#went from just playing music to using music as her source of magic eventually

[simminglytimeladies]

A typical rogue and bard duo... What trouble would they cause next?

[oliviaamendola]

[ 𝕥𝕖𝕩𝕥 ] - 𝓉𝑜𝓂 & 𝑜𝓁𝒾𝓋𝒾𝒶

tom: do we come to the reality that friendships as adults is just another area in out adult lives that we have to figure out? i do miss the days when you could just say you liked someone's shirt on a playground and they become your best friend. i try to be but you're kind and i can't overlook that. it takes a lot to be kind these days. it was lovely to see you in berlin, love. did you have a good time getting to be a part of the culture? it fascinating to be at a proper oktoberfest. when i tell you that mia loved getting to meet you, i truly mean that. she absolutely loved your little family and that makes me realize we need to get together more often. care to make this a monthly thing? now that would be hilarious to see! went the opposite direction on the skills but how lovely your house would be when he's older and can play music for you all. christmas carols on the piano? i may have to crash your holidays. i have a feeling that scarlett and mia will be running over these boys before they even know it. i can only send pictures if you promise to send me them in return because this smile? why are they always so precious when they don't have teeth? pure gums. she's got a beauty to her then and i have no doubt that she gets it from you. would you say that weston looks more like danny then? i can see the similarities in their features. oh, i would never. besides, we all get overly emotional about our kids. they're our greatest treasures, least that's how i see it so you're fully warranted to go off about how much you adore them. they're yours and the best parts of you, yeah? has it been nice having kids close together? i tend to think about having more kids, now more than i ever have because mia is getting closer to being one but... it's mental thinking about her growing up and being a big sister eventually. i know that i'm ready but i just need the greenlight from nat since she's the one that calls that shots. she had a relatively easy pregnancy with mia but i want her to be ready more than anything. one of five? ah, one more and i am so i do get it. are you the youngest? oldest, like me? how has the season been going for danny?

Liv: it's just harder. when you're a kid, you see your friends every day at school or in the neighborhood. when you're an adult, your friends could be all over the world so it takes actual effort to keep the friendship. which i don't hate at all, because the people who want to be in your life make that effort. it doesn't mean you talk every day, but effort is effort in my eyes. what's the sense in being mean? feels like a wasted effort in my opinion. germany was really fun! i'd never been before so it was amazing to be there during such an iconic time. big fan of the dirndl. have you been before? aww, what a sweetheart! mia is stunning and you might have a little model on your hands. can we? i could kiss her cute little cheeks all day long and scarlett loved having someone a little more alert than her brother to play with. if you ever want to come to vegas to catch a game, let me know. though i wouldn't be offended if vegas is the last place you want to visit 😂 my entire family is musical – we all sing and play at least one instrument. danny has a nice voice and plays the guitar, so it's really not an option that these kids will be musical in some way. you're more than welcome to crash any time, especially if we're in rhode island because christmas there is nothing short of pure magic. of course! you don't have to ask me twice considering my camera roll is mostly of them. and you better be sending mia pics in exchange! aww, thank you. obviously i think she's gorgeous but it's nice hearing it from an unbiased source too! a little bit! his eyes are darker, but he reminds me a lot of scarlett so it'll be interesting to see if he grows more into his amendola side. ideal for me, because a mini danny would be the cutest thing! hopefully they're the best parts of us. it's all any parent wants for their kids, right? i've enjoyed their close age range. it's hard right now because they're both so dependent on us but i think that they'll be close when they're older. and it helps that we're still on diaper duty with scarlett so we didn't get spoiled with having to go back to them. i've heard that's the worst, haha! one is still little, but there's no right or wrong way to go. you have to do what's best for you and your family, and sometimes it just happens and it's a nice surprise when it does. whether mia is one or eleven, she's going to be an amazing big sister! smart man to realize it's your wife who calls the shots! every pregnancy is different too. scarlett was a fairly quick birth and weston came twice as fast, which was slightly terrifying but not at the same time since we had already been through it once before. you're the oldest? how old is your youngest sibling? no, i'm right in the middle – the neglected middle child, which speaks so much to my personality haha! @tcmhcll

[kindness-ricochets]

I’ve been seeing a lot of thoughts and hc of autistic wylan lately and you seem to also be a fan of the concept. May I ask why? Exactly? I could definitely kinda see it but wanna hear you thoughts you’re always so eloquent

Hey there anon! Sorry for the delay—I’m guessing you already found an answer to this elsewhere while I was off Tumblr for a bit, but just in case, here are my thoughts. This will be heavily personal, but… well, you can’t very well ask an autistic person about autism and expect neutrality!

Autism is different for everyone and can be difficult to pin down, so while Wylan is arguably autistic, he misses several beats that for me would have made him definitively and undeniably autistic. For example, when the bells start to ring, triggering black protocol—I work in a place with a lot of bells and am frequently caught too close to one and normally press my hands over my ears until it’s over because that sound is like shrapnel raking across my insides. All of them. Not just the ear and brain parts. Wylan doesn’t have that sort of visceral reaction, but that may just mean he doesn’t have the same sensitivities that I do, or to the same level. He also never, that I recall, eats meat—as weird as that might sound, eating meat is incredibly complicated with heightened sensitivities to taste and texture. I’m not sure how old I was when I realized it was strange to get up from the table to spit out my food because it viscerally repulsed me. So it might be that Wylan is autistic and has different experiences than I do. Those are things I would include in a story as major indicators of a character being autistic. This might also mean that his father’s way of raising him taught him to hide unusual reactions and stimming behaviors. It’s not that much of a reach to assume a man who tried to abuse the dyslexia out of his son would take the same approach to autism. (More on autism and abuse later.)

So while I’m going to lay out why I read Wylan as autistic, that’s why I think it’s valid to read him as not being autistic as well. Both are valid.

A final caveat, I am well overdue for a reread of the books, so I likely left something out or could have found better examples. Take this as a few of my reasons for a personal headcanon. Anyone who feels differently, that's fine! We can each read things our own way :)

1 - Hyperfixation: The way Wylan loves music

Most of the Crows’ backgrounds color how they see the world: Kaz’s shrewdness, Matthias’s tactical thinking and superstition, Inej’s faith and Suli wisdom, etc. That’s a sign of good character writing. But very little of Wylan’s upbringing seems to have influenced how he sees the world. It comes closest when he thinks about how his father would scorn his new friends, but we never see that scorn from Wylan.

The way a hyperfixation feels, it’s like you’ve always lived in a close parallel world, never fully been a part of the other one where it seems like everyone else lives, but suddenly there’s this bright shining piece of your soul laced through the other world. It lets you connect, it lets you exist in their realm, and you can’t help but filter everything new through that lens because it’s the brightest, most wonderful thing. (I had been between hyperfixations for a while when I started a new job; six months into that work, I read Crooked Kingdom. One of my coworkers thought I had fallen in love, it was that marked a difference.)

So, combining these: Wylan never really acts like he was part of his father’s world, and indeed is in some ways separate from the other Crows, but he parses everything through music, his hyperfixation. He sets words to music to remember them, like he does with the contract. Even his own anxiety is made sense of through music, when in his first narrated chapter, he sets it to music: what am I doing here what am I doing here…. When he’s overwhelmed, his thoughts are “a jangle of misplayed chords”. The Crows have backgrounds that influence how they react to the world, but Wylan’s hyperfixation is his means of experiencing and understanding the world.

2 - Literal thinking: Wylan responds to exact words

In this post, I went into detail on the line where Wylan suggested waking up men to kill them. Wylan is generally unsupportive of killing people—Oomen, Smeet’s clerk, his father… he advocates not-murder in each of these situations. Accepting his aversion to murder, his suggestion to wake men up and kill them seems like a genuine reaction to Jesper saying he doesn’t want to kill unconscious men. Wylan takes things literally.

This happens the most with Jesper, probably because Jesper talks to Wylan the most. Nina and Matthias don’t really register him past how he might be useful, Inej is usually quite direct, and Kaz is very deliberate when he speaks with Wylan. This really interests me because Kaz tends to vary his speech more than the others do, he adapts more to being around other people. He jokes a little with Jesper, spars with Nina, speaks more openly and more sharply with Inej, and he’s precise with Wylan. Kaz may not know what autism is, but he recognizes what’s effective with Wylan.

Another example is when Wylan is sketching the Ice Court plans and Jesper says it looks like a cake. There are plenty of valid responses here: pointing out that concentric circles look like lots of things, that it’s just a sketch, telling Jesper to stop looking over his shoulder. Instead, Wylan says that the Ice Court is sort of like a cake. That… doesn’t sound like something Wylan would normally say. He’s not addressing the whole situation, he’s addressing the specific words Jesper said.

One of the most heartbreaking examples of this (to me, anyway) is with Marya. Wylan does the same thing with his mother, when she asks if he’s there for her money and says she hasn’t got any, and his response is, “I don’t either.” We understand as readers that what Marya is communicating here is that she is so accustomed to being utterly ignored unless she is being used, and if she told Wylan that no one visited but to take advantage and she assumed he was here for the same reason, he would say it wasn’t the case. But he just responds to the immediate statement.

There are a lot of examples of this.

3 — 0% perception, 100% creativity

Wylan can identify things that don’t make sense or that he doesn’t understand, but at the beginning of the series he can’t make leaps, only ask questions. On the Ferolind, he wonders about the source of water at the Ice Court; though Kaz doesn’t say as much, he was clearly wondering, too, because he eventually figured out the underground river. There’s an interesting parallel here where, in the beginning of Crooked Kingdom, Wylan asks a question about how they’ll break into Smeet’s and Kaz tells him to use his eyes instead of running his mouth—at which point Wylan is able to figure it out. I don’t think this is because he never tried before, though, but because no one ever bothered to teach him. Kaz can be harsh but he gives harsh corrections rather than harsh rejections and Wylan learns from him.

It’s hard to understand the world for people with autism. The world is designed and run by and for people whose minds are fundamentally different from ours, whose thoughts and experiences are unlike ours. Imagine trying to learn English or Spanish or Mandarin or any other spoken language if your first language was olfactory. That’s sort of what it’s like for someone with autism to just get dropped into the world and expected to figure this out.

This can be attributed to Wylan’s upbringing, but I disagree with that because none of the others were brought up in the Barrel, either, and Wylan doesn’t understand trade or politics with any special skill. Kaz wasn’t born in the Barrel, but he managed to go from “stealing is wrong” to “wrong isn’t my concern” real quick; Colm Fahey didn’t raise his son on gambling and firefights; the Ghafas never expected their daughter to be away from the family. Only Nina has relevant training—and even that’s precious little, she left school way too early. The others figured it out; Wylan needed a bit more help. He also seems surprised by the way his father conducts business. Wylan takes things on face value—like the time he’s surprised someone would do something, simply because it’s unlawful. This is something he expresses to a group of gangsters. He’s never been taught the way of any world and these things are not intuitive to him.

But Wylan isn’t stupid.

He doesn’t know how to understand the world, but he does understand how things go together. Given a pointy diamond, a handle, and a screw, he cut through Grisha glass. He carries flashbangs and magic napalm, he recreates military hardware—Wylan understands how to make things interact for a specific result. But to me the most telling thing isn’t just that he puts together chemical pieces, it’s that he figured out Jesper controlled bullets. He saw the pieces and put them together.

Wylan can understand when things don’t make sense, but he can’t make sense of them—yet when he understands things at their basic level, he understands them without preconception, for what they are. This is a very autistic way of thinking about things, it goes back to the literalism. He can’t make the leaps of logic other people can, but he also doesn’t make the assumptions they do—“I’ve never heard of a bullet Grisha, so that’s not a thing” vs “Well Jesper’s an almost impossibly good shot and he controls metal and bullets are metal, so why not?”

4 - Broken brain/body connection

Wylan’s great at chemistry and drawing and playing flute or piano—but he’s something of a disaster other times. This is in particular contrast to the other characters, all of whom are physically adept. Meanwhile it’s a challenge for Wylan to climb a rope ladder and he spends a full paragraph trying to figure out what to do with his hands. It’s easy to say, well, he’s used to a sedentary lifestyle, but at this point he’s not. He’s worked in the tannery for months. He’s just physically awkward.

I have less to say on this point only because it’s about something I don’t fully understand myself. I don’t really understand what it would be like to have a body that just… does things? Like normal stuff? Without tics and stims. No idea. Only that Wylan’s discomfort in and seeming lack of mastery of his own body feels very relatable to me.

5 - Abuse

One of the most familiar things about Wylan is how he has been so thoroughly abused and broken down that he’s afraid to do or say much of anything. Again, this is a place his background can be an obscuring factor. Of course Wylan didn’t think to blow up the walls when the first met the parem-juiced jurda and got trapped, he’s a spoiled rich kid! Except, he also startled when Jesper said his name later. Wylan didn’t hesitate because he was spoiled, he hesitated because he had no confidence.

He also thinks Kaz would laugh at him for playing music at his mother’s grave. Now, personally, I can’t see Kaz laughing at Wylan—being indifferent, thinking it’s pointless sentimentality, shaking his head, maybe commenting sharply that they need to go if they don’t have the time. But not laughing. Kaz is a snarky, sharp-edged jerk sometimes, but he doesn’t go out of his way to criticize, he just lets people know when they inconvenience him.

Wylan has been trained to identify attention as negative by an overbearing abusive father who literally saw him as less favorable than a demon. Now, that may have been hyperbole, but Jan criticized everything he could about Wylan—art, music, emotion—and made clear that he was worthless and competent to nothing. (Jan Van Eck can suck a rotten donkey dick but that’s neither here nor there.)

A lot of people with autism experience levels of bullying that have similar impacts. Or as the kids these days are calling it: we go to school. We go to school where we are weird. Where we look weird and move weird and talk about weird things and there’s a whole little bevy of asswipes to makes sure we know it. I got teased more for playing Pokemon and sitting alone reading than the kid who pissed himself onstage at assembly. (This was before Pokemon was cool. I’m old.) And that is not unusual for autistic kids. It’s also not unusual for this to be compounded by relatives or even parents who may be trying to help but don’t understand and can make things even harder.

So we can’t read social cues and we’re taught at a vicious age that everything that comes naturally to us is wrong. Imagine trying to interact in society with that background. There is no guide and most advice from neurotypical people isn’t actually what they mean. It breaks you down.

Wylan’s anxiety isn’t definitive of autism, but isn’t something that was incredibly familiar as someone whose neurodivergent experiences created a strong level of anxiety.

6 — High Compassion, Low Social Competence

Wylan isn’t very good at making friends. In fact, none of the Crows likes him much in the beginning, and only some of them soften toward him by the end. (Matthias and Nina come to respect his skills as a chemist but neither seems to particularly like him.) But you can see throughout the books that Wylan wants to connect with them and be one of them, he just… isn’t. He’s off-beat. He’s weird. He asks questions and mimics behaviors (trying to be cool and tough like Jesper, saying “mission” like Matthias does, imitating Kaz’s scheming face) but he doesn’t quite get how to adapt.

But he still cares about people. Not just them. Everyone. He cares about the people they leave in the ditch outside the prison wagon, he cares about Hanna Smeet, he cares about Alys. He cares about the people who’ll take a hit from Kaz’s sugar caper.

Wylan’s awkward social skills have undeniable big autism energy. I posit his compassion does as well. This is simply who Wylan is, and that means being someone who cares about everyone. I have nothing to back up that this is related to autism. I can say that it’s like me. (Not to brag.) I can’t turn off the part of my brain that says everyone matters. Individuals can opt out of that compassion, but they have it by default. There’s a certain agony in feeling a pull toward and love for just about everyone and yet an inability to develop meaningful connections with them, and that keen loneliness… it just burns.

Again, it’s not definitive of autism, but it’s very similar to an autistic experience.

I said in the beginning that I didn’t think Wylan certainly had autism and I stand by that, but he is a powerfully honest reflection of many people who do. So he can be understood to have autism, and that’s part of the reason some people have that headcanon.

[3wisellamas]

SCC Family / Pre-Band Backstory Headcanons?

