#time to go update the old chapters because they are missing some relevant links

[aparticularbandit]

Agatha and Stephen Go on a Trip: Chapter Four

Summary: At Wanda's request, Agatha questions Stephen about too-long absent members of their family. When she recasts an old spell, they end up going on a journey that neither of them really wanted.

Sequel to Finding Family.

Chapter Rating: T. Fic Rating: T.

AO3

previous chapter

Some of the best stories start with once upon a time.

This is not one of those stories.

~

America tumbles through one of her star-shaped portals directly into the New York Sanctum, nearly scuffing her already bruised and knocked up knees, before coming to a stop on the far too slick floor.  She turns behind her, a “C’mon!” on the tip of her tongue, but Wendy hovers through the portal as easy as anything, hovers through backwards with her hands up in front of her, crafting the scarlet shield meant to protect them both – and, more importantly, to protect their favorite universe from any intruders who might want to follow through the newly punched portal before America closes it.

“Good, good, you made it, good,” America says all at once, rambling, as she forces her portal closed.  It is only then, when Wendy collapses backward with a huff, knees crumpling beneath her, that she notices the blue stone dangling around Wendy’s neck.  Her eyes widen, brows shooting up.  “Wendy,” she says, gentle as anything, trying not to let her frustration get the best of her, “please tell me you didn’t—”

“Didn’t what?” Wendy echoes, forest green eyes widening near to matching America’s.  She takes a deep breath in and relaxes, the folds of her scarlet captain’s coat encircling her landing like the spread of a skirt.  Then she stretches her legs out, dark denim sliced through in spots, and reaches a hand out to begin stitching the rips back together.  “It’s just a pretty stone, Starlight.”

America grits her teeth together.  “It is not, and you know better than that—”

“Girls, girls!” A voice that shouldn’t be booming booms down towards them, echoing off of the sanctum’s cold stone and tile interior.  Stephen strides down the stairway near the middle of the entryway – a stairway that would be epic, if America hadn’t seen it thousands of times by now.  His voice causes her to turn from her girlfriend to him, and she crosses her arms, already on the defensive, as he continues, “Where’s the fire?  You’re both safe.”

America resents that.  He’d wanted her safe after their first adventure together, too, and she’d thought he was like an older brother or someone who cared, but then he’d disappeared for over a year while she reached out to the woman who had tried so hard to destroy her.  Stephen should have been her mentor, not Wanda.

Not that she’s mad or anything.  If she hadn’t started her journey with Wanda, she would never have met Wendy.

But she’s not particularly happy about it either.

“She took that Stone with her—”

Two things happen all at once.  Wendy’s hand goes immediately to the blue stone dangling about her neck and tucks it beneath her peasant shirt, but Stephen’s eyes are just as quick.  He catches sight of the stone before she moves to hide it and immediately makes sigils to tug it back out, tug it to him, until Wendy’s eyes narrow.  She waves a hand, and the sigils fade just as quickly.  The stone bounces against her chest.

“If I remember correctly, Mr. Strange—”

“Doctor—”

“My power exceeds yours.”  Wendy’s eyes narrow.  “Maybe next time you want to take something from me, you should ask.”

“Wendy.”  America reaches over and places a hand over her girlfriend’s.  “He was only trying to—”

“Don’t say help,” Wendy snaps, and her eyes flare that bright scarlet they do whenever she is at her most frustrated, her most angry.  She takes a deep breath, stills herself, and the scarlet flare fades.  “You mentioned a Stone, and he tried to take it—”

Stephen makes his way to the end of the staircase and crosses the floor towards them.  “If you’d seen what I’ve seen of those sorts of Stones, you would try to take it, too.”

“If you’d seen what I’ve seen of them,” Wendy counters, mimicking Stephen’s words as she does, “you wouldn’t let anyone else take it, either.”  Her eyes remain narrow, even without the scarlet flare within them.  She stands as he approaches, and although she’s shorter than him, even with the boots adding that extra inch, she glares up at him with the fire of a thousand melting suns.  “Don’t do it again.”

Stephen break eye contact first, gaze flicking over to America.  “Do I want to know?”

America shakes her head.  “No.”  She reaches over and takes one of Wendy’s hands in her own, gives it a little squeeze.  “What is it that book you love says?”

“Don’t,” Wendy says again, softer this time.  She glances down to meet America’s eyes and holds them with her own smoldering forest green gaze.  But she squeezes America’s hand back, as gently as she can, which is enough of an acceptance as anything else.

America nods toward the Stone dangling around Wendy’s neck.  “Why do you even need that thing?  You’ve got me.”  She grins and tilts her head back with bravado, waggling her eyebrows.  “I’m the only space traveler you’ll ever need.”

You shouldn’t have to go with me, Wendy murmurs directly into her mind.  Every time I wake up from a nightmare and want to go fix something.  You shouldn’t have to go.  That isn’t fair to you.

I like going.  America searches her eyes, brows furrowing.  I don’t want you to go alone.  What if you get stuck?  What if someone steals that stone from you?  What if….  She takes Wendy’s other hand in her own and interlaces their fingers again.  What if I can’t find you?

Wendy chuckles, and her gaze drops as a flush scarlets her cheeks.  You’ll always find me, my little Starlight—

“Third person,” Stephen interjects as he slowly slots himself behind the space between them. “Right here.  Not privy to whatever mindspeak you’re having.”  He crosses his arms.  “Still curious about that stone—”

“It’s not yours,” Wendy interrupts, not even turning to look at him.  “It’s not yours, and it’s not Starlight’s.  It’s mine.”  Her tone grows firm.  “And I’m not sharing.”

~

Stephen wakes to a yelling match.  He can’t make out distinct words, since they echo around the chamber and layer over themselves, but he can make out voices.  Somehow, he isn’t surprised by who he hears.  He rubs his face with his hand and goes to play the adult in the situation.

(This should always have been his job.  It frustrates him that job had somehow been handed off to someone else in his absence.  Even if it had ended mostly well.)

The closer Stephen gets, the easier it is to make out words – names, mostly – and he groans.  He starts down the stairs into the atrium, drags his hand down his face again, and pushes it through his hair as he shifts his clothes into something else entirely.  Something more appropriate for walking down into a fight between his visitors.

“You’re supposed to take me with you!” America shouts at Wendy, who stands, unflinching.  “You could get lost—”

“I’m fine.”  Wendy’s voice is calmer, softer.  “I’ve been fine.  We’re here, aren’t we?  I got us back—”

“You shouldn’t have been using that thing in the first place—”

“Girls, girls.”  Stephen yawns, covering his mouth with his hand.  Sweatpants are still comfy, as are the hoodie, but he’s still tired.  He glances outside the nearest window.  There are stars.  He yawns again.  “You should be asleep—”

America reaches over, tears the stone from where it dangles around Wendy’s neck, and holds it out, away from her.  “Next time, ask me—”

Wendy glares at her as though she isn’t listening to what she has to say.  Her hands spread out on either side of her, and scarlet magic begins to thread through the fingers of her right hand.  “I’m not sure that’s a wise decision—”

“Alright, adult’s gonna step in.  Again.”  Stephen takes the stone from America.  It’s warm in his hand, and his eyes light up with the color of it briefly before he closes his fingers over it.  He clears his throat.  “Obviously when two children are fighting over a toy—”

“Give it back.”  Wendy’s hand glows with power, a light that grows even darker in her eyes.  “I need it—”

“For what?” America interrupts.  “What do you need it for?  What can it do for you that I’m not already doing, Wendy?”

Wendy’s gaze never leaves Stephen’s hand, where the stone still glows gently.  “I need to go back.”

“Go back where?” Stephen asks, brow furrowing with confusion.  He notes how America’s face falls, how her gaze drops, and he turns to her.  “Go back where?”

America doesn’t answer him.  Instead, she punches a hole into another universe – one at random, perhaps – and walks into it.  Wendy glares at him, but instead of fighting him over the stone or even reality warping it back around her neck, she turns and runs through the portal, chasing after America.  She doesn’t say anything, which likely means she’s trying to speak directly into America’s mind.  The portal closes shortly behind them.

Which leaves Stephen.  Alone.  With an Infinity Stone.

Stephen unfolds his hand and stares at the blue gem held easily in his palm.  It shines with an incandescent light, but if he peers closer, there are worlds hidden in its whirls and spirals.  Suddenly, he doesn’t feel tired anymore.  Who knows when he’ll get another opportunity like this, after all?

~

“And that’s how I got it,” Stephen finishes.  “They ran off into another universe and left it with me.”

Agatha raises an eyebrow.  “That doesn’t explain how they got back here, hon.  You cast a spell using that stone of yours to send them here, and you didn’t know where you were sending them, and you didn’t know why.”  Her eyes narrow.  “You used Wendy as a test subject.  You used America as a test subject—”

“Because I knew that if something went wrong, America would bring them right back,” Stephen snaps at her.

“And if things went right?” Agatha asks, forcing her voice to remain calm, even though it makes her feel like her mother, chiding a younger child when their anger explodes out of them.  (She’d learned to never allow her mother to see her anger; it only got her punished in the end.  The thought makes her back ache.  It doesn’t matter that Wanda healed her scars.  It still aches with the memory.)  “What was supposed to happen if things went right, wonder boy?  They were just supposed to stay there?”

Stephen shakes his head.  “No.  They were supposed to complete their mission and then return.”

“And what mission was that?”  James trains her eagle eyes on Stephen, voice like a blade cutting through his words.  Her bright blue eyes only grow harder as she looks at him.  “You said Wendy told America she wanted to go back.  That must have meant here.”

Stephen holds her gaze as though he has any ground to stand on.  “They did not tell me.  Wendy only said there was something she needed to do while they were here.  America didn’t seem happy about it, but she didn’t try to stop her.  To stop me.”  His face grows firm.  “That means she agreed.”

“It means she didn’t fight Wendy, hon.  That’s not agreeing.”  Agatha rolls her eyes.  She pulls on the threads of magic in this universe, and they recoil against her touch again, unfamiliar with her.  Still, gently, they curl around her littlest finger, a thin tendril of violet hooked beneath her nail.  “Can you think of anything else?  Anything else they might have said?”

“No,” Stephen murmurs.  “Nothing at all.”

Just the echo of something rippling in his mind when he cast the spell, an echo that he’s not sure he truly heard.  No magic should let him into someone else’s mind by accident.  And while perhaps Wendy might have allowed him to hear their conversation, he can’t think of any reason why she should.  Not intentionally.

So while Stephen remembers hearing America ask, Do you really think they’ll want to see you again? and remembers Wendy answering, No.  I don’t think they will, he doesn’t mention it.  Because he didn’t hear it.

And he doesn’t believe it was really there at all.

[iatethepomegranate]

Just a post-Aeor fic where Caleb buys a house with Beau and Yasha in Rexxentrum, becomes a professor, and learns how to be a person and protect people from what he has endured.

Content warnings: Caleb's backstory (a lot of it)

Chapter summary: Caleb's mind was in overdrive. There were so many calls to make, so many spells to prepare, so many things that could go wrong at every stage of this delicate operation, so many plans and backup plans and backup plans for backup plans. He could not let the past repeat itself.

Chapter notes: Say hello to a major plot arc. Also, I did my best to figure out a vague layout of the relevant parts of Rexxentrum but I am bad with directions, so *finger guns*

Chapter title from Eight by Sleeping At Last.

****

Chapter 6: I’m just a kid who grew up scared enough to hold the door shut and bury my innocence

Caleb’s scars itched as he headed home from the Academy, mind buzzing uncomfortably. His hands were somehow steady as he messaged Beauregard.

“Beauregard. I had an unsettling conversation with Astrid and Wulf. Two Volstrucker students are missing. Felix and Nicolaus. Evocation wizards. May have self-orphan orders.” He realised belatedly that he had forgotten to ask Astrid for a description. Also, he hoped Beauregard never told anyone he had used the term self-orphan. He’d made himself a little queasy in his haste to keep to the word limit.

“I’ll make sure the Soul keeps an eye out. And I’ll get a description from Astrid in the morning. Get over here. Dinner’s ready.”

Beau and Yasha kept the conversation flowing over dinner, absolving Caleb of that social responsibility. He felt useless, sitting here while there were two boys out there somewhere, who were possibly in the process of deciding whether or not to kill their parents based on an implanted memory of treason. If they weren’t found in time, Caleb wasn’t sure he could ever forgive himself.

The two women hugged him goodnight after dinner, and he shook so hard he feared he would collapse. Yasha held onto him a little longer than she had probably planned, while Beauregard stepped back to take a look at him.

“Caleb.” She had that tone, the one what told him he looked like shit but she was trying not to freak him out. “Maybe you should take a spare room on this side tonight.”

“I’m all right, Beauregard.” He knew he sounded ridiculous. “Hear me out. Please.” Beauregard tilted her head in a silent challenge. “I need to think. I need to process this. I need to come up with plans for every possible outcome. And I may need to make some calls.”

“Do you want to talk it out?”

“I would like to be alone. Just for tonight. We will talk tomorrow.”

Beauregard looked for a moment like she was going to argue, and then she quite intentionally relaxed her shoulders. “Okay. You’ll tell us if you need anything, right?”

“Ja, of course.”

Yasha gave him one last squeeze. “We mean it. Anything.”

“I know. Danke.”

Caleb escaped to his bedroom. He forced himself to slow down a bit, take deep breaths, and get dressed for bed. He settled under the covers, slowly circling his palm over the quilt and feeling the different animal patterns. He’d already committed them to memory. But, on a night like this, it helped to know that what he thought was reality before was still reality now.

What a fucking mess. Before he could get too deep into his head, he messaged Caduceus.

“Hallo, Caduceus. Two of Trent’s students are missing. We suspect memories may have been modified. If we locate them, are you available to help us?”

There was a short pause; Caduceus was probably weighing his response, aware that he would not be able to track the wordcount once he began to speak. “Of course. Let me know when I’m needed. If you could spare a teleport, that would be great.”

Caleb cast the spell again. “I will give you a head’s up when I need you and then grab you from the Grove. Danke. Today has been… a lot.”

“Get some rest, Caleb. I left some sleepy tea in your kitchen if you need it. I’ll be here when you need me.”

That was one problem handled. Caleb burned through another Sending.

“Astrid, Caduceus is on call to correct any memory modification. Beauregard will be in touch with you tomorrow to get their descriptions.”

“Danke. I will ensure the Cobalt Soul is adequately informed. Now go to bed.”

Caleb let him feel her unspoken concern for him, just for a moment. Maybe one day they could be friends again. He curled up beneath the covers and closed his eyes. He would have to ensure he packed Counterspell and Sending every day. Perhaps Hold Person would also be useful. Control Flames would also not go amiss, just in case. And Expeditious Retreat or Fly would be useful in case time was of the essence at any point. Suggestion could be useful if they had the chance to talk. Running through spells he should prepare made him feel a bit better about how little control he had over this.

He was still losing his mind a little bit.

“Caleb,” came Essek’s voice, pumping air into Caleb's lungs. “Apologies. I meant to message earlier. I’m safe. Saved a child’s pet cat from a tree. He hugged me. Strange. How was your day?”

“Intense.” Caleb wasn’t sure how much to say, and he would definitely have to burn more spells to go into any detail. “Astrid promised to find a venue for the ex-Volstrucker support group. Two boys are unaccounted for. We are concerned. They are… almost graduates.”

Before Caleb could decide whether to say more, Essek Sent again. “Are you all right? Can I help with anything?”

“Not right now. We will… see how this pans out. They’re from Blumenthal, and I didn’t hear anything when I was there. May have time.” Caleb burnt another of his own spells before Essek did. “I have Caduceus on standby and Beauregard will talk to the Soul tomorrow. We may have a chance. I hope.”

“I will come in a heartbeat if you need me. Keep me updated. Get some rest if you can. Goodnight. You are in my thoughts.”

It helped, just a bit. Caleb still tossed and turned for a while, unable to turn his brain off. But things were… maybe they were manageable. He had half a mind to take himself to Blumenthal tomorrow, find out where the boys’ parents lived and get them somewhere safe. Or maybe he could… no, they would not handle a stranger showing up at their door in the dead of the night very well.

****

Astrid came to the house the following morning, with sketches for Beauregard to distribute to the Cobalt Soul. It was odd to sit on the couch with her. Like friends would.

“Eadwulf is in the city with the Volstrucker we could mobilise,” she said. “If either of them come to Rexxentrum, between us and the monks, we will find them. I spoke to my guard contact; the families are okay.”

“Have we considered evacuating them?” asked Caleb. The thought had kept him up for a long time last night. Maybe it was the best option.

There was a flicker of discomfort across Astrid’s face for the barest of seconds. “I don’t trust the Crownsguard to handle a delicate mission like that. It would be up to us. Or perhaps the Soul, but I’m already stretching our relationship with them.”

“Yudala Fon knows the stakes,” said Caleb. “If you are not comfortable visiting Blumenthal yourself…”

“Are you?”

“I have been once. I can bear it again to save half a dozen lives.”

They both knew it wasn’t just the parents whose lives were in danger. If Felix and Nicolaus followed through on this and were not stopped…

Well, Caleb had lost eleven years, and then another six running and running and running. Astrid and Wulf had lost their freedom as well. And Caleb could not even begin to comprehend the special kind of pain it would bring these boys if they murdered their parents only to discover Trent had been in prison for weeks, his crimes exposed, his orders no longer in effect. Caleb wasn’t sure he could have survived that.

Astrid must have understood what Caleb was feeling, because she spoke gently. “It is an option. We could also leave them in place under guard to draw the boys out.”

“I would rather not.” Caleb could already conjure a dozen scenarios in which that could go horribly wrong. “Astrid, we cannot fuck this up. You and I both know these boys could overpower a Crownsguard, or sneak past a security detail. No risks. We have to move the families.”

Astrid opened her mouth to respond, and then paused, eyes drifting upwards in concentration. “Thanks, Wulf. Do not engage. Herd him towards us if you can. We will be there shortly.” She focused back on Caleb. “Felix is in the city. Eadwulf is trailing him. They are approaching from the south.” She hopped to her feet, and helped Caleb up. “Shall we?”

As they raced out the door, Caleb messaged Beauregard. “Felix has been spotted. Approaching The Tangles from the south. Wulf is trailing. We are headed to intercept. Could use a hand.”

“I’m in the Court of Colours, southwest of your position. I’ll link up with Eadwulf. Will get the monks to surround. We got this.”

“Beauregard is southwest of us,” Caleb told Astrid. “She’ll try to find Wulf and have the monks form a perimeter.”

“We only have one shot with Felix,” Astrid muttered. “This could make or break everything. No fuckups?”

“No fuckups.”

They ran.

As they drew closer to the suspected middle point, Caleb shot a quick message to Wulf. “We are close to the midpoint. Turning invisible now.” He grabbed Astrid’s hand, hiding them both from view.

Wulf’s response was a whisper. “Slowing down. I think he knows I’m here, but hasn’t done anything yet.”

Caleb was grateful most seventeen-year-old wizards had not yet figured out teleportation. He and Astrid also slowed, still hand-in-hand.

“We try to talk to him before we do anything aggressive,” Astrid whispered. “Get us close.”

“Worst case scenario, Beauregard stuns him and Wulf carries him somewhere we can have a secure conversation. I can try casting Suggestion if necessary, before we do anything to freak him out.”

They turned a corner and Caleb spotted the boy in a crowd of people carrying baskets and cloths and the like, probably headed to market. Felix was slim and blonde, and looked like he hadn’t slept in a few days. His shoulders were tight. The pair stayed ahead of him. Caleb spotted the instant Felix started getting a little too nervous, his eyes darting backwards for the barest of moments, towards Eadwulf, buried even as he was in the crowd.

Caleb tugged Astrid’s hand towards an alley before letting go and stepping into it, hoping he had read this right. Felix also turned into the alley, putting his back to the wall of a nearby inn, raising a hand to prepare a spell. Caleb recognised the somatic components of Scorching Ray. He prepared to counter it.

As soon as Wulf emerged, Felix tried to release the spell, and Caleb counterspelled, losing his invisibility.

Felix shook out his hands, still focused on Wulf. “Why are you following me, Eadwulf?”

Wulf raised an eyebrow. “Did you consider asking that before trying to set me on fire?”

Felix’s eyes narrowed, and Caleb wondered if Trent had tried to drive a wedge between the Volstruck, and Astrid and Wulf.

Astrid dropped her invisibility, appearing next to Wulf. “Felix, what’s the matter? Are you well?”

Her emergence did not calm Felix in the slightest. “Am I--” He scoffed. “Are you kidding?”

“We have been looking for you for weeks,” she said. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I have a mission to complete.”

Caleb considered recasting his invisibility, but the spell required verbal and somatic components. He just had to hold still and hope Astrid and Wulf commanded Felix’s attention until Caleb figured out what to do.

“Felix, you have been gone from the city for a long time,” said Astrid, and Caleb slowly reached for his component pouch. “Things have changed. Your mission, whatever it is, may no longer be viable.”

“We need to take you back to the Candles,” said Wulf.

Caleb felt his snake’s tongue and a piece of honeycomb, and began to slowly extract them from his pouch.

Felix didn’t move. “Why?”

Astrid glanced at Wulf, before evidently deciding on a course of action. “Trent has been arrested. We are trying to gather the Volstrucker so we can explain the charges against him.”

“That makes no sense.”

“Felix, what did he ask you to do?”

“It’s confidential.”

Caleb had the materials in his hand, so he rubbed the honeycomb against his lip, and spoke. “Felix, we are here to help you, but we need you to help us. Could we please have an honest conversation with each other?”

There was a moment where Caleb feared Felix would resist the Suggestion spell, and that Beauregard would have to swoop in and stun him. Felix turned to him, head cocked.

“Okay,” he said slowly. “You are Bren, right? Trent talks about you a lot.” He glanced at Astrid and Wulf. “He seemed worried the three of you were scheming behind his back.”

“Let’s head to his old office, ja? We have a lot to talk about. We will answer your questions, if you answer ours.”

“All right. Lead on.”

Caleb could not fucking believe that had worked. Judging from Astrid and Eadwulf’s brief but clearly shocked glances in his direction, they couldn’t believe it either.

****

Caleb couldn’t risk sending a message to Beauregard explaining what had happened, but she seemed to get the sense she shouldn’t reveal herself. Caleb led Felix through the city to the Academy, and up to Astrid’s office. They sat him in front of the fireplace.

Caleb crouched in front of him while Astrid stood by the fire, and Wulf leaned by the door. “Thank you for cooperating, Felix. Give me one moment. I need to message a friend who is going to help us.” He cast Sending. “Caduceus. We will need you in a moment.”

“I’m ready when you are.”

“I’ll go,” said Eadwulf. “Be right back.” With a muttered incantation, he had vanished.

“Where is he going?” asked Felix.

“To fetch a cleric friend of mine,” Caleb replied. “You look tired. Are you well?”

“Had a lot on my mind, I guess. Sleeping has been difficult.”

“I know the feeling.” Caleb looked to Astrid. “We should explain the situation, ja?”

“Why was Trent arrested?” asked Felix.

“A number of Volstrucker spoke with the Cobalt Soul about his training methods,” Astrid replied. “They documented it and took him to court. He’s in prison for life.”

Felix frowned. “I’m confused.”

Caleb should have expected Felix probably wouldn’t understand Trent’s behaviour as abuse; Caleb hadn’t either. “Felix, I would like you to listen to me.” He rolled up his sleeves so Felix could see the scars, which he was certain Felix shared. “A good teacher does not force his students to endure what we have.”

“We will face worse every day in our work,” Felix replied. “The pain… it makes us stronger.”

“And the residuum experiments? With no pain mitigation? I know people who have passed out in the process. Has that happened to you?”

“Once or twice,” Felix muttered, evidently still under the effects of the spell. “Puked more often.”

“Me too,” said Caleb, resisting the urge to scratch his itching scars. “It made me very ill most of the time. Astrid and Eadwulf had to force me to eat.”

“Why are you telling me this? Why are you asking me these questions?”

Astrid was gazing into the flames. “Felix, how old were you when Trent first hurt you?”

“Sixteen.”

Astrid managed to look at Caleb, just for a moment. “The same for him.” Astrid was a year older so it made sense to invoke Caleb instead, and maybe it was easier for her to project these things onto him.

Wulf popped back into the office, with the very welcome form of Caduceus beside him. Felix jumped, but Caleb had told him what was happening, and that seemed to be enough to stop him from bolting.

“Hallo, Caduceus,” said Caleb. “Can you give us just one more moment?” He turned back to Felix. “I’m going to have my friend Caduceus take a look at you and make sure you are well, but I would like to ask you a question first.”

“Fine.”

“What has Trent ordered you to do?”

Felix dropped his gaze to his lap. “My mother and father are plotting to betray the Empire. I have been asked to stop them.”

“That must have been weeks ago,” said Caleb. “What’s the matter?”

Felix scowled, and tried several times to supply an answer, as he was required to be honest while under the effects of Caleb’s specifically-worded spell. “I don’t know. They are not the people I thought they were. They are traitors. But. It’s not… I don’t know what to do. I’ve been waiting for Trent to give me more information, but I haven’t heard anything. I guess I was trying to figure out if there was a way I could convince them to…” He shook his head. “No. There is no mercy for traitors to the Empire.”

“I am sorry to hear that,” said Caleb. “It must be very difficult. May Caduceus take a look at you? You have clearly been under a great deal of stress.”

Felix had probably never seen a firbolg before, and he eyed Caduceus with trepidation. “What is he going to do?”

“It’s all right,” said Astrid. “He is a healer. The three of us have spent time in his family’s garden.”

“I… suppose…”

Caduceus approached slowly. “This will be quick, I promise. Just a healing spell to make you feel a bit better.” He already had the diamond dust for Greater Restoration in his palm. He touched Felix’s shoulder. It took a second for the spell to sink in, during which Caleb couldn’t breathe.

Then Felix slid to the floor, head in his hands. Astrid knelt beside him, whispering too quietly for Caleb to hear.

“One down,” Caduceus said softly, smiling at Caleb. “One to go.”

Caleb couldn’t speak. He watched Felix curl up on the floor, muttering to Astrid. She looked up at him, beckoned him over. Caleb knelt by her side.

“I don’t understand,” Felix said. “Why? Why? I don’t…” He shoved his fist against his mouth and screamed into it, eyes squeezed shut. “Why would he do this?”

There were a lot of things Caleb could say; he was not convinced any of them were right. But he had to say something. “He’s done this to all of us. Every Volstrucker went through this to graduate.”

“He does it for a few reasons,” Astrid said, quiet but somewhat detached. “It eliminates any family connections, leaving us reliant on Trent. And then, we’ve done the worst thing we thought we could do. Anything Trent has us do after that means very little. And those who break…” She looked at Caleb. “They are held up as an example of failure that we are measured against. We all know Bren’s name for a reason. First, as an example of failure, of weakness. Later, an example of endurance, of admirable but problematic stubbornness. A cautionary tale nonetheless.”

Felix looked to Caleb as well. “What the fuck am I supposed to do with this information?”

Caleb wanted to comfort him, but didn’t know what Felix would tolerate, and there was a pressing matter. “First things first, we need to find Nicolaus.”

Felix drew his knees up to his chest and hid his face against them. “I don’t know where he is. We argued and then we went our separate ways.”

“What did you argue about?”

“I wanted to come here and find Trent. Ask about the order. See if there was anything we could… I don’t know.”

“And what did he want?”

“Nico doesn’t know what he wants. He was always more scared of Trent than I am.”

“Okay, we have ways to track him down. Caduceus, can you scry today?”

“I can,” Caduceus said slowly. “Might I also recommend, if Mr Felix knows the spell, that he should try Sending to him.”

“I don’t know that spell,” Felix said thickly. Caleb would just make out the side of his face, to see it was screwed up as if in pain.

“I can teach you,” said Caleb, “but I suspect it will take more time than we have right now.” Sending was an Evocation spell, so it would probably only take Felix three hours instead of six to copy it into his spellbook and practice it until he could do it, but that was still too long.

Caduceus sat cross-legged on the floor. “Do you have anything of his? Or a likeness?”

Wulf handed him a sketch. “Does this help?”

“Yes. Thank you.” Caduceus closed his eyes and began the ritual.

“I can try messaging Nico,” Astrid said, gripping her copper wire. “Nicolaus. It’s Astrid. I must meet with you in Trent’s office. It’s an urgent matter.” She waited, scowled. “Nothing.”

Caleb refused to panic, no matter how bad that sounded. “Okay. Good to know.”

Felix lifted his head. “What if we’re too late?”

“We don’t know that yet,” said Caleb. “Whatever happens, we will deal with it.”

Felix frowned at the floor. “What happens to me now?”

“We can take you home to your parents once we’ve got an idea of Nico’s situation,” said Caleb. “Unless you need more time.”

“Just a bit. I think. But I’d like to see them. Not today.”

“There is plenty of dormitory space for however long you need,” said Astrid. “Bren will visit you regularly once you are with your parents, to check in.” Felix nodded. That had not been discussed, but it was something that Caleb would want to do, so he let it slide.

The ten minutes it took for Caduceus to complete the spell were some of the longest of Caleb’s life. But then Caduceus’s eyes went white, and it seemed to be working.

Caduceus began to narrate what I saw. “I see your boy. He’s in a field. The clouds are pretty dark. It’s hard to see much. I think I see some buildings ahead of him. I’ll follow him for a bit.”

There was a sick feeling in the pit of Caleb’s stomach. “We should be ready, just in case.”

Astrid’s fingers weaved around the wire. “Expositor, are you close by? We may need your assistance. Come to my office on the--ugh, just ask for directions.” She listened. “Expositor Lionett is outside the Academy. She will be here soon.”

Caduceus spoke again. “He is approaching the village. Not many people in the streets. Probably the incoming storm. He looks like he has a goal.”

“What can you see of the buildings?” asked Caleb. “Any signs?”

“The signs are Zemnian,” said Caduceus. “The buildings look like farmhouses, mostly. I think I saw an orchard.”

“Blumenthal is a farming town,” Caleb muttered. “Fuck.”

Beauregard burst through the door, gasping for breath. “I’m here!” She doubled over, hands on her knees, as she sucked in air.

“Get ready to move,” said Wulf, stony-faced. “It looks bad.”

“Shit.” She gulped in another breath. “Okay.”

Caleb felt a little better now that she was here, but he was wound too tight to process it. “Caduceus. Is there anything else?”

“He’s picking up speed. Turned a corner. Looking at a house in the distance, I think.”

Caleb did not let himself feel anything. He turned to Felix. “Felix, do you know where Nico’s parents live?”

“On the northeastern edge of town.” Felix’s voice was as tense as Caleb. “Look for the cabbages.”

“Danke.” He squeezed Felix’s shoulder and pushed himself to his feet. “We need to go.”

Caduceus was still in the vision. “Go on ahead. I’ll stay here with Felix. If I see anything I think is useful, I will Send. But it will break the scry.”

Caleb gathered Astrid, Wulf and Beauregard around him and cast teleport, aiming for the northeastern end of Blumenthal. He knew it well, once.

Caleb’s scars itched as he headed home from the Academy, mind buzzing uncomfortably. His hands were somehow steady as he messaged Beauregard.

“Beauregard. I had an unsettling conversation with Astrid and Wulf. Two Volstrucker students are missing. Felix and Nicolaus. Evocation wizards. May have self-orphan orders.” He realised belatedly that he had forgotten to ask Astrid for a description. Also, he hoped Beauregard never told anyone he had used the term self-orphan. He’d made himself a little queasy in his haste to keep to the word limit.

“I’ll make sure the Soul keeps an eye out. And I’ll get a description from Astrid in the morning. Get over here. Dinner’s ready.”

Beau and Yasha kept the conversation flowing over dinner, absolving Caleb of that social responsibility. He felt useless, sitting here while there were two boys out there somewhere, who were possibly in the process of deciding whether or not to kill their parents based on an implanted memory of treason. If they weren’t found in time, Caleb wasn’t sure he could ever forgive himself.

The two women hugged him goodnight after dinner, and he shook so hard he feared he would collapse. Yasha held onto him a little longer than she had probably planned, while Beauregard stepped back to take a look at him.

“Caleb.” She had that tone, the one what told him he looked like shit but she was trying not to freak him out. “Maybe you should take a spare room on this side tonight.”

“I’m all right, Beauregard.” He knew he sounded ridiculous. “Hear me out. Please.” Beauregard tilted her head in a silent challenge. “I need to think. I need to process this. I need to come up with plans for every possible outcome. And I may need to make some calls.”

“Do you want to talk it out?”

“I would like to be alone. Just for tonight. We will talk tomorrow.”

Beauregard looked for a moment like she was going to argue, and then she quite intentionally relaxed her shoulders. “Okay. You’ll tell us if you need anything, right?”

“Ja, of course.”

Yasha gave him one last squeeze. “We mean it. Anything.”

“I know. Danke.”

Caleb escaped to his bedroom. He forced himself to slow down a bit, take deep breaths, and get dressed for bed. He settled under the covers, slowly circling his palm over the quilt and feeling the different animal patterns. He’d already committed them to memory. But, on a night like this, it helped to know that what he thought was reality before was still reality now.

What a fucking mess. Before he could get too deep into his head, he messaged Caduceus.

“Hallo, Caduceus. Two of Trent’s students are missing. We suspect memories may have been modified. If we locate them, are you available to help us?”

There was a short pause; Caduceus was probably weighing his response, aware that he would not be able to track the wordcount once he began to speak. “Of course. Let me know when I’m needed. If you could spare a teleport, that would be great.”

Caleb cast the spell again. “I will give you a head’s up when I need you and then grab you from the Grove. Danke. Today has been… a lot.”

“Get some rest, Caleb. I left some sleepy tea in your kitchen if you need it. I’ll be here when you need me.”

That was one problem handled. Caleb burned through another Sending.

“Astrid, Caduceus is on call to correct any memory modification. Beauregard will be in touch with you tomorrow to get their descriptions.”

“Danke. I will ensure the Cobalt Soul is adequately informed. Now go to bed.”

Caleb let him feel her unspoken concern for him, just for a moment. Maybe one day they could be friends again. He curled up beneath the covers and closed his eyes. He would have to ensure he packed Counterspell and Sending every day. Perhaps Hold Person would also be useful. Control Flames would also not go amiss, just in case. And Expeditious Retreat or Fly would be useful in case time was of the essence at any point. Suggestion could be useful if they had the chance to talk. Running through spells he should prepare made him feel a bit better about how little control he had over this.

He was still losing his mind a little bit.

“Caleb,” came Essek’s voice, pumping air into Caleb's lungs. “Apologies. I meant to message earlier. I’m safe. Saved a child’s pet cat from a tree. He hugged me. Strange. How was your day?”

“Intense.” Caleb wasn’t sure how much to say, and he would definitely have to burn more spells to go into any detail. “Astrid promised to find a venue for the ex-Volstrucker support group. Two boys are unaccounted for. We are concerned. They are… almost graduates.”

