#just aimlessly follow each other in circles and there's no room to actually choose a direction from there | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

felswritingfire · 3 years

Text

(Hades) Gods x Shade! Reader

No matter how much you try, mortality will always catch up to those who are not of gods. Even the most blinded of them learn this eventually. You take your death with grace, choosing to go and explore this new world as soon as Lord Hades permits you to go, impressed by how little you complain and demand. You are one of the brighter parts of his day (night?).

You drift along, catching certain snippets of other Shade’s conversations as you wander aimlessly. You notice a crack in the wall; deciding to muster up your courage, you slip through it to find yourself in the glowing green torches of Tartarus. With what little you have, you hold it close to your translucent body and push forward.

You’re quick to notice the large glowing ball with an oddly familiar symbol floating in the middle of it. You take your time circling it, feeling compelled to touch it. When you do, a beam of light comes slicing through the dreary air to reveal a mighty god who stares down at you at your shocked form...

Zues

Cause of Death: Lightning Strike

Zues is confused when he sees you. He’s even more confused when you start screaming at him, waving your hands about and threatening to fight him yourself.

“You fucker! You killed me!”

He raises a brow. “I think I’d remember if I killed you.” You flipped up your middle finger at him and his eyebrows drew into an angry v. “How rude! I am the God of Gods-”

“I don’t care!”

Zagreus had to high tail it to you before Zues tried to smite you (possibly a second time).

Suffice to say you hoped you’d never bump into that boon again. And you didn’t. No, the God of Gods and Lightning himself decided that he’d have to make a house call himself (Hades was not pleased when a bolt of lightning came crashing down and left a scorched black ring in the carpet).

He picks you out quickly and you try to zoom out of the lobby until he catches you by the back of your robe and then you’re swinging and yelling profanities at him. He’s kinda amused now instead of angry- you’re just so weak and tiny compared to him. It’s hysterical- ow! Did you just bite him?

After you and Zues finish your little “spitting match”- Hades kicks Zeus out and you're forced to hang out in Tartarus for a bit (“but I’m just a simple fisherfolk! I can’t fight anything!” You cry, Hades does not spare you a look as you're dragged out by Meg).

You think maybe that’s the end until you’re approached by a… a squirrel? You almost punt it when his voice spills out as he shoots into a long prattle about how much of a jerk Hades was and how he couldn’t handle someone as grandiose as him appearing before him. Threatened him as a god or something- you were busy trying to figure out how you were going to kill this guy and make sure he stayed dead.

Turns out, after the two of you chattered (argued) a bit about whether or not he actually killed you, Zeus had some neat stories about the gods.

While you were interested in his children’s and brothers’ and sisters’ stories, he was interested in your stories of the mundane. A simple fisherfolk? That was a word? You just fished and traded? Amazing! Tell him more!

After this particular interaction between the two of you, Zeus really ended liking you. Maybe a little too much, but, aw well, it wasn’t everyday a mortal soul had the balls to argue with him for something he doesn’t remember doing (he probably did. Probably. Most likely). He swore that he’d come and see you everyday as he sat on your shoulder as a squirrel, going on and on about how you should feel blessed to be praised by one such as he. You were about to throw him until a giant hand came out and grabbed him (seemed you drifted too close to Lord Hades’ desk), the hulking god flinging him out of a portal.

He continues to pop up and bother you and, to be honest, he’s kinda growing on you. Also, I’m gonna be frank and lay it out that, if he likes you enough, he’s probs gonna want to smash, especially if you lean more towards the feminine side (he’s fucking AWFUL). It’s up to you if you wanna indulge that or not, I don’t recommend it, but you can if you really want to.

We’re going with the option you don’t smash- he’ll be salty at you for a whole ass day before he comes back the one after that as a rat (Hades kept finding out his forms that he used to sneak in so it was an ever constant menagerie of appearances to keep up the disguise) and is like: “I thought you would miss me too much so I came back before you could even complain.”

Zag likes to watch the two of you interact because he finds it absolutely fascinating. It’s like watching… He doesn’t know what it’s like but he’s having a blast as you roast his uncle to bits. It really helps him out when he’s feeling a bit down after failing getting out one too many times.

When you first get Zeus an Ambrosia, he thinks it’s poison and then he gets all prideful because of course you would give him an offering, he was the strongest of all the gods! Him and him alone!

“Silly, mortal, you cannot poison me! I am a god.”

You squint your eyes at him before you huff and pull the bottle closer to you. “Fine, whatever, I’ll just give it to Zagreus- or better yet, Hades if you don’t want it.”

“No! No! I want it! Give it to me! It’s mine!”

During this time, he’s actually experiencing some purer emotions in life- he’s genuinely giddy that you got him the Ambrosia and asks how you got it. You hold up a makeshift fishing rod and grin at him, telling him you snatched it from some nasty shades before you wandered back down to Tartarus.

His gift to you is a little lightning pin that, when you're in danger, will send a nasty bolt of lightning down on your enemies. You wonder what good it’ll do since you’re dead already, but shrug and accept it, thinking that he looks years younger and friendler when his smile isn’t packed full of ego and pride.

Poseidon

Cause of Death: Drowning

Poseidon, Lord of the Oceans, Earthquakes, and many other things, is simply- how do you say? Amused? It’s the best way to describe it at least. Of course he was mostly surprised when he appeared expecting the Little Hades to be waiting for him just to meet a Little Shade in his place.

“Why, hello there, Little Shade! You wouldn’t happen to know where the Little Hades is, would you?”

You shake your head, he doesn’t miss the way you nervously play with your hands, drifting back as some of his droplets float close to you.

He laughs at your simple reply. “Shy one aren’t you?” He leans closer to you, squinting and running a hand through his beard while he hummed.

You fight the urge to take a step back, the smell of salt water making your stomach churn.

His eyes flutter shut as he takes a deep breath. He takes a moment before he opens his eyes again and a look of understanding flashes across his eyes. “You drowned. Didn’t you?”

You stare up at him, eyes round and glassy. You nod.

Before your conversation can go any further, Zagreus comes running through the window, surprised to see his Uncle talking to a Shade (you look so scared- he hopes that you aren’t being bullied). You’re quick to take your leave bowing to both and passing the boon to the Prince before you scurry away into the cover of the other Shades.

He hums to himself, a cryptid smile on his face as his eyes follow after you. Such a strange little thing you were- he wouldn’t mind seeing you again.

It takes a bit, but he does happen to see you again, by peaking through a fountain in a fountain room in the Underworld. He spies you trying to poke at the water that he happened to choose, but jumping back each time. You face scrunched up into one of pure frustration. He asks if you’re doing alright there, Little Shade? Causing you to flash out of existence for a moment before settling back down and looking into the pool with wide eyes. Posiedon almost busts a gut with how hard he’s laughing and you huff telling him that it wasn’t funny.

He says otherwise, but asks what you’re doing. When your face bursts into a large blush you mumble something that he doesn’t quite catch and he’s left with more questions than answers as you take the chance to phase out of the chamber when Zag walks in and steals his Uncle’s attention for a split second. He furrows his brow before asking his nephew about you, which Zag, surprisingly, supplies rather quickly, seeing as the two of you talk a lot: apparently you’re deathly afraid of water after you were thrown into the ocean by your supposed best friend. The memories of the waves crushing you deeper and deeper beneath them sticking with you even in death. So, you were trying to curb that phobia. Posiedon nods, letting the words sink in before he offers the Little Hades a thumbs up and says he’ll help with that.

The next time you see the god, he’s eager to call you over and explain that he’s figured out what you were doing last time and offers to let you mess with some of the drops of water that follow him wherever he goes. You stare at them, eyebrows furrowed and looking just as sick as a shade could look. Yet, you still nod your head and hold out a shaky hand. He smiles at you, praising you for your courage and flicks one towards you; it floats gently before it rests serenely on your palm, allowing you to feel the cool sensation of the droplet. You marvel at it, still shaking with an anxiety before you nod. He pulls it away, it shoots back to rest next to his head and you thank him for going out of his way to help you and ease your fears.

He remarks that you should fear the water out of respect: it’s unpredictable, terrifying in it’s own right- vast and, seemingly, never ending, what could possibly be more terrifying than the unknown, hm? He continues to say that you should also hold onto a bit of bravery at the very least, for untold treasures come from there for those who look.

After that conversation, Poseidon makes it a habit of having you hold onto his droplets of water, making them slightly bigger each time for you to get used to them.

By the time you’re able to touch them freely without experiencing crippling fear- the droplets are almost the size of you. Poseidon praises you the more you grow out of your fear.

You do eventually open up to him about how you died and he never tells you that he already knew. Just allows you to talk in a soft voice as you recall it. It’s a nice bonding experience for the both of you and Posideon decides that you’re his favorite Shade and he’ll treasure you for as long as you exist.

The first time you get him a bottle of Ambrosia, you come to him shivering and sopping wet. He’s confused and concerned as he hovers to you.

“What happened to you, Little Shade? Are you alright?”

It takes you a moment to be able to speak. “I- I found a bottle of Ambrosia. I thought-” you take a deep breath, holding out the bottle with both hands- “I thought you’d like it.”

It’s one of his prized possessions now, he takes little sips of it once in a while, but other than that it remains as one of his most precious memories. He’s very attached to you at this point and you’ll forever have his blessing. His gift to you, aside from the undying loyalty, is a shell necklace, if you ever need him- you only need to whisper his name to it and he’ll appear in an instant.

Athena

Cause of Death: Exhaustion

Athena had been prepared to meet with Zagreus- not a curious shade staring back up at her with all the relevance of one of her worshippers.

“What business do you have with me?”

She raises her brow at your gobsmacked expression, watching as you screw your face up before bowing. “Apologies, m’lady, I only happened to bump into your…” you look at where it glows, furrowing your eyebrow, “your orb?”

“Boon.”

You nod your head in understanding before bowing your head again. “Again, my sincerest apologies.”

Luckily, she didn’t smite you, instead asking the question of how you were even talking to her. Getting a shrug from you, you say that maybe it’s because you worshipped her (unofficially, you were never able to make it up to her shrine much to your disappointment) when you were alive- maybe a deeper bond is there compared to someone who had never prayed to her for her protection and guidance.

When she hears this, she’s very interested, pressing you to elaborate further when the Young Prince comes jogging out of the glowing window, waving to you. You slink away, passing the boon to him and bowing to her once again before you disappear into the mass of Shades that choose to wander their new home as well.

After the conversation, you had caught the Goddess’ attention, planting a desire in her to see you again. Even going as far as to write a letter to ask her uncle for a council with you after a week passed of her placing her boon in Tartarus so that maybe you would drift too close to it once again. But each time only the little prince would find them (which she was fine with, but it still left such an unflattering taste of defeat on her tongue each time it wasn’t you). She figured it would be a moot point to send the letter, but it was worth a try.

But she decided to place her boon down once more before she sent it out. Just to try. And this time it worked.

You were the one she saw and she was absolutely delighted- not that she showed it, choosing to keep her stoic and sharp expression. You greet her in a similar way before: awed before bowing your head to her. You continue to go on about how you're happy to see her again and, despite how little you had been buried with, you hoped that she would take this- a broken sword, despite the worn hilt and the deep scars the littered what was left of the flat of the balde; it was still polished (at least what was left of it)- as a proper offering to her for all she had done in your life- even if it truly wasn’t all her doings.

She takes the sword in her hand, holding it high, her eyes shining as she studies it: truly, it was a warrior’s blade. She watches as the history and memories flash in the smooth iron. She remarks that it is a remarkable offering, but she cannot accept it. It feels wrong taking a weapon of a warrior such as yourself.

You smile as her, shaking your head, urging her to take it, for you didn’t need that blade in this afterlife. You had already fought your battles, killing the man who you had been battling with and quelling the rage that had followed you since you were a child for revenge. Eventually, dying from the strain of the fight with a feeling of contentedness.

Athena raises her brow, remarking how that sounded more along the lines of Ares rather than her.

You nod, but say that you couldn’t help but desire her help for she was the goddess attached to your favorite animal. She had to fight the urge to laugh, a shaky smile slipping through as she nods at you. Such a silly thing you are. She decides that she’ll take the sword as a reminder of you, no matter where you should go now. She also decides that you were forming a rather soft cradle in her heart.

After this, she is quick to ask Zagreus about you every chance she gets- not that he minds too much, he tells her about how you’ve been helping him train and you’ve even told him about your life when you were alive (“a general, can you believe that? They’re so young!” Zagreus says as he shows her the new move you taught him). She’s only the slightest bit miffed at hearing that you and Achilles have begun to form a sweet friendship. She’s pleased to hear that his father has been trying to barter with you to get you into Elysium, though she’s a tad confused on the reason you refuse to.

She asks you about it one day and you say that it would take longer to see her and you would prefer to avoid that. It was the only time the goddess has ever had to fight down a blush.

When you get her a bottle of Ambrosia, she’s in pure awe at the huge bottle.

“How did you get one this big?”

You lean against the new sword you managed to get your hands on- something simple and obviously used- you offer her a lopsided grin. “Well, not just any Ambrosia would work, so I decided to try my luck with Lord Theseus and, The Great Bull, Asterius. Took me a couple of tries but I managed to beat them and snag it.”

Athena smiles warmly at it, telling you that she’ll treasure it and think of you every time she takes a drink of it. She realizes in that moment just how important you had become to her, never feeling this… soft for a mortal soul in her life. Her gift to you is a shield and a new sword: the shield bares her symbol of an owl while the sword was ornate with a divine glow. She promises that no matter what they’ll protect you and so will she, you only need to call out her name.

Aphrodite

Cause of Death: A Broken Heart

When the Goddess of Love first sees you- she thinks you’re absolutely gorgeous (of course not as gorgeous as her). The sad look in your eye and the slight frown that rests on your lips makes her almost fall in love right then and there.

“Hello, little one- do you know where the little godling is?”

You shake your head. “I’m sorry, Lady Aphrodite. I know not where he is.”

She raises her brows, a smile on her face. “How did you know I was Aphrodite, my dear?”

You look up at her, a sudden glint in your eyes has her yearning to see it once again. “No one else could be so breathtaking, my Lady.”

Oh. Oh, she likes you.

She chooses to chatter away with you- despite you mostly listening, adding little things here and there, she feels a strange sense of fullness, like she just ate a full and warm meal for the first time in a very long time, by the time Zagreus arrives. You bid your farewell and she can’t help but follow you with her gaze as your transparent form blends in with the other Shades.

Aphrodite is thrilled the next time she runs into you- or rather you run into her boon. She missed the melancholy look in your eyes, she also doesn’t miss the fact that you’ve come bearing gifts this time: an assortment of colorful flowers rests in your arms and you offer it to her. That glint coming and going like a shooting star as she accepts the offering, holding it up to her nose to take in their sweet scent. How sweet were you to hand her something so delicate.

She asks you where you got them and you remark that you made your way up to Elysium. She’s surprised to hear as such- you didn’t seem like the warrior type. You shake your head, your eyes sweeping low. You weren’t a warrior, far from it- a simple florist if anything. You just drifted until you made it up there and plucked some flowers to make bouquets. You mumble that maybe you’ll be more useful in death.

She tilts her head at the comment, beginning to ask until Zagreus is jogging up to the both of you and it was time for you to leave. She’s a tad annoyed, but reminds herself that the little godling didn’t know- simply trying to break out of this dreary place he calls home and see Olympus in all its glory. She’ll just ask next time.

You gave her another bouquet, this one more beautiful than the last, when she gets the chance to ask you her question. Your eyes pool with a mournful look as you gaze up at her, your hand resting over the place where your heart used to beat as you look to the ground. You explain that you were young when you were wed- just as you were young when you died. You were married off to someone you did not love- someone awful, vile, who beat you down daily just to build you back up so they could laugh when they toppled you over once again. You remark about how you could feel yourself dying little by little, your delicate heart bleeding as your want for life began to dwindle away. You grew sick and you would sit by the window day in and day out, staring out and wondering what your life could have been if you were married to someone you loved. A ghost of a smile blooms on your lips as you look up at her, that glint she oh-so loved twinkling in your eye as you say that you did not die in as much loneliness and pain as you could have; having been making a bouquet dedicated just to her love and sweetness: your Lady Aphrodite who you love, ever so much.

She’s shocked when she realizes the tears that drip down her cheeks, her hand coming to caress your cheek (really your head, she was hulking compared to your small form) with her fingertips. She comments that she would accept every bouquet you made and treasure each flower like it was the one you made for her with your last breaths in the living world.

After that interaction, she comes down a lot more, asking Zagreus if he could bring along her darling florist so that she could talk to you. He always obliges, loving to see the two of you chatter about (well, her chatter about, you usually just listened with a smile on your face as you used the flowers you had plucked into flower crowns for him and Lady Aphrodite). You two become a sort of comfort for him when he’s getting frustrated: seeing your usually melancholy demeanor light up as soon as the goddess appears and in turn the goddess becomes something less vain and more gentle as she speaks to you.

At some point, you’ll probably meet Ares himself- the two never that far from each other, also she adores you, so it only makes sense for you to meet him. He’s honestly a tad unimpressed when you first meet, but when he hears about the heart ache you faced he gains a sense of respect for you, remarking that love is a battle in and of itself and you fought valiantly to keep your ability to love freely (Aphrodite might convince you to have a threesome, I’m not gonna lie, she’s attracted to you on a deep level and she has her trysts with Ares- it’s perfect in her eyes. Though she won’t push you if you don’t desire it).

When you first get her Ambrosia, she’s flabbergasted before it turns into worry for how you got it and the potential danger you were in.

She takes the bottle of gold liquid and the flowers that you had so carefully arranged. Her attention, though, is focused on the said bottle of Ambrosia. “My Darling Florist, how did you get this?” Before you can answer she shoots into a flurry of questions. “Are you alright? Did anything catch you? Hurt you? You don’t seem hurt. Oooh-” she puffs her cheeks out, her gaze sharp- “why did you get me this? It’s dangerous!”

You wait for her to calm down. “I apologize for making you worry, but I simply snuck around and grabbed it from some witches- they didn’t even notice me. And I-” you tap your fingers together, a blush blooming across your face as you look away from the goddess and she decides that she craves seeing that expression on you again- “I thought that you deserved it. It’s a much better offering than my silly bouquets.”

Well, aside from the ‘silly bouquets’ comment (which she corrects you on very quickly), she’s absolutely flattered and it might be the final nail in the coffin that has her falling for you, the little shade in front of her. She decides that you hold a piece of her heart in your translucent hands, though she chooses to keep that information to herself.

Her gift to you is a hairpin that matches hers, though if you don’t have enough hair- she says, you can always pin it to your robe. It’s a blatant claim on her part, but it also helps ease the residual heartache that followed you into death. And, hopefully (a personal hope of her), each time you look at it, you’d fall deeper and deeper in love with her as well.

Artemis

Cause of Death: Arrow to the Heart

She’s confused when she sees you, quick to voice her confusion as well. Also depending on if you're more feminine or masculine (and I don’t mean woman or man, I just mean how you present yourself), she will treat you differently depending. So, for now, we’re gonna go with the more “feminine” option:

“Who’re you?”

You bow. “An honor to meet you, Lady Artemis, I seem to have bumped into that orb on accident. Wasn’t sure what it did and the curiosity got the better of me.”

She hums, she perks when she notices your bow. “You’re a hunter?”

You smile, holding it out to her. “Yes, indeed, my Lady- I prayed to you a lot.” You laughed, adding. “Hoped to join your hunters when I was young.”

She’s quite happy to hear that and begins to chatter along with you. For some reason feeling oddly at ease around you. It’s probably because you were a fellow hunter but she simply can’t help the way she grows an odd sort of… adoration? Something like that, she thinks- for you. She almost laments the fact when Zagreus comes to get the boon.

You nod to him, biding your farewell to the Goddess and passing the boon to the Prince. She doesn’t miss how Zagreus’ eyes shine as you walk away. She almost comments on it but bites her tongue, wanting to observe the prince and the dreamy look that drifts over his features, even as you disappear.

The next time the two of you meet, she asks if she can see you in action. You agree and search up ahead to find something to demonstrate your skills on. You’re quick to find a few Numbskulls. She watches as you take a deep breath, your eyes narrowing on your unassuming targets and your footsteps become silent as you skirt closer to them. You nock an arrow, never looking away. Her eyes gleam with thrumming adrenaline at the way the muscles in your arms tense as you draw the string back. The low groan of the wood barely above a whisper as you wait for them to line up. You hold your breath, releasing the arrow- it goes through all three of them, making them break into dust in a consecutive line, a harrowing scream being wretched from them as they fade from existence. You release the breath you were holding and stand, sending a smile to the young goddess whose eyes shine with stars.

She praises you for your amazing skill and sings of your prowess. You shake your head, looking down at the ground as you argued that you were but a simple bow folk in your living life. Nothing more, nothing less.

She begs to differ! That type of skill only belongs to those of her highest ranking huntresses! She continues to gush about you until Zag comes up and, once again, greets the both of you. That dreamy look coming over his face as he looks at you. She watches as you once again disappear into Tartarus, this time though, after you’re gone, she turns to her cousin and shoots into a tangent about why he had never told her about you before and where did you come from? She has to know!

He answers all of her questions to the best of his abilities but there are even some he doesn’t know about, for example: how you died.

Artemis accepts this and decides that she’ll just ask you the next time the two of you meet.

And, true to her word, she does. She asks you point blank and you can’t help but be slightly taken aback. You laugh softly, leaning on your bow as you begin to recount that you were traversing her forest, as you had done many times before, and noticed fresh foot prints of man. You decided that it would be a good idea to look and you found hunters trying to kill her Golden Stag. You had dove in as quickly as you could, shooting one- the arrow sailing in a clean arch through his wrist before he could let loose his arrow. But as you went to nock another arrow- a searing pain in your chest and heart. You looked down to see blood pooling around your robes, dying the olive green of your cloak a wine red. You remember the last thing you saw was the Golden Stag running away. You smiled telling her that you were happy he got away- you don’t know what you’d do if he had been captured despite your effort.

Artemis suddenly remembers that day: her stag rushing to her and urging her to follow him- he bounded through the forest, frantic and panicked. When they got to a clearing, she was quick to notice the blood and the drag marks of a body. Her stag pressed his nose to the ground sniffing at the pool of blood, his eyes watering and bulbous tears slid down his muzzle. It suddenly made sense. You were the one he was mourning for.

She couldn’t help but grab your hands, resting her forehead against the back of them; thanking you for protecting her stag when she couldn’t. You smile at her, bowing your head to her and thanking her for the countless hunts she went on with you. You pull your hands away from her and hold out your bow to her. She asks what you think you're doing in a watery voice and you say it’s an offering. You couldn’t give much when you were alive and you still can’t give much now, but, this bow- it shall treat her right.

She sniffles as she takes it, trying to hold in tears. She vows to treasure it for all of time as she admires the worn wood.

That day, the two of you became closer as comrades, she would actively come down to say hi to you (and encourage Zagreus to take the leap and court you after she learned of his growing affections for you). The two of you would talk about everything you could think of, explaining how your hunting styles differed or how you could set a trap easier. She had realized that she had never felt this carefree with anyone before. She felt like a child. It felt nice.

When you snag her a bottle of Ambrosia- she’s swaddled in a whirlwind of emotions.

“You… You got this for me?” She asks as she takes the bottle of golden liquid.

You nod, that gentle smiling spreading across your face. “Of course. You had helped me so many times- it is only fair, my Lady-”

“Artemis-” she sniffled, rubbing her eyes with her knuckles- “call me Artemis, my friend.”

She finds you to be a perfect friend- a breath of fresh air from home. She may not feel any romantic feelings towards you, but she still holds you in a dear place in her heart. Her gift to you is a new bow and quiver that will never run out of arrows. The bow is enchanted and you’ll never have to fear it breaking for it will protect you for as long as you exist- in this realm or another.

Ares

Cause of Death: Blood Loss

When Ares first sees you, he is… well- he’s impressed that you stumbled upon his boon, but at the same time… He’s a tad miffed? That you found it?

At the very least he’s condescending as all hell about it:

“What is this? A little lamb came to beg me for power? How foolish. No matter how hard you struggle you will never be much more than some little shade.”

“Ah, sorry, my Lord! Didn’t mean to bump into it!” You hold up the basket in your translucent arms, “I wanted to see if I could find some new ingredients to bake with! I do oh-so miss it, sir.”

Well, he wasn’t expecting that.

He ends up allowing you to chatter on with him despite his obvious judgement on your, what he calls, “soft mortal hobby” until Zagreus comes to do his daily try of breaking out from the Underworld.

As he watches you drift away (after passing the boon and giving words of good luck to the Prince, who happily takes it), he kinda hopes to see you again

And see you again he does! He literally sees you the next day- night? Whatever, he’s never sure when he drops a boon in there- it’s damn dark-

He’s presented with a basket of treats and your gleeful greeting as you chatter that you found ingredients to make some Baklava and you thought that, maybe, he’d like to try it?

