#we got the silver breakdown to end all silver breakdowns

[egophiliac]

starting off with an amuse-bouche of some of my initial favorite bits! y'all, this update was WILD.

[footprintsinthesxnd]

Chapter Six: One Helluva Party

Gale Cleven × Hope Armstrong (ofc)

Series Masterlist

This story is based on on the fictional portrayal of these men from the MOTA to series.

Summary: John Egan’s birthday was always a special affair, even when Ruth is causing the whole base stress trying to arrange a surprise party. But Hope doesn’t mind, she’s able to spend some time with her beloved fiancé, Gale and they might even get some time alone.

Collab: A Pair of Silver Wings by @major-mads

Wednesday, September 8th: AAF Grove, Berkshire: 2200 HRS

Ruth’s boots thudded against the cement floor of the girls’ hut as she paced up and down the center aisle. The blonde held a slip of paper, pouring over the list on it endlessly.

“Streamers, check. Distracting John duty, check. Cha-”

“Ruth,” Hope groaned. “Go to bed. You’ve looked over that list a million times.”

Her steps halted and she turned to her friend with a sigh. “I just want his party to be perfect.”

“I know you do, but you have nothing to worry about. Tatty and Helen are getting everything taken care of until we can get up there tomorrow. Please go to sleep, Rue.” Hope rolled over on her small cot, turning away from her pacing friend.

“Fine,” Ruth relented, tossing the list onto her nightstand before sliding beneath her covers. She rolled over to face Hope, her lips pursed in thought. “Do you think-”

“Go to sleep.”

Her mind wouldn’t shut off as she continued to worry about the party. “But what-”

“Ruth! Just shut up and sleep.” Hope didn’t even open her eyes to scold her this time, and she pulled the covers up over her head.

“Okay,” she sighed quietly, turning onto her back, her mind still racing over all the events for the following day. She only hoped that everything would go according to plan.

The Next Day: Sep. 9th: Thorpe Abbotts AAF Base, Norwich: 1500 HRS

The previous night was filled with restless sleep for Ruth, and her nervousness battled excitement in her chest when Frank discreetly pulled up behind the Red Cross hut.

“I’m not your personal chauffeur, you know,” he sassed, turning off the engine. “I don’t like wasting my day passes to take you two up here.”

Hope rolled her eyes as she got out of the car. “But you still do it each time we ask, don’t you?”

Frank mumbled some choice words under his breath, helping the girls unload their bags from the trunk of the car. “I only do this so I know you get here safely. With your navigation skills and Ruth’s nerves, who the hell knows where you’d end up.”

Hope just glared at him with narrowed eyes. She wasn't that bad of a navigator but they missed one turn once and he’d given her hell for it ever since.

Helen and Tatty hurried down the steps to greet them, both quickly embracing the girls. The four had become good friends over their multiple visits to Thorpe Abbott and their reunions always resulted in a big hug.

“You two ready for tonight,” Tatty asked, hurrying Ruth and Hope inside.

“You betcha, Ruth’s been driving me up the wall planning the damn thing. I’ve been waiting for her to have a nervous breakdown over it.” Hope smiled fondly at Ruth who just continued to chew her lip anxiously.

The blonde sighed. “I just want everything to be perfect…it has to be.”

“And it will be Ruth,” Helen placed an arm around Ruth’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, everything is in hand.”

“The boys are on a mission and won’t be back until around four this afternoon. I’ve got Cleven and Armstrong on diversion duty to keep John as far away from the Officers’ Club as possible,” Tatty informed them, bundling a box of bunting underneath her arm. “We’ve got our work cut out ladies, but I think we can pull this off.”

The first order of business was to get the decorations up.

The women carefully draped colorful streamers from every surface possible, and by the time they were through, the bland dance hall and bar were vibrant with color. Ruth removed the wrinkled list from her pocket, checking off the “decorate club” box from her to-do’s.

“Alright. What do we have left?” Tatty asked, walking over to Ruth.

The nurse glanced down at her list with a hum, then suddenly her eyes widened and she gasped, throwing a hand over her mouth. “The banner! I can’t believe I forgot! It’s in the car, I’ll be right back.”

She left the club in a tizzy, the door closing behind her with a slam. Hope, Tatty, and Helen all shared a worried glance as the loud sound echoed through the hall.

“You’re right, Hope. She’s too wound up about this,” Helen said as she picked up the box of leftover decorations.

A sigh left Hope’s lips. “ She wants John to have the best birthday possible. He means so much to her.”

“I think the feeling’s mutual,” Tatty chuckled, thinking back to when the pair rumbled up to her hut the week before. “I’ve never seen John wrapped around a woman’s finger before, but Ruth’s done it. I didn’t think it was possible.”

Smiling softly, Hope twisted the engagement ring around her finger and thought about how much their lives changed in such a short time. “Yep. She’s something else, alright.”

“And I’ve never seen Gale as happy, either,” Helen added with a smirk.

Hope ducked her head blushing as she glanced down at the engagement ring adoring her finger, “I know things may seemed rush, but when you know, you know. I couldn’t imagine loving anyone else.”

Tatty groaned in the background about how sickeningly in love they were, causing the two girls to laugh.

“Well, I’m very happy for you, Hope, and looking at that ring your man has taste.”

Hope chuckled, “Actually…”

The back door swung open, and Ruth rushed in holding a folded-up sheet. The woman’s curls were disheveled and her cheeks were bright red as she leaned against the door, out of breath. “They-,” she panted, her chest heaving. “They’re back.”

“Rue, you alright?” Hope asked, concern etching her face. “Why are you breathing like you just ran a marathon?”

“Because I was getting out of the car and then I saw John on a truck, so I dove back into the back seat and wait-,” she held up a hand to them, pausing to breathe heavily. “Waited for him to go into a building and then I bolted.”

Tatty eyes flicked down to her watch quickly. “They’re right on time, then. It’s already 16:30.”

“What?!” Ruth blurted as a wave of panic coursed through her. “Everyone will be here in an hour and we still haven’t gotten the banner up!”

Hope put a hand on her shoulder. “Rue.”

“And I still need to get-”

“Ruth!”

Finally, her worry-filled sky-blue eyes snapped to her friend’s. “What?”

“You need to calm down,” Hope said gently but firmly. “Everything looks perfect. Johnny’s going to love it.

Just as the night before, Ruth’s mind refused to turn it down a notch, and she sighed. “We still need to hang the happy birthday banner, Hope.”

“We’ll do that and then we’re done, alright?” Hope asked, squeezing her shoulder comfortably before looking at the two other women. “You two good to hang up the banner? I’ve got to get her all dolled up.”

Ruth opened her mouth to object but Hope shot her a glare, sending the blonde’s gaze to the floor. She couldn’t shake the feeling of anxiety that gnawed at her insides. She knew she was being irrational, but the pressure to make everything flawless was overwhelming.

Helen nodded with a small smile, taking the banner from Ruth. “That sounds like a plan. You two go get ready in our hut! We’ll see you in a bit!”

The dark-haired nurse practically dragged Ruth from the officer’s club to the Red Cross hut where they quickly got ready. Hope helped re-curl the falling waves in her best friend’s golden hair, and from the way she chewed on her bottom lip, Hope knew she was thinking about her Major.

“Do you think he’ll like it?” she asked quietly.

“Rue, you could have one measly streamer hanging from the ceiling and he’d love it just the same. He’s gonna be more excited to see you than anything.”

“I hope so.”

Hope smiled at Ruth reassuringly in the mirror, “I know so.”

John groaned, stepping out of the interrogation hut. He hated interrogation, as if it wasn’t bad enough experiencing everything the first time, you then had to relive it. He stretched his aching arms above his head, all he wanted was a shower and a drink.

It was his birthday after all.

Gale and Hugh soon appeared from the hut after him, they too stretched out their aching muscles, and the three made their way across to the shower block.

“You got any plans for tonight, Bucky?” Hugh asked, a smirk plastered across his face and Gale elbowed him warningly. He couldn’t have Hugh giving the game away, not after all Ruth’s hard work.

“I don’t know, Sparky. I was just going to shower and then head over to the club for a drink. You boys in?”

Gale and Hugh glanced at each other, a silent question passing between the pilots.

“Sure thing, Bucky,” Gale responded first, throwing his arm over his friend's shoulder, “Can’t have you celebrating alone now, can I?”

“Good, because I plan for this to be a night we remember,” he thought for a moment, rubbing his hand over his moustache, “Or more like a night we don’t remember. But don’t worry, I won’t go too off the rails,” He cackled, strolling ahead of them.

Hugh turned to Gale, his eyes wide as he hissed, “How the hell are we supposed to keep him out of the club?”

Gale shrugged his shoulders, seemingly very calm about the whole situation, “We’ll find a way.”

“Hey,” Bucky called out, stopping with his hands on his hips as he waited for them to catch up.

The pair shared a wary glance, panicking at the possibility of his overhearing them.

Ruth would kill them if he found out.

They reached him, and John pursed his lips in thought, “You got a letter from Hope today or yesterday?”

Buck and Hugh nearly sighed in relief at the question. The cat wasn’t out of the bag yet!

“Yeah,” Gale replied, “Got one yesterday. Why?”

Johnny nodded once, his gaze falling to the dirt beneath their feet. “Nothing.”

Hugh cocked an eyebrow at the man’s sudden change in demeanor. “What is it?”

“I guess I thought Ruth would’ve sent me a letter for my birthday, that’s all,” he shrugged.

Trying to keep a sly grin off his face, Buck threw an arm over his shoulder and got the trio moving toward the shower block again. “The night is still young, Bucky. There’s still time for a letter to get here.”

“Yeah, you never know,” Hugh added with a smirk, ignoring the sharp glare Buck gave him as he walked past the duo. He then checked his watch.

17:00…One hour til’ showtime.

17:15 HRS

Hope and Ruth took a shortcut behind buildings on their way back to the Officers' Club to stay out of sight. Ruth’s hair was once again curled to perfection, and she wore victory red lipstick that Hope let her borrow.

She wasn’t one for bold statements, but this night, she wanted to do something special.

When they snuck into the club through the back door, Ruth’s eyes widened in awe at the final decorations Helen and Tatty finished. String lights hung below the streamers above the tables, giving the room a warm, soft glow, and the “Happy Birthday John” banner hung high at the front of the stage.

“This is amazing!” She squealed, her heart fluttering with excitement as she pulled Helen and Tatty into a tight embrace. “Thank y’all so much. I’m sorry I lost my head earlier.”

The two women returned the hug and laughed quietly, sharing a knowing gaze with Hope over her shoulder. If there was one thing Hope Armstrong knew about Ruth Morgan, it was that she cared about those around her so much. It was what made her a good teacher, a good nurse, a good friend…a good person. This was often the underlying cause of the worry that ate away at her.

“We have a surprise for you,” Tatty said, gesturing over to the bar.

Ruth’s eyes drifted over to the area to find a small box on the counter. She and Hope made their way over and opened it, grinning from ear to ear at a small cake inside with cursive icing on the top.

“Happy Birthday Bucky,” Ruth read aloud before turning back to them. “How did you two get this?”

Helen shrugged her shoulders. “I might have to go on a date with the cook, but it’s worth it.”

The group broke out into chuckles and Tatty went behind the bar, grabbing four glasses and pouring them each a shot of whiskey. “I say this is a cause for celebration.”

Helen and Tatty raised their glasses in a toast. “To John,” they chorused, the clinking of their glasses filling the air.

“To John,” Hope and Ruth grinned, throwing back their shots.

Hope was unphased, but Ruth’s eyes watered slightly as the fiery liquid burned down her throat, leaving a warm trail in its wake. She’d grown more accustomed to the taste of alcohol since she started going out more, and she found that it wasn’t as bad as she once thought.

As the minutes ticked by, airmen started to trickle into the hall, and with each one, Ruth’s nervousness swirled again in her stomach. Sensing her discomfort, Tatty poured her another shot with a wink, “It’ll help.”

A smirk formed on Hope’s face watching the blonde throw back the shot. Ruth was not good at holding her liquor, and the one time Hope had seen her overdo it in Berkshire, she had to almost carry her back to their hut at the end of the night.

Before long, the alcohol warmed Ruth from the inside out and melted away her worry, leaving behind a tingling feeling that made her feel lighter than air.

“It’s almost time!” she squealed loudly to Hope who sat beside her at their table.

Hope chuckled under her breath, noting the way she’d become more talkative and bubbly, even starting a few conversations with the men around them.

It was going to be a good night.

“Hey Buck, what was this ‘way’ you have planned to keep Johnny boy from the club? Because now might be a good time to know about it,” Hugh hissed, yanking his underwear onto his still wet body as he continued to fight his clothes on in his haste.

“I didn’t say I had anything planned. I said ‘we’ would find a way, so if you’ve got any ideas, Charlie, now would be a really good time to share them,” Gale spoke in a hushed whisper, gracing back down the hut to check the water was still flowing in Bucky’s cubicle.

Hugh threw his hands in the air, “Well I don’t know, do I? I think half the time John just wants to punch me in the face.”

Gale hummed, “Maybe that’s what we should do then.”

Hugh glared at him through the hole of his shirt, pulling it violently over his head before he responded, “Gee thanks Gale, maybe I should tell my sister that her future husband is a brute and he got me duffed up.”

“I think Hope would be inclined to agree with me…”

“What’s Hope agreeing to now? She already agreed to marry you Buck, what more can she agree to?” John asked, wandering up to them with just his towel draped precariously around his waist.

“Bucky!” Both men called out, their voices a little higher than they would have liked. John cocked an eyebrow at them and Gale stared wide eyed at Hugh, waiting for their next move.

