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sergeantsporks · 1 year

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Gilded Family

Rating: Teen and Up, Gen

Ch 25/?: Petro

Ch 1, Ch 2, Ch 3, Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 6 , Ch 7, Ch 8, Ch 9, Ch 10, Ch 11, Ch 12, Ch 13, Ch 14, Ch 15, Ch 16, Ch 17, Ch 18, Ch 19, Ch 20, Ch 21, Ch 22, Ch 23, Ch 24

In which none of the previous golden guards or wittebro died, actually, they're all fine and living happily together as one big dysfunctional family

Ao3

“So. Belos is dead?”

Phoenix watched Auric carefully. He was the first Grimwalker Phoenix had ever seen, and while he’d always seemed cheerful and mellow enough, there was never any telling what Caleb’s clones were keeping inside.

“Yeah.”

“Hm.” Auric rolled up excess bandages in quick, efficient motions, putting them back in their place on the shelves. “How?”

“The Collector.”

“Hm.” Auric scratched at the scars slashed across his neck. “Hm.”

“Are you… okay?”

Auric scratched more furiously. “I’m fine. Let’s get you out of here. Find you something else to wear. Because, uh…” he picked up Phoenix’s torn shirtsleeve, waving it around. “You’re kind of wearing the colors of the enemy.”

Phoenix pushed himself off of the bench. “I know the way.”

“Uh—” Auric hopped around in front of him, not really blocking him from moving, but slowing his progress. He walked backwards, facing Phoenix. “Well—so—the thing is—your room’s sort of taken? We’ve all been doubling up,” he added hastily, “See, after the day of unity… I mean, there are some wild witches, of course, and a few people who managed to get out of the sigil, a few kids who didn’t have brands, and obviously we couldn’t just leave them out there to get picked off, so… um, so, there’s like. Fiiiiiifteeeeeeen extra people here? And obviously we needed space, so we opened up your room, and Jason’s room and Ach—and Achsah’s room. Obviously we were still keeping an eye out for you, we keep watches and patrols, but of course we’ll—we’ll find a space, we just… needed the rooms.”

Maybe it was the potion wearing off, maybe it was the prospect of getting to know twenty new people, or maybe it was that the place Phoenix considered home wasn’t the same as he’d left it. Whatever the reason, a tired, heavy feeling was starting to creep into Phoenix’s bones, and all he wanted to do was find the nearest bed and pass out.

“It’s alright,” he murmured, “Of course you needed the space.”

“Usually, you know, we’d just add onto the house, buuuuuut. Mom can’t use construction magic right now. And going out for materials is dangerous. So. We’re doubling up on the rooms we have. Um.” Auric scratched at his neck again. “Anyway. Your stuff should still be in your room. So we can get some clothes. Quick stop.”

“Are you sure you’re alright? Is your neck bothering you?”

“I just did your physical checkup. You’re bruised all over, I would be surprised if none of your ribs are broken, your right side and arm are covered in lacerations from glass shards, and, of course, you’ve got two infected wounds that we can’t do anything to heal. You don’t have any space to be worrying about anyone else’s health.” Auric knocked twice on Phoenix’s old door. “Hello? Anyone in there?”

The door creaked open just a crack, and two sets of blue eyes stared at Auric from about waist height. “Hi, Auric.”

Auric crouched down. “Hey, Clara,” he said gently, “How’s your arm feeling?”

“It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt.”

The door swung open the rest of the way. Phoenix’s room was filled with light; the window was open, and light glyphs lined the top of the walls. Two witchlets stared at him, both of them blue-eyed and brown-haired. The smaller of the two tugged on the older girl’s sleeve, whispering in her ear.

Auric cleared his throat. “This is… Phoenix.”

“Oh!”

The older girl—Clara, based on the cast immobilizing her arm—ran for the dresser, retrieving a book. It was Jason’s book of myths, the one he’d lent to Phoenix, but Phoenix had never finished reading. Clara offered it to him. “Your book!”

“I…”

She set it on the ground and flipped it to about two thirds of the way, removing a small scrap of paper. Phoenix squinted at it.

Phoenix—let me know when you get here, so we can read it together :) – Jason

“Phoenix” was written above a scribbled-out “Hunter” – Jason must have taken out and replaced the note after he’d changed his name. Not that he’d ever gotten this far in the book—the chapter heading labelled it “Jason and the Argonauts.” A lump rose up in Phoenix’s throat, choking him.

“Oh.”

Clara tucked the note back into the book, closing it. “Ram and I were reading it for a bedtime story. It’s kind of weird, and it’s about humans, but also witches!”

Ram nodded. Unlike Clara, they didn’t show any obvious physical injuries, but they clung to their sister like a lifeline and wouldn’t let her go.

“This is your room,” Clara declared, “Can we still stay here? We’ll be super quiet, promise.”

Auric glanced at Phoenix, uncertainty and worry sparking in his eyes, but Phoenix shook his head. “You can stay,” he croaked, “I’ll be alright. Maybe you can read one of those stories to me sometime?”

“Okay!”

Auric squeezed past her. “Phoenix is going to share a room with one of us. We’re just here to get some of his clothes.”

“Yeah, he looks like a puppet.”

Ram tugged on Phoenix’s left hand. “Does it hurt?” they whispered, pointing to the scars from Belos’ staff.

“Not anymore.”

Clara held out a marker to Phoenix. “My arm doesn’t really hurt either, but Auric says I have to keep wearing the cast. Will you sign it? You have a bird name, that’s pretty cool, I have a friend named Griffin, but I haven’t seen him in a while.”

Phoenix uncapped the marker and wrote his name on the cast. It was already covered in signatures, some of them names Phoenix recognized, and others that had to be from some of the refugees. “There.”

“It’s magic,” Clara told him, “The more signatures you get, the faster it heals. That’s what Auric said.”

Auric made a face at Phoenix behind Clara’s back, his arms full of clothes. “Right. We’ll get out of here. Douse those lights and get some sleep, will you?”

Clara shook her head. “Ram’s scared of the dark. Bye, Phoenix!”

Auric handed Phoenix the change of clothes. “I think Mole isn’t paired up yet. You could stay with him.” He sighed. “Or… right, you said he’s angry with you. I think Cherry’s got space. Yeah. Let’s go see him. He took the traps out of his room since we’ve got a bunch of kids around now, so it should be pretty safe.”

Grimwalkers had gathered in the hallway, all of them staring at Phoenix again, just like when he’d first arrived. Auric pushed through them, leading Phoenix to a new door. He’d never been in Cherry’s room—actually, he was realizing now that he hadn’t been in many of the rooms of this house. None of the other Grimwalkers seemed like the type to take kindly to people invading their space.

Cherry opened the door. He looked just as tired as Evelyn, and Phoenix remembered what Auric had said about watches and patrols—he recognized that dead-eyed look from all the scouts who’d been on late night patrols. “Phoenix? You’re home?”

“Jason’s not back,” Phoenix told him, “He’s safe, he’s just—”

Cherry shook his head. “Hey. I’m glad you’re back safe.” He eyed Phoenix’s arms. “…mostly safe. Um.” He rubbed his good eye. “Right. Your room is taken. I think Dad left a copy of the schematics around here, we’ll figure something—”

“You’re open,” Auric said gently, “You’re open, Mole’s open, Dagger’s open, Sam is open, Ash is open, and Alex is open. Everyone else is already paired up.”

“Mmm. Ah. Okay. Uh. Let’s still avoid putting someone Ash, or Alex, but if Jason and Hunter get back here or we find anyone else, they might not get much of a choice. Um…”

“I thought he could stay with you,” Auric offered, “But—maybe for now he could stay with Frank and I. Just until I’m sure he’s all healed up.”

“Uh.” Cherry rubbed his eye again. “No. He can stay here. I’ll update the rooming schedule.” He opened the door wider. “You look like hell. Come on.”

There was already an extra mattress in the room—even if Cherry hadn’t been paired up yet, they must have been preparing for the eventuality that he’d have to.

Even though he was still clutching the clothes Auric had retrieved from his room, Phoenix didn’t bother changing. He went right to the bed that wasn’t already mussed up and fell onto it, kicking his boots to the side and flopping on his side. His eyes were shut before he even hit the pillow.

Goodbye, Golden Guards.

Jason and Hunter stared up at Phoenix, terrified and small. Phoenix’s hand curved into a scythe, ready to slice through the two of them.

“Shhhh.”

“I mean, we have to wake him up.”

“I don’t want to wake him up, you wake him up.”

“What am I supposed to do, kick him awake?”

“Oh. Yeah.”

Phoenix lashed out, snatching someone’s wrist just before they touched his shoulder. “Get away,” he snarled.

Lake yelped, trying to tug their arm away. “Ow!”

Locke whistled. “Whoa. Someone has a case of the morning grouchies.”

“…Sorry…” Phoenix let Lake go, sitting up. “Uh?”

“Technically, it’s not morning,” Lake added, “Congrats, you slept through a whole day. It’s night again. Not too late. But kinda late. Cherry’s gone out again. He even took down all of his traps! I wasn’t sure he’d actually do it.”

Phoenix rubbed his eyes. “…What are you doing in here?”

The two of them glanced at each other, their cheerful dispositions slipping into something more subdued and serious. “It’s… Sam,” Lake admitted, “We’re worried about him.”

“More so than usual,” Locke added, “He… hasn’t left his room since the others came back without you. And he won’t let us in. Only Auric’s been in to check on him. Which isn’t the weirdest thing on the planet, but we think maybe… maybe it’s less of an annoyance thing and more of a sad thing.”

“I’m sorry. He hasn’t even gone to his lab?”

“No. We were hoping you’d talk to him.”

The words hit Phoenix’s ears, then fell stagnant somewhere in his mind. Why him? “…Me? I mean—I’ve barely talked to Sam. You two know him bet—”

“He was the last one to see you,” Lake burst out, “And Jason. And Hunter. He was the last one to see you, and then we couldn’t find you anywhere.”

“But… you’re back!” Locke continued, “You’re back, and you said Jason is safe, and… maybe he’ll come out now.”

“Oh.”

It was all he could say. Sam had been the last one to see them, he’d been the only one of their griffin crew to return home. He’d been the last one to be with Darius, too. The wheels started clicking and turning gently in Phoenix’s mind. He’d figured out a way to neutralize the sigils. Maybe he could figure out a way to reverse the puppetification.

But first things first. If Sam wasn’t even leaving to go to his lab… Phoenix didn’t know him well, but almost every time he’d seen the grimwalker, he was scurrying to or from his lab. Either he’d gotten stealthier, or he really hadn’t left his room in weeks, and something was horribly wrong.

“Okay. Okay, I’m coming.”

Phoenix changed out of the outfit the Collector had given to him, and back into the clothes he’d gotten used to. They were scratchier than the Collector’s silks, but they felt familiar and real, in a way that the Collector’s clothes didn’t. He couldn’t see any trap triggers on Cherry’s floor, but still, he moved carefully, sweeping his foot across the ground in front of him to check just in case.

The hallways were mostly empty, save for a couple of adults that eyed him warily. Phoenix didn’t take his eyes off of them, either. If they were here, it meant they were either smart enough and strong enough to avoid the Collector, or that they’d stayed out of Belos’ grasp for years, which made them even more dangerous.

“Sam?” Phoenix gingerly pushed Sam’s door open and saw, just as he did, a light glyph being extinguished. Sam was lying in bed, eyes shut, covers pulled all the way up. “I know you’re not asleep,” Phoenix said softly, “It’s me.”

Sam sat up, and Phoenix winced. A sling held his right arm fixed in place, and bandages covered every inch of skin that had been burned by his concoction. “Phoenix?” he croaked. Another light glyph lit up the room, and Sam rolled out of bed, stumbling towards him. His hair was free of its usual bun, falling in his face.

“You’re alive,” he whispered, his eyes feverishly bright behind his glasses, “You’re—” He reached out, as if to touch Phoenix’s face, but his hand dropped before he made contact “I thought—they couldn’t find you—or Jason—or any of the kids, and I thought—I thought I was the only one who made it out.” Sam ran a hand through his wild hair. “Titan, I thought…”

“Hey, we got out. We got out, Sam.”

“Jason? And the kids?”

“They’re safe. They’re not here, but they’re safe.”

“They’re safe,” Sam whispered, “Everyone got out.”

“Lake and Lock are worried about you.”

“Are they? It’s fine. I’m fine, better than fine, now that I know everyone’s safe. I’m close, Phoenix, I am so close.”

Phoenix nodded to the leatherbound journal on Sam’s bed. “Doing some light reading?”

Sam’s face darkened, and he retrieved the book. “I was hoping to find a reversal of the petrification glyph. Good ol’ Uncle Bells sure knew how to take notes.” He waved the journal. “Every single one of our lives. Detailed in ten pages or less. He kept track of us before he grabbed us to be his trained monkey, wrote down where we were. Wrote down our growth, what parts of us weren’t good enough,” Sam practically spat.

Phoenix sighed, and held his hand out. Sam handed him the book, and Phoenix flipped to a random page, squinting at Uncle Belos’ handwriting, a loopy, elegant script that had always given him a headache trying to decipher. There was a note in the margins with a glasses prescription, and a choppy, irritated observation that this grimwalker couldn’t even see right, along with being a little too clever, and a little too interested in books over his guard duties. Phoenix glanced at Sam, whose jaw was working back and forth.

“You’ve read the whole thing?”

“Just about. Look, here’s the weird thing.” Sam took the book back, flipping forward. “There’s yours.”

Despite himself, despite everything, Phoenix lunged for the book back, desperate to know what was written, even if it took him all night. Sam dodged backwards, holding the book up high.

“Hold on, Skippy, you can read it in a bit, that’s not what I wanted to show you! Look, so, our good friend Petro was the guard before you.”

The Collector wasn’t lying

Phoenix’s stomach churned remembering every story he’d ever heard about the golden guard before him. How much of it was propaganda? How much of it was awful, horrifying truth?

He didn’t know

He was lied to, just like the rest of us.

“Here’s the weird thing,” Sam continued, “The beginning pages of yours are missing. All the bits that detail where you were before Belos picked you up? Not there.”

Phoenix frowned. “I mean… I guess he had the empire at that point? He could just track adoption records officially.”

“Nuh-uh, back it up, I don’t mean that they don’t exist, I mean that they are MISSING. Like someone ripped them out. And here’s the other weird thing. Petro’s pages stop. Incredibly abruptly. Everyone else has their betrayal detailed, as well as how Belos killed them. Petro’s? Nope. Everything’s going great, then WHAM, like he never existed.”

Phoenix shook his head. “You’re going to have to spell this one out for me, Sam. What’s the connection?”

Sam closed the notebook with a thump. “I don’t know what the connection is. But it’s weird. Uncle Pip kept meticulous track of everything. It doesn’t make sense why he’d rip pages out, no one read it but him. But! Maybe Petro can tell us himself.”

Phoenix sighed. “Yeah. Maybe when… you…”

Sam was practically brimming with excitement, fingers tapping against the book, a smug little ‘I know something’ smile peeking through on his face.

Phoenix shook his head. “Alright, out with it, how smart are you?”

“Strange question, I’m a genius and you know it.” Sam waved the book. “But also, after he offed you, our dear Uncle Phil started looking into how to reverse petrification. He was worried about being able to get his hands on the resources involved in making a new grimwalker, so he thought maybe if he could just free Petro… seems like he ultimately decided not to, huge surprise there, but the reversal glyph is in the journal!”

Phoenix’s heart thumped in his chest. “You’ve tested it?”

Sam jabbed a thumb at a flowerpot on the windowsill that held a single, living flower, glowing softly in the moonlight. “Turned it back yesterday. No problematic side effects so far.

“Why wait until now?”

“I was… worried.”

“About me?”

“What? No. I mean, yes, sure. Of course I was. But I…” Sam growled, rolling one hand. “Usually I wouldn’t… ugh. It has occurred to me thaaaaat… now might not be the best time? It’s just that there are already so many people here, and I’d be adding one more person to worry about.” Sam paced back and forth across the room, hands behind his back. “But then, what if we get attacked? Would we be able to take him with us? I wouldn’t want to leave him behind! But now’s so hectic, and he might freak out, and maybe it’s just best to leave him until everything blows over? But if it doesn’t blow over—”

Phoenix reached out and caught his arm as he passed. “Sam. I think you should do it.”

“Right. Okay. But even if it’s the right time, I still don’t know about long term effects.”

“And how long would you wait to see?”

“Oh, at least one hundred flower test subjects before we moved on to rats and monitored them until the end of their natural lifespans.”

“Sam.”

“What?! Do you think I want to irreversibly screw up our brother?!”

Phoenix threw his hands in the air. “He! Is made! Of stone! How much more messed up do you think he can get?!”

“But if waiting and testing—”

“It’s like you said. Our safety could be compromised at any moment. And he’d be defenseless. You might not get another chance.”

Sam squinted at him. “You seem awfully eager to wake him up.”

“I spent my childhood hearing stories about him. And according to Terra, he was the best golden guard there was. He won wars—he might be what we need to take a stand, or at least to get a leg up on survival. And… I think everyone could use a bit of hope right now. If we can reverse petrification, maybe we can reverse the Collector’s puppet spell.”

“You mean if I can reverse petrification, maybe I can figure out a way to reverse the puppetification. Eugh. Would you like some fries with that tall order?” Sam headed towards the door. “Alright. Alright, come on.”

“What, now?!”

“No time like the present. He’s not getting any stonier.”

Phoenix followed Sam to his lab. He could see Lake and Locke, hiding in a room and watching. They gave him a thumbs-up, and he gave them one back, sliding into the lab after Sam.

The other grimwalker tied his hair up into a bun. “Yep. Okay. Here we go. Yep. Alright. Uh-huh. Okay.”

“Sam.”

“Doing it, doing it.” Sam slapped a glyph onto the statue. “Here goes nothing.”

The stone shuddered. Phoenix had expected it to shatter, cracking and peeling away to reveal a living being underneath a stone skin. But the change was much more gradual, instead, grey stone slowly turning to glittering gold armor.

Petro fell forward, and Phoenix lunged forward, catching him. He grunted, sagging under the weight. He’d forgotten how heavy the uniform had always been, and Petro was built stocky and solid.

Sam jumped to take Petro’s other arm, “Get the mask off,” he grunted, “Let him breathe.”

Phoenix pulled Petro’s hood down, and removed the mask. The guard panted for air. His square face was pitted with scars, a huge blotchy red one on the side of his forehead, and one going up his left cheek—badges from the crusades against wild witches, Phoenix was willing to bet.