(May or may not have gone a LITTLE overboard on these.  Because I’m just a sucker for Found Family.  ;v; )

Sweet:

-Sweet has a ridiculously huge family -- tons of siblings, cousins, aunts/uncles, etc.  All of whom are professional musicians, and in fact used to serve as Queen's personal orchestra!  Needless to say, they're ridiculously wealthy, too. -He's also got huge family problems, though.  For starters, his parents were emotionally distant, and EXTREMELY strict, enforcing discipline and demanding perfection of their kids since they were all semi-public figures, and controlling their schedules to the minute -- Sweet had several different music lessons per day!   -He was also pretty heavily restricted on what kinds of music he was allowed to listen to, however he did have one Cool Uncle who would occasionally sneak him rock or pop albums to listen to in secret.  He got caught and had them all confiscated more than once, and definitely got the chip on his shoulder about authority and holding music back from his upbringing. -Eventually he just got sick of it all, openly rebelling against his parents, and teaching himself to play his own style of music rather than his family's, pretty much becoming the black sheep, but it wasn't until he dropped out right in the middle of his first year of music college in order to be a DJ instead that he was officially disowned and kicked out of his home. -That Cool Uncle took pity on him, though, letting him move into an old closed-down junk shop the family still owned and teaching him how to tinker with machines -- if Sweet couldn't get his DJ-ing career off the ground, at least he could have a job and support himself.  And for a long time, that was indeed his main source of income, since his initial plan of being a street musician didn't really pay the bills, though he still kept at it anyway. -After SCC was formed and actually became a moderate success, but before Queen banned music and they went underground, Sweet's parents reached out to him again to try and reconnect.  It...didn't go well, with them being extremely overbearing about every single element of their meeting down to the dress code, and Sweet having a massive panic attack the instant he stepped into his old home.  Thankfully Cap'n and K_K tagged along, though, and were able to get him out of there, get some milk in him, and calm him down.  They still run interference and keep Sweet's family away from him, which he's always grateful for -- while he still occasionally calls the Cool Uncle maybe once a year, the rest of them make Sweet EXTREMELY anxious and uncomfortable. Cap’n:

-Cap'n, ironically enough, has the most loving, supportive, normal family of the trio. -He was an only child, grew up in a suburb of Cyber City on the other side of the Cyber Fields from the junk shop, and though his parents loved him (to the degree it embarrassed the crap out of him!) he was bullied pretty mercilessly as a kid, about everything from wearing glasses to his extra fingers to his height to his (lack of) magical power, meaning he grew up with a bunch of self-esteem issues that he still hides behind his Cool Guy exterior. -He actually ran away from home as a teenager after flirting with the wrong girl, and her boyfriend, one of those bullies, came for Cap'n in a REALLY bad way -- he ended up all the way in the middle of the city, with nothing but the clothes on his back and the CD in his tray, initially too afraid to go home because he thought his life was still in danger, but after a while it became more of a pride thing, too afraid to go home and admit he had failed to make it on his own. -He basically spent the next few years homeless, learning to fend for himself (and having a LOT of close calls along the way!), but for a few months he had no choice but to try and join a gang of other music equipment-based street punks in order to survive, which is where he met and quickly befriended K_K.  The two of them ended up getting sent out on a bunch of less-than-legal jobs, with K_K having to save Cap'n's ass more than once when he got in trouble, and eventually he agreed to leave with them and go back to the streets. -The CD bagels were initially his idea, with K_K making them and Cap'n selling them, and he also just learned to scam people a LOT.  The two of them may have slept in their boxes in an alley every night, but they did always have money for food and new CDs thanks to him. -Eventually they decided to move their bagel-selling operation to one of the busiest streetcorners in Cyber City, which happened to also be claimed by a certain speaker-shaped part-time street musician... -Amazingly, Cap'n successfully reconnected with his family later on, after his parents surprised him at one of their shows -- even grown up and going by a different name, they recognized him immediately, and became SCC's biggest fans, always in the front row cheering for their son and holding up posters with different messages for him, though they still keep a respectful distance otherwise, since they know better than anyone how fragile Cap'n's ego is.  Every now and then they invite the whole band over for some homemade spaghetti code, and let them hide at their house a couple of times when Queen put a little too much pressure on their rebellion.   -They've basically adopted Sweet and K_K as well, and though they still embarrass the crap out of Cap'n he loves them back. K_K:

-K_K, shockingly, has...probably the saddest backstory of all.   -He literally has NO family, and doesn't even remember them, being orphaned at a young age and raised in the system, and was unceremoniously tossed out onto the streets the day he turned 18.  Meeting/hearing about the others' families bothers him a little, even though he tries not to show it -- positivity is just how K_K deals with all the shit he's been through. -After only a couple weeks of trying and failing to find a place for themself, and getting very, very lonely, they ended up with the musical robot gang just...because.  Showed up one day and started sitting the the back of the hideout playing music, and refused to leave.  The gang didn't really mind, since K_K is BIG and scary even if he's always smiling, and even if he wasn't too good at actual Crime they'd drag him along just for intimidation purposes. -When Cap'n joined up, though, the gang got the idea to pair up the scrawny, overconfident new kid with the Thing That Would Not Leave, sending them both out onto the most dangerous missions as a way of either getting rid of both of them, or making them quit.  After bonding very quickly with their first ever Real Friend, as well as having to defend Cap'n in fights and even saving his life a couple of times, they actually proposed the latter:  "You know we're doing illegal stuff, right?  You wanna just go?"  Cap'n agreed, and neither of them ever set foot on the gang's turf again, never having to deal with any retaliation because, hey, K_K's finally gone! -They were the one who actually fought against Sweet when he challenged them for stealing his streetcorner (since Cap'n cowered behind them), and accepted Sweet into their group afterward, and even came up with the name Sweet Cap'n Cakes!   -K_K 100% considers Cap'n and Sweet the only family they've ever really had, and would do anything for them.

[miraculouswolf99]

Forest Wolf Academy Idea

I formed this idea after I read a Miraculous fanfiction where Marinette transferred to a school for magic along with Chloe, Nathaniel, Marc, and her brother. At the school already is Felix and the Quad kids. The magic schools are actually for those that are members of witch covens and you must be a member of the coven to join the school. Luke and Juleka are also witches but in a different cousin. Marinette and the other transfer because of Lila. Adrien soon joins them at the school as well. I also got inspiration from the anime Fairy Tail.

I loved the concept of it so much that it gave me my own idea. My idea if an Adrien-focused story since he is my favorite character and always will be.

My idea started after Miracle Queen. Because of Chloe working with Hawkmoth and because Lila had turned so many of Marinette's friends against her, her parents transferred her to an art school so that she can focus on her designing. The only ones that stayed her friends were Adrien, Nathaniel, Kim, Alix, and Juleka. Outside of the class, she had a lot more friends, but her parents wanted her away from Chloe and Lila.

Adrien's dad still makes him model with Lila despite how Adrien and the staff are always telling him that she is the worst model ever. She never shuts up with her lies, never poses as she is told to do, and is basically also sexually harassing Adrien as well. She drives them all crazy.

But then one day during another photoshoot, Adrien hears some music and is drawn toward it. The music is like a siren song that he does not notice that only he can hear. When he arrives at the source of the song, he finds an old friend of his, Lyon Garden. Lyon and his twin sister Vallia are friends of his that he met in Greece when their family hosted a charity fashion show at their family's nature and animal sanctuary. Adrien had gone there with his parents a year before his mom vanished and he kept in contact with them the entire time.

Lyon and Adrien are happy to see each other, Adrien spilling his guts about everything bad going on. Especially all the things with Lila and Chloe. And Lyon gives him an extraordinary opportunity. The reason why Adrien was able to hear his magical song was because he was magical as well. A fellow witch. So, he was able to offer him a place at his school, Forest Wolf Academy.

The two of them went to Gabriel and he actually let Adrien go to the magic school. It turns out that Adrien's mom had also been a witch and that was why he was allowing Adrien to go so easily. Adrien is more than happy to accept the offer.

When Adrien goes to Forest Wolf Academy, he is amazed to see such an incredible school. Forest Wolf is not the only magic school in the world. Each school is hidden in a pocket dimension where they can be entered in any place in the world through the use of a magical key. But each school still has a main magical doorway in the home of the founder of each school. Forest Wolf's main door is in Athens, Greece.

Adrien only lets his real friends know that he is transferring. He would have told Nino, but he no longer considered him his best friend since he turned against Marinette. But given that magical people can hear Lyon's magical song, there are more teen witches in Paris than Adrien knew about. So, even after he transfers, he is actually soon joined by a lot of his true friends. Luka, Kagami, Nathaniel, Marc, Juleka, Kim, and Alix. And each of them would have their own powers that Lyon and Vallia help them learn to control.

Lyon has siren song magic. He is a real-life siren with the added abilities to control sound and music, not just being able to use his voice as a weapon. Vallia has rainbow aura magic. She is also to surround herself with different color light auras that give her other abilities like how sky blue gives her flight and ruby red helps her shoot fire like a dragon.

Adrien would find out that he has light magic, being able to control all forms of light and even be able to change into it like a human shooting star. Luka would have enchanted instrument magic, being able to do all types of things by playing different instruments while still having his natural ability to hear a person's inner song. Juleka would have a similar ability called music spirit magic, where she is able to turn into magical creature spirits that are hybrids with music like harp playing fairies or werewolf drummers. Kagami would have Requip magic, where she is able to store weapons and armor in a separate dimension that only she can access. Nathaniel would have art-to-reality magic where he is able to bring his drawings to life no matter what they are. Marc would have Fairy Tale magic where he could read from a magical storybook that he has and summon any legendary or mythical creature from it. Kim would have were-beast magic where he is able to turn into any were-creature version of any animal like a werewolf or cat creature. And Alix would have time magic, where she would be able to manipulate time around her while also being able to travel through time on her own.

All of them actually have a great time at Forest Wolf Academy and learn to appreciate and covet their magical lives even if Hawkmoth is still a problem. But he would actually have become less active lately as if he is losing motivation for trying to gain the miraculous.

Vallia would actually gain a crush on Kim and the two of them would eventually start dating. The same would go for Juleka and Alix as well as Luka and Kagami. Nathaniel and Marc would be an already established couple since they are too adorable to break up. Adrien would also find himself gaining a crush on Lyon, something he never expected to have on his old friend.

But, as per all good things, their peace had to come to an end. Magic itself was not hidden, just the people that used it. It was why heroes and villains like Ladybug, Cat Noir, and Hawkmoth all had masks when they used the miraculous.

But, the schools have come under some fire with people thinking that they were secret evil cults that wanted to take over the world. So, they all had to open their doors to people. To politicians, school field trips, and even some tours of powerful world leaders just to show that they were all perfectly normal schools that just happen to teach magic to their witch students.

Only, one of the schools that request to tour Forest Wolf Academy is Dupont High, which puts the new students on edge. Especially Adrien and Juleka because of Lila and Rose. It did not help that Lyon and Alix were very protective of their partners and would hurt anyone that tries to hurt them.

But since they have to keep up appearances as a "normal" magical school, they have to accept the field trip request. Luckily, it is the whole school and not just Bustier's class. So, there are still good students like Aurore, Mireille, and Zoé. It is only Bustier's class that believes Lila, anyway.

Adrien and the others do their best to avoid Lila and her attack dogs. They have their jobs to stop the more temperamental students from attacking the annoying group with how they obviously bully almost everyone around them. Not to mention all of the lies that keep coming out of Lila's mouth that she is related to so many powerful witches, how she is a descendant of Merlin, how her grandparents run the best magic school in the world.

There are a lot of students that wanted her head. Especially since it was known through Adrien and Lyon that she had not heard Lyon's magical song, meaning that she had no magic at all. And since magic was passed down from parent to child, that also meant that no one in her family had magic either. Not unless they were one of those families that had been stripped of their magic for crimes against the magical world.

And if it wasn't Lila causing problems with her lies, Chloe was causing problems with her attitude. And how she kept trying to force the students to do as she says and make them her slaves. Like she would go to those with ice magic and demand that they get her a cold drink. Or she would go to the students with gem and crystal magic and demand that they give her the biggest diamond that they can make.

Once the former Dupont students are found by the group is when things really go downhill. There is a lot of yelling about how they abandoned their friends, that they should not be so jealous of Lila's accomplishments, how they needed to get over themselves, how they needed to stop being bullies. And the group fires back that they can not abandon friends that abandoned them first, that they can not be jealous of accomplishments that never happened, and that they never talk to Lila let alone bully her.

Meanwhile, Adrien is trying hard not to be seen by Lila or Chloe since he does not want either of them hanging off his arm like they usually do. But, Lila soon locks her eyes on him and down try and latch onto him, crying her crocodile tears about how much she missed him and how she wanted him back since he "promised to date her."

That is where Lyon steps in and would be so close to using his sonic scream on the annoying liar. Adrien uses his powers to turn into light and get back to Lyon's side. That is when the two of them go into a big "why Lila sucks" speech and reveals that the two of them were dating and that Adrien would never EVER date Lila.

She is not exposed, but a new demonstration of the more dangerous powers from the students, low key threats against the annoying class, makes them never come back after they leave.

Lila hopes to be akumatized over her rage about not being able to lie her way into dating Adrien, but she does not know that Gabriel gave Marinette the butterfly miraculous and the peacock miraculous already. He gave up once he saw how truly happy his son was and did not want the wish to change his son into any other version of him that would never be this happy. It also helps that a few witches from the school that could heal offered to help him restore his wife.

[professorrw]

All I Want, Remus Lupin Fanfiction

Chapter One

Warnings: eventual smut, death, violence, swearing, age gap, slight angst, major spoilers for Deathly Hallows

It was a week before Bill and Fleur's wedding.

You, Ginny, and Hermione were helping Mrs. Weasley in any way you could. With the wedding fast approaching, her nerves had gotten severely worse. You knew that her knowledge that Ron, Harry, and Hermione would be leaving after the wedding wasn't helping.

Harry had been advised by Dumbledore to tell you their plans as well just in case. If something went wrong or one of them got hurt you would take their place in the mission. If all went according to plan, they would be safe and you wouldn't have to join in. You were completely willing to join them, you wanted to help bring down Voldemort in any way you could.

You had been friend's with the Golden Trio since their first year. You were two years older than them but didn't exactly fit in with your fellow Slytherins even though you were a pureblood. You and your parents were blood traitors. You believed there was no reason to treat Muggle born witches and wizards any differently than half bloods and purebloods. Your parents were not afraid to make their opinions public if it meant helping more people speak out and come together.

You, Ginny, and Hermione were talking on the eve of the wedding when Hermione said, "We're leaving after the wedding." She had started to cry a little, she was having doubts about the success of their plans. Ginny got up and hugged Hermione, "It'll be okay. You guys will come back." You looked over and spoke too, "Hermione, you are bloody brilliant. You are one of the smartest people I know. If anyone could do this it's you three. Hey, maybe while you're gone you can tell Ron how you feel." You giggled, knowing Hermione had been crushing on Ron for a long time. "Oh please. We all know that won't happen," Hermione laughed, "but maybe Harry will finally come to his senses and ask you out again when this is over Ginny." You joined in with Hermione's laughing while Ginny rolled her eyes, "Maybe. What about you, Y/N? All these years and you've never fancied anyone! Unless there's something you're not telling us." You shook your head, "I have nothing to hide. It's simple. No one has caught my interest." Ginny smirked and nodded along like she believed you, "Whatever you say." After some more giggling you all went to sleep.

The next morning you got ready with the girls and headed outside to greet the guests. Among the people that arrived was Remus Lupin. He was your favorite DADA teacher throughout the years. You had always been the closest with him out of all your professors.

He approached you and smiled, "Well hello Y/N, you look lovely."

"As do you! May I take you to your seat?" you grinned back. He held out his arm and you took it, guiding him to his seat, which was near yours. "I suppose you must attend to the other guests but do come find me for a chat later," he said as he sat down.

"Of course. I'll see you then." You went back to the gate ushering in more people with Harry, who had been disguised as one of Ron's cousins. After everyone arrived you took your seats and waited. A moment later, music started playing and all heads turned toward the back. Fleur looked absolutely mesmerizing.

Around an hour later the ceremony had finished and the seats moved to tables, making an opening in the middle for a dance floor. You went across the tent to sit down at a table which occupied Harry, Hermione, Ron and Luna. You chatted with them for a while before finding a waiter and grabbing yourself a butterbeer.

A few tables away you saw Lupin talking with Mr. Weasley and decided to go talk to them. When you nearly reached them everyone's heads had turned at a silvery lynx jumping into the middle of the dance floor. It spoke with the voice of Kingsley, "The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming."

The tent erupted in chaos. Popping and cracking noises began to sound everywhere from people Disaperating. You saw Harry, Hermione, and Ron had Disaperated as well. Not a minute later Death Eaters and Ministry workers began spilling in and grabbing anyone they could get their hands on. Mr. Weasley and Lupin saw you and motioned for you to come to them. "Stay with us Y/N, we will get this sorted out," Mr. Weasley said with a scowl on his face.

After hours of interrogation about information on Harry, the Death Eaters left. You had managed not to tell them anything or give them any bit of detail. Bill and Fleur had left after they were questioned and went to their cottage. Fleur's parents left and the only people still there were you, Lupin, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Fred, George, and Ginny. Mr. Weasley came in from outside, "They are searching all the families connected to Harry, but from what I hear everyone is okay."

"Well why do they suddenly want Harry, what gives them the authority to interrogate these people?" you ask. Mr. Weasley sighed handing over the Daily Prophet. In bold letters was written, "HARRY POTTER WANTED FOR QUESTIONING ON THE DEATH OF ALBUS DUMBLEDORE" You put the paper back down shaking your head, "They must be trying to pin his death on Harry. Obviously they want a reason to take him so You-Know-Who can have him."

Lupin nodded his head in agreement, "I believe so. The Ministry is under his control right now, not directly but he is definitely pulling the strings." You flipped over the Prophet seeing another headline, "MUGGLE-BORNS WANTED FOR QUESTIONING ON FURTHER KNOWLEDGE OF THE SOURCE OF THEIR MAGIC."

"Look at this! They're trying to take in Muggle-borns as well. That means they'll be on the lookout for Hermione too," you sighed leaning your head back. This was not good at all. Although the Death Eaters believed that the goblin upstairs was Ron they would still be on the lookout for Harry and Hermione.

"What are we going to do?" Ginny asked.

Mrs. Weasley stood up, "We will stay safe and protect each other. Right now we are going to be the biggest target for getting information." Her face was stern and serious and everyone knew she meant business.