“So Bucky, we’ve got a nice birthday treat for you planned…” Hugh began, hoping that Gale wasn’t about to tackle him to the ground. “We thought it would be nice to head back to the hut, crack open a bottle of my old Vat 69 and make a night of it. How does that sound?”

“It sounds like you don’t know me very well at all, My Dear Sparky,” John rested his hand of Hugh’s shoulder and within a split second Hugh folded.

“It was Gale’s idea.”

Gale glared harshly at Hugh before meeting John’s gaze with a simple nod.

John sighed, “Buck, I get that you’re not a big drinker, and that’s fine, why don’t you go write a letter to Hope or something while Sparky and I head down to the club to have ourselves some fun?”

John wasn’t sure why he ribbed Gale about writing letters to Hope. He wrote just as many letters to Ruth, if not more. With Gale though, it was the time he spent pouring over the letter, changing little bits and then rewriting it until it was perfect. He’d sit in the corner for hours, his tongue stuck out the corner of his mouth as he pen flowed effortlessly across the page.

Gale sighed, “Okay, we’ll head down to the club at 18:00, okay? Let’s go back to the hut first so we can drop this back. Maybe I will have some time to finish my letter to Hope too, and then we can go. Sound good?” Gale really hoped this sounded like a fair deal because he was all out of options if not.

John thought for a moment before nodding, “You know, you drive a hard bargain, Buck. Good thing I like you.”

Six o’clock rolled around quickly, and Gale found himself sighing with relief as the trio walked towards the officers club. They’d managed to keep the secret and everything had gone to plan. He’d have to have a word with Hope regarding no surprises at their wedding, his heart couldn’t take the suspense.

John was out in front with Hugh, bickering again about the Cardinals and the Yankees, an argument that Gale had heard so often he managed to tune the whole thing out now.

As they neared the club, Gale took the lead, winking at Hugh as he hurried passed to reach the door first. If John noticed anything suspicious he hadn’t let on, but from the way he’d been watching his every move across the Nissan hut earlier he definitely knew something was up.

“Hey Buck, what are you in such a hurry for, they’re not gonna run out of ginger beer,” John called out, cackling loudly at his T-total friend. Gale ignored the comment, he’d grown used to them over the years.

“Very funny, Bucky. I thought you’d be the one in a rush to get here. You wanted the drink after all,” Gale retorted, appreciating Hugh’s laughter.

“You two are like a old married couple, forget Hope and Ruth, it’s you two that sound like you live together,” Hugh ducked as John went to smack the back of his head, but he was unable to avoid Gale’s foot that he’d stuck out to the side and Hugh stumbled over, recovering himself quickly.

“Good trip there, Hugh,” John chortled, and Gale just smirked cheekily.

Hugh brushed down the front of his uniform, despite it never actually touching the ground, “You’re lucky you’re marrying my sister, Cleven.”

As they reached the door to the club, it became obvious how unusually quiet it was, normally by this time the band had struck up a familiar tune, or there was loud laughter from inside. The silence was rather eery and John found himself growing uneasy.

What exactly was going on?

Gale’s hand reached out to the door, swinging it back on its hinges and standing aside. “Happy birthday, Bucky.”

John glanced up at his friend, before looking back inside the club. Everything in the small entrance looked normal, but the silence and the suspense only grew.

Why was Gale being so cryptic too?

Sparing his best friend one last wary look, Johnny stepped through the doors.

“Surprise!”

“What?!” A wide smile broke out on the Major’s face, his eyes widening as he took in the hall…the lights, the decorations, his friends.

‘Happy Birthday John,’ the banner read.

He was about to speak, but all the thoughts in his mind flew out the window when a familiar blonde rushed towards him, grinning from ear to ear.

“Happy birthday!” Ruth giggled, throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him down into a kiss. Surprised at her sudden forwardness, he froze for a moment before returning it, sliding his hands around her waist.

The sound of wolf whistles echoed around the club while Hope caught Gale’s gaze from behind the pair. A lazy grin pulled at the corner of his lips at the sight of his fiancée, and he sent her a wink as she made her way over to him.

When Ruth and the birthday boy finally pulled away, he peered down at her with a smile so filled with joy that his eyes were almost squinted shut. Her cheeks flushed rosy, but not from embarrassment. John saw the way her eyes were in a daze but still sparkled up at him like the night sky.

He knew that look.

“Someone’s had a few drinks, huh?” he grinned.

Looking over Ruth’s shoulder, his eyes met Hope’s and he tilted her head towards the woman in his arms with an amused brow raised. She simply shrugged, throwing a hand over her mouth when a laugh escaped her lips at the bright red lipstick stains that smeared on his mouth, some even up in his mustache.

“Happy birthday, hotshot,” Ruth whispered as she kissed his cheek.

Another lipstick stain.

John’s grip loosened on her waist, but Ruth’s hands slid around his torso, keeping herself tight against him. Chuckling under his breath, he turned them toward Gale and Hugh. “So this is why you two were acting weird.”

Buck saw the same lipstick stains on his face, and unlike his fiancée, made no effort to conceal his laugh. “You got a little something all over your face there, Johnny boy.”

He quickly did his best to wipe away the red marks, but only smudged them against his skin, leaving splotches of pink on his chin and cheek. “I thought you were up to something, I just didn’t know what.”

“Well, your girl, here, was the mastermind behind this whole thing,” Buck grinned, nodding towards Ruth. “Been planning it for weeks.”

John’s eyes narrowed playfully as he peered down at her. “You sneaky woman.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t somehow feel her worrying from here in Thorpe Abbotts,” Hope said from under Gale’s arm. “She damn near drove me and Frank crazy.”

“Oh, you’re full of it!” Ruth cried, her eyes widening dramatically as she shot Hope a wide-mouthed smile. “Don’t even get me started on you stressing about wedding planning!”

Above the women’s heads, Gale and John shared an amused glance, neither having seen them go at it before.

“Who wouldn’t be stressed about their wedding?”

“Well, I’m sorry for wanting Major Hot Stuff here to have the best birthday possible,” Ruth said plainly, patting John’s chest.

He was thankful that he hadn’t gotten a drink yet because it surely would’ve spewed from his lips and sprayed all over Buck. “Major Hot Stuff?” he choked out before he composed himself, a toothy grin tugging at his lips. “Just how much did you drink, doll?”

“Not much,” Ruth replied innocently, and stepped impossibly closer to him before tripping into John’s side, his hands instantly coming up to support her. She giggled happily and John couldn’t help the amused smile that spread across his face.

“She may have had a little too much for her,” Hope interjected, “To calm the nerves, you see.” Hope found the whole thing rather amusing in all honesty. Ruth had been so uptight ever since she’d started the party planning that it was nice to see her relaxing again.

Gale smiled fondly, watching as John guided Ruth to a table, settling her down in the corner.

“Shall we?” He offered Hope her arm and she gladly accepted, letting her fiancée lead her to the table where she seated herself between Gale and Hugh, opposite Ruth and John.

The rest of the men soon followed suit, all crowding around the table to find a seat. Harry Crosby perched next to Hugh, greeting Hope as he took his seat. Demarco sat on the other side of Gale, and Meatball found his way to nestle his head into Hope’s lap.

“Hey Meatball, who's a good boy,” Hope scratched behind the dogs ear and he flopped against her, whining and grunting as she hit the right spot. Gale watched the interaction adoringly.

How did he manage to find a girl so perfect?

“So Buck, tell me about this wedding you’re planning then. First I heard about it was from Croz this morning,” Demarco asked, leaning across so he could eye Gale and Hope suspiciously.

Harry looked sheepishly at Hope but she just smiled, he’d been in the infirmary when she’d dropped off supplies earlier and he’d noticed the ring.

“Couldn’t keep one secret could ya, Croz,” Hugh jested, grabbing Harry and ruffling his hair affectionately. Harry protested, smacking Hugh’s hands away and the pair began to squabble like children.

“Yep, it’s official. I popped the question and she said yes,” Gale replied, wrapping his arm around Hope’s shoulder, “She’s the only one for me.” He smiled down at Hope and she reached up, pressing her lips to hers, followed by a few low whistles and cheers from their fellow crew members, while Hugh merely made gagging noises.

“I’m happy for you, Buck, I really am,” John raised his glass, nodding towards his friend. “I would’ve paid to see this one’s reaction,” he chuckled, motioning to Ruth who was grinning beside him, tucked under his arm. She smiled fondly, thinking back on the day she found out her best friend was engaged to one of the loveliest men she’d ever met.

————————————————————————

Sunday, August 29th 1943: AAF Grove, Berkshire: 2000 HRS

Hope perched on the edge of the bed, her sore leg giving her some grief. She’d been on her feet most of the day, sorting things out around the base and she was paying for it now. Blood had seeped through the fresh bandages and she winced, peeling the fabric away from the wound.

“I told you not to do too much,” Ruth scolded, sitting down on her bed opposite Hope, “But you never listen.”

Hope just glared at her, Ruth was right but she wasn’t about to admit that.

“What would Gale say if he saw you hurrying all over base today? You know he’d be saying the same thing as me, Hope. We care about you, so please just take it easy,” Ruth pleaded, reaching over to squeeze her friend's shoulder. Her eyes trailed down to the wound on Hope’s thigh and she noticed the gold ring that adorned her ring finger.

“WHAT IS THAT?” She screeched a little too loudly, grabbing Hope’s left hand and holding it up to her face. “THAT’S A RING! AN ENGAGEMENT RING!”

Hope chuckled at her friend's enthusiasm, pulling her hand back and admiring the ring herself, “Gale popped the question in the infirmary while he was patching me up yesterday, and I said yes.”

Ruth looked at her dumbfounded before she smacked Hope’s arm, “WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?”

“There was a lot going on yesterday, it sort of slipped my mind,” Hope admitted, feeling guilty that she hadn’t told her best friend.

“Slipped your mind? You mean to tell me that your engagement just ‘slipped your mind?' Hope Armstrong, I am your best friend and you didn’t tell me first,” Ruth looked utterly betrayed as Hope moved to sit beside her.

“I’m so sorry, Rue, I should have told you. Everything was just so emotional yesterday and it all happened so quickly. Then we had to leave the base and things have been just as crazy here but that’s no excuse. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

————————————————————————

“It’s okay. At least I knew before Johnny,” she chuckled, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “Just wait ‘til he finds out!”

Hope cringed slightly and Ruth’s smile faltered. “I did know before John, right?”

“Well…”

“That sneaky piece of shit!”

The guilt that swirled within Hope’s stomach dissipated as Ruth’s curse echoed through the hut. She didn’t swear much, so when she did on occasion, Hope could never keep a smile from her lips. “I don’t think he wanted to spoil the surprise.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ruth playfully frowned, waving her hand in the air. “He’s a doggone traitor.”

But the frown didn’t last long and quickly changed into a wide smile as she threw herself onto Hope, trying to avoid her injured leg, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “I’m so happy for you, Hope. Gale is a great guy, and I know you two are going to have a long and happy life together.”

Hope smiled, “Thanks Rue, it means a lot that you support me.”

“I guess my question now is…” Ruth took a deep breath, “Can I be your maid of honour!”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Hope smiled, thinking back to the conversation she had with Ruth after her engagement. There was no way on Earth she could walk down the aisle without Ruth by her side, and Hugh of course. She glanced at her brother who was trying to loudly explain something irrelevant to Jack across the table.

The room was buzzing with life, laughter, and cheers of excitement filling the room as Tatty brought over the chocolate cake and laid it before John, a few candles stuck into the icing.

Everyone around the table erupted into a chorus…

“Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday dear Bucky,

Happy birthday to you!”

Hoots, hollers, and laughter followed as John leaned forward with a beaming smile, extinguishing the candles in one breath. He fell back into his chair, laughing wildly. Ruth snuggled back in under his arm and he pulled her close, pressing his lips firmly to her forehead.

“Thank you, slugger,” he murmured against her skin. “Thank you for everything.”

Ruth looked delightedly back at him, “You deserve this, John. Happy birthday.”

He craned his neck to look down at her, trying to engrain the moment into his mind before he leaned in and captured her lips in his. It was short and sweet but conveyed all the gratitude and affection John felt for the nurse.

Although he may not have said it out loud, she meant everything to him.

Ruth glanced over at Hope as she pushed her chair away from the table, brushing the creases from her dress. Gale’s hand that had been resting on her thigh moved quickly, clutching her hand.

“Where are you going?” Gale glanced up at her, his long lashes casting shadows beneath his eyes.

“Don’t worry,” Hope bent over, pressing her lips to his cheek, “I won’t be long.”

Gale released her hand reluctantly, his eyes following her across the hall as she disappeared behind the band. He was confused about what she was up to, her sideways glances between the stage and back all evening gave him an uneasy feeling in his stomach.

John was laughing loudly at something Benny had said when her familiar voice came over the microphone.

“Could I have everyone’s attention please,” Hope spoke softly but firmly into the microphone, causing everyone in the room to turn. “Thank you.” Hope looked a little nervous, her hands clasped in front of her. She wasn’t used to public speaking, having never really been a fan of big crowds ever since she went to a baseball game with Hugh. It was probably one of the main reasons why she made a good nurse, the one-on-one contact with another person was something that came so naturally to her.

She cleared her throat, trying to avoid all the eyes that were suddenly on her and concentrate on the one pair of eyes that truly mattered to her. Gale’s.

“Like me, you are all here to celebrate a certain Major’s birthday. I’m sure all of you have many stories you could tell about Bucky.” The room erupted into a small chorus to ‘to rights’ and ‘hell yeah we do’.