He smiles- cruel and sharp- and asks if you truly think that this is a fit offering for a god such as himself?

You shrug, saying he doesn’t have to eat it if he doesn’t want to

He laughs and takes it and you two are off chattering again: him regaling you with his war stories and you of the ingredients you had (somehow) found down here until Zag shows up, once again, the boon is passed to him (this time along with a slice of the delicious, warm Baklava. Which, he’s confused on what it is but he finds out very quickly that it’s his favorite treat).

The two of you talk a lot, which Ares is pleasantly surprised about, usually he’s the scorn of everyone- not that he cares, it causes conflict and he likes that. But you’re so calm and sweet that he just can’t get a rise out of you. Which, on one hand, pisses him off to no end, but, on the other, it’s such a nice change of pace for him. He’s used to the bloodshed and animosity of battlefields- the iron tinged air that follows after the warriors that traverse those fields. And yet, here you are: a shade that always has a treat for him when you run into him and the smell of warm sweetness wafting after you.

So when he learned exactly how you died- he was absolutely floored.

“How did you die, little baker?” He asked one day, fiddling with his knife, tilting it discreetly so that your reflection was in it.

“Oh!” You smiled sheepishly, glancing away from him and placing the bag of flour (how did you even get that? He’d have to ask you next) back into your basket. “Well- you see, I bled out.”

He raised his eyebrow, suddenly very interested. “How? You’re so…” he tilted his head and flipped his knife so that the blade pointed at him and the hilt pointed at you, he poked your arm with said hilt. “Soft.”

“Well…”

You explain that you had a little brother who had a nasty habit of getting into trouble- he was a good person, just made foolish choices- and this time, it had cost you your life. He had pissed off the wrong person and, well, when the man had attempted to grab your brother when the two of you were out walking the stalls on your break- you did the only thing you could think of: you fought.

Of course it went horribly, you’ve never been in a fight before then and, despite all the work you did with dough, it didn’t help much when the man pulled out a knife and dug it straight into your gut. But, you don’t mind too much- your brother’s alive and well and, from what you understand from asking Lord Hades, he had started to be more aware of himself and who he angered. Which made you super happy and proud of him!

Ares can’t help but feel some sort of pity for you. So much life to be taken so quickly and placed in- wait. Why weren’t you in Elysium?

You’re incredibly confused when Ares suddenly disappears (Aphrodite appearing in his place in the blink of an eye- she greets you happily and asks if you have any of Baklava to share today. You do not but you do have some Loukoumades if she wanted some. She did). You’re even more confused when the Underworld shakes and angry yelling fills the entirety of it for a solid ten minutes before all goes back to normal.

You tell Ares about it the next day and he simply hums. Keeping it to himself that he made a whole scene about you not being in Elysium by popping up and butting heads with Hades, of course he got kicked out. That still doesn’t stop him from sending angry letters that can span anywhere from one word letters (usually containing a curse word) to a 30 page essay on why you should be in Elysium instead of milling about in such unkempt places.

The first time you go out of your way to get him a bottle of Ambrosia is the day that both scares the shit out of him and makes him hate you for giving him mushy feelings.

You came to him in, almost literal, tatters: your greenish, transparent form ripped in places, the few wisps of you following after your torn form like they were tied to a string. You had held it up to him in a basket, a plate of Baklava sitting next to it, along with some other treats. “Lady Aphrodite mentioned that she wanted to try my Baklava, so I made her some! Though the Ambrosia is just for you, my Lord!”

He blinked at you, taking the basket in a delicate hold. He turned it this way and that, his chest feeling… warm? He wanted to grimace at the soft warmth that thrummed through his veins, yet it was replaced with a smile as he held up the gold liquid. “Thank you, little Baker.”

It was the first time he felt something so unexplainably soft: so gentle and warm as it settled somewhere between the bottom of his ribcage and the top of his stomach. He listened as you told him how you had gotten it: with Zagreus’ help (you even got to meet Lord Hermes! It was so amazing! He had scoffed at that) he led you to a room with Ambrosia as the prize and, despite the young prince’s worry, you managed to beat the monsters and collect it, mostly, by yourself.

Ares was so flattered, but he couldn’t help the way that your tattered form made him feel a sort of worry. He waved his hands through the wisps of your body before he snapped his fingers and a small blade appeared: a beautifully constructed blade that was an exact replica of his (albeit much, much smaller). He handed it to you, telling you that you should have a proper weapon if you’re going to go out of your way to fight in his name.

Dionysus

Cause of Death: Alcohol Poisoning

Dionysus, unlike many, is incredibly excited to see you sitting there. He adores mortal souls and can’t help but look at them each time Zag chooses his boons and he has the chance to glimpse at their souls (despite his tendency to let them go completely after they die- he can’t help but wonder about them once in a while).

“Why, hello there! What’s a little thing like you doing strolling up to my boon, hm?”

He can’t help but notice the way your eyes are a tad dull, but he writes that off as the dark of Tartarus since it’s gone as fast as he noticed it. You smile up at him, absolutely beaming at the God of drink and madness. “Hello, Lord Dionysus!”

“Oho, you could tell it was me? What gave it away?”

The two of you laugh, diving into a conversation. He offers you a cup of wine and is put off with how long it takes you to decline it. He almost thought you looked absolutely ravenous as you peered into the deep red liquid. He shrugs it off and continues to chatter with you until his favorite Zagman stumbles upon the two of you. He’s quick to say hi to you and even leans down to ask you… something. Dionysus misses it, but still watches the way you stiffly nod before you pass the boon to the prince and scurry off.

He’s tempted to ask about it, but decides that he should probably ask you himself instead of trying to pry. Mortals didn’t take well to people snooping around their private lives, which he could respect.

The next time he sees you though, he relaxes you into a sort of peaceful lull as he chats with you before he drops the question.

You stare blankly at him, that dark look in your eye coming back and making his skin crawl. You suddenly laugh it off waving your hands as you tell him that a god shouldn’t worry about a little ol’ shade like you.

He doesn’t push for an answer but the question still swirls in his mind, even as you toddle off after his Zagman pops up. He decides that he’ll actually ask the Prince this time around.

He asks him point blank and Zag, despite him being hesitant at first, decides to spill how you died. You had been the black sheep of your family, never truly fitting into the carefully set path that they wanted you to follow- so you found solace in drinking from a young age. It had taken the edge off of everything, Zagreus recounted you telling him. It filled you with a warmth you had been missing all your life and you couldn’t help but indulge more and more in it until it slowly became your own personal poison. Dionysus grimaced, for once feeling a sort of queasiness in the pit of his stomach as Zagreus continued on with your story. So, one day, you had drunk yourself into a deep stupor after an awful argument with your parents. But, this time, you never woke up. Instead you woke up floating in the river of blood- the River of Styx.

Dionysus had nodded after the Prince finished the story, playing with the goblet in his hand and swirling the red wine that resides in it. He offers a bitter smile to Zag and bids his farewell (of course leaving a boon of his choice with the lad) popping off back to Olympus.

The next time he runs into you, he asks if you’re feeling alright- if you want to talk. You blink at him, confused at first until realization dawns you. You bite your lip, looking down. He’s quick to assure you that you didn’t have to talk about anything- you two could just have a good time like always. You tell him that you’d like that, not yet ready to face your past. He nods, immediately telling you about an embarrassing story about Ares and how much of a lightweight he was which had you letting out an ugly snort along with your loud cackles.

The god begins to take it upon himself to have you smiling more and maybe remedy those dark clouds that appear in your eyes once in a while. He’s pretty observant despite being piss drunk half the time, it also helps that he’s very intune to your emotions for some odd reason, so he’s quick to pick up on when you feel down or your having something the equivalent to a relapse. He has you drink just a little bit from his goblet since it’s better than quitting cold turkey. And that little bit is always enough to quench your thirst and calm you down. You’ve been needing less and less of it as the days (nights?) pass by.

The first time you get Dionysus Ambrosia is the same day that he almost swears that he’ll marry you. He’s quick to grow emotional with the sheer fact that you went out of your way to get something so special for him, his face almost splitting with how wide of a smile he has on his face.

“You got this for me, man?” He says, holding up the bottle in his hand and inspecting it like it’s a precious jewel. “You know this stuff is hard to come by, super hard.”

You nod, the clouds far from your eyes now. “I had to thank you some way and punching a couple of Shades to get my hands on that was worth it.”

“You punched people for me?”

“Of course.”

He fights the urge to squeal and pops the top off, summoning another cup and pouring some in it. “Here’s to us!” He says as he hands you the cup.

He’s honestly never had so much fun just existing with one person. After that he’s never far from you, one usually not seen without the other around- even despite the Underworld not being Dionysus’ favorite place, he can’t help but be willing to venture down there to see you in person (he’s been trying to convince his wonderful Uncle Hades to let you come up with him to Olympus for a little bit- he’s even got his dad and (other) Uncle in on it. Hades officially hates all of them). His gift to you is a matching goblet that will supply you any beverage of your choice. It also has the double power to protect you from all that wishes to harm you, but you’ll learn that in due time. It’ll be more fun that way, Dionysus muses.

Hermes

Cause of Death: Falling

Usually, Heremes wouldn’t have taken the time of day to chatter mindlessly with a shade. But, it was a different story when that shade summoned him through bumping into his boon- now it’s just interesting!

“Eh? Who’re you? It’s kinda strange for a shade to be here and not my Cos, huh? Did something happen to him? You his stand in or something? That’d be kinda funny because you don’t seem like his stand in- not buff enough or something like that.”

You blink slowly taking in the words of his mile a minute speech as he continues to prattle on. You take a seat in front of the quick mouthed god, getting yourself comfortable as he flutters about and chatters. Not like you minded- he filled in the places where you couldn’t with steady conversation. You nod to some of the quips he makes, just to show you were still listening.

He decides then and there that he likes you a lot and that you should meet Charon. As soon as Zagreus pops up to collect the boon- he grabs the back of your robes and goes zooming off with you in tow. You wave to the panicked prince, allowing yourself to be dragged around. He continues to chatter on and on, only taking a break when he reaches the Boatman (who was not expecting a Shade to be accompanying the God of Messengers). He sets you down, tries to introduce you two to each other- realizes he doesn’t know your name, so you end up telling them your name- and then is quick to say goodbye, after he gives a scroll to Charon, and shoots off.

You end up staying with Charon after learning a bit more about the quiet boatman and Hermes is quite pleased when he realizes that he’d be seeing you around a lot more. He’s quick to flutter about you and chatter for a few quick seconds before zipping off. You wave at him.

The process repeats for a while before he finally takes a moment to really sit with you, Charon having gone to pick up more souls and lead them down the River of Styx. He chatters on aimlessly, asking little questions here and there before he decides to ask the million dollar question: “How did you die?”

You blink slowly as him before murmuring that you fell from a very high place, you head cracking open on the rocks at the bottom and now here you are. He asks why you were messing about on a high place, as that seemed to be something most mortals avoided doing. You explained that there was a kitten stuck in an old root on the ledge and you couldn’t just leave her. So, you crawled onto the branch and put her back onto safe ground, but the root gave way and then you went tumbling to your doom.

Hermes is surprisingly quiet throughout the entire exchange until you reach the end and he says: “you’re a real bleeding heart under all that quiet, huh?” You nod solemnly and he laughs, pulling you into a side hug. How could something with such a fleeting life be so selfless with it? He squeezes you harder before he stands up and bids you farwell, shooting off once again. And, again, you wave as he goes.

He grows attached to you quickly afterwards, bringing you little things that might help make you more comfortable down in the Underworld. Of course Charon is there to keep you company which he’s happy about- and he voices that exact thought to the boatman, who just grumbles out a long: uuuuaagghhh as his reply. He pats his arm and says that he knew he’d get it.

When you manage to get your hands on a bottle of Ambrosia- he’s completely blind sided that he almost trips on his own feet. His face flushing a deep red as he takes the offered bottle.

“How’d- how’d you get this?” His speech is all jumbled and jumpy, though he tries to keep the giddy excitement bubbling in his stomach as bay.

“I saved up my coin,” you said, nodding to Charon who nods back. “And bought it from Charon. I would’ve fought for it, but I’m no warrior.”

A smile splits across his face and the wings on the side of his head flutter. He’s quick to scoop you up and hug you, floating up with you as he does.

Hermes is an absolute giddy mess with your offering, not sure if he should kiss you or simply remain holding you. He had a special place for you before but this just solidifies his adoration for you. His gift to you is a pair of boots with wings on the side of them- an exact replica of his (in your size! Somehow-). He promises that they’ll help you get anywhere you want quickly, also the two of you match! How cute is that?

885 notes · View notes

yelena-bellova · 3 years

Text

Don’t Be Afraid: Poe Dameron x Solo!Reader - Chapter Twenty Six

Chapter Twenty Six: Little Damerons

Series Masterlist

Plot: Poe and Y/n take a trip for Poe’s birthday.

Warnings: extreme fluff, so much fluff, chocolate dipped cotton candy with sprinkles kind of fluff

Word Count: 4.4k

A/N: Life has been kicking my ass these past few weeks so writing has been on the back burner. It’s still insane but I found time to finish this one. It felt like the series deserved a nice piece of fluff consider it’s so intense 😂 Please forgive any typos, I’m lazy and tired and my brain is basically mush right now...

————

The first sound I heard upon waking up made me smile before I’d even opened my eyes. Bee’s beeps and squeals were moving around the room at a frantic pace.

“Thank you, Bee,” I groaned, “I got it from here.”  As it was every morning, Poe’s arms were locked tightly around my waist. It was of great difficulty turning myself around so I could face him. He hadn’t moved a muscle through Bee’s wake-up call and didn’t show any sign of changing that. I rolled over onto his torso and finally got a groggy moan out of him.

“Good morning, birthday boy,” I greeted him in a singsong tone, propping my chin up on his chest.

Poe rubbed a hand over his face and opened his bleary eyes, focusing them on me. “What if the birthday boy wanted to sleep?”

“As willing as I am to grant any and all wishes today, that one is a no-go,” I replied sweetly, tapping him on the nose lightly, “We’ve gotta haul ass if we’re going to make the most of a rare day off.”

I began to roll towards the edge of the bed but was apprehended. Poe pulled me back into his arms and maneuvered me to straddle him in one smooth motion. His hands found their way up his shirt I was wearing and rubbed circles into my back, sending a shiver through my body.  “I’ve actually got other plans for our asses at the moment,” he said, his gruff morning voice and suggestively raised brow making it nearly impossible to deny him, “Ten minutes tops.”

“You and I both know neither of us does ‘ten minutes tops’, Dameron,” I said, trying my best to ignore his hands wandering south and failing as a soft moan escaped me. “But I did say I was granting wishes today.”  Poe lazily smiled up at me as I slid my hands up his smooth chest and lowered my lips to his. He took me by surprise and flipped me over so I was trapped underneath him, the two us laughing into the kisses that followed…

————

A significant amount of time more than ten minutes later, Poe and I were far from Ajan Kloss in the cockpit of his new X-Wing. Ever since we’d planned where to spend his birthday, I’d been dreading the destination we were fast approaching. But there was no chance of me ruining the day with ghosts from the past.

“Coming out of hyperspace,” Poe reported as he performed the action, bringing us face to face with the planet. A shiver of panic ran through me as my blood ran cold. The blue waters only reminded me of blue blades clashing in a fit of desperation and rage. “You sure you’re okay with this?”  “Yeah,” I said firmly, trying to feel as confidant as I sounded, “I’ll be fine, there’s no way I’d miss this.”  Poe hummed in disbelief but kept us on course, steering us towards a greener portion of the menacing planet. I tried to center myself, I wanted to be fully in the moment for the day. It was too important to Poe and I’d been looking forward to it ever since we’d started dating. Anxiety ran through me again as we flew above the greenery, memories of wandering aimlessly above trees flooding my mind. As we got closer to our destination though, my stress began to lessen as the excitement set in.

Eventually, we were landing in a large clearing of land near a small house. I was the first to pop out of the cockpit and make it down the ladder with Poe following close behind. Our feet had barely touched the ground before a figure emerged out the front door of the house and made a gentle sprint towards us. Poe left my side to jog over to meet him, the two of them embracing upon collision and laughing joyfully. I watched from a distance, beaming as I watched the reunion between father and son.

Poe kept an arm on Kes as he gestured for me to come join them, “Dad, this is Y/n.”  Kes Dameron was, I had a feeling, the spitting image of Poe in thirty years. They could have passed for brothers with a significant age difference. As soon as I made it over, I was pulled into a warm hug. “I can’t tell you how glad I am to finally meet you, Y/n,” he said over my shoulder, “I’ve heard so much about you.”  “You as well,” I returned as we pulled back to get a look at each other, “Poe’s told me such wonderful things about you.”  “However many times he’s brought me up, I can promise you,” Kes said, his eyes flicking to his son briefly, “It’s nothing close to the number of times I’ve heard about the captivating Y/n Solo.”  I smirked and turned around to face a very pink cheeked Poe, “Captivating, huh?”  He stammered, “I mean, I may have used it once…”

Kes’ chest rumbled with laughter as he patted my back, “Come inside and I promise to embarrass him some more.”

He pulled me under one arm and his son under the other and we made our way into the Dameron homestead. It seemed that I stood to finally leave Yavin 4 with some pleasant memories…

————

We’d spent our day catching Kes up on our lives, it had been a while since Poe had last visited so there was a lot to fill him in on. The former comrade of my family gave me his sincerest condolences over the losses of Dad and Uncle Luke. It was so strange to think of my family and Poe’s having known each other, like there’d been a decades old string connecting the two of us together. Kes regaled us with stories from his days as a soldier and we told him a few of ours. I shared more than Poe, it was clear he didn’t want to worry his father too much with his particular brand of reckless. Kes eventually caught the lightsaber hooked to my belt and asked about my training.   “Before you leave, you have to go out to the backyard,” he said, “Your uncle gifted us with a Force after the war, someone like you needs to experience it.”  Once the skies darkened and we sat around the dinner table, Kes made good on his promise to embarrass my loving boyfriend.  “So Shara and I come running into the backyard and there he is,” Kes slapped his son’s shoulder, “Cockpit closed, lifting the damn ship into the air!”  I had my napkin covering my mouth as I laughed uncontrollably, the image of Poe as a child giving his parents a heart attack was completely believable. “Had he ever been up before?”  “Only with Shara and she never let him touch the controls,” Kes replied with a laugh, “He’d watched her enough times to know how to get it off the ground.”  Poe was a sport about each story from his early years, defending himself occasionally, though very few of them left him with an opportunity to do so. He’d been just as much trouble as a kid as he was now.

“I wish I could say I’m surprised,” I chuckled, “My dad never let me touch a thing on the Falcon until I was thirteen. And I didn’t fly her on my own for much longer.”  “Keep up, Solo,” Poe teased from across the table, “Some of us are doers.”  I smiled and shook my head at him, “I think you broke enough rules for the both of us in your younger days.”  “You calling me old?” Poe asked with a palm thrown over his heart in mock pain.  “Are you calling thirty three young?” I quipped back, swirling my wine in its glass, “I saw a couple gray hairs the other morning I didn’t tell you about.”

Poe’s cocky expression faltered briefly as his eyes widened before returning to normal, “You’re lying.”  Kes and I caught each other’s eye and shared a sly smile, both choosing to take a sip of our alcohol and leave Poe in suspicion. His confident exterior was broken by the tentative hand that ran through his jet black curls.

I’d convinced the two Dameron men to let me clean up after dinner so that they could spend some uninterrupted time together. They didn’t get to talk as much as either of them wished, that was a reality of war. Some went months without speaking to their loved ones. I felt unbelievably lucky that my mother was only a few minutes away at any given time of the day.

As I’d finished, Kes and Poe entered the kitchen. Seeing them side by side, it truly was astonishing how similar they looked.

“I think I’m going to head to bed and let you two have some time to yourself,” Kes announced, patting Poe on the back before making his way over to me, “I’ll be up early tomorrow so I can see you off.”

He wrapped me in a fatherly hug and I sunk into it, I couldn’t remember someone as quick to welcome me into their life as Kes Dameron. In a single day he had practically initiated me into the family as one of his own. Though nothing could ever replace the holes left by the fathers I’d lost, it was comforting to be around a dad again.

We bid our goodnights and with Bee charging in our room, it was just Poe and I left. He slung an arm around my neck and I laced my fingers with his as we walked back to the living room.

“So have you had a good birthday?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

Poe laughed under his breath, “Are you kidding? This whole day has been perfect. And Dad loves you…”  “I love him,” I replied as we made our way to the sofa, “But I feel bad for him.”  “What do you mean?”  “Judging from his stories, the poor man has spent every day worrying about you since you were in diapers,” I answered as Poe fell back on the couch, keeping our hands locked.

“Every parent worries,” Poe stated plainly, “Are you saying you never worried Leia and your dad as a kid?”  “I didn’t pull half the shit that you did,” I chuckled, “I hope that particular Dameron gene doesn’t carry over to our kids.”  As soon as the words had left me, I wished I could have retracted them. Poe’s eyes eyebrows lifted in surprise as he gripped my hand. “Our whats?”  “Our…nothings,” I scrambled for a sufficient denial, “I said nothing.”

“No, you said-“  “No I didn’t,” I faked a yawn and attempted to pull my hand away, “It’s late and we have to leave early so we should get to bed.”

Poe tugged me by the hand so that I had no choice but to land next to him on the couch, “Oh no, I want to hear about these kids we’re having.”   My cheeks felt red hot to the touch as I rubbed my free hand over them and groaned. While I’d thought of mine and Poe’s future in daydreams, we’d never actually talked about it. Why should we? We’d only been together for five months. Even if we’d practically been a couple before that, it felt like a conversation for further down the line.  “It’s nothing, really.”  Poe pulled me closer and wrapped an arm around me, I settled against his chest and prayed that he let the subject go. “Well, if it’s nothing then it shouldn’t be so hard to talk about.”  “I just think about what our lives might look like after the war sometimes,” I explained timidly, fiddling with a loose thread on the sweater I wore, “We could retire somewhere like here, build a house…”  “Sounds nice," Poe said, “We’re married in this scenario, right?”

I looked up at him and caught the mischievous gleam in his eye, “I don’t know, are we?”  Poe shut his eyes and nodded, “Oh, definitely.”

“Alright,” I smiled, trying to hide my glee at the thought, “We’re married, living in our house on a planet we’ll decide on later and the war is over.”

“Sounds perfect,” he replied, rubbing his thumb back and forth against my shoulder, “And our army of kids are wrecking all sorts of havoc in the backyard.”  My body shot up at his words and I stared down at him, “Who said anything about an army?”

“I think we should have at least ten,” Poe answered so straight faced that I couldn’t tell if he was kidding or not, “We could totally handle it.”

“Says the man who’s job in the child making process takes ten minutes. Who do you think’s giving birth to these ten children?” I shrieked, sending him clutching his chest and into a fit of laughter.

“Okay, fine,” he finally said after regaining his composure, “Ten’s not the magic number. But can we agree that it’s higher than two?”

I grabbed the two fingers he was holding up and settled back against his chest, “Agreed.”  “So we have an undetermined number of kids waving around lightsabers and trying to fly their old man’s X-Wing.”

“No,” I strongly objected, “No lightsabers or piloting till they’re old enough.”  “C’mon, we both know that at least one of them is going to be a Jedi considering your family. Might as well start them young.”

Of course there was no guarantee but it was safe to assume that yes, at least one of our kids would probably be Force sensitive. “Well, I hope at least one of them takes after you. I don’t think I could handle more than one little Padawan running around using the Force to throw things at their sibling’s heads.”  Poe snorted, “Knowing us, they’ll be a handful. But they’ll be great.”  “Damn right they will,” I agreed, rubbing a hand over Poe’s chest as I tried to conjure up an image of our children in my mind, “They’ll probably have your hair.”  “And your y/e/c eyes.”  “They’ll run their mouths like you.”  “But be the first to protect their family like you.”  “They’ll be reckless.”  “They’ll be stubborn,” Poe stated before inhaling deeply, “The galaxy better watch out, the Solo-Dameron-Organa-Kenobi kids will be unstoppable.”

“Okay, we’re definitely gonna have to drop a few names,” I made note of.

“I disagree, I think it conveys strength,” Poe objected, stroking a hand up and down my arm, “Hey, I’ve got a question.”  I hummed for him to continue, “How come you don’t add Kenobi to your name?”

We’d had so many conversations about my fateful visit to Ahch-To, but my family’s name was a sore spot that I hadn’t talked to him about yet. I had no way of finding out my father’s last name or if my grandmother had given my mother her last name of Kryze. Kenobi was the only name I could claim. “I thought about it but it’s not safe,” I answered quietly, “If it got out that I was the granddaughter of Obi-Wan, everyone in the galaxy would be after me even more than they already are. Believe me, I wish I could but it’s not realistic.”  

Poe squeezed me tighter on hearing my explanation, not saying a word because there was really nothing to say. Neither of us could change the fact that I was a wanted woman. Nevertheless, it killed a part of me to not be able to take pride in bearing both of my family’s names.