Before Caleb could decide whether to say more, Essek Sent again. “Are you all right? Can I help with anything?”

“Not right now. We will… see how this pans out. They’re from Blumenthal, and I didn’t hear anything when I was there. May have time.” Caleb burnt another of his own spells before Essek did. “I have Caduceus on standby and Beauregard will talk to the Soul tomorrow. We may have a chance. I hope.”

“I will come in a heartbeat if you need me. Keep me updated. Get some rest if you can. Goodnight. You are in my thoughts.”

It helped, just a bit. Caleb still tossed and turned for a while, unable to turn his brain off. But things were… maybe they were manageable. He had half a mind to take himself to Blumenthal tomorrow, find out where the boys’ parents lived and get them somewhere safe. Or maybe he could… no, they would not handle a stranger showing up at their door in the dead of the night very well.

****

Astrid came to the house the following morning, with sketches for Beauregard to distribute to the Cobalt Soul. It was odd to sit on the couch with her. Like friends would.

“Eadwulf is in the city with the Volstrucker we could mobilise,” she said. “If either of them come to Rexxentrum, between us and the monks, we will find them. I spoke to my guard contact; the families are okay.”

“Have we considered evacuating them?” asked Caleb. The thought had kept him up for a long time last night. Maybe it was the best option.

There was a flicker of discomfort across Astrid’s face for the barest of seconds. “I don’t trust the Crownsguard to handle a delicate mission like that. It would be up to us. Or perhaps the Soul, but I’m already stretching our relationship with them.”

“Yudala Fon knows the stakes,” said Caleb. “If you are not comfortable visiting Blumenthal yourself…”

“Are you?”

“I have been once. I can bear it again to save half a dozen lives.”

They both knew it wasn’t just the parents whose lives were in danger. If Felix and Nicolaus followed through on this and were not stopped…

Well, Caleb had lost eleven years, and then another six running and running and running. Astrid and Wulf had lost their freedom as well. And Caleb could not even begin to comprehend the special kind of pain it would bring these boys if they murdered their parents only to discover Trent had been in prison for weeks, his crimes exposed, his orders no longer in effect. Caleb wasn’t sure he could have survived that.

Astrid must have understood what Caleb was feeling, because she spoke gently. “It is an option. We could also leave them in place under guard to draw the boys out.”

“I would rather not.” Caleb could already conjure a dozen scenarios in which that could go horribly wrong. “Astrid, we cannot fuck this up. You and I both know these boys could overpower a Crownsguard, or sneak past a security detail. No risks. We have to move the families.”

Astrid opened her mouth to respond, and then paused, eyes drifting upwards in concentration. “Thanks, Wulf. Do not engage. Herd him towards us if you can. We will be there shortly.” She focused back on Caleb. “Felix is in the city. Eadwulf is trailing him. They are approaching from the south.” She hopped to her feet, and helped Caleb up. “Shall we?”

As they raced out the door, Caleb messaged Beauregard. “Felix has been spotted. Approaching The Tangles from the south. Wulf is trailing. We are headed to intercept. Could use a hand.”

“I’m in the Court of Colours, southwest of your position. I’ll link up with Eadwulf. Will get the monks to surround. We got this.”

“Beauregard is southwest of us,” Caleb told Astrid. “She’ll try to find Wulf and have the monks form a perimeter.”

“We only have one shot with Felix,” Astrid muttered. “This could make or break everything. No fuckups?”

“No fuckups.”

They ran.

As they drew closer to the suspected middle point, Caleb shot a quick message to Wulf. “We are close to the midpoint. Turning invisible now.” He grabbed Astrid’s hand, hiding them both from view.

Wulf’s response was a whisper. “Slowing down. I think he knows I’m here, but hasn’t done anything yet.”

Caleb was grateful most seventeen-year-old wizards had not yet figured out teleportation. He and Astrid also slowed, still hand-in-hand.

“We try to talk to him before we do anything aggressive,” Astrid whispered. “Get us close.”

“Worst case scenario, Beauregard stuns him and Wulf carries him somewhere we can have a secure conversation. I can try casting Suggestion if necessary, before we do anything to freak him out.”

They turned a corner and Caleb spotted the boy in a crowd of people carrying baskets and cloths and the like, probably headed to market. Felix was slim and blonde, and looked like he hadn’t slept in a few days. His shoulders were tight. The pair stayed ahead of him. Caleb spotted the instant Felix started getting a little too nervous, his eyes darting backwards for the barest of moments, towards Eadwulf, buried even as he was in the crowd.

Caleb tugged Astrid’s hand towards an alley before letting go and stepping into it, hoping he had read this right. Felix also turned into the alley, putting his back to the wall of a nearby inn, raising a hand to prepare a spell. Caleb recognised the somatic components of Scorching Ray. He prepared to counter it.

As soon as Wulf emerged, Felix tried to release the spell, and Caleb counterspelled, losing his invisibility.

Felix shook out his hands, still focused on Wulf. “Why are you following me, Eadwulf?”

Wulf raised an eyebrow. “Did you consider asking that before trying to set me on fire?”

Felix’s eyes narrowed, and Caleb wondered if Trent had tried to drive a wedge between the Volstruck, and Astrid and Wulf.

Astrid dropped her invisibility, appearing next to Wulf. “Felix, what’s the matter? Are you well?”

Her emergence did not calm Felix in the slightest. “Am I--” He scoffed. “Are you kidding?”

“We have been looking for you for weeks,” she said. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I have a mission to complete.”

Caleb considered recasting his invisibility, but the spell required verbal and somatic components. He just had to hold still and hope Astrid and Wulf commanded Felix’s attention until Caleb figured out what to do.

“Felix, you have been gone from the city for a long time,” said Astrid, and Caleb slowly reached for his component pouch. “Things have changed. Your mission, whatever it is, may no longer be viable.”

“We need to take you back to the Candles,” said Wulf.

Caleb felt his snake’s tongue and a piece of honeycomb, and began to slowly extract them from his pouch.

Felix didn’t move. “Why?”

Astrid glanced at Wulf, before evidently deciding on a course of action. “Trent has been arrested. We are trying to gather the Volstrucker so we can explain the charges against him.”

“That makes no sense.”

“Felix, what did he ask you to do?”

“It’s confidential.”

Caleb had the materials in his hand, so he rubbed the honeycomb against his lip, and spoke. “Felix, we are here to help you, but we need you to help us. Could we please have an honest conversation with each other?”

There was a moment where Caleb feared Felix would resist the Suggestion spell, and that Beauregard would have to swoop in and stun him. Felix turned to him, head cocked.

“Okay,” he said slowly. “You are Bren, right? Trent talks about you a lot.” He glanced at Astrid and Wulf. “He seemed worried the three of you were scheming behind his back.”

“Let’s head to his old office, ja? We have a lot to talk about. We will answer your questions, if you answer ours.”

“All right. Lead on.”

Caleb could not fucking believe that had worked. Judging from Astrid and Eadwulf’s brief but clearly shocked glances in his direction, they couldn’t believe it either.

****

Caleb couldn’t risk sending a message to Beauregard explaining what had happened, but she seemed to get the sense she shouldn’t reveal herself. Caleb led Felix through the city to the Academy, and up to Astrid’s office. They sat him in front of the fireplace.

Caleb crouched in front of him while Astrid stood by the fire, and Wulf leaned by the door. “Thank you for cooperating, Felix. Give me one moment. I need to message a friend who is going to help us.” He cast Sending. “Caduceus. We will need you in a moment.”

“I’m ready when you are.”

“I’ll go,” said Eadwulf. “Be right back.” With a muttered incantation, he had vanished.

“Where is he going?” asked Felix.

“To fetch a cleric friend of mine,” Caleb replied. “You look tired. Are you well?”

“Had a lot on my mind, I guess. Sleeping has been difficult.”

“I know the feeling.” Caleb looked to Astrid. “We should explain the situation, ja?”

“Why was Trent arrested?” asked Felix.

“A number of Volstrucker spoke with the Cobalt Soul about his training methods,” Astrid replied. “They documented it and took him to court. He’s in prison for life.”

Felix frowned. “I’m confused.”

Caleb should have expected Felix probably wouldn’t understand Trent’s behaviour as abuse; Caleb hadn’t either. “Felix, I would like you to listen to me.” He rolled up his sleeves so Felix could see the scars, which he was certain Felix shared. “A good teacher does not force his students to endure what we have.”

“We will face worse every day in our work,” Felix replied. “The pain… it makes us stronger.”

“And the residuum experiments? With no pain mitigation? I know people who have passed out in the process. Has that happened to you?”

“Once or twice,” Felix muttered, evidently still under the effects of the spell. “Puked more often.”

“Me too,” said Caleb, resisting the urge to scratch his itching scars. “It made me very ill most of the time. Astrid and Eadwulf had to force me to eat.”

“Why are you telling me this? Why are you asking me these questions?”

Astrid was gazing into the flames. “Felix, how old were you when Trent first hurt you?”

“Sixteen.”

Astrid managed to look at Caleb, just for a moment. “The same for him.” Astrid was a year older so it made sense to invoke Caleb instead, and maybe it was easier for her to project these things onto him.

Wulf popped back into the office, with the very welcome form of Caduceus beside him. Felix jumped, but Caleb had told him what was happening, and that seemed to be enough to stop him from bolting.

“Hallo, Caduceus,” said Caleb. “Can you give us just one more moment?” He turned back to Felix. “I’m going to have my friend Caduceus take a look at you and make sure you are well, but I would like to ask you a question first.”

“Fine.”

“What has Trent ordered you to do?”

Felix dropped his gaze to his lap. “My mother and father are plotting to betray the Empire. I have been asked to stop them.”

“That must have been weeks ago,” said Caleb. “What’s the matter?”

Felix scowled, and tried several times to supply an answer, as he was required to be honest while under the effects of Caleb’s specifically-worded spell. “I don’t know. They are not the people I thought they were. They are traitors. But. It’s not… I don’t know what to do. I’ve been waiting for Trent to give me more information, but I haven’t heard anything. I guess I was trying to figure out if there was a way I could convince them to…” He shook his head. “No. There is no mercy for traitors to the Empire.”

“I am sorry to hear that,” said Caleb. “It must be very difficult. May Caduceus take a look at you? You have clearly been under a great deal of stress.”

Felix had probably never seen a firbolg before, and he eyed Caduceus with trepidation. “What is he going to do?”

“It’s all right,” said Astrid. “He is a healer. The three of us have spent time in his family’s garden.”

“I… suppose…”

Caduceus approached slowly. “This will be quick, I promise. Just a healing spell to make you feel a bit better.” He already had the diamond dust for Greater Restoration in his palm. He touched Felix’s shoulder. It took a second for the spell to sink in, during which Caleb couldn’t breathe.

Then Felix slid to the floor, head in his hands. Astrid knelt beside him, whispering too quietly for Caleb to hear.

“One down,” Caduceus said softly, smiling at Caleb. “One to go.”

Caleb couldn’t speak. He watched Felix curl up on the floor, muttering to Astrid. She looked up at him, beckoned him over. Caleb knelt by her side.

“I don’t understand,” Felix said. “Why? Why? I don’t…” He shoved his fist against his mouth and screamed into it, eyes squeezed shut. “Why would he do this?”

There were a lot of things Caleb could say; he was not convinced any of them were right. But he had to say something. “He’s done this to all of us. Every Volstrucker went through this to graduate.”

“He does it for a few reasons,” Astrid said, quiet but somewhat detached. “It eliminates any family connections, leaving us reliant on Trent. And then, we’ve done the worst thing we thought we could do. Anything Trent has us do after that means very little. And those who break…” She looked at Caleb. “They are held up as an example of failure that we are measured against. We all know Bren’s name for a reason. First, as an example of failure, of weakness. Later, an example of endurance, of admirable but problematic stubbornness. A cautionary tale nonetheless.”

Felix looked to Caleb as well. “What the fuck am I supposed to do with this information?”

Caleb wanted to comfort him, but didn’t know what Felix would tolerate, and there was a pressing matter. “First things first, we need to find Nicolaus.”

Felix drew his knees up to his chest and hid his face against them. “I don’t know where he is. We argued and then we went our separate ways.”

“What did you argue about?”

“I wanted to come here and find Trent. Ask about the order. See if there was anything we could… I don’t know.”

“And what did he want?”

“Nico doesn’t know what he wants. He was always more scared of Trent than I am.”

“Okay, we have ways to track him down. Caduceus, can you scry today?”

“I can,” Caduceus said slowly. “Might I also recommend, if Mr Felix knows the spell, that he should try Sending to him.”

“I don’t know that spell,” Felix said thickly. Caleb would just make out the side of his face, to see it was screwed up as if in pain.

“I can teach you,” said Caleb, “but I suspect it will take more time than we have right now.” Sending was an Evocation spell, so it would probably only take Felix three hours instead of six to copy it into his spellbook and practice it until he could do it, but that was still too long.

Caduceus sat cross-legged on the floor. “Do you have anything of his? Or a likeness?”

Wulf handed him a sketch. “Does this help?”

“Yes. Thank you.” Caduceus closed his eyes and began the ritual.

“I can try messaging Nico,” Astrid said, gripping her copper wire. “Nicolaus. It’s Astrid. I must meet with you in Trent’s office. It’s an urgent matter.” She waited, scowled. “Nothing.”

Caleb refused to panic, no matter how bad that sounded. “Okay. Good to know.”

Felix lifted his head. “What if we’re too late?”

“We don’t know that yet,” said Caleb. “Whatever happens, we will deal with it.”

Felix frowned at the floor. “What happens to me now?”

“We can take you home to your parents once we’ve got an idea of Nico’s situation,” said Caleb. “Unless you need more time.”

“Just a bit. I think. But I’d like to see them. Not today.”

“There is plenty of dormitory space for however long you need,” said Astrid. “Bren will visit you regularly once you are with your parents, to check in.” Felix nodded. That had not been discussed, but it was something that Caleb would want to do, so he let it slide.

The ten minutes it took for Caduceus to complete the spell were some of the longest of Caleb’s life. But then Caduceus’s eyes went white, and it seemed to be working.

Caduceus began to narrate what I saw. “I see your boy. He’s in a field. The clouds are pretty dark. It’s hard to see much. I think I see some buildings ahead of him. I’ll follow him for a bit.”

There was a sick feeling in the pit of Caleb’s stomach. “We should be ready, just in case.”

Astrid’s fingers weaved around the wire. “Expositor, are you close by? We may need your assistance. Come to my office on the--ugh, just ask for directions.” She listened. “Expositor Lionett is outside the Academy. She will be here soon.”

Caduceus spoke again. “He is approaching the village. Not many people in the streets. Probably the incoming storm. He looks like he has a goal.”

“What can you see of the buildings?” asked Caleb. “Any signs?”

“The signs are Zemnian,” said Caduceus. “The buildings look like farmhouses, mostly. I think I saw an orchard.”

“Blumenthal is a farming town,” Caleb muttered. “Fuck.”

Beauregard burst through the door, gasping for breath. “I’m here!” She doubled over, hands on her knees, as she sucked in air.

“Get ready to move,” said Wulf, stony-faced. “It looks bad.”

“Shit.” She gulped in another breath. “Okay.”

Caleb felt a little better now that she was here, but he was wound too tight to process it. “Caduceus. Is there anything else?”

“He’s picking up speed. Turned a corner. Looking at a house in the distance, I think.”

Caleb did not let himself feel anything. He turned to Felix. “Felix, do you know where Nico’s parents live?”

“On the northeastern edge of town.” Felix’s voice was as tense as Caleb. “Look for the cabbages.”

“Danke.” He squeezed Felix’s shoulder and pushed himself to his feet. “We need to go.”

Caduceus was still in the vision. “Go on ahead. I’ll stay here with Felix. If I see anything I think is useful, I will Send. But it will break the scry.”

Caleb gathered Astrid, Wulf and Beauregard around him and cast teleport, aiming for the northeastern end of Blumenthal. He knew it well, once.

[mydarlingklaus]

A Very Mikaelson Christmas:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I know, it's been forever but I've really just been relaxing and taking care of myself the past couple of months but to all my readers for "Black Roses" I DID NOT FORGET ABOUT THE STORY! I will update as soon as possible and I miss it as much as you all do.

This is part 2 to chapter 10 of my klaroline family drabbles: Meeting the Mikaelsons, and occurs before the merge storyline. Link to my ff page can be found here and at the bottom so PLEASE leave a review!

Happy reading :)

"Alright let's go through the list:" Caroline began checking off her clipboard. "Elijah and Freya are on food duty. Marcel is taking care of music, Josie's bake goods are in the oven, Hope and Hayley are finishing the tree and other interior decorations while Kol and Alaric string up the lights outside. Did I miss anything?"

"Yes, like an explanation for why we are doing all of this tedious work when we could have simply hired professionals?" Rebekah blurted from her chair.

Caroline pointed a fake smile at the blonde Original who was casually sipping on a glass of spiked egg nog.

Given that this was the biggest Christmas party she's ever hosted, Caroline tried not to stress too much even over incompetence. This was a joyous time and was determined to make it special. Being an only child with just her mom Caroline never partook in grand holiday gatherings and now, she had two families coming together for the very first time.

"I knew I forgot something, Rebekah you're on table duty." Caroline ordered.

"The hell I am." She snorted before drinking from her glass again.

The baby vampire breathed in and out through her nose to refrain from her fangs latching onto an 1,000 year old being's jugular.

In an attempt to make everything perfect for tonight, Caroline created a schedule of tasks for all the family members to obey, and hers was making sure everyone followed through with their tasks—she didn't count on confronting prissy Mikaelson behavior.

Over a thousand years of existence and they all acted like they never heard of basic chores.

"Last I checked you're apart of this family too which means you have to assist in some way. You can't just drink liquor all day." Caroline scolded.

"Actually I've been doing that just fine, thank you very much." Rebekah grinned raising her glass to the aggravated blonde. "Not to mention I've spent all morning searching for those impossible snowflake place settings you so desperately desired. You're welcome by the way. So from where I'm seated I've done my part."

"If we're being technical, all you did was pick out the pattern from the comfort of her bed while I was the one who actually had to hunt them down." Klaus announced walking into the room, making Caroline exhale into a smile.

She was relieved and happy to see him, not just because she missed his handsome face but because he was the only one capable of talking Rebekah down.

Despite the minor difficulties, Caroline was grateful the girls insisted on bringing thievery one together this year to celebrate Christmas as a family.

Kol flew in from California the night prior, around the same time Rebekah arrived from New York City on her private jet. Alaric had last minute paperwork to finish before handing over the keys of the school to his right-hand-man, Dorian, for remainder of the break—he drove out early that morning, alone.

Alaric finally accepting Klaus as a permanent factor in both Caroline and the girls' lives made their complex situation more graceful.

"I hardly see how that's relevant." Rebekah retorted with an eye roll, amusing her dimpled face brother walking up behind the chair to place his hands on her slumped shoulders.

"It's relevant, little sister, because you haven't lifted a finger since you've been here. This is a family day which means everyone is pitching in, no matter how much we may not want to. You're no exception here. I assure you arranging a few place settings on the table won't break a nail."

She shoved him off. "Oh please, as if you actually care about the holidays when you haven't spent one with us since Hope was wobbling around in bloody diapers."

"Rebekah—"

"You know Nik, It's okay to admit you're only agreeing to such humiliating labor to impress your precious baby vampire. We all already know the truth." She teased, smirking while finishing off her drink. The expression in her eyes could easily get under anyone's skin.

Caroline pressed her lips into a tight line, already sensing Klaus' annoyance beside her.

After all these years of being in Klaus' life—in some capacity—she figured the vindictive Original would have warmed up to her by now.

Obviously, not so much.

"Damnit Rebekah, stop being a brat and just fetch the bloody plate settings." Klaus groaned impatiently.

He shook his head when she childishly stuck her tongue out at him before standing to make her exit towards the kitchen.

"Where are those bloody daggers when I need them?"

Caroline sighed exasperatedly when placing her clipboard on the piano. "Oddly enough, that doesn't sound too bad. I'll forever deny that I ever condoned that."

Klaus laughed under his breath. "Your secret's safe with me."

The blonde's white teeth nibbled on her rose colored bottom lip. Both hands fisted into his black buttoned-down shirt, fingertips teasing the exposed necklaces before she leaned on her tiptoes for a quick but lingering kiss. Lips barely tasting the other before slowly parting, foreheads resting against each other's for a few peaceful seconds.

"Hi." She smiled.

"Hi." He smiled back while tucking her hair behind her ears. "I don't like seeing you stressed."

"Then you're completely unaware of what it's like to have a conversation with you." She teased, kissing his pouty lip sweetly. "But if you were any different I wouldn't want you."

"And what a shame that would be."

Their lips pecked against each other's again before Caroline let out a deep exhale, looking over their Winter wonderland home to see what else needed to be done—there was quite a bit.

"You're still stressing." Klaus said when observing the stress line in her forehead.

Caroline scoffed turning to face him. "Uh, yeah! The tree is only half done, the outdoor lights are probably just slapped on like a pile of meat and did you not just see me pulling teeth just to get your sister to set a damn table!"

He chuckled to himself, kissing her wrinkled forehead and rubbing her arms to calm her.

"Rebekah is the laziest vampire I've ever known and I'm sorry about her behavior but love, she had point. We could've hired professionals to do all of the decorating and cooking in half the time. I have excellent recommendations from our last gathering. Money wouldn't have been an issue if that's what you were worrying about."

"Seriously? Do Mikaelsons know nothing about traditions?" She scoffed.

"Actually no, we don't. To be fair me and my siblings only began liking one another two years ago."

Caroline's lips pursed as she pushed his hands off of her. "This had nothing to do with money, and this isn't just any Christmas, it's our first Christmas with everyone home together and I wanted all of us to embrace all the holiday traditions as a family. Which includes forcing in-laws to do basic household tasks like decorating a damn tree."

"In-laws?" Klaus smirked.

Caroline's cheeks slightly reddened as she accessed the weight of her words. Her sweaty palms rubbed up and down her burgundy bodycon dress hastily.

"Shut up..." She mumbled, slapping his chest when his smirk grew.

"Look, Klaus I may not have grown up with a huge family but I did have a lot of friends who took that place. We decorated trees, hung lights, ate dinner together, drank more alcohol than legally allowed and enjoyed each other's company." She explained somberly. "They stopped me from feeling lonely every year and I always said when I had a family of my own those traditions wouldn't die, and now I do..."

The corners of Klaus's lips turned up into a soft grin at her shy doe blue eyes staring up at him through her thick lashes.

Klaus stepped forward, grabbing her by the hips. "I like this."

"What, my distress or me bossing you around?" She teased relaxing into his hold around her waist.

"You being in my family." He clarified. "I like that you're mine and hearing you consider this your home. You'll never be alone, love and I'm very much looking forward to many, many more Christmases to come with all the ridiculous traditions attached."

A warm smile made its way to her face as she observed the genuine contentment on his.

It was just as surreal for her too, but for Klaus to go centuries spending every holiday alone to now sharing it with an entire family, she knew how much these moments meant to him. But she was just as eager to spend the rest of eternity with him too.

Her hands reached up to his face to bring him in for a quick but effective kiss

She moaned into his mouth when he unexpectedly gripped her sides, tongues brushing as they stole a few more of these rare moments.

They were both dazed as Caroline pulled away.

"Thank you. I guess I'm kinda into you." She smiled while wiping her lipstick off his bottom lip with her thumb.

Klaus responded with another kiss, this one more urgent and than the last. His hand placements more determined and certain as squeezed her hips, riding up the skirt of her burgundy dress.

Caroline giggled against his lips.

"Nope. We can't right now..." She whispered, trying to show some restraint inspire of her body's craving.

"Come now love, I haven't had a second alone with you all day. Indulge me." He persisted, pulling her closer against his hard chest.

"There's still so much to do..." Her defenses slowly falling.

"That'll all get done momentarily. Besides, we are currently standing underneath a mistletoe. We must comply with all holiday traditions. Isn't that what you said?"

Caroline appeared slightly bewildered when looking up at the festive plant hanging over them, not remembering hanging it up there before peering down at her smirking hybrid. The inner conflict roaming in her head already a thing of the past when her hungry eyes made contact with his full bottom lip.

"Rules are rules." She agreed breathlessly, her arms now wrapped around his neck she happily succumbed to the surrender.

Not beating his tongue from invading her mouth and fingers scrunching up her dress as the oral exchange deepened into a more passionate frenzy.

Her sexual appetite no better than his, especially when being deprived of each other for longer than 10 minutes.

"Oh for fuck sake! Would you two get a room already?"

With a low groan, the couple detached their lips but remained wrapped in each other's arms despite Kol's rude interruption.

"Certainly. Every room in this house belongs to me after all." Klaus announced.

Kol tilted his head with a smile, leaning against the living room's wall with a glass of liquor in his hand and ankles crossed.

"I'm no prude and usually would be helping myself to the view of your public display of affection, however, someone has to save my precious nieces from the emotional scarring." He claimed. "Not to mention, I've been tortured enough today from hanging bloody Christmas lights with that moronic human all day. Last thing I need is a floor show featuring Caroline where I'm not participating."

The blonde's cheeks suddenly a deeper shade of blush pink while she held Klaus back by his chest.

"Say anything even remotely offensive towards her again and I'll rip out your heart through your throat. Understood?"

The younger Mikaelson grin spread menacingly at the beading gold hue in Klaus' eyes.

"Is it a proper Mikaelson gathering without a few death threats? Happy holidays to you too, brother." Kol lifted his glass to the couple before skipping out the room.

"Remind me to snap his neck while he's sleeping tonight." Klaus groaned.

"I don't get why you're still bothered by his remarks after all these years. You know how he is and how much he loves getting under your skin because you make it so easy. He's harmless."

"More like a pest." He scoffed. "And his habitual inappropriate comments towards you doesn't make it right Caroline and quite frankly, I'm over it. Why did you to invite him anyways?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Because I invited the entire family and last I checked he's your baby brother, who you've missed more than you want to admit."

"Debatable." Klaus muttered, causing Caroline to laugh as she trapped his lips with hers for a sweet kiss.

"Better?"

He smirked against her lips. "With you? Always."

Playfully rolling her eyes, she twirled away from his greedy hands.

"And speaking of the girls Lizzie just texted that she and Sebastian are about ten minutes away." Caroline informed, deflating Klaus' smile.

"Yes, how could I forget we allowed our naive 17 year old daughter to go on a solo road trip with a boy three centuries older than her." Klaus muttered.

"She's not alone."

His eyes narrowed at her teasing tone. "Caroline."

She giggled, fixing the collar of his shirt. "Lighten up. I thought we talked about this. You said you were going to stand down as overprotective dad when it came to the girls love lives."

"They're only 17 and 18 years old. They're not allowed to have love lives, especially with boys as old as I am." Klaus scolded.

"Weren't you the one who was more than thrilled to agree to Sebastian spending Christmas here?"

Klaus' face scrunched. " 'Thrilled' is a bit of a reach, love. More like you and Lizzie ambushed me with the invitation. I'd agree to anything for her to be here even if it meant agreeing to undesirables staying in my home."

The baby vampire's eyes narrowed. "Don't you think you're being a bit dramatic?"

"Dramatic?" His eyes widened. "Caroline, this ancient boy popped out of nowhere. Has shown a sudden interest in our very young and vulnerable daughter after knowing her for what, a few days? And has her so mind-warped he even managed to convince her to let him spend the bloody holidays in our family sanctuary. He's a stranger to all of us, so forgive me for being a bit skeptical."

Letting go of his collar Caroline took a step back, letting out a loud huff as she combed her fingers through her golden tresses frustratingly.

"If I say something you don't like, promise you won't throw a fit and ruin Christmas?"

"You think I'm being paranoid." He concluded for her.

She nodded while crossing her arms. "Yes, and unreasonable, and a bit of an ass."

"An ass?" His eyebrow quirked up.

"Very much so. Babe, I love you. I know you have nothing but good intentions when it comes to the girls but you need to stop. You have to trust them."

"I do. I've told you multiple times that was never the issue Caroline and you know it. Can't believe you're still insinuating otherwise." He barked.

"Seriously?" She scoffed. "Klaus look how you're reacting right now. It's Christmas! We're supposed to be cheerful and loving towards each other, not insulting and yelling. You try chalking up this behavior to being an overprotective parent but it's more than that. Deep down you don't trust that Lizzie can handle herself."

"You know that's not true." He claimed defensively.

"When you describe her as 'vulnerable' and 'naive' it sorta weakens your claim. It makes me feel like you don't trust me either when I keep reassuring you that everything's fine."

Klaus' features softened as he observed the clear irritation and concern on her face. The wrinkle in her forehead that swigged out whenever they argued shined in all its adorable glory, but for the first time he wasn't delighted to see it.

There was no one in the world he trusted more.

"Car-"

She raised her hand when he tried to step towards her.

"You're an amazing father Klaus, the best even. 90% of the time you're everything they need, and I try to not be jealous about it." Caroline confessed. "But that 10% is for who they are as young women, the parts of themselves they're not comfortable sharing with you. That's where I step in and give them all the advice you can't, like boys and hormones. Hard to believe but there are some things even Klaus Mikaelson isn't an expert on."

Klaus swallowed, feeling more guilty and ridiculous by the second despite Caroline's attempt at lightening the situation with a smile.

"Lizzie is doing good. She's stable and happy for the first time in so long and has no interests of messing up her progress. I know you worry and want to protect her but if she's ever going to be the free-spirited adventurer you always imagined her to be, you have to let her grow on her own. Let her make mistakes and be as normal of a teenager as she can. Believe me when I say nothing ruins the relationship between a father and daughter more than telling her she can't see the boy she likes."

Klaus winced imagining his bond with Lizzie being served over something as irrelevant as a stupid vampire boy.

Being in control of all aspects of his life was how he refrained from completely losing his mind. He was a leader, King of the French Quarter kingdom but these weren't his hybrid soldiers he could command—they were his family.

He nearly lost one daughter for not being there when she needed him, he couldn't make that same mistake with another—no matter the intentions.

"Bloody hell..." he groaned, tugging at his curls. "I've been a proper prick, haven't I?"

Caroline's eyes shifted upwards, pretending to ponder. "Only a little." She said while making Klaus lightly chuckle under his breath.

Biting her bottom lip she cautiously stepped towards him.

"We're not welcoming him into the family, just getting to know him. He makes Lizzie happy so we owe it to her to at least give him a chance." She said, grabbing his hands into hers and caressing the base with her thumb, feeling all the built up tension slowly being released from his body and the situation.

He tilted her chin up, making her crystallized blues peer into his. Her hands rested on his biceps while his free one tightly wrapped around her waist.

"I do trust you, more than anyone. Please tell me you know that." Klaus desperately pleaded.

Her eyes wandered his worried face and heart ached at his desperate tone.

Over the course of their relationship Caroline felt she had to jump through multiple hoops to smother Klaus with reassurance. Deep down she understood his insecurities about their relationship—if she was confident in choosing him and not hating herself for it—but she had some of her own as well, especially when it came to being a good mother.

Caroline slowly nodded.

"I know, but it's nice to hear you say it too." A soft smile made its way to her face.

Her arms circled around him before pulling her hybrid in for a kiss that dissipated the claustrophobic tension.

Klaus squeezed her hips as the kiss transitioned from languidly and slow to passionate and purposeful.

Their lips, warm and soft as they exhaled into each other's mouths. Standing underneath the mistletoe without a care in the world of who in their nosey family could walk in on them.

They were each other's last eternal love and were not going to hide it from anyone—especially during the happiest time of the year.

Caroline gripped his biceps again, softly moaning as she opened her mouth to him and Klaus was all too eager to comply to the request.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

The doorbell rang before their tongues could even touch.

"Ignore it." Klaus groaned while going in for another kiss.

"We can't just ignore the door." She weakly retorted as their lips hovered.

"Sweetheart there's a at least six other people in this house. Let them feel useful." He mused when his thumb released her bottom lip from the clutches of her teeth.

Caroline was on the verge of complying until the buzz of her cell phone on the piano distracted them both.

"What is with all the bloody interruptions?" Klaus groaned.

The baby vampire giggled as she wiggled out of his embrace to check the bright screen.

"Our daughter is the interruption. She and Sebastian are right outside. Try to play nice." Caroline encouraged, grinning into another quick kiss before walking towards the front door.

Klaus felt a surge of panic run through his body as he watched from afar as Caroline opened the door.

Her face lighting up at the sight of the young blonde girl in the doorway, pulling her teeth in for a tight hug that visibly embarrassed Lizzie but he knew deep down she appreciated it.

A small smile began forming at the corners of his lips watching them together, knowing they were two of the four lights of his life—his forever love and daughter both under the same roof with him again. For the first time all day he felt whole, finally having all his girls together again, even if it was only briefly.

Family was something Klaus never took advantage of, not anymore.

He tried to focus on the tender moment playing out in front of him instead of the the smirking brunette boy standing beside Lizzie in the doorway.

Klaus' smile faded and fists clenched when Sebastian greeted Caroline with a kiss on both cheeks.

This was the first time he had actually seen the other vampire fully.

No denying he was originated from a different era, based on his ruffled white shirt, boots and blazer like a pirate. Lizzie explained that Sebastian was desiccated as a teenager but he still had a mature aura that made Klaus uncomfortable. His features so sharp and defined, it made him seem much older than he claimed. Too mature for a newly 17 year old girl to be with—Klaus thought.

"And these are for you, Headmistress Forbes. Elizabeth informed me that you fancy white lilies."

Klaus overheard the youngster using his charm on Caroline and based on her flattered reaction and an 'aw you didn't have to' quickly following, it seemed to be working.

-I hate this.

Klaus's chest compressed as the three began walking towards him with beaming smiles on all faces except the boy. Instantly noticing the young couple's fingers interlocked together while Lizzie and Caroline talked and Sebastian's eyes wandered around the mansion curiously.

-I really hate this...

He let out a deep exhale as a smile shaped his lips as the enthusiastic young witch skipped into his arms.

"Merry Christmas Klaus!" Lizzie beamed as their hug tightened.

The nerves that had piled up in Klaus' throat dissipated at the warm greeting from just one of the four lights in his life. It was difficult to imagine the centuries he went without physical affection given how habitual the act was now.

It had barely been two months since he last saw Lizzie but it felt like forever now that she was back home—her real home.

Rubbing her back and kissing the top of her head, Klaus slightly pulled away with one arm still around her.

"Merry Christmas sweetheart. How was the drive?"

"Great. I mean, Uncle Damon's burnt down Camaro is as ancient as he is and I nearly broke a nail operating the stick shift, but overall no complaints."

Klaus nodded his head, making a mental note to dispose of the Salvatore hand-me-down and buy Lizzie a brand new car.

