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call-me-strega · 3 months

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Dc x DP Prompt #8: Best Friend’s Brother

Preface: this prompt can be used with different characters but I’m writing it as Dead on Main bc that’s my favorite. Also the colleges I mention are real colleges from the DCU

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Danny Fenton was 18 when he moved to Gotham for college.

It was the only place with a half decent engineering program that would take a kid with his record; drop in grades, unexplained absences, missing class, a disciplinary record, etc. Plus there was a decent saturation of both magic and ectoplasm in Gotham’s air. After he got accepted he decided to tell his parents he was Phantom. They reacted surprisingly well all things considered. They were horrified to learn they’d been hunting their son but it quickly turned into acceptance to listen to what he had to tell them. Now they turned their obsession from hunting ghosts to learning more about ghost more humanely. He also managed to get his former rouges to agree to call off any major shenanigans in favor of less destructive outlets. (He got Ember a TikTok and a YouTube channel, he set up a drag racing circuit in the realms for Johnny and Kitty, let Technus enter the internet as long as he stayed within Amity’s grid or help Ember manage her stuff, allowed Desiree grant wishes for Make a Wish Foundation kids so long as she didn’t horribly twist them, etc.)

Now with the town not at constant risk of danger and his parents agreeing to really handle any rouge ghosts, Danny could leave Amity with a clear conscience. His friends were also growing up and heading to their own colleges. Tucker was heading to Ivy University in New England, which rivaled MIT in terms technological prestige, and Sam decided on Vandermeer University in Pittsburg, which had a reputation for being a very liberal, anti-authority campus. Although their trio would be spread out, Danny found comfort in the fact that they’d all moved from the Midwest to the Northeast.

With promises to stay in touch a visit. Danny got set up in GCU’s dorms, ready to move into the next chapter of his life.

Danny Fenton was 20 when Tim Drake (age 19 but nearing 20) officially became one of his best friends.

They had been introduced to each other by their mutual friend Sebastian Ives for a new Warlocks and Warriors campaign. Their friendship extended beyond WnW when they ended up on the same Applied Physics and Mechanics class. It was cemented when they got pair up for a project in class and had to spend lots of time around each other.

Danny didn’t mind that Tim tended to be a bit flaky and Tim didn’t mind that Danny was possibly not 100% human. They didn’t ask each other too many questions about that stuff. They knew the other had something odd about him and that was fine with them. It was nice to have a causal friend they could be normal with, without being questioned about their more peculiar behaviors.

They officially became best friends when the built a Rube Goldberg machine with a working trebuchet within an hour of the three they had to complete it for their Applied Phys-Mech final. Danny introduced Tim to Sam, Tucker and Jazz. Tim introduced him to Steph, Tam, and Cass. They texted and hung out fairly often. They truly did consider each other one their best friends.

Danny Fenton is 22 when he meets Tim’s family.

Tim’s 21st birthday is coming up and he has plans with his family the day of and is going out with his friends, including a couple from out of town, that night. They want to take him out for his first drink and it’s fortunate timing since it’s the weekend so nobody has to worry about classes. Everyone who was going was already informed that Tim would be spending most of the day with his family before Steph and Cass would bring to the club everyone was meeting up at. Which is why it’s purely a coincidence when he runs into them at BatBurger during the lunch rush.

Danny had just picked up the part-time job to earn a little extra cash to pay for his hobbies. Tim new about it but didn’t know the exact location he worked. That’s why they were both presently surprised when they heard each others voices in the drive through. When they pulled up to window Danny saw his friend leaning over a tired looking black-haired man, trying to stick his head out of the drivers window to give Danny a maniacal grin.

He quickly introduced the other passengers of the car as his dad, Bruce, and three of his brothers Dick, Jason, and Duke. He mentioned he had a fourth brother, Damian, who was still at home. Danny couldn’t really see everyone all that well on account of they were inside a car but he happily greeted them as well. They laughed and Danny wished Tim a happy birthday saying he’d see him at his celebration later tonight before handing them their food. He could the rowdy boys ribbing their brother as the car drove away and Danny resumed his work.

That incident seemed to have opened a gate because now Tim felt more comfortable inviting him over when his brothers were still around the house. He occasionally talked about his family more and Danny returned the favor letting snippets of his own family spill a little more. Occasionally, he’d see Tim’s family outside of his interactions with Tim.

He’d run into Damian, and sometimes Bruce or Dick was with him, at the museum or in the park while the younger had been walking his dog and stopped to say hi a couple of times. He chatted with Dick a couple of times when they were both in line to get coffee at a cafe. He saw Duke on a college tour once and waved at him.

The family member he probably saw the most other that Tim (and by extension Cass) was actually Jason. He’d ended up ditching BatBurger to get some more practical experience at an apprenticeship at the auto shop Jason went to to get his motorcycle serviced. The two of them got along pretty well and would often make conversation when Jason was waiting on his bike to be ready or to get his bill.

At first is was small talk about little things like how he and Tim were doing in class or how their days were going but they soon grew to have genuine interests in each other. Jason let Danny talk about space and mechanics and even gave his own thoughts sometimes, once helping Danny realize he was over complicating the circuit board of the device he was building. In return Danny let Jason ramble to him about literature, even taking the initiative to read a book Jason mentioned so he could talk to him about it better. Their conversation tended to be on the briefer side but were always enjoyable to both parties.

Danny actually liked being around Jason a lot but didn’t really bring that fact up a lot around Tim as it didn’t seem necessary. Tim was pretty glad that Danny got along with his family but he preferred to keep them in separate places in his mind. Danny knew and respected that, only really mentioning that he’d seen them recently and that they’d told him to say hi on their behalf (or die in Damian’s case occasionally).

Tim Drake was 22 when he came to a horrific realization.

Well, perhaps horrific was a bit of an exaggeration. Tim wasn’t necessarily horrified by the revelation. In all honesty he didn’t know how to feel. He felt an odd mixture of protectiveness, possessiveness, confusion, and optimism(?).

You see, Tim and Danny had been hanging out in the campus center, studying and goofing off when he got a text from Jason saying he was coming to pick him up for family dinner at the manor since he was closest and Dick was busy picking up Duke and Damian from their after school clubs.

“What’s up?” Danny asked him curiously.

Tim set his phone on the table and started putting his stuff away. “My brother is coming to pick me up for family dinner so I gotta head out soon.”

“Ah well I should probably get going too. Tell Dick I said hi.”

“Actually, it’s Jason. Dick is picking up Duke and Damian,” he said shoving his textbook into his bag.

“Oh? That’s nice of him. Hey do you wanna just head out together?” Danny asked, fidgeting with his hoodie strings.

Tim noticed a slight strain in Danny’s voice at the mention of Jason but didn’t comment. He just nodded his head sure and walked outside with Danny. They got out to the street when Tim realized he’d left his phone in the library. He faced palmed and asked Danny if he could hold his stuff so it wouldn’t slow him down as he ran back to the campus center to get his phone. Danny agreed to and hold his stuff and wait for Jason while Tim went back.