The tattered ears, revealed by close-cropped hair, he was almost certain were from Belos.

“Hrgh—ha—you can’t—replace—” Petro blinked, eyes sweeping wildly over Sam’s lab. He looked at Sam. Then at Phoenix. His eyes traced the scar that ran through Phoenix’s right eyebrow, and his eyes hardened. The arm that Phoenix had slung around his shoulders tightened, and Petro twisted, using Phoenix to haul himself up while he kicked Sam solidly in the chest, sending him careening into the wall with a grunt. Petro went dead on Phoenix, wrapping one thick arm around Phoenix’s neck and dragging him towards the ground.

Phoenix gasped for air, driving his elbow into Petro’s side. “Let—go—we can—explain—”

“I don’t need you to explain,” Petro hissed, “I need you to die.”

Phoenix’s legs wobbled, and he crashed to the ground, releasing some of the pressure on his neck. He slammed his elbow into Petro’s gut. “Let—go—”

“Deep breath, Phoenix,” Sam ordered, and something smoking crashed down next to him. Phoenix held his breath as long as he was able, but Petro’s grip didn’t soften nearly quickly enough, and he inhaled the smoke. The taste of sleeping nettles rested on his tongue.

Goodbye, golden guard

“You can’t replace me, not with him!”

Something nettled Phoenix’s nose, burning the inside of his nostrils, and he snapped awake, sitting up so fast he nearly headbutted Sam. A small vial clattered to the ground, and the smell faded. Phoenix pawed at his nose, trying to get the burning sensation out.

“Ack!”

“I did tell you to hold your breath,” Sam chastised, “But. You’re welcome for saving your life, by the way. Drink lots of water, you’re going to have a monster headache.”

Petro sat in a chair, secured by vines that had been turned to stone. His head sagged forward against his chest. Phoenix nodded at him. “How long will he be out?”

“Another hour, unless I wake him up. Do you think anyone will notice if we prop him back into position and repetrify him?”

“Sam.”

“I won’t, I won’t. But this is… it might not be such a great idea after all.”

“He was confused.”

“Didn’t seem confused. He tried to kill you.”

“I know. I was there.” Phoenix pinched the bridge of his nose. “We’ll… we’ll figure it out. Wake him up.”

“Maybe we should get Dad or Mom?”

“We’ll get them.”

Sam jumped. “Lake! Locke! Uh—”

Locke paced a circle around Petro. “Wow. You really did it. Of course. You go in your room for weeks, and you don’t come out until you’ve gotten a cure for a previously undoable spell. You should get depressed more often.”

Sam raised one eyebrow at Phoenix. “Ah, yes. I see how very worried you were about me. Go get Mom and Dad. Scram.” Sam snatched his little vial off of the floor. “Here we go.”

He waved the vial under Petro’s nose, and the guard’s head shot up, his nostrils flaring and snorting. He lunged forward, snapping his teeth at Sam’s hand. “Get—that—away—”

“Alright, feisty, settle down.” Sam corked the vial. “Hi. Welcome to our house, I guess. Except you’ve been here for a while, technically. Belos tried to kill you, but he failed. Congratulations on surviving! You may have noticed that we look… quite a bit like you. There’s a perfectly good explanation for all of this—”

“I’m a grimwalker. So are you. I don’t know how you survived, four eyes, but I know what we are.”

“Oh! Good! You know! That makes things a little easier, then!”

Petro tugged against his bonds, straining against stone. “Let me out.”

“Right, well, we’d like to, but we need you to take a deep breath and calm down, first.”

“You really did it.” Caleb stood in the doorway, staring at Petro, “You really reversed it. Why did you tie him up?”

“He’s angry at Phoenix for some reason.”

Petro yanked against the stone bindings. “You’d be angry too if someone replaced you,” he snarled, “I’m going to kill him!”

Sam sighed. “Now, how do you possibly figure that Phoenix is the one who replaced you? He’s just the first grimwalker you’ve seen, you’re guessing.”

“No.” Petro went uncannily still, his lightless eyes locked on Phoenix, still burning with anger that didn’t match his quieted body and voice. “I know him, I know it’s him.”

“How?” Phoenix demanded.

Petro nodded to him. “Your scar.”

Phoenix’s hand flew up to the scar over his right eyebrow. “My scar? Why would you recognize my scar?”

Petro leaned back in the chair, somehow managing to appear nonchalant despite the stone vines holding him in place (though his eyes still burned with that lightless anger). “That’s easy.” His face split into a grin, revealing perfect teeth in his otherwise battered face. “Because I’m the one who gave it to you.”

#toh #the owl house #toh fanfiction #golden guard oc #my ocs #my writing #caleb wittebane #gilded family au

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pedrito-friskito · 2 years

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✨kay’s ultimate pedro ranking✨

ok ok ok ok @mandosmistress did this a while back (like a few days lmao what is time) and tagged me and I HAVE BEEN T H I N K I N G let me tell you.

so without further ado, under the cut is my (not so definitive) pedro pascal character ranking…..! (based mainly on attraction/how much I enjoy writing them)

FRANKIE MORALES. frankie. frankie frankie frankie. my man. sunshine of my life (haha see what I did there). there is just something about this character that really crawled into my chest, wrapped himself around my heart and said ”hi I live here now” and I’m cool with it. handsome in that rugged way, a little bit damaged, and good with his hands? done. hook, line, and sinker.

DIN DJARIN. oh the sweet soft-spoken tin can space man. in all honesty, him and Frankie fight for the top spot on a daily basis and sometimes the beskar-covered bounty hunter wins, and he truly was my pedro gateway drug so he’s gotta be high on my list.

JAVIER PEÑA. ohhhhhh mama I love me some Javi. (do I mainly blame my gargantuan crush on @the-ginger-hedge-witch and her brilliant Crush series YES AS A MATTER OF FACT I DO) something about those tight fuckin’ jeans and the stache and the aviators like yep honey take me I’m yours

JAVIER GUTIERREZ. sunshine baby angel too good for this world I just wanna give him a little kiss and carry him around in my pocket and make sure no harm every comes to him (no I haven’t written anything for him yet but I been thinkin’ thots okay)

DIETER BRAVO. ✨the trash man✨ another one I just wanna carry around in my pocket, also the hair does things for me (same with Javi G) like just let me run my fingers through it and I’ll die a happy gal. questionable life choices maybe, but we’ve all been there, right?

OBERYN MARTELL. oh my HEART. *cue adele* we could have had it AAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL. I would say spoilers but it was legitimately 8 years ago but he was so CLOSE and then so SQUISHED. tbh oberyn is the most intimidating to me to even think of writing but maybe someday….

MARCUS PIKE. I do really like Marcus. cheesy as hell? check. bit overboard sometimes? double check. BUT I really like the history of the character we got in limited scenes AND I have a fic idea for him I’ve been sitting on FOREVER and I def have to use it soon!

PERO TOVAR. okay I love me a grungy fantasy man okay like that’s my bread and butter. add in the grouchiness and the obvious way to his heart through his stomach? it’s go time, baby, I got plans for him too!

JACK DANIELS. oh darlin’, he hits the middle of my list for the sole reason that pedro and that whip awoken something in me that hasn’t shut up since I watched that movie and if you don’t think I’ve watched that clip where he pushes his jacket back and it’s a crystal-clear shot of his ass you are WRONG

EZRA PROSPECT. fits the grungy, violent thing pedro seems to work with half the time, and honestly, the linguistics of this man make my head spin (the main reason I haven’t written much for him because it’s a looooot of effort to try and think up dialogue for him!!!) BUT I do love that little moon-touched spot and the scar and the smile and just ugh yum

THE THIEF. full disclosure: I haven’t read a lot of fics about the thief (if anyone has recs let me at ‘em) buuuuuut I really like the whole vibe he has and the outfit? spectacular.

MARCUS MORENO. the glasses definitely do it for me but idk something about him I just…meh. have definitely read some fab fics about daddy moreno (maybe I’ll revisit him at some point). still hot, still delicious, just not my number one fav.

MAX PHILLIPS. maybe not the biggest asshole pedro’s played but definitely up there? I sat through the movie just for him, honestly the scene of him on the couch made it worth it and the smarminess is something else, but idk if I could ever write him! (kudos to all that do!)

DAVE YORK. ok ok ok ok OKAYYYYYYY. listen. he’s the baddie (and like a really bad baddie) so I gotta put him low on my list as far as attraction goes (plus I have mixed emotions about P without facial hair but I digress…) BUT I do have ideas. they are on the horizon. keep your eyes OPEN.

MAX LORD. I haven’t even watched wonder woman 1984 and I know he needs to be down here. maybe I’ll get some form of intoxicated this weekend and power through it, just for shits and giggles!

well KUDOS if you made it this far, this was actually so fun to do!

tagging a few pals just because, no pressure 😇

@prolix-yuy @pedropascalsx @mandoblowmybackout @mindidjarin @allfoolsinluv @iamskyereads and obvi anyone else who wants to play!!!

#pedro pascal #kay talks to people #mutual bbys #the ULTIMATE SHOWDOWN #pedro pascal characters

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tobi-smp · 3 years

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Context: [Link]

@maryqueenofmurder said: ok this is so totally nitpicking and probably incredibly irritating to see buuuuuut… “here’s the truth that a lot of dream apologists don’t like acknowledging: it’s Both true that no one deserves to be tortured And that dream’s actions lead him to the position that he’s in now.”

Actually, a lot of us acknowledge it. Being put in prison is a direct response, pretty much, to the things he’s done. But so many people use ‘karma’ and 'it’s his fault he’s in prison’ to excuse/justify the abuse he was/is put through. it leaves a kind of sour taste in my mouth to see it now because it’s usually followed with the sentiments mentioned above.

dream “apologists” are very, very, very rarely people who think what dream did was okay/excusable. Maybe a few see it from a slightly more justifiable perspective. but most of us are aware that dream has caused harm, and that he did bad things. I don’t know how many dream apologists you’ve heard from, but most of us are aware of the fact that he’s brought a good deal of what’s happening to him down on his own head.

I personally think that even if Quackity was furious over what Dream did to Tommy, he’s still doing something very wrong. And what I’m about to say is going to sound even more irritating than the previous rant but, Practice what you preach. It’s both true that Quackity didn’t deserve a lot of things he got/will get but they’re also the inevitable fallout of his actions.

And if Dream apologists paint Quackity as the villain? It’s because they’re seeing/writing from Dream’s perspective. I’m not saying Quackity is some one-dimensional villain. I’m saying he’s definitely an antagonist in Dream’s perspective. It’s just that us Dream Apologists don’t talk about his motivations because they’re irrelevant to the story we’re telling. Plenty of other stories/takes are written like that. And if he is OOC or does things that don’t match his motivations in canon? it’s just a h/c i guess. or he has motivations you just don’t know them. [End Transcription]

So before anything else, I’m gonna have to ask that if you send me a response this long that you don’t put it in the replies. I’ve never had to ask that before but I’ve also never had to choose Not to include screenshots of what I’m responding to for length before. moreover, it’s much harder for me to know when you’ve finished your point if you’re sending 6 replies in a row as opposed to one reblog (for instance, several more replies came after I’d initially seen that you’d responded). if you’re trying to engage in a direct conversation with me that can’t fit in a couple of replies then just reblog or make your own post and @ me in it, anything but this would be better fadsjkljlkfds.

secondly, you’re right ! this wasn’t an appropriate response to the conversation in question and I’m not certain why you sent it to me.

The first post that I wrote was about how ridiculous I found it that people dance around, ignore, or straight up deny that dream designed and commissioned the prison as it is to hold tommy, and how that fact leads into the prison arc (and the thematic significance of that for both characters and the arc in general).

an anon fixated on a line from those posts wherein I point out the fact that the disc war finale was dream’s downfall stemming from his own actions. the anon disagreed, insisting that what’s happening now is only down to quackity’s desire for the revival book and not anything that dream has done. I got annoyed (because I’ve seen this argument in many forms often used to reduce quackity and his motivations down), so I decided to expand on how dream’s actions lead him to this point and influenced quackity’s actions towards him.

that’s the context of the post that you’re responding to, and you almost acknowledge it too. you point out the fact that I Explicitly stated that Nobody Deserves To Be Tortured, and yet you act as if I’ve excused everything that quackity has done by pointing out the reasons that lead him to take those actions. “practice what you preach” you say, while you insist that dream apologists don’t Excuse his actions while in the same breath making the assumption that I Don’t think quackity deserves comeuppance for his actions based solely on the fact that I insisted that he’s a complex character with motivations driven by revenge for him and his friends.

I think if dream fights back against quackity and sam, if he kills them even, when he inevitably escapes then that’ll be in his right to do so. I also think that las nevadas is going to blow up in his face some day, that the people he manipulated into joining him are probably going to play a part in that, that technoblade and phil are probably going to become a problem very shortly, etc etc etc.

my post was not about how quackity is going to eventually face the consequences of his actions (or how he already very much so has), it was about how dream is Already doing that. I Explicitly condemned quackity’s actions Twice, so why do I have to go in more detail now to appease you? why did you react to a criticism of dream’s actions by demanding that I criticize a different character too When I’d Already Done So?

and while I Am bothered by quackity being misrepresented in fanworks, what that post was in response to is the Overwhelming mischaracterization of quackity in the fandom’s consciousness as a whole. not just for Fun but in serious discourse, meta, and character analysis. he is Chronically stripped of his nuance All The Time. which is what gives value to pointing that nuance out. again, you tell me to “practice what you preach” and yet you’re telling me that I should just suck it up when I character I like is misrepresented while you actively identify with and push for the label of a character apologist.

finally, while it’s easier to use shorthand to refer to a general collection of ideas (and people with similar ideas) within a specific space, that shorthand becomes insufficient when you try to apply hard definitions to it. “us dream apologists wouldn’t do that,” no You haven’t done that. there are plenty of people who self identify with the label who Do excuse his actions, who Do vilify other characters and infantilize his character. they’re straight up common, especially on twitter and youtube. but those things (apparently) don’t reflect You or the people that you associate with.

which is fine, but the problem comes in when we drop nuance. I’ve attributed an action to a group that you don’t agree with, therefore this is read as an attack on you and your standing in that group. which just isn’t true. “dream apologists” are not a monolith, they’re people. and while there are trends that can be observed those trends are going to look different depending on what angle you look at them, and individual people are going to Still Be individual people with unique experiences and opinions.

“dream apologist” is not an identity, it’s not a set of beliefs. it’s a vague group of people that enjoy the character dream from the hit minecraft roleplay “dream smp” who are defensive of his character in one way or another. different people are going to have different associations with that term depending on the different people they meet because those people are going to believe and do different things. making assumptions about the people that you’re talking to based on labels Without a solid definition is not conductive to productive conversation.

you don’t have to defend yourself if I criticize behavior that you don’t do, and you Certainly don’t have defend the honor of a subsection of a subsection of a subsection of minecraft youtuber fans.

#discourse #long post #this is a bit messy but what are you gonna do

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thebibliomancer · 3 years

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Tides of the Dark Crystal liveblog pt 25

Tides of the Dark Crystal by J.M. Lee because some fire just proclaimed Tavra the true All-Maudra, the Vapra have joined the loosely affiliated resistance, and skekSa has our heroes back against a cliff. Two chapters left, tensions high!

Last times on book: Amri and co are on a quest to unify the Gelfling clans against the Skeksis. They’ve succeeded with the Sifa, the Dousan, and now the Vapra. But they’re cornered by skekSa the Mariner who is feeling a bit sore about the Sifa ditching her and wants to take Naia to use as political capital with the other Skeksis.

Chapter 25

Amri and the others fight to escape the clutches of skekSa, they don’t get out unscathed

skekSa stared, wide-eye, rage saturating her dark eyes and making her look more Skeksis than ever. Amri tried not to let it frighten him. Not now that they’d had their victory lighting the Vapra flame. All that was left was to escape the Mariner’s clutches. Survive, like Tavra had said.

Win condition: get the heck away.

Similar to the first book conclusion, having to escape the Hunter. Different from the second book where they planned to trap the Satirist to keep knowledge of the resistance secret longer.

Beating skekSa in a fight, not even a viable outcome.

For one, her sword is longer than Amri is tall. That’s a bit of a discouraging thing.

skekSa tries being ‘reasonable’ one last time, offering Naia a chance to surrender for the safety of the others but Naia refuses.

[skekSa] charged at Tae, swinging her sword. Even if its edge were not sharp, the sheer power and weight of it would crush a Gelfling if it struck. Tae leaped, wings taking her up so her toes touched the gleaming metal of the blade. She ran along the sword, leaping again and slashing with her dagger.

That’s some more choreography that I’d love to see in puppets.

It’d look silly if not execute well but maybe good silly.

There’s only so many ways you can portray a small individual fighting a much larger one and its not like Yoda’s method of jumping around everywhere like a grasshopper doesn’t look silly if you’re not in the moment.

Naia runs to help Tae hold off the Mariner and Amri runs to take care of Kylan.

Kylan being Kylan, his first concern is to stop skekSa from destroying any more trees after the trees helped send the message but Tavra chides him they have to save themselves first.

Problem being they’re backed up against the cliff, they don’t see Onica’s lantern down in the ocean, and all the fliers are trying to knife fight a behemoth.

skekSa doesn’t give them space to think about it either, she dashes in and tries to split Amri in half. He tries to block with Tavra’s sword but the Skeksis wrenches it from his hand with the hook on her sword.

Not ideal.

Naia and Tae attack her again and do some damage but she just jumps away from Tae and throws Naia off of her. Fighting Skeksis is hard.

Tae tells Tavra to protect the others and keep lighting the fires no matter what happens and then dives against skekSa from the air.

Tae’s dagger bit. skekSa’s sword flipped into the air, and Amri caught his heart in his teeth when he saw that the Skeksis’ severed hand still clutched the hilt as it flew.

skekSa screamed. She grasped the stump where her hand had been.

“How dare you!” she cried, over and over. “HOW DARE YOU!”

Well, uh, plus side is that now she can get a hook hand to add to her piratey aesthetic?

Minus side is the Swimmer just lost a hand too.

Other minus side, Skeksis have four arms. Two usually vestigial but like the Hunter, the Mariner engages in vigorous exercise in the brisk outdoors and hasn’t had arm atrophy.

Amri tries to warn Tae when he sees the movement but is too late.

One of skekSa’s smaller arms slipped out from the Skeksis’ coat. Something flashed, and a BOOM rang through the mountain air. A cloud of smoke exploded from skekSa’s hip, blasting Tae off her feet. She crashed into one of the Waystar trees, leaving a red mark on its glowing white bark where she struck. Then she fell into the snow and did not rise.