“So I’m guessing you’ve thought about our future too considering how many details you’ve been providing?” I asked in an attempt to lighten the mood of the conversation.

“Maybe once in a while…” he teased, “On long fights back to base or sometimes before falling asleep at night. It gives me something extra to fight for on the tough days.”  I traced the sharp outline of his jaw as I watched him speak. The thought of Poe flying his X-Wing with one of our kids on his lap or me teaching one of them how to levitate objects made my heart beat fast in excitement. But for every dream I had, there was an equal amount of doubt. I knew that the reality of our lives were that even after the war, we’d probably never have a peaceful existence. And if I shifted the focus to myself, I held my own fears about raising children.

“Sometimes I wonder if it’s even a good idea though…” I admitted, lowering my gaze, “I’ve never had any sense of normalcy in my life, I doubt I’d know how to provide it for our kids.”

“Normal is overrated, and are you kidding me? You’d be the best mom in the galaxy,” Poe said, pecking my hair softly before stroking his hand over it, “We’ll make all of it happen, might take a while but the Damerons will have their day.”  “The Damerons…” I repeated back to him, a smile spreading across my face, “I like that.”  We laid there in the quiet a while longer, soaking in the peaceful silence before our lives descended back into chaos. The one day leave for Poe’s birthday had been a gift to both of us, a 24 hour oasis in the midst of the raging storm we were caught in. We spent our days strategizing, fighting in the skies and undergoing intense training. But here we could just be…soft. We could be what we would’ve been had there been no war. I fell asleep that night on Poe’s chest, dreaming of a free galaxy and curly haired children chasing playing with BB-8 as Poe and I watched.

————

Kes hadn’t exaggerated, the Force tree my uncle had gifted him and Shara was extraordinary. I didn’t even have to try to feel connected to the Force, the second I’d stepped foot in the backyard it had overwhelmed me. There wasn’t enough time for me to properly meditate underneath it, but I still used the little time I had left to center myself. I could feel the Force flowing through every part of me, it was like nothing I’d ever experienced before.

“I’m glad you got to see it,” Kes’ voice called from behind me, “It’s something special.”  “Sure is,” I agreed, opening my eyes but still unable to turn away from it, “Is Poe done checking the ship?”

Kes came to stand next to me, admiring the tree too, “Almost, he sent me to come get you but you take all the time you want.”  “I wish I could,” I smiled sadly, finally turning to face the man, “But we can’t be late getting back to base. There’s so much going on, we’re lucky we got a full day off. Well, I don’t need to explain wartime to you…”

“Oh, I know exactly what you’re talking about. I saw my share of action during the Rebellion…” Kes paused, staring off into the distance as he relived a decades old memory. He snapped back after a few seconds, shaking his head and returning his gaze to me, “Well, I’m just glad I got to see the two of you for however long I could. I worry about both of you.”

“You worry about me?” I asked with a quirk of my lips.  Kes’ expression shifted further into its somberness, “Of course I do. I know how dangerous war is but I also know how dangerous it is to be in love during war. There wasn’t a day during the Rebellion where I wasn’t worried about losing Shara. I know both of you know that feeling well.”  I nodded, not trusting my voice at the moment. The thought of something happening to Poe was quick to make me emotional.

 “I’ve lost the love of my life, the last thing I want is for either of you to have to go through that. The two of you…You’ve got something very few people are lucky enough to find. Something that deserves to live on long after this war is over.”  There didn’t seem to be a right thing to say in response. Poe and I’s worry for one another never waned, it was like a constant white noise in both our minds. There was no guarantee of seeing the next day during war. It was a reality we lived with every day whether tucked away in base or on mission off world. How many couples were casualties of war? Too many to count, my parents having been one of them. But the belief that Poe and I wouldn’t lose each other was something I clung to each day. The future we both fought for was one where we didn’t have to worry about losing one another.

“It’s a constant fear, losing him,” I mused as I stared out at the clear sky, watching the rising sun, “But I don’t regret being with him, not for a second. He’s worth all of it.”  “I know he feels the same way,” Kes smiled softly and patted my arm, “From what Poe has told me, you’ve pulled your share of stunts.”  I swiveled back to face Kes and raised a finger, “If he’s talking about what happened above Batuu, I’d like to play up the fact that I took out eight TIE’s singlehandedly.”  The former rebel soldier cocked an eyebrow, “Impressive, but no…He told me about Crait.”  “Crait…” I sighed, finding the ground much more interesting to look at.

“Even before he told me I’d heard about it. You were the talk of the city and I imagine everywhere else.”  “Yeah, apparently news travels fast…”  Crait seemed like a lifetime ago. It was no longer the actual fight between Ren and I that bothered me, though I’d admit to still questioning why he hadn’t killed me occasionally. It was the legend status I’d achieved without trying to. The over exaggerated tale of my heroics had spread across the galaxy quicker than I knew what to do with. Not only was I one of, if not the, most wanted woman in the galaxy but even the Resistance had begun treating me differently. Seemingly everyone except my mother and friends treated me as if I was some deity. I was glad no one else knew about my being a Kenobi or the attention would become too much to handle.

“I hope you’ll see that more as a symbol of what I’m willing to do for the cause rather than my personality. What I’m willing to do to protect the people I love,” I said, staring at him with all the conviction in the world, “That includes Poe.”  “I know, and that dedication is what makes the Resistance, and Poe, lucky to have someone like you.”  I could hear Bee’s squeals, only making out my name and knowing that we needed to head out. Kes and I turned to each other regretfully before he put an arm around my shoulders and we began to make our way out of the backyard. I turned my head to get one more look at the Force tree and silently promised myself that the next time I came, I’d spend a proper amount of time underneath it.

Poe was beginning to load Bee into the X-Wing when Kes and I rounded the corner of the house. Even though we were headed back to base where as soon as we landed we’d be thrown back into our responsibilities, he still looked relaxed. He hadn’t put on his commander’s hat yet and was simply Poe Dameron at home with the people he loved. He reminded me of the day I’d gotten back from my last stay with Dad, when we’d flown back from the transport station. We’d both been so carefree and at ease and I’d wished then what I was wishing now…for the war to be over.

“Any more Poe stories you want to send me off with?” I jokingly asked Kes, we were still far enough away that Poe wouldn’t hear me.

“There was one I wanted you to hear, he’d never forgive me if I told him but…” Kes chuckled and waved his hand dismissively, bringing our walk to a halt. “It was the day he arrived at the Resistance base. We’d talked after Leia recruited him about how excited he was about having command of his own fighting wing, meeting the other pilots…Pretty much everything he spoke about had something to do with an X-Wing. That night he called me and you could’ve paid him any amount of credits to talk about anything flying related and he wouldn’t have cared. The first thing he said to me after ‘Yeah, everything’s fine’ was ‘I’m pretty sure I met my future wife today.’ And for the rest of the call, not one mention of any ship. Just about this girl who had shown him around base and ate dinner with him and who he tried to be extra funny around just to make her smile. I made sure to make note of what he was saying so once I finally got to meet this Y/n he spoke so highly of, I could tell her that there hasn’t been one day that boy’s known you where he hasn’t been in love with you.”

My grin was practically idiotic by the time he’d finished telling his story. Poe had only mentioned that he’d fallen for me the first day we’d met and he’d never mentioned anything about telling Kes about me. I gazed over at Poe, standing atop the ladder next to his ship and my heart swelled. Just as it did when he returned home from a mission and we’d embrace outside of his ship. Or when we’d climb into bed together at the end of a long day and his arms would instinctively wrap around me. Or when I’d work late nights in the command center and he’d send Bee in with a sweet note stuck to the droid’s body. I didn’t think it was possible to fall any more in love with him, but every day he showed me it was. He spotted us and waved me and his dad over. After a tearful goodbye with Kes, Poe and I were on our way back to base.

When we were in hyperspace, I tilted my head to press a kiss to the side of Poe’s mouth. He smiled at me, “What was that for?”

“I just love you,” I shrugged.  “Well, then I guess it’s a good thing I love you too,” he replied, taking my chin between two of his fingers and locking our lips together.

————

A/N: I’ve been getting notifications every few days that people have been liking chapters which causes me to skim over some of them. I really can’t believe I started this series back in May as a way of coping with quarantine boredom and here we are six months later and I can see the end in the distance. I’m so glad that you guys enjoy it and it can distract you from the nightmare that is this year for just a few minutes. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this one! Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers!! 🦃🦃🦃

Taglist: @m1rkw00dpr1ncess @springfox04 @constantdisgrace @holybatflapexpert @seninjakitey @tammythompson-singslikea-muppet @leilei-draws @eternal-fandoms @dream-alittlebiggerdarling @imaginecrushes @eternallyvenus @thescarletknight2014 @simplybarnes @captain-america5 @breyasficletblog @caseymcflurry @stumbleonmywords @april-14-blog @i-ievu @ultrunning @desperatelytryingtosavemyself @caswinchester2000 @meraki-loki @lovinnholland @wishing4wishes @fruitloopzzz @bbuckysbeardd @justanotherblonde23 @ace-fiction @abysshaven @thisshitfucks @astudyoftimeywimeystuff @itsfangirlmendes @superbookishhufflepuff

Star Wars Permanent Taglist: @paintballkid711 @katrynec @caswinchester2000 @theliterarymess @softly-sad @angelicadameron

#poe dameron x reader #poe dameron imagine #poe dameron fanfiction #poe dameron fanfic #poe dameron series #poe dameron x solo!reader #star wars imagine #star wars fanfic #star wars fanfiction #poe dameron

152 notes · View notes

the-enamorando-deity · 3 years

Note

Okie dokie so for my first request, can I ask for a Yelena one with Pillow + tent + star gazing+ "Hey, if you were an animal, would you want to be one that walks or flies?" + "what are you waiting for?" Please and thank you, oh also *** ;) with Yelena being the top you're the best and congrats!!!!

i am......... SO FUCKING SORRY. the last few months i lost all inspiration but today i found it, and i’m gonna get right back to working on your requests. again i’m so sorry, i hope the word count and content shows a little much of how sorry i am, but you absolutely do not have to forgive me because i am a garbage person

but they WILL get done.

yelena belova x fem!reader, hello this is my first time writing in a while so bear with the shitty smut (18+ of course)

prompts: Yelena Pillow Tent Stargazing, “hey if you were an animal would you want to be one that walks or one that flies?” and “what are you waiting for”

Gazing at Stars

Your eyes rolled so far back into your head when you realised what month it was. Every year, Steve insisted on the team taking a trip together to some random place he would pull from a hat, and every year, it was camping in some dumpy forest. It was rather obvious that those were the only options, and it was compulsory.

Steve insisted it was team-building, and you knew that was bullshit. The only way he could get some peace was by dropping you all somewhere in pairs with a map, those few priceless hours all to himself as he set up the camp ground, and you all wandered aimlessly hoping to find a hotel rather than the same pile of tents.

Every year, you were all disappointed. You felt Yelena fidget next to you, her brow knitted together in concern and confusion. Nudging her softly, she flashed a meek smile to try and hide whatever was going on in her mind. You let it go for now, but as soon as the meeting was over, you stopped her in the hall.

‘Hey, Belova, what’s with your face in there?’ you queried, making sure no one else was around so she’d actually answer truthfully. ‘Almost looks like you hate camping as much as I do, which I thought was impossible.’

She also glanced around, but seemed hesitant to answer at all. ‘What is camping?’

Realisation struck, and you quickly scrambled to try and find the right way to describe it, without turning her against it too early. ‘Well, you can do it alone or with a group, and pretty much you all go into a forest and sleep there.’

‘For what purpose?’

You managed a smile, the now scared look in her eyes making you uneasy. ‘Uh, Steve likes to say for fun, Nat and I always say it’s more of a torture tactic, but it isn’t always so bad.’

‘It is, I think,’ she replied quietly. Seeing the confusion that spread from herself to you, Yelena forced a smile. ‘The Red Room did this too. They drive you to nowhere, and leave you, using only what you know from their teaching on how to get back. You don’t, you die.’

After trying to explain the difference between abandoning nine year olds in the frozen Russian tundra and sleeping in a tent around a bonfire for a few days, you knew Yelena was still concerned.

‘I’ll talk to Steve, I have an idea.’

‘Don’t do anything stupid,’ she remarked, quickly stretching herself out to her full height, which did nothing but make you laugh.

You winked and turned to find him, missing the rush of warmth that ran up Yelena’s body to her cheeks, holding there until you disappeared around the corner.

‘STEVEN!’ you shouted, delighted by the weary face that peered around the corner before you. ‘Good, you heard me.’

‘Hard not to, Y/N,’ he teased, ‘what do you need?’

Two weeks later, Steve stood in his usual place before the team. He gave you a quick nod, before announcing that this year’s camping trip would be set on the grounds of the Avengers Compound, due to certain restrictions and new recruits being unfamiliar with the whole process.

No one even glanced at Yelena, some others on the team just as fresh as herself. She squeezed your hand under the table as a thank you, but didn’t so much as spare a glance your way.

‘No technology is to be used, except in the usual 7pm to 9pm rule, unless with exceptional reason,’ he explained, ignoring the grumbles and groans. ‘Now, I have enlisted Friday’s help in coming up with a system for pairs.’

He droned on with each pair, no one really paying attention, knowing Steve would post it in the hall later.

'Yelena-’

Yelena froze at the mention of her name, unsure whether to stand or move or just continue breathing, all in the split second it took Steve to say your name right after. The sigh of relief was noticeable only to those on either side of her, you and Natasha exchanging a look behind her back.

When the day finally came, you and Natasha cornered the reformed assassin and took either of her arms.

‘What is this? Are you hazing me?’

‘What?’ you both laughed, shaking your heads.

Natasha rolled her eyes and pulled her in tighter. ‘No, dumbass, we’re taking you down to the campground. Y/N and I are going to show you how to set up a tent.’

‘Don’t you have your own partner?’ Yelena grumbled, her relationship with Natasha just as sisterly as ever.

You and Natasha turned Yelena around to see Clint following behind, holding several large bags which Yelena could only assume were these “tents” you kept trying to explain. He ran to catch up, joining in on the current gossip session Nat was catching you all up on.

It’s not so bad, Yelena thought to herself, hiding a smile in her puffy jacket as you tightened your grip on her arm, pulling her a little closer.

I don’t entirely hate this, she thought, unable to stop herself from laughing as you shoved popcorn up Bruce’s nose and the Hulk spit it out, or as you dared Thor to an eating challenge, only for him to balk and refuse after last time. Her favourite thing was the race between you and Steve, everyone refusing to let him know you cheated every time.

Hoping to distract everyone from the current story time in the circle, knowing your ass was about to be handed to you if Natasha or Steve knew how your last mission went, you turned to Yelena and posed a question. It was loud enough to intrigue the others, and your dumbassery was forgotten.

‘Hey, if you were an animal, would you want to be one that walks, or one that flies?’

Yelena seemed confused, but knew why you were trying to silence the story. ‘One that flies. They see more than the one who walks even knows exists.’

Tony jumped in next, his answer not very surprising. ‘I’m already both, why choose?’

The night progressed, and you started to think. You all knew camping really wasn’t so bad, it was only the concept of it, that or the fact that Steve enjoyed it a little too much.

Amidst the Asgardian Tales of Horror that Thor began to spin, you snuck Yelena away to show her your favourite part of camping, the only reason you didn’t vanish from the trip every year. Pillow tucked under your arm, you sighed a breath of relief and dropped it to the ground.

‘Y/N, I don’t think-’

‘I’m not saying trust me here, but I think you’ll like this.’

Yelena seemed concerned as you dropped to your knees and dragged her down beside you, looking into her eyes as your fingers lightly grabbed her chin, tilting her head skyward. Above you, the stars stretched out in an endless expanse, her chin dropping as she studied each one.

You had seen the stars plenty of times, but they were nothing like the ones you saw when she kissed you. She grabbed your hips and pulled your body close, turning you on your back, mumbling into your lips. Pulling away from you for only a moment, she moved to kneel over you, lowering herself so she could straddle you.

Her hands ran softly up the material of your shirt as she leaned down to kiss your neck, sucking a trail across your collarbone.

‘Are you okay with this?’ she whispered into your ear, the shivers running down your spine turning you into a malleable mess.

‘Extremely,’ you huffed, your hands on her toned back, pulling her down, closer.

You could feel the smirk cross her face as her hand drifted along your ribcage, tugging at the bottom of your shirt. Your jaw clenched at the soft touch, looking down just in time to see her lift your shirt up, kissing across your stomach.

Biting your lip, you felt your legs clench together, but something was pressed between your thighs. Yelena used her knee to push yours apart, the pure rush you got from that movement only increasing your need for her to touch you.

‘Yelena-’

‘Beg me,’ she remarked, sucking at your skin softly, drifting lower as her fingers danced at the button on your jeans.

Swallowing the lump in your throat, you felt yourself inching down towards her thigh, clenching your legs around hers. ‘Please,’ you started, looking directly into her eyes as she traced your stomach muscles with her tongue, ‘fuck me.’

‘Good girl.’

‘Christ,’ you moaned, the slow movement of your zipper sending interesting vibrations down your body.

She seemed to enjoy riling you up, the slow movement of your jeans sliding down your legs torturous, her fingernails touching so lightly along your thighs it tickled, making you want her all over you at once. No matter how much you kicked your legs and squirmed to get her to touch you any faster, her pace didn’t differ.

You didn’t notice until the air hit you, but it wasn’t only your jeans she’d dragged painfully slowly down your legs. Her lips were softer than you expected, but her tongue was as sharp as her quick wit. A dangerous combination in most situations, yours included.

The moment you realised you were entirely exposed to the cool night air, Yelena had graciously moved her talents south. She traced an agonisingly slow trail up your folds, her touch registering on more than one level. You choked down a moan, grabbing your own hair with one hand, and Yelena’s with the other.

She busied her self with tantalisingly slow tongue movements and soft kisses all over, fingers drifting up your skin and beneath your shirt. They squeezed at your breast over your bra, the clenching of her fingers in time with the flicks of her tongue over your clit.

If this was how you were going to die, you would already be in heaven. Positive your teeth were going to shatter from how hard you were clenching them, you tried to push yourself closer to her, wanting more and more.

She gladly obliged, taking your dripping clit into her mouth and sucking at it. Slowly at first, gentle and soft, your body tingling as you realised her other hand was holding your thigh, and her fingers were inching closer to you. Yelena knew exactly what she was doing, each movement like the most blissful torture one could imagine.

The release of your jaw came with a loud moan, Yelena’s fingers soaked with your slick, sliding easily inside you. You sank down against her hand, moving your hips and twisting yourself until she was right where you wanted her. Grinding hard against her hand and face, Yelena’s enhanced strength came in hand.

She moved faster and harder, fingers curling in all the right ways and tongue expertly teasing the most sensitive part of you. Your head fell back against the pillow, the stars in your eyes matching those above, sweet release coming only once Yelena had drawn you out to your maximum.

You don’t know how long you lay there, trying to catch your breath, knowing the assassin still had every move, and the word “reformed” wasn’t in her vocabulary. She would had positively killed you with her talents, if she hadn’t already done so with her smile.

The pair of you exchanged tired glances for a moment, Yelena propped up on her elbow studying you.

‘I want to kiss you,’ she said softly.

‘Well, what are you waiting for?’ you smiled.

taglist: @marvelfansince08love @mymarvelwomen @imnotasuperhero @natasha-danvers @veteranwerewolf95 @monihaswritersblock @natasharomanoffswife @xxxtwilightaxelxxx

#yelena belova x reader #yelena x reader #yelena belova #black widow #marvel #writing #fanfiction #request #smut

99 notes · View notes

didsomeonesaydaddydraco · 4 years

Text

Secrets | d.m imagine

Hermione and I are on our way to the Great Hall to have breakfast with Ron and Harry. We accidentally overslept this morning because we were up late last night studying for our upcoming DADA test. She tries to hide her yawing, but I can tell by the dark circles under her eyes, that she is as tired as I am.

- You know what I don’t understand? – She looks at me confused – How on Merlin were you sorted into Gryffindor with that attitude of yours? Don’t get me wrong, you know I love you, you’re my best friend, but the amount of sass you have and how determined you can get, you’d be better off at Slytherin, but you still ended up at Gryffindor.

I freeze for a second, memories flashing right before my eyes from a couple of years ago.

*4 years ago*

I’m aimlessly wandering around the caste with my fellow schoolmates around me. A bunch of 11 years old, who are very much eager to start their school year at the famous Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The endless corridors amaze us, and the living pictures scare most of us as they welcome the new students with a few nice words. We’re waiting by a huge old wooden door for Professor McGonogall to let us in so we can be sorted into our Houses. I know a lot about this School. My brother was a student here, along with my parents, their parents and basically my whole family.

- Follow me, please – an elder student comes up to us to lead the way. We’re called to a chair and the Sorting Hat is placed on our heads. For some student he doesn’t have to think much which House he should put them, but for a boy, named Harry Potter, he thinks a lot. It looks like he cannot make a decision, but suddenly he yells out Gryffindor.

- Next is, Miss Y/F/N – as Professor McGonogall calls my name, my knees start to shake, and my palms get sweaty. Without any shown emotion, I sit on the stall, my legs not being long enough to reach the ground. My breathing is getting heavier second by second as the Hat is getting put on me.

Please, not Slytherin. Please, do NOT put me in Slytherin.

- Hmm, what do we have here – the loud voice of the Hat starts and I feel like I’m going to faint soon – Oh, wow… - he hums – Very interesting mind. A huge knowledge, and bravery – for a second I feel a slight relief as he’s listing the Gryffindor characteristics – But I see creativity, with a very strong determination and ability to be a great leader…just like a true Slytherin.

Please, I’m begging. Do NOT put me in the Slytherin House…

- Exciting thoughts you have here, young Y/Fam/N – the Hat chuckles but yells out my house finally – Gryffindor!

*Present*

- Hey, are you OK? – Hermione asks me. I zoned out after the flashback. All these years, nobody asked be why it was so hard for the Sorting Hat to choose my House. They still think I’m just a rather complicated person with quite a twisted personality.

- Yeah, sure – I smile weakly at her – I’m just tired, hungry and nervous about our DADA test, that’s all – I shrug and fasten my walking to the Great Hall. Never in my years at Hogwarts have I thought that maybe my secrets will be exposed one day. And that day was closer than I imagined.

Two weeks have passed since Hermione’s question, and ever since than I’ve tried everything to avoid that specific topic, but she doesn’t seem to want to. Every chance she has, she would ask about my family and why in Merlin’s love I’m not talking about them or about my life outside of Hogwarts. Last night we even had a fight about it in front of half of the School, when she pushed her questions on me during dinner. I got enough of her obsession with my family tree and rushed out of the Hall. But on my way out, I saw Draco Malfoy looking at me with a knowing smirk and some foreign flame in his eyes. Something, that looked very close to sympathy.

- Hermione, I think you should drop it – I hear Harry trying to convince her – I bet those are just rumours. You know how bad they can be.

I walk up to them but before I can sit down on my usual spot next to Hermione, she jumps up and looks at me fumingly. I immediately know that she knows. Of course she does.

- Could you tell me when you wanted to tell us everything? – Her voice is louder than usual and it attracts the attentions of the students at Great Hall. They loved a great drama during dinner time, so they could talk about something after it at their Common Rooms.

- Hermione – I warn her that neither the place, nor time is right for this conversation. But when I try to ask her to talk about this somewhere more private, she cuts me off.

- Do not Hermione me, Y/N – she screams at me with pain in her eyes – A couple of weeks ago I asked you how you were sorted into Gryffindor, when you clearly have the characteristics of a Slytherin. You zoned out and didn’t give me an answer – she starts her story – Silly me thought, it must be a misunderstanding, or you were just going through this weird faze when you act like a total jackass. I tried to talk with you about this, but you changed the subject every single time – she is playing with her wand like she was some kind of teacher, trying to teach us the lesson – So you gave me no other choice than to do some research…

- Hermione, I think we should – Harry stands beside her, tugging on her robe to pull her away from me. Ron stands up too and looks worried. At least he is worried. People are gathering around us, eager to find out what this whole drama is really about. I spot a platinum blond head in the crowd, Draco’s eyes burning my face as he is trying to read in my mind.

- We should do what, Harry? Hmm? – Hermione pushes off his hand from her shoulder and looks back at me – We should just live with the fact that one of our oh so called best friend is actually supposed to be a Slytherin, being the descendent of one of the most ancient pureblood wizard families? Or you just want to avoid the fact that her father was sentenced to death by a Dementor’s kiss, and her brother is probably die in one of the most guarded cells of Azkaban because they were loyal to Who He Shall Not Be Named and served him? Almost everyone in her family was, or still a Death Eater.

Everyone around us gasps. Silence fills the Great Hall as Hermione yells out the last words. Everyone is surprised, except Malfoy. He looks like he knew about this the whole time, and he probably did. His parents being Death Eaters as well, they might had known my father.