After getting his phone Tim started heading back to where he left Danny when he saw that Jason had arrived that Jason had arrived and was talking to Danny. He was about to call out to them when he noticed several things in quick succession. Danny was fidgeting with his hoodie, something he tended to do when nervous. The tips of Danny’s ears were a light shade of pink (it isn’t cold out yet?). Danny looked deeply absorbed in his conversation with Jason in a way that reminded Tim of how he talked about space. And Jason seemed just as absorbed in the conversation as well.

The gears in Tim’s head went into overdrive and he realized ‘Ah- Danny has a crush on Jason’. His eyes widened as his head whipped around to examine Jason again. He saw a look of genuine fondness in his eyes. Thus Tim was confronted with the aforementioned horrific realization and complicated feelings. Tim didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or both.

‘My dumbass best friend has a crush on my brother. And worse(?), my idiot brother returns those feelings.’

#dc x dp #long post #dead on main #danny fenton #tim drake #jason todd #jason todd x danny fenton #danny and tim are bffs #Danny has a crush on his best friends older brother #he hasn’t realized this quite yet #Tim isn’t sure how to feel about this #Jason probably likes Danny too but also doesn’t realize it #Tim is the only one who is aware and suffering #he has to make a choice:#wingman his idiot friend and idiot brother #or hoard his friend to himself #Strega’s dc x dp prompt

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f4nd0m-fun · 5 months

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So in a lot of these monster hunting fantasy webcomics, you have these things called monster cores. Imagine, if you will, an AU where the Justice League has always been in a world like this. Maybe an alternate earth, maybe the aliens are from different planes instead of planets, maybe you've got magic as the primary force and yet there's some who still manage to stick almost entirely to tech/magitech (like Bruce). These cores are essentially batteries, and the more powerful the monster the more energy you can draw. Also, I love the idea that, if you put it together right, you can technically recharge it.

Enter, the Phamily. Either they are from this world and the Fentons are monster hunters trying to find the origin place of the monsters, or this isn't their original world and they're trying to open a portal home.

Danny, Ellie, Dan, and Vlad if he's there, have cores. These can be considered batteries just looking at the way ectoplasm is used (imagine how much more potent the cores would be than the globs). Jazz, the parents, and Danny's friends if they're there too are liminal. This could mean that magic considers them part monster despite no cores, or maybe they're considered akin to warlocks or sorcerers, looked down upon but not actively hunted or something. Although the presence of the half monster kids and what seems to be a half monster dad... (yes this is probably a family breakfast ship, sue me if you dare) well, Vlad is gonna be determined to fight off the rumors with whatever he's got, there's no need for his darling Maddie to get worked up about idiots, aside from him and Jack of course. (I also love Vlad x Connie so this could either be Vlad is just an uncle or we get Connie in and call it Family Party or something - Party cause alcohol?)

Also not entirely sure on how I'm writing Bruce and Dick here, I want them to be able to access magic in some way, but sensing magic might be more of an Oracle/Barbara thing, I'm not sure, but also they can't do anything big or flashy with it, it's more tiny stuff which is why they rely on magitech. Also the idea that even if people can sense magic, usually they ignore changes aside from moving away from it if necessary cause usually it means a bunch of monsters are coming through a breach. Honestly, not sure how to run this but, eh.

The below segment is written with Native!JL and Isekai!DP in mind.

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Bruce had been tinkering with his latest animaga, a monster core whose energy had been threaded through one if his favorite inventions, intended to allow him and his ward flight with the use of monster wings.

"B!"

He tensed but refuses to startle as his ward all but jumped on top of him. "Yes Dick?"

"The magic feels weird!"

Bruce paused, setting his tools down. He knew as a half elf, Richard was sensitive to magic, but wasn't nearly as strong with it as most full elves.

Of course, Bruce had always been considered... disabled in that regard, a full elf who could only feel the energy close to him, though it wasn't public knowledge that he knew of. "That's good to know, Chum, why don't you meditate on it and I'll investigate tonight?"

His ward seemed to understand the intent to leave him behind and started to protest.

"Chum, I was going out alone before you showed up, if the magic really has changed, it'll be safer for me to go out and use the radar."

Dick whined but didn't protest again.

Bruce hoped he wouldn't sneak out this time.

As night began to fall, a family of 9 was gutting a strange metallic ship. Well, the three elder ones were, while the younger ones worked together to scout out the area.

Bruce had just arrived to the location, but chose not to interfere just yet. Batman was the embodiment of night to many, a fearsome predator to others, and some even thought he was a monster himself. Reconnaissance was his strength, as was stealth.

"I don't know, Jazz, the energy here is weird. Muggy almost." His form gave off a soft glow, not unlike that of the whisps, though much larger in body.

The girl with red hair, Jazz he presumed, did not appear impressed. "Like you're the expert on energy. Maybe you should ask Sam when we get back to Mom and dad."

"And Vlad."

"Don't remind me."

The glowing one shuddered. "I know him and our parents have been buddy buddy again but why did he take you find along?"

"Because you're still in training, Daniel."

Both children shrieked.

"I see your core has accepted me into your Fraid."

Bruce froze a bit. Core? Thier energy was certainly strange but not entirely monstrous, hence his inactivity, but the presence of a core presented issues.

"Whatever, Fruitloop. Go back to camp."

"I don't think I will, you're being watched and I can't have my son or daughter being in harm's way."

"Give it a rest, Frootloop, we're not your kids." Despite their attitude, something about their reaction and stance suggested they were worried about being watched as well.

Bruce wondered how they knew about him, perhaps he should have asked Lucius for help with a dampening field to hide the energy of the animaga?

"Don't bother flying away, you'll be surrounded before you can think." Vlad placed a hand on Danny's shoulder.

Before Bruce could react, there was a flash of light that all but burned onto his retinas, but the light was all wrong, a deep black instead of a glowing hue. By the time he was back to his senses, Vlad was gone, and in his place was another strange Whisp. Batman didn't have to turn around to find there were identical ones behind him. Clearly, this was an opponent not to be underestimated.

#danny phantom #batman #dc x dp #dcxdp #isekai au #isekai #non-isekai Justice League #native Justice League #of heroes and monsters au

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vidavalor · 5 months

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hi again! rewatched the 1st season now. so first off thanks again for the excuse i appreciate it lol. but secondly hoping you wouldn't mind explaining the satan's obssession with crowley thing? cos he's obvs creepy as all hell pun not intended in the 11 years ago scene but i haven't found the bit that confirms it's a fixation on crowley and not just satan being satan. tysm!

Hi! Thanks for the ask. I can try and we can see what you think after, yeah? :) Christmas cookie? *passes plate and pours some tea*

TWs: discussion of PTSD, sexual assault, including rape, intimate partner abuse, anxiety, depression. We're looking at Crowley as an assault survivor here so it's a bit dark. Lindsay's abuse of Nina is also mentioned here. This will wind up having a companion meta at some point soon as I was also asked in comments on another post to talk about Crowley and intimacy issues which is then really also talking about Aziraphale as a trauma-informed partner so a less intense Part 2 at some point soon...

