#y'know I could do an entire thing on just the great lakes

[running2reanimation]

Scars

We all have them, it's just that not all of them are visible.

"It was very nice of them to invite me," King remarked as he rolled up a colourful towel, "Are you sure you're going to be able to carry me and our beach day things?"

"You can't be that much heavier than Green, it'll be fine," Purple reassured, popping his own towel into the bag, "Besides, it's not like there's that much in there, a couple of towels and some sandals..."

"There's an entire picnic in the other bag," King reminded Purple, hefting the aforementioned bag over his shoulder, "Oof, and it definitely has some weight to it."

"Okay, so we might walk for a little bit," Purple rubbed the back of his head, "But I should be able to handle getting us over the big lava lake and across the soul sand valley."

"If you're sure," King frowned, picking up the beach bag and hanging it off the opposite shoulder.

"I've got this," Purple reassured, and the two made their way to the basement portal.

--

And to Purple's credit, he did, in fact, got this. There were definitely some long stretches of walking through the Nether, which gave King an opportunity to talk with Purple.

"So... they did actually invite me right? This isn't going to be an unpleasant surprise for them and me right?"

"What? You don't trust me, Baba?" Purple put his hand to his chest in mock hurt.

"I know you well enough to know you're more of a 'it's better to ask forgiveness than permission' sort sometimes is all," King defended, putting a hand on the bag at his hip.

"I promise, Baba. They actually invited you. They don't hate you as much as you think they should. They're kind of like that. Way too forgiving. Besides, you've clearly shown them that you're not... The King anymore, y'know. Through me and stuff. And you keep feeding them, you'd be surprised how excited they are to get your baked goods," Purple reassured with a hand on King's back, "Now we've got one more section of flight to do, think you're ready?"

"...As I'll ever be."

--

Stepping out of the portal and onto the PC was a little jarring and King sort of just stood there taking it all in for a moment. He could hear the sounds of the beach coming from all around him...

Purple pushed past him and started climbing down, out of the window and calling out to the others, "We're here!"

He turned back to look at the awestruck King, and smacked himself in the head, "Oh yeah, this is your first time on a PC, isn't it, Baba?"

"...Yes," King answered, shifting his feet a bit, and Purple held out a hand.

"C'mon, follow me," Purple coaxed the older stick into taking his hand and they climbed down onto the main screen together, landing on the sand blocks with a crunch, "Wow guys, this looks great!"

The whole screen was done up like, well, a beach, with sand and water and few palm trees. The trees looked hand-drawn, but the rest of it looked like Minecraft assets.

"Very... tropical," King nodded, gaze drifting out of the PC, but the view was... very fuzzy. Better to admire the kids' work.

"Oh, you actually came!" Red clapped excitedly, with a parrot perched on either shoulder, "Guys, Purple and King are here!"

And it was like magic, the way the others just seemed to appear, dropping down out of other windows. Green ran and embraced Purple whose cheeks definitely turned a shade darker in response.

"Glad you could make it," Orange said, holding his hand out for King to shake. King took it politely and gave it a single shake.

"Thank you for inviting me," King smiled as Yellow approached and peeked inside the picnic bag.

"He brought food!"

"Yes!" Blue cheered from their spot on the beach.

"Just a few sandwiches, really, since I wasn't sure what any of you would like. Tuna, chicken salad, egg salad, bologna and cucumber. Two of each, so anyone who wants to try can at least have one triangle to themselves," King explained as Yellow took the bag off his shoulder and carried it to the drawn picnic table.

King followed her, setting his other bag down next to the table before making his way to the water's edge and dipping his feet and legs into the cool water.

Despite hearing the sounds of the surf, the water was actually placid. That was kind of nice, it meant he wasn't about to get soaked from head to toe by an errant wave.

No, he was going to get soaked by the gaggle of children charging past him to get in the water.

King couldn't even be upset about it; the kids were laughing and having fun. Honestly it was a bit of a relief that they didn't seem to feel tense or on edge at all. They seemed wholly unbothered by his presence.

King watched them play something akin to volleyball; he wasn't quite sure what the rules were but it was three on three, so it wasn't quite proper volleyball. And goodness were they ever competitive.

He frowned as he started to notice... all of them were covered in scars. Even Purple, who had a dark scar that spread across his whole torso like a lightning bolt... Had Purple ever been electrocuted before? That felt like something they would have told him. He'd ask Purple about it later.

He got up and headed to the picnic table to unpack the sandwiches, enjoying how the sand didn't get stuck to his feet. A few moments later and the kids had noticed his absence, and they all came charging out of the water as a unit.

The eagerly settled around him, grabbing sandwiches from the trays. It seemed they didn't have the best table manners, but honestly they still weren't the rudest people he'd ever eaten with.

King happily chatted with them, mostly with Yellow about her experiments with the command block staff but eventually King managed to get Purple's attention.

"So, where did you get that scar?" King asked, and despite his conversational tone the whole table went silent. Green and Blue bit their lips and Orange just stared at King, trying to lock eyes with the stick, but King's gaze was focused on Purple, who squirmed under it like he'd been caught in a lie.

"I... you..." Purple started, and licked his lips and started again, "...are you sure you want to know?"

King paused, aware that Purple genuinely thought there was a reason he wouldn't want to know. He looked at the scar, and he felt the staff he no longer had vibrating in his hands; he lashed out in anger then, hadn't he? "I... gave it to you, didn't I?"

He very much wanted Purple to shake his head, but the young man only hung his head and King flinched, "I'm sorry."

Purple shook his head, "You already apologized for it. And I forgave you then."

King knew what he'd wanted to say wasn't the right thing to say, so he didn't apologize again, or insist that Purple shouldn't have forgiven him. He just hung his own head and went back to his sandwich quietly.

He expected the Colour Gang - as Purple called them sometimes - to stay silent and them politely guide them out, but that's not what happened.

Instead, they took turns talking about their own scars. It turned out that King wasn't the only one who'd hurt someone he cared about. It was pretty shocking to hear about all of Green's scars and how many had actually come from the others.

It... made him feel a little bit better.

These kids were good for Purple. He'd already been pretty confident about that, but it was good to see it in action.

And if he was being honest with himself, they were good for him too.

[joezworld]

Do you have any thoughts on the USS Wolverone and her sister ship USS Sable, the only two paddlewheeled aircraft carriers in the US Navy?

Sister ships is a... bold stance to take there. Try telling that around the Chicago docks and you'll get laughed all the way to Sault Ste. Marie.

Both of these ships did not initially start life as aircraft carriers - they were originally very luxurious passenger steamers - Greater Buffalo and Seeandbee. It's not known exactly when they first got to know each other (they ran basically the same routes along the American side of Lake Erie from Detroit to Buffalo via Cleveland), but considering the fact that Greater Buffalo has never quite been able to shake the nickname GeeBee, it's assumed that Seeandbee was the initiator of that friendship.

Both of these ships were known at the time as paragons of beauty - they'd been designed to attract passengers and in the process attracted other ships as well - but no other Laker could ever "get" either of them, with callers/suitors being gently or not-so-gently turned down. This was not exceptionally uncommon, as many vessels were 'waiting for Mr./Ms. Right', but these two never seemed to be that type.

In fact they seemed quite close to each other... but it was the 1930's, so they were just gals being pals, right?

Right?

Listen, I'm not going to say that the Great Lakes fleet was very homophobic, but such relationships just didn't occur! (because it was the 1930's and everything was awful and nobody ever said anything)

So it was quite a surprise when in 1942, Greater Buffalo joined the Navy, and got willingly converted into an aircraft carrier. Why was that a surprise? Because Seeandbee had already done that a few months earlier, and if anyone was not going to get their upper works chopped off, their pilothouse moved, and generally submit to massive structural changes, it was "GeeBee" - who was so invested in her appearance that she spent part of her winter layup obsessing over anti-fouling paint swatches. (It came in one color at the time. Where she found someone who could make different ones is lost to history.)

Of course, once that happened, and she sailed out of the shipyard in Chicago with a side island and a flight deck just like Seeandbee, everyone else on the lakes kinda knew. It actually became a very big to-do amongst the ships of the Great Lakes fleet, as this was probably the closest thing to an out-and-out declaration of same-sex love that anyone had ever seen, and a lot of informal social change followed it.

-

Their war service was actually an anti-climax compared to all the buildup to it - they lacked any real 'carrier' equipment, and were basically just giant floating landing strips for inexperienced pilots. As Seeandbee would recount much later: "for such a big war, it was actually rather dull."

-

3 years later, the war was over and so was the Navy's interest in the two. In what would become a rather unfortunate trend for the Navy, they dropped the ships like hot rocks the moment hostilities ended, leaving them as RADM Seeandbee (USN Ret.) and CDRE Greater Buffalo (USN Ret.) whether they liked it or not!

After that, the ships entered "private ownership" working for themselves as 'hulls for hire'. It wasn't economical to de-convert themselves back into passenger steamers, as the postwar economic boom soon made car and rail travel the dominant forces of travel in and around the Great Lakes, but they found work throughout the 40's, 50's, and 60's as dedicated cargo vessels and spot-hire ferries, capable of carrying a lot of automobiles on their flight decks, along with large or otherwise unwieldy cargos.

This made them a regular sight in all of the Great Lakes, and they continued to be unofficially but totally officially A Thing (TM), meaning that a lot of the Lakers (a term denoting any ship that is permanently homeported in the Great Lakes) had to really address their prejudices whether they wanted to or not, as a quirk of mechanized psychology means that something as serious as the criticism of a "fleetmate's" life partner will draw an immediate, vociferous, and oftentimes unconscious defense, even if the ship doing the defending shares the viewpoint of the person or ship they're yelling at. This meant that most of the Great lakes Fleet spent the 60's and 70's more or less unconsciously indoctrinating themselves into not being homophobes - which is a fun historical side note that rarely gets mentioned because most ships had no idea it was happening.

Seriously - they didn't know. A sociology paper was published on this in the very early 80's by a NASA jet who was doing her doctoral thesis, and when it finally got the attention of the lake fleet in the late 1990's, they all collectively bluescreened over it.

-

Going into the 1980's, Lake traffic had changed significantly - air travel, rail freight, and cars and trucks had taken away a lot of business, and ships were having to band together just to keep busy. (I could do a whole thing on him, but noted Survivor(tm) Ed Fitzgerald ended up cashing in a lot of his liquid assets and just bought vertically-integrated steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs in 1999 just so he could employ as many of his friends as possible.) Finding their business opportunities drying up, both Seeandbee and Greater Buffalo went back into government service, joining the Coast Guard in 1986. Since then, the pair have been operating as mobile search and rescue bases - with helicopters being launched from their decks in support of missing or sinking boats.

An incredibly recognizable pair of ships, especially in their white and orange Coast Guard paint, the two have become local icons in their home port of Chicago, appearing in the background of many different films and tv shows.

Going into the 21st century brought new and interesting life events: In 2003, Ontario legalized same-sex marriage, becoming the first in Canada to do so. Within days of the ruling, Seeandbee and Greater Buffalo - with flags flying and USCG paint polished to a mirror finish, besieged the Sault Ste. Marie municipal courthouse and were wed in a very short ceremony after a 70 year courtship period. This made headlines across the United States and Canada, as the United States, which did not recognize same-sex marriage at the time, had a significant bit of egg on their face from the very public nature of the marriage ceremony. It was expected that some pushback might occur from either the Coast Guard (don't ask, don't tell was still enforceable), or the US Government, which was capable of not recognizing the 'illegitimate' marriage certificate.

That pushback never happened - in no small part due to the fact that the Department of Transportation had spent most of the 1980s and 1990 funding studies into mechanical psychology, meaning that SecTrans Norman Mineta was able to articulate to President Bush exactly how fucked the US/Canadian steel industry would be if the entire Great Lakes Fleet rioted over this, which they absolutely would have. Additionally, the Coast Guard had seen how poorly the Navy had treated some of its ships in the early 1990s (Not due to LGBT rights, but instead had been part of a greater push to retire Cold-War-Era ships, and had notably caused a massive institutional brain-drain within the Navy after said push went a little too well, and caused many ships whose service began in WW1/WW2 to leave in disgust.) and had no desire to repeat those mistakes, so they supported the pair unconditionally, a first for any US uniformed service. (They'd hired many of the now -ex Navy vessels, and feelings were still raw.)

Following this, the now-married couple continued their Coast Guard service, which they continue to this day. Additionally, after realizing that their marriage was accepted more through extenuating circumstances than any real attempt to accept same-sex marriage, they both became tireless advocates of same-sex marriage until the ruling on Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, after which they became supporters of acceptance of gay people and LGBTQ+ rights.

[thewebcomicsreview]

What are your thoughts on Gunnerkrigg's current chapter? Something feels very strange while reading, but I can't quite put my finger on what - I saw the earlier anon question about Gunnerkrigg in general, but would it be possible to get your take on this particular chapter? Thank you!

So, this revelation is meant to answer the long-standing question of why the weather's never changed near the shore, and-

Wait, no, not that shore.

That's the shore of the Lake. Gunnerkrigg Court has the ocean on one side and an artificial lake on the other side. And on the third side was the River Annan, with the long and now-solved mystery of the ghost on the shore. So the Court has three unrelated mysterious shores. But I can imagine why people are confused about the weather on the shore never changing being a plot point when the only mysterious shore we've ever encountered in the comic, the one that's connected to Omega which is the latest Big Mystery, is one where it mysteriously rains a lot. But Aata is talking about the Ocean Shore, and we've never seen it rain in the Ocean. Granted, there's been one (1) Ocean chapter, but at least it's true that the weather mysteriously never ch-

Okay, but that's not the shore, that's the Ocean itself. It's rained on the Ocean and it's rained on the shore but it's never rained near the Ocean Shore. All right? Anthony said that somewhere, and we saw the shore in Chapter 49

Look, there's....there's foreshadowing that it's not a normal ocean! And, yeah, there's also foreshadowing that rain's coming with those dark clouds back there but, y'know. We never see them move.

It all actually makes me think of Homestuck, of all things. There's a ton of stuff in Acts 1-4 setting up the idea of the Game Prompt/Narrator as a malevolent force that the kids are being controlled by, which would make "the kids escape the story" a logical and satisfying ending. But it's mostly dropped in Act 5 in favor of trolls and gods and other stuff that made the comic more popular, and completely dropped for most of Act 6, to the point where when Hussie said "Time to cut the bullshit and resolve the main tension of the comic" the audience was deeply invested in the bullshit and barely remembered the supposed main tension, and the ending was widely hated.

Gunnerkrigg Court is similar. Haven't you ever wondered how the Court has so much space? No, not really. We never really got a great sense of how large the Court was. It seemed to be the side of a small city, which is pretty big for a school but hardly, like, some impossible mystery, especially when it was revealed that the Court "grew" from the seed Bismuth and thus they didn't need to spend zillions of dollars building everything. Especially since the Court's location was so vague. It's not the kind of thing you wonder about, it's the kind of thing you suspend your disbelief over. Especially since Kat is a scientist who made a remote control flying drone and thus needed to know distances accurately and she never wondered about it.

It feels like this comic was originally going to have Annie and Kat solve the mysteries of the Court and then Tom realized he forgot to have them actually do that so now they're getting all the revelations just told to them by Aata and Arizona, who have no actual motivation for sharing all this information besides "Enh, why not".

And it's hard for me to get invested because the Court's Evil Plan has nothing at all to do with the plot! Robot is the most interesting antagonist in the comic, easily, and the robots are the thing the comic's built the most intrigue over. Loup is a lame and terrible replacement for Coyote, but at least he's a malevolent force actually threatening the characters, and is even slowly getting more interesting with this Jerrick thing. I still don't understand why Annie and Kat even care what the Court is doing. This entire chapter could be Aata's revelations about his favorite bagels, and it'd be no less relevant and actually develop a character slightly.

This whole chapter feels less like shocking revelations and more like exposition, like it's building to the court's plan getting wrecked or something. It's an infodump. This entire Star Ocean Til The End of Time subplot is a massive, unending infodump with no real reason to care about it.

[twofrontteethstillcrooked]

4 Oct. Suptober: Secrets

"Thank you for understanding," Cas said quietly behind him.

Dean turned around at that. He fought to keep his voice even. "What, exactly, am I understanding here."

au (choose ur own season! Charlie’s alive, no-one’s possessed); deancas, mildly nsfw

The ceiling in this room was strewn with runes, which shouldn't have startled Dean for at least two reasons. 

First, parts of the bunker's labyrinth of corners, closets, and hidey-holes had been designed for a variety of purposes only a few of which the Men of Letters had deigned to actually write down somewhere. The rune room, by contrast, was much more straightforwardly dedicated to runology, and whichever MoL had been in charge of decorating had gone with the obvious. In addition to the books, field research, and reels on runes and the collection of tablets, boxes, knives, almanacs, placards, plates, and skins (ugh) patterned with archaic alphabets, there were whole passages of rune poetry, songs, and spells painted on all available surfaces.

Secondly, and more importantly: there were five old quilts piled on the floor behind the tallest bookcase, and while Dean had spent multiple occasions underneath this ceiling, often while flat on his back on the quilts, he was usually preoccupied with amusements more potent than whatever the hell was spelled out between the bookcase's top shelf and the wall.

"Are you going to move anytime soon?" he whispered, smiling into Cas's hair.

Cas made a small noise of protest and did not shift his weight off of Dean.

"You're heavier than you look." Dean stroked his hands down the length of Cas's back, beneath the shirt they'd rucked up but hadn't managed to remove. "Earth to Castiel." He wiggled around on the quilts a little.

Eyes screwed shut, Cas pushed himself up just enough to slide off but remain plastered to Dean's side. 

Dean knocked his forehead against Cas's. "Hey." 

He couldn't figure out what to say in response to the look Cas gave him then. 

Bruised, Dean thought; vulnerable. 

Had he somehow hurt Cas while they…?

"I'm fine, Dean," Cas said, as though that wasn't the thing they both lied to one another about on a regular basis. He chewed his lip for a moment. 

"Cas--"

"I don't think we should keep doing this anymore." Cas had his eyes closed again, as if against a blinding light.

Dean blinked up at the ceiling. It was surprisingly blurry.

"All right," he offered. 

"It's just." Cas swallowed. "We agreed this was not." 

He moved away until he was flat on his back at the edge of the blankets. Dean's skin seemed to chase the missing warmth like it could call somehow it forth in the gap between their bodies.

"Not what," Dean said flatly.

"I don't remember what we called the arrangement." Cas sat up, reached for his boxer briefs and trousers slung over the nearest desk chair. "Casual."

Dean sat up as well, since it seemed quality time in the ol' pleasure palace had definitively ended. He wiped down quickly, with the washcloth he'd remembered to bring, put on his t-shirt and underwear while still sitting down, and stood up to tug on his jeans. His back to Cas, he put his arms into his flannel button-down and leaned against the bookcase. Nothing about getting dressed was strenuous, yet he was exhausted.

"Thank you for understanding," Cas said quietly behind him.

Dean turned around at that. He fought to keep his voice even. "What, exactly, am I understanding here."

Cas hadn't tucked in his shirt yet. The more-disheveled-than-usual wardrobe, combined with his uncombed hair and soft, sad eyes, got Dean going towards him before he even realized he was moving, tramping over the quilts. 

"It's not supposed to mean anything," Cas said, like he was apologizing for some trespass Dean could only guess at. "I broke the rules."

"We didn't." Dean stopped when he was basically standing nose to nose with him, an inch or two's worth of height neither here nor there. "There weren't any rules, not really."

Because that would have required more talking, and Dean, for one, had not wanted to talk. What he'd wanted was Cas under his hands, Cas's mouth on his, Cas naked, Cas gasping, Cas inside him hot and sweet as sin and salvation. And Dean had all that, and then some, for a couple months of sneaking at random if persistent intervals into this fucking room -- literally, a fucking room -- covered all over in what may as well have been secrets. Dean didn't speak a single rune language and apparently he didn't speak Cas either.

Cas couldn't move any further away without merging with the wall. His eyes on Dean's were so--

"This hasn't been meaningless, to me," Cas said, mouth turned down as though he expected Dean to hate him for the confession.

Dean took a step backward. "It hasn't been to me either." 

Cas looked at him like he'd spoken in Dalecarlian. Dean's heart clenched. He felt like he was just beginning to see the shape of what was happening, like if he looked away from Cas he would lose something precious he'd only just realized he was supposed to keep firmly in his grip.

Cas held his gaze, searching. He seemed to discover a revelation. "Oh," he said, his eyes suddenly alight.

The relief flooding over Dean was like diving into a clear, cool lake on a sweaty summer day. "Oh," he agreed, crowding into Cas's space again.

He hadn't kissed Cas but a dozen or two times in the last hour. Some remedies were easily executed.

Cas's hand tightened in his hair at the rap-rap-rappp on the door. His mouth was very red and Dean gentled the kiss without conceding it was necessary to actually stop kissing despite the interruption.

"If you guys are gonna be done with your research any time soon," Charlie called from the hallway, with a sarcastic emphasis on the word research, "Sam and I are ordering some Chinese. If, you know, you wanna eat some dinner with us later."

Dean waited until her footsteps faded. "She might be on to us."

Cas quirked an eyebrow. "Didn't you tell her what was going on almost from the start?"

Ah. Yeah, Dean had forgotten doing that. There were some real downsides to day drinking.

"And I told Sam after maybe a week," Cas said, with such innocence it only took five or six years off of Dean's life.

Dean laid his head on Cas's shoulder with a hidden groan and tried to recalibrate. "Wait. Why have we been sneaking around in here if everyone knows?" 

Not that two other people equalled the entirely of their acquaintance pool, but still.

"I thought you were enjoying the secretive nature of our encounters." Cas somehow managed to sound both prim and snarky. His eyebrow was working hard.

Dean took Cas's head in his hands and kissed his forehead. "The floor quilts are great. Y'know what would be even better? A mattress, Cas." 

"Noted."

Several hours later, Dean discovered that the ceiling in Cas's room was boringly plain white, not a runic inscription or rhyme in sight. He didn't mind.

[veryspecialfungus]

oooh i just noticed those tags abt the next arc being more morris-focused (+raz) that sounds cool!!! we need more morris content in the world (which i say about every junior agent but especially him)

i'm curious now (but feel free to ignore this bit if its spoilers) will each arc focus on a different junior agent/pov or will it be more focused on a few specific ones/the general intern group?

Hope you have a great day!!!

Morris never gets any love, it's honestly extremely sad. And not just because he's my favorite of the interns, he's just a really fun character with a fun gimmick that gets no development (why are you even in the Psychonauts if you just want to run a radio station all day, sir? Sir? Answer me sir.)

...I guess fun gimmick with no development is actually true of all the interns, but, y'know, mustn't dwell. That's what fanfic is, right? If the powers that be won't feed you, feed yourself.

As for the second part of the question, it might help if I go into my creative process a little: Generally when I start, I write down every single idea I have in the moment: This could be broad concepts, certain images, scenes that I want to have happen, vital plot points, themes and even some phrases that I'd like to have as runners through the story, and what characters I need to fill what narrative roles and if I need to make an OC for something that a canon character won't work for, and then I start putting them into a rough chronological order and that becomes the rough outline for the entire story. I don't really outline too strictly though, because a lot of the story comes out through the writing of it.

As my old writing teacher used to say: "Only writing is writing." I always took that to have two meanings: 1. outlining and planning and plotting have their place, but the only way to actually write is to do the mechanical action of putting words into sentences and 2. You have no idea what's going to come out as you actually start to put things into concrete words. As a fer'instance I never actually planned to have Linda involved in the first arc, until I realized that she could probably rumble the psitanium thieves just by sticking her head out of the lake, and that changed the tone of the fic considerably in a way that I think is better (Linda's just so friendly she softens things considerably.)

So basically my answer is...I sure wanted each intern to have their own story, but I'm not sure that's in the cards. The fanfic has a plot, but it's not directly told, exactly? Pieces of it will come out as the characters just do things in episodic chunks, which gives me some freedom and is restricting in others; It lets me go explore fun tangents but also risks meandering. I think Norma's character arc may just end up threaded through the entire thing rather than having her own chapter because she has a unique role in the group? And I was never confident in the idea I had for a Lizzie-centric story, and eventually I just had to kill that darling when I realized I wasn't enthusiastic about it, and right now I don't have anything to replace it with. Even this upcoming Morris arc was supposed to be two stories that ended up being too similar, so I merged them into one. And I never came up with anything for Sam.