"All that matters is that you're finally here safe and sound." Caroline beamed as she hugged her once more. "Everyone else is probably in the kitchen, slacking on their tasks but they'll be happy to see you."

Expecting everyone to follow her to the room but instead stood in confusion as no one moves.

Lizzie's feet stayed planted, biting her lip anxiously while pulling at the fabric of her white sweater like she wanted to rip it in half

"Um actually, before the rest of our dysfunctional family joins in on all the awkward fun that is to surely take place, I want to officially introduce someone to both of you first."

Klaus felt like the wind was knocked out of him when she took a step backwards to join the young vampire's side. Trying to keep his temper at bay when their hands joined again.

"This is Sebastian. He's a new student at the boarding school and my...my boyfriend." She timidly announced.

Another punch to the core.

Klaus' face was neutral but his body was stiff as a board from the pent up frustration that came with watching your child grow up right in front of you.

He tried to keep in mind the conversation he and Caroline just shared—easier said than done.

"It's nice to officially meet you Sebastian. We've heard great things about you. We're glad you were able to spend Christmas with us." Caroline greeted him.

"No, I'm the grateful one for you Headmistress. Not just for allowing me into your home for the holidays but also enrolling me into the school at the last minute. I see where Elizabeth gets her generosity from." Sebastian charmed.

Klaus' eyes couldn't roll harder, even more from how much Caroline was actually being affected by such mediocre charm. Her bright smile and modest blush that were once only preserved for him now being used on a amateur immortal with accent was sickening.

"It's an honor to finally put a face to the name, sir." Sebastian said with a nervous closed-lipped smile, stepping forward with his hand out.

Klaus stared down at the boy's hand, studied it like it was a foreign object as the three impatiently waited for him to make the next move. A handshake was final, a sign of respect and approval—he definitely didn't approve of him just yet.

He didn't like like this boy and if it were up to him his heart would be rolling in the ice cold snow for even gazing in Lizzie's direction. But he owed it to both Lizzie, and Caroline, to prove he trusted her.

Drawing out a dramatic exhale through his nose, Klaus uncrossed his arms as he locked eyes with the immortal boy. His jaw set and body tense when engulfing Sebastian's hand in a death grip, finally reciprocating the formal gesture.

"Um, Lizzie why don't we go find a nice vase to put these lilies in." Caroline suggested.

"You mean leave them alone, together?" Lizzie laughed. "Yeah, thanks but no thanks mom. I would prefer to return to Mystic Falls with my boyfriend in one piece."

Klaus chuckled at the nervous gulp dropping down Sebastian's throat.

"Sweetheart I promise, I won't kill him. Go on." He assured her with a sinister smile he usually wore before ripping out someone's spleen.

Relieved when she reluctantly followed Caroline out of the room, he set his focus back on the bug-eyed vampire in front of him.

"Unlucky for you I'm not big on keeping promises." Klaus gripped Sebastian's hand even harder—making him wince in pain and jerking himself forward.

"Mister Mikaelson—"

"Except when it comes to my family." Klaus added. "You'd be wise to remember the only reason your limbs aren't scattered around the bloody bayou and heart remains in your chest is because of Lizzie."

Sebastian frantically nodded, groaning from the pulsating ache in his right hand when Klaus finally released it from his hold.

Klaus took a step back, dipping his hands into his pants pockets as he watched the vampire boy massage his own hand. The vampire boy who was spending the next couple of days under his roof, charming his family. The vampire boy who captured Lizzie's heart and knowing there was nothing he could do about it—to protect her.

He sighed looking down at his shoes. "Do you care about her?"

Sebastian paused for a few seconds before nodding his head.

Klaus pressed his lips into a straight line as he walked dangerously slow towards the boy. "Usually I wouldn't tell a stranger this but you're not someone I consider a threat, Lizzie means everything to me. There is absolutely nothing I wouldn't do for her and that includes torturing and mutilating anyone who dares to hurt her in anyway. Understood?"

The vampire gulped when he tripped over the carpet, now realizing how close their chests were to each other's and his back to the wall.

"She's been through quite a lot in her short life and doesn't need an ancient delinquent ruining how far she's come. So I ask again, do you care about her?"

"Me and Elizabeth had our issues in the beginning, I'll admit." Sebastian shamefully confessed. "I—I did hurt her, rather cruelly, and by all unknown good graces she found it in herself to forgive me and grant us a second chance. Deep down I know I don't deserve the your daughter's love and care but, she's the first person in centuries who sees me as a man instead of a monster. Who thinks I'm worth a second chance. It'd be senseless of me to not see what this could become and the past couple of months have proven the future to be bright. So yes, Mister Mikaelson I care about Elizabeth immensely and will leave before I ever hurt her again."

The hybrid shook his head, a small laugh following after. "I know that story, all too well." Cleared the emotional lump in his throat.

It felt like looking into the mirror of he and Caroline's journey. How they originated in hate and hurt. The amount of chances she gave him, the way they saw each other in ways no one else could and the frogs she had to kiss along the way before choosing him as her forever.

Not that Klaus was rallying for this boy to steal Lizzie away, but he was beginning to understand the their draw to one another. Thankfully they wouldn't have to face similar challenges but there were sure to be new ones, and he'd be there by her side—if she needed him.

"Well, I will say I appreciate your honesty."

"I didn't want my first impression to be based under false pretenses." Sebastian grinned with a shrug. "Though she tells me not to worry, your opinion about me does matter. The Headmistress as well but from what Elizabeth has told me, you two are quite close. She values your insights and opinions more than anyone's. Given your infamous and intimidating reputation, it was actually less awkward meeting you than the hairy mortal with a crossbow."

Klaus threw his head back, laughing hysterically.

"You should've seen when he actually tried using that contraption on me. Free comic relief. I'm sure he has one with your name on it as well."

Sebastian snickered. "Yes, actually he's already threatened me with it a few times. Threats and all, I'm glad she has a family who cares about her to this extent. It's refreshing...to someone who is foreign to such familial love."

Klaus understood this boy better than he'd ever admit.

Sighing, Klaus placed his hands in his pants pockets again.

"Come on. It's going to be a long weekend and you haven't even scratched the surface of meeting our entire family."

Link to my ff page. Thanks!

[waywardbeanie]

A Man of Letters - Chapter Seven

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Female Reader Summary: It started as a simple hunt for Sam and Dean Winchester. Dean didn’t realize that this single case would change his life forever. Now they are on the biggest mission of their lives, and without the use of cellphones, the only way he can communicate with the love of his life is through old fashioned letter writing. He has done everything in his power to keep her safe, but will it be enough? Word Count: 6931 ish

Series Warnings: Language, slow burn, angst, smut, alcohol consumption, fluff, SPN typical violence (individual chapters will contain relevant warnings) a little meta Chapter Warning: humor (Is that really a warning?) and a little bit of sweet.(Always), angst, spicy (smut), unprotected (ish) sex

A/N: I want to thank everyone who has read so far, thank you for sticking with me!  All of the comments and reblogs mean so very much! THANK YOU!

Thank you to my beta’s @winchest09 and @whatareyousearchingfordean​ without them I would be sunk!

MASTERLIST A Man of Letters

If you’d like to be tagged, my list is open. Just send me an ask HERE: **Make sure you check out the playlist, it is updated every chapter and an essential part of the story**

Spotify Playlist : A Man of Letters

Catch up here >>>>>>> A Man of Letters Masterlist

This series is ongoing!

No Gif’s are mine

                                   Dean “Tongue Magician” Winchester                                                     PO Box 323                                               Sioux Falls, SD 57101

Dear D,

You were right, I got both letters the same day. It was a really nice surprise. I hope that “Sam” likes the brownies. I’m sure they are stale, but I made enough for everyone, so please share them because I know they are for you. Sam literally eats one brownie when I make them. Work has picked up, and my schedule is full most days. I’m happy to be busy when you are gone, it makes the days go by faster, but my bed is too big and empty without you. I’ve slept on the couch a few times since you’ve been gone, I just leave the pillows on, and I can almost convince myself you are here.

I was thinking about the couch night, but now you have me thinking about the bed night, and damn, you are too far away to dwell on that for too long! Also, do not talk to me about me moaning your name in letters because I swear to God I will write you a note that you will have you locking yourself in Baby to read!

Things are pretty quiet here as usual. I went to the farmers market today and bought vegetables. I’m trying to figure out some new recipes to try. I know you said that you were up for anything, just no more butter beans because they taste like mud (which, for the record, they do not!), so we will see what I can do. I saw Mark from the garage there, and he told me to tell you “Hello” and that he is almost finished with the body of the 1971 Plymouth Hemi Cuda. He wondered when you would be back because he could use your help with the new paint job. I told him that the job you had was going to last longer than most but that I’m sure as soon as you got into town that you would help him.

D, I know we talked about the future before, but are you sure you want to walk away? I’m here no matter what, I’m not going anywhere. You need to be sure this is what you want to do for you. With that being said, I am selfish enough to say I want nothing more than to fall asleep in your arms every night and to wake up next to you each morning. I’m glad you wrote it in a letter because I can read it over and over. Sometimes, when you are gone, I just start questioning things and can be a bit insecure about all of it, but you knew that already.

I guess I should wrap this up, I’m sorry you guys are doing more research, but, as always it will pay off in the end. I’m not surprised you set up training for everyone, that is definitely your thing, and it gives you an excuse not to read those dusty books. You guys be safe and come back soon. I miss your face.

I Love You, Your Initial

3 Years Ago

They were a little over halfway back to the bunker, driving through Hastings, Nebraska, and Sam started to worry. Dean had not spoken 5 words this entire trip. He didn’t even want snacks when they stopped for gas. They have been driving for almost two hours, the radio on low, the only thing consistent is the tapping of his thumb on the top of the steering wheel, lost in his own thoughts.

“Dean.” He broke the silence

“Huh?” pulling himself from his thoughts, glancing at Sam.

“You want to tell me what’s going on?”

“What? Nothing,” raising his eyebrows, he shook his head briefly.

Flicking his eyes to the backseat, Sam confirmed the vamp was still out cold. “Ok, I’ll start. I know that you knew where these vamps were hiding out long before I told you. Instead of helping me, you continued to point me in the wrong direction.”

He rubbed his hand down his face with equal amounts of irritation and embarrassment. “Sammy, it’s not like that I-,”

Annoyed Sam cut him off, “Dude, it is exactly like that, but the funny part is I’m not even mad anymore.”

“Fine, you know I don’t want to talk about this, but you get one question and one answer and don’t get all chick flick about it either because that’s not happening.”

“Great,” Sam smirked, “What’s Y/N’s favorite color?”

Without missing a beat, Dean answered, “It’s a tie between navy blue and dark grey.”

Sam threw his head back with a laugh. Dean’s mouth quirked up in a half-smile, turning up the radio as “Ramblin’ Man” by The Allman Brothers blared through the speakers. Laying his foot on the gas pedal, a little heavier to get back to the bunker to get answers from the comatose vamp tied up in the back seat. 

Dean and Sam had left Y/N’s house 2 days ago. The first 24 hours she didn’t go anywhere without her phone, that got old quickly. She began to feel like it was a leash; finally, she went about her day and left it plugged in on her nightstand. Today was Saturday, she didn’t have any clients this morning; instead, it was all the things to catch up from the week. Mowing the lawn, cleaning the house, grocery shopping, stripping the sheets, and doing laundry.

She put her hair in a messy bun, threw on her Neil Diamond t-shirt with denim shorts, grabbed her BlueTooth headphones, linking them to her tablet, and set it outside on the deck and connected it to her playlist. Greta Van Fleet’s “Highway Tune” burst into her ears as she yanked the pulley to start the lawnmower. She chuckled to herself as she began to mow the backyard. Dean had mentioned a few times that he wanted to do it, but that was not going to happen. She had put them both out enough, and besides, it was a good exercise for her. Finishing up in a little over an hour, she put away the lawn equipment, grabbed a bottle of water from the “beer fridge” in the garage, and jumped in the Jeep. She wanted to head to two destinations,  the grocery store and the gardening store to buy  more plants and flowers. Working in the yard kept her hands and mind busy, and right now, that is precisely what she needed.

As she was perusing the freezer section for her favorite Ben & Jerry’s flavor,  she ran into her friend Jennifer. They had met just a few weeks after Y/N moved to Lincoln and they had become fast friends. After a brief hug, they agreed to meet later on that evening for drinks on Y/N’s back deck to catch up. She stopped and bought some more daisies and headed back home, looking forward to spending the evening with her friend.

After planting the flowers, she ran in the house to quickly shower and wash her hair, scrubbing off the dirt and grime of the day. Finishing up, she wrapped her hair in a towel and dried off when she noticed Dean’s black flannel hanging on the door hook. He’d accidentally left it behind the last time he was here. Walking over, she brushed her fingers lightly over the material and as she brought it closer to her nose, she could still smell his woodsy maleness clinging to the fabric. She rested her head against the door, thinking about how much she missed him already and realizing how ridiculous it sounded.

With a sigh, she left the bathroom walking down the hall to her bedroom, pausing she looked at her phone lying face down on the nightstand. She was torn; part of her wanted to see if Dean had called or texted, but an overwhelming part did not want to be disappointed when he didn’t. She made a deal with herself, she would get dressed and dry her hair, and THEN she would look at it. Y/N did silly bargaining things like this with herself all the time, almost like bargaining with the Gods to turn the odds in her favor. She pulled on a pair of grey shorts and a and white Garth Brooks shirt, chuckling to herself, thinking of when Dean accused her of having more band shirts than he did.

Sitting in front of her mirror with her flat paddle brush, she began drying her hair in pieces, after finishing she put on a bit of mascara, eyeliner, and colored lip balm. Smiling at herself in the mirror, she was pleased with the results, standing with a huff, Y/N went to check her phone. Picking it up, she expected nothing. However, she slowly lowered herself to the bed as her screen lit up, her eyes growing wider with every missed notification.

Dean 3 Missed calls

Dean: Hey, Babe, been crazy with you know what. Just wanted to hear your voice.

Dean 4 Missed calls

Sam 1 Missed call

Dean: Y/N. Is everything ok? Call me when you get this.

Dean 2 Missed calls Sam: Tink, would you PLEASE call Dean? I might kill him soon if you don’t. Jennifer 1 Missed Call Dean: ok, I’m trying to keep my shit together right now, I’m FUCKING WORRIED. I’m just telling you right now if I don’t hear back from you in 2 hours I’m driving back.

Just then, her phone lit up in her hand, Dean’s face popping up, the ring scaring her so bad she dropped the phone. She scrambled to pick it up, pushing the speaker button quickly. “Hello?”

“Y/N?” Dean’s voice boomed through the speaker.

“Hey Dean, I’m so sorry-” she began.

Dean cut her off, “Are you good? Jesus Fuck, I was like a crazy person down here. You’re good, right? I mean you are answering the phone, so you’re alright. Right?” She could hear a slamming car door in the background.

“Dean!” she raised her voice to get his attention, “I’m fine I just left my phone plugged in all day, and I was busy.”

“Shit, right.” She could hear him running his hand over his scruff, “I’m sorry Babe, I know, I sound like a lunatic. We just haven’t been able to get anything out of this vamp, when you didn’t answer, my mind just started going to a dark place.”

“I promise, I’m really fine,” she soothed, “I mowed the lawn and went to the grocery and bought some flowers; just busy. I even saw my friend Jennifer today. She’s coming over tonight, and we are going to sit on the deck and have a couple beers.”

“Honestly, that sounds great Y/N/N, I just wanted to hear your voice and tell you to be careful. We don’t know who sent those vamps yet, and until we do, you just need to watch your back.”

She didn’t want to roll her eyes, but she couldn’t help it. There were only so many ways she could reassure him, she didn’t want Dean to worry about her, Y/N just living her life, maybe she was naïve. Hell, no one has worried about her since her parents’ death. It was a strange feeling.

“Dean,” she began, “What can I do to make you feel better?”

She could almost hear the sheepish shrug in his voice “I don’t know” pulling himself out of that quickly, his voice became stronger. “Could you just carry your damn phone with you?”

Dean heard the laughter through his phone, and he couldn’t help but smile, hearing her laugh warmed his insides. “Of course, I will! I do have a question for you, though.”

“Shoot.”

“Were you really going to drive back up here if I didn’t answer?” The silence on the phone went on for so long that she had to double-check to be sure they weren’t disconnected. “Dean?”

“Yeah,” came a gruff reply, “I was in the garage when I thought I would call you one more time before I left.”

“Oh Dean, I’m sorry.” Guilt niggled at her as she thought of him dropping his plans.

“Y/N, maybe I overreacted a little, but I’m so far away that, if shit went down, It would take me 2 ½ hours to get there.”

“I’m just living, Dean, but I will be careful, I swear. I don’t want you to worry about me. You have enough to worry about without adding me to it.”

Oh, Babe,” he chuckled, “It’s a little late for that, don’t you think?”

“Maybe.” He could hear the smile in her voice.

“So, I thought I would come back up on Thursday night if that’s ok.”

“More than,” she replied with a soft smile, “I miss you.”

“Same,” he replied gruffly, “see you Thursday, then.”

“Bye, Dean,” she whispered. She pushed the end button and flopped back on the bed, heart pounding in her chest.

She missed him, but the idea of him coming back had her stomach in knots. There was no doubt in her mind that she was going to have sex with him when he came back. She could barely keep herself in check before he left. It had been a long time since she had been intimate with anyone, what if she forgot how? She had been fine just shoving her sexual frustrations to the bottom of her priority list, life got its hooks in her, she was more interested in getting her business off the ground, fixing up her house and making a life for herself. He was the first person in recent memory who made her look twice. Now he was coming to stay with her. This time she knew that the couch was not going to cut it.

Dean’s POV

Bracing his forearms on the driver’s side window frame of Baby, he tossed the phone on her roof with a sigh. It’s taking all of his internal strength not to jump in the car right now and head back to Lincoln. In his mind, he knows that she is safe, but his chest still ached. This is why he didn’t involve himself in this type of bullshit. Sticking to the random hook up fitted his life. What the hell was he thinking, dragging her deeper into a life that she has no business being within a 1000 feet of? She is too sweet to get involved in his shit show of life. He was tossed into it the day his mother was roasted on the ceiling. Y/N deserves so much better than he could ever offer. If he had a brain cell left in his head, he would man up and text her right now to tell her to forget it, he wasn’t returning to Lincoln. He and Sam would track down whoever was after her and take care of it. Y/N could move on with her life and forget all about him and the nightmare life he leads. Exhaling loudly, Dean grabs his phone, shoving it in his pocket and pushing himself off the car, the adrenaline of his fear and anger  still pumping through his veins. He knows she deserves better than a text. When he drives up on Thursday, he will tell her that it’s best for her.

Eventually, the stabbing pain in his chest will go away and if it doesn’t,  maybe this is just what it would be like now that he really knows what he will be missing when he walks away.

Jennifer and Y/N embrace at the door when she arrives promptly at 7:00. It was an evening of a few too many beers and laughs. Jennifer switched to Diet Coke after two. Although she was a little more than tipsy, she was careful to keep most of the secrets when Jennifer started to question her about the black muscle car parked at her house when Y/N was MIA for a few weeks, no one knew she was hiding a bruised and swollen face.

Travis had kept his mouth shut as promised. Sam and Dean stopped in to talk to him about the “guys” who followed Y/N home and assaulted her. He wanted his bar as far away from that controversy as possible.

They ended the evening with more hugs and promises to get together again soon, Y/N made her way to her bedroom, phone in hand, drunkenly stripping off clothes all the way down the hall. Climbing under the sheets, she started to plug in her phone but changed her mind.

Dean’s phone buzzed with a text message at 1:17 a.m, he was sitting in the library nursing his third whiskey of the night. Picking up his phone, he thumbed it open to see it was a text from Y/N. As he opened the message, his mouth slowly began to gape open. Staring back at him was a selfie. Y/N was laying down, her hair fanning around her on the pillow, a sweet smile playing on her lips. He could see the curve of her breasts, turning the phone back and forth he was sure he could have seen her nipple. She was totally naked in that massive bed without him. The simple text accompanying the picture is what truly did him in.

Babe: Wish you were here

“FUCK!” he groaned loudly, closing his eyes, throwing his head back

Thursday came in a blink of an eye for both of them. Dean had texted Y/N to let him know he would be leaving around noon. It was 10:00 a.m. now, his anxiousness already kicked into high gear. Sam walked into the war room, a mug of coffee in his hand, still in his blue and black plaid pajama pants with a grey long sleeved T-Shirt. His hair pointing in every direction, bare feet smacking against the tile floor. He stopped abruptly when he spotted Dean pacing a path back and forth. He was already dressed in jeans and boots topped with a dark grey T-shirt underneath a burgundy and grey flannel. An empty coffee cup sitting on the map table along with his duffle bag. 

“Dean?” he questioned.

“Yeah?” he responded, continuing to pace.

“What’s the deal? What are you doing?” He fully entered the room, placing his mug on the table studying Dean.

“I’m thinking! What are you doing? I just got shit on my mind,” he barked back, continuing to pace, stopping to look at his phone, before beginning his walk again.

“Aren’t you going to Y/N’s today?” Sam questioned, “I thought you would be happy. Instead, you’re stalking around here like an angry bear.”

Dean’s angry gaze snapped to Sam, confirming his characterization. “I’m coming back tonight.” Sam paused in the middle of sitting, standing back up, “Dude, WHAT?”

Running his hand roughly over his face, he sighed. “I got some space; after the other day, when I couldn’t reach her, it made me realize she doesn’t need to be dragged into this life. It’s too much.”

“And there it is” Sam threw his hands in the air, frustration written all over his face.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dean growled.

“Every.Fucking.Time,” he emphasized each word pointing his finger at the older Winchester. "Whenever you find a little bit of happiness, you start sabotaging yourself, it’s always something. This life sucks, you’re too busy, it’s the apocalypse, someone or something needs you more, you just shut down and tell yourself it’s not worth the trouble.”

Dean just stared at his brother as he continued to ramble.

“Just once Dean, just one time can you put yourself first?” he gestured toward him. “Yes, I know Y/N was a case and you are pissed off that the vamp won’t talk, you’re worried that your life is going to splash on her. She is stronger than you think, you think you need to pile all of this on your shoulders, you don’t. I have never seen you, my own brother, let his guard down around someone before.”

“She’s too good Sammy, she doesn’t deserve-”

“What?” Sam questioned, gathering momentum again “She doesn’t deserve to be happy? She doesn’t deserve to have someone care about her? You-” he pointed at him once more, “are both crazy about each other. I could see it on your faces every time I was in the same room with you both. You have earned the right to be happy.”

Dean crossed his arms contemplating Sam.

“Just do me a favor, would you?” Go up there and just see her, stay the three days, like you planned, see what happens. Promise me you won’t go up there halfcocked trying to tell her, like you always do to everyone, that you know what’s best. Leave your bullshit baggage here and just go see her.”

“Whatever,” Dean grumbled, hiking his bag on his shoulder as he picked his keys off the table, striding towards the garage, “I think you need to mind your own damn business.”

“When has that ever happened before?” Sam called after him.

As Dean began to drive to Lincoln, Y/N was running around nerves and excitement, twisting her gut. She had showered, shaved everywhere, lotioned up, fixed her hair, letting it flow down her back instead of the ponytail or messy bun look and she had applied light makeup. Looking down at her bed, almost every article of clothing she owned was spread out. Y/N picked up all of her dresses and hung them back in the closet. If she wore a dress, he would know that she was trying too hard.

“This is ridiculous!” she thought to herself as she started shoving clothes back into drawers. She settled on a pair of denim cutoff shorts and a sleeveless black and white blouse that cut in at the shoulders and tied at the back of her neck, flowing to mid-hip. Picking up the remainder of clothes strewn about, she muscled them back in her closet, slamming the door. She checked herself out in the mirror, happy with the tan legs and arms on display. Walking out into the living room, she started to feel fidgety. She had serious thoughts about going to work in the garden, but she would have to shower all over again. After wandering around the house, she checked her phone at 1:00. She had two hours left. Flopping on the couch, she flipped on the television and began channel surfing, trying to zone out.

As Dean sped up the highway to Y/N’s house, the conversation with Sam this morning was a consistent loop in his head. Actually, it was more of a Sam tirade. Dean knew what was best, right? Nip it in the bud before one of them could get hurt. She really wasn’t what he needed in his life, he told himself. Unattached works best for him. An after bar closing fling to get rid of the itch, then back to living life. No expectations, no texts, no I’ll-call-you-laters. But if that is what he wanted, then why did it make him sad and angry all at once?

Twenty minutes outside of Lincoln, he stopped for gas, seriously considering calling her to say he couldn’t make it. Sure, she might be disappointed, but she would get over it, wouldn’t she? No, he chastised himself, he would do the right thing and tell her face to face. He owed her that, at the very least. Looking at his watch, he realized that he had made a good time between leaving the bunker early so Sam would quit bitching at him and no traffic or cops on the 2 lane highway. He would be at her house at 1:30. Jumping back in Baby, he cranked the ignition “The Real Love” by Bob Seger blared through the speakers, it was a slow one, he reached down to flip the channel but paused but as the lyrics began to speak to him.

I think I’ve found The Real Love Genuine and true I think it’s really come my way today Babe I think it’s really you

I remember moments looking in your eyes Could have sworn I saw the spark of love babe Flickering inside

I’ve been around this track And the only thing I lack Is The Real Love

Placing his hand back on the wheel, his knuckles turned white as he squeezed, the pressure in his chest overwhelming him as he blinked back tears. His mind and heart screaming, “Don’t do this!!” Angrily, he threw Baby in drive, grinding his teeth together and snapping his jaw. He jammed his foot on the gas, leaving tire treads next to the pumps. The Impala fishtailing as he exited to the street heading towards Y/N house. The pain crashing through him as the verses washed over him.

Every time I see you, every time we touch I can feel the way you feel for me Babe And it means so much

And every time you look at me It’s just the way it all should be In The Real Love

Oh darlin’ darlin’ darlin’ Stay with me stay I long to see you in the morning sun Everyday Everyday

So until that moment When I take your hand I’m gonna try to do my very best Babe To prove that I’m your man

I’m gonna do my very best I’m not gonna rest Until we’ve got The Real Love

He was in agony, convincing himself it was what he deserved thinking about what he was about to do.

Hearing the deep rumble of Baby, Y/N sat up on the couch, flinging the remote on the coffee table. Her heart began thundering in her chest as she looked at the clock 1:28 p.m. “It’s too early, it can’t be him. He said 3:00” she thought. Her feet had a mind of their own, carrying her, almost unwilling, afraid to be disappointed that it was another car, but she knew. She would recognize the sound of his car anywhere. The screen door opened with a squeak as she stepped on the porch as Dean drove up the driveway. She shoved her hands in her front pockets to appear calm, but she could not wipe the huge grin off her face nor the heat burning her cheeks.

Dean turned off Baby and sat there for a moment, squeezing the steering wheel, flexing his jaw as he tried to get his bearings together. He knew what had to be done, he couldn’t draw it out. “Just cut to the chase, short and sweet. Get it over and done  with and let her live in peace,” he told himself, until he glanced out the window and saw her on the porch.

The ice that he tried to form around his heart cracked wide as he looked at her beautiful, smiling face. Never in his life could he recall someone so thrilled to see him. She was pure sunshine that spread light through him as he looked at her. Pulling the metal handle, he got out of the car, slamming the heavy door behind him. Her hands were in her pockets, but she was so happy she was almost vibrating. As he walked towards her, all he could hear was Sam’s voice yelling in his head, “leave your bullshit baggage here! You have earned the right to be happy!”

Each step that he took melted the ice a little more, stopping in the grass, he matched her smile and opened his arms. She was off the porch running to him. She jumped into his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist as he locked her in his embrace. She buried her face in his neck as he nuzzled her hair, breathing her in.

“You know,” she whispered, smiling into his neck, “when I thought about today, I always imagined I would have been much cooler.”

Chuckling, he pressed a kiss against her temple, “I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.” The truth is, had she been calm, cool, and collected, Dean would not have questioned his stupidity until he was headed back to the bunker. By that time, it would have been too late, and he would have had to live with his decision no matter what the ache in his chest told him.

Setting her on her feet, bending, he pressed a firm kiss on her lips, lingering as the last bits of ice melted around his heart. He wanted to tell her what he had driven up here to do; he just couldn’t yet. What if he scared her? What if she stopped looking at him with unconditional acceptance? After everything he had shared with her, the killings, the monsters, and the Mark of Cain, she rolled with it all as if he was telling her how he changed the oil in Baby. She was interested and asked questions but never judged him. Telling her most of his secrets on the couch was never what he meant to do, but she pulled it out without even trying. What if telling her he was going to look at him differently? He couldn’t handle that, his chest hurt to even think that. What if it broke what has been so carefully built. What if it broke her? He couldn’t do that. The thought that he was actually going to come up here and tell her it was over made him feel lightheaded.

Pulling back, she took his hand in hers with a smile. “I hope you’re hungry tonight. I made steak, twice baked potato, corn on the cob and...” she drawled, wiggling her eyebrows, “pecan pie.”

“Wow,” he chuckled “you didn’t have to do all of that.”

She lifted one shoulder, slightly embarrassed, “I wanted to.”

Squeezing her hand, he murmured, “thank you.”

Smiling bright at him, she opened the screen door, Y/N entering and pulling Dean with her. The house smelled like pie. He didn’t realize how much he missed being with her in her space until he walked in the door. The smell, the feeling of hominess solidified his decision to listen to Sam’s advice. Maybe his little brother knew something, after all.

Dean grabbed two bottles of beer out of the refrigerator, walking out on the back deck. Just being close to her, he could feel a weight lifting off him as he comfortably settled back into their little routine. He would always twist off the bottle top for her and hand her the beer. Even if she brought the beers out, she gave them both to him. When both bottles were open, they would clink the bottlenecks together before their first drink. It was the little things like this that made him ridiculously happy.

Sitting on the deck, they shared different things from the week, there were no awkward moments or pause in the conversation. It just flowed as it did on the couch. Dean tried to keep it light, telling funny stories about Sam as Y/N’s laughter rang out, filling him with a warmth he never knew he needed., She would reach out and touch him, brushing her fingers against his knee or grasping his arm when she was making a point. He looked forward to each touch, desire shuttering through him every time. As the afternoon slid into the evening, Dean would graze her upper arm with a smile, just to see her shiver. He felt powerful that it was his touch doing that to her.

Time flew by as the cold beers went down smoothly. Soon it was time to light the grill and cook up the steaks as she put together the side dishes. They decided to eat at the pub table on the deck, lighting the lanterns as the sun began to set and soft music played through the hidden speakers. Y/N watched Dean eat dinner as she moved the food around her plate. She watched him as they talked through dinner, either he wasn’t nervous or could chew through anything. She was hungry but only took a few bites here and there. The later it got, she began to get keyed up. She felt like she knew how the evening would end; however, her insecurities made her start to question everything. After dinner, they loaded the dishwasher and made coffee for both of them. It was very domestic, like all the pieces were snapping into place. Dean sat down his mug as the crisp sound of an acoustic guitar wafted through the sound system. “Give Me One Reason” by Tracy Chapman. The notes carried into the darkness as the deck was illuminated by the hanging lanterns.

Reaching out his hand he beckoned to Y/N, “dance with me.”

With a shy smile, she accepted his hand as he led her to the middle of the deck and took her in his arms. Her heart began to double-time in her chest as she looked into Dean’s eyes and saw the heat reflected back down on her. He pulled her close as they moved through the song and she could not help but to be struck by the lyrics.

Give me one reason to stay here And I'll turn right back around Give me one reason to stay here And I'll turn right back around Said I don't want leave you lonely You got to make me change my mind

Ducking his head to brush his lips to hers, the sizzle that has built between them all night, ignites. He wants this woman more than he has ever wanted anyone in his life. In a rush of uncontrollable desire, Dean cups Y/N’s face and pulls her to him, crashing his lips greedily to hers. The first touch of his mouth on hers and she threw her arms around him, pressing her body against his. The intense desire exploded between them; the compelling need to claim her, lick her, have her, drove him to the brink of insanity. He opened her lips with his, his tongue sliding into her mouth, bringing out a throaty moan that almost pushed him over the edge. He glided his hand down her back, cupping one of her round cheeks with his palm as he roughly pulled her against his erection; she gasped with pleasure as she began to grind herself onto him, her own arousal dictating her actions.

Picking her up, she wrapped her legs around him as he walked them into the house, down the hall into the bedroom, their mouths only moving apart to gasp for air before devouring each other once more. The dance of their tongues did nothing to quench her thirst for him since they had initially started, and she found herself rubbing against him in an attempt to ease her aching core. Setting her down on her feet in front of the bed, she looked up to see Dean’s eyes had changed to a dark smoldering green; the lust reflected back to her, making her tremble with yearning.

“I need you so much,” he rasped.

“God, me too,” she whimpered.

A smile spread across his face as he hooked his index finger along the waistband of her shorts, dragging them down her tan legs to her ankles. On his knees in front of her, he placed a soft kiss on her belly button, his tongue flicking her hoop piercing.

“So fucking hot,” he murmurs as her skin erupts in goosebumps, a shiver of excitement moving up her spine as she runs her hands through his soft brown hair.

Gently pushing her back on the bed, he pulled her to the edge, his mouth mere inches from her slick heat. Moving his face slightly, he brushed the inside of her thigh with his scruff, pulling a moan from her lips. She could feel his warm breath against her clit and began to squirm.

“Please Dean,” she begged. He lay his muscled forearm across her hips, pinning her to the bed.

“Shh,” he whispered as his eyes met hers, his intense look scorching her skin. “I want to look at you, I’ve done nothing but think about you like this for weeks, just want to enjoy the view for a moment.”

She let her head fall back on the mattress, laying her arm across her closed eyes, her body buzzing as it pleaded for relief. Every second that ticked by, the intensity coiled in her belly, convincing her that she will burst into flames any second. She jerked as she felt his flattened tongue lick upwards along her damp slit, teasing her. His lips stopped at her clit, humming in satisfaction.

“Jesus, Dean,” she moaned, grasping the sheets on either side of her, “I can’t do this, it’s too much,” she cried with frustration.

Chucking, he licked her again before swirling his tongue around her sweet spot. A sound ripped from her throat that was a mix between a whine and a curse. “That’s it, Y/N,” he growls against herm “let go, I want to feel you cum.”

“No, I want to feel you inside me.” Her arms stretched to reach him, but he leaned back, just out of reach.

“You will,” he promises “but I need this first.” His tongue delved into her wet sweetness as he buried two fingers inside her, coaxing her to climax. She felt the white-hot heat building inside her as he wrapped his lips around her clit, sucking one last time, hurdling her over the edge while crying out his name. Dean was relentless, lapping up everything Y/N had given him before he glanced up at her writhing form, his chin glistening in the dim light. It was a sight that made Y/N swallow hard, the man between her legs had given her an orgasm in less than a few minutes so her mind was reeling with else he had in store for her.

