#we should be/are getting ready to start the second saga. so i'm calling it the second saga. sue me. you know nomura's planning it already

[oveliagirlhaditright]

I was thinking the other night, that for some reason I could see Kingdom Hearts ending this way:

The entire story wrapped up (somehow) and everyone finally getting their happy ending. And we actually get to see Sora and the gang finally fully living out their lives and dying happily (think the beginning of Up). And that's the last thing we see before a black screen.

Nomura said once that he was trying to think of a way to end the series so no one could ever continue it, which I get. It's his baby that he's been working on for a large number of years now. I could understand why he wouldn't want someone coming in someday to continue it and potentially ruin it in his eyes.

But then we get some after credits scene where it becomes clear that Sora's been reincarnated into a new life, now that reincarnation is a thing in this series. (But, like, this wouldn't be a way to continue the story. Because things have so very much been wrapped up--like there are no Keyblades, Heartless, Nobodies, Unversed, Dream Eaters or what have you anymore; and this is a new Sora in a new life, and who knows how much like old!Sora he is. He's exactly like old!Sora, but shh. If you were to continue the story--and really, you shouldn't--you'd have to come up with a completely new premise, pretty much.) And you just know that he's going to find his friends, who have been reincarnated into new lives, too.

That way the series ends with a sense of hope and a new beginning, almost.

Not that the ending itself wouldn't have had that sense of hope, in a sense. It would have been a happy ending, at least (however, I can see people being sad that we see the crew die, even though we got to see them living the happy, full lives they'd more than earned).

But Sakaguchi when he created Final Fantasy said that one of the most important things to him with the series, was that whatever happened in the hours before, he always wanted Final Fantasy games to end with a sense of hope for the future: where it seemed like things could always get better. And that's something that Nomura carried over to the Kingdom Hearts series when he created it.

And I feel like such an ending might have that kind of feeling, and might be something he would do. And this does seem to tick off all his boxes of what he's going for with the ending (that we know so far) to me. -shrugs-

[hyenahunt]

Saga: Rivals - 19

Writer: Akira

Season: Winter

Characters: Hokuto, Jun

Proofreading: 310mc (JP) & hyenahunt (ENG)

Translation: kotofucius

Hokuto: It felt like my identity as Hidaka Hokuto was getting erased, and I was slowly being reduced to nothing more than the Hidakas’ son… It scared me.

[Read on my blog for the best viewing experience with Oi~ssu ♪]

Location: Sleeping Room

Time: The next day. The first day of Reverse Live has passed, and it is now the morning of the second day.

Hokuto: ………

Zzz, zzz… ♪

Jun: Hidaka-saaan?

Sorry to disturb you while you're resting! Couldja please wake up~? Your phone’s pinging like crazy, y'know~?

Hokuto: Nn… Snz… ♪

Jun: …He’s not waking up. Mmgh~ What should I do?

It's not like he's Ohii-san, so I can’t just smack his head, can I?

Jun: Hidaka-san? Hidaka-saaan, I'm seriously sorry to disturb you but couldja please wake up already? Between the two of us, I’m not the one cut out for the whole “waking a sleeping beauty thing”, y'know?

Hokuto: Nghhh… Don’t call me Hidaka.

Jun: Huh? Wait, but we’re not close enough to be on a first name basis, are we? If that's what you prefer, though, then I guess I'll do just that~?

To be fair… with Hidaka-sensei in my unit, it might get confusing who I'm talking to whenever I say “Hidaka-san”~ ♪

Umm, in that case… Hokuto-san! Wake up, Hokuto-san!

Hokuto: Mm…? Ahh… *yawn* ♪

What’s the big deal…? It’s still early…

Jun: Oh, you finally woke up! Apologies for disturbing you, Hokuto-san!

Seems like some early birds already started rehearsing, so we should probably grab some breakfast and get ready, too~

Hokuto: …Did you say “Hokuto-san”? What are you being all buddy-buddy with me for? We’re enemies.

Jun: Wha? You're the one who told me not to call you Hidaka, y'know?

Hokuto: Mnn? My bad, I think… I might’ve been half-asleep…

Sorry for confusing you. I was getting called Hidaka, Hidaka, Hidaka in both my dreams and in reality…

It felt like my identity as Hidaka Hokuto was getting erased, and I was slowly being reduced to nothing more than the Hidakas’ son… It scared me.

…Wait, woah!? What are you doing next to my bed, Sazanami? Planning to attack me in my sleep? That’s low of you, Lilith!

Jun: Haha. You really are half-asleep~ …But I totally get it. My heart's been pounding so hard I could hardly get any sleep, too.

After all, this is the very stage I’ve always dreamed of.

Hokuto: Mm? Where are we? Ah… That’s right, I felt like I hadn't practiced enough, so I stayed the night.

The nap room was only just set up, so I couldn't remember where I was for a moment.

Sazanami, did you stay the night here too?

Jun: Yeah, sorta… Ibara booked a hotel room for us, but it’s such a pain to go from there to the school and back.

Plus, it looks like your school's got both a cafeteria and showers, so it’s easier for me to stay here since it's just for a few nights.

On top of that, it feels like I've been getting kinda cocky, with how smooth a ride I’ve had since becoming an SS finalist — so I wanted to recall my origins, y’see…

And unlike Ohii-san, I’ve got no hobby of indulging myself. I feel more at home sleeping all crowded together in a small room like this~

Back when I wasn’t a Special Student, I took naps in Reimei’s common room pretty often.

Jun: I was being worked to the bone as staff, y'know. It seriously felt like I'd been tossed into a slave ship.

I don't think how I felt back then is something I should forget so easily.

Getting too used to an easy life will just dull your body and mind, y’know? …And if that happened, I feel like I’d never win against Sagami Jin.

I’m nowhere accomplished enough to be getting full of myself; not yet… But it sucks that it’s so easy to get the wrong idea of myself, y’know~? Like, I’ve somehow become Lilith’s center.

Hokuto: Ahh… I saw your fight against Ba-barrier last night. They did have you in the center.

The pressure must've been overwhelming, performing with my father and Tomoe-senpai behind you like that… I feel sorry for you.

Jun: Haha… It sure was~ See, I’m not the center of either Eve or Eden.

In fact, my role's moreso to make the others look good in those units.

So yeah, it was pretty nerve-wracking. It'd be no laughing matter if all my anxieties wore me down and I just passed out before even fighting Sagami Jin…

Well, at least I had proper practice and all, so in the end I somehow pulled through.

How did it look to you, Hokuto-san? Did my performance rise to the occasion~?

Hokuto: Yeah. To tell you the truth, you’ve improved a lot since I last saw you in SS. I also get excited when I see that my opponents are strong.

…Though your teamwork seemed a bit flawed, since it’s your debut stage and all.

Jun: Ahaha, I guess you’d notice something like that, Hokuto-san~

Actually, we didn't really manage to practice getting in-sync with Hidaka-sensei all that much, since he's been so busy with work.

And there's a huge change in the overall atmosphere depending on whether he's there or not —

He completely stole away the gaze of the entire audience; and it’s probably thanks to the bigwigs’ intervention stepping in, but our production ended up grander than we'd originally planned…

Our demographic is totally different from Eve’s, too, plus I’m not used to this whole DreamFest thing.

I got kinda disoriented and ended up making a bunch of mistakes. Just me, and nobody else, y'know? It’s so frustrating…

Ohii-san and Sensei both performed perfectly, but I was the one dragging Lilith down.

Hokuto: I see. My father is to blame. I’m sorry about him, Sazanami.