It had been a few days since the wedding and you had not heard from your parents. You were expecting a letter from them to check up on you but nothing came. George and Fred had gone back to their homes. Lupin said he would stay at the Burrow for the time being. Not only was the Ministry trying to track Muggle-borns but they were trying to track werewolves with magic as well. Ginny had started packing for Hogwarts. You two would talk late into the night about what she would do when she was there. With Dumbledore dead you both assumed that Voldemort's people would take over the school.

Over a week after the wedding, you were eating breakfast at the table when Mr. Weasley ran in, his face filled with sorrow, "Y/N I'm so sorry. Your parents have been killed. They spoke against You-Know-Who in the Quibbler and Greyback was sent to warn them against doing it again. The ministry is saying your parents didn't take it well and attacked him so he was forced to kill them in self defense." Your heart broke at what you had just heard. Your only family had been killed. You couldn't believe it. You knew your parents were proud and wanted to rise against Voldemort but you knew they wouldn't attack anyone they didn't have to. You started sobbing. Lupin had come down the stairs and heard what Arthur told you. He too knew what it was like to have Greyback take something away from you.

[thetorchwoodarchive]

[Image Description: a banner for the Across the Bay Crossover Fics You Didn’t See Coming fest, featuring beach signs on a tropical island, reading “Cardiff by the Sea”, the name of the fest, “authors”, “torchwood” (partially obscured), and “one shots” (partially obscured), and a warning sign where Myfanwy chases a swimmer]

ACROSS THE BAY: CROSSOVER FICS YOU DIDN’T SEE COMING MASTERPOST

Thank you everyone for submitting your crossover and fusion fic  recommendations. Below are all submissions and some of our favorites! 

Is it Insensitive for Me to Say by aliciajazmin (EstherJohnTosh | complete | 2441 | T)

Toshiko Sato and Esther Drummond absolutely will make fun of their boyfriend for deciding to attend an audition, while also attending said audition with him. 

Crossover With: The Outer Worlds 

Golden Apples and Norse Gods (Or How Ianto Got His Groove Back) by blackkat (JackIanto | complete | 1592 | G)

Ianto finds himself back from the dead and, apparently, in the position to double-cross a power-crazed Norse god intent on conquering the Earth by taking out a team of superheroes. Must be a Tuesday.

Crossover With: Avengers/MCU

The Magic of Torchwood by Bella the Strange (JackIanto, IantoJohn, JackOther, Non-Torchwood Ships | wip |  546,512 | T)

The Torchwood team have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Set between Adam and Reset. Rated T because of Jack Harkness, swearing, mature themes, slash etc… it’s Torchwood!

Crossover With: Harry Potter

Welcome to Torchwood by Jackdaw818 (Gen | complete | 1601 | T)

A strange creature behind the Ralphs, a break-in at the Museum of Forbidden Technologies, and visitors in Night Vale. Overall, a slightly unordinary day for Cecil Gershwin Palmer

Crossover With: Welcome to Night Vale

Torchwait for iiiiit by lady-demacabre (Gen | complete | 3k | K+)

When Shawn and Gus are called in on a case for an eccentric collector of alien objects, they get more than what they bargained for. One shot, Psych oriented.

Crossover With: Psych

Theme and Variations by nemo_baker (JackIanto, GwenRhys, OwenKatie | 5817 | T)

Time Agent Jack Harkness is sent back in time to solve the mystery of a mysterious train bombing. The problem is, he only has eight minutes to do it.

Written for Reel Torchwood screening 8 on Livejournal. Movie Prompt: Source Code (2011)

Crossover With: Source Code 

Day Tripper by Croquemboucheballpit (Gement) (JackBessie the Third Doctor’s Car, Bessie the Third Doctor’s CarLightening McQueen (past) | complete | 2360 | M)

Bessie’s like any other companion: far from home, more than she appears, and always up for an adventure.

And Jack Harkness really will seduce anything that moves.

Crossover With: Pixar’s Cars 

An American Volunteer by That_one_kid (SteveBucky, BuckyJackSteve | Complete | 4395 | T)

What if Captain Jack Harkness met Steve & Bucky during the war? What if he ran into them again, present day?

AKA

Captain Jack Harkness and his mission to seduce the two gorgeous, capable soldiers who keep running into him.

Crossover With: Captain America/MCU

Statement #0041708 - Future Sight by Jackdaw816 (Gen | complete | 1690 | T)

Statement of Lisa Hallett regarding a peculiar mirror found at a car boot sale

Crossover With: The Magnus Archives

(Un)Welcome Aboard by Jaune_Chat (Jack | Complete | 4,154 | T)

To make ends meet, Mal listens to a suggestion from Inara than he rent out the other shuttle. She has the perfect candidate, a charming Companion named Jack…

Crossover With: Firefly 

Death and the Definitely-Not-A Maiden by Odsbodkins (JackIanto | Complete | 3,6K | PG-13)

When Jack dies, Death is there to meet him. Every time. Written in 2008 for the Doctor Who Crossover Ficathon. Takes in Torchwood to end S2, Doctor Who to end S3, Discworld to Soul Music.

Crossover With: Discworld 

Remarkable by snowwhiteliar ( JackIanto, IantoLisa | Complete | 20.971 | PG-13)

Summary: Once upon a time, in a small village in a distant province of a peaceful kingdom, there lived a boy called Ianto

Crossover With: Fairy Tales 

Got That Friday Feeling Again by NancyBrown (OwenOther, JackIanto, GwenRhys, GwenOwen | Complete | 18.3K | R)

HELP HELP HELP HELP

I AM TRAPPED IN A TIME BUBBLE

The magic marker all over the nice chintz wallpaper bled and smeared as Owen wrote in increasingly desperate lettering across the walls. Ls and Ps dragged down, wiggly at the end or drawn out in slashed strokes.

He ignored the pounding on the door frame. He’d shoved the wardrobe in front, which always kept Jack out for twenty three and a half minutes. He ignored the sweat and tears and snot dripping down his face, down his mouth. He ignored the high-pitched singing from his own throat, “If you want my future, forget my past,” chanted over and over.

HELP

Crossover With: Groundhog Day

Back, and Back, and Back a Little More (Future Optional) (JackIanto, JennyVastra | Complete |  32591 | M)

Accidentally shot into the past by a time-travelling car, Ianto has to fix his own mistakes or he won't have a future to go back to.

Crossover With: Back to the Future 

Truth, Justice by NancyBrown (SupermanOwen | complete | 414 | M)

The green shit does not work. Warnings: dubcon (AMTDI)

Crossover With: Justice League Unlimited/DCAU/Superman 

Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodies, or, A Humourous Interlude Between Epics by  copperbadge (Gen | complete | 749 | T)

Ianto neglected to introduce himself as he informed the senior staff that Atlantis was now under the jurisdiction of Torchwood, whatever Torchwood is.

Crossover With: Stargate Atlantis 

Never Have I Ever by  st_aurafina (JackIanto, JackDoctor (past/implied), PepperTony (implied) | complete | 1714 | T)

Written for the prompt Ianto, Donna and Pepper end up at a secretaries'/assistants' conference and have a conversation about their bosses.

Crossover With: Ironman/MCU

Beware the Sparkles by elisi (JackIanto, JackEdwardBella | complete | 4793 | T)

It's terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true, the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies, and everybody lives happily ever after. Oh and Jack has sex with sparkly vampires.

Crossover With: Twilight 

The Death Note Discovery by KaibaGirl007 (JackIanto | complete | 18,992 | T)

“You’ve clearly just got a notebook belonging to some geek, a rather sick geek I’ll give you that, who likes to keep note of people’s deaths.” - Will the team resist the urge to use the Death Note or will one of them give into temptation? 

Crossover With: Death Note 

A Confluence of Personalities by  galaxysoup (JackIanto | complete | 4839 | T)

Conner Kent’s body might be dead, but his soul has apparently decided to take the scenic route.

Crossover With: DC Comics/Young Justice Comics 

Imposters Among Us by  gwendolyncooper (JackIanto, GwenRhys | complete | 9117 | M)

The Torchwood team (+Rhys) are out for a night of fun when they end up on a spaceship with no power, no info, and no crew. Known only as THE SKELD, the team tries to fix the ship and figure out what happened to its previous occupants.

But something out there is killing them.

Something that may be someone they know.

Crossover With: Among Us 

Traitors (Among Us) by princessoftheworlds (JackIanto | complete | 440 | G)

In a happy future, the team plays Among Us, and Ianto suffers.

Crossover With: Among US 

Tagline: I saw the VIDEO. Got the CALL? What Next??? by  BricklingGhost (TeamGwenee) (JackIanto, JackSamara | complete | 2424 | Not Rated)

'Tagline: I saw the VIDEO. Got the CALL? What Next???

Bollocks. That’s just a myth. Some git showing off and claiming to be the one person alive who Samara doesn’t bump off. He’ll be boasting that he’s been chosen to kill Voldemort next.'

When another unsuspecting victim falls foul of the cursed tape, he is pointed towards Captain Jack Harkness as his only hope for salvation.

Crossover With: The Ring

(My God, He Just) Came and Went by  Brokenpitchpipe (SteveBucky | complete | 1591 | M)

It starts on a cold, snowy September night in 1916, on the day Winifred Barnes walks to Doris Lindow’s house to see her new telephone and catches the eye of a handsome young man on the other side of the street. He tips his hat as she sees him, and she flushes scarlet and nods in return.

And nine months later, a little baby boy screams his way into the world.

But that’s not when it starts. Not really.

Crossover With: Captain America/MCU

Beast Inside by Flamingbluepanda (JackIanto, OwenTosh, GwenRhys | complete | 26934 | M)

"Argue with anything else, but don’t argue with your own nature.” - Phillip Pullman

Inside us all, there is an animal that expresses our soul. How would the world change were those animals outside?

Crossover With: His Dark Materials

Rifts and Robots by Paycheckgurl (JackIanto | complete | 3021 | G)

Jack and Ianto’s date at the movies is interrupted by two robots with no theater etiquette.

Crossover With: Mystery Science Theater 3000

The Jack and Ianto Show by Paycheckgurl (JackIanto | WIP | 7392 | T)

Jack and Ianto are a regular couple, living a quiet life, and trying to fit into the quaint Village of West Castle. Sure they're keeping the secret that Jack is an immortal time traveler from the future, with a fantastical machine called a vortex manipulator that can manipulate time and space around them, but they have much more pressing concerns. Such as strict bosses and nosy neighbors. Everything is perfect, a dream come true.

And Jack is going to keep it that way.

Please Stand By...

Crossover With: WandaVision 

Mutually Assured Uncooperation by  princessoftheworlds (JackIanto, OwenTosh, MarthaMickey, FitzSimmons, LincolnDaisy (past) | complete | 31547 | T)

Aliens, time-travelling, resurrections. These are all experiences familiar to not just one but two top-secret organizations that have a hard time keeping a low-profile. Figures that they would encounter each other eventually.

Or: the five times that SHIELD and Torchwood had an encounter that neither were pleased with, and the one time they had to work together when two of their own were taken.

Or: There's Kree running amok in Cardiff, including a murdered one, and Torchwood is on the case, but so is SHIELD. Also, don't forget the memory-manipulating aliens there too!

Crossover With: Agents of Shield/MCU

all i know is (infatuations) by  princessoftheworlds (JackIanto, JackJohn,  OwenTosh, LisaIanto | complete | 439 | T)

Seventh-year Slytherin Ianto Jones handles a break up, getting a boyfriend, terrible emotional misunderstandings with his best friend Jack Harkness, being miserable, and reconciliation. (Not precisely in that order.)

Crossover With: Harry Potter

[valhahazred]

Cryptid Mythos bonus! Everything that appears on this sheet is an entity reported by real people. Why no Mythos this time? Because these encounters are so strange in appearance or behavior that they could slip right into the Sothic multiverse with little to no alteration or alternative explanation. Good luck Investigators!

All Colours Sam In 1973, in the town of Sandown, 7 year old “Fay” and an unnamed friend encountered a very strange individual as they explored the fringes of a golf course. They first became aware of something weird going on when they heard a sound like an ambulance siren in the distance. Following the sound to a footbridge over a creek, the two children were confronted by a three fingered hand wearing a blue glove that beckoned them from beneath the bridge. Awaiting them was a seven foot humanoid figure wearing strange clownish clothing, seemingly reinforced with wooden slats that protruded from his sleeves and pant-legs. The figure had a book in his hands, which he immediately fumbled and dropped in the water. He splashed around cartoonishly before recovering his book, leaping out of the creek and away from the children. He moved to a small metal shed with a high-kneed hopping gait and disappeared inside. The children went to leave, only for the mysterious entity to exit again with a microphone that appeared to be the source of the wailing that drew the children in the first place. It spoke into the microphone in a friendly, non-threatening tone. “Are you still here?” The children were curious and unafraid, so they moved towards him. He held up his book and pointed at the words in order to introduce himself. “Hello and I am all colours, Sam”. They asked if he was human and he said no and when asked if he was a ghost he replied, “well, not really but I am in an odd sort of way.” The children asked what he was then and he simply said, “You know.” During their conversation with the entity they learned that although he went by Sam, he didn’t really have a name, he claimed that there were others like him and that he was afraid of humans and that he was a pacifist, refusing to harm others even if they should attack him. He invited them into his hut, where he shared some wildberries and showed them a magic trick, where he placed a berry into his ear and seemingly teleported it to his mask’s eyehole and then to his mouth with quick jerks of his head. They continued to converse for almost an hour before the children decided to leave. Was he an alien in a make-do disguise? An animated scarecrow? A figment of childish imaginations? Or just a strange homeless man dressed like a clown? Whatever the truth, All Colours Sam, also known as the Sandown Ghost Clown, was never seen again. The Crazy Critter of Bald Mountain This weird looking creature was sighted by three people in the week following a fiery object that passed over the Bald Mountain near Newaukum Lake in Washington. When the local Sheriff began an investigation into the sighting he was visited by heavily armed and uniformed men who claimed to be from the Air Force and forced him to give up the case. Old Saybrook Blockheads Mary Starr was awoken in the early morning on December 16, 1957 by a bright light shining into her bedroom. She looked out the window to witness a 30 foot cigar shaped craft hovering over her yard, less than 10 feet from her house! Inside the apparent spaceship she witnessed a pair of small creatures with fleshy skirts and clear cubic “heads” containing a floating red bulb. They raised their right arms and as a third entity appeared in the portholes the ship brightened before shooting off into the sky. Space Brains of Palos Verdes As John Hodges and Pete Rodriguez were leaving a party at two in the morning they were not expecting to meet anything from out of this world but as the car turned on its headlights illuminated two bizarre entities! The men panicked and drove away, ending the story for Rodriguez as he made it home with no complications. However, in Hodges case he next became aware of himself two and a half hours later in the driveway of his home, sitting in the car as if in a trance. Troubled by the missing time, he eventually went for hypnosis in an attempt to recover his memories of the night. While under regression he claimed that while he got his friend home safely, when he returned to his own residence the disembodied brains were waiting for him! He asked them what they wanted and suddenly he was elsewhere, in a dark room with entities that looked like the classic Greys but very tall and with webbed six fingered hands and yellow eyes. They explained that the brains were “merely translators” used in order for these beings to interface telepathically with humans. He claimed they warned him that Earth had “too much power” and showed him a map of the planet covered in lights that indicated places where humans might destroy themselves. They showed him images of dead planets and made several inaccurate prophecies before he suddenly found himself back in his car. Unlike many other abductees with similar experiences Hodges did not try to make excuses for their bunk predictions or feel like it made him important in any way. He simply assumed the aliens were untrustworthy and were playing with him. The Casa Blanca Entities This is one of the strangest and most confusing accounts of a Close Encounter of the Fifth kind, as eight children ranging from the ages of four to fifteen were terrorized by a parade of extraterrestrial monsters one summer day in 1955. It started with an array of UFOs, sun-like, disk-shaped and semi-transparent, appearing and disappearing with musical pings. Then came the entities. First was a ghostly being bearing a shiny belt buckle that was so brilliant it could blind someone looking straight at it. It was followed by disembodied arms in riveted armor that seemed to beckon to the children, small strange men that used dual ray guns to paralyze and finally a many limbed creature. All through this strange arrival something spoke to the children telepathically, offering to take them away. The kids they spoke to often seemed to be entranced, moving to the dancing UFOs mindlessly and required physical force or even being hosed down to snap them out. One child even fell off a roof in an attempt to reach a UFO, only to be protected by a red force field. The weirdest part of all is that not only did adults not see anything, they couldn’t. Despite being present for the event a mother of one of the children was unaware of the paranormal happenings. Does this mean it was all in the children’s heads, as they were overtaken by some kind of playground hysteria? Or is there some alien force that not only wants our children but can make themselves invisible to undesirable observers. The Garson Invaders In 1954 three of these insectoid entities appeared to Canadian miner Ennio La Sarza. Their appearance was already exceptional by the usual standards of reported alien contact but in a particularly striking detail their faces appeared to glow in colours La Sarza had never seen before! The beings asked La Sarza to do something for them but he refused, not only to do it but to even speak of it. It was so awful and “outright apocalyptic” that he even considered asking the RCMP to lock him up in case the creatures he’d met had some way to enforce his cooperation. The Poole Pyramid This multi-hued metallic pyramid appeared in 1965 to seven year old Terrence Druce of Poole in Dorset when he awoke to it hovering over the foot of his bed. He shrieked in terror, waking his younger brother in time for him to also witness it as it faded into thin air. That encounter might have never been recorded if the brothers hadn’t seen it again the very next day, lurking in a parking lot. They said it seemed aware of their presence and turned to watch them but it did not follow them when they decided to flee the scene. Delta Dogs An anonymous woman was driving through a snowstorm on route 07 through Syracuse in January 1958. She came across what at first seemed to be a downed plane but as she approached her engine slowly ran itself down and the car stopped itself. As she desperately tried to restart the car the snowstorm calmed and more details became apparent. Projecting out of the large object she’d thought was a plane crash was a 50 foot illuminated pole. Two strange beings rose up along the pole, floating by it as it started to retract. When the pole finished sinking into the object the creatures disappeared and the craft took off so fast she couldn’t make out where it went. The Electric Serpent of Tacoma This is easily the most unusual sighting of a sea creature that I’ve ever heard of. Seven men camping on the shore of Black Fish Bay in 1893 encountered a sea monster that appeared to be cybernetic, if not entirely biomechanical! Disturbed by a horrible noise and blinding lights the men left their camp to find a huge, hairy walrus-like animal with steaming horns, bands of coppery metal and a revolving propeller-like tail! One of the men approached it to get a better look, only to be struck by an electric blast from its copper bands and fell to the ground as if dead. When one of his friends tried to pull him to safety, he was likewise shocked by the impossible animal. The other men fled into the woods after seeing two of their number seemingly killed and the Electric Serpent seemed to lose interest and swam out into Puget Sound. Once they were sure it was gone the remaining men returned to the beach and were elated to find their friends burned and stunned but still very much alive! So what happened? Was it just one of the sadly common newspaper hoaxes of the time? Or did a bunch of 19th century fishermen find a literal fucking pokemon? You decide! Stickmen The Stickmen are an extremely recent phenomenon, with reports starting within the last 10 years or so. They are described as being stick thin and roughly humanoid, sometimes with bubble heads, glowing eyespots or even top hats. They range in size from human-like to towering in excess of 20 feet. What is most interesting about them is their apparent two dimensionality, sometimes appearing the same no matter what angle they are viewed at and sometimes being able to turn to the side and vanish as though they were never there. They are also frequently reported as being accompanied by a feeling like static electricity and of aggression or hostility. Despite those impressions the Stickmen do not appear to be hostile, instead seeming surprised and immediately retreating from a witness.