- Your mother changed your name, used her middle name as your last name so it might confuse the Sorting Hat – she takes a step closer to me, her wand still in her hand as she was afraid I might hex her. And in this moment, I really want to do that, but I won’t – That’s why the Hat was confused. That’s why the Professors acted like they had no idea who you were, but they all knew.

- You couldn’t keep your nose out of my business, right? – I scoff and look at her. The girl, who I thought was a friend. Whom I thought would never judge me – Are you happy now? You know this too. Does it make you a better person? Do you think you can use this against me?

- I… - she opens her mouth, but this time I’m the one who cuts her off.

- I hope you are finally satisfied. But for your information, private life is called private for a reason. And if you don’t want to cause any trouble for yourself in the future, I suggest you to stay out of other people’s business. Not everyone is as nice as I am – I say to her with ice cold voice and leave the room in a rush.

I’m literally running all the way up to the Astronomy Tower. My tears blur my vision, and I almost fall a couple of times, but all I want is to be as far from Hermione as I can. My knees give up, and they can no longer hold me on my feet. I collapse to the ground and let myself cry. My father was indeed a Death Eater, but he was a good man. He never meant to hurt anyone, he just made all the wrong choices, along with my brother. They loved their family endlessly, and would have done everything to protect Mom and me. And they did. That’s why they were both locked up at Azkaban for years. Than the Ministry made their decision about Dad, who refused to give names to the judges. So he got a Dementor Kiss. Elvin, my brother, was only sentenced to spend the rest of his life at Azkaban.

I hear footsteps from behind me, but I refuse to turn around. I don’t want to face anyone now, I just want to be alone with my shame, grief and thoughts.

- I don’t care who you are, but I don’t want to speak, nor I want company – my voice is filled with sorrow, and the cold November weather makes me shiver. I just started to feel cold. I must have been too angry to feel anything but the fire burning inside of me which wanted to hex Hermione for being so nosy.

- The Towers tends to be quite cold around this time of the year – I’m shocked by the voice. I thought Hermione ran after me to finish her story about my own damn life, or if it wasn’t her, I thought it was going to be Harry or Ron coming after me, to make sure I’m okay, and to ask me if she was right about all those things she had said in the Great Hall. But for my surprise, it was no other, than the Prince of Slytherin, who had been watching me for the last couple of weeks, and who couldn’t look away from my face during Hermione’s “attack”.

- Here you go – he says softly as he wraps his Slytherin robe on my shoulders. I look up at him, just to see his facial expressions. All I can see is sympathy and kindness on his every cold and emotionless face. His pale skin looks like it’s glowing in the moonlight, and his eyes are sparkling just like the stars on the jet black night sky – I come here often. When I want to be alone and need to think or just let out everything that I’ve been hiding in my mind.

I follow his movements, as he sits down beside me. So close our arms are brushing to each other, a sudden warm feeling going through my whole body. Draco was a jerk. He was full of himself, and lived for terrorizing everyone who wasn’t a Slytherin or a pureblood witch or wizard. Somehow, he never had anything bad to say to me; he never called me Gryffindork, or any other insulting names. But at the same time, he never really talked to me – only when we were paired to work together for essays or at Potions class a couple of times.

- You knew, didn’t you? – I ask him after a rather long silence – That’s why you left me alone, not calling me names and picking on me. You knew who I was, and who my parents were…and that’s why you were around me these couple of days. You knew she was going to figure out, right?

He only answers with a small nod. He doesn’t look at me. I turn my gaze away from his side profile, and stare at the sky. We sit there is silence, the only noise our slow breathing, and the sound of the wind dancing through the columns of the Tower. Out of nowhere, Draco grabs my hand, and holds it in his. His thumb is drawing little circles on my wrist and my quite sobs start to calm down and fade.

- I’m not them – I sigh – I’m not my parents or my brother. I would never be a Death Eater. I wouldn’t be able to kill someone, even if they deserved to die. My father and Elvin never killed anyone. They were only…

- Shhh – Draco pulls me closer and lets me to rest my head on his shoulder – You don’t have to explain anything to me. I know how hard your life must have been. And it still is. To be honest, it’s never gonna change. You can only learn to live with this, keep it as a secret and pretend it won’t affect your future – he plays with my fingers, and I know, this time, he’s not referring to me only, but to himself and his future as well – But the truth, it will. We just have to be strong and smart enough, to bare it.

- I don’t know if I can do this alone – I whisper, a single tear rolling down my cheek, dropping on Draco’s hand. He turns to me, and places his free hand on my cheek. I watch his light pink lip running along his bottom lip, his lips curving into a small, but genuine smile.

- Who said you have to do it alone? – he asks me – I’m pretty good at keeping dirty little secrets.

- I bet you have tones of those – I finally laugh a bit. At the sound of my laughter, his smile grows wider, and a cheeky little fame appears in his almost grey eyes.

- Oh, trust me darling, I do – he laughs as well – One of them being having a crush on you…

From that night, Draco did everything in his power to protect me, and I did the same with him. It took me a while, to be comfortable again inside the walls of Hogwarts. I lost a few friends, but at the same time, I gained a few more. People, who were on my side, no matter what. After summer break, Hermione and I apologised to each other. She finally accepting that fact that she might be way too nosy, and wanted to grow as a person, and learn to stay out of other people’s business for her own good. And I told her everything about my family, friends, childhood, fears and dreams. Of course we had a fight about me dating Draco, but when I explained her, that he would never ever hurt me, she finally accepted him at our and in the Gryffindor’s common room as well. As for Draco, it took me a couple of months to get used to the idea, that that arrogant asshole really had a soft side and he loved to show it to me. We never told the whole school that we were, in fact, a couple. Some people knew, some had no clue. We loved the idea of being each other’s dirty little secret.

#draco x reader #draco imagine #draco malfoy #draco x you #draco x gryffindor!reader #imaginestory #harry potter imagines #death eater parents #ron weasly imagine #hermione granger

106 notes · View notes

kidofthekat · 4 years

Text

The art club and a certain reporter save the day.

Contrary to popular belief, Marinette, was not, in fact, constantly positive. Sometimes it all got a bit too much and this was one of those days. Her class had grown used to her ‘off days’, having learnt a long time ago not to talk to her during them and just give her some space, which ways easy as these days were few and far between. Or at least they used to be.

The class were absolutely baffled when Marinette came in for the second time that week, and fifth that month, with her body language screaming ‘leave me alone’ which in itself was unusual as she would normally emanate ‘don’t speak to me’ vibes not those of a frightened animal.

So when their class president, hunched over and slightly shaking, sat, not in her seat, but right at the back, her eyes glancing around with the air of a paranoid creature, they were more than a little worried. Her behaviour reflected that of a girl on the run, they just had no idea who she was running from.

“Um, M,” Alya ventured, attempting the hide her hurt from Marinette choosing not to sit together. “Why are you sitting way back there?”

Jumping slightly when she realised she was being addressed, she avoided eye contact but still answered her friend’s question, “Lila thought it would be good if we switched seats for a bit.” Marinette gave a small and feeble smile before turning her attention to the door, and eyeing it with fierce hope, that faded quickly as Lila sauntered in.

“Oh Marinette, I’m so glad you agreed to my little idea,” her sickly sweet voice holding an unidentifiable edge, “I hope you don’t mind Alya.”

Alya wanted to say she did, she wanted to sit next her best friend, she really did, but she only had to glance behind her to see Marinette furiously shaking her head, her eyes pleading with her, for her to agree, determined to get the story later.

She didn’t. She had posted various friends at each exit for the school, but she still missed the girl at both lunch and after class. Marinette, who had somehow managed to get in and out of school through a route no-one knew, was nowhere to be seen.

Wondering aimlessly around the school, Alya drooped slightly.

Why had Marinette gone as far as to switch seats with her mortal enemy just to avoid me? Am I the reason she is so terrified?

She slumped against the wall, her head resting on the cool brick. Everything had gone wrong so quickly, and only now was she realising that something was off. More than off. She scrunched her eyes tight, attempting to fight the burning tears, eventually succumbing, and letting them fall, praying to whatever God was listening that Hawkmoth was busy.

Having just been let out, the art club chatted loudly on their way out of the school building, almost missing the saddened reporter.

“Yo, Als, are you okay?” Alya rubbed at her eyes, only succeeding in making them redder, and let out a resigned affirmation.

“Are you sure?” Rose lowered herself to the brunette’s level and gave her a tight hug, refusing to let go.

“I’m just worried about Marinette, you know?” Nathaniel and Marc pulled her to her feat, and Alix led the bewildered girl back to the art room.

“Sit here.” Rose pointed to a stool, and in silence the other’s pulled out stool’s in front of hers so that all four were facing her.

She shivered, remembering Marinette’s cult-like description of the art club, but decided against running. They stayed silent until Alya had taken a seat.

“Marinette missed art club today.” Alix stated observing Alya for a reaction, “She never does that, not even on ‘off days’.”

“Oh.”

“Something is wrong.” Rose narrowed her eyes.

“She is scared.” Nathaniel added.

“Of everything.” Marc’s tone was ominous to say the least.

“We are worried too.” Alix finished.

Ignoring their icy gazes and terrifying synchronisation, Alya nodded in agreement, “What do you think happened.”

Once more Alya found herself deliberately writing off the art-club’s weird actions as they simultaneously lost their creepiness and became their normal selves, not cult members.

They all got up and sat around one of the tables, Alix unrolled a large sheet of paper and gave each of them a marker, writing ‘what happened to Marinette?’ in a big circle and a line off it.

“It has something to do with Lila,” everyone agreed, though Alya was a little begrudging to, as she scribbled ‘Lila’ at the end of her line, “Discuss”.

“She openly hated Lila at first, but then she just stopped,” Nathaniel offered, mainly for Marc’s benefit as he was in a different class than him.

“I thought it was just jealousy and her stopping so suddenly strengthened that for me.” Alya admitted.

Rose nodded, “That does follow her previous actions, it’s logical to think so.”

“Thanks Rose, I mean, she and Kagami are pretty hood friends now and I know the other day Lila came out of the bakery.”

“Really?” Alix added a couple things to the ever increasing spider diagram and looked around for more suggestions.

“Um guys, what if we ask her?” Marc backed down slightly from their collective gaze, but quickly cleared his throat and prepared to say more, “I mean, we are cousins, she might talk to me cause of the whole family thing.”

Relived by their smiling faces and agreement, Marc quickly phoned his cousin, putting it on loudspeaker when asked but adding he will turn it off if she says something private.

“Marc?”

“Hey Marinette, uh, you weren’t in art club today, are you okay?”

“Heh, I’m, I’m fine.”

“So, uh, Marc, what’s up with you?”

“The usual.”

“Oh, so doing something with Nathaniel.”

Marc and Nathaniel blushed as Marinette giggled.

“Why are you calling me Marc? You normally just text.”

Sighing, Marc stood up and pinched the bridge of his nose, “Marinette, please tell me the truth, are you okay?” The silence before she chose to reply lasted too long for either of them.

“No, Marc I’m not. Everything is slipping through my fingers, all of it, both lives, it’s all going to hell and I can’t stop it!”

Marc quickly turned his phone off of speaker. Marinette had accidently revealed her second identity when he had asked to use her as Ladybug’s dual identity for his comic and he wasn’t about to let anyone else know. He gave Marinette a few soothing words and promised to be at the bakery in a couple minutes before hanging up and leaving his confused friends behind.

“Both lives?” Alya questioned, still dazed by Marc’s rushed departure.

Alix shook her head in an attempt to clear it, “I have no idea, but evidently Marc knows something, and we aren’t getting anywhere with this now, let’s meet back up here tomorrow lunch.”

They all agreed, leaving in various states of deep thought and bewilderment.

Alya stumbled into the classroom seconds before the bell, surprised to see Marinette still at the back. Actually, she was surprised to see her at all. Once again, Marinette had managed to get into the building unnoticed by her, or any of the art club if the looks on their faces as they too reached the classroom late were of any indication.

Unable to question each other or Marinette due to Mme Bustier arriving, they all took their seats, Alya slightly cringing at the sight of Lila in the seat next to hers.

When class finally finished, Alya tailed her best friend through the halls to the locker room, counting herself lucky that she had managed to hide each time Marinette looked behind her.

“Marinette.” Alya hid behind one of the lockers, instantly recognising Lila’s voice.

“Where have you been,” Lila stared Marinette down as she hunched against her locker.

Alya had never heard Marinette so scared as when she answered, “Please Lila, I just want to get my stuff.”

Alya heard a slap. Followed by a punching sound, though there was no scream of shout or cry, just more hitting. She pulled out her phone and rounded the corner.

Recoding the scene in front of her, Alya was close to tears and ready to intervene.

“Please Lila, please.” Marinette begged.

“I’ll stop if you hit me back.”

“I, I don’t want to hurt you.”

Alya stopped in her tracks shocked, Lila simply sneered, “You? Hurt me?” She laughed tauntingly and kneed the designer in her side, “You’re weak, just like the sheeple you call friends.”

They both saw the moment Marinette snapped, her eye’s narrowing and Alya would always swear that her irises became impossibly bluer. She pulled back her fist and punched Lila dead in the nose. Sweeping her legs around while Lila recovered from her surprise, effectively knocking her down.

From her place on the ground Lila held her bleeding nose, and with a nasally voice, threatened to go to the teacher as she now had evidence. Alya saw one shudder travel through her friend and stepped in, unable to take it anymore.

“I filmed it all, I have proof what Marinette did was in self-defence. You hold nothing over her.” Lila scowled and picked herself off the floor. Growling in Marinette’s direction, she stormed off, not before giving the pair one last dirty look.

Marinette glanced at her best friend and collapsed onto her knees in tears.

“Marinette! Why are you crying?”

“She’ll go after you now, you have to apologise to her, please Alya, please!” Marinette begged, clutching at the bottom of Alya’s shirt and sobbing loudly.

Prying Marinette’s hands off her shirt, Alya knelt beside her and pulled her into a hug, whispering assertions to calm the girl down.

“I’m not scared of that liar, Marinette, we can defeat her together.”

Masterpost.

#mlb #miraculous ladybug #marinette dupain cheng #alya cesaire #the art club

35 notes · View notes

littlemisssquiggles · 5 years

Text

RWBY Musings #80: Trust in Love: How far will Ruby’s deception go and how much will it affect her bond with Oscar?

miki-13 asked “ I remember you making a headcanon or two of Ruby getting a wolf-faunus boyfriend and well... Marrow is based on Boy who Cried Wolf, he has green hair and eyes and he wears white clothes, all which contrast Ruby's red/black hair and outfit. Not to mention the distance Ruby's lying put between her and Oscar, and possibly her team... maybe Ruby will try to find someone outside of her circle for comfort?”

explodingcarr0t asked “ From what I’ve seen of screenshots and gifs of the newest episode, it seems like Oscar is sad/disappointed when Ruby lies to Ironwood and when Ironwood gives her the relic back. I really he calls her out on that especially since Qrow told her “we’re better than that”. Part of me wants it for Rose Garden stuff and (more importantly) that team RWBYJNRO for once don’t all agree on something.”

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

Squiggles Answers:

@miki-13 @explodingcarr0t

‘Sup Miki-chan! ‘Sup Carrot! Sorry for the delay in answering both of you, fam. I decided to turn my responses to your questions into a new musing post for this week since I was considering discussing my thoughts and theories on a certain moment we all know of from V7CH2 and you guys provided me more incentive to talk about it. So without further ado, let’s get into it, shall we?

[Spoilers Ahead! Nuff said!]

One thing this squiggle meister is very curious about with Ruby’s arc for V7 is just how far are the CRWBY Writers going to have her continue to be dishonest to Ironwood and his inner circle of confidantes for the sake of covering her tracks.

Because the thing about lies and half-truths is that, while they may start off small and harmless at first, eventually they start to build up after some point the more times you do it. You tell one lie to cover up the first one and then you tell another to cover up the last one and so on and so forth until before you know it, you’re sitting on a mountain of lies where you’re left unclear of what’s actually the truth anymore. And essentially you end up lying even to yourself so you wouldn’t have to deal with the guilt of your own deceit or worse, the potential emotional impact your duplicity has on the people you deceived. This is my concern for Ruby.

Are the lies just going to stop at her not disclosing the truth about Oz and the Relic of Knowledge to Ironwood or will there be more to come from that?

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

Down, Down the Rabbit Hole

Because already Ruby has told two very significant lies. The first untruth was about Ozpin’s sudden disappearance while the second one was regarding the true status of the Relic of Knowledge in order to plug up the holes in the first lie.

As an audience member, I understood Ruby’s motives for choosing to not disclose the whole truth to the General. On one end, she probably did it out of her own slight mistrust of Ironwood given how he and the military initially treated the heroes upon their arrival in Atlas; not to mention all the odd stuff she’s heard about him regarding his disregard of the plight of the People of Mantle under his leadership.

I recognize that Ruby probably felt it best to not reveal everything they learnt back in Argus to Ironwood ---at least not yet, maybe---considering he might not be in the best frame of mind to absorb said new info especially the part about Salem’s invulnerability due to her immortality curse. I also wish to believe that another reason as to why Ruby was quick to lie about Ozpin’s sudden disappearance was due in part to her, once again, looking out for Oscar’s well-being. Ruby must’ve acknowledged Oscar’s anxiety after the General approached him and started probing him about Oz.

Not to mention that let’s not forget that the last time someone heard the truth about Salem, it didn’t exactly end very well on Oscar’s part. Qrow straight up socked Ozpin in the jaw with little regard for the physical repercussions it might have on Oscar afterwards. Same for Jaune who downright slammed Oscar against the wall at the Cotta-Arc residence spitting accusations about Ozpin in the poor kid’s face. Thus far, apart from becoming his successor, Oscar has additionally become the proverbial punching bag for all of Ozpin’s past mistakes.

So one could only imagine how Ironwood might react to the news; especially in light of his current paranoia, according to what Pietro pointed out in the first episode.

So yeah, given all that, I would say that Ruby had a solid good rationale to lie. That still doesn’t stop me from disliking it as much as the next viewer given the potential circumstances that can come from it. And that’s the point of my unease. I’m worried that Ruby may have low-key written herself into the same trap Oz once placed himself in. Sure she may have told one half-truth and one little white lie, repeating Ozpin, but who’s to say that it’ll stop just there?

As I said, once you’ve told one lie, it’s very easy for it to spin into a web of lies especially when your previous lie starts to crack and leave glaring holes in your last alibi leading to you telling more lies to cover up it up before it stirs more problems for you. This is the danger of the predicament Ruby has placed herself and the heroes in with Ironwood.

Ruby told Ironwood that Oz disappeared after the Argus train crash, correct? So at this moment, James must assume that Oscar’s problem with Oz must have something to do with his soul or something. As evidenced by the V7 Opening, Oscar is expected to be training, possibly privately with Ironwood, for this season. Ironwood also promised to work with Oscar on bringing Ozpin back.

Who’s to say that Ironwood wouldn’t start probing Oscar with questions on his predicament, hoping to hear a proper explanation from his mouth?

After all, Ruby was the one who answered on Oscar’s behalf for a problem relating to his soul. I’m sure this is going to lead into Ironwood prompting Oscar with the same said question and more in order to have Oscar’s answers correlate with what Ruby first told him.

I doubt Ruby is going to be in the same room as Oscar all the time to answer for him. I mean, she can try. Like imagine how awfully suspicious it’s going to look if Ruby always accompanied Oscar on his training lessons with Ironwood; for proclaimed morale support; only each time Ironwood asks Oscar regarding Ozpin, he’d either stammer or Ruby will jump up immediately to answer for him again.

After all, if Oscar answers incorrectly, it could potentially poke holes in Ruby’s lie which can lead to Ironwood becoming suspicious of the two and the heroes---especially in his current paranoid state. With Oscar sharing moments alone with the General, this could potentially lead to the farm boy also sharing moments with Ruby---not really for the sake of them bonding but more so that the two can correlate stories and Ruby can ensure that whatever Oscar says doesn’t contradict anything she said.

Because that’s another thing about lies, right? They have all the durability of a severed ball of yarn left to roll aimlessly on the floor. At some point, the lies will start to fall apart and unravel with the threat of the truth being exposed. We saw that clearly with what transpired back during the aftermath of Argus Limited train crash with Ozpin.

If things unravelled so quickly and heavily back then, it’s going to happen again with possibly far worse consequences for the hero team especially depending on how long they continue to withhold the truth from Ironwood. And here in lies another great concern I have going forward into the season--- how will Ruby’s deception affect her budding friendship with Oscar and how much will it dampen his overall trust in her?

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

Love and Lies

Alrighty! Time to finally tackle the Mammoth Grimm in the room. Oscar was clearly NOT happy with Ruby lying to Ironwood.

Some Pineheads claimed he appeared annoyed with Ruby in that moment; hence her sort of guilty glance at him as he looked away from her.

Others said he was disappointed. For me, while I can’t exactly put a name to what Oscar’s expression meant; I’d say it’s more disappointment with a tinge of gloom rather than annoyance, in my opinion.

As a matter of fact, Oscar’s face in V7CH2 reminded me of the same depressed look me made back in V6CH4, after he had commented to Ruby about him being ‘just another one of his---meaning Ozma or Ozpin’s---lives’ only for Ruby to respond reassuringly that he was his own person. Only for the comforting moment to then be ruined by Qrow commenting dryly:

“…Don’t lie to him, Ruby. We’re better than that.”

It’s the same face. By Oscar’s impression of her, Ruby is supposed to be a better person than this. Someone who is above lies and keeping secrets from their allies, especially following their last adventure in Argus. May I remind everyone that the events of V6 took place over the course of four days with the finale and first two episodes of V7 relatively being the same day.

So technically, in terms of the RWBY timeline, it was only two days ago when Ozpin disappeared into Oscar’s mind and left the group on their own in the wilderness of Anima’s Northern coastline, eventually leading to them taking temporary refuge on Brunswick Farms.

Two days ago, the whole truth came out and the heroes were understandably very displeased with Ozpin for withholding such important information from them for so long especially the part about Salem being indestructible and Ozpin not having an actual plan to stop her; not even after all these centuries and lifetimes of fighting to keep her at bay.

Two days ago, the heroes were rightfully upset with Ozpin for keeping secrets from them especially since they were supposed to be on the same side, fighting for the same cause. What was it that Yang told Ozpin back in V6CH2?

“…Look we’re supposed to be in this together. You can trust us. We’re not going to turn on backs on you…”

…This was later followed up by the heroes turning their backs on Ozpin after the truth was forced out.

Two days ago, the heroes fed Ozpin to the dogs for choosing secrecy over trust despite the fact that they were all supposedly allies and now here were are, two days later with our gaggle of heroes pulling the same stunt that Ozpin pulled with them.

Ironwood and his Inner Circle---Penny 2.0, Winter and the Ace Ops---are allies to our heroes. It’s like what Ace Ops member: Marrow Amin said to them in the same episode.

“…We’re on the same team now…”

They’re on the same team yet one side still chose to withhold not one, but two important pieces of information from the other. The same side that just the other day called out their previous leader for pulling the same stunt they’re doing now. The same stunt that ultimately caused his isolation and placed him in the doghouse with his own team of huntsmen and huntresses.

Do you see why this is problematic?

Don’t get me wrong; narratively I’m enjoying this direction that the CRWBY Writers chose to take Ruby and Ozpin’s hero team. I’m anticipating that it will lead into the group finally understanding why Oz chose to handle things the way he did in the first place by letting them stand in his shoes for a few more episodes; eventually culminating with our heroes properly reconciling with Oz on better terms. While it doesn’t erase or excuse the prolonged impacts of his past actions and mistakes, at least this rounds the group will have a better understanding for why Oz is the way he is; y’know what I’m saying?

After all, Ozpin did explain back in V6 that the basis for his conduct was backed by experience and those experiences---good, bad and/or indifferent---moulded him into the very wise and heavily cautious man he came to be.

“…Do you really think Leo was the first? That he didn’t say those exact same words to me? I’m sorry but you have to understand that my behaviours are backed by experience. I’m not saying that I have reason to think you will betray me, I’m saying that I have reasons for the things that I do, the secrets I keep…”

And I’d like to think that by the end of V6, the heroes come to have a better relationship with Oz having gone through a somewhat similar experience that lead to them adopting the same mind-set as Oz. So story-wise, this is great as a future plot development.

However; on the flipside to this; morally---this move also makes Ruby and the heroes look like a bunch of hypocrites; sadly to point out.

It looks bad any way you spin it.

You didn’t hesitate to call out Ozpin for his deceit and put him and Oscar through the ringer because of it but here you are casually doing the exact same thing. I hope for the love of Oum that Ruby doesn’t believe that what she did was the right call.

As a matter of fact, this squiggle meister is very interested in hearing what Ruby’s validation for choosing to lie to Ironwood and their Atlesian allies is going to be; meaning that I’m curious to hear what she tells Oscar in the aftermath of V7CH2.