Jun: Nah, it's nothing… Honestly, I wondered at first if Sensei wouldn't be used to singing in a unit since he mostly performs solo —

But he carried himself perfectly. You'd never guess he had less practice than the rest of us~

Even though we're a team, I found myself overwhelmed by his presence throughout the whole performance.

It's not that I think he was taking it easy, but even that seemed more like a trial run than anything for him, so it’s scary to imagine what he’ll come out with next.

Hokuto: Hmph. Or maybe that was his limit. My father's getting on in his years; you shouldn’t overestimate him.

Jun: Haha. Hokuto-san, it seems more like you're underestimating him, y'know? I'm not too sure what’s going on here, though — Are you two on bad terms?

Back during SS, you said you kinda understood me, right?

But unlike my old man, your dad's a super idol. One look and even a little kid would stop crying just to watch him.

So it’s been nagging at me all this time. I just don’t get why you’d sympathize with me.

Oh, but I guess getting into the same line of work as our parents means that people just can’t seem to stop the comparisons… Annoying as it is.

The agency promoted me that way too, at first.

'Course, not that my old man’s fame as a loser was any good plug~

Hokuto: Hmm. I don’t think it’s right to belittle yourself like that.

And just from his achievements alone, wasn’t your father worthy of the Super Idol title too?

Jun: I wonder… Well, maybe that’s why he was a good match as Sagami Jin’s rival.

But in the end, he’s still a nobody who couldn’t make a mark on history, yeah?

Project Saga's the revival stage of legendary idols, yet he's so insignificant that he didn't even get invited to it.

Hokuto: …? I don’t think that's the case, though?

I’m pretty sure his name was on the list of legendary idols — At least, in the proposal I received before Project-Saga became official —

Jun: Nah, there's no need to try and comfort me. My old man’s obsessed with his past, y'know — He would’ve said yes in a heartbeat if he'd gotten an invitation.

So if he's never shown up as a Mentor, then the offer never came…

Must be nice being you, Hokuto-san~ You’ve got an impressive dad you can brag about.

Hokuto: ……

[ ☆ ]

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[akasevenblog]

The Descended - Hidden Chronicles of Teyvat Act 1

this theory was made a while ago on my twitter you can read it in your native language PTBR here

This thread is the first part of a series of long theories, if you don't know me, I'm the akaseven graphic designer who does a lot of services (fixed prices) and guides for the community and in my spare time I pile up crazy theories so get ready, get one snack so lets go!

The Descended is the scientific nomenclature the irminsul and the fatui use for those who do not belong to the world of teyvat, those who originate from there and it all started with the first who came, the infamous primeval god known as phanes... but there are another name

Nahida calls him the Celestial Principle (which will have a thread of his own in the second part of this saga of theories) he being the first was the founder and practically creator of teyvat as we know it today, he was the one who shaped this world and who created the archons and celestia !

In summary (to be detailed better in the next thread) phanes (the celestial principle) completes its creation in teyvat, using the body of sovereign dragons and thus humans. however one day a second that came, fell on teyvat causing a war and chaos... Years and years later we would have the third and fourth that descended, Lumine and Aether the twins who visit worlds and happy to explore one more world would not expect to find their intertwined destinies broken and trapped in a world full of secrets... which will be revealed !

Well, so far is everything clear? all canone...BUT things aren't quite like that, we discovered that supposedly lumine is not the third DESCENT, would ether have descended alone? Why do we have these travelers? because phanes did all this who is the second throne? prepare for the twist!

So I believe it is much simpler. Travelers are interdimensional beings who work to maintain order and verify that all infinite worlds derive from the great irminsul so well and pose no danger to nearby worlds.

Despite looking very Marvel vibes, we have the clear interference of a mysterious character called K.K who on several occasions seems to know who each one is, including the two travelers! Assuming that we have an Irminsul Security Agency, we also have patents. Patents that can be configured as an observer, explorer or founder... yes dear I'm saying that the primordial, lumine aether and the second throne ARE OF THE SAME RACE AND WORK FOR THE SAME AGENCY! shocking, right? And there's more, as in every agency you need laws, one of the main ones I believe was to confirm if the honkai (energy that consumed worlds and corrupted others) would not have leaked out there, the job of an explorer, a dimensional traveler is precisely to confirm this! BUT...

as GUARDIANS of these infinite worlds they should not disobey any order, even if their rank is a founder... teyvat works as a kind of ark, this term has appeared before! honkai impact brought about this type of project, which is basically saving human knowledge, its genome so that it could be used on a habitable planet. In this Phanes is nothing more than the PIVOR of Genshin >Impact< TOTAL double meaning!

Genshin is nothing more than hybrid beings, capable of reaching the divine level! Phanes as a founder breaks any possible law, mixing the human genome with primordial dragonlords, killing them and occupying teyvat aggressively and madly without any apparent reason... why?

It has a simple and basic reason, Phanes is as human as his creations, his selfishness and ambition blinded him to think that the only way to avoid future chaos was to abuse and steal bodies, magic and technology from this world! What he didn't expect was that he had an abysmal neighbor.

Teyvat belongs in an assumed space that contains a veil that separates the realm of light (where the elements and rulers came from) and the realm of emptiness, the realm of emptiness is a home to monsters but especially to a force that seems to be completely interested in absorbing the light! Phanes understood this, manages to create his ark and, knowing the consequences, completely detaches himself from the past, transforming his ship into a large island for his gods and future archons, uses magic from the irminsul and even from other worlds to create his shadows but a second falls from the sky, the one that the people of enkanomiya talk about the resemblance to phanes, as they belong to the same race. phanes then battles with him so that the truth is not revealed to the people and even that he returns to the agency! fzd chaos appear in teyvat and divide your nation

seeing some I read that it would be possible that the second throne is the same as the tale of the seelie, where in summary it says that a traveler from another world fell in love with that race and brought chaos, if that is the case, the second throne did not directly hit with the phanes, tried to live with the seelies but the phanes did not accept starting the war. already in the future new travelers fall into teyvat, twins who have already passed through other worlds, who possibly work for the dimensional agency arrive in teyvat with only the idea of resting until the truth is revealed…

you see, knowing about the lumine twist made me break my head, I even considered a kind of retcon and to fit it all in I was watching and reviewing and thank you to EdvardNeto and ViniPedrozaS from twitter for the good idea and also a great feat to fit lumine into all of this without leaving anything with holes! THEN First you need to know two things, the perspective of the Aether is supreme, it is not interfered by timetravels or samsaras in teyvat (like nahida and inazuma tree) another detail is that irminsul can be CHANGED as it happened in the case of the Greater Lord!

With that and for that reason I believe that YES LUMINE IS THE THIRD DESCENT but this information was modified on irminsul purposely here I tell you what may have happened. Lumine and Aether arrived together in teyvat, but for some reason the aether was unconscious!

something happened to lumine while the aether slept but it is with complete certainty to say that she participated in great events in khaenrar that culminated in her DEATH! The sister of the aether actually DIED something or someone killed her but at the same time she seemed to know it!

Somehow the consciousness and soul of the lumine is passed down to irminsul (as the greater lord does) and so a primordial body is made in khaenriah to contain that soul, fitting in with what nahida says that the lumine simply appeared in khaen that's at least her fact is on irminsul. This is what causes the khaenrah war, phanes understands that they broke the greatest possible primordial law, getting the knowledge and technology to replicate someone of their own race and still connect it to irminsul, with that the new lumine is blamed for the what provoked.

