#and SO. despite having learned how cruel the world can be and the defenses necessary to survive above it

[lordoftherazzles]

“Is this a fight or would you two like some privacy?” Would please me very much if you did this one. 👀

I had a LOT of fun with this one, okay?? I knew exactly what I wanted to do as soon as you sent this to me, yay!! Yet again, I can't stick to the "less than 1000 words" thing for these, but that's okay. I am enjoying these drabbles so much!!!

Have some words from the AU verse of "Where The Shadows Lie"

Things around the bed and breakfast had been relatively normal–or as normal as they could be when a vampire slayer, bodyguard, and all around nerd shared their home with a brood of eccentric vampires. Things had turned around and tensions had lessened regarding the royal predicament on hand, and everyone was happier for it.

Especially Thorin, and who could blame him?

But with normalcy settling in and comfort becoming very common, that didn’t mean the royal issue of the vampiric hierarchy could be forgotten. It was only a matter of time before Azog gained the balls to send someone their way, and if he was going to keep his company in one area, relying on the protection of old legends and a very much alive Took, then that slayer needed to know what he was up against.

“Again,” Thorin demanded sternly, his eyes dark and full of threat as they remained locked on Bilbo across the room from him. The poor fella looked winded, but there was determination in his eyes as well, and that was something Thorin respected, just as he found it incredibly attractive.

With emotion playing no part in these little lessons–unlike that time Bilbo had nearly taken out Thorin with a stake before being pounded into a wall–it seemed the vampire slayer was a little less than coordinated while under the spotlight. It was annoying to Bilbo, and each time he made a lunge for his target and ended up on his ass, his snarl grew in intensity. As did Thorin’s lessons.

But, he tried! God, how he tried!

Charging towards Thorin and trying to get a single hand on him, failure was quickly staring Bilbo in the face as he was on his back in a matter of seconds, Thorin leaning over him with a hand pressed against his chest to keep him down. “Nugh! Just fire me already!” Bilbo whined in annoyance as he pouted and laid around like a useless wet noodle.

“Fire you?” Thorin’s brow arched high as his lips formed a straight line. “I don’t think that’s necessary. You’re just thinking too much about it. You’re a ‘heat of the moment’ sort of fighter, that’s true, but I’d be a fool to not teach out the basics in self-defense.” It’s what kept them going at this despite Bilbo’s continuous objections. “You’ll get it.” Leaning down and preparing to press a kiss to Bilbo’s forehead, a new idea began to take root in Thorin’s own mind. Replacing the look of comfort and adoration to something less enthusiastic and more snarly, Thorin gripped at Bilbo’s shirt to hoist him back up a bit roughly. “Or else we’ll leave, and I’ll find someone who can do the job.”

“What?!” Bilbo squeaked, trying to find his balance as he was suddenly in an upright position.

“It would be cruel to subject you to my world if you can’t even defend yourself, and as a king, I must think of both my protection, and my partner’s. A weakness has no place here.” A look of strain crossed the vampire’s face as a forced curve of his lips was present. “It’s not that I would want to part ways, but I can’t afford to worry about you–”

“Let’s go again!” Bilbo growled, wiggling out of Thorin’s grip and bouncing on his feet once more. “I can protect myself, you don’t have to worry about me”

“Prove it.”

A small voice in the back of Bilbo’s brain knew, and warned him, that this was nothing more than Thorin jerking his chain, trying to get a rise out of him. But if poking a teeny-tiny emotional button (which said a lot), was what it took to learn something today? Then so be it. The fact that Bilbo was truly and utterly bothered at the idea of Thorin leaving both in general, and as a partner due to his lack of ability, spoke volumes. To say that Bilbo was thoroughly attached and invested in this man would be an understatement, and now he was going to prove his worth.

If he could wildly slay a few vampires at that nightclub not too long ago, surely he could land Thorin on his ass? Besides, something about that sounded more fun than it should with Thorin  sporting some smug little grin on his face right about now.