If you're the anon who asked me this (or anybody else) and you can't read something with these warnings but you'd like to see what I'm saying, PM me or throw something in my Asks and I'll see if I can do a version of this that gets the points across while omitting the darker aspects.

Meta on Lucifer and Crowley under the cut.

The Ask here was about why I see Lucifer as fixating on Crowley, in particular, and not just being generally evil as, ya know, he's Satan. It's a fair question since Satan's evil isn't exactly something that anyone would consider restrained as he's the devil. Some of this is inference here when it comes to Lucifer, since the show intentionally holds the character back a bit... but I also think that holding Lucifer back is by design to help illustrate some things that we'll look at here.

The first clue to me that Lucifer has a bit of a fixation on Crowley comes from Crowley's gigs in Hell. Before the end of S1, Crowley was high-ranked in Hell. He seems to go by quite a few names in his demonic world. By making himself Nanny Astoreth when he's looking after Warlock, it alludes the idea that Crowley is also the demon of that name, who is considered part of the "evil trinity" of Hell, along with Lucifer and Beezlebub, with whom Crowley used to spend time with pre-Fall and with whom he has history.

Astoreth is a genderbent serpent goddess in lore with an abundance of other Crowley traits so safe to say that Crowley is meant to be Astoreth as well. Aziraphale proposed in 33 AD that Crowley is also Mephistopheles and Asmodeus, which Crowley didn't exactly deny. Mephistopheles is one of the most famous demons to ever exist-- he of the Faustian bargain-- and Asmodeus is the demonic prince of lust. Crowley's already been shown to be a Bible figure in disguise-- Bildad the Shuite being a Biblical character-- so the idea that we are at the 2/3rds mark of the show and we've met all the high-ranking demons in Hell but several famous ones appear to not exist in Good Omens, despite more minor ones (Shax, Furfur) making appearances, implies that we probably actually have met demons like Mephistopheles and Asmodeus because they're all really Crowley.

Crowley retained power in Hell because it allows him what little freedom he can have in damnation. It means he likely won't be removed from Earth if he proves he's "good" at being a demon and that means he won't get stuffed in some cluttered, dark, cubicle in Hell for millennia. (Or destroyed.) More importantly, it means he'll be able to be on Earth with Aziraphale. That's easily worth taking credit for a bunch of human wars to fool Hell into thinking he's evil.

While we see that Crowley, when forced to come up with a demonic plot of his own, picks more annoying things than evil things and sells them as evil-- the M-25 design, taking down mobile phone networks, he's sometimes forced into doing things he doesn't want to do in order to not be outed as a demon who isn't super jazzed about being a demon and is really, secretly, a free-flying crow. He doesn't live to serve their Master Satan like some of the other demons do. He's going along with Hell as best he can and sometimes, he finds himself in a situation where he has to get creative because he's been tasked with something he disagrees with-- like we saw in the Job minisode. Other times, he might be forced into something he can't find a way out of, which is implied a little to be at the root of his terrible mood when he and Aziraphale meet up in Ancient Rome. He's wearing military garb that implies the temptations he's saying he's in Rome to accomplish are tied to Caligula, who wasn't exactly a swell guy.

What's interesting, though, is that Crowley is in this position of power in the first place. Other demons are shown in both seasons so far to be jealous of Crowley. He gets all the good gigs. Satan makes a bet with God that has both Upstairs and Downstairs in a tizzy for weeks and who is sent to whack the kids? Crowley. Who was sent on the first ever really Earth mission-- to get up into the Garden of Eden and "make some trouble"? Crowley, long before he'd cemented his big reputation. Who gets to deliver the antichrist baby and so kick off Armageddon, the thing that angels and demons basically "live" for? Crowley...

Across both seasons so far, Hastur, Ligur and Furfur are all given scenes of showing that they're jealous of Crowley being a favorite of Satan's and given the best assignments while they slum it in middle-management at best. What Crowley never says or admits to with other demons is that they actually don't want to be the favorite of Lucifer over here because he's the actual fucking devil and it's an absolute horror show. Crowley isn't about to admit that to them because he's supposed to want nothing more than to be Satan's slave and to express anything else is not demonic.

The other demons who are antagonistic towards Crowley are invasive and creepy but they stop short long before what we've seen Lucifer do. Hastur and Ligur pop up unannounced in Crowley's electronics-- the tv in his flat, on the screen at the movies-- and that's already disturbing. Imagine having your evil coworkers able to interrupt your r&r tv time in your own apartment... let alone the fact that Shax and even Beezlebub both pop up into The Bentley unannounced in S2. There's no evidence so far that Satan is out here "delivering instructions" like this to others in Hell the way he does to Crowley in 1.01 (and there's actually a scene in S2 that we'll talk about that suggests that he's not or, at least, that it's uncommon, which we'll get to in a second.)

He might well be but when you combine assaulting Crowley with giving him all the prime gigs in Hell and the other demons' jealousy of their Master's attention towards Crowley, you wind up with the impression that Satan is a bit fixated on Crowley.

The Bentley scene with Lucifer in 1.01 is analogous to rape. Crowley's sense of personal autonomy is violated. He doesn't consent to Lucifer forcibly entering his body. Lucifer does so by first penetrating through Crowley's two foremost metaphorical defenses-- The Bentley (enters through the radio and uses it to invade Crowley) and his sunglasses, which cannot shield his eyes/himself from Lucifer. Crowley already has these signature defenses mechanisms on in the attack scene and the horror in the scene is actually watching neither of them protect him. The scene is so early in the show that it's only the second scene we've ever seen Crowley wearing his glasses (and it's pitch black dark out, to add to it) so the glasses are basically introduced to us by showing us a situation that motivates Crowley's desire to hide his eyes from people he doesn't trust, even if they aren't human and know what his eyes look like. This is Crowley's third scene in the series itself and it's really arguably the second half of his second scene (the Hastur & Ligur in the graveyard one.) It's part of our introduction to Crowley in the modern era, with only Eden preceding it. Armageddon is new but the rest of this hell-- faking being evil, suffering violating attacks-- is thousands of years old for him at this point.

Crowley is driving when this happens.

Driving is the ultimate symbol of self-control because you're literally behind the wheel, navigating yourself through the world, in control of where you are going and the decisions you need to make to get you there, trusting yourself to make decisions that protect others on the road around you. Lucifer rips that from him by rendering him unable to drive while "delivering instructions" to his mind. Crowley-- a very powerful, magical being-- is unable to fight him off. When Lucifer leaves his body, Crowley had to grab the wheel and steer The Bentley away from hitting an oncoming truck with about three seconds to spare from a head-on collision. Crowley, The Bentley and the antichrist baby all would have likely survived that crash without issue because of their magic-- but the human driving the truck likely would not have. Obviously, Crowley would prefer not to kill anybody but Satan nearly made him against his will and rendered him unable to fight him, the powerlessness of which is then interesting when tied into things like Crowley essentially drugging himself to save Elspeth, trusting the present Aziraphale to help protect him while he did, etc..