So lumine wakes up the brother who doesn't know half of what happened and they try to escape when one of the main celestials (shadows of phanes) prevents that new anachronism from leaving teyvat, after all she now belongs to that world and the aether is a stranger

however nahida insists that the luminine is linked by a kind of powerful entity that always changes its destiny, because supposedly she would have already explored teyvat before the death of her original body and her death was altered ON PURPOSE

who could change time? make irminsul configure if lumine as non-descended replaced by another name? Istaroth is one of the most possible entities that could have interfered here and made Lumine come back to life through the tree, changing all the data!

at the same time she forces her other sister (asmoday) to prevent them from fleeing, taking her cloned brother because probably istaroth may have seen teyvat's future and knew that he needed the aether's interference as a traveler and lighted her from the side of the abyss to avoid something worse!

with that we have the world of teyvat interpreting that lumine only sprouted in teyvat and went to the side of the abyss while the aether knows the true timeline that was changed by istaroth or another entity, anyway the original body of lumine was killed and she now use another! see that there is no way you can create a clone of a person who did not appear in this world! ah n be by paradox, if the original line is the two falling in teyvat and somehow the lumine is thrown in the irminsul if it deletes or replaces the dice of the third throne by another one being born in teyvat it is created as a bootstrap paradox, it sprouted without having a proper origin based on the world's POV!

in conclusion because the entities are betting on the aether and what is the interest in the traveler... curiously the name of the second who came is not second throne by case, it is possible that any traveler can dethrone the phanes of his immense throne in his and the Aether it's meant for that! as in the quotes he will supposedly ascend to heaven taking down phanes and celestia and now knowing the possibility of the death of lumine's body we have the big plot twist, Dainsleif questions if the aether will be able to save her something he couldn't...

[drewbacca2]

Starkiller Saga

44 BBY Chapter two part six

Weird looking Acklay

As we land in the residential sector, I recall Bar Lar gave me his contact info before I left Gungan Cargo's warehouse and was told to contact him when I find the "cargo" and then when I subdue it. We walk not even ten feet and Karrstag tells me. "I smell blood! Follow me!" I then start running behind Karrstag, with Meris behind me. We see scratches in the metal of the floors and walls. And we start to hear fighting coming from this door. I open it and we're in this courtyard with a bunch of people hiding and ten people hold the Kkorrwrot down with ropes. Then I see six civilians approach with makeshift spears and I approach and yell "No! Don't stab it with those! Me and my crew will stun it and have it taken away! Please let us handle it! But we also need help from you to hold it down! But more people are needed for that to work!" The civilians drop their spears and run. I pull Vengeance and Justice and I say "set them to stun guys!" We start stunning and I text Bar Lar from my hud and tell him that I found it and I give him my location. He says "Very good, I'll have a transport ready for when you stun it unconscious." At this point we have twenty stuns in and it's slightly showing signs of the stuns working.

I say "keep it up! It's starting to show signs of the stun working." It's at thirty five and it almost stabs a civilian. I look around and we're at a safe distance… I don't like that. I run up and I get under it, this should be more effective against it anyway. We get to forty and it's starting to get a little wobbly. I dodge many attempts of it trying to stab me with its legs. Fifty. I notice that it's about to fall. I say "everyone! Pull as hard as you can!" They do just that and I have to roll to not get crushed. I say "keep firing!" And as I say that it attempts to bite me, but I move out of the way.It finally stops moving and I call Bar Lar. "It's done. Are you almost here?" I hear wind on the comms and I hear Bar Lar above me. "Right on time Grozchal! We'll take it from here. The transport has a crane and a giant metal box which has air holes near the top. The people that came here are probably the contacts people. They look over the Kkorrwrot then give Bar Lar the thumbs up. They then hook up the Kkorrwrot and the crane lifts it up and puts it in the box and it closes up. Bar Lar turns to me and gives me 50,000 credits as promised. "Good work Grozchal. I hope to have continued business with you." I nod and we leave as well. As we walk back I give 10k to Karrstag and 15k to Meris totalling to 25k. In telepathy "Consider that paying you back some. Thank you, even though I told you it was ok not to." I get a feeling in my gut… someone is watching us. I look behind and for a second I see a hooded figure behind us. A civilian breaks my line of sight… did they have a lightsaber?! I put it out of my mind so I don't worry Meris.

We ride back to the Raven and we get up to the ramp but before I go up i get a chill down my spine, I look behind me and I see the hooded figure again. He's not escaping me this time! Especially not since he knows where we are! I run towards him as he draws his lightsaber and ignites it. It's orange. Nice color I guess. A cargo speeder slams on the brakes, almost hitting me. "Sorry!" I yell. I go past it and he's gone. "Damn it!" I yell. I wait till the cargo speeder drives off and I walk towards the loading ramp once again. "Are you ok?" Meris asks. "I'm fine." I say. "Not sure what I keep seeing." "Maybe you should get some rest. We'll let you know if you're needed." I nod.

[igota67chevy]

Crowley's top 13 Taylor Swift traxx

Crowley is a swiftie, I know this because he told me himself. these are his favourite Taylor Swift traxx. this is also kind of a drowley playlist cause if you listen to it in order it takes you through the drowley summer of love and the bitter break up that follows. under the cut I put some lyrics that made me go ''yes that needs to go on the crowley taylor swift playlist'' & the reason why (I put too much work in this help)

1. Ready For It?

Knew he was a killer first time that I saw him

Wondered how many girls he had loved and left haunted

But if he's a ghost, then I can be a phantom

2. Wildest Dreams

Holdin' him for ransom

the Mark of Cain episode when he's all fascinated watching Dean fight those demons in Cain's house. (this was definitely one of the moments that sparked Crowley's interest in Dean even further imo)

He's so tall and handsome as hell

He's so bad, but he does it so well

I can see the end as it begins

aah yes, the start of the demon!dean & Crowley saga. Dean is tall as shit too so there's that.

3. Cruel Summer

So cut the headlights, summer's a knife

I'm always waiting for you just to cut to the bone

Devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes

And if I bleed, you'll be the last to know

here we have some wonderful Crowley not wanting to see Dean that he's hurt AND an angel rolling his eyes being mentioned (which is literally Cas at the summer of love), truly iconic.

4. You Belong With Me

Walking the streets with you and your worn-out jeans

I can't help thinking this is how it ought to be

Laughing on a park bench, thinking to myself

Hey, isn't this easy?

this song is basically just Crowley thinking that Dean should be with him and not with Cas. Dean's jeans are probably pretty worn-out too, since he wears the same outfits all the damn time (no offense man, I do that too)

5. August

To live for the hope of it all

Cancel plans just in case you'd call

And say, "Meet me behind the mall"

So much for summer love and saying "us"

'Cause you weren't mine to lose

can we talk about how Crowley literally dropped everything the second Dean called him MULTIPLE TIMES and the fact that this almost became his dead when Sam used it to trick him at the end of season 10?. I also made a drowley edit with this song (I'm way too deep in the swiftnatural hole) so I think that says enough.

6. Babe

What a waste

Takin' down the pictures and the plans we made, yeah

And it's strange how your face doesn't look so innocent

Your secret has its consequence and that's on you, babe

Crowley had this whole plan to rule hell with Dean but he had to scrap everything rip

7. Mr. Perfectly Fine

He goes about his day

Forgets he ever even heard my name

Well, I thought you might be different than the rest, I guess you're all the same

the break-up didn't seem to effect Dean at all and Crowley hates this. he also thought he'd found someone who could actually love him, but it turned out Dean wasn't capable of that, just like the rest of the people in Crowley's life. he just wants to be loved :(

8. I Knew You Were Trouble

I guess you didn't care, and I guess I liked that

And when I fell hard, you took a step back

Without me, without me, without me

And he's long gone when he's next to me

And I realize the blame is on me

'Cause I knew you were trouble when you walked in

So shame on me now

The first line is Crowley @ Demon Dean not giving a crap about anything, and that second line is quite literally Dean pushing him during their break up. Crowley also kinda knew from the start that it wouldn't work out between him & Dean.