“I need you, Dean.” Those four words that bled from her lips sent Dean into a frenzy.

In haste, he removed his boots, socks, jeans, and boxers before he climbed up the mattress, pulling Y/N along with him. Situated in the middle of the bed, he settled between her legs, his hard length nudging at her. Resting his forearms on either side of her head, he brushed his lips over hers as she moved her hands to entwine her fingers in his hair, deepening the kiss. Her legs then wrapped around  his waist, urging him to enter her but he held back, his body taut with the effort.

“Protection?” he asks softly. “IUD,” she answered breathlessly, desperate for him to fill her. “Oh god.””

“It’s Dean” he husked playfully, his voice deep and gruff.  

Kissing down her neck; cupping her breast in his hand, he rolled her taut nipple between his thumb and forefinger, a hiss of pleasure rushing from her lips as he took her nipple in his mouth, swirling his tongue over the bud before nipping it gently with his teeth. He moved to the other breast giving it equal treatment. Steadily he slowly made his way back up her body, peppering her skin with kisses as he reached her mouth, claiming her lips again in a searing kiss as he lined himself up. He slowly pushes his impressive shaft inside of her as her body stretches around his girth, tightly squeezing and slowly accommodating him.

“Y/N,” he breathes between clenched teeth, “Fuck, I’ve wanted to do this for so long, you feel so damn good.”

She murmured her approval as her hands wrapped around him, her fingers digging into his rippling back muscles with each thrust. She had fantasized about this so often, but the reality eclipses anything her imagination had come up with. His mouth moved down her exposed neck as her hands blindly explored his body. Their dual moans mingled in the bedroom as their sweat-slicked bodies met. She gripped his shoulders as they both barreled towards release.

“Babe, I’m so close,” he grits out, his rhythm stuttering. She plants her feet on the bed, meeting him thrust for thrust.

“Dean!” she cries as another orgasm rips through her body. She comes undone, her insides clench and twist around him as she digs her fingers into his back as he feels her flutter around him. Groaning her name, he buries himself deep inside her, allowing euphoria to wash over him as he coated the inside of her walls.

Breathless, he nearly collapsed on top of her but managed to hold himself up on shaky arms as she ran her fingers through his sweaty hair with a smile. He leaned down to place a sweet kiss on her mouth before laying on his back next to her as they both tried to catch their breath. Turning his head, he saw her blissed-out face staring back at him with a sleepy smile playing on her lips. He gathered her still shaking body to him, wrapping his arms around her as she rested her head on his hard chest with a satisfied sigh. She snuggled into him as he reached down to pull the sheet over them both falling into an exhausted sleep. He was so glad he didn’t listen to his own thoughts and allowed himself to enjoy being with her. The woman that had turned his life upside down.

Chapter 8

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Bound To You - Chapter 10: Secret In Plain Sight

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WARNING: SPOILERS FOR SEASON 15

NOTE: Pairings and Ratings Will Change As Story Is Updated

Pairings: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester

Rating: General Audiences

Chapter Word Count: 6,616

Overall Word Count: 77,283

Status: Multi Chapter Fic - In Progress (10/?)

Chapter Preview:

They very nearly end up running Sam over as they clash in the bend of the hallway, Sam having shot up and raced towards Eileen’s shouts the second he heard them.

“What’s going on?” Sam demands, frantic eyes darting between Eileen and Dean.

“Ask her,” Dean replies, jabbing a thumb behind him towards Eileen. “Your girlfriend started banging on my door at ass o’clock in the morning and took me for a joyride…”

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Character Key For Telepathic Conversations

'Italic Text' - Castiel

'Bold Text' - Dean

  Eileen had been at it for hours now. Having long since given up combing over research in the library, she had retreated to Sam’s their bedroom, bringing with her a few relevant looking books and documents to read over in comfort. There’s only so long you can spend in those hard wooden chairs before your back starts screaming at you…

Sam was still diligently focused on their research, only giving her a small shake of his head when she had asked him if he wanted to take a break, focused solely on the book in front of him. She had been planning to take a break herself – perhaps even catch a few winks of sleep – but seeing Sam so devoted to finding an answer… she knew she’d just feel like crap if she left him to do all the research himself.

Dean had practically disappeared to his bedroom shortly after the red-haired witch had left. Not that she can blame him. She knew how much both her and Sam liked to tease Dean about his whole thing with Cas and – truth be told – she’s not one hundred percent sure that him and Cas are even a thing yet; it’s not like Dean is the kind of guy to talk openly about his relationships. Still, even without Cas being in a physical form, without the usual shy glances and timid touches she caught between them in private moments… she could still see how much Dean cared for Cas. How much he means to him, how much… well, how much he loves him. Even if Dean doesn’t quite realize it himself -or, as she hopes it to be – knows but doesn’t like talking to them about it.

Finding out that your best friend has a literal death timer hanging over his head, and with what seems like every solution being a dead-end… she’s not surprised Dean had slinked off to be alone for a while.

Well… probably not alone, but within company of the only person he wants to be around right now.

And so now… now they’re left with this impossible-seeming task that they somehow have to do within a time limit of anywhere between a month to only a few weeks. And the crazy thing is how desperate she feels to find a way to save Cas, too. It’s crazy, because… well, she hasn’t known Cas for all that long. A few brief encounters with the angel here and there, in the occasional times that he dropped by in the bunker. Yet, despite that brief time… she’s come to care for the angel. Maybe it’s the brother's love for him that rubbed off on her, maybe it’s seeing Sam and Dean work themselves into a grave to find a solution; maybe it’s something as simple as Cas being a good guy, and she likes him. Either way, she’s found herself situated in this odd, dependent, multi-species family, and she’s going to do all she can to keep this family together.

The book in her lap felt like it was getting heavier and heavier, likely branding her skin with it’s raised gold letters as the minutes ticked by with the heavy block of paper sat atop legs. It wasn’t the only thing that was getting heavier; her eyelids had been fighting her resolve to stay awake for a few hours now, finding it harder and harder to fight gravity as her body shouts its protests.

“Alright,” She grunts, closing the book hard enough that it made an audible ‘thud’, tapping her fingers along the hard cloth cover. “Guess I’m doing this…”

Praying was… not too common of a thing for her. Having been raised in the hunter life ever since she can remember, fueled by the reminder of her parent’s and the creature that killed them – and had left her unable to hear - the thought of there being a God out there seemed unbelievable. Ridiculous, even. How could a God leave the Earth in such a state? How could a God let his creation be tainted by such vicious creatures, hunting down his children in the night, a stain on the beautiful world he had created? Of course, now she knows that God got a kick out of that kind of stuff…

Things are different now, though. God is gone. No, not gone – replaced. Replaced by the son of Lucifer - no, no that’s not right. She knows Jack is more than that. She knows from Sam’s sad, soft smiles when he talks of him, of the pained sheen in Dean’s eyes at any mention of Jack that he was more than just his genetics. Jack is… Jack is their kid. There was no other way to describe him, really. It didn’t matter that they weren’t of the same blood, or even entirely of the same species. The Winchesters had taken him into their home, had raised him, taught him what it’s like to be human.

Made him a Winchester.

“Hey, um… God. Or is it still Jack? I’m not sure what you prefer…” Eileen begins, unsure whether she should have her hands clasped together in prayer for this to work. She does it anyway, just to be on the safe side. “I, uh…. I never actually got to meet you. I was dead when you were born… then you were dead when I was brought back, then I left when you were brought back… we uh, kind of kept missing each other.”

Eileen couldn’t help but laugh awkwardly at that. Or was it more of a nervous laughter? She couldn’t quite tell… “I know that we don’t really know each other, but… I think it’s safe to say we have shared friends… family, even. I don’t know how much you know of what’s going on – I mean, I know God is supposed to know all but considering Chuck needed my eyes to see what was happening in the bunker, maybe not? It’s… I don’t know how it works, if you’re keeping an eye on us down here or you’re busy doing other stuff, but…”

Eileen sighs, closing her eyes and resting her head against her clasped hands. “Things aren’t looking good, Jack. And I know there’s probably no point to this seeing as Sam, Dean and Cas must have prayed to you a billion times already, but… I thought I’d give it a shot anyway. Cas, uh… Cas isn’t doing too good. He doesn’t have much time left, and… it feels like he could go at any second. I know from all the stories Sam’s told me that you and Cas… you were pretty much a mini him. Both of you always trying to do your best… just wanting to be good. And I know that Cas, he… he always had your back. Even before you were born, even in the times… the times that Dean and Sam were unsure… I guess what I’m trying to say is… Cas needs your help. It just feels like after everything, isn’t this something we deserve? Something Cas deserves? After all these years, all they want is some sense of normality. As close as you can get to it in this life, anyway… And I know you were only three or something, but… I think we could both see how much Cas and Dean mean to each other. Losing Cas… yeah, it would hurt big time for me and Sam. Losing a friend for me, losing a best friend for Sam… but if Dean has to lose Cas? Again? I just… I don’t want to think about what that’s going to be like. I know he’s trying to stay strong in the face of everything, including dealing with his injury… but I think having Cas here with him has been what’s keeping him going.”

Eileen pulled her head away from her hands, tilting her head up to the burning bright glow of the ceiling light, closing her eyes to shield them from the piercing light. “Listen, I can’t even begin to try and understand what it must be like to be God. All that responsibility, all that power you suddenly have to handle… It must be overwhelming. You’re trying your best, I know that. Sam’s said about how you weren’t going to be involved anymore, but… we’re running out of options here Jack, and I… I can’t see how you’d happily sit back and watch Cas die; let him go back to the Empty to suffer for eternity. You might be God, but you’re still part human. You still care for Cas, I know it. So please. Please, just… help us. Help Cas. Do something.”

She peels her eyes open as the second tick by in silence, tilting her head back down and glancing around the empty room. Empty. Not a God-child in sight. She hadn’t truly been expecting for anything to happen, yet it still felt like a punch to the gut. It would be too easy for them, wouldn’t it? A tap of the fingers from Jack and all their problems would just disappear…

Above her, the light on the ceiling flickers. One single flicker, a split second where the bulb dims before returning to its full brightness. Eileen pulls herself out of bed with a tired sigh and a grumble of: “Damn old bunker…” The bulb flickers again, and again, and Eileen reaches up on her tiptoes to tap at the old glass bulb. The flickering stops the second her fingers come into contact with it, and she remains there for a few moments, waiting to see if it would flicker once more.

Satisfied she had solved the problem for the time being, she turns back around to climb back into bed, ready to call it a night. Her gaze drops down to a single piece of paper sat upon the floor, that she must have kicked off the bed as she stood up to fix the bulb. She plucks it up from the ground, recognizing it as the file of the angel experiment, the one that Sam and Dean’s grandfather had a part to play in…

Eileen drops back down into her bed with paper still in hand, eyes scanning curiously over the thick document. There was still something so strange to her about this document. Perhaps it was a bit odd to get so caught up on the thickness level of a piece of paper, but something about it was just… calling to her. Begging for her attention. She leans back against the headboard of the bed, holding the paper in front of her as her gaze drifts across the neatly printed words.

Her gaze freezes in place as she lifts the paper up, blocking the light of the ceiling. As the light shone through the thick paper, she could see… words. Blurred, tiny words… that were hidden behind the words on the front of the page.

“Oh my God…” She mumbles, scrambling up to her feet. She holds the piece of paper closer to the light, shifting the angle of the paper to see more and more blurred words stretching out across the width of the page.

There was something inside the page.

Eileen rushes to her duffle bag, throwing the zip open and searching through its contents until she found the swiss army knife she keeps tucked away. She flicks the small blade open, making a small incision into the side of the thick paper, carefully sawing across the side until it had been fully opened. Sure enough, when she shakes the thick piece of paper over the bed, another piece of paper falls out. This paper was much thinner than the other, only slightly smaller, and filled with writing almost too small to see.

She brings the paper as close to her face as she can without her eyes losing focus, squinting harshly as she tries to make out the tiny text. She scans across the passages as fast as she can, trying to get somewhat of an understanding of what this extra, seemingly hidden addition to the original file could be.

“This is…” She whispers to herself, eyes slowly widening as she realizes what she’s holding.

Within seconds she’s racing out of their room, not feeling the slightest bit guilty for banging against Dean’s door and waking him as she went. “DEAN! SAM! I FOUND SOMETHING!”

* * *

Dean shot awake with a strangled gasp, the last dregs of sleep clinging on tight as he blearily looks around the darkened room. His body is directing him over to his wheelchair before he can fully process it, not entirely sure if the shouts he heard from Eileen were because of something good, or of some sort of trouble within the bunker.

‘What the - - you hear what she said, Cas?’

‘I’m still rather disorientated from the sudden awakening, but… it almost sounded like she said she found something?’

Dean grunted in response, Cas's answer aligning with what he thought he’d heard himself.

Eileen was still banging incessantly against his door, the sound way too long considering he had been fast asleep about thirty seconds ago. Dean drops into his wheelchair with a pained grunt, pushing himself towards the door with half-closed eyes.

“What are you-,”

“We need to get Sam,” Eileen cuts him off the second he gets the door open, rushing around behind him and grabbing hold of the wheelchair's handles. Dean startles awake just a little bit more at the sudden push behind him, hanging onto his wheelchair for grip as Eileen races towards the library.

They very nearly end up running Sam over as they clash in the bend of the hallway, Sam having shot up and raced towards Eileen’s shouts the second he heard them.

“What’s going on?” Sam demands, frantic eyes darting between Eileen and Dean.

“Ask her,” Dean replies, jabbing a thumb behind him towards Eileen. “Your girlfriend started banging on my door at ass o’clock in the morning and took me for a joyride…”

“I think I’ve found something,” Eileen pants, gesturing with her head for Sam to follow as she continues towards the library.

“You found something? What, like, something that will help Cas?” Sam asks, jogging behind Eileen as they burst into the library.

“I think so, yeah,” Eileen answers, parking Dean in front of the table before pulling the folded piece of paper out of her back pocket. “You remember that file on the angel experiment? The exorcism one with the explosives?”

“Not gonna forget it…” Dean mumbles under his breath.

“Something about that file just felt weird to me. Just now, I held the paper up the light, and I could see there was something inside the paper! It was like a secret compartment or something!” Eileen waves the paper at them. “I cut it open and this was inside it!”

Eileen shoves the piece of paper into Sam’s hands, who still looked a tad bit disorientated about the sudden change of events. “Go ahead, read it!”

Sam’s head snapped towards his older brother, taking in the smallest glimmer of hope that sat behind his eyes. Sam quickly shuffled over to the table, unfolding the piece of paper and flattening out the creases as much as he could, the two of them leaning over the file as they tried to read the small writing.

‘I imagine this will get me into heaps of trouble if I was to ever be caught… but to be frank, I do not give much of a damn.

When Sinclair came to me with his proposition… I couldn’t turn it down. They’ve barely trusted me with much more than maid’s work around the bunker, so to be offered a chance to take part in an official experiment; How could I say no?

Of course, I should have started asking questions when Sinclair avoided giving me any details on the nature of the experiment… I thought we were going to be doing a good thing. That we would rid that man of the angelic parasite attached to him.

Instead… we blew an innocent man into pieces. We took away his chance of life. We took him away from his family, people who loved and would miss him… All in the name of so-called ‘necessary research’. Sinclair didn’t even seem to care. The only reason for his frustration being that the experiment failed, that he was wrong on a subject, not that we had killed someone. Which we did. We killed that man, and the Men of Letters didn’t even blink an eye.

I tried to move past it. Told myself that these were the kind of things I would have to deal with in this institution. Except… I’ve been unable to get it out of my head. The moment Sinclair pressed that button… the sight of that man reduced to chunks has been haunting my dreams. And the smell… my god, the smell… A mix of burning flesh and raw, bloody meat… makes me heave just thinking of it.

I did not know who to confide in, if anyone. They would likely tell me to man up and get over myself. I may even risk being kicked out -  if that’s even an option… So, I have kept my worries to myself. I harbored all the guilt, all the blame for that man’s death until I could no more.

I told myself I would find a way to fix this. I would bring that man back, give him back the life he deserved to live. I know it was foolish of me to assign myself this task, that too many things could have gone wrong… And yet, I did it anyway.

I had to hire the help of a witch to aid me in this endeavor… perhaps the worst part of this whole thing. Dealing with someone who so willingly delves into such arts felt as if I was poisoning myself, but it was a necessity. Her name was Annika Whitmore. Still a young thing, not the old hagged witches you typically see portrayed in the fairytales. She was perfectly respectful I suppose; well mannered and eager to help. And I suppose, and the end of everything… she’s found me something.’

The words tapered off there, reaching the end of the thin piece of paper. Sam and Dean looked to each other in a mixture of shock and disappointment; shocked that there may be a lead after all, but disappointed that this was seemingly all that had been written.

“It ends there?” Sam asks Eileen, turning his head to the side to face her. “That’s it?”

Eileen responds by rolling her eyes at him, grabbing the page by its side and flipping the piece of paper over to reveal another page of writing.

“Oh…” Sam’s face flushes, awkwardly clearing his throat and giving his brother a disgraced glance out of the corner of his eye before continuing to read the passage.

‘The spell is, thankfully, fairly simple to perform. A few common ingredients along with some that are… more difficult to come by. Thankfully, I already have possession of such ingredients. Then, it is simply a matter of speaking the correct incantation. Or, so I’ve been told. I suppose I will not know until I perform the ritual. I am fully aware that what I am doing is, unquestionably, the wrong move to make. Logically, and for the safety of myself and my peers, I should not be doing this. However, it is morally what’s right, and as such, I will be unable to rest peacefully until I’ve at least attempted the spell.

Who knows? Maybe this will work. Or, if the space under this is left empty… it went horribly, horribly wrong…

Update: It has been three weeks since I last left an update. In that time, I have collected all the ingredients necessary for the spell, and perfected the incantations and sigils required.

One such ingredient I was told was required was the angel’s grace. Sneaking that out from under Sinclair’s nose was certainly no easy task. And I imagine finding an excuse as to where it disappeared to will be an even greater challenge…

After all my efforts… I was finally able to undertake the ritual to bring this man back to the world of the living.

I do not have the words for it, really. Other than… it did not go as I had hoped. For a moment… I thought it had. The body was there. Laying atop the Enochian sigil, as naked as the day he had been born. But… there was nothing. He was alive, yes. But those eyes… those dead eyes… He was alive, but he wasn’t truly alive. Nothing more than a shell, a failed recreation of the man he once was. I do not know why I overlooked such a thing… of course the body would be empty; his soul would still remain to whichever plane of existence it had been reaped to.

This, however… this was different. I’ve read the encounters the Men of Letters have had with soulless bodies. They were… well, I wouldn’t say themselves, but there was still a hint of the person they once were there, just… with their humanity gone. Their sense of good and evil, of doing what’s best for others, not solely for themselves.

What came back? It had no semblance to the man he once was. Nothing but… an empty copy. No emotions, no sense of awareness. When I looked to him, he stared straight past me.

I have not told my superiors of this experiment. And they have no need to know. For the creature I have created… I decided the best course of action would be to put it out of its misery. To live like that – if you can even call it that – is not a life worth living. There wasn’t even a hint of fear in its eyes when I leveled the revolver to its face. In fact… I would almost say there was a thankfulness there.

I have left the spell below. My hope is that someday… someone worthy will find it. Someone who can expand upon the work I have done, to find an answer… or, at the very least, find an answer to Sinclair’s previous experiment so that this one never needs to be performed again.

I do not know what else to write on this other than… I tried, Sir. I tried to bring you back to your family. I hope you are at peace, wherever it is that you are.

I’m sorry.’

“This is it…” Dean breathes out in his shock. “This is… it’s what we were looking for, isn’t it? Recreating the vessel so it’s able to sustain life, but not need a soul?”

Dean reaches out to pull the paper closer, timidly pulling it towards him in the fear the eighty-year-old paper would crumble apart under his fingertips.

“I can’t believe it…” Sam says, turning wide, stunned eyes over to Eileen, his face breaking out into an ecstatic grin – one that she happily returns. “Eileen, you – you did it!”

Eileen chuckles warmly when Sam practically envelops her into a bone-crushing hug, disappearing underneath layers of flannel. “I lucked out, is all.”

“Doesn’t matter if it was luck,” Dean tells her once she unpeels herself from Sam. “It was you that found it. Without you… We would never have found this. And if we did… it’d probably be when it’s too late.”

‘Cas, this is…’

‘I know.’

This ‘I know’ was different from the one last night. Castiel’s voice in his mind was different now. One of cautious hope, rather than acceptance and surrender. There was going to be so many questions on the legitimacy of this spell, and whether it’d actually work, but… right now, it felt like an answer. It felt like safety.

It felt like Cas was saved.

“I think we’ve got more of the main ingredients in the supplies, too,” Sam picks up the piece of paper to double-check, eyes scanning across the actual spell. “Yeah! Most of these we can gather up from – oh…”

Dean’s head shot up at his little brothers disheartened sounding ‘oh’, glancing nervously back and forth between Sam and the paper he held. “What do you mean ‘oh?’ What’s wrong?”

“Say’s here that one of the main ingredients to the spell is… the angel's grace. Pretty much a third of what the spell relies on.”

‘ Makes sense…’

‘It does?’

‘Every vessel we possess leaves… I suppose you could call it a mark. An imprint on our grace. That connection between grace and vessel is likely what gives the spell most of its power.’

Dean conveys this information over to Sam and Eileen, who only appear more worried at the news. Sam sighs, scratching at the stubble growing across his cheeks. “With the experiment Sinclair used… he extracted nearly all of the angel's grace. Grandpa then used that grace for the spell. That was nearly the angel’s entire amount of grace, but with Cas…?”

“He’s already running on fumes…” Dean mumbles in realization. “So, what – it won’t work?”

“I don’t know,” Sam answers honestly. “Grandpa didn’t note how much of the grace he used – or how much was required.”

“Any chance we can track down the witch?” Eileen asks. “Maybe she’d be willing to help?”

Sam hurried back over to his seat, dropping the paper onto the table and pulling his discarded laptop closer before opening its lid. His fingers tap across the keys, eyes darting across the screen once he hits enter. Immediately, his face drops at what he reads, leaning back against his chair and wiping a hand across his mouth. “No good… she was labeled as ‘missing’ back in fifty-seven… by the Government, anyway. But according to the Men of Letters files-,” Sam turned the laptop around, showing Eileen and Dean an old, grainy, black and white photo of a pile of ash. “-She is officially dead. Taken out by their hunters…”

Dean sighed in frustration, placing his elbow on the library table and leaning his forehead against his knuckles.  “Of course… guess we’ve gotta do this all on our own…”

“Don’t do that just yet,” Sam warned, slamming the laptop closed and picking the spell back up from the table. “The spell might work still. We just need two other ingredients…”

“What…” Dean groaned as his brother trailed off.

“Uh… apparently… we need something of importance to the angel that was possessing the vessel…”

All three glanced at one another, waiting for someone to throw in a suggestion of what that could be.

“…we could use Dean?” Eileen offers, half-joking, half being dead serious. “Unless… does this ‘something’ need to be sacrificed, or…?”

“Wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case…” Dean mumbles.

‘Dean… don’t you dare-,’

“Not a sacrifice,” Sam tells them, lips quirked up in a half-smile at Eileen’s suggestion. “It’s placed within the Enochian sigil, not with the rest of the ingredients. Plus, the spell does say an ‘item’ of importance, so… I’m assuming it can’t be alive.”

“Okay… what’s the other thing we need?” Eileen asks.

“This one I’m… not too sure about,” Sam says, crossing his arms as he holds the paper out, re-reading the spell. “We need a vial of blood from a relative of the vessel. I don’t really know who we can-,”

The answer comes to Sam, Dean, and Cas all at the same time, the two brothers locking eyes as the name falls from their lips.

“Claire.”

“Uh… who?” Eileen asks, waiting for the brothers to expand on this apparent revelation.

“Claire!” Sam repeats, like that provided any semblance of an answer. “She, uh, she’s Jimmy Novak’s daughter; Cas’s vessel's daughter… She’s… she’s the only one of his family left alive…”

“Do you know her?” Eileen asks.

“You could say that…”

“She hired some people to kill me once,” Dean adds with a strained smile. “To be fair – I totally deserved it at the time. She totally loves me now, though.”

‘That might be an exaggeration…’

‘Hey – if she’s your kid, she’s my kid too. We’re co-parenting Jack, you can’t take Claire away from me, too.’

“And… how does she feel about Cas?” Eileen asked gingerly, glancing down to Dean. “Since Cas did take her father’s body and all…”

“It, uh… wasn’t smooth sailing for them two at first,” Dean answers for Cas. “Claire was pretty bitter for a while; Dad taken by an angel, left in the care of the foster system by her mom… yeah, the reunion wasn’t too great.”

“And now?”

“I’d say she’s damn fond of the guy,” Dean says. “Doubt she’d ever admit it, but…”

‘Huh,’ Eileen thought, ‘Who does that remind me of…’

“So, you think she would help?” Eileen asks.

“I don’t see why not,” Sam says with a shrug of his shoulders. “It’s just a vial of blood, nothing life-threatening or altering. Up to her of course, but… doubt she’d say no.”

“Guess that means we’re making a surprise visit to Sherriff Mills,” Dean says cheerfully, already picturing the mouth-watering homemade meal that would be waiting.

“Doesn’t have to be a surprise visit, you know,” Sam scolds him. “You could not be an asshole and call ahead?

Dean makes a ‘pfft’ sound in response, waving off his brother’s good manners. “Where’s the fun in that? I wanna see the surprise on her face when we show up unannounced at their doorstep – with me in a wheelchair! Gotta get some kind of amusement out of my disability, Sammy.”

“First of all: you’re a jerk.”

“Bitch-,”

“Second of all-,” Sam continues sternly. “-We’ve still got the second ingredient to figure out, remember? What the hell are we gonna use that’s ‘of importance’ to Cas?”

 * * *

‘ Why do you have no possessions, Cas?’

Dean wheels himself down the bunker hallways as he asks Cas this, eyes scanning across the golden numbers glued on the wooden doors as he went.

‘I rarely have use for them. The few I had which I would deem ‘of importance’ were on me at the time of my death. Along with myself… they were destroyed.’

‘What’d you have on you?’

‘Not much: The clothes on my back, my angel blade tucked within my sleeve. And your mixtape.’

Dean stopped pushing the wheels of his chair at that. ‘You… you kept that on you?’

‘Of course. It served as a reminder that, in those eight years we had known each other, you still cared enough to put your effort into creating something of importance for me. Something that allowed you to share your love of music with me. Despite all I had done… you still cared.’

‘And you needed to be reminded of that?’

‘…yes?’

‘Either I was the crappiest friend in the world, Cas, or you were a blind dumbass.’

‘I’m leaning towards it being both.’

‘You know what? You’re probably right.’

‘I am sorry for that, you know.’

‘For what? Being right? Or being a dumbass?’

Dean grinned at the scowl Cas sent in his head. ‘Neither… I meant that… I’m sorry for losing your mixtape. You spent your time on making that, and now-,’

‘Pretty sure it would have ruined the moment if you whipped out my mixtape and threw it at me to save it while you were dying, Cas. Besides, now I get to make you a new one. Perhaps an extended version, top twenty maybe?’

‘Why do I get the feeling you’re eventually going to make a ‘top tracks’ cassette tape that has ALL of Led Zeppelin’s songs on it?’

‘Well, it’d be accurate, since they’re all the best of the best.’

‘Do you think you’ll ever expand your music tastes?’

‘Cas, what I’m about to tell you, I’m only telling you because I love you: I still listen to Taylor Swift on occasion. I sneak it in every now and then when I’ve got my headphones on cleaning Baby. Don’t tell Sam.’

‘You… you listen to-,’

Dean blocks off what’s likely to be a multitude of questions from Cas on his little musical secret, coming to a stop in front of Castiel’s room. If it can even be called that… it was a rarity for Castiel to use the room. Which, to be fair, is understandable when Dean considers the fact that Cas is an angel and, as such, does not require sleep. Still… it always hurt to walk past the room when the door was left open, seeing the bed bare and the room empty of any… Casness (was that a word? He’s pretty sure it’s not a word).

And yet, as Dean reached for the handle of the door, his finger stilled. The door had been kept shut for a reason. After… after what happened, he had never intended to open this door again. No matter what, it was Cas’s room, and nothing would ever replace it.

‘Are you okay, Dean?’

‘Yeah… yeah, I just… it’s stupid. Feels weird going in your room. I know you’re not technically dead anymore, but…’

‘Would it help if I said I give you my permission?’

Dean snorted quietly, shaking his head as he readies himself. ‘Not really, but I’m going in anyway.’

The door swings open into the room, revealing its gray, empty walls and lonesome looking bed up against the wall. Practically every room was a copy of the others in the bunker, not truly theirs until they set up their own little customizations. Which is why he was always kinda bummed that Cas didn’t bother with that stuff. It made him feel like Cas didn’t want the room, that… he didn’t consider the bunker his home.

‘That’s because it’s not.’

‘Huh? Ah, crap – was I directing stuff at you again?’

‘Yes, you were. And as I was saying, the bunker isn’t my home.’

‘Oh… uh, so what – is Heaven still your home?’

‘No. After all that’s happened… I don’t consider ‘home’ a place. To me… home is wherever you are.’

‘You gonna pull out these cheesy lines on me more now we’re a thing?’

‘I didn’t know it was considered cheesy. I’m just speaking my mind. Also – we’re a ‘thing?’

‘Yeah, I don’t like putting labels on shit. Calling us boyfriends feels weird. Saying we’re ‘partner’s feels just as weird.’

‘And you think calling us ‘a thing’ is better?’

‘You got any better suggestions?’

‘I suppose not. We’re just… ‘us.’

Dean wheeled himself further into Cas’s room, pushing the door closed behind him as he made his way to the middle of the room. He hadn’t actually been in Cas’s room all that often… mostly it was Cas who would come to visit him in his room. Otherwise, he usually finds Cas in the kitchen, in the library, or in the man cave – by which Dean means he drags Cas in there to liven up his life with whatever movie Dean had picked for that night.

‘Damn… you really didn’t have much, did you?’

‘I don’t have much need for material possessions. I told you this already.’

Which… was quite the problem. Spells don’t typically contain ingredients that are ‘optional’; this wasn’t some typical recipe found in a middle-aged woman’s pretentious cookbook – this was complicated and often risky magic that’s capable of doing what most deem impossible.

They needed to find something, otherwise…

This spell was worthless.

Dean wheels himself over to the single mahogany closet tucked away in the corner of Cas’s room, huffing to himself in his frustration as he grabs hold of the handles to the doors. “There’s gotta be something in here of yours Cas, I can’t believe there’s nothing of-,’

His words get caught in his throat as he swings the doors open, staring bug-eyed into the interior of the closet. Even Cas seemed to have been shocked into silence in his head.

It was… it was impossible.

Dean reaches out a shaky hand, half expecting his hand to feel air instead of the sole piece of clothing hanging in the otherwise empty closet. Instead, his fingers brush against the oh too familiar scratchy material of its sleeve, his eyes beginning to burn with unexpected tears as he takes in the beige colors.

It was Cas’s trench coat.

‘How is this… did you have an extra one of these or something, Cas?’

‘No… just this one.’

‘So… this isn’t a hallucination? Or some kind of trick?’

‘If it is, it’s a VERY good copy. I can feel it’s mine…’

Dean reached up as far as he could, straining as he tugged the coat’s hanger off the closet’s bar. He slid the hanger out of the coat, tossing it back into the closet, keeping his eyes focused solely on the trench coat in his hands. His fingers scrunch tightly into the trench coat, bringing it up to his chest and leaning his head down into it. The tears burning in his eyes almost spill over when he realizes he can smell Cas ingrained into the trench coat. The same scent he had picked up from Cas’s grace in his dreams: that otherworldly, unrecognizable smell mixed with smells that make him feel at home; a lingering soapy cleanness, fresh air blowing through a pine forest; a flowery, subtle smell that’s kinda sweet, sort of like… like honey.

This was stupid of him, he knew that. Cas was alive. But… having something physical of his angel’s held in his grasp for the first time since he was taken from him… it almost felt like getting to see Cas again – not just listening to his voice inside his head. Something real, something that would always be associated with Cas, back with him.

‘I can’t wait to see you, too. Not just in reflections, or in your dreams… to be able to truly hold you, to feel you, to kiss you in MY body.’

‘You better stick to that promise.’

‘I fully intend to.’

‘I’m just… I’m a little worried as to how this is ever here… You said it was destroyed?’

‘It was.’

‘So… how’s it here?’

‘I wish I could tell you, Dean.’

‘Can you sense anything on it? Some type of monster gunk? Some mojo maybe?’

‘No. There’s nothing. I can sense my presence on it, but that’s it.’

‘Okay… okay, so, for some reason, someone or something has found a way to recreate your trench-coat and just place it back into the closet of your room, in the bunker – the safest place we know – and left it there for us to find in the most convenient moment?’

‘It appears so, yes.’

‘Huh. Sweet.’

Dean pats down the pockets to Cas’s trench coat, unable to feel the hard shape of Cas’s angel blade hidden away in the sleeves or the pockets. ‘Damn, seems whatever brought back your coat didn’t bring back your other stuff either. Sorry, Cas.’

‘I consider it a lucky break to even have my coat… At least, I’m assuming it’s a lucky break…’

‘Hey, weird stuff happens to us all the time. If you can’t sense anything evil within the coat – which I’m sort of just guessing there isn’t since you’d probably have said something before I buried my face in it – then I don’t see why this should be a bad thing.’

‘I suppose that’s true… I still want to know who is responsible for it, though.’

‘Trust me, we’re in the same boat on that one, Cas. And we will find out. After we get you back into your body.’

And just like that, the light at the end of the tunnel began to flicker back into sight.

Next Chapter - - - >

[bigskydreaming]

kai06leaf replied to your post:

Ended up all night, with sleep derailed by a RUDE...

Um I had asked for a link for your batman related works?:)

Oh score, this is actually weirdly timely then! FlashinthePan is my Batfam pseudonym (https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlashInThePan/works), its just it hasn’t been useful for much other than to use my bookmarks page there as a fics rec list. Since the only other things still up on it are the YJ WIP I haven’t updated in a couple years and an elephant’s graveyard collection for the random ficlets I often write on here while forgetting they’re usually long enough to be actual one-shots...and that I then forget to actually add to that one, that I created for the specific purpose of putting all those in one place. My mind. Its just....*staggers at the Legend of it all*

I’ve been on a pretty committed “No more posting unfinished WIPs kick” for the past couple years but am finally at a point where I have stuff to post without cheating, so that streak officially ends today, when I finish my read-through of the first fic* in question and hit publish. “The Requiem Rites of Robins,” the ten chapter first story in an AU Battle For the Cowl fix-it series, “A Legacy of Robins,” with TRRoR being roughly 40K, focuses on Dick and Jason and their issues with each other and Bruce’s believed death, picking up and going AU at an indeterminate time not long after the end of BFTC. 

