characters do a 180 on their initial personality, or characters getting killed off when stuff gets “boring” so that others can do edgy things in response.

Voyager upholds Trek’s premise and runs it to its logical conclusion:

Voyager has the most literal trek--a trek back home.

Voyager has the most diverse crew--a woman Captain, Native American First officer, black Vulcan, Asian-American communications officer, and a White Dude pilot that realizes he wants to be soft and kind towards those who took a chance on him because Toxic Masculinity who?

Voyager has the most literal family--not just a 5+ year mission, but a crew who expects to raise the next generation. They have no choice but to work together, so they indeed come together rather than pulling apart

Except they do, of course, have a choice. In “The 37′s” the crew is allowed to stay on the Earth-like planet with a city of other humans and Janeway is convinced that a sizable number will choose that. After all, they may never get home and this is a safer, kinder future for them. In fact, the real question is whether so many will stay that they can no longer run the ship... but Janeway would never dictate her crew’s choices in that manner. So she swallows her worry down, opens the door...

... and finds that not a single person decided to stay behind. And the show has ensured we understand that this is not just because they all have some unshakable belief that they’ll get home (many don’t), but because this is their family now. This is home.

And fans want to toss that out for a generic, gritty, sci-fi adventure where hope is scarce, the universe is cruel, and people need to be pushed to the limit just to admit that they maybe, sort of, like each other?? Obviously like what you like, but that’s a hard pass for me. I’ll take the bridge crew comforting each other in “Twisted,” thanks. Besides, we already have shows like that. And we already have DS9 which grapples with many of those dark, pessimistic themes. Voyager feels like a breath of fresh air, even within the breath of fresh air that is Star Trek as a franchise. It’s a show that says, “Yes, when everything goes wrong people will come together. They will love each other. They will make it through.”

What’s more Star Trek than that?

#star trek #ST #mymetas #Anonymous

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stxleslyds · 4 years

Text

MY REVIEW OF UNDER THE RED HOOD!

EDIT: This is Tati from the present, Hello! I am writing this little message right now to let you know that I am rebloging this post because I recently re-read it and I wanted to make it “better”, this was my second review that I had ever made and I am quite fond of it but it needed to be brushed up and made easier to read. Now, let me be honest, I am not an excellent writer so there are probably some mistakes here still but I like it even more now, so yeah, that’s all I had to say!

~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~

This review is here not only because I love that book but because Geoff Johns and Scott Lobdell’s characterization of Jason and Red Hood gives me nightmares and it’s just annoying.

First let me set the scene, here we go!

Jason’s death was confirmed in book three of four in the Death in the Family event back in December, 1988 (Batman #428). But he is officially brought back sixteen years and two months after his death in the iconic Batman: Under the (Red) Hood event (Batman #635-641, #645-650, Annual #25)

This particular event is just wonderful, I love this for many reasons some of which I will probably talk about in this post but it has impacted me so much that if anyone asks me what Batman story I would recommend it would be this one.

Now just a heads up, I always felt impartial to Batman as a hero but around three years ago I started borderline hating the guy and now I just can’t stand him half of the time, and I blame it on his overuse and the god complex that some writers can’t seem to write him without. So, I don’t really recommend UtRH in a good light when talking about the Bat himself. It’s all about my boy, Jason Todd.

UtRH is just amazing at showing these two character’s motivations and how they seem to think that their ways of handling crime are the best way. But it also shows us so many aspects of how Jason’s death impacted both Jason and Bruce.

Let’s start the review!

UtRH starts with a look into the future, a fight between Batman and a mysterious man in a red helmet that seems to not be an easy opponent for the Bat and it also looks like these two have been going at it for a while but just as we arrive we see that it may be over in the Bat’s favor but in that exact moment the red helmeted man unmasks Batman! Seemingly not shocked that Bruce Wayne is the Bat the mysterious man decides that he will show his face too...but all we get to see is Bruce’s face of shock and then.... we are thrown back at what we come to believe is the real beginning of the story.

Probably you can’t tell, but to me this is an amazing start to a story, you have the Bat who is sold as an excellent fighter struggling in a fight but when it seems that he is going to win something major happens... the mysterious man unmasks a legendary hero and doesn’t make a fuss about it and then he manages to shock the Bat by showing his face (which is not shown to the reader), I just think its genius, it sets up this new guy as an incredibly good and interesting character.

So now we find ourselves thrown back 5 weeks in the past and we come in contact with a meeting with some very shady people that don’t really know who put together the whole thing and while they try to rationalize it a round of shots hits the table they are sitting around.

Here is where we see this leather-jacket-wearing dude, holding an AK-47 while posing for the Google earth cameras, telling those people that he reunited them and that he is hot shit. He is there to make a deal; the dramatic queen wants to run the underworld of Gotham and not only is he offering protection against the Black Mask but against the Bat too.

Well, needless to say, those guys aren’t necessarily buying what he is selling so that my friends takes us to an iconic moment, this dude proceeds to throw a duffel bag with the heads of these people’s lieutenants and to finish it off he just shots another round to make the message clear...I mean talk about dramatic entrances!

Please don’t worry I didn’t forget about the most important part of this whole entrance...we were just introduced to this man who means business and wants to rule Gotham’s underworld and manage its drug trade and it’s all very swell but the truly important thing is what he says next:

“You stay away from kids and school yards. NO dealing to children, got it? If you do, you are DEAD.”

That’s a powerful message and this is just me speculating but if he has to make that specification clear...it leads me to think that kids are people that he wants to protect and no matter how much money they could bring to the business he wants them out of the equation, also the price for breaking that rule is death…. So yeah, is he truly a villain or...?

Now after all of this we jump to Black Mask receiving information of a new player in the game and he doesn’t seem like he cares, to him it’s just a newbie trying to mess around on a street level so he moves on with his business of recruiting Mr. Freeze for an undisclosed job. On the other hand, we are shown Batman crying over the fact that Oracle isn’t working with him anymore and then teaming up with Nightwing (that is wearing a knee brace and probably shouldn’t be out doing extreme parkour with his furry dad but hey, what do I know?)

We see Freeze trying on some new clothes and then we are back again with Black Mask, here, for the very first time we hear the new player’s name...Red Hood.

Following Batman and Nightwing we find them intercepting a shipment that appears to have a bunch of gadgets from several villains and among them there was a bomb, it explodes (detonated by the Red Hood) and from then on, the fun begins...the Bat and Nightwing go on pursuit and we get to see what the Bat thinks about Hood. He thinks that he is very well trained, agile and unpredictable, he also has an overall sense of familiarity coming from Hood but he ends up saying that it’s nothing they haven’t seen before, what he doesn’t expect is having been led to a trap which is, Amazo, yay! (Amazo was the cargo that Mask was waiting for).

Amazo is taken down with a little bit of struggle but he eventually is thrown to Gotham harbor and we are informed in another panel by Mask that Amazo wasn’t supposed to be activated so we can safely assume that it was Hood the one who did it. Mask is pissed that the Bat broke his toy and is going to be more pissed off when he answers a call from a certain red helmeted man...

Hood informs Mask that he took one of the crates from the shipment and that it might be one of the most valuable ones, our boy stole a crate with at least one hundred pounds of kryptonite...yeah no big deal.

Here I will make a stop to tell you that we know that this Red Hood is extremely tactical, he has a plan within a plan that takes down several players, he is confident in what he is doing and is certainly not afraid to get his hands dirty. He is a worthy opponent to Black Mask, Nightwing and Batman. We are just starting to know him but he is already great and it only gets better.

As we enter chapter three of the story we see Hood asking for 50 million dollars from Black Bask for the kryptonite that he stole from Black Mask (say that again), to everyone’s surprise Mask “agrees” to give him the money easily... well, not really, Mask is going to send Freeze to kill Hood and get that (quite honestly) unnecessary amount of kryptonite back.

Hood obviously knew that he wasn’t going to get whatever money he negotiated but he also wasn’t quite ready to take on Freeze but he did his best. When Freeze is the last one standing Batman shows up and a kinda lame fight ensues...Freeze leaves and Hood says that he really doesn’t care about the kryptonite, all he wants is the “lay of the land” and then leaves.

If you are wondering where Hood went, well…he went to an abandoned funhouse to terrorize the Joker! Yes people, it’s confirmed, Hood is a good boy! Go get him Hood I am rooting for you!

IT IS CROWBAR TIME! (And this time in reverse)

In the start of chapter four Hood is blowing up yet another truck full of weapons belonging to Mask.

Elsewhere Batman is bothering Zatanna about one of Ra’s Al Ghoul’s (sealed) Lazarus pits. Asking if the pit can raise the dead and being his natural rude self. Because he doesn’t get the information that he needs and goes to Jason Blood who tells him that if he wants to know about people who came back from the dead he might as well talk to Green Arrow but his chat with him doesn’t lead anywhere so that’s that.

Onyx is introduced to us as a vigilante accepted by the Bat (you know, because of that thing where other vigilantes can only do their thing in Gotham if the Bat lets them because he is the high king or something) and when she comes across some dealers she finds out they work for the Red Hood and given that he is an unknown player she relieves the information to B who acts like an ass because he thought she had seen Hood and that she compromised one of his informants…now here is the thing, why does B act like everyone has mind reading abilities? How on earth would she have known that he had an informant and that the Red Hood wasn’t news to him...I am sorry dude but you are a shitty person of the highest quality

Anyway, Onyx is actually doing her work watching shady men talk about if they will or not join the Red Hood, one of them says something like “I won’t join that psycho because he decapitated some of my men” (good men, he specified) but Onyx isn’t alone, Hood makes it known by telling her that those men were selling drugs to twelve-year-old’s (remember kids are protected by Hood, you absolutely do not involve them and if you do...well, congrats, you are dead)

At this point we are in chapter six of the story and another character trait is revealed to us from Red Hood, he is meticulous in the way he works. He knows almost everyone involved in the drug trade, what they did and are doing, the relationships they hold with Mask or whoever their boss is. The information he gathers lets him know if the people will stick to his rules and can also use the information he has against them. So, he is extremely dangerous, we have to imagine that if he is that thorough with street level baddies what kind of knowledge does he have on people like Batman...well, spoiler alert, he knows everything and he will use it and has been using it since he first saw him.

While Onyx and Hood are on their way to take down those men Batman is in Metropolis asking Superman about his death and how he managed to come back to life.

Onyx soon understands what “taking down” truly means when it comes to Hood...they manage to get out of the warehouse just for him to grab a gun and shoot everyone on sight, which doesn’t sit well with Onyx so she tells him that, to which Hood has something to say just before he stabs her:

“Welcome to earth, baby! These dead sacks of meat on the floor made their living by beating, raping and devouring. Fear isn’t the answer.”

And I want to put as much importance into this as I did to the whole “keep kids away from this business” because it’s really important in what’s to come and the way Hood thinks is the better way to battle crime in Gotham.

That sentence alone tells us what kind of people Hood takes down, he plays judge, jury and executioner, he chooses who he kills and who is worth leaving alive if their crimes aren’t the ones that he decided must be paid with death. But it goes beyond that, he brings the fear factor… we know how batman works, he relies in criminals fearing him and the fact that they will be beaten and sent to jail or Arkham (if they are mad enough).

Here is what I believe is the fundamental difference between the fear factor used by those two, on the Bat’s side, the fear is left in the people he attacks but in Hood’s side, the fear is left in those who find the bodies.

After Hood stabs Onyx he decides to stay and chat, he tells her that he stabbed her in the shoulder because he knows it hurts and because (look at this smartass) he saw that she was “favoring one side” so he deduced that she had had an injury and teases her about maybe coming back to crime fighting a bit early...if you don’t think that’s cocky enough he then makes a comment about how the angle of the knife will make it harder for her to pull it out so, there you go, the man is well trained and knows what he is doing.