[iwillhaveamoonbase]

Are You Receiving Me Clear?

Post-TTM Callum finds a Startouch elf to help him learn where Rayla is.

-----------------

Callum stared at the Startouch elf before him. The woman was ageless and looked at him with eyes that held such wisdom but also a sense of playfulness. Were all Startouch elves like this, he wondered. Lujanne had sent him to Najma to start his quest to find Rayla after he had gone after her. Callum still didn’t understand why she had left him behind, but he couldn’t leave her on her own when there were still people loyal to Viren’s cause out there.

“Are you Najma?” he finally asked. She had gestured him to come in when she had opened her door but they had yet to exchange a word as they had sized each other up.

The woman smiled again, moving her hand to tuck back her white hair that lay under a loose veil. “Yes.” Even her voice portrayed a sense of being far older than even the castle back in Katolis but also as young as a teenager experiencing their first love. “How can I help you, Prince Callum?”

“You…you know who I am?”

“Yes. Word has travelled fast and far of a human prince who can use the Sky arcanum without a primal stone. There has been no one like you in a very, very long time.”

That gave him pause. “Wait, there were others like me? I thought-”

“A handful of select humans were capable of figuring it out before you. I could probably count the number on my hand and I never met them myself.”

“Oh.”

“But that’s not why you are here.” Raising a glass to her lips, she watched him with warm eyes. Callum shifted in the chair she had gestured for him to sit in when he had knocked on her door. “I rarely get visitors, you know. Who sent you?”

“Lujanne.”

“Ah. We met twice. Once when she was starting her mage training and was getting in all kinds of trouble. The second time…well, Lujanne had failed one too many times and was being sentenced to guard the Moon Nexus.”

“I thought,” Callum furrowed his brows and licked his lips, “I thought that it was an honor for talented mages to go guard the Moon Nexus.”

“That’s what they say, but it’s a punishment. There are no other elves around and the Cursed Caldera, until recently, had to be guarded with visions, so little interaction with humans. Also, the only real source of sustenance is grubs.” Putting her chin on her closed fist, Najma observed him for a few moments. “You know how Moonshadow elves put such value on pride, but there’s also a strong element of secrecy and tradition in their culture.”

“Isn’t all of Xadia like that?”

Humming, she nodded her head back and forth. “Yes and no. There’s degrees of it depending on the culture. Tidebounds are more secretive than Sunfires but not as secretive as Moonshadow elves. At least, not intentionally. Startouch elves are more about observing the celestial bodies, science, mathematics, applying it to art and the world around us. Startouch mages have to learn for many years how the universe bends and twists and how to do so to our bidding without breaking the rules of the arcanum. And then there’s time, which doesn’t flow quite as straight as people think it does. It goes backwards and forwards and twists and turns. We cannot control time, but we have to understand it’s place in the universe in order to properly understand the stars.”

Captivated by her words, Callum leaned forward in his chair. “Do you think it’s possible for me to learn?”

“I don’t know. Of the few human mages before you, to my knowledge, they never got star magic. It takes work and theory and it’s a far more applied science than moon magic is, for example.”

“Would you teach me?”

“Is that why you are here?” There was humor in her voice, but also distrust.

“No. My girlfriend, Rayla, is a Moonshadow elf and she left in the middle of the night. We entered the space between life and the other side and she didn’t see people there she thinks were supposed to be. So, she left and only told me she was getting answers. I want to find her.”

“I can do that for you. As for teaching you Startouch magic, I don’t know. We can certainly try, but you will need to study quite a bit before we even attempt star magic.”

“How will you help me find her?”

“I cannot give you an exact location, but I can give you a projection of her by calling on the stars. If your connection is strong enough, as long as you focus on her, you should be able to see her and get a rough idea of where she is. If she is connected to you, she might be able to see you.”

“So, it’s like my body is moving towards her?”

“No, a projection of you. Your body and your spirit will not be moving anywhere.”

“OK. What do we do?”

“Just focus on her. Let me do the rest. Come with me.” Callum followed Najma to a round, empty room. “Focus, Prince Callum.”

“You can just call me Callum. Please.”

She smiled, the twinkle that was ever present became stronger. “Alright. Callum. Focus on Rayla, on your relationship, the good and the bad. Also, don’t be too shocked by what you see.” Callum emptied his mind of everything except Rayla; her smile, her laughter, how crazy she drove him, but also how much he loved her.

He heard Draconic coming from Najma, eyes growing wide as the center of the room grew a bright dot before expanding out. Suddenly, what looked like dust was moving around before swirling and forming spheres of light and colors he would never have guessed were in the sky above him. He heard music, something that sounded like an old instrument he couldn’t place and another he had never even heard before, but in a rhythm he both recognized and knew he had never heard before.

Najma was doing nothing but holding out her hands and watching him. Callum tried to keep his mind focused on Rayla, but the longer time passed, the more he realized he was watching the birth of the universe occur in front of his eyes. The spheres moved and expanded all over the room. Finally, a small blue and green sphere was in front of him. An image about as large as a mirror came forward, cloudy with wavy edges.

There was a forest before zooming forward and he saw her: Rayla. She was leaning on a tree with her arms crossed, glaring at the ground. A hand was on her shoulder, attached to a muscular arm, and what looked like a masculine shape. Callum bit his lip, but stamped down the jealousy welling in his stomach. There were other figures present, off to the side, and Callum could not deny that there was comfort in knowing Rayla wasn’t alone. If she had help with whatever she was trying to find, maybe it would help guarantee she would come back to him.

He felt a breeze ruffle his hair and his lips parted, holding his hand out as he whispered Rayla’s name. To his shock, she looked up. Those lavender eyes he loved so much went wide and he knew she saw him even though no one else in her group seemed to notice. He could see her mouth his name and her hand slowly lifting up to him, as if to grasp his own. Before she could, the image faded and Callum was left with the universe in miniature around him. The projection continued to expand before he saw the spheres exploding and eventually, everything went dim. “That was…incredible,” he whispered.

“I’m assuming you know what that was.”

“The life of the universe.”

“Very good. As I said, Startouch mages can bend and twist the space and magic that the stars give us, but we also have to understand time and space. All things are made up of star stuff, so we can give you visions of the here and now, but we cannot teleport you to someone’s side or even show you visions of the futre. There are limitations. Do you know where she is?”

“Xadia, for sure. I think she’s in Earthblood territory.”

“Will you go after her?”

Callum paused, looking at Najma before looking at his hands. He could have a chance to at least learn about the star arcanum even if he never was able to use star magic and he now knew Rayla was safe. Ezran and Soren had promised him that if they needed him back home, they would contact Lujanne and she would find a way to contact him. “I…I want to be with Rayla, but if she really thinks she needs to do this without me, at least I know she isn’t alone now. I want to learn from you, Najma. Please, teach me about the star arcanum.”

“What if you can’t use star magic?”

“At least I’ll have learned more about magic and the universe we live in.”

“Hmm.” She regarded him for a few moments before finally nodding her head. “I’ll give you a trial period of two weeks. If I don’t like how you act or if you don’t listen to me, I’m kicking you out.”

“Deal.”

--------------------------------

Rayla ignored Liam as he continued trying to flirt with her, focusing on her internal crisis. She had seen a vision of Callum and she knew it had not been her mind playing tricks on her or any of her compatriots. They didn’t know what Callum looked like and none of them were Moonshadow elves. She had come across a band of two Skywing elves and three Sunfire elves a few weeks ago and had joined them on their quest after they promised to help her find Viren. They didn’t know she was the Moonshadow elf that was now famously engaged in courtship with a human prince or that she had been at the Spire. They didn’t ask questions as long as she didn’t ask any either.

‘I promise, I will find a way back to you,’ she whispered in her mind to Callum, wherever he was. ‘Just give me time. I have to do this, for me, for my family, for us. I love you, My Heart, and I am sorry I left you. Please, be safe.’

------------------

If you can guess the song the title is a reference to, I would be amazed. When that particular lyric is used, that's roughly what I think Callum was hearing in the projection.

This fic also has my personal theories on why Lujanne is solo in guarding the Moon Nexus and how Startouch magic works. I believe that Startouch elves are based on the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula who advanced math and astronomy and their magic involves understanding science and how stars work.

[bruh-haikyuu]

REQUEST: Can you do a scenario where lev meets his s/o because she playing the piano or singing. Thank you. Love your writing.❤️

A/N: Thank you for requesting!! Ok Sasha storytime 😳😳 I used to be in a piano class since I was 5 (I quit, but I still play just for fun). And I joined this competition when I was 9 and got selected as one of the finalists - and I was so fucking surprised bc jesus, I play averagely for all I can say... I’m not the best, but I’m definitely not the worst. But there was this messed up system where more familiar faces/winners would definitely be chosen. And despite some other kids messing up a lot, the MCs removed me first bc “Sorry, no one knows you around here. You played better than some others, but maybe if you talked more, you could win. No one really wants a winner they’re not familiar with.” I couldn’t really say anything. I knew they were right. So I left with a Certificate of Participation and not even proof that the judges chose me as a finalist. THIS particular event got me so fucked up for so long that I tried to get myself sick/injured so that I wouldn’t have to go to my piano classes for 4 weeks straight. Eventually, I pulled out after my exam and started playing for myself, with the songs that I enjoy, whenever I want. So,,, fuck those MCs and my teacher, I’m a bad bitch you can’t kill me 😎 *plays Superbass by Nicki Minaj* FEM!READER BELOW

duende. | haiba lev

summary: in which lev has no sense of direction, but finds a lone sugarplum fairy along the way.

word count: 2438

warnings: none

(n.) the feeling of profound awe experienced when viewing a piece of art, watching a performance or listening to music that has deeply moved a person

It’s difficult to tell precisely... but Lev was definitely lost.

It wasn’t his fault the school had to be so large! What’s the point of having so much staircases when they weren’t going to lead to one conjoined hallway? It was like a maze, except Lev knew he wasn’t getting anywhere near a familiar area.

Crap! he cursed, pawing nervously at his empty pant pocket. I left my phone in the clubroom.

Light was already fading from the west-side window and he hadn’t come across anyone for the past 15 minutes. He recalled something Taketora said about a part of the school being dead deserted. Was this that place? He couldn’t tell.

He was getting impatient. If Lev didn’t hurry up and submit his additional worksheets to Sakamatsu-sensei before sundown, it was over. Goodbye to the club’s training camp. Goodbye to becoming the greatest ace Nekoma has ever had. Goodbye to everything he ever cared about.

Instinct taking over, he ran as fast as his legs could carry him and called out to the empty hallways for someone. Anyone. “Hello?! Sakamatsu-sensei...?!”

And when the vacant corridors replied back to him, Lev stilled, frozen.

“...Piano?”

Alisa had told him something about ghosts once. It was right after she’d gone out to watch some horror movie with her friends. Lev couldn’t remember exactly her words, but his sister had “slept” with her eyes open that night and he wondered if he should be taking her advice seriously.

But this didn’t sound like a ghost. Something that sounded so beautiful wouldn’t have any murderous intention behind it... right?

The melody reminded Lev of those old ballets his grandmother would play on TV when she visited. Every glissando a delicate spin by one of the performers, and every perky note a tiny leap. He could almost see them, those beautiful dancers, and Lev wondered—if he were to trace the music to its source, would he find a charming sugarplum fairy waiting for him?

His feet were already ahead of his thoughts. Lev couldn’t even tell where he was in the gallery of clubrooms. His senses of direction numbed, he relied on his ears and the sweet, sweet melody of the piano that was getting warmer. And warmer. Warmer.

Hot.

“Or...chestra Club?” he read out, the placard’s kanji wrapping itself around his head. Peering through the rectangular window of the doors, Lev zeroed in on the bareness of the room, save for the large grand piano settled in the center.

This is the place... right? he thought, retreating slowly. No one’s here.

Looking around for good measure, Lev scratched his head. Ah, geez, I don’t even know where I am anymore. He reconsidered throwing away his curiosity and return to his quest for the third year’s Teacher’s Room before his Biology teacher could scold him for his incompetence. But the little fluff of hair peeking out from behind the piano swayed him over and he didn’t even stop to think when he barged through the doors.

“Fairy!”

The girl who squeaked in shock really did convince Lev for a millisecond that she was a fairy. Straight out of that stage his TV had replayed for him. Tiny in stature, eyes shining like morning dewdrops and fingers pressed again the white keys, thin and graceful as if you were producing magic. All excluding the lack of a pair of shimmering wings sprouted on her back, you were an enigma in this barren universe.

“I’m human,” you said, voice like air. Breezing and pushing like wind.

Lev approached the center of the room, speculating if your glamour would disappear if he were to come closer. “T-That song you played. That was from a ballet, right?”

“It’s Tchaikovsky,” you replied bluntly, grinning. “I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before, can’t recall... We’re not too familiar, but you’re awfully rude for a first year, aren’t you? At least address me with the proper suffixes if you’re going to assume my species like that, Giant-kun.”

Speak for yourself! he thought, becoming more and more amused by this fanciful person. “I mean, you don’t look like a high school student either—”

You, completely ignoring him, returned your attention the piano, playing another song. This one faster, more fluid. Seeing your hands up-close, Lev eyed the muted details of your hand. A gentle blush on its skin, illuminated by the sunlight from the large window sitting ajar. His sister would kill to have a hint at your manicure routine.

So this is what a pianist’s hands looks like.

“Oh, I remember now,” hands coming to a rest on your skirt, the fairy girl turned to him, as elegant as ever. Now that the room was silent, there was a nervousness that lingered in the air. “You’re one of Kuroo’s boys, aren’t you?”

Hearing the familiar name of the no-nonsense captain of the Volleyball Club, Lev perked up, “You know Kuroo-san?”

“Of course, we’re in the same class after all.”

Same class. That would mean—no way!

“Y-you’re older than me?!”

You gave him a bright smile. Added to your fairy-like personage, Lev couldn’t help but to notice that this upperclassman of his was aware of his existence. There was actually a girl—who was awfully cute and just his type if he thought about it—in this godforsaken school who knew about Nekoma’s ‘ace’, Haiba Lev.

This was a dream, right? No, he shouldn’t be saying such a thing. In fact, Lev had gotten so engrossed in this reality that he didn’t realize how much he was staring into your beautiful face before you piped up again.

“Oh, it’s almost time for me to lock up. I forgot to ask, did you need anything when you came in here?”

Wait, what time is it?!

Lev let out a strangled noise between a dying boar and a tearful sob. Collapsing on the floor before his worried senpai, he squeezed the papers in his hand. Oh, it was over now. Over, over, over. Hello wretched make-up exam, goodbye glorious training camp...

Kneeling down next to him, you peeked at his wincing face. “H-hey, are you okay? Is there anything I can do to help?”

Raising his head to look into your swirling eyes, Lev pursed his lips. Damn, you were totally going to think he was uncool after this. Grabbing you by the shoulders, he lowered his head in a bow.

