#Suffering the Consequences of your Miscalculations | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bitsandbobsofwriting · 3 years

Text

Arthur throws a tantrum that has severe consequences;

Merlin suffers, and Gwaine just about manages to stop himself from killing The King.

TW: Extreme body horror and blood and grossness.

They're in a cave.

It's dark, and damp, and far too quiet, so despite the fact that their quest was successful, The King, his manservant, and Camelot's six best knights are still slightly on edge.

The traps had been circumvented, the artefact had been collected, the curse had been broken, and they were on their way home, but the buzz of dark magic hums through Merlin and Sir Mordred’s skulls, and the uneasy looks they keep sending each other worry Sir Lancelot and Sir Gwaine, which in turn worries everyone else.

Gwaine doesn’t know about Merlin’s magic, though he does know that the younger man has a lot more to do with Camelot’s (and Arthur’s) continued survival than he lets on. He won’t push, he won’t ask, but he’s an observant man who places all of his faith in Merlin, so if covering for him whenever Arthur casually asks if he saw the servant at the tavern, or supporting Lancelot whenever he makes a loud comment based on Merlin’s subtle whispered suggestion, is all he can do? Fine. He’ll do it.

Merlin’s face when he does so is always a little bit heartbreaking. He’s clearly grateful, for the trust, for the back up, for the belief, but Gwaine can see the desperation in his expression. Guilt and fear and apprehension all rolled into one, covered with a weak smile and a cheeky wink. Gwaine always pretends not to notice, and he can tell that sometimes Merlin is more grateful for that than he is for the original help.

Merlin’s stiffening back and faltered step finally persuades Gwaine that it’s time to step in again, but before he can loudly ask the group if anything feels off, a deep rumble echoes from below their feet.

It’s quiet to start with and the whole group freezes, gazes shifting sharply back in the direction they had come from; it’s only when the rumble suddenly morphs into a loud series of crashes and dust begins falling from the ceiling in aggressive swirls that Mordred yells:

“Cave-in!! We need to go!”

They all begin sprinting down the corridor, desperately hoping that their memory was serving them well; if they were right, if they hadn’t made any wrong turns or miscalculated the distance, the cave exit should be just around the corner. The rumbling only grows louder as they run, and within seconds, pebbles, and soon larger rocks and boulders, are falling from the ceiling.

It’s only Merlin, pushing himself faster so he can catch up to Leon, grabbing his cloak and pulling him to a halt, that stops the older knight from being crushed by falling debris. The curly haired knight widens his eyes for a fraction of a second before taking Merlin’s hand in his own and pulling him to catch up with the others, resigning himself to thanking the servant profusely when they were no longer running for their lives.

Everyone coughs the dirt from their lungs and rubs it from their eyes, hands out in front of them to stop them from running face first into a wall; Arthur’s victorious yell when they turn a sharp corner to see bright sunshine spilling into the tunnel about fifty feet ahead of them spurs the group even faster.

The ground somehow begins to shake even more viciously, and Elyan trips. He trips, and suddenly finds himself lifted in the air, only for a second, before he lands solidly on his two feet again. The knight knows magic when he feels it, and the others know it when they see it, so when the shaking stops all of a sudden, the dust frozen in the air and boulders shaking above their heads, they halt in their tracks.

Merlin, at the back of the group, lets out a pained groan, and all of their heads whip around, every single one of them panicking at the thought that their friend had been crushed or captured by some evil sorcerer. Their view of him is quickly blocked by Lancelot, though they can all see the servant’s shaking arms above his head, palms facing the no-longer-crumbling ceiling.

Gwaine is the first to step forward, cautious but quick, and he takes in a gasp at Merlin’s golden eyes. Lancelot doesn’t even spare him a glance, hands on Merlin’s shoulders as he lets out panicked whispers:

“Fuck. Fuck, fuck. Merlin, come on, you can’t hold this.”

Merlin just groans again, the sweat gathering on his brow as he grinds his teeth together, barely even paying attention to Lancelot, and paying even less attention when Arthur finally steps sideways, sharply inhaling at the obvious display of sorcery. Everyone seems to have gathered what’s going on now, and their gazes are ripped from the struggling servant when Arthur clenches his fists and harshly sneers:

“You’re a sorcerer! How long? How long have you been betraying me?!”

When the King takes a threatening step towards him, Gwaine moves to be in his way, landing a strong hand on his shoulder and responding with equal anger:

“He’s not betraying you, you arsehole, he just saved all of our lives.”

Arthur throws his hand off violently and it’s only Leon’s quick reaction that stops him from punching the knight, though Gwaine looks as if he’d rather enjoy the fight. Lancelot turns his head quickly, scowling at both of them but not releasing his hold on Merlin as he rushes out:

“We don’t have time for this, we need to figure out how to get out.”

The King doesn’t seem to take in his words, just stares at him with disgust as he notices the way he’s practically holding Merlin up:

“And you knew? You’re a traitor too then?”

The ground shakes, only briefly, but it’s enough to remind everyone of the situation at hand, and Percival jumps in, ignoring Arthur’s anger and Gwaine’s mistrust as he puts a supporting hand on Merlin’s ribs:

“Can you move whilst holding it up? We’re about thirty feet from the exit.”

Merlin just shakes his head, eyes clenched tightly shut and jaw so tense that Lance worries about the state of his teeth. He takes in a ragged breath, sounding as if he has gravel in his lungs, as he stutters out:

“Can’t... you leave.... run.”

Arthur lets out a loud growl, and Gwaine turns to him in anger, but before he can throw an insult (or a punch) the ground shakes again; Mordred only just manages to grab Percival’s hand and sharply pull him down before his skull is caved in by the ceiling falling half a metre.

Merlin lets out another loud whine, and Lancelot releases a sharp breath at the trickle of blood coming from his nose. The knight’s voice is desperate as he speaks:

“Come on, Merlin, use that big brain of yours, how do we get out? You’ve dealt with worse.”

Merlin can only shake his head again, and a crack echoes down the corridor as he screams. One of his arms falls limply to his side and the knights notice with growing horror the odd angle of his collar bone and the lumps of bone under his skin. Tears leak from his eyes as he groans and his breath deepens, only managing to yell one word in his agony:

“RUN!”

The shout jolts the knights out of their terror, but Arthur seems to ignore him again:

“You’re a fucking trai-”

Gwaine does manage to throw a punch this time, but Leon pulls Arthur back before he can retaliate, dragging him back a few steps. Mordred grabs Lancelot’s arm, muttering so only the knight can hear:

“He’ll be fine, remember? We will not, we need to go.”

Lancelot gives Merlin a tender kiss on the forehead, muttering whispered desperate apologies to his best friend before turning and shooing Percival back down the corridor:

“Go, go! We need to go, he can’t hold it much longer!”

Arthur is suddenly reminded of the collapsing cave around him, anger at Merlin morphing into anger at the universe for both making his manservant a traitor, and making him find out in the middle of a life-threatening emergency. He stumbles towards the exit, hand covering his mouth against the dust and pebbles that are falling through the air once more.

Percival and Elyan follow reluctantly, looking back at their tortured friend with tears in their eyes, but move towards the sunlight regardless. Gwaine moves in the opposite direction, planting his feet in front of Merlin and cupping his jaw softly with both hands, resting their foreheads together. He ignores Merlin’s whispered “Go...” and digs his feet in when Leon and Lancelot attempt to pull him away.

It’s Leon that yells:

“Gwaine, come on, there’s nothing you can do!” as the two of them finally manage to force him back, but he thrashes in their hold, screams echoing down the cavern:

“NO! I’M NOT LEAVING HIM!! LET ME FUCKING GO!!”

They only manage to drag him back a few feet before he breaks free, sprinting back towards Merlin. The servant opens his bloody eyes, glancing over Gwaine’s shoulder to see Mordred, Elyan, Percival, and Arthur falling out into the sun. He looks back to Gwaine when he feels his warm, calloused hands on his cheeks again, letting out a pained sob before grinding out a cracking:

“I’m... I’m sorry.”

He lifts his broken arm with a loud yelp, placing his violently shaking hand against Gwaine’s chest and pushing. His eyes flash brighter for a second, his scream guttural and horrifying, but all Gwaine can focus on is the way his body flies through the air with a force he’d never known; within seconds, he, Lancelot, and Leon are having their falls broken by sunlight and soft grass.

He whips his head up, wiping the hair from his eyes with a hand shaking from adrenaline. He can still see Merlin, now on his knees with agony scrawled across his face and blood pouring from his mouth; Gwaine’s brain supplies the explanation that the servant had probably bitten his tongue clean off, with the way his jaw was clenched so harshly. He stumbles to his feet, an outraged shriek bursting forth when Leon and Lancelot rush to grab him once again, stopping him from running back into the collapsing cave. He pulls against them, but it’s no use, and the last thing he sees before the dust blinds him is Merlin’s tired, bloody smile of relief at seeing him safe.

The impact of the mountain falling, even only a few feet, was felt across the entire Kingdom. The sudden earthquake threw all of the knights to the floor and it was only when the shaking stopped that they could finally stand again. It took a few more moments for the dust to settle enough that they could clearly see, but Gwaine’s breath is snatched from him when he looks to the cave entrance to see nothing but rubble.

He immediately rushes towards the cliff face, managing to evade Leon and Lancelot’s grabbing hands and uncaring of the danger of unstable debris. He hands land roughly on the stone, digging the fingers of one hand into cracks, and thumping his other hand, curled into a fist, against the rocks repeatedly:

“MERLIN!!”

His voice almost cracks, but he doesn’t care, continuing his desperate attempt to dislodge the boulders despite the others’ shouted warnings. Percival manages to grip his shoulder tight enough that Gwaine can’t slip free, and yanks him away from the caved-in entrance, but the shorter knight just whirls around in anger:

“What are you doing? He might still be alive in there!”

Percival shakes his head, tears in his eyes, but before he can respond Arthur pushes him out of the way and lands a hard punch to Gwaine’s cheek. The knight’s head rocks to the side, but he’s whirling back again within moments, being held back just in time by Percival before he can retaliate:

“You fucking knew, didn’t you?! You knew he was a traitor!”

Mordred clenches his hands and jaw in anger, but manages to keep any attacks in, verbal or otherwise. Leon and Elyan seem to be ignoring the fight entirely; the past few minutes had seemed to catch up with them as they stare despondently at the fallen debris. Lancelot stands back, looking an odd mix between heartbroken and frustrated, eyes darting around the clearing as if he were waiting for something.

Gwaine squares his shoulders, shrugging Percival off and taking a threatening step towards the fuming King, fists tightly clenched and eyes blazing:

“No. I didn’t know. But he just saved all of our lives, and I bet not for the first time.”

Arthur throws up his hands and turns in a short, angry circle before facing Gwaine again, his voice rising with every word:

“With fucking sorcery!!”

Gwaine takes another step forward, stopped only by Percival’s soft hand on his shoulder as he responds in equal anger:

“Who gives a fuck? Gods, Arthur, get your head out of your arse, he’s been by your side for ten years, sacrificed more than we will ever know for you, and you turn on him in a second when he saves your life!-”

He takes another step towards The King, desperately trying to ignore the tears that suddenly slip down his cheeks, leaving tracks in the dust, as he gestures roughly at the mountain behind him and jabs Arthur in the chest:

“-He’s dead, Merlin is dead, because of you! No wonder he didn’t fucking trust you, look what you did!”

Arthur recoils at that, anger melting from his face in a split-second as his wide eyes move from Gwaine’s face to over his shoulder. His shoulders sag and his eyes finally, finally fill with tears as his gaze darts from one boulder to the next. He gulps, slowly stepping around the grieving knight as his hands begin to shake; Leon finally breaks out of his stupor, stepping towards Arthur and putting his own shaking hand on his shoulder:

“There’s nothing you- we could’ve done.”

Arthur shrugs the hand off, moving closer to the debris as his breathing grows deep and he mutters to himself:

“He... can’t be. No, he’s... he might be alive in there, we... I-”

Mordred, his anger finally boiling over, steps in front of Arthur. The King looks down to his youngest knight and takes a stumbled step back at the snarl on his face and the gold in his eyes:

“My Lord has suffered, once more, at your hands. Part of me wonders if Morgause is right, perhaps there’s no hope left for you.-”

He takes a deep breath and steps slightly away from Arthur again, schooling his face into neutrality as he speaks on a monotone voice:

“-Help is on the way, do us all a favour and keep your sword to yourself when they arrive.”

Arthur is frozen in his shock, as are Leon, Elyan, and Percival, but Lancelot just looks mildly disapproving and Gwaine is too busy unclasping his cloak and unbuckling his belt to notice. Arthur turns around again at the clanging sound, only to see Gwaine dropping his cloak and sword at his feet:

“I quit. I thought you were the exception to my belief that all nobles are corrupt, hypocritical, tyrants... I guess I was wrong.-”

With that, he pushes past the distraught, frozen King, to stand in front of Mordred:

“-What do you mean, help is coming?”