With a frown settling onto his lips, and concentration hardening in his eyes, Bilbo waited a few seconds before lunging, but his balance and moves weren’t as careless as before. He had something needling him with Thorin’s words, and the vampire’s confidence, and now that there was something to prove, his body knew how to act. The adrenaline that soared through Bilbo’s veins was unlike anything he was used to. He’d never been an avid sports participant, but he had to wonder if the feeling was similar to being on the field. This was a game he could not lose. 

Thorin was someone he could not lose. If not for the sake of his sanity, then for the sake of his overly attached heart.

…

“Again!”

The sound of Thorin’s shout practically echoed through the walls, as had the sound of glass shattering and continuous thuds against either the wall or the floor, and naturally, the sound made Frerin pause. 

Now, Frerin wasn’t ignorant to his brother and Bilbo’s…physical lifestyle, to say otherwise would be a bold faced lie. Thuds and shouts weren’t uncommon, but this sounded decidedly different, or that little human with the twitchy nose was wilder than Frerin expected. It made a spark of curiosity take root in his brain as he sauntered towards the doorway and gave the knob a firm twist as one loud thud made him almost flinch.

It wasn’t that he wanted to walk in on Bilbo and Thorin doing the nasty, but that curiosity had gotten the better of him, especially when it didn’t exactly sound like a rough love making moment. Though as he stared at the floor, part of him had to wonder otherwise. There they were, both fully clothed and entirely focused on one another with gritted teeth and intense stares.

Bilbo was seated atop Thorin at his chest, his crotch practically in Thorin’s face as the other’s hands were pinned to the ground awkwardly over his head. The funny part was how Bilbo’s gritted expression turned into a smirk of confidence.

At least, until Frerin cleared his throat and arched a brow. “Is this a fight, or would you two like some privacy?”

“Aha! A witness!” Bilbo cheered, still keeping every ounce of his strength against Thorin’s hands while trying to ignore the blush beginning to slowly bloom across his cheeks. “I’m getting the hang of this self-defense thing.”

“Or Thorin just likes your dick in his face,” Frerin shrugged nonchalantly as his brother’s head turned and shot a sharp glare that could likely cut through butter. “What? Just stating facts! But it’s nice to see you both are still in one piece.”

“Why did you walk in if you had any inkling we might be doing something else?” Thorin snarled in annoyance, only to watch Frerin’s grin widen like that of a cheshire cat.

”Pro-tip, leave a sock on the door, or lock it, if you plan to take these little lessons in a spicy direction. Then critters like me won’t come wandering in–”

“Get out!”

Frerin zipped out as quickly as he had wandered in–so, slowly–leaving Thorin to growl and Bilbo to snicker at the display. “Siblings,” Thorin huffed before turning his attention back up towards he who had proven himself time and time again, and today was no exception. “You’ve done well, though,” Thorin’s words were less stone-like, and his expression had softened a fraction as Bilbo’s eyes met his.

“Your little mind tricks seemed to help. It gave me something to fight for rather than just swinging at you aimlessly…though that does hold some appeal with the way you gave the idea of casting me aside,” Bilbo feigned distress as his eyes rolled, but his hands had never once moved to release Thorin from his pinned state. There was too much pride in holding him here by the hands. “I wouldn’t let you leave, even if you tried.”

“Mm, if this hold you have me in is just a taste of what I could expect from you, I wouldn’t expect any less,” Thorin snorted, his hands twisting a bit to maneuver the grip Bilbo had him in, lacing their hands together for something a little more loving. “But I have no reason to leave, and never did. Though, keeping you safe is of great importance to me.” 

“Well, as you can see, I think I am perfectly capable of handling myself, especially when I have something to lose,” Bilbo hummed his words, his eyes dropping a bit and his grip lessening. Was it silly to admit such things? Perhaps, but at least they were honest. “Did you want to keep practicing?”

A small squeeze of Bilbo’s hands brought those hazel eyes back to him, and Thorin’s blues sparkled with a touch of mischief. “I think that’s enough practice for today, but I will say, where we are now has me incredibly inspired,” Thorin chuckled, grinning widely as he squeezed Bilbo’s hands again. “I quite like being beneath you, and at your mercy.” 