9. We Are Never Getting Back Together

We are never, ever, ever getting back together

You go talk to your friends, talk to my friends, talk to me

But we are never, ever, ever, ever

Getting back together

Crowley telling himself he's really done with having Winchester derangement syndrome now. sorry king I have to dissapoint you: this disease is incurable (ask Cas).

10 Bad Blood

Did you have to do this?

I was thinking that you could be trusted

Did you have to ruin what was shiny?

Now it's all rusted

Crowley actually trusted Dean (which says something, with his never ending trust issues) but of course he had to fuck it up.

11. Better Than Revenge

I'm just another thing for you to roll your eyes at, honey

You might have him, but haven't you heard?

I'm just another thing for you to roll your eyes at, honey

You might have him, but I always get the last word

this is Crowley @ Cas (especially since Dean gave the first blade to Cas instead of him). Cas also rolled his eyes at him multiple times so that's canon.

12. Look What You Made Me Do

I don't like your little games

Don't like your tilted stage

The role you made me play

Of the fool, no, I don't like you

I don't like your perfect crime

How you laugh when you lie

You said the gun was mine

Isn't cool, no, I don't like you

But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time

Honey, I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time

I've got a list of names and yours is in red, underlined

I check it once, then I check it twice, oh!

the only song on the list that isn't drowley related, because honestly this just SCREAMS Crowley when Rowena returned to me. also the ''I don't trust nobody and nobody trusts me'' line since Rowena is what sparked Crowley's trust issues in the first place.

13. Speak Now

Don't say yes, run away now

I'll meet you when you're out

Of the church at the back door

Don't wait or say a single vow

You need to hear me out

And they said, "speak now"

I think everyone agrees that Crowley does karaoke at the destiel wedding and sings this song.

[tsrookie]

Alright, so today’s the three-year anniversary of Reputation a.k.a the greatest album of all time, my baby, the light of my life, the album that deserved a Grammy (trying desperately not to think about the scene from Miss Americana😭), the album that introduced us to the most beautiful couple ever, the album that shut Kimye up, and I better stop now, or else I’m not gonna shut up.

So in honour of this momentous occasion (and the fact that I reached 200+ followers! Thank you so much you guys!🥺 Love you all 3000💙), here’s a loooooong post on why Reputation is the Ethan and MC album.

1. ...Ready For It?

No one has to know

Throwback to MC saying the exact same words back in Miami.

In the middle of the night, in my dreams

You should see the things we do, baby, mmm

In the middle of the night, in my dreams

I know I'm gonna be with you

So I take my time

Remember back when MC asked for Ethan to get into bed right away during their first time? Ethan told them that he had dreamt about the moment for months, so he wasn’t going to rush it.

2. End Game

Big reputation, big reputation

Ooh you and me would be a big conversation

These two dating would be the talk of the hospital, and they know it.

Even when we'd argue, we don't do it for long

And you understand the good and bad, end up in the song

For all your beautiful traits, and the way you do it with ease

For all my flaws, paranoia, and insecurities

Think these lines are pretty self-explanatory😌

I hit you like bang

We tried to forget it, but we just couldn't

*gets war flashbacks of the ‘reset’ phase*😭 They tried to make it work, but we all know how Ch 8 of book 2 went😌

I swear I don't love the drama, it loves me

Perfect for our chaotic MC😌

3. Don’t Blame Me

Do I... really have to explain this one?

For you, I would cross the line

I would waste my time

I would lose my mind

They say she's gone too far this time

Do we need a recap of our rule-breaking MC?

And baby, for you, I would fall from grace

Just to touch your face

If you walk away

I'd beg you on my knees to stay

He was willing to risk his (mostly) rule-abiding reputation for being with MC. And there’s no way he wouldn’t beg for MC not to leave him if he ever screwed up🤷‍♀️

4. Delicate

This ain't for the best

My reputation's never been worse, so

You must like me for me

Ethan stood by MC’s side throughout the Ethics hearing, when her reputation was completely smeared, and people only saw her as a patient murderer. He didn’t know about the sabotages, but he would’ve definitely supported her if he had known.

We can't make

Any promises now, can we, babe?

Commitment-phobia🙃

Sometimes I wonder when you sleep

Are you ever dreaming of me?

Sometimes when I look into your eyes

I pretend you're mine, all the damn time

They spent so much of time apart, not able to be with each other, so the least they could do was dream of being with each other all the time.

5. So It Goes (an underrated af bop)

What can I say... it’s a sex song, okay? Don’t make me go into the details😂 Just listen to the lyrics, and all will be clear.

6. Gorgeous (Tumblr won’t let me put any more links)

MC’s eternal anthem to Ethan.

Whisky on ice, Sunset and Vine

You've ruined my life, by not being mine

We all know Ethan loves Whiskey, and the second line? C’mon!

You're so gorgeous

I can't say anything to your face

'Cause look at your face

And I'm so furious

At you for making me feel this way

But, what can I say?

You're gorgeous

Ethan Ramsey is famous for two reasons. One: his smart brain, I guess😒 Two: HIS LOOKS!!! HE’S GORGEOUS, AND DON’T DENY IT.

And you should think about the consequence

Of you touching my hand in the darkened room (dark room, dark room)

Ah, the olden days of hand holding in the diagnostics office🥺

Ocean blue eyes looking in mine

I feel like I might sink and drown and die

No explanation required.

You make me so happy, it turns back to sad, yeah

There's nothing I hate more than what I can't have

You are so gorgeous it makes me so mad

The wonderful will-they-won’t-they saga. The frustrating hot-and-cold behaviour. The ‘We can’t’, ‘It’s unethical’ and ‘It’s complicated’. MC deserves an award for her patience😓

7. King Of My Heart

I'm perfectly fine, I live on my own

I made up on my mind, I'm better off bein' alone

Ethan ‘I don’t believe in soulmates and nobody’s waiting at home’ Ramsey.

And all at once, you are the one I have been waiting for

King of my heart, body and soul, ooh whoa

And all at once, you are all I want, I'll never let you go

King of my heart, body and soul, ooh whoa

This could be from both Ethan and MC’s perspectives. The love they share isn’t something that you get easily. It’s something that MC has waited for her whole life, and something Ethan never knew he needed, but now can’t live without🥺

Late in the night, the city's asleep

Your love is a secret I'm hoping, dreaming, dying to keep

Change my priorities

The taste of your lips is my idea of luxury

This was definitely Ethan throughout book 2, after he finally gave in. He let go of his previous rules and regulations, especially during the time of the attack. He was clearly affected, and once MC was alright, his main priority was her, and her alone.

Is the end of all the endings?

My broken bones are mending

With all these nights we're spending

Ethan’s been burnt a lot in the past. But all those wounds are now healing thanks to MC.

Up on the roof with a school girl crush

Drinking beer out of plastic cups

They act like lovesick teenagers around each other, like, that’s literally their description if you choose to kiss Ethan for the first time in Chapter 14 of book 2!😅

Say you fancy me, not fancy stuff

Baby, all at once, this is enough

We all know about his initial fear of his mother reaching out to him for the sake of his money. To him, MC not talking advantage of him is a pretty big deal, even though it’s never mentioned. You just know, you know?🥺

8. Dancing With Our Hands Tied

My, my love had been frozen

Deep blue, but you painted me golden

Again, Ethan doesn’t have the best experience with love. But MC changed that.