Mordred raises an eyebrow but doesn’t answer, instead nodding over Gwaine’s shoulder pointedly. Everyone turns around, only to take in surprised breath at the group of fifty or so golden-eyed Druids making their way through the trees towards them. Mordred and Lancelot push through the others and jog over to meet them, bowing briefly in greeting and ducking their heads to have a whispered conversation. Arthur is still staring at the cave-in blankly, but Leon stops the others from joining them with a firm wave of his hand. The rest of knights were clearly not in the know, and they definitely weren’t in charge; best leave this to the people who actually knew what was going on.

Lancelot nods to the mountain and Mordred gestures to his own collarbone, a look of confusion on his face. A few of the Druids gasp quietly, staring at the mountain in grief, but their leader, a man that Leon recognises as Iseldir, sighs and nods, looking as though he was giving a short explanation before patting Mordred on the shoulder and finally beginning to make his way to the other knights.

Leon walks up to greet him, and Iseldir smiles and clasps his forearm as if they knew each other far better than they did:

“Good to see you again, Sir Leon, though I regret the circumstances.”

Leon sniffles slightly and nods, trying desperately to keep his professional façade up by ignoring his red-rimmed eyes:

“Indeed. Mordred said you were... here to help?”

Iseldir nods and moves towards the cave-in, sending a short glance to the still frozen King, his expression an odd mix of awed and patient an contemptuous, before gesturing the other Druids forward.

They all raise their hands towards the rubble, eyes golden as they chant lowly. The mountain begins to shake again, though it’s clearly a lot more controlled, and the knights can’t feel it even from only a few metres away; nevertheless, Percival and Lancelot still have to grab Gwaine to stop him from pouncing at them in his confused grief.

The knights all hold their breath, Leon, Gwaine, Elyan, and Percival in confusion, and Mordred and Lancelot in apprehension at what they would see. They know of Merlin’s... abilities. But this... a small part of them prayed that he had died, or that he was at least unconscious. A mountain as a blanket can’t be...comfortable.

After a few more moments the shaking becomes uniform, and boulders slowly begin to extract themselves from the cave entrance, floating through the air serenely and piling up a few metres to the side. The knights all hold their breath as the Druids strain, and Lancelot walks towards the cave with caution. His steps are slow and his hands are held out in front of him, ready to bolt at a moments notice, but he gets to the cliffside just as a narrow walkway through the middle of all the rubble opens up.

He looks back, waiting for Iseldir’s nod of approval before making his way into the darkness. None of the knights follow, despite their desperation to do so, knowing somehow that it wasn’t their place to rescue Merlin. Not this time.

Lancelot is gone for maybe twenty seconds before the others hear his wretched yelp, and it’s barely a few seconds later that he stumbles out of the cave again, pale as a sheet with sweat gathering on his forehead. He quickly staggers to the side, one hand using the wall to hold his weight up and the other resting on his bent knee as he leans over to vomit in the bushes. The knights are frozen in their shock, but tears gather in their eyes once more when Lancelot quickly turns to face Iseldir, wiping a hand sleeve across his mouth haphazardly, ignoring the tear tracks on his cheeks as he speaks desperately, his eyes manic:

“Please, please tell me he died. He... he can’t have lived through... lived through that.”

Iseldir gives him a mournful smile, but before he can say anything, Gwaine makes a dart to the entrance cave. Lancelot quickly steps in his way, digging his heels in and using all his strength to hold the bulkier man back:

“NO! Gwaine, you don’t want to see in there, ok? I swear to you, you will regret it for the rest of your life if you go in there.”

Gwaine pushes against him one last time, but quickly gives up, stumbling back and dropping to his knees with his face in his hands, muffling his cries. Lance’s distraught gaze finds Iseldir again, and the Druid nods:

“His body dies like any other, though we can only pray that it was quick. His resurrection will be incredibly... agonising however; I can appreciate the difficulty in what I’m asking, but might I request you stay at his side as he wakes? Myself and my group have strength in numbers and can hold the passage open for hours if needed, but I imagine he will begin to wake soon.”

Lance nods and moves towards the entrance again. No one mentions his uneasy steps or the way his hands shake. He pauses and looks back briefly at Arthur’s croaking question, but just gives a pointed look to an equally pale Mordred before continuing his journey:

“He’s... he’s still alive?”

Mordred steps in front of The King again, unwilling to let him run anywhere like Gwaine had tried, but it’s Iseldir that cryptically answers:

“No. But he will be.”

The Druid turns back to the cave without another word, re-focusing his magic onto the task at hand.

An odd silence deafens the knights, but if they listen hard enough, they find they can almost hear Lancelot’s gasping deep breaths as he once again lays eyes on... what’s left. Time seems to drag on, the silence getting heavier and heavier, though a long, low groan cracks through the atmosphere like a knife.

Percival lays a comforting but strong hand on Gwaine’s shoulder as everyone tenses, but no one manages to hold in their tears when the low groan gets louder and louder, rising in pitch until it’s an agonized screech.

Leon looks to Iseldir in horror, his eyes wide and his mouth open as he stutters over words he can’t force himself to say; Iseldir looks back at him, and the First Knight sees tears shining in his eyes at his Lord’s pain:

“The vital parts of his body, the skull and brain, the heart, the lungs, the spine, will have repaired themselves first, then he woke up. He will remain conscious whilst the rest of his body stitches itself back together; it is agony like no other.”

The screech halts all of a sudden with a sickening gurgle, the sound distinctly reminding the knights of someone choking on bone and blood.

Lancelot’s shaking voice echoes down the stone corridor:

“You... you can do this, Merlin. It’s ok, I’m not leaving you. Everything’s.. everything’s going to be ok, you can do this.”

At the horror and grief in his tone, Elyan stumbles forward to kneel behind Gwaine, covering his friend’s ears with his hands and pressing his forehead to the crown of his shaking head. Percival also sits with them, closing his eyes against the tears and attempting to breath slowly. Mordred stands still, but his hands and jaw are clenched tightly as he stares blankly at the grass at his feet, flinching ever so slightly at every groan and scream and cry that emerges from the darkness. Leon takes Arthur’s hand, and though The King doesn’t look at him, the tight way he squeezes his fingers is all the acknowledgement that he was still somewhat present that Leon needed.

The sound of Lancelot hiccupping through his sobs can be heard, but that’s quickly drowned out by sickening cracking sounds and more screaming.

Time seems both to drag and to fly by; anywhere from ten seconds to ten hours could’ve passed by the time Merlin stops screaming for good. The knights can’t help but feel selfish for how grateful they are that they didn’t have to watch it; listening to it was enough to give then nightmares for a long long time.

They finally hear a scuffling sound from within the cave and everyone’s eyes comes back into focus as they look up, not bothering to clear their faces of tears as they see Lancelot struggle to walk through the debris, Merlin hanging from his side with his arm over the knight’s shoulder.

Leon is the first to react, darting forward to help the exhausted, blood-soaked knight take Merlin’s weight. Everyone is frozen in horror at way Merlin’s tattered clothes hang off of him, absolutely drenched in blood; not even an inch of fabric has escaped being stained. Leon and Lancelot lay the groaning servant down in the soft grass as the Druids begin filling the tunnel with debris and rubble, wanting to make the structure as stable as possible before they stop holding the mountain up.

The golden-eyed sorcerers step back slowly, untensing when the mountain settles straight away; there must’ve been some sort of old magical trap in the stone, it would be best not to disturb it again if they could help it.

The knights gather around Merlin’s red form, noticing absent-mindedly that it was almost dark, so they must’ve been here for three hours at least. Mordred pushes to the front, his skin pale but his expression blank as he takes a clean rag and some water from his pack (the horses had been left at the entrance to the cave, so they thankfully hadn’t lost any supplies in the disaster). He made quick, but gentle work of cleaning Merlin as best he could, getting the blood off his face and hands and out of his hair. Lancelot pats him on the shoulder with a shaking hand before standing again and stumbling towards Iseldir; the knights barely pay him any attention as he walks off, focused entirely on Merlin’s limp body. No one attempts to touch him, not with the possessive glares Mordred is sending to anyone who gets too close.

The Druid cups Lance’s elbow, his grip surprisingly strong and supportive as Lancelot tries to gather his thoughts and force some sort of sentence out of his mouth. After a few moments, the quiet question eventually comes:

“What now?”

Iseldir smiles at him mournfully, glancing over his shoulder at the gathering of knights before looking back to Lance:

“That is up to The Once and Future King, I suppose. Emrys is exhausted, now that the pain has passed I imagine he’ll be asleep for several days. Look after him until he wakes, won’t you? I have faith that everything will work out in the end, but remember, Emrys, Sir Mordred, Lady Morgana, and yourself always have a place among us, should you want it.”

Lancelot gives him a small smile and steps back, nodding his gratitude at the other Druids before turning around and going back to Merlin, not looking back as they make their way from the clearing and back into the forest. He comes to stand behind Mordred, putting a hand on his shoulder and waiting until the younger man looks up at him before saying:

“It’s almost dark, we need to set up camp. He should have a spare set of clothes in his pack so you and I can take him to the river to wash and change him whilst the others get set up.”

Mordred takes a while to reply, but finally nods. He goes to pick Merlin up, but Gwaine beats him to it, gathering his unconscious form in his arms with more care than the knights have ever seen him exhibit before; Mordred freezes for a second, about to pounce on Gwaine for daring to touch him, but quickly relaxes as he remembers Gwaine’s reaction to... well... everything.

It doesn’t take them long to find a camping spot, Mordred and Lancelot leading the way back into the forest towards the river with Arthur bringing up the rear. Out of tactical necessity or guilt, no one knows, but no one bothers to ask.

Soon enough a fire is roaring and Mordred, Lancelot, and Gwaine have disappeared into the trees with Merlin. Elyan, Percival, and Leon share the occasional worried glance, both at the events of the day and Arthur’s disturbing stillness. It was maybe half a candle-mark after the others went to the river that Arthur cleared his throat and spoke, his voice croaky from tears and disuse:

“How... how long, do you think? How long as he been a sorcerer?”

His gaze stays firmly on the fire, even as the others bristle in slight anger, mistaking his questions for continued animosity. Leon is the first to answer, his tone slow and measured:

“To be that powerful, and to have Druids at his beck and call... a while, I imagine. Sire.”

Arthur nods, but doesn’t reply, and it’s Elyan that speaks next, his eyes narrowed and his tone far less regulated that Leon’s:

“Still plan on punishing him then? Trying to figure out how you should execute the man who just went through hours of endless agony to save your life?”

Leon looks to him sharply but doesn’t say anything, surprised by the normally-gentle Percival’s nod of agreement. Arthur looks up quickly as well, though his expression is one of shock and pain:

“What?! No! I wouldn’t.. I don’t... I just meant, how long has he had to hide? You... Gwaine, he was right. He’s probably saved our lives, my life, a dozen times pulling stupid stunts like that,-”

Arthur’s cut off by the others walking back into camp, Mordred giving him a blank stare as he says in a monotone voice:

“More than a dozen, Sire. Many more. He’s saved your life directly and indirectly hundreds of times. And never has he sought any credit. The two of you together are meant to be the saviours of this world, or so the prophecies say.-”

They all stare at him blankly as he sits down by the fire, Lancelot settling Merlin in Gwaine’s lap before covering them both with thick blankets and settling next to them:

“-Though I find myself running low on faith in you, My Lord.”

Arthur gulps, but stays silent, turning back to the fire again as the other knights stare at Mordred in confusion. He just huffs and rolls his eyes when he notices their questioning expressions, looking to Lancelot and frowning when the knight just nods at him knowingly. He sighs again, glancing to Merlin, still protectively wrapped up in blankets and Gwaine, before looking to The King and beginning to explain in a tired voice:

“Druid seers have been having visions of The once and Future King, that’s you,-”

Mordred points at Arthur, waiting for the blonde to look up and acknowledge the conversation before dropping his hand and continuing:

“-and Lord Emrys, that’s Merlin, uniting all of Albion under your shared rule, ushering in a Golden Age where the magic and the non-magic are once again in balance. Merlin was made aware of his role in these... fates, when he first arrived in Camelot. I also have a role, as do a few others, though no one else is aware of the... specifics.”

Arthur nods slowly, glancing worriedly to Merlin and Gwaine (who is paying absolutely no attention to the conversation, focused only on stroking Merlin’s hair and periodically checking his pulse) before looking into the fire again:

“The magic and non-magic in... balance?”