The smoke cleared. skekSa coughed and reached into the depths of her coat again, drawing out a leathery, egg-shaped device and holding it in her tiny palm. Her breath rasped in anger and pain, her blood still falling on the white snow. She stumbled to one knee.

“I can’t believe this,” she panted. “Can’t believe it one bit.”

Holy crap! Guns exist? Skeksis have guns??

This is even weirder than the Emperor doing force lightning.

Guns!

And here I was joking about her improving her piratey aesthetic when she had a gun up her sleeve!

A weird, egg-shaped gun.

The tech level of this world sure is unusual.

-rereading- Oh! Its a grenade!

Yeah, that’s more in keeping with what we have/will see. But geez, she hit Tae with a grenade. Poor Tae.

Also, sure she got blown up for it, but props to Tae for taking off an entire hand in one go.

Down below in the bay, Onica’s lantern has finally arrived and Naia says that their best chance is to fly down. Except now they’re down one flier and have two non fliers to convey.

skekSa throws another egg-shaped grenade, which Amri blocks by throwing a branch in its path. The explosion still knocks him on his ass because that’s what explosions DO.

And by the time he recovers, skekSa reaches them.

She had found her sword, held it in the hand that was intact, carelessly bleeding from the other as if it meant nothing.

“I don’t want to do this,” she said slowly, her blade tasting the snow at her feet. Her voice turned hard at the end, wicked as her sword. “I told you we had a deal -- you ungrateful fool.”

Huh.

I can almost believe she means it.

The Mariner takes a swing but she’s blocked by someone with a Vapra sword and then has her sword knocked off the cliff.

skekSa is having a really bad day.

[Amri’s] eyes were still hazy, trying desperately to focus. But even so, he could see how stood between them and skekSa: a Sifa with hair gold as the sun, holding Tavra’s sword. Shining on her neck was a crystal spider, silver and blue as the moon.

The ringing dulled enough that Amri could hear Tavra’s words, stern and commanding in Tae’s voice.

“Get out of here, to the cliff,” she said. “Run! Fly!”

Tavra spidered Tae!

I guess Tae is alive from being exploded? If her body is still capable of being spidered and fighting?

skekSa tries to lunge past TavraTae to get Naia but without weapons and against someone with a sword who knows how to use it, she’s stymied.

The Mariner even grabs a tree branch and tries to use that to swat TavraTae, without success.

Naia follows TavraTae’s advice and grabs Kylan and jumps off the cliff.

And after breaking from the fight with superior mobility, TavraTae grabs Amri and jumps too.

Amri having a lot of trouble reconciling in his mind Tavra and Tae because its Tavra but looks like Tae and plus he might have a concussion.

Naia still is the Drenchen whose wings have only just come in and haven’t been strenuously tested much so she’s having trouble doing more than slowing down her and Kylan’s fall. Its a nice touch that that’s remembered two books later.

But TavraTae glides close so Amri can take Naia’s hand and they can all glide down together.

As soon as they land on the boat, Tae crumples, probably Tavra abandoning controlling her as soon as its not a life or death situation. Because of ethics. And because moving her around when she’s been exploded can’t be good for her explosion wound.

Naia immediately starts trying to heal her, only pausing so they can all move inside the cabin where its warm.

In the end, the glowing eased and Naia put her hand on Tae’s forehead.

“I’ve healed her body,” she said, brow creased with pain. “But she was deeply injured by that explosion. Even though I’ve mended her cuts and broken bones, her mind still sleeps. I cannot even sense her dreams. I don’t know when she will wake... if ever.”

It was hard to imagine. The Sifa merely looked as if she were sleeping.

“I didn’t mean to...,” Tavra began. She rested on Tae’s cheek, glistening like a tiny moon in a cloud of sun-gold hair. Amri sighed and shook his head. The moon had eclipsed the sun during a storm in Ha’rar, after all.

What a weird prophecy.

In the end, it turns out it wasn’t a prophecy of a sweet, sweet romance. But a premonition that Tae would eventually be body-jacked by a spider that was really a cool Vapra.

Goes to show, prophecies aren’t straightforward. Unless they’re incredibly straightforward. Like the one from the movie.

But sometimes they’re poetic because fate doesn’t like you screwing with it.

Amri tells Tavra that this isn’t her fault because she did all the right things and saved the group which is what Tae would have wanted and which she’ll definitely confirm when she wakes up.

Buuuuuut, the plot hasn’t stopped happening just because there’s like four pages left in the book.

You’d think it would and we’d be winding down and figuring out what to do next. But no.

A familiar metallic whistle shrills through the air. A whistle that Amri knows exactly what it foretells.

Amri ran out onto the deck, followed by the others. The ship trembled as the sea shook. He grabbed hold of the rigging on the ship as waves rolled out from the ocean and crashed across the back of an enormous black shell. A deafening moan trembled through the water and echoed against the steep cliff. Terror shot through Amri’s body as a behemoth mouth rose from the depths, water gushing from its enormous hooked-beaked maw.

It gaped, spreading its jaws. The ocean churned, sucked into the black abyss of the creature’s throat. Onica’s ship was caught in a vortex of inescapable currents, and Amri watched the slowly brightening sky disappear as the monster ship closed its jaws, swallowing them into a sea of darkness.

COME ON!

This is where the denouement is supposed to go! And you go and release the kraken on them?

You’re persistent, skekSa! You’re very persistent!

#dark crystal #the dark crystal #Tides of the Dark Crystal #liveblog #Amri #Naia #Kylan #Tavra #Tae #Onica #skekSa #the Mariner #one chapter left

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kirkwallgremlin · 4 years

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I know you said you don't need more prompts buuuuuut...."57 secretly dating" from the intimacy prompts list (for whichever pairing you want)?

@playwright-fate thank you all for asking <3 (and thank you anon ;_;), even if it did take me almost a month. I have to say though, I laughed when I recieved exactly the same prompt 3 times in a row 😂

Here’s some Isabela/Fenris <3 1520 words, rated M for brief discussions/mentions of sex and featuring the DA2 companions

Isabela didn’t know exactly when it had happened. When Fenris had started to mean something, when she had started spending as much with him as she did alone.

She knew when it had started of course. The night when all of the teasing, the suggestive jokes and comments she never expected to go anywhere, and the increasingly bold flirting she received in response had reached boiling point and she and Fenris had ended up in tangle of limbs and messy sheets in her room in the Hanged Man.

They’d been so rushed he hadn’t even fully removed his armour.

She was the one who raised it again a week or so later, a casual comment about how she couldn’t stop thinking about that night. It was almost true. She could have stopped if she tried but did she really want to do that?

“Well, then I’ll see you later,” he’d told her in response and she’d appreciated his sudden boldness.

Then that night had turned into another, then another, and somehow they had found themselves here, with this undefined thing between them, growing every day.

“Do you think the others know?” he asked her one night as she sprawled sleepily across his bed, the pale sheets a stark contrast against her skin. “About us? About this?”

She wrinkled her nose at him.

“What is there to know?” she said. “If we talk about this, it becomes a thing. I don’t want it to be a thing. Things are complicated and messy and feelings get involved. And I’m not good with feelings.”

She pouted, shifting to push her bare breasts towards the elf’s serious expression.

“It doesn’t have to be a thing,” Fenris said, reaching for her, and just like that, the conversation was over.

They didn’t talk about what this was anymore, and they didn’t make any plans to tell anyone.

She didn’t want it to be a thing, as much as it was starting to feel like one.

- - -

“Come on, take a risk for once,” Isabela giggled, the door to the Chantry storeroom partially open behind her. She wasn’t sure Fenris believed that she’d found it open - she could hardly believe the luck herself - but she wasn’t sure it mattered as she pressed her lips against his throat.

“Please?” she added, the words murmured against his skin, pressing closer against him. “It’s only a storeroom and I’m sure the Maker won’t mind. You can ask for forgiveness later.”

Fenris gave in, letting her pull him into the empty room. But as Isabela pressed him against the wall, something clattered and they jumped, realising they weren’t as alone as they had thought.

“Mage,” Fenris snapped, standing straight as Anders stared at them, wide eyed and shocked. He clutched a large sheet of crumpled paper against his chest.

“I won’t tell anyone you were here if you do the same,” he said quickly and Fenris nodded. She was close enough to see his cheeks burning red as he awkwardly excused himself.

She looked back at Anders.

“Do I even want to know what you’re doing here?” she asked and he raised an eyebrow at her.

“Do I want to know what you were doing here?”

“I was trying to do the handsome elf but somebody interrupted that,” she muttered under her breath. Anders heard anyway.

“Are you sure that’s wise?” he asked.

“If I want your advice, I’ll ask for it,” she snapped. “So far though… it seems to be a very wise choice. But you can go ahead and keep that to yourself.”

Anders knowing didn’t need to make it more of a thing. Lots of consenting adults had sex, after all.

- - -

“How long have you been sleeping with Fenris?” Merrill asked one day, the words slipping out with such casual ease that Isabela nearly tripped down the stairs to the dock.

“What?” she spluttered. “We’re not…? How did you...?”

“He watches you when he thinks you’re not looking,” Merrill said simply. “And your face lights up when he’s around, when you think nobody is looking.”

“It’s just bedroom eyes, Kitten.”

Merrill frowned, a small crease forming between her eyebrows.

“Isn’t that the point?” she said. “You wouldn’t have bedroom eyes if you were sleeping together. But they’re outside the bedroom too.”

Isabela sighed.

“It’s complicated,” she said. “It’s been a few weeks but it’s just sex.”

“Oh.” Merrill continued walking for a moment, silent, the empty bags she took when shopping hanging limply from her arms. “It doesn’t look like just sex. He looks like he cares. You do too.”

Isabela just shook her head.

“Just sex, Kitten,” she said.

As much as Merrill might be convinced otherwise, it was just sex. It wasn’t anything more than that, and it definitely wasn’t anything more than that, not like the elf was implying.

- - -

“Aveline, my dear friend,” Isabela said, her most charming smile plastered across her face as she breezed into the woman’s office. “I was just wondering, for no reason at all, if there ever happens to be any spaces left… unattended around here. Alternatively, if you ever leave your office for prolonged periods of time.”

The woman raised an eyebrow at her.

“Who are you sleeping with now?”

“You wound me, Aveline,” she said, doing her best to look innocent. “I’m simply concerned about your wellbeing.”

“It can’t be Hawke, they’re with that mage.” Aveline continued as though she hadn’t spoken. Isabela rolled her eyes, planting her backside firmly on the captain’s desk.

“Believe it or not, I do have a life outside of Hawke,” she pointed out. “I have other friends, just like you do.”

“Did Fenris finally give in to your pestering?”

“It's hardly pestering when he’s the one initiating” she muttered. “And some people enjoy being flirted with.”

“I’m not helping you have sex somewhere in my guard headquarters,” Aveline told her, tone flat, and Isabela pouted.

“You never let me have any fun.”

Aveline just shook her head as Isabela excused herself, looking back as the guardswoman called her name.

“I hope you’re happy with him” she said.

Isabela smiled, but it didn’t quite meet her eyes. Of course she was happy. It was easy for sex to make you happy. And that was all it was, right?

- - -

“So, Rivaini,” Varric said. “I’m going to need some details.”

“What are you talking about?” she snapped at the dwarf standing at the top of the stairs as she exited her room.

“You and the elf. You’re not exactly doing a good job sneaking him in here. Unless you’re not even trying to hide it. If not, I’m hurt you haven’t told me already.”

“You’re getting nothing from me, Varric,” she told him, adjusting the jewelry that hung around her neck in the mirror he’d hung in the hall. Better lighting, or so he’d claimed.

“Oh come on. The pirate and the fugitive? Star crossed lovers, finding each other despite their circumstances? Now that’s a story worth telling.”

“It’s not a story,” Isabela muttered. “It’s just… sex. Sex between two people who happen to both be very attractive and can both appreciate that.”

Varric laughed.

“That’s just an added bonus,” he said. “Sex sells. But, not a problem. I can make up your tragic love story if I need to.”

“Go ahead,” she told him with a cheery smile. “Because there’s no real story here. We’re not star crossed lovers or going to give you a real love story.”

Varric could do his best but he wasn’t getting any real details to write about. Not from her. And this wasn’t going to really be a lasting story worth telling anyway, right?

- - -

Fenris was warm under her skin as she lay against his chest, one finger tracing ever so gently across one of the scars on his chest. He had a lot of those, marks from his past, marks that had become so familiar to her over the time they had spent together.

“So I’ve been thinking,” she said. “About us. About this?”

“This?” Fenris asked, and she didn’t need to look to know that he had raised an eyebrow at her words. She knew him well enough by now. Just like he knew her well enough to know the comment was unusual.

“This,” she confirmed, forcing her breathing to remain steady. “Don’t get me wrong, this is not a thing. I don’t do things. But I’ve been thinking. Maybe…” Andraste’s ass, why was this so hard? Lips pressed against the top of her head, a familiar, reassuring feeling. “Maybe it wouldn’t be the end of the world if people knew… that I… care for you. Just a little.”

Fenris’ lips curved into a smile against her hair.

“I care for you too, Isabela,” he said. “Just a little.”

Safe and warm in Fenris’ arms, in his bed, in his house, where she had spent so many of her nights lately, Isabela smiled.

She wasn’t the kind of person who did things. But whatever this was, maybe she just needed to enjoy it. And if that meant everyone knowing, that maybe that was how it needed to be.

#fenbela #fenris/isabela #andrew-blackthorn #playwrite-fate #anon #whats editing idk what that is #this started out as a fenris fic and got a little off topic and then i realised it fit much better as a bela fic and had to rework a bunch #and its techincally secretly dating but the idea feels like it worked better than the execution #i like it but the 'secretly dating' bit turned out less secret and dating than i planned originally #realised while writing this that ive never really ever written isabela? especially outside of my modern au #turns out she's really fun #gremfic #fml when i pasted this in the first time it cut off the last 3 sentences #still worked tho i guess 😂

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crime-bot · 4 years

Note

*asks you about subcon desert* :)

I don't know why, but for some reason I'm suddenly, like, super drained in regards of Subcon Desert, but luckily I'll be able to copy and paste my explanation for you!

(Note: hey I just finished copying and pasting, and I need to let you know that I also added some more info and art, so I guess this is officially updated!)

The summary:

Subcon Desert is basically just Subcon Forest. But it’s a desert now.

From a glance, that’s it. BUT!

There’s lot of chances to the characters, history, and what’s presently happening. I’ll start with the most important characters–

Snatcher is a ghost crocodile called The Hunter now! He's a ghost of The Prince who patrols a river from the sea that runs through the kingdom's remains, looks out for his minions, and also makes intruders/trespassers do tasks for him via contract before he eats them whole.

Standard stuff.

... I should also mention that he controls water instead of fire.

Next up is Sunjumper! He,,, just really wants peace. After splitting with The Hunter after The Prince died, he took The Prince's body, grabbed a sword he was ceremonially granted when we was alive, and eventually made a home for himself on the horizon. That's. His home is just so far away from the kingdom that it's literally on the horizon, so everybody calls it that.

That monster at the bottom right corner is Cereus, Subcon Desert's Vanessa, and yup she's still bad. She's able to control sand, and, to an extent, stone, and built an entire labrynth to keep The Prince in. Unfortunately, her intensr greed, among other things, turned her into a monster. She left the ruins and caused the kingdom to fall into destruction, taking almost every life in the process, and the labrynth colapsed with The Prince inside it. Now she stays inside the labrynth ruins, save for nights of the new moon, when she leaves to tries to get Sunjumper to return for eternity. Don't worry Hunter helps him out-

A lot of the minions look like this! Snatcher made the fake mummy bodies himself for their souls to inhabit. They act a lot like the canonical subconites, but they /do/ have some more responsibility with things such as building houses and selling things. Regardless of this, they're still carefree for the most part and always down to clown.

There's also scorpions instead of spiders, and many of the dwellers wear animal skulls and other things in place of masks. I'm not sure sure what to do with the fire spirits :/

iiiiiis what I WOULD say if it wasn't for the help of tumblr user catcrazies-midnight! They proposed the idea of the fire spirits instead being molten glass spirits, and I RAN with it!

These beautiful walking glass puddles are basically a bunch of melted down and stuck together glass, courtesy of a soul/essense that's really, really hot. Their bodies can be made brittle and more easy to shatter if they're exposed to intense cold or submerged into cold water, which is usually what they want to do anyways… buuuuuut, if one wished to continue to collect and melt down sand to become bigger,,, :}

Hat Kid gets sent to deal with them. Oop-

The kingdom is largely ruined, but inside of broken houses and other buildings, there's quite a bit of creative decorations in the form of feathers, cloth, bone, and really anything that catches the minion's eyes. The river from the sea runs through most of it, too.

At the very end of the main branch of the river lies tbe destroyed castle, and there's a part of the river that branches off to a place where the entrance of the labrynth's ruins are.

Oh! And here's what Sunjumper's home and surrounding oasis looks like!

The minions like to call it The Horizon because it's juuuuuust in the horizon from the kingdom, and Sunjumper decided to agree with them because, firstly, that's actually a smart idea, and secondly, he'd /really/ hate to rain on their parade ._.

... oh, wait, you're wondering about how Sunjumper looks the way he does, too aren't you--

W E L L,

YYYYYYESSSSS, AN OC >:DDD

Don't worry, they're not all over the place; Æfrelewk's actually pretty contained. They can't leave their "personal fashion space" after the sea in that area dried up a loooooong time ago, so they just stay in the pocket dimension left behind by their meteor that crashed into what was once the sea.

... look I said that they'd be contained, not that they'd not be absolutely bonkers in more ways than one.

Ever since they weren't able to leave their pocket dimension without getting beached, they just stay and wait... trying to lure in anything that breathes to trap forever and transform into shapes that they find more appealing. Too bad their fashion sense is stuck in the eras of dimetrodons and funky shell squid.

After escaping the labrynth and trying to get far, /far/ away from the kingdom, Sunjumper was convinced by Æfrelewk to hop into their pocket dimension and be made into something "MUCH more practical. I mean, come on, LEGS?! Puh-LEASE, only people trying to be trendy think they need THOSE." And badda bing badda boom Sunjunper regretted his decision wholeheartedly.

I'm not sure about the specifics, but I'm pretty sure that /maybe/ The Hunter fished him out.