I think we can all assume that Oscar is definitely going to pull Ruby aside and confront her on her actions in Ironwood’s office. He’s not going to roughly accost her or anything. Like I said, I don’t think Oscar is as mad at Ruby as people believe. If anything, I’m expecting Oscar to approach Ruby very calmly about this subject and granted that she’s able to explain her reasons, he’ll be quite understandable.

This is also where I expect Ruby’s quote from the V7 Trailer to come in:

“…I’m trying to do what I think it’s best but I really can’t tell if what’s best is what’s right…”

She’ll probably say this during a talk with Oscar to help him understand where she was coming from with her decision; which Oscar will most likely respect. Like I said, if Ruby is able to help Oscar understand then he most likely will since he trusts Ruby and trusts her judgement.

Hooooooooooweeevvvvvevr…

That doesn’t meant that Oscar is going to be 100% okay with Ruby lying to the General. He’ll probably let it slide the first time on the grounds that the truth must come out at some point. Possibly before the completion of Amity Tower before it’s hauled into space and before Ironwood could make his global broadcast to all of Remnant.

The truth has to come out. Right now, Ironwood is operating only on the belief that he thinks Salem can still be stopped. He still believes there’s a chance.

I mean what’s Ironwood gonna think telling the rest of Remnant about the existence Salem is going to achieve? Does he believe it’ll rally the People of Remnant against Salem by decreasing her chances of wooing others to her side if they knew of her presence? I mean sure, that’s not a bad thought. However Ironwood is missing the major miscalculation in his plan.

Right now, as far we know, the rest of Remnant hates Atlas. Let’s not forget what Cordovin said back in V6:

“…You’re just like the rest of these Argus ingrates! This city wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for our Atlesian ancestors and what do we get in return? The entire world is ready to put a knife to our throats!”

“The General is no coward. Atlas is strong! If all the kingdoms plan to make us our enemy then so be it! Atlas will prevail!”

If that wasn’t a huge red flag and a mega foreshadow for the spark of a second Great War with the remaining kingdoms turning heels and deciding to wage war against Atlas then I don’t know what is.

If Atlas reveals the truth about Salem to all of Remnant, not only will it cause the whole world to descend into chaos bringing forth the Grimm but it’ll also make Atlas appear even more treacherous to the remaining three kingdoms.

“So that’s why you withdrew your troops. To handle the panic that will break out in Atlas.” “Yes. Panic is inevitable and panic brings Grimm. But I believe we are ready. Once Atlas has comes to grips with the fight ahead, I’ll use Amity Tower to spread the message to all of Remnant. “

“But everything will fall apart. Grimm will be everywhere!”

“You’re right. But Atlas is willing and prepared to assist.”

“Trying to hide the truth from the world will eventually kill us all.”

… And suddenly dropping the truth on the world will only serve to quicken the process of humanity’s destruction.

At least hiding the truth brought you some time to try and figure out a better alternative with possibly less chaos; which I’m assuming is what Ozma and the rest of the Wizards have been trying to do wisely for many, many, years.

Bold of Winter to assume that the rest of the world will be willing to cooperate with Atlas against the Grimm once this word gets out. Also foolish of Ironwood to not consider that this might just be want the enemy wants. What Salem and her forces are expecting and banking on. As a matter of fact, that’s the game plan, isn’t it?

What Ironwood said in V7CH2 is starting to make sense of breadcrumbs left behind from V6 regarding Salem and her schemes. Once upon a time, I made a hunch where I gave my impression of what I believe might be Salem’s ultimate goal.

Do you remember what the God of Light told Ozma in the Lost Fable?

“…We have chosen to depart this world, but in our absence, I would like to offer you the chance to return to it.”

“I…don’t understand.”

“Mankind is no more yet your world remains; and in time, your kind will grow to walk its face again. However, without our presence, they will be but a fraction of what they once were.

Creation, destruction, choice and knowledge were the ideals upon which humanity was made. Now I leave them behind with the hope that you may learn to remake yourselves.

If brought together, these four Relics will summon my brother and I back to your world and humanity will be judged.

If your kind has learned to live in harmony with one another and set aside their differences, then we shall once again live among you and humanity will be made whole again.

But if your kind is unchanged, if you demand our blessings while still fighting amongst yourselves, then man will be found irredeemable and your world will be wiped from existence. Until your task is complete, you will reincarnate but in a manner that ensures that you are never alone…”

Salem wants to bring about both mankind and Remnant’s destruction. She wants the world to fall to chaos and war so that by the time, she and her minions successfully gather all four Relics and summon the Brother Gods back to Remnant, the Brothers will have no choice but to wipe both man and Remnant from existence as they said they would after arriving to find it going through yet another Great War.

This is what will happen if Ironwood goes forward with his plan and this is exactly what Salem wants. Don’t you see? Now a lot of details are starting to add up. This is why Watts and Tyrian were sent to Atlas for. Not just to stir problems for its military but to ensure that Ironwood goes forward with Amity Tower.

This is also why Ruby needs to come clean to Ironwood before construction on Amity Tower is complete.

But she doesn’t have to do it alone. Oscar also has his own part in stopping Ironwood too by figuring out a way to bring Ozpin back.

This isn’t just about burying the hatchet anymore. The heroes need Oz because, according to Watts in V6, Ozpin is the only person who can talk sense into Ironwood and make him see the astronomical sized flaw in his master plan (supposedly).

If Oz returns, he’ll be able to level with Ironwood and persuade him from moving forward with the broadcast. Ironwood is clearly forgetting that his plan for Amity Tower is nothing but a rehash of the Vytal Festival on a much global scale.

Last time, Ironwood wanted to bring his army to Vale for the Vytal Festival but Oz was heavily against this plan out of fear that the Military’s presence may spark uncertainty and anxiety within the public bringing forth negative emotions which will then bring forth the Grimm.

Following the Attack in Central Vale, Ironwood then went behind Ozpin’s back to the Council of Vale and got them to side with him, forcing Ozpin’s hand in the matter. Against his friend’s better judgement and advice, Ironwood got his way and his forces were brought to Vale; thus playing right into the villain’s hand.

And how did that go? It brought forth pandemonium because Arthur Watts hacked their security code, took over the entire Atlesian Army and contributed to the calamity that resulted in the Fall of Beacon.

Ironwood is pulling the exact same plan he pulled in Vale. Only this time, instead of being isolated to one kingdom, it’s going to affect the rest of the world.

How much do you want to bet that Watts’ will hack into Amity Tower and rig Ironwood’s first broadcast to Atlas so that the rest of the world is audience to what he reveals firstly to his kingdom?

How much do you want to bet that Watts will spin this in a way that once again humiliates Ironwood and the so-called strength of his kingdom and army? How much do you want to bet that Watts is going to spin this in a way that once again make Atlas look like traitors to the rest of Remnant?

After all, isn’t Watts not Atlesian and currently working with Salem? What’s stopping him from spinning it to look like Atlas has sided with Salem and has been working alongside her to cause war and trouble in the other kingdoms? Think about that.

Finally, what’s stopping Watts from taking full control of Amity Tower and rigging it to fall out of the sky and plummet towards Remnant with Vacuo as its targeted crash site? Thus making it appear as if Atlas has now waged an attack on Vacuo, all the while the rest of the world observes with baited breath?

I say Vacuo could be the next target for this staged attack by Atlas because of something Tyrian said back in V6CH9. Remember what he told Emerald and Mercury before his and Watts’ departure?

“…There’s been a change in plans. Your grace must act swiftly if we are to prevail. If General Ironwood comes to senses and calls upon aid from Vacuo, all may be lost for us. So the Good Doctor and I are being sent to Atlas to prepare…”

Last season, I shared a musing post where I depicted the possibility of the villains manipulating Ironwood to have Atlas wage war against Vacuo. Now looking at evidence provided by this season, I think I might’ve been onto something back then. Atlas is going to wage an attack on Vacuo…at least, that’s what the villains plan on making it look like.

Right now, Atlas already has two strikes against it. One for what transpired in Vale for the Vytal Festival and two for what happened in Argus with Caroline Cordovin and the awakening of the Leviathan.

There is no doubt in my mind that that event isn’t going to have severe repercussions for Atlas with the Mistral Council. Though they’ve been less of a vocal presence as the Council of Vale back in V2, it wouldn’t surprise me if word got back to them about what happened in their northern city.

And while our heroes left Argus with Cordovin and her military forces handling the remaining army of Manticore and Sphinx, mind you we never got to learn the aftermath of that; both with the People of Argus and the rest of Mistral.

As I’ve said many times before---Cordovin’s stunt in Atlas---with her bringing out the mechazord and proclaiming to all of Argus about the awesome might of Atlas and to consider her stunt of reminder of that---that’s definitely going to come back and it’s going to bite Atlas so hard in their metal behinds.

I can probably sit here and predict the events to come for the remainder of the Atlas Arc but I’m not gonna---that will probably be its own separate post.

Bottom-line, shit is going to hit the fan if the truth doesn’t come out and Ironwood isn’t brought to his senses. But before all of that can come to pass, let’s get back on track with what I was saying about the Rosebud friendship.

I feel like Ruby’s little white lie can potentially spell some emotionally heavy discourse between her and Oscar. One scenario that I’m hoping doesn’t happen but at the same time am worried could happen, is the truth being threatened to be forced out.

It’s like what Ironwood said. Panic is inevitable. Trying to avoid it may prolong the process but at the same time it only makes things worse in the long run. It’s no different than this.

Imagine you’re a kid in kindergarten on the school playground. You do something wrong but rather than tell your teacher the truth, you tell a lie. However unbeknownst to you, another student saw you do the bad thing.

Which do you think would have the worse ramification? If you were upfront with your teacher about the mistake you made and were at least shown to be honest in letting them hear the truth from your mouth…or…have someone else tattle on you making your actions appear twice as bad because on top of doing something wrong, you also lied about it.

With Ozpin, the truth was practically forced out of him because he basically brought himself to that point. I may have been one of the population of Ozpinheads who defended him last season and while I still stand in Oz’s court, I’m not going to deny the fact that Oz did put himself in that horrible position in V6CH2.

That I will admit here since, let’s be fair, Oz had several opportunities between Mistral and Argus (at least three chances from the time he and Oscar first reunited with Qrow at the bar) to come clean to the team and tell them everything which, at the end of the day, is all they wanted. No more lies and half-truths, right?

Instead of being upfront from the get-go and confronting the negative results of his actions from the truth then and there with his team, Oz chose to prolong it ---prolong the evitable panic like Ironwood said---which in turn made the situation look far worse for himself when the truth is brought out. Not through Oz but through Jinn because Ruby asked her to tell the truth since Oz wouldn’t. .

I’m not saying that things would’ve been different if Oz had just come clean. Anger and alarm probably would’ve happened either way.

I’m more saying things might’ve had a much better outcome if the truth had come from Oz instead of Jinn. Instead of having Ruby using Jinn, imagine how it would’ve been if Oz had revealed, by his own words, that Salem can’t be killed and that he’s been searching for years to find a way to stop her but to no avail thus far.

Imagine if Oz had just straight up said that the only thing he’s been successful in doing is keeping Salem at bay and preventing the world from falling into chaos again because he knows that’s what Salem wants because she wishes to gather the Relics to summon the Gods who would’ve then wiped humanity from existence because of the chaos.

Imagine if Oz had just told the team all of this new-news and then backed it all up by then summoning Jinn himself from the lamp and having her show the group everything from the time Ozma first met Salem to when he first learnt that she couldn’t be killed in his lifetime as Norman.

The Lost Fable made sense of so many actions and so-called mistakes that Oz had taken to prevent Salem from harming humanity. The terrible part was that the only way the team could’ve learnt this is by having Jinn reveal it. Not Oz. Like I said, the truth was forced out and we saw how bad that looked.

This is my concern for Ruby and Oscar. I’m worried that Ruby will desire to prolong revealing the truth to Ironwood for her own reasons backed by her experiences on the matter whereas Oscar will wish to come clean since it’ll be better for the comradery of everyone if they were just straight with each other from the start. No more lies, no more half-truths---just pure trust because trusting in each other will help them work better together to find a proper solution---or at least a better one than having the world fall to ruin.

Do you know what would be so funny but ironic? If Ruby is the one who ends up becoming more like Ozpin in this scenario whereas Oscar becomes more like her and Ruby ultimately sees more of herself in Oscar than Ozpin.

That can actually be potentially great for Oscar and Ruby’s friendship. Having that complete role reversal right there. This way it can help Ruby understand Ozpin (and thus use that spark of hers to get the others to understand Ozpin as well) while simultaneously strengthening the bond and growing trust she shares with Oscar.

So on one hand, I do want this kind of development to happen. But on the other hand, I fear it eventually happening because I know it will lead into a moment where Ruby and Oscar constantly butt heads on their differing ideologies and choices, leading to one big fight that could potentially destroy their bond.

It doesn’t though, obviously but it does hurt them both especially Oscar’s perception of Ruby since he’s seeing her become like Ozpin---telling the same lies he told, making the same mistakes he made--- and he knows fully well, more than anyone, that that’s a crooked path that doesn’t end well.

I can see Oscar having a potential Iroh moment with Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender. The small farm boy turned little barn prince isn’t mad at his rose. He’s more scared that she might lose her way and deviate from the person he knows her to be. Just as how Oz deviated from the man he once was given his past experience with Salem.

“…What Professor Lionheart did was reprehensible; I am not here to argue differently. But does one lapse in judgement truly negate all of his good? Do we not all have regrets? You may met Professor Lionheart, but you never met the man he was before Salem found him…”

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

The Little Prince and his Rose

My fear is as this season progresses, Ruby will continue to tell more lies that deceive Ironwood and withhold the truth about Salem from him and his forces, similar to how Ozpin did with the heroes.

This in turn will cause her and Oscar to often clash. My hunch is that since Oscar will be training with Ironwood while simultaneously working to figure out a way to bring Ozpin back, this interaction will cause Oscar to chum up to Ironwood, built a sense of trust between them that feels genuine to his eyes. This will then lead to Oscar desiring more and more to reveal the truth to Ironwood but he doesn’t wish to do that since it will mean breaking his trust with Ruby.

So instead Oscar tries more and more to convince Ruby to tell the truth herself since this all started with her and it would be better that the truth come from her instead of anyone else.

My theory is that Ruby will make promises to Oscar to tell the truth to their Atlesian allies but over their time in Atlas, those promises will be broken to the point that Ruby even starts to lie to Oscar.

…Or at least she tries to. But as we know, Oscar will see right through Ruby’s deceit---as evidenced by V5CH5 in the Dojo scene where Ruby tried to hide the truth about her repressed grief over the Fall of Beacon and the loss of her friends only for Oscar to call her out on it.

I fear that this will happen again. Ruby will continue to follow the same path as Ozpin, even to the point of lying to Oscar---one of her closest allies (as Oz did with Qrow and essentially Ironwood) and just like in the Dojo Scene, he’s going to call her out on it.

This could then potentially lead into Ruby and Oscar having a big fight. And do you know what would be interesting?

What if…Ruby and Oscar have a big fight over their disagreements of trusting their Atlesian allies only for Oscar to threaten Ruby with taking the Relic of Knowledge from her and using the last question to force the truth to come out in the same fashion as what happened with Ozpin.

I’m not saying this could potentially happen. But I am askinh what if it did?

Imagine if…this even leads to a moment where Oscar leaves and our heroes return to discover that he was gone again.

Like let’s say Oscar has been rooming with JNR in their dorm room for the majority of V7 only to disappear later with all his belongings cleared out of the JNR dorm. Not because Oscar ran away like in Argus but left to go maybe stay with Ironwood wherever he lives up in Atlas.

Like imagine JNR_RWBY freaking out about Oscar disappearing on them a second time---doubt he went shopping this time, am I right?---only for Atlas Academy Employee of the Month Penny 2.0 to jubilantly inform them that Oscar has gone to stay with the General at his quarters, much to everyone’s shock especially Ruby’s.

In the Little Prince story, the Prince eventually left his home planet because of the Rose. I believe the story was that the Prince grew tired of the Rose not reciprocating his feelings despite all that he did for her (because she was naïve and vain) so he left her to explore the rest of cosmos.

Picture…something like that with the Rosebuds where Oscar, tired of Ruby’s continued deceit and mistrust of their Atlesian allies and even him, loses trust in Ruby all together and leaves the hero team to side with Ironwood?

That could be an interesting plot point for V7, right? Similar to how the Rose from the Little Prince didn’t realize she loved him until he left, it can be a similar scenario for Ruby with Oscar only substitute love for trust. Or see it as one in the same if you will. Trust in love, right?

You can even say that trust and love go hand in hand. Because trust enables the heart to open up and it is only with the heart, that one can see rightly what essentially is invisible to the eye. Love. See what I did there, right?

What if… similar to her counterpart from the Little Prince, Ruby doesn’t realize how much she trusts Oscar and valued his trust in her until he eventually left her out of fear that he couldn’t trust her anymore and the belief that she doesn’t trust him entirely.

Technically the idea is that Ozpin isn’t trusted anymore by the team. Ozpin is a part of Oscar and the narrative belief is that Oscar is meant to become Ozpin. The team trusts Oscar. Ruby trusts Oscar. However Ozpin is the other half of Oscar. The team can’t trust Oscar and not Ozpin. They can’t trust only half of him because what happens when Oscar and Ozpin become one whole person.

Will the group retain their trust in Oscar or remain distrustful of Ozpin? Basically I think it’s going to boil down to Oscar thinking that he isn’t trusted entirely by the group, particularly Ruby (as the proclaimed leader of the rag-tag) due to Ozpin.

I think this is what will also lead to Oscar’s departure. His fight with Ruby could potentially lead to Ruby dropping the ball that she’s still distrustful of Oz, which, by Oscar’s understanding means she doesn’t trust him either.

She might as well be saying that she doesn’t trust Oscar since technically; she can’t trust half of him, right?

I can see this as an opportune moment for Oscar to show his support of Oz by saying Oz is a part of him just as much as he is a part of Oz.

Oz’s responsibilities are his responsibilities. His burdens are Oscar’s burdens. His past mistakes and all the consequences of them are Oscar’s and it’s his duty to rectify them in a sense. Thus justifying my theory of Oscar challenging Ruby on deceiving their Atlesian allies as well as my Pinehead headcanon of Oscar wishing to mend the bond between Oz and the heroes.

Oscar and Oz may be two minds in one body but at their core, they are one man (and that man’s name was Ozma---ESPECIALLY if my other Pinehead headcanon about Oscar being the one true Ozma as the younger reincarnated version of his original body in Modern Day Remnant is true).

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

The Wolf Who Helped the Rose

Before I conclude my Rosebuds theory, let me just deviate to touch base on your question about Marrow and Ruby @miki-13.

While I still like my Ruby’s Big Bad Boyfriend Lil Red headcanon (and thank you so much for remembering it), I don't think I can actually pair Marrow up with Ruby. At least, I don’t think so? Let me double check.

Well, I'm assuming that Aces are all graduates from Atlas Academy, right? Clover did address our hero team as students which gave me the impression that he and his own rag-tag of teammates have already finished school since they’re currently working with the military and it was stated in the Atlas Academy ad that graduates from the academy eventually go onto join the military with a chance of joining their special operatives division.

It was also mentioned briefly by Ozpin back in V1 that upcoming huntsmen train in the academies for four years from the age of 17 before graduating to become certified huntsman and huntresses who go on to serve their kingdoms. That being said, if I had to guess the ages of the Ace Op members, I’m assuming they’re all in their 20s since they would’ve been at least 21 years old by the time they finished the academy, right?

So right now, it’s safe to assume that Marrow is probably at least four years senior to Ruby. He doesn’t look a day over 21 (unless he lies about his age, eyyy!)

A 21-year-old working graduate dating a 17-year-old student technically in her second year of huntsmen training? People already crucify Rosegarden for the measly two year age difference between Ruby and Oscar. Imagine how much trouble a potential Big Bad (Ruby x Marrow) ship could stir?

Nevertheless, I do like the concept of Marrow having a kind of flirtatious exchange with Ruby. Since my key Marrow ship is Bunny Bites with him and Harriet, I can totally picture Marrow pulling a Neptune and kind of flirting with Ruby but only to make Harriet jealous because that’s their thing. Like I can picture Marrow secretly having the biggest crush on Harriet (which is reciprocated by her interest in him) but due to Harriet’s competitive nature with him on the battlefield and Marrow’s habit of lying, Marrow often pretends he doesn’t like Harriet that way by flirting with other girls in front of her.

It’s like Marrow totally likes Harriet a lot but doesn’t want her to know that he likes her that way; y’know what I’m saying? So basically he’s a big ole tsundere. Still a good boy though.

Anyways, in terms of Ruby turning to Marrow for comfort when her relationship with Oscar goes sour, you actually might be onto something there, Miki.

Imagine…Ruby being depressed after Oscar left home to stay with Ironwood (going back to my theory). She goes for a walk alone to clear her head and bumps into who else but Marrow, of all people. Imagine Ruby confiding in him about hurting Oscar with the whole lying thing and in a surprising twist, Marrow helps her out and actually offers some good advice.

Imagine how ironic it would sound if the Boy Who Cried Wolf taught Ruby about the consequences of lying too often. As a matter of fact, that could be the morale that Marrow imparts on Ruby in relation to the lesson that was the basis of the original Aesop Fable he’s based on.

That’s actually pretty brilliant when you think about it. So it fits excellently especially when I add it to the events of my Rosegardening Rosebuds headcanon:

Ruby lies to Ironwood. Continues to lie and keep secrets from the Atlas Crew following in Oz’s footsteps (maybe it might even make Ruby think back to the lesson that Oz imparted on her with the burden of leadership from V1). Her continued deceit hurts her friendship with Oscar leading to them fighting and Oscar leaving his home with their team.

Ruby grows sad because of this. Meets a Good Boy (Marrow) who imparts an important lesson onto her by probably telling her a story---a fable if you will---inspired by his life.

This inspires Ruby to make things right with everyone. So on the day Amity Arena is complete, with Ironwood possibly planning to make the broadcast later that same day---Ruby comes clean. All the right people are already present---Ironwood, Winter, Penny, Qrow, the Ace Ops, JNR_WBY and of course Oscar.

Ruby takes the floor and goes into making the big reveal. But before she does that, she gives a heartfelt speech where she apologizes to everyone for lying to them---including Oscar but she does it in a manner where she doesn’t outright come out and apologize to Oscar (cause she’s giving her big ole trademark Ruby speech) but it is heavily implied in her words and subtle glances in Oscar’s direction.

So Ruby drops the ball that Salem can’t be destroyed. Naturally, the Atlesians react in shock and immediate disbelief of this. So to further emphasize her point, Ruby summons Jinn before their very eyes.

Since Ruby told Ironwood that the lamp has already been used up, I think Ruby summoning Jinn could be a nice way to get her point across. I also considered the idea of Ruby using the last question to have Jinn show the truth of Ozma’s past and everything the heroes saw back in Argus to Ironwood and his forces.

I can see that as another way to further get the point across. But at the same time, it wouldn’t surprise me if the lamp isn’t used for V7 just in case the CRWBY Writers planned on savouring the last question for later.

But overall, my point is that in the end Ruby pulls herself from making the same mistake as Oz did. However this experience also helps Ruby to better understand Oz as well which leads to her apologizing to him just as much as Oscar.

So Ruby’s trust in Oz is renewed and the same can be said for her trust in Oscar. I can see a potential plot development like this being used to strengthen Ruby and Oscar’s bond through strengthening their trust in each other.

Though they may have had their fair share of doubts, especially about the other beforehand, by the end, there is no more reservations. Only trust in its purest of forms thus opening the door to love.

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

So to conclude…

Trust love. Trust in love. Love and trust, you can say it whatever way you’d like, it means the same in the end.

These two sentiments often go hand in hand and it wouldn’t surprise me if our pair of Rosegardening Rosebuds learning to completely trust one another essentially opens the door for them to fall in love with each other. Who knows? It could happen for this season given the breadcrumbs dropped by these last two episodes.

As always, these are only my thoughts and theories and as expected, my assumptions could be wrong in the end. But either way, I would actually love to see some of the headcanons I shared in this post come to fruition in the canon. Particular the one where Ruby’s continued deception of Ironwood and their Atlesian allies causes her and Oscar to ‘break up’ and Oscar leaves the team because of it. I like it since it harkens back to the Little Prince and you guys know much this squiggle meister loves seeing those fairytale parallels, however big or small, within the RWBY canon.

Besides, sometimes things need to fall apart just so they could be brought back together stronger than ever. I can see this happening for Ruby and Oscar’s arc for this season. If I’m correct in V7 being the closest we’ve ever seen these two together along with the hunches I’ve shared in this musing post then brace yourself fellow Pineheads, Rosegardeners and Rosegardening Pineheads, we may be in for a wild ride with these two smaller, more honest souls for this season. But we shall see.

In the meantime, I hope you all enjoyed the new musing. As for Miki and Carrot, I hope I best answered your questions. Let me know what you guys think about my theories shared here if you can.

Until then, I’ll see you all in the next RWBY Musing. Cheerios FNDM fam!