Mordred nods, the crease between his eyebrows growing slightly deeper as he slowly responds:

“Hmm. Magic is natural and necessary for the universe to function. You though the Gods wouldn’t intervene when your father started culling it?-”

Arthur blinked and sat up straight in his shock, but otherwise didn’t kick off, which Mordred was taking as a good sign, and continued:

“Magic is not evil, nor is it good. It just... is. Merlin is immortal, some say blessed, I say cursed, to be stuck on this earth, forever alone, until balance is achieved. How long, Arthur, are you willing to force him to wait?”

The knights all hold their breath in suspense, staring at Arthur who in turn is back to staring at Merlin. He gulps, blinks a few times, and shakes his head, before looking to Leon:

“How quickly can we make it back to Camelot?”

Elyan scoffs and Percival frowns, looking to the floor, the two of them obviously thinking that Arthur was dealing with this the same way he deals with his emotions: by ignoring it entirely until it became someone else’s problem (usually Merlin’s). Lancelot and Mordred just stare at him blankly, and Leon tilts his head in question before answering:

“About... five days? If we ride fast and don’t detour to the village like we said we would.”

Arthur nods, takin a deep breath as he stares into the fire again:

“Five days, I’ll make him wait five days. We can send a patrol back to the village when we get home, we’ll be too busy planning a... Golden Age, apparently.”

Elyan and Percival look up in wonder, Lancelot and Leon smile proudly, Mordred nods and grins, and Gwaine... well... Gwaine snores.

Merlin shuffles in his sleep, his look of pain morphing to a gentle smile as he curls into his knight’s chest, his soul, for the first time in a long time, finding peace.

THE END!!!

I think the ending might’ve been a little anti-climactic, but I’ve written so many magic reveals and “magic isn’t evil it just is” speeches that... I didn’t really know how to make it interesting or different😅

I hope y’all enjoyed it!! It took me way longer than I’d hoped to get it finished because I’ve been so busy with work, but I’m relieved I finally got it done :D

My Ko-Fi, which is where I post sneak peaks of upcoming works, check it out and consider donating!!

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saintobio · 3 years

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i think it’s kind of sad that even if gojo wanted to mend his relationship with y/n it’ll never happen. i can really see a divorce coming now 😭 even without naoya messing things up even more, things were doomed from the moment he chose to marry y/n and stay with sera. it breaks my heart to see y/n like this and i just hope that she can finally get the rest that she needs even if it means her death bc honestly that seems like a better end for her rather than for her to live on and continue to suffer. i have a feeling that gen already knows what’s going on but i guess i’ll have to see.. anyways thanks for the new chapter! your writing is so good lol

he kinda dug his own grave 🥺 i’ll redirect this back to an RE parallel:

sovieshu’s ultimate downfall is keeping rashta around. he jeopardized his empire bc he miscalculated his plans and had zero communication with navier.

gojo’s downfall is also his refusal to let go of sera, but can this be turned around still? we don’t know. he’s suffering now bc it’s the consequences of his actions and it’ll be best to see if he’ll be consistent in changing for the better or if he will do the same mistake (that sovieshu did) by keeping his ties with sera. he’s stepping on eggshells just like how yn felt at the beginning of their marriage and the tables are turning around bc they are both developing as a character.

#saintobio.asks #series: sincerely not

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lillyypp · 2 years

Text

“Mr. Malfoy! Do not. Under any circumtances. Touch. That chandelier," Robards shouted at Malfoy.

"Look, sir, I fully appreciate that the chandelier holds a special place in your heart but it appears there was some miscalculation in the making of this spell and with all due respect i cannot trust my life in the hands of your cushioning charm! Sir... Respectfully, sir," Malfoy explained as clearly was trying to see how much he had to reach to grab the chandelier without falling from the ceiling. And as much as Harry did understand the value of this particular chandelier (it was a gift from the french ministery and it was meant to represent the new beginning of diplomacy between the countries. Or something some such, all Harry remembered was the two and a half hour speech that the french diplomats gave, that was one of the single most painful things Harry had gone through and he had died), he also did understand Malfoys urge to not fall from the very high (very high) ceilings of the ministry ball room. And apparently to convince everyone of the working of the spell, he had made himself repellent to all levitating spells. Thus, truly, his only hope was a well aimed cushioning charm.

Which, even Harry, who was known for the mist ridiculous stunts, would not trust. Not from that height.

"Look, sir, as stated, I fully understand where you are coming from and I promise I will personally write an apologetic explanation to the french and happily suffer the consequences of my actions, as long as, sir, I will be alive to suffer," Malfoy responded, eyes firmly on the chandelier. And with that, just at the final moment when the tip of his toes unstuck themselves from the ceiling, he beautifully reached and swung himself in the direction of the chandelier.

People gasped, some looking away, some clearly waiting to see what would happen, Harry found himself for a one terrible moment, certain, that Malfoy would fall and never get up.

Malfoy's research had always been a bit more "hands-on" than one would expect from the head of the experimental charms and spells division. But ever since he had been introduced to those muggle Marvel movies, his creativity had completely taken over. His latest idea, of course, a sticking charm one could apply to themselves and at will unstick, thus creating a chance to climb, for example, walls and ceilings. Inspired, obviously, by Spider-Man. And when inspiration struck, Malfoy would run off and come soon back with a prototype to show off. Even in the middle of the fall banquet. Even in front of every department head, minister and the head of Auror division.

"Haha!" Malfoy exclaimed. He had in fact reached the chandelier. He had managed to hoist himself up on it even from hanging upside down. And now was proudly sitting amidst the glass, crystal and lamps. A few sighs of relief and some shouts of encouragement were heard, and Harry was sure, that were he able, Malfoy would have bowed for the crowd. Never being able to shut up, he went on:

"It seems, dear sir, your worry was unfounded," ('God, he sounds so bloody smug', Harry thought) " and, it seems, you'll be the one to apologi-" His monologue stopping, as his attention was turned upward by a clear creak.

The fixture started to crack from the ceiling.

A small 'oh' was heard as everyone realized, all at once, what was happening. The chandelier began to make it’s way on to the floor, multiple meters down and people became frantic, trying to run and avoid being crushed by the massive light fixture.

Harry, being Harry, ran toward.

As the time slowed, he pushed people away and pulled out his wand. He aimed carefully, yet in a panic, all other thoughts forgotten, at Malfoy, who was falling with speed.

Later Harry would say that he had carefully considered the move and as most believed it, Malfoy liked to tease him.

"Oh, please Harry, heroic acts are your forté, your raison d'eter, of course, but planning is most certainly not and in that moment you just did what first popped in your head," he'd say.

And Harry could be offended. He could say that actually, he just worked great under pressure, planning in The Moment. Or he could say that he wouldn't be brilliant at his job without any planning skills at all or he could even say something along the lines of:

"oh, shut up, you git, I saved your life!"

But he doesn't. Because it's not true. Because Malfoy is right. And mostly because when Malfoy says it, he says it with such warmth in his eyes and softness in his voice, that Harry simply doesn't care. So, yes Harry did the first and only thing he thought of.

He cast a summoning spell.

Which, quite frankly, was rather brilliant. Though he had no time to consider the fact, that summoning anything will happen quite quickly, and with quite some force. And so, the moment Harry thinks it he has cast the spell, not had any time to stop running and he has crashed with a flying Malfoy.

Harry and Malfoy, both in movement, met each other on high velocity crash that sent them both sprawling on the floor. Harry's back hits the floor as Malfoy lands on top of him and all the air is pushed out of his lungs.

For a moment the world goes white and for a moment it's quiet. But this is Malfoy. It is not a long moment.

"Really Potter?! Summoning me? How long did you that mind-blowing plan take you? A second? Not even that? Did you think that perhaps-"

"Oh, knock it off! I just saved your insane, mad scientist arse! You would have been smashed-!"

"Oh, please, I would have come up with something-!"

"But you didn't! So, someone had to act-!"

"Oh yes! That's all you do! Isn't-"

And Malfoy could have probably gone on and on, but Harry decides that enough is enough and just crushes Malfoy in hug that hopefully leaves Malfoy too breathless to complain. Even for a second.

"Christ, Malfoy, have we not talked of this?" He says, softly, so only Malfoy can hear. Everyone else has been looking at the fallen chandelier and the screaming match. All Harry cares for, though, is the breath of Malfoy on his neck and the fingers clutching his shirt.

"I just got very excited. I'm sorry. It won't happen again," Malfoy says. All fight left and replaced by the apologetic tone Harry always falls for.

"Oh yeah, I truly doubt that. All bets are off when I show you Doctor Strange," Harry says, breaking into a massive grin as he thinks of mirror dimensions and time loops.

"Yes, but you'll be there to catch me, won't you?"

"And I'll be there to catch you."

#drarry fic #drarry #Harry Potter #ficlet #marvel mention #yeah i love a bit of a mad scientist Draco #Draco Malfoy #my first fic

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galaxxiwrites · 3 years

Note

hi i love your headcanons and scenarios so much!! can i request an arknights thorns x female reader nsfw oneshot?? tysm!

fjnse thank you anon!! (♡μ_μ)

Prompt: The Doctor asks Thorns to make them a drink that keeps them up for extended periods of time— the end result wasn't exactly what was intended, but it did work in keeping them awake.

Word count: 1378

warning: nsfw, please read at your own discretion :)

Energy Drink

"So...you're asking for an energy drink?" Thorns tilts his head ever so slightly, just enough to show his confusion upon hearing the Doctor's request.

"Yes, but stronger. Something to keep me up for...a few days at least."

Again, Thorns is flabbergasted by such a peculiar request. He opens his mouth, about to ask just why she would need to stay up for a few days.

"Contingency Contract." The Doctor says as she waves her hand in a nonchalant way, as if accepting their fate. She sighs as memories of past events slowly creep their way back into her thoughts, but immediately clears them as now was not the time for emotional vulnerability. It was time for blood.

"Extra strong energy drinks just don't pack that same punch anymore," Doctor explains as she peeks over to look up at Thorn's golden embers, pleading to him with puppy dog eyes to make them that concoction.

"I know it's not my place to lecture you on this, but no one is capable of functioning properly when they're deprived of sleep."

Thorns looks back to his desk, different chemicals in various test tubes and flasks and quickly scribbled notes on pieces of paper clutter his workspace.

"It'll be fine, it's only for a few days." The doctor waves her hand before turning around, mumbling that they'll come get the drink later in the day.

Thorns sighs, murmuring to himself that he never agreed to make something so dangerous for her. He then makes calculation in his head: which option would have a better outcome for him? On one hand, he didn't want his lover to overexert herself more than she already does. On the other hand...he's terrified of becoming the subject of her temper tantrums.

His solution was to just make a drink that stimulates the nervous system to keep them up, but slowly depresses it so Doctor could sleep at the proper time for once. Basically, a reverse of alcohol.

Working his magic, Thorns creates the desired drink— except he doesn't realize a miscalculation on his part. While it did work to relax the muscles, it wouldn't trigger drowsiness. Instead, it would end up exciting her hormones to the point of imitating a heat cycle— in short, he unknowingly made an aphrodisiac.

And he would suffer the consequences of his actions much sooner than expected.

While the doctor did feel awake, the longer the day got the more she felt...hot. It was unnatural, especially for her as she was used to wearing her hoodie no matter what the weather.

So when she ends up taking off her hoodie in the middle of the contingency contract planning, the Operators currently with her look bewildered. Many, especially the male operators, felt a lump in their throat form as they stared at the doctor.

"Doctor." Saria coughs to grab her attention. "Don't take off your jacket."

The defender operator places the jacket over the Doctor's shoulder and hugs it around her, making sure it fully covered her.

"What's the matter, Saria?"

Doctor couldn't hear the breathiness in her own voice, but the others sure could hear it clearly. Again, Saria scoffs before taking off with her, saying she'll escort Doctor back to her own private quarters.

"Doctor, next time please try to be more professional. If you're feeling even slightly unwell, then please don't hesitate to take the day off."

Saria leaves as quickly as she spoke, confusing the doctor even more. Left to her own devices, the Doctor thinks of why everyone reacted the way they didー or at least, she tries to even make a single coherent thought. The heat building up inside her however was getting unbearable, and thoughts of pleasuring herself started creeping in.

She doesn't resist her own temptations as she starts feeling herself; her hand softly traces her inner thigh before inserting her index finger into her womanhood.

The light teasing only drove Doctor closer to insanity—she needed more. Splaying herself on her bed, Doctor inserts another finger while her other hand massages her breast.

"Thorns." She mumbles as thoughts of her lover start filling her head. When was the last time he touched her, or when he was inside of her? It already felt so long ago, and maybe that's why she's been needy now.

Her thrusting became faster when she imagined his member inside her. Oh how she longed for him, his touch and kisses, his warmth—his everything.

Her imagination would ultimately cause her heat to become more unbearable as her fingers slowly start to leave her unsatisfied.