After that we get another piece of information about Hood and it’s actually given to us and Onyx by Hood himself, he says “I am no one’s son”.

Hood also shows us another character trait of his...he is a little shit. And very good at it. After he stabs Onyx “choice time” comes, basically he gives her two (three) options either he takes out the blade and she runs or he pulls the blade down from her shoulder to her hip and she bleeds out. He also says that she could maybe join him, which is revealed quite quickly to be a joke and then proceeds to take the blade out and covering the wound with a “high-end field dressing for the modern soldier. It adheres as well as closes the wound with an antibacterial adhesive agent...stops the bleeding cold”.

I wrote the whole thing word for word because I think it’s important for us to see that he saved her life, and he also didn’t let her choose he just did it, let’s think about this, Hood shows up to that meeting not expecting to see Onyx there and instead of losing his cool he just talks to her about the men, invites her to fight (his way but she didn’t know that) they make their escape and after the men are all killed by Hood she is furious so he, rather violently, completely immobilizes her so he can tell her what’s on his mind and then he gives her choices but here is what I really think...she never had choices because she is not his target, she doesn’t fit among the people that he thinks must be put down, so stabbing her came hand in hand with saving her.

Saving her just to ask her if she will “get up, fight and stop him” because he is still a cocky bastard...but surprise! Batman showed up to the party!

Hood isn’t too shaken up, in fact he uses the opportunity to make a show of his knowledge of the Bat’s thinking and his gadgets...he flatters the fact that he didn’t even hear him land and starts explaining to Onyx how the plane works, it can be stealthy or it can destroy your eardrums, then the chase ensues, B actually makes Hood fall at some point but it really doesn’t bother him, he continues to “flatter” the Bat’s technique, training and gadgets (all to fight the “malignant scum that ravage this city” Hood says) but ultimately tells him that he also has toys (that apparently he intercepted from Kord industries).

The chase turns into a fight in a rooftop, and yes my friends, this is the fight from the beginning of the story, the “you show me your face and I show you mine” fight.

Hood wants Batman to ask himself what has he done, and this I suppose is in reference to what he has done to deserve Hood coming after him. To which the Bat offers nothing but accuses Hood of being a murderer to which he answers with “No. I’ve killed, not murdered”

That confuses me, so first I will tell you what I found about the difference between killing and murdering somebody. A human kills another when it’s without intent or an accident, on the other hand when a human murders another it’s done with intent. About intent I found the following: “A person intends a consequence when they 1) foresee that it will happen if their given series of acts or omissions continue, and 2) desire it to happen.”

I don’t really know if Winick or the editors mixed the concepts of the two or if there is more to it. I honestly cannot wrap my head around it. It really doesn’t fit with what he has been saying, like the no dealing drugs to kids because if they do they will pay with their lives.

Anyway, my confusion is not what matters here, what matters is that we have arrived to the moment in which Red Hood will reveal to Batman his identity yay!

It’s Jason! Jason Todd is back from the grave!

It takes a bit of time for Bruce to come to terms with the reality of things but Jason assures him that he is who he says he is, he even suggests that Bruce has known his identity for a while and that it has been brewing in his head since Clayface.

I know, there are some things that need to be cleared up, the UtRH story is set in issues #635 (February, 2005) to #650 (April, 2006) but in a previous story (Batman: Hush) that ran from issues #608 to #619 “Jason” or better said Clayface disguised as an adult version of Jason had a fight with Batman where some old wounds were opened, this happened in issue #618 (October, 2003).

As far as we know that Jason wasn’t real and that was that, in fact we didn’t get the real events up until Red Hood: The Lost Days, a miniseries that came out in 2010, in the last issue it’s explained to us that by the time of Batman: Hush’s events Jason was already in Gotham and he was giving Hush information to mess with the Bat, and that’s all the information I have right there.

Back again to the story, Batman wants to know how Jason came back to life and he responds that he doesn’t know and doesn’t care, but he does give blood, tissue and fingerprints to Bruce so he can do some tests in the cave to prove that it’s really him, Bruce is once again being difficult saying that it still won’t make him believe but Jason knows better and tells him so.

He also says that it doesn’t matter what he is now, what matters is what Bruce is and what Jason will become. And Jason will become the kind of man Bruce would have been had he killed the Joker.

This whole conversation is very informative; Jason tells Bruce that he knows how to help Gotham because he understands the city more than Bruce. And in order to do that he will kill the Joker and those who deserve to die. This obviously doesn’t sit well with Bruce but Jason doesn’t really care what he thinks so he creates a distraction so he can leave B alone to marinate his thoughts.

It’s here at the end of chapter seven that I am going to cut the first part of the review before too long becomes way too long, so, see you in the second part!

The second part is linked here!

#red hood #jason todd #batman #under the red hood #utrh #comics #comic review #nightwing #dick grayson #gotham

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khangowrites · 3 years

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Is it a Complaint Essay or is the Workplace Unsuitable?

Ah, what am I writing today? Oh, well I suppose it’s almost 12am. Seems like a good a time as any. I wanted to just jot down a few re-occurring experiences I’ve had in the workplace and sometimes in other social spaces, and attempt to analyze them.

CW: mild mentions of abuse and bodily ailments.

A bit of forward: I tend to mask myself heavily whenever I am in any social situation; whether it be at work, at home, with friends or online (although I’m getting better at being myself on Discord at least. I owe a lot to my friends who accept me and whom I care so much about.) What this means is I often plan out what I’m needed to say in advance of a situation. I have an arsenal of about 5 minutes of small talk before I tank and several small greetings/placations I can cycle through on any given day if I’m not overloaded. I also limit my natural inclination to movement.

It’s called unprofessional/unsightly to sit with your legs folded under you, or to sway and shake your arms and legs back and forth in time to music in your head. But it’s okay if you tap your pencil. Everyone does that.

I have to wonder how noticeable my ‘masked’ self is. How real or fake it appears.

There have been a few trends I’ve seen with the way people treat me as an employee in the time I’ve been in the workforce. For clarity, I am a 23 year old 5’1” AFAB person with a face that looks like it stopped aging when I was 12. I’m non-binary, but I’ve seen that many have a hard time using a different pronoun for me because I look ‘so feminine’. I had one old man repeatedly tell me that my body was too pretty and that I shouldn’t hide it and ‘pretend’ to be something else. I was and still am quite unsettled and disgusted by that comment.

I haven’t used my full preferred pronouns at work simply based in fear of being fired or discriminated against further. Same thing at home- I haven’t told all my family out of fear. I may look back on this at some future date where I fully respect myself and I’m confident. I look forward to that day.

Oh, and I’m autistic.

Perhaps it is one of these things or all of them that cause people to treat me certain ways. I’d like to find out.

I worked outdoors at an Orchard for a season. They called me Cinderella because of the way I looked when I cleaned. They gave employees gloves and heaters. Only not me. When I asked, I was given a broken one and told to fix it. A coworker who had intellectual disabilities and poor eyesight was not offered a heater at all. I did not renew for the next season. Kim and I stayed in touch though.

I worked next at a gift shop at a historical site. I loved the history and the old buildings, but the cashier work was admittedly difficult. Most of the employees were kind, retired old ladies who treated me gently, like a child. Sometimes too much like a child. The assistant manager seemed wary of me, and she often avoided me. I don’t know why. I’m not good with eye contact, and I always fear that people will mistake my zoning out as being creepy or disrespectful; maybe it was that. She never brought her kids with her on days I worked.

The head manager was courteous, but always called me Special. We had an older man work in the last 2 years I was there who had a strong inclination to associate with the children at the shop, and in turn, me as well. He would always want a hug or pat me on the back, but ignored the other workers. I told the managers my uncomfortable feelings about him, but it went mostly unnoticed.

When it was found that I was decent with computers, I was tasked with entering jewelry into the system and creating labels with number associations. I enjoyed it, and they promised me a decent raise. My pay was raised a dollar several weeks later, and I found myself being tasked with more and more computer work, to the point of becoming an office manager myself, earning a grand total of 9 dollars an hour while my counterpart who started a year earlier owned a home on the same work.

I left that job after 4 years to be the music director at a local church. I love music and was excited. Maybe too excited. I developed acid re-flux and was hospitalized the week before my start day due to a panic attack. I realize now it was from stress. I also had an ovarian cyst removed a year later- it took up my entire pelvis and its formation was also attributed to stress. I’ve since been diagnosed with generalized anxiety, and I continue to have ever changing digestive issues, muscle problems and panic attacks.

After realizing I was autistic and also non-binary, so much of the stress of life started to make sense. The past few months I have been making life changes, and working towards finding a workplace that is accommodating and safe for me. My stress has lessened.

I worked at the church for 2 years. My last day is actually at the end of this month. As is the trend, I was not treated with respect when it came to my job. My pastor started choosing the hymns over me, and would make comments about me during services. His favorite was to say that my music made him fall asleep, and wait for laughter from the congregation. He had no musical knowledge, and forced me to play every song as fast as I possibly could. He didn’t believe I could do my job. Any attempts at mutual work failed to manifest. I unfortunately was groomed by a member of the hiring committee there as well, a type of abuse I didn’t even realize I had fallen into until several months after it was too late.

I currently work at a high school as a choir accompanist. I use she/they pronouns there, but no one uses they and I’m too worried to be fully they like I am outside of work. I am wary of soiling my relationship with the director further. She’s quite religious in the ‘gays don’t have rights’ way, so I have my fears.

The director is kind, but sees me as this innocent child that happens to have natural piano abilities, and the mutual respect that I’ve come to dream of just isn’t there again.

The director has the key to the doors and lets students in without fail, but conveniently forgets to let me in almost every day. At one time, I was in physical therapy and had a hard time standing and walking for any period of time. I almost went home because she didn’t answer any communication, class started 20 minutes previously, and it was 90 degrees outside and I needed to sit down because my legs were cramping. She plans the music weeks in advance, but doesn’t give them to me until the day the students get it, despite my repeated asking for time to prepare.

One day I was on zoom and she and the student teacher greeted me and then ignored my presence and played the piano herself for class. She struggled with the parts and commented to the choir that, “wow, Ms. Khango is actually pretty dang good at this- that little girl can play!”, but didn’t listen to me when I offered to play. I left the zoom after an hour.

The online students seemed to share my surprise at least, and I am grateful to them. They kept me grounded and reminded me that I matter and should have the same respect as everyone else in the room, zoom or not. They talk to me about not being heard and their chats not being read during class. It bothered me, too. The next week I brought it up to her in the form of making sure the zoom students were heard and she quickly dismissed it, like it was a puff of smoke. The students online now ask me questions directly and I relay them. It’s met with annoyance by the director.

They have voices too.

One of the scariest moments of my life was last week- I wore my ‘disability rights are human rights’ shirt to school. (Okay, maybe not scary to some, but it very much was for me.) After class, one of the students came to me and asked if I could help him find a way for his grandfather to get a seat at the concert, as he was disabled and he didn’t know how to proceed.

It filled me with joy to help him, and it filled me with rage when the teachers asked if his grandpa could just get out of the wheelchair instead.

My overall conclusion to all of these things is that people simply don’t understand, or don’t want to because it makes their lives harder.

Is discrimination and ignorance really easier than respecting people?

I’m not sure if this is all just one big complaint essay. I guess it is. What I needed to do was write it all out. All the things that make me uneasy or feel like lesser of a person. And I wanted to know why.

I note that at every job I am perceived as a child, or as someone naïve. I am not treated the same as another adult employee. I was ostracized for my way of moving and talking. Taken advantage of. My needs were not accommodated.

Even now, I feel guilt for writing this, like I’m just playing the victim for attention or something.

I want to be strong enough to stand up to it and ask to be treated with respect and have it follow through.