“My mercy, huh? If that isn’t a stroke against my ego then I don’t know what else would be.”

“Lock the door and I’ll do more than stroke that ego of yours,” the vampire purred, tilting his chin upward and towards the door, but not daring to keep his eyes off Bilbo. “Unless you’d rather–”

“Nope!” Bilbo was up and moving to the door, nearly as quick as the one vampire in the room! Just like his fighting lessons, there was something that made the effort worth it, and he was beyond content in calling it a day on the sparring, and seeing just how fun it was to take the seat of power–right on Thorin’s chest with their hands laced. “Continue.” And while matching Thorin’s grin, Bilbo was more keen on these little lessons of theirs if they all came with a proper reward at the end.

#the hobbit #bagginshield #thilbo #thorin oakenshield #bilbo baggins #frerin #thorin x bilbo #fic: where the shadows lie #razzledrabbles #razzywrites

[2am-theswifthour]

The 8 Theory-Folklore’s Commentary on Youth

Yesterday, I took note of @taylorswift​ and her careful attention to the number 8.

“Not a lot going on at the moment” had 8 words. The 8th track is “august,” which is also the 8th month in the year. She has 8 deluxe editions of her album. Many attributed this to Folklore being Taylor’s 8th album. I thought it meant either a.) we needed to pay very close attention to track #8 or b.) that 8 references infinity, a.k.a “forever and ever.”

To my surprise, I was actually selling Taylor Swift short.

When listening to the album, there’s a lot of back and forth in emotion and circumstance. I was confused about the order, especially when the strikingly sobering “hoax” followed the self-aware almost-tranquility of “peace.” Then it hit me. There are two schools of thought going on.

There are 16 tracks on Folklore (excluding the bonus track none of us have heard). 16/2=8. This means there are 2 equal emotional song threads on the album. In other words, you can get two drastically different lessons listening to each group of 8.

When you separate the even numbered tracks from the odd numbered tracks you get the following:

Odd

the 1

the last great american dynasty

my tears ricochet

seven

this is me trying

invisible string

epiphany

peace

Even

cardigan

exile

mirrorball

august

illicit affairs

mad woman

betty

hoax

Odd Interpretation:

Starting with “the 1” and “the last great american dynasty,” the lyrics are very upfront in showing that the protagonists are making fully intentioned mistakes. “the 1” says, “in my defense, I have none for never leaving well enough alone” (I see you “ME!” reference). In “the last great American dynasty” it says, “she had a marvelous time ruining everything.” These characters’ folly is their youth-induced selfishness. They’re casual in the harm they cause because they distance themselves from it. They’re fine with what they don’t look at closely. When you’re young, you make a mess of things in service of YOUR need. Your need for companionship. Your need for the thrill of danger. Your need to make your mark, to be somebody, to leave something behind. The marvel of the excitement and the chase and the very vitality of teens to 20-somethings’ shenanigans blinds us to the scale of our destruction…

…until you have no choice but to face the consequences of your recklessness.

The next track, “my tears ricochet” is not your average track 5. It functions as a pivoting point. Now our narrator is the hurt party, the one baring the brunt of callous treatment. Fickle mistreatment is no longer so casual. Now it’s a torment, and the tormentor learns the scale of their damage. So much so, that they get burned too. They learned their lesson at a terrible price, but what’s most important is that they learned.

“seven” is a long-overlooked memory revisited. In this picture of naïve innocence, the narrator tells of their childish belief in the impossible. Through magic and play pretend and fantasy they are invincible. They have all the control in the world to control the world they live in. Obviously, this is a flawed perspective that everyone eventually grows out of. Fairy tales don’t solve real problems. The point is that their sense of self-importance is in service of a stronger moral compass than the first two songs. If we accept our responsibility to others, to do what we can to ensure their welfare, are we not better and more satisfied people for it?

“this is me trying” hears that lesson and attempts to walk the walk. Part of being responsible to your fellow human is taking accountability when you fumble. The narrator doesn’t know what to say or how to make it right. What they do know is that they’re here, they’ve put the bottle down, and that they’re willing to try what’s necessary to heal what they’ve hurt.