"Doctor, are you okay? I heard from Saria that—"

Thorns stops mid sentence when he sees her, legs wide open to reveal her dripping wet pussy, the sweet smell of her pre-cum flooded her room, almost intoxicating the eccentric guard.

He immediately closes the door, in fear of anyone else witnessing the sight he wants to keep for himself. His breathing became ragged as he continued to watch the Doctor desperately pleasuring herself, so lost in her own world that she didn't even hear him.

Thorns comes to Doctor's beside, shocking her so much that she abruptly stops and tries to apologize for her lewd behavior. Without saying a word, Thorns gives her a kiss.

A long, passionate, and hungry kiss. Doctor rubs her hand lightly against the tented area in his pants. Feeling his bulging manhood twitch at her touch, she smirks before bringing out his hardened member and starts stroking it teasingly slow.

Thorns whimpers her name as he pulls away from the kiss, only exciting the heated doctor even more. He then adjusts her so she would be facing him; he rubs the tip of his dick against her wet lips before slowly thrusting himself in her.

"Doctor," Thorns gasps as he feels her walls cling tightly around him. "You're so—tight."

Thorns grips on the doctor's thighs as he continues to slowly push himself deeper into her, causing Doctor to pull on her bed sheets as she was being stretched wide.

"Loosen up a bit." He grunts against her ear. Doctor gasps as she starts feeling him move, and try as she might she was far too excited to even try and calm down.

Doctor starts scratching Thorns' back in response to his more consistent movement. However, once she started getting accustomed to his girth and length, the pain subsided and was replaced with unthinkable pleasure.

"That it—keep moving like that…!" She whimpers as her legs wrap around his waist. Thorns trails hickeys on the doctor's neck as he thrusts deep in her, his pace steadily becoming faster the more the doctor loosened up.

"Ah, fuck…! That's it!" She yelped as he hit her sweet spot. "Fuck me there! More!"

He had not seen the Doctor this needy before, and he wishes that she would act like this a bit more.

"I've never seen you this...desperate, Doctor." Thorns whispers in a dangerously low and husky voice against her ear, almost bringing her to the edge.

"I want you—!" Doctor doesn't hesitate to beg as she starts matching his rhythm.

So lost in their euphoria, the couple continued without uttering anything else other than their needy groans and pleasured whimpers as his thrusts became sloppier.

"Thorns…! Thorns—! I," Doctor could not continue her sentence as she was hitting her climax, and he understood it well even without her having said anything as he walls tighten around him once more.

"Me too." Was all he said before moving at a slower, but more forceful pace. And with one last thrust, the both of them orgasmed.

Thorns, after releasing all his load into the doctor, slowly takes himself out of her. His semen, mixed with the doctor's, slowly trailed out of her womanhood. He smirked as he saw her queef before releasing a bit more of her thick juices.

Through ragged breaths, they give each other one more messy kiss before Thorns lays down, exhausted. He was about to close his eyes too, until he felt the familiar weight and heat of the doctor on top of him.

"Done already? But we're just getting started."

Doctor purrs as she traced circles on Thorn's heaving chest.

"We're not stopping until I'm cum-plete-ly satisfied~ Hehe."

#thank you for the request!#arknights #arknights thorns

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purpleyellow · 3 years

Text

Break it

BTS 8th member

Sunny’s masterlist

“Maknae line goes to a rage room”

a/n: Feel free to share your thoughts with me. Requests are open! 💜

It took them a while to convince Sunny to join them that afternoon. The concept of a rage room never made much sense to the girl, first of all, why would she want to go anywhere near a place that had rage in the name, secondly, she was sure breaking all the plates in the world wouldn’t resolve any problem.

After they got there things were different. It only took one of the workers explaining to them how things would work and what they could “order” to turn into pieces and she was next to Taehyung at the counter, butting in as the boy tried to pay for their room.

“Get a computer… No, get two… No, get all of them. We’ll break them all” Sunny spoke energetically making V clean his throat and the man at the counter looked between them with a questioning expression.

“Do you happen to have anything similar to an amplifier or like anything that’s part of a sound system?” Jungkook slid next to them, also prompting Taehyung to raise an eyebrow and Sunny nodded looking expectantly at the cashier.

“Well, no. But we have printers, should I add them as well as the computers?”

“Yes,” Sunny and Jungkook said in unison.

“No. I mean, yes but only two computers and one of those” V told the cashier who nodded and the two youngest looked at him frowning “What? We came here to break plates. These things are expensive”

“Also, we don’t have the entire time in the world” Jimin chippered from the entry hall where he was reading some posters “It’s smarter if we get things that can be smashed quickly”

Humming in agreement, the girl held her coat tighter as she walked around the hallway. One of the workers coming back from the inside of the place with long grey overalls and the safety gear they needed to wear inside the room.

After everything was ready, the four members walked inside to find the things lined along a table. Jimin being the first to grab a ceramic plate and throw it across the room, giggling hysterically as it hit the bottom of the wall and shattered on the floor. Following his lead, Taehyung picked up a glass bottle and flung it on the same spot.

Looking between them and Jungkook, who had been studying the table of breakable things, Sunny felt the awkwardness of having to create chaos surge again, and just like when Taehyung had first suggested the experience to her, the girl felt off about breaking stuff just for the sake of it. Heck, she’d much prefer to organize them by categories and size and store them somewhere safer than that place.

“Here, throw it like a boomerang” Jimin brought her back to reality by handing her an identical plate to the one he had destroyed.

Taking the disc-like object, Sunny walked a few steps forward before throwing it on the concrete. The sound of shattering making her flinch before stepping back lethargically.

“Let’s do it with the hammer” Jungkook zoomed past her, stacking three plates and a bottle before holding the sledgehammer almost a meter above them. “Count me down”

Going backward from three, Sunny watched as he dropped the thing right on top of his stack, the bottle tipping to the side didn’t suffer the consequences but the plates didn’t have the same luck.

Laughing together with the boys, she picked up the bottle and flung it towards the wall, feeling a little freer to do so, considering it only lived for a few seconds longer because of Jungkook’s miscalculations.

“Do you want to try the computers now?” Taehyung asked nodding to the table just as he had picked up a picture frame to throw on the ground.

Walking towards the table, Sunny analyzed the two laptops carefully. Both of them had missing pieces on the keyboard and the one on the far left no longer had a touchpad. Again, she felt a strange comfort that they could no longer serve their purpose.

“Let’s do them all at the same time or do you want to do it separately?” Jungkook asked still holding the hammer and she nodded. Giving him one of the computers before getting the other and setting it on the concrete stand in the middle of the room.

“Hammer or baseball, Sun?” Jimin asked holding out both for her and she picked the latter, getting surprised by the fact that it was made of steel.

Both of them swung at the screens almost at the same time. Laughing awkwardly as they repeatedly hit the laptops and switched so they could add to what the other had done. A few minutes passed when Sunny noticed Jimin and Taehyung went back to throwing stuff against the wall, and after the four of them ganged up on the printer they went home still laughing about what they had done.

“He just picked up the hammer and-” Jimin said between laughs, gesturing to the motion Jungkook had done before falling into a fit of giggles that incapacitated him to continue.

“Did you enjoy it?” Taehyung asked and Sunny nodded, leaning on the elevator’s door as the other two curled up on themselves laughing at the occurrence.

“It was really fun. I feel exhausted though” She chuckled playfully hitting Jimin in the sides as he bumped on her again.

“We should go back some other time” Jungkook sighed, drying his tears just in time for the elevator to stop.

As the four funneled inside the house, Sunny didn’t follow them to the rooms, instead making a turn so she could grab a cup of water to sit on her nightstand. Greeting Namjoon, she changed plans to sit on the counter and watch him struggle to open some hard-boiled eggs.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” He asked without raising his head from the food and the girl shrugged “Like I need a long nap”

“Didn’t you have fun with them?”

“Yeah, it was really cool. Very tiring too”

Looking up at her, Namjoon thought for a second before shooting his shot “Look Sun, I know we’ve talked about this. But, I was thinking about booking you a therapist”

“Oppa” Sunny sighed leaning her head to the side and he held his hands up in surrender.

“I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with you. Our minds and body are very complex things and sometimes we might need help figuring out what’s going on, that’s not a sign of weakness” He completed quickly making her think.

“I’m just not sure if I’m ready to do all of that” Sunny sighed, getting up to pick her glass and he nodded.

“If you tell me you’re okay with it, I can figure everything out for you. The only things you’ll know is the time and the place. No strings attached, if you feel like you don’t want to do it after that’s okay too. I’m just asking for one chance”

Agreeing with him, the girl hugged him as he left her alone. She wouldn’t have to worry about it for now, at least.

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hunxi-guilai · 3 years

Note

Hello! I just read your post on WWX and WZL and the linked post expanding on the zhiji post. Thank you! WZL is an intriguing character, and I enjoyed those greatly. Meng Yao is another character who brings forth the zhiyuzhien, thanking NMJ for it as he's banished from Qinghe. I think he creates an interesting juxtaposition to WZL, as he does put his personal morals and ambitions before loyalty, with the consequences we know. If you feel so inclined, I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

(in reference to this post about parallels between Wen Zhuliu and Wei Wuxian)

You’re absolutely right to pick up on the dynamics of knowing w/r/t to Jin Guangyao! 知遇之恩 zhiyuzhien almost inherently carries with it an element of inter-class interaction, since a patron is, generally speaking, someone of a higher class/greater means, reaching down and elevating someone worthy from relative obscurity. Nie Mingjue, by intervening on Meng Yao’s behalf and elevating his position based on, er, let’s say his virtue and competency, is absolutely an example of 知遇之恩 zhiyuzhien, so it completely makes sense for Meng Yao to thank him for it as he leaves Qinghe.

That being said, a recurring theme with Jin Guangyao’s character is that no one truly knows him, not really -- Nie Mingjue fails to grasp the depth of Jin Guangyao’s personal vengeance and resentment; Wen Ruohan doesn’t see the soft-sword coming for his back; Jin Guangshan miscalculates how badly he can treat Jin Guangyao; and even Lan Xichen is shaken to the very foundations of his being with the reveal of how little he understood Jin Guangyao. It’s heavily implied that Lan Xichen saw Jin Guangyao as Lan Wangji saw Wei Wuxian -- romantic implications aside, there’s that wordless connection and synchronicity, of meeting each other’s eyes and knowing.

No one truly knows Jin Guangyao, not really -- when Wei Wuxian first speaks Jin Guangyao, one-on-one, in episode 23, he muses to himself that:

Wei Wuxian: 这人果然八面玲珑 / This person is truly possessed of eight faces, clever and smooth.

(bit of a literal translation of 八面玲珑 bamian linglong right there, but I love the emphasis on multiple faces in this chengyu)

Later, in the secret room of the Lan Sect library in episode 43, Lan Xichen says:

Lan Xichen: 忘机，我眼中的金光瑶和你所知的金光瑶，还有世人眼中的金光瑶，是完全不同的人. / Wangji, the Jin Guangyao in my eyes and the Jin Guangyao in your eyes -- as well as the Jin Guangyao in the eyes of the world -- are all completely different people.

It’s coming to terms with the fact that your best friend might be a mass murderer; it’s grappling with the reality that what you admired about your closest confidante might all be a front. It’s Lan Xichen trying to comprehend that it’s possible that, in close to two decades of close friendship, he might have never understood Jin Guangyao at all.

No one truly knows Jin Guangyao, sure, but Jin Guangyao never lets himself be known. He hides the darkest and ugliest parts of himself -- who wouldn’t? -- and seamlessly adapts himself to what other people need, smiling host, indulgent uncle, conciliatory diplomat. This is not to say that all of these faces are false, disingenuous; they are still anchored, however tenuously, to that elusive thing one might call an identity. But no one knows all of his faces, and Jin Guangyao is careful to keep it that way.

You brought up personal ambitions and morals and loyalties, and the tensions between the three, which are fascinating dynamics in CQL (and a lot of imperial intrigue dramas) because of the ways they conflict or overlap. Wei Wuxian, for example, aligns his personal ambitions with his morals, and it’s often his loyalties (his broken promise to Jiang Cheng) that suffer in his pursuit of the other two. Lan Xichen, in contrast, allows his moral compass to eclipse his loyalties, which is what enables him to place his sword at Jin Guangyao’s throat in Guanyin Temple. Meanwhile Jiang Cheng’s personal ambitions (if interpreted as “be a good sect leader for Yunmeng Jiang”) can help him override his moral qualms about the treatment of the Wen Sect refugees, and much of his conflict stems from choosing between his loyalty to the future and wellbeing of Yunmeng Jiang, and his loyalty to Wei Wuxian.