As the attack happens, parts of "Bohemian Rhapsody" are underscoring it, picking up on a musical cue from when Crowley rolled up in The Bentley to see Hastur and Ligur in the graveyard. The graveyard scene sees Crowley arrive at the big crescendo of the song and what is it but the lyrics Beezlebub, has the devil put aside for me? and, prior to that, the eerie lyrics, especially on rewatch when you know what happens as a result of this scene: we will not let you go (let him go) x a million, not to mention the no no no no no no... bit.

By the time we're back in The Bentley and Lucifer has shown up, parts of the song play through it. I see a little silhouetto of a man plays as Crowley is literally seeing the driver of the oncoming truck in front of him, just as he loses the ability to control The Bentley. When Lucifer leaves him and Crowley grabs the wheel, we hear thunderbolts and lightning/very, very frightening/me and the Galileo segment of the song. Thunderbolts and lightning is interesting since God makes it a point to point out that this night is not dark and stormy but then that type of weather is what Crowley does in S2 that causes the power to go out and his parallel, Nina, to be trapped. It's also what demons in general can do so you could say sending a storm-- like in the Job minisode-- to be demonic and of Satan. (If it's not Crowley doing it to play Cupid, anyway.) The thunderbolts and lightning of Satan/Hell is very, very frightening to Crowley...

...Me/Galileo/Galileo/Galileo/Figaro... Galileo is arguably the most famous astronomer to ever live. He was a polymath, really, like Crowley was. Crowley, as an angel, made the stars and invented gravity. The scene with Hastur and Ligur that precedes this and ties into it has Hastur mistranslate the Italian Crowley spoke during it. Crowley said "ciao", meaning "goodbye", which Hastur correctly said was Italian but he claimed it meant "food" (mistaking it for "chow" because he's an idiot.) So a scene that ends with Crowley speaking Italian then connects directly into the scene of this attack, where Italian is spoken in the song scoring it, as Galileo was Italian and figaro in Italian is "fig tree".

While Eve does eat an apple in Good Omens, the Biblical 'fruits of knowledge' that tie to the Serpent tempting Eve in Eden are interpreted in different ways throughout different religions and at different periods in history. In Good Omens, Crowley got Eve to eat an apple and the pleasure of food opened a door to sexual pleasure. Eve shared the apple with Adam and they were *Aziraphale's hilariously judgemental voice* "expecting already" with Eve about 8 months pregnant later a day later because Eve's biology is atypical of other humans and all that. It's debated as an apple, with other different fruits and sometimes even wheat mentioned as possible things Eve ate-- if she ate food at all, as some people take the entire thing as a sexual metaphor. Figs are one fruit that some people believe it was instead of an apple, so this is a reference to Crowley as the Serpent of Eden.

Me/Galileo/Galileo/Galileo/Figaro... Crowley holding onto himself while under attack and just after it, which speaks to activation of a plan, which speaks to this not being the first time he's endured something like this. Galileo and Figaro = The Starmaker and the Serpent of Eden. The things he's done that he is proud of, that make him not evil, in his mind, and not deserving of this. Things he likes about himself. Things Aziraphale loves about him.

The song is narrating for us Crowley through the attack as he's basically frozen there enduring it, seeing the driver of the truck coming at him and Scaramouche/Scaramouche/Will you do The Fandango?

A scaramouche is a kind of mischievous scamp-- so, Crowley; The Fandango is a Spanish couple dance. Historically, one version of it is done between a pair of men who try to outdo one another with skill, in a kind of homoerotic competition. It's also slang for fucking during a concert and I have the feeling that Crowley would probably enjoying doing that Fandango a lot more as that would be consenting with a partner of his choice at a live concert rather than being mind-raped to Queen by the devil in his car. Regardless, it's another allusion to sex in the scene, adding to the rape overtones.

There's also something that is pretty horrifying about the fact that these scenes of Crowley and Aziraphale being separately reintroduced to us in 2008 after we first met them both together in Eden are intercut so that Lucifer's attack on Crowley scored by "Bohemian Rhapsody" ends with the Italian sung and cuts directly into Aziraphale speaking Japanese to the chef at the sushi restaurant.

He'll try to explain to Gabriel that eating sushi is "what humans do", which is the same phrase he'll use to try to explain to Michael and Uriel in S2 what falling in love is. During the bookshop attack, Shax will bully Aziraphale about his humanity-- about the same two things (food and love) in the two previous, connected scenes. (Gabriel, initially the one repulsed by tea in 1.01, leaves the scene after Aziraphale tells him to hide by asking if anyone wants a hot chocolate, in a pretty hilarious turnabout.) Shax calls back to the food-related and the love-related "it's what humans do" moments for Aziraphale by asking if she should "send up the sushi" and by mocking his relationship with Crowley ("What are you? Crowley's emotional support angel?"). Crowley and Aziraphale are the ones in love and it's tied together throughout multiple scenes in both seasons to sushi, in reference to the night Armageddon began in 2008.

The point then is that, making this all even worse, Crowley is actually supposed to be at a back corner table in a dark sushi restaurant sneaking a date with Aziraphale when he's attacked by Lucifer in The Bentley-- and then forced into helping start Armageddon, which could bring about the end of his and Aziraphale's relationship... and that's our grim introduction to his world in the modern part of the story.

As we go learn what Aziraphale is like in the modern era and contrast him with his head office's mentality via Gabriel's arrival, we also are given clues in the scene that suggest that Aziraphale was actually expecting Crowley, as he looks to the side Crowley comes up on when he hears the miracle sound that actually signals Gabriel's arrival instead. Aziraphale will then explain that he's there, doing "what humans do" and enjoying it, to Gabriel, and it will be only eating sushi in this moment, just as Crowley will not be present when Aziraphale explains that falling in love is "what humans do" while objectively talking about Maggie & Nina but, ultimately, talking about himself and Crowley beneath it-- his real motivation for keeping Heaven off their backs is Crowley. The writers then have Shax combine the two "it's what humans do" scenes around love and sushi and throw them back at Aziraphale while Crowley is once again not with him because of Heaven/Hell but is present in his absence in the moment.

All of this happens in the first scenes of Crowley in the modern era, all the way back in the first episode, and it's done to give us an understanding that he is a survivor of attacks like this and how that impacts his behavior, his choices, his relationship with Aziraphale. It's to give us a finer appreciation for his strength and his humor and his capacity to love in the face of it. It's to show that while some of the demons are just kind of amusing idiots, if dangerous, and that there's a lot of humor to mine there, some aspects of being a demon are not at all amusing. Crowley is really just doing the best he can to survive the absolute horror show that is an eternity of damnation as Satan's favorite over here because there are very dark, very violent aspects of it that he cannot permanently avoid.