“invisible string” gives us the reward we’ve been waiting for. The narrator says, “cold was the steel of my axe to grind for the boys who broke my heart, now I send their babies presents.” This is someone who has gone from lashing out in anger at a partner from a burned relationship to genuinely wishing them well in their next stage in life. It’s a powerful testament when you can recognize that youth drives us all to make hurtful decisions and that no one is immune to change if they truly want to change. When you let the anger and lies go, the strings that tied you to them fade away. All that’s left is the string you want to hold onto. The string tied to the one who matters, because you’ve made the conscious decision to deduce that their worth as a person should equal yours. It’s a painful path to traverse through, but when you do it’s all worthwhile. That’s why the narrator can say with confidence “hell was the journey but it brought me to heaven.”

In any other album, a song like “invisible string” would be the quintessential emotional payoff for this story arc. However, because this album is a masterpiece, we have a different payoff point in “epiphany.” “epiphany” takes us out of the world of a romantic relationship. We hear descriptions of war and nurses dealing with the despair of this international pandemic. This point in this emotional thread is that it powerfully declares it’s not enough to do no harm nor is it enough to just empathize with your romantic partner. You MUST show your responsibility to your fellow man. Stand beside them. Empathize with them. See them as whole human beings. Do good by them. In other words, it is our duty to do right by everyone, for everyone bleeds, loves, and dies.

The 8-song selection ends with “peace.” The song begins by saying that their, “coming-of-age” has come and gone.” I believe this (along with “invisible string”) to be the most overtly “Taylor Swift” track in perspective. This is her speaking as herself. She lets us know that she’s grown through taking her mistakes, and the mistakes she learned through folklore, into account. She is overly aware of her flaws and feels she pales in comparison to her partner. Rather than allow those insecurities to manifest in unchecked rage or resentment, she takes it as a challenge for herself to do better. She knows she can never give him complete peace (due to inside and outside factors), but she can make the choice to give him unselfish promises and embrace the entirety of her partner’s life. This is a person who has learned the value of selflessness in love and life, which makes this whole thread worth everything.

Even Interpretation:

“cardigan” foreshadows the eventual failure of the even path. The odd interpretation I just described culminated in the narrator finding their place with “the one” because they’ve left everything petty and casually cruel behind. In “cardigan” it says “chase two girls, lose the one.” On top of this directly referencing the first track, it also implies the partner’s self-destruction. By toying with two girls, James is losing “the one.” I don’t think losing “the one” means that you keep one of the two of them. I think it means that engaging in that kind of behavior makes you into a person that isn’t ready, or worthy, of “the one” that they are meant to be with forever. Meeting and keeping “the one” has to require each partner to love themselves and their partner wholly, truly, and selflessly. They can’t be a cardigan you pick up and only wear on the weekends. They must be a wholehearted commitment.

“exile” shows the blowout from “cardigan.” The two couldn’t stay together, and Bon Iver’s (character’s) toxicity comes out full force. He thinks her new man is lesser than him. He’s prepared to throw punches despite being at fault over a hundred times. He’s seen the film before, and he didn’t like the ending because it didn’t work out for him. He wants her under his thumb, not having learned from his prior relationships that that just can’t work. They leave out the side doors, neither fully ready to confront the problems head on.

“mirrorball” is daring in its shift of focus. While all of the tracks I’ve mentioned thus far have dealt, in some way, with the problems that result from a young person’s selfishness, this song doesn’t do that. This song illustrates an extreme that young people participate in at the opposite end of the spectrum; radical selflessness. To be selfless means that you should never allow something that harms someone else to happen just because it benefits you. Young people, girls in particular, are often groomed to interpret selflessness differently. Their definition is synonymous with accommodation. Change your looks, change your personality, don’t object, and embody what your partner wants so that they’re happy. That’s why the symbol is the mirrorball in the song. It reflects everything in the room but itself. By explicitly not factoring in their own sense of self-respect in a relationship, they are unknowingly and tragically enabling their partner’s mistreatment. To be clear, that doesn’t mean abuse is their fault if they have low self-esteem. It’s not, even remotely. But not having the capacity to defend your self-worth is what keeps so many drawn into toxic relationships there for so long. This radical selflessness manifests itself in the other woman too. In “august” it explicitly says that she was living on the, “hope of it all” and that she would cancel plans in the name of a potential hookup with someone who was never hers. The idea of radical selflessness culminates in “illicit affairs” when one of the women deals with their addictive compulsion toward someone who treats them like a cheap lay. Their relationship is a secret that leaves her feeling used in parking lots and as though any trace of her is gone. These three songs have taken the desperate hopelessness of “Abigail gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind” to the extreme.