And I am /definitely/ certain that Sunjumper tries to make sure nobody else risks going through what he had to by marking the whole impact site with signs and various warnings along the lines of, "do NOT enter or come closer at ANY cost!!! ... please :("

#Subcon Desert au #ahit #a hat in time

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bssaz97 · 4 years

Note

One of the Lancaster kids travels through time and tries to prove to the team that they're Jaune and Ruby's kid.

Rowan’s Trip to Beacon (Sorta...)

-Beacon Academy (Volume 2 time)-

Ruby and Jaune sit down by a tree as they talk about the

Jaune: Man I can’t still can’t believe your team actually stopped a mad scientist.

Ruby: Yeah Merlot was really a nut case but I sorta feel bad for him. He seemed so convinced that his research was the key to Remnant’s advancements. Even if I don’t agree with his actions and the way he went about it, it’s hard to not understand where he was coming from.

Jaune: Well maybe you just try to see the good in everyone. Not a lot of people in the world can. That’s what makes you good person.

Ruby: Yeah I guess so. Thanks...Buuuuuut I did manage to snag this though! *pulls out a metal cylinder with blue circuits*

Jaune: WHOA! What’s that thing?

Ruby: Shhh! Someone could hear you. *whispers*

Jaune: Ohhhh. Why are we whispering? *whispers back*

Ruby: Because I don’t want people, particularly the professors or Weiss to know I have this. *whispers*

Jaune: What is it? *whispers*

Ruby: It’s.....I don’t know. But it looked cool when I saw it in Merlot’s lab. *whispers*

Jaune: Wait you took that from Merlot’s lab?! Isn’t that like evidence or something?!*whispers loudly*

Ruby: Not if they don’t know I have it. *whispers*

Jaune: I take back what I said earlier, you’re a devious little gremlin in disguise. *whispers*

Ruby: Oh come on where’s your sense of adventure? *whispers*

Jaune: Your ‘sense’ of adventure often gets me in trouble. *whispers*

Ruby: Come on please! I’ll owe you big time! *whispers*

Jaune: ‘sigh’ I really don’t have a choice now that I’ve seen the evidence. Ok, so what do you want to do with it? *speaks normally*

Ruby: Well my plan was to try to open it but -Hrgh!- it’s a little -Grh!- hard to -Nnne!- open!

Jaune: Want me to try?

Ruby: No, no, I think I ggggooooo-!

*TSSST!*

Ruby: ‘huff!’ Got it!

The tube starts to hum and shake violently in Ruby’s hand as both leaders look at said metal tube.

Jaune: Say you wouldn’t have I don’t know, taken a copy of that things manual did you?

Ruby: Nope.

Jaune: Mind if I take a look at it?

Ruby: Sure. *gives him the tube*

Jaune: Thank you. *turns it around*

*O’ Fortuna plays*

“0:11...0:10...0:09...”

Ruby: It’s a bomb isn’t it?

Jaune: Looks like. *nods*

Ruby: And I activated the countdown by messing with it didn’t I?

Jaune: Most likely.

Ruby: We’re gonna get in trouble for this aren’t we?

Jaune: Oh yeah definitely. *nods*

Ruby: ...bring it on. *takes the tube back and throws it as far she could*

“0:03...0:02...0:01...”

As the tube explodes, a large blue orb of pure energy illuminated the courtyard in the middle of the day. Lightning currents flowing outside it and burning parts of the courtyard.

Ruby: ‘sniff’ Jaune. If we somehow live through the punishment we get from Professor Goodwitch, you’re a good friend.

Jaune: You too Ruby, you too.

Ruby: ... *holds his hand*

*BOOM!!!*

The light from the explosion lessens and leaves the courtyard a mess almost beyond repair. Both leaders uncover their eyes and view the aftermath of the tubes detonation. Not even a few seconds more, their teams come racing towards them.

Weiss: Ruby are you-..... What. Have you done....

Ruby: Oh. My. Gods. Goodwitch is sooo gonna KILL us.

Jaune: Yep. *whimpers*

Blake: Wait what’s that? *points to the center of the crater*

From the outlook from them it looked like a person sprawled out on the floor.

Ruby: ‘yelp!’ Was someone there before?! I could have sworn there wasn’t anyone there an second ago! OH NO! *petal bursts ahead*

Jaune: Ruby hold on! *chases after her*

Jaune along with the rest of their teams decided to chase after Ruby and hopefully get away before any of the teachers (particularly Goodwitch) discover the destroyed courtyard. Ruby arrived at the center of the crater and takes a look to see who was caught in the blast. At first glance the boy looks much younger than a student, maybe a year younger than her....... This was not good.

Ruby: Oh No, I Killed A Kid!

Jaune: Ruby what’s wrong? What the-Is that a kid?!

Ruby: *cradles the young boy* What do we do Jaune?!

Pyrrha: I’m... I’m not sure we could do anything for him. He looks so injured.

Ruby: Oh no! ‘sobbing’

????: Mmmm who’s at?

Everyone: Huh?

The two leaders plus teams look down to see that the young boy is starting to wake up, blinking his eyes as he looks at the two of them in particular. He turns towards Ruby with the most confused expression on his face.

????: ...Mom?

Ruby: Eh?

Jaune: Hey there, are you ok? Are you hurt?!

????: ........ *eyes widened then faints*

Ruby: DON’T DIE!!!

????: Was at?! Oh I’m sorry Mom. I had this weird dream where I saw... *looks at Jaune again and then faints again*

Ruby: LITTLE BOY!!!

Jaune: *scratches his hair* The heck is going on?

????: Eh?! What the-? *looks around* This-This isn’t a dream is it?

Ren: Dream? Why would you be dreaming? Nevermind that are you hurt?

????: Hurt? ‘hiss!’ Oh yeah, I’m definitely hurt. Mr. Pine must have accidentally used his semblance again.

Ruby: Mr. Pine?...

Weiss: Again?

????: *moves to stand* It’s ok, this isn’t something I’m not used to experiencing.

Pyrrha: Hold on! You shouldn’t push yourself!

????: Don’t worry I’ll be ok. Just give me a moment. *breathes in*

Suddenly the boy starts to glow a bright golden glow that surrounds his entire body. In under a minute all of the boy’s injuries started healing themselves and soon the light faded.

????: *breathes out* Boy, I feel much better! Guess it helps when you have a semblance like mine.

Ruby/Jaune: Whoa...

????: *looks over to them* Hey I’m sorry to bother but do you mind if I ask who you two are?

Ruby: Oh. Well my name is Ruby Rose

Jaune: I’m Jaune Arc.

????: .....oh boy Rowan. What did you do now? *mutters to himself*

Yang: Are you sure you’re ok kid? We don’t know exactly what was in that explosion so maybe we should go get you checked out.

????: Wha? Oh no you’re here too Auntie? Oh man this is just gets better and better... *scratches his hair in distress*

Yang: Auntie? *very confused*

Pyrrha: Are you sure you don’t require assistance, perhaps you’re still fatigued.

????: Oh that won’t be a problem, I’m completely fine now. It’s more ....well, I have no idea how I got here in the first place.

Weiss: What exactly do you mean?

????: But more importantly than that, my name is Rowan. If you were wondering.

Ruby: Rowan... Huh. That’s a nice name.

Rowan: Thanks.

Nora: So what’s the story are some kind of space kid trying to conquer the world? *says in a spooky voice*

Rowan: Nope. I’m just a normal kid learning to be a huntsman.

Nora: Oh. *says flatly*

Ren: I don’t mean to pry but what exactly did you mean you didn’t know how you got here?

Rowan: Oh that. Well.... How to say this? Have any of you ever heard of time travel?

Ruby/Jaune: ...yes?

Rowan: Ok good that makes this explanation much more simpler. Ok so you see the problem is I’m from the future and I must’ve accidentally been sent back in time by Mr. Pine’s semblance. He’s a friend so you know.

Ruby: ....sent back in time?

Jaune: The future?....

Weiss: That’s preposterous! Such a thing is impossible and defies the logic of space-time!

Rowan: Not if you’re Mr. Pine and your semblance allows you to accidentally sneeze somebody into the dark ages. Hehe.

Weiss: .....I do hope you’re joking.

Rowan: Yeah I know it sounds crazy but it’s true. I really am from the future. And.....also I’m kinda Ruby and Jaune’s son.

Everyone: HUH?!

Rowan: Look I know this may be asking a lot but could you mind taking me to Headmistress Goodwitch? I really should talk to her about this.

Yang: Hold on? Do you really expect us to believe you just because you claim you’re their son?! How do we know you’re not lying?!

Rowan: Ohhhh you need proof. *slams one hand on his other palm* Right, I shouldn’t expect you to believe me so quick. Proof, um... let’s see. Hmmmm. Oh I know! *takes out his scroll and shows them a picture* Here’s a picture of my family!

Ruby and Jaune look at Rowan’s scroll while the others peek over them and are surprised to see the picture was indeed of a family. What surprised them more was that the mother in the image looked like an older Ruby alongside a blonde girl the same age as Rowan, but had the cerulean eyes like Jaune. Rowan then changes the image to show one of an older Jaune and Ruby with a bigger than normal belly.

Weiss: This is impossible! Those images are clearly photo edited, and therefore can’t be real.

Rowan: WOW. Mr. Whitley was right you did scream a lot when you were younger.

Weiss: Wha-? How... Mr. Whitley? I knew it! This is a prank of his isn’t it?!

Rowan: No it’s not a prank I swear. Look what must I do to prove you believe me?

Ren: Well physically he looks very much like Ruby but appears to bear some resemblance to Jaune. But looks can be deceiving.

Blake: Ren’s right. Rowan, if you really who you say you are. What is something only your ‘parents’ would know about?

Rowan: Something only mom and dad know,? Ok. Let’s see........... Oh, I got it! The way you two met was when Mom blew up a crater in this courtyard after Auntie Weiss sprayed aroma veil of Dust, in which moved Dad to come help Mom out of the crater. There was also this one time where you all were at a dance, but then Dad went to talk to his partner and while Mom was waiting, she took a sip from his punch!

Ruby: How could you possibly know that?!

Rowan: Auntie Yang told me. *points to Yang*

Yang: WOW way to throw me under the bus kid!

Jaune: Wait Ruby did now?

-Fin-

Let me know if you guys enjoyed this one. My plan is to post the next chapter of RWBY Ancestries next, but after that I’ll start finishing some of the asks some of you have sent me. Hope you have a good day and be good people.

#rwby #jaune arc #ruby rose #reblog #rwby lancaster #lancaster #yang xiao long #lancaster child #rowan rose #anonymous asks

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goose-books · 4 years

Note

Ok first of all your Darkling magic post was fantastic and I can't get enough but now I MUST know...what kind of magic do the Stayer sisters have and how does it manifest??? (Also if you want to share more about Jasper's I will take it because I can't get enough of this bastard)

first of all: i apologize for the length of time between my posting of the worldbuilding post and the posting of this ask... i had almost finished writing you a response and then my computer shut down and the ask did not save! so that was a blow directly to my head! i also apologize for... the length of this!

second of all: [cups my hands and offers you this]

They say Cressida Stayer was nine years old when she turned her hair to gold. They laid her down in bed blonde, and the next morning, the waves cascading down her shoulders were solid metal, glinting harshly in the sunlight, weighing her down, creating that odd head-cocked expression she still wears now. Nine years old. Two or three years before most people develop enough magic skills to dye a single curl. Much less transfigure their hair into precious metal.

People also say Leovald Stayer’s immediate reaction was to hack it off her head and melt it down for cash. But generally they say that part a lot quieter.

— darkling, segment iv: control

so: the stayer sisters and magic.

if we charted the stayer sisters on the passive-to-active scale, it would look like this!

(left to right: ruby, cressida, and gracen.)

that said, they’re all leovald stayer’s kids, and leovald is pretty well known as one of the most magical people in dovermorry, if not in general. so he fully expected his children to have large amounts of raw magical energy as well. and they didn’t disappoint. cressida is the one well-known as a Magical Prodigy ™, but gracen and ruby are also notably powerful and notably in-control of their magic, especially for their ages! (21, 19, and 16, in descending order.) most people don’t get really, really good at controlling their magic until well into adulthood. technically you can join the guild at 17 or older, but the median age on the Mage’s Guild’s high council is, like, sixty. (when leovald is the young guy in the group, there’s an issue.)

interestingly, cressida is about two months from turning 17. but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. in descending order:

gracen’s entire thing is control. gracen stayer has a lot of power inside of her that would very much like to be outside of her, and gracen would very much like to prevent it from getting loose. she deals with this by being so hyperaware of her magic that it cannot possibly Do Things On Its Own, because she keeps it on an extremely tight leash. (this is a pretty good metaphor for how gracen deals with things in general.)

gracen... runs the stayer household. by which i mean she does everything from cleaning up after Mandatory Family Dinner to helping cressida with her calc homework to making sure ruby comes home before curfew (as not to get yelled at) to organizing leovald’s paperwork and making sure he doesn’t say something stupid on TV. gracen does most of leovald’s grunt work, actually. does she hate this? yes. but she’s also pretty sure that training the most powerful man in dovermorry into instinctively relying on her for everything is… a good long-term move, pragmatically speaking.

so gracen has a lot to do! and a lot of magic that she absolutely will not allow to build up inside of her. and she deals with this by using her magic for everything. she parcels small bits of magic out for every small task - doing the dishes, summoning a pencil from the other side of the room, making paperwork organize itself. if someone spills their drink on the carpet, gracen will draw the drink back out of the fibers, drop by drop, into the cup. by twitching one finger. understandably, this takes a lot of practiced focus and control; magic is very much something you can study and gracen very much studies it the way feral high schoolers study for the ACT. it almost doesn’t matter how active her magic is, because her magic NEVER takes any kind of natural form - she wrings out every drop in a very deliberate way. (i say almost because she can still feel it. she deliberately keeps it calm. it is harder than it looks. pretty much everything i’ve just said about gracen’s magic is a FANTASTIC metaphor for [gestures] the everything about gracen.)

and then there’s ruby, who is exactly the opposite. quelle surprise.

look, ruby is fully aware that no matter how much she practices, she is never going to be as good at controlling her magic as gracen. so she just… doesn’t. she just doesn’t! she doesn’t control it and she doesn’t use it. magic isn’t her best skill - her skillset lies in writing, in thinking, in persuading, in befriending, in provoking. why on earth would ruby magically whisk her laundry off the floor when she can just pick it up? and why would she pick it up when she can probably convince someone else to do it for her?

“but max,” you are thinking, “doesn’t her magic build up like you’ve been saying?” yes and she likes it. to be fair, she has comparatively more passive energy than her sisters; it’s easier for ruby to deal with this buildup than it would be for gracen. or for jasper, for that matter. when jasper’s magic gets to be Too Much, it’s a physical palpable thing; he gets itchy and shaky and tense and sometimes sick until he can twist off the metaphorical cap and let off some steam. for ruby, it’s more like an adrenaline rush - pounding heart, shaky limbs, heightened senses and emotions, without the risk of Making A Mess in public. she likes to let her magic build and build and build and build and then pull it back and release it into something deliberate at the very last minute. she finds this thrilling. which isn’t to say she doesn’t care! that honestly takes as much control and focus as gracen’s strategy does.

at her high school graduation, ruby “accidentally” “lost control” and set off magical fireworks over her head as she crossed the stage. loudly and vividly. leovald in the audience was so psyched he shouted. gracen would have slammed her head into the wall, except she had to comfort cressida, who reacts to loud noises like this:

as much as gracen and ruby differ in their ways of handling their magic, they’re… very similar at the core. what looks effortless is actually a lot of concentrated effort behind the scenes. and then there’s cressida, who just… does not have that.

some people (leovald) think of magic as a thing to flaunt. some people (jasper) are constantly fighting it. cressida just… does not care all that much? she just does not care. magic comes very naturally to her because it is first and foremost a way she copes with being trans and autistic in a world that is not made for her. she used to turn the lights out when rooms got too bright (and then sat back and let everyone else wonder what had happened). she’ll change fabrics to make them softer or smoother. the real story of her hair has nothing to do with gold - she was ten, not nine, and she grew her hair out to shoulder-length overnight, because she was sick of having short hair. and that was what made the rest of her family realize that maybe all that stuff about wanting to be a girl was, like… significant.

technically, yes, she is a Magical Prodigy ™! her magic settled very early and she has a LOT of it. and her magic, more than even her sisters’, is very similar to leovald’s. leovald lets his magic do WHATEVER the fuck, and the result is that he warps the world around him a LOT - fireplaces light when he walks into the room; lights flicker when he raises his voice; doors burst open in front of him even when they aren’t automatic; when his emotions are running high they affect the weather. cressida’s magic would like to be doing all of that. leovald would also like cressida’s magic to be doing all of that.

but cressida… kind of just doesn’t give a shit? she has a lot of untapped potential that she is fine with not tapping. she is perfectly content with living her life using her magic to, like, change the radio station from the backseat of the car (when you’re the youngest of three children, you NEVER get shotgun).

buuuuuut leovald is really psyched about having a freaky magical savant child. and most people see cressida - quiet, staring off into space, blank facial expression, not great at talking - and quietly assume that the magic thing is… like… all she has going for her. so she’s very much been pigeonholed into Magical Prodigy Zone, whether she likes that or not.

whoa this is a lot of text have an image

and then jasper is just… the anti-cressida. he has a thousand and one talents and gets perfect grades and charms everyone he meets and he is a walking biohazard when it comes to magic. and it drives him CRAZY, as much as he pretends not to care.

most people have their magic all figured out by the time they’re in high school. jasper is sixteen, almost seventeen, and something about it is… still just not working for him. even simple stuff (duplicating post-it notes! making flashcards shuffle themselves!) just… takes much more effort than it should. and because he hates being bad at it, he doesn’t use it, and then it builds up, and he ends up jittering like a live wire, and then if that goes too far things explode.

jasper has elected to blame his mother pretty much entirely for this, because vee has NONE of the same problems. (plenty of problems! but not related to magic.) …plus, you know. jasper’s had enough mishaps in public to know that his father ALSO blames jasper’s mother, pretty vocally, whenever he gets the chance.

on a conscious level, jasper is actually fine with having magic that just Does Not Fucking Work. because he has SO many nonmagical skills that it makes up the difference. at his boarding school, he sits atop a throne made of forged prescriptions, pay-per-page homework, and confessions of love from people who do not know him nearly enough to confess their love to him. on a subconscious level he has a whole complex about it but [gesturing] that’s a given, isn’t it

#suits-of-woe-main #THANK YOU BTW SERIOUSLY...#i adore your writing so your interest in this makes me 🥺🥺#so here i am writing an essay as per usual.#max.txt #darkling tag #leovald stayer #gracen stayer #ruby stayer #cressida stayer #jasper greenwood #all maxes know... is rewrite shakespeare... and respond to questions with a full page of text...#asks

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trashmagines · 5 years

Text

Three’s A Party: Four x Reader x Eric

TrAshy Says: This literally just popped into my head so if it’s shit, you know why. No hate to Tris but reader’s jealousy is almost as bad as her boys ;)

Warnings: A little violence, Suggestive themes

__________

“I don’t know how you do it, Y/N.” Tori exhales, nimbly dodging your fury of punches.