But then I may end up changing my plans entirely depending on how things develop. It's also part of the funny nature of fanfic that the audience gets to watch it written in real time, so if you notice something that looks like me changing gears in the middle of something...that's probably what happened. I'm not perfect as a writer and this format lends itself to some challenges, but I think I've got enough pieces to make this fic fun anyway.

[ask-the-riders]

A Chance Reunion

While out on a job, War hears a familiar song being sung, and she decides to follow it. That decision leads to an attack, a reunion with her best friend, and a reboot caused by immense embarrassment

The glitch made a face and paused what she was doing, the wind carrying some unknown medley in her direction. She knew she had a job to do here, but at the same time... What was that song?

As she began to follow the sound, doing her best to avoid the pricker plants and thorny brush, War gained a sense of familiarity. She'd heard that song before, but she couldn't pinpoint from where. The tune grew louder and louder until the song was crystal clear, and as the rider emerged from the bushes that lined a long forgotten path, she spotted the singer. The mystery person was perched on the edge of a dock, singing to themselves with their feet in the water. They seemed unaware of her presence, and she furrowed her brow bones. 

That sense of familiarity grew stronger, but before War had the chance to call out to the singer, a guttural growl was heard. Immediately following the growl, War was slammed into the side of a tree by the force of someone's full weight. She cried out in shock and instinctively reached for her sockets, but as if the attacker had seen this move before, one of his hands snatched both of her wrists, pinning them above her head. She screeched and began thrashing, her figure glitching heavily, "H-Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing?! Let me go, jackass!" 

Her attacker tilted his head and chuckled, his voice low and husky, "I don't think so, Glitchy. Not when I've already put you on the menu for tonight's dinner." Her sockets widened and she continued thrashing, "You can't eat me! I'll turn to dust the second my soul shatters!" The monster before her leaned closer, the stench of death and decay on his breath as he spoke, intentionally flashing his sharp, serrated teeth at her, "I know." He lifted his free hand, entirely too content as he tugged off her scarf, eyeing the fabric for a moment, "Huh. This might be somethin' my kid would like. Guess I'll have to hold onto it and ask her." 

With her neck vertebrae now exposed and vulnerable, War scrunched up her shoulders. Watching the futile attempt to hide her neck from him, the elder of the two skeletons laughed, "Cute, but I can still see your neck." He paused, leaning even closer and grinning as she squirmed. The instant she tilted her head again and he saw an opening, he buried his face in the crook of her neck and mumbled, "If you were anyone else, you'd be dead by now. You're funny though, so you should count yourself as lucky." As the glitch felt a grand total of four rows of jagged teeth graze over her neck, she whimpered, tightly squeezing her eyes shut.

A voice called out to her attacker and he let out a sigh, pulling back to look at a second monster. Hesitantly cracking an eye open to peek at her incidental savior, War frowned; That posturing, the clothing style, and those violet eye lights... Memories began to resurface and the rider narrowed her eyes in confusion, "......Betta?" The smaller of the pair before her blinked, her attention now focused solely on the glitch. With some prodding, her attacker released her wrists and took a step back, allowing his daughter to move closer. War's face became flushed as the other female skeleton began to sniff at her, starting at her face. As she continued sniffing around the glitch's body, she made a face, promptly deciding to step back and nonchalantly check her out, her violet, heart shaped eye lights roaming over War. As the realization finally clicked into place, she seemed to perk up, her eyes wide with excitement as a piranha-like grin stretched across her face, "MALLY! IT'S REALLY YOU!"

War yelped as she was tackled, nearly losing her balance. Letting out a deep sigh of relief, War made a sound of confirmation, awkwardly wrapping her arms around the lake dweller, "Yeah, it's me. I'm glad you finally recognized me, Weirdo." Betta giggled, visibly giddy at being reunited with her old friend. She shared a look with the elder lake dweller, "Dad, look! It's Mal! It's my best friend!" Her father rolled his false eye lights, disappointment flickering in his gaze at having lost his prey, "I can see that, Betta. I'll leave now so you guys can catch up, or whatever." Betta made a sound in acknowledgment, and with that, her father dismissed himself, vanishing into the forest. As soon as he was gone, War let out another breath, flooded by even more relief than before, "Oh, thank god. I thought he was gonna kill me. As much as I hate existing sometimes, I really don't wanna be someone's dinner." 

Betta continued grinning excitedly at her, "He would've done it too, if I hadn't shown up in time." War offered her a slight smile, "I don't doubt that at all. Thanks to you and your impeccable timing, I get to live another day." Betta beamed at her, "Mmhm! Once again, I've saved the day with only minimal effort." The glitch couldn't help the amused chuckle that left her; She'd forgotten just how much she missed this dweeb. Her body froze up and glitched in surprise, her entire face flushing bright blue as she felt teeth press against her own. It wasn't the first time Betta had kissed her like this, but it'd been so long that War had forgotten the way it felt. Her body began to relax and for a moment, she began to cave, melting into the kiss. 

Remembering her current circumstances, she placed her hands on Betta's shoulders, nudging the lake dweller and lightly pushing her away. Betta tilted her head in confusion, and War sighed, visibly flustered, "I know you're excited to see me, and I know it's been a while, but you can't do that anymore. I found my soulmate, and he probably wouldn't appreciate you kissing me." The lake dweller pouted, "Sorry about that. It's just been way, way too long, and I missed getting to kiss you... I'll try not to do it again." War's blush became a bit brighter and she looked away from her friend, "Thank you. At least you're listening to me, this time." Betta made a face and huffed, "Well, it's not my fault that you always smelled like chocolate! Pardon me for thinking you smelled nice." 

Memories of previous times the lake dweller had kissed her began to invade the glitch's mind, and her figure fizzled as she recalled the other's hands wandering on more than one occasion. War's face burned even brighter, and before she could snap at her friend to shut up, Betta smiled again as if nothing was wrong, completely casual as she chirped, "So you finally found your soulmate, huh? What's he like?" War shrunk back a little in embarrassment, avoiding eye contact, "He's... He's uh... He's great. Funny, unbelievably smart, good with animals, and absurdly charming." Betta hummed, "What's his name? Is he hot?" 

War's body glitched again and she glanced around, needing to remind herself that Pestilence wasn't there with her before answering, "His name's Pestilence... Wasn't always that, though. Mine got changed too. It's 'War' now. But yeah......... He's hot." Her face grew even brighter at the admission and she mentally cursed at herself. If Pest had heard her admit that she thought he was attractive, there'd be no way he'd ever let her live it down. The lake dweller remained completely casual, her brow bones lifting as she noticed War's scarf on the ground; Her dad must've dropped it when he left to go off and pout somewhere. She leaned down to pick it up, before offering the item to the rider, "You guys got your names changed, huh? That's cool." She paused as War reached out to take back her scarf.

As War busied herself with putting it on again and looping it around her neck, Betta watched her, tilting her head in curiosity, "Is he good in the sack, too?" As expected, the glitch's sockets widened, almost the size of small saucers as she stared at the lake dweller in disbelief, "...Are you seriously asking me that right now, Betta?" The lake dweller shrugged, entirely unashamed, "Yeah, I am. I'm just curious, y'know? I wanna make sure he's good at pleasing my bestie, in every sense of the word." War made a face, "I appreciate your concern, but I'm not answering that. That is extremely personal, and I won't be discussing it with you today." 

Knowing her friend all too well, Betta arched a brow bone and smirked, "So in other words, yes, he's amazing. I gotcha, Grumpy Butt." To finish off her statement, she teasingly winked, and War's sockets began to cloud over. Reaching maximum embarrassment, a dial tone sound could be heard, and War's body went limp. Acting fast, Betta was able to catch her, lifting the glitch into her arms and sighing as a reboot bar appeared above her head. Unbelievable; They hadn't seen each other in years, and after not even an hour of finally speaking again, War had already shorted out on her. The lake dweller couldn't help the way her expression softened as she looked at the rider, and she shook her head, smiling slightly. 

It was unbelievable, but at the same time, it was exactly like War to do this sort of thing. Despite all the time that had passed, the glitch really hadn't changed at all.

[echoes-of-the-clockwork]

Book One: Gold (Prompto x Reader) Chapter XIV

After stopping at Leirity Seaside and Spelcray Haven, the group makes it to Cape Caem. Iris departs from the party and heads into the house to see Talcott. While the boys spoke with Cindy, (Y/n) wandered off towards the cliffs. She admired the beautiful view of the ocean with the lighthouse at her back. She inhaled deeply, the salty sea breeze bringing her a semblance of peace. The gentle breeze also cooled her heated skin. She stretched her arms towards the sky with a hum of content. "This place really is nice."

Glancing across the surface of the glistening ocean, (Y/n)'s peace of mind was shattered by Callyx. Unconsciously, she raises a hand and presses it against the back of her neck. Her smile was vanquished by a melancholic frown. Although hidden by her clothes, she felt as if she could feel the one thing that connected her to the empire-the barcode. Unlike Prompto, hers was located on the back of her neck. She knew the truth behind his existence, but he didn't. Nor did he know the truth behind hers.

"Hey!"

(Y/n) was startled from her thoughts when she heard Prompto yelling. She turned around and watched him run towards her. "Hey, I thought you'd be with the others."

"Why would I be when my favorite person is missing?" He asked with a smile. She wanted to smile, but her dark thoughts kept her from doing so. Of course, Prompto could tell she wasn't cheerful as usual. "Y'know, frowny faces aren't allowed here. The view is way too beautiful. What's wrong, (Y/n)?"

She looked away from him. "Dark thoughts, that's all. I thought I had managed to push them aside, but they keep resurfacing."

"Are these "dark thoughts" because of Callyx?"

She nodded her head weakly. "Yeah..."

"You listen to me anytime I need to talk and always know how to cheer me up. Whenever I needed a shoulder to cry on, you were there. You're the reason I've come this far and think I'm actually a worthy person and not just some waste of space. I just want to let you know I'm here for you just like you are for me, and I'm not going anywhere, okay?" Prompto reaches out and takes her hand in his, squeezing it gently.

(Y/n) could feel the sting of tears forming from his kindness. She bit her bottom lip to keep the tears at bay. She couldn't even bring herself to look at him in fear she'd begin crying. All she could do was squeeze his hand in return. "Thank you, Prompto, but I'm afraid this is something I can't share with you just yet."

Prompto didn't want to force her to do anything and respected her decision. "Well, when you're ready, I'll be here."

The guardian inhaled a shaky breath. She managed to turn and look at him, but the thing she was trying to not do happens. The tears she's been holding back spring free and cascade down her cheeks. Before she could even attempt to wipe them away, Prompto was already on it. His hands cradled her cheeks, using his thumbs to wipe away the tears. He was taken aback at her sudden tears and couldn't help but worry. "H-Hey, it's okay. Please don't cry, (Y/n)."

"I'm sorry, Prom," she sniffled.

"Don't apologize, silly." Prompto presses his forehead against hers with a warm smile. He wipes her tears away for a little longer before slipping his arms around her smaller frame and hugging her gently. She didn't hesitate to reciprocate the hug and wrap her arms around his torso. They remained in each other's arms until they heard Noctis shouting their names. Prompto pecked her on the forehead before grabbing her hand and rejoining Noctis and the others.

Once back with the others, Ignis explained how they learned where to find the mythril to repair the boat from Talcott. Their next destination would be the Vesperpool. As they were about to make their way into the house, Gladio stopped them. "So yeah, gonna have to ask you to handle this boat business without me."

Prompto gaped in shock. "Say wha?"

"Got some business of my own to deal with," the shield vaguely responded.

Noctis knew Gladio all too well and didn't try to change his mind. "Do your thing. Not like we could stop you anyway."

"You know me too well." He walked past the three boys and came to a stop beside (Y/n). He patted her on the shoulder. "Keep these guys in shape while I'm gone, short stuff."

She smirked in amusement. "You can count on me. Take care of yourself, Gladio."

"Don't have to tell me twice. See ya 'round." With that, the shield left.

<-------------<<<<<

Several days later, everyone minus Gladio was in the Regalia. Noctis was driving, Prompto was in the passenger's seat, and Ignis and (Y/n) were sitting in the backseat. The strategist recognized their surroundings from their earlier expedition in the area. "The waterfall cave was right around here."

"That means the lake should be somewhere north of here," Prompto said.

"Be wary, though-where we go, the empire seems to follow."

"Which means we might see Callyx again..." The marksman muttered with a slightly angry undertone.

"You hate the guy that much?" Noctis asked.

"Yeah, I do!" Prompto sat up in his seat with a huff of annoyance. "He hurt my beautiful goddess!"

(Y/n) chuckled slightly at his reasoning. "Trust me, I made sure he felt some pain before I left."

Eventually, they pull up to a tunnel whose gate had previously been locked. It opens and allows them passage. Prompto was puzzled at the entire thing. "Wait-what happened to "under imperial lockdown"?"

"They all but turned the key and left the gates open for us-as if awaiting our arrival," Ignis commented.

"And if anyone's waiting for us, I bet it's those guys," the sharpshooter grumbled.

"Chancellor Izunia and Callyx."

"Can't complain as long as they let us in," Noctis said.

"Who's to say they'll let us out? Not to mention we're a man down. Would that the marshal were with us," the advisor stated.

"But we have (Y/n) now!" Prompto chanted. "And whatever happened to that guy?"

"As I understand it, he's put his tomb raiding on hold to help the hunters take care of some troublesome beasts."

"No rest for "the immortal"," the prince said.

(Y/n) was curious to ask about Cor since she's only heard a few things about him from Prompto, but her train of thought was derailed when Noctis slammed on brakes. She braced herself as the car swerved from the harsh braking, her nails digging into the leather of the seat. Wondering why he made a harsh stop, she looked up to see an imperial blockade consisting of an MA Veles and imperial troopers.

"No way through," Noctis mumbled.

"So they give us access to the Vesperpool, but still intend to stop us by setting up other blockades," (Y/n) stated as she got out of the car.

"Yeah, it totally doesn't make any sense," Prompto commented. "But what do you expect from the empire?"

"Good point," Noctis said.

Once everyone was out of the car, they summoned their weapons. Ignis, wielding his daggers, warned his companions. "We must be doubly cautious."

"Right. No Gladio, no room for error."

Even without Gladio's presence, the battle went smoothly. They were able to easily dispose of the imperial forces and continue down the road. This time, Ignis was behind the wheel. Noctis, even with (Y/n) in the backseat with him, was able to spread out. "I could get used to havin' all this room back here. Too bad Gladio isn't as small as (Y/n)."

"It is quite cozy back here without him," the guardian said, stretching her arms into the air as her (h/c) locks were tousled by the wind.

Prompto glanced into the backseat at his best friend and girlfriend. "I'll let the big guy know you guys said so."

After a few more minutes of driving, Ignis parks the Regalia near the Vesperpool. Everyone exits the vehicle and heads into the nearby swampland in search of the ruins they heard about from Talcott. Down the trail, they spotted two familiar cars. One was red and the other was black.

"Oh, great..." (Y/n) groaned.

As they come near the ruins, they find Ardyn and Callyx waiting for them. The female spirit smirked in satisfaction seeing her fellow guardian's right eye was foggy. The skin around it was pink and puffy from where she burnt him. The boys also noticed the man's maimed eye. Prompto leant over and whispered to the golden-eyed spirit. "You did that to him?"

"Yeah. He deserved it," (Y/n) replied.

"Damn..." Noctis mumbled at seeing the damage.

Ardyn addressed the group as they made their way over to him and Callyx. "Gentlemen." He then took off his hat and bowed in (Y/n)'s direction. "And lady. What a pleasant surprise."

Prompto glanced between the two men with a groan. "Ugh! Told you they'd be waiting!"

"With my imperial friends, no less."

"Splendid," Ignis rhetorically retorted.

The chancellor quickly tried to assuage their concern. "But fear not-I'll put in a good word. Well, come along, then." He turns and begins walking toward the ruins. Callyx, on the other hand, didn't budge. He glared at the girl with his only remaining eye. He took a few steps towards her, but was stopped by Ardyn. "Do behave yourself, dear friend."

Callyx gritted his teeth, clenching his fists tightly. "If I could, I'd rip into your flesh again, right here and right now."

(Y/n) wasn't afraid of the man and stood her ground. "Did you not learn your lesson the first time? Guess you didn't and now don't wanna keep your left eye. I don't mind burning it like I did your right one."

"Why you little-!"

"Callyx," Ardyn gently called out in warning.

The male guardian reluctantly backed away with a snarl. He turned his back to his fellow spirit and followed after the chancellor.

Ardyn smiled at the group as Callyx took the lead towards the ruins. "I do apologize for his unruly behavior." He adjusted his hat and walked alongside his spiky-haired companion. "Now then, don't stray too far, lest you get left behind. And surely you'd rather avoid unnecessary scuffles, seeing as you're now a quartet. Oh, dear. Touchy subject?"

"One we won't discuss with you," Ignis quipped rather harshly.

"Then let's discuss why you're here. Hmm.... It can't be archaeology... Mythril, perhaps?"

"This guy's reading our thoughts!" Prompto gasped.

"Mythril-it's a precious resource. We can't just let anyone get their hands on it," Ardyn claimed.

"But you'll help us get ours on it, right?" Noctis asked.

"I never said that!"

"Of course you didn't," Prompto muttered.

"Where is the fun in that?" The chancellor questioned. "I thought you'd rather dig it up yourselves."

"We'll make you all do the damned dirty work yourselves. You're capable enough even with one person missing," Callyx sneered.

(Y/n) couldn't hold her snarky remark at bay. "Oh, so you won't dirty your hands for mythril, but you're fine with killing your own people. Nice to know."

"You're making it very difficult to not kill you," Callyx growled.

"You won't because your tail wags for your master."

"So does yours," he retorts.

"But mine doesn't keep me on a short leash and actually trusts me."

Callyx's self control shattered. He reached out to grab the girl, but his arm was grabbed by her and she twisted his arm behind his back. Using her foot, she kicked the bend of one of his legs and forced him to a single knee. He grunted in pain as he struggled against her, but his current position made it difficult.

The guardians' argument didn't go unnoticed. The boys and Ardyn had watched the entire thing unfold. The chancellor was smirking in amusement while the others were shocked. The auburn-haired man strolled over with a chuckle. "As I believe this is a suiting punishment for Callyx, I do beg of you to release him, my dear. His punishment will come at a later date, I assure you."

(Y/n) glared at the chancellor before releasing Callyx. The male spirit got to his feet, rolling his shoulder and trying to ease the pain. "Damn you..."

She crossed her arms with a victorious grin. "Run along, kitty. Your master's tugging on your leash."

Without another word, Callyx walked away. Prompto watched the emerald-eyed guardian stalk away, clearly consumed by anger. He then looked over at his spirit with an astonished expression. "Wow, (Y/n). I've never seen you so angry before."

"I'm not someone who usually is easily angered," she sighed. "But Callyx just grinds my gears. Knowing he's willingly working for the empire and killing our people is what irks me the most."

"By that display, I do believe we won't be needing Gladio's assistance for this endeavor," Ignis said.

Noctis glanced at Callyx's retreating form before looking over at the golden-eyed girl. "I thought you were gonna break his arm."

"Oh, trust me, I wanted to. I already broke it once, but I'll gladly do it again," she responded. "Guardians are more resilient than humans and our injuries heal quicker, but it seems Callyx is still experiencing issues with his arm after I broke it at the fort."

"Indeed, he is," Ardyn sighed. "You did quite a number on him, my dear. The poor man was brought back to me with his eye singed and arm shattered."

"And you're not mad?" She inquired.

"Of course not. Callyx fought and lost. Tis a mere outcome of battle."

Hearing Ardyn's confession, (Y/n) felt a tinge of sorrow for Callyx. The chancellor wasn't saddened if the man was injured in battle. He doesn't care for him like Prompto does her. She shook her head, ridding herself of the thoughts. "Putting all this aside, aren't we here for mythril?"

He tipped his hat with a faint smile. "Right this way."

They continued to follow Ardyn down the trail until they reached the ruins. Outside the entrance to the ancient structure stood the woman they had fought against at Fort Vaullery. Beside her were two imperial officers.

Ardyn turns to Noctis and the others. "Fear not-I'll be but a moment." He walks over to the woman and begins to speak with her.

Prompto looked over at his best friend. "A moment doing what?"

Noctis shrugged his shoulders. "Beats me."

(Y/n) looked around at the number of imperials were stationed in the area. She could feel their eyes on her as their grips on their weapons tightened. She grimaced at the unsafe feeling she was experiencing. She was the conduit, the spirit the empire was seeking to kill. Now she was standing in the middle of an imperial hornet nest, afraid she'd stir the insects and wind up dead. "I'm not so sure I should be here..."

The prince glared at the imperial troopers who were eyeing the spirit. "Nah, it's fine. If they really wanted to kill you, I'm pretty sure they'd already done it."

"Perhaps the chancellor is the reason they remain inactive," Ignis speculated.

She rubbed her hands up and down her arms. "I just hope we get this mythril as quick as possible..."

Just then, Ardyn calls out to them. "All clear! Go ahead."

The group approaches the woman, who was eyeing them closely. "So, you're the "new recruits" they sent over for "special training." Nice cover, runaway prince."

"Thanks," Prompto replied.

Noctis groaned at how casual the blonde was being. "Oh, c'mon!"

The woman shook her head with a sigh. "At ease, "recruits." There's nothing in it for this ex-mercenary to turn you in."

"Well that's a surprise," (Y/n) muttered.

This caught the ex-mercenary's attention. "Good thing because your name and the prince's are on the empire's list. The very top, I might add." She took a few steps towards the girl and examined her appearance. "But I know I'm already gonna like you, firefly."

The guardian blinked in surprise. "Why's that?"

"You're the one who fried Callyx's eye. If you hadn't done it, I would've. Bastard's been a thorn in my side for a while now." She patted her on the shoulder, grinning. "I look forward to working with you, firefly."

(Y/n) glances up at the sky, noticing the sun was beginning to set. "Then let's get this show on the road."

Her grinned widened. "Took the words right out of my mouth. Let's get moving, "recruits"."

Seeing the group had become acquainted with the ex-mercenary, Ardyn chimed in. "I trust you'll be civil. Commodore Aranea Highwind, I leave them to you."

Aranea puts on her helmet and guides the group towards the entrance of the ruins. As they trudged through the shallow water, Prompto noticed the strange design of the ruins. "What kind of place was this? Any idea, Ignis?"

Ignis was also intrigued by the ancient structure, but he had no answers for the blonde. "None."

"Gee, I wonder what happened to the locals."

"Why not head inside and look for 'em?" Aranea suggested.

"I'm not so sure if we want to find the locals," (Y/n) said. "Who knows if they're hostile or peaceful."

"Guess we'll figure out the hard way if there are any locals," Noctis spoke up.

When the sun set behind the horizon and the moon rose into the sky, the entrance to Steyliff Grove was open. As they entered the ruins, (Y/n) took note of the design. She ran a hand across the wall. "Hey, Prom. Don't these ruins look a lot like the ones we hid in a while back?"

Prompto also analyzed the structure of the ruins. His eyes widen when he too saw the similarities. "Oh, yeah!"

"You must be talking about Costlemark Tower," Aranea voiced. "Place is crawling with daemons and has the same strange mechanism that prevents anyone from entering during the day."

The marksman glanced over at the ex-mercenary. "Does that mean this place is gonna be crawling with daemons too?"

"Most likely."

"Oh, yay..."

Previous Chapter || Next Chapter || Masterlist

[mlmxreader]

The Cabin | Johnny Cage

request; "can i please have "This is way too much fun" with Johnny? :3c" // @wing-dingy

note; Jason Voorhees was in MK at one point, so.........

The woods was quiet, no traffic rushing by at all hours of the night, no car horns blaring at one another in the dead of dawn, just the hushed whispering of the trees and the murmur of various animals running around and chattering; you were glad that Johnny had brought you to his cabin out in the middle of nowhere but close to a lake, you needed a break from the noise of the city, and being with just him for a few days was bliss. No night shoots, no getting up at stupid o'clock in the morning to make a journey across the country or to hop on a plane... just you, and him, and no schedules.