“So what can I say about Major John Egan? I’ve only known him for two months and he sure does love to rock the boat. He’s quite the character,” a few mumbled agreements followed.

“He’s a damn good pilot and a good friend. I couldn't think of anyone more suited for Ruth,” Hope pointed towards her friend. “I would also like to thank the very lovely Ruth Morgan for putting this whole evening together for us.” Several cheers erupted around the table and for once, Ruth’s cheeks didn’t flush. She held her head high as John reached out and brushed her curls away, kissing her cheek with a chuckle, obviously noticing the change from her usual behavior.

“Thank you, doll,” he mumbled, a soft smile on his lips, but before Ruth could speak up, Hope began talking over the microphone once more.

“So without further ado, this one’s for you John,” Hope moved across the stage and placed the record down onto the gramophone.

The disk turned for a few seconds until the smooth trumpet began to play, Hope tapped her foot along to the beat, waiting for her time to start.

“Blue skies, smiling at me

Nothing but blue skies do I see”

Hope’s voice flowed effortlessly into the microphone, playing through the horn, filling the long hall with life.

“Blue days, all of them gone

Nothing but blue skies from now on”

Hope’s eyes met Gale, as he beamed at her from the audience, a wide smile gracing his handsome face and his blue eyes sparkled in awe. She’d never felt so enamoured in her life than she did at that moment under Gale’s gaze, and the lyrics flowed easily.

“Blue days, all of them gone

Nothing but blue skies from now on”

Ruth and John were swaying beside each other from their cosy spot at the table. John’s arm was draped over Ruth’s shoulder as he spoke quietly to her.

Ruth beamed at something he said and Hope couldn’t help but smile along with them. After everything they had been through together, Hope never thought they would find happiness like this.

“Blue days, all of them gone

Nothing but blue skies from now on”

As the song came to an end the crowd burst into a round of applause, having Hope scurry back to Gale, blushing all the way. Gale’s arm instinctively wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her into his side one more.

“That was beautiful,” Gale mumbled, pressing his lips to her temple.

Hope smiled up at him, “Thank you,” she chuckled, “Just wait until it’s your birthday, Major, I have a whole lot up my sleeve.”

Gale hummed in amusement, kissing her temple again, “I look forward to it.”

“Hey, hey,” John butted in, snapping his fingers at them over the table. “You two keep that for your alone time. We’ve got a cake to eat, and I’m gonna hurl like Croz here if you keep talking like that.”

“Oh, come on!” Harry sighed, dragging a tired hand down his face. “I’m never gonna live that down.”

Ruth remembered Hope telling her of the poor navigator’s airsickness, and she was relieved that her own bout of projectile vomiting stopped in the early stages of her training at Bowman Field. The rumble of John’s chest against her broke her from her thoughts.

“But thank you, Hope. You almost sounded as good as me up there.”

“Well, that’s an insult,” Bill Veal scoffed, pulling up a chair to the table.

The table exploded in laughter and nods of agreement and Ruth nodded, snickering to herself as Johnny’s face screwed up in playful confusion. “I thought you liked my singing?”

“Oh, I do,” she smiled and patted his cheek gently. “But I never said you were Frank Sinatra, hon.”

“Well, in that case, I guess I’ll have to impress you with my dance moves.”

John stood to his feet, pulling Ruth with him by her hand. “See you, boys.”

He tugged her behind him to the dance floor where a few other couples were already dancing their hearts out to the upbeat tune of Glenn Miller’s ‘A String of Pearls.’ With a wide grin, John spun Ruth around the dance floor, watching her face light up as they got lost in the moment. With every spin, dip, and kiss, their laughter filled the room, and even though Ruth stumbled a few times, Bucky’s firm grip kept her steady, his smile never faltering.

Hope watched from her spot beside Gale, envious of all the dancing couples. She glanced at Gale but he was talking to Demarco, who was feeding Meatball scraps from the table.

A hand on her shoulder caused her to jump and Hugh’s outstretched hand appeared.

“May I have this dance?” Hugh bowed his head down and Hope couldn’t contain the laughter as she watched her brother's antics.

“Why of course,” she clutched Hugh’s hand, glancing back at Gale who looked a little saddened by her departure.

“Come on, Hope,” Hugh pulled her after him, “Gale never dances and you don’t want to sit around like a sad sack all evening.”

Hope nodded, she had to admit that she loved dancing and the thought of missing out did make her a little disappointed, but she also wanted to spend time with her fiancé, who thanks to the war she so rarely saw as it was.

A few more fast paced songs passed and Hugh had Hope spinning around the dance floor. He wasn’t very spatially aware and Hope often found herself apologising as they crashed into other couples.

“Good thing you don’t fly like you dance, Sparky,” Bucky called, “You’d take out the whole 8th Air Force with those skills!”

Hugh spun around, ready to defend his honour, but Hope quickly swung him away from Ruth and John with a small smile.

As Glenn Miller played loudly and Hope couldn’t help the infectious smile that spread across her face as the hall came alive. Despite all the bloodshed and suffering they had witnessed, moments like this made it all worth it.

Hugh had always been a rather good dancer, except for his special awareness, and he led her easily across the floor. It had been a long time since she had danced with her brother, the last time having been at a party back in the States before the war broke out. It was comforting and familiar really.

Hugh began chatting animatedly about a girl he’d met the other day in Dicklesburgh. Every time they spoke Hugh was supposedly ‘in love’ with a new woman. When he’d settle down, Hope wasn’t sure.

The whole time Hope could feel Gale’s eyes on her, following her around the room. She wished he would dance with her, but she knew Gale wasn’t much of a dancer and accepted her fate to always having to find a dance partner in Hugh, who was more than obliging.

Hugh turned to face her, “So have you set a date yet?”

Hope rolled her eyes at him, “Not quite, we’ve only been engaged twelve days.”

“And you’ve only known him two months but look at that, you’re head over heels.”

Hugh’s words resonated with Hope, she couldn’t believe it had only been two months and they were already engaged, it felt like she’d loved him for a lifetime. She never imagined herself to be the kind of woman to fall head over heels for a man and marry him within a year, but here she was head over heels for Gale Cleven.

She’d written to her family to inform them of her engagement, hoping they would be a pleased as she was. The reply she received was less than friendly, accusing her of getting ‘knocked up’ and ‘bringing shame upon their family’. Hugh had written to their parents too, vouching for Gale’s credibility as an honourable man but with Hugh’s track record after his breakup with his fiancée, they still weren’t convinced. Hugh had promised her that no matter what their parents said he’d support her.

“I see the way Gale looks at you,” he spoke softly, sensing that his comment had caused Hope to rethink their mother’s harsh words. “No man looks at a woman like that unless their completely in love and that right there,” he pointed towards Gale who was leaning against the bar with Demarco and Meatball, his eyes still on Hope, “that man is completely in love with you.”

Hope blushed, nodding in agreement, “And I love him, very much.”

“Then that’s all I could ever ask for, my little sister is happy and she has chosen an honourable man. My work here is done.”

As if Gale had read the situation, he began to make his way across the dance floor towards the two Armstrongs.

“Hugh, do you mind if I steal Hope away from you?”

“Be my guest,” Hugh released Hope, passing her hand over to Gale’s who took it instantly. Her hand seemed to fit into his as if they’d been holding hands for all their lives. Hugh drifted away across the dance floor towards Helen and Tatty, sending Hope a thumbs up as he disappeared.

“May I have this dance, Ma’am?” Gale asked, his spare hand already coming to rest on her hip.

“I didn’t think you danced, Major,” Hope retorted, eyeing Gale suspiciously.

“Who would pass up the chance with a beautiful woman, such as yourself?”

Hope blushed at his flattery, placing her head against the crook of his neck. “Well I can’t argue with that, Major.”

Hope swayed in Gale’s arms, not in time with the now slow beat the band was playing but to Gale’s pace, his heart beating rhythmically beneath her hand, keeping her in time. Her eyes followed around the room, catching Hugh’s eye as he danced with Tatty, he grinned at her, and she grinned back. Hope wished Hugh would settle down, find a nice girl and be as happy as she was with Gale, but Hugh seemed to appreciate the bachelor life, it never seemed to phase him.

Hope’s eyes searched the crowd for Ruth and John but they were nowhere to be seen.

“Did you see Ruth and John leave?” Hope perked up, glancing worriedly at Gale but he just gave her a calm smile.

“They only just left, Sugar. The birthday boy needed some alone time with his girl,” his voice was low and his chest rumbled under Hope’s hand.

“Some alone time, huh?” She cocked her eyebrow at him, biting her bottom lip, unpaused that the red lipstick might end up on her teeth. “How about we have ourselves some alone time, Major Cleven?”

“Hmm,” Gale mused, leaning down to press his lips to her ear lobe. “I like the sound of that.” Hope giggled, grasping Gale’s hand and pulling him along behind her.

They passed Hugh who gave Hope a thumbs up to which she responded by throwing him her middle finger as she passed, not looking back to catch his reaction.

Once outside, the cool evening air embraced them and Gale wrapped his coat around Hope’s shoulders, smiling down at his fiancée. “What did you have in mind, Sugar?” He asked, leading her down the road that led up to the officer's hut.

Hope pondered for a moment, she knew what she really wanted, but Gale was such a gentleman that she wasn’t sure what to ask him.

“How about we head back to the officer's hut, everyone will be out enjoying the party and we can see where the evening takes us.”

Gale nodded, a smirk tugging at his lips, “Whatever you’d like, Beautiful.”

Gale led the way back to the officer’s hut, his hand resting firmly on the small of her back, guiding her all the way.

She stepped inside, and the familiar smell of body odour and aftershave hit her, it reminded her of Hugh’s bedroom back home in Missouri.

Hope made her way along the line of beds, “This is the second time you’ve broken the no-girls rule, Major. Whatever next?”

Gale snorted, closing the door behind them. His eyes followed Hope’s movements as she came to his bed, her hand running over the neatly concertinaed edge of the sheet before flopping down onto the mattress with a sigh. Her heels started to hurt her, and as if Gale knew, he stood at the end of the bed, his hands running slowly up and down her calves, before unbuckling her heels and removing them for her.

She sighed as the shoes slipped from her feet, but Gale’s hands remained firmly on her legs, trailing patterns up the smooth flesh just above her knee. Gale looked up at her through hooded lashes, his pulp lips sealed together and he looked deep in thought.

“Gale?” Hope propped herself up on her elbows, watching him curiously as he knelt on the end of the bed, his hands still on her thighs. “What are you thinking?”

Gale swallowed, his eyes making their way up her body until they landed on her face, a crooked smile tugging at his lips. “Just you,” he mumbled nonchalantly.

“You’re thinking about me?” Hope chuckled, pushing herself up further so she could lean over to him, her lips inches from his. “And what are you thinking about me?” She bit her lip and Gale’s breath faltered. He looked like he was having some sort of internal fight with himself, he opened and closed his mouth to speak and his forehead creased.

“I’m just thinking about how much I love you, how much I wish this damn war was over so we could be together,” Gale glanced up at her, his large blue eyes resembling a sad puppy. “I want to be with you, Hope, and not just fleeting moments but all the time.”

Hope sighed, pushing Gale back so she could straddle his lap, and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I wish we could be together all the time too,” she rested her forehead against his own, “But at least in these fleeting moments we can make the most of our time together, we’ll have memories to get us through the time we are apart.”

Gale's breath faltered as his hands came to rest on her hips, shuffling her closer to him. His lips were inches from hers, just brushing lightly as he spoke, “Hope Armstrong, you’re the most incredible woman I’ve ever met.”

She blushed, running her fingers through his tousled locks, “Why thank you, but I like the sound of Hope Cleven better.”

His lips pressed against Hope’s, a small moan leaving his lips. Hope could feel his fingers trailing up her spine, tenderly stroking the soft skin above her hips.

Hope moved her hand to Gale’s cheek, her thumb delicately stroked along his jaw, and Gale flexed under her touch. His lips immediately moved to her neck, kissing gingerly along her collarbone, his eyes darting up to hers in a silent question that she answered with a small whimper.

Hope’s cheeks grew flushed and hot, her eyelashes fluttering as she fought to keep her eyes open. She shuffled closer to Gale but he still her movements, a low groan leaving his throat. The energy in the room shifted, Gale’s desire evident on his face and his eyes burned, darker and stormier than Hope had ever seen before. Adrenaline was coursing through her veins and her hand shook as she cupped his cheek, bringing her lips to his firmly.

“I want you, Gale,” was all she could muster before he rolled her over so she was beneath him on the bed, pinned down by his large arms on either side of her head.

“Gale,” she murmured before his plush lips met her mouth, teasing her lips until she allowed him access and he slipped his tongue inside. Their tongues fought for dominance, while their hands roamed each other's bodies, exploring every crease and every curve.

Gale’s hand roamed up Hope’s thigh, grazing over the scar that ran from her knee upwards. The wound was still fresh really, having only sustained it 12 days ago. Hope had removed the sutures herself the night before traveling to Thorpe Abbotts, and the wound had healed well but the flesh was still red and raised. Gale trailed his fingers around the edge of the scar, muttering softly.

Hope sighed, “It’s ugly, I know.”

Gale had never felt so heartbroken in his life, the look on Hope’s face resembling one of disappointment, as though she wasn’t the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

“I’ll be disfigured for life, those scars never going away, Gale,” a silent tear slipped down her cheek and she brushed it away, hoping he hadn’t noticed. Gale of course had, he could barely keep his eyes off of her.