I want to unmask myself more and let myself move and talk naturally, and use my real pronouns.

My respect for myself and for others must become a powerful force.

My friends on discord- my real, genuine friends, have become monumental in my life. Most of my life I did not have true friends. Without them and their unconditional love and support, I would not be where I am right now. We are all equals. I want to embody that strong respect and bring it to others.

It’s getting late. 1 a.m. now. Well, I have tomorrow. Plenty of time for Star Trek.

#workplace problems #actuallyautistic #essay #nonbinary #figuring out life

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everlarkficbackfriday · 4 years

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I’d like to nominate (?) for @everlarkficbackfriday some of the great everlark fics I’ve read so far, that are currently unfinished (in no partucular order):

The Project by Ronja

Summary:

Katniss and Peeta were never reaped. During their last year of school they end up partnered for a special project. Slow burn AU and a coming of age story of sorts. Rated M for possible future content.

Love Throughout the Ages by abk1973

Summary:

Katniss Everdeen has just completed her PhD at Oxford and decides to head north to Scotland before heading home. Where she travels to and who she meets will change her and the fate of a clan forever. This is an Everlark fanfic with a little bit of Outlander thrown in. Disclaimer: I own nothing.

The Endless In-Between by Panem, soamazinghere, wincechesters

Summary:

In 2007, Primrose Everdeen vanished without a trace. Since then, her sister Katniss has put her own life on hold, stuck in a rut and unable to move on without knowing what happened to Prim. But with the help of first year detective Peeta Mellark, Katniss may discover more than just the answers to her sister’s disappearance. Modern Everlark AU inspired by The Lovely Bones.

Quicksilver by Gamemakers

Summary:

Dearest Diary, Two events of note occurred today. First, I realized that Peeta Mellark, who just yesterday I considered an ally and possible friend, is an irredeemable prat. Second, I became betrothed to him.

London, 1793. After a life spent on her family’s country estate, the time has finally come for the Everdeen sisters to be introduced to the London elite. Katniss will do anything to ensure her younger sister does not fall into the wrong hands, but surrounded by strangers, she has no way of judging Prim’s many suitors’ intentions. Enter Peeta Mellark, the youngest brother of the Earl of Panem and a longtime fixture of the ton. He seems the perfect ally, but Peeta has intentions of his own, and Katniss’ spinsterhood may not be as safe as she believes.

One Year and One Day by PatriziaNordsee

Summary:

When one day Katniss found a young man in the meadow she had no idea that this would change her life. He was skinny, and wounded. He needed work and help. Katniss offered him a place in her household. For one year and one day he would be protected by her and her family and work with them. After that year he would be a free citizen of their town. What she didn't could know - she would found her soulmate in him.

Honorable mentions

These are less than one year old, but too good not to be included on this list

Unmasked by M

Everlark Fic Exchange. Prompt 88

Historical Katniss and Peeta hate each other. They attend a masquerade ball and for some reason end up kissing each other. Sparks fly everywhere. Katniss tries to find the man behind the mask but Peeta knows it was Katniss though he doesnt say anything. They end up bethrothed even if they 'despise' each other. How they fall in love is up to u and how katniss figured out it was peeta is up to u

Geometry by dandeliononfire

Summary:

Peeta finds himself married to Katniss as the result of a bargain struck between his father and her dying mother. The road forward is unclear, painful, but also Bittersweet. Can Peeta solve the Geometry of how their lives are meant to fit together? Canon-divergent; neither Prim nor Peeta were reaped for the 74th Games.

Spellbound by katnissdoesnotfollowback (lost_on_cloud_9)

Summary:

Katniss and Primrose Everdeen lead a simple life, sustained by a shop in a small town and a thriving online business that sells herbal remedies they concoct themselves. They share a lovely home in the woods, isolated from others, where they can be safe, only a cat and a cranky ghost living in the shed behind the abandoned house next door as company. Until a young man moves in next door, intending to restore it and live in it. Primrose just wants a friend and her sister’s happiness. Haymitch just wants to live his afterlife in peace. Katniss wants to get rid of the intruder and keep her sister and herself safe from anyone who might fear what they really are. Witches.

#everlarkficbackfriday #everlark fic rec #thanks for the submission #my bad #I think this was sitting in our box #thank you n a o m i #submission

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stilinskishit · 4 years

Text

Too Long (A Stiles Stilinski Fanfic) - Chapter 14

**First couple of posts have a different title but I changed it because I didn’t like it :)**

Summary: Teen Wolf with a female main character alongside Scott and Stiles? Here it is. Ramie McCall is Scott’s twin sister and best friends with both her twin and Stiles. The trio’s friendship means the world to all three of them, so what happens when there are more than friend type of feelings present?

Tags: @multi-madison @purple286 @multifandxm353 @bralessandflawless @5secondsofmoxley

https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/

MASTERLIST

Chapter 14 - Hallucinate

Season 2, Episode 9

Ramie was having trouble processing a lot of things. First off, her brother almost died, which was scary enough as it is. But on top of that, it was one of her best friends’ mothers who had tried to do it. Ramie knew a friendship with Allison was going to be difficult from the second she found out that Allison’s family was basically out to get Scott, but once Allison and Scott agreed to keep things secret, Ramie thought that maybe things would be okay. And they seemed to be, until Ramie watched Derek drag Scott out of the club that night, saying Allison’s mother was trying to kill him using wolfsbane.

Ramie also didn’t know how to process that Derek had bit Allison’s mother, and Allison had no idea. She knew it wasn’t her place to tell Allison this information, but still felt really wrong about keeping the information from her. Scott insisted that they keep it all from Allison, for her own good. And Ramie agreed, but still felt bad. On top of all that, Jackson was still out there, being controlled by someone who they had yet to unmask. And, Lydia insisted on inviting Jackson to her birthday party, which Ramie had found herself helping Lydia set up for.

Lydia’s parties were iconic in Beacon Hills, always huge, rambunctious and memorable. Ramie did her best to avoid them, always making excuses, but she never could miss Lydia’s birthday. Even though Ramie insisted she return it, Lydia had bought her a cheetah print slip dress to wear with the same black chunky combat booties Ramie always wore, and she had to admit, the outfit was pretty cute. It was definitely her style, and Lydia even allowed her to wear her layered chain necklaces she always wore. Lydia, of course, had many outfit changes planned for the night, but always made sure Ramie had something new to wear on the occasion that she actually agreed on attending one of Lydia’s parties. Lydia’s family was very well off, and Lydia definitely spoiled Ramie just for being her best friend, but never made her feel guilty about the things she bought her.

That night, Ramie answered the door when Scott and Stiles showed up, the first to arrive other than Allison, who had gotten there a few minutes before and was helping Lydia finish up hanging lights in the backyard.

“Look at you!” Ramie exclaimed, hugging her brother. “All dressed up with a blazer, I love it.”

“Allison told me Lydia bought her an outfit to wear, so I figured I should try and look like I actually deserve to be with her,” Scott smiled, and Ramie rolled her eyes. “Lydia got you something as well?”

“She always does,” Ramie sighed, still holding the door open for Stiles, who was standing outside of the doorway, looking zoned out, staring at her, mouth slightly open. “You coming in Stilinski or are you gonna party on the front porch?”

Stiles blinked hard, stepping forwards quickly into the house. Scott gave him a look that Ramie couldn’t distinguish.

“You look…” Stiles started. “Nice. Pretty. Very pretty.”

“Thank Sti,” Ramie smiled, feeling her cheeks heat up, the two of them following Scott further into Lydia’s house.

“Where’s Allison?” Scott asked, breaking the silence between the three of them. Ramie nodded towards the backyard. “We’ve gotta tell you guys something.”

When they found Allison in the backyard, Scott and Stiles explained that Stiles and his Dad figured out all of the people who the kanima, or Jackson, had murdered were members of the Beacon Hills swim team years ago, when Isaac’s dad was the coach. Stiles was sure that was the connection between the kills, and whoever was in control of the kanima had something seriously against the swim team that certain year.

Before they could talk about it more, Allison mentioned how dead Lydia’s party was. And by dead, she was putting it nicely. There was maybe two other people there, which was not typical for Lydia’s party. Ever since Lydia ran away from the hospital and wandered naked in the woods for two days, everyone at school saw her differently. And since Jackson broke up with her, she wasn’t dating the captain of the lacrosse team any longer.

Scott made calls to the lacrosse team, and Stiles made his own calls to some “friends” he knew, and soon enough the part was in full swing. Ramie poured herself another drink, feeling pretty tipsy even though she swore she only had one drink. She had a small dinner, as she was helping Lydia set up for most of the evening, so she figured that’s why the drinks were affecting her more than usual.

She walked to the bathroom, stumbling a bit, deciding she should splash some water on her face and try to compose herself. Things were fuzzy as she made her way down the dark hallway upstairs. She saw a light under the bathroom door, so she knocked, wondering if someone was actually in there, or if Lydia had just left the light so if someone needed to puke they could find the bathroom easily. There as no answer, so she pushed the door open. However, the room was not empty. Sitting on the bathroom counter was Lydia, her legs wrapped around Stiles’ waist, the two making out. Ramie’s mouth dropped open. Stiles turned, seeing her, and smirk crossed his face.

“Sorry Ramie, this room’s taken,” he grinned, and Lydia giggled. Ramie was speechless, her mouth opening and closing, trying to make words come out. She felt tears coming to her eyes. Stiles continued talking, turning towards Ramie this time. “What? You’re going to cry? Do you think I could ever actually care about you like I care about Lydia?”

Ramie started stepping backwards and Stiles stepped forward towards her slowly, continuing to talk.

“I’m in love with Lydia, I always have been, and I always will be. Why would I care about my best friends sister? The girl who has been my friend forever. And that’s all we’ll ever be. Friends.”

Ramie felt a tear drop down her cheek.

“Shut up,” she spat at Stiles, trying to sound angry but her voice cracking.

“You’re so pathetic, pretending to not care about me, pretending you care about Isaac,” Stiles kept walking forward towards her, Ramie still stepping backwards.

“I do care about Isaac,” Ramie stuttered, feeling tears fall.

“Please,” Stiles scoffed. “You’ll never be able to care about him like you do about me.”

“Why are you doing this?” Ramie said, her voice barely a whisper.

“Because I’m sick of you pining after me,” Stiles spat, and Ramie stepped back again. “I’ll never love you like I love Lydia.”

Ramie put a foot back, but there was nothing there. She was at the top of the stairs, and felt her foot fall down onto nothing. She was about to tumble backwards and let out a shriek, reaching around her to grab something to catch her fall. Suddenly she felt arms around her, catching her slightly, before she fell back.

“Ramie!” The voice yelled. She stood up quickly, back on the top step. She looked down the hall to the bathroom, the door open, light on, but no one inside. A pair of arms were still around her shoulders, holding her slightly. She turned to look at the stairs, seeing Stiles at the top, a concerned look on his face. “What are you doing? You almost fell down the stairs.”

Ramie blinked her eyes, hard. Lydia was gone, the Stiles that was sneering at her was gone too. Normal Stiles dropped his arms from around her, stepping up on the stairs next to her.

“I think I drank too much,” Ramie leaned on the wall and slid down to the floor rubbing her eyes with the backs of her hands. Stiles sat down on the second step from the top next to her.

“Did you see something?” He said quietly. Ramie looked towards him quickly, nodding. “We think Lydia did something to the punch.”

“How’d you sober up then?” Ramie groaned, leaning her head on the wall, her thoughts still fuzzy. Stiles pointed to his slightly damp t-shirt.

“Stuck my head in the pool.”

Ramie snorted, and Stiles broke into a grin, but not like the smirk the Stiles she had saw before. A genuine grin, the Stiles she knew.

“I guess I’ll go take a quick shower then,” Ramie sighed, standing up from the floor, trying not to flash Stiles as her dress had definitely ridden up.