It was bliss, and the fact that you spent the entire day with him in the bed, wrapped up in one another's embrace, drowning in kisses, strangled by pleasure, was a blessing in itself.

Flopping onto your back and letting out a yawn, you couldn't help but to grin, a certain glow across your features that only came with the aftermath of Johnny pleasuring you for hours on end. "Fuck me, this is way too much fun..."

Wiping the sweat from his brow with the handkerchief he kept in his coat pocket, Johnny raised a brow at you, smirking slightly. "What do you mean? There's no such thing as too much fun!"

"I mean," you sighed, a vain attempt at catching your breath. "When we go back home, it's gonna be so fucking boring not being able to fuck for hours on end."

Frowning, Johnny turned to the window, concern etched across his face. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" You questioned, wrapping the sheet around your body like a cloak before joining him at the window. "Johnny?"

"Stay here," he told you, kissing your forehead. "I think I heard something outside... probably paps trying to get a snap of my-"

"It's the middle of the night," you gently protested, clinging onto his arm and shaking your head. "No one knows we're here except Raiden and Kung Lao... come back to bed."

Looking at you, Johnny smiled, shaking his head. "Babe, if there's someone out there-"

"Then I'm not having this play out like that stupid gore-fest film you did," you started, "if there's someone out there, they'll leave if we forget about 'em and call Kung Lao."

"You're right," he shrugged, pulling his arm from your grip and wrapping it around your shoulders as he licked his lips. "Y'know, maybe you should put that sheet on the bed, and I could do that thing where I go down on you and-"

There was a metal clang from outside, catching both yours and his attention.

"Johnny..." you clung onto him, your arms around his waist as he pulled you in close and tight. "When you said that this cabin was near a lake... what lake did you mean, exactly?"

"Crystal," he answered. "Y'know, near that summer camp."

"Oh, great!" You replied sarcastically. "So we've been fucking all day, and now we're gonna take a machete to the face? Lovely."

"Babe, it's fine," Johnny assured. "I'll handle it." He broke away from you, heading to the door. "I'll be right back, but... why don't you get ready to reward me when I get back?"

"You're vile," you chuckled, throwing his coat over to him. "Go be my hero."

[colour-outside-the-liness]

Hi Colour! This is going to be a long one, so buckle up!

Oh wow, that's so precious! You've definitely earned the "real life Dani" nickname haha I wish I could find something meaningful like that to do with my life. I'm actually autistic and have ADHD so hearing you do this kind of work makes me really happy! Keep up the good work Ms. Clayton! 😁 Haha

You sound like a lot of fun to hang out with at pubs! Haha I'm glad you identify with that bit of info on your star placements. I had a lot of fun doing it too!

The thing about Hozier is that some of his lyrics are incredibly sapphic to me for some reason, I'm still trying to figure it out. NFWMB is one of the songs that feels like that to me. Don't know if you've heard it before but give it a try if you haven't. If you close your eyes it sounds like you're in an epic romantic story and there are swords, pretty gowns, and rooms lit by torches. Haha

The beginning of this song was inspired by a poem written by W.B Yeats called "The Second Coming" in 1920, and it talks about an apocalypse of sorts, alluding to all of the horrors men inflicted upon the world which ends up awakening this beast that goes to Jesus's place of birth in the Bible (Bethlehem) to be born. The last lines being:

"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

So the song starts with:

"When I first saw you

The end was soon

To Bethlehem it slouched

And then, it must've caught a good look at you"

And oh boy do I think of Dani when I hear that. Especially bc of that scene where Viola accepts Dani's invitation to live inside her. And nobody knows why she accepts it (but I do!).

And yeah at first glance you might not think much of Dani. in the beginning she's just a tiny frail small-town girl with a lot of anxiety, running away from her past traumas. But she proves us wrong again and again and again. She moves to a country she's never been before entirely by herself, sees an opportunity, and doesn't let go of it even when it looks like it went wrong. Then is very loving and tender with these children who have gone through so much and are still going through so much. Tries to fight (with a fire poker!!) the threatening man that keeps harassing her, the children, and her friends. THEN manages to soften the angry, grumpy lesbian who's given up on people after A LOT of trauma (too much in my opinion) and doesn't give up on her when she rejects her either. Freaking exorcises her ex and makes him stop haunting her so she can be with the love of her life. And then finally as if all of that didn't make her the bravest hero in this story, she literally stops an apocalypse from happening and saves everyone from this beast by sacrificing herself without even thinking twice. Saves everyone that came before her and then the ones who'll come after for the rest of eternity. I mean the P-O-W-E-R this girl has. 💪 so hell yeah the lady in the lake wanted to take her.

When Hozier says:

"Ain't it a gentle sound, the rollin' in the graves?

Ain't it like thunder under earth, the sound it makes?

Ain't it exciting you, the rumble where you lay?

Ain't you my baby? ain't you my baby?"

I can only think of Dani at the bottom of the lake laying on top of all the bones of the people Viola killed and how she's at peace living forever in a dark place like that. That's kinda hardcore y'know?

After the first verses, Hozier goes on to talk abt his lover, someone so utterly terrifying even the beast of the end of the world can't stand to look at them. But this song is also about being proud to be this person's lover bc nothing can fuck with them, not bc you are there to protect them and wouldn't let anyone harm them, but bc they're more than capable of protecting themselves and you too. So in my head, this song is Jamie's declaration of love to Dani.

And then I think of Jamie's devotion to Dani when she said "If you can't feel anything, then I'll feel everything for the both of us." shown in this verse:

"If I was born as a blackthorn tree

I'd wanna be felled by you

Held by you

Fuel the pyre of your enemies"

And the fact that she took what she could get just to be with Dani. She knew she'd have to suffer for/bc of her at some point, but chose to be with her anyway. I have no doubts in my mind she'd want to be anything for her as long as they could be together in any way, shape, or form. In all the lives they happened to meet one another too.

Wouldn't it be cool to see them in an AU where Dani is like a medieval princess who's supposed to marry Edmund to form an alliance between kingdoms or something and Jamie is an assassin who is hired to kill the princess so she has to pretend to be Dani's personal guard or wtever but they fall in love and run away together and Jamie teaches her how to fight so Dani becomes this warrior but turns out Dani is naturally good at it and then she becomes a legend? Hahaha I can see her riding a horse in the winter with paint on her face and her blonde hair falling over this fur-lined cloak, fierce look on her face, and Jamie riding next to her (always). Then they come across Viola who's a witch and puts a curse on Dani and then Dani and Jamie have to travel to all sorts of places and fight all sorts of people and go on this whole adventure to rid Dani of this curse. Maybe Dani has to go back to her kingdom bc her father dies and there are other people trying to take her kingdom so there's a lot of angst and suffering but then they win at the end after a lot of sweat and tears and they live happily ever after! 😎Hahaha

Anyway, I hope you're having a great week so far and hope you had fun with your niece today! (I know if I was her and you had us make fudge and paint I'd worship you haha) I'm sorry for the very (very) long ask, but I've been obsessing over this idea for months and I just had to share it with someone! ✌️✨

(And you can call me Libby or wtever since I'm not anon anymore 🤗)

Awwh thank you so much for saying I have earned my 'real life Dani' title is means a lot to me that you guys see that in me!! I am sure you do so many meaningful things in life without even realising it!! I honestly just want to make a difference and I love helping people so going into a career like this just seemed so natural to me and I really do love what I do!! Thank you so much I really hope I can keep up the good work!! I hope I'm a lot of fun- I know I have helped win a few pub quizzes and there's been a few times I've won games of trivial pursuit as well so that really did make so much sense to me and learning about all the placements of my chart was so much fun and was so interesting so thank you very much!! I have heard some of Hozier's lyrics are quite sapphic and I always mean to look into more of his songs and then just never do but I will definitely look in to NFWMB because the lyrics you have sent me here are incredible and definitely give of Dani x Jamie vibes I definitely agree with you in everything you have said about why Viola accepted Dani's invitation- Dani and Viola are similar in some ways and this was something I was explaining to my niece when she watched it with me. I explained to her that both Viola and Dani are strong willed, and stubborn, and would do anything to fiercely protect the people they care about. We saw that time and time again with Dani, how within days of knowing Miles and Flora she was out with a fire poker trying to protect them from a strange man that she kept seeing around the manor. And how Viola would've done anything to protect her daughter. One major difference between them though is that Viola seemed to have a slight selfish streak where as Dani is entirely selfless, she was selfless for the longest time in even agreeing to marry Eddie so she wouldn't hurt him, she was selfless in protecting Miles and Flora, and even more selfless in saving Flora's life and freeing all the trapped spirits of Bly Manor and then she is selfless in the fact that she won't drag anyone down and won't hurt anyone else at Bly ever again. The one thing she did for herself was being with Jamie- and she was able to make Jamie open up and trust people in way she probably hadn't for the longest time. Dani is a truly strong person as was Viola and I can see why she would accept Dani's invitation. I will have to listen to this song to see it from a Jamie perspective which I will definitely do tomorrow but from the lyrics you have sent me I can definitely see it being a love declaration to Dani from Jamie. Jamie knew in the end she would suffer because she knew she wouldn't be able to keep Dani forever, and knew that one day she would have to leave her- but she knew loving Dani for as long as she was allowed to would be worth that pain in the end and Jamie is a truly strong person as well for knowing this and staying by Dani's side anyway when that must have been such a hard thing for Jamie to ever have to accept. Jamie would've been anything for Dani and would've one anything for her as Dani would've for Jamie and that's why I love them so much. They loved each other so purely and without conditions and so wholeheartedly and it really was such a lovely thing to watch play out in front of us (even if it did hurt us all at the end). I think it would be so cool to see an AU like that I think medieval stuff is always so fun and so interesting and a good enemies to lovers start never fails either because there's so much tension there between them. And Jamie being undercover as someone to get close to Dani and them slowly falling in love with each other would just be a great thing to see!! And I am all for warrior Dani and Jamie (women with weapons is a little bit of a weakness of mine)!! This whole AU just sounds incredible I love a good curse in fantasy stories and the curse slowly taking over and you thinking they're going to run out of time but everything works out in the end!! Dani going back to her kingdom because of her sick Dad dying would be great for angst because it would look

like she would have to marry someone to create an alliance and that she would have to take over a kingdom (perhaps something she never wanted to do in the first place)!! I think this could be a very angsty one shot and could be so interesting and fun and the happy ending would definitely make all the angst worth it in the end!! I am having a good week so far thank you and I had so much fun with my niece today, making fudge went great and she was happy that I was able to show her how to do it because she'd never made it before so now that's something she knows how to do (I think she thinks I'm way cooler than I actually am haha thank you for saying you'd worship me though if you were my niece haha 😂) but tomorrow she is teaching me how to do something because I taught her how to make fudge today... she's gonna teach me how to draw in an anime style- which is something she is really into and even though I'm not she loves drawing so I've asked if she can teach me since I taught her something today!! There's no need to apologise I loved this long angst and I loved this idea I think it's really great and interesting and that song just seems amazing and I am definitely gonna listen to it tomorrow when I get chance!! Thank you for sharing this idea with me I loved it!! ☺️ Haha oki doki then as long as that's alright with you Libby is what I'll call you!! Like I said you can seriously call me anything!! ☺️

[coinofstone]

5x12 The Diamond of the Day pt 1

Final two episodes! Big finale! Why am I making myself cry in the middle of the afternoon! Both eps in this post.

I do love that they made Arthur a sore loser

Enter treacherous white woman #2. Srsly it was lazy writing when they did it for Mordred, it's worse now with Gwaine.

I do love the actual Round Table war room discussion but a) why isn't Merlin seated at the round table and b) why does Leon have so much goddamn faith in Camelot's walls? Like??? You literally said the same thing last year and yet Camelot *did* fall when Agravaine brought an army through the tunnels!

Poor Aithusa. Kid's had a rough life.

I do love Arthur responding to Merlin presenting him with all his supplies ready - which he prepared without his magic mind you - with suspicion 😂

But then he calls Merlin a coward and it's sad

Katie has such a great voice. That entire thing in the cave from her taunting to her laughter to the spell, it just just beautifully played.

Whole ass battle to prepare for and Arthur is just walking around moping cuz Merlin isn't there

So, Merlin's father-vision telling him he's magic itself and he just needs to believe in himself to get his magic going again, does this mean he *didn't* need to go to the cave to get it back? Cuz it seems like he needed to recharge in the cave itself, his injuries were healed when he woke up. That seems like magic cave stuff to me.

Also that "always have been and always will be" - I'm taking to mean 'always have been' in the sense that since he's 'magic itself' even before he was born, his magic existed in other, intangible forms, like we are all stardust etc. But now that he is, he will always be, aka he will not die.

Arthur waking up with his wife in his arms and Merlin's name on his lips, jumping out of bed to act on dream-info.

Balinor telling Merlin to trust in what will be.... like bitch that is literally not how this ends.

5x13 The Diamond of the day pt 2

You know that gif of the cat knocking everything off the table? That's literally Merlin shooting lightning at everyone from his perch on the ridge.

I have a lot of snarky things to say about Merlin coming out of the cave in full Dragoon gear and riding a horse instead of teleporting like the other witches but I'ma keep that to myself.

Mordred is a bitch and Aithusa has terrible aim. At least Aithusa's loyalty to Morgana makes sense.

Arthur said oh shit I'm magic - oh wait no it's that old man again

He also straight up "No! Bad dragon!"-ed Aithusa

Y'know, for all I've watched this episode and screamed about Arthur's death, I don't think I've ever focused on the exact moment he gets stabbed before.

Mordred catches him from behind and he meets it, no fault there. But as soon as he realizes his assailant is the knight who turned on him and joined Morgana, what does he do? HE LOWERS HIS FUCKING SWORD

He leaves himself wide fucking open and vulnerable and Mordred seizes the opportunity. I understand wanting the moment of recognition for Arthur, but on what planet is a trained warrior going to drop his sword mid-attack because he recognizes his attacker as a dude who only just recently decided to forsake him? It's soooooo dumb

There was a whole sequence a few episodes back where Mordred and Arthur are sparring, the point of it was to show that Mordred has become a skilled swordsman. So what exactly was the point in having Mordred run Arthur through as soon as Arthur idiotically lets his guard down? This should've been a meticulously choreographed sword fight, with Mordred getting the upper hand and sticking Arthur properly. Not this nonsense. Look at Arthur's FACE! Oh, Mordred... 👉👈 do you maybe wanna be friends again- STAB ... guess not

Uther's been rolling in his grave but he's taking an extra tumble watching Arthur forget all his skills and training in that moment.

I do appreciate Arthur getting Mordred back though. Like that moment of merciless anger followed by the hurt and regret playing on Arthur's face, warring with surety and responsibility. It was good.

I've rewatched the big confession scene about 16 times just now.

I don't quite understand why Merlin took Arthur to the woods to begin with. Instead of bringing him to the med tent in the battlefield or back to Camelot. What was the reason?

Merlin saying it feels strange (to use magic freely in front of Arthur) and him just going 'yeah' completely deadpan makes me laugh every time.

I really feel like Arthur's head should be elevated at a further incline if he's going to be fed.

Gaius refusing to outright expose Merlin as the sorcerer but nonetheless letting Gwen figure it out on her own warms my heart.

My God Arthur is sitting there dying, feeling betrayed about his best friend 'lying' to him, and still he can't stop himself from looking at Merlin's mouth.

Percival summoned MUSCLE POWER

Hey um random but why does Gwaine even know where Merlin and Arthur are headed? Why would Gaius tell him?

Arthur looks at Merlin so lovingly after he's killed Morgana 😭😭

And now he's literally grabbing at the man's hand 😭 "just hold me, please"

That's gotta be the gayest death scene in television history. If you can watch that without thinking Arthur puts his hand on the back of Merlin's head because some part of him wants to bring him down for a kiss, or that "just hold me, please" is in any way shape or form a 'bros' thing, and certainly not at all an intentional mirror/callback to Isolde dying in Tristan's arms, then I'm afraid you are what we professionals refer to as a dumb-as-nails fucknugget, more commonly phrased as 'willfully ignorant'.

"All that you have dreamt of building has come to pass" yeah except for the whole, y'know, magic still being illegal thing.

I've said this before, but, while I'm sure there was a determined intention to have Arthur die in his armor, probably in some kind of attempt to make sure the audience knows he's died a warrior's death, I *really* think it was kinda stupid that Merlin never removed it, despite Arthur being weak, despite the fact that there was something like five days between him getting stabbed and him actually dying, despite that for the duration of that time they were traveling or hiding out. Merlin managed to produce a cloak to put on Arthur, why did he need the full armor on that whole time? Like even if they left the chainmail on, those plates on his shoulder were just getting in the way, and it looked quite uncomfortable.

Also not for nothing but Lancelot got like, every flower in the forest surrounding lush verdant greens in his death boat, Arthur gets a bunch of sticks.

It suddenly occurs to me, watching this now, that the reason Leon/Percival is such a common side pairing in Merthur fics, is because these two motherfuckers are the only original Knights of the Round Table to survive the series. 🤦‍♀️ I dunno how I failed to notice that before now. My stupidity amazes me.

I'm *really* glad they decided to do this scene with Gwen wearing the Pendragon red dress instead of the black mourning dress. Yes she looks fabulous in it but it's more the symbolism than the 'reality' - with Gwen wearing her house's colors it represents a continuation rather than a finality. Camelot will go on, Gwen will undoubtedly end the war on magic and with Morgana dead (and frankly, I think by now she already brought about the death of all the angry incel type rulers in Albion) there stands to reason her reign will begin with a period of peace, possibly longer than Arthur's. We kind of have to assume that the 'time the poets speak of' is, inevitably, Gwen's reign - which only came about through Arthur's death. It's a little bit toooo subtle in my opinion, but at the same time, I understand the need for the focus on Merlin and Arthur - after all, this show was their journey - not leaving much time to focus on Gwen and Camelot in the aftermath of Arthur's death.

I will just say, the first time I watched this that fucking truck scared the ever living shit out of me. I also just immediately, viscerally hated that scene and declared it invalid - but I think it was because the truck made me jump out of my skin. It has since grown on me, particularly once I started reading 'Arthur Returns' fic.

Everything beyond this point is post-series spec and headcanon, so if that's not your jam you can exit safe in the knowledge that as usual, if there's anything worth commenting on in the S5 extras, I will create a separate post!

For those interested, my go-to post-series fic is We Begin Again by katherynefromphilly I fully headcanon this series as the continuation of the series.

I have a lot of thoughts about Gwen and Merlin post-Camlann.

For one, poor fucking Gwen. She's lost her father, her brother, and her husband, all by what, age 30? That's rough. And who knows what happened to her mom, that was pre-series and I don't think it was ever mentioned.

Merlin, dear god poor Merlin. First of all, I just wanna say straight off that my instinctive headcanon about Merlin was that he never returned to Camelot. I couldn't really say why exactly. I just don't think he could stand being there after Arthur's death. But practically speaking, Merlin's still got Aithusa to deal with, that dragon needs some godsdamned house training asap. He's still the last Dragonlord, it's reasonable to assume he'd immediately take that on considering Aithusa is partially responsible for Arthur's death (the sword Mordred killed Arthur with, only succeeded in killing Arthur because it had been forged in Aithusa's fire-breath) so he's either going to attempt to train the bad behaviors out of Aithusa, or...well...

The only thing is, I do not believe Merlin would abandon Gwen, or Gaius. So my hc is inherently flawed. I do think Merlin probably spend a couple months with his mum, and I do think he ultimately settled near lake Avalon waiting for Arthur's return.

But I do wonder, what must their relationship have been like? Gwen, surely, would've sought his guidance in establishing laws governing the use of magic. And surely, peace cannot last indefinitely, so Merlin absolutely would've defended Camelot and protected Gwen. There's just no way he could've completely turned his back on them, but I doubt he could bear living in Camelot. And Gwen is both strong and practical enough to get on without him there 24/7, even though I'm sure she'd miss him.

I also think she would've found love again. Whether with Leon, as many people hc, or someone else not in the series.

ANYWAY.

Thanks to everyone who came on this journey with me. I will post comments on the extras if I have anything worth saying - and I think I'll do a master post linking all these episode posts after I clean them up once I get time to sit at a computer and do so. Until then! 💙💚

(Gif source) (h/t @shut-up-merlin)

[gaylotusthatexists]

rises the moon - part three

Pairings: currently no major ones, but eventually parental moxiety and intrulogical, possibly either royality or roceit but haven’t decided yet 

Summary: After running away from home, Virgil find the Forest, where he is appointed as the new Lord of Spring. 

Trigger Warnings: sympathetic deceit, remus mention

Word Count: 1.7k

Taglist: @theloveliestsweetspongy​​

previous || next || ao3

but after sunlit days, one thing stays the same

Virgil felt a chill run down his back. Logan stared at him, intrigue in his eyes, a hand still placed on Virgil's check. Virgil wanted to push the hand away, but he couldn't move - he was frozen in place. 

Logan withdrew his hand, wiping it down on his dress. "My apologies. You're a human, correct?" 

Able to move again, Virgil raised his hand up to his check, rubbing it gently. It was hardened, almost, and cold to the touch. Slippery. Like ice. 

Logan sighed. "Roman, would you come here?" 

Roman rushed over, summoning a small sun and holding it up to Virgil's check, allowing the ice to melt away. "Sorry about Logan, he's never interacted with a real human being before." 

"What, and you have?" Logan retorted, seemingly agitated. 

"At least I know not to inflict my magic onto them," Roman said, folding his arms. 

"I didn't mean to do anything." Logan glared at Roman. "I was just curious." He turned back to Virgil, and floated even closer. "So, as I asked before, you're a human?" 

Virgil nodded. "Uh, yeah." 

"And Roman says you just 'walked' into the forest," Logan said. 

"Yeah," Virgil confirmed. "I don't know how many times I have to say that." 

"It's alright, I believe you-" He frowned. "Virgil, right?" 

"Yeah. And you're Logan?" 

"That is me." Logan drifted away, beginning to float out of the hall. "Come." 

Virgil glanced back at Janus, who motioned for him to follow Logan, before stepping towards Logan, following a few feet behind. Roman joined him at his side, as Logan left the hall and returned up the spiral staircase, back out into the forest. As they went, ice grew over the staircase and eventually on the trees once they made it outside, spreading an air of mist across the forest. 

Logan cringed once he realised what had happened. "I'm sorry. Roman, could you-" 

"Of course." Roman turned around to face the tree, conjuring another small sun. He held it up to the tree and ice began to slowly melt away, but Virgil noticed that slightly more than before remained. 

"Virgil," Logan said, moving around to face him. "I am... aware that you are a human, and likely do not understand what is going on, but I believe you may be able to help us-" 

"Yeah, Janus already told me that," Virgil interrupted. 

Logan raised an eyebrow. "Did he tell you anything else?" 

Virgil shrugged. "Just about the whole season thing y'all have going on. He showed me those weird orbs. And apparently I made a flower grow, I don't know, I think it was a prank or something-" 

"You grew a flower?" Logan repeated. 

"Yeah, in that fountain-" 

"So, you're the new Lord of Spring?" 

Virgil blinked, and stepped back. "Um, I'm not sure. Janus told me that and made me hold that weird orb thingy, but..." 

"Nothing happened?" Logan guessed. 

Virgil nodded. 

"Ah." Logan sighed. "Perhaps you need more training." 

He began to drift through the forest, with Roman and Virgil quickly following. The sun began to set over the trees, casting an orange glow over them. 

Logan stopped, glancing at Roman. "The sun's setting." 

Roman's eyes widened. "We should find Patton." 

Logan nodded. "Yes. Patton." 

"Who's Patton?" Virgil asked, glancing around the forest as they continued to walk. 

"The Lord of Autumn," Logan stated. "He's been... resting, for a while now. Too long. He's beginning to grow tired of it, but his powers haven't fully returned yet." 

"All fo- All three of us follow a schedule," Roman continued, looking over at Virgil. "We have an era of work, an era of rest, then two eras of practise. Since Patton had his era of work before Logan, he's now in rest, but... none of us have ever rested this long before." 

"None of us have worked this long before, either," Logan added, sounding a little bitter. 