“Senpai, could you show me the way to the third year’s teacher’s room? I’ve got an assignment to submit before 5 pm and I don’t know where I am! Please, senpai, I need to—”

No more words were exchanged when you grabbed Lev’s collosal hands in your delicate ones and dragged him through the door. You sped and hurtled down the corridors, bringing him along with you in this strange joyride. It was a funny sensation, similar to being towed around a park by a wild dog on a leash—except you weren’t a dog, but simply a shorter person whose size reminded him a bit of Yaku-san...

“S-Senpai—?!” he wheezed out, long legs pedalling in front of him. For someone nearly half his height, you were really fast; he wondered if you should’ve went for the Track and Field Club instead of the Orchestra Club.

Just as he had thought of letting go before you became a physical hazard to him, you skid to a halt in front of a door. Panting, you smiled up at him. “Here we are. Y-You’re not late, right?”

Eyes darting between the doors to the teacher’s office and you, the burning intention of a hug fuzzed out Lev’s brain—unfortunately, that would have to wait until later. Shoving the door open, he dashed inside the near-empty office and handed over his pile of crumpled assignments to the jaded Sakamatsu-sensei, face red.

Filing through the papers, the Biology teacher griped. “Well, all the assignments I asked for you to do are here... I’ll inform the Volleyball Club supervisor that you’ll be able to join the training camp this weekend.”

Saved. He was saved.

Exiting the office, he bowed before you—his fairy godmother—and murmured. “Thank you, senpai! You saved my life... ”

“Y-You’re welcome,” you said. “But I don’t think I went as far as “saving your life”, um... what was your name?”

“Haiba! Haiba Lev. Thank you so much!”

When you giggled, Lev heard the choirs of angels fill his head. God, he really wanted to hug you, stuff you in his pocket and bring you home with him to coo at and cuddle.

“The pleasure is mine, Haiba-kun. You’re an interesting person, you know? I’m glad we met.”

Lev really felt like he’d won the lottery. Was this finally his chance? Was he going to get a super cute, older girlfriend before his intolerable seniors? Unthinkable! Yet here he was, indulging in the soft smile of Nekoma’s resident sugarplum fairy, as if his entire gag reel of clumsy flukes never existed.

“Ah! I forgot to lock the doors to the clubroom!” you yelped. Even in panic, Lev thought you looked cute. “It was nice getting to know you, Haiba-kun. The main staircase is right over there, so you’ll be able to get back without getting lost. Be safe!”

Before he could offer his hand in accompanying you—at least being next to you for as long as possible—you had already sped off into an indistinct corner, the amber light of sundown fading with your shadow. And once again, Lev was alone.

Damn. He didn’t even ask for your name.

══════ ⋆★⋆ ══════

“You’re asking me... if I know a girl in my class called ‘Fairy-senpai’?”

The gaze in Lev’s green eyes were resolute. “Yes.”

Kuroo sighed, wiping off his sweat with a towel. Day by day, he swore, the first-years were getting more and more difficult to deal with. “Someone named Fairy who hangs around in that derelict part of the third floor sounds shady as hell. And what club did you say she was from?”

“Orchestra Club.”

“We have an Orchestra Club?”

Lev was getting nowhere with the rooster-headed captain; it was either that, or Kuroo was intentionally leading him to a dead-end out of sheer mischief. Anything could happen with him.

It had been a total of 18 hours since he’d last seen you, and Lev’s head had never felt any emptier. He’d startled his parents and Alisa enough by playing one of his grandmother’s ballet DVDs once he’d arrived home. But it wasn’t the same. Even the visual movements of the ballerinas and the skill of the ensemble didn’t amount to your solo rendition.

Yours was more natural, more sturdy. Something he could feel and see without opening his eyes or reaching out to it. Smitten with your performance, Lev slept that night, head filled with the thought of seeing you again, his little sugarplum fairy in the maze of doors and desolation. And maybe, he’d even get your number this time.

“She’s really good at the piano and has a twinkly smile. Fairy-senpai is a bit short too, really tiny,” Lev hesitated to continue, looking around for safety “... A bit like Yaku-san’s height.”

“What’s this I hear about my height? Hey, Lev! Why aren’t you practicing your digging receives?!”

Wincing at the stinging kick thrown at his back, Lev pouted miserably. Watching the poor behemoth being dragged away by the demonic upperclassman, an implausible feeling of pity struck through Kuroo, and he called out for the libero.

“A cute girl who looks like a fairy, can play the piano and is in the Orchestra Club? In our class?” Yaku repeated after Lev and Kuroo’s explanation. Tapping his chin in deep thought, he replied dubiously. “Doesn’t that sound a bit like L/N-san to you?”

“Ehh? L/N-chan can play the piano? I never knew that.”

Yaku clicked his tongue indignantly. “That’s because you barely talk to her. Maybe if you attended cleaning duty properly, you would’ve realized that when you’re paired up with her.”

The sound of his seniors bickering was already white noise to him. L/N. Repeating the syllables on his tongue, Lev tasted a sugary relish linger in his mouth. What a beautiful name. A fitting name, and suddenly, he already sensed that your first name would be just as wonderful.

“Though I’m impressed that you managed to get a full conversation out of L/N-san. Did you scare her or something?” Yaku snickered at Lev’s unappreciative scowl. “It’s just that L/N-san only says something when she’s required to. Otherwise... she’s really quiet. I’ve only heard her say ‘thank you’, ‘I’m sorry’, ‘yes’ and ‘no’ for the past three years, everything else we know about her comes from gossip.”

Lev’s chest swelled up and he smirked. “Maybe she likes younger guys like me.”

“I think she likes you because you’ve got nothing going on in your head at all,” the team captain scoffed attracting the giggles of his surrounding teammates. “You are right though, Lev. L/N-chan is a really cute person... I might get interested one of these days.”

“H-Huh?! C’mon, Kuroo-san! I’ve got dibs on her first!”

Nearly there, the captain thought. Lev’s ears were already burning red, a clear sign of his impulsive outburst. And when the timing was right, the Volleyball Club loved to use his recklessness for profit.

Crossing his arms in faux doubt, Kuroo shrugged. “I don’t know... I highly doubt you’ll attract her attention if you’re not even a regular on the team...”

Furrowing his brows deeply, Lev snatched a ball from the ground and stared deeply into the captain’s lacklustre eyes. “I-I’ll show you! I’ll become a regular on the team and the ace! That’s why I’m going to go practice right now, right, Yaku-san?!”

Even Yaku, completely amused and alarmed, had to do a double take. “R-Right... Do your best then.”

“I will!”

Chuckling at Lev’s shrinking back, Kuroo patted himself on the back for a job well done. Kenma, who had watched the entire nasty exchange go down, was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Weakly punching his childhood friend on his shoulder, he grumbled. “Great... Now that he’s fired up about some girl, he’ll keep asking me for more tosses. Kuroo, if I pass out because of your ‘encouragement’, you’re paying for my health insurance.”

Lev couldn’t hear the new conversation happening between the team’s setter and the captain, but that didn’t matter right now. He was going to practice, become better, then the best. Then ask you out, his sugarplum fairy in the third floor’s Orchestra Club clubroom. Lev felt invincible.

[kittyprincessofcats]

She-Ra S5 E05 - Save the Cat

ARE YOU READY TO HEAR MY THOUGHTS ON THE BEST SHE-RA EPISODE EVER? SO AM I!

Sorry this took so long. I was pretty nervous to talk about this episode, to be honest, because I love it so much and was scared I’d forget something or wouldn’t do it justice. Don’t know if I still need to say this at this point (since it’s been so long), but there will be spoilers for the rest of the season in this post!

- First of all, and I’ve already talked about this in my review of Stranded, but I need to say it again: Just the premise that Adora is going back to save Catra from Horde Prime really makes their story come full circle: Back in the pilot, Adora left the Horde without Catra, and Catra has been accusing her of “leaving her behind” ever since. In Catra’s mind, Adora leaving the Horde meant that Adora didn’t care about her, and it’s been a huge source of grief and bitterness for her. And now, so many seasons later, even after Catra has hurt so many people, even after she’s asked Adora not to come for her, Adora is literally walking up to Horde Prime himself (way more dangerous than Hordak’s version of the Horde) and endangering her mission and the entire world because she doesn’t want to leave Catra behind again. Because Catra means that much to her. It’s such good storytelling! If Corridors was what started Catra’s redemption, then I think Save the Cat is what redeemed Adora in Catra’s eyes (or at least, what made her understand that Adora does care about her).

- I love how determined Adora looks in that beginning shot. That’s the look of a girl about to go save her gf!

- I thought it was a bit strange that the clones didn’t notice that Adora’s talking to the others on her way to Prime, but since Prime later reveals he knows her friends are there, they probably actually did notice and just didn’t say anything.

- I wish they’d kept that scene of Glimmer having a more elaborate flashback, but I get that they just didn’t have the time for it.

- I love how Entrapta just goes *heart eyes* at the many clones. And Bow asking if they’d believe they’re the inspectors 😂 - great way to bring back that gag.

- “You would never risk the safety of your Catra.” PRIME SHIPS IT. No, seriously though - Prime says he “sees all” (and we know he’s seen Catra’s thoughts) and he said “your” Catra. This, and some other lines in this episode, made me realize it would be canon. (Also, fun fact, because I watched some bits of this show in other languages for fun: As awful as the French dub is for changing that “Kyle had a crush on Rogelio” line to “Catra had a crush on Rogelio”, in this instant they did really well: In French, Prime goes a step further and says “your precious Catra” instead of just “your Catra”.)

- The way Prime touches his clones is so creepy.

- Entrapta asking Wrong Hordak (thinking he’s Hordak) if he recognizes her made me so emotional. I wasn’t even that into Entrapdak back in s2/s3, but the way their relationship was written in season 5 really made me ship it. It’s about the PINING, the LONGING, the TRAGEDY, the way his memories of her make him overcome two mindwipes... I’m here for it!

- I always wonder if it hurts Entrapta when someone grabs her by the hair. Since her hair is magical and all that.

- “We’re not keeping him.” “But we broke him! We’re responsible for him now.” Okay, I love Wrong Hordak. I love how Bow talks about ‘keeping’ him as if he was a pet. And I also like how Entrapta immediately realizes how useful having him around could be. Also, I love that they name him “Wrong Hordak” and seriously just keep calling him that. 😂

- “I don’t fight for the first ones. I fight for my home, for myself and for my friends.” I honestly really like that the show never showed us the first ones or Adora’s birth family. Not that it would necessarily be a bad thing, but I like the message that it doesn’t really matter where she came from - Etheria is her home and what she’s fighting for and that’s enough.

- “Of course, your Catra.” He said it again!

- “She hoped you would come for her, poor thing.” Oh, the angst is real, I love it! Just thinking about Catra (who’d told Adora to stay away) eventually getting so scared that she started to wish Adora would come for her after all... I love angsty stuff like this.

- Oh, that first look of Catra with the gelled back hair and green eyes is so properly creepy.

- When Wrong Hordak complained about the ship being designed “so that it may only be navigated by one who access to the hivemind” it reminded me of Entrapta’s castle that only she can navigate. I think some people have pointed out before that Entrapta and Horde Prime are foils to each other (especially when it comes to Hordak), so that’s a really nice parallel there.

- How did Glimmer manage to open that door when she’s running from the clones? I thought only the clones could open them? Is that a mistake, or is there some canon explanation?

- “What did you do to her?” Oh, I love it when Adora’s so worried about Catra. These two and how cute they are will be the death of me.

- Oh, Prime’s so creepy when he touches Catra... I love him as a villain, but I love to hate him, you know?

- “My place is with Horde Prime, Adora. I don’t want to leave.” Can we talk about the parallel between this line, and Catra insisting back in season 1 (in Promise, I think) that she doesn’t want to leave the Horde?

- “You broke my heart.” I mean, come on! That’s gay!

- Catra and Adora’s fight is so tragic because it’s the first time they’re fighting but both genuinely don’t want to hurt each other.

- “I’m not leaving without you.” Exactly what Catra wanted to hear from Adora back in The Sword Part 2 - You know what I said in the beginning of this post about their story coming full circle?

- “I don’t wanna hurt you!” “But you have already hurt me.” This is supreme lesbian drama, and it’s so good! (I’ve been waiting so long for a show to give a lesbian romance this kind of attention!)

- Adora’s terrified expression when Catra almost lets herself fall is so painful. And the way she hugs Catra afterwards... my heart.

- Catra and Horde Prime talking together is creepy in just the right way.

- “I always hated that guy in particular.” Hell yes, Glimmer!

- “She was afraid in the end. And she suffered. Perhaps I will make her my new vessel, though she would not last me long.” Oh, the angst hurts so good, I love it! (Why do I love seeing my faves suffer?) Also, this slicked back hairstyle on Catra looks kind of amazing.

- “Why did you come back? We both know I don’t matter.” “You matter to me.” 😭😭😭😭😭😭 Yes, tell her, Adora! Tell her you care! Don’t let her talk herself down like that!

- “Come on, Catra! You’ve never listened to anyone in your life. Are you really going to start now?” I love how this is what gets through to her. I could also just quote the entire dialogue from here because everything about it is pure perfection:

Catra: “You’re such an idiot.”

Adora: [smiling and crying] “Yeah. I know.”

Catra: [laughs]

Adora: “I’m going to take you home.”

Catra: “Promise?”

Adora: “I promise.”

Catra: “Adora...”

I mean, what do I even say to that? Catra affectionately calling Adora an idiot, the callback to Promise, how Adora doesn’t hesitate to say “I promise”, how Catra breaks free of Prime’s control... it’s all so perfect. 😭

- Adora just not hesitating to jump after Catra - that’s love, holy shit!

- God, Aimee’s voice acting when Adora cradles Catra... so good. (And that’s their childhood theme playing in the background.) Didn’t Aimee (or someone else?) say on Twitter that that was intentional since your most vulnerable moments make you feel like a child again, or something like that?

- Adora’s transformation into She-Ra gives me chills every single time. Best scene in the entire show, don’t @ me (or at least second best after the kiss). The way she cradles Catra’s lifeless body, Horde Prime’s taunting words, and then she opens those glowing eyes... amazing. And what makes it even better is that this is her first proper transformation after breaking the sword. We got a tease of it in Stranded, but this is when She-Ra really comes back, and it’s her love for Catra that enables her to transform. PERFECTION.

- “You miscalculated.” Yeah, you miscalculated how gay she is.

- Entrapta whistling Darla over like a dog is amazing. 😂

- Adora carrying Catra bridal style while that epic music plays... I’m living!

- Also, side-note: Adora’s new She-Ra look is SO MUCH BETTER than the old one! She also seems a lot stronger now - look at that fancy stuff she can do with the new sword! (I like the idea that the Sword of Protection was only holding her true power back.)

- That healing scene! Adora’s healed people before, but it’s never looked this gay. And Catra waking up and saying “Hey Adora” is just so fitting.

- That hug... I’m not crying, you’re crying. They’re finally together! And Catra’s clinging to Adora so tightly! 😭 Also, she’s purring! (When I first watched this ep with my sisters, one of them literally went “Finally!” at this moment - mood.)

- Hordak finding the LUVD-Crystal and saying Entrapta’s name also gives me chills. I also just realized that he thought Entrapta was dead until this moment - holy hell!

- One more thing I love about this episode is that their plan to save Catra actually worked. Because it’s a plan that seems so stupid and risky at first, and while you’re watching you kind of expect it to go completely wrong and expect Horde Prime to catch them... and then it seems like he does, only for Adora and her friends to turn things around and succeed. I love that.

- Another thing worth pointing out is the whole symbolism of Catra’s death and rebirth and how it marks the beginning of a new chapter in her life.

So yeah, this is the best She-Ra episode ever, I rest my case. Before I watched season 5, I expected it to be gay (I even estimated the chances of Catradora becoming canon at around 70%), but I didn’t expect it to be THIS gay. This episode went beyond my wildest dreams and expectations. Horde Prime saying “your Catra” twice, that whole “You broke my heart / Prime has set me free of that pain” talk, Adora being so scared for Catra during their fight and so determined to save her, the whole “I’m going to take you home / I promise” part, Adora jumping after Catra and cradling her in her arms, her love for Catra bringing back She-Ra, the bridal carry, the healing scene, the hug, and I could go on. Noelle said on twitter that there were two versions of this episode and the gay version is what we ended up getting - AND IT SHOWS.

This is when I knew for sure that Catradora was going to be canon. Before season 5, I gave it a chance of 70%. After those little hints in the first few episodes, I said 80%. But after Save the Cat, I was 100% sure. I basically already considered it canon after this. I kept wondering how it would happen, but the "if" wasn’t a question to me anymore - so I decided to just lean back and enjoy the ride through the rest of the season :)

[Previous episode]  [Next episode]

[quickspinner]

Sneak Peek - The Magic of You

This is pretty rough because I’m still in the middle of writing it and I’m only posting it so I can say @bloody-no-kissu​ here’s a preview of your Secret Santa fic! Sorry it’s taking so long but the story got away from me, so this is really only a snippet. 