These are, of course, vast simplifications of complex decisions within this story, but you get the idea of the way you can play with this framework to analyze pretty much any character in the cast. What our antagonists seem to share is the alignment of their personal ambitions (or perhaps ‘desires’ would be more precise) with their moral codes: Xue Yang’s moral system seems to be self-oriented, as well as his ambitions (whatever brings him joy!). Jin Guangyao, likewise, can condone a great deal of bloodshed and backstabbery in the name of what he wants to achieve. (is it an accident that their loyalties -- to Xiao Xingchen, to Lan Xichen -- are what end up hurting them the most?) Wen Ruohan... has barely any character at all, but he’s certainly aligned his moral compass with his personal ambitions to be a boring cookie-cutter villain. I don’t think it’s an accident that Wei Wuxian shares these traits with the antagonists of the series, which is precisely what gives him that potential for moral grayness, of ambiguous heroism, of screeching down a slippery moral slope.

Wen Zhuliu, assessed against these metrics, appears to be one of the few characters who manages to align all three: personal ambition (exemplary service to his patron), moral code (loyalty above all), and loyalty (to Qishan Wen), but as we read and over-read his scenes, he seems to have second thoughts about whether this alignment sits well with him. In other words, Wen Zhuliu is having second thoughts about whether “loyalty above all” is really the moral code he wants to live with. Unfortunately, his story gets cut short before he gets to explore that, but this underlying conflict in Wen Zhuliu’s character, communicated through sparse lines and some truly excellent microexpressions, is precisely I find most compelling in an antagonist with so little screentime.

#oh heck this got carried away #uhhhh #ask and ye shall receive #Wen Zhuliu #Jin Guangyao #Wei Wuxian #Lan Xichen #ep 23 #ep 43

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angel-tries-to-write · 3 years

Text

No Control

Fandom: Assassin’s Creed Rating: Mature Pairing: Arno Dorian x fem!reader Word count: 3694 Genre: angst but later fluff

Inspired by Hamilton, again. Enemies to lovers, but make it fast. Might contain triggers.

Since the day you two have met, your relationship couldn't be more complicated. He was snarky and sassy Sad Boi, you were mean and Miss Perfect. He considered you a bitch, you considered him a jerk. Both of you lived for the other's failures and were delighted to humiliate and belittle the other on every occasion. But never once these fights interfered with your assassin job, the Creed was always your priority. You could be professional enough to put your feelings aside and cooperate for the sake of your mission. As the time passed and you were spending more time together, you got to know each other and started to grow somewhat close.

You knew something really bad had happened the moment you saw Arno entering the room. Although you were discussing some matters with the council, no one informed you what happened and why exactly he was there. If that wasn't enough, you were told to leave. The council had to talk to Arno in private. You did leave, of course. But as soon as you were out of sight, you ran to the other side of the hideout and placed yourself in a perfect spot for eavesdropping. It wasn't comfortable at all, but it was nothing you couldn't bear.

Despite your cold and snarky attitude, you cared about Arno. And it was no fun seeing him get in trouble, even though you would say it was, to keep your reputation. You were also curious about what he did this time to earn such a reprimand. It took a lot to be scolded by the whole council themselves. When you learned what happened, you started to think about getting away.

“(Y/n), you are not supposed to be here” you heard master Mirabeau and you nearly fell out of your hiding place. Luckily you managed to compose yourself and you got out with grace and dignity.

“Oh, great. You must be happy now” Arno said harshly and you winced a little. You may have not been very nice towards him, but it didn't mean you enjoyed his failures.

“I am not” you said calmly.

“Excuse me, but the last thing I want now is your mockery” he turned around and started to leave.

“I do not plan to do that. I need to talk to you.” Despite him being clearly unwilling to listen, you followed him.

“Save it.”

“Arno, wait. I know how you feel.”

“No, you don't.”

“I used to be just like you: brash, reckless, inexperienced and I wanted to act, not think. I have done something terrible, everyone paid for my mistake. I thought I was meant to do great things, to prove my worth, to play a big role in history. I thought I could have the whole world at my feet. Then everything slipped out of my hands in a brief moment. After that, my father took me aside and said: "Let me tell you what I wish I’d known when I was young and dreamed of glory. You have no control who lives, who dies, who tells your story." And I realized he was right. So now I'm telling that to you. Don't let your feelings cloud your mind.”

“I do not need your smart advices” he said dryly, but he stopped and turned around to face you. “Besides, I will never believe you have done something worse than I have.”

“I straight up murdered my friends” you deadpanned. Arno looked at you, speechless and shaken. “I know what I'm talking about.”

“H-how?”

“It was a few years ago. We were just a bunch of teenaged novices. We thought we knew everything and we could do anything, just like we thought our creed says. I was in charge of them, due to my family being a very important part of the Brotherhood. I was the best of them, as well. Apparently also the luckiest. We decided to break into the Templars' quarters and prove our worth. As you can guess, we were slaughtered due to our miscalculation and carelessness. I was the only one surviving, because I was badly injuried and they thought I died right away, so they did not finish their job. Also because someone overheard the conversation between the two Templars and told my father who came to save me personally. He found me sitting among the bodies of my friends and enemies, badly injuried and completely shocked, terrified and devastated. I still can remember how wet my robes were, or that I was slipping on my own blood while trying to get out, or that the pain of my wound was nothing compared to pain in my heart. I knew I had failed everyone. Besides me, only two girls did not die right away. I personally ended the suffering of one, due to her nasty fatal wound, they just gutted her, but she did not die and begged me to kill her. The second one died two days later, when I was fighting for my life with my wound and a fever. That day has changed me forever. That day I understood that it is so easy to die and there is nothing noble in it. It is way harder to live with consequences of my decisions. The Brotherhood lost eight apprentices that day. I lost eight of my friends and myself. I might stand here being an assassin after all, but I am just a mere shadow of the one I used to be. My wounds almost made me disabled, it's a miracle I can walk, the doctors couldn't believe it would ever happen. But I still feel the pain that reminds me of my horrible mistake and the toughest lesson of my life I had learned. I am useless at fight or free running, therefore I mastered stealth and disguise. But it's like having a hypersensitive hearing while being blind. I merely make up for what I don't have anymore. I also do my best trying to find the Piece of Eden. Not only because Brotherhood needs to keep it safe, but also because it can heal me. I know the location of one Piece, but it is safely hidden far away and it does not attract any unwanted attention. The one in Paris, however, is being searched for by both Assassins and Templars. So I decided to ignore my personal needs for the greater good and focus on looking for the one that is needed to be found, instead of getting the easy option and going for the one I have found already” you concluded, subconsciously clutching the clothes on your lower abdomen. The familiar jab was present there, as usual. The painful memory of your past and a lesson for the future. Arno was looking at you in dead silence.

“I am sorry” he said finally, his voice was soft and quiet.

“Don't be. I get what I deserve. Remember my story and learn from my mistakes. Do not repeat them. Respect life and death” you warned him.

“No, I am sorry for thinking you were just mean, grumpy and selfish” he explained. “I would not be happy myself if I had to live in constant pain and with such memories.”

“I got used to it” you shrugged. “Though I admit, I would rather have my friends alive and punished by the council instead of this.”

“I am going to help you find that Piece of Eden. You deserve to be redeemed and cured” Arno promised and you smiled a little.

“Thank you. That means a lot” you bowed your head in a gesture of appreciation.

“Good to hear you are a responsible man, monsieur (mister) Dorian. I always knew you are a lot like your father, after all” spoke Mirabeau, approaching the two of you, he looked at Arno, then at you and noticed your gesture. “You should rest, my child” he put his hand on your shoulder.

“I'm fine” you protested.

“My brother would kill me for not taking care of you” the older man reminded you.

“He should have taken care of himself, then he could be taking care of me in person instead of lying in grave” you growled angrily, then hissed when the pain in your old wound strengthened. You closed your eyes and took a deep breath, trying to relax, knowing that stress was making everything worse. “I apologize. You are right, I shall get some rest, uncle” you said quietly and headed to exit.

“Let me help” said Arno and followed you.

“There is no need” you answered, but grabbed his arm for support, when the jolt of pain almost made you bend over.

“Sure.”

“I'm serious, I- gah” you stopped walking, waiting for pain to ease. Arno didn't ask for the second time, he simply caught you and lifted you bridal style. As much as you hated to admit, you needed this.

“You never mentioned that you and Mirabeau are related” he spoke after a while.

“I did. I told you that my family is meaningful in Brotherhood. I just didn't mention him specifically” you said like it was nothing. Well, to you it was.

“So? Care to explain?”

“My father was his younger brother, that's the big secret” you sighed. “As you can guess, I would rather keep that information in private. I do not want anyone to think that I am somehow privileged, because I'm not.”

“Understandable.”

Arno carried you all the way to your apartment, then helped you to undress to the point you were comfortable, then carried you to bed. He was way more nice than you would expect. Maybe you judged him too soon and Bellec was just an old, grumpy man who wanted Arno to be like his father? You took his hand as he sat by your bed.

“Merci (thank you). You didn't have to do that” you said, looking at him. “Especially after all these things I have told you.”

“You are not as bad as I thought. And not as bad as you think. I guess that if I can put up with Bellec, I can be friends with you as well” he shrugged. “Unless you don't want to.”

“No, I... that would be nice. You are not that bad yourself” you chuckled softly. “But for now there is nothing else you can do, so if you have something else to do, I do not keep you.”

He didn't, so you talked for a few hours. You learned about Élise, monsieur de la Serre and all the funny stories about Arno's childhood. In exchange you told him about yours, about growing up in the Assassin Brotherhood and learning all the tenants of the Creed from the very first day of your life. That day both of you learned a lot about each other and though you hadn't known that, you started to develop feelings for the man.

Therefore after some time you knew that sooner or later you would end up in Arno's bed somehow. Of course, there was always Élise, whom he loved deeply, so you would never make the first move. But when she told him that she was willing to sacrifice everything to stop Germain and she didn't need his help, well, the problem sort of solved itself. Since Arno's banishment from the Brotherhood, you were following him discreetly from time to time to make sure he was doing fine. But suddenly he disappeared and that was very unlike him. You established that he wasn't leaving Le Café Théâtre anymore, so one day you decided to pay him a visit. The first day he was so drunk that he didn't even recognize you, but when you came back the next day, he wasn't completely drunk yet. He must have worked, after all, the Café still belonged to him and it required his attention from time to time. Therefore, he was still in a pretty good state when you came, you could actually talk to him.

“How are you doing, Arno?” you asked softly, taking your hood off and closing the window behind. You approached the desk he was sitting at.

“Go away.”

“No.”

“(Y/n)” he stood up, intending to leave. You stepped closer and hugged him, snaking your arms around his chest and waist.

“You are not alone, Arno” you whispered, holding him tightly. “No matter what you think, I will never leave you on your own.”

“I don't need your pity” he hissed, trying to push you away.

“I do not pity you. I care. I genuinely care about you.”

“Let me go. I need more wine.”

“No, you have had enough. You should go to sleep” you pulled away and started to pushing him in the right direction. “Come, let me take care of you.”

“I don't want to” he protested, but obeyed when you lead him to bed. You were gentle but firm. The man sat on the bed, accidentally pulling you closer and making you lose your balance, so you ended up straddling him. Your lips were way closer than should be.

“What are you doing?” you asked quietly, sort of curious where it would lead, while knowing very well that you shouldn't let him do what you thought he intended.

“I don't know” he answered honestly. Then he put his hand on your cheek, caressing it gently. Just to kiss you shortly after. And you knew fully well he was drunk and you shouldn't do that, but you kissed him back anyway. He pulled away shortly after. “I shouldn't.”

“I know.”

“I... Élise... I can't-”

“I know. But I am here for you anyway and no one will know.”

That was enough for him to kiss you again. It was wrong in every way, he was a traitor to your Creed, he loved another girl and she was a Templar. You knew he didn't feel about you the same way you felt about him, but you couldn't stop him. You didn’t want him to stop. Your discarded coat quickly fell to the floor with your weapons. His skilled hands quickly started to undress you further and you didn't resist. You started to take off his clothes yourself and you stopped him only the moment he wanted to get rid of your pants.

“Wait” you panted, holding his hand back.

“What's wrong?” Arno asked with concern. He might have been drunk, but not enough to not realize something wasn't right. His lips and fingers kept touching your skin.

“Remember how I told you about that wound I got as a novice?” you shivered as he decided to focus on the one of your breasts.

“Sure. This is it?” he asked and you nodded. “You got hurt there?” the man asked with disbelief, touching your sex through the thick fabric of your pants and even this gentle touch made you shiver.

“Not exactly” you helped him take off the rest of your clothes and let him see the large scar blemishing the soft skin of your stomach.

“It does look awful” he admitted, looking at the scar. “How did you even get that?”