His forehead creased and he gave her a sympathetic look, “Your scar isn’t ugly, Hope. It shows what you’ve been through and that you survived. None of us will get through this unscathed but our scars show that we got through it, and we will get through this together.” Gale leaned down, pressing his lips onto the raised flesh. “I told you that I love you, and that means all of you, Hope, no matter what.”

Hope pulled him towards her, wrapping his arms around his neck once more. The kiss this time had more feeling, more need, more urge to close the impossibly small gap between them. Gale hummed against her lips, his fingers beginning to work on the delicate zip at the side of her dress, while his spare hand began kneading the flesh above the hip.

Each moment their lips met, a new fire was ignited, a primal urge. Hope moaned and Gale happily swallowed any noise she made, and let out a low groan that only caused the fire inside Hope to burn brighter.

As they stripped each other down to their underwear, Hope rolled her hips experimentally, brushing against Gale’s crouch, causing him to bite down on her lip. Their chests were heaving from the effort, bumbling against each other, as Hope rolled her hips once more.

“You’re so needy,” Gale mumbled, resting his hands against her hips to slow her motions. Sweat trickled down his forehead and Hope had already noticed a large bulge in his underwear. “Hope, we shouldn’t, we’re not married yet and I don’t want you to feel like you have to do this. I’m happy to wait if you’re not…”

“Gale, I love the sound of your voice but just this once would you please shut up,” Hope battered her eyelashes at him, and watched as Gale’s jaw slammed shut. He looked confused for a moment, as if he needed a minute to process what his next move was before he was back on top of her, his teeth grazing along her collarbone, while his hand slipped beneath her underwear, storming the sensitive flesh of her groin before moving lower.

“I’ll make this a night you’ll never forget, Hope Cleven.”

If Hope had been coherent enough to notice the nickname, she was sure she would have felt warm and fuzzy inside, hearing Gale refer to her as his wife, even though they were not yet officially married. Hope, however, groaned loudly, bunching the sheets on either side of her as Gale moved lower beneath the sheets and disappeared from view.

The pair were pleased that John’s party was such a hit, even if the man of the hour had excused himself early. The other men were clearly having a good time, drinking and relaxing without the worry of a mission hanging over them, enough so that no one returned to their barracks for a good while.

Hope sighed, finally catching her breath enough to glance over at Gale who had a massive grin plastered across his handsome features. He reached up, running his fingers through his messy locks, his chest still rising and falling rapidly from the effort.

He caught Hope’s gaze, smiling softly at her, he rolled onto his side to face her, his hand coming over to rub his thumb across her cheek. Neither of them spoke for a moment.

Hope sighed, her emotions finally ebbing enough that she could think straight. A small whine slipped past her lips as she shuffled closer to Gale, resting her head against his warm chest.

“I didn’t hurt you did I?” Gale immediately asked, propping himself up a little, his eyes wide and his lip quivered as he spoke. “Oh no, I did. Oh, Hope, I’m so…”

“Hey, hey Gale you didn’t hurt me, you didn’t hurt me I promise,” Hope pulled him in close to her, “I’ve just never been with anyone before, I’m just a little stiff.”

Gale still looked sadly at her, “I’m sorry,” he whispered, his lips pressing firmly to her forehead and his arms enveloping her in a loving embrace.

“Don’t be sorry,” she mumbled sleepily, “This was the best night of my life.”

Gale chuckled, running his fingers slowly through her brown curls. “I wish we could stay like this all night but the party ends soon. The guys will be coming back, and I don’t exactly want them all to see my future wife naked.”

Hope laughed, pushing herself off the bed and quickly gathering her clothes, “Well, we can’t have that can we?”

After their visit to the vacant shower block, where they’d continued to have trouble keeping their hands, they made the short walk back to the Red Cross Nissen hut. Tatty, Helen and Ruth were already back, sitting near the window with their curlers in their hair. Ruth stared at the wall with a dazed grin, and Hope smiled to herself knowing exactly who she was talking about, the same man whose arms she was most of the evening.

Hope stood on the step, her hand resting on the doorknob but she couldn’t find it in her to go inside, not yet.

“I truly had a wonderful time tonight, Gale,” she linked her fingers through his, bringing his hand up to kiss his knuckle.

Gale sighed, stepping forward to bring her in for another searing kiss, “I want to kiss you every day for the rest of my life. Maybe we should get married before this all ends. I love you, Hope and you love me so what’s stopping us.”

Hope was a little taken aback, “You really mean it?”

“Of course I do, Hope. You’re the only woman for me and I love you more than anything. We should set a date. Does a month from now sound alright?”

Hope nodded, clutching hold of Gale and burying her face into his jacket, ignoring how her wet hair soaked his shirt and inhaled the sweet scent of his aftershave. His heart was pounding beneath her hand. She stared up at him, eyes shining with unshed tears in the moonlight.

“I love you too, Gale, with all my heart.”

Pressing one last kiss to his lips, Hope reluctantly pulled herself from him and entered the hut. Helen and Tatty sent her a few winks as she walked past them, but Ruth raised a brow skeptically from her bed, and Hope saw the questions shining in her friend’s eyes. The blonde managed to stay silent a few more seconds until her excitement and curiosity bubbled and broke free in her chest and she tugged Hope to sit down beside her. “Tell me everything!”

Gale strolled into the hut, his towel resting over his shoulder and his hair still dripping from his shower.

“Where the hell have you been?” Hugh asked, cocking his head to the right. “Was about to send out a search party to save you from my sister.”

Gale snorted, “I didn’t need any saving. The ‘future Mrs Cleven’ and I had a fine evening.”

Hugh rolled his eyes, “Oh Christ, you know what that means.”

Before Hugh could continue, Harding poked his head in the door with Major Bowman behind him.

“Evening Gentlemen. Everyone alright?” A chorus of ‘Yes Sir’ followed, and Harding nodded.

“Good. Glad you all had a good time. I just wanted to remind you all that the rule of ‘no women in the huts’ still stands. That goes for you too, Cleven.” He pointed at Gale suspiciously, eyeing him up and down before returning his attention to the rest of the men. “Have a good night, Gents.”

The door slammed shut and the room was left in silence, all the men looking at Gale, who was still standing in the center of the room in utter disbelief when John spoke up from his spot on his bed, placing ‘The Odor of Violets’ onto his nighstand.

“Buck, you sly dog,” he chuckled, pointing at his best friend with his brows raised. “You finally got some action!!”

A few moments later, the door opened again and it was Red’s face that appeared in the doorway. “And Egan,” the man sighed, fighting a smirk from appearing on his lips. “Next time you decide to give your girl a plane tour, make sure there’s no ground crewmen in the cockpit, alright? Night, boys.”

The second the door closed, the hut erupted into laughter and John’s was the loudest, his cackles echoing off the metal walls. “No one tell Ruth! She’d never wanna be seen with me again!”

Gale released a grateful sigh, thankful that the attention was no longer on him. John was used to that kind of attention, but he was not.

“Sounds like you’re the one who got some action, Bucky,” Demarco yelled from across the room.

“No action over here,” John shrugged, settling back down onto his cot and grabbing his book.

Bill scoffed on his cot beside Johnny’s. “I don’t believe that for one second. You two were all over each other at the party.”

“And you disappeared pretty early,” Bubbles added with a smirk.

“What? I swear! Is it that unbelievable?”

A chorus’ of ‘yeahs’ and ‘yes’ filled the hut at the question, and Bucky shook his head with a shrug, resuming his spot in his book. “Believe what you want, boys. Nothing happened.”

They continued to argue, but he just blocked them out, smiling to himself as he thought of the party and his evening spent with Ruth. John’s eyes drifted over to Gale across the room, who was seemingly doing the same thing, a small grin on his face that only appeared in Hope’s presence or at the thought of the nurse.

Feeling eyes on him, Buck’s gaze roamed around the room until it met Johnny’s over his book. The older man sent him a questioning eyebrow and when Gale shrugged with a smirk, he knew all he needed to know. When Gale sent him the same look, Bucky simply winked and went back to his book, and knew he was telling the truth.

It seemed the women in their lives brought out the other side of them…Hope brought out Gale’s bolder side, and Ruth brought out the loving and calmer John that Buck knew him to be.

The rest of the hut was still in disbelief at the atypical behavior of the majors, but Hugh just grinned from his position on his cot…he knew exactly why they both acted that way:

They were in love.

Tags: @georgieluz @docroesmorphine @major-mads @violetdaze25 @bcofl0ve @precious-little-scoundrel @blurredcolour @artlover8992 @b00ks1ut @xxluckystrike @hockeyboysarehot @groovin2beats @kmc1989 @ginabaker1666 @hesbuckcompton-baby @blueberry-ovaries @forsythiagalt

[reblogdirect]

Thoughts about Book 7 and how the new theories are messing with my head (Spoilers ahead)

You know, when I first started playing twisted wonderland, book 6 wasn't out on JP servers yet so there was basically very little content about Diasomnia aside from the crumbs in the events, yet I was sure of one thing.

Diasomnia was going to be a crazy story.

The moment I learnt more about the four of them, I thought for sure there had been a war between faes and humans, and that either Lilia/Maleficia had cursed Silver in retaliation of his ancestors. There was 0 doubts to me that when we'd reach Diasomnia's book, we were going to get a literal bomb concerning Silver's true past. I KNEW his parents/ancestors would be the Draconias' enemies. I didn't know how it would play out, but that was something that was clear to me.

I was sure that Malleus would overblot because he'd learn of Silver's ancestors and how his parents had died because of Silver's human family.

I thought we had to learn of the past because it would be the cause of Malleus trauma.

But now that we keep on going through book 7, things went down differently, and that kind of confuses me. We're not just discovering Malleus' trauma compared to other books. We're literally getting a glimpse into the past.... We're reliving the past that links so closely Malleus, Lilia, Silver and Sebek as well.

Heck, we're seeing how two kingdoms fell into ruins because of a war, and how it shaped up the future of two different races. And that got me thinking...

Why would Book 7 go to such lengths?

I mean, yeah, ever since Book 1 and Riddle's story, we've slowly gotten lengthier chapters as we progressed through the story. It started to branch out and we got more and more information. We'd get more glimpses of the overblottes, and I thought Book 6 had really gone in deep in the story... Yet Book 7 went even further.

But when you think about it... It's not even Malleus' "story", like it was for the other Dorm Leaders/Jamil/Ortho. He doesn't seem to be aware of how the events truly played out. He was an egg at that time, and I don't even think he knew that he hatched only because of Lilia's love.

We're clearly seeing that Lilia couldn't bring himself to tell a truth that would hurt his sons. And I doubt Maleficia would sit down Malleus and tell him anything about the past. In fact, I think she wouldn't even know that Silver is the Knight of Dawn's child.

So going back to Malleus' overblot. He didn't have a mental breakdown because he found out the truth about his mother's death. He didn't break down because the little human he ended up growing fond of and watched growing up was the son of the man that caused his mother's demise.

He didn't break down because he found out that Lilia knew all of this yet lied to him.

Compared to the other overblottes, he literally lost it at the start of his book. This is my personal thought, but he didn't seem to overblot because he lost it like the other 6. He literally seemed apathetic to me at that moment, and then he seemed to "embrace" his blot. It reminded me of how Idia said to "Ortho" to leave it to his nii-chan before he overblotted, yet we learnt later on that Ortho's death was a deep trauma for Idia. Malleus on the other hand? There wasn't THAT type of factor that caused something to break in him.

Like don't get me wrong, I'm not at all diminishing his love for Lilia/Silver/Sebek or even his fear of being alone and loosing them... But when I look at what we're discovering in Book 7... Just why would he overblot before we even got to the absolutely tragic moments we're seeing? The tragic past HE's witnessing as well??

If Malleus' curse/blessing was so that EVERYONE would live a "happy ending"... If his wish was for the others to be happy... WHY would Lilia dream of this??? Why would Lilia relive some of the most tragic moments in his life when he's supposed to dream happily? We could've just had the cute moments where he raised Malleus, Silver and then Sebek...

There seems to be no reason whatsover for Book 7 to go so far in the story...

Unless they're not actually telling us the story of why Malleus is overblotting...But instead, it's hinting at someone else's story.

I know I'm going all over the place, but I just have to talk about another of my initial thoughts when I started playing. At that time, I was also convinced that Grim was that beast at the start of the prologue, and that he'd end up overblotting or whatever it was that caused him to become like that. I was even more convinced when we learnt that he had a mysterious and ancient curse on him.

When we learnt of Malleus' dad, there was a lot of crack theories that came around saying that Crowley was his long lost dad. I didn't like it at all, not because he's a pathetic man, but because it scared me with its implications lol.

I've always been convinced that Crowley is a manipulator and is hiding weeell his true thoughts/motives. Part of it is definitely because of the sequence we see at the start of the game when it shows him summoning Yuu, yet we've basically NEVER saw him act so seriously later on. He's silly, a coward, and leaves everything to others to fix... But what if that's what he wants others to belive about him? Regardless of who he actually is, I sincerely don't think that a man that has so many ties can truly be so foolish.

I wasn't sure if he was purposely causing the overblots or not, because I sincerely couldn't think of a motive for him.

But now, with Book 7? I can think of a very clear motive, like some theories have brought it up...

Meleanor.

You know, when we heard of Leven and Meleanor a couple of months back, I thought maybe he's the one who had the same fate as Diablo (meaning he got turned to stone/killed) while Meleanor would loose it from the pain.

Yet what have we seen in this chapter? She was still alive, and she has been the one to die first.

So what if as Lilia/Baul & Egg Malleus fled, Levan came only to find the aftermath of the battle?

What if he only found his beloved's corpse, knowing he was too late? What if HE was the one to lose it instead of Meleanor, like Maleficient had in the movie?