I'm a mess, but I'm the mess that you wanted

This could go both ways, cause they’re both piping hot messes😬 (but love each other anyway🥺)

The rest of this song could have made so much more sense for them if we had gotten some sort of a secret relationship storyline. But oh well, I’m definitely not complaining about the gala😌 (and definitely not believing any of the supposed cancelled storylines)

9. Dress

Our secret moments

In a crowded room

They got no idea

About me and you

I mean... pretty obvious😌

Even in my worst times, you could see the best of me

And I woke up just in time

Now I wake up by your side

My one and only, my lifeline

This is practically Ethan’s train of thought, and you can’t convince me otherwise.

As for the rest of the steamier lyrics... I’ll um... let you guys listen to it yourselves😁

10. Call It What You Want

I wrote an entire fic inspired by this song, so excuse me for the shameless self-promo, but go give it a read?🥺👉👈(totally fine if you don’t! I’ve probably made so many posts about this song that y’all know the meaning anyway😅)

11. New Years Day

Don't read the last page

But I stay when you're lost and I'm scared and you're turning away

I want your midnights

But I'll be cleaning up bottles with you on New Year's Day

MC has always stayed by Ethan’s side, even when he’s pushed her away. These lines perfectly explain how she wants his worst times, and his best, the midnights they spend staying up together, and the moments where it’s just the two of them, when everyone else has left, like the aftermath of a New Years party (still mad at the fact that we didn’t get to see the gang celebrate New Year together😭)

I'll be there if you're the toast of the town babe

Or if you strike out and you're crawling home

The above explanation for these lines as well.

Please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere

Becoming strangers to each other would be their worst nightmares. Knowing that the other was out there in the world somewhere, but not being in their lives would kill them.

You and me forevermore

These two are each other’s soulmate, they know it, even if they haven’t said it yet. Forever wouldn’t be enough for them to shower each other with they love they hold for each other. But it’s a good start.

——————————

If you guys made it this far, then I honestly love you more than words can ever express🥺💙 Thanks for putting up with my Swiftie-Directioner-Ethan stan ass, cause I dunno if I’d ever be able to handle someone like myself. And if you read all the above stuff, then I hope you wanna know why this album means so much to me.

Reputation is perceived as a dark album, when in reality it’s truly about finding love amongst all the noise. This album, and Taylor and Joe’s story, taught me what true love actually is, and Ethan and MC cemented that. This album and these two couples (quite literally) saved my life.

The most beautiful part about both these relationships is that even though they never showed it openly, for the sake of their relationships, both Ethan(in the story) and Joe stood by the side of the one’s they loved, despite half of the people who they knew hating on them, or betraying them. And I think that’s what’s truly important. Forming a true relationship like that, be it platonic or romantic, is long lasting, and I hope everyone finds those kind of people to fill their hearts with. Sending much love, and sorry for being a huge sap😅💙

Tagging a couple of my Swiftie homies: @swiftlydarcy @nikki-2406 @dxnicaramsey @kaavyaethanramsey @caseyvalentineramsey @drariellevalentine @justanotherrookie

[sillyteecup]

Sunflower

Scott McCall x black!reader

Warnings:

Mentions of death

Death

Literally one mention of sex

And my bad writing. Enjoy❤

Sunflower

Sunflower

My Eyes

Want you more than a melody

Let me inside

Wish I could get to know you

Scott's breakup with Allison had been tough and he had no plans to move on anytime soon. He found himself intrigued with the new dark chestnut skinned girl with the rich afro tied up into two huge puffs with sunflowers in them. She wore a short sleeved, lemon and white stripped button up shirt with a lemon rouched tank, long paperbag jeans with yellow sunflowers on the left pantleg, silver framed reading glasses and lemon and white custom Nikes. Scott approached her and sat across from her with the intention of being friends with her. For a second he watched in adoration as she smiled at the whatever she had just written before clearing his throat to catch her attention.

Sunflowers

Sometimes

Keep it sweet in your memory

I was just tongue tied

She looked up him, her eyes questioned Scott and he knew what they wanted to know. He would've answered much quicker if he didn't get lost in the hazel orbs that gazed at him at that moment. "Uhh..." she said snapping him out of his thoughts. "Oh uhm my name is Scott. McCall, captain of the lacrosse team," he mumbled. "Okay. Can I help you Scott McCall, captain of the lacrosse team?" she asked with an inquisitive eyebrow raised. "Uhm I noticed that I haven't seen you before and a friend of mine told me that you're new, so uhm you-uh wanna be uhm friends?" Scott mentally facepalmed himself for stumbling over his words so hard. 'Nice going McCall, she probably thinks you're a dork now,' he chastised himself. She giggled softly and Scott swore he had never heard anything as beautiful in his life. "Name's Y/N. Sure. We can be friends." He let out a sigh of relief and chuckled before diving into conversation with her.

And I dont wanna make you feel bad

But I've been trying hard not to talk to you

My sunflower (sunflower)

He introduced her to his pa-friends and they loved her instantly. Well Stiles was a little wary at first but he grew to like her too. She and Scott had a lot in common and became really close, hell she was giving Stiles a run for his money in the best friend department. Her favourite thing in the world was sunflowers. His favourite thing in the world was her. Scott always saw her as soft and fragile and he found himself falling for her, so he kept her away from all the supernatural drama by not telling her at all. He felt bad for keeping such a huge secret from her but he also felt better because he was protecting her. Little did he know that he wasn't the only one keeping secrets.

I couldn't want you anymore

Kiss in the kitchen like its a dance floor

I couldn't want you anymore tonight (tonight, tonight)

It was the night when the music teacher was killed. Scott ran to look for Lydia and told you to stay behind but her stubborn ass wasn't having it. He was fighting Jennifer Blake when Y/N ran into the room. "Y/N get out!" he yelled through a mouth full of canines. "Scott," she gasped. Everything after that was a blurr. Jennifer had thrown Scott into a table and stalked towards Y/N like she was some kind of prey. Scott tried with all his strength to get up but he was just too weak. He kept yelling for Jennifer not to hurt Y/N to no avail. Imagine his suprise when Y/N began to move at inhuman speed as she fought Jennifer. She fought long and hard but in the end she fell to her knees with a knife in her abdomen. Scott ran to her through his weak state. Everything around him shut down, all he could do was focus on her heartbeat as it slowed. He pleaded for her to stay with him as he held her. "I love you Y/N. Please. Don't," he sobbed. "Relax Scott I'm not dying," she groaned as she pulled the knife out. Everyone around them watched in awe as the wound underneath the grey t-shirt healed. They started flooding her with question after question, but not Scott. He just had one question. "What are you?" "I could ask you the same thing," she chuckled. "I'm a werewolf. What about you?" he asked. "Werewolf," she said as she flashed her eyes golden. "I love you too," she whispered as she pulled him into a passionate kiss.

Wondering headshake

Tired eyes are the death of me

Mouth full of toothpaste

Before I got to know you

It wasn't long before they actually got together. Nothing much had changed though, other than the kissing and sex. And as much as she was a great fighter, she was still his little sunflower. She stuck with him through everything. She was there when he became a True alpha, she was there when he, Stiles and Allison had to get rid of their darkness, she was there when Stiles was possessed and she was there, in his room, holding him as he cried in her arms hours after Allison died in his. Y/N didn't cry that night. She just wasn't the type to. Intead she was unusually quiet. "I should give you some space," she said as she got up to leave. "No. Stay. Please," he whispered.