“I was just stabbed there” you pointed a spot with your two fingers. “It was a miracle that the sword didn't even touch my vital organs. It slid right between intestines and above the bladder, one wrong move and I would die. But it cut the uterus pretty badly, amputating one of the ovaries. The doctors had to cut me open even more to even sew the wound and stop the bleeding” you traced the scar with your fingertips. “It didn't heal well, so it still causes me pain and if I ever miraculously get pregnant, it will probably kill me, because the growing baby might tear the scar apart. This is why finding a Piece of Eden is my only hope” you sighed, closing your eyes to avoid looking at the scar. But you quickly opened them again, as you felt the soft kiss on the side of the old injury.

“We are going to find it and heal your wound” Arno murmured, leaving butterfly kisses on your scar. He was getting lower and lower, and when he reached his destination, you nearly screamed. Apparently he was very skilled not only in combat or free running, but also in bed. He wasn't your first partner, but he was definitely the best.

When he finished, you couldn't calm down for a while, lying in his bed completely vulnerable. You looked at him with love and trust, both very unique to your everyday self. You were never as open and honest as you were that moment. He climbed up your body and captured your lips in a gentle yet sensual kiss. You buried your fingers in his messy hair and took off the hair tie. It was something you wanted to do for a while, you were curious how he would look like with loosened hair and you had to admit, he still looked good. It was giving him a little feral vibes, but these suited him well, especially when he had those wild glimpses in his eyes and looked at you with predatory hunger.

“Do you really want this?” you asked him, caressing his cheek.

“I do. It makes me forget the pain” he answered honestly and kissed you. “And you? Do you want this?”

“Yes” you answered and kissed him back. Upon hearing such a clear consent none of you had further doubts. Arno might have been drunk, but he was clearly making sure he was gentle enough and that you are comfortable with anything he did. And you were more than happy at his actions. You spend with him the rest of the day and when the night had come, you fell asleep in each other arms.

You woke up in the morning very suddenly, alone in the bed. At first you thought that maybe Arno had left you, but then you had heard his voice.

“...and what am I supposed to do? Pretend nothing happened?”

“No, but if you forgot that Templar girl, we would be able to show you the right path” said the other, male voice.

“I do not want to forget Élise. Besides, don't you see how pathetic it looks?”

“Pathetic?”

“Taking her because Élise left me? Isn't it pathetic?”

“If you think of it this way, then sure, it is. But I bet (Y/n) would never think like that.” Suddenly you realized it was one of Arno's friends, probably the one who was always carrying his axe.

“Right. She is too good for it.”

“Now you sound like a lovesick boy.”

“Ha, ha, very funny” it was the usual, sarcastic Arno.

“Look, whatever you are going to do, you should decide quickly. (Y/n) is still bound to the Brotherhood and she leaves for a mission soon. Time is running out.”

“Go away. Your advices suck.”

“As you wish. But think of it” the man said and left. Arno closed the window and got back to the bed. He took off his pants and slipped under the blankets, snuggling with you.

“He knows nothing” he muttered into your hair, pressing your body to his. You pretended to stir and wake up, you didn't want him to know you've heard that conversation.

“Hi” you smiled, looking at him.

“Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up” Arno smiled sheepishly.

“It's alright. I wish I could wake up like this every morning” you smiled and kissed him softly.

“Who you are and what did you do to (Y/n)?” he chuckled and kissed you back.

“I feel too good to be salty” you looked at him with happiness radiating from your face.

“Why wouldn't we stay like this forever then?” he asked and your heart skipped a beat. It was the most wonderful thing you could imagine, but at the same time it was equally problematic.

“Are you sure you would like this? I thought it was nothing serious.”

”Positive. I need to take a charge of my life.“

“But Élise...”

“I should stop thinking about Élise. She told me she does not need me, I can live without her either” he answered calmly, but you could see his emotions buzzing.

“Why the sudden change?”

“Last night was really... something. I... well, let's say I realized that life doesn't end with Élise.”

“Or maybe you like to break the rules a little too much?” you smirked.

“You are not that innocent yourself” he looked at you and smirked too.

“I never said I was.”

After some time, when you were sure Arno was asleep, you carefully got out of bed, washed up quickly and dressed up. Then you sat by Arno's desk and wrote him a letter.

My Dearest Arno,

I wish I could stay with you for longer, but my duties call. I feel terrible disappearing like that, while you still are lovely asleep, but I have no other choice. I am deeply sorry for this.

I never hoped for anything like this to happen, after all you have always seen only Élise. I do not feel surprised, she is beautiful, smart and so amazing, that I could date her myself (do not tell her that though, she should not know). What happened between us, happened anyway and I am thrilled. I have to inform you that I had dreamed about it for a very long time.

As you may know by now, I have feelings for you. These might not be as strong as yours about Élise, but I still deeply care about you. I am thrilled that I could make you feel better, even if it was for a moment. I really hope that the next time when we see each other, you will be happier than you are now.

If you need some more time, I will give you all the time. I have a lot of it, I can wait as long as you need me to.

Forever yours,

(Y/n)

You left the letter on the desk and silently left Le Café Théâtre. Then you left for your mission, hoping that it wasn't your last meeting.

#assassin's creed #arno dorian #arno dorian x reader #my fic

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miraculous-rewrite · 3 years

Text

Miraculous Rewrite- Desire Witch

I mean did you think that wasn't going to have consequences?

We open on the Louvre, specifically a locked office with Tsering Wan’s name embossed on the door. There's crashing and cursing and yelling coming from the inside. The door shakes a few times And Alix zips by on her skates smiling widely as she hears the sounds of rage. But other than the smug shot we don’t follow Alix. We stay at the door. The door bangs a few more times from the inside, and finally, someone walks up and knocks gently on the door.

“Mighty warrior” the soft voice cooes and with a slam the door yanks open. Tsering Wan looks a mess with a rumpled suit and a few hastily patched wounds from seemingly where he was scraped up when the mansion fell.

“Great healer.” his voice grows soft for a moment before hardening. “A-Lian I’m not in the mood.”

“In the mood for what?” Wu Lian walks into the office anyway, seeing it in shambles, the desk broken in half. “Misso have anything to do with this or was this all you?”

“Misso is sleeping. Her rage was last night.”

“And yours is now?” Tsering Wan huffs and Wu Lian walks up to him again, placing a hand on his cheek. He does seem to visibly relax against it. “Mighty Warrior, you must rest easier. They have the stolen Miracle Box’s contents, yes, but they’ve done one thing in our favor, they’ve convinced the other members of the council to stop this petty debate on the lengths we’ve chosen to go to. And we do not need the Rooster nor the Ram to complete the ritual. Our goals have not changed though our pride may be bruised.”

Tsering Wan sighs “I suppose you are right. But their growing power and force is troubling. With the two traitors on their side, and the civilian girls besting our councilmen-”

“The councilmen weren’t trained to fight; they shouldn’t have been there in the first place.” Wu Lian counters. “It was a miscalculation on our part. But we can still handle ourselves. Remember, we only need three of them.” She gently places a hand on the Scorpion medallion and runs a hand across the swirl. “The rest will suffer as one.”

Tsering Wan huffs and reaches up to gently thumb at her own miraculous, the black bead in her silver hair. “You are right.”

“I always am. Now.” Wu Lian smiles at him “Let’s see if we can’t convince Miss Sancour to remind those little brats that they just got lucky.”

Cue intro

We come back to a similar scene we saw back during Along Came a Spider, as Orikko and Durro are welcomed back into the Kwami party. Though we don’t hold on this one for quite as long as we zip down to see what the victory has done for the team. Marinette, Kagami and Adrien are all asleep in a big pile on the couches, Alya and Max are taking down the heist wall entirely and Alya looks maybe a moment from joining the pile on the couches from her frequent yawning. Nino is chillin in the kitchenette, clearly whipping something together for a bemused Amber and a fearless Bridget.

Felix is putting something together with paper mockups and tape, it looks to be a box of some kind, ‘Replacement Miracle box’ is written on the top piece of paper in hasty pencil scratchings; Sabrina is next to him comparing it to some sort of mockup on a notepad. Luka and Kim are playing a videogame on the monitor, sitting on the ground a few feet away from the Leader Nap Pile. Chloe is still hemming and hawwing over the grimoire, specifically making more potions and siphoning them into Amber’s minor army of used energy shot bottles until further notice.

Rose and Juleka were the only ones still on the training mat, doing some weapon handling drills, Juleka with a baseball bat and Rose with the training staff.

“How many more rounds do we need to do? I think we’ve got it….”

“Well Kagami said until we feel as though our arms will soon detach and swiftly disintegrate into the soil below.”

“Do you feel like that?”

“Kind of.”

“Hm.”

Kagami’s hand raises up from the leader nap pile “Two more sets” she demands before her hand flops back down.

“Actually yes I do sort of feel like my arms will detach.” Rose huffs, but nonetheless they both continue on.

“Alya perhaps you should join Marinette, Adrien and Kagami in the sleep pile”

“I’m gonna! I’m Gonna!”

“Then you add the M&Ms and then the Potato chips, American potato chips by the way, the local stuff isn’t salty enough.”

“Oohhhhh gross!” “Awesome!”

“Wow Felix I didn’t know woodworking requires this much pre-work!”

“My father and I used to take classes. You do a LOT of pre-work before you actually cut into the wood.”

“Jump over the water! Jump over the water!”

“I’m trying! This character doesn’t have a double jump!”

And the doors take then to bust open, and Alix zips in still on her roller skates and looking on top of the world. “Who wants to hear about how the scorpion’s handling our recent heist victory?”

Alix happily extolls what she’d been hearing behind the closed door and the tired, stressed, finally with some weight lifted off their chests children all happily listen and preen when appropriate or Alix relays that he mentioned somebody’s name. The kids start to debate on whether they should properly celebrate this victory of having nearly all of the Miraculous that were of this group back, if they should order in and what should they get or maybe have a group go out and have a good time at a time, and in that case what order should they go in. Marinette, Kagami, and Adrien are still asleep.

The whole little sequence goes on and you may note, is missing a certain Lion who was very important last episode. Sun Min isn’t here, and is in fact a little ways away, Sun Min is visiting with his fellow ‘traitor’ Over at the Agreste apartment he’s sipping at a mug of tea with Gabriel Agreste who is nursing a mug of coffee.

“So we got the Rooster and Ram back.”

Gabriel doesn’t look up “You also destroyed my house.”

“I didn’t do any such thing. Technically Adrien destroyed your house.”

“What are they calling it on the news? A sinkhole?”

“Some weaker part of the catacombs that hadn’t had that much load bearing weight on it until then and finally gave out.”

“What about-”

“Your lair was so far underground I doubt there’s any problems there. You’ll have to take that secret route you told the kids about but you can probably get back in there if you really need to. And if you had Mme Agreste set up to a separate generator she’ll probably be fine.”

Gabriel took a long drink of coffee “It feels wrong to have been so far, to… not be able to check up on her for so long”

“There are good things to it.” Sun Min responds. “I mean it must be easier to function a little more without having to count down the time in your head until it’s time to check on your wife’s body.” Gabriel tenses but before he can bite anything back, Sun Min continues “-I mean how often were you visiting her when we were living in your house anyway? I feel like you were more commonly arguing with Nooroo and getting shafted by my fam-... by the others than you were vanishing through that little trap door of yours.”

Gabriel looks away. “I had a lot of things going on.”

“You always had a lot of things going on. But tell me, does it feel better?” Gabriel tenses and Sun Min huffs “I mean, level with me Gabe, how long has it been since she stopped being your wife and started being a promise? When did it stop being a need to go down there and see her and start being a chore?”

Gabriel looks down and takes a long drink of the coffee.

“I ain’t here to tell you how to handle yourself, I’m not married and I’m not exactly a dad either, but I am a pragmatist, so…” Sun Min takes another long sip of tea “Maybe think a little harder about just who it actually is that you’re still doing all of this for, and maybe consider if that body in the basement is a corpse that was never allowed to return to the earth or not.”

Gabriel looks up as Sun Min meets his eye. “Just food for thought” he shrugs “anyway, Your son and the others are taking a much deserved break but i can only hope their victory doesn’t go to their heads.

But just as Sun Min says that we cut back to the base

“-Who wants to get some ice cream as heroes!” Kim shouts. “Zodiac Crew, back me up here!”

“‘Zodiac crew’?” Alix responds with very thinly veiled disgust. “What a subset that’s most of us! Basically everyone who isn't part of the First Team is Zodiac!”

“Alix, don't be a spoilsport!” Bridget sidles up and rests an arm on her head. “I don’t see the problem!”

“You wouldn’t.” Felix responds. “Just because the Miracle box is complete again doesn’t mean the Old Order isn’t still a threat.”

“....With all due respect, I concur with Kim, while our foes aren’t entirely vanquished yes, we have had a non negligible victory on this day and allowing a brief moment of time to celebrate before we dig back in to our work is statistically proven to allow better performances in the future.”