If truly Crowley is Levan and is trying to bring back Meleanor, it would explain why he's causing the overblots. It would explain why he's hiding his identity and acting dumb, why they didn't even show us a silhouette of his despite that ugly Henric bastard having a sprite. I mean some could argue that Leah/Leia(?) didn't get a silhouette either despite being the Knight of Dawn's spouse... But let's be real, she's simply not as important as Levan was to Meleanor, Lilia & Malleus.

Part of me thinks of what this theory would imply with Lilia and Malleus. Both of them would be furious and heartbroken, but I think he'd be ready to lose everything if it means getting back his wife. And in the case he fails, I think he would just be willing to face death instead of seeking forgiveness from his old friend and his son.

Anyways I should stop rambling now lol. I just needed to get this out of my chest because Book 7 and the theories with it have literally taken over my thoughts and I just.... keep on thinking. I can't wait to see how

[lushlovers]

sad beautiful tragic, J Burrow

summary; a sad beautiful tragic love affair.

warnings; angsty oh yes, swearing in the dialogue, arguments, cheating (not on the reader), obviously tears

word count; 1.02k

note; im writing angst because twd still wrips my heart out after all these years, obviously inspired by the taylor swift song of the same title.

long handwritten notes deep in your pocket words, how little they mean when you're a little too late.

He wants to reverse time. Just an extra two minutes would make a huge difference in this moment. Everything he could've said, but now they're worth little to nothing. You, you, you, was all he could bring himself to let cross his mind. All the memories, now shadowed by you standing on his front steps begging him to say something, anything, but he wouldn't.

I stood right by the tracks, your face in a locket. Good girls, hopeful they'll be and long they will wait.

The silver chain around your neck felt like it was on fire, leaving scars in it's wake. The photo inside that locket was one that was taken on a beautiful New York night. You'd never been and Joe swore up and down he would take you there for a game, unlucky for you, you weren't able to sit with his friends, but in the stands with the screaming fans. Treated like you were nothing, while unknowingly his wife sat next to his mother.

We had a beautiful magic love affair What a sad beautiful tragic love affair.

Joe couldn't shake you from his mind. You'd blocked him from your instagram and deleted his contact as soon as you left his house that evening, cursing his name and saying things you never knew you could. It was amazing while it lasted, but God did it crash and burn.

In dreams, i meet you in warm conversation we both wake, in lonely beds in different cities

It's hard not to think what it would've been like if it hadn't ended the way he did. What if he left Gabrielle and went public with you? What if she finally chose to leave him and you could have him as all yours? However none of those what if's became a reality

After he'd showed you around the metropolis that was New York City, you chose on moving there. You had managed enough money for an extremely overpriced apartment, but it was far enough from your biggest mistake. Whenever you heard about his team possibly having a game, you'd refuse offers, because your friends knew how much you used to love that team, not anymore. Not ever.

And time Is taking its sweet time erasing you

Time went along slow as you settled in, when you originally made the purchase of you tiny apartment, you almost called him out of instinct. Almost. He kept up with you using his friends phones or even Robin's, she was suspicious. His wife was distant after you showed up on their step telling Joe you needed him and you loved him. She knew he was seeing someone else long before then, but kept quiet, using his credit cards more than usual to drown her sorrows in shopping.

And you've got your demons and darlin' they all look like me.

Your smell had somehow managed to linger on his clothes, in his car, everywhere you touched. He could sometimes still feel the ghost of your finger tips massaging the hair at the nape of his neck in only the way you knew how to. The way you'd run your nails along his back, sometimes in the most sinful situations.

'Cause we had a beautiful magic love affair what a sad beautiful tragic love affair

There was really no point in continuing what you had going with Joe, you knew that. But letting him go off to live life without you was the last thing you ever wanted to let happen. he made his choice and got his point across in the form of absolutely shattering your heart and soul, leaving you to pick the pieces up and try your best to glue it all back in place.

Distance, timing, breakdown, fighting silence, the train runs off it's tracks

As the time you shared drew to an end, nothing was enjoyable. Being in each other presence for even five minutes led to you being at each other's throats. Everyone around Joe could tell, even his wife, she noticed how when he'd go shower, the door would be locked and through the thick wood she could hear how hard he cried for you.

Kiss me try to fix it, could you just try to listen?

His lips press to your own, tears coated each other's cheeks. Not allowing yourself to indulge in him for even mere seconds, you shove him back with the littlest bit of strength you posses, "No, Joe, you're not fucking listening to me," your shouting, chest heaving.

He's never seen you this angry and never have you gone as far as to yell at him as loud as you are, "Don't push me." He mumbled wiping his eyes harshly, now his teeth are clenched, his jaw set tight. That's what did it, everything you've tried to get into hi head. How you want nothing to do with being his side piece, none of it managed to get into his thick skull.

Hang up give up and for the life of us we can't get back.

"Whatever, fuck you, Joe." You sob, desperately trying your best to catch your breath, quickly hanging up before he could even process your words. His head rolled back on his shoulders as he listened to his phone beep, glancing down at you contact name, your name followed by every kissy or heart filled emoji you could find on his phone. He never tried to change or hide it.

A beautiful magic love there what a sad beautiful tragic beautiful tragic, beautiful.

Your laughs echoed through the lit up hotel room, he fingers dancing lightly over your sides, begging for him to let up on the tickling. Finally he stops, cupping your your face in his hands, letting his eyes take in every perfect feature. "God, you're gorgeous," He smiles, kissing you breathless. If only you could stay like this forever.

What we had, a beautiful magic love affair What a sad beautiful tragic love affair. We had a beautiful magic love affair what a sad beautiful tragic love affair

[originalwombatfart]

Echo Visual Novel Playlist!

Hey all! Last year I played Echo, and by god has it stuck with me. From the story, art, characters, and generally just how naturally all the queer stuff felt during my time reading. I highly suggest anyone who had not played it yet to check it out, but be warned it is not for the faint of heart!

My and my partner made this playlist over the course of 4 months! It had 4 hours of songs that we tried to fit into vibes, characters, and themes. Here is my breakdown of what each song fits to. Some songs a directed towards characters, but each song is centered in their category. Some songs overlap, and could fit multiple characters.

-Chase: Bottom of the River, Christmas Kids, Spanish Sahara, I Scared All My Friends Away, Underwater, Blood On My Name, Little Secrets, The view Between Villages, Am I Dreaming

-Jenna: Piano Fire, Fast Car, My Silver Lining, Re: Re:, Distance Facebook Drama, Nothing You Can Take From Me

-Leo: Christmas Kids, Ribs, Cha-Ching, 27 Reasons, Got You, Same Drugs, I Love You So, Favorite Poison, Two Birds,

-TJ: Christmas Kids, The Good, Lions Roar

-Carl: You are Stronger, Tree House, Close Tonight, Numbers, 2/14, Cold Weather, The Dead Come Talking, Fall Asleep, Tongue Tied, Panic Attack

-Flynn: Bottom of the River, Turn the Lights off, Wild Side, I Scared All My Friends Away, Allies or Enemies, Blood On My Name, Key Plus Words, Never Love an Anchor, Can't Catch Me Now, A Toast and A Spirit, Dirty Little Secrets, Panic Attack

-Sydney: Underwater, Allies or Enemies, Can't Catch Me Now, Unconditional Love, The Dead Come Talking, Father

-Brian: Lovely Bastards

-Tetanus Alley Gang: Cause for Concern, Remember Me

-The Group as a whole: No Instructions, I'd rather go blind, Nothing's New, Photos from When We Were Young, One Day, Running Away, Everyone's a VIP to Someone, Normal People Things, Escapism, Theseus (Good Endings), Hey Lover

-Town of Echo: Everything Stays, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Hanging Tree, No Glory in the West, Muddy Waters Breakers Roar, Never Be Alone

-Vibes: You're Not Here, Theme of Laura, Space Song, Beyond Desolation (Bad Endings), dream (they do be dreaming), Serenity

Overall Very proud of the work we put in! A few songs didn't make the cut, but I am satisfied with the list we have. Four hours is a lot! Let me know if you wan individual explanations on why we put a song on the list.

[sbk-zgvlt]

In lights of the the Phantom Bride rerun on Twisted Wonderland, I want you to think about the absolute shitshow that would happen if Eliza had picked Sebek as her groom, I mean just imagine the breakdown it would send Diasomnia into lmao

Also it is plausible, I mean if Eliza could delude herself into thinking Idia (of all people) was her Prince charming, why not Sebek?

THIS IS SO FUCKING FUNNY

I need to turn this into an actual event. Like, actually. Starts off as usual, you know, but instead of Ortho coming in to report that Idia's been kidnapped, it's SILVER. Sebek told him that he was going to go to the library to continue studying or whatever, but it's late at night and he still hasn't gone back to the dorms! Silver thinks he's only missing, not kidnapped though.

Yuu points out that for some reason, when they were shoved out of Ramshackle, the ghosts mention of the princess' long-awaited dream finally coming true. Silver puts two and two together and shouts at Yuu that "Are you implying that SEBEK GOT KIDNAPPED BY THE GHOSTS????" To find out if he actually was, Silver tries to recall anything from the time Sebek went to the library. The information he has unfortunately doesn't help at all, so they have to figure out if Sebek actually was kidnapped in the first place.

Ortho still contributes greatly to this! A few minutes after Silver bursts in, he also arrives! He relays some footage, where Sebek is coming back from the school store complaining that he couldn't find a book. Eliza appears out of nowhere, saying that "I've finally found you, my prince!" and Sebek SCREAMS.

By the end of it Silver is a bundle of NERVES. He is ITCHING to just storm in and take Sebek away. Unfortunately, he can't because. Ghosts. But Yuu points out that Sebek told Silver he went to the library. Why did he come back from the school store?

...it is revealed after the events of Harveston, Idia and Sebek still talk to each other, and the former asked the latter if he could get the copy of his favorite manga. Sebek agreed, leading to him getting kidnapped. "...so basically, this is Shroud's fault!?" "SILVER, NO"

Now, we get to how Sebek could possibly fit Eliza's standards.

"At least 180 centimeters tall, with an air of nonchalance!"

Sebek does seem nonchalant at first, and he fits the height.

"Healthy, lustrous skin! Lidded eyes! A charming smile!" Headcanon that crocodile faes just have FLAWLESS skin. Wouldn't know how lidded eyes would fit, but maybe Sebek wasn't used to staying up so late and ended up with light bags. Meaning he stayed up anyway to get Idia's copy...THEYRE FRIENDS I SWEAR (delulu). And Sebek DOES have a charming smile anyway.

"Bright, shimmering hair! Lips so arresting that you just have to kiss them!"

I mean, Sebek's hair looks good EVEN when its bedhair. Wouldnt put it past Eliza if she settled on Sebek's hair even if it's not that bright or shimmering. Lips don't really have anything to them except for being Sebek's aka Eliza is delulu.

Meanwhile, I will continue this tomorrow!!!

...guys dont hit me with your ideas just yet PLEASE I WANT TO MAKE THIS AN EVENT SO BAD.

[aknolan]

ok so can you explain how nnd have more buildup then other ships (not a rant)

Is the "not a rant" like, an instruction for me? Because I am very bad at not going off on a rant but the good news is I'm not currently interested in giving the full overview anyways so I'll stick to the main points of their buildup.

This is going backwards a little but looking at volume 9, I mean, it's pretty clear? Penny's death is a big part of Ruby's current breakdown and it's because Penny is so deeply important to Ruby. And when you consider how different parts of the scene with Neo's constructs are framed? When not!Penny starts talking, everything goes quiet. No fighting, no running, just not!Penny talking to Ruby, and Ruby listening. This is where you put the love interest in a scene all about an antagonist using the protagonist's emotional weak spots!

Neo was trying so hard to hit Ruby where it hurts, and all the other attempts include physical violence, but this? This just just emotional. This is what Neo thinks will hit the hardest, and from a meta-perspective it's what the writers think is the most meaningful part.

Going back though, I feel like it's a little bit obvious to tell how important Ruby is to Penny, right? Like, we all know that? First friend, first to treat her like a person, etc. etc.

The other way around, up to v3 there's not that much for how important Penny is to Ruby, really. I'll accept that. There's nothing necessarily distinguishing Ruby's grief over being too late to save Penny from her grief over being too late to save Pyrrha later either. But v7 is when Penny returns, and it's interesting! Really interesting!

This is where Penny starts getting consistently framed as Ruby's love interest. It's like that one post about her return in v7e1, "goddamn anime love interest framed by the fucking moon", if I'm quoting it right. And the v7 intro showing an image of a very happy Penny at the end of the phrase "in time you'll find through love your power just shines" is also some love interest framing. Then of course the election night episode pairs up a couple of characters, Ren and Nora of course, Blake and Yang going dancing, and then... Ruby and Penny hanging out. And of course the repeated important conversations happening, and the thing where Ruby almost fell asleep on Penny's shoulder which is just like, such a ship tease moment.

But v7 isn't that clear about it, so I get if that's not very convincing. I think it's more than any other ship has but the really big stuff gets there in v8.

The volume where they really Cannot Stop Hugging, and where Ruby promises they'll see eachother again soon, and Ruby's silver eyes are (not for the first time!) suddenly able to activate when Penny's in danger, and Ruby holds onto Penny so tightly - so afraid to let go because something is wrong and she can't lose Penny, and they all use the relic of creation to save Penny before they do anything else (and yeah I hate that scene but it's meaningful and I won't deny that it's meaningful), and yeah saving Penny is the theme of the volume because she was the winter maiden but for Ruby it's not about that. She can't lose Penny.