I've got your face

Hung up high in the gallery

Out of this shade (sunflower, sunflower)

There was one instant where Y/N was jealous. Kira. Scott was jusy far too friendly with her and it made Y/N feel insecure. Maybe he liked Kira more than her. She came up with several reasons why: her hair, her skin, her body, her face. Kira was just better than her and it tore her apart. She wasn't mean to Kira about it though. How could anyone be? She's a whole ray of sunshine. Another reason for Scott to like her more. She started cancelling dates and plans because of it. She never cried about it though. She never told Scott she had anxiety because she didn't wanna seem like she was burdening or anything. At some point she stopped answering his calls and texts, and avoiding him all together. Not because she didn't love him anymore. But because she was afraid he didn't love her anymore. Oh how wrong she was. One afternoon as she was getting into her car, she felt someone gently grab her wrist and turn her around. "Y/N talk to me. You haven't been responding to my texts or calls. Are you okay? Have I done something wrong? If I have, how do I fix it?" he rambled. "You...I...I dont know," she whispered. "I'm sorry," he said, tears welling up in his eyes. "No! Its not your fault. I just got a little insecure," she reassured him. "Of Kira," she added quietly. He didn't say anything for 5 seconds before pulling her into a soft, loving kiss. "I love you." And he did. Hell so did she. She loved him more than sunflowers.

Your flowers just died

Plant new seeds in the mellody

Let me inside

I wanna get to know you

I don't wanna make you feel bad but I've been trying hard not to act a fool

My sunflower (sunflower, sunflower)

Y/N had only ever cried once in her life since she turned 5. "Scott! Scott no! NO! Mason who did this!" she screamed as she ran towards the stairs. She had an entire emotional breakdown at the sight of the lifeless corpse of the love of her life as Melissa tried her best to revive him. She would've helped if she had the strength but she didn't. Just the thought of living without Scott shattered her. Mason tried to comfort her but it was just all too much for her. The emotion was far too overwhelming and had come down on her harder than a tsunami on a single sunflower.

I couldn't want you anymore

Kiss in the kitchen like its a dancefloor

I couldn't want you more tonight (tonight, tonight)

I couldn't want you anymore

Kids in the kitchen, listen to dancehall

I couldn't want you anymore tonight

As if the heavens had heard her cries, Scott roared. His alpha eyes went back to brown immediately when he caught the sight of Y/N crying in Mason's arms. "Y/N," he said as he reached out to touch her. "I'm not ready to lose you," she said softly. He wiped her tears and kissed her forehead. She cleaned his wounds and stayed with him until they healed. She was a little bitter towards the rest of the pack except for Mason, Lydia and Kira because they didnt abandon him. The latter were victims of circumstance. Stiles and Liam on the other hand, she couldn't stand them. She never spoke to them until the end of the Theo Raeken/Lu Bête saga. And even then, it wasn't like she was extra friendly. She spoke to them because she had to. Scott wasn't mad at them though, he was okay as long as his sunflower was okay.

Sunflower

My eyes

Want you more than a melody

Let me inside

Wish I could get to know you

The rest of senior year came and went with thw Ghost rider saga. She was actually pretty glad to have Stiles back. Then came college. Y/N was supposed to leave for New York when strange animal occurrences got in the way. "How the hell is any of this more important than my college education?" she groaned as Scott, Malia and Lydia tried to talk her out of leaving. "It could mean that everyone's in danger," Lydia sighed. "Liam and his friends can handle it. Babe you're supposed to be headed for UC Davis. Malia, France! Lydia, MIT awaits you and I gotta go to Julliard," she yelled. "Come on. Please, its just a week," Scott said as his hands made their way to her waist. "Fine." A week turned a gruesome month, battling with something that uses your fears against you called the Anuk-ite. A week turned into a gruesome month of war with Tamora Monroe and her merry band of "hunters", aided by Gerard Argent. A whole month of death. But just like every battle they fought, they emerged victorious. She had just kissed Scott to help heal his eyes when she collapsed to her knees. Blood began pouring from her mouth as Scott rushed to her side. He began searching for the wound like a madman, hoping he could heal it. "Scott, baby. Its okay," she whispered. "No, no no," he mumbled after finding the bullet wound in her side. She had been shot with yellow wolfsbane and it was too late. "Why didn't you tell anyone?" he asked barely over a whisper. "We were too busy fighting to keep everyone else safe," she said with a proud smile. He cradled her body and sobbed. "Hey. You know sunflowers die right?" she chuckled softly. That's when Scott realized something. She was wearing the exact same outfit she wore when they met. Only this time her hair was tied into one ponytail. The sunflowers were replaced with sunflower clips. "I love you. I always have and I-I always will," she whispered feeling herself getting weaker. "I love you too. More than anything in the world," Scott sobbed. "Promise me you'll go on and be happy. Get married, have kids or not. Just be happy," she said with a smile. Everyone else was a crying mess. He listened as her heartbeat got slower and more silent. Her last petal fell and she went limp in Scott's arms. He begged her to come back between chokef cries, but deep down he knew that she was gone. For good.

Sunflower just died

Keep it sweet in your memory

I'm still tongue-tied

Sunflower, sunflower

Sunflower, sunflower

Sunflower, sunflower

"And that was Sunflower vol.6 by Harry Styles from his latest album Fine Line. Great song, makes me wanna grab my girlfriend and dance," the radio presenter said. Scott turned the radio in Argent's car down as they got closer to the pack. The song started playing after he told Alec his and his pack's story and he couldn't help but let his mind wander. He knew how much Y/N would've adored the song if she were still alive. Two years without her and he still felt like a part of him was missing, but he didn't let it stop him from fighting the war. Her last wish was for him to be happy and he couldn't help but think about how the end of the war would not only make him the happiest man alive. But it would also make her smile proudly at him from her sunflower garden in heaven. That would send him over the moon. God, how he missed her. They pulled over in the parking lot where the pack agreed to meet up, and Scott couldn't help but smile at his pack. They supported him through thick and thin and stuck together because they knew how you got when they didn't. "What are you thinking about?" Alec asked. "How the death of a sunflower can come with the growth of an entire garden," Scott replied as he made his way to the pack with a proud grin.

[mobius-prime]

271. Sonic Universe #4

The Shadow Saga (Part 4 of 4): The Ultimate Lifeform

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley! Colors: Jason Jensen

Before we get started, it's important to note that this issue likely takes place a short time after the upcoming two issues, but for the sake of continuity as well as plot pacing, I've decided to cover this one first, especially since it doesn't overlap with the events of the next two issues at all. Shadow and Rouge are suited up and ready to go into the Special Zone in search of another Chaos Emerald, and Shadow is unconcerned, as he thinks the mission should be fairly routine. They're teleported into the zone by Hope's device, and sure enough, the giant freaky panda god Feist is there, ready to test some mortals for funsies in return for a Chaos Emerald.

Feist cackles and says that since he creates the rules of this zone, Shadow's own powers won't work, as even if he's the "ultimate lifeform" Feist is a god and therefore holds power over him. Shadow and Rouge quickly start trying to navigate Feist's little maze, using their respective strengths to dodge obstacles, but Feist has deliberately set them up for failure, and laughs at them as they run out of time just a moment before Rouge can grab the green Chaos Emer- wait, what? The green emerald? That one was already retrieved from the Sol Dimension! For whatever reason, Jason apparently completely forgot that not all the emeralds are green anymore, and miscolored this one, which was intended to be the red one. Ian handwaved it away later by saying Feist made it look that way to confuse them or whatever, but the color was also quietly corrected to red in future reprints, so it clearly wasn't intended. Anyway, Shadow and Rouge are booted out of the zone without their prize, much to Hope and Commander Tower's shock.