Though she preferred the laid back nature of tattooing, Tori still liked to spar, especially with you. It was the perfect time to catch up on life and hone your fighting skills. You guys may have been best friends, but neither of you went easy on each other, as told by the bruises that were starting to form on both your bodies.

“Do what?” you breathe, blocking a high kick. “Date both of them. One of them is bad enough, but both? Together? You’re just asking for trouble.”

This isn’t the first time your relationship has been the topic of conversation, but it still catches you off-guard all the same. Tori uses this to her advantage and swipes your feet from under you, knocking you flat on your back and pinning you underneath her booted foot. You tap out begrudgingly, and she half-smiles at your glare before helping you up.

“I know you don’t like them, but-” “Correction, I like Four; it’s Eric I don’t like.” “BUUUUUUT! They’re both apart of my life. Yeah, it can get hectic, I won’t deny that. But they care about me and I care about them. Honestly, it’s not as bad as most people think it is.”

Tori simply nods, knowing that even though she doesn’t really understand, she should stop talking about it for now. She hands you a bottle of water which you sip from graciously, before declaring that she needs to get back to the shop.

“Same time next week?” “Of course, Tor.”

You wave goodbye and exit the pit, quickly making your way toward the space you share with Eric and Four. When you open the door, a heavenly scent drags your willing body to the kitchen, and you see a shirtless Eric standing over the stove.

“Damn it smells amazing in here.”

The smile you’re greeted with makes your heart flutter, and Eric quickly turns off the burner before crossing over to you and connecting your lips.

“You’re late.” he states when he pulls away. “Maybe you’re just early.” you smile.

Eric returns to the stove and begins plating what he’d cooked. You notice that he only prepares two plates, and you instinctively speak up.

“What about Four?” “He’s training one of the initiates and he said not to wait. You didn’t get his text?”

You hadn’t checked your phone the entire time you were with Tori, and sure enough, when you do, there’s a missed text from Four.

Hey Y/N, helping Tris train; she’s afraid she won’t make the cut. Don’t wait up...or do ;) - Four

Even with the suggestive end, you find yourself frowning. So what if Tris didn’t make the cut? If she couldn’t hack it on her own, that was her problem. So why was your boyfriend helping her? Your dissatisfaction must have been plain to see, because Eric chuckles as he looks between you and your phone.

“Hmm, are you jealous, princess?”

Your head snaps towards him and you scoff as if he’d just accused you of the worst crime. Both Eric and Four were known for their jealousy; people barely even looked at you when they were around for fear that they’d somehow invoke your boyfriends’ wrath. You, on the other hand, swore you weren’t the jealous type. And yet...

“Now you know how we feel.” Eric grins, pressing a quick kiss to your cheek.

Four doesn’t get back until after both you and Eric are already asleep.

__________

You hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, honest. You’d been walking down the corridor toward the tattoo parlor when you heard them, Tris and Christina.

“So that’s why you’ve been coming back so late! Getting cozy with a leader, huh? That’s bold.” “Shh! We’re not getting cozy, he’s just helping me train; that’s all.”

You stop in your tracks immediately.

“Sure, sure. So you don’t like him? Not even a little bit?” Christina asks with a playful lilt. “Even if I did, he’s already in a relationship. A happy one by the looks of it.” “Yeah, true... On the other hand though, Y/N’s also dating Eric. I mean, does she really have to date both of them? Would it be such a crime to at least see if Four is interested?”

You don’t stay long enough to hear Tris’ reply and you’re still fuming when you plop down in Tori’s chair. She takes note of your clearly frustrated state after setting up her tools, and she decides to ask about it when she’s well into the process of lasering ink into your skin.

“I just... overheard something that upset me.” “Yeah? What?” “It... It’s stupid, don’t worry about it.” “If you’re this mad it’s probably not as stupid as you think. Plus, I’m your best friend; you’re pretty much obligated to tell me about things that are pissing you off.”

You playfully roll your eyes and Tori smirks at you, waiting for you to give her the details. So you do; you tell her about Four’s recent late-night training sessions and the bit of the conversation you’d heard.

“I hate to break it to you, Y/N, but you’re definitely jealous. Of an initiate.” “I know! Like, god, is this really what Eric and Four feel when people flirt with me? If so, I kind of understand where they’re coming from.” “At least you didn’t punch her.”

You raise your eyebrows in surprise, then a wicked grin slowly spreads across your features as you get the best idea.

“Y/N, no. No! Don’t be like them!” “I won’t hurt her...too bad.”

Tori sighs in defeat as she removes the pad covering the skin below your chest. She helps you stand and you revel in the new, intricate sternum piece. Still smiling, you pay her and thank her for the wonderful idea. She knows this won’t end well.

__________

A few days pass and Four still finds himself helping Tris, much to your dismay. You’d even walked in on them after returning to retrieve your forgotten jacket, and the sight almost made you scream. Four had his hands on Tris’ hips, perfecting her form as she beat on a punching bag. Though you knew he was only correcting her, your skin burned at the way she was looking at him.

If you’d had a throwing knife on you, it probably would have been whizzing through the air at them already.

The next day, you wake up before Eric and Four, ready to exact your revenge plan. You dress in a black sports bra and leggings, both of which accentuate your bust and butt respectively. You then pull on your favorite cropped zip jacket and head out without saying a word to either of them. Your phone goes off consistently throughout the day, both men wondering why you hadn’t spoken to them all morning. By the time afternoon sparring sessions roll around, you’re grinning at the number of missed messages as you make your way towards the training room.

You practically burst through the door, all eyes drifting to you as you stalk toward Eric and Four. You remove your jacket on the way over, both men taking in your outfit like you knew they would. Before either of them can ask what the hell you’re doing, you turn your attention towards the initiates.

“There’s going to be a little challenge today. Anyone that can beat me in a fight will move up two spots on the ranking board.”

Murmurs spread throughout the group as you step onto the platform. Four is about to speak up, but Eric silences him with a wave of his hand, a smirk adorning his features. He knew exactly what you were doing, and he wasn’t about to stop you.

One by one, initiate after initiate challenges you, and one by one they all fail. You’ve successfully taken down even the highest ranking members, managing to send a few to the medical bay.

“Who’s next?”

The remaining initiates look among each other, none of them wanting to succumb to your fists. You chuckle softly as they all visibly recoil under your gaze. When you finally look at Tris, you smile sweetly.

“You. Get up here.”

Tris’ eyes go wide, but she knows she can’t exactly say no to a leader. Hesitantly she steps onto the platform and gets into her defensive stance. You do the same, and when Eric shouts to begin, you charge at her. She just barely dodges your attacks, and even manages to deliver an elbow blow to your jaw. Unfortunately she misjudges how quick you are, and with one powerful side kick to the gut, Tris is sent over the platform’s edge, her back colliding hard with the concrete floor. You stand tall, looming over her as she groans before turning your attention to the rest of the clearly worried initiates.

“I don’t care what that board says, you’re all weak.”

You step off of the platform, only sparing your boyfriends a glance before grabbing your jacket and exiting the room. By the time they get back to your shared place, you’ve already showered, changed, and started dinner. You pay them no mind until you feel a pair of arms wrap around your torso.

“I won’t lie, watching you kick ass is always hot, but you could have just talked to me if you were jealous, princess.” Four’s voice tickles your ear as he places gentle kisses on your neck. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” you sigh, leaning back against him. “Oh really? So you sent seven people, one of them being Tris Prior, to the medical bay for the hell of it?” Eric asks, standing beside you.

You bite your lip to keep from grinning, but both men see right through you. Four shuts off the burner you’re currently using, then turns you so that you’re now sandwiched between him and Eric. The latter rests his head on your shoulder, his hands massaging tiny circles into your lower back, while Four rests his hands on your torso right above Eric’s and shakes his head at you.

“Y/N, you know that neither of us want anyone but you. You don’t ever need to be jealous.” “Funny; I say that to you two all the time, yet people won’t even look at me if you’re around lest one of you decides to make their life a living hell.” “That’s different,” Eric pipes up, “we can’t do better than you, but you could definitely do better than either of us. Especially Four.” “I’m sorry, who came in second place on the ranking board? Oh that’s right, you.” “Fuck you, Four.” “Boys!”

They go silent as you look between them, and a light laugh passes your lips.

“Tori was right; I don’t know how I put up with you two.” “That’s easy. It’s because you love us.” Four smiles confidently. “Besides you know what they say: Three’s a party.” Eric chuckles. “We’re not really having that much fun though...” you trail off.

Both sets of hands on your hips tighten reflexively at your tone, and when your eyes meet Four’s, he’s not surprised to see the lust burning in them. Stepping closer to you, effectively trapping you in a wall of heat and muscle, Four speaks, his breath fanning across your face.

“We can easily change that.”

#Four #Four x reader #Tobias Eaton #Tobias Eaton x reader #Eric Coulter #Eric Coulter x reader #Divergent series

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going-dead · 5 years

Text

To (Not) Kill a Ghost

Two ghosts raced across the sky of Amity Park, weaving in and out of buildings . Danny Phantom threw an attack but the offending ghost dodged out of the way. The ghost blindly threw an attack back not wanting to slow down by looking back. If someone who lived in Amity Park were to look up it wouldn’t be an unusual sight. Phantom chasing ghosts was an almost daily occurrence and the citizens were used to it. This particular ghost on the other hand was a monthly occurrence at most, there were many theories about the relation of the two ghosts, few said she wasn’t related to Phantom at all, some said she is his sister, or his cousin, his daughter. All they knew was the two ghosts were close and from their similar looks and outfits probably died together. Or at least that was the theory.

The young ghost stopped mid air and threw a snowball that hit Phantom directly in his face. Dani laughed clutching her stomach and kicking her feet in the air. Danny wiped the snow off his face revealing a face of joking anger. “Young lady you are so grounded.” he shook a finger at her.

“You’re not my real dad!” She joked sticking her tongue out.

Danny scoffed, “You have an almost 100% DNA match to me, I’m more of a father to you than most fathers are to their kids.” Danny trailed off, “buuuuuut if that’s how you want to be.” He gave a wicked grin and formed a giant ball of snow in his hands the size of his head and readied to throw it. Dani yelped and ducked out of the way barely missing it. She shot off again Danny chasing behind her laughing.

Dani tried to visit Danny once a month depending on where she was traveling. Even when they couldn’t see each other in person they would video chat or text each other for a whole day to simulate being there with each other for a day. After Dani was stabilized she stayed at Danny’s for a few days just so he could make sure the ecto-dejecto wasn’t just a temporary fix. She stayed in his room, invisible whenever his family came in. Well there was an incident with Jazz but she already knew about the whole halfa thing so a clone of her brother wasn’t too far fetched for her. Jazz was the first to ask about the logistics of the relationship between the original and the clone. They definitely were closer than cousins, but it didn’t feel like his relationship with Jazz. It was obviously platonic that wasn’t even a question. Eventually Jazz offered the father-daughter comparison, which they hesitantly agreed to. Dani didn’t call him dad but he was fine with it. It would be hard to explain to anyone who overheard and Dani called Vlad her dad before she found out the truth so she was uncomfortable using it, but they were glad to have a name for their bond.

After a while they headed to Fentonworks landing in Danny’s room. They both transformed and walked downstairs where Jazz was making dinner in the kitchen. “I was wondering when you two were getting back, so I figured i’d just start dinner.” Jazz looked up from the stove, “we’re having pancakes for dinner.” She placed a pancake on an already tall stack.

“Do they have chocolate chips in them?” Dani asked running up beside Jazz.

“Yes they do, but don’t get any ideas Danny. It’s only because Dani is here and she doesn’t get family meals often.” Jazz waved her spatula toward Danny.

Danny shrugged and opened the fridge rummaging around until he pulled out a can of whipped cream. “Oh no, whatever shall I do?” He deadpanned spraying the whipped cream into his mouth. Then walked over to Dani to do the same.

Jazz wrinkled her nose, “You guys are already getting chocolate chip pancakes you don’t need more sugar with it. It’s bad for your bodies you’re still growing.” Rolling her eyes when they both did it again. “You two can at least set the table, I did cook all the food after all.”

“Aye aye captain Jazz.” Danny saluted phasing through the cupboard doors grabbing the plates then placing them on the table. He lifted Dani up so she could reach the cups. Just like Danny when he was her -biological- age, she hadn’t hit her growth spurt yet. Though he didn’t really grow tall, just became less short.

“So Dani how long are you staying?” Jazz asked putting pancakes on everyone's plates. The two raven haired children drowned their pancakes in syrup then scarfed them down, adding whipped cream of course.

“Probably until tomorrow? Danny said your parents are out late today teaching a ghost safety class, but doesn’t know if they’ll be here tomorrow.” She replied in between bites.

“Yep, that’s why we’re spending as much time together today. And since it’s Friday I don’t need to go to bed early. Danny nodded.

Halfway through dinner both Danny and Dani shuddered and puffs of frost escaped their mouths. “Oh come on! I know I let everyone know you were coming, even Skulker agreed to leave me alone today who the hell is it?” Danny stood up angrily.

The ghosts and Danny came to an agreement a few months back that they were not to come through the portal when Dani was over, unless it was an emergency. They might not all like Danny but they seemed to respect family. The threats from Clockwork and Pandora probably helped as well.

“Just go before your food gets warm.” Jazz waved to two heros off.

“Dani stay here and finish dinner, I can handle whoever it is.” Danny transformed and flew off to find the offending ghost.

“Pssh yeah right, I never get to fight. I’m not giving up the chance to.” Dani flew after the older ghost.

Jazz shook her head and headed to the living room to see if the news had caught wind of the ghost yet. She hoped whoever it was just forgot Dani was over. Danny always seemed happy when she was over.

The two half ghosts flew above Amity Park scrying the streets and sky for the unknown ghost. A scream tore through the air. Danny imeadintly dove towards the source of the scream. He landed in the middle of a playground that was located in the center of the town. There was another scream right next to Danny’s ear. Danny flinched back then turned to his right. He saw a woman holding a small child that was probably around five. Danny quickly glanced them over looking for any big injuries, but both seemed fine.

The woman was just staring at Danny frozen in fear. “How...What?” The woman took a step back. Dani landed behind her, once the woman saw her she gave another yelp.

“You’re new around here aren’t you?” Danny raised a brow. “Dani can you take her somewhere safe. Mo- The Fentons are holding a ghost class at the school. They can explain the whole ghost town thing.” Danny was about to turn and leave but paused. “Can you toss me the thermos?” He opened his hands in a catching position.

“I don’t have it? We were eating and I never get to fight when i’m here why would I have it?”

“Crap, grab it on your way back then. I’m sure I’ll be able to hold off the ghost until you do.”

Dani grabbed the women's free hand who flinched away. “Don’t worry I don’t bite,” Dani smiled “I’m Dani by the way what’s your name?” She asked walking the women and her kid out of the park.

Now time to figure out who interrupted dinner, a pancake dinner nonetheless. Danny mused and floated above the tree line and almost immediately spotted the ghost. It was a hulking figure wearing armor and wielding slightly curved sword. “Hey dipwad who are you? You look like the accidental lovechild of the Fright Knight and Skulker.” Danny paused, “Ew, that’s an image I which I could burn out of my head. Forever.”

The unknown ghost turned towards Danny his eyes a blazing red he snarled showing sharpened teeth. “I am Eviscerate!”

“Oh boy what a creative name I could never possibly guess what you like to do. I bet you thought long and hard about it. But let me try to guess anyway, you want to tear my organs out? Display them in your personal collection perhaps?”

“Eviscerate does not collect for when I remove the organs they are too mangled to preserve. And I will take your organs and everyone else's as well.”

“Join the line bud, you’re behind my parents, Skulker, and the government. But if you go nicely back into the Ghost Zone I might be able to bump you up the list. Though still behind my parents, I think they actually have the legal rights to my organs when I die until I turn eighteen, how does that work in my situation?” Danny paused counting the names on his fingers, “Oh there’s also Valerie, but we have an on and off truce right now.” Geeze he really shouldn’t have this many people ready to dissect him at the drop of a hat.

He was pulled out of his musings when a sword was swung at his chest. He barely dodged it and returned the attack with an ectoblast. It hit it’s mark but it didn’t even seem to stun his opponent. Dani better get back soon. He threw up a shield to intercept the next attack. Why couldn’t it have been the Box Ghost? Or even Skulker at least he knew what he was dealing with when it came to him. Danny let off another round of ectoblasts which managed to dent the armor and he could see a few drops of ectoplasm leaking out of the armor. God what did it take to actually hurt this guy? He couldn’t risk his ghostly wail there were too many buildings around and it didn’t exactly have a small area of effect.

“I got the thermos!” A young voice called out.

Danny turned towards Dani to make a grab for the thermos. That was a mistake, he left himself open for an attack and took his eyes off of his opponent. Eviscerate saw the opportunity and took it lunging at him stabbing him through the abdomen with his sword, lodging it in his gut. Danny could hear the faint yelling of his name through the ringing in his ears and saw the blue flash of the Fenton Thermos. Then he was falling and it all went black.

He woke up human and in searing pain, Dani struggling to carry him through the doors of his home. He managed to pry his eyes open and saw himself being carried into the living room. Jazz was rushing around to clear space on the floor clutching the spool of Fenton Fishing Wire. The TV was still on recapping the fight that just occurred.

“Wha-What happened?” he croaked out trying to lift his head once he was laid down.

“Don’t talk, and stay still.” Jazz snapped out, threading the fishing wire through a needle. “You got stabbed, Dani trapped the ghost in the thermos and carried you here. You lost a lot of blood.”

“I can feel that, I’m tired.” His eyes drooped threatening to close.

“Nevermind what I said about not talking Dani keep him talking! Don’t fall asleep.” Jazz barked out. She cut open his shirt wincing as she had to cut his binder as well. It was his favorite, but that didn’t really matter when he was bleeding out.