And then she loses Penny and she literally passes out the moment she finds out.

To bring it all back down to something simple, when the antagonist torments the protagonist with someone close to her saying the words "can you imagine what that's like? To be completely and utterly failed, time and again, by someone who meant the world to you?" after which the protagonist is more distraught then we've seen her all volume, in a volume all about how distraught she is all the time? That person meant the world to the protagonist too.

So yeah, I'm inclined to say they've got more buildup than any noncanon ships, you are free to point something out to me if there's a ship with a ton of buildup that I'm somehow missing but like... I'd be shocked.

[beevean]

It just occurred to me:

People sometimes justify Carmilla’s character claiming that she’s just a victim of trauma by her abuser and the fact that it’s not shown to us nor are we shown Carmilla being vulnerable about it outside of her anger outbursts is supposed to be a good, tactful thing I suppose.

Well…

Remember how we used to joke about Carmilla wanting to be Female Griffith?

Because Griffith essentially has a pretty similar dynamic of suppressing his trauma and only generally mentioning it but does so infinitely better

Reply: wow it’s almost like Griffith is a well written character whose mentality is actually shown! :^)

As tasteless as this may sound... Griffith has probably the most “interesting” sexual trauma of all the characters. Rape in Berserk is usually a man forcing himself on another person, the classic stuff. Guts’ case is slightly different because what broke him wasn’t just being overpowered by a beast of a man: it was the knowledge that his own father sold him out for three silver coins. Betrayed, and lowkey told that he wasn’t even worth a thing. No wonder it shattered his childhood trust.

But Griffith? He gave himself to Lord Gennon. He prostituted himself for money, for what he believed to be a good cause: to use said money to offer better protection to those following him. He was left heartbroken by the death of a boy who just entered the band, and chose to sacrifice his own body and dignity to prevent further senseless losses. He probably deluded himself that he had agency and control all along, as he became a plaything for a perverted noble.

And he tried to rationalize it so hard! That it was nothing more than a transaction, that they both got what they wanted, nothing to worry about.

Yeah, right.

Griffith has always been more emotional than he would have liked :)

And this has impacted him. After this episode, he tried so, so hard to emotionally distance himself from his soldiers. He reasoned that they knew the risks of following him, so if they died, well it’s their fault. Griffith would just keep on following his dream.

... and then Guts eavesdrops on Griffith exposing this mentality to Charlotte. And we know how that ended.

(also, as a plus, he killed Lord Gennon, and not before he got to shatter his twisted love by telling him “no you never mattered to me”. Liar.)

Anyway, this episode matters to Griffith. It shows us more of his depths, show that he was not the perfect paragon his followers saw him as. It also puts Casca in a special position, as she witnessed this breakdown, furthering her character as well.

Carmilla’s “men bad” backstory is told through us by one flashback where she #girlbosses over her abuser and one line of dialogue where The Two Lesbians mention that she has nightmares. Other than that, she’s too shallow for her supposed depths to make me care about her, and she comes off as nothing more than a radfem parody.

[llondonfog]

TWST chapter 7 expectation: everyone focus to be on malleus, why he did this, his past, briar valley lore.

TWST chapter 7 reality: SILVER NO DONT CRY!! LILIA WHYYY, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU!!

We expected malleus centric. Instead we got father-son dynamic of Lilia and Silver.

AND I'M SO HERE FOR IT!!!!! sorry malleus, fully sympathize and support your breakdown sweetie, #thoughts&prayers but i simply do not have time for you!!! stay out of the story for a while, i need to wail and roll about in my father son duo misery!!!

can we just talk about the fact that silver has been choking back tears IN EVERY SINGLE UPDATE??? like we are talking about one of the most stoic and unshakeable characters in the game, BROUGHT TO FULL-BLOWN SOBBING by lilia's abrupt and impending departure??? (me eyeing all those posts about silver's build up of negative energy and the cost of using his UM and rubbing my hands with horrible glee—)

and that's not even mentioning the absolute insanity that has been lilia's past we've now been exposed to!!! i know it's a bit contentious but i am LOVING asshole general lilia, i am kicking my feet delightedly whenever he goes on his stupid little child-hating rants, ONLY TO PHYSICALLY TAKE THE BLOW FOR SILVER??? TRUE LOVE, TRUE LOVE!!! (on the other hand, you know it's so fucking bad for silver when even sebek steps in to try to soften lilia's rants, my god what is it like for him to see silver so emotionally distraught when silver's been the one to be most secure in his relationship to lilia and his place in briar valley over all whereas sebek still struggles with his human heritage— WHICH WE'RE FINALLY SEEING THE DELIGHTFUL CONSEQUENCES OF HIS BEHAVIOR BEING BROUGHT BACK TO HIM VIA BAUL, UTTER PERFECTION!!!)

so what i'm saying is, ch7 has left me feeling a bit like sisyphus only the boulder keeps getting bigger and there's no fucking end to this mess in sight—

[brownblob]

Fickle

Note: Inspo from @isuckatwritingsobenice

Love, that was what you had with them, a new beginning, a new lifestyle, a new chapter to you old miserable life. They'd given you hope, a shoulder to cry on, someone to love, and a promise.

To spend together forever.

Everything you had to offer was given to them on a silver platter, all your care and devotion embracing them with loyalty.

Treating them like a jewel came naturally to you, they were so precious to you after all.

It wasn't bold to say that they meant everything to you.

Then why?

Why did they want to end it all?

Why did they want to breakup?

Were you not good enough?

If so, you'd change.

Did you make a mistake?

If so, then you'd apologize a thousand times if not more.

Were you being too clingy?

If so, you'd give them space.

Were you being too distant?

If so, you'd give them all the time in the world.

Yet, they denied it all, something about how it was nothing on your part, and how times were just tough.

Your eyes glistened, pretty droplets falling to the ground, your lips parting as your breathing quickened.

Yet, the event straight out of a nightmare only continued to grace you, feeling as a boulder had fallen on top of you.

They stated how they'd simply lost feelings.

"It happens love, things change, times change. I'm sorry dear, but it's better we end it right here and right now. There's no use in clinging to something that was never real."

But it was real, to you it was.

This relationship meant the world to you, this relationship was your source of joy, it was the only thing you believed was truly yours. But right now, it felt as if it wasn't, as if it never was yours. As if they were never yours, not now, not then, and not ever.

Yet, what hurt most was how they still called you "love", yet this time around, you could hear how empty those words actually were. You could feel how meaningless this relationship was to them, how it was no more than a pass-time to them. You could feel harsh pain in your chest, your heart breaking at their audacity. The audacity saying it was never real, how "times change".

As if you were nothing but a page within their book.

It made you want to cry, to breakdown and scream, but then you realized that you already were.

You begged, cried, screamed, and clung onto them, pleading for them to stay. Your hands grabbing whatever part of their shirt as if to bring their old-self back to you, not matter how fake they were even back then.

You needed them, needed their support, their touch. They couldn't leave you here, not like this.

You were a mess.

They consoled you, empty apologies and soft touches that felt so vile on your skin. Yet, it was embracing you in a sense of false safety, something that felt so awfully serene.

You huddled against them, clinging onto their shirt, crying into their chest. Your tears seemed to stain the shirt, muffled sobs escaping your lips as you basked in their faux safety.

Time passed, hours upon hours went by. You cried more and more throughout the passed time, eyes red and puffy.

How could you not when your whole world was falling apart? When the one who swore to stay by your side forever, was leaving you?

Yet, then again, maybe your breakdown was persuading them to stay? They were seated down on the couch with you, cooing sweet words to you as they asked if you were ok. Maybe they were in a bad mood before, it was surely alright now, right?.

Only if that were true, but you could feel it wasn't.

Not when they were so distant, how they always were, something which you only just seemed to realize.

Deafening Silence filled the room, the only sound present were your occasional sobs. Yet, as you seemed to compose yourself, brushing the conversation as an "argument", clinging onto the little hope you had.

They got up from the couch.

Your heart seemed to drop as you practically stumbled towards them, clutching their sleeve with the little energy you had.

"No wait, don't go-" You began, only to be cut off as you saw the hollow look in their eyes. A cold, sharp look, not one of hate but one of fatigue.

It was as if they were tired of you.

You let go of their sleeve, fumbling backwards on your feet as they looked down at you. Only then did you realize it was actually happening. They were leaving you, right here and right now.

A car waited for them outside, their luggage sitting near the doorstep, as if mocking you. Your hands balled into fists by your side, head hung low as damp tears streaked your face. All the years you spent together meant nothing. All the promises they made to you were empty, fake.

All the words they said held nothing but pretty little lies.

"You were a great experience."

They said after a moment, their eyes fixed on the door. Their voice was soothing as always, yet, their words made you feel so out of place, so stupid.

You turned your back away from the door as they left, the house was so silent, so empty without them. Loud sobs left your lips as you heard the engine start.

They had left.

Their words echoed through your mind, body going limp at the thought.

"You were a great experience." It repeated over and over again, in your head, as if lyrics of a song stuck in one's mind. The only difference was that rather than a catchy tune, this was the melody of heartbreak.

Your body shook, goosebumps covering your body as your back touched cold floor. Your tears made your hair damp, lips cracked and bleeding from the amount of times you'd bitten them in frustration.

A deep sigh left your lips as you calmed yourself down.

Sudden manic laughter escaping your lips, sobs following shortly.

You felt like a madman.

"You meant...everything"

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this, please interact and reblog!

[outpost51]

The 51 Post

This week sucked a whole lot actually (I started this draft on Tuesday, and I haven't touched it until 5pm Sunday) but I read a lot of pretty good shit so I think it balances.

Contents:

Things You Might Have Missed

This Week's Jams

WIP Breakdowns

From the Skwad

Around the 'Blr

Things You Might Have Missed

get on my taglists for WIP updates, 51 post, tag games, and ask events!

BRHP: Chapter 15 posted; Talus is having a Bad Time.

I stabbed Adrien real good

BRHP: Chapter 16 posted; baby's first fight pit, and a family secret is revealed.

Not new, but I dug up Adrift and The Sky, The Stars, and Me so enjoy the spooky space shorts.

See more entries for SSSC 006 below, mine is here: i'll take everything.

Growing Pains: the 6th entry into the Lighthouse in the Fog shorts; our new Keeper is definitely adjusting so well to her new life.

I'm starting to release chapters of Unlikely Adventures on tumblr now!

This Week's Jams

stargazing || power-haus, solarays [spotify/youtube]

up down || boy epic [spotify/youtube]

gasoline || chymes [spotify/youtube]

dangerous || new medicine [spotify/youtube]

she went that way || missy [spotify/youtube]

illuminated || hurts [spotify/youtube]

WIP Breakdowns

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

HI YOU GET TO MEET KADMOS IN CHAPTER 17 AND [SPOILERS] IN CHAPTER 18 I'M REALLY EXCITED

Unlikely Adventures of Bitchface and Go F*ck Yourself

zadimus needs to stop it. that is all

Blinding Neon, Shades of Grey

you know what's fun to write? drug/dream sequences. you know what's even more fun? writing one for a detective in a flashy nightclub with murder on her mind

Stellar Parallax

saren is about to go do a Very Kill and jaen is So Excited About It. also wrex. but mostly violence

Lighthouse in the Fog

7th short will be coming out some time tonight, @thetrashbagswasteland picked some yummy prompt words

In the Works

y'all 🥺💕 thank you i needed a bunch of open-ended prompts to get the brain noodles out so i can hopefully not burn out on the main wips. i've still got the same backlog otherwise lmao

From the Skwad

IMPORTANT @fenrir-kin fell prey to the hellsite shenaniganuke, and is currently @vikingfenharel until it (hopefully) gets sorted.

Surprise Challenge 006 wrapped up with (mine's above): Just Take My Hand by @sparatus, Expanding the Vocabulary by @teamdilf, and The Storm Between Us by @thetrashbagswasteland

@equusgirl is going bananas with Sapphic Summer: i know with me, you'll get a little bit addicted, One Night, and will my hands ever be clean?

@sparatus also dropped chapter 1 & chapter 2 of Make Less the Depth of Grief and were it not for the laws of this land, i would have strangled him (affectionate) but also this tasty oneshot of Nautilea being so hot

@teamdilf HOW. New chapter of Alice's Adventures in Andromeda, another chapter of The In-Laws and the Grandparents, and another chapter in A Man of Many Talents. I'm calling witchcraft

@asher-orion-writes gave us this lovely oneshot set in Cardinal Sins and I'm??? yes

@princess-prawn dropped a new chapter of Next of Kin YESSS

@regalbois is writing his mlm war stories again and i'm vibrating please go read The Earth Abides

@commander-krios wrote more Dash/Leo (thank u for my life) and New Beginnings (thank u for TWO life wow)

Around the 'Blr

Art Claims are still going on for WIP Big Bang!!

@writernopal dropped character profiles for Magdalene and Sartor so this is your hint to get on the taglist for AASOAF 3

@tabswrites posted chapter 3 of Silver Sentinels and gave me life thank you, more please

@vacantgodling wrote this short for Lukewarm Rejection and we have no choice but to stan Trisha

@liv-is blessed writeblr with this snippet from Demigods i am eating it up

@void-botanist gave us this short for Another Ocean's Moon with LORE hidden in the tags hello

have you SEEN The Poster by @artdecosupernova-writing omg

@elshells dropped chapter 12 of Agent Ace YES congrats on the timeline choreography, bud!

wake up babes new Nameless Song short just dropped from @blind-the-winds

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

Outpost Updates Taglist: @tabswrites @writernopal @freedominique @asher-orion-writes @liv-is @starknstarwars @captain-kraken

Ask to +/- in the tags, replies, DMs, or HERE!