“You have clothes to change into?” Stiles asked, following her towards the bathroom.

“I think in my bag in Lydia’s room, will you get them for me?” Ramie asked, knowing she sounded like a child, but she couldn’t care less. Stiles nodded, telling her to get into the shower and he’d bring the clothes in for her.

A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door as Ramie let the warm water hit her face. She called out that Stiles could come in.

“I grabbed your whole bag,” she could see his shadow through the curtain, setting her stuff down on the sink. “I found sweatpants but I didn’t see a shirt in your bag, and I didn’t want to go through Lydia’s stuff, so I’m just gonna leave my flannel for you to put on. I took it off before Scott dunked me so its dry.”

“Thank you Stiles,” Ramie said, standing under the hot water.

“Are you okay?” Stiles asked after a second. “Do you need anything else?”

“I think I’m okay,”

“Do I need to stay up here or are you sober enough to get downstairs safely now?” Stiles said, seeming like he was trying to be funny, but his voice was laced with concern.

“I promise I’m okay, I’ll be downstairs soon,” Ramie told him. He left reluctantly, telling her to text him if she needed him and he’d be up in a minute. She stood under the water for a few more minutes, trying to process her thoughts. Whatever Lydia did made her have a really weird hallucination, and she couldn’t wrap her head around what it could mean.

She walked downstairs after changing into her sweatpants and Stiles’ flannel. Everyone seemed to have left the party, and Scott, Stiles, and Allison were left sitting in the living room, talking quietly to each other. Scott and Stiles’ backs were to Ramie on the sectional, and Allison sat on the huge ottoman in the middle facing them. She saw Ramie walking towards them, giving her a small smile. The boys turned, Scott giving Ramie the same look.

“Feel better?” He asked and Ramie nodded as she rounded the couch, sitting down next to Allison, pulling her legs underneath her on the cushioned surface.

“Where did everyone go?” Ramie looked around. When she looked back to the three of them, Scott and Allison were looking at each other, then looked at Stiles, who was playing with a loose string on a throw pillow, then back to Ramie. Scott’s eyes glanced down to the shirt Ramie was wearing, then over to Stiles again. Ramie looked down at her hands, feeling her cheeks burn. She hadn’t thought about how it looked, her coming downstairs wearing the light blue flannel Stiles had came to the party wearing.

“Someone thought the cops were here,” Stiles said, breaking the silence. He looked up at the three of them, who all had their eyes on him. “What?”

Scott shook his head and Allison let out a small, “nothing.” Stiles eyes narrowed but before he could say anything else, Ramie started talking again.

“Where’s Lydia?” Ramie asked, looking around.

“She went off with a guy, I think,” Allison said. “She texted me and told me she was okay.”

Ramie nodded, hoping the guy wasn’t Jackson. Ramie truly believed that Lydia was much better without Jackson. Ramie then realized how quiet her three friends had been since she walked downstairs, despite the whole awkward shirt thing.

“Did I miss something? You guys are being quiet.”

“Matt is controlling the kanima,” Stiles burst out immediately, as if he had been waiting for her to ask.

“Matt? That weird photographer guy?” Ramie asked. She never really knew Matt that well, but Allison said he took some weird photos of her and Stiles always had said he didn’t trust him.

“Someone pushed Matt in the pool just before the party ended,” Scott explained. “He couldn’t swim. Jackson pulled him out and when we went out front when everyone was leaving we saw him standing there with the kanima.”

“We’ve gotta go tell my Dad,” Stiles said, mainly to Scott, who nodded.

“I’ve got to get home, my Dad won’t stop calling me,” Allison said.

“Let’s split up, I’ll go talk to Derek about Matt,” Ramie said. The two boys left, and Allison said she would drop Ramie off at Derek’s. Ramie thought about telling Allison about her hallucination, but she decided against it. Obviously she had liked Stiles for a long time, but ever since she was with Isaac, she wasn’t feeling the same feelings towards him. Sure, sometimes those feelings would come out for second, but Ramie figured it was just old feelings coming back briefly, and it meant nothing. She tried not to worry too much about the hallucination, because that’s all it was. It wasn’t real, her brain just played tricks on her. That’s what she kept telling herself.

When she got to Derek’s, she found him training with Isaac, Erica and Boyd.

“We figured it out,” Ramie panted as she jogged into the warehouse. Isaac turned towards her voice and Erica landed a punch straight to the side of his face, Isaac distracted. He groaned and glared at Erica, who pursed her lips and mumbled something about him being whipped.

“Figured what out?” Derek asked, stepping away from Boyd and grabbing a water bottle.

“Who’s controlling the kanima.”

“You figured that out?” Erica said, in disbelief, with a definite attitude.

“Scott and Stiles saw him,” Ramie explained further, ignoring Erica, who scoffed.

“What’s your problem Erica?” Isaac said suddenly. Derek put a hand on Isaac’s chest but Isaac pushed past him, stalking towards Erica. “You always have shit to say to Ramie, why? When are you going to get over the fact that I don’t want you, I want Ramie.”

Erica lunged towards Isaac, growling, but Boyd grabbed her arm, pulling her back.

“Enough,” Derek spat towards Erica, who glared at him, then straight at Ramie.

“Thanks Boyd, wouldn’t want her to claw the shit out of me again,” Ramie said, sending a glare right back to Erica.

“Again?” Derek asked. He looked between Erica and Ramie. “Tell me what happened.”

“Erica clawed the shit out of Ramie’s leg in class the other day,” Isaac spoke up when Ramie was silent. Ramie narrowed her eyes at him, not wanting Derek to try and fight battles for her. She wasn’t scared of Erica.

“I didn’t know that,” Boyd said, finally letting go of Erica’s arm.

“Well I only knew because I saw the marks when she wasn’t wearing pants,” Isaac said casually, shrugging. Derek’s mouth opened for a second then closed, a mischievous look in his eyes. Ramie felt her face get very hot.

“Anyways, that’s not important,” Ramie changed the subject. “This kid, Matt, he’s controlling the kanima. Scott and Stiles are going to Stiles’ Dad right now.”

“You know this probably won’t end well,” Derek said. “Including someone who doesn’t know everything.”

“Okay, so we’ll go meet them there and figure something out,” Ramie said. “We need to stop him from killing anyone else.”

Derek nodded, surprisingly agreeing with Ramie. He told his beta’s to stay behind, telling Boyd to make sure Isaac and Erica didn’t kill each other while he was gone. Derek was nearly silent the whole drive to the police station, until they were a few minutes away.

“If you keep having problems with Erica let me know,” he said suddenly, not looking away from the road.

“I can take care of myself Derek,” Ramie sighed, annoyed at his whole alpha male demeanor. Sure, he was an alpha, but she was not part of his pack.

“I know,” Derek said simply. “But Erica is still a young beta and I don’t fully trust her control. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.”

Ramie softened immediately at Derek’s words. She spent a lot of time with him when they were training, and despite his hard exterior, Ramie had started to see him as sort of as an older brother. She knew a lot of his tough shell had to do with the whole alpha thing. She was about to tease him for being soft when he suddenly continued talking.

“And Scott would kill me if something happened to you,” he said quickly.

“Right,” Ramie smiled at him. The corner of his lip twitched, almost like he was going to smile too.

#stiles stilinski fanfic #stiles stilinski fanfiction #stiles stilinski one shot #stiles stilinski imagine #stiles stilinski x oc #teen wolf fanfic #teen wolf fanficiton #teen wolf one shot #teen wolf imagine #teen wolf rewrite #02x09 #season 2 #scott mccall #Isaac lahey #derek hale #allison argent #lydia martin

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theroseandcrown · 4 years

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The Rose & Crown: Chapter Eleven (Part Two)

Rating: M Chapters: 11/24

Summary: The Doctor and Clara come face to face with their kidnapper and uncover a shocking truth about their future.

Read this story on another platform: Archive of Our Own Fan Fiction WattPad

“You have no idea how many years I’ve waited to finally meet you, Doctor,” the hooded man spoke, his robotic voice still disguised behind his mask.

“Ah, well, you could’ve just phoned. I’m sure I could have jotted you down somewhere,” the Doctor replied.

The coachman snickered from under his hood. “Such a wonderful defence mechanism, humour. She said you’d be funny.”

“Who did? How do you know me?”

“There’s not a star in the universe safe from the whispered mentions of your name.”

“How did you know I was going to be here?”

The masked man turned around at the question. “The answer to that will be revealed in due time, my friend.”

“What do you want from me?”

The coachman turned his masked face towards Clara. “Bring me the companion,” he ordered. The soldier grabbed Clara’s arm and pulled her away as she struggled to break free of his grasp.

“No, wait! If it’s me you want, take me!” the Doctor objected before the second soldier hit him in the stomach with the end of his weapon. He gasped as the air was forced from his lungs.

“Doctor! Let go of me!” she screamed towards the soldier as she was dragged to the hooded figure and forcefully thrown at his feet.

The coachman peered down at the fallen woman clutching her stomach and wincing in pain then back to his soldier. He shook his head and tsk-tsked in disapproval. “Manners, my friend. These are our guests. A true gentleman would never harm a lady,” he claimed, pulling a modified nineteenth-century pistol from his cloak, taking aim at his soldier and killing him instantly. His limp metal body collapsed to the floor as Clara screamed in terror. The coachman replaced his weapon beneath his cloak and returned his attention to her. “My apologies.” He pulled the chair next to him and extended a gloved hand towards her, motioning for her to take it. “If you please.” She reluctantly accepted as the man helped her from the floor into the chair. The man slowly circled the frightened woman, staring down at her appearance and stopping next to her. He reached out and took her chin in his palm. “Such a pretty thing,” he admired. She angrily pulled away from his grasp. A small snicker escaped through his mask as he observed her fuller figure trying to hide beneath her dress. “I see you’ve been busy, Doctor. I didn’t take you for a family man.”

“Yes, well,” he started, beginning to regain his breath. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me. We’ve only just been acquainted. Seems unfair. You know who I am, yet I don’t know anything about you. To what name should I be addressing our most gracious host?” He tried to mask his concern over Clara’s well-being as she held a hand to her stomach and continued to breathe heavily.

“Ah, yes. How very inconsiderate of me,” the masked man replied. “I am known by many different names across the galaxy. My enemies refer to me as the Raven. Those who have been enslaved under my command have been called the Shade. I’ll admit, those titles don’t carry quite the same resonance throughout the stars as yours does, Doctor. However, titles aside, the one dearest to me called me... Quynn.”

“Funny things, names,” the Doctor started. “I’ve known more species in the universe than you can even imagine. I’ve been to places you’ve only seen in your nightmares. Yet, in all that time travelling throughout time and space, I’ve never heard of you before.”

“Perhaps your attention has been concentrated elsewhere,” the man suggested, carefully running his fingers between the ruffles of Clara’s blouse. “Tell me, Doctor. Do you know why I’ve brought you here?”

“I haven’t the faintest idea,” he replied, holding down his temper.

The man turned towards the large window and peered down below. The assembly floor was busy with movement. His robotic followers were preoccupied with their duties of uncrating and inspecting several different types of weapons. Soldiers were welding together parts of armour to each other while others were engraving the symbol of a red raven to the upgraded breastplates. “I built this army and everything you see from the ground up. Although, I didn’t do it alone. I had help along the way. Some may call it my legacy, but I see it as an opportunity.”

“An opportunity to do what, exactly?” Glancing to Clara, he watched as she slowly brought her hand to the table next to her while the man’s back was turned and quietly grabbed a sharp cylindrical object, a pen of sorts perhaps. He glared at her, his eyes wide with fear as if to say, ‘Don’t you dare! You’re going to get yourself killed!’ Keeping her eyes focused on the Doctor, she tucked the object into the sleeve of her coat.