“Come on you can’t give up,” Dani cried. “Here would I go? Who would I talk to about my travels? You can’t leave me!” Dani too was now human.

“I won’t leave you” he coughed out, “I’d never do that.”

The wound in Danny’s abdomen was clotting with a strange mixture of blood and ectoplasm. Jazz had cleaned the wound as much as possible and was starting the stitches her her hands shaking. Danny’s veins were slightly glowing green with ectoplasm his human and ghost halves doing their damnedest to keep themselves (mostly) alive.

Dani took up pacing back and forth while Jazz worked to stay out of her way. Stress and worry causing her powers to act up making her body flicker in and out of visibility. Rambling on and on trying to keep Danny awake. Jazz was about halfway across the wound when the tense air and senseless rambling was interrupted.

“Jazzy-pants, Danny-boy!” Jack Fenton’s voice called out as he turned the kitchen light on. Giving the living room a dim light. Danny, now stable enough to move around a bit, lifted his head and shared a look with Jazz and Dani, who’s eyes were now reflecting in the dim light, and he could only assume his were doing the same. All three kids came to the conclusion there was no way to move Danny mid stitch without making the wound worse, and no way to reasonably excuse the current situation.

Danny rest his head back on the ground all three waiting on bated breath. “What the-?” Maddie Fenton started turning the living room light on. She was met with the sight of a strangely familiar looking young girl. But that was quickly pushed into the back of her mind when she saw Jazz, holding a needle and- was that the Fenton Fishing Wire? Crouched over a blood and ectoplasm covered Danny, with a huge gash in his stomach. The fact the ectoplasm seemed to be coming from Danny only made her concern grow.

“Heya Mom,” Danny groaned, “not exactly how I imagen-” he hissed in pain as he drew a deep breath, “how I imagined you finding out”

Jack was now standing beside Maddie. “Find out what sweetie?” She asked apprehensively.

The strange girl placed herself in front of of Jazz and Danny almost looking like she was ready to fight the two scientists. “We can explain when Danny is not bleeding out!” Jazz snapped. “Just… just go sit in the kitchen or go upstairs for now, okay?”

“But…” Jack protested.

“GO!” Jazz yelled. Her parents hesitated but complied glancing back before exiting the room.

Once the wound was closed up Danny’s healing factor kicked into full gear. He was still in loads of pain but he was able to be moved to the couch with a blanket draped over him and his head propped up with a pillow. “You can bring them in now.”

“Are you sure Danny? You don’t have to do this.”

“It had to happen eventually Jazz.”

She sighed and walked towards the kitchen. Dani took a seat at Danny’s feet her hands in the pocket of her hoodie. Danny’s eyes were darting towards the kitchen and then over to Dani. “If this goes wrong just leave, don’t worry about me okay Dani? Just stop by Sam’s or Tucker’s tell them what happened then get as far away from here as you can.”

“What? No! You almost died, I’d take you with me or I won’t leave.”

“ Yes, you will Danielle.” He said as stern as he could.

“No. I. Won’t. Dad.”

Jazz cleared her throat standing a few steps away with Jack and Maddie looking confused. Danny slowly sat up, keeping the blanket over his chest, so he could face his parents.

“I suppose I should start from the beginning huh?” Danny started. “You remember when I told you the ghost portal gave me a small shock when it turned on? Well that may have been a small understatement.” He paused trying to think of the best way to explain it. “Well it’d be easier to just show you.” Jazz started to protest but Danny rose a hand. “It’s fine, I heal faster like that anyway.”

“Honey what are you-” Maddie was cut off as two rings of light ran up and down her sons body replacing jeans and bare torso with a black and white hazmat suit, ice blue eyes with a toxic growing green, and the black hair she ran her hands through when he was younger and scared replaced with an ethereal ghastly white. In the place of her son was Danny Phantom. Jack looked frozen and Maddie brought her hand to her mouth. “The ghost portal killed you? We killed you? You’ve been a ghost this whole time?”

“Well...not exactly. I’m half ghost, the ghosts call me a halfa. Half a human, half a ghost. I still need to breathe and I still have a heartbeat, I just have a few… extra things as well.” Jack looked grief stricken, “We tried to kill you. I tried to kill you. I talked about how I would tear you apart right in front of you at the dinner table! You call yourself Danny Phantom for fucks sake, Phantom, Fenton. How could we be so blind.”

“Hey there are kids present dad!” Jazz pointed at Dani.

“Wait you’ve been fighting ghosts this whole time, no wonder you don’t get any homework done. You...fight...ghosts. Young man! You were stabbed what are you doing in our living room and not at a hospital? Jazz isn’t a doctor!” Maddie ran to Danny’s side, the sudden movement made Dani look like she was ready to throw punches any moment.

“Well hospitals don’t really know how to treat half ghosts.” Danny gave a small chuckle. “Plus the Fenton Fishing Wire works a lot better than normal stitches, it stays together in both forms so…”

“Well those stitches are very sloppy. Come on Jack help me bring him down to the lab.”

At that statement Dani practically shoved Maddie back and placed herself between her and Danny. “I won’t let you take him!” She snarled her eyes flashing green.

“What do you think I’m going to- no wait who even are you?” Maddie asked. “And why did you call my son ‘dad’?”

“Oh she’s my clone. We figured it was the most fitting relationship title.” Danny shrugged a shoulder.

Maddie looked like she wanted to ask more but saved the questions for later. “Anyway if we don’t redo those stitches. It’ll get infected, or at best just leave a really bad scar. And the lab has better supplies than a D.I.Y. first AID kit. Come on Jack help me move him gently.”

“You’re going to have to turn human again sweetie. I need to see how bad the wound is internally.” Maddie said once Danny was set on the lab table. He complied groaning as his organs were once more needed. Maddie cut the stitches open unthreading the wire used. “I’m going to have to tug at the skin a bit okay? I need to see if anything vital was punctured.” She slowly pried open the gash wincing at her sons gasps of pain. She glanced over at Jack, “Grab the suture needles and the fishing wire.” As she looked at the exposed intestine she noticed that it was already mostly healed despite being stabbed only a short time ago. The intestine seemed to be faintly green, probably because of the ectoplasm that seemed be be mixed with his blood. She wondered the ratio of blood and ectoplasm and if it was different in both forms. But right now it was her job to fix up her son. Everything else could wait until later.

#Danny phantom #my fic #phic #angst #dani phantom #jazz fenton

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sanders-specs · 5 years

Note

Dunno if this counts as a main ship, since it technically isn't even Sanders Sides, but Remile (Remy[Sleep]/Emile Picani)?? Like pining, best friends Remile with a happy ending??? Pls consider. Thanks. If not, thanks anyway.

Childhood Friends

A/N: So…i don’t know how i feel about this? My writing, not the prompt This is the first time i’ve really written these characters so they’re not perfect. I just hope all you Remile fans enjoy it. Also I’m just going to put my general tag list on here, though if i need to make a separate one for non Sanders Sides stories just let me know.

Warnings: alcohol (they only get lightly tipsy) (if i need to add anything else, please let me know)

tag list: @irish-newzealand-idian-dutch @dan-yuna @tripleaaaqueer @lilbeanblr @helloisthisusernametaken @justanotherpurplebutterfly @alwaysmy-lilith @ilylogan @logically-trans @seas-space-and-stardust @generalfandomfabulousness @arentordinaryvillainsadorable @nico-holly

Remy strolled into the large office building, his bodyrelaxed and his messenger bag bouncing lightly against his leg. He leaned overthe reception desk and smiled at the secretary, pushing his sunglasses to thetop of his head. “Here to see Picani. You know the drill.”

The secretary—Judith, her nametag read—rolled her eyes. “Dr.Picani is currently in the middle of a session with a patient. I’ll let himknow you’re here when it is over.”

Remy groaned but he knew better than to argue—he didn’t blamethe people who needed Emile’s help, he just hated waiting. He sauntered intothe waiting room and slumped down in a chair, pulling out his phone to scrollthrough Tumblr while he waited.

“Do you know Dr. Picani?” someone in the waiting room asked. Remy looked up to see a kid decked out inmostly black and greys, complete with a little bit of eyeliner, watching him.

“You could say that,” Remy said. “We grew up together.”

The kid raised their eyebrows. “Wow…”

“What?”

“You just don’t strike me as a pair that would work together.”

Remy smirked. “Yeah, we get that a lot.”

“So uh, can I ask what his deal is with cartoons?”

Remy glanced over at them. Emile had been pretty clear thatin times like these he didn’t want Remy talking too much about him to hispatients. Then again, this question was something Remy was pretty used toanswering.

“He just likes cartoons,” Remy shrugged, “always has. Thesame way some people really like certain kinds of music or movies.”

The kid nodded, though Remy could tell that wasn’t theanswer they were hoping for. Oh well, that was all they were going to get.Emile didn’t like his patients knowing too much about him, or anything abouthim, really, unless they specifically asked, or it related to whatever issuesthe patient needed to work out. Something about it conflicted with work.

Just then, another kid (who was he kidding, these peoplewere probably around the same age as him, but just about everyone looked like akid to him) came down the hallway, Emile following behind them.

“I still stand by the fact that Inside Out is the best,” thepatient said.

“Clearly it’s Wall-E,” Emile said, shaking his head. He sawRemy, then and grinned. “Remy! Please tell this young man that Wall-E is thefar better Pixar movie.”

“Sorry doc, that goes to Ratatouille.”

“You’re biased because the main character has your name!”

“Hell yeah I am,” Remy said with a smirk.

“I like Brave,” eyeliner kid muttered.

Emile sighed. “You’re all crazy.”

“Says the psychologist,” Remy said, getting to his feet.

Emile only gave him a fond look before turning back to hispatient. “I’ll see you next month Kai, and maybe try re-watching a movie or two.”

Kai was already headed towards the door. “It’s not gonnachange my mind.” They called before leaving.

“Well it was worth a try,” Emile said, smoothly turning tothe other patient. “Elliot, I’ll be with you as soon as I finish filing awayKai’s notes.”

“I don’t have any place else to be.”

“…okay you’re being serious, I wasn’t sure for a moment.”

Remy cleared his throat. Emile looked at him. “And Remy,what can I do for you? As happy as I am to see you, I don’t really have muchtime…”

Remy held up a hand. “I know, I was on my way home from ajob and thought I’d stop by to give you this,” he handed Emile a Starbucks cupof hot chocolate, “and this,” he dug through his bag to find what he waslooking for. It was a Steven Universe blind bag, which he handed over to his excitedlooking friend.

Emile grinned. “Aw, thanks Rem!” he threw his arms aroundRemy, making the other boy blush.

“Ah, um, yeah, anything for you. thought you’d like it.Anyway, I should get going, let you get back to work.”

“Oh, come by later! We need to catch up.”

“Yeah, sounds good. See ya later doc.” Remy flicked hissunglasses back into place. “Later babes.” He shot finger guns at Judith andElliot before sauntering out of the building, whistling.

“Alright Elliot, what would you like to start with today?” Emileasked as he sat down in his chair and Elliot sat on the couch across from him.

“was that your boyfriend? That Remy guy?”

Emile looked up in surprise at that. “Remy? Oh, no, we’re justgood friends.”

“Oh. I was just asking because you kinda looked likeboyfriends.” Elliot shrugged, but there was a small almost knowing smirk ontheir face.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Elliot. Buuuuuutspeaking of boyfriends, how are you and Mitchell?”

“Deflective much,” Elliot muttered.

“I could say the same to you.”

“Elliot…”

“I know, I know, sorry. Just saying.”

“Well i appreciate your concern, but we’re here to talk aboutyou. Now, let’s talk about why Brave is your favorite Pixar movie…”

After his last patient, Emile closed the door to his officeto finish up sorting through all his notes, though his mind wasn’t really onthe filing. He was thinking about Remy, and about what Elliot had said. Emilealways thought he was good at reading body language and tone, but Remy was alwaysso…complicated. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that they’d beenfriends for so long that Remy had learned how to evade Emile’s careful gaze.

Still, though, he would think that he would know if his bestfriend was interested in him romantically…right?

Emile bit his lip as he put away the last file, then startedgathering his things to go home.

It wasn’t like Emile didn’t like Remy, he did. they’d beenfriends for as long as he could remember, and it was probably around highschool when he realized how much he liked Remy. He hadn’t been able to talk tohim about it, though, since Remy had a boyfriend at the time. then they went tocollege and Emile focused entirely on getting his doctorate degree. That andusing his newfound freedom to buy every toy and plushie he’d ever wanted as achild.

Sighing, Emile slung his bag over his shoulder and walked outof the office.

Remy lounged on Emile’s couch, a glass of wine in hand. He’dbeen waiting for Emile to get home for at least an hour. He was tempted to callhim and ask what was taking so long, but that would defeat the purpose ofsurprising him.

Maybe coming to his house when he wasn’t there wasn’t thebest idea, but Remy had been bored at his apartment. Besides, it wasn’t likethis was a new thing. They had a habit of dropping by each other’s places somuch that they both just have a spare key. They hadn’t been able to visit for awhile, though, both of them being too busy. Sometimes, Remy hated that his jobmade him travel around a lot. He did miss his friend a lot when he was gone.

Remy sighed and closed his eyes. For a moment, he let hisconfident, sassy, façade drop. He was…very tired. He desperately needed sometime with his friend, even if being with said friend brings up weird,complicated feelings. Like how Remy’s heart had fluttered when Emile had huggedhim earlier, or how all Remy wanted to do was be with him.

Maybe he really was catching feelings for Emile, but he wasn’treally sure. Ever since his last breakup, he hadn’t really wanted to be withanybody else.

Suddenly, Remy heard a key in the lock. He sat up, slippinghis sunglasses over his eyes.

“Remy!” Emile exclaimed, coming in. “I thought that was yourcar. What are you doing here? Don’t you have work in the morning?”

“Nah, I rescheduled all my appointments tomorrow for anotherday. I need a personal day.”

“Personal days are important,” Emile said, nodding with approval.“Any reason why?”

Remy pushes his glasses down a little so he could look overthem at Emile. “Don’t try to psychoanalyze me doc.”

Emile laugh and throws his bag down beside the couch,plopping down next to him. “What, I can’t ask my friend what’s wrong?”

Remy smirked and pushed his glasses back up, sipping hiswine. “To answer your question, I’ve been trying to save up some money for anew place, so I’ve been working a lot.”

“Oh, finally?’

Remy rolled his eyes and lightly shoved Emile, who justlaughed. Remy took a swig of his wine, trying to ignore how much he reallyliked Emile’s laugh.

“Oh! Also, I thought we could have a movie night,” Remysaid, picking up the remote and turning the TV on, where a Disney logo was onpause.

Emile raised his eyebrows. “Let me guess, Ratatouille?”

“You know,” Remy smirked. “Mister Wall-E-is-the-best-Pixar-movie.You and I both know you don’t have a favorite. It’d be like picking your favoritechild.”

“But it is a good way to get patients to open up,” Emilesaid, pouring himself a glass of wine in the cup Remy had set out for him.

“I’ve taught you well,” Remy said, throwing an arm aroundhim and raising his glass.

Emile clinked his glass against Remy’s and leaned againsthim. “Don’t brag, I did go to school for this you know.”

“But how did we become friends?”

Emile just rolled his eyes. “Just play the movie.”

Chuckling, Remy did as he was told and pulled Emile closer againsthim, and he tried not to smile too much when Emile just snuggled against him.

About halfway through the movie, Emile sat up and paused it.He was feeling a little warm and fuzzy from the wine, and he had something hewanted to ask Remy.

“Everything okay? Why’d you pause it?” Remy asked. His cheekswere a little flushed too, though Emile doubted he was as tipsy as Emile was.

“Can I ask you something?” Emile asked, propping his chin onRemy’s shoulder.

“uh, yeah, sure, whatever you want,” Remy said, his cheeks reddeninga little.

“How come we never dated?”

Remy sat up at that, making Emile sit up too. “Where’s this comingfrom?”

“It’s been on my mind.”

Remy set down his glass and leaned back, his eyes stillhidden by his sunglasses, but Emile got the feeling that he was deep in thought.

“Well,” Remy started, “I never really knew if you wanted to.”

Emile tilted his head slightly. “And you were dating Jax.”

Remy frowned. “I dated Jax in high school…”

“And through college,” Emile propped his head on his hand. “Everyonethought you two would get married. And you loved each other. I know. I’m adoctor.”

Remy let out a small laugh. “Yeah…yeah I did love him youknow how it ended…”

“Yeah.” Jax had cheated on Remy, something that had surprisedjust about everyone.

“I guess the real question is, why didn’t you ever ask meout after Jax and I broke up?” Remy asked, resting his arm on the back of thecouch.

“Thought you didn’t like me.”

“Well I do.”

“You do?”

“Yeah.”

Emile sat up and leaned forward. He gently reached up and tookRemy’s sunglasses off of him. His eyes were wide and gave away just how nervousthe other boy was. “Can I kiss you?”

Remy leaned away a little. “Emile, maybe we should talk whenwe’re both more sober.”

Emile pouted. “I’m still plenty in control of my actions.”

“Still…”

“Are you scared?” Emile asked, smirking. Remy gulped. Emilegently took his hand and kissed it. “Don’t be. We can wait if you want. I’vewaited long enough for you.”

“Cheesy much?”

“Cheesy breezy.”

Remy chuckled. “Why don’t we finish the movie?”

“Mkay.”

Remy wrapped his arm around Emile and played the movie.

Two movies and a whole pizza later, Remy was gathering histhings to head home.

“You sure you’re good to drive?”

“The food sobered me up Milly I’m fine,” Remy said, rollinghis eyes.

“I’m just saying, you can stay here if you want.”

Remy smirked. “You sure that’s the only reason you want meto stay?”

Emile’s face flushed, which Remy had to admit was very, verycute.

He had to admit that he was more the pleased by theirearlier conversation. They’d spend the past few hours cuddling and commentatingon the movies, and just in general pretending they hadn’t just confessed theirfeelings fro each other while they’d both been a little tipsy.

“I’ll be fine,” Remy said, squeezing Emile’s arm. He turnedto go, but Emile caught his arm before he could take a single step away.

“I meant what I said earlier Rem,” He said, his eyesdowncast.

Remy smiled and stepped towards him, lifting his chin andpressing their lips together.

The kiss was sweet, and a little uncertain. This was new forboth of them, but somehow neither of them minded. They’d waited this long foreach other after all.

When they pulled away there was a huge grin on both of theirfaces.

“I think I could stay a little while longer,” Remy said witha smirk.