[nalyra-dreaming]

That Claudia diary entry kinda blew my mind with that bit about her wanting to make one them her *slave* as retribution for what was done to her. Feels too much of a coincidence with how in the show she insisted Louis agree that they were indeed lestat’s slaves and that she believed Magnus had made lestat a slave. I know Rolin said books 1-6 are the ones informing the show the most but were Claudia’s diaries ever made that big of a deal before book 7? The inclusion suggests so much. It would be a bit of a let down if they don’t fully delve into all that.

Claudia wanting to punish them both, blaming Louis more (which makes even MORE sense in the show since Louis is more responsible for her vampirism) and seeing it as even greater painful revenge on the one that lives on without the other

“so that his soul, if not his body, is the same size at last as my own."

Anne put crack in that line

Lots of fans love the loving aspect of the father-daughter relationship between Louis and Claudia, it’s heartbreaking, but it’s not JUST love, we already got a hint of Claudia expressing hatred for Louis at the start of ep 5 because she blames him for her creation, and then the neck slam we see Louis do to her at the end of ep 7, for that to just go nowhere would be a let down to her character. Louis edits her and therefor denies her full personhood as he gives the interview in season 1, to further sanitise her motivations the show would literally be doing the same to her, right?

Daniel seems to be really fighting to hear her voice, season 2 opening up all the characters even more…maybe we won’t have full ‘puppet-master Claudia’ revealed but it wouldn’t make sense to not anticipate something along those lines maybe. She can still love Louis and have manipulated him, she can still despite her hatred feel some love for lestat while wanting him dead, she’s as complex as any of the other characters so I hope she’s not diminished.

Her diary being presented as ‘evidence’ at the trial is an insane suggestion (I love it), and if armand is the only one who knew about it and maybe stealing it for that purpose and Louis denying that fact to himself maybe 🤔 the writers are going to make the trial as emotional devastating as possible, the diary idea is genius

You think Louis will be pushed to suicide with all the revelations in season 2, but do you think the diaries coming into his possession the first time is what provoked him to maybe ask armand to help redress his memories prior to the interview, if he had read things that upset him and then armand changed?

(Sorry for long anon!)

(All good^^)

I also think that there are too many... "hooks" in that diary entry to not mean something in the context of this show, which is where this speculation comes from of course.

Though books 1-6 have been mentioned as the "main" basis for the show (and I believe they said so as to not give the game away immediately), Fareed is already there, the silver cord has been mentioned - both are only much later in the books... I shared a quote from Sam the other day where he mentioned that they are looking at all the books, and so I cannot really believe that they will not use this.

Or, I've said it before, I sure hope they will not let the impact of it fall flat. But I really cannot imagine this, since it is such a catastrophic event for Louis.

And as per the trial... well, as said in the posts, one of her diaries was in Paris, a big change from the books (where there is only one diary anyways, and not in Paris), and in this show... that cannot be a coincidence. It's also mentioned that Louis didn't present them at the last interview, so I could easily see Armand having them in possession and only granting access (as he does for Daniel).

Personally I think Louis probably read them the first time and had a breakdown, and Armand... tried to help. In his own way. That would fit for me.

But we'll see.

I do believe that the trial (the whole season actually) will be maximum emotional carnage (again thx to the nonny who coined that phrase a while ago *laughs*), it will be harsh, brutal even. For me, using it would simply be in line with what they've already set up... especially with the condemning content in it.

Not that Armand would really need the "evidence" - but then that trial is about/for Louis, too, and (crazy as that may be) for/against Lestat in a way.

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders #321: Kama (Avenger)

yep, we’re finally getting the second half of the summer done. Avenger Kama is an odd duck… er, parrot… but still, she’s the biggest departure from the original build we’ve done all Summer, going from a cleric/fighter to a Draconic Sorcerer and Genie Warlock- the former to give her some water manipulation tactics (or… ice, I guess. both of them are screwed over by WotC’s fire bias, but water even moreso), and the latter for a parrot you can stuff a person into. yes this is an important part of the build.

check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

next up: I sea serpent, I ride it

Ancestry & Background

incinerated gods still aren’t typical pcs in D&D, so I guess we’re going with Custom Lineage again. some things never change. this does a little though, since this time you get +2 Charisma instead of wisdom, and the Elemental Adept feat to bump up your cold damage- now your cold spells get at least a 2 on every damage die, and you ignore resistance to cold damage! water is a great insulator, so you really gotta give your spells some juice to punch through that. you still get Darkvision though, that’s not changing either.

speaking of not changing, as a Haunted One you have proficiency in Arcana and Survival. trauma is still trauma, even in the summer.

Ability Scores

this summer we’re going entirely on the offensive, so your Charisma has to be as high as possible. after that, your Dexterity- I’m not sure if you still do archery, but you can. plus you’re fighting in a bikini, so every little bit helps. third up, your Constitution. your bodily existence was already kind of weird, but now you’re an avenger, so your spirit origin is constantly repairing itself on top of being ash in the first place. makes it hard to stamp out your flames, y’know? after that, your Wisdom- it’s not great, but you’re generally good at spotting stuff, even if your insight’s crap. that means our Strength neutral, and we’re dumping Intelligence. it’s the traditional summer writing treatment, please understand.

Class Levels

1. Sorcerer 1: starting off as a sorcerer gives you proficiency in Constitution and Charisma saves, as well as Persuasion and Religion (that last one against your will). for the summer, not only are you half demon and half god, thanks to your Draconic Bloodline you’re also half dragon! you’re more chuuni than Jalter!

we’re picking either a white or silver dragon for your Draconic Ancestor. the color doesn’t quite matter, but either way it matches your hair! this also teaches you draconic (it’s a language), and your dragon-based charisma checks have doubled proficiency.

the more important feature this level is your Draconic Resilience- you get an extra 1 hp per sorcerer level, and while you’re not wearing armor your AC gets a +3 bonus. it’s free mage armor! it doesn’t quite make you a knight class, but you’re definitely better off than assassin you.

speaking of, we still have to talk spells! you cast them with charisma as you’d probably expect from the stat layout. we’ve still got some of your old tricks- Friends and Charm Person, but for summer we’re also grabbing Frostbite and Shape Water for some water Authority, as well as Message to chat with master via parrot, and Disguise Self for your constant outfit swaps at the end of the event.

2. sorcerer 2: at level two you become a font of magic! that means you get sorcery points every day equal to your sorcerer level. right now you can spend points to make new spell slots, and spend slots to make more points. it gets better later on, don’t worry.

you can also shoot birds at people thanks to maaagic missile. it makes missiles, but magic! they instantly hit any target, and though they don’t do a lotta damage, it’s guaranteed damage, which feels very avengery.

3. Sorcerer 3: at third level you can make jokes about how crap the writing in your universe is thanks to Metamagic! it also lets you alter spells you cast by spending sorcery points but w/e. Heightened spells force disadvantage on one target’s save for three points, while seeking spells let you re-roll an attack for two. hey, we’re going all out on the offensive, remember?

speaking of magic though, you learn second level spells this level like Tasha’s Mind Whip, which not only deals psychic damage to your enemy but also stuns them with your beauty if they fail an intelligence save- they can only move, make an action, or make a bonus action the turn after you hit them.

4. Sorcerer 4: there’s not really any other sorcerer cantrips we need, so this level grab Create Bonfire, I guess. despite the water and floaty theming, you do still pack some heat. you can also Alter Self now to go from smol kama to tol kama.

also your first Ability Score Improvement should go towards evening out your Constitution for more health and Charisma for stronger spells.

5. Sorcerer 5: fifth level sorcerers can use Magical Guidance to be even better at everything by spending sorcery points to reroll skill checks. you should probably stick to using this on stuff you’re good at- two insight checks are still more than likely to end up as two failures.

you also get third level spells, and Freedom of the Waves might be third party but it’s also on D&D Beyond? so… whatever, it’s here. it takes one action to cast and makes a 15’ radius 10’ tall cylinder of violent seawater somewhere within 120’ feat of you. each creature in the area makes a strength save or takes 2d8 bludgeoning damage and falls prone. you can even choose a couple creatures in the area to automatically make their saves against the spell, if you’re feeling generous. also, if you’re in the spell’s area, you can teleport to another spot in its area as you cast it. if you’re made of ash it just makes sense you’d be hard to pin down.

6. Sorcerer 6: sixth level white or silver draconic sorcerers have an Elemental Affinity for cold damage, adding their charisma modifier to spells that deal it. plus, whenever you splash someone with a cold spell, you can spend a sorcery point to gain resistance to cold damage.

speaking of spells, we’re grabbing the Haste spell this level. it’s mostly for your floaty later, but being able to run twice as fast is never a bad thing. unless you get stuck somewhere bad when the spell ends and lose a turn recuperating. honestly that kind of feels like your usual luck, huh?

7. Warlock 1: okay, we’re all set on water stuff for now, let’s get ourselves that parrot. to do that, we need to strike up a deal with a Genie, specifically a Marid for that extra watery flavor. kind of like a lacroix.

you get an expanded spell list based on your genie’s type, but we’ll only bring that up when its relevant. the big draw here is the Genie’s Vessel, a random tiny object that acts as your spellcasting focus. while touching the vessel, you can enter your Bottled Respite for a few hours once per long rest. right now it can only fit you, but eventually you can trap- I mean let- master into it as well.

you can also unleash the Genie’s Wrath once a turn, adding some cold damage to any attack roll you make, so now any spell with an attack roll technically deals cold damage as well, so you can add your affinity bonus too! loopholes are fun!

oh, speaking of, we still need spells (which also use your charisma but have a different kind of spell slot that recharges on short rests). Eldritch Blast is another bunch of birds to throw at people, but this one requires an attack roll to hit. hey, we just got something that requires attack rolls to add a ton of damage to a spell, what are the odds?

Green-Flame Blade isn’t as helpful since you need to make the attack yourself, but it can hit two creatures with it. I guess just slap someone upside the head with a chakram if you want to deal fire and cold damage at the same time.

to continue this duality of a fiery god in water, pick up Armor of Agathys and Hellish Rebuke to double down on retaliatory attacks- the former automatically deals cold damage every time you lose its temporary hp, and the latter uses your reaction to blast fire in someone’s face if they hit you with a melee attack. even your defense is offense now!

8. Warlock 2: second level warlocks get two Eldritch Invocations to personalize their summer memories, and for once we’re using both of them right away! Mask of Many Faces lets you cast Disguise Self for free for an unlimited wardrobe, while Devil’s Sight lets your darkvision see through magical darkness so your target cannot escape you.

you can also Distort Value, doubling or halving the effective worth of an item for a short while. you’re the demon of desire, it makes sense you can make stuff more or less desirable.

9. Warlock 3: at third level you finally land on a deal with your Marid buddy, sealing you into the Pact of the Chain. with it, you now get access to the Find Familiar spell, allowing you to summon a parrot to carry your vessel around for you.

you can also cast second level spells like Invisibility to completely let go of your corporeal form for a short while. (obv you can still get hit while invisible, but it’ll be a lot harder.)

10. Sorcerer 7: okay, that’s enough birding up for now, let’s get cooler. you know what’s cooler than being cool? Ice Storm! it makes a stormcloud that hails on people and deals bludgeoning and cold damage, plus it turns the area it hits into difficult terrain for a round. all of those are already things water does, so it’s not hard to reflavor it.

11. Sorcerer 8: Use this ASI to bump up your Dexterity, both for the higher AC and to hopefully hit something with your green-flame blade more often. you can also make a Watery Sphere now that can trap enemies inside of it on a failed strength save. then you can swing the ball around like a big yoyo. there technically isn’t any drawback to being in the sphere aside from the usual drowning, but that’s kind of up to the DM. it’s fun though!

12. Sorcerer 9: ninth level sorcerers get fifth level spells, our main pick here is Animate Objects. for once, your inflatable crocodile can actually be an inflatable crocodile! Unfortunately this uses your concentration, so we can’t haste it to jetski speeds just yet.

13. Warlock 4: use this ASI to max out your Charisma for the strongest spells possible- spells like your new ones this level, Minor Illusion and Enthrall. you’re very lou-I mean distracting, so this spell will give creatures disadvantage on perception checks to notice anyone else for the duration.

14. Warlock 5: fifth level warlocks get third level spells, usually, but instead we’re going for another 2nd level one. Blur from the Marid spell list is just relaxing your ashy body instead of letting it go completely, giving creatures attacking you disadvantage to hit.

you also get another invocation, and the Gift of the Depths is great for the summer- you can now breathe underwater for free, and you get a swim speed to boot! on top of that, you can help out the party and cast water breathing once a day for free.

15. Warlock 6: sixth level genielocks get an upgrade to the draconic elemental buffs, an Elemental Gift if you will, that gives you permanent resistance to cold damage. on top of that, you can give yourself ten minutes of flight speed as a bonus action proficiency times a day. now we don’t have to worry about making you actually ride on a parrot!

you also get more waterpower thanks to a Spirit Shroud. this causes water to swirl around your feet, slowing down nearby enemies and adding cold damage to your short-ranged attacks. you could also make it radiant or necrotic, but that’s not on theme dangit.

16. Warlock 7: seventh level warlocks get fourth level spells, and since you’re buddy-buddy with a Marid you can Control Water to control water. you can make it flood, part the water, splash it around, or even make a whirlpool! it lasts up to ten minutes and you can pick a different option every turn.

you also get another invocation- Bewitching Whispers is pretty old-school Kama, letting you cast Compulsion once a day for free. if the target of your affections fails their wisdom save, you can use your bonus action each turn to tell it which way to move. this might be taking the whole “puppets on strings” metaphor a little too literally, but it’s fun!