Many have speculated that “mad woman” is a commentary on the Taylor/Scooter conflict and I’m inclined to agree. However, if I were to assign an interpretation that goes with my theory, I would say that “mad woman” details the unforeseen consequences of a tormentor’s abuse. When a toxic partner performs bad behavior, their expectation is that they will always be found in the right. After all, Taylor noted on her previous album that for men, “everyone believes [them].” So in the face of lies about her character that everyone believes, she gets rightfully angry. Her anger is their affirmation. For many, a woman being angry on her own behalf is “crazy” and “irrational.” What kind of a society have we set up? A society that promotes women to lack self-worth and, should they find it, they’ll meet a whole other exile.

“betty” is our complete look into James’ perspective. On its own, it sounds like a big romantic gesture to get behind. However, this path is very clear to put “cardigan” first. “cardigan” says, “I knew you’d miss me once the thrill expired and you’d be standin’ in my front porch light.” Lo and behold, in “betty” he shows up to her party when she doesn’t want to see him and asks if she would, “kiss [him] on the porch in front of all [her] stupid friends.” It’s an absolute punch in the gut. Betty knows in “cardigan” that he would come back after he had his fun with another girl, but that she would take him back when he saw momentary value in her again. James in “betty” claims he didn’t know anything, but that’s just an excuse. He knew what he was doing, he knew that he would be able to pick up her broken pieces with ease, he knew he could isolate her from her friends, and he knew that he could capture the imperfect “comfort” of that cardigan again.

This path ends in the final even-numbered song, “hoax.” In the odd numbers, “peace” shows a lesson learned. This even path shows what happens when we don’t learn. The seeds of youth-driven mistakes have led us here. The narrator wants nothing outside the pain of this faithless love. Without learning what it means to be selfless, the traumas of these young relationships create a never-ending cycle. The narrator knows that the “love” is a “hoax” but doesn’t care because that’s all they have. There’s no point to wanting anything else. Without the perspective of age, of truly going beyond that, they’re stuck in a truly dark place.

Final Thoughts:

Taylor Swift is an exceptional artist for a lot of reasons. No one makes albums this good this far into their career. Most artists teeter off after two or three because they retread. Their audience inevitably gets bored of them e same thing time and again. Repeating themselves is something that a lot of artists do because they want to go with the formula of what works. With Folklore, Taylor has done what few artists have dared to do. She’s allowed her discography as a place to uncompromisingly expand her worldview and challenge her listeners. She’s not reiterating previous lessons to make another quick sale. Instead, every album prior has been a steppingstone. As she said at the Time 100 Gala, she has truly turned her lessons into her legacy. From a variety of narrators, she has brought what I decree to be her best album to date. This wouldn’t happen for anyone else 8 albums into their career, but she’s done it by devoutly embracing age’s wisdom.

Learn from the highs and lows presented in these paths. As all good folklore does, it teaches us how to live better. It is our duty to live selflessly and with self-assured dignity. These writings, I have no doubt, will become integral to the legend that is Taylor Alison Swift.

#folklore #taylor swift #ts8 theories #ts8 #the 1 #CARDIGAN #the last great american dynasty #exile #MY TEARS RICOCHET #mirrorball #seven #august #this is me trying #illicit affairs #invisible string #mad woman #epiphany #betty #peace #hoax

[ecoamerica]

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[jasontoddiefor]

Title: like ashes and embers Ship: Dooku/Qui-Gon (but lots of disaster lineage feels) for @shatouto Summary: Qui-Gon didn’t recognize the galaxy anymore. He saw all the cracks he had been able to trace before his passing, but somehow, in just under a decade, those cracks had grown into canyons larger than entire systems.  Qui-Gon contemplated his relationship with his Master. AN: Read on AO3! I hope you like it!