#remy sanders #sleep sanders #emile picani #cartoon therapy #remile #my fic #prompt #anon #tw alchohol

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choomchoom · 5 years

Note

the driftrod scene in the parking lot from the bright sessions au and 🌟 for the grad school au!

ooh thank you for asking! the fic

for the Fanfic Writers: Directors Cut ask game

so, a few fun facts about the parking lot scene (and the preceding driving scene):

most of the interstitial Rung Sessions scenes, including this one, were written as stress relief while I was studying for a big exam - they weren’t in the original outline, and I’d written several of them before I decided to rework the fic’s structure to include them! i’m glad I did; it would have been a very different fic without them.

this scene would not have existed without the running “autobots at the DMV”/”autobots taking driving lessons” jokes in the briefcases server

Rodimus’s driving in this scene is abysmal. do not take his actions as advice. it’s fine, he’s new at it, and mostly i wanted to show that of course Drift is the kind of person who would just grin and bear it in the passenger seat as a beginner driver does shit like “increased his speed so that his speedometer matched the sign. Then a stop sign came up and he had to slam the breaks -”

there was a point where i told myself “really, bex? you’re putting car-related trauma in another tf human au? no, this needs to go.” buuuuuut i couldn’t figure out what to replace it with, so it stayed. i play it very serious in both cases, but i appreciate that it’s an inherently funny concept for characters who canonically turn into cars.

one of the things i wanted to do with the parking lot scene (the....the scene that you actually asked about 🙊) was establish Rodimus and Drift learning to navigate each others’ coping mechanisms, especially when they clashed with their own. having conflicting styles of managing tough moments is hard, and i wanted to write about that with these two because i see the very open and honest communication style the two of them have as something that could help and even strengthen when those conflicts arise.

“Did I do something wrong?”

Drift just shook his head. He took an effortful inhale and said, “Sorry. It’s not you. I just need a minute.”

Rodimus took the hint to shut up and bounced his leg as he waited.

Drift curled in on himself, covering his face with his hands, sounding like he was trying very hard to keep his breathing even. “Sorry,” he said.

Oh, they were under no circumstances doing this. “Hey, remember how you met me?” Rodimus asked. “You don’t need to apologize. Is it cool if I touch you?” Drift’s back was so tense it hurt to look at.

Drift shook his head vigorously and Rodimus scooched a little further into his own space on his side of the car. “Okay.”

Rodimus waited a few excruciating minutes, unsure where to look as Drift calmed himself down in jerky stages.

I wanted to show Rodimus wanting to help in ways Drift isn’t accepting and being uncomfortable even as he does the right thing by doing what Drift asked of him in the moment. This is the kind of situation where “treat people how they want to be treated” very much trumps “treat people how you would want to be treated.” Rodimus knows that, and this is the kind of thing that’s going to deepen the trust between them. Drift even trusts him with his explanation of what set him off, right then.

Drift and Rodimus are both struggling a lot in this fic, and they’ve very good at being there for each other in a reciprocal way. They understand, to an extent, where each other is coming from, and they can help each other heal, support each other and be supported, in an organic way.

“But it’s possible that that’s the last time I was in a car, so naturally it’s what I freak out about now.” Drift ran a hand through his hair in faux-nonchalance. “The reason – I don’t know if I articulated this – the reason I said I should have told you in the first place is that I might white out and not be responsive for a few seconds, and if you have a question or if you do something dangerous because you’re inexperienced, that would be bad. That’s the logical level, and on another, also real level, I worry being around you because I really like you and I want good things for you and history has proven that only bad things happen around me.”

Rodimus waited a few seconds, but Drift seemed to be done now. “Thank you for trusting me with all that,” he said, and Drift’s shoulders seemed to relax a fraction at the lack of immediate condemnation. “I agree that that’s maybe something you should have told me to start – the thing about whiting out, I mean – but I don’t think it’s a dealbreaker for doing lessons. It’s a few seconds, right? That’s like if another driving teacher stopped paying attention to send a text. If I’m not comfortable, I can pull over.”

The reason this scene resolves as well as it does is that the honesty and good intentions on both sides feed back on each other - it’s a tense moment that could have resulted in distrust and hurt feelings, but the way these two communicate makes it resolve with their friendship stronger for it.

(i might do grad school au later, i can’t think of anything to talk about at the moment 😂. a fun fact about grad school au is that "grad school au” was supposed to be a simpatico story about, like, setting good workplace boundaries. obviously it spiraled wildly out of control)

#driftrod

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queenofangrymoths · 5 years

Text

Saintless Stars

So this was a story I wrote for my English Class. It's post-apocalyptic and I’m proud of it.

Trigger: Death, Blood, Gun-violence, Stabbing.

Given the chance, Nadya might sleep another four hundred years. Instead, she was awake and hunkered down, Aleksander scouting just mere inches from her. “Is it safe?” How her voice did not sound meek-how it not trembled-Nadya knew not. Perhaps it was the comfort the woods gave her. Saintless Woods was similar to her homeland of the Forbidden North, filled with snow and dark trees. It felt like home, back when things were simple.

Aleksander crouched beside her, his cheeks red along with his nose and the tips of his ears. “Looks clear,” he finally admitted. Nadya nodded then stood, looking both ways as she stepped out of the snowbank they built an hour ago. Aleksander followed her, the snow crunching as they waded through it.

The snow rained down in thick flurries but Nadya pushed on. Both of them were disheartened and cold, frustrated to no ends that Saintless woods produced no game. The bows on their back weighed heavy with disappointment, the quivers whispered little snarky messages in both of their ears. Nadya glanced at Aleksander, testing out a little idea. “How about we split up? Surely one of us will find a deer,”

For a few minutes, Aleksander did not speak, mulling over the pros and cons in his head, the gears slowly turning. In the end, desperation won by working its lever. It was the third day without any game, one more day of their supplies dwindling. Soon the food would run out and then desperation ruled over them all. “We might as well try,”

Without a sound, Nadya left him. It wasn’t long before he didn’t hear the familiar crunch of her footsteps. The loneliness crept back at once but Aleksander ignored it, continuing to walk until he found a good spot, hunkered down, and waited. The hours blended together, his thoughts were few, mostly on how Nadya was doing. Better than I am, he hoped.

Then it happened. Out of nowhere stepped a doe, looking holy in his coffee dark eyes. He took a deep breath and slowly unslung the bow strapped across his back. Slowly, ever so slowly, he drew out an arrow and took aim. Within minutes, the doe slumped, staggering away with an arrow lodged in her lung. Aleksander followed at a distance, waiting for her to collapse. It wasn’t long until he walked away with the doe over his shoulders.

“Thank the saints,” Nadya whispered under her breath as she watched him approach the river, doe over his shoulders. It was a nice size and in Nadya’s eyes, it was a treasured saint’s relic.

“How’s your luck?” He asked, sliding the deer on the snow before crouching next to her.

Nadya was settled by the river bank, a hole cracked in the ice and she was stabbing fish with an arrow. “Pretty good, just want to get a couple more.”

“Get your own,” She slides over, just teasing. Together they fished, stabbing fish every chance they got. In the end, a dozen fish suffocated on the river bank. Nadya beamed proudly, the sight of all the food made her want to cry. Finally, a good haul. They both thought as Aleksander wrapped up the fish and Nadya shouldered the deer before turning back for the bunker.

The good thing about the bunker as it wasn’t some hole with a ladder going down. Instead, it had two steel doors with a security code. Since his hands were free, Aleksander punched in the code and the doors creaked open. As quickly as they could, they shuffled inside to escape the endless cold. The lights flickered on and off as they descended deeper in the bunker, finally hitting the living area after three levels of security measures.

"Hey, guys, how was hunting-" Nikolai's voice bounced off the walls as he tinkered with the crew’s radio. He glanced at them only to look up nearly at once, his hazel eyes widened, “Saints, you got something!”

“We got more than something,” Aleksander lifted the bundle of fish.

“That’s great - Saint Anastasia and Saint Edith, is that a deer?!” Nikolai’s voice grew excited enough that it drew Kaz’s attention. All of them heard Kaz’s cane making it’s thump, thump, thump against the cement floor as he made his way to them.

“I’ll add you to the list,” Nikolai deserting the radio to meet his boyfriend, Kaz, standing in the doorway. The black haired youth narrowed his eyes at the deer and bundle of fish, his knuckles white on the head of his cane.

“You got a deer.” He said, they nodded. “Bring it in the kitchen. Now.”

“What he means is ‘thank the saints and whatever dark god I worship’,” Nikolai translated as they followed Kaz to the kitchen. The kitchen was as modern as possible with a working fridge, freezer, sink, and stove. It was Kaz’s kingdom and he ruled it with an iron fist.

“Put the deer on the table. The fish next to the stove,” he instructed, Nadya was happy to dump the doe on the table and Kaz wasted no time starting to clean it. “Morozova, leave,” Kaz ordered. Aleksander quickly vanished from sight before Kaz snapped at him or threw a punch. “Nikolai, fillet the fish.”

“Only if you kiss me first,” teased the blond. Kaz sighed, wondering why he was dating this flirtatious fool but he needed those fishes to be on the grill in five minutes or less and a quick kiss was a worthy sacrifice to get Nikolai to shut up.

“Nadya, you can go,” Kaz said as he got back to working on the deer. She looked up from where she was, taking out a sheet of ice to be melted for drinking water.

“What?”

“Go. Now.” He snapped and she ran. Sure, it was a big bunker but it was still a bunker. One did not piss off Kaz and live to tell the tale. So Nadya made her way to the Slat. The Slat was what they called the hangout space, most of the crew was there if they weren’t busy or doing something important. It was a comfortable space, nice and warm with plenty of blankets to go around.

Right now, most of the others were busy in the shop or the greenhouse, some were sleeping or making weapons. So the Slat was empty except for Kate, their reader. Her job was running the little library and stealing more books when she found them. She was on the couch, reading a book under two blankets.“Well looky here, it looks like you’ve had a scare! Let me guess, a run with Kaz?”

“Something like that,” Nadya admitted, settling herself next to the reader who grinned and marked her page. “Can we continue that history lesson we started the other day?”

Kate brightened up. Her love of books and history went hand in hand, so when Nadya came to the reader looking to catch up on all the history, Kate was more than enthused. “Of course! Where were we?”

“I think Ivan the Gilded?”

“Ah, yes, I remember!” Almost immediately, Kate launched herself in a long history lesson, Nadya listening eagerly, not even getting sleepy as Kate droned on and on. Time blurred as they worked their way to more recent day. “In the year of Saint Louis IV, the winter came hard. People expected this, the winters were getting harder but Spring never arrived.”

“Why?” Nadya asked, furrowing her brows.

“Religious zealots will tell you humanity pissed off the Saints, big time. Buuuuuut my bet is on global warming. We’re in an ice age!”

Nadya nodded. The second option made sense. “Then what?”

“Well. Society crumbled, bunkers were built, and the determined ones learned how to deal with the snow.” Kate shrugged, “honestly, my mom used to complain all the time that this ‘wasn’t bad as the winters when I was your age…’ but I think she was just messing with me.” She said with a chuckle.

“And that’s it?”

“That’s it.”

Nadya sighed, stealing one of Kate’s blankets. Now she was all caught up on history, she no longer was able to claim the ‘oh I’m a newbie, I don’t know anything’ card. It wasn’t like she used it often but still, it was nice to have in the back of her pocket when Nikolai cornered her to help him fix the heating system or test some new, dangerous invention. “What are you reading?” Kate lifted her book, flashing a black cover with orient gold detail. “King of Scars. Oldie but a goodie.”

“How good?”

“There’s a character named Nikolai in it.”

Her ice blue eyes light up, “Gimme.” She reached for the book.

Kate tugged it, “Nu-uh, you got to read the Grisha series then the Six of Crows!” Nadya stared at her, defeated slightly. “Don’t worry, I have them all.”

Nadya huffed, rolling her eyes. “Fiiiiiine. Better get me the first book, ASAP.” Kate grinned and returned to her novel, Nadya leaned her head back against the wall and shut her eyes. No doubt that in his quarters, Aleksander was passed out. She must have dozed off because the next thing, she opened her eyes to see Nikolai strut into the Slat, do his best butler bow, and say with a flourish, “Dinner is served, my ladies.”

Kate giggled behind her hand, got to her feet, and ran right past Nikolai. Although strict in the kitchen, Kaz’s food was to die for even if it was simple. Nadya sat for a minute before she found the will to stand up. “Shall we walk together?” She asked the blond, giving him her best curtsy.

“Gladly,” Arm in arm, they made their way to the mess. Kaz must have rung the dinner bell because the rest of the crew was making their way to the long, large table. It reminded Nadya of the feast tables of her youth, the food was much simpler, and there were no king-just weary people trudging their way through the snow. Nadya made a mental list of the names but people were always coming and going.

There’s Kaz of course, Aleksander….Kate, Celaena, Race and Spot flirting, Jesper, Nina, and Matthias must be out scouting still. Wylan is threatening Kuwei with bodily harm, what else is new - oh, she’s new. Wait no, that’s Alina, crap. Rowan is sulking but Aelin is cheering him up and so her list went. Filing in names, noting who was there, trying to pick out where she might sit for the night. “You’ll be with me and Kaz tonight, don’t worry.” Nikolai hummed.

“Kaz and I,” she corrected.

He laughed, throwing his head back. “Shut up.” Then he sat her beside Kaz, starting to immediately praise his lover on what a wonderful meal he made! Kaz, although he always looked like little ruthless schemer, seemed pleased. Nadya slides her own praise as everyone settled to eat.

Dinner was lovely with venison cuts and vegetables from the garden. Nadya listened to the endless chattering. Kate and Alina chatted over a new book, Nikolai flirting with Kaz, Rowan and Aelin’s endless bickering. Aleksander was across her, eating his venison slowly. “Tired?” he asked.

“Utterly exhausted,” she confessed.

“Me too,”

She yawned, covering her mouth. “After dinner, I think I’m going to take a long nap.”

He raised his dark brows. “Really?” Since she woke up, Nadya slept very little. ‘I’ve been asleep for four hundred years - I will sleep when I’m dead’ was a common phrase she uttered in the dead of the night but now she was exhausted. She nodded. “Odd, don’t you think?”

“I’m all oddities now,” She confessed, picking at her dinner. Aleksander watched as she swallowed the last bite and slipped out of the room. In the kitchen, she washed off her plate and set it out to dry, being careful not to make more work for whatever poor soul might do the dishes under Kaz’s cold eyes. Then she slipped off to the room she shared with the others, pulled back the room divider and dived right in bed, not bothering to take her boots off.

When she awoke, the alarms were going off. Loud and braying like a mad donkey. She lay in a stupor for a minute, wondering why the shrill noise was attacking her ears and why she saw nothing but red. Then it hit her. Someone or something got through the first set of doors. She sat up quickly and bolted out of the room, glad she was fully dressed. She finds Celaena strapping her belt of bullets on her before loading her rifle. “What’s going on?”

“Security breach,” Celaena answers, focused entirely on loading the rifle quickly despite taking precious seconds ensuring she loaded it correctly. Nadya groaned as she gathered up her own weapons.

“Yeah, no shit, Lena, but by what?” Situations went through her mind, flashes of raiders-men and women were driven mad by the cold, monsters of kind stalking through the steel doors. She forced herself to remain calm as she fastened her holster, followed by her scabbard.

“A sesya.” Celaena said dryly before rushing out of the room, Nadya following the slender blonde as soon as she grabbed her axes. They ran together, punching in security codes as they went. For the most part, the steels doors, reforged by Nikolai and the other tinkers whenever they discovered something to make them stronger, kept the monsters out. Monsters like the man-eating wendigos and ruthless yokai.

These monsters were always in the world, even before the Great Winter arrived but now their numbers were endless - the winter only encouraged their siege against mortals. But sesya were different and it was easy for a sesya to blast through the steel doors and destroy them all. Nikolai was still working on his newest invention, trying to prevent the exact thing happening right now.

The sounds of battles and laughter filled Nadya’s ears quickly. The first workroom was ruined and cold, scattered with the crew fighting back the unholy monster trying to steal their home. Nikolai was swearing under his breath, a curse mingled between every single word, and really it wasn’t nearly as softly as he thought it was - next to him was Kaz. Kaz was silent as always, relentlessly shooting the sesya with deadly aim.

“Nadya!” Her name called from behind a knocked over table, her eyes swerved to find Aleksander tucked behind it, loading his rifle. “Get over!!” His voice pinched with desperation as the laughter boomed in the room. Nadya dived for the safety as a knife flew past her. He pulled her close, both of them pressed tightly against steel. She opened her mouth to thank him when a crack exploded in the area and a scream followed.

“That was my good leg!!!” screamed Kaz, hissing in pain and gripping the head of his cane even tighter as his bad leg was forced to take all of his weight.

“Are you okay?! Oh, saints, Kaz- you’re bleeding, you’re bleeding, fuck- we got to get you to the infirmary-” Nikolai jabbered, the panic set in at the sight of his boyfriend’s bleeding leg.

Kaz gave him a hard shake. “Later, okay?! Focus on the mark, foxy!” He grabbed his gun again, clicked to reload it and unleashed hell on the sesya. It made Kaz feel better but did nothing to the laughing monster.

Nadya tore her eyes away from the bickering couple and focused them on the sesya laughing above them. She wasn’t sure what the sesya found funny-if it was anything or the thing was just mad but it made it hard to miss. It was a sad thing, it looked so human and beautiful with long dark locks whipping around its pale face, covering fierce blue eyes and red lips booming laughter from a powerful throat. With a thrust of its slender hands, the winds screamed some hideous melody. The sesya reminded her of a witch that lived in her village but Nadya didn’t let it distract her.

“What do we do??” She yelled to Aleksander, the dark-haired fellow finished loading his gun. She sighed and prayed to the Saints this monster couldn’t only be killed by a bullet. She was a bad shot but if they could slay the sesya with a bullet-why hadn’t Kaz killed the damn thing yet? He was one of the best shots in the bunker but it was still laughing.

“Aim for its heart! It’s too close to get a stab in, a bullet will have to do!” He yelled back, taking aim before firing. Without her consent, a plan began to form in Nadya’s head. A crazy, dangerous plan but still - a plan, better than just shooting bullets in the area and hoping to the Saints they didn’t ricochet and hit a member of the crew.

“Aleksander,” She whispered, her voice dangerously soft. “Cover me.”

“What?!”