Roman sighed. "I know, Logan. It will be your era of rest soon, I'm sure." 

"Well." Logan glanced down at Virgil. "We'll have to wait and see." 

"What happened to the old Lord of Spring?" Virgil wondered. 

Logan froze. "He... That's none of your business." He started to move faster, flying ahead and apparently deciding to ignore the other two. 

"What's up with-" 

"He was close to the old Lord of Spring," Roman explained, his voice lowered to a whisper. "It's hard for him." 

"Oh." Virgil hummed. "Can you tell me, then?" 

Roman glanced to the floor. "I was close to him too. He was... well, he did his job, I suppose, but over the years something in him changed. I don't know what happened, exactly. He isn't... If he were to bring about spring again, it could be disastrous for us all." 

Logan stopped in front of a small cottage. "We're here," he announced, landing his bare feet on the ground and walking through the small wooden gate. Roman and Virgil followed him down the cobblestone path towards the cottage, Virgil glancing at the colourful flowers on either side of the path and along the windows. The cottage was built with stone bricks, with wooden panels holding it together, and a roof made from straw - in short, it looked like it came straight out of a storybook. 

Before Logan knocked on the door, it swung upon, revealing a short, stout man on the other side. He had bright pink skin and long red hair, half-tied up in two buns on the top of his head. A pair of round framed glasses sat upon his nose, with an array of freckles spread out underneath. He wore a cream, woollen jumper underneath a blue dressing gown, with a heart necklace wrapped around his neck. 

"Logan! Roman!" he exclaimed, stepping to the side and allowing the three of them to enter. "Oh! And our new Lord of Spring! Does he have a name, yet?" 

Virgil glanced nervously at the other two, who had dragged him inside to what he assumed to be Patton's house and sat him down on the couch. Roman and Logan sat on either side of them, whilst Patton stepped towards the kitchen, still clearly visible from the 'living room' - the entire cottage was open plan, asides from what Virgil assumed to be either a bedroom or a bathroom through one door. 

"This is Virgil," Logan introduced, raising his voice over the sound of the kettle boiling. 

"Virgil," Patton repeated. "Yeah, that fits." 

"We believe he may be the new Lord of Spring," Logan continued. 

"Oh, yeah, I know." He began to pour out a few cups of tea. "I brought him here." 

Roman frowned. "Sorry, what?" 

"I was watching him in the field and he looked so lonely," Patton said. Changing the conversation slightly, he asked, "Hey, Virgil, how do you like your tea?" 

Virgil blinked. "Uh, milk, two sugars," he answered. 

Patton smirked. "Ah, so you're sane, good to know." 

After another moment of silence, he brought the teas over, handing a cup to all three of them before sitting down in an armchair to the side, beginning to drink his own tea. Virgil cautiously lifted the cup up to his own lips, not really sure if he should be drinking it - he liked tea, sure, but this was some weird forest-people tea. But hey, he had nothing to lose anyway. If he got poisoned and died, then oh well - it would certainly be a weight off his shoulders. 

The tea wasn't half bad. In fact, it was bloody brilliant. Before Virgil knew it, the cup was empty, and a warm feeling had spread through his body, a feeling of peace. 

"Patton," Logan said, placing the tea down on the coffee table in front of him, "could you maybe elaborate on your story." 

Patton took a big gulp of his tea, before placing it on the table as well. "Oh, yeah, sorry. I saw Virgil wandering around the field and he stopped in front of the forest. I'd gotten bored this morning so I went for a walk to the edge - I like watching the humans, y'know? But Virgil was the first human I saw who actually noticed the forest. So, y'know, I gave him a little nudge inside." 

Virgil frowned, then stared at Patton, his eyes widening in realisation. "Was it you that made those leaves do... that." 

Patton nodded, grinning. "Yup! Used up what little left I had of my powers, too. Something told me that you were... special." 

"Well," Logan said, after taking another sip of his drink, "the sun is setting, so I believe you may have been right." 

Patton blinked. "The... The sun is setting?" 

Logan smiled. "Indeed. We came by here to tell you that." 

"Wait, why is the sun setting so important?" Virgil asked, subconsciously glancing at Roman's still full cup. Roman seemed to notice this and sighed, handing the tea over. Smirking, Virgil gulped it down. 

"The sun setting marks the beginning of a new stage in the seasons," Logan began to explain. "It hasn't set for a while because we haven't had a Lord of Spring around to help with the ceremony." 

Placing Roman's cup down, Virgil raised an eyebrow. "The ceremony?" 

"You'll see soon enough," Logan stated. "For now, we should head down to the lake. Even if we're wrong about Virgil and spring doesn't commence, we should at least all get a refresher on our powers." 

Patton stood up and took off his dressing gown and jumper, revealing a blue t-shirt underneath. He wrapped his jumper around his shoulders to create a sort of cape, then began to exit the house. "C'mon, guys, we haven't a second to lose!" 

The four of them left Patton's cottage and began to walk through the woods, Logan floating a little way ahead. Patton fell back besides Virgil, judging him gently on the shoulder. 

"Welcome to the forest," he said, quietly but enthusiastically. "I think you'll like it here." 

Virgil sighed. "I... still don't exactly know what here is." 

Patton smiled. "You will soon enough. There's something about you, kiddo. You're going to do great things." 

Virgil shoved his hands in his pockets and tried not to think about that. Great things…

[damienthepious]

i am out of ways to say hi it’s tuesday fic time. but hi, it’s tuesday! fic time.

Scattered On My Shore (Chapter 8)

[Ch 1] [Ch 2] [Ch 3] [Ch 4] [Ch 5] [Ch 6] [Ch 7] [ao3] [Ch 9] [Ch 10] [Ch 11] [Ch 12] [Ch 13] [Ch 14] [Ch 15] [Ch 16] [Ch 17] [Ch 18] [Ch 19]

Fandom: The Penumbra Podcast

Relationship: Lord Arum/Sir Damien/Rilla, Sir Damien/Rilla

Characters: Rilla, Lord Arum, Sir Damien

Additional Tags: Second Citadel, Lizard Kissin’ Tuesday, Pre-Relationship, (for the three of them. it’s established r/d), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Injury, Injury Recovery,  Hurt/Comfort,  (this will also be), Enemies to Lovers, (for damien and arum eventually lol)

Fic Summary: Strange things wash up out of the lake near Rilla’s hut, on occasion. But this monster… this monster is certainly the strangest.

Chapter Summary: Rilla is starting to feel a little like they're bonding. Arum is unconvinced. Damien is on his own journey.

Chapter Notes: Fam this one gets weird. Chapter specific warnings for overt threats of violence, characters being restrained, implications of a canon-compliant death, and I think that's it? Oh forgive me, this chapter is long and my day has been even longer. Hey, I love you. <3

~

Rilla fills a basket with anything she thinks might interest him even a little. She doesn't have much of a fiction section (most of it is borrowed from or gifted by Damien, actually), so she just kinda scoops that entire little shelf in with the rest.

"Obviously I don't know what you might like," she says later in the afternoon when he's woken again, and he stares at her in alarm over the assorted pile as she sets it down next to the cot, where he'll be able to reach without much strain. "But I figured that now that you're awake more often, you might want some reading material."

"I don't-" he sputters, frowning down at the books in indignation. "I cannot imagine any human storybooks could hold my attention for a single moment."

"That's fine," Rilla says with a shrug. "I'm pretty sure I don't have any kids' reading material, so you should be safe on that front. There's a bit of fiction in there, but that's not really my thing so I can't give you any personal recommendations there. Mostly it's field guides, bestiaries, treatises on certain scientific concepts, collections of recipes, censuses of certain herb families, medical guides- just a whole bunch about a whole bunch, really. If you get bored enough, I'm sure something in there will be worth a read," she says casually, and then while he's still stammering through a growl she gives him a bright, disarming smile (he actually pulls his head back, blinking) and then she skips right back to the door. "I've got an experiment I gotta keep an eye on for an hour or so, I'm sure you can keep yourself out of trouble for that long, but if you need me just shout, okay?"

He stares at her, mouth hanging just slightly open, so she grins a little wider and leaves him to it, keeping the door cracked just an inch or so as she goes.

He'll never pick a single one of the damn things up if she's there to gloat about it, but if she just leaves him to stew in his own inactivity unsupervised for a while, she's sure the temptation right there next to him will do the trick.

Sure enough, the next time she comes in (current pretense: a little cadre of plants by the window require watering. Could it have waited? Almost certainly), he's pretending to sleep (she can tell the difference) and the books are definitely rifled through. She's almost positive that it's at least one tome lighter, actually, and she's pretty confident that if she snooped she'd find the missing book tucked into the covers or under the lizard's pillow.

When she comes in with dinner he's given up the pretense on his end, scowling and waving one particular book in the air between them.

"What is this nonsense? " he snarls. "This information is spurious at best, Amaryllis. Some entries are passable, perhaps, but clearly you know nothing about-"

She tilts her head to try to figure out which book he's taken such offense at, and she's moderately unsurprised to see that it's one of the bestiaries. Okay, fair.

"Which ones are wrong?" she asks as she sets his food down on the table beside him, making no effort to disguise her enthusiasm, and he pauses, blinking at her. "I had Damien snag that from a library in the Citadel so I could make my own copy- with corrections, obviously. Actually, hang on-"

She spins on her heel and jogs to retrieve her half-written pile of unbound notes and her recorder from the front room, and she's already recording and shuffling through the pages when she returns.

"Which ones are bunk?" she asks with relish. "Frankly I've never trusted that author, I don't think he ever actually came within ten miles of the Western Wastes. His descriptions of western monsters always seemed the most vague, and they don't match up with other reports and firsthand accounts I'm aware of."

Arum snorts. "That stands to reason , " he growls, and then he smacks the page with the back of a hand. "Sickle-Claws are feathered, obviously, and half the size he has claimed."

"I knew it," she says, pulling the stool close and sitting by the bed. "That fraud wouldn't know an Everdead if someone whipped a branch back in his face."

He laughs again, apparently just as amused by that mental image as Rilla is, and then he starts flipping through the book, pointing out mistakes and false claims and outright fabrications with a smug sort of pleasure, and Rilla shows him her own notes, her amendments and additions from her own research, and he wrinkles his snout but he can't seem to find a complaint to voice, except specifically regarding her sideline notes on the magic involved in certain creatures.

"That isn't how magic works, Amaryllis." He shakes his head. "You can't predict it, because it is by definition unpredictable. If you try to shove it into a single labeled box all you will do is cut your hands in the attempt. Humans cannot possibly comprehend the true incomprehensibility of the larger universe."

Rilla raises an eyebrow. "I can comprehend quite a lot, Arum."

"Perhaps," he says with a sneer. "But if you expect magic to conform to consistent rules like your other natural and mathematical laws, you will be sorely disappointed," he hisses, gesturing to another book from the pile. "Magic is larger than that. It is outside of such constraints, as the Universe itself is."

"Just because it has different rules, doesn't mean it's incomprehensible-"

"No, no-" he shakes his head sharply and then then winces.

"Careful, Arum, c'mon-"

"Hush, it is simply sore, little doctor. As I was saying- magic does not have different rules. There are no rules. "

"Everything has rules, Arum. It's just a matter of figuring them out, regardless of how complex or granular-"

"Your assumption that everything in the Universe can be understood is precisely why you will never be able to understand, human. You cannot see outside your own level. I have moved beyond that."

Rilla frowns, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "Cool. Good for you."

He chokes, almost a third laugh. "That- you ridiculous little-"

"I'm sure all that big picture stuff is real fun, Arum, and if you actually tried to explain any of it I'm sure it would be fascinating as hell, but if it doesn't have structure, if it can't be used reliably, I don't really see the point."

"It- it is not meant to be used, Amaryllis, it simply is."

"See, and that's cool too, but my needs as a doctor and a researcher mean that I'm less interested in the whole cosmic mystery and more interested in practical application," she says, tapping the book in his claws. "I learn the rules so that I understand how they can be used. If there aren't any rules- well, that's not exactly going to expand my toolkit, is it? Either it's understandable and useful to me, or you're right and it's incomprehensible, which means it's not much more than a curiosity, y'know?"

He frowns more deeply, turning his face away from her and making a noncommittal noise.

She pokes at the book again, and he blinks at her warily. "Hey. What about this one? I've never seen any other documentation of Syokoy as far northwest as he claims."

His snout wrinkles again, but his posture relaxes slightly as he growls into another scathing correction, and Rilla relaxes too. It's almost easy, like this. Almost comfortable.

~

One thing that's become more awkward now that Arum is consistently lucid: bathing.

And, like, Rilla is a professional, obviously. She's needed to give sponge baths to bed-bound patients more times than she could count, and she's already bathed him once while he was much less coherent, but-

He's so, so embarrassed to need the help.

Now that he's strong enough, she can let him do most of the work at least, and the only embarrassing, strangely charged part of the process is when she needs to help him wash his back. He can't really reach behind himself, yet, with how torn up his front is, with one of his wrists broken, so she has to scoot behind him and scrub down his gently gleaming scales.

He really doesn't seem to have many scars, beneath his newer injuries. She wonders about that, but she knows better than to ask. She just does her job, doing her best not to flinch when he does.

~

Rilla tries not to revive the argument about magic if she can avoid it. She's definitely interested in it, she wants to know what he'll say, really, but- it agitates him to a degree that she figures is probably not great for his current state. His throat is nearly recovered (his voice is still rough and fascinating, but there's a sort of murmuring musicality to it, too, now that he's had enough time to recover from the near-drowning part of his injuries), so she would really rather avoid making the monster shout. She'll pin that one for later.

Not that they don't argue. He's remarkably opinionated, and he takes umbrage with a number of the books in her collection. He seems baffled by just the structure of most of her instructional and encyclopedic tomes. Anything that's arranged alphabetically infuriates him.

"It is entirely arbitrary, takatakataka. They may as well be in an order that is entirely random."

"In what way would that be helpful?"

"There is a list at the beginning, and it tells you exactly where everything can be found!"

Rilla raises an eyebrow. "Uh… and?"

"Anyone may read this and find the information!"

Rilla blinks. "That's… kind of the point? To share the information?"

Arum pulls his head back, eying her in alarm. "That- I- but- if anyone can access it, how can it be useful to you? If anyone can do what you can do, how can you barter your skills?"

"Hm," Rilla frowns, just slightly. "I mean, just looking at my own profession- just because someone reads a book of remedies, doesn't mean they'll have the skills to implement them. It's less than half of it, even. You need training, too, an apprenticeship, and then personal experience. Practice. The books are important to the learning process, and no one can be expected to hold all that information in their head at the same time, but it's not the whole of it."

He tilts his head, considering that. "I suppose."

"Besides," she says, "I'm sure there are books with secrets, books that aren't meant to be shared, but those are probably kept somewhere hidden."

"Interesting," he hisses.

"Okay, so- if monster books aren't meant to give information to others, what's the point of them?"

"To save information for yourself. My predecessors-" he pauses.

She knows that look, by now. He thinks he's said too much. She rolls her eyes, sighs, and changes the subject.

~

Rilla isn't sleeping well.

Her sleep is strange apparently by nature; she sleeps deeply but in short bursts, and she has a habit of rising in the middle of the night for some water or to relieve herself only to be distracted by a book or an idea or an experiment clear until morning. Hell, she'll sleep whenever, for an hour or so at a time. It amuses Damien, but his own sleep habits are so firmly regimented by his work (when he isn't being plagued to sleeplessness by his mind) that he rarely wakes when she slips from the bed at night.

Currently, though, she's having a little bit of a hard time falling asleep at all.

Damien knows how to take care of himself. She knows that. She's not entirely sure he's capable of losing a fight. He might get hurt, that's happened entirely too often, but- he wins. He always wins, eventually, even if he has to put himself through hell, first-

She turns over again, presses her face into the pillow, sighs into the dark.

They have an argument to finish, she thinks. Damien would never leave a narrative arc like that unsatisfied.

She gets to sleep eventually. It's enough.

~

Arum isn't in his cot when Rilla comes in with dinner the third day after Damien leaves, and that's-

That's so entirely surprising that Rilla just kind of- stops, staring at the empty cot with the blankets kicked down for an extended moment, her brow furrowed in confusion, and she's almost relieved when she hears the distinct click of claws on hardwood behind her before she has a moment of wait that's probably not good-

The scaled arm wraps around her midsection from behind, and Rilla jolts, automatically pulling forward and away. He holds tight, though. Shockingly tight, actually, and then there is cool metal by her neck and Rilla knows her own damn scalpel easily and she goes still, because Rilla may be stubborn but she's not stupid.

"Arum," she says, and he growls behind her. She's not- scared, really. The scalpel almost makes it ridiculous, considering the claws. "Arum what the hell are you-"

"I'm leaving, you foolish little primate," he hisses.

"You aren't well enough-"

"I don't care what you think."

"Well you should, Arum, because you can hardly stand and if you think you're going to make it ten steps-"

"I appear to be standing perfectly well just at the moment, little doctor."

She twists just slightly, glancing back towards him as best she can, and she sees that he's stolen one of her crutches. It's not big enough for him, he's remarkably tall when he's not tucked into her cot, and it doesn't look at all comfortable tucked under his lower arm like that, but it's working enough that he's upright, at least. He adjusts his arm around her slightly, growling low.

"Arum," Rilla breathes, and she knows the exact pressure the scalpel in Arum's hands will require to break the skin. He is nowhere near that pressure, but she's very aware of it as an abstract concept, regardless. "Arum this is stupid and you know it."

"Can't even treat me with some respect when I could slit your little throat," he snarls, and she can hear how labored his breathing is. He really shouldn't be standing like this, stolen crutch or no. "Not an ounce of self-preservation in your absurd, fragile body."

"I could say the same damn thing about you, you ridiculous-" she cuts off as Arum shifts his grip on her, not because she's afraid of what he'll do, but because the hiss he gives as he moves sounds more like he's in pain than trying to threaten. "You're gonna get yourself killed because you're too stubborn to just wait until you're actually well enough to-"

"You don't have the first clue what you're talking about. I do not have time to convalesce. I have one purpose, I have one duty, and every moment I lie in that absurd little bed I am failing it. I cannot think, I cannot- I need to return home. I do not care if you understand why, Amaryllis."

"Arum-"

"I thank you for services rendered, such as they were, little doctor. My death would have been assured without you, that is undeniable. And for that, I will not harm you, so long as you do not force my hand," he hisses close by her ear, and then he lifts the last of his hands, and he is holding one of Rilla's syringes with it.

"Arum," Rilla breathes, "what-"

"This is the injection you gave to me before you plucked the basilisk's claw from my ribs. It kept consciousness from me rather effectively for a number of hours. So, little doctor, I must now trust to your expertise."

He adjusts his grip again, meeting her eye over her shoulder and pulling the scalpel further away from her skin.

"Have I gotten the dosage correct, Amaryllis?" he asks, quite seriously, his tone quiet and measured though she can feel him trembling very slightly against her.

She pulls her eyes away from his with some effort and looks at the syringe in question, and then she bites her lip. "It- I mean, good job because you matched exactly the dosage I gave to you, but the thing is-"

"I'm leaving, little human, and nothing you say is going to stop-"

"If you inject me with that I'll go into a coma, and there's a distinct chance I could die." She inhales shakily as Arum blinks at her, then narrows his eyes suspiciously. "You're a monster, Arum, and your metabolism and internal structure are much different from mine. What was perfectly fine and low-risk for you could absolutely kill me."

He stares hard at her for a long moment, frowning hard and trembling lightly, and then he apparently decides she must be telling the truth because he exhales deeply and moves the syringe much further away from her. She tries not to sag in relief, but the tension in her muscles eases enough that she's positive that he must feel it.

"Thank you," she says. "Now just- put down the-"

"I am certain you must have some form of binding in this little hut of yours," he interrupts in a growl, and Rilla blinks, not quite understanding him for a long moment. "Ropes, or scarves or some such. Bandages, those will suffice."

"Arum you can't leave," she tries again, but he's ignoring her now, edging the both of them across the floor towards the cabinets where he's definitely seen her store her bandages. "You won't make it four steps, you'll just get killed and after you've made so much progress-"

"You can stop acting at your leisure, Amaryllis. I am perfectly aware that you do not have the first clue what will happen when you are unable to keep me beneath your thumb any longer. I am simply skipping the intermediary steps. I will not wait for either your pet knight to return with his bow again, or for you to attempt to make me into another pet for yourself. I am leaving, I am going home, and you will not stop me."

When they're close enough to the cabinets, Arum sets the syringe down, then knocks it further along the countertop, out of Rilla's reach. He pulls out a roll of bandages, then glares down at her as she scowls back up at him.

"This is a completely stupid plan," she reiterates, but Arum only frowns more deeply and pushes her to sit on the stool.

"Possibly," he growls, and she rolls her eyes as he pulls her wrists behind her back with surprising gentleness, binding them together at the wrists. "But at least it is a plan, instead of this nonsense inaction."

Rilla tries to pull away, tries to make things difficult for him, but only for a moment. He does still have that scalpel- but really, honestly, she's been working so hard to treat him, to make him well again, and the idea of jerking away too fast or elbowing him to get him away, of twisting his broken wrist (the one wrapped around her, least needed for dexterity, not a bad maneuver), the idea of doing something that might reopen his wounds or hurt him worse- it makes her feel a little sick, actually. She's terrified of what's going to happen to Arum if he tries to walk out her front door on his own with no weapons and a flimsy crutch that can barely support his weight, he's going to get himself hurt, get himself killed-

He's going to hurt himself, but Rilla can't make herself hurt him, to try to get him to stop. She just can't.

"Please," she tries, and his violet eyes flick up to her from where he's knelt to bind her ankles to the legs of the stool. "Arum. Don't do this."

He stands slowly, and she really hasn't gotten the chance to see him at his proper height, yet. He does look a little more dangerous, when he can glare down at her like that with his frill half-flared (he just won't stop pushing himself, the giant ass).

"And what, precisely, do you propose, then? You and your knight had a rather unproductive argument the other day, I must say, though it did rather effectively clarify a number of points for me. The first being, my land is in danger, without me. The second, that your Damien can only be collared for so long before he decides to put an end to this. The third, that you, little doctor, do not have a strategy for how your treatment of the monster will end. You don't have the first clue what you will do with me, when I am too strong again to push and prod and poke-"

"If you die-"

"Then I certainly will not be your problem anymore, little doctor," he hisses, and then he turns to limp his way towards the door.

"All of this is for nothing if you just- Arum, please, I know I've been- stuck in the moment, I know I haven't been thinking about what comes next, and yeah, a lot of that was because I don't know, and I'm scared because I hate not knowing, but- but you don't have to do this. We can figure it out together, please Arum-"

He pauses at the door, leaning heavily against the frame, and then he looks over his shoulder, vivid purple fixing on her one more time.

"Farewell, Amaryllis," he says, his voice almost gentle, "and… thank you."

He closes the door behind him, ignoring the way that Rilla shouts after him, the way she keeps calling his name until she hears the front door open into the night. After a long moment, charged and quiet even of Rilla's voice, that door closes as well.

~

Somewhere distant, on a gently lapping shore, Sir Damien digs a grave.

His stomach turns, and turns, and his palms hurt against the wood of his shovel. His companion has sweat on her brow, but that is the only indication of any strain. Her expression remains stern and immobile, and Damien cannot possibly say whether she feels as he does, just now. In truth, he does not know if Sir Caroline ever feels… conflicted.

Dirt scatters as it falls. Sir Damien digs to lapping-wave rhythm and intermittent pigeon-coo, with his heart pounding as if it wishes to escape.

He wonders, in a continual refrain, if this was truly the right choice, if there was no other way. If this man could not have been saved .

Monsters, witches, and mercy.

Sir Damien knows good from evil. He knows monsters from man. He knows dark magic from miracle. He knows what is right, and he knows what is wrong.

(The shore laps soft as breath, the lake stands mirror-still, and he has not heard Saint Damien, has not so much as felt a hint of him since-)

Sir Damien wonders if he knows anything at all.