Qui-Gon didn’t recognize the galaxy anymore. He saw all the cracks he had been able to trace before his passing, but somehow, in just under a decade, those cracks had grown into canyons larger than entire systems. They were at war, fighting for goals he could hardly see clearly anymore. Upon his awakening, he had thought he knew what his goal was, what he should do with his second chance.

It wasn’t so clear anymore. All the lines blurred together and the only truth he could trust in was the Force, his steady companion.

“Master Jinn?”

He turned around, away from the window of his ship.

That too had taken some getting used to. Qui-Gon was no stranger to war itself, he had fought plenty of battles and civil wars. His lineage wasn’t exactly known for being subtle or able to hold back when faced with injustice. While those character traits didn’t make their lives any easier, they were still remarkable and he hoped he had passed those qualities on.

“Ahsoka,” he greeted the apprentice standing in front of her. She moved comfortably in her dark armor, as if it were a second skin, not unlike those of the brothers who followed them. While the clones had made their own culture, taken bits of the Mandalorian stories their template had shared, the Jedi tales they had been taught by their Generals, and something that was very distinctly only them, all traditions acknowledge the need for proper dress on the battlefield. They had, apparently, been quite horrified when they had met little Ahsoka for the first time, not wearing any kind of protection at all.

Ahsoka was no little child anymore. She was still a teenager, yes, but with her seventeen years, she almost stood as tall as her Master. She was bound to surpass him anytime in the next year, something Anakin steadily refused to think about while everyone else had their fun reminding him of it.

“Can I help you?” Qui-Gon asked.

Ahsoka sighed and pointed in the direction of the door. “Grandmaster’s calling, something about our attack on the enemy forces.”

Qui-Gon frowned. He was sure that Anakin was supposed to be in charge of the upcoming battle. They had made quite a lot of plans in that regard, Obi-Wan taking the defense while Qui-Gon sat this one out, his fleet only providing back up if necessary, and already rushing to the next system that needed their help.

“Any last-minute changes?” Qui-Gon asked as he fell into step next to Ahsoka. The young woman shook her head and shrugged. “I thought so, but no. Any idea where Skyguy is, by the way? He said he’d practice my Jar’Kai with me again, but I can’t find him anywhere.”

“Have you checked Obi-Wan’s cabin?” Qui-Gon replied, amusement coloring his words.

Ahsoka only rolled her eyes at him. “I’m not stupid, that’s the first place I check. It’s not like he actually sleeps in his own cabin, which is entirely unfair because it’s bigger than mine.” She crossed her arms in front of her chest, the perfect picture of a pouty Padawan. “Maybe I’ll just make a ship-wide announcement. Hey, Skyguy, if you’re done doing-“

“If I’m done doing what exactly?”

Ahsoka jerked as Anakin walked out of the next hallway, already dressed sharply for battle. He too was wearing dark armor and beneath that, black robes, the sigil of their army displayed proudly on his shoulders.

“Uh, nothing?” Ahsoka replied hastily. “Doesn’t matter! You promised me training and you didn’t show!”

Accusingly, she pointed her finger at him, a gesture he was sure she had picked up from Anakin as the young man didn’t even hesitate to mirror her, beginning to lecture about duties and more important things than perfecting her already stunning Jar’Kai. Watching the two of them argue was a delight to say the least. They fit well together, and Anakin was a good teacher to her, despite the few years separating them. Taking on students so close to your own age was always difficult and brought challenges of their own. Qui-Gon had been quite shocked to learn that Anakin had been assigned a student due to the war and some other underlying hopes he didn’t dare think even closer upon. The Jedi had already fallen so low, he did not want to think of even more flaws.

Qui-Gon left the two of them to their bickering and headed towards the door where he knew his Master lingered. He tapped in the key for the door and stepped inside, unphased when the door closed and locked behind him. He was already used to his Master’s antics.