More Squiggles’ RWBY Content

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

#miki-13 #squiggles answers: rwby #oscar pine #ruby rose #oscar and ruby #rwby rosegarden #rwby theories #rwby volume 7 theories #rwby volume 7 spoilers #rwby volume 7 #rwby musings

54 notes · View notes

thepelagoislands · 4 years

Text

New Island: Pruina Rock

@summertidesun | @dancing-lxghts

In the distance, there is fog. From your small boat, you can see a mass of fog lined with a shore of white and topped with the jagged tops of bare mountains. This doesn’t look like normal fog at all, either. Not with the way it remains frozen in place, like crystal. Not in the way it’s completely opaque and nearly solid. After a few moments of sailing towards it, you spot a long, black pier jutting out from the fog. The pier is large, intricate, like it used to house hundreds of ships in a time long since passed.

And after you step onto the dock and wander closer to this white shore and fog...you’ll notice that they aren’t either of those things. The shore isn’t made of white sands. It’s simply a normal shore coated entirely in a thick, fluffy layer of snow. And the fog that you see isn’t a fog at all. What lies before you and your companions is what looks to be a blizzard, completely frozen in time. Millions of thick snowflakes, each one intricate and different in design, sit unmoving in midair. The illusion of fog is simply these snowflakes sitting at a standstill. And if you touch or move these snowflakes, they simply melt on contact, the cold water trailing down your skin like normal.

The ground is coated in snow, the accumulation reaching up to at least knee level on an averaged sized person. It is quiet, like an average day at sea.

> I Actually Hate This

> I Wanna Find Elsa

As you walk through the frozen blizzard, you leave something akin to a tunnel behind you, a straight path through the snowflakes in your shape. All the while, there seems to be no indication of any pathways or signs of any sort. If there was a pathway, it has long been buried in the snow, and you are simply trudging in a straight direction in the hope of finding something.

However, as you reach further and further into the island, there’s a sudden shift in the air. First, it’s the rumble of the ground. Then, it’s the smell of ice. Then, the temperature, while already cold in this snowy tundra, drops way below freezing.

And the moment is finalized with a long, deafening roar.

And just as the roar finishes, the snowflakes all around you begin to move. It’s slow at first. The snowflakes slowly begin to twitch out of their time frozen state, and then they start to fall one by one, and then even more fall from the sky, and then the wind begins to pick up. The process takes several moments to take shape, but even if you’re running back at full sprint, you would never be able to outrun it. The time frozen blizzard has begun once more, and you are caught up in the middle of it.

You find yourself completely lost, unable to gather your bearings. You can try to make a break for it back to the pier, but you can’t seem to find it anymore. You can barely even see your hand if it’s outstretched in front of you, and if your companions aren’t keeping close by, it’s too easy to get separated and lost in this blizzard. And the longer your stay out exposed like this, the more in danger you are of getting hypothermia or worse.

Finally, after countless moments of searching aimlessly, you see a faint yellow light in the distance. And as you walk towards this light, you’ll find that it is an electric lamppost, standing tall outside of a small, wooden cabin.

As you enter this cabin, you find a dark, abandoned cabin. Faint white light casted by the blizzard outside casts a dim light from clouded windows, faintly illuminating a large, unlit fireplace with a stack of clean-cut wood sitting in a pyramid beside it. Beside the front door is a small coat rack containing two thick, heavy coats. On the far side of the room is a long, rectangular table with a large map sitting unfurled upon it. And in the corner of the room is a large bed with countless blankets piled on top of it. It’s just as cold as it was outside in this little cabin, but lighting the fireplace will easily rectify that after some time. If any of your companions were separated from you in the blizzard, they too will eventually find this cabin, albeit in a more dire state, due to their longer exposure to the blizzard winds.

The unfurled map in the far side of the room is hand drawn, painstakingly scrawled by hand. Water damage is visible on this map, and it looks like it’s been drenched in water and subsequently dried countless times. And the lines are drawn on top of each other over and over again, each individual line jagged and shaken like they were drawn by a shaky hand in the middle of the blizzard.

The top of the map reads Pruina Rock, and it has a very rough outline of what you assume the entire island’s perimeter is. Marked in red in the center of the island is a sketchy drawing of a cabin, and this cabin has been circled multiple times. And from this cabin are multiple pathways, all marked in red with what looks like to be flags drawn along the paths.

There are multiple copies of this map rolled up in the corner of the table.

There are four destinations marked in total: The Docks, Wep’keer, The Summit, and The Den.

Travelling

Once you decide on a destination to venture to from this cabin and between locations, you can follow the directions provided by the map. As you travel by the map, you’ll find multiple wooden posts along the correct paths, a red scarf tied to each one. They will be your markers along the journey.

However, the journey is not completely infallible. Roll the following to see whether you complete your journey safely:

t!choose safe | safe | safe | monsters

If you are to roll monsters, then from the blizzard, multiple shadows will appear all around you. They take the shape of large, shadowed foxes with bright blue eyes. And they’ll team up on you and your companions to attempt to defeat you in combat. Immediately, your map is torn from your hands and tossed to the wind, so even if you defeat your foes, you’ll be unable to navigate correctly.

Roll the following to find where you end up, should you roll a monster roll.

t!choose cabin | wep’keer | summit | den

The Docks

Upon your arrival at the docks, you’ll be right where you started. You’ll be free to leave without harm. And as you leave, you’ll see the blizzard slow before it freezes once again.

Wep’keer

As you near the destination marked Wep’keer, you’ll notice several different yellow lights, the same as the light that came from the abandoned cabin. And as you grow closer and closer, you’ll find a few buildings clustered close together, like it was the tiniest village in existence. Around these three buildings are the snow-covered foundations of new buildings, all incomplete. This town was obviously meant to be much larger, and it was in the process of building up its size. All of these buildings are abandoned in a similar fashion to the cabin, though each building has its own items within.

The General Store

You’ll find a completely cleared out general store, all emptied of stock. It looked as though this was a smaller store, only meant for a small amount of visitors and not anything stocked for a heavy amount of traffic. The only thing remaining inside is a small flyer swept under the front counter. It’s an advertisement to visit Wep’keer, a new village promising just the same amount of opportunity that Leuda did, and also promising a strong mining opportunity.

Small Home

There is a small home with a door slightly ajar, and on the inside, it’s completely covered in snow. There is a small, golden necklace tucked away in the corner of the room. If worn, this necklace will curse the holder to only speak the truth for as long as it is worn.

Mining Company

The largest complete building is what looks to be the main building for a budding mining company. On the outside reads the following in ornate, blue letters: The Wep’keer Mining Company. On the inside, there is a front desk with two doors beside it. There are other doors, but the rooms past these doors have long since collapsed from the snow accumulation. The door on the right leads to a larger room with multiple beds, obviously mean to house any workers. The door on the left, however, leads to a stockroom filled with countless gems and ore.

In the center of this stockroom, however, is the most peculiar thing of all. There is a floating blue flame in the center of the room. And this flame has a nearly hypnotic quality to it. The more you look at it, the more you feel warm and drawn to it, growing closer and closer to it. And you start to forget about anything outside of this flame. It will only have this effect on the first person who sees it, and none of the rest of you. You won’t notice any of your other companions if they enter and talk to you. You won’t notice as the blue flame begins to cast a long shadow on the ground in the shape of a fox.

Eventually, the white figure of an impossibly large, twelve tailed fox will appear from the shadows. As you sit distracted by this flame, the fox will scoop you into its mouth. And the only thing you can feel is the slow realization of what is happening, and just as you begin to panic, everything goes dark.

To everyone else who bears witness to this, they will only see you lifelessly get lifted into the mouth of a fox. And just as they move to attack, the fox will slowly melt back into a shadow on the floor, taking you with it. And once the fox is gone, the blue flame will go out.

The companion who was taken by the fox will awaken in The Den.

The Summit

This path will eventually lead uphill through the blizzard, and eventually after a long while of walking, you will emerge from the top of this blizzard fog and be heading towards the summit of one of the many tall, pointed tips of a mountain. The path is very long and treacherous, but at the very top of this mountain lies a large, flat circle. And in the center of this circle is what appears to be a shrine. It sits on a circular, light blue dais, and there’s an altar in the center of this dais.

Anyone with the Summoner Class will be able to detect that this altar contains a resting place of a summon spirit. And if you approach this altar, the summon spirit Celsius will emerge.

If one of your companions has been taken by the blue light in the village, Celsius will refuse to challenge your party, as it senses that your strength is needed elsewhere. She will provide a path of ice to lead you to The Den.

Contact the main for the full summon post.

If you and your companions are defeated by Celsius, she will transport you back to the docks at 1HP each.

The Den

This pathway will lead to the mouth of a large cave. The closer you get to this cave, the colder you begin to feel. It was already cold in the middle of this blizzard, but near this cave, it just gets colder and colder until you don’t think you can handle it. Cold wind cuts right out of this cave, not making it any better.

If you brave the cold wind, you’ll enter into a large cavern. And this cavern is a sight to behold. The walls are covered in rich ore and jewels, the walls of a mine that has yet to be exploited for all of its riches. Countless sapphires, emeralds, iron, gold, silver, diamonds...as much as the eye can see. And it isn’t just the rich rock that catches your eye.

The cavern is decorated. The stone beneath your feet is covered in ornate rugs, all matching in beautiful, intricate patterns of blue and white. Several of the more bare walls of the cavern are draped in rich, white curtains lined with silver, beautiful framed pieces of artwork that appear to be worth millions, mirrors lined in ornate silver frames, and countless other expensive things.

The furniture is nothing to pass over either. It appears to be furnished as a home of sorts, and not one piece of furniture is dull. A wooden chest with the most intricately carved design on the top. A table with curved legs and countless, expensive possessions meticulously placed upon it. An antique bookshelf containing all the world’s rarest books and most difficult spell-casting books. A large, king sized bed dressed in the softest white sheets you have ever seen.

And standing in the center of this den is a tall man dressed to the nines in robes of white and blue. He has long, perfectly straight hair, glowing blue eyes, fox ears upon his head, and twelve fox tails.

And in a perfectly calm voice, he demands that you leave. He declares this entire cavern to be filled with his own possessions, and that he won’t tolerate anyone who steals from his collection. Countless humans attempted to steal from his cave years ago, humans who wished to harvest all the gems from the cavern walls. And he took care of them. He made sure that none of them set foot on this island ever again.

And if you refuse to leave, he will have no choice but to attack.

The Kidnapped Voyager

If you were kidnapped by the fox in the mining company building, you will find yourself waking up in the middle of the large bed in the middle of this cavern. You’ll feel safe, like you are home, even if you don’t recognize the cavern at all. And as you begin to take notice of your surroundings, you’ll find that you’ve been dressed in intricate robes of white and blue, though this does not bother you as much as it should. And as you stir from your sleeping position, you’ll see...the human form of that very fox. And strangely, though you do not know him, you feel calm around him.

The moments with the fox are calm...but strange. You find yourself unable to act against his word, and everything he tells you to do, you’ll obey without question. He’ll treat you kindly and give you food, companionship, anything you may require...but it’s almost as though you are a doll to him. A possession with considerable worth, similar to the rest of his collection.

And when your companions enter the cavern, you will recognize them...but for some reason your brain doesn’t connect that recognition to anything. You can see their faces and know that you’ve seen them before, but all your memories are hazy. And when the fox decides to attack your companions, he will order you to fight beside him. And you will have no choice but to fight these familiar strangers.

Upon the fox’s defeat, you will fall out of the thrall of the fox and remember everything again.

The Fox’s Defeat

If the Fox is defeated, the blizzard hanging over the island will vanish. It will still be a snowy area, but the thick blizzard will be gone and it will be safe to navigate without getting lost. In addition, all of the monsters will be gone.

In the cavern, you can collect up to 100,000G worth of items.

The Fox’s Win

If you and your companions are defeated by the Fox, you will be struck down one by one. Just as the Fox attempts to land a killing blow on all of you, his attack will suddenly be caught by something...or someone. Standing before all of you, defending you from the final attack, is the summon spirit Celsius, who tires of this Fox’s mockery of her element. She will buy you enough time to escape, and you will find a path made of pure ice leading you back to the cabin, ensuring you will not get lost in the blizzard.

Unfortunately...anyone still under the Fox’s thrall will still remain in his cave. Either the rest of you rest up in the cabin and try again...or you leave to call for help in defeating this Fox.

#pi:newisland #pi:pruinarock

3 notes · View notes

emerald-eyes-8917 · 5 years

Text

A snippet of a fic that I worked on a little while ago and that I may continue...

Title: You Give Your Life Away

Rating: PG

Warnings: None

While her job was rewarding after settling into the office during those awkward first days, there were still times of stress that made her want to pack it all in and fly home. But she was far from saving for a plane ticket, so she settled for dutifully filing papers, making coffee with full fat milk and low fat milk, running to the local district court as her boss required. Her colleagues were kind to her to a point, as was their want when colleagues were around each other for hours at a time, until she made the final choice to stop feeling sorry for herself and not let the homesickness defeat her.

At least she would not encounter an incarnation of Miranda Priestly striking fear into her heart, she thought with a rueful smile as she changed into her trainers for the walk home, which she found some solace in, though her mother's advice always at the forefront, to never take the exact same route home each night, so a random meander through Central Park or even downtown while it was still dusk would work its way in.

Once again that night, sitting on her bed and typing on her laptop with a generous pot of chamomile tea with vanilla flavouring, she found herself reading about Skyhill, listening to Dan's beautiful voice as she emailed work contacts and friends back home, secretly yearning to return.

Finding pictures of Skyhill performing had been a rare treat, and as she noted the date of the concert where they performed, she was surprised that it was almost nine years ago. They had performed in February at the Bitter End club, and she often imagined what it would have been like to see them play live, to hear Run with the Hunted being expressed in a living, breathing form.

'Well, maybe I can commemorate that anniversary instead,' she thinks as her laptop is switched off, her mug drained and she stretches out in bed, ready to drop off from sheer exhaustion.

It had been in the last year that her adoration of Dan had grown and grown. She had many crushes before, on actors, musicians, and numerous men in her life, but somehow, he was different from all the others. He seemed so truly good and pure, with a beautiful soul. His voice never failed to brighten her days, made it seem like everything would be alright.

It had to be alright.

If she had a reason to go on, as well as making her parents proud, to achieve all that she had dreamed as a child, then maybe it was for Dan as well.

Maybe I am in love... just maybe...

I wish I could see you in Skyhill, and know how happy you will be in this future... I wish, I wish, I wish...

Her sleep is not sound that night, for there were flashing lights streaming across her eyelids, brighter than all the lights in the city that never slept, followed by a low, distant rumble from far, far away, a low, faint cacophony of musical notes and a voice that sang to her, calling her to a home she never even knew existed, where time ceased to exist and all else was infinitely possible.

The next morning...

Waking up to yet another pleasant New York dawn chorus, of wailing sirens and rumbling of traffic, she rubs her eyes and groans at the time. The ungodly hour of seven a.m. exactly.

Time to face another day, and earn another few dollars in her pocket, at least. Maybe she would get to go to court today, take notes and file a summons or two. Maybe Shirley would actually be polite to her rather than treating her like a novice who did not have a clue about administration, if God was real and would grant her reprieve today.

Her room is still the same as it was when she dropped off into that restless sleep that left her more exhausted than when she first came to bed; small but comfortable, ideal for a struggling professional making a name for herself in a city that thrived on anonymity.

The net curtains are gossamer soft beneath her fingers as she draws them aside, looking out into the looming cityscape, construction scaffolding on a building just out of her periphery that had not been there yesterday. Construction jobs moved so quickly in New York, she wouldn't be surprised if an entire city block would be up in a month.

The carpet appears softer beneath her feet as she pads to her wardrobe to select an outfit for the day, but she puts it down to wishful thinking. The bird's nest outside her window looks smaller, and no feathered creature nesting. Humming a song she heard once about the bird of dawning, she packs her bag for the day ahead, the motion giving her much needed time to wake up and allow her mind to focus.

The bathroom is almost spotless, tiles looking much more white than weathered grey, and the crack in her mirror that ran from the left to right along the frame was notably absent, but she does not notice given her tiredness even as she applies an extra swipe of concealer beneath her eyes and applies a coat of lipgloss, fluffing up her hair at the roots.

Coffee would have to wait until she was at the office, though she detested that toxic sludge that passed for the beverage, it was hot and stimulating and would have to do.

Stepping out into the city air, the paintwork on the deli shop beside her apartment appears more vibrant with a gleam of fresh paint as she stops in to buy a breakfast bagel and a bottle of apple juice.

As she steps out into the street again, there is a girl playing with a ball outside who bore a striking resemblance to the woman who had served her coffee at the counter yesterday morning. Maybe she had a daughter that she had not met yet, and she rolls the ball back to her, closer to the pathway so the girl would not be struck by a passing car.

All around her, the soundtrack of traffic and people bustling is exactly the same, and it is all she can do to avoid people rushing to work or mothers with strollers forcing her to step out onto the road.

As she cuts through a small square in the middle of several blocks of buildings, she pauses to check her phone, leaning against a tall ash tree, and in the back of her mind, she remembers sitting on a tree stump last week to fumble for some change in her coat pocket.

However, she does not notice anything entirely out of the ordinary until she stops and picks up a newspaper from the glass fronted case to read the headlines of the day, almost skipping to the court reports right away just to enliven her mind for once.

Just as she is about pay, she scans along the masthead, her eyes adjusting to the finer print, checking the price for habit's sake.

The day has moved on, the month of August is the same, but the year...

"What?!"

She lunges backwards away from the newspaper stand, barrelling into at least four people, her mouth dropping open with a strangled sound following that rather loud exclamation, coins scattering, the newspaper fluttering aimlessly into the air as she flings it upwards, a cyclist swerving to avoid her as she steps out onto the road in blind panic, hands over her mouth.

The year read as 2008.

Several onlookers stare at her, as she turns around in a full circle, hands moving to clench into her hair.

"It's not... I can't be... it's not possible..."

After regaining some composure, bending down to pick up the coins, being helped by an elderly lady who puts a hand on her shoulder and murmurs, 'You doing alright, darling?', she can only manage a small nod and a whispered 'Thank you'.

Plucking up the courage, she makes her way back to the pavement, looking all around in a complete daze, her mind choosing to slow down to a crawl, until she tugs on a passers-by's sleeve, not caring if she appeared forward or in any way strange.

"I'm very sorry to ask you this, but what is the date? And the year?"

The man she has chosen is wearing a grey suit with a dishevelled off-white shirt and a maroon tie. He resembles the many stockbrokers who plied their trade on Wall Street who lived by the adage that time was money, and true to his character, he gives her a look reserved for the very best of lunatics.

"It's the first of February, 2008. Would you like the weather for the week too, sweetheart?"

All she does is nod several times, muttering a strangled 'Thank you' before walking away in a trance, managing to stagger to a nearby bench, she puts her face in her hands, taking the deepest of breaths imaginable.

So it was true. She saw it with her own eyes and had someone confirm it to her.

But it couldn't be true. Time travelling only existed in stories for children to make them enjoy history a bit more. Only a fictional man in a blue police box was capable of that...

Yet here she was, apparently flung out of space and time, back in the year 2008, in New York City.

Travel had always enchanted her, but this was well beyond the usual wanderlust.

To be continued...

#writing #snippet #teaser #dan avidan #dan avidan x OC #skyhill

12 notes · View notes

carmenlire · 6 years

Text

Higher than the Big Trees Ch. 16

Edit credit: @kindaresilient <3

Two chapters in two days? Don’t get used to this lmao

read chapter one

read on ao3

Alec stands in front of Magnus’s door and takes a breath before reaching out to knock.

He’s not nervous. Even though it’s the first time that he’s going to be visiting Magnus at his place, there’s no butterflies or lead in his stomach.

Remarkably, he feels relaxed. He’s hung out with Magnus before and it didn’t end in disaster.

Hopefully, he can keep up that streak.

Plus, it’s not as if this is a date. They’re friends, nothing more.

As Alec knocks, he takes in the corridor. Magnus lived in Brooklyn, on the top floor of one of the many buildings that had been renovated a few years ago. There’s exposed brickwork and intermittent light fixtures and it all seems to fit Magnus’s style, perfectly. It’s elegant but with character.

Magnus opens the door just a few seconds later, smiling.

“Good evening, Alexander.”

“Magnus, hi.”

Alec smiles back as he gives him a onceover. Magnus had apparently changed when he’d gotten home because he’s the most dressed down Alec’s ever seen him. He’s wearing a pair of yoga pants with a plain black singlet. His feet are bare, toes painted a dark emerald and adorned with a silver ring.

What the fuck.

Alec swallows as he sees Magnus’s arms. How were clothes able to hide so much?

He clears his throat and meets Magnus’s eyes for a beat before Magnus steps back and swings the door open wider, beckoning Alec in.

“Welcome. Did you have any trouble finding it?”

Alec steps over the threshold, immediately toeing off his Nikes.

“No,” he says distractedly. “Google Maps has yet to let me down.”

His gaze roves over what he can see of Magnus’s apartment. He sees more exposed brick, rich tapestries and colorful furniture. It’s a weird hybrid of old and new-- modern and ancient-- and Alec loves it.

From behind him, he hears, “Well, that makes one of us, darling. Once I was in Estonia trying to find this historically significant cathedral and the app just kept leading me in circles. A twenty minute stroll turned into a two hour fiasco. It was a mess.”

Alec turns around. “Maybe it was operator error,” he teases.

Magnus huffs, rolling his eyes. “Believe whatever you like. I’m usually an expert explorer, I have a sixth sense, but during that trip I got lost too many times to count. I was just running in circles. Plus, the Estonian language isn’t for the faint of heart-- I didn’t have a clue of what anything meant.”

“At least you have a story to tell now.”

“Like I need more of those,” Magnus says ruefully.

“Let’s move things out of my foyer.” He nods towards the living room and Alec follows him as he heads to the couch. There’s an infinitesimal pause, Alec only notices it because he’s neurotic, but Magnus chooses one end of the couch, the one closest to the french doors.

Alec has a minute to panic-- couch or chair or other chair-- but in the end his brain short circuits and he goes with the closest option.

The other end of the couch.

There’s an entire cushion between them and Magnus doesn’t look like he’s judging him too hard, so Alec relaxes against the surprisingly comfortable couch. It looks like it’s supposed to be a statement piece not to actually sit on, but as Alec leans against the back, it’s nice as hell.

Magnus looks smug. “Not as hard as it looks, huh?”

“I thought I was going to have to pretend like I wasn’t extremely uncomfortable for the entire night but this couch is actually a dream.”

Magnus nods a little as he settles against his armrest, bringing one leg up to tuck under the other. “I know exactly what you mean. When I first went furniture shopping, I wanted something comfortable but not shabby, you know? I walked by this couch a dozen times because it looked like something rich people have-- useless and purely decorative. But, I hadn’t found anything yet and it was in my budget so on a whim I sat down and almost melted into it. I bought it on the spot. I’ve had it eight years and it looks the same as the day I bought it-- definitely one of the best purchases I ever made.”

Alec mirrors Magnus’s position, runs a hand through his hair. “I know exactly what you mean. I bought the couch I have now when I moved out on my own. I won’t lie, it looks like shit, but it’s comfortable as hell and I know that I won’t ever get rid of it. It was the first big purchase I bought when the money came in from my first single. I’m emotionally attached to it.”

Magnus hums, looks at Alec with narrowed eyes. “I wouldn’t have expected that. You keep surprising me.”

Alec blinks. “Good surprises, I hope?”

“Very good,” Magnus says softly.

There’s a moment as the two of them just look at each other. It’s not uncomfortable, just a pause in the conversation, but it strikes Alec.

He can’t remember the last person he could share the quiet with.

He clears his throat, raises one of his eyebrows. “What are these surprises?”

Magnus grins, reaching out one of his legs to gently poke at Alec’s. “You’re a superstar, darling. I’m sure you could buy a thousand couches and it wouldn’t dent your credit card. But, you keep the first couch you had for sentimental reasons. You tip lavishly-- don’t think I didn’t notice how much you left Anna and Marv a few weeks ago. You’re not an asshole,” Magnus concludes bluntly.

Barking out a laugh, Alec says, “That’s good to know. I try not to be an asshole. I’ve been doing this since I was sixteen. I’ve seen a lot of people come and go and I just try to be good. Not the best, but it doesn’t take a lot to say please or thank you or not to trash a hotel room.”

He breaks off, stares into nothing for a minute. When he looks back up at Magnus, he finds him already staring at him, eyes intense.

“I have an image. I actively cultivate that reputation as a playboy and rockstar. I don’t hide the fact that I like to have a good time. But, I also work my ass off. Some of my peers get into the industry and they see the signing bonuses and the easy hookups and they think that’s it. They don’t see the hundred of hours that go into producing an album or how important it is to network professionally or that the life isn’t for everyone.

“So, yeah, I tip because it means nothing to me but a lot to them. That couch is comfy as hell and I’m sentimental. I’m glad you see beyond the surface, Magnus.