“I’m fine here” Nino responds. “Staycations are cool too”

“I’m with Nino. I wanna try that monstrosity he’s putting together.” Amber licks her lips and reaches toward the giant mixing bowl only for her hand to be swatted away.

“I could go for a break.” Juleka huffs Rose looks a bit uncomfortable but nods in agreement. “I know we’re the new kids but-”

After a while the kids start talking over each other debating back and forth before Chloe sighs and steps away pulling out a stepladder. Sabrina peeks over as she does so and watches Chloe scurry up to the Kwami penthouse for a moment before coming back down. She fixes her hair and loudly shouts. “Hey!” notable shot of the leader pile startling awake at the volume. “Kim and Max are right in that the lot of us probably need a break after so long of so much stress, But if anyone’s getting strong-armed into celebrating in a way they don’t want to, they're not being allowed a break. So! Show of hands, who wants to go get ice cream?” Most of the zodiac raise their hands with the exceptions of Felix and Luka, even Alix after a tentative moment raises hers.

“Okay, who wants to stay here?” Felix, Luka, Sabrina, Nino, Alya and Amber raise their hands. “Okay, there we go. Everyone stop trying to convince everyone of unanimity, that’s the plan. I’ll go with the ice cream people to make sure nobody does anything stupid. Cesaire, get some goddamn sleep” She states bluntly and aggressive tone before her voice goes all sweet “-you too Luka.”

Alya huffs and coughs a “favoritism” before Chloe shoes her off to the Leader Nap Pile

“Felliiixxxxx” Bridget huffs, grabbing him by the arm and jolting him a few times. “Come onn we’re not gonna be in terminale forever and we might not both get into the same Uni, we gotta get as many dates in as we can!”

“Bridget, you’ve been saying that all year-”

“And I mean it every time!”

The two bicker a little more and Chloe glances at the others before gesturing they follow her. The rest of the zodiac gang leave Bridget and Felix behind, a fact the lovebirds are entirely blind to. Luka looks over at Alya and shrugs “At least they’re back to normal, they’ve been WEIRDLY lovey dovey ever since they became heroes.”

“The existential crisis involved in realizing you were a large part of the apocalypse in an alternate world?”

“Maybe.”

“You really need sleep?”

“I’m doing better running on less but Chloe seems to think I’m slowly weaning myself into insomnia.”

“Aren’t you?”

“Big words Heist Board.” Alya smacks him and yawns again.

After a long pause Luka speaks up again. “Hey Alya?”

“Hm?”

“Do you get the feeling like… this isn’t gonna last?”

“I’m sure it won’t, the Old Order is furious at us.” Alya responds quickly “...why?”

“I uh… I guess I'm already worried.”

Alya thinks for a moment before sighing. “We should be.”

He looks up and she smiles at him. “We just blew up Agreste Manor, where Monarcha’s dead sister has been held in stasis, we should at least be anticipating an Akuma.”

“And we’re letting them all go out on their own?”

“They’ve got Chloe, they’ve got Kim, if things get hairy Max can get them out of there. They’ll be okay.”

Luka still looks uncomfortable. “I’m… gonna keep an eye on the monitors, just in case.”

“You do you Luka, but don’t blame me when your girlfriend tears your highlights out for refusing to get some rest.” Alya stretches and dramatically flops into the nap pile, half laying on Marinette.

But we match cut from Luka turning in the computer chair to Miss Nathalie Sancour standing in the darkness, specifically the same underground drainage that we saw last episode. She’s fumbling through the dark until she finds the backdoor to the lair, she looks around, long hair down and fluttering with every moment, and vanishing into the pipeline. With a sharp kick the emergency hatch in the lair clatters open and Nathalie climbs out.

“Emilie!” she calls as though there’s anyone to answer her. The lair is decimated around her, the butterfly windowpane cracked and near shattered, hunks of wall and ceiling littered on the floor, natural sunlight filtering through and overpowering the low lights. The hustle and bustle of Paris above the only noise.

Finally she pots the pod. “Emilie!” she runs for it and when she presses a hand to the cracked glass she pulls away, the top jostled. It was no longer airtight. There was a threatening beeping again, and when Nathalie puts a bit more pressure on the door it wobbles and slides open. Nathalie yelps and tries to shut it again but no dice.

She looks down at her too still sister and, nervously, presses a hand to her skin.

“I need to fix this thing, you won’t have long with it broken.”

Emilie’s cheeks seem to get a bit rosier when the door remains open, but Nathalie has already turned away and started mumbling to herself. Finally calling out a ‘Nooroo transform me!’ Nathalie is acting quickly, and immediately makes an Akuma, but the foreground remains on Emilie, we can see that as the door remains opened and exposed to the world that Emilie’s still chest begins to very faintly rise and fall. But Nathalie doesn’t see this. Nathalie detransforms, takes the butterfly off of her and sticks it in her pocket before fumbling with her glasses and holding it out to the akuma as it drifts back to her.

“I will be- uh… Passionista? No that’s dumb… Desire Witch! There we go!” The black smoke surrounds her and out steps a witchy Akuma.

She doesn’t even look at Emilie as she closes the pod and presses a small button on her glasses. “Nathalie Sancour, desire- to fix this pod and ensure her sister’s continued safety in hibernation.” As a pair of spell circles (not dissimilar to Dr Strange’s for those who like references) light up her hands and the pod quickly begins to fix itself. We see for a very brief moment, a POV shot of someone’s eyes, opening briefly to see a shadowy figure with glowing circles looking over her, before the gaze goes blurry and the eyes close again.

“And well, since I'm all dressed up.” Desire Witch huffs “Might as well cause some grief.”

But just as she makes her way out and to the streets of Paris, we cut away, the scene fading out. When it returns, we’re with a group of six kids as they surround Andre the Ice Cream man’s cart, clamoring out their orders in delight. At his question of what brought them here, Chloe and Kim share a look, before Kim answers that they won a big competition and are celebrating. In return, Andre gives them all an extra scoop free of charge for their “victory.”

Ice creams in hands, the kids go to sit on the edge of the river (yes, the same spot from canon’s season 3 finale), and dig in. It doesn’t take long before antics erupt, however. Kim digs his spoon in for a scoop, but just as he takes his bite, a second spoon sneaks in and darts back behind Max’s back and into Alix’s mouth, followed by a raspberry in his direction. Juleka and Rose both scoot a bit away as Kim starts trying to swing around Max to get at Alix’s own ice cream, both girls cuddling into each other’s side and sharing their ice creams with each other happily.

Chloe just sighs.

“You guys are an absolute trainwreck” She huffs, leaning back just a bit.

“Yeah, so are you.” Alix huffs turning from her shenanigans to crowd in on Chloe a bit. “Who orders banana blueberry and raspberry in one ice cream that’s a fruit disaster”

“You’re a fruit disaster Kubdel.”

“Oh, Kim, in all of this drama I’ve been wondering” Rose pipes up after a moment “How’s Ondine? It feels like it’s been so long since she’s been around”

“Oh! Things are pretty low key. It’s funny cuz I was worried the whole ‘dating my swimming rival’ thing would mess me up or mess with either of our training but we both figure, things don’t really have to super change just because we’re trying the whole dating thing. Especially since my schedule’s been more packed than it used to be.”

“I’m sure Kagami throwing you around the mat for days on end must have made it hard to want to go out on adventures.” Max chimes in with a chuckle

“Yeah, not super fun to sit on bruises and still get my reps in without slowing down.” Kim huffs, taking another big bite of ice cream. “Too bad we don’t get accelerated healing or hyper durability or any of the stuff the other superheroes get in other places.”

There’s a sound like a ‘shing!’ and a small shower of purple sparkles zips above Kim’s head in a ring. “Uh-!” The others back away from him and when the sparks fade…. Nothing happens.

“That was- weird….” Kim mumbles, “Xuppu, you still there, buddy?”

“I am. But I am just as confused as you are.” The little Kwami responds, whispering from his hiding spot.

“Akuma.” “Akuma” “99.999% chance akuma.” “Ooohhh does that make this our first real akuma fight?” “Guess so.”

“Great, got hit by an akuma and I don't even know what it does.” Kim huffs and stands up. “I don’t even wanna try transforming who knows what will happen!” But just as he turned to march away there’s a loud honking and a runaway bus comes careening forward. Everyone turns and someone screams, there’s a thick cloud of smoke.

And when it clears Kim is standing there untouched. Well… untouched in the wrong word, the bus has stopped in its place with a very Kim-shaped dent in the front, and Kim’s outfit is covered in rips and a few oil stains, his hair’s a mess and he’s gasping for breath, face pale. But there’s not a scratch on him.

Max and Alix reach him first of course and sure enough through worried checks and Markov zipping out from his own hiding place to scan him over, Kim is completely unharmed.

Physically. He’s clearly shaking.

“Okay, just got hit by a bus and came out of it Superman style. That’s fine, that’s not scary at all.”

Chloe thinks for a minute and groans. “It’s because you said you wanted to be hyper durable like ‘heroes in other places’! That’s what the Akuma did!”

“That’s… strikingly kind for an Akuma.” Max offers before the bus’ engine blows out, a piece of machinery zipping out of the hood and knocking against Kim’s head, he stumbles a little at the force, but it clatters to the ground without any damage.

“The catch is it twists the desire.” Chloe follows up. “Here-” She tosses the rest of her ice cream in a random direction, eyes closed and clearly just showing her point, the ice cream hits the trash can perfectly, startling a few pigeons and the pigeons fly off, right in front of a bicyclist whom swerves and though is able to stumble off of his bike before he crashes the bike keeps going for just long enough to crash into Kim, the bike twisting into a pretzel around him.

“I already hate this.”

“That’s probably what the akuma’s going for.” Rose pipes up. “Like a ‘be careful what you wish for’ type thing?”

“Probably.” Chloe confirms with a shrug.

“Well then that’s easy! Nobody say that they want anything!” Rose chirps.

“Statistically speaking when one is asked to avoid certain speaking conventions, now that their mind is on it it makes it more likely to slip out by a factor of about ten.”

“Do we even know where the Akuma is?” Alix huffs. “Actually yeah, I’ll chance that, I want to see where the Akuma is!” There’s a pause and Chloe facepalms when the purple sparks begins to fall around Alix. Alix immediately grabs her head and grunts in pain.

“Wow it’s already kicking your butt? What a shocker.”

“Shut it Bourgeois!” Alix smacks Chloe’s arm. “I can-” Alix opens her eyes and they’re blank white. “....Holy shit I can see EVERYTHING”

“Well that's horrifying.” Max huffs and when Alix turns to look at him she crowds in and presses a hand directly over his breast pocket.

“This is where you’re keeping Kaalki, right?”

“How did you-”

“Shorr is hiding in Chloe’s ponytail, I can see them. Zhuu is in Rose’s purse, and I can see Dynaa in Jukela’s hair too. Holy shit guys I can SEE Magic!”

“What about Hopps?” Kim is actually the first one this occurs to

“Huh?”

“Hopps. Where is Hopps.” Chloe presses.

“Oh! Uh, Hopps, come on out, buddy.” Alix fumbles with her hood, checks her pockets. “Hopps dude, don’t leave me hanging.”

We pan just a little further out to see Hopps hovering clearly in Alix’s sight range. “I am here little fluff!” Hopps waves her paw yet Alix doesn’t even seem able to hear her anymore.

“Alix, where's your watch?” Max probes, and Alix’s hand goes to her pocket, but despite clearly running her hand over the silver watch doesn’t seem able to sense it and fumbles through her pockets looking for it. The watch falls out and hangs exclusively from her belt, jumping about wildly.

“She can’t sense her own magic anymore.” Juleka huffs. “Yikes.”

“Well fine, we can work with this. Alix, you wanted to find the Akuma, so where is it?”

“Huh?! Bourgeois I can’t find Hopps! I think that’s a little more pressing don’t you think?!”

“Hopps is where she always is, Alix, you can’t see her anymore.”

“That’s ridiculous, I can SEE Magic!”

“WISHES WITH A PRICE!” She shouts back, pointing at Kim and his ripped-up clothes as proof. “What do you think YOUR price was?!”

Alix huffs, and after a moment grabs her head in pain again. “Okay, point taken, stupid call. I’m starting to get a headache anyway.”

“Alix, where's the Akuma.” Max asks a little more softly. Alix takes a breath and peers around again before gesturing in a certain direction. “On top of the roof over there, I don't think she can hear us from that distance.”

“Thank you, Alix.” Max responds. “Chloe would you mind terribly calling-”

“Already on it, who do you think is in charge here, ponyboy?.... Oh! Hey Felix not who I was expecting…. Yeah I’ll deal with St. Claire bitching at us for ditching her, it’s not like you didn’t want to have a stay date with her anyway… so did he go to--” She pauses, pinches the bridge of her nose.