While the attack we are shown is a mercifully short, if horrifying, scene, the implications of it are even worse. The assault we are shown had a plot purpose in that moment-- Satan giving instructions on delivering the antichrist baby to the satanic nunnery-- and since everything was in motion, that was the extent of it. Armageddon took precedence. What we are left with, though, is the impression that this type of demonic assault with its massive rape overtones is something that Crowley's experienced before and that the implication is that Lucifer attacking him is not always just to deliver a message related to an assignment but to deliver one of forcible control over him and that this is something that Crowley has been dealing with periodically for the 6,000 years he's been on Earth. It's akin to a kind of rape in 1.01 and that is already way more than enough to see how that would affect Crowley in the story... but then S2 takes this scene and both alludes to it in a key moment and gives it a whole paralleling subplot, highlighting its importance and continuing to expand upon the meaning of it. Both things together then suggest that while we saw a rape-coded assault in 1.01, the feeling that the scene was alluding to other instances where it was rape itself was definitely the implication of it.

In S2, in the group scene at the end, Crowley is out of the bookshop taking Maggie and Nina away from the angels for their safety when the subject of Satan comes up for the only direct time that season. Shax demands that Gabriel and Beezlebub be taken to Hell to be given "as gifts for Satan, our Master" and Head of the Dark Council Dagon replies that "he wouldn't want them-- maybe as hors d'ouerves." On the show obsessed with food symbolism and that codes different types of food with relation to sex-- in particular, because of Serpent of Eden Crowley-- and with the brothel owner named "Mrs. Sandwich", to say someone would want a being as a "hors d'ouerves" implies sex and if we're talking about Lucifer, then we've already established that consent isn't exactly a priority. Rape isn't about sex-- it's about power-- but the show is coding Lucifer's behavior in line with its coding of sex to highlight that his violation of Crowley isn't just of the heavily rape-coded variety that we saw in 1.01 but has actually, at other times, been rape.

Dagon's most significant line in S2 is essentially to point out that Satan's a rapist-- but it's also to point out that not everyone in Hell has been through that horror. Satan's choosy. Satan's a bit fixated. Dagon's comment is actually surprising. Your first thought when Shax suggests giving Gabriel and Beez to Lucifer is that he's the devil so they'd be in danger and what you've seen of what he's done to Crowley was skin-crawling and you don't want that to happen to Gabriel and Beezlebub. You assume that it might because we're talking about Satan but then Dagon puts a check on that and says-- to not a single bit of even implied disagreement in the room-- that Satan wouldn't really care that much about getting Gabriel and Beez.

Think about how truly kind of crazy that is.

Satan would not be that interested in being handed over his old friend and the Grand Duke of Hell who betrayed him and the Supreme Archangel of Heaven? He'd maybe rape 'em, sure, possibly, casually posits Dagon, but they aren't what he's really after. They'd just be hors d'ouerves.

Not a single being in the room even so much as signals disagreement with that assessment that the not terribly subtle Dagon chose to voice aloud, which means they all agree with her. They all know who Lucifer's fixated on.

*Gabriel* and *Beezlebub* would only be fucking *appetizers* to Satan.

That implies the existence of *a main course*, does it not?

Who else but Crowley (and Aziraphale) could be on that menu? No one.

We also have that Crowley is conveniently out of the bookshop for the moment that Shax and Dagon have this exchange about Lucifer. He comes back in on Dagon saying "hors d'ouerves" but was outside when Shax was referencing Satan so he didn't hear any of it. This seems very deliberate on the part of the writers, as if Crowley had been in the room, it would have prompted some kind of response and changed what happened in the scene afterwards. Instead, the only reference to Lucifer is specifically when Crowley isn't in the room, probably because this conflict is on-going and going to continue into S3.

Prior to Dagon's line, the show also paralleled Lucifer assaulting Crowley in The Bentley in 1.01 with Lindsay abusing Nina, which adds another layer into this. You could even make an argument that one of the reasons why we never see Lindsay and we just see their abuse of Nina via the text messages they send Nina is to draw an intentional parallel to how little we've seen to date of Lucifer/Satan in the series.

It directly ties to the 1.01 scene in The Bentley because, prior to Lucifer coming through the radio and assaulting Crowley, Crowley was trying to call Aziraphale (the Maggie to his Nina in this parallel, though obviously much further along in that relationship) to tell him about Armageddon but he'd taken out the mobile phone networks earlier in the night to have something demonic to share with Hastur and Ligur. This parallels Crowley knocking out the power in S2 accidentally and Nina getting locked in the coffee shop with Maggie. Lucifer and Lindsay both attack through electronic communication devices-- The Bentley's radio and Nina's phone-- and unleash a torrent of abuse. The difference is that Nina might be more easily able to escape Lindsay and live a more peaceful life after S2 while Crowley has yet to be truly able to evade Lucifer.

While Lindsay's abuse of Nina is at least psychological and emotional in what we are shown and Lucifer's abuse of Crowley is that with physical and sexual aspects that may or may not be present in Nina's relationship with Lindsay, the type of abuse doesn't matter to the parallel as it's all terrible and that's the point. Lucifer's abuse of Crowley is paralleled with the intimate partner abuse Nina is suffering in her relationship. This is objectively pretty interesting since it sort of suggests that Lucifer is Crowley's Lindsay, in the sense that they might have once been involved pre-Fall, which might add another element to why Lucifer is fixated on Crowley.

So, while Crowley can encourage his parallel Nina all he wants to take a risk and trust more and to trust him when he promises that it will be worth it, Crowley himself can't really extract himself from his own Lindsay-ish situation yet. He does know how to survive it, though, and it's not all about the defenses he and Nina put up-- it's about learning to shed some of those defenses enough to have a sense of intimacy with a kind person you can trust to love you and help you feel safe.

#ineffable husbands #good omens #crowley #aziraphale #good omens 2 #good omens meta #aziracrow

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aziraphales-library · 3 months

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Hi do you have any love triangles with Aziraphale in the middle?

Here are some fics that involve a bit of a love triange scenario...

You and only you. And oh yeah him, too. by AnnaTheHank (E)

Aziraphale figured that things between him and Gabriel were done after the trials. But clearly Gabriel thought otherwise. Aziraphale has to come to terms with the fact that he has feelings for both Crowley and Gabriel, and that there may be a way to get all that he wants.

Scam Boyfriend by ElderlySardine (E)

Crowley has loved Aziraphale for as long as he can remember - since they were small boys in short trousers, walking to primary school together in sleepy Tadfield. And Aziraphale loves him, too - they are still the best of friends, even 44 years later. And if Crowley secretly wishes that they could be more than friends... well, that's his problem, and he's dealing with it. He loves things just the way they are. But then the unthinkable happens, and a new love interest enters Aziraphale's life. And as if that wasn't bad enough, Crowley soon begins to fear that Gabriel may not be all he seems...

On The Side by FeralTuxedo (E)

Aziraphale is far too pure of heart to be anybody’s bit on the side. Or so Crowley thinks. But when his friend starts seeing walking red flag Jim, with his dodgy smiles and mysterious past, Crowley does everything he can to protect Aziraphale from disaster. His own heart might just end up being collateral damage.