Specific goals of focus with this particular fic were addressing Bruce’s bullshit last will and testament to Jason (ugh), the eternally unremarked upon moment that was Dick watching his brother refuse to take his hand and instead fall to what at the time must have seemed very likely to be Jason’s second death, in a pretty fucked up parallel to his parents’ death (ugh), various other unaddressed issues between the brothers that kept them making like they were Cain and Abel instead of two people who loved each other and very much could use each other while grieving for their father or even just pretending they weren’t....and also steadfastly jumping their combined train of events well off the tracks before Morrison’s whole...”Jason” thing ever happened at all (ugh).

Just a headsup for readers for whom certain characterizations of Bruce are a dealbreaker - full disclosure, this fic and its sequels do consider various less pleasant moments between Bruce and his two eldest to be in character and canon, with NTT #55 and the ending to UTRH the most touched upon and relevant. For what its worth, my intention there (and hopefully my execution of things) was not to vilify or bash Bruce, or to make it at all a question of whether or not both really loved Bruce and he them. 

To be clear...I do categorize Bruce’s actions towards Dick and Jason at those times/specific others as abusive, but a huge part of my reason for even writing this particular fic was to explore and examine the reality of loving a parent even despite a history of actually abusive behavior on their parts. Of how to mourn for someone you loved at some times and hated at others, who was both the person who made you feel whole again and the one who made you at other times feel the most broken. 

Especially when you’re two people who pride themselves on being heroes, who are ‘supposed to know’ that there’s no defense, no excuse for some of the things their father did, but that doesn’t always change or erase how much they want to. And who are both looking for an answer in the other, as to how they’re supposed to live with the fact that deep down, there’s a part of them that will always still be those ten and twelve year old orphan boys who came to believe their father was a man who could literally do the impossible...even mend what was broken, make things right with them and the world as they knew it just like he’d managed once before, when he’d first come into their lives and they’d been just as certain then that there were no more happy moments in their futures at all. 

And with the both of them still, even after everything, having held onto that secret hope that someday he was going to find the secret loophole, the magic words that let them forgive him, that let them let the past all just be in the past and the future all that really mattered, that their best days as a family weren’t all behind them yet and there was still time for things to be different, for him to be different....because their dad wasn’t like other ordinary dads, their dad was the Batman, he was a superhero.....

....who was also still just a man, and sometimes men die with their most important deeds still left incomplete.

This first story is centered firmly on just Dick and Jason, because I have a tendency to let things get too widespread and expansive plot-wise the more characters I focus on, and because this first story, about mourning Bruce and finding a way to move on, needed to be just Dick and Jason, although Cass and Tim and Damian, as well as Steph and Babs and Alfred all have things in the wake of his believed death that IMO they needed explored, and that were never explored in canon. But Dick and Jason had to be the first two and a solo act except for each other, especially as this series is still geared towards Bruce’s eventual return, and just to a much different status quo....because the thing about Dick and Jason at this specific point in time, is that they were quite possibly the only two people in the world who would ever have the relationship with Bruce that they did, to see him the way they both at times did, and nobody else ever fully grasped. 

They knew him at his highest and his lowest points, the best parts of him and the worst, the center of their whole universes and the destroyer of them....and for them, at this place and time, its about being forced to realize that for as much as come between them over the years, they each are the only ones who will ever fully be able to speak to the entirety of their father as not just Bruce Wayne, the Batman, the myth and the legend, but Bruce the man, the flawed father who was supposed to be better than his worst mistakes with them, because he was supposed to be a hero. 

Even as close as others were to Bruce, there were specific slants to the light they saw him in....for Alfred, even when making his worst mistakes, he was still his son, for Cass he was still the father who fought her personal demon not because of what he wanted her to be but so that she could be who she wanted to be, for Tim, he was imperfect but still larger than life, the hero he’d still first only come to know through the lens of a camera from a great distance, a perspective he’d yet to entirely shake, and for Damian he was still largely a figure of make believe, a bed time story he’d been told all his life. 

There’s an inherent goodness, a nobleness around the idea of Bruce for most others in his life, that defies coming face to face with the realities his failings could be.....which only Dick and Jason could ultimately attest to, as losing the ability to keep sight of that innate shine was why they’d found themselves so disillusioned by their father at the lowest points between them. And so in a lot of ways, the ultimate goal of writing this fic was trying to get Dick and Jason to a point where they could share their full, messy, complicated as hell feelings about their father with each other, but simultaneously feel a need to preserve the way each of their siblings still saw him, because the truth is that if there’d been someone who could have preserved that shine for their own eyes, to keep their memories of him clear and unobstructed by complication....they would have been glad to have been left just missing Bruce their father, and not the mess of feelings forever tied up in a Gordian knot upon by his death.

So yeah. LOL. That’s the link to my Batfam works, though there hasn’t been much on their for ages, but stay tuned for Chapter One of The Requiem Rites of Robins, later today.

“In the wild, a group of robins is called a round. But Gotham’s birds have always been of a different sort, something entirely unique. And the only proper plural for them, I’ve found, is a legacy.”

An investigation leads the newly minted Batman to London, alone and without Robin’s back-up for the trip. In the past couple months, Dick Grayson has barely found time to breathe, let alone to grieve for his father and come to terms with his new role as the Dark Knight’s successor. But his distracted state leaves him vulnerable, and when a new villain’s one-man war threatens to make a casualty of him too, he’s left with no alternative but to work side by side with his rescuer - at other times better known as his brother, his successor, and a couple times his would-be killer.

(Their family always has been one of over-achievers. And if you’re going to pick a pair of brothers to play compare and contrast against with that in mind, its hard to go wrong with something biblical.)

But Dick seeming no more happy about it than he is, doesn’t do much to pick up Jason’s mood. He’s come to London for his own reasons, and no, he’s still not inclined to share. Curiosity killed the cat, but he’s sure Selina wouldn’t mind if innate nosiness knocked off a few birds here and there as well. Well-earned paranoia aside, however, secrets and cynicism can only carry them so far when the two are forced to rely on each other to fight their way free of a city turned death-trap. Both are keenly aware that the last time they’d fought side by side like this, they’d been all the way back on the other side of Jason’s first untimely death. And as far as potential omens go, that one’s about as shitty as they come.

But a mixed curse and blessing are nothing new for them, and so that’s not just a painful reminder, but also proof that things were different once. That the brothers they’ve become were not always the brothers they were supposed to be. It was time and pain and bloody loss that weighed them both down so much further than the altitudes that came most naturally....not fate, or destiny, or even them. And as their new enemy forces them deeper and deeper below ground, it becomes all the more clear there’s only one skill in either of the brothers’ arsenals that will see them through to the other side of all this: 

And only if they can not just remember, but rediscover, how to shed all of that and finally fly free again.

[connan-l]

Quiet moments — Chapter 1: Michel and Maria

Fandom: The House in Fata Morgana

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warning: Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Relationship: Michel Bollinger & Maria Campanella

Summary: A collection of unrelated short one-shots containing interactions between two The House in Fata Morgana characters.

Content Warnings: Very brief mentions of child prostitution, child abuse and suicidal ideation.

________________________________________________________________

Link on Archive of Our Own

________________________________________________________________

Notes: I just love making characters who wouldn’t normally interact, well, interact — and I also love giving attention to side and minor characters no one care about, so that’s how it happened. I wrote this on a whim and have no idea when I’ll be able to update it though, so don’t expect anything from me.

This will take place literally anywhere among the main game, Requiem and Reincarnation, so beware of spoilers!

I used the ‘Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings’ on AO3 just by precaution, but I don’t think there will be much to warn about, really. And if there is, I’ll put a content warning on top of the chapter anyway.

Takes place during Door 8, after Yukimasa told his story and Michel went to speak with Maria.

________________________________________________________________

Maria sat next to him and started talking, as promised. Despite being her usual assertive, confident self, she seemed a bit reluctant to discuss about her past — not because she was especially distrustful of Michel (although she still seemed pretty skeptical about everything he had told her), but because it just was her nature, he guessed. Given she was a young woman who grew up alone in a poor, dangerous district, it was only to be expected.

“I’m not actually born in this country, y’know?” She said suddenly.

“You’re not?” Michel asked, but he was not all that surprised. After all, Maria had been an Italian woman in the third door, so although a lot of things had changed in this era, it wasn’t odd that she wasn’t French.

“Yeah. I don’t really remember much about my hometown, though. I left when I was like, five or six maybe. My family… I think they must’ve been merchants or something, and they were travelling here for business. But they got into an accident and died. I had no one else, so I went into an orphanage here. I was a newly-orphaned foreign kid who barely spoke the language at all, so it was pretty rough at first…” She smirked. “But that’s when I met Pauline. She was a foreigner too, so although we didn’t come from the same country, I think maybe we felt some sort of kinship and that’s why we ended up clinging to each other…”

Michel tried to picture the two little girls in his mind; a mischievous six-year-old Maria and a tiny Pauline awkwardly following her around, none of them truly speaking the other’s languages but still trying to understand and play together… This mental image made him smile gently.

“Then you know the rest. Got fed up with the orphanage, ran away, ended up here and started working at the brothel… but anyway, you wanted to hear about Morgana, right? Bet you don’t care much about some ol’ whore’s childhood, haha.”

She laughed light-heartedly — as if she was talking about someone else, a character in a story, and not about her own difficult past. Michel winced instinctively, and hoped it didn’t show too much on his face. Maria had already briefly told them earlier about the abuse she experienced at the orphanage and that she became a prostitute when she was still just a young child. This life seemed so detached and so far away from the one he had lived that he struggled to imagine what it must’ve been like.

“There were… no other options for you at the time?” He asked softly, tentatively. “Maybe you could’ve gone to another orphanage, or…”

Maria narrowed her eyes with an annoyed expression, and Michel understood immediately he had said something insensitive.

“Which options?” She snapped back. “No way on earth I would’ve gone to another orphanage, I was done with that shit. It was the brothel or starving on the fucking street, so the choice was quickly made. Not everyone can be a noble rolling in dough like you, my dude.”

“Wha— How do you know I’m a noble?”

“Well, you just have that aura, you know? Your manners, the way you speak, you seem well-educated… You’re like that cute blonde pipsqueak — it’s just obvious we don’t live in the same sphere.”

Michel wondered if it really was that obvious, or if Maria was just very acute. Maybe it was both. He remembered, centuries ago, that Giselle had told him something similar, too — that he had a ‘regal’ aura, though back then he could never say if she was teasing him or if she was serious.

“I really… don’t consider my life to be that bad,” Maria whispered, her voice unusually quiet. “I mean, obviously it’s not great. I’ve been through some shitty times, I won’t deny that. I certainly wouldn’t complain if one day my good pal God took pity in me and decided to make me rich.”

She looked up in front of her — towards the horizon, her eyes vacant, and started to rub her naked arms. Michel couldn’t tell if it was because she was cold or because she tried to comfort herself from some bad memories.

“But… the simple fact that I am still alive right now makes me feel pretty damn lucky. Not everyone can say the same. So many of my friends — good, nice folks — didn’t get the same chance…”

The more he listened to her, and the more Michel felt kind of… uneasy. Had he ever felt like he was ‘lucky’ to be alive? Even during his darkest times, when he was locked up in his room at the Bollinger estate or during the ten years living in that haunted mansion, he couldn’t remember a moment where just the fact to be alive felt like a blessing. It rather felt like a curse, honestly. He couldn’t count the number of times he thought about dying, about all the times he almost made a suicide attempt — but how every time, old, fond childhood recollections of his brothers would come flocking back and make him hope that, maybe, just maybe, things could get better. But the idea that others may have had worse than him — like the dead girl who he tried to ignore for years and never attempted to understand, because understanding her would mean actually seeing her like a person and not like a formless cackling witch — thus that he should feel lucky never once crossed his mind. Back then, he was way too deep into his own pain and suffering that it never seemed relevant — until he met Giselle, that is.

And now that he thought about it… Michel certainly couldn’t say he had an easy childhood by any stretch of the imagination — especially not after his fourteen years old — but he still had been lucky enough to have been born into a noble and rich family. Aside from those two terrible years he spent being abused by Aimée, he couldn’t recall a time where he felt hungry or missed of anything. The same couldn’t be said of Maria.

Maybe she truly was good at reading people, because she seemed to instantly guess his train of thoughts and added: “Hey now, I didn’t say that to guilt-trip you or anything. I’m not interested in pity, anyway.”

“I wasn’t…”

She sighed. “If you nobles really feel so bad, then actually do something and use your power and money for a good cause, instead of ruminating. Some peeps could really need that.”

“Well… I am technically… not exactly a noble anymore…”

“Oh?”

“I was disowned.” And then I was killed, he thought. But I can’t exactly tell her that. “So I don’t have any power anymore. Though… even back then, I never had any actual power… everything was decided by my father and older brothers…”

“Hmm… Is that so… That sucks,” she declared, before crossing her arms. “So you had brothers?”

“Yes, but…” He took a deep breath. “We… something happened, and… They…”

Michel hesitated. Should he really start talking about himself right now? To Maria, of all people, who he only (technically) first met yesterday? But then he looked at the woman next to him in the eyes, who was silently and attentively listening to him. And he felt the need to continue.

“They betrayed me. And… they’re dead now. They died… a long time ago…”

He felt his chest tightening as soon as he mentioned his brothers, and his hands trembling a little. Maybe he shouldn’t have started talking about them after all. Mell and Nellie’s debacle had already reawakened some bad memories, and right now he needed to stay focused on Morgana and Giselle and—

Suddenly, he felt a soft, comforting pressure on his shoulder. When he turned around, he saw Maria looking at him with understanding green eyes as she was gently holding his shoulder, like an old friend would do.

“I dunno what happened to you exactly, so sorry if I asked something I shouldn’t have…”

“No, it’s fine…”

Maria looked away, wincing a little. “Though I… can relate. I had… well, I’m an only child, but… I did have someone I considered a brother once. And he… also betrayed me.”

Michel frowned, and was going to ask her more details… but then Maria looked at him and smiled.

“He died a long time ago too.”

It was… a strange smile. There was something nostalgic in it. Bitter, maybe. But also tender. Gentle. It wasn’t a smile he’d ever thought he’d see on the face of that rambunctious woman.

“I’m… sorry,” he said, stupidly, not being able to think something more eloquent.

She shrugged. “It’s okay. Like I said, it was a long time ago. I’m over it now.”

Michel could tell by the way she looked away and the sound of her voice that it was a lie. Maybe it hurt less — just like the intense pain of his brothers’ betrayal had slowly faded with time. But it wasn’t something you could just ‘get over.’

“Well, your brothers were idiots,” she suddenly said, and Michel arched an eyebrow.

“What?”

“It sounds like it’d be nice to have you as a brother, so they must’ve been idiots to betray you. I mean, you seem like a handful, but I’m sure I’d have a lot of fun teasing you. Too bad I wasn’t born as your sis. In another life maybe?”

Maria gently punched Michel in the shoulder with a wide grin and a wink, which earned him a chuckle. He wondered how much his life would have changed if he had had a sister in it, especially a sister like Maria. Would it have made things better? Or worse?

He couldn’t tell. However, he certainly wouldn’t refuse to have her as a sibling in another life.

[journeysintowebcomics]

Homestuck Liveblog #181

UPDATE 181: Meat

A long time ago, I finished reading Homestuck. It was quite the long tale, and it was rather enjoyable! At the time I thought there ‘d be nothing else, because Act 7 seemed like quite the final chapter – or if there was anything, it’d be bits and pieces that wouldn’t warrant a liveblog. Yet here we are! Turns out, after this long, there’s epilogues. In plural, as you can see. Somehow, there are now epilogues and they’re said to be quite long, too. After taking a cursory read that made me read more than I thought I would, here I am, reopening this liveblog to explore the epilogues.

What I have read so far...is not particularly enticing or even likable, at least in terms of enjoyment, really, but there’s something about the writing that makes me want to continue. Credit where it’s due, yeah. Still, I’m interested in seeing where this is going, and now, I’m posting my thoughts here for everyone to see. Here we go! So, let’s start with the epilogue liveblog!

You know, before that, I should note that now the story has its own URL instead of being into the old mspaintadventures website. Kind of late in the game for this change, Mr. Hussie. I mean, the story is over, and although there’s a whooole lot of new content, it seems a bit senseless to have this in its own domain. Then again, the rest of the mspaintadventures stories were kind of...hidden away in the website? I don’t remember links to them, when I used to read Homestuck. Maybe Homestuck getting its own domain is for the better. I do wonder if this is a hint more stuff will come in the future. The extra-epilogue. The postscript-extra-content. The seriously-guys-this-is-the-end chapter.

There are two epilogues, it seems. One is meat, the other is candy. I immediately notice this is related to the cherubs’ food. I wonder if it means one epilogue will be...bloodier? Crueler? More chaotic and violent? I mean more like something Caliborn will like, while the other will be more to Calliope’s tastes. I’ll start with the meat epilogue, simply because it’s to the left.

From what I can tell at a glance, there are no images, but there are colored words, most likely from conversations between characters. That should be fine, although Homestuck was pretty visual at times, its strength was the writing and characterization.

Well then! The very first paragraph already beats most of Homestuck in terms of extremely descriptive stuff. Heck, this reminds me of Worm, with its extensive paragraphs about bugs and how they crawl on people and cause all sorts of nasty effects. I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

Meat was definitely the right choice, you think, as grease drips down your chin. The meat is cold and undercooked, so you have to grab it with both hands while you rend it apart with your incisors. It bursts in chunks, filling your mouth with blood and your throat with mangled knots of gristle and long strings of muscle fiber. You take big bites, almost too big to swallow, so big that you choke on the meaty mulch and hock some of it up into your nasal cavity. You sneeze out a gooey rope of phlegm and flesh. You stop for a moment to wipe your face, but your chin is still slippery after you swipe the mess away. Slivers of meat catch between your teeth as you masticate with bestial enthusiasm. You use your thumbnail to fish them out.

...am I eating this meat straight from the cow.

Apparently the person who is eating meat that’s almost raw is John, who I guess gained a taste for raw meat at some point. Maybe he’s trying to emulate Jade’s canine half, for all I know. He’s with Roxy and Calliope, the later providing the meat. I suppose cherubs wouldn’t know about cooking meat. Speaking of cherubs, eating meat reminds John of Lord English, and he gets so sick thinking of Lord English he decides he knows what he must do. Alright! Didn’t waste any time dilly-dallying around!

JOHN: i have to go back and kill lord english.

ROXY: u sure?

JOHN: i think so. it will probably be hard. but i think it’s the right thing to do.

JOHN: everyone is counting on me.

When is this epilogue set? Before Act 7? I thought by now Lord English was dead and gone, not that it still was something that needed to be done. Then again, it’s not like Lord English’s death was shown on screen, if I remember correctly. Maybe this is after Act 7 and he’s going back in time with his retcon powers. I suppose he’d still have them.

Roxy seems disappointed, so I suppose she knew this had to be done at some point. Given John’s retcon powers, it’s not impossible this is the last time she sees John if things go wrong. Calliope is more accepting, saying it’s John’s decision. Time to leave?

Seriously, things have gotten quite more descriptive now. Still unsure if that’s good or not.

The farewell is quite unsatisfying, and the moment passes without John being able to make it better, so he goes to prepare himself and write a note for Roxy as a farewell and/or apology. Not only to her, to all of his friends. It’s like he’s aware the chances he’ll return here aren’t that high. I wonder if John would die here at the end. It’d be quite...something!

In this epilogue, there’s a Troll Kingdom, which I imagine is ruled by the trolls who survived Homestuck, raising the grubs created by ectobiology. Dave and Karkaroni are there, Dave lives with the trolls, I suppose because his relationship with Karkaroni now includes living in his hive.

KARKAT: NOT NOW DAVE. JAKE’S ASS IS ON TV AGAIN.

DAVE: stop ogling jakes ass this is important

KARKAT: WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU TO TELL ME WHOSE ASS I SHOULD STOP OGLING.

Apparently the reason why Jake’s ass is on TV again is because he and Dirk have a show involving rap battles and robot wrestling, which I suppose is the natural progression from when Jake used to get said ass kicked by a robot. People like the show, and I’m already convinced it’s partly because of the schadenfreude of seeing Jake losing against robots – because no way Dirk is losing, hah

Karkaroni has a few choice words for the fake gladiatorial show, and points out this show is all about zooming onto Jake’s ass. Maybe ‘pumpkin patch’ is an euphemism. Either way, the relevance of the TV show is eclipsed by the announcement Jane is running for president of the entire Earth. Aha, truly the wretched pastry baroness’ descendant.

DAVE: i dunno crocker is just an ambitious woman i guess

KARKAT: THIS SOUNDS FUCKING AWFUL.

DAVE: oh it is

DAVE: it absolutely is

DAVE: also like

DAVE: dont tell her i said this but

DAVE: i think shes basically a fascist

...well then. Oh all things that could have been used to describe Jane from what I remember of her, ‘fascist’ didn’t come not even close. Then again, it’s not like Karkaroni had any meaningful contact with Jane, and all Dave did was call her hot, which isn’t really the epitome of camaraderie and intimidate knowledge. They both even admit to that.

DAVE: oh also shes a fucking xenophobe

KARKAT: OF COURSE SHE’S A XENOPHOBE!

...ah.

...

Did I miss something? Was there something between Act 7 and these epilogues that revealed Jane harbors xenophobic inclinations? Why am I having to ask aloud ‘hey is Jane a xenophobe’

KARKAT: DAVE, I DON’T KNOW IF YOU’VE NOTICED, BUT

KARKAT: A LOT OF HUMANS ARE???

DAVE: yeah ive noticed

Well, that part isn’t really surprising. Humanity just has a knack for looking down on other people, I can only imagine how it’d be when it’s about other sapient species. If aliens ever make contact with humanity it’ll be a social mess.

Since letting Jane claim the spot of president of Earth is not good, apparently, Dave wants to stop her, eliciting laughter from Karkaroni who is already imagining Dave running against her. No, Dave couldn’t handle that responsibility, no way.

DAVE: anyway no

DAVE: im not running

DAVE: you are

Hm...unless Karkaroni got over the many issues he had from his leadership attempt during Sgrub this can’t end well. Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t like the idea, precisely because he doesn’t feel like he has what’s needed to be a leader. It’s not that he would lose horribly – Karkaroni actually is rather popular. I suppose all of the Homestuck survivors are popular – it’s that he doesn’t feel ready and he seems to hate the attention. Understandable.

KARKAT: MAYBE I DON’T ACTUALLY LIKE BEING FAMOUS?

KARKAT: AND MAYBE THAT’S AS GOOD A FUCKING REASON AS ANY *NOT TO RUN FOR THE FUCKING PRESIDENCY OF EARTH*?????

KARKAT: NOT TO MENTION THE IDEA OF AN ELECTION IS KIND OF A FUCKED UP AND WEIRD THING TO ME CULTURALLY ANYWAY, AND I’M STILL KIND OF GETTING USED TO THE IDEA THAT PEOPLE CAN JUST... “CHOOSE” THEIR FUCKING LEADERS AND NOT HAVE THE SAME OLD MERCILESS BITCH IN POWER FOR SEVERAL MILLION YEARS.

Perfectly valid reason. I mean, it’s not something kind of inconsequential as being the class president of sophomore year in school or whatever it’s like up there in America. It’s president of the entire planet. If Karkaroni wins there will be consequences, even if he steps away immediately. Either he commits to this fully, or he simply shouldn’t run.

DAVE: ok ill just be the one to come out and say it

DAVE: shes going to be a fucking disaster for the economy

So Jane’s a republican. Haha! Ah, I shouldn’t touch this not even with a ten-foot pole. Nevermind that.

DAVE: i guess i have to admit

DAVE: part of this

DAVE: for me personally

DAVE: its

KARKAT: WHAT ARE YOU SAYING DAVE

DAVE: its about obama

Somehow, I didn’t even bat an eye with Dave described part of the reason why this is personal for him is because Obama didn’t get to be president due to, you know, the end of the world. I find it in-character, somehow. This isn’t the first time Dave extols Obama’s virtues, and after quite an extensive diatribe, he says maybe Obama reincarnated in Karkaroni. Thaaaat has to be the most Dave-y encouraging thing he could have ever thought. It’s for things like these that I like Dave, haha

Apparently only humans have tried to get to high offices, because no other species has even tried. They lack ambition, and given what I remember from Sburb, that’s believable. The only species that could come close to taking part in this are the trolls, and they’re not used to elections. No wonder humans have the high spots of politics.

DAVE: karkat dont stereotype

DAVE: remember the mayor

DAVE: remember how at one point a long time ago he raised an army and rebelled against an evil king

KARKAT: OH YEAH

KARKAT: SOMEHOW I ALWAYS FORGET HE DID THAT.

KARKAT: KIND OF MIND BOGGLING, REALLY.

KARKAT: HOLY SHIT, I MISS THE MAYOR.

DAVE: me too

Ah, yeah...I miss him too. I wonder what happened to him.

The government is in charge of troll reproduction through cloning, I suppose because the mother grub isn’t ready yet. In the meantime, the balance of power will get entrenched to the point where even when there’s a functional mother grub, humans will restrict troll population so they don’t take over the planet and make the horrors of Alternia happen. No lie, that’d be pretty bleak for humanity. Last time the horrors of Alternia were forced onto Earth everyone died. No troll right now would try, buuuut yeah, that’s not going to be forgotten...for a while.

Somehow, Dave’s arguments about how Jane has zero business acumen, is sinister, and trolls are getting the raw end of the deal are actually getting Karkaroni to pay attention, until he finally caves, simply because it’d make Dave happy. That’s sweet. But yeah, this is...not what I expected what would happen in the epilogue. Well then!

DAVE: aw yeah

DAVE: you wont regret it this is gonna be dope

DAVE: i think we have a great shot too

DAVE: with my political savvy and economic genius and outrageous flair for subversive anti establishment messaging and propaganda, and your big loud fucking mouth...

KARKAT: WHAT THE FUCK

DAVE: um i guess also your charisma and likability and shit

KARKAT: YEAH.

KARKAT: YOU MIGHT BE RIGHT...

KARKAT: I’M PRETTY SURE I CAN FAKE THOSE THINGS WELL ENOUGH.

DAVE: oh also

DAVE: your weirdly sincere humility

KARKAT: I PREFER THE TERM “SELF LOATHING” ACTUALLY.

DAVE: ok lets try to avoid that phrase on the campaign trail too

KARKAT: THIS ALREADY SOUNDS LIKE A PAIN IN THE ASS.

I’m not a political strategist, but if Karkaroni is going to run on a platform about how Jane sucks and there’s inequality towards the trolls, I’m not entirely certain it’s good there’s a shadowy human pulling the strings in the campaign. Kind of seems like bad optics to me. Then again, can’t say I know where this is going so let’s just wait and see.

Yup, Dave definitely will be the brains behind this presidency. They already agreed he’ll write what Karkaroni will say, even though he should improvise and speak from the heart, like he tends to do. Not a bad idea, it’s part of what makes him endearing.

DAVE: time to talk some strategy

DAVE: we need to rally as much high profile support to our cause as we can

DAVE: but there are some uh

DAVE: “lines of loyalty” to figure out

KARKAT: WHAT?

DAVE: i mean which of our friends are going to side with us and which ones will side with jane

It’s a safe bet to think the New Wonderteam will side with Jane and the Original Flavor Wonderteam with Dave and Karkaroni. Calliope likely will stick with Roxy, so she’d be on Jane’s side. All the living trolls would go with Karkaroni, so...overall? It seems to me the advantage is clear. Dave is slightly less optimistic than me, but he does think they can get many on their side.

...okay, what happened to Jade? What kind of twisted scenario involved her to the point where neither Dave nor Karkaroni want to talk about her? I’m almost afraid of finding out.

So there are four kingdoms, if I understand this correctly: one for humans, one for trolls, one for...carapaces, I guess, and one for the consorts, which would be aaaaaall the silly reptiles and amphibians from Sburb.

Jake’s support will be pivotal, and since I’m already betting he’ll be on Jane’s side out of, you know, being friends with her for quite some time, it seems like she’ll have the edge there. Then again, it’s true Jake is fairly timid, so there’s also a chance he’ll refuse to take a side. I’m starting to think any sane person would stay the heck away from any side in this mess, honestly. These two haven’t even announced Karkaroni as a candidate yet I already kind of dread what’s coming. I don’t know, it’s just this...constant atmosphere that something’s pretty wrong. I don’t really like it.

During all this, Dave receives a call from Dirk, so he calls back to ask what’s going on. This page ends with Dirk abut to insinuate he needs Dave to cut his head off again. I see these two’s weird pseudofamilial relationship is as messed up as ever. Charming.

So, back to the more Homestuck-y stuff. John zaps back to the story, apparently he agreed with Rose what needed to be done. First he makes sure Aranea won’t be up to shenanigans, taking off that ring of life from her finger. Good! Then he stashes Gamzee into the fridge again. Good! Everything’s fine over here. John zaps to the next plot point.

Ah, I have to read just two paragraphs to know what moment is this. The conversation below confirms my thoughts. Wait, I have to get the image for this moment:

There we go. Boy was it a pain to find it now that the long outline list is gone.

I think in Homestuck they had noticed John hanging out above them, and this time they see three of them, one of the Johns being an adult version. That’s going to be difficult to explain. Questions are asked, and evil Jade is zapped away to maybe get ready for the fight against Lord English, hopefully she won’t still be evil when the time comes, even if she technically is against Lord English and wants him dead. John is here to talk with Dave, anyway. If I recall correctly, Dave was supposed to give the final blow with that sword with the Welsh name, so my guess is that John is here for that. Get ready, Dave, you’re going to fulfill the fate you didn’t want in the first place! But at least I’m fairly certain John will be more successful at this than evil Jade was.

Turns out I’m not wrong about why John is here. In fact, the narration even says this:

Dave’s eyebrows descend beneath his sunglasses. You feel pretty bad because you’re about to completely circumvent the life-changing epiphany he’s just had that you know for a fact will make him a happier, chiller, and altogether more well-balanced human being.

Pretty unfortunate, really. It sucks to be Dave.

As I said before, Jade is zapped away to parts unknown, and Dave is informed of how everyone was spending their lives as normal adults with no big problems and a fairly peaceful life. Clearly John left the present before Dave and Karkaroni started their political war against Jane. Oh well. Off you go, Dave, get ready for a fight with Lord English. In the meantime, John will gather the rest of the team.

You know, I’m starting to realize I had a lot more to say about Dave and Karkaroni’s new political adventures than about the more familiar Homestuck-y messing around John is doing with the plot. I guess it’s because, as strange as the other plotline is, it just has...a lot other stuff to comment about that hasn’t been present in Homestuck before? Hm.

Yup, Dirk immediately asks for his decapitation as a solution for the tremendous defeat he has suffered at Jake’s hands, defeat that shouldn’t have happened because, as Dave states, Jake is pretty awful at everything. Either the show is rigged or Dirk must have quite a lot in mind for him to not even make an effort.

Yep, it’s rigged. I hope Jake knows. That guy never had a break during the game, hopefully he’ll get a break now. Speaking of Jake, he has to take the brunt of entertaining everyone while Dirk takes the call in the middle of the show. Whatever he has to talk about must be somewhat urgent, if he felt like calling Dave in the middle of it.

This narration sure is calling attention to Jake’s ass a lot, I lost count of how many paragraphs include something about it. Hussie, is there something you’d like to share with the class? Last time I checked the story he didn’t seem particularly interested in Jake’s ass, or in...Jake in general, really.

It seems what Dirk is doing here is intentionally making himself the villain of this show, but it’s not because he’s throwing Jake a bone or anything. No, it turns out there are more sinister goals here, or at least they’re sinister for Dave and Karkaroni’s newfound political ambitions.

DIRK: The point is, this is much less about me, and more about providing a foil for Jake’s heroism and charisma.

DIRK: It’s very important that his popularity continues to be cultivated, to maximize his political capital.

Sounds like they were planning Jane’s campaign for quite a while, if they went so far as to make Jake the hero of their show just for political capital. I bet that was the plan all along, right from the very first time this was broadcasted. How long ago was that, I wonder? But yeah, as Dave predicted, Dirk is fully on the Jane corner of this mess. He’s fully aware of Jane’s flaws and theoretical fascist/xenophobic tendencies, I presume, and he believes Jane’s the best for the current situation of the world. Whether he’s right or not...well...until proven otherwise I believe that too, yeah.

DIRK: We’ve all had our fun here, but it’s easy to overlook the fact that civilization on Earth C is hardly a sustainable proposition.

DIRK: Just beneath the surface, it’s quite a dangerous and unstable place.

Won’t lie, that never crossed my mind at all. From the way Act 7 ended, and how happy the ending was supposed to be, I simply thought things were going to be just peachy. I’m interested in knowing just how exactly it’s a quite a dangerous and unstable place. Care to explain, Dirk?

Guess not. I hope he explains how he knew what Dave and Karkaroni are planning, then. They took this decision like ten minutes ago.

DIRK: I think your heart is in the right place, but the dude is a complete amateur.

DIRK: He’ll get eaten alive. I also have a hard time imagining he even wants the job.

DIRK: Really, it’s an awful idea for him to even run. Think about how much it’s going to inflame the interspecies tensions on this planet. Is that what you want?

DIRK: I’m happy for both of you, really. It’s nice that you encourage and support each other in this way. But you’re sending him on a fool’s errand which can only end badly.

To be perfectly honest, other than the part about inflaming interspecies tensions on the planet, that was more or less what I thought. So far I agree. Even the part about inflaming interspecies tensions sounds plausible.

You know, it’s kind of fun both sides have a savvy Strider political operative. These two are more alike than Dave would like to admit, really.

The reason why Dirk is calling is because he wants to dissuade Karkaroni from running, even if he doesn’t say it. He admits Jake is not under Dirk’s beck and call, though. Does that really change anything? Dirk may not be on Jake’s good graces, but perhaps Jane is? Either way, this is a call to subtly dissuade and it’s not going to work because Karkat is stubborn as hell once he gets his head into something and he did. Tough luck.

The call is over, Dirk is back into the staged fray, so Jake thinks about Dirk’s capricious nature.

DIRK: Sorry for the momentary diversion, Jake. Now where were we?

JAKE: Momentary??? Gadzooks man you were on the phone for half a friggin hour!

JAKE: I know you like to get the crowd all hot and bothered but we are supposed to be professionals here!

...no wonder the crowd was starting to get so upset. Half an hour?! Just how slowly were the Striders talking?

Jake pulls out rhymes that honestly reminds me of Dave’s old rapping convos from like Act 1 or 2, peppered with old-timey sayings. It’s the kind of thing that makes me wonder how Jake is popular all over the planet. It’s said it’s out of pity, but goodness, that must be a metric ton of pity. The rap fight ends with Dirk sedating Jake to take another call. Geez, no wonder you’re not on his good graces anymore, Dirk.