”Cover me!” She yelled before flinging herself away from the table’s safety. She yelled similar messages to Kaz and Nikolai, asking them not to shoot her as she ran straight for the sesya. Maybe this was how she died. Not today, She thought as she avoided bullets, winds, and random objects alike. “Hey! Sesya!” She screamed when she was close enough, drawing a knife, and throwing it. The wind caught it and the sesya turned to stare at her. The eyes were eerily family but Neday pushed on and drew her dagger.

It kept staring at her, not moving as she stalked closer. “You.” It whispered when Nadya was less than five feet away. “You,” it repeated in its tittering voice. It sounded even more like her Zoya. It made her heart stop and stutter but this wasn’t Zoya. Her Zoya was dead and buried. Had to be, after four hundred years.

“Me,” Nadya answered and before the sesya did anything-move its hands or laugh, she thrust the dagger in its heart. “Me,” she whispered as it slumped against her, chilling blue blood spilling all over her.

“You. You. You. It’s always you.” it jabbered while it died, the wind vanishing as it took its last breath. “Nadya, why?” It cried before the world stopped. Her heart chilled at the sound of its familiar voice. Zoya? But how? Then her heart broke as she realized what she had done

The laughter did not return, neither did the wretched wind. All that was left was the bleeding body and the bitter cold. The world stopped then started again. The first to snap out of it was Nikolai - he wasted no time in snapping out orders and carrying his gremlin of a boyfriend to the infirmary.

The chaos came back but it was different chaos. People were setting things right, carrying weapons back to the armory, and heading to the infirmary for some healing. Everything was moving, buzzing, some of Nikolai’s fellow tinkers were assessing the hole in the door.

No one noticed Nadya stepping out of the bunker with the body in her arms. No one saw her dig an unmarked grave and pray over the sesya. No one never needed to see the little funeral anyway - no need for her tears to be witnessed then to be pointed at for an explanation. Nadya slipped back in the bunker and made herself useful.

Meanwhile deep in the infirmary, Nikolai was helping Sasha deal with the bullet lodged in Kaz’s good leg. Really, he should be upstairs fixing the door but he couldn’t just leave Kaz to deal with Sasha alone. “It would be out of your leg already if you stopped moving!” The little devil of a healer yelled at Kaz.

Kaz grunted, his face blanched from the bloodlust. “Just make sure I don’t end up with two bad legs, Sasha.” He was gripping the side of the bed hard enough Nikolai worried it might break. If Kaz was holding his hand, he’d snap it in two. He needed his hand.

“Stop moving then!” She hissed at him, grabbing the tweezers. Nikolai offered his hand to Kaz anyway, despite the fact he might break it. He took it, Kaz’s grip was like iron but it loosened meer minutes when the bullet tinked against the kidney dish. Sasha moved on to cleaning the wound, stitching it shut, and bandaging it. Nikolai’s fingers remained intact and Sasha moved on the next wounded idiot.

“I can’t believe you got shot in your good leg,” Nikolai remarked, rubbing his hand.

Kaz groaned, resting a hand over his eyes. “Don’t remind me.” He said bitterly, behind his hand he glared at the white bandage.

“It’ll heal right, this one,” Nikolai said, a bright smile on his lips- Kaz saw right through it.

“Stop wasting your time on me and go fix that damn door.” He told him flatly.

The smile vanished. “What? Tired of my gorgeous face?”

“No, you just will pace around, looking strained and wringing your hands. Might as well send you off now,” Kaz watched his boyfriend. He didn’t deny it. The security breach continued to bother Nikolai’s inventor mind, wondering what he could have done to prevent it. If he stayed cooped up with Kaz, he might drive himself mad.

“And you’re fine with this?”

“Just go.” Sure, he tugged Nikolai in a kiss first but he let him go. Let him figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. Kaz sighed and laid back down, staring at the ceiling. He shut his eyes and waited for his REM cycle to kick his ass.

Many floors above Kaz and the infirmary, Aleksander found Nadya passed out on the lone couch in one of the workrooms. Someone was kind enough to put a blanket over her, the room was terribly cold. He shook his head, four hundred years later and she can still sleep anywhere. She was too thin for someone of her height, far too thin, Aleksander tutted as he carried her back to her little section of the woman’s chambers.

He knew where she kept her favorite pajamas-another thing unchanged-and it wasn’t the first time he got her in bed without seeing anything. He set her weapons against the wall as he folded her clothes away. He was about to leave when she said it.

“Sasha.” He turned to look at her. Her blue eyes were wide and full of tears. “Sasha,” she repeated as if the first time didn’t get his attention.

“Yes, Nadya?”

“I killed her, Sasha,” she whispered, horrified.

He blinked at her slowly. “Who?”

“Zoya.” He shook his head, opened his mouth to tell her Zoya was long dead. She didn’t need to worry over killing her wife now. “I killed her, Sasha, I killed her!” Her voice grew louder as he shushed her. “My Zoya, Sasha, I killed my Zoya, how could I do such a thing??”

“You didn’t kill her, she did not die by your hand, Nadya,” He reassured her, pushing her down as she tried to get up - wiping away the tears streaming down her cheeks. Slowly, she calmed down to the point where Aleksander knew she was drifting off to sleep again. “Sleep well, Nadya, and not too long,” he teased.

She stared at him with her icy eyes. “Zoya,” she said one last time before shutting her eyes and falling in a deep sleep. Aleksander shut the sheet and left the living quarters, dipping his head at everyone he passed. He was no mood for a conversation. He passed Nikolai at the door, who perked up and opened his mouth to say something but Aleksander kept moving, vanishing through the hole in the door.

He did not know where he was going but he knew it when he stopped at long last. A little grave, far too insignificant for all the damage the women inside had done. He stared at the grave, his eyes dark with hatred for the person deep inside the grave. Why? You may ask, sit down and listen then.

Once upon a time, there were three girls. They were witches although one seemed to be powerless she was not all that she seemed. Two of these witches lived happily, marrying each other when they were of age and lived together in wonderful matrimony. However, this left the third witch all alone, alone to brew in hatred and spite. To make herself feel better, she put a curse on the two lovers. The powerless one fell in an undead sleep, unable to wake but unable to die while the other vanished, looking for some way to wake her wife up and lost herself. Only the third witch found this was not enough (it never is), so she made a deal with a Frost Jotun.

“Bring an eternal winter,” she asked.

It regarded her with interest as we would a mouse. “Bring me a Roseblood thorn and I will consider it.” The witch brought back the thorn and it took it with great intent. “I will do as you ask but your fellow villagers are coming to kill you. Worry not, how many times they stab you will be how many years I will wait to start this winter of ours,” Then it vanished, thorn in claw.

“Wait!” The witch screamed as the mob descended on her, killing her with four stabs to the chest. Her spirit relished in the thought that in only four years, an eternal winter would hit but Jotun years were long and after four hundred years, it at long last arrived. Now, four hundred years later, Circe’s grave remained untouched.

“Are you happy now?” The stone said nothing, as stone’s often did.

“Zoya is dead and Nadya killed her. I hope you’re happy.”

Still, the stone did not reply. He glared at it even harder.

“I know what you did, Circe,” He took a deep breath “but we will continue to survive. I hope you’re happy.” Then he turned and stalked his way back to the bunker.

THE END

#yup #me #most of these characters have other fictional characters names #mhm I know #its refrences #gay #all these characters are gay #witches #magic #post apocalyptic #for an grade #hope its good #yes I pulled a bury your queer ticket #but theres still one couple!

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crime-bot · 4 years

Note

You said to ask abourt Subcon Desert?

Yes I did, and sorry I took a while but I have an entire doc about it so you can read up in your free time-

The summary:

Subcon Desert is basically just Subcon Forest. But it’s a desert now.

From a glance, that’s it. BUT!

There’s lot of chances to the characters, history, and what’s presently happening. I’ll start with the most important characters–

Standard stuff.

I should also mention that he controls water instead of fire, though, and is,,, /much/ more prone to violence-

There's also scorpions instead of spiders, and many of the dwellers wear animal skulls and other things in place of masks. I'm not sure sure what to do with the fire spirits :/

iiiiiis what I WOULD say if it wasn't for the help of tumblr user catcrazies-midnight! They proposed the idea of the fire spirits instead being molten glass spirits, and I RAN with it!

Hat Kid gets sent to deal with them. Oop-

At the very end of the main branch of the river lies the destroyed castle, and there's a part of the river that branches off to a place where the entrance of the labrynth's ruins are.

Oh! And here's what Sunjumper's home and surrounding oasis looks like!

... oh, wait, you're wondering about how Sunjumper looks the way he does, too aren't you--

W E L L,

YYYYYYESSSSS, AN OC >:DDD

... look I said that they'd be contained, not that they'd not be absolutely bonkers in more ways than one.

After escaping the labrynth and trying to get far, /far/ away from the kingdom, Sunjumper was convinced by Æfrelewk to hop into their pocket dimension, named the Mesozone by Æfrelewk, and be made into something "MUCH more practical. I mean, come on, LEGS?! Puh-LEASE, only people trying to be trendy think they need THOSE." And badda bing badda boom Sunjunper regretted his decision wholeheartedly.

I'm not sure about the specifics, but I'm pretty sure that /maybe/ The Hunter fished him out.

And! Now that some time has passed and some RPs have called for further description, here's a map of Subcon Desert and a diagram-thing of The Mesozone!

(This… needs to he redone…)

#Subcon Desert au #ahit #a hat in time #long post

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praphit · 5 years

Text

The X-People: DP Degrees of BS

Frickin Phoenix!

(What does that even mean? “Every hero has a DARK side?” She kills people! Are all of our heroes murderers? - but I’ll get to that later.)

I'm mad! That's right, people! I'm mad at MYSELF! Why? Well, I could have taken the kids to go see "The Secret Life of Pets 2", so we could laugh our asses off (Idk what kids I'm talkin about - just randomly picking kids up off the streets and taking them to see movies... prob best I didn't do that).

I could have seen something cultured like "Late Night" or "THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANSISCO"; which I admit is a stupid title, but it seems like it's a good movie. But, no, people! My comic book geekiness would not allow it!

Instead I went to see this bullshit right here - “X-Men: Dark Phoenix”.

Don't look at me that way, Sansa! You know dag gon well this movie is some ol' bullshit!

You know! The rest of your acting squad knows, the director knows, the writers know - I knew from the first trailer! I knew from the first time they announced that they were taking another crack at a cinematic Phoenix story. Why?? Cuz we've done this before! Yep!

There it is! - and it was terrible!

What’s going on with that poster? Apparently, they didn’t have any confidence in that movie either. Why is Wolverine running at me like Sonic the Hedgehog?

I tried to find a better poster, but...

Here they look like they’re posing in some 80′s rock video. TAKE THAT STAND:)

I was mad back then with the first trailer, because I knew that this moment would come. And I actually really liked the first two movies of these particular X-Men. It was Apocalypse that ruined everything.

People thought that movie was so bad, that it erased all the good that this franchised has done (even going back to the older X-Men):

The ground-breaking 1st movie (tho it prob doesn't hold up),

(Creepy old Magneto is coming for dat ass!)

Wolverine

(it's hard to imagine anyone playing him better than Hugh Jackman. And he should have won an award for how cut he got... and he was so modest. If I ever end up looking like that, WHEW! - ladies look out:),

I loved Patrick Stewart as Prof. X, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender's intense hot & frigid bromance (though we never got our make-out seen:), Quicksilver (man, I wish we could get more of him), "Logan" (excellent comic book movie), and I'm not sure if we'd have Deadpool without them ruining that first Wolverine movie. Not to mention that they marketed the hell out of this movie franchise and made so much money! But, then this guy showed up and effed it all to hell!

("Everything they built will FALL... ")

- you ain't lyin, jack!

And while that movie was terrible, it wasn't as bad as everyone said. Bullshit sure, but... there are different degrees of bullshit. Apocalypse was forgettable BS, sometimes there's BS that makes us laugh, or think, or cry - what type of bullshit will Dark Phoenix be? - Let's take a look:

This movie kicks off with the X-Men in space. Yep! SPACE! Since when are the X-Men astronauts? Which movie did they get training for any of that? How did they build an X-Jet for space travel? Did they learn it on YouTube? And even if that were the case, how's the government allowing this? If a group of talented minorities built a functional space craft, do you think President Trump would allow them to come and go as they please? Shiiiiiii In the movie they don't even test it first. Xavier just says that they'll be fine, and sends the kids off.

I think that there needs to be an investigation. Prof. X is trying to kill these kids. He keeps sending them on missions that they shouldn't come back from:

X-Men: "But, professor, we don't know how to disarm a bomb!"

Xavier: "You'll be fine."

X-Men: "But, professor, the X Jet isn't built for deep sea exploration, we don't even know where we're going!"

Xavier: "Y'all will figure it out."

Then, as they come back, he's counting to see if they all made it - "Ten kids left, and coming back, I count... ten DAMMIT! But, wait, one is injured... doesn't look like he'll pull through. YES! (as he drinks some bourbon - which he does at an alarming rate in this movie... prob to block out all the kids he has killed).

While we're on the topic of him - did the movie "Split" ruin James McAvoy's take on Prof X for anybody else? This is all I kept seeing when he was on camera.

But, as you know, cuz they did this exact plot in "X-Men: Last Stand" Jean Grey gets possessed by some space entity while they're up there, and becomes Phoenix.

Jean (played by Sophie Turner, who actually does a good job) is found to have done something horrible. Xavier (and this is no spoiler, cuz again X-Men: Last Stand") blocks out the bad stuff she has done to try to protect her, this eventually wears off, and now we get DARK

...wait, sorry.

Now we get DARK PHOENIX!

There we go!

(”Where’s my money?!”)

Now, Jessica Chastain is in this as well seen here, experimenting with bleach,

who's leading a group of aliens to manipulate Jean (I'll get to them later). But, if JC is in the house, you can be sure that a women's rights message will be in there somewhere (#drinkinggame) And BOOM, there it was - "Don't let some MAN in a chair tell you what you are? - what you can and can not be! Don't let him controoool you!"

I'm all for girl power, buuuuuut she HAS been on a bit of a carnage streak, and she has been killing people, annnnnnd isn't Jessica Chastain also trying to control her? But, imma let all that go... what do I know?? :)

I gotta be honest, I was digging the first half of this movie. They were capturing everything I love about the X-Men: social issues, political issues, teen struggles. They have lots of real drama going on amongst themselves. There are times when you'll cheer the X-Men on and times when you'll agree with some of the humans that THEY GOTZ TO GO! I love the flaws of the X-Men; it makes them relatable. I even love the struggle with having so much power, and yet having to try to walk a line of morality - which they suck at btw.

The professor sucks at it the most, which made me kinda sad, actually. BUT, to be fair, he has the power to control people's minds... would any of us with that power be able to consistently resist certain temptations?? Def not giving him a pass though. He does a lot of messed up stuff (some things they draw attention to, and others that they don't). Some things that made me cringe, even though MOST of what he was doing was out of love. I can't depend on none of my fave leaders anymore - not even the fictional ones.

We were getting into some deep stuff! BUT, then it was as if some big shot walked on the set and reminded them that they have a "Blow shit up" quota to meet, and that the plot points were slowing them down. Soooooooo, they burn the script and start blowing things up. Some people might say "Praphit, this is a comic book movie, how much script can you expect?" If this were 20 years ago, I'd agree.

Plus, it's more the fact that nothing makes any sense at this point.

Magneto (who's always the voice of reality in these movies, in my opinion) wants to kill Jean (for very good reasons), but he knows that he can't take Phoenix by himself, so why is he trying? He's a smart dude; why not come up with a better plan? Prof X wants to talk to Jean, to reason with her... the problem with that is that they just tried that a few days ago, and that couldn't have gone any more terribly than it did. The aliens in this movie (which lack all personality btw), who's objective is to control Jean, also know that they can't really do that or take her out (which was plan B), so... what the hell are we doing? The aliens are supposed to be the smart ones!

Prof X should have just controlled everyone's minds, and played a big game of immoral chess to take Jean out - that would have been a cool movie. But, this (though the effects are VERY COOL:) simply became a shoot-out! Not to mention, that right before all of this awesome, but confusing damage takes place, they have a big speech about restraint and not doing harm. Literally, a minute later, the X-Men are blowing buses up!

But, all of that is not even what makes this movie bullshit (grade: D+ btw). What makes this movie bullshit is the fact that it's the last one before Disney takes over.

You'd think that they would have given it their best, so that they can go out making us miss them! But, it felt like half way through the movie the team was told that this is all over, and that Mickey Mouse is coming to collect, but instead of going out with their best, they said to themselves "bleep it" and mailed-it-in.

The way that the final battle scene ends doesn't make any sense. It's one of those scenarios where "If you could do that... why didn't you do that earlier and save more destruction?" and a lil bit of "Well, if you had THAT much power, then none of these other altercations should have even been close."

The way it ends after that too! Man! It's like they just fast forwarded through the parts they didn't feel like acting out. This is the last one, people! Just lazy!

Yeah you!

I've got a spoiler, sooooo if you don't want it, skip through the text after Patrick Stewart - and start reading again when you see his handsome face again:)

(this is back when I learned to love this man)

So, Jean is... gone (possibly dead), and the X-Men name the school after her "Institute of Jean Grey" or something like that. Also, Prof X steps down (maybe due to guilt of his misatkes with Jean, who knows for sure, cuz they didn't act it out), and leaves Beast in charge in with the other teen X-Men to instruct the 'young kids at the school. "Other TEEN X-Men" Did they just make these kids professors? And what qualifies Beast (at this stage in his life) to run the school? Plus, Jean Grey was kind of a murderer wasn't she (and this wasn't a secret from the rest of the world)? Come on,kids, let me sign you up for "Ted Bundy's School for gifted youngsters" Would you be onboard for that? Hell no!

(Here’s PS fresh off a bender. “I promise, Timmy, I’ll try to think about never touching the sauce again, but this hair says that I will.”)

So... I'd say, entertaining bullshit. The effects (especially) at the end are great! But, the rest... and to go out like this... ugh.

There's a cool quote in here from Mystique (played by J.Law) who clearly didn't want to be there. It was a quote about how the women in the X-Men seem to be sticking their necks out and saving the day way more than the men, and that maybe Xavier should change their name to “The X-Women”. I thought that was not only funny, but a damned good point. I say do it!

I'd love it if you had a a big strong manly man of the team go ahead of the action and stand up to the enemy, and when asked "Who are you?" he replies

"We're the X-Women."

#x-men: dark phoenix #x-men #john praphit #praphitproductions.com #wolverine #jennifer lawrence #sophie turner #praphit #Movie Reviews #Marvel Comics #disney #Fox #Patrick Stewart

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