Love, Syncopation, and Other Key Elements of Jazz by feathereddino (T)

The jazz duo of A.J. and Fell are an unstoppable force well into their mid-twenties, but when Crowley's illness causes the pair to step back from the spotlight, an enterprising music manager scoops up Aziraphale's career. Dazzled, Aziraphale will abandon all of his former life to be Gabriel's perfect star but lose himself and his happiness along the way. It would take a very steady and forgiving heart for someone to love him through it all... (An ode to that ridiculous hat that Michael Sheen wears... seriously, that's where this came from.)

come on darling, let's be lovers by shoebox_addict (E)

“I love the waistcoat.” The man beamed at him. “Thank you. I know it’s a rather old-fashioned style, but it makes me feel put together for the day.” “Makes you look put together, too,” said Crowley, and nearly bit his own tongue. “I mean, that is...you always look very nice.” Now it was definitely not his imagination; the man’s eyes were practically twinkling.

It Was Always You by mltrefry (T)

A chance encounter during one of the worst times of Ezra Fell’s life reunites him with his once best friend and the one who got away. Though, that would imply he ever had him in the first place. Anthony Crowley and his son, Warlock, relocate to the quieter city of Tadfield from that of London. In the process, manages to find again that one person who always made him feel less alone, the one person he was pretty sure he was never going to speak to again. But the road to true love never did run smooth (something that’s been true from their very beginning). Despite the easy way they fall back into each other, their lives don't seem to follow suit, and if it's not one challenge its another. But despite everything they find themselves facing down, the ten years without each other taught them one thing: they’re better together than they are apart.

- Mod D

#good omens #ineffable husbands #aziraphale/gabriel #love triangle #human au #adult omens #mod d

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niqhtlord01 · 1 year

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Humans are weird: D&D Part 6

( Please come see me on my new patreon and support me for early access to stories and personal story requests :D https://www.patreon.com/NiqhtLord Every bit helps)

Alien Wizard: I’m all out of spells, someone defend me! Human Barbarian: You still have your staff, right? Alien Wizard: I do but it’s useless! Human Barbarian: *Walks over, grabs staff, uses it to bludgeon an approaching goblin to death* Human Barbarian: *Hands staff back* Plus 8 intelligence my ass. ---------------- Alien DM: You can’t all be bards. Human Bard 1: Why not? Alien DM: You all are basically the same character with same skills. Human Bard 2: Not true, we each practice a different form of music. Human Bard 1: I do smooth jazz. Human Bard 2: I do rock and roll. Human Bard 3: I do classical. Human Bard 4: And I do death metal. ----------------

Alien Priest: I am curious which demon you sold your soul to for power. Human Warlock: I currently have it leased to several demons for multiple powers. Alien Priest: How is that possible? Alien Priest: What demon would agree to such an offer? Human Warlock: I time shared the hell out of it to each of them. Human Warlock: *Pulls out notepad, flips through it* This month my soul is currently in the possession of Yar’fenar, lord of the seventh ring in the dark lands. ------------------- Human Druid: *Brutally disembowels a troll by bringing a tree to life and then having it stab it repeatedly with its branches* Alien Warrior: While I am happy to see you are capable of defending yourself, I am a bit confused. Alien Paladin: Agreed. I thought Druid’s were meant to be at peace when communing with nature. Human Druid: This is pretty normal when you speak to trees all day. Alien Warrior: What do you mean? Human Druid: *leans in close and whispers* You have no idea how blood thirsty they are. Human Druid: They make blood hunters look like try hards at the gym. ---------------------- *party fighting a vampire lord on a boat* Alien Barbarian: They’re too powerful and we don’t have any holy weapons!” Human Priest: Throw them into the water! Alien Barbarian: *Shoulder rushes vampire lord and knocks them off into the water* Alien Paladin: Now what? Human Priest: *Holds up icon of faith and speaks holy words* Alien Barbarian: What did you do? Human Priest: I just blessed the entire ocean. Alien Paladin: You can do that? Human Priest: *shrugs* Let’s check. *Party looks over railing of ship to see vampire lord burning to ash in water* Alien Barbarian: Well damn, I guess he can. --------------------------- Alien Priest: I don’t think a bard can dual class as a warlock. Human Bard: Not true. Human bard: When I do my spells I sing with a mix of death metal and Latin. Alien Priest: How does that make you a warlock? Human Bard: It has the odd side effect of summoning demons who do my bidding in exchange for favors. -------------------------- *Shop door rings and customer enters* Human Artificer: What can I do for you? Alien Warrior: I wish to return my blade and get a refund. Human Artificer: Well that’s strange, may I see the blade? *Hands over the blade* Human Artificer: *Examining the blade* I can’t see any fault with the weapon; why do you wish to return it? Alien Warrior: You would not believe me if I told you. Human Artificer: Try me. Alien Warrior: Last week it started talking to me. Alien Warrior: It started off fine and cute, but after a while it started asking for the blood of my enemies. Alien Warrior: *Leans in* I think it is possessed. Human Artificer: *Hands back weapon* I’m sorry but that is a built in feature so I can’t refund you. Alien Warrior: Built in? Human Artificer: See, I always figured warriors get lonely on the road and could use someone to talk to so I carved special runes into each blade that activate when they have spilt blood. Human Artificer: The blade then becomes sentient and will talk to keep the warrior company on the road. Alien Warrior” Have you not considered how dangerous that would be? Human Artificer: Dangerous how? Alien Warrior: *Opens window to reveal angry mob outside all holding swords* Angry Mob: BLOOD FOR THE SWORD GOD! LET THEIR WILL BE HEARD! Human Artificer: Welp, mistakes were made. ------------------------------ Alien DM: You have defeated the band of rogues only to find many of them are in fact children. Alien DM: The harsh laws of the kingdom drove them into the arms of a lawless lifestyle. Alien DM: Their fate is for you to decide. *Party nervously looks at Lawful Paladin* Alien Wizard: Now let’s not be too hasty here. Alien Rogue: They are just kids after all. Human Paladin: In the eyes of the law all are equal. Human Paladin: *Slowly draws swords* and as its instrument I must see its will done unto all the wicked souls of this world.

#HUMANS ARE WEIRD #humans are insane #humans are space orcs #humans are space oddities #dungeons and dragons #dnd #d&d #funny

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tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors · 6 months

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hi autistic librarian in training (the librarian part is the in training part, I don't need anyone to teach me how to be autistic) here to answer your library question

a lot of college libraries will use the library of congress classification, which just goes more detailed than the dewey decimal classification does. ddc works well for smaller libraries and lcc is better for research/academic libraries.

ddc uses just numerals (and then by authors last name if two books have the same call number) to classify books and has about 10 broad classes to sort topics into, while lcc uses letters and numbers (and also years sometimes) and has 21 classes to sort into. they get stacked on top of each other like some unholy warlock sigil, I love it.

for example, here's the call number for the self-help book my boss made me check out, using llc:

BF 575 .H27 H375 2022

meanwhile with ddc, it's call number is just 158.1

and all fiction books are classified under 813.54, which is. a lot of books.

but yeah there are a whole bunch of library classification systems just in english but a whole bunch more when you branch out to other languages which I think is super neat

some other examples in english-speaking places include the colon classification (cc), universal decimal classification (udc), moys classification system (used in law libraries in canada, australia, new zealand, the uk), etc. there are a bunch more too

for folklore books and fairy tales, if your library uses library of congress, I'd go look in the GRs, maybe dabble into the GTs, for the non-fiction aspect of learning mythology, and pop by the PS200-300s for fictional stories that draw from a lot of folklore (but that's not going to be all inclusive for the PSes, as P is the lovely literature section. there's gonna be a lot in there).