“The universe can be so unforgiving. Out there, the rules we set for ourselves don’t apply. A dying star can pull entire worlds into its destruction, destroying millions of lives and bringing extinction to an entire species. Such power. Everything you’ve ever cared about, everything you’ve tried so hard to protect could be gone in an instant. The universe doesn’t abide by the concepts of good and evil. It doesn’t care about lives being saved or lost. You of all people should understand that, Doctor.” The man turned around to face him. “But what if you could prevent the inevitable? What if you could save billions of lives from war and genocide, protect them from collapsing stars and expanding suns? What if you had the power to choose who lives and who dies?”

“I’d say you were describing the powers of a God.”

“Gods are nothing but myths and legends, stories devised to frighten people into submission. I’m speaking of real power.” The man returned to Clara’s side. “I’ve seen countless worlds brought to their knees by superior races hell-bent on conquest. I’ve watched one planet after another fall victim to their planet’s destruction. You might be surprised to know how much a person would be willing to give up, to trade away for their own life or the lives of those they treasured most if they knew you had the power to save them.” The Doctor’s eyes conveyed a deep understanding of the truth behind his words. “And if you were to offer them a choice, swear their undying allegiance to you or suffer their inevitable fate, which do you think they would choose?”

“Aren’t you the mighty hero,” the Doctor’s sarcasm took form. “Saving innocent people from their doom, and in return, you offer them an eternity of slavery. These people, these followers of yours are nothing but the spoils of war. Had they any idea what was waiting for them at the cost of your protection, I think they’d rather take their chances.”

The man snickered. “I would have thought you’d be on my side, Doctor. Isn’t that what you do, what you are known for? Saving lives?”

“Not at the cost of their own free will.” His temper was rising. “Have you thought about what the consequences of saving these people, let alone an entire species, could do to the fabrics of time? Those billions of lives you are sparing from their fate could create a ripple throughout the universe causing it to completely collapse on itself. All of life as we know it could cease to exist. If I could save every single person who was marked for death, be able to alter every fixed point in time with no repercussions, don’t you think I would?”

“So you would have them all die then?” asked the masked man with a hint of curiosity.

The Doctor glanced at Clara, hesitantly thinking about his answer as the faces of those he had let perish or risk tearing the universe apart flashed into his mind. “Yes,” he replied, feeling a sense of shame in his answer.

“My my, how intriguing. It would appear there’s a more monstrous side hiding inside of you after all, Doctor. I dread to imagine what would become of those in your path if it was ever fully unleashed.” The man looked down at Clara, observing her terrified expression at his closeness. Her breathing had deepened, a bead of sweat trailed down the side of her face. Without warning, he forcefully grabbed her wrist and twisted it towards him causing her to scream out in pain. The Doctor felt himself fall forward to rush to her side but was held back by the remaining soldier. The masked man’s other hand gently reached into her coat sleeve and pulled the sharpened object hidden from within, then released his grasp on her. She cradled her wounded wrist as angered tears fell from her face. The man stepped in front of her and glared down at her shaken form. “Your companion seems to lack a few crucial lessons in manners. How disappointing. I just may have to teach her myself. Although, my ways are known to be a little more... disciplined.” He raised his hand and slapped her hard across the face. She cried out and held her cheek as blood formed at the corner of her mouth.

“Stop this!” the Doctor shouted with objection, trying to fight the soldier’s hold on him. “Where is your honour? What happened to a gentleman never harming a lady?”

The man spun around to face him and returned his hands behind his back. “Leave us,” he ordered the remaining soldier still clinging to the Doctor’s arms.

“Sir,” the soldier obeyed with a nod. He released his grasp and exited the room, shutting the door closed behind him.

The Doctor and Clara found themselves alone in the room with the man, neither one of them making any sudden movements to avoid the fate of the dead soldier still sprawled out on the floor. Once it was decidedly safe, the man reached towards his hood and slowly pulled it back to fully expose his dark mask. He released the two clips at the back holding the mask around his face and carefully removed it from where it once rested. The Doctor was suddenly hit with a wave of telepathic abilities emanating from the newly unmasked figure. To his utter surprise, nothing could have prepared him for what he saw standing before him; a woman.

“At last we finally meet face to face, Doctor,” said Quynn, setting her mask on the table beside her. Although her voice was feminine in nature, it had an unforgiving harshness to it that seemed disturbing. Yet something about it was so very familiar, a voice he recognized but couldn’t quite place.

The Doctor stared in disbelief at the recognizable features of the woman in front of him. His mind filtered through the faces of his past trying to determine where he had seen her before. And then the realization hit him like a slap to the face as his memories became more clear. Missy’s assistant. The young woman holding the Comasphere on Prima Nova, it was her. Aside from a few new scars on her face, possibly obtained in battle over time, the woman looked almost exactly as he remembered her that night. “You!” he exclaimed in shock, now beginning to piece together the details unravelling before him. “Of course! It all makes perfect sense, why didn’t I see it before?! The crates, the ones containing all the artefacts. You’ve been heisting them from locations spread throughout the universe. You’re using the Persuaders to force people of power to trade their weapons and upgrade your armies without them even realizing what they were doing.” He observed Quynn’s impressed reaction which further confirmed his accusations. His mind began to connect all his thoughts. “It was you who called the TARDIS emergency line, I recognize your voice! But how is that possible?! The events of the auction won’t be taking place for centuries from now. You claim to have been waiting for me all this time, yet you’ve barely aged a single day since I saw you last.”

“It’s true. I’ve been waiting for you longer than I can even remember, and longer still to trace you to this exact point in time. And now, here we are.”

“Who are you, really? What does any of this have to do with me?”

Quynn smirked at the old man’s humorous ignorance. “Can you hear it, Doctor? The ringing in your ears? The link to your mind from someone like yourself calling out to you? Can you feel the electricity within your fingertips?”

“Yes,” he answered, questioning everything the young woman seemed to know about him. “How can you possibly know that?”

“Because, I can feel it too,” she confessed, tracing her fingers along the edge of her mask. “I’ve encountered countless species with the ability to telepathically link to one another, but only one with the capability to be the most powerful race in the universe. The great Time Lords.” The old man’s hearts dropped at the sound of the name. “Pity there’s so few of us left.”

The Doctor continued to stare at the woman in disbelief, unable to find any truth in her words. “That’s not possible. The Time Lords are gone, stuck in a pocket dimension never to return. I should know, I put them there. Whatever you are is something... else. Which brings me to my next question, the one you haven’t answered yet. Why did you bring me here?”

“I was sent here with a message for you.” A menacing smile appeared on her face. She walked over to the table and pressed her hand upon the top until a view-screen lit up on its surface. She typed a few commands into its interface then removed her glove and pressed her thumb down to scan her print for recognition. A panel slid open next to the screen. She reached in and pulled a small wooden box from inside then set it on the table and slid the box towards him.

“What is it?” His brow raised with curiosity.

“A gift,” she replied, maintaining her position behind the table.

The Doctor hesitantly approached the object, keeping a watchful eye on Clara who seemed to have recovered somewhat from her pains. Returning his attention to Quynn, he slowly picked up the small box and opened it to examine its contents. Inside was a lady’s brooch depicting the profile of the Roman Goddess Flora. Though many women of the Victorian era could be seen wearing a very similar piece, this one in particular was made of a rare type of element known as dark star alloy. When crafted correctly, it was capable of piercing even the strongest of metals. A feeling of dread arose inside of him as he realized the piece he held was one he knew very well. It was the very same that used to belong to him before he gave it to someone he thought he could trust. Someone he knew would not have parted with it so easily without good reason. So many thoughts flooded his mind at the same time. “Where did you get this?!” he demanded. Quynn remained silent at his question, grinning to herself as she watched him become more aggressive with each second that passed. “The woman you spoke of before, the one who told you I was funny. Who is she?!” Quynn’s infuriating silence was even more of a sign his worst fears were validating themselves. “All this talk of doomed planets and enslaved armies, waiting centuries for the chance to bring me here just to give me a message, and now suddenly you have nothing to say.” He began to pace in front of her as he tried to gather his thoughts. Each thought entering his mind caused his fear and anger to take control over him. “You said the one dearest to you called you Quynn.” He approached her as closely as he dared to go. His concern for their safety had become second to his overwhelming desire for the truth. “Was it she who sent you here to find me? Is she the one who gave you this?” He held the brooch in front of him.

“I suspect you already know the answer to that, Doctor.” She could feel his gaze burning fiercely into her eyes as he awaited her answer. “After all that you’ve been through thus far, after everything we’ve learned about each other, knowing all that has been and could be accomplished with you by my side, does it matter who sent me here?”

“Believe me, it matters,” he assured her, continuing to hold the piece in front of him. “Do you have any idea what this is?”

“It’s nothing more than a family heirloom. An offering to persuade you to view things in a different light as we do. I’ll admit, I had my doubts that a gesture so small would have any effect on the outcome of you joining us. However, seeing you this disordered over a piece of jewellery has been quite entertaining. If not a bit overly dramatic.”

“A family heirloom you say? How interesting,” he began, regaining himself. “As in having been passed down through generations. From a grandparent to their future descendants. From a parent to a child. Or, perhaps in this case, from a mother to her daughter.”

“I’m aware of the concept, Doctor.”

“Are you?” he inquired, raising his brow. “Tell me then. After all this time you’ve been waiting for me, spending countless years keeping this safe until the moment I was standing right here, have you ever asked yourself why it was saved for me? Surely something as valuable as this ought to have been passed down to its next rightful heir?”

“It’s not my position to question the orders in which I am given, only to see them out in the manner of which they are received.”

The Doctor could sense a hint of frustration and possibly a slight resentfulness emanating from within her. He felt his strategy of disarming her with his words seemed to be proving effective. “Ah, I understand now. You’re merely a pawn in all of this, just a piece to be played. The messenger who doesn’t question anything, who does exactly as she’s told!”

Quynn smirked at the old man’s words. Cupping her hands behind her, she slowly turned her back on him and made her way to Clara’s side. “I know what you’re doing, Doctor, and it won’t work on me. When it comes to playing mind games, I was trained by the very best. I know every trick in the book there is. So, what do you say we change the rules of the game? Up the stakes a bit, shall we?” she insisted, removing her pistol from its holster and pointing the barrel at his companion’s head. Clara’s eyes went wide with fear. Her body froze in place as frightened tears streamed down her face. The Doctor retained his calm demeanour, unwilling to show any sign of weakness that could be used against him. “I can make this as simple or as difficult as it needs to be,” she continued. “My orders are fairly straightforward. I can offer you a choice. Either you come with me willingly and I spare their lives, or I shoot them now and force you to come with me anyway.”

“Well yes, you could shoot them,” he started.

“You better be joking, Doctor,” Clara warned, flashing him a heated glance. “Surely you’re joking, yeah?” Quynn found herself surprised by his response yet maintained her position.

“However,” he continued, looking to Clara as he fought to keep his emotions under control. He stared at her apologetically for what was to come, for what he knew he had to do to save them. “If you kill them, you’ll be killing yourself,” he affirmed with a heavy sigh.

“Hang on, what?” Clara uttered alarmingly. “Doctor, what are you talking about?”

“She’s our daughter, Clara,” he answered. Somehow the thought of his own words brought a smile to his face despite their current situation.

“I don’t understand,” she admitted as a mix of confusion and dread rested upon her face.

The brief moment between them was interrupted by the sound of Quynn’s unexpected hysterical laughter filling the small room. “I apologize,” she stated, lowering her weapon to her side. She continued to laugh, wiping a tear from her eye as she attempted to compose herself. “I have to admit, I was not expecting that from you, Doctor. If you thought you’d be so bold as to try to make a fool out of me, I’m quite certain you’ve made a great miscalculation of character. I should be offended. However, it doesn’t surprise me that you’d be willing to say anything to protect the mother of your child.”