~

When Rilla finally, finally hears the bandage start to tear, she could just about shout with triumph. Instead, she grits her teeth, grins hard, and pulls harder. It rips more, pulling against her wrists, and then her arms are free so quickly that she almost smacks her hands into the bedside table in their wide swinging arc. She pulls her hands in front of herself first, rubbing at her wrists and assessing the damage (bruised, a little raw, very minor friction burns, nothing a little aloe and time won't fix), and then she reaches for a drawer. Arum may have been paying a little too much attention to where her medical supplies are housed, but Rilla has more than one damned scalpel, and she has it in her hands and slicing through the bandages tied around her legs in no time flat. She hasn't been pulling on those, so no damage to inventory there, at least.

She stands and stumbles just a bit, her muscles rubbery from sitting in that position for- for however long she had been, but she doesn't have time to do some stretches because Arum may be slowed down by his injuries and she knows what direction he'll go, but he still has a hell of a head start on her, and she can't afford-

Rilla nearly trips over her own feet when she bolts into the front room, and this time it isn't because of sore muscles.

It's because Arum is still here.

He's curled up on the floor, his back against her front door, his arms wrapped loosely around his knees. He flicks his eyes up towards her for less time than it would take to blink, and then he looks away, his eyes vaguely on the floor.

"Arum. Oh, thank the Saints you didn't-"

"Apparently even my stupidity has limits, yes."

"Arum," she repeats, uncertain and honestly a little scared that he's managed to hurt himself between his room and the door, somehow.

"You did not inform me precisely how close we are to your Citadel," he mutters into a palm, and she holds her own hand over her heart as it tries, valiantly, to slow its racing. "Within sight, even in the dark of night."

"You- Arum-"

"Congratulations," he growls dully, still not looking at her. "You were correct. I did not take a single step outside your little abode. Foolishness, all of it. Without my- without- even at my best it would take a week and a half at the least to reach my home from here unaided. Hobbling in unfamiliar terrain with this-" he pauses to kick the crutch beside him, sending it spinning across the floor, "thing, in this condition, it would be impossible. Pointless. And I-" he pauses, his lip curling down miserably, "I want to return home alive, in spite of it all."

She steps a bit closer, and he turns his face away so that he is no longer looking at the floor by her feet. "I… Arum, I'm sorry. I know this must be… I know you're probably homesick-" he chokes out a bitter, unpleasant laugh, "and- and I know how hard it is, to be pulled away from your home. From- from your family," she suggests, and he flinches, curling his arms more tightly around his knees, pulling himself into a ball in front of her door and scowling. "I should have tried to talk to you about it sooner. Look, I- I'd be lying if I said I know exactly how I'm going to make it happen, but- but I'm not helping you so that you can run off and get killed by knights or whatever trying to get home. I'm not putting in all this hard work just for you to die," she says dryly, and she's gratified when he gives a smaller, less choking sort of laugh at that.

She takes another step, and when she's almost beside him he still won't look up, so-

She turns, leans her back against the wall, and slides down to sit beside him, sighing. He finally glances her way, then, if only to give her a look of distinct alarm.

"I want you well again, Arum. I want you healed, and I want you safe."

"Why? " he hisses low, his voice shaking.

"It's my responsibility to look out for my patients. In your case," she smiles, very slightly, "I think that means I'm gonna have to get you home. I don't know how, but- but we'll figure it out."

He blinks at her, then ducks his head. "We will figure it out," he repeats, skeptically.

"Yeah," she says. "We."

Slowly, she turns her hand, not exactly reaching for him but just- opening her palm towards him, spreading her fingers in gentle invitation.

He stares at her hand for a long moment, his eyes darting to the reddening mark on her wrist, his tongue flicking nervously in the air, and then he looks away.

She tries not to feel too disappointed-

A scaled palm settles uncertainly over hers, clawed fingers loosely curling around her own. He won't look at her, he's frowning and his damned frill is flared again, but-

"We," he murmurs, and Rilla smiles.

[->]

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #238

“crimson calligraphy written on the trees, creature from the grave, headless and hellbent for me.”

Have you ever played golf? Like, mini-golf. Is there a lake near your house? No, but there's two small ponds down the road. Have you ever made your own pizza or pasta dough? No. Have you ever watched an entire season of a tv show in one day? Uhhhhh how long are the first few seasons of Supernatural? Because Jason and I fucking binged it, and I honestly think that's partially the reason I don't even enjoy TV anymore. Like I liked the show, but jfc it became torture at some point. Not his fault at all, I just never pointed it out. BUT ANYWAY, it's definitely possible we did. What did you have for dinner tonight (or last night)? A ham and cheese hot pocket. Do your parents do things that ‘embarrass’ you? This is so mean, but my mom makes the cringiest jokes and such imo that gives me mad secondhand embarrassment. Do you like any Bon Jovi songs? Yeah, a decent handful. Who was the last person you were in a car with? Mom. Do you give people second chances? Ha, more than "second." How’re things between you and your most recent ex? We're totally great. Really as if we didn't even break up, considering I mean... nothing emotionally has changed. We just know that being together right now isn't the wise decision. It's frustrating as hell, though. We've already established we're not going to "wait" for each other, but neither of us are actively looking for a new partner, either. I want her, and from what I can tell, she wants me, too. We kinda just... don't talk about how unfair it all is anymore because we both get too upset. I was even supposed to go up there with her and her fam for her birthday and Christmas, but that's changed because she and I agree it's too soon after splitting, making it only more difficult to be around each other. We'd want to cuddle and kiss and such by instinct, so we're trying to wait until the wound isn't as fresh. Though honestly, I don't know how visiting period would go consider as said, there has been zero change in romantic attraction. Ugh yeah I just hope she figures out what she wants and all and we can get back together. Have you been to a wedding this year? No. I'm going to my half-sister's next year, though. Are you an aunt or uncle? Yes, and another niece is on her way. :') Do you expect to be married in the next two years? Probably not. What season is your birthday in? Winter. Have you ever been hunting? Fuck that shit. How often do you walk around barefoot? Always in my own house + in other houses if I'm allowed to take my shoes off. When you eat take-out, do you just eat it out of the containers provided? Usually, but it does depend on what food it is. Ex., those little boxes that have rice in them from Chinese places? I'm using a bowl. From the container is just messy. Would you need to sleep with someone before considering marrying them? Nah. Do you carry condoms? No. Would you date someone who has a hearing aid? ... Yes...? "No" is just... so rude?? Like that is something the person absolutely cannot help, nor is it a HUGE thing. It's just a hearing aid, dude. How organized are the files on your computer? Pretty decent. Folders and such. Could be better still, probably. Have you ever been to a strip club? Nah, not my scene. Have you ever brought home a stray animal? Pleeeeenty of cats. Are you physically strong? No, especially not my legs. I've got a newborn fawn's legs, jc. Still working on building the muscle back up. Would you date someone with braces? Oh my god, fuck off. Yes I would. I was the person with braces dating someone without them, so 1.) I obviously can't say shit, 2.) they're taking care of their goddamn teeth, and 3.) I dunno, wearing braces has no goddamn impact on personality???????????? Does scuba diving interest you? Not to an incredible degree, but it'd be cool. Would you ever ask your parents for relationship advice? Maybe for certain topics. Do you think people look up to you? Y'know that "oh no hunty WHAT is u doin" meme??? That's me if someone does. How often do you have trouble sleeping at night? *blinking* There are people who don't??????? Do you blush easily? Ohhhhhh yes. Do you get angry at yourself or at others more often? Hm. Not sure. Can you name five current world leaders? AHAHA nope. How many times have you had the flu? Zero. Do you think imagination is valuable? Oh hell yes. We would be NOWHERE CLOSE to where we are as animals without it. Who or what are you most impatient with? I don't know. When was the last time you mowed a lawn? Never. Have you seen all of the Star Wars films? No; seen only the first three with a friend and saw zero appeal. He didn't either. How about all of the Harry Potter ones, so far? I haven't even seen one. Jason and I started the first one together but. Paid way more attention to each other than the movie lmfao. What part of the newspaper do you typically enjoy reading? None. I collect my school's papers now though 'cuz I'm the photographer for it. :') Have you ever made a website, even a simple one? Four that I remember. The ancient and now-defunct ones were back when I think this site called Wetpaint was a host for simple sites, and a lot of us RPers posted our mob info and stuff there. I had one for Talons, one for Connrads. Ha, out of curiosity, I think I looked for them not all too long ago since I never actually deleted them, but I think the site itself was re-purposed. NOW, I have a Wix site for my photography, and then Kalahari Manor is a ProBoards-hosted site. Which was better: your childhood or your teen years? Jfc, childhood. Teen years were a chaotic and rancid cesspit in terms of mental health. What was your reaction to your first time falling in love? I truly imagine that realizing I was *in love* with Jason surpassed what a high probably feels like lmao. What does it take for someone to win your heart? I'm actually putting thought into this one and I think what appeals to me in a person most is just being friendly with a good sense of humor and obvious, shameless concern for others. AND JFC, HAVE EMOTION. Don't be a brick wall with me. Lacking an emotional side, positive or negative, is such a turn-off to me. I'm not attracted to robots. Being a gentle person is important, and for me personally, you need to actually act like you're into me. Not just between us. Do not make me a secret. AND BE CREATIVE AND WEIRD AND FRESH!!!!!!!!!!! There's nothing wrong with more "vanilla" people, but just for me myself, I need someone who stands out for some good reason. lol okay this answer's actually getting kinda long, I'll stop. There's a number of ways. What is one thing you would rather be doing? Ha ha yo real talk, Sara and I are getting all emotional and deep into our relationship, platonic or romantic, and I want me and her in her bed right now tearing each other up alsdkjfla;kwejre I love her a lot ok. When was the last time you changed your mind about something? OKAY SO I started a new birth control, right? It. Sent. Me. BACK. With my PTSD. How? Idfk, but I was suddenly obsessing over Him again, badly. I stopped that shit, and wha'd'ya know, two days later, I'm like "lol wtf I don't want him why did that just happen hunty was u ok????????". SO YEAH, that was a trip. Do you know anyone with a lisp? I'm not sure. Possibly. How much weight can you lift at once? No clue. Not a lot. Do you ask guys out, or wait for them to ask you out? I've never asked a guy out, but I wouldn't say I wouldn't. Do you like the last person who showed interest in you? I love her. Describe the last person you stared at? I have no idea. Do you like dating one person at a time, or multiple people? I'm personally monogamous. Have your experiences made you more or less sympathetic to others? MORE. Do you find smoking unattractive? I do. Have your parents ever searched your personal belongings? Mom has. Where did you get your last bruise from? ... Well. This is uh. Awkward. Tying into when I was on that medicine that made my libido fucking uncontrollable (thank the fucking lord I'm back to normal), my breasts are lookin rough, sister. Are you looking forward to anything? Nothing in the VERY near future, I think. A bit further off, Christmas. I can't wait to see the kids so excited again, and for once, we come together as a true family. Plus my #1 wish is to have my Mark tattoo improved at an amazing parlor, and I'm pretty sure that'll be happening, just obvs. not on Christmas Day itself. I'll just be fuckin STOKED when I *know* it's happening. Do you have a good relationship with your parents? Yes. How much money did you spend today? $1.25 for something from the vending machine. I didn't have breakfast, so I was really hungry. When you’re bored in class, what do you usually do? Try to not doze off. If we're not doing anything, then I'll play around with my phone. Have you ever had a song stuck in your head for more than a day? Oh, definitely. Ever walked into the guy’s bathroom? HA as a stupid elementary school with her friends, we sure did during a work day (my mom used to work with special ed kids at school). We thought we were soooo rebellious. How many wives or husbands do you want? One. What happens if you fall in love with your best friend? Ha, did. I still am, and we hope to be back together someday. Has a teacher ever flirted with you? Not that I know of. Thankfully. Is it okay for friends to kiss each other, as friends? It's not my thing, but sure, if it's consenting and both are aware it's platonic. Do your wishes ever get granted in the worst way possible? Probably in some way at some point I don't recall. How do you feel about your naked body? NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO Have you ever been called obnoxious? I don't think so, anyway. Do you wish you had a bigger family? No. Which friend would you kiss full on the mouth, no questions asked? Sara. Can you do a split or stick your foot up next to your ear? Nope. When was the last time you complained about something? I was venting some mild frustration to Sara earlier tonight. What is your favorite color combination? Favorite is probably pastel orange and light blue. Love it. Then there's pastel pink and purple. Okay pretty much any combination is about the pastels When was the last time you spoke in front of a group? A month or so back when I had to do my Lifeline presentation in FYS. Do you like group projects, or do you prefer to work alone? I strongly prefer working alone. There's no disagreements, compromises, incompetent partners, etc. Have you ever been told you were going to Hell? Yup! (: Indirectly, but. How did you respond? I don't recall, but I wish I did. Who is the most argumentative person you know? She's not in my life anymore partially BECAUSE of that shit. Do you know anyone who is crazy about proper grammar? Yes, but she has OCD as a valid reason. I'm pretty particular about it too to a degree. Who was the last person to make you feel special? Oh my gosh, my therapist told me she was so proud of me and the progress I was making that I just entirely lit up and became a total beaming ball of giggles and "thank you"s. Would you feel funny if you kissed somebody of the same sex? No, I'm bi. If your best friend grabs your hand, what do you automatically do? Squeeze it. What’s something you can cook or bake like a pro? Cheesy and spicy scrambled eggs, man. Also known as the only thing I can properly cook lmao. Do you tend to flirt a lot, even when the person isn’t single? Fuck no, if they're not single. I'll flirt with my s/o when I see it appropriate or relevant, and in a case where we're both single, I'd be very subtle about it because shy. What’s something that you think is really cute? Off the very top of my head, the Ewoks from Star Wars, oh my fucking god. They were the only thing I enjoyed in the movies. What’s a pretty bird? I mean... pretty much all of them. BUT, can we take a moment to appreciate the bearded vulture? like???? they're fucking BADASS???????????? Besides sleeping, what do you do in bed? Almost... everything. It's the reason I endured/am still recovering from muscle atrophy in my legs. Have you ever hacked into somebody’s account? Playfully, back when that was a thing for friends to do and post lovey-dovey stuff about them everywhere. Megan and I, and I believe Mini and I as well, did it to each other. Possibly more. Is having to pee really badly worse than being really thirsty? Oh hell yes it is. The former can get to a point of hurting. Have you ever touched a Qu'ran? No. Do you love animals more than most? Oh definitely. Why do you eat fast food? It's easy to grab when on the run, and Mom has almost zero time to cook. Then we both have school. Most often I just warm things up in the microwave or grab something substantial enough in the fridge. Is there always going to be that one person you and a friend makes fun of? I guess you could say indirectly, yes. Just something she said in a certain way became an inside joke. Her as a person, no, I wouldn't do that. What is a bad habit of yours that you’re actually trying to fix? Having terrible eye contact. I have a very hard time maintaining it, but I've been trying to keep that weakness in mind when talking to people. Do you write out your feelings? That's one reason why I take these surveys, yes. Do you have bills to pay yet? It's embarrassing that I don't. Not saying like, I want to pay bills, what madman would, but I do want to feel more like a proper, independent adult. Will you be changing your hair any time soon? Not the style, but one thing I'm asking for Christmas is a professional to dye my hair silver. I say pro because my hair does NOT hold color, and because of the bleach needed, Mom's concerned I'll damage my hair if I put my trust into anyone less qualified. Does your mom have a celebrity look-alike? I don't think so, but she looks UNCANNILY like her firstborn daughter. It is SCARY. Is there something you wish you could learn to do? There's loads of stuff. Probably above all, cook. Or stop procrastinating. If you could be amazing at ONE thing, what would it be? Drawing precisely what I see in my head. Because of how important they are to me, I would pay BIG FUCKING BUCKS to get how my 'kats look onto paper. What do you wish people would pay you to do? Complain about my weight. :^) I'd be able to just pay for surgery to fix that within a day. Do you take good pictures? I personally think I do. I mean I wanna be a professional photographer. How would one go about impressing you? It depends on the subject and difficulty of whatever. What probably impresses me most would be someone maintaining a mature, peaceful attitude when there is reason to act otherwise. Self-control, that's it. Do you automatically apologize if you walk into somebody? Duh? Tell me a memory of this summer: It was fucking scorching and I hated every minute of it. What’s something that you don’t need, but really want? Hmmmm. OH, HELL YES. IF I had the proper body to even remotely pull them off, I. Would wear. NOTHING. But corsets. Jesus FUCKING Christ they are so hot. What do you draw more than anything else? Just about all I draw is meerkats. What’s the most favorite class you’ve ever had? The Digital Photography course I took in high school. Or Art Honors my junior year. I really enjoyed the stuff I made. For each person you’ve kissed, describe your feelings in one word: Jason: melancholy; Tyler: dramatic; Girt(?): loyal; Sara: ideal. How do you react when you trip or stumble? Gasp and carry on. If it was a more serious trip, I look around at who saw. Are you good at “biting your tongue”? NO. Why do you love the one you do? She's been there for me without fail, has undying faith in me, supports me through everything, is honest, she's funny and very unique, her adoration for animals shows a great level of compassion, she trusts me so much despite her history, she stands extremely firmly for what she sees as right and wrong... okay I can honestly write an essay on why I love her. Would you rather get [another] tattoo or piercing? GIMME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 THE TATTOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111111111 Do you have long or short legs? I'd say they're normal, idk. When do you listen to Nickelback? *shrugs* When I wanna? Would you rather make the first move, or your crush? Them. I'm shy.

[forkanna]

[AO3 LINK] [EF LINK]

WARNING: Sensuality, including a first time with fingering.

CHAPTER THREE

Indeed, Jennifer Punzel was standing at the door. She looked exactly the same as the last time Anna had seen her, all bright smiles and soft hair. Punz.

Until Anna saw her in that moment, she hadn't realised just how much she'd missed her. Dashing forward, she swept her into her arms and held her close, grateful for a familiar face. One that hadn't changed the way everything else had. She picked her up bodily and swung her around in a circle, literally flinging one of her ballet flats across the entrance hall into the corner.

"Whoa, whoa!" she giggled, though she was clearly pleased with the reaction. "Okay, I get it, you're happy to see me – and that's not just a banana in your pocket!"

"Stupid," she choked out in an overcome, affectionate voice. Then she set her down and pulled back to grin down at her soft cheeks, pressing their foreheads together.

"McFly, what the heck? You act like you haven't seen me in a week."

"I haven't."

"Dork." Shaking her head, Punz leaned up to kiss her nose. Anna fought back her surprise; it seemed not everything was the same as she'd left it. Once more, something had changed for the better. "Are we all set for the lake tonight? I was kinda worried when you weren't up yet this morning, but we have plenty of time left."

Alarmed, she blinked over at Elsa. Was it still alright for her to go with Jennifer, after everything that had happened? Could she handle being in the moment with her when they could no longer be each other's firsts now? It was a truly sad thought; she didn't mean for any of this to happen, but the plan had been to be the first ones to explore each other's pants before Doc's crazy time machine wrecked that whole idea.

But not just their pants. Anna had wanted Punz to be her first, in every possible way. First love, first kiss…first everything. Her only, if everything worked out. Sure, Anna hadn't 'returned the favor', but it wasn't exactly a one-sided affair. Should she keep it a secret? Should she refrain from telling Punz that she wasn't… untouched?

Eyes falling to Elsa, briefly, Anna came to a decision: it didn't matter. Virginity was antiquated, and it didn't lessen Punz's importance in her life. She couldn't undo her actions, but she could make sure that her future ones were exactly what she wanted.

She just needed to make sure she knew what she wanted.

Turning to Elsa, not letting go of Punz, she said, "Mom? That okay? Can… I go?"

"Of course," Elsa said with a wide smile. "We have all the time in the world to talk when you get back." That was obviously intended to be more meaningful than the words would convey to Jennifer, of course. "Have fun, you two."

"Great!" Punz latched onto Anna's arm and dragged her back to her bedroom to begin packing. But all the while, her thoughts were still stubbornly stuck in the living room, with the woman she thought would vanish when she returned to the present.

                              ~ o ~

The lake was beautiful this time of year, when the Autumn was just beginning to grip the trees and turn them red and gold. Many of them would never turn, due to how far south in California they were, but it was still quite majestic to look out over.

"Man… I can't believe we're finally doing this," Anna sighed as she stretched her limbs, gazing out over the water.

Jennifer gave a small chuckle. "Well, after you flaked on me last night, I was wondering if we were going to get a chance," she said, though there was no bite to her words. Anna still turned her head away, blushing.

"Yeah… sorry about that. I dunno what happened." At least that wasn't a lie. Anna really had no idea what she'd done yesterday in this life. But they were here now. The water was smooth and clear, reflecting the sun as it sank towards the horizon. It wasn't quite sunset, but the air was growing cool. Anna only really first noticed it when Punz sidled up, just a little so their shoulders were touching.

Anna didn't mean to compare. But now that she had some experience, she couldn't help herself. Elsa had been so forceful; for a closeted queer of the mid-80s, Elsa had been really… bold. By contrast, Punz was tentative. Careful. Anna would have been, too, if the last week hadn't happened.

Not now, though. Looking over at her friend, Anna knew what she wanted.

"Jen…" Her hand came up to comb through her soft brown forelocks, brushing them back and over her ear as she leaned closer. "I don't know why this took us so long, but… I think there's no better place."

"Jen?" she whispered with a little chuckle. "What happened to 'Punz'? Or is this too serious for nicknames?"

"It's pretty serious." Taking her hands, she squeezed them gently. "I'm so happy to be with you. And I mean like… be with you."

That did startle the other girl, and she blinked as her breath caught. "Wh… o-oh. Anna, I…" Biting her lip for a moment, she looked away and down, then back up at her. "Yeah. Maybe we're ready. And I think I have been for a really, really long time, I just… well, y'know. Friends first, and all that crap."

"Yeah, that crap," she chuckled. They were getting closer, and closer still. Anna's eyes slid closed, feeling hot breath on her lips…

And she saw her mother in her mind's eye. Leaning in to kiss her on the bed in their house before it was their house, surging across the car seats to take her lips. Comforting her in the living room, even with Anna being as disgusting as she possibly could be.

Her head turned away at the very last second, pressing into Punz's cheek. It wasn't going to work. Yes, she did care her, but she couldn't use that to drive out other feelings, towards other people, that easily.

"Anna?" came the trembling question into her ear, and Anna's hands twitched to clamp down harder on her soft shoulders before she removed them entirely. She didn't deserve to touch Punz, not with what she was about to reveal.

"Something… something happened…" Anna said softly. "And it's been weird, and a mess, and I don't really understand it myself. But I think we gotta… I gotta tell you before we keep going."

She had to pause to gather her thoughts. Punz pulled away, just a little, to look Anna in the eye. God she looked so beautiful. Anna raised a hand, wanting to touch her friend but unable to convince herself to actually do it. She didn't deserve to yet.

"I want this with you," she whispered. "So bad. For a long time! But I don't know how much would be because of my feelings for you, or because of how much I want to… to run away from my feelings for someone else. And that's not cool." Closing her eyes, cards on the table, she spoke around the tightness in her chest. "It sounds so cliché to say, 'it's not you, it's me', but there's no other way to put it. I fucked up. And until I can give all of myself to… exploring what we have… it's not fair to use you to like, erase my other feelings. That's bad. I might not know much, but I know that."

It was obvious that Jen didn't know how to react. Anna had expected that. Pulling away entirely, she gave a self-deprecating laugh. "And now I'm screwing up our weekend, too. God…"

"Hey, no," Punz said, her voice uncertain. Very uncertain, but apparently she wasn't going anywhere. "You haven't messed anything up."

"Yes, I have… I really have. God, why can't I just…" Her hands fisted against her forehead, clutching at the bangs that normally fell there, messing up her braids.

"Anna! Whoa, whoa…" Punz gently pried the hands away, caressing over her wrists as she did so. "Listen. I'm… we've been hanging out forever. It makes sense you would want to try… I don't know, just see what's out there? Whatever it is- whoever it is, I'm not gonna be upset."

That prompted a humourless laugh from Anna. Oh, if she only knew… but she couldn't cross that bridge. Not just yet, if ever. "I don't deserve you."

"Maybe not." They both shared a wry little smile, even if Anna was feeling it a lot more than before. "But… can I ask for one thing? In exchange for how completely cool about this I'm being right now."

"Name it," she snorted.

"Kiss me." Her hands wrapped around the collar of Anna's shirt, pulling her in close. "Just do it. Once. I want you to know what you're missing when you're… well, when you're 'thinking things over'."