17. Warlock 8: use this ASI to bump up your Dexterity once more time for more graceful swimming, and also to get away from your new pool floaty. with Summon Greater Demon, you can bring a CR 5 or lower demon into the material plane for up to an hour. you can command it for free, but it has a chance to break out if it makes a charisma save. that being said, your charisma is maxed out, so the chances of that happening is low. as a plus, they linger around for a few rounds if you’re not concentrating on them while still having to obey your commands, so you can pop that balloon animal for a bit of haste in a pinch!

18. Warlock 9: Ninth level warlocks get fifth level spells, like your last Marid goody, Cone of Cold. it’s a cone of damage, it’s cold. you also have an Eldritch Mind now, so you have advantage on concentration saves. that’s very useful, given how many of your spells can be the only thing between you and a fight breaking out.

19. Warlock 10: tenth level genies have a Sanctuary Vessel, so you can finally drag master back to your parrot with you! unfortunately you can’t leave them in there, but that’s just a good excuse for some alone time. speaking of, you can get a short rest by spending ten minutes in there, with an additional amount of HP added if they spend that rest healing up.

you also get one last cantrip, so… Mage Hand? it’s basically another bird, why not.

20. Warlock 11: our final level of warlock finally nets you a whole new spell level thanks to the Mystic Arcanum letting you cast Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise once a day. and for once, we have a build that works just as well in either direction! if you let your Kama side show, you become immune to radiant and necrotic damage, as well as the charmed condition, while Mara will make you immune to fire and poison damage and the poisoned condition. either way, you also get a flying speed, and boost to your ac. you can make more weapon attacks too- all your weapon attacks now use your charisma, and you can attack twice an action! so, boom! godtier mode for the final fight achieved!

Pros & Cons

Pros:

water-based casters are great at crowd control, and it’s super easy for you to lock down or push away enemies and make fights easier for the rest of your party.

turning invisible already makes you plenty sneaky, but you can also listen in on conversations by hiding in your own vessel and having your familiar fly you around places. a bird carrying a lantern around would be weird, but most people wouldn’t think it’s a spy camera.

your elemental bonuses from your feats and both classes stack up very nicely, adding 11 points of irresistible damage to your magical attacks each turn, plus it works best on Eldritch Blast, which gives you multiple chances to hit with a maxed-out spellcasting modifier. you’ve got a ton of flashier options, but if you ever get tired of those, you’ve got a really solid plan to fall back on. (also secret fourth pro: you should never run out of flashy stuff to do bc you’re a sorcerer/warlock. turn your warlock slots into sorcery points, then turn the points into sorcerer slots. take a short rest to recharge, and you’ve got free spell slots!)

Cons:

those elemental bonuses I just talked about work together only on spells with attack rolls, which you have exactly one of. everything else is either an aoe spell, some kind of support spell, or one that relies on you making attack rolls. the combo’s nice, but you’re probably only going to see it when pushed to your limit anyway.

we really had to stretch to make that fast floaty happen, and I don’t think I need to tell most of you that playing with demons is a bad idea. or maybe I do, you’re reading a kama build after all. still, even with your maxed out charisma they always have a chance to turn on you, plus just trying to summon one requires you to kill a person beforehand, which comes with its own risks.

quite a few of your abilities are just plain redundant. Mask of Many faces is Disguise Self but over and over, blur and invisibility serve about the same purpose, half of your Elemental Gift is something we could already do with your Elemental Affinity, and so on. it’s not terrible, and it definitely gives the build a more cohesive feeling of getting better at a few particular things, but it’ll suck if you get stuck in a campaign with a bunch of cold-immune monsters.

[sacrificethemtothesquid]

Ssp top hits - AO3 era

Tagged by the lovely and talented @thebyrchentwigges, who is a gorgeous human being I adore.

The preamble: So, wanted to get some hiatus rec lists going and encourage some self promo in my friends so how about sharing your top fics no matter how big or small - give us the links to your wonderful words with the Most hits/Most kudos/Most comments/Most bookmarks/Most words/Least words.

Sadly it has been AGES since I've touched fic, but this is a good opportunity to go poke through unfinished projects. (She says, fully aware of the unfinished novel burning a hole in her browser tabs...)

Most Hits/Most Kudos/Most Comments: The Length and Breadth of Fury Road. Mad Max: Fury Road, Max/Furiosa.

Max leaves, and Furiosa stays.

I posted the first chapter of this exactly two weeks after the movie came out when there were like six other fics in existence anywhere, so I was very very lucky to catch the new-fandom wave of interest. (Why did you wait two whole weeks, you might ask? Chop chop, time's a-wasting. I was too busy seeing the movie four times in the theater, but after that fourth screening, my poor husband was like, "...can we maybe see something else?") This fic defined my entire life for three years, introduced me to some of the most amazing people I've ever met, and my life has never been the same.

Most Words: The Moth. Horizon: Zero Dawn, Aloy/Erend.

Moths seek out light, he thinks, and die for it. Maybe they know, but they still can’t stay away. He feels like that, a slow, inexorable urge to set himself on fire in the wild blaze of her hair.

I would have bet money that L&B would make a complete sweep of this, but apparently Moth edges it out by almost 4k. I'm not as proud of this one, because I don't think it's written as well. It spanned the year I was in a protracted bipolar breakdown, including the period where I was in an intensive outpatient program, so while it did a good job keeping me afloat, when I go back and reread it, it's very obvious (to my eye) I wasn't at the top of my game. It was great fun though.

Least Words, overall: DAI Drabbles. Dragon Age Inquisition, gen.

Random drabbles of my headcanon. I reserve the right to move them to other works as they fit.

Technically, these are not drabbles (not exactly 100 words, but ah well) and they're not technically their own fic, just fragments of the larger DAI epic that I never quite got into. (You can thank Fury Road for that abrupt pivot.) I have a ton more DAI that I never uploaded, so maybe at some point I'll get bored one day and tackle that disappointing mess.

Least Words, completed fic: The Things Left Behind. Dragon Age Inquisition, Blackwall/Female Trevelyan.

“Thom Rainier?” she hears herself say, her voice calm and collected and very, very far away. “No. I didn’t know him at all.”

I never would have let my Inquisitor have anything other than a happy ending, but some itches just need to be scratched.

Now, for the tagging! I am so shit at picking people, because I know SO MANY excellent fic writers and I have no idea who has already seen this meme. So, at complete random: @silver-dream89 @aubade @theherocomplex @fuckyeahisawthat and anyone else who is even vaguely interested. Love you all!

[starcrossedjedis]

I'd love to know more about Arthur and Lyra!

I can't believe you got the hint when I was being so subtle about it 🤣

Sooooo... *checks back on notes she literally hasn't touched in like three years*

Lyra is the older Stark girl - by barely a year, some people assume she and Lyanna must be twins. Where Lyanna is soft and petite with an impish glint in her eyes that draws people in, Lyra is long limbs and sharp edges and while she is every bit as pretty as her little sister and just as adventurous, she is also more ladylike, introverted and has made it a point for most of her life to think before she speaks.

And while that should make for the perfect lady in any other situation, next to loud, boisterous and Gods, loveable Lyanna it's easy to see how Lyra has somewhat become the invisible sister and this becomes especially obvious when Robert Baratheon asks her father for Lyanna's hand.

(Not that Lyra would have wanted Robert, he appalled her as much as he did Lyanna)

Her father allows for the betrothal of Robert and Lyanna, but to add insult to injury he does so under the condition that they aren't to be wed until Lyra as the eldest is married - basically declaring her a sort of spinster, standing in the way of her sister's happy ever after to anyone who's into that sort of gossip (like IDK the whole of fucking Harrenhal during a certain tourney 💀)

But the truth is that Lyra is never jealous of Lyanna or blames her for how the world treats them so differently. She loves her little sister and only ever wants for her to he happy.

So when she catches Lyanna sneaking out of their tent one night twelve leagues from Harrenhal - about to run away with the (very married) prince Rhaegar - Lyra doesn't hesitate and follows her into the unknown.

And this is where background ends and the story starts -

She accompanies the little group of mostly Kingsguard and the runaway lovers - riding with Arthur Dayne for the first night and part of the day, because she doesn't yet have a horse of her own.

(He also lends her his cloak, because naturally she didn't bring spare clothes either 🥰)

Lyra and Arthur are the only witnesses to Lyanna's and Rhaegar's wedding and throughout the journey to Dorne we get a feel for the fact that Arthur doesn't necessarily approve of all that is happening, but it bound to Rhaegar both by his oath and his brotherly love for him.

The two of them build a tentative friendship, because with her sister all wrapped up in an all consuming romantic fantasy with a dragon (and for all the tower to hear, thank you very much) Lyra often feels lonely and homesick and Arthur is there to keep her company, either in the tower under the watchful eyes of this very small court, but also on long strolls on days when it feels like the walls are closing in.

We get some hints suggesting that they might be starting to get closer - and that maybe a certain Kingsguard might have had a faint un-oath-odox interest as far back as the tourney before that whole mess went down (although Lyra - optimistic at heart, but self-conscious at brain - attributed it to pity for the "Stark Spinster" back then and later as an attempt at keeping her entertained while his prince put the moves on her sister 😬)

But nothing really happens between them (maybe an almost kiss or sth, but no big relationship milestones yet). He is however the one to tell her that her father and brother were killed and throughout the rebellion news of Arthur's ongoing survival are pretty much the only silver lining to be had.

Then Rhaegar dies on the Trident, the news send Lyanna straight into early labour and we all know how that goes. Alas, we shift the timeline by a few days give or take so that when Ned arrives in Dorne, Lyanna has already been dead for a few days and Lyra has been tiptoeing her way around a breakdown trying to figure out what to do about the little crown prince when Robert Baratheon is on a "Kill all Targs" rampage through the Seven Kingdoms.

When Arthur gets near fatally wounded trying to keep his word to Rhaegar, Lyra fears she might lose the only person who knows the whole truth and who kept her somewhat sane during this time - and so she kills two birds with one stone by telling her brother that he can't kill Arthur, because they are married. And that Jon is their son.

And scene on Act I - "fake dating and co parenting shenanigans but make it fucking dark" to be commenced in Act II

[toxicnotebook]

Okay! So, the endings I got in BG3. Putting them under a cut so I don't accidentally spoil anyone:

Orpheus got turned. I didn't want to turn my Tav into a mindflayer- especially since I didn't upgrade my tadpole at ALL during this run- and I definitely wasn't turning Karlach, so the prince was my only choice. And I'm glad I did- I got a damn good heroic sacrifice plotline, and his mindflayer form is RIDICULOUSLY overpowered.

This bit of dialogue I got right before freeing him was funny:

Also Raphael you SON OF A BITCH:

Symbolic drawings, etched over a forgotten text. Two figures, one an imposing female with a regal aspect, the other, a Devil, his face twisted with wry charm. Their hands meet in the exchange of an artefact- the Astral Prism.

IT WAS ALL YOUR FUCKING FAULT. I'M GLAD YOU SLIPPED ON ICE AND HOPE GOT TO KILL YOU.

Speaking of Orpheus:

Lae'zel became the leader of the Githyanki rebellion, with a silver sword and a sweet red dragon! I also gave her the Githyanki egg:

She now has an adopted son named Xan. Awwwwww.

Karlach & Wyll went to Avernus together, and MAN I thought I fucked this one up for a hot minute. After Karlach had her heartwrenching breakdown after we killed Gortash, I panicked a little and looked up how to get her happiest ending. I was relieved that I had already locked in Karlach's good end by nudging Wyll to become the Blade of Avernus.

....and then she started burning up on the docks and the scene just kept going and going without any dialogue choices and I was like OH NO I MESSED UP SHE'S GONNA DIE. The RELIEF I felt when Wyll spoke up- MAN.

I high-key ship them now, btw. I love wholesome battle couples okay!! Oh, and:

GET MIZORA'S ASS WYLL, SHE SUCKS.

I was lowkey thinking of changing Wyll's class to ranger in my next playthrough, so thank you, Larian, for justifying that future decision

The one who got away, Shadowheart! The platonic hug is so freaking cute.

She now has a cute woodland cottage with her parents and five million animals- annnnnd the owlbear:

Best girl gets best floofball

Halsin runs an orphanage in the no-longer-Shadow-Cursed lands, and yeah. That totally suits him.

Gale's new job as a professor in Illusion Magic suits him as well. I was a little worried I would get a negative ending after I encouraged him to leave the crown in the sea, but nope! The orb is inert, he has a job he loves, and he didn't go back to his shitty ex. Yay!

Jaheira is busy assisting the rebuilding efforts in Balder's Gate, along with her children.

Minsc is... busy being Minsc

Minthara is plotting to topple Lolth with other drow rebels in the Underdark, and I could have CLAPPED when she said that, because:

I PICKED THE OPTION TO LEAD THE RELEASED VAMPIRE SPAWN IN THE UNDERDARK WITH ASTARION. Minthara's rebellion will have a unit comprised of vampires in my game's timeline, yes indeed.

Basically, I got happy-ish endings for everyone, despite thinking I had screwed up some of the routes. And I'm glad! As Astarion puts it:

A few more things:

This made me chuckle. I'm also going to ignore Scratch's canon ending- he was my Tav's familiar, that means he is HER dog, okay.

I just thought this was a nice easter egg

HE'S FUCKING JERGAL?? WITHERS??? HOW DID I MISS THIS. HOW.

...love that he's dunking on the Dead Three. You tell em, bone man!