Aaaanyway, back to John. He has gathered everyone back at his childhood home, ready to start the discussion on how to get rid of Lord English once and for all.

Jake is sort of ruining the mood anyway by bouncing away on your old Green Slime pogo. Doesn’t he realize how dangerous that thing is? Of course not. The fool.

To be frank that thing looked fun to me, even though I wouldn’t ride it without a helmet. John needs to appreciate more the painful playground elements in his life.

It’s nostalgic to read a convo with the kids. I hadn’t realized until now I missed Jade’s goofy mannerisms. Jade was always someone I was so fond of. Heck, all of the kids are people I’m fond of, although I’m less fond of Dirk and Jake than the rest. My opinion of Homestuck may not be as high as it once was, but the characters are something I still appreciate.

John answers a question: what happens to the people from the timelines they all left? Who knows. They may have stopped existing, which I’m sure is something they’d have liked to know before, but there’s nothing that can be done about that. Better start planning so they don’t die horribly and make nothing matter, alright.

The planning is mostly disorganized and structureless, although some common themes that often recur involve you and your original three friends leading the charge, since you are the oldest and wisest, and therefore the strongest, with the exception of Jade, whose gaudy array of powers make her the most formidable of the group, bar none. Aside from that, it appears the consensus is that the melee will likely devolve into an absolute free-for-all—at least going by the general patterns of incoherent banter, shit-talking, and points of pedantic tactical disagreement plaguing the jam session.

Sounds about right. I still think Jade would be very useful in the fight as long as she’s actually there and not...getting knocked out by mailwomen-turned-winged-dog. Maybe this time there’ll actually be something about the kids getting into a fight with Lord English. I’m not really going to hope for that too much, given how Hussie is not into catering to orderly narratives, but eh. No harm in dreaming.

The reunion ends when Jake eats dirt when he falls from the pogo, and in all this there wasn’t even a word about the plan. Not a good omen for the ‘show everyone fighting Lord English’ dream, really. The kids all talk together, some of them meeting each other for the first time, while John wistfully stares at Dad Egbert who is visible through the window.

The sun is hitting the glass in such a way that you can’t see his face.

Ah, yes, how could I forget the eternal sun that was in Dad’s vicinity all the time, that’s why his face always appeared mostly blank. That’s why the sun was right beside the Homestuck letter logo, it’s always there. Besides, if it’s a bad idea to go talk with Dad Hebert, may I ask why they’re all gathered in this yard, one week before the meteors strike? I know I’d be alarmed if I looked out of the window and saw seven hooligans and one adult hanging out in my yard.

There are other things to be wondering about, anyway, like the fact John may not be seeing these as real versions of his friends. Then again, in my opinion, he’s thinking a bit too hard about this. Of course he’d feel kind of detached, simply because of the age difference. That’s hard to overcome. Is it time to leave and go possibly die? Grab hands and hope it’ll go okay!

No, seriously, why am I taking like a page for John’s retconning and like three and half for Dave and Karkaroni’s Elect-a-Troll 20XX? Oh well. Dirk is still in the stadium, apparently their shows always ends in a riot, making me wonder how are they popular with people. Public disorder doesn’t really paint a good image of you. The caller is Rose, and she’s not feeling happy.

ROSE: The bottom line is this.

ROSE: I am ascending, and it is terrible.

Is Rose reaching Nirvana? How else am I supposed to interpret ‘ascending’? It’s not like she’s not a higher existence already, what with godhood and all.

What’s going on is that Rose is being plagued from visions and a higher awareness of her alternate selves’ lives and tribulations, giving her something close to omniscience when it’s about the universe, and Dirk is going through that too, which I suppose helps explain how he knew what Dave wanted to do. That’s what Dave will have to go against? Good luck to him.

I have to wonder if Dirk being such a stalwart Jane supporter is fueled by his recent omniscience. Maybe he knows something Dave and Karkaroni don’t, maybe the warning he gave them was something he foresaw. That aside, then he also must have known how useless it was to call Dave and that it wouldn’t make much of a difference. Having omniscience must seriously suck. At least Dirk has a way to work with his omniscience in a way that won’t wreck him apart, and I’m curious what it’s going to be. That said, though, a story about Dirk and Rose having foreseen a nasty future and working to stop it even at the cost of a few valuable friendships would be interesting. I’d read that.

Any conversation that will come from this will be at the studio later. I for one am looking forward to it, I admit. It’s an interesting topic, rich with possibilities and potential for development. It’s a shame these are epilogues, though. In the end, this will go nowhere, I imagine. Isn’t it a pity when you come across an idea or a plot that could span an entire story, but you know it’s not likely to come to fruition? Real shame, that.

I think I’ll stop for now. I have read only seven pages out of forty-three or so, but this should be enough for now. I can’t say I have been...enjoying this. I’m interested, but not really happy so far. Maybe it’s because a couple rather questionable things have come out of the blue and for the life of me I can’t make them fit with the characters or the story. Strange.

Also, something about the writing style is...off. It’s far more descriptive than Homestuck usually was. Most of the time it’s nice, other times I wonder if it was necessary. Still, I wonder where this will go, so at least the epilogues have that on its favor. Just for that, I think liveblogging it will be worth it.

Still, these epilogues are non-canon, aren’t they? If they’re canon can you please tell me that? Thanks, readers! So, for the time being, this update ends here.

Next update: next time

[cheeze-and-sprinklez]

Here's the thing when you're halfway making a chapter by chapter fic and you jumped straight to one event to be your prologue instead of making it as a warm up prompt- Oh here's the link to the fic.

Only 6 chapters up for read and I WILL UPDATE more from time to time 💖👐

I whipped up another OC (specifically) for the Moon Knight and my old OCs focused story. Why? Because I realized I haven't decided an ACTUAL bad guy that should be a part in driving the story.

Okay-

So ummm... I'm not exactly the best at producing basic traits or giving names but I'll stick with this because it has a nice ring to it. Just like how the production team decided to go with Arthur Harrow's name as his character name lmao.

🔶 His name is William Balor.

🔶 Rough meanings to his name? William - "Strong willed warrior" /// Balor - "The Deadly One"

🔶 He is Arthur Harrow's adopted son.

🔶 He's happy and appreciative with the way Harrow raised him (he has a rather tragic childhood too).

🔶 But for some reason, Harrow doesn't mind William wanting the Balor name to stay with him despite his tragic childhood came from his own family.

🔶 He interacted with Jarvis much earlier in the fic. I have YET to write that down and probably need to plan out how to squeeze something that should HAVE done at the beginning.

🔶 Jarvis is physically designed to look like a person of 25+ years old of age but not close to 30. William is in his early 30's and doesn't get worked up with seniority matter.

🔶 To him, the concept of seniority is a load of crap and as long as the person cared to behave with proper respect around those who he or she deemed older/expert on something. Actually, he just doesn't care lol.

🔶 William's relevance to this fic is that, he has been aiming to get to the secret tomb within the remains of a shipwreck under the ocean cavern.

🔶 Jarvis made his acquiantance with him thanks to his 'observers' impromptu side mission order after learning he will be joining both Winchester and Hazel Aria (the OCs of my old RP bestie) to go to an island around Egypt.

🔶 Being a sentient AI with an android-like body that could come up with his own digital interface, even an undisclosed details of ancient Egypt are not of his league. Afterall, he is built and cover-upgraded by Tony and Bruce to deal with household and domestic tasks to perfection. Not exactly built and programmed entirely for combat to have him living a "low-key and unrevealing" life from SHIELD etc.

🔶 Lastly, William successfully gained a power and an Avatar-like suit around the prologue. Though there is something missing to which William will continue his pursuit in capturing Jarvis.

🔶 Which adds to Jarvis' already existing problems (being powerless and cursed into being a human) and made it more complicated to keep track and stay secretive so that the other Marvel casts he knew doesn't notice he has a massive life-threatening trouble.

🔶 TL;DR William in this AU fanfic is the antagonist to Jarvis' solo-standing adventurous movie-wannabe. With the Moon Boys (and some MK casts) thrown into the fray as major and minor characters respectively.

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.

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His face cast? It's weird that Hayden Christensen's face just pops up in my head while I'm structuring William's basic details. Then again, it's hard for me to put it to words so I guess I could just pick some GIFs and point out how William was on the surface?

William is around his early 30's. Unlike his 'dad', William blends in better within the society as an ancient history enthusiast. Meaning to say, he doesn't have cult followers being so obvious following him all around and wearing tattoos. Though this doesn't mean that he HAS NO followers or a gang of his own.

2. He's an academician. Ironically, not completely related to history and whatnot eventhough he likes it. Probably something along the line of being a lecturer of literature or languages. Being a Business major lecturer is a possibility too.

3. He may have his dorky sides, a doting educator and loves to share whatever is beneficial to those who seeks knowledge on anything relating to his favourite field. Literally a walking "Don't judge a book by its cover". Because he is NOT what he looks like on the outside 😧🙏

4) Surprisingly, Harrow raised him to be a good and independent man without forcing his agendas to William the moment he adopted him out of heavy sympathy. Kid's got potential (and he is). There are some characteristics that one might guess on the spot he is Harrow's boy, though the things that Harrow lacks are what William has in possession. Like an extreme feats of agility for example. William has a 'mercenary' side in him too, to which, Harrow and his men never realized.

5) William doesn't want to be this guy who just knows how to order shit around. He just LOOKS like one but he prefers to order AND join the people he ordered to get the shit DONE together. One time he is classy as fuck and one time he doesn't mind getting his own hands dirty to get what he wanted even quicker.

Oh he has this aromatherapic smug aura that mocks not just Jarvis, but the Moon Boys too. To sum up? William has Hayden's aura of when he is from the Jumper movie and Anakin rolled into one 😌👌

🔻 Guess the Moon Boys really need to don their suits back and have to ACTUALLY become Khonshu's bitches again now that Arthur Harrow Junior takes the spotlight.

🔻 It's really hard when you are the guest stars to someone else's solo-story 😂👌

🔻 Most importantly, I wonder what Jake feels when he discovered Harrow has a son and he literally killed his old man with a croc lady inside his body INSIDE his Limo--- While Khonshu is watching 💀

[fanfictionconnectionwordpress]

Mystic Messenger Fanfiction | JuminxMC Good Ending Continued | Ch. 13 Man In Charge

***This is it! This is the end of the JuminxMC character arc. I hope you've enjoyed it despite my infrequent postings thanks to the real life issues I was having. There also weren't as many hidden scenes because of that, my apologies, and the usual of them raising their teenagers might not come out for some time as I'll be focusing on getting to Seven's Good Ending Continued series to give regular updates there as well as a Vanderwood fanfiction, but it will come out once I feel like my regular posting abilities are back. So sorry T_T,

Next week is prep week for Seven so there will be no Good Ending Continued posts!

Don’t forget to subscribe to the email list for access to R-Rated Scenes and my monthly newsletter. You can support my writing on patreon and get access to my VIP Discord Server or other goodies like early chapter releases and hidden scenes. JuminxMC Good Ending Continued Chapter Directory ~Let’s Connect! FFC***

"I've told you. I'm asking your brother to step into the position." Jumin simply placed another document to the side before starting to read through the next, but our eldest daughter crossed her arms, the cat at her feet walking in circles around her. "Father. It's incredibly unfair. You just wish to give him the position because he is male even though he has no interest in it at all." With that, she and her cat left my husband's in home office. I simply closed the door behind her calmly before approaching him and wrapping my arms around him from behind his chair.

Jumin put his hands up to hold my arms and leaned back against my shoulder, his ever graying hair still dark but not in the way it had once been. His retirement was getting close, and it had made the entire household into somewhat of a mess of late. "Who am I really supposed to choose, MC?" I nuzzled his hair. "That's not really my decision to make." Of course, he would know that. My husband was as practical as ever, and I knew he wasn't seriously considering giving the position of chairman to our son.

Out of our six children, our son was the youngest child and he had always been a sensitive thing from the very beginning. Jumin found it irrational how emotional he tended to be, but loved him every bit as much as our daughters, but it had been clear that there was no way he would ever succeed at C&R, and Jumin desperately wanted to hand the position on to one of our children. Each of our daughters was currently a head of a department, except for our eldest whom he refused to allow into the business despite how badly she wanted it.

"Don't you think you're being a little harsh on Kyung, though? You know how badly she wants to be a part of the business, but she's always been babied thanks to her sight." It was true, our daughter was blind, but she got around the house so easily, partly thanks to her cat, the eldest kitten of Elizabeth the 3rd, otherwise known as Philip, and she was the most like my husband in her practicality and business sense, but he had always been sensitive with her. Jumin had even stiffened at my question and now his voice almost dipped into that same business tone it would with others when he didn't want to deal with them. "She's not fit to work in such an environment."

I let go of him and he let go of my arms reluctantly as I stepped away. Jumin pushed his chair back to get a look at me as I tilted my head at him. "Are you really going to shut down your emotions towards your own wife?" At this point it was almost impossible for him to get away with such a thing and it seemed he was already fully prepared for what I said, because he'd already shook his head. "My apologies, darling. Allow me to try again. I am worried for her. She's blind, and knowing how fast-paced that environment is, someone I trust implicitly would have to be her advisor to read her everything that couldn't be transferred over into braille and help her through the meeting and business trips. There is no such person."

That was more like it, a practical analyzation still, but at least he was expressing his real feelings about it. "All of our younger daughters are wonderful, but they aren't strong enough to lead an entire company. Their plates are at their maximum capacity as department heads, we both know this." I was trying my hand at reasoning back to him, even if it wasn't my forte', but over the years I'd learned how his mind processed things, and I would do just about anything to help our children and their relationship with their father knowing just how happy family made him. "You really can't think of anyone you trust? How about Zen and Jaehee's son? He's a fantastic young man and his mother was an excellent assistant for you before she left the company to start her cafe'. Surely he's looking for an internship by now."

It was pretty clear to me that Jumin had been planning to negate whatever suggestion for a person I made at first, but that he had actually started to think about it once I explained. He was playing with his cuff links like he had a tendency to do from the moment I had met him. "Perhaps...but that doesn't solve the issue completely. She hasn't ever worked in such an environment." This made me giggle just a little before I responded. "Isn't that somewhat the fault of her father for not letting her? She's nearly as old as you were when we met and she's never had a position in the company, but she was always delegating tasks to her younger siblings and she's been making great strides managing my work with the RFA as well. You can hardly say she isn't mentally prepared for running a business if she's done so well from a young age and is even managing a charity organization."

If that didn't convince him, I didn't know what would, but just at the moment, there was a knock at the door. Jumin didn't break eye contact with me for a few more seconds, his eyes the same dark gray as always, before he turned towards the door. "Come in." Kyung pushed the door open, her pale gray eyes looking straight forward, unseeing, as her dark black hair cascaded down her back. She held out a manila file, stepping forward exactly seven steps before placing it on the table. "I brought a list of my skills and relevant experience in a full resume' as well as a list of the benefits and negatives of hiring me. I've also included arguments and solutions for the negatives. Please excuse me, father."

Her keyboard had the braille letters on them, and she'd gotten quite good at typing, but it must still have taken her an excruciating amount of time to complete this task, so I was completely floored, as was my husband, as she simply left the room, closing the door behind her. Philip had waited for her patiently in the doorway, and once again we were alone in my husband's home office. I heard him start to chuckle, a low sound that slowly became louder as he picked up the documents. "I guess she's made my decision for me. So much for being the man in charge." I had to admit, it was pretty comical. Really, I hadn't needed to bother having this discussion with him in the first place, because of course Kyung would find a way to properly appeal to him in the end.

***

So, Kyung became the successor to the C&R company while her sisters continued to lead four of the main departments. Their youngest child and only son soon after took over MC's place in the RFA, which he'd inherited from Kyung who had originally manned it. This was far more his style.

It wasn't long after Jumin's retirement that he and MC decided to move to a home outside of Korea. The other RFA members were all remaining where they'd always been, Yoosung working as a vet while Seven taught their son how to build games, Zen acting while Jaehee took care of their cafe' and their son worked as Kyung's personal assistant. The RFA was continuing to flourish and even doubled the numbers of MC's last party.

All in all, MC and Jumin had helped raise billions of the twenty or so years since MC had joined the RFA initially and fell in love with the elusive 'Korea's most eligible bachelor'. Their life was one well-lived and well-loved. Their family was far from lonely, and that was probably the one thing they had missed when they'd moved to the vacation home, having their children running around in the house even if they mostly had their noses in paperwork.  After a year or so in their new home, Jumin started to forget little things here and there, which eventually became more and more prominent. It was somewhat because of the fact that he wasn't exercising his brain in the way he'd used to with all of the information he had to soak up in a matter of moments before meetings and phone calls, but they were also concerned that it was a symptom of the dementia that had caused his father to go crazy towards the end of his life. They had access to great medical care and invited a caretaker/nurse into their home once it seemed like that was really what was happening.

MC was by Jumin's side even as he forgot who she was and constantly told her she was the prettiest and most honest woman he'd ever met, expressing how impressed he was that she wasn't simply after his money. The birth of their first grandchild wasn't something he could quite process, but he still played with the little one almost constantly when Kyung would visit. After a few years of this, his body gave out and he passed peacefully in his sleep.

It wasn't long after this that MC caught pneumonia, and not wanting to fight it, she simply asked the doctors to make her as comfortable as possible. At first, the children weren't fans of this idea, but after meeting with their mother and having her explain just how lonely she was without their father, they understood a little better, and recognized that sometimes when you've lived a long and happy life and achieved everything you ever dreamed of and more, there comes a moment when there's simply no more to do and when your time comes after that, why try to fight the inevitable.

Jumin and MC were buried in the Han family graveyard not far outside of the city of Seoul and visited often by their children, grandchildren, the new RFA, and the old RFA alike. As much as Zen had once hated Jumin, he had to admit that the man had changed from their younger years, and even he missed the once seemingly cold and unfeeling man that they'd all come to know as a heartfelt and honest individual. He had mattered a lot more to other people than he'd ever thought he could thanks in part to MC's help in tearing down his emotional walls and barriers.

Like this? Want more? Become a Patron ~Let’s Connect! FFC

JuminxMC Good Ending Continued Chapter Directory

[sixth-light]

Chekhov’s Arsenal masterpost: updated

A couple of years ago, @deviantaccumulation kicked off a masterpost of Chekhov’s guns/unanswered questions in RoL. Since then we’ve accumulated quite a few more (mostly from The Hanging Tree but also the comics and a short story or two). So I thought this was a good time to do an updated version separating out questions that have been answered/guns that have been fired, those that haven’t, and new additions to the arsenal. 

In case it’s not obvious: spoilers for everything except The Furthest Station. I have not attributed individual questions but they came from @deviantaccumulation, @the-high-meggas, @maple-clef​, @uncommonsockeater​, @flannelgiraffe, and me - see the original post for who put in which. 

I know this is a pretty long list already, but other questions, opinions on things we’ve got answers for, and potential guns-on-the-mantelpiece are still most welcome! 

ANSWERED QUESTIONS:

What the fox said to Abigail in WuG It was warning her about Chorley’s involvement with/interest in Skygarden. 

Peter’s father needs a few thousand for dental work; his mum is very keen to get the money so that he might re-launch his career. They’ve already done a gig (beaucoup money) for Ty. Will this be a vulnerability for Peter at some point? Apparently not; his dad’s band do regular gigs for the demi-monde, his dad has his new teeth, and Ty doesn’t seem to have been involved at all. Peter just has to live with his parents being better-informed about his work and new world than he might like! 

Will we see Awa Shambir again? Her of the suspiciously expensive hijab to be cleaning the offices (of a front organisation for an evil wizard) in… Goodbye Awa Shambir the Somali cleaning lady, hello Lady Caroline Elizabeth Louise Linden-Limmer, surreptitiously aerial scion of nobility. 

What was Molly doing in the tech cave? Is she on facebook/twitter/tumblr/a cooking forum? Looking up recipes? Has she discovered online shopping? Molly is active on Twitter gossiping and swapping recipes; it’s not a secret from either Peter or Nightingale, they just pretend not to know. 

Is that watch Nightingale gave Peter going to have any future relevance? Peter and Caroline had a watch-off in The Hanging Tree which Peter won, and the practitioner habit of wearing mechanical (and hideously expensive) watches enabled Peter to identify Chorley as the Faceless Man. 

PARTIALLY-ANSWERED QUESTIONS:

Where are the notes Peter was promised? Peter has a deal with Nightingale about getting questions answered in return for magical progress; we haven’t seen him look at any old wizard’s notes specifically but he doesn’t seem to be waiting on them. 

What was Nightingale doing in the 70s that he managed to miss the original FM’s adventure in Soho? Working with the Met, apparently - he was called in when Woodville-Gentle got his at Lady Helena’s hands, but too late to determine whether it was magic. Seems like he just wasn’t paying enough attention to what was going on around him!

How many wizards did Wheatcroft actually train and where are they now? We don’t know how many yet, but more than one, and they’re living the lives of upper-class white men: lawyers, writers, think-tank executives, etc, etc. 

What was Peter doing after he left school and while he was a PCSO? Why did he have problems during his A levels? Why did he join the police? Peter flatted and worked retail for a while after he left school (possibly while he was at school, too). We still don’t know what happened with his A-levels or what led him to join the police. 

Outwith the Met, does the Folly answer to the Home Office (or higher)? There are hints at that (cf. Walid in RoL), but nothing more and Who is Nightingale’s boss/who does Postmartin send his files to?  No direct answer to who they answer to beyond what we already knew, but we learn in THT that they have their own source of funding and aren’t an official part of the Met. Nightingale does not appear to have any direct supervisor beyond the Commissioner (or presumably they would have been informed/called when he was kidnapped in Night Witch). 

Who is Mr. Nolfi’s mother? Where did she learn magic? and Have any other Newtonian wizards continued to practice in secret and/or trained apprentices in other parts of the country, without telling Nightingale? (Broader: was Nightingale mostly wrong about being the last wizard in Britain or really, totally, 100% wrong?) and What about the “female affiliates” of the Little Crocodiles?  Partial answer to all of these: there’s a long-standing tradition of women practicing and teaching each other Newtonian magic dating back to before the founding of the official Folly. Mr Nolfi’s mother and the ‘female affiliates’ of the Little Crocodiles could well have come from this tradition. And Nightingale was totally utterly wrong about being the last wizard in Britain. Whether other ex-Folly members trained anybody, however, we still don’t know. 

What’s the deal with Mr. Punch when Peter’s leaving London at the beginning of Foxglove Summer? Is he coming back? Is it only Peter who senses him? If so, why? Mr Punch is back for real, he’s got something to do with Lesley still, and he’s after Peter. 

How do “Hedge Witches” practise magic; how does it differ from formal Newtonian magic and will we get to meet any? Are “Hedge Wizards” simply rusticated Newtonian wizards, or do they also have informally-developed skillz? Per the one we meet in Black Mould: hedge witches and wizards have informally-developed skills rather than just being rusticated Folly wizards, but how close their magic is to the style Peter is learning, it’s hard to say (because it was a comic.) 

How old is Postmartin, exactly (Peter thinks he looks older and frailer than his Dad, who’s in his 70s, but that’s just his guess)? How did he get that job, and is he ‘just’ a civilian affiliate, like Walid, or something else? Who does he answer to, and what happens if/when he needs replacing? What’s his twitter handle?! Postmartin served during the Korean War, so must have been born between 1928 and 1936 (per @sparrow-wings) - he’s currently in his late 70s-80s. His Twitter handle might be “dyingforafag” (who Molly is chatting to in Body Work). 

STILL ON THE MANTEL:

What about the paintings Peter found in the coach house?

What happened at Ettersberg that caused magic to disappear?

Are there really werewolves or just creepy magic trackers called werewolves? (I’m waiting for them to turn up.)

Why does Fleet have a captain of dogs? What do her dogs do? (Is this related to the werewolves? Were-dogs?)

What’s the actual connection between Wheatcroft, FM1 (Woodville-Gentle, if that’s him) and FM2? Did he train them both, or did W-G train FM2?

What’s up with Abigail’s apparently useless protection charm?

Is there a special reason that Nightingale is called The Nightingale? (+ is he strong/good at magic because of hard work or something else.)

People I’d like to know more about: Nightingale’s uncle, David Mellenby, Nightingale’s family.

How much do senior officers in the Met really know about the Folly/Nightingale/magic? Is it well-known that Nightingale has been running the Folly since the 1940s?

How did Nightingale learn the language Father Thames speaks?

How much does Nightingale and/or Walid know/suspect about the deaging thing? How much of this aren’t he/they telling Peter?

How did Walid and Nightingale meet?

How/why the fox knows about [Skygarden and Chorley], (and why it would tell Abigail)

Are there aliens?

Was the 1911 decrease of odd magical activity in Herefordshire linked to Molly?

Why does Seawoll dislike Nightingale so viscerally?

Did Peter really drop architecture because of his draughtsmanship or was it something else? Is it related to why his chemistry teacher wrote that letter to the newspaper?

How active is the ex-wizard grapevine, really? Is the FM connected to it at all?

What was the Faceless Man actually planning on doing with his Crossrail lair? Why build it so close to the Folly?

Can the Rivers be killed, if they’re badly injured enough far enough away from their river? What happens then?

What happens if one river tries to userp, unseat or in any way properly fight another? Are the results ‘mythic’?

Was Emma Wall really a waste of space? As a character she is a bit of a smoking gun - red herring, or something else? She was living next door to our two, and *in* one of the flats where… stuff was being put. Any happily waltzed out on d-day. Peter never really got a chance to speak to her - but Lesley did, and was the one to dismiss her from suspicion. Which is suspicious (to me)!

Although we found out after that he’s been around for much longer, Nightingale said that Father Thames was definitely the same person in 1914. So presumably they met then… In what circumstances?

Are fae genetically different to other humans? Are they human? What about changelings (like Zoe in FS) - and will she get in contact with Dr Walid?

What did Lesley say to her family about what happened to her face? Do they know about magic?

Just how much of an age gap is there between Peter’s parents?

Why did the Virtuous Men blame the British for Ettersberg? What was the agreement between them that Nightingale was referring to?

Postmartin made a show of wanting to get Peter alone to have a ”big” talk with him. Yet, the discussion we, the readers have witnessed was relatively small. Nightingale only arrived to The Eagle and the Child an hour later. What was said between Postmartin and Peter in the meantime?

Peter’s narration at certain points (like Chapter 14 in Moon Over Soho) waivers between past and present tense, and he is occasionally referring to events in (presumably) later books. Just what point in the future is Peter actually narrating these books?

When Nightingale got an infection in MoS, how did Walid know? Did Molly phone him and do her Nightingale’s being an idiot silence, or was he just visiting anyway?

What does Molly do on her days off?

When Nightingale doesn’t go to Peter’s parents’ for Christmas, did his not wanting to leave Molly excuse have any truth to it, or did he just say that so Peter didn’t realise that Nightingale planned to work (and so Peter didn’t feel he should be missing his own Christmas to help)/ he had a reasonable excuse to not go to Peter’s family’s Christmas celebrations?

(tongue-in-cheek) What would have happened if Peter and Lesley had given Molly a Heston Blumenthal cookbook?

What sort of experiments were the Nazis doing with vampires? (Do we want to know? Proooooooooooobably not.)

NEW ADDITIONS: 

What’s the deal with Lady Helena (and Caroline) - are they connected to Chorley and/or Lesley’s face being healed?

How are Lesley and Punch connected? 

What does Caroline want to escape from? What was she doing posing as a cleaning lady at the County Gard offices? 

How and why did Isis become immortal, since just marrying a River doesn’t appear to do the trick?

What do the Virginian Gentlemen want, and how connected are they with the American government?

What’s their specific definition of a ‘shade’? 

When and how did MI5 learn about magic, and do they have any practitioners of their own?

What does it mean that Michael Cheung is ‘the new guy in Chinatown’? 

Was Christina Chorley a practitioner, possessed, or something else? 

Is there something going on with Guleed (PLEASE NO) or is she just picking up things about the demi-monde via her friendship with Bev (...and others)?

Who is Chorley’s mole within the Met? 

[sadrien]

wanna chat? pt. 14

on ao3 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14

i got my harry potter nerd on for this chapter, mostly because i wanted to write and didn't know what to write about

also, i'm glad you all liked the previous chapter <3

dipshit = adrien fergie = alya no = nino dancing queen = mari

enjoy~

16:30

fergie: its 2 quiet in here time for the #discourse

no: no

fergie: shit im blanking i need a topiC @the babs: someone pls

no: i refuse to support this

dipshit: Anything?

fergie: yes

dipshit: Ok give me a second

no: fuck dude i just wanted a day of chill

fergie: babe with friends like us thats just not possible

dancing queen: What are we doing??

dipshit: Hogwarts house discourse Go

no: i cant believe i have to break up with you

fergie renamed this conversation to “hogwarts house discourse”.

dancing queen: Oh no

fergie: alright alright alright adrien = puff mari = puff nino = puff

dipshit: How do you figure

no: uhhh

dancing queen: Sorry al that seems wrong

dancing queen: oh it is it definitely is but ur all sweet enough for hufflepuff and loyal and we all eat too much food hmmm realistic one… adrien = puff mari = snake nino = raven mayb

dipshit: Make Mari Gryffindor and I’ll agree with you

fergie: whaaaaaat our girl is ambitious aF theres no way

dipshit: But she’s also a really strong leader and incredibly brave

dancing queen: If were arguing over anyone Id say adrien should be a gryffindor Oh wait maybe ravneclaw???? Hes super smart Shit this is really hard? He could be in three???

no: the fuck i was thinking slytherin actually

fergie: ???

dancing queen: ???????

no: listen my dudes the hat takes what you want into consideration right? it does it for harry anyway

fergie: what does this have to do with marshmallow being a snake which is just not accurate

no: im getting there

dipshit: Are we going by stereotypes or nah

dancing queen: Nah The stereotypes suck

no: im just saying theres no fucking way if we were wizards teh agrestes wouldnt be pure bloods and gabriel would be classic fucking slytherin

dancing queen: Ok Ill agree with that

fergie: mhmmmm

dipshit: I wouldn’t say that

no: bro even if you arent going off stereotypes your old man is probably the mos t ambitious perosn ive ever met like scary mari is almost as scary

dancing queen: Hey!!!!!!

fergie: so sorting hat

no has changed their name to sorting hat.

sorting hat: sup

fergie: are u saying adrien would ASK 2 b slytherin

sorting hat: well yeah yeah i am 

fergie: …………… i did not consider

sorting hat: i know you didnt

dancing queen: First of all since we cant decide and Im getting mixed answers from online quizzes

dancing queen has changed their name to lion snake.

lion snake: Second of all doesnt the hat also base it off of what you value the most??

dipshit: Lion snake? Like a chimera?

fergie: nerd

dipshit: Actually the chimera also has a goat ignore me

sorting hat: what the fuck

dipshit: Greek mythology

fergie: u kno what i dont wanna kno

dipshit: Anyway back to this

sorting hat: oh yeah anywa yeah the hat does but adrien wanting to please his dad might overrule that idk my dude jk didnt exactly lay ou t the rules of this super great

fergie: jk needs to c h i l l and ye each of the golden trio couldve ended up in at least one other house

dipshit: That would’ve been cool Also I don’t think I try to please my dad that much

fergie: oh sweetheart

sorting hat: dude

lion snake: Adrien you really really do

dipshit: Really?

fergie has changed their name to adriens legal guardian.

adriens legal guardian: someone needs to take care of you

dipshit: I promise I’m fine I’ve got Nathalie

sorting hat: does nathalie give you hugs

dipshit: No? Why is that relevant?

adriens legal guardian: SHE DOESNT COUNT THEN #HUGADRIENAGRESTE2K17

adriens legal guardian has changed their name to i love adrien.

i love adrien: turn on ur location agreste

dipshit: Please know that’s actually kind of creepy I’m at home you don’t have to worry about location

i love adrien: hella

sorting hat: alya chill out with the name chagnes also now im gonna be confuse d

i love adrien: i love him too but truuuuu

dipshit: ????

i love adrien: can i change it

sorting hat: last time for today??

i love adrien: ilysm

i love adrien has changed their name to cochairman of adrien agreste fanclub

dipshit: I have a fanclub? Wait that wasn’t the smartest thing to say

lion snake: Its a good thing youre cute

dipshit: I try to ignore them

cochairman of adrien agreste fanclub: have u ever been on the official insta of the fanclub bc its hilarious and beautiful

dipshit: …. Alya why

sorting hat: oh we totally googled you

cochairman of adrien agreste fanclub: mhm

lion snake: ^^^^

dipshit: That’s…..nice of you?

lion snake: Sorry if that makes you uncomfortable omg

dipshit: It’s just? Kinda weird?? I don’t mind and I probably should’ve expected it I just forget sometimes that that’s a thing people can/will do

cochairman of adrien agreste fanclub: adri if it makes u feel any better i google everyone ive googled everyone in this chat in our class their parents ymself random strangers if im able to

sorting hat: that is not surprising at all

cochairman of adrien agreste fanclub: ur not special i mean u r ur v special to me and ilysm but not here everyone gets googled and twitter stalked also tell whoevers running ur official accounts to be less lame idc about salad u eat

dipshit: What????

cochairman of adrien agreste fanclub: ur social media is B O R I N G i kno u dont run it but i still expected more memes

dipshit: Honestly I don’t look at it

sorting hat: its like the person we thought you were when we first met you except more boring

lion snake: Ok no thats not true Because I thought he was an asshole

cochairman of adrien agreste fanclub: oh shit tru

dipshit: Ahhhh yeah sorry about that

lion snake: Its fine I promise!!! Weve talked about this Its like Super perfect adn model-y and professional andnot  at all a teenage loser who stayed up until 2 watching sailor moon and eating doritos

sorting hat: fucking relatable

cochairman of adrien agreste fanclub: weebs

sorting hat: yo youre the one who decided to date some

lion snake: Hey Ive never asked Adrien do you have unofficial personal social media???

dipshit: ……………………. Shhhhhh

cochairman of adrien agreste fanclub: WHAAAAAAAT LINKS LINK S LINKS LINSK

dipshit: I have a tumblr but that’s it

cochairman of adrien agreste fanclub: oh my go d this weekend  we get 2gether adn make adrien all the social media and we revamp his tumblr bc ur theme sucks

dipshit: ???? You’ve never even seen it???

cochairman of adrien agreste fanclub: i know it does marsh !!!!!!!! can u imagine if lb and cn had social media!!!!! id c r y

PM between dipshit and lion snake

dipshit: P l e a s e

lion snake: Oh my og d

dipshit: Please please please please please please please plEASE

lion snake: HOld on!!! Im discussing with tikki

dipshit: Plagg says he doesn’t care what we do

lion snake: Yeah we arent trusting him

dipshit: Fair enough WHAT IF I CAN GET SNAPCHAT ON MY BATON A LITERAL SNAPCHAT

lion snake: No Just because of that No

dipshit: Pleaaaaaseeeeeeeee My lady it’ll be great I swear

lion snake: U gh Well talk on it on patrol tonight k??

dipshit: YES!!!!