“I’m glad you care enough to want to,” he says, voice low.

Magnus studies Alec for a moment, eyes flitting across his face. Voice just above a whisper, he says, “Of course I do.”

He straightens and leans forward imperceptibly. Alec catches himself swaying towards, just a little.

The air is tense with the promise of something and Alec's close enough to see Magnus's eyes dilate.

Magnus jerks a little and leans back against the armrest.

Alec lets out a breath.

“So,” Magnus starts. “I have all four movies and a drawer full of take out menus. Are you hungry?”

“Starving.”

Magnus laughs. “Okay, that’s good. What are you in the mood for? I’m hungry, too.”

Alec thinks for a minute. “Is there a local place that’s your go-to? I’m not too familiar with Brooklyn but I’m sure there something you’re in the mood for?”

Alec can’t be sure, but he thinks Magnus’s eyes might drop down to his mouth for a millisecond. He shakes himself. As if.

“Twilight is a bit of a comfort watch for me-- the movies really are shit and I usually just order a pizza from this place down the block. It’s a family owned place and they know what they’re doing.”

Alec’s nodding before Magnus even finishes. “That sounds amazing. My brother dragged me to the gym for hours today. I really am starving.”

“Say no more, darling-- oh, is there anything you don’t like on your pizza?”

Alec shakes his head and Magnus stands up and heads to what Alec presumes is his bedroom. He comes back a minute later, phone to his ear. He doesn’t go back to the couch. Instead, he wanders around the living room aimlessly while he talks to whoever is on the line.

“Good evening Tony, it’s Magnus. . . Oh, I’m fine. How’s your family?. . . They do grow up so fast. . . I’m still teaching, summer classes right now. . . Yup, the usual but let’s double the bread and the brownies. Thanks man, I’ll see Mikey soon.”

He hangs up, looks over at Alec with an amused expression. “Tony likes to talk. You can’t just order pizza-- you have to observe the pleasantries. He and his wife have been making pizza for thirty years and it’s a local joint. They pretty much know everyone.”

He comes around the couch, settling back into his spot. He relaxes, sprawls out a little more.

“I usually get an extra large supreme with an order of cheesy bread and brownies for dessert. How does that sound?”

Alec’s stomach growls and Magnus laughs.

“I’ll take that as approval. Now, let me put the first movie in and we can pause it when the food is delivered?”

“Sounds great.”

A few minutes later, the starting credits start to play.

Alec usually likes to watch movies silently, especially the first time. He hates when people talk during movies, distracting him, detracting from the experience.

But-- it’s so bad.

They’re only about halfway through the first one, but Alec's already looking forward to the rest of them. Edward looks like he’d literally rather die than look at Bella, Jacob is a little pathetic, and Bella herself looks like Alec feels-- there are really no good options, here.

Magnus and him make fun of the movie until there are tears in their eyes.

They’ve just gotten past the part where Edward scrabbles up a tree, shining like a disco ball, and Alec’s absolutely losing his shit.

“Oh my God,” he gasps. “What the fuck. What is wrong with him?”

Magnus’s mouth is open to reply when there’s a knock on the door. He stands up, chuckling. Over his shoulder, he calls out, “Why do you think they live in the Pacific Northwest, darling? The sun makes them sparkle and it just wouldn’t do for people to see that.”

Magnus opens the door, taking the boxes and sliding cash to the delivery boy.

“Thanks, Mikey.”

“No problem, Magnus. Enjoy your food--” he leans to the side, sees Alec half reclining on the couch. “And your date.”

The teenager leaves, chortling, pocketing the bills.

Magnus turns around, arms full and Alec rushes up to help him, grabbing the smaller boxes.

Magnus rolls his eyes. “Youths. They’re so precocious and they think they're so funny.” He sets the food down on the kitchen bar.

“I want to say that I was never such an asshat, but tragically, I know that I was probably worse.”

Alec nods and opens the pizza box, mouth watering at the smell of garlic and cheese and sauce.

“Oh, I know I was a bit of a nightmare. I was either really quiet and surly or over the top. I was a mess. Holy fuck, Magnus, this pizza looks amazing.”

Magnus grabs plates, handing one to Alec while he opens the box of cheesy bread.

“It really does. Tony’s outdone himself tonight.”

They two plate up and head back to the living room, collapsing against cushions and resuming the movie.

They both go back for seconds and pop in the second movie, polishing off the brownies during it.

As the credits start to roll, Alec slouches in his seat a little. Their plates are on the coffee table in front of them and they’re angled towards each other, knees barely touching.

Magnus climbs to his feet and stretches.

“Ready for number three?”

Alec groans. “I’m so full that all I’m ready for is a nap. I haven’t eaten that much in ages.”

Magnus disappears somewhere but Alec can still hear his voice.

“That’s what movie nights are for, Alexander. Eating too much unhealthy food and watching questionable movies.”

He comes back a moment later carrying a huge ass blanket.

“I was getting a little chilly, but I’d rather be cold with a blanket than fine without one, so.”

He sits down on the edge of the couch and looks over at Alec, he waves his blanket a little. “Want to share? I don’t know how you’re feeling but this blanket is definitely big enough for the two of us.”

Alec debates for a second before he’s scooching over to the middle cushion. “Whoever says no to additional coziness?”

Magnus grins and sits down next to Alec, they’re sides touching.

Alec is overtly aware of exactly where they’re touching.

Magnus settles the blanket over them both, smoothing it down.

He looks at Alec expectantly and Alec gives him a droll look. “Yes, you’re right, this is the best blanket I’ve ever had the good fortune to use.”

Magnus beams. “Told you so, darling.”

What Alec doesn't say is that the blanket smells like Magnus, sandalwood a subtle scent. It's nice.

Beyond nice.

Magnus starts Eclipse and minute by minute, Alec can feel himself getting sleepier. He’s stuffed with amazing food, Magnus is a long line of warmth beside him, and the couch combined with the damned blanket is making him drowsy.

Magnus shuffles a little, moving imperceptibly closer, leaning into Alec a little more.

Alec turns away, muffling a yawn, and slides down the couch a little, leg settling more firmly against Magnus.

He closes his eyes, just for a minute, and the next thing he’s aware of is someone on top of him.

He moves, just a little, and discovers that he’s laying down. Opening his eyes, he immediately squints as sunlight comes pouring in through the french doors, hitting him right in the face.

He closes his eyes again and just takes a few minutes to breathe and get his bearings.

His eyes fly open as he remembers where he is. Who he’s with.

He looks down and gets a face full of hair, Magnus settled against his chest.

Alec has a brief thought of oh shit, but he can’t deny that this feels good.

Honestly, it’s been awhile since he woke up next to a guy and didn’t immediately look for the exit.

He moves, just a little, and Magnus hums, squeezing him from where he’s wrapped an arm around his middle.

Alec feels Magnus waking up and has a moment to panic-- will Magnus think this is too forward? Friends fall asleep together, right? This won’t turn into an awkward morning after-- forgetting that nothing even happened?

Magnus noses along his tshirt before he freezes. He looks up and meets Alec’s eyes.

There’s a moment of silence as they just look at each other. Magnus looks a little ridiculous, makeup smudged all to hell and back, his hair rumpled and Alec knows he doesn’t look any better.

“Well.” Magnus’s lips quirk up. “We didn’t get to the fourth movie.”

Alec laughs, surprised.

“No,” he agrees. “Your blanket was too comfortable. It lulled me right to sleep.”

Magnus sighs. “It is magic.”

He looks back up at Alec, solemnly. “Your hair’s a mess, Alexander.”

Alec snorts. “You should see your face, Magnus.”

Magnus jolts upright, eyes widening in horror. “I fell asleep with my makeup on! Oh, I bet I look like a raccoon that lost a fight with Sephora.”

In the next moment, he’s shrugging, nonchalantly. “It happens. It’s better that you see me like this now so that I know if this friendship can continue or if messy makeup is too much for you.”

Laughing, Alec sits up, pulls the blanket into his lap from where it was pooling on the floor.

“It’ll take more than smeared makeup to scare me off, don’t worry.”

Magnus smiles and there’s a few minutes of silence as they relax on the couch.

It’s weird, but Alec doesn’t feel need to make a mad dash to the door. He’s not feeling like a clock’s ticking menacingly. He doesn’t feel judged for not immediately making an excuse for why he needs to leave.

There’s no pressure here and it feels damned good.

His thoughts break off as Magnus starts talking.

“I don’t know what you have planned today-- we had really just discussed last night-- but I know this place that serves a mean belgian waffle. Feel like breakfast?”

Alec takes stock, grimaces. “I’d love to but I’d also really love to not look like I just rolled out of bed if we go out.”

Magnus shrugs. “I have two bathrooms with extra supplies. Feel free to get ready here, if you’re interested.”

Grinning, Alec says, “Alright, sounds like a plan. When do you want to leave?”

Magnus looks at the clock above the television. “How about forty five minutes?”

Alec nods and stands, cracking his back. “Meet you back here then.”

He starts walking but pauses, turning back. “Where’s your bathroom?”

Magnus laughs and points to the left of the entryway. “Down that corridor, there’s a bathroom that’s the second door on the right. You should have everything you need but let me know if you don’t see something.”

Alec nods and turns back. He finds the bathroom without a problem. It’s elegant, if eccentric. It’s done in shades of burgundy and there’s an elephant toothbrush holder on the sink.

He finds toothpaste, towels, and a spare toothbrush. He takes a shower-- the water pressure is amazing-- and gets out, wrapping a towel around his waist. He brushes his teeth and finger combs his hair as best he can.

He doesn’t have any other clothes, so he has to wear yesterday’s. There’s a bedroom right next to the bathroom and Alec gathers his clothes-- it’s a bitch to get dressed in a steamy bathroom.

He opens the door and almost walks into Magnus.

They both step back and Alec immediately remembers that he’s half naked, the flimsy towel wrapped around his waist the only thing keeping him decent.

Magnus seems a little dazed, staring at Alec’s chest with a sort of mesmerized intensity.

“Magnus?”

Magnus jolts, turns up to smile at Alec.

“Alexander! I was just seeing if you needed anything.”

Magnus’s gaze keeps dropping to below Alec’s face and Alec feels heat climb up his neck. While it was gratifying to be checked out, especially by Magnus, he was probably reading what he wanted into things.

Alec shakes his head a little, clearing it and realizing that he hasn’t answered Magnus yet.

“I’m fine-- I was just going to get dressed in the guest room.”

Magnus nods a little too enthusiastically. “Okay then, help yourself. I’ll leave you to it. See you in a few.”

He turns on his heel and heads to the other side of the loft.

Alec watches him leave for a few seconds before going across the hall to the guest room. It only takes him a minute and then he’s opening the door and heading to the living room.

He debates what to do. Seeing that he has twenty minutes until they’re set to leave, he walks over to the end table, picks up his phone.

Finding that it's had died sometime in the night he turns instead to the bookshelf on the wall. It looks to be a mix of knickknacks and books and Alec’s eyes snag on European Conquerors.

Alec still has his copy at home-- he’s been making slow but steady progress, saving Magnus’s chapter for last.

He stands by the wall and opens the book, easily finding his place. He gets absorbed and is startled when he hears a cough.

He looks over his shoulder and sees Magnus looking at him, brows raised.

Alec brings the book up, showing him the cover.

“I saw this on your shelf and thought I’d read while I waited for you.”

Magnus looks unguarded. “You’re actually reading that?”

Alec shakes his head, confused. “Yeah? I told you I would and I checked it out of the library. Plus, you wrote it. There’s no way that I’m not going to.”

Magnus’s face is the picture of surprise before his expression melts into one of fondness.

He clears his throat.

“Well. What do you think of it so far?”

Alec shrugs, looks down at the book.

“It’s dense but really interesting. I liked Gregor’s account of the Dutch East Indies-- I learned a lot. But I didn’t care too much about Lorsch’s chapter on Britain's economic theory. I comprehended it but I couldn’t help but think that he supported colonialism in the end. He didn’t really write as a historian.”

Magnus rolls his eyes. “That’s because the old windbag devoutly believes in British superiority and thinks that the fact that they invaded half the world is a testament to its strength and vivacity. He mourns the loss of the Great British Empire like a baby mourns stolen candy.”

He walks over to the foyer, sliding his keys into his pocket.

He looks over his shoulder. “Have you read my chapter, yet?”

Alec shakes his head, tucking the book back into its place before snagging his phone from the table.

“No.” He grins. “I figured that I would save the best for last.”

Magnus rolls his eyes but Alec can tell that he’s pleased.

“Well, then, you’ll just have to keep me updated.”

Alec smiles. “I guess I will.”

The head out the door into a warm June morning.

The sun is shining and people are milling about.

Alec and Magnus head out to breakfast and enjoy crisp, fluffy Belgian waffles, Alec insisting on paying since Magnus picked up the takeout last night.

Neither can remember smiling so much during a mundane breakfast.

Both are already looking forward to the next time they can see each other.

#httbt #my writing #hope y'all like this!!!#things are certainly getting cozy :)#dfjgdf now i gotta pack for vacation tomorrow #malec fic #malec au

23 notes · View notes

freezing-kaiju · 7 years

Text

Survivors of Shards

Chapter 11

written with @apollowuzhere @irazel and @grilledwatermelon

tho this part is all @apollowuzhere

this one’s a long one and imma post the next part later today also!

WILLA FLASHBACK TIME

“Are you sure about this Yellow?” I questioned, following closely behind my fellow tanzanite. “Positive!” they assured me, signature crazy smile in place. “Once they know this planet has tons of life on it, they’ll turn around and we can go back to homeworld without an issue! No more stupid mission, no more cramped ship, no more annoying crew mates.” “But….there isn’t tons of life on this planet….” “Yeah but they don’t know that. Who’re they going to trust, themselves or the psychics?” I smiled and giggled quietly behind my hand. I sometimes forgot how clever my sibling was. “Yes ok, let’s do it!” --------------- “Look, we can explain,” Yellow said. They held up their hands in surrender as the rest of our crew surrounded us. I wrung my hands while my eyes darted from gem to gem. “Yes...uh….we were just….” “Trying to trick us into turning back,” our supervising Agate finished. She marched through the crowd and circled around us, her footsteps echoing off the metal walls. “Let me ask you this. Do you really think we’re that stupid?” A pause. “Honestly, yeah kind of,” Yellow replied. I kicked them in the shin, earning a small “ow” in return. “You two are going to be in a lot of trouble when we get back to homeworld,” the agate said, getting closer with each word. She looked down on us like scum, her gaze seeming as though it saw through my entire form. A wicked smile stretched its way across her face. “I wonder what the diamonds will do to you.” That’s when it happened. Yellow scooped me up in their arms, and ran. They pushed through the wall of gems and swerved every which way, trying to get away from the angry yelling and horrible threats. I could hear them accusing us of terrible things, both out loud and in their minds. I tried not to listen. “What are you doing?!” I screamed. Though I didn’t make any attempt to get away, in fact clinging to their collar with all of my strength. “Saving our asses, Blue,” they responded. “Now shut up and hold on!” We took a turn down a corridor filled with crew members, who noticed us immediately. We turned around only to be met with more coming on our right. Yellow ran to the left, dodging weapons as they came flying at us from every tunnel and passageway around us. We reached the escape pods just as we were about to be overwhelmed. Yellow threw me in full force then dove after me, shutting the door behind them. They slammed their back against it while the gems outside pounded on it, trying to get in. “Hurry!” they yelled, straining under the force of all the gems. I frantically punched in random coordinates, somewhere far away from this wretched ship, and hit the launch button. We shot out of the room like a comet, and I went flying back into Yellow while we rocketed out of the solar system. It took a few hours for us to slow down enough to where we could actually move around the little pod. I crawled over and sat in a corner next to the control pad while Yellow sat cross-legged in the center. They ran their hand through their hair and smiled a little. “Well,” they started, “that could have gone better.” I didn’t say anything for a while, choosing to start at a rivet in the floor instead. I felt fear and sadness prick at the back of my mind. I was sure Yellow could see it too. “Hey, hey it’s ok,” they assured me. “No it’s not!” I yelled, startling Yellow back a bit. “It’s not ok! You had to have that stupid idea to get out of that mission didn’t you? You couldn’t just go along with it! Well congratulations, we got out of it! Now we have no clue where we’re going, everyone hates us, and we can never go home!” The tears were coming full force now. Yellow let out a sigh and came to sit next to me. I tried to turn away, but they wouldn’t let me. They cupped my cheek with one hand and wiped away the steady stream of water. “I know this seems bad now Blue,” they said, “but think of it this way. We don’t have anyone telling us what to do anymore. We never have to listen to another agate brag about how important she is, or be put down my another sapphire for not being ‘real psychics.’” They put emphasis on the air quotes, making me laugh just a little. “Wherever we end up, we can be whoever we want!” “Yeah, I suppose.” We sat in silence for a while, watching the stars go by outside. “Hey Blue?” Yellow called. “Hmm?” “Who do you want to be?” “....I don’t know….but I don’t want to be Blue.” “Mmm.” “Who do you want to be?” “I don’t know either, but I don’t want to be Yellow.” We both laughed softly and I scooted in closer to lean on my sibling’s shoulder. “So what do we do?” I asked “You know, I read the mind of a hematite once. She had just come back from a pretty densely packed planet.” “Yeah?” “Yeah, there were plenty of names in there.” “Oh? Like what?” My sibling replayed the memory for me in their mind. There were a lot of names to choose from, but one in particular caught my eye. “Willa,” I said. “That’s what you’re going with?” they asked. “Yes. I quite like that one.” “Alright Willa.” I relaxed a little more at my new name. “What about you?” “I’m trying to decide between two.” “And they are?” “Oluwakanyinsola or Billy.” I snorted. “You can barely even say the first one, how do you expect anyone else to?” “Aw, but I like that one! I think it captures my complex personality.” I punched them lightly in the shoulder. “You’re so dramatic. Besides, Billy is a nice name.” “Fine, fine, I’ll go with Billy.” Billy leaned back and crossed their arms. “So that’s it, eh?” “What do you mean?” “We’re finally more than just tanzanites. We’re people.” “Hmm, guess I didn’t think about it before now, but yeah.” “Yeah…” We sat there for a while longer before both of us lied down and fell asleep. I had never slept before, but it was really nice. I even had a dream….about what our new life was going to be like. I had a feeling we’d be doing a lot of sleeping for a while. ----------- Finally, after a decade and a half of flying through space, we finally reached our destination. We weren’t sure what it was or what to do about it, but we were here! I stepped out and looked up at the big blue sky, small white fluffy things floating around aimlessly. A soft breeze blew my hair out of my eye, as if the world wanted me to get a better look. I felt the soft plant life between my toes and did a little twirl as Billy climbed out of the pod. They took a deep breath, which was weird since we didn’t even need to breathe, and sighed. “So this is what we’ve been waiting for for so long,” they began, surveying the area. They looked up at the taller plants growing around, which almost touched the white puff balls in the sky. “I’ve got to say, I’m impressed.” “Oh wow, something impresses Billy and it’s not themselves,” I teased. “Are you feeling alright?” “Oh hardy har Willa, you’ve got to admit this place is cool!” “Yes, it’s very cool.” I took in the nature around me for a good few minutes before Billy lost their patience. I was awoken from my daydreaming by getting slammed into and tumbling down a muddy hill, laughing hysterically. When we reached the bottom, I smeared mud into my sibling’s face. “What was that for?” I asked between laughs. “I haven’t been able to move more than three feet at a time for fifteen years!” Billy complained. “Let’s play!” They jumped back on top of me and we wrestled for a bit before laying back and watching the sky. Suddenly, we heard a rustle in the nearby plant life. Billy and I sat up and watched it carefully, Billy with their hand already reaching for their gem. Out comes a older looking person with skin the same color as the trunks of the tall plants, long grey hair pulled back in a ponytail, a walking stick, and a simple white button up and cargo shorts. “A human!” I exclaimed without meaning to. I remembered memories of humans from gems who had gone to a planet called Earth. This was where the rebellion had happened! Billy and I never told anyone, but we had always been rooting for the Crystal Gems. The old woman jumped back, and I apologized for startling her. “No, that’s alright,” she said. She had a very warm smile that could light up any room, and I instantly felt comfortable in her presence. I could tell Billy felt the same, but they didn’t show any sign of it outwardly. “I saw your ship land out here and wanted to make sure everything was ok.” “You’re….not afraid of us?” Billy asked. “Not at all!” the woman explained cheerfully. “We get a lot of weird stuff out here, and innocent until proven guilty I say! Your journey must have been long, would you like to come back with me and I can give you some food and get you cleaned up?” At this point Billy had dropped their hand back down to their side, feeling safe in the woman’s company. We could both tell she had no hostile intentions towards us. “What is….food?” I asked. The woman gave us an exaggerated gasp. “Well allow me to show you!” She began to walk back the way she came. Billy and I smiled at each other and ran to catch up with her. She stopped for a second, scoffing at herself. “Where are my manners? My name is Trinity. Do you have names?” “Yes, I am Willa,” I replied, “and this is my sibling, Billy.” “Hiya!” Billy waved. “What beautiful names! Well, I’d like to welcome you to Earth!” “Where exactly are we on Earth?” Billy questioned. “Well, we’re heading back to a little town called Gravity Falls.” ------------ I sat out in the summer sun, letting it warm my skin soothingly. The wind rustled the pine needles and sent waves through the grass around me. The sweet scent of fresh berries swirled around in the breeze. I hummed at the comfort and calm this planet provided me with everyday for the past few decades. Billy came out of the woods with an armful of peaches and let them roll to the ground around me. They kneeled down next to me, picking one up and taking a big bite out of it, pit and all. “Anything interesting today?” Billy asked me. “Not really,” I answered. “Lazy Susan dropped by today. She said she had a new bottle of gin for you at the diner.” “Oh what?!” They jumped up and yanked on my arm. “What are we sitting here for? Let’s go!” Without letting go of my wrist, they ran down the path towards the town. I stumbled as I tried to keep up, yelling at them playfully. We almost fell into the local diner and took a seat at the bar. We both giggled while we came down from our running high. Lazy Susan, the old waitress with a lazy eye and teased brunette hair, came and greeted us happily, setting down our menus on the counter. “What will you have?” she asked, taking out a pad and pencil. “Can we have some pancakes please?” I wondered. I twiddled my thumbs nervously, even though I had known her for years. I was always a little uncomfortable around people. “Of course dear!” She scribbled down our order and turned around before stopping and snapping her fingers. “I almost forgot!” She plucked a large glass bottle filled with clear liquid off of a nearby shelf and placed it in front of Billy. “Ah yes!” they cheered. “Thanks a bunch Susan!” She laughed at Billy’s excitement. “I’ll go get your pancakes.” The diner was pretty empty for a Saturday, but that just meant we got our food faster. We chatted about little things we liked and little things that bothered us. Our food came and Billy poured some of their gin into the syrup, then proceeded to drench the fluffy cakes in it. I heard the little bell at the door jingle. I looked over Billy’s shoulder to find a young man I had never seen before walk in. He wore glasses, khakis, and a simple black t-shirt. He had his nose in a journal, scratching a pen into the paper at a speed I have never seen. As I looked closer, I noticed this human had six fingers instead of five. I projected my observations to Billy telepathically while they chewed their pancakes. They looked up at me with wide eyes and full cheeks, then glanced over at the newcomer. He sat down on my other side, still writing in his book. Billy and I couldn’t help but stare at the strange man and his detailed drawings. “Who is that?” Billy asked me through our thoughts. “I don’t know,” I said. “Can you get anything from his mind?” Billy took a minute. “He’s new to the town. He’s here to study all the crazy stuff that goes on around here. The weird creatures in the woods and stuff.” “You mean like us?” Billy and I made eye contact and I heard a gasp behind me. The man had finally noticed us. His eyes were wide and his mouth agape. We stared at each other for a few minutes in complete silence. After a few minutes, the man began to slowly reach up towards me. His six fingered hand got closer to my face, but he only seemed curious, not hostile. I had never had someone act this way around me. I came out of my trance when he pressed a thumb to my gem, yelping and covering it with my hands. “Fascinating,” the man whispered. “What was that?” I complained softly trying not to offend him. “I’m sorry, it’s just….what are you?” “Excuse us?” Billy questioned. “Well you’re clearly not human,” the man observed. “So what are you.” I looked down, blushing deeply and rubbing my gem. “Rude,” I mumbled. “We’re aliens,” Billy deadpanned, face still. “Gems more specifically.” “Incredible. Tell me more.” The man lifted his journal up, pen at the ready. “Um,” I began, “we don’t really talk about ourselves like that….with….humans….” The man furrowed his brows and grunted in frustration. Instead of apologizing, he just got up, and left, telling us quietly, “come to the shack in the woods when you change your mind.” We watched him go in shock. No one had ever been so direct with us about our anatomy. I felt we wouldn’t see the last of that man. ---------------- Billy sipped a glass of wine from the rocking chair on the porch. Stanford had just returned from studying fairies out in the woods and watched as I grew frost on the surrounding grass. He jotted down little things in his journal while I twirled my fingers around. “Very good!” he exclaimed. “Now, can you frost the flower over there?” He pointed to a violet growing about a foot away. “Um, yes, sure.” With a wave of my hand, the flower was frozen. “Amazing! Billy, could you get me some more ink?” “But I just sat down,” Billy whined. “Come on,” he ordered, snapping his fingers. “My pen’s almost out and I need to get a sketch of this.” “You know what? You get it,” Billy grumbled. A pause. Ford looked up at my sibling. “What?” “You heard me. I’m tired of being treated like a servant.” “You can’t do that! I let you stay in my house, I kept you safe, I gave you food.” My chest tightened. Billy threw their hands up in exasperation. “We don’t even need to eat!” “We thought you were helping us….because you liked us….” I said quietly with tears in my eye. I was so afraid. Was our friend not really our friend? “Of course I like you!” Ford retorted. “You’re a fascinating specimen! I’ve never seen anything like you!” “But….don’t you like us for anything else….than what we are?” I sniffled. “What are we to you?!” Billy demanded. “An experiment!” he yelled. “An observation!” I gasped and placed my hands over my mouth, a small trickle of water falling down my cheek. The ground around me froze solid and Ford stumbled back. I glared through the tears. “I thought you cared about us!” I shrieked. Billy stood up, scowl on their face, and cried, “Why?! All these years you projected thoughts of real friendship! Why work so hard to deceive us?!” Ford jumped to his feet. “I told you not to read my mind!” “We can’t control it all the time!” I yelled through my tears. “Shut up!” Ford smacked me across the face. This was the first time I had ever seen such hostile thoughts in the mind of my once-thought-friend. I curled in on myself, spikes of ice growing out around me. “You get away from Willa!” Billy screamed. Fire curled around their hands and swirls of sand formed around Ford. “I’m done with this!” Ford pulled a small gun out of his jacket and fired it at my sibling. They crumpled to the ground, clutching their gem and wailing in agony. Their form flickered and popped. Pained tears came pouring from their eye. “No!” I cried, and I jumped on Ford. I placed a hand on his, the one holding the gun, and sent a burst of cold through my fingertips. Ford yelped and pushed me off. I hit the ground only a second before I was shot as well. Fiery pain exploded in my chest, the feeling of molten lava seeping through my form and clouding my vision. I felt myself scream, but I couldn’t hear anything except a high pitched ringing. I couldn’t summon my weapons or use my abilities to protect myself. I was completely defenseless. With all the strength I had left, I tried to crawl to a suffering Billy, but Ford was quicker. He took out his switchblade, the one he kept “in case of emergency,” and stabbed it into their back. I heard a loud poof and covered my eye and gem with my forearm. When I looked back up, Ford was standing over me with his weapon in one hand and Billy’s gem in the other. “Hopefully one day you’ll learn to be more courteous guests,” he growled. Somehow that sentence was crystal clear to me. There was a flash of silver, a poof, and everything went black.