So that was her game plan. She could tell that Punz had already painted a possible image in her mind of what happened. The night they were supposed to go to the lake, Anna met another woman, fell for her, and now she couldn't make up her mind. Which, in a way, was true… even if it wasn't so cut-and-dry as all that.

"You'd still kiss me? Even after I told you that?" For the hundredth time that day, she could feel wetness gathering at the corners of her eyes.

When Punz gave a chuckle, it sounded like she was on the verge of tears herself. Even as her face moved ever clsoer. "Well… yeah."

Oh. Anna couldn't deny that she wanted to kiss Punz. Jennifer. But she wanted a lot of things. She longed for a life not messed over by time travel and- and incest, oh god! But she shook that thought from her head. Now wasn't the time for that. Punz deserved that, at least. So, trembling, she nodded.

"Only- only if you want," Anna said softly. Punz smiled and leaned closer.

"I want," she replied against Anna's lips, before finally sealing them.

It was everything she had ever hoped. Soft and sweet. Punz took the lead, and Anna let her. It was only fair. Anna didn't deserve this. She didn't deserve to be kissed so softly, sweetly… tenderly.

But there was one thing Punz's patience and understanding had accomplished: she certainly wasn't thinking about anyone else but her now. Fully focused on her lips, her gentle heat and her soft cheeks. A completely different experience than the other one she had.

When Jennifer pushed her back into the bed of the truck, Anna wrapped her arms around her body, pulling her down with her. Letting her maintain control. The kissing grew more vigorous, and hands began to wander. When she felt one at her hip, she broke the kiss to speak.

"Punz… wait."

"Huh?" she mumbled, a little dazed.

"Just… slow down. We have all night." Her hand reached up to comb through her hair again, and she smiled at the light flush in the cheeks of her girlfriend. "But… yeah, wow."

"Wow," Punz giggled as she curled up around Anna's body. "Mmm, sorry. I know our first real heavy kiss almost turned into our first time, but I guess I've been holding back the urges so long they kinda just…"

"Exploded? Yeah… yeah, I know what you mean." Of course, Anna was talking about a situation involving someone else, but she definitely knew what she was talking about.

Then the meaning behind her words became clear to Anna. "Wait, whoa, you- you would? With me?" Anna asked. There was an implicit, "now?" to the question, which was by most accounts redundant anyway. If Anna hadn't stopped her, would they have continued, despite what she had revealed only moments before?

Punz didn't answer, not with words. She moved a little closer; held a little tighter. One hand, which hand come to rest on Anna's stomach, moved up, stopping just below her breasts. "You can kiss me, too, you know," she said. In the still of the evening, her words may as well have been shouted.

Swallowing, Anna smiled. "If you want…" One corner of Punz's mouth twitched in a grin.

"I want, Anna," she said again, voice strong and words fierce. She was saying other things, too, with her body and with her eyes; things that Anna couldn't bring herself to think about, not yet, because they brought her too close to the topic she didn't want to remember. She didn't want to taint Punz, or the memories she made with her.

So Anna kissed her, lost herself in the feeling of Punz, her girlfriend. And maybe she could find peace with her. Brief snatches of it, like now.

"I don't deserve you," she said when they parted again. "How are you so… perfect? And beautiful, inside and out?"

"You deserve me because I say so," came the reply. "And I think you deserve every part."

"Glad one of us does." Her hands began to run up and down the length of Punz's body, from shoulder along her slight chest and down to her curving hip, back up along her ribcage. Punz closed her eyes. Clearly, she had been waiting for Anna to take some initiative for a while.

So she did. Maybe she couldn't fully give herself to Jennifer yet with everything swimming around in her head, but she could give Jennifer what she was craving most.

A soft "Oh" fell from her lips when Anna began rubbing her through her jeans. But she said no more than that, merely leaning in to kiss her again. So Anna kept it up, gliding her fingers up and down along what she knew lay beneath. Their breaths grew shakier, though Punz's were shakier still than her own, until finally she had to break away from the kiss to breathe.

"You… can tell me to stop anytime," Anna reassured her in a soft voice. Hoping to mirror some of her girlfriend's confidence, she added, "But I hope you don't."

"Anna…" Her thighs parted slightly, and she raised one up to drape over Anna's hip, giving her access. Granting permission for her to go as far as she was willing.

So she went further. The fingertips glided up again, but this time they took a moment to unbutton, unzip, and then rub at her through the lace of her panties. Clearly Punz had planned for this. Anna smiled, glancing down to look at what she was doing.

Purple underwear.

Anna froze. Her brain short-circuited even as Punz moaned against her ear. How could- how could she do this? After what she'd allowed to happen to herself only the night before, at her mother's hands?

"Please, Anna," Punz said, hips grinding jerkily. Unpractised. Anna forced her mind back to present day. This wasn't about her. It was about Punz, and treating her like the only girl in the world. She was the only girl in Anna's world. And for whatever reason, she thought Anna worthy of her. She couldn't let her down when she deserved to be happy. To have a first time free of worry.

"Sorry," Anna whispered, redoubling her efforts. "Here…"

This time, when she pushed past the waistband, she was able to stay focused. Jennifer looked so beautiful laid out below her, eyes closed and lips slightly parted as she panted. Anna smiled at the cute little buck teeth; she had always thought they were adorable. She kissed her cheek and neck as she slid down through her soft hairs to glide up against her wetness.

"OH!" she gasped out. "Anna!"

"I-is it alright?" she asked, though she didn't stop or draw away. She was reasonably sure it was alright… but had to ask. Maybe Elsa had gone down on her, but this was her first time initiating or trying anything herself. All new territory.

"Y-yeah… mmmhh, oh it's so much better than when I do it." A little soft laugh. "Maybe that's a silly thing to s-say right now…"

"Nah. You sound incredible. And you feel…" Anna didn't have words. Was this what it was like to touch another woman? It almost felt wrong, like she shouldn't be allowed to get this close to someone, but at the same time she had never felt more honoured to indulge in her wicked side. Her one regret was that Punz couldn't be given that honour in return.

Most of all, because it was Punz. The woman she loved. Even if she had been confused by other recent events, that hadn't really changed… just been obscured.

"You're beautiful," Anna whispered. "I'm so lucky…"

And she was, in so many ways. Punz was giving her everything, no shame or hesitation. As stupid as she thought the notion of virginity, Anna was at least able to recognise that to some people, it held value – and a moment like this, regardless, was special.

Anna wrestled with a thought, even as she was pushing Jen ever closer to her climax: did she deserve to know? The answer was a resounding 'yes', but it raised other questions: was Anna brave enough to tell her? Did she think Punz would believe her?

Too big. The thoughts were too big to answer alone; she needed to talk to her mother, or Doc. So she decided to shake them for now. No need to kill her mood, and Punz's, with those kinds of thoughts. Instead, she simply focused harder on the woman she was with. Though inexperienced, Anna made up for it in her eagerness to please her girlfriend.

Slipping a finger inside Jennifer for the first time was an interesting experience. Anna marvelled at the slickness that clenched around her and she took her time in exploring, poking and prodding to figure out what felt best. She was rewarded by a choked cry, the feeling of Jennifer's fingers digging into her shoulder, and the swell of pride in her chest that she was the cause of it.

Within about five furious minutes of Anna stroking her inner walls, growing accustomed to how she felt inside, Jennifer was getting close to her climax. Anna had never felt anyone else do that before but all the signs were unmistakable: shorter, more shallow breaths, the squirming of her hips, and the way she called out Anna's name in a continual litany. It made her heart soar to hear her this way; maybe it spread heat to her own nether regions, as well, but if she were truly being honest, that took a distant backseat to simply seeing the woman she loved look so purely joyful.

"Anna!" Punz finally called out, writhing and gasping for breath as she clutched at Anna's shoulders, face sheathed in sweat. "More! Yes!"

"Come for me. Just let it all out!" Maybe that was a stupid response, but it was all Anna could think of to say. She just wanted to hear her love moan and enjoy herself.

And she did – the orgasm rocked her and turned her into a thing unhinged, completely given over to the moment. It was one of the most beautiful sights she had seen in all her life. Minutes and aftershocks passed, and all that time Anna couldn't keep her eyes off Jennifer's sweet, blushing face.

And then came the giggles. They were tired and slow, but still there.

"Wow," Punz said after a moment. "Wow. That was… God."

Anna smirked. "Thanks, but you can just call me Anna."

At that, Punz squealed, giving her a light shove. "You nerd," she said, fondness seeping into her voice. It managed to resurrect the blush that had been rapidly fading, highlighting her freckles. The sun had sunk well towards the horizon, and the cool steel of the truck bed had begun to soak into their clothes and their skin. Anna shivered, and Punz nuzzled in close.

"Maybe we should move," Anna suggested softly.

"Mmm don't wanna…" Punz whined. Still she sat up; she had actually made it from the truck before she realised her pants were still undone.

"I tell you what; that's hot." Biting her lip, Anna hopped out of the truck bed. She glanced at her hand, then up at her girlfriend. "Hey, Punz…"

"What?" She looked a little drained when she turned around, probably from the outpouring of energy. But when she saw Anna taking the finger she had used on her into her mouth, her eyes flew open. "Anna! You… o-oh…"

The smile was clearly pleased as Anna drew the finger back out. She herself was blushing, too; this was not a level of boldness she was used to attempting at all. Maybe the one good thing about what happened to her in the past was that she had gotten over that shyness.

Well, there were many good things. But she didn't want to think about the rest at the moment.

"You're so bad," she muttered as she skipped back over toward Anna to place a kiss on her cheek. "Anyway… um… I don't think you have to worry about me running off just because of those 'complications' you mentioned earlier. If you keep making me moan like that, the least I can do is give you room to figure yourself out."

Anna didn't have any words to tell Punz how much she appreciated that thought. At the same time, though, she didn't think it was fair on the other girl. Unable to look at her for the moment, Anna instead faced the ground.

"You don't have to wait for me," she said softly. "That's not fair on you."

Punz snorted. Anna heard her take a few steps, and before she could glance up, the other girl had come to a stop. Punz took her hands and squeezed them.

"What do you think I've been doing?" she asked with a smile. "Anyway, I decide what I want to waste time on – and for whatever reason, that's you."

Her words sounded harsh, but her smile and sarcastic tone took out any bite that may have remained. And without prompting, she bent forward, pressing her lips against Anna's just once, quickly.

"Punz…"

"And now you know what you're gonna be missing," she said softly. "Now, c'mon. I'm getting hungry."

And with that, she was off, giggling again. Anna stared in mingling delight and wonder, with a quiet undercurrent of dread. Punz deserved the best; she just had to figure out if the best meant her.

                              ~ o ~

The rest of the night went great. Even though Anna turned down Punzie's attempts to return the favour – saying she just wanted to hang out for the rest of the night, much to her girlfriend's disappointment – they had a great time, building a campfire and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows, laughing about the upcoming dance and chatting about the future of the band. It wasn't exciting, but Anna had enough excitement for one lifetime.

No thanks to the Doc. To help cover for what happened the night before, she did end up telling Jennifer about the experiment, and how Doc almost died. She looked horrified and worried. Even though she had only brought Punz around once or twice to meet him, she still seemed to think he was funny in a quirky way and was genuinely concerned about his health. But Anna promised they would go check in on Doc when they got back.

Then they passed out in the bed of the truck in their sleeping bags. It was the first time Anna had ever really slept beside someone in that way, and she couldn't sleep at first. Too giddy and too full of affection. Punz was much the same, grinning across at her silently as the stars twinkled overhead. They kissed a few times, but tried not to do it too much so they would eventually fall asleep.

Eventually.

Early the next morning, Anna felt something nuzzling her. For a split second, she worried it was a bear or something, but then a slight smile pulled at her lips when she remembered who she was with. She didn't make a sound – why say good morning when she could show Punz instead?

So, rolling over, Anna snuggled in further, lips pressing against a warm throat. She was rewarded with a soft moan that sent gentle vibrations through her lips.

"Mmmm, someone's up," Punz commented. Anna didn't bother replying – not with words, at any rate. The air was cool as she took her arms from her sleeping bag, using them to ensnare Punz and push her over.

"Someone is," Anna said, gazing goofily at her- her girlfriend? They hadn't discussed labels, but judging from Jennifer's actions, she wasn't exactly looking at other people.

Unlike Anna. Geez. But it wasn't the time for that. This weekend was about Punz, not about some thing that happened two nights ago – or thirty years ago, depending on one's perspective.

Luckily, Punz was there to help shift her from that downward spiral, pulling her own hands out to embrace Anna and draw her close. She leaned up, pressing their lips together – it was like a drug. Anna couldn't get enough, and from Punz's own willingness to initiate, she was the same. This time, Anna took the opportunity to nibble at her through her shirt. Punz giggled, then began to pant when she felt the lips making short work of her peaks through the fabric. Anna not only needed this, but rejoiced in it, plying at the surface.

But it reminded her of another moment involving nipples. One that she put out of her mind immediately; this was their weekend. Not a weekend to reflect on the insanity of the past. Punz was already rolling her over onto her back, pinning her and smirking downward.

"Got you, McFly."

"You sure did," she half-panted with a beaming smile. Then she saw Punz trying the same thing on her. "Ooh… this is… freakin' hot." Except there was something missing. Something she definitely remembered another girl playing with only just last week. A hand shot up to the tit not currently being lavished, and it confirmed her suspicions.

Her piercings were gone.

She had a moment of panic before the realisation hit her: this universe, this Anna, had never had reason to get them. There had been no alcoholic mother to rebel against. Sure, she was still interested in getting them, but she knew deep down that the last little push that sent her to the tattoo parlour had been a fight with her mother.

Punz hadn't noticed her distraction, probably taking her movement as encouragement, as a sign that Anna was more than enjoying the actions. And she was! A hum of appreciation had Anna's attention moving away from her ruminations and into this moment.

"You better believe it is," Punz murmured.

Then she began to steadily kiss downward. Anna didn't want her to stop. She craved it. She still remembered the feeling of having someone there, to be completely at their mercy.

But that was the thought that had her pushing Punz away, scrambling to sit up. The morning air only made the peaks of her nipples that much more prominent, and Anna had a sudden desire to cover herself. She didn't regret what she had done with Elsa – not exactly. But it still made her feel… dirty.

"Anna?" Punz asked gently, puzzled and perhaps a little hurt. "Did- did you not want me to…?"

"No!" Anna cried, before she could stop herself. And then she cringed. "I mean… I do want this – want you. I just… need time."

It was a piss-poor excuse, Anna knew that. Even if it was the truth. How was she ever supposed to move on and get better if she didn't give herself a chance? Elsa had even said as much – she'd had years, decades, to come to terms. Anna had been given hours.

Of course Punz looked put out by being turned down. But to her credit, she shrugged and turned to lean against the side of the truck bed, drawing her knees up to her chin as she looked out over the lake.

"Kay."

After a second or two, Anna managed to suppress all of her urges – and her instinct to cry – and crawled up to sit next to her. "I'm, uh, working through something. Let's just say… I hooked up with somebody. And I didn't mean for it to happen, but she was really… really forceful." A rueful chuckle escaped her at the thought.

"Forceful? She didn't… I mean, it wasn't-"

"No, no," she assured her, smiling fondly at how alarmed Punz was on her behalf. Her hand took up the other girl's, and she felt her squeeze in recognition. "It's okay, I'm okay. Just… yeah, I really didn't expect that, and now I don't want to just… you know… 'Why not let Punz do it again?' I want it to be about us, about sharing that moment with just you."

Though Jen looked a little green to be discussing Anna being with someone else, she continued to smile, albeit weakly. "Um… okay, I don't know exactly how you want me to react to this."

"I don't want you to react any one way. Just trying to let you know why I'm being so weird, that's all. Sorry."

"Yeah. And… it's okay, I… well, we've been such awkward turtles, and never straight-up said we were 'girlfriend and girlfriend' before. Maybe we were exclusively almost-dating but we never actually made it official, so it'd be pretty stupid for me to be upset over you, um, looking into other options."

"It wasn't like that!" she cried, though it definitely sounded less angry and more defeated. "She… I made sure to tell her about you, and- and my feelings. But somehow she just…"

"Worked her way in there anyway?" Punz's voice was soft, and maybe a little sad. Anna broke.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, leaning in close. Her eyes grew wet, and she knew it wasn't fair to seek this kind of comfort from Punz; but she also knew Punz wouldn't push her away. Selfish as it was, that was a nice thought.

Anna wasn't even sure how long had passed when she stopped crying and pulled away from the hug to wipe at her face. Punz helped her, pushing her tears off her cheeks with both thumbs.

"Feel better?"

"Yeah. God, I'm sorry for falling apart like that, when I'm the one who's the jerk here."

"Nobody's the jerk here," she chuckled. "Well, except maybe for this other chick who jumped your bones without you expecting it."

"Maybe," Anna had to admit out the side of her mouth. Then she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Well. I'm pretty sure it's totally over with her, anyway, so this might be the last conversation we have about this for a while."

"Uh-huh." There was a little disbelief in that one response, but Punz instead focused on reaching into a backpack that had been pushed up close to the cab. "Breakfast?"

So they moved on to munching on Pop Tarts and sipping hot chocolate as they watched the sun rise a little higher over the lake. Slowly, Anna started to hear some of the differences between how Punz was with her when she knew her, and the way she had been with Alternate-Anna. Apparently, this version of herself had the luxury of a supportive mother, so all her nervousness was purely based around how much she liked Jennifer instead of disapproval from her parents. That was a boon, even if one she didn't get to experience directly. The other differences were very slight, such as a few of their running in-jokes being absent, and Punz expecting her to know a few that she didn't. But almost everything else was the same.

And that was something that Anna appreciated, far more than she could put into words. Her life wasn't the same – overnight, it had changed, drastically. For the better, sure, but that didn't mean Anna liked all of it. Her whole life had been about some very specific routines. And while her life had changed around her, she was still the same as she had been before. She was 'Anna from the Dark Timeline' or something equally scifi-sounding.

Man. Maybe she needed to talk to someone about this. Someone not invested.

Of course, if Anna had noticed, then Punz wasn't any different. She didn't comment, but Anna could see that wanted to. The question never really left her eyes – "what happened?" – but Anna didn't have an answer; even if she did, she wasn't sure that Punz was ready to hear it anyway.

So they swam a little, admiring each other's bodies – though not seeing them on full display. Still that slight bit shy, and probably more because of Anna's reluctance that Punz couldn't quite understand. It was becoming clear this wasn't a situation they could let fester.

Eventually, they packed up to head back into town. Anna kissed Punz again around the corner from her parents' house, since they didn't like Anna in either reality. Then she dropped her off and headed for home. But on the way there, she had another idea pop up.

Who was the one person who actually fully understood her situation?

                               TO BE CONTINUED…

[bazypitchandsimonsnow]

The Black Swan

Chapter 16

Genre: Fluff/Angst

Word count: 8189

Chapter: 16/17 (All chapters)

Summary: The final battle.

Read on AO3

AN: Fun writer fact about me: in order to finish a work, I have to write it in chronological order. I can't write random scenes then link them together because I need the scenes I really want to write as motivation to write the whole fic. Gotta have that reward to push myself to write the stuff I'm not sure on, y'know? 90% of this chapter are scenes I had to make myself wait for. Enjoy :)

———————————————

"Hello, son."

Simon gripped his sword handle even tighter. Just looking down at his smug mustached face made his blood boil. There was absolutely no shock left, just pure unadulterated fury. This was the damn monster who had hurt Baz, cursed him, taken him away from his family, murdered his mother. And he had been sitting under Simon’s nose the entire time.

“Don’t you dare call me that,” Simon spat.

David scoffed. “You’re a bit perturbed, I see.”

“A bit!?” Simon jumped up off the roof, letting his new wings help his landing between David and Baz. He shoved his face into the king's, scowling hard. “Fuck you!”

“Very eloquent, Simon. Now leave, this doesn't concern you.”

"Like hell it doesn't! Stay away from Baz!"

David's face looked so smug, so fucking arrogant, it made Simon's blood turn to fire. "No, and I'd like to see you try to stop me."

Simon saw red. All logic went away in an instant. He roared and swung his sword. David easily blocked it, but Simon swung again with barely a pause, forcing him to step back. Simon kept it up. He was absolutely relentless in his blows, not even giving David time to breathe. It was how he always fought. Unfortunately, he always sparred with David.

Once they reached the lake, Davy dug his feet in and pushed his sword against Simon’s. Simon was filled with so much blinding anger he just pushed back. They locked blades, glaring into each other’s eyes. Until David stepped back and spun on his heels.

“Gah!” Simon exclaimed as he fell face first into the water and dirt. David scoffed, swinging his sword back and forth. The sound lit a fire in Simon’s stomach.

“Really, Simon,” David sighed, “that was far too easy. I’ve told you, brute force is useless without control. And you have none.”

Simon growled, looking over his shoulder. “Fuck you.”

“Again, very eloquent.” Simon tried to push himself up, but quickly felt a boot pressed down firmly between his new wings, forcing him into the mud. “So, this is why you’ve been tired and acting strange. Been sneaking off to see Basil, hm? Pathetic. Sacrificing your future for love, it’s so sad.”

“Fuck-”

David pressed on him harder, pushing the air from his lungs. Simon tried to lift his sword, but David pushed it away. He chuckled low in his throat. “Pathetic, really. And here I thought I trained you better. Oh well, I-”

“Blow wind, blow!”

A boom rang through the lake. David was sent flying face first into the opposite dirt wall. He slid to the ground with no sign of moving. Simon took a deep, sputtering breath. He struggled to his feet, nearly falling more once, and turned around. Baz stood behind him, wand pointed forward, hand shaking violently. His sat in that horrible between of determined and terrified. Simon couldn’t blame him. He had just attacked the king, his captor, who he’d been taught to never even defy for so long.

Simon grabbed his sword and scrambled up to Baz at the same time Baz ran to him. They threw their arms around each other, clutching tight.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Simon choked out.

“Me too,” Baz whispered. “I saw you with that girl, and for a moment I thought-”

“I didn’t!” Simon pulled back, gripping Baz’s biceps tight. “I didn’t say it. And Davy, he made me think she was you. Put a spell on my crown. I thought it was you! I-I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay, Snow, it’s okay. I could tell you didn’t when you looked at me. I don’t blame you.”

“And I didn’t know it was him, that Davy was the man. I-I didn’t, I should’ve. He was always power hungry, I just never thought he would...” Simon shuddered. All this time, Baz’s captor, the person Simon hated the most, was the man he had to call father. Who was right there. Who Simon could've confronted any time.

Baz cupped his face, thumbs running under his eyes. “I know, love, I know. I should’ve known once we found out I was the prince, it was too obvious. I just wanted to get out of here, I didn’t care about who he was.”

“M-Me neither. Come on, we have to-”

“Get down!

Baz shoved Simon to the side while he hurled himself back and to the side, stumbling and falling, hitting his head on the cottage with a horrible thunk. Simon looked up. David’s sword was exactly where his own head had just been. The look in the kind's blue eyes was akin to a forest fire. Raging, uncontrollable, and damn deadly. Simon raised his sword again.

“Don’t you touch him,” he growled.

David chuckled. “And you’re going to stop me?”

Simon made his stance ever steadier. “Yes. I’m never letting you hurt him or anyone else ever again.”

“If you say so, son.”

David swung down, but Simon blocked him. He tried to use his usual technique but David knew how to counter it. Of course he did, he had sparred with Simon for years. He never gave Simon a chance to land any sort of impactful blow. He countered every hit perfectly. Soon Simon hit the lake’s wall. He was pushing on David’s blade again, the roots digging into his back and crushing his wings. Their breathing was harsh, eyes locked together.

“Why?” Simon choked out. “You put Baz through absolute Hell, and for what? Some-some damn crown!?”

“No,” David growled, pushing harder. “I did it for change, Simon. The royals stepped on everyone before. Natasha may have had some great ideas about ruling, but she was no different than the rest of her family. Like Basil would’ve been if I allowed him to stay there. Things needed to change, and only I could change them! Can’t you understand that?!”

Simon growled and pushed himself. He was so close he could smell David’s hot breath. “I understand that you murdered Queen Natasha and fucking cursed Baz. There’s no excuse for that!”