19:05 in hogwarts house discourse

sorting hat: i know weve moved on but man. fuck snape

 20:12

cochairman of adrien agreste fanclub: do u think if i track down lb and cn and ask them for their hogwarts houses theyll tell me

sorting hat: worth a shot?

 20:42

cochairman of adrien agreste fanclub: update: chat says ladybg is a gryffindor and lb says shes iether that or slytherin so like mari and they cant agree on cn

 22:53

sorting hat: damn you adrien i cant stop thinking about this what is mari?? what is adrien??? what am i?? al youre either gryffindor or ravenclaw ive decided

lion snake: Youre the sorting hat shouldnt you know all???

sorting hat: bruh we need the actual sorting hat for this

lion snake: Fair enough

sorting hat: lets say adrien is a hatstall and move on

3:03

PM between dipshit and lion snake

dipshit: Rise and shine bugaboo Akuma at 3 o’clock Literally 3 o’clock the time not the like If you’re using 12, 3, 6, and 9 as directions It’s not You know what My tracker on my baton is turned on so use that to find me

 3:08

dipshit: Mari Mari Alright plan b I’m gonna call  you and if you don’t pick up I’m going to show up on your balcony Which sounds creepy but also this akuma is now stacking cars and I don’t really know what to do? They aren’t even trying to do anything else right now Am I missing something??? I’m confused

 3:12

lion snake has changed their name to ahHHH

ahHHH: IM SO SORRY Tikki woke me up my phone was muted She says Waitw e dont hav etime for this Ive gotta transform so Ill talk to you when I get there??

dipshit: It’s fine just watching an akuma build a tower out of cars Remind me to show you how to sync Skype up to your yoyo

ahHHH: Youre on skype on your baton??

dipshit: Yeah it makes things easier

ahHHH: Huh Al and nino didnt wake up?

dipshit: I think the akumas too far away for them to hear, but also it’s not exactly being distructive When we actually start fighting people might start waking up but for now it’s being pretty quiet even with the car stacking

ahHHH: Well thats good they need their sleep Wait if the akuma was quiet how did you know??

dipshit: People started posting to the Ladyblog forums and I had that open in another tab

ahHHH: ???/ Why were you up????

dipshit: Bad night I couldn’t sleep so I put on Howl’s Moving Castle

ahHHH: Feeling any better?

dipshit: I’m sure I’ll feel better when I see you :3

ahHHH: Oh myg do Itst oo early for this Ill see you in fa few just stop that cat face

dipshit: ;3

[king-shrug]

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This is certainly not a idea that can be used simply by the average web designer or even webmaster to improve their lookup engine listings, and it is definitely not what many people, which includes myself, has written it in order to be. Nevertheless, first some history. This particular video walks you through the particular specific steps you should get increased rankings in 2018, including launching speed, technical SEO, content, hyperlinks, and more. Considering that it is, all across the particular year businesses specializing in SEO were hectic recovering and finding new procedures to optimize the search motor even better than what their particular competitors were doing. The main stage of SEO is to end up being friendly both to users plus search engines. Based in Colorado springs municipal airport terminal, CO, SocialSEO has been the particular preeminent digital marketing firm within Colorado since 1996. Although the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION experts provide great SEO solutions for their clients, there are usually a few who ruin the particular internet design industry through their own greed in marketing efforts plus manipulate search engine rank. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION may target different kinds associated with search, including image search, regional search, video search, academic lookup, news search and industry-specific up and down search engines. The benefits of successful digital marketing plans are very much proven over the board yet when it comes to organizations within the photography industry the particular SEO components of the marketing method really do make all associated with the difference to helping some sort of photographer stand out from this crowd. HISTORY LESSON: Old SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION advice suggested you connect along with websites and trade links along with each other True, a huge reliable site linking to you may boost up your ranking, yet, it's not going to assist your relevancy score when the particular linked content isn't related in order to the website sharing it. 10. Quality back back links need to be built upward to your site for efficient SEO. SEO is about attracting individuals to your site to start with by making sure this shows up searching queries.

Siteimprove��SEO incorporates sixty six unique SEO checks, including tests for missing meta descriptions, transliteration mistakes, broken links, outdated documents, poor readability, and links in order to unsafe domains. But when we're looking for a larger trend it's that SEO plus what we call real marketing” will continue to blur the particular lines between them as the particular job of the SEO will become that of a traditional online marketer - having to understand the particular user, the competitors, the industry and also the implementation part. Thanks for going to the world of Search Motor Optimization (SEO). For example, we regularly generate content on the topic associated with "SEO, " but it's nevertheless very hard to rank properly on Google for such the popular topic on this acronym alone. What can this industry shifts show about the particular future of SEO and content material marketing? Search engine optimisation Blog9T (SEO) is on a move. Whether a person are an SEO Professional, Electronic Marketing Agency, SMB or Brand name, looking to increase your visitors or to monitor your web site's evolution, this SEO software may provide you with best within class digital marketing strategy evaluation and insights for your company. Their expertise will be incredibly valuable because there will be lots of science to SEO, plus it is constantly changing since search engines like Google keep on to update their algorithms. From a content viewpoint, I'd say one of the particular best ways to get SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION value out of video will be to focus your efforts upon addressing your customer's pain factors. A reputable SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION company carries on along with your Company Profile and then do all those profile building and then Regional Business Listing Optimization. Our first five steps had been dedicated to on-page SEO methods Link-building is the primary goal of off-page SEO, and is usually also an enormous factor within how search engines rank your own web pages. So far because I know, this only functions for HTML or CSS webpages - I don't go significantly for Flash websites, and We am unsure how that cookware out regarding search engines plus SEO. In fact, a large part of SEO in 2018 is writing for humans PLUS search engines (also known because: SEO copywriting”). SEO is the significant part of any web marketing strategy. Canonical: This connect to handles content syndication, which basically allows other blogs to post your job (similar to franchising) with out hurting your website's SEO ranking—simply by having a rel=canonical can obtain your brand and content out there on the web in several outlets, ensuring a greater get to and bigger audience without harming your own search results. We are usually offering affordable search engine search engine optimization SEO services to clients throughout the globe. If you want the strong social media strategy, a person simply can't ignore SEO. Another SEO-related plugin, W3 Total Cache is used to boost the performance of your Wp blog or a website simply by integrating features such as content material delivery networks to be capable to reduce the loading occasions for your pages. The Technical Audit Checklist Produced For Human Beings — Within this post by Distilled, a person will find a link in order to a Google sheet that provides an technical SEO audit guidelines and links to resources upon how to complete each checkbox. Then each time the phrase SEO appears on your web site, it's automatically changed into the link you specified. Keyword Study for SEO: The Definitive Guideline — This comprehensive guide simply by Brian Dean teaches you the number of strategies for obtaining keywords and determining intent with regard to your target market. On-page and off-page SEO function together to improve your lookup engine rankings in complementary style; however, SEOs generally advise obtaining your on-page SEO ducks within a row before focusing as well much on off-page SEO. Within 2019, web-based businesses will embrace more voice-to-text technology to raise engagement and search activity. There are many SEO web sites suggesting that they can offer a service to make our own website LSI friendly, or meet up with ‘LSI requirements'. The particular art of web SEO is situated in focusing on how individuals search for things and knowing what type of results Search engines wants to (or will) screen to its users. Social mass media SEO would encourage your present customers to come back whilst helping you develop authority regarding potential ones. He is an expert in SEO, Content Marketing, plus Pinterest Marketing. An SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION expert plays a huge function in helping companies build their particular businesses and attract new clients through website traffic. For blog websites the greatest SEO practice would be in order to set the title of your own post in a heading1 label. Search engines is the gatekeeper to substantial amounts of traffic and prospects - search engine optimization (SEO) opens the doors. Simply because long as they are gained naturally, inbound links are possibly the most dependable authority contractors in the world of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. We all call this new methodology AdaptiveSEO so that as its title suggests, it is made in order to adapt to the evolving plus sometimes unexpected changes in lookup algorithms. Numerous get confused in this region of SEO article writing recommendations for either they in place too little or maybe the particular wrong kind of keywords, or even they mention the keyword method too much which is occasionally called keyword over stuffing. Social SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION isn't a separate branch associated with SEO and it won't shortly be replacing traditional SEO, yet social signals are becoming significantly incorporated into search engine methods. Perhaps the particular most important aspect of lookup engine optimization is how a person can actually leverage SEO in order to assist drive more relevant visitors, leads, and sales for your own business. Just browse through the various types of our SEO blog page to find those important on-page ranking factors. According to him, key phrases have already lost their significance and in 2019 this pattern would only get stronger. Seo (SEO) will be the most efficient way in order to drive traffic to your internet site.

Our six experts discuss their favorite SEO tips in addition to tactics for building big site visitors in 2018. Yes, all of us know it's still June plus we know it's only 2018 but if you haven't began planning and researching key tendencies which will affect you SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION in 2019 you could currently be falling behind. We furthermore take a look at just how new technologies like AI plus Voice search will begin in order to impact more on SEO because we move nearer to 2019 and beyond. Whenever every nation across the planet is busy in making their particular due contribution within the advancement sector in their own method by taking the route associated with SEO service and online advertising, Singapore cannot stop stand nevertheless in one point. By 2019, articles marketing is set to turn out to be an industry worth $300 billion dollars. Off page SEO relates to the strategies performed further than your website that can become used to improve your lookup engine rankings. Due in order to the success of inbound marketing and advertising and SEO, more marketers are usually dedicated to improving their position over other tactics. The best way to focus on these customers is by offering high-quality SEO content that offers genuine and useful information toward the readers. Another method provides a different page based upon whether the page is getting requested with a human customer or a search engine, the strategy known as cloaking An additional category sometimes used is gray hat SEO This is within between black hat and whitened hat approaches, where the strategies employed avoid the site becoming penalized, but do not take action in producing the best articles for users. Google My Business is Google's business directory and, thus, extremely vital that you your local SEO Detailed businesses with all the best SEO may appear in the Local 3-Pack, the batch of 3 showcased businesses nearest you that seem when you do a appropriate local search. Stir up Visibility recently released SEO: The particular Movie ”. This 40-minute movie covers a brief history associated with search engine optimization portrayed via the experiences of some associated with the biggest names within the particular SEO industry. In addition to producing content accessible to search engines, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION also helps boost rankings therefore that content will be positioned where searchers will more easily believe it is. The Internet is getting increasingly competitive, and people companies who else perform SEO may have the decided advantage in visitors plus customers. Unfortunately, SEO - and research Five Secrets You Will Not Want To Know About SEO 2019 in general - is usually soloed into focusing on The particular Google” and not really regarded as for other tactics. This means website owners plus SEO experts will need in order to be on top of their own game when it comes in order to keyword research and keeping the particular context of their site appropriate to users. Varvy's SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Overview tool audits your site for key parameters like website strength, links, image SEO, cultural counts, on-page SEO, technical standing, page speed, loading time plus more. The particular trouble is that SEO rank factors have changed a good deal over the years (find out and about how in our keyword analysis guide ). That means this search engine optimization techniques that will worked 5 years back won't take flight today. Let's confirm our knowing of SEO basics with the one question quiz about the particular factors in search rankings: web pages, links and keyphrases. When it comes in order to Google SEO, the rel=canonical hyperlink element has become VERY IMPORTANT over the many years and NEVER MORE SO. To place the particular focus on the website customer, it has been suggested that will acronym SEO should indicate lookup experience optimization. It's important to remember in order to share content from your site or blog socially to provide it an SEO boost as well. Some Webmasters will spend thousands of dollars to a few so-called professional SEO expert in order to get their Websites on best in the rankings. It is often preferable to ask questions upon their SEO procedures and find out whether they have knowledge associated with keyword density or if these people have information about the most recent keyword research strategies and equipment. This combined expertise makes all of us uniquely qualified to present a good ethics-based, search engine-friendly SEO guide to teach you guidelines that will reflect the latest developments looking. They protect important subjects for example search motor success factors and how SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION relates to social media advertising. In order in order to make web pages appear in high positions in the search outcomes, SEO tries to shape the website according to Google's formula. The major problem of SEO is the reality that there are billions associated with pages in the internet research engine indexes and your place in the SERPS is reliant on a constantly changing criteria which is not published. One thing will be crystal clear: if you need people to discover your function, you need search engine marketing (SEO). This most means when you're thinking regarding your SEO strategy, you require to think about how your own social networking strategy fits into the particular puzzle, too. As your visitors slowly increases, ensure that you include various other SEO strategies (like adding exterior and internal links, guest publishing, etc) to engage more customers and keep your metrics higher. Google has still left a very narrow band associated with opportunity when it comes in order to SEO - and punishments are created to take you out associated with the game for some period while you cleanup the infractions. Head of Marketing, He Edstrom, at BioClarity, a San Diego based health-science company, feels that SEO is going in order to see a decreased importance within 2019, and SEOs should begin ensuring they're competent in SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. The best rank that you could notice the profile with contact information and maps on right hands side of search result web page is achieved after long process for using SEO tactics. Numerous search engine optimisation. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the technique of enhancing a website for search motor discovery and indexing. SEO is actually a technique which search motors require that sites must enhance properly, so that they show up high in search results. The European Search Honours is an international competition that will shines the spotlight for the best SEO and Content Marketing organizations in Europe. User-generated content racks up serious SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION points by providing sites along with fresh content, bundles of inbound links, and sources for organically framing natural attributes. You'll find it right here Also really worth checking away is Moz's Beginner's Facts SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, ” which you'll find right here, and the SEO Success Pyramid from Small Business Search Advertising. Off-page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategy refers to the impact of a change in additional websites in your search position. Bruce Clay-based set the standard for honest internet marketing by authoring the particular " SEO Code of Integrity, " now translated into eighteen languages, and it has already been a respected leader within the particular ever-changing research engine marketing industry since mil novecentos e noventa e seis. Website SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION (including, content optimisation, meta marketing, the significance of links). A good SEO Specialist is someone that is an expert on the particular topic of search engine marketing. Just due to the fact a proper On-page and Off-page SEO optimization work will provide a better Ranking to your own website in Search Engine Outcome Page (SERP). The greatest SEO change and craze I realize already happening within 2018 is Google's switch in order to a mobile-first index, so in the event that a site is not however mobile-friendly and optimized for this, it's critical to prioritize this particular as it is now essential for its SEO success. With good on-page SEO, lookup engines can easily index your own web pages, understand what your own site is about, and effortlessly navigate the structure and articles of your website, thus rank your site accordingly.

Ultimately, simply by the end of 2018 or even mid-2019, we'll see a golf swing back to natural” content created by real humans who may produce valuable content that really provides value. Hiring experienced SEO experts will certainly ensure that your website climbs the search engine ranks with out using any illegal practices or even short cuts that could create short-term spikes in the cyberspace ranking, but eventually lead in order to your website having to pay out penalties. Official Site Associated with BlowFish SEO - Professional Search Motor Optimization Services operated by Robert DiSalvo SEO Located in Hand Beach Gardens, Florida. The takeaway here is usually that if you might have got LOTS of location pages providing A SINGLE business in one particular location, then those are quite probably classed as some type of doorway pages, and possibly old-school SEO techniques for these types of type of pages will discover them classed as lower-quality -- or even - spammy web pages. CRAWL this, like Google does, with (for example) Screaming Frog SEO spider, plus fix malformed links or issues that result in server errors (500), broken links (400+) and needless redirects (300+). SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION gives you an attempt at rating for the terms which your own customers use, so you may do better business. The job of the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is to create high-quality articles and after that win the attention, the particular love as well as the particular link from a blogger or even editor. The keyword difficulty or even keyword SEO difficulty is the very useful metric for key word research.

Looking deeper: In present-day SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, you can't simply include since several keywords as possible to achieve the people who are searching for you. SEO stands for Search Motor Optimization and refers to methods you can use to assist ensure that your site rates high in the results associated with search engines for example Google. It blends ranks and search volumes in the manner that makes it even more relevant, insightful and easier in order to understand than any other SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION performance tracking approach. About: Advanced Search Summit is definitely designed for advanced SEO experts, digital marketers, and analysts with enterprise and mid-market sized businesses who want advanced tactics plus techniques. SEO stands for seo. ” It is the process associated with getting traffic through the free, ” organic, ” editorial” or natural” search results on search motors like google. If you're believing about ramping up SEM attempts to complement organic SEO, become sure to take a appearance at Google Adwords ' Lookup Ads page. The large a part of SEO is producing valuable, high-quality content (e. gary the gadget guy., blog articles and web web page copy) that your potential audience can find helpful. SEO alone cannot perform much for your business yet when combined with content marketing and advertising, social internet marketing, email marketing and advertising, mobile marketing and PPC marketing and advertising, it can help businesses achieve the pinnacle of success on the internet.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of typically the most important marketing considerations in your studio website. SEO might generate a sufficient return upon investment However, search engines are usually not purchased organic search visitors, their algorithms change, and right now there are no guarantees of ongoing referrals. A great starting point whenever using keywords for SEO is usually to identify existing pages that will may use some optimization. These are called keywords, plus as you will see, they will are an important part associated with SEO. In fact, this particular will actually hurt your cyberspace SEO because search engines such as google will recognize it since keyword stuffing - or the particular act of including keywords particularly to rank for that key word, rather than to answer the person's question. Just before we begin, one thing a person want to keep in thoughts when using some of the following SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION elements is not to overdo it. You might be enticed to shove a lot associated with keywords onto your pages, yet that is not the objective. In situation you create links to additional websites and reverse, it will certainly improve your SEO ranking. Really Cisco predicts that globally, on-line video traffic will be eighty percent of all consumer Web traffic by 2019 (a quantity that is up from sixty four percent in 2014). I've bookmarked therefore many SEO websites and assets that it's overwhelming to also look at. Link authority is the major component of SEO, yet purchasing links is forbidden simply by Google, Bing, and other lookup engines.

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What You Know About SEO 2019 And What You Don't Know About SEO 2019

From the world's greatest brands to modest personal web sites, Seo (SEO) is an important tool to push traffic, acquire fresh customers and get obtained on-line. SEO & Content Marketing Software for eCommerce Business, Agencies and Enterprises. Calib Backe, SEO Manager for Walnut Holistics, writes that mobile plus voice are going to carry on their domination of importance because we rely on desktop much less and less. If much associated with your competitors has hired SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION firms to focus on 10-20 keywords within a moderately competitive industry, after that you will have to spend a small more. The Google Lookup Console could be the most essential SEO tool on the world. No BS. In case you're done with the fatigued cliches told over and above again at SEO Conferences, after that you're prepared to experience UnGagged - an UnConventional SEO plus Digital Marketing conference that offers real-world results. SEO is a good acronym for the phrase "search engine optimization. " Search motor optimization is about doing specific items to your website to operate a vehicle even more traffic to it so that will you can increase online product sales - and traffic. By 2019, the method we search might not modify completely, but these new technology will definitely change the way we all build links, engage users, plus generate leads through content advertising. Site Champion® increases site visitors by helping shoppers find your own products in search engines by means of increased keyword rankings using SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION automation. While link quantity is nevertheless important, content creators and SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION professionals are realizing that hyperlink quality is now more essential than link quantity, and since such, creating shareable content may be the initial step to earning valuable hyperlinks and improving your off-page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. Join us for some sort of three-day, one-track conference full associated with forward-thinking, tactical sessions in SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION, growth marketing, the mobile surroundings, analytics, content marketing, and a great deal more. The objective involving SEO is to get a new website ranked as high while possible on search engines, like Google. When you are improving user knowledge by focusing primarily on the particular quality of the MC associated with your pages and avoiding : even removing - old-school SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION techniques - those certainly are usually positive steps to getting even more traffic from Google in 2018 - and the type associated with content performance Google rewards is usually in the end largely with The 10 Reasons Tourists Love SEO 2019 least about a satisfying consumer experience. For instance, when I'm logged in to Google+ and We search for SEO, I obtain the following in my top 5 search results. Black head wear SEO practice involves breaking just about all of the rules and rules of the search engine. Every time you observe or hear the phrase research engine optimization, ” substitute exactly what create quality and indicating relevance” and you'll have the correct mindset permanently SEO work. SEOs conveniently call this effect ‘domain authority' and it appeared in order to be related to ‘PageRank' : the system Google started in order to rank the web within 1998. For those who have more time plus are keen to follow the particular SEO industry, subscribe to Moz and Search Engine Land. Integrating these keywords into the article allows you to add range while still retaining SEO strength. You will end up being introduced to the foundational components of how search engines such as google work, how the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION landscape is promoting and exactly what you can expect in the particular future. The SISTRIX Toolbox consists associated with six modules 1) SEO, 2) Universal, 3) Links, 4) Advertisements, 5) Social and 6) Optimizer. Low-quality content can severely impact the achievements of SEO, within 2018. When your own SEO starts building strong environment, competitors can start maligning your own SEO backlinks. ” With content marketing spend likely to reach $300 billion by 2019, this statistic is worrisome. Now the electronic marketing companies know how in order to use AI for SEO, plus in coming years AI can dominate in developing the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategies of the digital marketing and advertising companies. Ray Cheselka, AdWords and SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Manager at webFEAT Complete, the design and SEO agency, states that in 2019 search purpose Blog9T will continue to become even more important. Expert writers of SEO articles may take the time to study the particular industry or market market. 2 tools to help with nearby SEO are BrightLocal (for rankings) and MozLocal (for local research optimization). Concerning on-page SEO best practices, I usually link out to other quality appropriate pages on other websites exactly where possible and where a human being would find it valuable. It includes a favorite Regular Table of SEO Success Factors”, a 9-chapter guide to SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION basics, and links to a few from the site's most useful blog posts. In 2018, SEO is content and content material is SEO, content is electronic and digital is content. Before starting a good SEO project, site owners need to carefully read through the site owner guidelines that every search motors provides and follow recommended greatest practices. This is clear that when website owners hire a search engine optimisation SEO expert, they stand the better chance of maximizing their particular SEO services. Search motors cannot understand this type associated with content, so it's crucial to style video pages in an SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION oriented manner. Subscribe to our weekly SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION and daily SearchCap newsletters for a summarize of all the latest SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION related news, tips and techniques from Internet search engine Property and other sources all more than the Web. When most likely logged in, go to SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Toolkit » Keyword Research » Keyword Overview. For almost any SEO technique to operate successfully you will need content and that will can come in any type like keywords, articles or sites. From 2019, AI may be utilized by the businesses to acquire higher rankings upon search engines. For that reason, it can be a great idea to incorporate expenses regarding professional SEO content in your own quarterly marketing budget. Google will see right via sneaky, black hat SEO techniques like creating duplicate pages, generating pages with thin content simply for the sake of obtaining more pages and buying inbound links.

Looking deeper: In present-day SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, you can't simply include because a lot of keywords as possible to achieve the people who are searching for you. SEO stands for Search Motor Optimization and refers to methods you can use to assist ensure that your site rates high in the results associated with search engines like Google. It blends ratings and search volumes in the manner that makes it even more relevant, insightful and easier in order to understand than any other SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION performance tracking approach. About: Advanced Search Summit is definitely designed for advanced SEO specialists, digital marketers, and analysts from enterprise and mid-market sized businesses who want advanced tactics plus techniques. SEO stands for seo. ” It is the process associated with getting traffic through the free, ” organic, ” editorial” or natural” search results on search motors like google. If you're believing about ramping up SEM initiatives to complement organic SEO, end up being sure to take a appearance at Google Adwords ' Research Ads page. The large portion of SEO is generating valuable, high-quality content (e. grams., blog articles and web web page copy) that your potential audience may find helpful. SEO alone cannot perform much for your business yet when combined with content advertising, social internet marketing, email marketing and advertising, mobile marketing and PPC advertising, it can help businesses achieve the pinnacle of success on the internet. Siteimprove SEO incorporates sixty six unique SEO checks, including tests for missing meta descriptions, punctuational mistakes, broken links, outdated documents, poor readability, and links in order to unsafe domains. But in the event that we're looking for a larger trend it's that SEO plus what we call real marketing” will continue to blur the particular lines between them as the particular job of the SEO turns into that of a traditional internet marketer - having to understand the particular user, the competitors, the industry and also the implementation part. Thanks for going to the world of Search Motor Optimization (SEO). For example, we regularly generate content on the topic associated with "SEO, " but it's nevertheless very hard to rank nicely on Google for such the popular topic on this acronym alone. What can all of us industry shifts show about the particular future of SEO and content material marketing? Search engine marketing (SEO) is on a move. Whether a person are an SEO Professional, Electronic Marketing Agency, SMB or Brand name, looking to increase your visitors or to monitor your web site's evolution, this SEO software will certainly provide you with best within class digital marketing strategy evaluation and insights for your company. Their expertise is usually incredibly valuable because there will be plenty of science to SEO, plus it is constantly changing because search engines like Google keep on to update their algorithms. From a content viewpoint, I'd say one of the particular best ways to get SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION value out of video is usually to focus your efforts upon addressing your customer's pain factors. A greater number associated with people will stick to tone of voice search, so SEO specialists can need to adjust to this particular relatively new kind of research. Seo or SEO is definitely a powerful method to generate targeted traffic to your web site and hopefully increase your bottom level line. Whilst many marketing tactics rely upon you reaching out to your own audience, SEO gives you the particular power to achieve people whenever they are actively searching away information related to your solutions and products. Light hat SEOs the actual recommendations of Google and other research engines like google. As Google's search engine outcomes become increasingly monetized and some other platforms such as Amazon plus YouTube gain more SoV plus search volume, I think we are going to overdue for the focus associated with SEO to shift far through Google. Traditional SEO is usually focused on building (keyword relevant) links and (keyword relevant) articles. The main reason they may sometimes misunderstood is because you will find a whole Internet underbelly of alleged SEO companies that you may pay to link to your own site on their networks associated with low-quality articles. However, before we obtain to our main event, We must note that after the 2017 edition of SEO developments launched last year on Lookup Engine Journal, we heard the couple of complaints about simply how long it was. After that your boss tells you if you're accountable for search engine marketing (SEO), too. Michael jordan Harling, SEO Specialist at Roman Blinds Direct, agrees with the particular consensus that voice search will certainly be the trend in 2019. Without the doubt, one of the greatest trends that has already started to take place and may continue well into 2018 could be the consolidation of niche MarTech gamers by larger content cloud suppliers, with the role and significance of SEO increasing significantly all through this transformation. SEO Internet marketing offers major components, which develop the particular website traffic, and top research engine rankings. SEO is brief for Seo, and there is usually nothing really mystical about this particular. You might have heard the lot about SEO and just how it works, but basically exactly what is a measurable, repeatable procedure which is used to deliver signals to search engines that will the pages are worth displaying in Google's index. Topic clusters have got been lauded because the future associated with SEO and content strategy, yet are widely underreported on (so now's the time to hit! ) 93% of B2B companies use content marketing. Teresa Walsh, Marketing Professional at automobile site, Cazana, forecasts that hyper organic targeting will increase its importance in 2019 with more location search plus more voice search. We get to the particular bottom of on-page SEO difficulties in order for search motors to clearly see what your own website is all about. SEO requires you to continuously be considered a student because of exactly how quickly the algorithms of lookup engine companies change. Google's punishing methods probably class pages as some thing akin to a poor UX if they meet certain detectable criteria e. g. lack associated with reputation or old-school SEO stuff such as keyword stuffing a site.

Link building is a type of off-site SEO where various other sites link back to your own site if they feel a person offer something of value in order to their audience. In many crucial areas they overlap; if SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is more technical and provides to a narrow sphere, articles marketing takes a holistic strategy. Equally, presently there is no point in losing your SEO marketing efforts simply by delivering lots of traffic in order to your website from highly appropriate search queries, when the consumer experience upon landing on that will website is poor quality. On web page, SEO relates to keywords. In addition to the over search engine optimization solutions, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION services provide other Internet marketing and advertising services, which includes: search-friendly internet design, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising strategies, backlink programs, SMO services, blog page optimization and marketing, targeted nearby search engine marketing, and cellular marketing optimization. A successful SEO effort requires to move beyond building content to rank on highly explored keywords and should have the heavy focus on providing solutions for genres of unique inquiries that many people might research by voice. Learn the particular strategy behind great SEO, which includes keyword planning, content optimization, hyperlink building, and SEO for e-commerce, local search, and mobile viewers. Seo or SEO is usually the simple process of making sure a website can be discovered in search engines for phrases and phrases relevant to exactly what the site is providing.

Dave Gregory, Content Marketing Supervisor from the UK based overall performance marketing agency, SiteVisibility, predicts that will 2019, and not 2018, will be going to be the genuine year of voice. If we consider Google's Guide then there are almost 200+ factors that lead a site in ranking, which we possess researched and clustered in twenty one On Page SEO Factors, that will needs your attention in 2019. SEO Wise Links can automatically link crucial terms in your posts plus comments with corresponding posts, webpages, categories and tags on your own blog. 41. An effective interpersonal media strategy needs a strong SEO plan. Google does make a few of this data accessible in their particular free Webmaster Tools interface (if you haven't set up a free account, this is a very beneficial SEO tool both for unearthing search query data and intended for diagnosing various technical SEO issues). AI and Tone of voice Search Impact SEO, Lets discover how voice search analytics Impact's SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION and can impact in the particular coming time. A great many businesses choose to hire external help for you to get the full benefits associated with SEO, so a large component of our audience is studying how to convince their customers that search is a good investment (and then prove it! ). Nevertheless, SEOs tend in order to prefer links higher on the page. Because your site, thanks to the nature of your current business is going to always be more image orientated than written text heavy, you may be at a small disadvantage when it comes for you to employing SEO techniques such since keywords, backlinking and so out. SEO is really the shortened phrase for search motor optimization. I believe SEO within 2019 will largely be such as SEO in 2018, with the particular exception of some big” Search engines update that wipes out sufficient websites to make people think the algorithms have grown significantly smarter. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION works by optimizing a home page's pages, conducting keyword research, plus earning inbound links. The business offers excellent SEO packages that will help rank the clients' internet site within top three pages associated with search engine pages. That can make SEO an ideal lead era tool, because when searchers adhere to links back to your web site, you have the chance in order to convert them to leads, plus later make sales. Whenever asked to point out ideas that are unique towards the particular web, most people will arrive up with two main types: SEO and social media. How many links do a person need for good off-page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION? If you are performing a professional SEO audit for the true business, you are going in order to have to think like the Google Search Quality Rater Plus a Google search engineer to offer real long-term value to the client. 44. Give your own social media profiles an SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION boost. 10% of our experts believe that will there's likely to be the lot of focus on cellular in 2019, as older SEOs realize optimizing for desktop is definitely pointless. White hat SEO is not really just about following guidelines, yet is about ensuring that the particular content the search engines indexes and consequently ranks will be the same content the user will see.

Right now there are a few fundamentals that will can help boost the technique, but SEO, or seo, is usually hardly ever considered. While employing the services of a great SEO agency can get a person good marketing copy for the particular website and an effective make use of of the related keywords, getting a brilliantly designed website will certainly help a lot when this comes to attracting people plus even the search engines in order to your website. You are able to get into important SEO-related data like the particular page title, description, and key phrases for every page or a person can have the system instantly populate this data depending upon a document name or various other fields. SEO has become broadly adopted as an online marketing and advertising strategy due to its effectiveness. Creating high-quality content along with SEO in your mind through the beginning boosts search presence. In contrast, dark hat SEO is about attempting to take shortcuts and video game search engines. You may also use Google Analytics in order to find SEO keywords for content material optimization. Keyword research is the particular process SEOs value to discover what search queries consumers get into into a search engine regarding a given topic. Within today's rapidly shifting world, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION techniques can change on the dime—and the worst part will be that you might not also know it. Hacks that can have won you a front-page result as recently as 2016 are not only obsolete right now, but they may even harm your website's rankings. Google My Business is Google's business directory and, thus, extremely vital that you your local SEO Outlined businesses using the best SEO may appear in the Local 3-Pack, the batch of 3 presented businesses nearest you that show up when you do a pertinent local search. Fire up Visibility recently released SEO: The particular Movie ”. This 40-minute movie covers a brief history associated with search engine optimization portrayed by means of the experiences of some associated with the biggest names within the particular SEO industry. In addition to producing content accessible to search engines, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION also helps boost rankings therefore that content will be positioned where searchers will more easily still find it. The Internet is getting increasingly competitive, and people companies that perform SEO may have the decided advantage in visitors plus customers. Unfortunately, SEO - and research in general - is usually soloed into focusing on The particular Google” and not really regarded as for other tactics. This means website owners plus SEO experts will need in order to be on top of their particular game when it comes in order to keyword research and keeping the particular context of their site related to users. Varvy's SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Overview tool audits your internet site for key parameters like domain name strength, links, image SEO, sociable counts, on-page SEO, technical standing, page speed, loading time plus more. The particular trouble is that SEO rating factors have changed a whole lot over the years (find away how in our keyword analysis guide ). That means the particular search engine optimization techniques of which worked 5 years back won't take flight today. UnGagged London, uk is really a 2-day SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION & Digital Marketing conference of which takes place June 11-12th, using one-day intensive masterclasses on August 13th. These ‘quality updates' are very reminiscent of Search engines Panda updates and often effect many websites at the exact same time - and often these types of concentrate on demoting similar ‘low-quality' SEO techniques we have already been told Panda focuses on. I think savvy SEOs are going to utilize AI content generation (text and pictures especially) in 2019 to produce a whole new kind associated with search algorithm gaming, that might almost be viewed as dark hat. This course covers how in order to build strong links for much better SEO. SEO companies ensure that will your site has all associated with the SEO Internet marketing like as business improvement, localized item sales, high quality online era and the rest. 2018 brought many adjustments to the world of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, including a few new formula evolutions through Google. An expert Seo agency may help any dimensions of company take full advantage of web marketing and raise the likelihood associated with actual sales while simultaneously raise brand awareness one of the particular audience segment. Recently we were speaking about the subject with the friendly agency in Valencia plus we directed to this entrance of Search Engine Journal along with the 20 questions that ought to be done to any SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION or SEO agency that desires to hire. A great SEO service includes a great deal of research and lots associated with smart keywords application which will certainly period website at a increased notch and provide it the higher ranking in Google web search engine. Professional SEO content authors work on creating articles just after understanding the nature associated with your business, your industry, rivals and what kind of content your business might most want for maximum benefits; in the particular short-term and the long-term. Linking to other webpages inside your site, as well because linking to other sites plus getting other sites to url to yours, is a great method to improve your SEO. Influencer marketing doesn't seem in order to be slowing down anytime quickly, so it will probably obtain bigger in 2018 and actually bigger in 2019 when even more companies start to catch upon to this trend. Keeping within mind the last point, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION agencies are fluent in navigating via a wide range of on the internet marketing tools that helps boost the value of your marketing technique. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is definitely a powerful process that may help make you and your own research more visible to lookup engines like Google and Search engines Scholar. I have simply no clue about SEO only several basics that is available almost all over the place and I actually feel this article must help as your other articles assisted me give some direction upon recovering my lost traffic plus generating more content as nicely as repurposing old content.