“I’m afraid it’s true. Every word of it.”

“Seriously, Doctor. What are you talking about?!” Clara repeated, this time with urgency.

“I’m also curious to see how far you’re willing to go with this charade,” Quynn added. “I trust you’ve spent this time devising an explanation to accompany your absurd accusations. Luckily for you, I’ve all the time in the universe to be entertained by any reliable evidence you have to offer.”

“All the evidence you’ll ever need is right here.” He placed the brooch on the table in front of him.

“I’m afraid it’s going to take a little more than a bit of jewellery to convince me. I’ll give you another chance before I come to the conclusion that you’re merely trying to test my patience and I decide to kill all three of you instead.”

“I expected as much.” He leaned against the table and crossed his arms. “The reason the brooch was to be delivered to me is that it wouldn’t have belonged to you in the first place. It was never intended for you. You were sent here with a message, that much is certain. But you didn’t need to spend all this time waiting for me to show up just to give me a bit of boxed jewellery. This isn’t about the gift. This was never about wanting me to join you while you circumvented the universe looking for worlds to save and people to enslave into your armies. I’ll admit, you had me believing you for a moment. That maybe you did hold the answer to cheating all the laws of the universe without consequence that I could never quite reach. I thought that maybe if I agreed to come with you, I could somehow convince you that saving people is its own reward. But then you showed me this,” he stared at the brooch on the table, “and suddenly everything became so very clear.” He gently picked up the piece and turned it around in his hand as if trying to read all of its dark secrets. “You see, the woman who sent you here, the one you work for, I know her very well. You might even say we were good friends once. I was the one who gave this to her back on Gallifrey, so many years ago. It was a gift for her daughter, her real daughter. I don’t expect she’s ever really forgiven me for what happened to her, for what I did, for what I had to do. And for that, I’ll always have my regrets.” He slowly replaced the piece on the table and stood to face the woman eye to eye. “Missy is not your mother, Quynn. Whatever she’s told you about me, whatever reason she had you bring us to Prima Nova, it was all a lie devised to manipulate you into taking her revenge out on me. She didn’t send you here with a message for me to join you. You, my dear, are the message.” The room went quiet as his eyes traced back and forth between the startled faces of the women in the room.

“Tell me, Doctor. Why should I believe any of this?” Quynn asked, trying to fill the empty spaces of his story with her own thoughts.

“Because it’s the truth. Because,” he sighed, “I’m the one to blame. I’m the reason for all of this!” He felt the familiar sense of anger rising within him once more.

“Doctor, what are you saying?” Clara asked, trying to keep up with all that had been revealed thus far.

The Doctor placed his face in his hands and tried to come to terms with what he knew he must confess. The rage was building inside of him. It took all of his strength not to explode with emotion. “Oh Clara, Clara, Clara.” He ran his hands down his face in frustration and looked deeply in her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Clara.”

The uncertainty she felt towards him turned to fear over the unmistakable look of guilt consuming his expression. “Doctor, what have you done?”

“What I had to do.” The look of shame and sorrow passed over his face. “I made a deal with Missy,” he confessed as another heavy sigh passed his lips. “I agreed to trade our child away in exchange for your life.” He could only describe the emotions running over his companion’s face as that of shock and hatred.

“You didn’t. Tell me you didn’t, Doctor,” she asserted, making sure each word she spoke was clearly understood by him.

“It was the only way to save you. She was going to kill you both if I hadn’t agreed. I’ve spent the last few months trying to find a way out of our deal hoping to buy us more time before she would eventually come for our baby.” He glanced at his daughter standing behind the woman still carrying her. “And it would appear as though I will have been unsuccessful.” Clara leaned back in her chair, her mouth agape as his words encompassed every part of her mind.

“I’m quite impressed,” Quynn interjected. “You’ve really thought this all out, haven’t you? One day they may end up writing such magnificent stories based on your tall tales of woe. But until then, I think I’ve heard quite enough fiction for one evening,” she declared, slowly running her fingers through Clara’s hair as if taking one last look at her. “What a shame, she was such a pretty thing. Anything else you’d like to tell your companion before I kill her?” She returned her pistol to the back of Clara’s head and cocked it. Clara closed her eyes, accepting her fate.

“If you kill her, none of this will have ever existed.” His concern for Clara’s well-being was rapidly growing as he felt he was losing control of the situation. “All that you have worked for, all the planets and people you have saved, all that you have accomplished will be erased from time itself. Don’t you see? Your entire existence is a paradox. If you kill Clara, you never would have brought us to Prima Nova. You never would have been conceived and therefore would never have been born. Time will have rewritten itself to its last fixed point before any of this ever started. Is that a risk you’d be willing to take? I’m offering you a chance to start a new life, the life you should have had, with us. Please, don’t do this.”

Quynn stayed silent for a moment as if considering his proposal carefully. “Even if what you say is true, and believe me, I will discover the truth, I see no reason to assume that killing you instead would have any effect on the outcome of what has already taken place.” A smile formed on her face as she changed her target from Clara to take aim at the centre of his chest.

“NO!” Clara screamed, falling forward in her chair.

“No, Clara!” He held up his hand in a peaceful gesture to stop her from standing. “It’s okay. All of this was my fault. If it hadn’t been for me, none of this would have happened. I put you and our child in danger and I’ll never be able to forgive myself for that. I deserve whatever is coming to me. I’ve lived for far too long. This is right.”

“No, Doctor! Please!” she cried. “I can’t do this without you.”

“It’ll be okay, Clara.” He wanted to comfort her, to hold her in his arms fearing this would be the last time he’d ever get the chance to do so. They had already been through so much together. Her life force was deeply entwined in his own. She deserved better than what he’d done to her. He hated goodbyes just as much as he hated endings, no matter their nature. “I know you’re going to be a wonderful mother. Take care of her for me, Clara.”

“Goodbye, Doctor,” Quynn remarked, placing her finger on the trigger. He closed his eyes and awaited the darkness coming for him.

“NO!” Clara screamed again. Without even realizing what she was doing, she flung herself back into her seat with brute force. Using her legs as propulsion, she sent herself and the chair flying backwards straight into Quynn who cried out from the blow. Her shot missed the Doctor by inches before nearly being knocked over. Clara fell from her chair to the floor landing on her side next to the body of the deceased soldier. Without delay, she grabbed the weapon from his dead grasp and flipped around to face her daughter. Quynn, having recovered from the shock of Clara’s unexpected attack, turned her weapon towards her mother to take aim.

“Clara, NO!” she heard the Doctor shout as she pressed down on the trigger and fired off a shot directly into Quynn’s chest. The blast from the rifle sent her flying backwards and smashing through the glass window. She let out a scream as her body was flung like a projectile out of the room and down to the assembly floor far below them. A loud crash was heard accompanied by the startled voices of the soldiers below.

The Doctor rushed to where the window once was and peered down. He could see Quynn’s limp lifeless form sprawled on the ground. Her body had fallen upon several stacked crates, obliterating them into pieces. Several armed guards rushed to the scene. They stood over the fallen body of their commander and glanced in the direction of where she had fallen from, meeting the face of the man looking down at them. At once they began to assemble themselves and exit the floor, their weapons drawn and ready for combat. Moments later, an alarm was heard broadcasting throughout the building. “I think we’ve outstayed our welcome,” he concluded, turning to his companion who was frozen in shock. Thinking quickly, he rushed to the door they had entered through and pulled out his sonic-screwdriver, aiming it towards the lock. The locked clicked and sealed. As the guards from the outside began to pound on the door, he rushed over to Clara and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Clara,” he addressed her, breaking her from her petrified state.

“I shot her.” Her eyes were wide and full of tears.

“Clara, we need to leave.” He tried to pull her from the floor.

“I shot her, Doctor,” she sobbed, placing her face in her hands.

“Yes, I know. But right now I need you to get up for me. That door won’t hold much longer.” He stood and grabbed her by the waist, pulling her to a standing position. Once sure she was able to stand on her own, he rushed around the room to collect what he needed for their escape. He ran to the table and opened the case of perception filter badges. He took out two of them then returned to where he left her. Using his screwdriver, he initiated a complete scan of the deceased soldier’s body.

“Is she dead?” Clara finally managed to ask. She looked as white as a sheet. Her eyes remained wide as fresh tears ran down her cheeks. He raised his brow at the question and continued his work on the badges, placing his screwdriver on the small devices to update their data. “Doctor? Please, tell me,” she pleaded.

“Here,” he replied, handing her one of the badges. “Put this on. I’ve recalibrated its internal circuitry and reversed its projection system to mimic the revised primary data model.”

She stared at him as if he had just spoken to her in fluent Gallifreyan. “Was I supposed to understand any of that?”

He exhaled an exasperated sigh at the question. “If we want to get out of this alive, we can’t just walk out of here appearing human. If I’ve done my calculations correctly, these perception badges should be able to project the most recent image uploaded into its database.” He placed the badge on his lapel and activated it which replaced his furrowed grey-haired form into a replica of the soldier. He helped to place on hers and activated it, changing her appearance from a Victorian woman into an armoured android.

She raised her hands and turned them over to observe their cybernetic features then peered down the rest of her body. Where there should have been a noticeable fullness extending from her middle, there was now an armoured metal plating. She attempted to hold back her grief and shock to focus on what she needed to do to save herself and her child’s life. The emotions flowing through her at that moment were being silenced by her greater need to survive. “Are you sure about this?”

“About eighty-seven per cent sure.”

“Fair enough.”

They heard a loud thud on the door as the soldiers attempted to break it down. “Time to go,” he insisted, turning to the secondary door. “And bring that,” he gestured towards the weapon she used on Quynn. “We just may need it after all.” The alarm continued to sound as he headed to the secondary door and slowly cracked it open, peering outside for any sign of soldiers approaching. Once it was safe, he opened the door to better observe the undiscovered area. The long dark corridor was vacant of any lifeforms to be concerned about for the moment. He motioned for her to step through then used his screwdriver on the door, locking it from the outside. Taking her hand, he led her down the corridor to its end and turned the corner. As they came around the bend, he heard the sound of soldiers making their way down the adjacent pathway. Thinking quickly, he yanked her behind the wall and wrapped his arm around her front to steady her. She yelped in pain and clutched her middle still hiding beneath her armoured disguise. He quickly covered her mouth with his free hand attempting to keep her as silent as possible. She breathed deeply through her nose and tried to concentrate on anything but her pain. Once the soldiers passed, he whispered into her ear. “We’ll wait here. Once it’s safe, we’re going to head for the exterior access hatch. We may have to reach it quickly before we’re spotted and our disguises are uncovered. Can you make it?” The adrenaline pumped heavily through his veins as he spoke. She nodded, her mouth still covered by his hand. From down the corridor, they heard the sound of pounding coming from the door behind them. The soldiers had made it passed the first barrier. “Change of plans!” he blurted, releasing his grasp on her. Taking her hand, he hurried to lead her through the corridor into the adjacent one and searched for anything even remotely resembling an exit of any kind. Spotting a singular door at the far end of the hall, they picked up their pace and headed towards it, pushing it open and bursting their way through. They stopped dead in their tracks, realizing they had found themselves in a loading dock. Several groups of soldiers were arming themselves while others were unloading crates of weaponry from the large vehicles parked within.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but this doesn’t look like an exterior access hatch to me!” she whispered irritably through her teeth.

“Yes, well, next time I’ll be sure to stop and ask for directions before we begin running for our lives!” he snapped back. “Just remain calm and do exactly as I do.” He headed down the stairs to the dock floor with Clara following closely behind. Spotting the exit, he calmly led them passed the soldiers towards it.

“You there!” one of the higher-ranking officers shouted at them. They froze and turned their attention towards the voice. “Where do you think you two are going?”