Okay, first of all, Tower, there's literally no need to be an asshole about this. There were already problems just getting into the Special Zone in the first place, it's downright idiotic to think it would just be a total piece of cake to retrieve one of the emeralds within after all that. And second of all, for goodness' sake, Shadow, stop blaming yourself for goddamn everything! Oh no, you didn't immediately succeed at everything you've tried! Ultimate lifeform or not, you're still an ordinary sentient being with ordinary sentient thought processes. Shadow, moping and upset, heads to the facility's gym and begins beating the crap out of Omega, who is surprised and makes a weird comment about how it's he who "usually" comes to Shadow for sparring practice. I'm… a little baffled at this comment, honestly, because it makes it sound like Omega's been around for a while now and he and Shadow regularly beat each other up, even though the very last issue implied that this issue's story is taking place like, the day after recruiting him. But anyway, Shadow dodges all of Omega's questions and attacks, while Omega rather tactlessly points out that now that he's received his clearance for duty, he can come with them on their next mission and blast Feist for them. This pisses Shadow off, and he stalks away to find a quiet spot near the top of the base.

Oh, speaking of which, has anyone been wondering where GUN is actually based? We know they're part of Station Square's security force, but multiple past issues have made vague allusions to the United Federation having more than one territory around the world, and generally being a lot bigger than it was previously portrayed as being (remember when the Mobians and entire outside world didn't even know Station Square existed? Ah, the weird old days). Well, here we get a clue as to where this GUN base is located. Shadow is moping at the top of the mountain that houses the base, and Hope appears there too, surprised to see Shadow as she'd thought this was her own personal hidden thinking spot. She tries to make conversation, enthusing about the view and how "On a clear day, you can see all the way to Soleanna!" I've already noted that Sonic '06 technically took place, if you can call it that, in the comics universe, so obviously Soleanna would have to exist as well. My point here is more about the location of Soleanna. The aesthetic of the kingdom's capital city is vaguely Venetian, indicating it's probably located somewhere analogous to modern-day Italy, so for it to be visible from the top of this mountain, this GUN base would have to be somewhere in Europe. Because I'm extra, I took a look at the position of these two relative to the sun in the background, and if we assume this scene takes place in the afternoon, then the base would be somewhere north of Soleanna - so if Soleanna is indeed located on the coast where Italy currently, then that all checks out nicely. Just a fun fact for y'all!

Anyway, I'm getting way too into the small details here. Hope, noticing that Shadow refuses to make conversation despite her efforts, tries to comfort him, but Shadow just insists that since he's the ultimate lifeform he's not supposed to fail. This is, of course, ridiculous, and Hope points this out, adding that in her opinion he hasn't failed as badly as she has. She tells him the story of how Snively encouraged her to leave Knothole and how she feels too guilty to go back after its destruction, which rouses Shadow somewhat, becoming concerned when she starts to cry. He tells her that leaving was hardly a failure, that she had no way of knowing what would happen and that it wasn't a bad thing to want to push her own boundaries by exploring her role in the world. She smiles and fires back that he can't blame himself for his own failures then, and points out that in the end his "failed" mission was actually excellent reconnaissance and that now that he understands better what he'll be facing, he's just set himself up for future success. This makes Shadow pause, as he's obviously not thought of it like this before.

Now that is how you write a Shadow. It's weird when people try to characterize him as this edgy, brooding, angry violent character who would never allow himself to be soft or emotional. Sure, he has an ego that he has to protect, and he likes to show off how tough he is on occasion, but Hope's analysis here is accurate - he's literally an eternal teenager who's just trying to figure out where he belongs in the grand scheme of things. Furthermore, Shadow the Hedgehog is great with children and no one will ever ever change my mind on this. So there.

Soon after their talk, Shadow, Rouge, and Omega have gathered at the teleporter for their next foray into the Special Zone. They've christened themselves "Team Dark," something which Rouge and Hope both seem a bit baffled at but which Tower seems to think is apt. They make it back into the Special Zone, and when Feist gloats at them for coming back for another round, both Omega and Shadow become riled, wanting to go on the offensive, though Rouge holds them back. Feist conjures up another challenge for them, this time in the form of a weird 3D-cube-maze-thing, and mocks them as they do their best to find the center. They eventually end up in a chamber with spikes at the bottom and the Chaos Emerald at the center, but Feist covers the emerald with a bunch of multicolored, useless gems, giving Omega the chance to use his beloved guns to blast a hole in them, giving Shadow an opening.

Feist, you're a real asshole, you know that? He brings them back to his sphere… platform… thing to mock them some more, and Omega begins begging for the chance to pursue "Plan B" like an excited child on Christmas. He's delighted when Rouge gives her permission, and immediately launches half his weight in ammunition into Feist's face, having to be literally dragged away from the screaming panda by Rouge to prevent him from standing there and firing at him for the rest of the day.

Woo! Go Team Dark! Hope hugs Shadow and congratulates him, and Tower is similarly pleased, accepting the emerald from his agents and eager to make GUN a "force to be reckoned with" with the power of their two emeralds. Normally, that statement might set off a few red flags, especially concerning these guys' history of, y'know, murdering innocent terminally ill children who get in the way of their bullets, but luckily fifty years has been enough for them to change for the better (I sincerely doubt Shadow would ever agree to work for them otherwise). This issue ends with a single page teasing the next arc of SU, featuring an adult Knuckles and Julie-Su getting ready to leave on some kind of trip and trusting their daughter Lara-Su to take over things while… they're… oh for the love of Chaos, this again?! We're really going back to the future? Only this time, it's thirty years into the future instead of twenty-five. Ugh, I wanted to be done with this AU, but I guess we're careening right back into it… But first, of course, the two-part finale to the sixth era of the preboot, the shortest era so far!

[fandom-meanderer]

Oh my goodness I'm gushing over the male!reader X Linhardt scenario you wrote! It's so cute! But what if Mr. Coolest of Garreg Mach showed Sylvain the ways of being cool? 👀

It seems the Mr. Coolest of Garreg Mach saga continues!

Companion piece to [this]

~

“Alright, Sylvain. I’m not going to go easy on you,” you warn. Sylvain just nods his head.

“I’m ready, (Name).”

“Okay, lesson one is the hardest, Sylvain, are you absolutely sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure!”

“Can you get on with it? (Name) says I can’t sleep until you complete all three lessons,” Linhardt yawns.

“Come on! Hit me already, (Name)!”

Lesson One

“You have to go three hours without flirting with anyone.”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Time starts...” You gesture towards Linhardt. He clicks a pocket watch.

“Now,” he finishes. You loop your arm in Linhardt’s and you two walk off together.

“Wait, you can’t just leave me here!” Sylvain panics.

“You’ll be fine! And don’t think we’re not watching, we have spies everywhere,” you say, entering the dining hall. “Good luck Sylvain!”

He’s really doing this. Wow, he’s really working on becoming as cool as Mr. Coolest in Garreg Mach. Okay, he can do this. No flirting. Easy.

“Hey, Sylvain!” A rather cute student waved to him.

“H-” He felt a sudden chill. Someone was watching him. He looked around the courtyard, who was it? Who was the spy? Who was reporting to you as he was freaking out? Okay, just two hours, fifty-eight minutes, and twenty-three seconds left.

He’ll survive.

It was Caspar, by the way.

Lesson Two

You and Linhardt find Sylvain collapsed in front of the altar in the Cathedral.

“So he can nap and I can’t?”

“He’s not napping, he’s praying,” you snicker. You nudge him with your shoe gently. “Hey, Sylvain, you made it. Three hours are up, buddy.”

“I did?” His voice sounded hoarse.