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The 10 Reasons Tourists Love SEO 2019

A wide range of SEO techniques exist intended for improving the search engine ratings of web sites and their particular individual pages. The main stage of SEO is to end up being friendly both to users plus search engines. Based in Colorado springs municipal airport terminal, CO, SocialSEO has been the particular preeminent digital marketing firm within Colorado since 1996. Although the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION experts provide great SEO solutions for their clients, there are usually a few who ruin the particular internet design industry through their particular greed in marketing efforts plus manipulate search engine rank. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION may target different kinds associated with search, including image search, regional search, video search, academic lookup, news search and industry-specific up and down search engines. The benefits of successful digital marketing plans are very You Will Never Thought That Knowing SEO 2019 Could Be So Beneficial! much proven throughout the board nevertheless when it comes to companies within the photography industry typically the SEO aspects of the marketing method really do make all associated with the difference to helping a new photographer stand out from typically the crowd. HISTORY LESSON: Old SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION advice suggested you connect along with websites and trade links along with each other True, a large legitimate site linking to you may boost up your ranking, yet, it's not going to assist your relevancy score when the particular linked content isn't related in order to the website sharing it. 10. Quality back back links need to be built upward to your site for efficient SEO. SEO is about attracting individuals to your site to start with by making sure this shows up searching queries.

"SEO" is a term that will be used to describe the procedure by which visitors a specific site is increasingly generated simply by search engines through search results. These white-hat cellular SEO tips will help a person to avoid internet search motor penalties and maintain better on the internet visibility. SEO or research engine optimization techniques will deal with these requirements of a web site. AI and tone of voice search have already begun in order to impact SEO, and as these types of technologies continue to develop, all of us can expect to see a lot more changes in the way SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is completed. In the second chapter of our SEO manual, you will learn how research engines work, how people utilize them and what type of lookup queries they submit. You need in order to provide regular posts either daily or at least several instances a week in order in order to gain a following and offer enough unique SEO content in order to keep your search engine rankings high, attract new viewers plus convince people that you are usually the expert in your industry. Voice lookup will change the way we interact along with search engines and it may make SEO even more competing and vital to online achievement. Our SEO outreach team connect your brand and curated content with key on-line influencers to get people speaking about you & sharing your own message. Yet, with the research engines like google continually transforming their rules SEO may appear confusing and overwhelming. Understanding what these words really imply, and how SEO analysts make use of them to boost your cyberspace search engine results, may end up being a whole other story. SEO or the particular Search Engine Optimization is certainly an method of increasing visitors generation for an internet company. Cisco approximated that by 2019, video will certainly make up 80% of just about all consumer internet traffic. In line along with the previous point, SEOs will certainly consider various landing pages along with proper keywords, meta tags plus the overall website structure through the SEO point of see. Including relevant key phrases in the title, URL, plus headers of the page plus making sure that a internet site is crawlable are actions that will site owners can take in order to improve the SEO of their particular site. To fulfill intent and position well in the long work, build your SEO marketing technique around topics, not keywords In case you do that, there are plenty of a person can naturally optimize for essential keywords, anyway. Artificial cleverness (AI) and voice searches are usually two technologies that are currently affecting SEO but will most likely have an even bigger effect in 2019 and the many years to come. They are usually also great for video SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, and get great organic rating online and Google. Remember keywords are usually the KEY in SEO composing guidelines. It deeply analyze your site and reveals each opportunity regarding your SEO improvement by concentrating on key factors like interpersonal media, technologies, local SEO, guests, usability, search ranking efforts plus mobile SEO. A SEO specialist or agency can audit your own site and appear at exactly how it is performing against your own most important keywords.

It helps your SEO attempts to ensure that your keyword phrases are added to the coto description and it will offer you a ranking boost in case your specific terms are noticeable in this area. Moreover, a Google Penguin update drastically changed the part of backlinks on SEO, doing it more difficult to acquire link juice to a web site. Gone are the times of traditional SEO techniques, on the web content is changing. The cognitiveSEO Rank System offers accurate country, language plus city precision for all your own tracked keywords. Even if your URLs normally are not pretty, ” if you avoid feel as though they're adversely impacting users and your company in general, don't change all of them to be more keyword concentrated for better SEO. ” In the event Blog9T that you do need to modify your URL structure, make certain to utilize the proper (301 permanent) type of redirect. In this particular post, we've broken down the particular very best SEO techniques to assist you skyrocket your rankings plus boost your number of regular visitors. An accessible URL will be an important SEO ranking element. Heidi Cohen: To increase 2018 SEO results, marketers will keep on moving away from disposable, when and done content. They concentrate on SEO Internet marketing objectives and provide top search motor rank like Google and Bing. Collectively, these developments are plus can continue to have the dramatic impact on the method in which we search optimize our websites in 2019 plus form the core of the newest SEO 2019 update briefing. Since her business, web traffic, plus customer base grow, Sue can require some outside support intended for keeping her SEO on trail so she can certainly still sell the particular best shoes on the prevent. Whilst links continue to be essential and it's incredibly difficult in order to rank well without links through other websites, content and on-page SEO has become increasingly essential. For businesses searching to raise their search ranks, what this means is that will a comprehensive social media technique could be in order - within addition to all of the particular usual SEO tactics. Because of protocol changes and the trend in order to more local searches, it actually is no longer an massive cost to implement good SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. Whether you're killing it along with SEO, or struggling to break the very first page, a good SEO audit will help give your own rankings a shot within the particular arm. According to web marketing experts, the impact associated with AI and Voice Browse SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION can be expected in 2019 after that. Gowns it. If you'd like in order to speak to us about a good SEO campaign, or even multilingual SEO marketing and keyword study then get in touch associated with just start a live conversation if we're around. Moreover, Google will carry on to elevate the importance associated with usability and technical SEO aspects, for example site security, page rate, mobile friendliness, and navigability. As a consultant, he or she has helped many different businesses—including, Lonely Planet, Zillow, Tower Information, and literally countless medium plus small businesses—with SEO and online-marketing advice. On this web page you'll find a list associated with 21 SEO insanely tactical methods that you can use in order to boost your engine rankings. 26% of respondents state email is the digital marketing and advertising channel using the greatest positive influence on revenue; SEO is 2nd (17%), followed by paid research (15%), social media (5%), plus online display advertising (5%). Along with an increased focus on consumer experience, Google has challenged the particular SEO community to pay even more attention to the entire encounter of a website and just how the content interacts with customers, rather than just the simple elements that most optimize towards. While that may not get solved in 2018, we require integrate the SEO group alongside other marketing, both compensated and owned initiatives. For example, a few businesses miss the mark along with SEO and images, and nevertheless rank well. Thankfully, you can find your very own broken links on site using the particular myriad of Tools available. Ask any SEO services company and they will tell a person that whenever a page is usually searched, the major search motors spiders search it through hyperlinks. Effective SEO aims to boost research engine position, user visits, come back visits, and to improve transformation rates, which reflect the quantities of visitors who take preferred actions on the site. Wise SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION activities transform your rankings in the particular search engine results page (SERP). This is the supreme goal for ecommerce SEO, plus the traffic those links may bring through will convert with a very high rate. SEO's basic importance comes from the particular fact that most users display strong search dominance — that will will be, search is the main method people go places on the particular Internet. Reading blogs related to SEO might also be very useful within locating out concerning the important companies on the market which usually are offering comprehensive and genuine Search engine optimization services toward the corporate sector. The initial SEO is dependent mostly on number of key phrases targeted and the size associated with your web site, while the particular ongoing link campaign depends even more on the competitiveness of the particular keywords chosen. Whether if you're an SEO newbie or the seasoned practitioner, I encourage a person to fully read this in order to understand how you can obtain your content on top associated with search results. Large Brand campaigns are far, considerably totally different from small business SEO promotions that have no links, to start with, to give you yet an example. These SEO companies have got a strategy requiring clients in order to pay for the major lookup engines (including Google and Yahoo) for monthly website maintenance. Professionals are reporting that 2019 will certainly be the year of tone of voice search, and that the tone of voice search algorithm may change in addition to supersede text search relatively. A TOP DOG blog is simply one component of social media distribution, an essential SEO strategy according to SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Consult You should be disseminating links to fresh content upon your site across appropriate sociable networking platforms. SEO & Content Marketing Software for eCommerce Business, Agencies and Enterprises. Calib Backe, SEO Manager for Walnut Holistics, writes that mobile plus voice are going to keep on their domination of importance since we rely on desktop much less and less. If much associated with your competitors has hired SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION firms to focus on 10-20 keywords within a moderately competitive industry, after that you will have to spend a small more. The Google Lookup Console could be the most essential SEO tool on the earth. No BS. In the event that you're done with the exhausted cliches told over and above again at SEO Conferences, after that you're prepared to experience UnGagged - an UnConventional SEO and even Digital Marketing conference that gives real-world results. SEO is a good acronym for the phrase "search engine optimization. " Search motor optimization is focused on doing specific issues to your website to operate a vehicle even more traffic to it so that will you can increase online product sales - and traffic. By 2019, the method we search might not alter completely, but these new systems will definitely change the way all of us build links, engage users, plus generate leads through content advertising. Site Champion® increases site visitors by helping shoppers find your own products in search engines by means of increased keyword rankings using SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION automation. While link quantity is nevertheless important, content creators and SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION professionals are realizing that hyperlink quality is now more essential than link quantity, and because such, creating shareable content may be the 1st step to earning valuable hyperlinks and improving your off-page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. By merging a whole new way to work along with SEO and prioritized lists associated with recommendations—not to mention competitor evaluation and keyword monitoring—Siteimprove SEO is usually your all-in-one tool to develop traffic, prove ROI, and effortlessly create content. All the SEO styles listed here may have started in late 2017 or earlier 2018, but their true advantage could be reaped in 2019. Google's Steve Mueller said on Twitter, along with the disclaimer of him placing his user hat on (ofcourse not Google hat), that relabeling outdated content as new, with simply no additional changes is a poor SEO hack. All of us associated with creatives, designers & developers function alongside our SEO & articles teams to ideate, research, style & create remarkable infographics and interactive content for brands that will get shared across the internet. Contemporary SEO strategy will be the process associated with organizing a website's content simply by topic, which helps search engines like yahoo realize a user's intent when looking. Page loading time is dependent upon Page Load speed, Web page loading time is one associated with the important factors in Cell phone SEO 2017. Public Media as a platform are not able to be ignored in any SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION plan. Seo stands with regard to search engine optimization, when a person are searching for an SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION or Search Engine Optimization Business then you needs to appear for various factors which may have a favorable and bad affect on your business. This particular means that SEOs spend the lot of time working upon getting links in a procedure called link building Link-building methods can range from simply asking for a link to writing the guest post - and presently there are many others. Basically, SEO plans the keywords that will are to be delivered plus content provides them. So, when you are considering about applying SEO in the particular broad sense, you need in order to channelize its technical specifications via content marketing. In 2019, you can wager that White Hat SEO will certainly have separated itself even more from Black Hat SEO, plus that above all else, delivering quality content will be the particular most important factor for companies ranking in search. The outcomes are not instant, you can use the time on attempting other Internet marketing techniques whilst SEO would go to function. The third major SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION ranking signal is Google's synthetic intelligence search ranking algorithm. Sometimes SEO is definitely simply a matter of producing sure your site is organized in a way that research engines like google understand. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION involves a number of changes towards the HTML of person Web pages to attain a higher search engine ranking. As a result associated with technological advancement, SEO is in order to undergo more drastic changes, plus the two latest technologies that will are expected to influence SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION to some very great level are AI (Artificial Intelligence) plus Voice Search. The Technical Audit Checklist Produced For Human Beings — Within this post by Distilled, a person will find a link in order to a Google sheet that provides an technical SEO audit guidelines and links to resources upon how to complete each checkbox. Then each time the term SEO appears on your web site, it's automatically changed into the link you specified. Keyword Analysis for SEO: The Definitive Manual — This comprehensive guide simply by Brian Dean teaches you the number of strategies for obtaining keywords and determining intent with regard to your target market. On-page and off-page SEO function together to improve your research engine rankings in complementary style; however, SEOs generally advise obtaining your on-page SEO ducks within a row before focusing as well much on off-page SEO. Within 2019, web-based businesses will follow more voice-to-text technology to enhance engagement and search activity. There are many SEO sites suggesting that they can offer a service to make our own website LSI friendly, or fulfill ‘LSI requirements'. The particular art of web SEO is situated in focusing on how individuals search for things and knowing what type of results Search engines wants to (or will) screen to its users. Social mass media SEO would encourage your present customers to come back whilst helping you develop authority regarding potential ones. He is an expert in SEO, Content Marketing, plus Pinterest Marketing. An SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION expert plays a huge part in helping companies build their own businesses and attract new clients through website traffic.

For blog websites the greatest SEO practice would be in order to set the title of your own post in a heading1 label. Search engines is the gatekeeper to huge amounts of traffic and qualified prospects - search engine optimization (SEO) opens the doors. Mainly because long as they are gained naturally, inbound links are most likely the most dependable authority contractors in the world of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. All of us call this new methodology AdaptiveSEO so that as its title suggests, it is made in order to adapt to the evolving plus sometimes unexpected changes in lookup algorithms. A lot of get confused in this region of SEO article writing recommendations for either they in place too little or maybe the particular wrong kind of keywords, or even they mention the keyword method too much which is occasionally called keyword over stuffing. Social SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION isn't a separate branch associated with SEO and it won't quickly be replacing traditional SEO, yet social signals are becoming progressively incorporated into search engine methods. Perhaps the particular most important aspect of research engine optimization is how a person can actually leverage SEO in order to assist drive more relevant visitors, leads, and sales for your own business. Just browse through the various types of our SEO blog page to find those important on-page ranking factors. According to him, key phrases have already lost their significance and in 2019 this tendency would only get stronger. Seo (SEO) is definitely the most efficient way in order to drive traffic to your site.

You discuss core SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategies and tactics used in order to drive more organic search qualified prospects to a specific website or even set of websites, as nicely as tactics to avoid in order to prevent penalization from search motors. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Smart links allows you in order to specify a word, like 'SEO' and then link it in order to a post on your web site. It's great for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION to feed the search motors a good amount of keyword-rich links. Sites making use of organic SEO in the strict sense is going to become much like organisms, meaning these people will grow, expand and adjust over time according to readers' desires. No matter the sector, the age of business, or even status of competitors, every company should at least implement fundamental SEO strategies to help their own offerings get found on Yahoo and google. So your SEO if your own thinking mobile, needs to end up being either responsive or app-store technique with the right dimensions, style, user-friendly, UX experience. Dark hat SEO methods, such because the use of keyword filling and link farming, can furthermore boost organic SEO. SEO is definitely important in every area associated with advertising, marketing, design, optimization, movie, content, mobile and e-commerce, regarding without SEO all is untuned in need of synchronization, such as an orchestra of musicians without a good experienced conductor. Unfortunately, 95% of links through SEO link building never provide a single new visitor in order to your website. Generally there are a few fundamentals that will can help boost the technique, but SEO, or seo, will be hardly ever considered. While employing the services of a great SEO agency can get a person good marketing copy for the particular website and an effective make use of of the related keywords, getting a brilliantly designed website may help a lot when this comes to attracting people plus even the search engines in order to your website. You are able to get into important SEO-related data like the particular page title, description, and key phrases for every page or a person can have the system immediately populate this data depending upon a document name or additional fields. SEO has become broadly adopted as an online advertising strategy due to its effectiveness. Creating high-quality content along with SEO in your mind through the beginning boosts search presence. In contrast, dark hat SEO is about attempting to take shortcuts and sport search engines. You may also use Google Analytics in order to find SEO keywords for content material optimization. Keyword research is the particular process SEOs value to discover what search queries consumers get into into a search engine intended for a given topic. Within today's rapidly shifting world, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION techniques can change on the dime—and the worst part will be that you might not also know it. Hacks that can have won you a front-page result as recently as 2016 are not only obsolete today, but they may even harm your website's rankings.

Ranking aspects can be divided into on-page SEO factors (including technical SEO) and link building or off-page SEO factors. Take the 10 pillar subjects you came up with within Step one and create the web page for each a single which outlines the topic in a high level - making use of the long-tail keywords you emerged plan for each cluster within Step 2. A pillar web page on SEO, for instance, may describe SEO in brief areas that introduce keyword research, picture optimization, SEO strategy, and some other subtopics as they are recognized. On our blog many of us chronicle current trends in on-line marketing and SEO and provide interesting studies, statistics and tendencies. Increased site usability - Within an effort to make your own site easier to navigate with regard to the search engines, SEO at the same time helps to make your internet site more navigable for users simply because well. You are capable to host your video upon YouTube for that foundational SEO greatest practices, but link and focus on the embedded video on your own own website. Image SEO is actually a crucial part of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION different types of websites. Max DesMarais is definitely an SEO plus PPC Specialist for Vital, a new Digital Marketing & PPC firm that specializes in PPC managing services. But this also has an incredible roundabout benefit to your bottom range: boosting your search engine optimisation (SEO). It may be the scenario (and I surmise this) that this introduction of a certain SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION technique initially artificially raised your own rankings for the pages within a way that Google's methods tend not to approve of, and as soon as that is actually spread out all through your site, traffic starts in order to deteriorate or is slammed in the future algorithm update.

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Never Underestimate The Influence Of SEO 2019

Professional SEO providers can lift your site over your competition. The main stage of SEO is to end up being friendly both to users plus search engines. Based in Colorado springs municipal airport terminal, CO, SocialSEO has been the particular preeminent digital marketing firm within Colorado since 1996. Although the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION experts provide great SEO solutions for their clients, there are usually a few who ruin the particular internet design industry through their particular greed in marketing efforts plus manipulate search engine rank. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION may target different kinds associated with search, including image search, regional search, video search, academic lookup, news search and industry-specific top to bottom search engines. The benefits of efficient digital marketing plans are quite much proven over Blog9T the board although when it comes to firms within the photography industry this SEO components of the marketing technique really do make all involving the difference to helping some sort of photographer stand out from typically the crowd. HISTORY LESSON: Old SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION advice suggested you connect along with websites and trade links along with each other True, a large reliable site linking to you may boost up your ranking, yet, it's not going to assist your relevancy score when the particular linked content isn't related in order to the website sharing it. 10. Quality back back links need to be built upward to your site for efficient SEO. SEO is about attracting individuals to your site to start with by making sure this shows up searching queries. The much better you get at SEO, the particular more traffic - and even more leads - you're likely in order to attract over time. To find out there more read our 2019 tendencies in SEO marketing report. Are voice searches plus it's expected that by 2019, 67 million voice-assisted devices is usually going to be in make use of in the U. S. These types of kinds of changes and provide on your website shouldn't become a problem logistically — the particular overall practice among the greatest web companies nowadays is making sure that websites are flexible sufficient, especially for SEO purposes. Whether you will be a marketer, webmaster or organization owner, it is very crucial invest in voice SEO optimisation to reap benefits in 2019. We said earlier that interpersonal media isn't a direct SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION ranking factor, so you're most likely wondering why we're even talking about it. The particular effects of Black hat SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION are temporary, keep in mind that take the particular search engine long before this spots these illegal strategies plus then penalizes you; the research engine may spam your hyperlinks and if you continue making use of these malpractices the search motor will altogether block your web site and links. Algorithmic chasers, technical SEOs, plus Google Doodle followers should develop their technical skills to concentrate on emerging voice search systems and AI applications. Single Grain is a electronic marketing agency in order in order to companies like Uber, Amazon plus Salesforce grow their revenues on the web using SEO and paid marketing. You will end up being introduced to the foundational components of how search engines such as google work, how the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION landscape is promoting and exactly what you can expect in the particular future. The SISTRIX Toolbox consists associated with six modules 1) SEO, 2) Universal, 3) Links, 4) Advertisements, 5) Social and 6) Optimizer. Low-quality content can severely impact the achievements of SEO, within 2018. When your own SEO starts building strong reasons, competitors can start maligning your own SEO backlinks. ” With content marketing spend anticipated to reach $300 billion by 2019, this statistic is worrisome. Now the electronic marketing companies know how in order to use AI for SEO, plus in coming years AI can dominate in developing the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategies of the digital advertising companies. Ray Cheselka, AdWords and SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Manager at webFEAT Complete, the design and SEO agency, states that in 2019 search objective will continue to become even more important. Expert writers of SEO articles can take the time to study the particular industry or specialized niche market. 2 tools to help with nearby SEO are BrightLocal (for rankings) and MozLocal (for local lookup optimization). Concerning on-page SEO best practices, I usually link out to other quality appropriate pages on other websites exactly where possible and where a human being would find it valuable. It includes a favorite Routine Table of SEO Success Factors”, a 9-chapter guide to SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION basics, and links to a few from the site's most useful blog posts. SEO specialists started in order to abuse PageRank in order in order to raise the rankings. Now could be a great time to take a nearer take a look at SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION marketing information because search is getting even worse for all those types of B2B plus B2C businesses. SEO marketers plus writers typically come up along with different kinds of content in order to place the necessary keywords within. These are some of the particular most used types, and every one helps to give rise to the level of variety in conditions of website content. Certain black hat SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION techniques, such as keyword filling, are viewed as to be the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION equivalent of spamming, and lookup engines will penalize them. Internet marketing is exclusively driven by SEO or research engine optimization. Others are usually simply traditional PR firms which have learned SEO as nicely as the value of hyperlinks. Here's a cliche among electronic marketers: Search engine optimization (SEO) isn't what used to become. Google announced that will they released several minor enhancements over the period of the particular time of about a 7 days and after analysis, experts inside the SEO industry concluded that will the updates were the outcome of keyword permutations and web site using doorway pages. SEO, or Search Motor Optimization, means setting up your own website and content to show up through online search results. People that want to take their company to some new height plus generally and mostly believe within the way of SEO advertising. Off-page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION targets increasing the authority associated with your domain through the act associated with getting links from all some other websites. Regarding: Search Engine Journal's flagship meeting, SEJ Summit, is dedicated to offering SEO pros the actual require, with an agenda of unique, first-run presentations covering the most recent SEO and PPC tactics through renowned experts, plus excellent social networking opportunities. SEO combines official research engine guidelines, empirical knowledge, plus theoretical knowledge from science documents or patents. This is usually a half-day workshop at LeadsCon that will be designed in order to give attendees an end-to-end watch of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), how it works, and touchable things they can do nowadays to improve their SEO functionality. After the Search engines Panda algorithm appeared, SEO specialists realized just how much key phrase frequency and density matters. SEO means optimizing your posts so it shows up a great deal more often in search results. 33. With social media systems like Facebook diminishing visibility associated with companies and brands, SEO (as well as paid promotion) will be becoming critically important for generating traffic to your social stations. 2019 dates TBD. ). Why go to: One-track conference full of forward-thinking, tactical sessions in SEO, development marketing, the mobile landscape, analytics, content marketing and more. ” Don't miss the LeadsCon Meeting in Vegas, March 4-6, 2019. Here's the truly amazing news: You don't have in order to have to be a SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION wizard to make sure your own website is well positioned with regard to organic search engine traffic. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is the acronym for research engine optimisation. The particular search engines have refined their particular algorithms along with this advancement, numerous tactics that worked within 2004 can hurt your SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION today. Therefore, we also generate content on conducting keyword study, optimizing images for search motors, creating an SEO strategy (which you're reading right now), plus other subtopics within SEO. In 2018 there will be an actually bigger focus on machine studying and SEO from data. ” Of course, the amplification part of things will continue in order to incorporate increasingly with genuine public relationships exercises rather than shallow-relationship hyperlink building, which will become significantly easy to detect by research engines like google. Seo (SEO) is often regarding making small modifications to components of your website. In my SEO content writing guidelines I suggest a person take your main keyword plus 3 or 4 other associated keywords and write at 3-4%. Some SEO specialists claim that will building links for SEO reasons is pointless; others believe typically the role of backlinks for any internet site has continually risen through this years. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a huge part associated with any marketing strategy. This brand-new paradigm of users relying upon voice search for many associated with their search needs will become a game changer for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is one of the particular most important marketing things to consider about your studio website. SEO might generate a sufficient return upon investment However, search engines are usually not covered organic search visitors, their algorithms change, and generally there are no guarantees of continuing referrals. A great starting point whenever using keywords for SEO will be to identify existing pages that will may use some optimization. These are called keywords, plus as you will see, they will are an important part associated with SEO. In fact, this particular will actually hurt your home page's SEO because search engines such as google will recognize it since keyword stuffing - or the particular act of including keywords particularly to rank for that key phrase, rather than to answer the person's question. Prior to we begin, one thing a person want to keep in thoughts when using some of the following SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION elements is not to overdo it. You might be enticed to shove a lot associated with keywords onto your pages, yet that is not the objective. In situation you create links to various other websites and reverse, it will certainly improve your SEO ranking. Really Cisco predicts that globally, on the internet video traffic will be eighty percent of all consumer Web traffic by 2019 (a amount that is up from sixty four percent in 2014). I've bookmarked therefore many SEO websites and sources that it's overwhelming to actually look at. Link authority is the major component of SEO, yet purchasing links is forbidden simply by Google, Bing, and other lookup engines. Head associated with Marketing at @impressiontalk specialising within user-centred SEO, PAGE RANK, content marketing and digital technique. Primary is usually on inbound marketing, including almost everything from SEO to social press. However, a good agency providing SEO services will be all about being proactive in order to keep up-to-date with the most recent search engine news and adjustments in SEO techniques. Video marketing provides new opportunities to drive even more visitors your site and enhance its SEO status. Lookup Engine Optimisation (SEO) in 2018 is really a technical, conditional and creative process to enhance the visibility associated with the website in search motors. Off-page SEO relates to the actions taken exterior of your own personal website that may help boost your search engine motor rankings. Since of this insufficient visibility this can be hard to create a sound business case with regard to SEO, even though it is usually strikingly obvious of the advantages to most companies of the particular number one position on Search engines. This particular is a time-honored SEO exercise called broken link building. Positively engaging in reputation management, content material management and SEO (Search Motor Optimization) can give even the particular smallest business a chance in order to compete globally. Whether you are already adding SEO into your online marketing and advertising mix or not, you may ask yourself how aCO site stacks up against acom. With recent Google adjustments, failure to look after cellular SEO could result in research invisibility, and mobile's bringing various other changes you'll need to become ready for. PeepCon (which stands for The Someones Conference”) seeks to teach doable SEO and digital marketing training. See how Matthew required a website from zero in order to one million visits in much less than a year, using the mix of blogging, content marketing and advertising, and SEO. Solid knowing of the keywords, questions, and even phrases your ideal customers work with to find your products and even services is critical to successful SEO. 34. Applying SEO practices (such keyword optimization) to social networking boosts discoverability when users search cultural platforms like Facebook and Youtube . com. Onsite SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Guide — If you the particular actual link, you will notice a opt-in button where a person can download the Onsite SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Guide. ” Matt Diggity will a lot of testing upon his own sites, which means this manual reflects what on page techniques are working best for your pet. One important aspect associated with taking care of SEO will be identifying issues that are harming search engine ranking positions plus reducing the traffic you receive through SERPs. User-generated content like reviews assist SEO through SMO, because this often comes in the type of social shares, likes, or even commenting, or common threads such as hashtags that point back in the direction of a brand. Local SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION services offer a very focused online marketing approach, (it's not really like dropping off brochures upon front-porch steps or paying for a good ad in a local paper that could or may not really be seen by a achievable client that is actually fascinated in your products or services). Search engine optimisation (SEO) will be the process of impacting the online visibility of the particular website or a web web page in a web search motor 's unpaid results—often known since "natural", " organic ", or even "earned" results. Seo (SEO) is a procedure of improving positions in natural (non-paid) search results searching motors. Additional SEO ranking factors include: available URLs, domain age (older is usually usually better), page speed, cellular friendliness, business information, and specialized SEO. Your own search engine optimization strategy can end up being divided into two different classes: on-page SEO and off-page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. When you familiarize yourself with this neighborhood, you will inevitably stumble your own way onto the websites associated with SEO Gurus” selling courses that will teach you SEO for hundreds of dollars. Expert SEO writers can also make use of modifiers and keyword variations in order to further optimize the content. In the lot associated with cases, this happens as the consequence of non-ethical SEO specifically buying and selling links which usually could get you up the particular Google ‘adder' quickly. Content will be key but content alone is usually no longer king; content, framework, and relevance will drive overall performance of content and digital advertising, and SEO is part yet not full parcel. Ultimate WordPress SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Guide for Beginners (Step simply by Step) — 28% of web sites on the internet use Wp. SEO is frequently abused as a blanket term regarding digital marketing. A great SEO service includes a great deal of research and lots associated with smart keywords application which may period website at a increased notch and provide it the higher ranking in Google web search engine. Professional SEO content authors work on creating articles just after understanding the nature associated with your business, your industry, rivals and what kind of posts your business might most want for maximum benefits; in the particular short-term and the long-term. Linking to other webpages within your site, as well because linking to other sites plus getting other sites to url to yours, is a great method to improve your SEO. Influencer marketing doesn't seem in order to be slowing down anytime shortly, so it will probably obtain bigger in 2018 and also bigger in 2019 when even more companies start to catch upon to this trend. Keeping within mind the last point, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION agencies are fluent in navigating by way Understand SEO 2019 Before You Regret of a wide range of on the internet marketing tools that helps raise the value of your marketing technique. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is definitely a powerful process that may help make you and your own research more visible to research engines like Google and Search engines Scholar. I have simply no clue about SEO only a few basics that is available just about all over the place and I actually feel this article must aid as your other articles assisted me give some direction upon recovering my lost traffic plus generating more content as nicely as repurposing old content. forty five. Use Google Analytics to determine social SEO factors like the particular number of owned and good results. The common SEO issue for e-commerce sites is that product evaluation functionality tends to rely upon AJAX, iframes, or subdomains, which usually make it very hard, or even even impossible, for search motors to fit product reviews with item pages. Local SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is an effective way in order to market your business online. Regarding more on Squarespace's SEO-friendly features plus how to use them, go to Increasing your site's visibility in order to search engines. For Ecommerce websites, SEO agencies can see which usually paths users take in purchase to complete a sale, just about all the way down to which usually keyword they used to research for you prior to buying. Continue to increase your SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION to create business and drive traffic plus rank for more terms. SEO refers in order to the process of gaining a good impressive rank in search motor listings. Organic SEO is usually also less costly long-term when you establish search credibility, as longer as you maintain it along with the consistent creation of high quality content and social media use. Within the 6th section of our SEO for beginners guide, we will discuss hyperlink building - one of the particular most important aspects of lookup engine optimization. Search engine optimization can furthermore be known as SEO plus it is defined as the technique or procedure for enhancing the website within an efficient and efficient way in purchase to make a good existence on major search engines. A several of the popular keyword study tools are Wordtracker, SEOMOZ Key phrase Difficulty Tool, SEOBook Keyword Device and Google Keyword Tool. Luckily, SEO allows webmasters to supply clues that the engines may use to understand content. Since less as 20% dentists within a city hire SEO expert s who really wants that shift within their Google ranking. The particular analytical part of the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is about tracking organic key word positions, website traffic and the engagement in Google Analytics, Website owner Tools and many other specific tools. Mobile SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is nothing than a regular SEO, creating content and marking to be able to endure out online. SEO rankings are placing excess fat than ever upon what users have to state. The Search System will help you to evaluate your keyword rankings, CTRs, feasible Google penalties and many additional useful data for technical SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. Blog posts, guides, whitepapers, situation studies, videos, and social content all need to include the particular right keywords for social plus SEO. For even more detailed information on the make use of of keywords on your web site visit SEOcious to will discover many other important factors included in having your web web page in the top 10 entries on the search engines. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, search engine optimization is almost all about search engines, search motor result page (SERP), search position, online visibility, and quality visitors. If your web site has about 5-10 niche key phrases that are extremely targeted yet not very competitive, your SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION pricing is going to end up being quite less. Ultimately, simply by the end of 2018 or even mid-2019, we'll see a golf swing back to natural” content created by real humans who may produce valuable content that really provides value. Hiring experienced SEO experts can ensure that your website climbs the search engine ranks without having using any illegal practices or even short cuts that could generate temporary spikes in the cyberspace ranking, but eventually lead in order to your website having to pay out penalties. Official Site Associated with BlowFish SEO - Professional Search Motor Optimization Services operated by Robert DiSalvo SEO Located in Hand Beach Gardens, Florida. The takeaway here is definitely that if you might have got LOTS of location pages providing A SINGLE business in a single location, then those are really probably classed as some type of doorway pages, and possibly old-school SEO techniques for these types of type of pages will discover them classed as lower-quality -- or even - spammy web pages. CRAWL this, like Google does, with (for example) Screaming Frog SEO spider, plus fix malformed links or items that result in server errors (500), broken links (400+) and unwanted redirects (300+). SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION gives you a go at rating for the terms which your own customers use, so you may do better business. The job of the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is to create high-quality content material and after that win the attention, the particular love as well as the particular link from a blogger or even editor. The keyword difficulty or even keyword SEO difficulty is the very useful metric for key phrase research. All of us desired to look at a massive group that included businesses of most sizes and in all industrial sectors so we could really observe how SEO traffic increased whenever the only common denominator was incorporating reviews to their site. In reality, this is portion of the SEO technique we have used to continuously grow our organic traffic throughout the last 12 months right here at SnapApp: #3. Mobile will certainly account for 72% of ALL OF US digital ad spend by 2019. This workshop is usually designed to help business proprietors implement Digital Marketing techniques intended for their business including social mass media, organic SEO as well because paid channels. The Beginner's Guide in order to SEO continues to be study over 3 million times plus offers comprehensive information you require to get on the road to professional quality Search Motor Optimization, or SEO. Whether it's using web analytics for carrying out research or even conversion tools that monitor plus report the usage of essential keywords, SEO agencies know just how and where you can obtain the information they need in order to save time furthermore decrease your in-house price. Generally there is probably no more fundamental strategy for SEO than the particular integration of internal links straight into your site - it is usually an easy way to increase traffic to individual pages, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Consult says. SEO SERVICES Right now there are a number of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION services which can help enhance the organic search engine ranks of a website.