#survivors of shards #gravity falls #will cipher #bill cipher #in this au grunkle ford is evil did i forget to mention that #steven universe #su #gemsona #my fics #apollowuzhere #sos part 1 & 2

4 notes · View notes

magic-and-moonlit-wings · 7 years

Text

Chapter 25: Date

The difficult thing about dating a friend was coming up with things to do.

Sunny wanted to do something special with Dawn; something different, now that they were dating, to distinguish their time together now from all the time they had spent together before. But other than holding hands more often, he had no ideas.

(Other than kissing her, but after Dawn had said she wanted to take their new relationship slowly, he'd decided it would be better to wait until she kissed him first, to be sure she was comfortable with it.)

As friends, they already danced and sang together, and hugged, and gave each other little presents and surprises, and wandered aimlessly through the kingdom to see where they might end up.

The last of these was what they were doing now, walking in Lizzie's shadow. It was late afternoon and there hadn't been many clouds or breezes that day, so the sun's heat had soaked into the ground. A bit of shade offered the perfect spring temperature. Larkspur and Thimble were 'chaperoning' again, but the sprites were discreet about it.

"So … how was work?" Dawn asked.

Sunny was a performer at heart, but so were many others in the kingdom. His main employment was running packages and messages as a courier.

"To be honest, I think people were avoiding me for messenger jobs today, so there was probably a lot of gossip about – you know. Current events. I did take a set of pans from the smithy to the bakery and then some raisin buns back."

There had been a similar dry spell of messages after Marianne called off her wedding last year. Sunny's friendship with the princesses meant he was rarely asked to carry politically-charged messages, probably because the other elves and brownies were concerned he would forward it all to the royal family.

On the subject of dry spells …

"Tammy," one of the bakers, "was saying the herb patches haven't been getting as much rain as they need. She thinks we need another well. I said, 'isn't it a bit early in the season to be sure?', and she said, 'by the time we are sure, everything'll be dried up'."

"It is odd," Dawn agreed, batting the tip of some drooping grass out of her face. "Usually we've had at least one serious shower by now. Maybe a thunderstorm is building."

"I hope not." Sunny shivered. There had been an enormous thunderstorm near the end of last summer. Several villages were flooded. No one had died, but it took weeks to clear the mud and make repairs – valuable time taken from preparing for the harvest. "My parents are talking about having a new roof put on instead of patching the old one again. They were going to wait for summertime, but if it stays dry, they might do it sooner."

"I'll keep an ear out for pressure changes." The length and curl of a fairy's ear was sensitive to wind currents and air pressure, so they were often the first to know what weather was coming. A few older elves and brownies claimed similar sensitivity in their bones or joints. "Your Grammy used to predict rain with her knee, didn't she?"

"Yeah … I think it was dampness that set her off, though, since sometimes it just got really humid."

Sunny blinked when it suddenly grew brighter. He and Dawn lifted their hands to shade their eyes and looked at each other … and then to Lizzie, who had stopped walking and whom they had walked past without realizing.

"Something the matter, Lizzie?" Dawn put a comforting hand on the giant reptile's shoulder, letting the sun light up her face once more. Sunny took a moment to admire her glow before peering ahead.

A short ways ahead of them, only about twice Lizzie's length from snout to tail-tip, was a forsythia bush, densely flowered with its distinctive yellow four-pointed stars. Under and between the blooms were odd, faint flickers of pale blue light.

"… Plum?" he said softly.

"That's … right, that's where her workshop was … before."

It had been abandoned when Sugar Plum was imprisoned, except for young fays who would dare each other to come here, to take a yellow flower or step inside the building.

Dawn twitched her wings.

"Looks like she moved back in. Let's go say hi."

Her tone and expression was not nearly as cheery as it usually was when she said things like that. Sunny gulped.

Thimble and Larkspur lifted some of the low-hanging branches so Dawn wouldn't have to duck. Sunny wouldn't have needed to, himself, but they held the branches for him as well. Dawn squared her shoulders.

Lizzie actually skittered back from the bush a few steps. He could see her tail lashing. She either couldn't or wouldn't follow them, and wasn't happy about it.

"We'll come back, Liz," he promised her quietly.

Sugar Plum's workshop was built of wood and radiated around the stem (trunk?) of the bush. It had a tall enough roof and doorway for fairies to enter. It was nearly circular, and had filled the space under the forsythia before Plum had been imprisoned and the bush had been left to grow wild.

It was in better shape than Sunny would have expected, for sitting empty so long, but perhaps Sugar Plum had moved back in a few days ago and started repairing it already, or had left some kind of preservation spell on the place.

The doorway didn't actually have a door in it, just a pair of curtains. It was surprisingly wide. The largest goblins Sunny had seen in the forest might have been able to step inside.

Dawn entered boldly, like the royal she was. Sunny ducked in beside her, ready to jump in front if the Sugar Plum Fairy was home and not inclined to entertain visitors.

"My first customers!" Plum trilled, tumbling in the air. "It's so good to be back! What can I do for –? Oh, it's you." Her blue, glittering shoulders slumped for a moment and she pouted at them.

Larkspur folded her arms and made an indignant noise.

Sugar Plum pasted her smile back on. "How kind of you to come and check in on me, after we shared that harrowing ordeal in the Dark Forest!"

Sunny could see almost the entire workshop from the door, except for a curtained off area he guessed might be Plum's private living space.

Between the randomly placed windows, the walls were lined with shelves, mostly full of dried plants and empty bottles, and a few haphazardly-placed boxes and books. A counter or table was built around the trunk in the middle of the room. On it were scissors and gardening tools, for harvesting ingredients, and cooking tools, for brewing potions, and a vase with some forsythia blooms in it.

"How are you settling in?" Dawn asked. One of her hands was clenched around her other wrist.

"Oh, it's a bit dusty, nothing unexpected, everything that didn't rot or dry up while I was away is right where I left it – but unfortunately, one of the dried up things is my customer base! It looks like I'm going to have to completely rebuild my client roster."

Plum pouted again, and made a sweeping gesture to a shelf where a few yellow-green bottles emitted the faintest glow.

"I've been working on garden fertilizers, always steady sellers; that's how I got my start. But nobody's come to shop even though I'm sure everyone knows I'm free by now, so I might have to go into market to remind them that I'm here. And maybe trim a gateway into the forsythia again, like I had before, but after that dreary dungeon with only my own glow for colour, I've really missed the rest of the spectrum, so I'm going to wait until the yellow flowers are done for the season."

Plum circled around them and put one hand on Sunny's shoulder and the other on Dawn's.

"And how are you two setting in to your new relationship? I thought I saw something between you!"

"We're taking it slow," said Sunny quickly.

Plum turned into Dawn and booped his nose. "Just because love is new doesn't mean it isn't real." She booped the real Dawn's nose in turn and changed back into herself. "Right, Princess?"

Dawn's smile definitely showed more teeth than usual. Her teeth barely parted when she spoke.

"Our relationship is progressing at the pace of our choosing. But there is a complication we ought to discuss with you."

Sunny looked at his feet. Did Dawn want to know Sugar Plum's perspective of what Sunny had said and done to convince Plum to make him the love potion he had tried to use on Dawn? It had actually been disturbingly easy … both for how quickly she acquiesced and for how pleased he'd been about it.

"The night we met you, a lizard got love-dusted and she's in love with both of us," said Dawn flatly. "The imp saved our lives by dusting her before she could eat us, but it's still not right to keep someone … emotionally stuck like that. Is there any other cure besides real love?"

"Sorry." Sugar Plum shrugged, not looking sorry at all. "The magic was set up to have just the one counterpoint, so it can't be undone by anything else. It's my most powerful working."

If you think making the potion's dangerous, wait till you use it! Believe you me, there can be unforeseen consequences. Oh, I'm so good! It scares me so!

"I see. Well, best of luck … rebuilding your client base. You should know before anyone else asks you to brew one that love potions have been banned in this kingdom as well as the Dark Forest."

"I suppose that's only to be expected," said Sugar Plum philosophically. "Don't you worry about me. The goblins probably destroyed all the primrose petals we'll get this spring, so I'll have a year to wean everyone off that idea."

"And the Royal Family is willing to fund research into finding an alternative antidote." Dawn winked. Her toothy grin became a cheeky one. "In case you want a new special project. I'm sure you'd outdo yourself."

"You flatter me, your highness. But I won't keep you. Go on, back to your date! Shoo-shoo!"

Dawn and Sunny let themselves be chivvied out the doorway.

"Toodles! Come back any time you want relationship advice!"

"So …" said Sunny, once Plum had gone back inside to wait for customers, "I … guess we've got Lizzie forever, then."

Dawn heaved a sigh. "Guess so."

Lizzie was excited to see them back. She nuzzled both of Sunny and Dawn, and used her massive head to herd them away from Plum's workshop.

"Do you think," Sunny asked Dawn quietly, "she understood about Plum being in there? And us wanting an antidote? And the potion's making her not want an antidote?"

"Animals of all sorts tend to avoid that place," Thimble volunteered. "I think Plum set a barrier spell that makes them nervous. That sort of thing isn't sustainable over a large area like a village or even a farm, but around a single building it can work."

"And Marianne said," said Dawn, "that when she was dusted, if there'd been an antidote, she would've taken it if Bog was the one to ask her, to 'prove' her love was real." She gasped. Her eyes went wide. "I am so stupid!"

"No, you're not!" said Sunny, shocked. "What could even make you think that?"

"We could have used Marianne's obsession with Bog to get her away from him! Then Dad would have called back the army and no one would have gotten hurt!"

"… You lost me. How would that have worked?"

"'Oh, Marianne, this is so great, we should go tell Dad you have a new boyfriend!'" Dawn stamped her foot. "But no, I had to try and reason with her and just got her mad."

Sunny patted Dawn's arm.

"You know," he said slowly, "It's okay if you're still mad. At your dad or your sister or the goblins or Sugar Plum, or, well, me. It was a pretty wild night and it's only been a few days."

Dawn didn't say anything but she did look a little less tense. They walked in silence for a full minute.

"I feel like I forgave you too quickly," she admitted. "I know you weren't doing it to hurt me and I trust you not to do it again – and if you do try something like that again, I won't forgive you – and I don't feel mad at you anymore, but I do feel … almost, mad at myself? Like, does it make me weak that I can forgive someone for trying to control me, and give you another chance?"

Sunny really wasn't the best person to answer that and figured Dawn knew that too, so he didn't answer.

"Trust can be misplaced," said Thimble, "but being able to trust isn't a sign of weakness, in and of itself."

"Mm."

"Do you, ah, want me to walk you home now?" Sunny asked.

"… Not yet. Let's go look at the daffodils."

Re-read the previous chapter.

Read the next chapter.

#Strange Magic #Taking the Feisty One chapters #Monday is fanfic day!#Potionless #Sunny #Dawn #Lizzie #lizard #Sugar Plum Fairy #strange magic fanfic #My Fanfiction

19 notes · View notes

black-strike-otp · 7 years

Text

part 19

Can we all just agree a group hug is in order? Yes? Please????

Also the general concept that nobody wants to see medics is literally so universal I can’t help but wheeze a little.

Leaving a disgruntled and probably achy Neutroboost in charge of the Rising Star, Guard agreed to follow Novastrike to the med-bay. He continuously urged her to walk ahead due to his lame leg, but she insisted on staying by his side. Partly because leaving him simply was bad etiquette and she didn’t want to leave him alone, partly because she had a feeling he would somehow find a task that needed his attention now and would skip out on seeing the medic.

Why folks got so antsy about seeing the medic, she didn’t understand.

Then she’d remember how she ran away from Nighthawk after he had been so polite and helpful.

And that time she hid from that one mech.

And maybe that other time-

Whoops.

At least once they got started she sat still and let it happen. She’d seen a great many idiots try flinging themselves away in the middle of fix-ups and procedures and suddenly there were parts falling out of them not meant to exactly be outside the Cybertronian body.

"We are turning the gravity off to all sectors while we work on patching up areas of the ship. Please be advised not to panic; some sectors will have gravity return within minutes, while others it may take some time.” A comm crackled.

Novastrike glanced towards Guard. “They said what now?”

Gripping his cane tightly, Guard’s pedes slowly began to rise up from the floor. Nova gave a frightened squeal as she, too, began to float. Just below them, Scorponok was quick on his pronged pedes to lock himself onto the floor.

With a delightful chuckle, the Commander waved a digit at Nova. “Well, this is going to make it a little easier on my leg at least.”

Flailing her limbs wildly, Nova let out a displeased squawk. “I’m not a winged-Cybertronian, a seeker, or a flier! I can’t even reach anything to magnetize myself, see?” Nova flailed her legs desperately, spinning in circles in the air.

Guard shifted, giving the impression he was leaning back against a chair. He reached out with his good pede, gently nudging a nearby wall so he could float aimlessly down the hall. As he slowly hovered by Novastrike, he reached out and gently wrapped a servo around her.

“Easy fix,” he said calmly. “We’ll just float down there.”

Novastrike slapped a servo over her faceplate and groaned. “Uuuh, I bet the medic’s none too happy about this.”

“Surely not,” Guard agreed with a slight snicker. He gave a glance down at the bug below and noticed Scorponok was already scooting his pedes down the hallway with determination and speed.

Placing the white-armored femme upon his chassis, Guard pressed his cane to a nearby wall and pushed; giving them a little more speed and momentum. His optics shuttered offline and he hummed, enjoying the serenity of the quiet as they floated.

A rather restless looking femme on him, looked far less pleased as she magnetized her pedes onto the large mech so she couldn’t go flying around the hall or out an open window or something if they passed one. It was a bit hard to stay irritated long however, staring at Guard’s peaceful expression. He was always looking so tired or the features and lines of his frame and face giving way to signs of stress. It was nice to see him completely relaxed and tranquil for once.

It soon became apparent they weren’t the only ones using the anti-gravity for more than work. As they sailed more or less down the hall, they came across some of the rogues on the ship who were goofing off in between placing replacement panels of glass and patches over holes in the ship. They would throw materials and tools to each other across the room in a game of catch. Most would stop as Guard came by and he would wave them off with ease, telling them so long as it got done, there was no harm in a little blundering about.

Everyone was having so much fun and acting so uncharacteristically enthusiastic, Novastrike nearly forgot where they were supposed to be going until she spotted the medic standing outside of the med-bay, her pedes attached firmly to the floor.

Guard’s soft smile and destressed attitude seemed to take a blow as he spotted her.

“What’s this? Guard, actually looking like he’s enjoying himself? Hmm, I guess I bumped my helm a bit hard during the transwarp; either that, or we all are offline now,” the medic stated, tapping a digit against her chin.

Novastrike offered a grin spread wide, and was happy to feel and hear Guard’s echoing deep laughter in his chassis.

“I have to have a little fun around here, or I’ll go crazy,” Guard defended himself.

The medic arched an optic ridge. “You sure you haven’t already done that?”

Guard forced a displeased expression but it broke swiftly, and he chuckled faintly. “You got me,” he laughed deeply.

Shaking her helm with a little smile and softened optics, the femme reached out and plucked Nova from the Commander’s chassis. She placed her on the floor so she could magnetize and then grabbed Guard by his good leg, giving him a gentle pull towards the med-bay’s door as it opened.

His laughter was so fragging infectious. Nova found herself giggling as Guard absolutely bellowed with hysteria; guffawing and snorting as the medic just tugged his near-weightless frame along after her.

As they entered the room, Nova spotted Scorponok, who had easily out-paced them back to the medical room. He was on the floor beside a berth Blackout was sitting upon. His pedes were upon the floor, probably magnetizing, Nova thought. But he was rubbing at his wrists and arms like he was uncomfortable. Her fit of giggles seemed to slowly ebb off then.

The medic closed the door behind them and began floating Guard over to a nearby berth. She turned her helm back towards Nova.

“Dear, please initiate the room’s personal gravity field when I have Guard positioned on the berth, would you?”

“Yes ma’am,” Nova replied quickly. Stepping over to the wall, she placed a pede upon it and walked up the wall at an angle to a panel.

“Alright, he’s secure,” the medic called.

Novastrike tapped a button. Gravity suddenly sucked her downward and she flipped mid-air, landing neatly on her pedes.

Scorponok gave an impressed whirl off to the side. “Impressive,” he stated in a slightly less monotone voice than usual.

Timidly, Nova glanced towards the medic, her audios glowing faintly.

Choosing to ignore the titan of an ebony mech sitting on the other berth, the little femme trotted over to where Guard and the medic were.

“Is he alright?” Nova inquired faintly.

“No worse for wear,” the femme replied. “Although he’s going to be enjoying a cube of energon while I make sure there’s nothing wrong, other than being a senile old mech who needs to rest more than work.”

Guard gave an unhappy ‘humph’ as he pressed her servo against the side of the berth to sit up. “I’m perfectly fine, it was just the sudden stop that gave me a little dizzy spell. Nothing to be alarmed about.”

The medic gave him a cross glare and he didn’t attempt another arguing point.

“As for Blackout,” the medic said, turning to the big mech. “He still needs to stay in the med-bay, not be wandering around. His little stroll caused some ruptures in the cracked lines of his left pede, and nearly tore apart what welding and patch-work we’d put into his right.”

Blackout was still busy rubbing his arms. Nova looked between him, Guard, the medic, and Scorponok.

“Don’t make me need to restrain you again,” the medic stated frostily.

That seemed to catch Blackout’s attention. He looked up at the medic with a mixture of aggravation and discomfort.

Still, his voice showed nothing but respect as he muttered, “Certainly, ma’am.”

The medic gave a short nod and turned, marching over to grab that energon cube for Guard.

Taking a few long-strides forward, Novastrike jumped up, landing carefully on the edge of Blackout’s berth.

Satan turned his dark optics upon her slowly.

“It’s good to see you online,” Nova mumbled sheepishly, reaching over to rub her arm.

Blackout gave a slow nod. “Thank you,” he stated faintly. “For... bringing me on board. I heard you were the one who went out to fetch me.”

“Oh- it was- it was nothing,” Novastrike squeaked, fumbling for words.

“You saved my life,” Blackout remarked plainly. “And Scorponok’s, as well.”

Oooh geez. Heat spilled out of Nova’s ears. She knew she was blushing like an idiot. Praise didn’t fit on her well; squirming in place uncomfortably.

She couldn’t have been more grateful than when Blackout turned his attention to Guard instead.

“Thank you, sir,” he said humbly. “I regret the problems I have caused you and your crew.”

Guard gave a slight wave of his servo. “Think nothing of it, young mech. I had every intention on keeping my word. You are safe here, I promise. You’re welcome to stay and rest as long as you need to. You needn’t act like you’re a burden.”

Glancing between the two mechs, Novastrike caught the sincerity and gentle smile of her Commander, followed by the astonishment in Blackout’s face. He couldn’t seem to hide it. His optics grew a fraction or two wider and he raised his optic ridges as his mouth opened slightly.

Funny, she had a feeling he was so rarely caught off guard like that.

The medic strolled back over, pressing an energon cube towards Guard’s faceplate. He tried leaning away from her but she scowled deeply, and with a nervous smile he accepted the cube.

“Drink,” the medic ordered.

“Yes ma’am,” Guard grunted, taking a slow drink of his energon.

Blackout regained his composure and he bowed his helm low towards Guard. “I appreciate that, sir, thank you. However I do not wish to cause your crew any further endangerment. I’ll be sure to go, as soon as I am able.”

Novastrike swallowed a lump in her throat. Her tail swished behind her and fell still as it felt like all of her energy was being zapped out of her.

“No rush for you to leave anytime soon,” Guard said calmly. “I was informed you still had plenty of recovery to do. That being said, I don’t suppose you could turn off your transmitter...?”

“Already done, sir.”

“Excellent,” Guard vented with relief. “Then we have no issues here. There is plenty of energon for the time being. No rush. I would listen to the medic here if I were you, you’re lucky she didn’t try anything... rash.”

The medic pouted slightly, pulling out a scanner from her subspace. “If only I had a tranquilizer,” she whispered to herself in a whimsical tone.

Guard reached out, patting the femme on the shoulder. “We’ll see if we can’t find you some sedatives when we find another suitable deserted area to loot.”

Blackout made a grunting noise like he didn’t like the sound of that.

Turning his blue optics upon Novastrike, Guard offered an affectionate, warm smile. “Thank you for your help, Novastrike. You’re like a little medic yourself now, aren’t you?”

Nova jumped a little at the compliment. “I uh- I’m still better with stun guns, sir.”

Everyone shot a look down at Scorponok as he gave a chatter of laughter. “Definitely,” he agreed. “Unqualified femme poke hard. Better with guns.”

Throwing a dirty look down at the minicon mech, Novastrike stuck out her glossia at him. There was a quiet laughter from everyone in the room.

“Well, according to my scanners here, Guard we’ve got a couple places beneath your armor we could work on,” the medic stated. “With no protoform here and here, your armor is starting to tear into these circuits. It could leave you permanently-”

“Of course,” Guard interrupted swiftly. “I trust your judgement. Feel free; open me up like a rusty slag container.”

“Bad analogy,” the medic stated, cringing.

Giving an anxious twitch of her audios, Novastrike watched Guard. Permanently... disabled? Disfigured? It had to be disabled; his leg already was disfigured from the fight, there couldn’t be another answer.

Blackout rumbled beside her and Nova’s protoform crawled, glancing up at the large mech.

“Are you alright?” Satan rumbled.

Nova tilted her helm slightly. “Yes- I mean, why wouldn’t I be?”

There seemed to be a question in Blackout’s face, but he shook his helm. “No reason,” he muttered, glancing down at Scorponok. “Nice work.”

The bug gave a quiet chirp in response.

“Novastrike,” the medic called out, “Fetch me the T-67043 wires for Cadulen structures, would you? And while you’re at it, bring me a couple forceps? Oh, and run a scan over Blackout; we need to see where we need to work next. Lay down would you, big-n-scary?”

Blackout met Novastrike’s gaze and gave a slight shrug. As she bounded off the berth, he went to lay down as told.

She scurried off to go fetch supplies, trying not to let it eat at her that Guard may be in worse condition than she originally realized.

#quid pro quo au #OTP AU #OTP Lit #Cute OTP

2 notes · View notes