Bloody asked for fantasy AUs but we all know how much she likes Nagas so I decided to go that route, just...a little differently. Love to @verfound and @motherofwoofers; there’s echoes of Winters and Heart Scales here but it was less that I was inspired by you guys (though you are always inspiring) and more that I had this idea and then was like ‘how do I do this without completely ripping off Ver and MW’) 😆 So there’s probably some similarities but hopefully I’m not stepping on your toes too much. 💜

Anyway, I present this chunk from the middle of the beginning without context, and  you’ll have to wait to see the rest. MWAHAHAHAHA.

He seemed restless today. He didn’t sit on her rock and play. He picked up the little cake she had left for him, but merely set it down again, dropped his pack and his instrument in a pile next to the rock, and walked restlessly around the meadow.

Marinette drew back in alarm when he passed close to the trees concealing her, but he passed her without even looking in her direction, clearly agitated. Frowning, Marinette followed him at a safe distance, keeping hidden in the trees. The minstrel-mage passed the ring of trees that marked the edge of her meadow and over to the cliff beyond, where he stood, looking pensively out over the forest below. 

He shouldn’t walk so close to the cliff, Marinette fretted as she watched from the edge of the trees. It was hard to tell from this side but that overhang wasn’t as sturdy as it looked, and it had rained only a few days ago— 

Even as she thought it, she felt the vibration in the earth, and heard the grinding of earth and loose rocks.

She didn’t even think. She just moved.

***

It all happened so fast that it was over before Luka understood what was happening. There was a rumble and a rush and he was falling, and then excruciating pain in his arm that tore a scream of agony from his throat. 

There was a rush of earth past him, below him, and his legs were dangling in midair; he was dangling, hanging only by the arm that hurt so very, very much. Luka looked up—and for a moment he forgot everything else in his shock. Everything else that happened was a blur, but he would remember the face above him for the rest of his life, he was sure. A woman’s face, pale with fear, fangs peeking from parted lips and blue, slit-pupiled eyes wide with fright. Midnight blue hair tumbled forward over strong shoulders, and one clawed hand gripped the edge of the cliff. 

The other, he realized, was the source of the pain in his arm. Understanding came to him; the cliff had given way beneath him and this woman—creature—being had stopped him from falling, but her long claws had plunged into his wrist. Blood streamed down his arm and dripped on the rocks below. Luka gasped as he looked down. His good hand scrabbled at the cliffside, but he had no claws to grip with, and his fingers crumbled the earth and slid off the rock where he grabbed at it. He kicked his feet, but that made his savior yelp, increased the pain in his arm, and he didn’t find any purchase, so he stilled, gasping and dizzy from the pain.  

Luka cried out in pain and surprise when the grip on his wrist tightened, but he bit down on it as he looked back up. The woman—creature—being above him shifted her body a little more, bracing her free arm on an intact part of the cliff, and then heaved, pulling back from the cliff edge and dragging Luka along with her.

It hurt—oh, it hurt, so much that his vision went black for a moment—but Luka was enough in possession of his senses now to realize that he was dangling over a drop that would surely kill him, so he muffled his cries as best he could, and tried not to thrash too much. 

It felt like an eternity before she pulled him up high enough that he could see over the cliff and grab (uselessly) at the grassy top. He almost slipped off again in surprise when he got a full look at his savior. It had been obvious even in his confused state that she was not human, but he was unprepared to find that somewhere around her waist, her human torso tapered into the body of a gigantic serpent. Naga, some part of his brain supplied. No, female, so...nagi. 

She pulled him up a little farther, and when his shoulders had cleared the top of the cliff, she curled a loop of her tail—body? Around in front of him. “Hold on to me,” she told him, indicating that he should wrap his arms around her serpent body. He did so, clumsily and not very effectively with his wounded arm, but it was enough to keep him secure while she leaned down over the cliff edge again and grabbed his belt on either side of his waist with both hands, using it to haul him the rest of the way over the cliff.

That was not particularly comfortable either, but preferable to more claws in his flesh, and regardless, he was back on solid ground. He crawled on his elbows a little father from the cliff edge and collapsed, panting. After a moment he rolled on his side to look at the nagi. 

She was panting too, and her slit pupils had blown wide in her frightened face. Her expression was stricken as she stared at his blood on her hand, painting the long claws that had pierced his flesh. 

Luka rolled over and got to his knees. It made him dizzy—he’d probably lost a lot of blood. He put his undamaged hand quickly over the wound and began to sing, his voice quick and tight with pain but true. The undamaged hand glowed, and so did the wound. His savior shifted beside him, but Luka had no attention to spare for anything but the healing; it was not a magic that came easily to him, and it was difficult enough to concentrate past the pain and the fear of losing the use of his hand. 

It took longer than it would have taken his sister, but he was able to complete the healing, and when he flexed his hand he found that he had full motion and sensation. He still felt weak and shaky with blood loss and reaction, but all of that would pass. Luka breathed a sigh of relief and turned a smile up at the being who had saved his life. 

“Thank you,” he said warmly. 

She made a distressed sound, still holding her bloodstained hand out as if it didn’t belong to her.  

Luka wrapped his now-healed but still bloody fingers gently around hers. “A broken neck would have been much harder to fix,” he told her gently. “And so I thank you. I had rather lose the use of my hand than my life.” He smiled, tilting his head a little to look up into her face. “And as I have lost neither, there is no need for guilt or grief.” He unhooked his waterskin from his belt, and pulled out the stopper with his teeth. He took her hand again and poured the water over it, rinsing away his blood from both their hands. He would have rinsed her scales too where he had clung to her, but he feared that might be offensive, so he offered her the skin and let her do it herself. 

Some of the tension left her, and she sat back a little, sinking slightly onto her...tail-body. Luka tried not to let his glance become a stare. “Forgive me,” he said, tearing his eyes away and forcing them back up to hers, snake-slitted but so very, very blue. “I’ve never met a nagi before, and I don’t know your customs, so I hope it isn’t very rude to ask your name?” 

She smiled a little, the hint of fangs peeping from between her lips before she caught herself  and tightened the smile to hide them. “It is customary to give yours first, since this is my home,” she said, and Luka was vaguely surprised to hear only a hint of hissing on the sibilants. Prejudice, he scolded himself. 

“I do it gladly. My name is Luka.” He put a hand over his heart and bowed slightly. 

Her hand fluttered uncertainly to her chest, and she did the same, dipping slightly awkwardly as she swayed forward on her serpent half rather than bending at the waist as he had. “I am Marinette,” she told him, and then she blushed—a very human reaction that gave Luka an odd little thrill. “I have been listening to your music.” 

“Ah,” Luka nodded in understanding. “It is your song I have been hearing, coming to visit me,” he grinned, and Marinette’s blush deepened. Her tail shifted to coil beneath her, and he glanced down without meaning to, but caught himself quickly. Even so, something about motion spoke of discomfort, and he thought back to the fluctuations in her song when he’d spoken to her in the past. Without the trance he heard only faint echoes of her melody, but he thought he was embarrassing her. “I’m very happy to finally meet you. Thank you for the gifts.” 

Marinette looked away, the fingers of her clawed hands playing nervously across the scales of her tail like a maiden might twist her hands in her lap. “I only wanted to thank you, for your music. It’s...beautiful. I’ve loved hearing you play.”

“I’ve enjoyed having the company,” he told her honestly, and smiled at her look of surprise. “I always play better with an audience, even a shy one.” 

Marinette blushed and covered her face with her hands. Luka found himself reaching to touch her before he thought the better of it. Her arm felt very solid under his hand, but also very human. “Don’t be embarrassed. I truly did enjoy your presence, and I’m not offended that you chose to stay secret. The world is not a safe place, and you didn’t know me.”

“I did know you,” she said quickly, peeking out from her fingers—a sweet, childlike gesture, he would have thought it, though those deadly sharp claws were at odds with the image. “At least, I felt like I did, eventually. I haven’t been afraid of you for a long time.” 

“I shouldn’t think you’d be frightened of much,” Luka teased, tugging a hand away from her face and turning it so her claws shone in the light. “You’re very strong, for which I’m extremely grateful.” He winked at her, and she giggled. 

“You shouldn’t have gone so close to the cliff, especially if it’s rained recently,” she admonished, rising up slightly as her tail uncoiled from beneath her. Before he could blink it shot out like a whip, striking the edge of the cliff. A chunk of earth crumbled beneath the blow and he could hear the rocks rattle down the other side. “It’s not safe. It erodes underneath when the storms come, and then the edge is unstable.” She pointed at the pale purple flowers growing in the grass. “You shouldn’t go beyond where the asters grow.” 

Luka saw now, what he hadn’t before, that they formed a boundary that followed the curve of the cliff, but left a good size border. “I consider myself warned for the future,” Luka observed, shivering a little. Marinette moved closer to him, a hand hovering near his cheek.

“You’re so pale,” she fretted.

Luka sighed, and tried to stand. He swayed and Marinette had to catch him—gently, this time, keeping her claws from his skin. He smiled gratefully at her. “I need my gittern,” he told her, and she slipped under his arm, pressing against his side. She raised her body up to a height comfortable for him, and then helped him back towards the meadow.

They found his gittern and pack where he’d left it. Marinette helped him sit on the rock and recline against it as he usually did. She wound around the rock, and hovered over him, pressing his instrument into his hands, her expression still worried. 

“I need to deep trance,” he told her, closing his eyes as he set shaking fingers to the strings. “I can sense you in trance as I did before, but I won’t have attention to speak.” 

Marinette nodded slowly. “Do as you must,” she said, sinking back a little and folding her hands across the bend in her tail that would have been a human lap. “I want you to be well. I want to be sure I haven’t harmed you badly.” 

Luka chuckled. “Lady, you saved my life.” He opened his eyes and turned his head to look into hers. “And whatever harm I have taken from it, I consider it a price well paid to have met you at last.”

[the-acolytes-collection]

Beck the Dragonman x Reader

SFW/3464 Words/Monster x Human

You rolled down the window as your car wound up the mountain roads. The air got more crisp and fresh the higher you climbed. Paired with the towering Evergreen trees enveloped by mist, you felt like you had entered another world, forgotten by time.

You shook your head to keep it from wandering too far, then turned your attention back to the twisty road ahead of you. You knew it was a long, long, way down if you happened to stray from the path.

Your grandmother had suggested this extended vacation. When you were younger, you and your mother would take trips up to her cottage that rested on the side of the mountain. By day, you would play in the forest surrounding the cottage, and at night you would snuggle into your mother’s side as your grandmother weaved tales. Stories of old women that used even older magic to heal strangers, faeries that floated on the wind, and monsters that were never truly monstrous.

She had been upset when she was moved to a nursing home at the base of the mountains, but had eventually conceded that old age had caught up with her.  She insisted that the cottage be kept, though, citing that it could be used in the future.

It turns out she was right, as you had become bored to tears in the cramped city of which you lived. On a phone call with you one day, your grandmother suggested you stay at her old cottage. She reminisced that you had loved spending days and nights up there. You remembered the house fondly and made the arrangements to stay for a month. Thank the stars for a stack of unused vacation time.

So this is how you found yourself pulling into the dirt driveway that you recognized so well. The cottage came into view through the trees and excitement bubbled up within you. Finally pulling to a stop, you shut off the car and gabbed your bags from the back.

It was just like you remembered it, the A-Frame made of auburn wood with its many windows. You raced up the ramp and unlocked the double doors, throwing them open. Inside was dark, but you flipped on a light switch. It illuminated the stone fireplace and soft leather couches off to your left, and then another flip showed the ornate oak dining table to your right.

Stepping in, you breathed in the smell of wood and a large amount of dust. You knew that the cottage would need a bit of cleaning, which is why you had started to drive early. By the time you had gotten supplies you would need for about a week and got up the mountain it was around 11 in the morning.

After putting your groceries and kitchen supplies away, you got to work cleaning every imaginable surface, throwing open the windows and blasting music to keep you motivated.

Finally, around two o’clock in the afternoon, you collapsed on the couch. The cottage was clean, but your muscles protested any more movement. You decided to reward yourself with a nap on the couch.

You woke up with slowly, then all at once as the hairs on the back of your neck stood on end. You sat up, looking at all the windows until you stared through the back deck door. You could have sworn that you saw something drop over the side and the sounds of something scraping against the wood.

You shook your head and rubbed at your eyes, looking again. Seeing and hearing nothing, you decided that it was just your sleep-addled brain making things up. Moving on from that experience, you made up some dinner and sat down to call your grandmother.

She and you reminisced about the old days at the cottage, laughing at old jokes and sighing at memories. Before you hung up, your Grandmother told you something you didn’t know.

“I … have an old friend, up in the mountains.” She began. “I don’t think he lives too far from you now, and he spends a lot of time hiking. He might notice the cabin being used and come by to make sure everything’s okay.”

You were surprised. “Oh. I didn’t think there was anybody else up here. I’ll keep an eye out for him.”

“Oh thank you, dear. And don’t be too intimidated. He’s young, a little older than you, but he is quite … intimidating. Don’t let his size or anything else about him frighten you, he really likes having someone to talk to.”

You agreed to not be scared, though you were a little confused, and wrapped up the call.

After finishing your dinner and closing up all the windows, you climbed the stairs up into the loft and fell asleep. You dreamed of misty forests and old, forgotten things.

The next couple of days were pretty much the same routine. You would catch up on shows, read a pile of books you had brought with you, and give yourself some luxury treatment. It was on the third night that something caught your attention. Or rather, it caught you.

You had gone out for a late evening walk, making it to a small outlook that was a stone’s throw from the cabin just as the full moon rose from behind the mountains. It was absolutely stunning, and it almost seemed like the clouds parted just for it to make its entrance. You took a few pictures before heading back.

On your way back you heard a large snap!  to your left, startling you.  Curiosity tugged at you until you went to investigate. You found a sizable branch, about as wide around as your arm, snapped and crushed in the middle. You realized, once pulling back and examining the scene, that it lay in a giant clawed paw print. It was wider than your hand stretched to its maximum, and you didn’t know what kind of thing had left something so massive.

You decided you did not want to know what made that print and turned about-face to walk back to the cabin. Or at least you were about to, until you saw your path was blocked by a large man.

He was shirtless, with broad shoulders, muscular arms and a solid chest. He had long black hair that cascaded down over his shoulder, and silvery eyes that complimented the dark horns that sprouted from his temples. It was also then you realized that he had what could only be described as a lizard body, divided between human and beast like a centaur. He had four tree-trunk size legs and dark scales everywhere.

It seems like fate had had different plans. You had met the beast that made the footprint. You stepped back, your mind screaming at you to run. But, you misjudged your foot placement and tripped over the branch, falling against the forest floor and smacking your head on a rock. You went out like a light.

You awoke some nebulous time later, your head pounding. Groaning, you sat up, clutching at the sore spot. You weren’t met with hair and a bump, but with soft bandages. Confused, you realized that you now had bandages wrapped carefully around your head.

Looking around, you found that you were in a small, dark cave, with a small candle as your only light source. Under you were a small mountain of furs and a few blankets. You could hear the rush of water in the distance.

It all came hurtling back to you. The paw print under the tree branch, and the thing, half-man half-lizard that had startled you so much that you tripped and passed out.

You tried to stand up but found your legs were too shaky. With growing horror, you heard the sound of something scraping against stone, drawing closer and closer.

The thing was back.

You pushed back against the cave wall, hoping that it would ignore you. But as it seemed that Fate was working against your wishes, the hulking beast came into the makeshift doorway of the room. You stared into his silver eyes in fear, but you were only met with contemplation, and maybe a bit of amusement.

“I will not hurt you.” He rumbled in a whisper, like a far-away thunderstorm. His voice was deep and masculine, and would have made you melt were you not so frozen with fright.

You said not a word in return, so he spoke again. “I will help you. May I come in?” He outstretched his arms and displayed his massive, but empty, hands. You hesitated but slowly nodded.

He made its way into the room as carefully and softly as he could and sat down beside your huddled form. After a moment, he tried to tuck his legs under himself and his large tail around those. You recognized he was trying to make himself smaller for your sake. It was endearing, in a way.

“May I see your head?” He asked, motioning. You leaned forward, and his claws swiftly cut through the used bandages. Checking for any blood, he gingerly felt the back of your head. Despite his scary-looking claws and calloused fingers, his touch was light and gentle. Once he was done, he pulled back and stared at you.

“Where are we? Who are you? What are you?”

He smiled softly, looking down at you kindly. “You are in my home, I brought you here after you fell. My name is Beck, and my kind have been called many things. But I think ‘dragon’ is the simplest term.”

You were silent for a moment, just enough for your stomach to rumble.

Beck chuckled, standing up and extending a clawed hand. “You’re hungry. I have some food downstairs if you’d like.”

You nodded and took Beck’s hand. You found it much easier to stand and walk braced against his muscular side. You blushed, feeling much too hot as you both made it out of the room.

The beyond the tiny room, which you assumed was where Beck slept, was a larger cave. The wall to your left sloped out and funnelled into a small tunnel, where the rushing water sound was coming from. To your right was a small, low table with cushions on the floor on one side and a chair on the other. A massive bookshelf filled to bursting sat behind the cushions.

Beck helped you sit down at the table before padding over to a grill set up above a fire, like one you would see for camping. There was a kettle just beginning to whistle, which he took and poured two cups of what was probably tea.

He brought both stone cups over to the table, setting one on each side, giving you a shy smile.

“This tea is good for headaches, which I’m sure you have.”

“Thank you,” You responded gratefully. After taking a sip of the warm amber liquid, you hmmed in delight. “It tastes lovely.” You smile back at him.