*jazz hands* thanks for coming to my tedtalk

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh gosh this is actually so cool, ive been schooled !! /pos

i get annoyed with libraries when they use things other than ddc because thats the one i have my favorites memorized in, but i always thought those libraries were being pretentious and using their own proprietary system or something. this makes WAY more sense and now im gonna go ham memorizing my favorites in all of these two. thank you for sharing!!!!

#ask #takeabreathclosemyeyes #this is ALWAYS and infodumping positive zone

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jrwi-gayest-character-bracket · 7 months

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Art and Propaganda under the cut

Br'aad

Submitted for: MLM, "do goblins count idk"

- He's canonically gay, which is mentioned AND alluded to in the campaign and backed up by members of the podcast. - The plans for him included that he and another player character Taxi would be boyfriends by the end of the series. - HE WEARS NO SHIRT - HIS MAGIC TATTOO LOOKS LIKE A PENIS ON HIS FACE THIS IS CANON AND CONSTANTLY REFERENCED - His magic is sparkly - HES A BARD AND WAS A WARLOCK (THE GAYEST CLASSES IN DND) - He has a long purple cape and it's sparkly - I love him and he's silly. Also he's played by Slimecicle so he is gay. I am BEGGING you to use the image from the second arc. Scroll down on the wiki and find the one without his shirt and with the stupid sparkly name he summoned for himself I am on my knees BEGGING for this

Bro literally walked so peter sqloint could run. Was supposed to have a CANNON ENDING with Grizz's pc Taxi where i think they would live just a quiet gay life (couldn't find it that quickly, feel free to correct me on this). When you think "gay" you think him, definition of gay. I'm maybe a little insane. a bard

Jazz

Submitted for: MLM

dude.

#gayest of guys #jrwi #just roll with it #jrwi riptide #jrwi the fated #jrwi jazz #jrwi jasmine drake #jasmine drake #braad vengolor #jrwi braad #jrwi prime defenders

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x-ceirios-x · 2 months

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warlocks

magnus arrives home from the fight on valentine's ship to unexpected guests.

cw: alcohol consumption

Magnus sighed as he unlocked the door to his apartment, thinking he needed a very strong drink and a several-day-long nap. The shadow world was safe, for now, after Clary’s new-found rune powers destroyed Valentine’s ship. However, his magic was severely depleted after spending so much time holding back the demonic wards. It was all he could do to stay awake in Luke’s truck and keep that above water. Until Alec came, he wasn’t sure how much longer he would last. He borrowed his strength when he offered, though, and it helped him get back to shore safely. Both of them.

When he walked into the living room, he was both shocked and confused to see the lights on. He could have sworn he turned everything off before he left—no, he knew that was true. As he walked through the living room, he noticed the smooth jazz coming from seemingly nowhere and quiet chatter from the kitchen. He armed himself with a small ball of magic, though he knew he wasn’t up for a fight right now. Slowly and silently, he stalked into the kitchen–he turned the corner quickly, arm raised and prepared to attack whoever it was.

He didn’t know what he expected to see when he walked into his kitchen, but it certainly wasn’t two warlocks, one sitting on the stools to his island counter and the other sitting on the counter itself, swinging her feet. He lowered his arm and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Eleanor,” he said with a sigh.

“Magnus!” The girl slid off of the counter and ran to him, embracing him quickly and tightly. Shock wearing off, he relaxed into her arms, happy to see an old friend even if it was in strange circumstances like this. He leaned his head against hers for a moment, enjoying the familiarity after the day he’d had.

She pulled away just as abruptly as she’d embraced him. “Oh, where have you been?” she asked, hands running over his face quickly, inspecting him for injuries. He assumed he didn’t look as extravagant as he did usually when he had company. “You’re not hurt, are you? You look pale, would you like some tea?”

“Eleanor.” The other warlock spoke this time—Eleanor’s twin brother, Desmin. He placed his glass on the counter next to him and shot her a half-hearted glare. “You're smothering him.”

She perked up, processing his words for a moment, then pulled her hands away from him. “Sorry, dear,” she said with a cheery smile, spinning on her heel. She reached under the island, where he kept his alcohol, and pulled out two glasses filled with a shimmery, pink liquid. He liked her drinks when she made them by hand, not by magic, but he wasn’t one to complain. She was one hell of a bartender. “Cosmo?”

He nodded, eyes a little wide at the offer. “Please,” he said, taking a seat next to Desmin. He raised the glass in a small thank-you, then downed half of it. She chuckled and he saw a hint of a smile from Desmin as well, sipping his own drink. He hoped it wasn’t his good whiskey but knew better—both had expensive tastes.

She took a sip of her drink, then broke the silence. “We brought takeout, I hope you still like shrimp lo mein.”

He nodded and she slid a takeout box across the counter at him—after the night he had, the takeout sounded amazing. He wouldn’t have cooked if it would have saved his life, he was too tired. Despite not being up for company, he thought the twins being there was some strange kind of miracle. With them, came a little chaos, some alcohol, but a warm, familial feeling he could never pass up.

“We showed up around nine,” she explained as he ate. “I convinced Desmin to go out clubbing because I heard there was a neat little place called Pandemonium around here. Then you weren’t here, so we just decided to hang out until you got home. I got worried after you didn’t answer your phone.”

Magnus swallowed the bite of food he had in his mouth and gestured to Desmin with his chopsticks. “I think the strangest part of that is the fact you convinced Desmin to go clubbing.”

“I go clubbing,” he said. “I stand in the corner with my one drink of the night and watch people make fools of themselves. Very entertaining.”

She rolled her eyes. “God, Magnus, you should have seen him a few weeks ago. We took a trip to Prague and he met this fae—“

Desmin’s eyes flew wide open and his cheeks reddened. “You promised not to talk about Prague!”

“It’s Magnus!”

“I need to hear about this,” he said, moderately impressed that there was some story he was so embarrassed about he forbade Eleanor from talking about it.

She smirked. “I have never seen so many hickeys on this guy in my life—“

“Eleanor!”

They both broke out into laughter at his embarrassment. It was all out of love, of course, but he heard a few colorful, choice words under his breath. “I need another drink to deal with you two,” he said sarcastically, gesturing for Eleanor to hand him something. She pulled the bottle from under the counter and slid it to him, where he proceeded to pour several shots worth of his good whiskey. He must have noticed his shock and he shrugged. “We’ll pay you back for it. Always do.”