“Yeah, come on, it’s time for lesson two.” Sylvain jumped up with a new found vigor and looked at you intensely.

“I’m ready.”

“You sure? Looks like lesson one really took its toll on you,” you worry.

“I’m fine. I can handle it.”

“He’s really persistent,” Linhardt frowns. “Don’t be too hard on him.”

“Don’t worry, I’m going way easy on him,” you whisper. “Okay, Sylvain. Lesson two. We’re in the chapel already, so this makes things so much easier.”

“What do you mean...?”

“Well, just outside this area happens to be the largest population of the Monastery’s resident cats, right? Well, I need you to bring twenty of them to me.”

“How does this make me cooler?”

“Well, I mean,” you whistle and twenty cats flooded to you. “It works for me.” In another whistle the cats scattered.

“What the hell...”

“See you in a bit, Sylvain,” you wave him off, finally giving in to Linhardt’s pulling.

“Wait, shouldn’t you be here so I know where you are?”

“Looks like you’re just going to have to find me,” you shrug. Sylvain frantically called for you even as you exited the grand doors.

“You know, you could’ve just told him that we’re going to wait outside.”

“Nah, he’s smart, he’ll figure that out.”

~

“Hello, Mr. Cat,” Sylvain slowly walks up to a tabby cat, prepared to grab him. The cat looks over its shoulder lazily. Intrigued by what the hell this kid wanted with it. He moved closer to Sylvain. “That’s it, just come closer, little buddy.” Once he was in an arms reach, Sylvain grabbed him.

“ONE DOWN NINETEEN TO GO!” He ran around collecting cats, not even caring about the amount of scratches and scars he was receiving. 

“That’s no way to make friends with the cats...” Ashe frowns. “I really hope (Name) knows what he’s doing.” He worriedly watches Sylvain pick up another cat and sighs. He really only agreed to do this because he was worried about what Sylvain would do. Now, his friend just looks... sad. He’s never this persistent when he’s trying to charm the other school girls. 

Finally, Sylvain had twenty cats under his arms when he made a mad dash to find you and get away from this hell. What he didn’t notice, however, is that he ran right past you and across the bridge.

“Should we... should we tell him?” Linhardt asks.

“No. He’ll be back.”

“That’s cruel...”

“He’s the one who wanted to be cool, right?”

Final Lesson

Sylvain stumble up the steps of the Cathedral and found you sitting on the ground next to Linhardt. Your boyfriend was snoozing away peacefully with his head on your shoulder and you were writing down notes on a piece of parchment. Sylvain dumped the cats in front of you, each of the mewling angrily.

“Here... Here are your damn cats...” He huffs. You whistle and the cats sit next to you.

“You turned up better than I was expecting, Sylvain,” you laugh. You watched the sun begin to set behind him while you nudge Linhardt softly and he opens his eyes lazily and sits up. “One last lesson, Sylvain. It’s not too late to opt out, you know.”

“Are you kidding me? I’m covered in claw marks. It looks like I’m having an affair. I have nothing left to lose.”

“Alright, then, follow me.” The three of you walk for a short moment before ending up at the arena of the final battle, so to say.

“The Library?” Sylvain cocks his head.

“During your first lesson, Lin and I came up here and marked the insides of certain books with a star sticker, luckily, we just placed them in the front covers.

“That was my idea, if I didn’t say anything you would’ve had to dig through all of the books,” Linhardt adds in.

“Yup. So now your job is to find all of those books, read the star marked passages, and write me a paper telling me what they each had in common to one another. And since this is your final lesson, we decided to make it the hardest.”

“How so?”

“We’re not going to tell you how many books are marked, or how many passages are marked.”

“Goddess please forgive me...”

“You can still opt out, Sylvain.”

“No! I won’t!”

“Okay, all I can say now is good luck then. And don’t worry about what Professor Byleth will think, Lin and I already got that covered.”

“Good night, Sylvain,” Linhardt says. He walks with you out of the library and you shut the doors softly.

“There is a reason behind all of this... right, (Name)?” Linhardt asks,

“Yup. I know I said this is the final lesson, but I’ll quiz him tomorrow on what he thinks the purpose of these lessons were.”

“So you aren’t just making him suffer?”

“Of course not, Sylvain is a good friend of mine, after all.”

“If you say so, (Name).”

~

“Okay... okay I can do this.” Sylvain looks around the library. Then, another knock at the door. It creaks open slowly and Felix walks in.

“What is it that you got yourself into, Sylvain?” He asks.

“I asked (Name) to show me how he became so cool, so he set up these three lessons for me. This is the last one,” Sylvain says, opening his first book.

“So that’s why you’ve been running around like a chicken with its head cut off.”

“Yeah... I don’t suppose you can help me, can you?”

“Even if I could I wouldn’t.”

“Right... Of course,” Sylvain opens his second book. Still no dice. He sighed. It was going to be one hell of a night.

Conclusion

You and Linhardt walked into the Library the next morning and found Sylvain just finishing up the paper. He had forty two books next to him, the correct number of books that you and Linhardt had marked the day before. Sylvain pushed the ten page essay toward you.

“It’s done.”

“Alright,” you take the essay and read through the first couple of paragraphs. “Tell me, Sylvain, what did you learn from these lessons?”

“What did I... what now?”

“What did you learn?” Sylvain looks at you and cocks his head. “Sylvain, I’m not going to make you do these things for no reason. So tell me, what did you get out of it?” Sylvain pondered for a moment, then it hit him.

“The first lesson, you told me not to do the one thing I always do, flirting. At first, all I could think of is ‘what does this have to do with becoming cool?’ But now that I reflect on it, it was as if you were training me to hold back.”

“Mmhmm.”

“For lesson two, I didn’t notice it until I was making my way back to the cathedral, but the cats really started liking me once I put them down and let them just follow. All I had to do was be nice to them, then I didn’t have to force them to come.”

“You’re on the right track, Sylvain.”

“And for this final lesson, it really reminded me of you. Because you have this weird uncanny ability of being able to put things that have no relevance together to make something better. Hence the completely different books and the one paper I had to make on them.”

“Wow, you actually got it,” Linhardt was surprised, to say the least. You hand the paper to him and smile at Sylvain.

“Well, there you have it, Sylvain. Now you know how I became the apparent ‘Coolest in Garreg Mach’.”

“That’s... that’s it?”

“Yup. I didn’t pull any strings to become cool, I just decided to be myself.”

“Huh...” Sylvain sighed. “Sorry, man, but that’s a lot of work I did for a kind of underwhelming answer.”

“I’m not disagreeing, Sylvain, but that’s really the truth. When you walk around the halls today, why don’t you pay more attention to how people interact with you? Like I said, I didn’t make you do these for no reason.”

“O-Okay...”

“I’ll see you later, bud!” You and Linhardt walk off again, leaving Sylvain behind. He walks over to the table and nudges Felix awake.

“Well... did you get your answer?” He asks groggily.

“Yeah... I think I did.”

“Can I go now?”

“Yup.”

“Finally,” Felix pushes himself up. “Just for the record, Sylvain, I really didn’t think you had to do all that yesterday. You’re... you’re already cool as is.”

“What was that? What did you say?” Sylvain stopped in his tracks and looked over to the half asleep Felix.

“Don’t make me say it again, Sylvain!” He grumbles. He picks up the pace and walks ahead of Sylvain. “Now come on, the Professor is going to be mad that we’re late.”

“Okay, okay!” Sylvain couldn’t stop the huge smile forming on his face.

Despite the all nighter he pulled, Sylvain felt like he was ready to take on the world right now. He felt great, energized, and so cool right now. Huh, maybe he could even compete with you for the title someday? Nah.