He perks up, his smiling widening. His ears, long with points that faded to a dark blue-teal flicked up, and his thick tail swayed back and forth slowly.

“I was about to cook some deer meat. Would you like some?”

You nodded, and Beck went back to the fire. Digging into a leather bag, he pulled out strips of meat and laid it out onto the grill, absolutely covering it. You smiled as you watched him work, going over to a small shelving unit with spices and jars. He hummed as he debated over two different bottles.

You found yourself admitting that he was attractive, which you couldn’t deny. His skin was a warm beige, with all of it on display thanks to him still being shirtless. Intricate tattoos ran up his strong arms and curled around his hips, where human skin turned into scales.

The scales, like the tips of his ears, were a dark blue-teal. You could see that these harder, darker scales also ran up his spine into his dark and flowing hair.  His stomach scales were a pale yellow, and they were wider and softer looking. His horns, dark and ridged,  curved gracefully from his temples and above his ears. His tail sat heavily behind him, but swayed above the cave floor. On and leading up to its end was black fur, much like his hair.

He was very attractive, you realized as you blushed more. You even found yourself liking the more-than-human features.  You took another sip of tea and tried to calm down.

After a few minutes, Beck took the strips of meat off the grill and put them on a long plate, then brought it over to the table. He situated himself on the cushions before smiling at you again.

“Dig in! I hope you enjoy it.”

You did as you were told, and with Beck’s help you cleared the plate. Sitting back in the chair, you slid your hand over your stomach.

“That was amazing, Beck. You’re a world-class chef.”

He leaned back a little, tail curling lazily around him. “Thank you. It’s been a while since I cooked for someone.”

You nodded for a moment, and then realization hit you in the face. “You’re the person my grandmother told me about!”

Beck nodded and laughed. “Your grandmother helped me and my family when I was young. I was never allowed to come out during your visits though.”

“I would have loved to have met you back then.” You commented softly, not even recognizing that you had said it until it was too late.

Beck blushed, his tail curling and uncurling. “Your grandmother showed me pictures of you when she would get them. I told her ... well, I told her you were pretty.”

Blood rushed to your cheeks. “That’s sweet of you to say. Too bad you have to see me now, though. I’ve … changed.”

Beck’s eyebrows furrowed. “Well, of course you have.” He protested, standing up and rounding the table. “You’ve grown up and into yourself. You’re an adult now, so you must have changed from when we were children. And I’d have to say you’re much prettier now.”

You gaped up at him, realizing just how much taller and all-around larger he was compared to you.  “I su-suppose you’re right.” You tripped over your words.

Beck smiled down at you, before offering you a hand again.  “It’s still nighttime, and it’s probably not the best idea to go back to your cabin now. Care to stay for the rest of the night?”

You nodded, taking his hand.

He led you back to the room you woke up in, the heap of furs and blankets as you left them. He went to lay down, but stopped himself and looked at you shyly.

“Do you … or well, are you comfortable with me sleeping here? I can sleep elsewhere if you’d rather.”

You shook your head immediately. “Of course not, this is your bed! I should be the one sleeping somewhere else.”

Beck shook his head back at you as he slid into the pile. “No, you sleep here with me. I want to keep you safe.” His eyes widened a little as the words poured out of his mouth.

Your face felt hot as you stared at him, not knowing what to say.

He facepalmed, his hands sliding down his face and pulling at his features.  “Oh, my stars. I am so sorry. I don’t know where that came from! I’ll leave.” He began to stand up.

“No!” You objected, stopping him in his tracks. “Please, stay. I … I don’t mind.” Your confidence left you as you finished the sentence. “It’s really kind of you, actually.”

Beck’s blush now matched your own as he regarded you. Then, he silently motioned you to stay put.

You watched him as he shifted the soft pile around until he huffed in triumph. He took your hand gently and led you to lay down, closest to the wall. Once you laid down, he settled in on your left, lying on his side which left his soft yellow scales exposed.

You two watched each other for a moment that stretched on into eternity. It was broken by a yawn escaping you, which Beck matched.

“Go to sleep.” He smiled, pulling a fur over you. “I will be here in the morning.”

You nodded dreamily and wished him goodnight as sleep tugged your eyelids closed.

You woke up very warm. Like, inside a furnace type of warm. Pushing back the fur and the sleepiness from your mind, you realized exactly why you were so warm.

Sometime during the night, Beck had curled himself around you. His human arms and the forelegs on his lower body cradled you as his tail came up behind you. You had, apparently, reciprocated the closeness by throwing a leg over his hip and pressing your arms against his chest.

You blushed, but couldn’t find it in you to be bothered by it. In fact, you decided to throw caution and sense to the wind as you cuddled closer to him.

You stayed in a blissful state between waking and dreaming for an unknown amount of time before Beck shifted and mumbled, waking up as well. His arms tensed when he realized how you were both positioned and began to pull back. You tensed your leg and looked up at him in response.

You stared into his silver eyes, hoping that you could convey what you wanted. Beck seemed to understand, sliding even closer than before and tucking you closer to his body.

You both stayed like that for a while, just enjoying each other’s company. But, Beck was the first to get up, claiming that he really should be getting you back to the cottage. You did manage to convince him to share some more tea with you before he walked you back.

Exiting out of the small tunnel, Beck led you out from behind a waterfall and off on a well-concealed path. After a few minutes of you stumbling over rocks and almost pitching yourself ass-over-teakettle, Beck lifted you by the waist and deposited you on his scaley back.

“It’ll be easier for both of us, this way.” He explained as he surged forward.

You found purchase by wrapping your arms around his stomach, and you eventually rested your cheek against his torso.

It wasn’t long until you arrived back at the cottage. Once he got to the back deck, he twisted around and picked you up again. This time, he sat you on the railing and reared up onto his very back legs, his forelegs grabbing onto the deck and his hands on your hips. His face was very close to yours.

“I’m sorry for scaring you.” he rumbled, his voice quiet. His ears pinned back and he looked to the side in shame. “I never meant to hurt you. I just wanted to see you, for real this time.”

You shook your head and brought you hand to his cheek, making him look at you. “If you hadn’t had shown yourself I would have never met you. And that would be a tragedy.”

Beck smiled lovingly and brought himself closer to you.

“It would have been.” He mused, as his eyes flicked to your lips.

You decided to take the initiative and close the gap yourself. You pushed your lips to his gently and quickly, pulling away and smiling shyly. Beck matched it.

“May I have another?” He asked playfully, and you pulled him back in again.

“One more?” He grinned. You kissed him again.

“One more, again?”

You kissed him another time, giggling. After pulling back, you smiled and sighed. You were both startled out of your reverie by your phone chiming incessantly. It was your mother, trying to check in on you. The lack of service in Beck’s cave had made it so you didn’t receive the messages until now.

“I should probably call her.” You said, looking at Beck.

“And I said I would help a friend set up his garden today,” Beck responded.

You smiled but then sighed sadly. “This … isn’t goodbye, is it?”

“Of course not!” Beck shook his head. “When is a good time to visit next?”

You hummed and then replied. “Tomorrow morning? I’ll make breakfast.”

“Deal.” Beck acknowledged, before kissing you again. And again.

And again.

You laughed, pushing at his chest. “Okay, okay. Go help your friend. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Until then, my darling.” He spoke softly, kissing you once more before getting back down onto the ground and leaving.

You watched him go before going inside to call your mother, smiling all the while. You couldn’t wait until tomorrow.

[butterfly-winx]

I'm not sure if you've already answered this but could u talk about everyone's first experiences with magic?

No I haven’t and I can’t claim I have thought about it long enough to have rock hard hc, but it’s a fun prompt anon, so here we go:

Bloom:

Aside from being protected from the flames of the house burning around her as a baby, Bloom’s first conscious brush with magic was actually using her innate aspect. She has always been a sensitive kid and everybody assumed it was just some form of hyperempathy when she talked about other people’s feelings with high accuracy. But when she categorised people into colours depending on their auras, she meant it. Then as sensitive weird kids be, Bloom was picked on a lot in late primary and middle school and that’s when her temper started to show. Bloom got angry easily and it only riled up the other children more to get her to show a reaction. Before that it was mostly tears, but one memorable occasion Bloom’s control over temperature manifested with her burst of anger and she made everyone and herself develop a sudden high fever. She fainted from it unfortunately and spent the next two years transfixed by all sources of fire and flames eventually circling back on her obsession with fairies and all things magic. The older she got the less she paid attention to the colourful auras until they completely faded from her everyday sight and only cropped up when she herself felt her emotion in a disarray. As Bloom got older, other magic effects started to crop up with higher frequency, like her “magically” avoiding injuries or recovering from them super fast, or never getting burned on hot pots as the Dragonflame started to feel cramped unused in her body. When Stella was being threatened by the goblins and the ogre, Bloom’s fight or flight instincts automatically allowed the Dragonflame an outlet. (She then of course followed Stella down a rabbit hole of an adventure and got a place in Alfea due to her new friend’s quick thinking and forgery)

Stella:

With two proficient magic users as parents Stella was practically hounded over as adults in her life anxiously waited for her to show signs of magic. She went through magic prep courses trying her hardest to please everyone who was so important to her. She wanted to be magic so bad, always afraid of that infinitesimal chance that she didn’t get all the right genes from her parents. At age seven she was kind of a late bloomer for fully magic children to yet show any sign of magic sensitivity, and she spent another short holiday with her mother’s family up north. it was Stella’s favourite pastime to wander as close to the edge of the estate as she dared to alone in the constant twilight of the Solarian pole. Her favourite spot was a little cropping of shrubs populated by lighting bugs that always flocked to her when she came by. The loved collecting the shiny rocks as well that lit up at her touch and create her own little sun filled garden in the back where no one would bother her for hours. In retrospect Stella can tell exactly why she hasn’t come forward with all of these light related oddities, wanting to keep her island of peace to herself, but back then baby Stella really just didn’t clock that this could be related to her magic aspect. Her grandma eventually noticed and eased her into the thought that yes, she was definitely magic. After that the expectations were laid on even thicker instead of getting easier to bear as Stella got instructions at school and from both of her parents after school. Luna was very helpful with first developing Stella’s magic, so Stella actually started off with a stronger focus on her moon based powers. Radius with his control over bright skies was not very useful and Stella soon started feeling guilty over that and took up sun focused spells and fey magic explicitly to please her father. Radius would have loved her no matter what, but Stella’s insecurities were early risers and she felt the need to please others, so she was more than happy to follow his footsteps and enrol off planet in Alfea, his alma mater.

Musa:

She was equally under observation, only because she is mixed (human-elven) and it was unclear which type her magic would manifest as. Maylin herself a magic using elf would have loved to teach her daughter all she knew, but there was of course always room for her to chose a human stream, should she take after her human father more. That Musa was magic sensitive was a well known fact ever since she was a baby and was able to produce... quite a cry. Maylin was lovingly warned that her daughter was likely to be a musical type along with a gift of full sound-blocking earbuds. At age six Musa could remember the melodies of over 300 pieces of music of ranging complexity, regularly got birds to sing for her and had impeccable hearing - all in all she showed signs of having a promising future as a magic user. For her to be gifted with skills in music that brought Maylin and HaoBai together was a blessing from the Heavens. Then Maylin died and Musa and her father’s world shattered with her. Grief can have complicated effects on one’s magic, and Musa age 9, appeared with dried up magic meridians like she was a l 90 year old. It took a lot of family counselling and well timed teenage rebellion for her to pick up music and with that magic again. And it was hard work, let her tell you that. Both letting magic inot her and developing a feeling for it and doing it all while hiding from her father, afraid he’d want to ban her music and snap instruments again (it happened once, and HaoBai isn’t proud of how much the pain of loss had consimed him at that moment). At fifteen she finally had enough and decided to go head first for it, insisting her half-orphan “recompensation fund” to be used as tuition at Alfea College for fairies, despite never having received any magic prep education. Through brute force, luck and insane talent Musa aced all entrance examinations and made it despite it all.

Techna:

As childbirth on Zenith is, it was completely up in the air whether Techna would be magic or not.  All the early childhood signs Techna showed for their aspect were at first more or less mis-categorised as autism (which they absolutely have, but them going through technical books detailing the technological systems of ancient civilisations daily wasn’t just that). The first one suspecting they have magic was actually Techna’s elder sister, Electra. Electra five years older than Techna was very into the idea of a baby sister and loved smushing and cuddling Techna, which Techan absolutely hated and kept giving Electra static shocks out of nowhere. Once Electra understood where static came from and identified that there was absolutely nothing charged around Techna when they did that, she became suspicions. The whole family found out when during dinner, Techna announced in the calmest voice possible that they have heard the car talk and it told Techna exactly what was wrong with it setting an end to their parents tense discussion about the car having issues. The car was sent for repairs, confirming what Techna had  said and Techna was taken for a magic sensitivity test having that confirmed. (Baby Techna like: oh yeah I could always hear machines they just usually don’t have anything worthwhile to say). She wasn’t quite five at this point. Magic isn’t as widely practiced on Zenith and it took Techna’s ranerts a while to find a magic prep school for them to attend after school, which ended up being outside the borders of Transjordan actually. The daily drive was very long and exhausting both for teen Techna and the parent of the day who had to drive them, so they started talking about sending Techna to a boarding school once they were old enough. Techha was left to do their own research and they realised they had quite many options, even with just narrowing it down to fey magic that were closer to home than Magics, but they all advertised themselves as “girls’ colleges” and even pre-gender realisation that just irked Techan for an inexplicable reason. They much preferred going to a coed school, so Alfea ended up as their first choice on the application form.

Layla:

In Layla’s case, detecting her magic sensitivity was incredibly difficult, seeing as she grew up practically constantly submerged in water playing with her cousins by the shore. Androsi people naturally have a large lung capacity and are able to dive long. That Layla dried super fast afterwards and never got salt rashes was also brushed under the rug ascribed to good royal hygiene and skin care. When she started being schooled in the castle Layla was colossally bored. She received basic magic training just because, no one actually expected her to be magic since they believed she didn’t show any sensitivity for it, and kind of for shits and giggles Layla took it and ran with it. Layla discovered privately in tidal caves just what a mistake that was able to make the water be kind to her and mold and move just so she could always get out unharmed. She surprised everyone at age eleven when during a banquet the visiting princeling was annoying her just so much, she used her water magic to turn his strictly pomaded hair into a bird’s nest, overshooting and drenching the next three dignitaries around him as well. The party stopped. At first Layla though she was going to get into so much trouble, caught under the strict eyes of her father, but as it turns out, he was overjoyed. Layla was put on a fast track for learning magic and surprised people once again choosing fey magic and being able to transform at the tender age of 13. She was never sent to Alfea, but received the offer from Faragonda after the Darkar incident thinking Layla could easily make it to Enchantix (which she did, this girl is talented).

Flora:

Both of Flora’s parents are untrained magic users, so her being somewhat sensitive at least was also expected. Flora loved sitting to the side watching her father run the potion shop when she wasn’t chasing all her other parental figures and watching what they were doing with curious eyes. She loved it when her aunti Nimali gave her bumps and scrapes a little kiss so she started doing that to all sorts of things including her father’s ingredient plants. He was indulging her harmless kid fantasy, knowing full well that most of his magic plants responded to emotions like they had a soul and was more than surprised when he found these plants not only healed but sprouting wildly whenever Flora gave them a small “get well smooch”. The village talked it all over and Flora was given over to the local magic users to train with and shadow what they were doing. Her interest in potion making however prevailed and by the time she emerged from Nature’s Teaching Path having singlehandedly ran the little children’s colony it was very clear that Flora would need to receive proper training from a proper institution. She was just too good at magic for her family to fail her not being able to offer her more knowledge. Flora wanted magic with frankly for her startling greed and ambition, but she hated the idea of moving away. She could have just gone to Woodland College like most other magic users, but even there the entrance exam examiner was suggesting the school was too small for her. (And Flora kind of felt that - she overthought the whole exam because it was just so simple, she just had to touch the plant, and will the box to float. Her aspect of plant growth might not have given her complete control over the environment, but she was still a lot better than her peers.) The teacher spoke to the Council about the potential of sending Flora off planet and now that had her attention and full investment in doing everything the Council demanded to get her a visa to study in Magics.

Out of the six Layla and Techna were able to transform already before they came to Alfea, Flora and Stella had unstable first attempts (Stella during her own first year that is, not her re-run), while Bloom and Musa were the only ones who fully had to learn it from scratch during their first year.

Stella and Layla pay their tuition from royal funds, Flora is Lynphean Council sponsored and Bloom after the first year paid from Callisto’s royal fund (oops) is on a Magics scholarship for minority cultures as a surviving Dominian. Techna benefits from Transjordan’s education scheme which gives students a basic income, their parents supplement the small remainder, while Musa is 100% self sponsored from aforementioned widower’s trust fund they got after Maylin’s passing.

[lostandundead]

Chapter 17: Catch You On The Flipside

The trio watched in shock as they saw DJ and their booth floating in the air, even more surprised at their sudden aggression towards them. Claudia then pulled out her sword and got into a defensive stance, with Cass following besides her.

“You can’t be serious. DJ is my best friend. I can’t just hurt them!” Arctyle exclaimed through cards.

Suddenly, DJ pulled out several disco discs from behind the booth. Aiming at them, they then threw said discs towards them. Claudia barely got out of the way of them and even then, the discs had lightly grazed her arm.