David sighed, shaking his head. “You’re thinking of things too simply, Simon. I had to do it. It was the only way, I had to take control.”

“By burning a whole castle down?”

“Yes!” David pushed so hard Simon’s head slammed into a thick root. “You just don’t understand, Simon. I did all of this for us, for you! So we could take from those noble pricks what they stole. That’s what I did! I burned their palace, stole their treasures, and took the throne. And there was nothing they could do about it! Now I take their riches, no matter how they protest, because I am the king and they cannot defy me!”

Simon’s eyes widened. Of course, the secret room, with magnificent things that should’ve burned away. Simon hated how much these revelations made sense. How his entire royal life was a was built on death and suffering.

“You’re insane,” Simon said quietly. “You’re just completely, utterly mental. How could you ever think any of this was okay?”

“I did what everyone else was too weak to do!” David roared, spitting in Simon’s face. “I sacrificed everything for this. Everything. You will never understand!”

“Oh, but I understand,” a smooth voice said. Simon looked over David’s shoulder, and there stood his love, twirling the bone wand in his hand. A small trickle of blood fell down his forehead but otherwise she looked okay. In fact, he looked smug. “I understand that you killed and hurt people for some misplaced ideals, when all you really wanted was power to compensate for obvious inadequacy issues.”

David turned his head and scowled deeper. “Why won’t you just stay down, you little-”

Simon kneed his hard in the stomach. David wheezed, stumbling away. It gave Simon enough room to lift himself away, feet hovering just above the king’s head. Baz pointed the wand out.

“Inferno!”

A torrent of flames unleashed from the tip. David barely had time to take out his own wand to block it. The fire sprayed out around him like in a bubble shaped arc. He was obviously struggling against Baz’s magic. Baz was always best at fire. But the furious king marched forward, shaky step with shaky step. He was getting dangerously close, sword raised and ready. Simon’s breath hitched. He looked down at his own sword.

“Baz!” He yelled. Baz’s head snapped up, eyes wide and confused. “Catch!”

Simon threw down his sword. And Baz, always impressive, always incredible, caught it with his free hand. It was just in time for David to break through the fire. Their swords clashed, the lake ringing with the terrible sound steel scraping on steel.

“Simon taught me to use this too,” Baz said, voice dripping with smug self satisfaction.

David made an angry noise and swung down. His blows were hard, but Baz was fast. He dodged and parried just like he and Simon practiced. Not a single one of David’s swings breached his defenses. He was as swift as the wind, just downright incredible. Simon watched in awe for far too long before realising he could help.

Baz had thrown the wand to the side in favour of swinging his sword. Simon was still floating above them on his strange dark wings. He dived downward, scooped up the wand, and flew again. He pointed downward at David.

“Away with you!” He shouted. But the magic stopped in his arm, jamming up and fizzing out like it had the bad habit of doing when he was nervous. David gave him a smug look. An expression that said, “of course you couldn’t do it.” Simon’s anger surged. He looked down at Baz, parrying David’s blows still. The idea rushing into his head like a flood.

Just as he was able to get some space from David, Simon nosedived to Baz. He put a hand on his shoulder and held the wand out. Baz flicked his eyes to him. The understanding was immediately apparent. He snatched the wand from Simon, pointed it at the charging David, and Simon pushed his power into Baz.

“Away with you!” His voice was so booming the branches shook. The magic surged and exploded outwards. David once again was sent flying away, smacking into the dirt wall. But when he struggle to lift his arm, it went flat against the wall again. They all breathed heavily. It was loud in the relatively quiet space.

“This is over, David,” Baz said flatly. “You’re finished.”

“No it isn’t,” David spit. “I am still King!”

“Not for much longer. You’ll be in the dungeons soon if I have anything to say about it.”

“We should kill you for all this. Right here, right now,” Simon snarled. He was filled with so much anger he felt like he would burst.

David chuckled, low in his throat. He grinned ear to ear. It was so annoying and smug. “You do that, and Watford will have a swan for a king forever.”

Both Simon and Baz’s eyes went saucer plate way. Simon’s hand was tight on Baz’s shoulder. “What?”

“Didn’t you read Swan Lake, Simon? I’m guessing that's how you found out about the curse. Lady Stainton told me her daughter showed you the old fairytales. I used the same ancient spellbook as Rothbart. If you kill me, Basil here will never be free of the curse.”

Simon felt Baz tense up under him. The wand was shaking in his white knuckled grip.

“No,” Simon said shakily. “Curses, they can always be broken. The backlash-”

“Who cares for backlash when you’re dead?!” David laugh yelled. “You’ll have to keep me alive until you break the curse. If you can break it, that is. Who knows? I may have altered the spell, you don’t know.”

Simon hated it, but David had a point. Even if he was lying he still had a point. And when Baz looked over his shoulder, his tight mouth told Simon he thought the same. They’d need to find a way to restrain him to take him back to the castle. Hopefully the court and council would still be there, so they could explain everything. Hopefully the curse could be broken the way they thought. Maybe-

David was running towards them with sword raised high, crazily yelling at the top of his lungs. Everything was happening in slow motion. Baz was frozen in shock and terror as the blade got closer and closer, steel shining in the light, almost inches away from his face. Simon was a trained fighter, and his instincts instantly took over. He snatched Philippa’s sword from Baz’s hand and raised it upwards until it went right through David's gut.

The whole world stopped in that moment. All three of them were motionless. The only sound was their breathing and David’s blood slowly dripping from the sword’s blade. Simon's eyes slowly raised until they met his adoptive father’s. The terrible, evil man, who took him in when no else did. David’s face was so complicated. He looked surprised, horrified, just plain scared, and maybe even hurt. Simon looked at him, and didn’t know how he felt, except utter shock.

Baz’s hand slowly curled over Simon’s, nails digging into his skin. Together they pulled the sword from the king. It finally came out with a disgusting wet sucking noise. David instantly fell to his knees, then down flat on his face. Simon dropped the sword next. His breathing got harsher and harsher.

“Oh gods,” he said. “Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods! H-He’s dead! I-I killed him! The curse, the curse it can’t- no!”

“He could’ve been lying,” Baz said, but his voice didn’t sound certain.

Simon ran his hands through his head. “No no, we can’t- you won’t- Fuck. Fuck!” He fell to his knees in front of the dead king. Just as dead as Simon’s hope. “You fucking prick! Gods, you just had to- You absolute fuck!”

Salt water fell down Simon’s cheek, creating rushing rivers on his skin. He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. He felt as Baz sat next to him, gripping his shoulder. Simon turned and hugged Baz to him.

“I’m so sorry, Baz,” he sobbed. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to. It was an accident, I thought- I thought he was gonna-”

“Shh,” Baz whispered, “I know, I know. You were just protecting me, you amazing courageous fuck. It’s alright.”

“It’s not, it’s not! You deserve better, you shouldn’t be here!”

Baz cupped the back of Simon’s head. Simon felt dampness against his temple. “I’ll be okay, Simon.”

Simon pulled back and grabbed Baz’s own tear stained cheeks, staring directly into his blood shot eyes. “I’m staying. Here, in the lake. I’ll live here with you.”

Baz’s eyes went huge. He shook his head in Simon’s hands. “No, Simon you shouldn’t. You have friends, a life!”

“I don’t care!” He ran his thumbs under Baz’s eyes. “I promised that you wouldn't be alone and I fucking meant it. Cursed or not, you’re not going to be by yourself ever again.”

Simon watched as Baz’s expression broke. Just everything crumbling and falling apart in an instant. Tears flowed freely from him, pride no longer holding them back. This time he pulled Simon into his arms, burying his face in Simon’s neck. Simon hugged him just as tight. Baz’s shuddering breaths tickled his skin. They sat there and cried together, never to be separated again, Simon’s wings shielding them from the world.

“I don’t know how much it’s worth now,” Simon whispered between crying, “but I love you, Baz, undyingly.”

Baz squeezed him and let out a breath. “I love you, too, Simon. So much.”

The two boys held each other in a death grip. And they were so wrapped up in each other that they didn’t hear David behind him. The king was almost motionless on the ground. His fingers twitched as he took two more shallow, wet, sputtering breaths. Then his soul finally left his broken body, mere seconds after the boys spoke.

The curse said that someone who had never been in love before had to confess their undying love to the world while the caster still lived. And Simon had just declared his love to his world, currently wrapped up in his arms.

They still hugged, barely letting up their grip. Simon kept his eyes squeezed shut, just taking Baz in by his smell and touch. He wanted to savour everything about him even when he was dirty and bleeding. He didn’t care. It was Baz. He’d have Baz in whatever way he could. When his tears finally slowed to a trickle and his breathing came under control, he slowly blinked open his gummy, tear blurred eyes. They were instantly flooded with soft light.

Simon gasped, fingers digging into Baz’s skin. His heart was beating faster than a rabbit’s. His voice was caught in his throat so bad that all he could do was rapidly smack Baz’s back at first.

“Snow, what-” Baz started.

“Baz, Baz, look! Look up!”

Baz slowly raised his head. When he opened his eyes, Simon saw the revelation hit his face. Like someone had smacked him and punched him in the gut all at once. He whipped his head around. Towards the sun just over the horizon.

“The sun,” Baz whispered. “The sun, it’s...”

“It’s up!” Simon finished. “And you’re...you!”

Baz looked down at himself. He pulled his hands to him, gaping as he turned them slowly. He touched his chest, his thighs, his collarbone, neck, and face. All resoundingly human in the early morning light.

“I’m not a swan,” he whispered.

“You’re not,” Simon laughed.

Baz’s gaping slowly became a wide smile. “The curse is broken.”

“It is!”

Baz met Simon’s eyes. They were wide and filled with wonder. “I’m free.”

Simon held Baz’s face with his own huge grin. “You are!”

Baz started laughing under his breath, slowly becoming louder and louder until he was crying again, but with tears of joy. Simon cried as well. They leaned together until their foreheads met. Once again, they held each other tight. Simon surged forward to capture Baz’s mouth. It was less a kiss and more just wanting to be as close as possible to him. Baz did the exact same thing. Their lips were smashed together, barely moving, except for hands running through hair and over skin.

They only pulled apart when air was needed. Their breathing was hard but they didn’t care, they were happy. After many moments, Baz pulled further away. His eyes went to over Simon’s shoulder. Suddenly, his expression fell.

“What are we going to do about him?” he said gravely.

Simon stiffened. He turned his head, looking behind him in profile. David’s body was still face down in the grass though no longer bleeding. Just looking made his gut twist.

“I don’t know,” Simon said. “He’s too heavy to carry.”

“I know this sounds cold, but...could we...leave him here? Just for now? I feel like we need to get to the castle first. While the court’s probably still there. They'll all want to hear about...all of this.”

“Y-Yeah, agreed.” Simon’s voice was strained. His throat felt dry.

Baz cupped Simon’s cheek tenderly. “I’m sorry, Simon. I wish it didn’t end like this.”

Simon leaned into his touch, eyes shut. “I know, thank you. I’m more sorry he had to end it like this.”

Baz sighed, nodding slowly. “Me too.”

Simon went to his feet and offered his hand. “Come on, we need to get to the castle. You’ve got to meet your family.”

Baz smiled softly. He nodded and took Simon’s hand. Simon pulled him quickly to his feet. They laced their fingers together and squeezed. Baz leaned slightly to the side. “Think those wings could get us there?”

Simon flexed his shoulders. The black wings flapped hard enough to make Baz’s hair fly back.

“I think so,” Simon said with a smirk. “Get on my back.”

Simon turned and bent forward. He felt Baz climbed on, arms around his neck and legs snug on Simon’s thighs. He held Baz’s legs securely.

“Off we go.”

Once again, Simon imagined flying, and the wings started flapping. They lifted both Simon and Baz off the ground. And as they went up, Simon stole one last glance at David’s body. But then he faced forward again, towards the light ahead, and he didn’t look back.

———————————————

They stood together in front of the large, closed double doors of the ballroom. Simon didn’t even think about how bad they looked. Filthy, bloody, and breathing harshly. Baz clutched Simon’s wand in one hand. With every passing second the grip got tighter.

“You ready?” Simon asked quietly.

“No,” Baz replied, “but I’m not sure I’ll ever be.”

Simon reached forward and brushed Baz’s wrist. “I’m right here.”

Baz’s lip quirked up. “I know, Simon. Thank you.” He looked up. “You might want to get rid of those before we go in.”

Simon looked behind him. Right, the black swan wings, they were still there. “Oh, yeah, good point.” He squeezed his eyes shut and pictured the wings being pulled inside himself. And they did. Simon hissed with the slight pain of them folding inwards. He opened his eyes again, smiling at Baz. “Better?”

“Better,” he sighed. Baz faced the door again. He took a deep breath. In through his nose, slowly out from his mouth. “Let’s do this.”

Baz raised his wand, arm straight as a board. “Open up!”

The doors flew open with a loud bang. Simon almost rolled his eyes. Of course he had to make an entrance.

The entire court was still there. Simon thanked the gods Penelope, Philippa, and Agatha were so amazing. But the nobles certainly all looked a little disheveled. Simon assumed they had spent a while shouting and panicking. They all went silent and turned their heads towards the noise though. Baz stood for a moment, then marched forward his head held as high as possible.

“My name,” he announced, “is Tyrannus Basilton Grimm-Pitch, only child of the late Queen Natasha Grimm-Pitch. I have come here to reclaim my title and throne.”

Silence reigned like a tyrant. Everyone was too shocked to even speak. Simon scanned the room. Lord Wellbelove’s mouth was wide open, and Lady Wellbelove had a hand over her’s. Agatha was wide eyed, but didn't look too surprised. Philippa and her parents were frozen in place. Only Penelope looked mostly normal, but she still wasn’t moving. The only person Simon didn’t see was-

Lord and Lady Stainton shouted as they were shoved out of the way. Between them emerged Lord Grimm. He was breathing harshly, his white hair a complete mess, and eyes so shocked they bordered on crazed. Simon had never seen him look something other than bored. It was strange, but he was glad Malcolm was actually capable of reacting like a human. He practically ran forward until there was barely two feet between him and Baz. Simon stepped to the side. He wanted them to have their moment.

“Basil?” Malcolm said quietly, filled with wonder. “Is...is that really you?”

Baz looked a bit taken aback. He flicked his eyes to Simon for a moment. Simon nodded, and he looked back to Malcolm.

“You’re my father, right?” Baz said. “I’m sorry, I don’t remember much from before the fire, my memories were...messed with. But I’m pretty sure you and my mother gave me this.”

Baz reached into his shirt and pulled out his necklace, holding it in front of him. Malcolm’s eyes somehow got even bigger. With shaky fingers, he reached up to hold the token. He traced the pattern then slowly turned it over. He let out a choked sob, one hand over his mouth.

“Heavens,” he said with a strained voice. He looked up and put a hand on Baz’s cheek. His expression could only be described as utterly joyful. “It’s really you. Thank all the bloody gods, my boy is alive.”

He threw his arms around Baz, squeezing him tight. Baz froze at first. But slowly, he hugged him back, putting his hands on Malcolm back. His face crumpled, eyes squeezed tight. Simon saw all of Baz’s put on confidence fall away as he hugged his own father for the first time in his living memory. They held each other for a long time while everyone was silent. But soon someone else pushed through the crowd. Her black hair and fine outfit were in disarray, but she was smiling so hard her sharp face must hurt. She stepped forward as Baz and Malcolm separated.

Lady Fiona reached, a hand on Baz’s shoulder, moving up until she held his face, wiping his wet cheek with her thumb. “Oh little puff,” she said through her own tears. “You’ve gotten so big. You look just like your mum.”

Baz chuckled, though it sounded a but funny through the crying. Fiona hugged him, and Malcolm joined her. Baz hugged them back without hesitation. It seemed their arms were only barely holding each other up. Simon smiled to himself. Even after all the horrors of tonight, there could still be something good. He felt a hand on his shoulder. When he turned, there were Penny, Agatha, and Philippa, smiling as well. Yes, this was certainly something good in all the darkness.

———————————————

“Simon, would you please stop pacing?” Agatha asked. “You’re making me dizzy.”

Simon did not stop pacing. In fact, he started pacing faster. Agatha groaned and fell back on Simon’s bed. Penelope and Philippa sighed from the couch and armchair respectively.

“You really don’t have to panic, Si,” Penelope said.

“I actually think I do,” Simon chuckled in that sort of strange, terrified way. “Because Baz has been with the council for an hour, after we were with them for hours, oh, and I killed the king. Panic is a great emotion right now!”

Philippa smoothed out her skirt, a sort of zoned out expression on her face. “Can’t believe my sword was used to kill the king.”

Simon winced and turned to her. “Sorry about that, Philippa. Hopefully you’ll get it back.”

“Oh, it’s alright if I don’t. Not sure I want a sword used to kill royalty, even if he was going to kill you and that Basil guy.” She looked up with furrowed brows. “Is he really Queen Natasha’s son? The dead prince?”

Simon finally stopped, and nodded slowly. “Yeah, he is.”

“So,” Agatha sat up on her elbows, “he was the long story you meant to tell me later?”

Simon nodded again. “Yeah. Penny told you?"

"Yes, most it. Said you needed my father’s journal to confirm Prince Tyrannus wasn’t actually dead and really could be your cursed lover."

"Which he is."

"And," Penny added, "now we know David took Baz from the castle fire so he could have the crown and cursed him to keep him from trying to escape again and reveal the prince was still alive, therefore kicking him off the throne.”

Simon finally stopped pacing. A sharp pain ripped through his heart. He walked over and sat heavily on the red satin couch next to Penelope. “I always knew David was ambitious," he mumbled, "but I still can’t believe he did something so...so evil.”

All three of them looked at Simon sympathetically. Penelope put her arm around him, and he leaned into her. She ran a soothing hand over his hair.

“He was terrible," Simon whispered. "I know that. He killed the queen, he hurt Baz, and I had to stop him from killing him. But...”

“I know, Si, I know," Penny said, running a hand up his arm. "He still took you in. He was still a father to you in a way.”

Simon turned into her shoulder. “I just wanted him to stop him from hurting us. He...he didn’t have to die. I didn’t want to kill him. I just wanted him to stop, why wouldn’t he stop?”

Penelope squeezed his shoulder. The couch dipped as Agatha sat next to him. Her arm joined Penny’s. Philippa sat in front of him with a hand on his knee. Simon let himself sink into the feeling of all three of them, his friends, holding him up while his world felt like it was falling apart.

“What if they don’t believe me? Or Baz?” he asked. “W-What if we’re executed for killing a king and impersonating a prince?”

“We won’t let that happen, Simon,” Penelope said. “They’ll have to fight through us before they get near the two of you.”

“Agreed,” Agatha added.

“Damn right,” Philippa said with an almost devilish smile.

Simon smiled down at all of them. His amazing friends. He didn’t know what he would do without them. “You’re all the best. What the hell did I do to deserve friends like you?”

Agatha shrugged. “No idea. Must be your stuttering charm.”

They all laughed together. And Simon’s heart felt a bit lighter, a bit more free. He needed that taste of levity after tonight. Something to tell him that even though everything was different now, it would still be okay.

The door creaked open and everyone’s heads snapped up. A head full of tangled black hair poked inside. Baz looked at them, and raised an eyebrow.

“Am I late to some sort of party?” he asked. Simon started standing up. His friends let him go so he could stumble his way into Baz’s embrace. Baz chuckled and hugged him back. “I’m alright, love, don’t worry.”

“Was the council okay?” he mumbled into Baz’s shoulder.

“They’re still bloody arseholes," Fiona announced as she walked in. "But they seem to rightfully believe Basil is who he says he is.”

“Thankfully,” Malcolm added as he followed, closing the door behind him.

Simon pulled away from Baz, looking at Lady Pitch and Lord Grimm. The two stood next to the door like tall, stern statues. Simon gulped.

“Um,” he started, “nice...to see you two again, your lord and ladyship. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Baz before. Uh, I thought-”

“Stop stuttering, princeling,” Fiona sighed. “Basil explained it all to us and the council. Where he was, the bloody curse, how you found him, everything. Honestly, I wouldn’t have believed you if you told me outright. Probably would’ve cuffed you so hard your brains would rattle.”

Simon gulped again. “Right, yeah, uh, I-I can see why you would do that...” He looked at Baz again, eyes wide. “You told them...everything?”

Baz reached down and firmly grasped Simon’s hand. He brought it to his mouth, pressing a soft kiss to the back. Simon turned red with embarrassment. “Yes, I did.”

Simon’s eyes flicked between the stone faces of Fiona and Malcolm before going back to Baz. “And...they’re okay with...”

“You saved my nephew’s life,” Fiona said. “Davy’s princeling or not, you brought him back to us. You could be a bloody demon for all I care, really. And after all he’s been through, I just want Basil to be happy.”

Simon nodded, then looked to Malcolm. He was the one Simon worried more about. Lord Grimm had a reputation for not liking most things or people. And though his expression didn’t change like usual, he did nod.

“I won’t lie, Prince," he said, voice strong but relatively neutral. "You would not be my first choice of...partner for my son. But I agree with Fiona. I’m not going to berate Basil's choices in love after just getting him back. I’m mostly glad Davy was actually telling the truth all these years.”

“What does that mean?” Philippa asked.

“Good question,” Agatha added.

Fiona glared at them. “And how is this any of your business?”

“Hey,” Penny snapped, “we helped too. I kept the court in line tonight, Agatha figured out Simon was under David’s spell, and Philippa gave him her sword. On top of that, we all helped Simon figure out Baz’s curse and who he really was. Without us, your nephew wouldn’t be here. We���re just as much a part of this.”

The other two girls nodded. Simon tried to hide his proud grin. Fiona and Malcolm looked like they were about to go off, but when Baz looked at them, they stopped in place.

“It’s alright,” Baz said. “You can tell them.” He looked at the girls with a soft smile. “Lovely to meet you all, by the way. I hope we get more acquainted.”

“Mother of the gods, you were right, Simon,” Penny laughed. “He does talk like Queen Natasha’s books.”

Simon snorted out loud, while Fiona, Agatha, and Philippa at least had the courtesy of covering their mouths. Baz glared at him, but when Simon squeezed his hand, he still smiled. Simon led him to sit on the end of his bed.

“So, uh, what did David do?” Simon said,

Malcolm and Fiona shifted uncomfortably. Agatha, Philippa, and Penelope all straightened up on the couch. Malcolm sat in the armchair, while Fiona stayed by the door, arms crossed over chest. Baz was holding Simon’s hand quite tight. Simon held him just as much.

“Fourteen years ago,” Malcolm said, “David approached me. It was a few weeks after the fire. The court was pushing for me or Fiona to take the throne, but both of us were still incredibly grief stricken, obviously. David proposed that instead of one of us, he would take over as king. I said no, of course. But then, well, he spoke completely in hypotheticals, but his meaning was clear. Essentially, he said that there was a chance that Basil was still alive. And the only way he’d stay that way was if Fiona and I supported David’s bid for the throne. I told him to go to hell at first, even pushed him against a wall. But then...he gave me this.”

Malcolm reached into his jacket, and pulled something small and silver. He dangled it between his thumb and forefinger for everyone to see. It was a half circle charm. On the front was a flame insignia, and when it twisted to the side, Simon saw T. B. Grimm-Pitch carved in loopy letters on the back. Simon instinctively looked at Baz’s neck, where the silver chain peaked out of his dirty tunic.

“The other half of Baz’s necklace, right?” Simon asked.

Malcolm nodded, putting the charm back in his coat. “Yes. Natasha and I had this made for Basil the day he was born. No one knew about it’s existence except for us and Fiona. So, when David had it, well, he was more convincing. He said if we didn’t endorse him and do as he said, the small chance that Basil was still alive would go away. It was quite the ultimatum.”

“We didn’t know if he was telling the truth, of course,” Fiona piped in. “He could’ve just found the charm in the wreckage from the fire. But...we decided we didn’t want to take the risk, in case Basil really was alive. So Malcolm told them to stop looking for Basil’s body, David became king, and we let him do every batshit crazy thing he wanted. And whenever we made a stir or he wanted to do something particularly insane, he gave us more ‘proof’. A drawing, some writing, locks of hair. We still had no idea if any of it was really Basil’s, if you were even alive at all."