“Uh...” the Doctor started, his brain working overtime to come up with a believable scenario. “Perimeter reinforcement! They needed more eyes on the outside keeping a lookout for two escaped human prisoners, sir!” He felt ridiculous having to recite titles to a robot even if it was a matter of life and death.

The lieutenant raised what could only be assumed was an eyebrow as he noticed the Doctor’s defencelessness. “Where is your weapon, soldier?”

“Um... it had a slight malfunction, I’m afraid,” he lied. Clara groaned in the back of her throat after being hit with another wave of pain. He could feel himself beginning to panic.

“What’s wrong with him?” asked the lieutenant.

“Oh, uh, the thought of humans running about disgusts him. Weak servomechanism system I’d say.” He was thankful the perception filter was able to mask his obvious sweating.

The lieutenant eyed the two strange infantrymen which made the old man more nervous than he intended to be. After a moment, he removed the strap attached to his rifle from his shoulder and stuck the weapon in the Doctor’s arms. “Here, take this one. Make sure to perform a sweep of the entire perimeter wall. Call if you find anything. If they have made it out, they won’t last very long in this weather. And don’t let me catch you without your weapon again. Is that understood, soldier?”

“Roger that,” he nodded, keeping his hands from trembling. The lieutenant departed from the pair and began assessing his other troops. The Doctor turned to Clara and cocked his head towards the exit. Making their way towards it, he opened the door to the outside. The cold raw air nipped them in the face as they headed away from the structure. The ground was now completely covered in snow. They approached a large gate used for transport vehicles on the side of the building.

“I can’t believe that worked,” she remarked, attempting to ignore her unsettling pain. They reached the gate to find it was locked, a chain had been wrapped tightly around it. He pulled out his screwdriver and aimed it at the lock. It sparked and unlatched allowing them to push it open and escape from the grounds into the surrounding forest. Once outside the perimeter, the perception filter badges returned them to their original forms. The Doctor grabbed Clara’s hand and hurried to lead her towards the TARDIS. She struggled to keep up, holding a hand under her middle for support. “I don’t think I can make it,” she admitted out of breath and fighting her pain.

He stopped and turned towards her, removing their weapons and dropping them in the snow. Taking a closer look, he could see her face was damp with sweat and flushed. He pressed his palm to her forehead, sensing the beginning of a fever. “Yes, you can,” he insisted. He placed her arm around his shoulder and held her steady by her waist. “We’re nearly there, the town is just ahead.”

As they walked several paces through the dark forest, she stopped for a moment to catch her breath. “I think I need to rest.”

“Clara, we need to keep moving. Once the soldiers figure out what has happened, they’ll be headed this way. We have to get to the TARDIS as quickly as we can.”

“Easy for you to say. You’re not the one carting around an extra passenger!”

“Not at the moment, no. Would you like me to call us a carriage?” he asked, not even trying to hold back his smile. She was not amused.

“Carry on, soldier boy,” she ordered, forcing herself to continue.

********************

The walk through the forest and into the developing town felt like an eternity. The Doctor managed to maintain his grip on her the entire way as the familiar sight of the TARDIS came into view. At last, they made it to the blue box. Opening the door, he assisted her inside towards the nearest seat then returned to the entrance to close it. As he did, he heard the sound of an enormous explosion originating from the direction of the factory in which they had just escaped from. Startled by the sound, he stepped outside to get a better look at the brilliant sight in the distance. The blast from the building arose far above the trees. But, to his shock, it wasn’t being caused by fire. An immense golden-yellow beam emitted from its location sending it soaring into the night’s sky and outwards destroying everything in the vicinity around it. The blinding column of light penetrated the darkness which illuminated everything the area for miles in all directions. He shielded his eyes from its immaculate glow. The electricity he felt emanating from it could have powered an entire continent. Great fear tore through him. There was only one thing that could have caused such an eruption; regeneration energy.

He quickly ran inside and shut the door as his hearts pounded in his chest. He pressed his forehead to the door to steady himself and take control over his emotions. The frightened feelings running through him were being fuelled by the knowledge that his daughter was still alive. Which meant only one thing. They were in even greater danger. Once composed, he rushed to the console. Pushing buttons and pulling levers, he sent the time machine towards its instructed coordinates. The TARDIS bucked and whirred while her passengers held on to whatever was around them.

“Where are we going?” Clara managed to ask, her defeated form gripping herself to one of the few comfortable seats available. It took all of her remaining strength not to fall out of the chair as her fever began to worsen, draining the last bit of energy helping to keep her conscious.

“Somewhere safe,” he replied, keeping an eye on the view-screen as he held onto the console. “We may need a place to hide for a while. I fear they’ve been tracking us for some time.” The sound of the ship’s signature thudded landing was heard as the interior rocking ceased. “I’ve taken us to the Horsehead Nebula. Specifically, the Ood Sphere. Its inhabitants are all telepathically linked to each other by the hive mind. If we remain here, it’s possible we can disguise ourselves under their telepathic field to camouflage whatever signal is transmitting from inside the TARDIS.”

“How long do you plan on keeping us here?” she asked, attempting to sit up. Feeling the pain returning, she winced and placed her hand over the source of her discomfort.

He came to her side and knelt before her to rest a hand over hers. With the other, he placed it above her damp brow and concluded that her fever was worsening by the minute. “I’m not sure. But first, we need to find out what’s going on in there,” he gestured to her belly and pulled out his screwdriver. He scanned her middle and brought the device into view to examine its findings. He then returned to the view-screen to upload the data he had received. After a moment of staring at the readings being displayed upon the monitor, he ran a hand down his face in frustration.

“Doctor? What is it, what’s wrong?” She became nervous at his less-than-satisfied reaction.

“There appears to be a tear in the uterine wall.” His attempt to conceal his saddened expression offered little comfort to his companion. “A separation of tissue, right here.” He pointed at the screen to a position just beside their growing child. He hung his head deep in terrified thought. The tearing had been severe. The scans showed a vast amount of internal bleeding. Her increasing fever was even more of a confirmation that if they did not seek medical attention soon, she would not be able to survive much longer.

“Is she going to be alright?” her voice trembled. His silence worried her even more. “Doctor, how bad is it?”

He turned around to face her. “I don’t know,” he lied. “There isn’t enough information available on Time Lord and human pregnancies to know for certain.”

“But it’s been done before, yeah?” she asked, remaining hopeful.

He stared into her eyes knowing very well that it had. “Yes,” he confirmed. “But not all are the same. There’s no way to know how your body will react to this. Given enough stress, this pregnancy could be fatal to you and our child. I could lose you both.” He hadn’t realized how much that thought truly terrified him until he heard the words spoken aloud.

“So what do we do?” she inquired, pushing her fears aside. If she had learned anything in her time travelling with him, she knew that wherever he was there would always be hope. He slowly approached and knelt before her once more. A heavy-hearted sigh escaped him as he placed his hands on either side of his child. He lowered his head and gently kissed the top of her belly. Closing his eyes, he carefully rested his forehead on her middle as if attempting to communicate with the small being living within her. Clara was conflicted by the feelings flowing through her at that moment. Though a part of her felt moved by his unexpected affections, a greater part of her was still angered and betrayed by his most recent confession of having promised their child away. She ran her fingers through his wavy hair to comfort him. It wasn’t often she was shown the sensitive side of this regeneration he had become. But at that moment, she knew how much this child meant to him no matter what his previous actions proved otherwise. Having heard the stories of his past and the children he once fathered and lost, this was the closest he had come to reliving that title since the day he lost them all. “Is there nothing that can be done?” she asked, trying to fight her tears.

He raised his head and met her sad eyes with his own. “There is one thing.” Leaning away from her, he lowered his gaze to his hands. After only a moment, they began to glow an ambient golden-yellow.

“Don’t you dare!” she commanded. She knew he was offering more than just a part of himself, the essence that made him everything he was, it was a piece of his irreplaceable soul she would never be able to repay.

“What other choice do we have?” He stood and stepped away from her trying to keep himself calm. “What would you have me do, just stand around here waiting for one or both of you die? I’m sorry, Clara, but I can’t-” he sighed, then returned his gaze to hers. “I won’t let that happen.”

“We’ll find another way. We always do.”

“This isn’t just another intergalactic space pickle we always seem to find ourselves in. This isn’t about all the times we escaped near-death and sat around the table having a good laugh about it. We’re talking about your life and the life of our child. Unless we seek medical attention immediately, both of you will die.” The words tore through him like a knife. It took everything in his power to remain strong for her as his world was crashing all around him.

“Then we find help. Surely someone out there can help us.”

“And go where, exactly? Last time I checked, the list of available hospitals in the universe housing a vast amount of knowledge about Time Lord pregnancies seemed rather short.” His sarcasm was getting the better of him. He sighed and returned himself to the situation. “I’ve already caused enough damage. I’ve betrayed your trust, risked our friendship, put all of our lives in danger all because I thought I was doing the right thing. Please, just let me do this for you. Allow me this one thing. A chance to set things right.” His eyes begged her to reconsider.

She felt herself struggling to stay awake, her eyes strained to focus on the old man’s sorrowed face. She could feel her body starting to fail, her vision beginning to fade. The disheartening realization finally hit her that her time was running out more quickly than either of them ever fathomed. She feared that even if they somehow managed to find help, they would be too late. “Okay,” she nodded after carefully considering her limited options.

He approached and knelt in front of her a final time. Bringing his hands in front of him, they began to glow once more. “Are you sure?”

“As I can be,” she answered weakly, then raised her brow. “Space pickle?”

“Shut up.” He pressed his hands on her abdomen and closed his eyes, concentrating all of his energy on healing the tear. Clara was losing the fight for consciousness. She felt her heavy eyelids close and her head drift to the side as he worked to mend her internal wounds. “Stay with me, Clara!” he shouted, trying to keep her awake and alert. Her hands slid off her body and landed limply to her sides as she slipped out of reality. As the darkness took over, she could barely hear the faint cries of the Doctor frantically calling out her name. And then there was nothing.

#12th doctor #doctor who #doctor who fanfiction #twelfth doctor #the doctor #dr who #dr who fan fiction #dr who fanfiction #twelve/clara #clara oswald #whouffaldi

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n-0-e-m-i · 5 years

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I’d like to nominate (?) for @everlarkficbackfriday some of the great everlark fics I’ve read so far, that are currently unfinished (in no partucular order):

The Project by Ronja

Summary:

The slowest of burns. This fic is great! It’s currently 35 chapters and 303462 words long and they haven’t even kissed yet, but it’s so well written and the development of everkark is very realistic in terms of pace and the’re really really cute together

Love Throughout the Ages by abk1973

Summary:

This one got me into watching Outlander and then I realized that it’s better than Outlander (I don’t care for gritty shows or scenes at all, I just want to see the period clothes and speech).

The Endless In-Between by Panem, soamazinghere, wincechesters

Summary:

This is not the type of fic I would normally go for, but it’s. so. good.

Quicksilver by Gamemakers

Summary:

Have I mentioned that I love period fics? Because I do. Katniss defying social norms is my jam

One Year and One Day by PatriziaNordsee

Summary:

This one has a bit of fairytale-like magic a few chapters in, and so far I’m loving every word of it!

Honorable mentions

These are less than one year old, but too good not to be included on this list

Unmasked by M

Everlark Fic Exchange. Prompt 88

The last exchange had great fics, but to me this one takes the cake (told ya, period fic Katniss is my jam -- also, I love any and all variations of enemies to friends to lovers (in this case I guess it’s enemies to spouses to friends to lovers, wich is even more fun to read))

Geometry by dandeliononfire

Summary:

This Katniss is so conflicted and confusing! She and Peeta never seem to be on the same page, but I guess that’s what makes it such a great story to read

Spellbound by katnissdoesnotfollowback (lost_on_cloud_9)

Summary:

This Katniss is so obstinate! It’s funny to see how Peeta is winning her over and she can’t even see it

Yep, that was a long one! I hope whoever reads it takes the time to check out these fics, they’re all great ones! And I sincerely wish the authors find their muse/motivation/incentive/time to finish them one day, hopefully.