“Well, they clearly are willing to hurt us!” Claudia shouted, “C’mon Cass! Let’s rock this party!”

“Oh no you don’t!” DJ yelled, clicking several buttons on their booth.

Several robots surrounding them had their screen go red before moving towards them. Raising her sword, Cass sliced through one of the robots’ arms and kicked it in the chest. She was then kicked by another one but quickly responded by kicking it in the face. Claudia got into close-ranged combat with one robot, blocking any attacks that came her way with her sword. The robot did indeed end up punching her in the face, but Claudia did not let that stop her. Instead, she swung at the robot’s screen before slicing it through the torso.

Arctyle, on other hand, wanted to help them yet was trying to find a way to avoid hurting his dear friend. He noticed that DJ is preparing to hurl some more discs at the couple again and without even thinking, he sent a magical burst to the flying booth. The burst managed to hit it and destroy several buttons on it. DJ, Cass, and Claudia stood there in shock until DJ’s face went through several expressions again before landing on an angry one. They pulled two switches that were next to them in the booth, causing what seemed to be four speakers to come out of it.

“So is that how it is?” DJ questioned, “Fine then, let’s end this game!”

They then proceeded to play some music from the booth, resulting in the speaker releasing some sort of magical sound waves. It was incredibly loud, so loud that the trio had to shout in order to hear each other.

“WHAT IS GOING ON?!” Claudia yelled.

“It seems like they are now using magical based attacks. However, I think we can stop it by destroying the source of it.”

“WHICH MEANS WE NEED TO DESTROY THE SPEAKERS! CASS! COVER ME!”

Cass nodded as she moved towards DJ, trying to ignore the blaring noise. Meanwhile, Claudia and Arctyle sneaked around in order to find a high enough spot to attack the speakers from.

“Oh? You are approaching me?” DJ asked.

“WELL, I CAN’T REACH YOU WITH MY SWORD ALL THE WAY OVER THERE!” Cass screamed.

“That is a good point. You got me there. However, better hope you can dodge this!”

DJ then began to spin the discs on their booth around while chanting, “Up, left, down, right”, resulting in several blasts of music to be released from different speakers. Cass attempted to dodge the attacks by going in the opposite direction but got hit instead every time, causing her to be knocked back. She didn’t understand why it hit her when she did her best to avoid it. It didn’t make any sense at all! Unless…

She got herself up again and waited for the attack. Once again, DJ chanted “Up, left, down, right”, obviously hoping for an easy win. This time, however, Cass was prepared. She moved in the same direction that the attacks went: Up, left, down, right. Just as she had suspected, none of the attacks hit her. It was almost as if this was a rhythm game of sorts.

“Dang it, you figured it out.” DJ muttered, “But that doesn’t matter! I will win this battle! Up, down, left, right, down, left, up, right!”

Several blasts of magic were released from the speakers and once more, Cass went into the same direction as most of them. She did indeed get hurt by the second left but she wasn’t about to let that stop her yet. All she needs to do is distract DJ enough so that Claudia and Arctyle can effectively destroy the speakers.

Meanwhile, Claudia and Arctyle were behind DJ, using some of the damaged robot parts in order to gain higher ground. It was going to be difficult to destroy the speakers without being noticed because they were located at the front of the booth. Luckily for them, they determined that if Claudia jumped off the heap of robots, she could at the very least destroy one speaker and at most two. Arctyle would destroy the rest of them with his magic since it can travel a far range. Hopefully, Cass could hold them off long enough for them to enact their plan.

Leaping off the pile, Claudia raised her sword and sliced through the two speakers. DJ didn’t even know what hit them until Arctyle jumped up and sent out several blasts of magic. Even then, they didn’t have any time to react. Soon, the area went silent except for Claudia running to Cass.

“Cass! Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I am fine. I did get hurt by some of the attacks but it’s nothing too bad.”

DJ, on the other hand, was silent. They couldn’t believe it. Their main weapon was destroyed, just like that. How could they keep on fighting?

Then, something took over their mind. This is not how this battle will end.

“It’s unfair.” They whispered, voice glitching as they got louder, “it’s unfair. It’s unfair. It’s unfair. It’s UNFAIR. IT’S UNFAIR. IT’S UNFAIR. IT’S UNFAIR!”

Arctyle sighed and turned to DJ, cards coming out as he shouted at them, “I don’t know what has gotten into you! I know it hurts that I left the fantasy realm, but you shouldn’t believe everything that Jester tells you! We need to leave and destroy those chains! Please, just let us go!”

“No, you can’t leave. I WON’T LET YOU.”

Cords then began to rise from the robots and attached themselves to DJ’s back. They then lifted them off of their DJ booth, resulting in the booth falling to the ground. Their screen began to flash in different colors before eventually stopping at a red background with white bold texts:

All Hail the Laughing Queen.

[hanniiesuckle17]

Stray Kids Desc.: First Meeting

A/n: Not officially requested but I was checking comments and stuff on my works and you guys seem to want more of these! REQUESTS ARE OPEN!

Bangchan (Son of Cinderella):

Chan was very hesitant when the VK's came to Auradon prep. They were very different from what he was used to. Chan was the class president and linebacker on the Tourney team. What could the VK's possibly have to offer? However, his mother always taught him to treat everyone with kindness. One night, Prince Chan got a noise complaint from a student about loud yelling and music and colored lights coming from the woods behind the school. The woods were perfectly safe and students often hung out there, but it was way past curfew. Chan, as the class president, was responsible for stopping it so he threw on a sweatshirt and trudged towards the noise.

He was shocked to see a bunch of VKs hanging out, blasting music and playing with colored smoke and sparklers. There was one girl dressed in dark purples and greens, eclectic jewelry piece dangling on almost all her limbs. An old and tattered top hat was angled over her messy and purple streaked hair. She had bags under her eyes but a mischievous smile brightened her face. Their eyes met and a smirk slid onto her painted lips. She slinked over to Chan through the blue smoke. He couldn't tell if he was nervous or intrigued. "What are you doing here, preppie?"

His words got stuck in his throat. "My name is Chan. I'm the class president and you are all out past curfew. You should go back before I report you all." She scoffed and the other kids laughed going back to their party. "Relax, Cinderboy." "Excuse me? Who do you think you are?" She smirked and pulled something from her pocket. Throwing it to the ground the two of them were enveloped in green thick smoke. He felt her fingers slowly come to grip his shoulder and heard her smooth voice in his other ear. "I'm the voodoo mistress of the night. I'm Y/n, Y/n Falicier." He turned his head to find her only inches away. She slipped a sparkler into his hand and lit it, never breaking eye contact.

"Nice to finally meet you, Prince Charming."

Minho (Son of Ezma):

Minho strolled through the woods, hands shoved in the pockets of his jacket. He basked in the solitude of finally ridding himself of Dowoon. Though the son of Kronk was easily three years older than him, he still followed Minho around just as his father did Minho’s mother. He was absolutely hopeless without his dim-witted father around. 

“Oh come on!” Minho turned sharply looking for the source of the sound. Moving through the trees he came upon the Enchanted Lake. Kneeling by the pool was a girl with her back turned to him. She held scissors against her H/c hair and was trying to saw through the long tresses that lay in piles around her.

“Never thought I’d see Rapunzel without her long hair,” Minho said with a smirk. She turned, shock painted on her face. Half of her hair was already sawn off on one side and hung just under her chin. “Well, that’s attractive.” The cold glare she threw his way sent a chill down his spine. Someone had yet to look at him with such malice since coming to Auradon. It thrilled him.

“Minho, right?” He nodded and came closer. “Listen, unless you have some sort of evil potion to fix this train wreck, buzz off.” He chuckled and plopped down next to you. “I can turn you into a flea?” “Ha. Ha. Ha.”

She tossed the scissors into the water and sighed. They sat in silence, staring out at the crystal clear water. “Here.” Minho pulled a jagged knife out of his shoe, a gift from his mother before his left. The only gift he ever got from his mother. She flinched away from him a little when he brought the blade to the side of her neck. She relaxed when his hand came under her hair and he sliced the rest off. The heavy locks fell into his hands and the girl smiled, a weight lifted off her shoulders. “Thanks.”

“I’m Y/n.”

Changbin (Son of Hercules):

Tourney practice just ended. Exhausted, Changbin headed back towards the school. A little pink and green bird flitted past him and flew onto one of the stone rails near the steps of the school. He had never seen that type of bird before. The bird chirped happily as Changbin continued his path. Up ahead he saw his little sister and Jeongin walking towards the stairs.

Just as he was about to call out to them, "BOO!" The couple screamed as the little bird magically transformed into a girl scaring the living daylights out them. She cackled and laughed at their faces. "Your faces! I didn't know Hercules had such a scaredy cat for a daughter." As she said cat, the girl morphed into a slinky pink and green feline.

"Awww did I scare your beau?" The cat's silky voice said as it jumped onto Jeongin's shoulder, making him flinch. "Hey, cut it out!" Changbin said making his way over to them. Grabbing the cat by the excess fur on the neck, he pried it off of Jeongin. "What the hell! Come on, I was just kidding around! Let me go you big bafoon!" The cat swung its claws at Changbin trying to scratch any open skin.

"Changbin, put her down. We are supposed to be welcoming the villain kids, remember?" His sister said putting a hand on his shoulder. "Yeah, Changbin. Put me down." The cat said in a mocking tone. With a reluctant and frustrated sigh Changbin dropped the fuschia cat and with a puff of pink smoke it morphed back into the girl. Her features were sharp and angled and her clothes hugged ever curve of her body like a glove. "Later losers." The wild girl said with a smirk. Her hair swayed behind her as Changbin watched her with a glare. "Who was that?"

"Oh her? That's Madam Mim's daughter, Y/n."

Hyunjin (Son of Mother Gothel):

Irene the Evil Queen's daughter hung off of Hyunjin's shoulder as he walked down the hall. Sure the girl was young and pretty, but she was boring. He put on a fake smile as she kissed his cheek before walking into an open classroom. The second her back was turned it dropped and Hyunjin walked stone faced through the corridor.

"Woah! Hey! Sorry! Coming through! Move out of the way, pretty boy!" Hyunjin pressed against the wall out of shock, but not before he was shoulder checked by the fast moving object. "Sorry!" A girl zoomed past on him bright red and blue roller skates. No one else found this weird and greeted the girl as if she was just passing bye. "Who the hell was that?" Felix said coming up by Hyunjin, who up until he spoke, hadn't realized he was staring at the back of the girl skating down the hall.

"You don't know Y/n?" A chirpy voice said behind the two boys. Beatrice, Snow White's daughter stopped having overheard Felix's comment. He scoffed and shrugged his shoulders. "No. Why would I?" A crash could be heard from down the hallway. A laugh bounced off the walls and carried all the way back to where they were standing. Not a moment later Y/n rounded the corner this time on a pogo stick. "She's the Genie's daughter. Never a dull moment when she's around." With a bright smile Beatrice left the two boys in tha hall. "Can you believe these people? God, Auradon is so weird." Felix exclaimed before going in the complete opposite direction of his next class.

"Well, at least she's not boring." Hyunjin said with a smirk, following his friend.

Jisung (Son of Prince John):

The Isle was a great place to grow up. If you had the right parents that is. Alliances were a crucial part of life on the Isle, and Jisung's father was about to make a new one. While Prince John went below the decks of the Jolly Roger he ordered his ten year old son to wait and find some way to entertain himself. The boy fiddled with a knife he found lying about and started carving into one of the railings.

"What are you doing to my ship?" A strong, but young voice said from above. He looked up to see a very pissed off girl hanging upside down from the rigging. She looked about his age. Gracefully she jumped down and landed in front of the boy. "It's not your ship." Jisung said sticking out his tongue. "It's my daddy's ship and what's his is mine and whatever else I want." She said holding up a leather bound journal.

Jisung frantically looked inside his jacket and pockets finding his notebook gone. "Hey give that back!" "No." The girl with wild hair and tattered clothing started playing keep away with the book. Eventually it morphed into a game of tag across the huge space the Jolly Roger had to offer. "Catch me if you can!" Jisung called out, climbing up one of the masts. The girl gleefully followed.

"Jisung! Get down from there!" An angry voice called. Immediately Jisung ran to his father's side, hoping to escape further punishment. The girl followed suit to stand next to the man with a hook and dressed in solid red. "Hook, control your daughter." The pirate sneered and looked down at his child. "Y/n, what have I told you about playing those little games!?" He scolded and a flash of silver flew across her face. A thin trail of blood dripped down her cheek, but the girl stood completely still. Jisung moved to defend his new friend but his father pulled him back, threatening a similar punishment. Reluctantly the two left and Jisung waved goodbye to the little girl who had a small but guarded smile on her lips.

Felix (Son of Queen of Hearts):

Felix had an impish grin as the several girls around hin laughed at something he had said. "And so I was like, 'No, off with your head.'" The girls giggled and a couple brushed their hands across his arm. Felix was used to this. He was over it. Sure he enjoyed the attention and he found it funny how quick the girls from Auradon started flinging themselves all over him, but they were all so boring compared to the girls on the Isle. At least at home there was always some small chance he might get stabbed on a date or his curtains set on fire. Some sort of excitement.

Felix was laying in bed, waiting for Han to get back from Tourney tryouts. The dorms were absolutely boring. It took all of Felix's will power not to toss himself out the three story window. Before he could, the window burst open blowing the white curtains into the air. In shock he fell off the bed and hit his head on the nightstand. Peeking over the bed with a glare he saw a girl crouched on his windowsill, hair blowing slightly in the breeze. She wore varying tones of green and brown and had bright eyes that shared and impish smile with her lips.

"Umm who do you think you are?" Felix snapped. Her head turned at the sound and she laughed which shocked the boy. "Nobody you should bother with." Felix stood and leaned against the bed post. "Well you are the one intruding in my domain." "Oooo domain. You sound like quite the villain." She laughed once more and hopped down from the sill walking around the room. "Maybe because I am one." "Oh. Cool." The girl continued to look around the room and examine random objects that seemed to pique her interest. "I'm sorry who are you again?" "Oh I'm Y/n."

Seungmin (Son of Mulan):

Seungmin was very against the introduction of Villain Kids into Auradon Prep. Coming from a strict household he found their lack of discipline and wild characteristics unbearable. He laughed with Woojin, one of the other boys in his History of Auradon class before the professor came in. Merlin entered the classroom and all the students' conversations stopped to focus their attention on their teacher. "We have a new addition to our class. Please welcome Y/n as you would any student. She is the daughter of the Chesire Cat." A girl with pastel streaks in her H/c hair slinked in the room. Seungmin noticed that everything about her was feline like. The glint in her eyes and the way she moved around the space.

She was calculating and scanned the room with a mischievous grin. Merlin pointed her to a free seat which so happened to be next to Seungmin. He scowled as she made her way to the other seat in the front row in the shared desk. "What's got you upset, kitty?" She asked with a smirk. She said in a soft smooth voice as Merlin started the lesson. Seungmin glared over at her, not dignifying her with a response. "Cat got your tongue?" She said dragging her fingers across his wrist. His glare shot back over to her. She smirked when he yanked his hand away from her touch. "What? You want me to disappear?" The girl faded from her seat and Seungmin tried to keep his eyes from going wide at the girl's disappearance. He shivered when he heard her smooth voice in his ear.

"I can see it all over the little warrior's face. Mommy and Daddy wouldn't like me sitting next to you either would they?" Seungmin turned to face forward and he couldn't help the little smirk on his face when Y/n reappeared obviously disappointed she didn't get a reaction. The smug expression fell as he looked over to see Y/n picking up a paper that Jeongin had dropped rushing to his seat. With a kind smile she handed it to the shy boy and sat back down. Seungmin was shocked to see a VK do any kind of good deed even as small as that. Was everything black and white like his parents said?

Jeongin (Son of Milo and Kida):

Jeongin sat alone at lunch once again. He surrounded himself in maps and artifacts sent my his father from his parents latest expedition. Every now and then he would look up across the courtyard to watch the group of kids playing a game instead of eating. His eyes fell onto a girl tossing back the ball to one of the boys he was tutoring, Chan. She smiled and pushed around a boy maybe a year older than her. They had somewhat similar features so Jeongin assumed they were siblings.

She was very pretty Jeongin thought. He watched her get excited throughout the game and get so passionate when someone failed to call out a foul. Jeongin smiled down at the map in his hands and returned to analyzing the parchment. His train of thought was interrupted by a ball slamming into the side of his head. He groaned in lain and clutched the area were the leather ball hit. "Oh my god! I am so sorry! Are you okay?" He looked up to see the girl from earlier. He was at a loss for words as she looked down at him with concern.

She reached out her hand to inspect his head and Jeongin froze. "Y/n? Is he okay?" Chan said coming over with the the girl's brother. "Oh, Jeongin!" Chan clapped the shy boy on the back as a greeting. "He should be fine. Jeongin has a big brain." The girl, Y/n, smiled and pulled her hand away. "Are you alone?" She asked looking at the empty table and books spread around him. He nodded hesistantly. "Well we need a referee if you want to join! My brother, Changbin, keeps cheating." She said shoving the boy with brown hair. They quickly got into a playful sibling fight and Chan pulled Jeongin up to join the game. Jeongin couldn't help but stare at the daughter of Hercules the rest of the game.

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