Everyone present braces.

“HE WHAT?”

Everyone flinches in earshot, including Desire Witch.

“I’m gonna kill him. Maybe THAT way he’ll get some goddamn rest.”

“Not gonna happen.” “Jules-” “What? I know my brother.”

“UGH! Felix, Can you- Yeah I’ll handle him when he catches up, but can you wake up Marinette? Or anyone who can handle the Ladybug- Did Amber take a nap too? We need a Miraculous Cure… Look, I literally don’t care. If you need a second opinion on what’s an appropriate Miraculous switch ask Cesaire she’s been at this almost as long as they have. Thanks.”

Chloe huffs and hangs up. “So! Alix, either go back to the base or go home because I get the feeling once transformations kick in that headache is gonna get a lot worse. Kim, do you wanna take her?”

“Hell no, if I'm super accident prone right now I'd like to not be next to my tiny, far more breakable at the moment, friend.”

“Breakable?!”

“In comparison!” Kim defends but Alix is already on him smacking him about. “Besides! Ow! Ow! Isn’t me being actually invulnerable good? I can be a meat shield if things get hairy!”

And now Max is on him too. “That is not a comforting visual you obtuse cretin!”

Now both of them were hitting him.

“UGH!” Chloe pinches her nose and mutters “ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.” to herself before pressing her hands together and taking a breath. “Hey! HEY!”

“Alix can’t fight because she likely won’t be able to tell the position of her umbrella even if transformed. Alix should be heading off. Is anyone willing to take her or does everyone want to stay and fight?” Nobody makes eye contact with Chloe.

“Markov takes Alix home, everyone happy?” The little robot gives a jaunty salute and places his claw on Alix’s shoulder.

“The Akuma’s moved on by the way.” Alix calls out. “Went off in the direction of city hall.”

“Thank you Alix!” Rose calls out.

But we cut then to the line going dead on Luka’s phone, Chloe’s caller ID notably has a heart and a pawprint beside it as Felix hangs up. “Great.” He looks around and as it turns out most of the team that stayed behind are still asleep. Alya, Bridget, and Amber in the nap pile now too.

“Great.” He looks around and sure enough the only people still awake besides himself are Sabrina and Nino. “Nino I don’t suppose you ever wielded the Ladybug yourself did you?”

“Hell no.”

“Oh there really is an Akuma? I thought Luka was just being paranoid….”

“Normally he is,” Felix responds. “I’ve caught him a couple of lunch periods before just transformed and sitting in the boys locker room because he’s convinced something’s about to go down only for it to be nothing.”

“Yikes….” “Dude I think he needs therapy.”

“We all will by the end of this I'm sure.” Felix responds. “But for now, who do you think will be the least likely to bite my head off if I wake them?”

“Marinette.” “Oh definitely Mari. She’s more of a workaholic than Luka.”

“Marinette is at the center of the pile. I'd be killed the second I stir Bridget.”

They both think for a second before Nino answers “Wake Adrien first, he can handle it.”

“What? You’re his best friend, you handle it.”

“Dude you’re his COUSIN. You outrank me.”

“Ugh….” Felix looks to the pile of nappers and takes a very careful step forward-

“Wait why are we- Fidde! Can you wake Adrien up for me?”

“Hum? Oh of course young charge!”

Fidde darts down from the kwami penthouse and burrows himself up to Adrien’s face, sitting on his chin and patting his cheeks a few times. Adrien wrinkles his nose, Fidde hums and howls. Adrien creaks an eye open and smiles blearily at the little tyke.

“Hey buddy… time for school already?”

“Time to fight an Akuma!

“Oh, okay…” Adrien starts to sit up and gently shakes Marinette’s shoulder. “Marinette wake up, we’ve got an Akuma.”

Marinette groans groggily and sits up rubbing an eye. “Should we get Kagami too?” They both glance down at Kagami, face half buried in the pillow, sparkles and shoujo bubbles surrounding her. Reaction cut back to the both of them grinning sleepily. “Nah, let her sleep.” Adrien answers

“She’s been doing a lotta work training Rose and Jules, she needs it.” Marinette agrees.

“Are you guys okay to fight?” Felix asks quietly and Marinette nods sleepily.

“We’ll be fine, I just need to wake up a lil bit.”

“Hang on, I gotcha.” Adrien grabs Marinette “Slap me and I'll slap you, wake up slaps.”

“Wow you two are insane.”

“Wait, hold on, hold on, I have a sleep-idea.”

But we cut away to the door outside the base before two hard ‘slap’ noises are heard one after the other.

And from there we follow along with our current unaccounted for party, Luka has ended up on the side of the Seine that everyone had been perched on earlier, taking in the crashed bus and the twisted up bike. His lyre beeps an oncoming call. He opens it, expression turning dreadful before he shuts it off and attaches it back to his hip.

The beeping ends after a moment before starting up again. But Luka was already there, so he just puts off his ringer and hides in the shadows as the fight goes on. It seems as though the backup team has Desire Witch at a standstill, She’d used some sort of wish or desire on herself as her design now has an accompaniment of a bandolier full of potions and a broomstick she’s standing on and floating aloft with.

Her potions seem to be exclusively her own little desires as as Desire Witch throws one at Hogwild whom quickly dodges it, the impact makes the ground shake for a moment and sickly black cracks form equally sickly black vines.

Cheshire’s gaze darts up as she closes the screen on her tonfa and she for a moment meets Luka’s eye. She glares at him for a moment, points at him and then draws a line across her throat. Then after a beat she blows a kiss and winks at him. Luka blinks. But then Cheshire dodges another potion thrown in her direction and she takes the opportunity to scale the building and land on the roof beside him.

“....Hi?”

“You’re as dead as bleach-washed jeans when this Akuma is solved, Viperion.” Chess chirps with the peppiest tone possible, before leaning forward and placing a small kiss on his cheek. “Did you happen to see Alix on the way over or no?”

“No, did something happen to her?” Viperion turns to Cheshire with wide eyes and Chess shakes her head.

“Nothing too bad, but she can’t fight so we had Markov take her home.”

“Ah.”

“Keep Second Chance on Standby. I don’t think we’ll super need it, but don’t push yourself if you’re worried.”

“Chess...”

“But when we get back, I am gonna tie you to that cot so help me god-”

“Chloe-”

“Ladybug or one of the temps should be on their way soon but if we can get rid of this Akuma before that I think that’ll be a real help”

“Chloe!” Luka grabs her shoulders and turns her to face him “Please give it a rest! I know you’re trying to look out for everyone but I want you to save a little for you too! Get some rest yourself! You big fat hypocrite!” He says the last part with a small half grin but Chloe’s expression drops before Desire Witch’s head darts up to the two of them and we see Nathalie’s goggled POV for a moment.

Desire: for the other to sleep

A spell circle lights up her hands and purple sparks zip upward. Cheshire pushes them both out of the way but- unfortunately is a little slow. A spark hits the tip of her ponytail and the back of Luka’s heel. Both of them go down, Luka lightly snoring and Chloe wrapped around him like an octopus.

But the fight continues. And to be fair the zodiac in the fight are doing pretty damn good despite Max being not the best fighter and Juleka and Rose being particularly green. Roi Singe is pretty clearly the heavy hitter here as he tends to come the closest to Desire Witch, he’s able to tank most of the potions as the newfound indestructibility both has them tend to wind up splattering on him anyway and also he just can’t be hurt by them right now.

But at the same time he can’t get a hit in himself let alone a summon of Uproar to make this fight end a little quicker. The airborne aspect of Desire Witch’s fight appearance makes her difficult to get, especially since the universe seems fit to conspire with Roi with as much force as possible to show off his current invulnerability.

Pegasus is fairing a bit better in that he’s fighting a bit more long range, just long enough to be able to make use of his boomerang at least. He can dodge really well for his more evasive fighting style and while he can’t get in close to actually do any damage he’s been able to knock a few potions from their trajectories (though they usually end up hitting Roi)

Oxenfree is having a little more trouble, as more of a close range fighter and still exhausted from Kagami’s bootcamp she’s barely dodging much at this point. Eventually growing frustrated Oxenfree steadies her stance and shouts ‘UNSTOPPABLE FORCE’ swinging the bat at Desire Witch, the huge shockwave coming out of the hit sending a massive wind tunnel at the woman. She gets knocked off her broom yes, but before she hits the ground the Akuma throws down a potion and vanishes into a hole.

“I’ve got it!” Hogwild calls out before jumping and calling out ‘Adaptation’ and turning into a bat. The pink bat vanishes into the hole quickly before a panel slides open on Oxenfree’s bat. And into a call with Hogwild seen briefly in bat form with an infinitesimally small earpiece in one ear

“I can hear her! This hole sent her right through the catacombs she’s in the subway system!”

“Thanks ‘Wild. keep tailing her.” Roi Singe leans in and places a hand on Oxenfree’s wrist to steady the bat.

“You got it, Roi!”

We see then a manhole cover pop up as Desire Witch comes out, but just as she surfaces, a bronze blur zips past her, chopping the brim of her hat off, She looks back toward the path of the blonde blur and the chakram bounces off the ground then off a wall and returns to a brown gloved hand.

But not Bloodhound’s glove. Fenrir’s. Fenrir and Multimouse hey, it’s been awhile since we’ve seen you guys! So that was what Marinette meant by sleep idea.

“You remember the incantation?” Multimouse chirps at Fenrir, who rubs his neck. “I hope so?”

“You want me to try it first?” “Please.”

“Callid, Tikki, May the virtues combine and two become one, Teamwork and creation, together we are strong.” Marinette’s earrings flash in a steady pulse, as does the coin. And together they are strong. Multibug stretches and looks her outfit up and down. “Not bad, not bad. Your turn.”

“Okay uh-... Fidde and Plagg, may the virtues combine and two become one, Loyalty and destruction, together we are strong.” Adrien lets out a surprised yelp as the ring and collar begin to flash. Together they are strong Fen Noir rises and checks his own look out. “I’m not sure how these guys will combine though…”

“I guess we’ll find out.”

Desire Witch growls at the two and fingers a potion. “I can’t believe you both. She almost faded because of you Adrien! Emilie almost died because of your impulses!”

“My mother IS dead, and it’s more than a little goulish that you and father were keeping her corpse in the secret basement, and I’m WAY too tired to deal with this”

Noir draws the staff and the chakram and goes into it. Multibug on the other hand slides open her yoyo and gets a quick status update from the others, they’re making their way over as we speak but Oxenfree is down her power and Roi Singe’s invulnerability is slowing him down as he keeps getting smacked with things.

But just as Multibug is getting grips on everything there’s a flash of light, a pivot of a pink ballet flat and the tines of a rake are slammed into Desire Witch’s side, taking her completely off guard.

The witch stumbles back, and Noir looks between his weapons for a moment. Power amp and Cataclysm, amplification and destruction… that would be-

“Power leech!” Noir tosses the chakram into the air and black energy courses down on the surroundings. Including himself. Multibug is spared but only from distance as Desire Witch’s broom turns to splinters and her potions shatter, Hogwild’s timer goes down another three blips and leaves her on her last one, and Fen Noir’s own timer jumps down to two.

“Woah!”

“You!” Desire Witch lights up a spell circle but her POV Goggles don’t reveal any stated desires on Fen Noir or Multibug. “You-! YOU UNGRATEFUL BRAT!” She lunges for Fen Noir

A staff pokes her in the chest with a quick ‘Uproar’ a colorful beachball inflating on the end of the staff that was poking her. She tries her spell circles but they just make disco colors.

Pegasus steps out of voyage with Oxenfree and Roi pulls his leg out from where he’d been half still standing in it. “So Ladybug, or… Multibug, what do you think Multiplication and Creation will do?”

“I guess… a lot of little creations? Or…” a flashbulb goes off and she runs over to take the boomerang from him. “Innovation!” pinkish grey light surrounds her grip on the boomerang, turning it into a high tech looking version of itself. “An Akuma Object seeking projectile!” She hands it back to Pegasus who shrugs and as the others are swarming a now mostly powerless Desire Witch, throws the boomerang. It bounces off of Roi’s head, yes, but it also nails Desire Witch in the face, breaking her glasses in the process.

“Let’s hope Miraculous cure didn’t get affected….” Multibug chuckles, but then bites back a yawn. “I want to get back to bed sooner rather than later.”

Desire Witch cries out and Adrien looks away notably as Miraculous Ladybug sweeps the land. A swatch of Ladybugs zipping down, down, down into the destroyed lair and surround the pod, returning it to it’s broken state. The airlock goes off again. And faintly, faintly, Emilie Agreste begins to breathe again.

#Miraculous ladybug #Miraculous rewrite #rewrite #Mod Vega #Mod Aimee #Desire Witch

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