#everlark fic rec #everlark fanfiction #everlark fic #everlark #everlark fic back friday #everlarkficbackfriday #FicBackFriday

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iturbide · 4 years

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Hfjdhjf can I please have more information?? I think the reason I managed to float by so spoiler free was half because up until recently I never was super interested in Three Houses, and my knowledge was limited to what I was told about the routes. WHICH WAS APPARENTLY VERY LIMITED. V E R Y.

friend of course you can have more information

legit though I am so impressed that you’ve managed to stay spoiler free regardless of the context, I am massively spoiled for fandoms I’m not even in and yet you’re managing to come at it fresh like I did when I started my Golden Deer playthrough.

also this came in and frankly your wish is my command

But okay. So.

Dimitri is honestly fascinating and a tragic, deeply flawed character in his own right. But understanding his break requires backstory. His mom died when he was still pretty young due to a plague that swept through Faerghus, and when he was around ten his father re-married an Imperial woman named Patricia von Arundel (who is also Edelgard’s mother, hence the step-siblings thing). Edelgard, as it happens, had come to the Kingdom with her mother and uncle, Volkhart von Arundel, in order to escape the chaos caused by the Insurrection of the Seven, where the Imperial nobles seized power from the Emperor (Edelgard’s father), and the two became friends: she taught him to dance during the three-ish years she was in the Kingdom, and just before she left Dimitri gifted her a dagger, symbolic in the Kingdom of a hope for someone to cut their own path forward.

Two years later, Dimitri’s life basically becomes hell. While he and his family are traveling through the neighboring lands of Duscur, their caravan is attacked: his father Lambert and his bodyguard Glenn are both brutally murdered, his step-mother goes missing, and he is the sole survivor. He witnessed the people responsible, but although he tried to tell people what happened, the people of Duscur were blamed for the attack, and the genocide soon followed. The whole incident came to be known as the Tragedy of Duscur, and it left Dimitri with massive trauma that went completely unaddressed: he suffers from survivor’s guilt and PTSD, he completely lost all sense of taste, he’s had a constant headache since the incident...oh, and also he sees hallucinations of the people who died. So there’s that.

Now, because Dimitri was only 14 at the time and he couldn’t take the Faerghus throne until he reached his majority at 18, his uncle Rufus stepped in as regent in the meantime. Rufus is pretty fucking terrible! In fact, he sent Dimitri at age 16 to go put down a rebellion in Western Faerghus -- and again, Dimitri is a traumatized teenager who’s been getting no help or support. The people around him, notably Gilbert and Felix’s father Rodrigue, are trying to foster him into the next King of Faerghus rather than tending to his very real mental and emotional needs following the events of Duscur, so Dimitri has been silently bottling up all of his problems for the better part of two years. He...kind of snaps during that rebellion, and it ends up as a brutal slaughter; Felix bears witness to it, and ever after he treats Dimitri like a wild animal, calling him a beast and a boar.

This is all just piling on the trauma, as you probably noticed. He manages to hold it together and keep up a calm exterior, though he’s deeply afraid of the darkness within him, and does his utmost to bury it and keep it under control. At age 17 he comes to Garreg Mach, and over the course of the school year things just get progressively worse: he starts slipping and growing more violent over the course of repeated encounters with the Flame Emperor, since he recognizes the masked mages from the attack on his family’s caravan in Duscur and believes that the Flame Emperor must have been responsible for the Tragedy. But he pretty much snaps during the revelation at the Holy Tomb, where Edelgard is unmasked as the Flame Emperor -- in the Blue Lions route, he literally crushes an Imperial soldier’s skull with his bare hands in his attempts to get at Edelgard. It’s shocking, especially since up to that point the super strength that came from his Crest was played for laughs more than anything else.

He continues slipping in the weeks leading up to the attack on Garreg Mach, publicly alluding to his hallucinations and how they whisper to him and vowing to take Edelgard’s head himself. CF is the only route where he actually stays pretty sane, so we’re going to focus on non-CF routes: in the battle for the monastery, Edelgard’s forces end up victorious, and he’s forced back to Faerghus, expecting to take the throne and rally a counterstrike against her...only to arrive and be accused of regicide when it’s revealed that his uncle Rufus has been viciously murdered. Cornelia (who is, in fact, a Twisted agent) takes power in the Kingdom and basically hands it off to Edelgard as the ‘Dukedom of Faerghus,’ then orders Dimitri be imprisoned and later executed; but before he can be killed, his vassal Dedue manages to break him out of prison, though the escape attempt apparently costs him his life (he can be saved by other Duscur survivors depending on the results of an earlier paralogue, though -- the important point is that Dimitri thinks Dedue is dead). After that, Dimitri spends the next four-ish years wandering alone in the Faerghus forests, the isolation exacerbating his already poor mental health until he’s openly conversing with his hallucinations; he also starts attacking Imperial forces he comes across in Faerghus and basically ripping them apart, leading to a lot of rumors about a wild beast on the loose. Also, somewhere in this five year span he loses an eye. No, we have no idea how. Fandom burns for answers.

Now, Dimitri’s fate varies significantly depending on playthrough here. In Silver Snow and Verdant Wind, he’s literally consumed by his rage and guilt and his desire for vengeance on behalf of those taken from him, and he ends up dying in pursuit of it. In Azure Moon, he’s lost any real ability to tell reality from hallucination, and believes even Byleth is nothing more than a figment; he continues his single-minded pursuit of Edelgard, committing atrocities of his own and admitting to being nothing but a base murderer, the beast Felix accused him of being so long ago. But eventually, through the intervention of Byleth and his classmates, he starts to come around a little more -- though it takes Rodrigue’s death and his final words, encouraging him to live for himself rather than those who have already gone, to really wake him up and get him moving forward. The game takes the turn a little fast, but it’s still really touching to see Dimitri coming back from the edge and recognizing the importance of his own desires. The campaign continues, they retake Fhirdiad, there’s a parley with Edelgard where she refuses to back down and continues to insist that war is the only option, things get crazy with the final boss like holy shit, but in the end after Edelgard’s been defeated, Dimitri offers his hand to her...and her final act is to throw the dagger he gifted her when they were children at him, and he instinctively kills her in retaliation.

Look, Dimitri doesn’t come out of this smelling like roses. He killed a lot of people in very, very violent ways. But he recognizes that what he did, even if he wasn’t mentally sound at the time, was pretty atrocious and spends the rest of his life seeking peace with as little bloodshed as possible.

But okay I have gone on for a long time about Dimitri so if you’re still here, congratulations let’s talk about my favorite Lord.

Claude is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. That’s literally how he’s presented in the game, and it’s great. He’s sociable, amiable, friendly, mischievous, and has a reputation as a schemer. He jokes about his own reputation a lot, especially when he’s called out, but he’s wickedly smart, especially where tactics, information gathering, puzzles, and secrets are concerned. We literally go through the whole first half of the game getting only the tiniest hints about him personally and what his aspirations are -- we don’t even know where he came from, he legit just showed up out of the blue when Duke Riegan named Claude as his heir -- and meanwhile he’s out there trying to unravel the mystery behind Crests, the Church, and the Flame Emperor -- and while he doesn’t manage to succeed before the timeskip hits, he manages to uncover an alarming amount of information. Also, despite his reputation as an untrustworthy trickster, he cares deeply about the people around him and does his best to keep them safe, even if it means resorting to underhanded (but ultimately non-lethal) methods.

Once we hit the timeskip, we find out more of the secrets that he’s been hiding. For context, Fodlan’s neighbor to the east is Almyra, and relations between the two nations have been...tense, to say the least: a few hundred years ago Almyra invaded Fodlan and a bad time was had by all. In order to prevent it from happening again, the Alliance built a fortress called Fodlan’s Locket in the pass connecting the two nations (the pass being called Fodlan’s Throat). Presently, the Alliance is headed by a communal council of nobles from the major families, who meet at regular round tables in order to debate business that affects their territories and pass legislature; the round table is headed by Duke Riegan, who had two children, a son set to inherit the title and a daughter who went mysteriously missing years ago. Unfortunately, House Riegan and House Gloucester have never been on the best of terms, and when Duke Riegan’s heir was attacked and killed on the road while traveling to visit Duke Gloucester, there were a lot of rumors that Lorenz’s dad might have been involved, though nothing was ever proven in that regard. It left Duke Riegan in a tough spot, though, since he was getting on in years and suddenly had no heir...at which point, Claude ‘miraculously’ steps in with his Crest and is named heir to House Riegan.

Turns out? Duke Riegan’s daughter didn’t go missing: she eloped with an Almyran. And that Almyran, as it turns out, became king of Almyra. So Claude’s an Almyran prince. Turns out, he didn’t exactly have a great time growing up, though: Almyrans view the people of Fodlan as cowardly and weak, so they viewed Claude’s mom as such...and Claude himself, too, since he was half-Fodlan. No matter how much he argued or fought, it never seemed to matter. He got bullied a lot, and started picking up tactics and poison mixing as ways to defend himself...but more than anything, he hated how small-minded Almyrans were when it came to him and his mother. Then Duke Riegan’s heir died, and his grandfather reached out to his daughter, hoping to have Claude tested for a Crest -- which, as it happens, he bore. Claude was so excited, believing that things in Fodlan would be different, better...

...and instead, he found that things in Fodlan were exactly like they were in Almyra. People hated him for half his heritage -- just this time, it was for his ‘savage’ Almyran half instead of his ‘cowardly’ Fodlan half. It was hilarious, in a sad way, how alike the people of Fodlan and Almyra were when it came to hating things they didn’t know...and that was how he decided on his goal. What Claude wants to do is destroy the borders between people and forge understanding between them. He found through hard experience that people always fear the outsider -- but if you break down the walls, there’s no ‘inside’ or ‘outside’ anymore. There’s just people. What he wants to do is unify the Alliance, then Fodlan, then perhaps even the world...not through force or subjugation, but by bringing them together, uniting them through what they share in common and helping them understand and find value in their differences. His aspiration is to ensure that no one has to suffer like he did growing up.

And so, once things are all settled in Fodlan (and he’s assured that he managed to achieve his goal in small scale with his friends in the Alliance), he leaves Byleth in charge, forgoes leadership in the Alliance, and heads back to Almyra to continue working toward that aspiration. He becomes the king of Almyra so that he can start working toward that larger goal from the other side of the border, intending to open roads toward peaceful diplomacy and trade with Fodlan. He knows their bonds are strong, even when they’re apart, and he knows that they’ll all be reunited someday. Also Claude is the only Lord who has the possibility to live in all routes (barring Silver Snow but he’s only listed as ‘missing’ not ‘dead’ so I hold out hope) which I think says a heck of a lot about how great he is. He’s just so good and so kind and cares so much about people and he makes my heart warm and yes I’m done yelling about how much I love Claude for a moment.

So hopefully that fills you in a little on the other Lords at least in part please enjoy my novel-length ramble.

#answered #anonymous #fire emblem: three houses #fe:3h spoilers #i tried to cram every pertinent bit of information i could remember in here #boy there's a lot isn't there #so much backstory is required to understand these people #like holy shit #also for the record edelgard was not involved in duscur #that was all the twisted #but please understand how much i love claude he's so great #and i feel like he gets passed over a lot #because he's not contentious like edelgard #or tortured and traumatized like dimitri #but he's so incredibly good he's absolutely my favorite of the lords #i love dimitri too don't get me wrong but claude is such a treasure

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