"We tried to send scouts to find you once," Malcolm said. "But David found out and threatened to kill you for our insolence. Fiona wanted to keep searching in secret, but I decided it was better to keep you alive if you were truly out there.” He looked at Baz, eyes round and regretful. "I'm sorry I gave up, Basil. I should have looked harder for you. I was afraid."

The room was quiet. No one dared speak. Simon looked to Baz. His thin lips were pressed together. He looked hurt, but also a bit sympathetic. He nodded slowly. "I understand. You wanted to protect me. You couldn't have known I was hidden so close."

Malcolm flinched slightly, the words probably a bit stinging to him. He nodded, and Baz did right after. Everyone, even social cue blind Simon, knew this was only the start of a longer conversation. One that would take awhile and was long overdue between long separated father and son.

"Well," Fiona said loudly, trying to break the tension, "I truly hope David rots in Hell for everything he did." She looked right at Baz, mouth pulled up in a playful smile. “But we’re very glad he wasn’t a complete lying bastard as well.”

Baz chuckled, shaking his head. “Yes, we can be thankful he had at least one redeeming quality.” He sighed and ran his hand through his tangled, dirty hair. “I suppose that’s why he kept me alive even after I tried to escape. I was good leverage. Guess it was better that he cursed me instead of killed me...”

His face twisted. Simon didn’t know exactly what he was thinking, but he put arm around his shoulders anyways and Baz leaned into him. Simon didn’t care who saw them right now. Baz needed him. That was all that mattered.

“Did, uh, did the guards find the lake?” Simon asked quietly. “And...his body?”

The whole room went deathly silent again. It seemed most of them were afraid to move. Baz slowly put a hand on Simon’s thigh. Fiona’s arms fell, hands linked in front of herself.

“Yes,” she said, “they found the lake and King David’s body. He’s been brought back. Lord Wellbelove will properly examine him later.”

Simon nodded while chewing his lip. Baz put an arm around him. His friends looked at him with roud, sympathetic eyes. “And...they really believe us? About what happened?”

Malcolm nodded. “With your’s and Basil’s matching testimonies, yes, I think they do. There will have to be a more a formal investigation, but I hope they’ll come to the conclusion that you were acting self defense. Especially considering David’s well known unpleasant demeanor and now revealed crimes.”

Simon let out a breath. “Okay, okay. So I’m not getting executed?”

“No, I highly doubt so. Though some more loyal council members spoke of charges...”

“Yeah, like your supporters will let that happen,” Fiona snorted

Simon gaped at her. His heart was thumping almost painfully in his chest. “What? What are you talking about?”

“When I left the council room, there was a whole group of people waiting outside, all worried about you. Kept asking if you were okay. They all offered to testify to your character, that you would never kill the king in cold blood like they'd heard. Word spreads too damn fast in this court.”

His eyes went even wider. "Really?

"Yes," she groans."Why would I lie about this? It's too insane to lie about. There were tons of people. Servants, teachers, former classmates, a few of the nobility, even my old friend Ebb were all there. They barely understood what was going on but they all wanted to make sure you weren’t in trouble. If the council members truly want to charge you, I think they'll have to get through a wall of people first. I don’t know how you did it, princeling, but everyone loves you.”

Baz ran his hand up and down Simon’s arm, beaming brightly. “I can understand that.”

Simon blushed again and looked at the ground. “Baz, stop.”

“Never.”

“Gods, ” Penny groaned, “you’re two are going to make me throw up. And I don’t think Agatha and Philippa would appreciate sick on their gowns.”

Both the aforementioned girls pulled to the side, holding their skirts. Simon gave her a withering look. Fiona hid her laughed behind her hand. Baz looked at Penelope, tilting his head. “You know, I think I’m going to like you.”

Penny tilted her head as well. The smallest smirk pulled at her lip. “Maybe I’ll like you too.”

Simon smiled. He had a feeling they were right. Baz and Penny were too similar to not get along in some probably weird way. That was good. Simon wanted Baz to get along with all his friends, hopefully.

“So that’s it for now?” Philippa asked. “None of us are going to be called to the council again today?”

Fiona shook her head. “No, all the council has gone to bed, thankfully. I think they’re all a bit too exhausted to deal with anything else.”

“I understand,” Simon groaned. “I feel like the dead walking.”

“I second that,” Baz said.

Malcolm stood up, straightening his jacket. “I think we could all use some rest after tonight. We’ll talk to the council and court later about Basil’s position. But if Simon is going to rescind his claim...”

“I will, don’t worry about that.”

“Then I doubt there will be much debate. Basil, you’re still technically the heir, since you’re still alive and all.”

“Yes, I am, last time I checked.”

Malcolm let out a breath through his nose, the closest to a real laugh Simon was sure he was capable of. “Yes, you definitely are.” He took a step forward, standing over Simon and Baz. Slowly, cautiously, he put a strong hand on Baz’s shoulder. His smile was small but very real. “We’re all happy to have you here, Basil. When you’re ready, Daphne and the kids would love to meet you.”

Baz nodded. He had the exact same sort of smile. “I would like that. Thank you...Father.”

The minuscule change in Malcolm’s expression somehow spoke volumes. He patted Baz’s shoulder one more time before backing away. Fiona came up, grabbed Baz’s jaw with both hands, and kissed him squarely on forehead. Baz looked slightly panicked, eyes sliding over Simon’s. Simon squeezed his hand to comfort while trying to hide his laugh.

“It’s good to have you home, little puff,” she whispered.

Simon watched as Baz practically melted. For someone supposedly jaded and cold, he went mushy under affection. He held Fiona’s wrist with his free hand. “It’s good to be home.”

The fact that Baz could say home now and mean it was downright incredible. Fiona kissed him one more time, then left with Malcolm. Simon turned his attention to the three teenage girls still sitting on Simon’s couch.

“Shouldn’t you three be getting to bed too?” he asked.

“I suppose we should,” Agatha sighed. She stood up with both hands on her hips. “Alright, ladies, let’s leave these two lovebirds alone and actually get some rest.”

Philippa stood and arched her back like a cat. “Agreed. I need to see my parents too. They’re probably beside themselves.”

“Mine too,” Penelope added. “Let’s get going.”

Simon hugged all three of them tight as they left, mumbling more thanks in their ears. The second the door was closed, Simon flopped face first into the bed. He groaned deeply into the pillow.

“I don’t wanna move ever again,” he mumbled.

Baz chuckled, shimmying up next to him. “Well, you’ve had a long day, love.”

Simon turned his head. Baz hovered over him, cheek resting on his hand. There was still some dried blood on his forehead and dark bags hung under his eyes. But he was here, in Simon’s bed, completely human during the day, and that was too much of a miracle for him to care about appearances. “So have you.”

“Definitely. And I am positively knackered.” Baz relaxed his arm, letting his head fall down onto the pillow. His eyes slid shut. Simon shuffled closer. He took Baz’s rough hand in his.

“You okay?”

Baz didn’t open his eyes. But he shuffled closer, and held Simon’s hand very tight. “I don’t know. Are you?”

Simon bit his lip, then shrugged up to his ears. “I don’t know either. I mean, I’m glad you’re uncursed, and back with your family, and we’re both alive. But...a lot has happened.”

“Yeah,” Baz sighed, “I know what you mean.” His eyes half opened, looking like two small half moons. He ran his fingers through Simon’s tangled hair as best he could. “I’m sorry, Simon. If I had stayed concentrated, I-”

“No,” Simon said, shaking his head. “Don’t say that. It’s not your fault. Of course you didn’t mean to let him move, I don’t blame you. I-I had to, to protect you. He was a monster anyway.”

Baz sighed. He spread his fingers on the nape of Simon’s neck. “I’m still sorry you had to do that. Killing is horrible business, no matter who dies. And no matter how much of a monster he was, Simon, you still had a relationship with him. It has to hurt, and I wish I could take that hurt away.”

Simon squeezed his eyes shut. Baz slowly ran his thumb over Simon’s cheek, smoothing out wrinkles, catching the tears. Simon knew he was right. He hated it, but Baz was right. Just like Penny was right. His heart ached so terribly it pushed more tears from his eyes. But Baz was right there to wipe them away.

“Is it bad that I’m still sort of sad he’s dead?” he asked, voice quiet and pained.

“No,” Baz said, “it’s not. Nothing you’re feeling is bad. Remember what you told me?”

“I’ve told you lots of things. You don’t listen sometimes.”

Baz chuckled. He held Simon’s face tighter. “Well, yes, but I listened to this.” Simon felt Baz’s cool lips lightly press against his cheek. “It’s okay that you’re not.”

Simon finally let himself breathe. He was still crying, his chest still hurt, but he felt just a bit better. Thank all the gods for Baz.

“Okay,” he whispered. “You’re right. Well, I’m right.”

Baz snorted. “Yes, you are, love. Don’t get used to me admitting that too much though.”

“Oh, never. It would be too out of character for you.”

They laughed together, giggles filling the small space between them. It was good, it felt right. And even though Simon knew they certainly weren’t okay right now, but they were going to be alright.

Silence resumed. It was calm and peaceful, despite the blood on Baz’s forehead and the tear stains on Simon’s face. They didn’t let go of each other’s hands. In fact, their grip was tighter. Baz kept running his fingers through Simon’s fine hairs.

“What do you think I’ll have to do?” Baz asked quietly. “Before I become king? I doubt they’ll give me throne right away. I wouldn’t even take it right now, honestly.”

Simon chuckled. “No, they won’t just hand it to you. The council will probably run stuff for now. Maybe your father or Fiona will be regent. They might want you to go to Mage’s School, or at least get a private tutor so they know you’re smart enough to rule. But you are smart. You’ll be on the throne in no time.”

Baz snorted, hand stilling on Simon’s nape. “Wonderful. Can’t wait to have that heavy metal sitting right on my head.” He raised an eyebrow. “Do you have any idea what you may want to do now? Since you’re not going to be a prince anymore?”

“I don’t know,” Simon mumbled. “Not yet, at least. For a long time, I thought I wanted to be a hero like in the stories. But being a hero isn’t that great. And really...I think I just wanted to be free to do what I want. I guess I can now, but I have no clue what that is. I’ll figure it out, I think.” His eyes slid shut, a half smile playing on his lips. “Maybe I’ll teach people how to sword fight. They’ll probably be better students than you.”

Baz pinched his ankle with his toes. Simon snickered, leaning forward to brush their noses together. Baz took the opportunity to kiss him. Just a short, light press of lips, barely touching. But it was still like lightning between them. It always was.

“You’re a prick,” Bas whispered, “but I think you’d be a good teacher.”

Simon kissed him one more time. “Thank you. I think you’re going to be a good king.”

“I better be. Or I’ll be overthrown and probably deserve it.”

“Probably. So just be amazing like I already know you are.”

Baz pulled Simon against him, pushing Simon’s face into his chest and lightly playing with his curls. Simon held his back, dirty shirt twisted in his fingers. It felt like they were melting into one being. Both hurt, both a bit broken and lost. But their cracked pieces fit perfectly. They would hold each other together.

“I love you, Simon,” Baz mumbled into his thick hair.

Simon felt exhaustion seep into his bones. Before he slipped into dreams, he squeezed Baz, basking his warmth and solidness against him.

“I love you, too,” Simon whispered. And both the boys drifted off in each other’s arms, as they knew they were meant to.

———————————————

AN: Well, they're not okay, but they're gonna get better. Baz is finally back home with his family, and there are so many people who adore Simon that they won't let the council punish him for defending someone he loves. Also I know Malcolm may seem a bit OOC, but like, he wasn't sure if Baz was alive or dead for over a decade and Davy was hanging that over him like a hostage. I think even an emotionally unavailable asshole like him would break down after seeing his possibly dead kid again, and wouldn't push him away just after getting him back. Plus there's no homophobia in this fantasy world because I say so. It's my world, dammit, and I will make it as gay friendly as I please. And I know leaving David's body seems cold, but in my mind they had to get to court as soon as possible, because all of the council members are there for the ball and they'd need all of them to hear about Baz and what happened with David. There's only so long Agatha, Penny, and Philippa can keep them there. Idk hope that makes sense. Anywho, long writing explanation over, hope you guys liked this. Next chapter will be the epilogue on Thursday! :)

[xanderuwu]

for whom it may concern; here’s a letter

i wrote this long fucking rant about voltron, enjoy (click here to view on google docs)

My name is Alexander, I’m 23, and here is my sob story. I’m a bisexual trans man who grew up in a tiny village where people believed that being LGBT+ was just as bad as being a child molester. I spent the first 20 years of my life hiding my truth because of the fear & shame that was ingrained in me as a child; I was disgusted by myself. I have never gone a week in my‬ ‪life without contemplating suicide - I’ve tried to kill myself 9 times, the first time was when I was 8.‬

‪One of the main things that kept me afloat during my childhood & teen years were stories in any medium; film, TV, books, I swallowed them whole & they kept me sane. But they never made me feel goof about myself or my life. I didn’t experience the impact of good representation until I saw the first season of Glee in 2009 when I was 14 (that show went downhill as it went on too, wow). One of the main characters on Glee was gay & had an arc in the first season where he came out to his father, & his father … embraced him.‬

‪… I remember crying in bed, watching the coming out scene over & over in shitty quality on the Youtube app on my old iPod. I had never seen anything like it. Sure, I’d seen LGBT+ people in media before, but they were always either stereotype-ridden jokes, or they led miserable lives & never got a happy ending. & in so so so many cases … they died. Or their partner died. Or they got AIDS. Or they were framed as disgusting degenerates.‬

‪I’d never seen a parent accept & embrace their gay child. I had never seen a gay character who “made it” with loving friends & family. It gave me courage, it made me hopeful.‬

‪Hope is the most powerful powerful tool we have when it comes to suicide prevention within the LGBT+ community. Every day, thousands of people toe the line between life & death, & THAT is why our representation is so important. Yes, it helps normalize LGBT+ people to the cisgender & heterosexual audiences, but you have no idea how much hope & joy can blossom in the hearts of vulnerable LGBT+ people from good representation that shows LGBT+ characters being embraced & loved, finding partners, falling in love, getting that happy gay ending we so rarely get to see in media. I’m certain that that gay kid from fucking Glee of all things, saved me from the brink a few times.‬

‪In December of 2014, when The Legend of Korra made Korra & Asami the romantic endgame, I cried. Cried for all the LGBT+ kids who would, perhaps for the first time, feel good about themselves. I also cried for the child in myself who still struggles with the shackles secured around his feet from a childhood of isolation & self-hatred, because he needed it too. & then we got record-breaking amounts of well-rounded LGBT+ representation on Steven Universe, a show that not only features same-gender romances, but also explores gender & challenges toxic masculinity. & last year, Disney Channel, the fucking DISNEY CHANNEL, had a character on Andi Mack come out as gay! Freakin’ DISNEY, man! & Korra was on Nickelodeon, Steven Universe is on Cartoon Network - those are all huge traditional television broadcasters where shows have to be assessed by a whole lot of boards in order to make sure they’re suitable to broadcast.‬

‪Netflix, on the other hand, has more freedom. Many of their live-action shows have had explicit LGBT+ representation. Watching as more & more mainstream TV shows & films with prominent LGBT+ characters get released makes me believe in the change, from when i was a kid in the early 00’s to now.‬

‪I first encountered Voltron: Legendary Defender in the form of gifs, fanart, & screencaps on Tumblr. The first thing that caught my attention was Allura’s design; she’s gorgeous & I’m weak. I found out that she was from the Voltron reboot which, not gonna lie, sounded kinda dumb to me at first. I watched Voltron: Defender of the Universe as a kid, not because i’m old enough to have been a child in the 80s, but because we were a family with six mouths to feed & no disposable income that could be spent on cable TV. So we got public service television, & they ran a lot of cartoons from the 80s because they were cheap to license I guess.

Anyways, I was obsessed with VDOTU (we’re using abbreviations now because this is getting stupidly long & typing is hard) as a wee lad, Allura was my favourite character because she had long hair & a pink uniform - as I said, I’m weak for pretty people. So in late June of 2016 I watched the first season of VLD & I was so pleasantly surprised. VLD is animated by Studio Mir; one of my favourite animation studios, & the show has writers & producers who have also worked on Korra, so that, in addition to the show being distributed by Netflix, made the possibility of clear-cut LGBT+ characters & storylines seem more plausible. ‬

‪I loved the first season of VLD. I very quickly latched onto Keith & Allura, but as I kept watching I found myself adoring the whole team. Having Pidge be a girl was cool, & I was so excited when I found out that she was voiced by a gay actress! & whoever came up with the idea of making Allura, Hunk, & Lance brown deserves a high-five. ‬

‪(We’re getting to the real meaty LGBT+ rep rant soon, just stick with me here because I wanna talk about some other gripes I have with this show first).‬

‪So, we had a show with a diverse main cast of characters, good writing & pacing, a good balance between character & plot, & gorgeous animation. I was excited to see the second season.‬

‪However, the second season was when some of the show’s main flaws popped up for the first time. That nice balance between character & plot from the first season seemed to have driven right off its tracks and straight into a bio-hazardous lake. In the first season, each character got a fair amount of attention, but in season two Hunk & Lance were just … barely there? Keith is my favourite character & I liked the Blade of Marmora stuff, but Keith’s amount of screentime came at the expense of other characters, especially Hunk & Lance. Having Keith’s entire arc in season two pretty much only involve himself & Shiro did every character a disservice. & the reveal that Keith was Galra was so underwhelming. We only saw two characters react to Keith’s alien heritage. The episode with Keith & Hunk in the Weblum was lovely, but we haven’t really gotten team bonding episodes like that since season three so :/ And oh God, the whole subplot of Allura, a black-coded character, being “racist” against the Galra is a WHOLE other mess that I don’t think I can adequately explain. Just, why. ‬

‪Season three was good, the balance between character & plot seemed to be getting back on track & the lion switch-up made for some good character development, especially for Lance & Allura. Episode four was a mess though like y'all could’ve been just a liiittle more sensitive with that kind of stuff. Also it is embarrassingly obvious that in the first two seasons, Allura was portrayed as being around Shiro’s age & the two of them shared moments that seemed to be hinting at a future romance - until, suddenly in season three Allura is at the same maturity level as the other paladins? What, is it because that was when you decided to have Shiro be gay because you weren’t allowed to kill him after season two, & so instead of doing Shiro/Allura you started pairing Allura with Lance? That’s just absolutely stellar mate.‬

‪Season four - character/plot balance swings off the rails once more & to this day it hasn’t been recovered. This was the season where y'all’s plot became way too fucking convoluted & too damn big! The plot takes so much room, OF COURSE character development suffers! Season five had the same problem, & whoops Allura has a new love interest! It’s Lotor, a grown-ass man! Great! Totes loved it!‬

‪Season six had some good moments but again, y'all’s plot left no fucking breathing room for the characters! Also, Lance’s crush on Allura is suddenly True Love now? At this point you need a fucking Excel sheet to keep track of the plot & subplots. Lotor was an asshole all along & betrayed Allura? BITCH WE BEEN KNEW! Lotor’s betrayal could be seen from miles away. Bad.‬

‪SEASON FUCKING SEVEN HERE WE GO.‬

‪You ruined Keith’s entire character. Plain and simple. Keith & Shiro’s backstory was the highlight of the entire season. And in those flashbacks we see Shiro’s BOYFRIEND! Shiro is GAY! Shiro being gay & having a partner was revealed at San Diego Comic Con in July, & fans were so fucking happy. Remember at the start of this monstrosity of a letter where I talked about LGBT+ representation in media igniting hope? That was what you saw from fans after SDCC; pure joy & hope. It was amazing, people cried because they were so happy! & the showrunners said we’d learn more about Adam & get to meet him, shit I was so hyped!

Was Shiro, the character who has struggled the most in the show, going to get a … happy ending? As a gay character? With his partner of the same gender?‬

‪…‬

‪Y'know,‬

‪There’s still probably hundreds of thousands of LGBT+ kids who are growing up in a similar environment to where I grew up. They feel the same way I felt. That … indescribable loneliness that pierces through your bones, the self-hatred & hopelessness that weighs too much, you are the deer and the headlights is every person whose approval & love you need most. ‬

‪& then you see someone like you in a story, & they are happy, they aren’t alone, because people like us aren’t destined to be tragedies.‬

‪It gives you hope.

‪VLD could’ve given that to people y'know? And maybe that’s the saddest part, that instead they chose to kill the man Shiro loved, & thus put their only remaining confirmed LGBT+ character through even more suffering. ‬

VLD killed 50% of their confirmed LGBT+ characters. ‬

‪Imagine if they’d killed 50% of their female characters.‬

They killed Adam to show the gravity of the situation, to show that with war comes death. But LGBT+ viewers don’t need that reminder. We die every day. We know war, we know that war walks hand in hand with death.‬

‪And we didn’t even really have any feelings about Adam aside from “Shiro’s boyfriend!!!” We only got a tiny snippet of his & Shiro’s relationship. From a basic storytelling standpoint, killing someone like Colleen or Sam Holt would have been so much more effective because we know a lot more about Pidge’s relationship with her parents than we know about Adam & Shiro.‬ Adam’s death fell flat because we never knew him or his & Shiro’s relationship.

‪So why did they decide that the gay characters had to lose? VLD could have made something beautiful, something that would help people. But you didn’t.‬

‪Why didn’t they?‬

‪And why, in the same season, did they suddenly make Allura show signs of returning Lance’s feelings, despite her having shown zero romantic interest in him for over a third of the series? Why did they push Keith & Acxa together, two characters who had never spoken before this season? ‬

‪They take away the prospect of a same-gender romance, & then shove some half-assed straight relationships in our faces? It’s as if they’re doing this to be intentionally cruel.

‪Even if Adam somehow returns, that doesn’t repair the anxiety & hurt they caused their LGBT+ fans. With this season, VLD gave us the same age-old tale we’ve been told since we could understand words.‬

‪Happy endings belong to straight people. Gay people are doomed to live through tragedy after tragedy until we die young.‬

‪I believed in this show. I honestly thought the slow-burn romance would be Keith & Lance. Already in season one they had the “bonding moment” that was a textbook example of how to convey romance through visual storytelling. In that scene, Lance said “We are a good team” to Keith, & that was supposedly just bros being bros? But in season six, Lance says the exact same phrase to Allura as a flirty line, so what’s the deal here?

Are Allura and Lance the slow burn? Allura had never shown interest in Lance before now, when she suddenly noticed that Lance is … nice? What … is this? Honest to God, what is happening? VLD really decided to do the guy-likes-girl-girl-doesn’t-reciprocate-but-if-guy-keeps-trying-she’ll-like-him-back-eventually thing? Ah yes, If you flirt with a girl & she ignores your advances, you shouldn’t stop & move on, you should keep pushing, that’s how VLD staff want people to treat women I guess.‬

‪Keith & Axca … looked at each other three times & now they’re in love. Very good slow burn, I cried, 11/10.‬

‪Had the straight romances at least been well-developed I might’ve been slightly less angry. But no, you killed the man Shiro loved & then presented us with some gourmet heterosexual nonsense - no really, where are your Michelin stars because this hetero bullshit is top notch, truly.‬

‪I’m not saying this as a bitter shipper. I’m saying this as someone who invested so much time into your show, only to be severely let down. VLD has had some incredible episodes, but season four & onward was a massive display of incompetent storytelling. It’s as if seasons one through three were created by a different team!

Not to mention the showrunners themselves, who have consistently been dismissive of valid concerns from fans, & when given chances to confirm that Keith & Lance’s relationship was strictly platonic, they instead remained vague, instilling hope in fans - giving people false hope to string them along so they’ll keep watching your show is cruel.‬

‪There are so many other things I could say here, but I’m running out of time.‬

‪Y'all could’ve done extraordinary things with this show & these characters. You could have made something amazing, your show could have been remembered as a trailblazer. But instead, it’ll only be remembered as a clusterfuck & as an example of what not to do, for future creators to learn from.‬

‪I don’t know how or why y'all ended up turning your show into a damn mess. I don’t really care. I just wish you hadn’t exploited the fragile hopes of LGBT+ people.‬

The only thing that can save y’all now is if season eight makes me physically shit hundred dollar bills so I can buy a fucking boat, sail to the middle of the ocean, and just scream for a good six years or so.

Thanks.‬