His eyes narrowed, though he couldn’t stop the smile on his face. “You’d better.”

Eleanor sat on his other side, picking a piece of shrimp from his dish and popping it into her mouth. He elbowed her arm for it. “My dinner!” he argued.

“I paid, let me have a little shrimp,” she said, settling next to him. “Where have you been all evening, though?”

He sighed. “It’s a very long, long story. I’d rather talk about that later.” She nodded in agreement, though he could tell she was still worried about him. He gave her an encouraging smile, slowly feeling the energy come back to him as he had something to eat. “Where have you two been? It’s been…what, thirty years?”

She shrugged, glancing past him to Desmin, then back. He noticed the little shimmers of purple in her eyes as she looked around—he always thought it was pretty. He’d never seen either of the twin’s warlock marks, but he assumed that was part of it. “A little bit everywhere. Rome for half the nineties, but we got bored of things there so we tried Barcelona for a little while, that was fun. Back to London in ‘89–“

“Back to London?” he asked. “I thought you said you’d never go back there after the whole…incident.”

Desmin scoffed. “That’s what I said. But no, she insisted on getting on West End.”

Magnus gasped. “That was you? I thought those pictures looked familiar!” he grinned at her. “You put on a hell of a glamor, dear. Who knew the great Allison Everett of West End was going to end up sitting in my living room.”

She gave a small, yet dramatic, bow from her seat and chuckled at his comment. “Let me say, those years of ballet training paid off. I played some good things, though. Maureen, in Rent, for one.”

He nodded. “I remember hearing about that. It sounds amazing.”

“I think if I had to hear her practice La Vie Bohème one more time, my ears would bleed,” Desmin muttered, receiving a slap on the shoulder for it.

“We were up in Flushing until a couple weeks ago. Heard through the grapevine that my favorite little warlock was the High Warlock of Brooklyn,” she said teasingly, pinching at his cheek and shoulder.

He laughed and swatted her hand away, rolling his eyes at her antics. “Alright mom,” he said sarcastically, though he noticed the way her smile softened. In short, Eleanor and Desmin were the closest thing he had to parents, though they were very good friends.

“She wanted to see you more so we decided to move a little closer. Got a nice place a few blocks away,” Desmin said. “When we’re done unpacking, you should come check the place out. Upper west side is pretty nice.”

“Look at you two being all fancy. Living the high life?”

Eleanor chuckled. “Exploiting a couple mundanes here and there, sure. Summoning demons, enchanting things, spells, whatever. And I got very good with investments in the past few years. I do all the money management so Desmin can work on his novel.”

“Still working on the same one?”

“Oh, no.” He shook his head, finding the question almost amusing. That one got published ages ago. I’ve got a pretty good running series. I just don’t do public appearances and no one seems to mind.”

Magnus nodded. That was very like Desmin—public wasn’t his thing anywhere. He preferred to keep to himself and hated speaking in front of large groups of people. It was something that couldn’t have made him and Eleanor more different; she loved to entertain and be the one in the spotlight, sometimes literally.

There were many things like that about them both; Desmin was cold, unmoved, a steady force that never wavered in his actions or motivations. Eleanor wore her heart on her sleeve and cared very deeply for the people she surrounded herself with. Neither were superficial by any means. He believed they were honest. However, he also had a suspicion they were much more complex under it all than they liked to let on. Eleanor always told him not to worry—they had each other, and that’s all that mattered. He wished they were a little more open with him, sometimes, but he understood. He didn’t have an exact age, but he knew they were old, much older than himself; when you spend so much time with one person, they become the only person you trust. He wished he had that level of companionship with someone.

He finished his dinner and pushed the plate away, turning towards Eleanor. “I hate to do this to you since you quite literally moved closer to see me, but I’m incredibly exhausted and in need of sleep.”

She shook her head with a smile. “I will take care of everything, don’t worry your head about it,” she said, taking his hand with both of hers and squeezing gently. “If you’re alright with it, we can crash here and I’ll make you breakfast in the morning. Someone—“ she glanced at Desmin— “is pretending to be much less inebriated than he is. That’s why he’s so quiet.”

“Quit revealing my secrets,” Desmin grumbled, though he didn’t deny it.

“Of course. I told you before, you’re always welcome here.” Magnus stood and gave Desmin a polite nod, then Eleanor another quick hug. She kissed his cheek as he leaned in, squeezing him tight. When he pulled away, she huffed, blowing her bangs out of her face. “You know, I’ll never forgive you for getting taller than me.”

He laughed. “You’ve been on about that for three hundred years.”

“And I will continue to be on about it!”

Magnus rolled his eyes and returned to his room, changing into his pajamas. He looked at himself in the mirror, inspecting his face as he cleared away his makeup with magic. He looked a little better than he assumed he did when he got home—less sickly, at least. The color returned to his cheeks but his tiredness was catching up to him. He got comfortable in bed, about to turn off the lamp next to him when there was a knock at the door.

“Come in,” he said, sitting up.

Eleanor walked in, holding a mug in her hands. She handed it to him and sat on the edge of the bed, closing the door behind her with the wave of her hand. “I put a little spell on it to help you sleep,” she said with a gentle smile. “It’ll help protect you from bad dreams, too.” She was incredibly excited earlier—happy to see him, no doubt—but her expression changed. This was softer, more muted but vulnerable. He rarely saw her like this, but he certainly wouldn’t complain.

“What would I do without you?” he asked, mostly teasing. They both knew he’d made a good life for himself, but he owed a lot of it to the two of them. He struggled as a child and they helped him more than he could ever repay them for. Since then, they randomly appeared, never staying long—he’d noticed they never stayed long anywhere. It was one of the many mysteries of the Rige siblings he never cracked, and there were many. However, while they were here, he always felt more loved than he did at any other time in his life.

He drank a bit of the tea and laid down again, comfortable in quiet between them. She reached out and brushed her fingers through his hair, fingers scratching over his head. This was what she used to do when he was a young child, when they first found him—play with his hair soothingly, sitting with him until he fell asleep. Sometimes she’d sing or tell him a story, but she usually left the stories for Desmin.

“I’ve heard things around—gossip, mostly,” she said softly, fingers raking through his hair. His eyelids felt heavy, but he fought to keep them open as she spoke. “But things are changing. I know they are. I…most of the reason we came was to make sure you were okay,” she said, a combination of fear and happiness on her face. “I don’t know what happened tonight. But if you ever need anything, Magnus, Desmin and I are here.”

He nodded. “I know,” he said, voice half in a whisper as sleep slowly dragged him away. He fell asleep with a faint smile on his face, the last hung he remembered being her leaning in to place a small kiss on his forehead, then the sound of his bedroom door clicking closed.

There were many things about the twins he still didn’t understand, and he wasn’t sure if he ever would. However, he knew that at any time in his life, whenever he needed something, they miraculously appeared and managed to fix it all. He only hoped that would be the case this time, though he had his suspicions things would be much more complicated in the coming weeks.

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