Dooku was standing at the very end of the room, looking outside of the windows to observe the vastness of space surrounding them, similar to the way Qui-Gon had just minutes before.

“Your manners haven’t improved in the slightest,” Dooku said in lieu of greeting, not looking away from the dark.

Qui-Gon suppressed a rather childish snort and walked towards his Master instead. For all that Dooku prided himself on his composure, he could act rather unbecoming at times, disregarding formalities when he was surrounded by people he trusted.

“Because I didn’t knock?” Qui-Gon remarked and stepped next to his Master.

Dooku still didn’t turn to look at him, ever focused on the sight in front of him. His Master never lost focus, never showed any weakness that wasn’t calculated down to the briefest of movements. It reminded Qui-Gon a lot of Obi-Wan, his own so very dear Padawan. For all that Obi-Wan and Dooku had never spent any time together while his Padawan was growing up, he had turned out remarkably similar to his grandmaster. Perhaps that was just the nature of their relationships. Both storms in their own right, Qui-Gon was a wildfire, ever-growing hungry and consuming. By necessity, whoever accompanied him had to be more of a hurricane, possess the eye of the storm where there was silence and brutal calculations.

It was probably for the best that Qui-Gon had never taught Anakin. They would have ended disastrously. They were too much alike, too headstrong.

And too willing to fight with their Masters right up until they wanted to do nothing more than sit at their side, telling them every whispered word of the Force.

The distance that had grown between the two of them after Qui-Gon’s Knighting had hurt him in a manner he still couldn’t entirely grasp, but he was sure that he should have thrown a larger fit over the way Dooku had abandoned him then. Perhaps it had been for his own sake, but it had hurt regardless.

“You are deep in thought, Padawan,” Dooku said. Only now did his eyes travel to Qui-Gon, studying him intensely.

“I was only reminiscing about the past,” Qui-Gon admitted. “The days when I was your Padawan.”

“You still are my Padawan, Qui-Gon,” Dooku was quick to insist.

The possessiveness attaching itself to the statement was almost too obvious for his Master. Anger must be boiling beneath his skin. Qui-Gon wondered what had started it, what had set him off.

“Of course, Master,” Qui-Gon replied good-naturedly. “I was just thinking of the times you taught me how to speak correctly.”

Qui-Gon remembered those days well, had spent hours agonizing about the way his Master used to put one hand to his throat and one on his lower back to guide him to the proper posture, the way he should conduct himself while he spoke. For all that Qui-Gon was known as a brilliant duelist, his true strength had always been with words, compelling arguments crafted in the face of adversary, the will of the Force pressed onto another’s mind.

Qui-Gon had never known whether Dooku had chosen him for his aptitude with manipulations of the mind, but he had certainly been proud of Qui-Gon’s skills. He had invested hours into showing Qui-Gon how to be even subtler, how to trace alongside shadows already present within a mind, how to hide his intention with sweet honey dropping like ambrosia from his lips. Qui-Gon had learned how to ensnare the world for his Master and now he was once more following his Master’s lead, and that with pleasure.

The message of the Force was easier to trace at his Master’s side.

“I enjoyed those lessons,” Dooku confessed. “You sing so sweetly.”

It had never been sweet enough to drag his Master into his bed, though. Qui-Gon had certainly tried to seduce his Master with poems as gentle as the rebirth of spring, the heat of a star, the strength of a blade. He hadn’t been foolish enough to attempt anything more than that, to press his will onto his Master.

It had taken time of course, but Qui-Gon had found his way into his Master’s heart, and his bed. The only thing that had held him back had been the old Jedi sentiment, chains that had to be broken.

They were past that now.

“Something is changing,” Dooku said. “I don’t know what. I believe it has something to do with the enemy delegation we’re supposed to be meeting. I’d like for you to join the talk instead of the fighting.”

Qui-Gon couldn’t sense anything, walking through muddy waters, but if Dooku was so sure, he inclined to believe him.

“And where will you be?” Qui-Gon asked.

“Elsewhere.”

It was a cruel way of implying that he was going to meet with Sidious. Qui-Gon didn’t need to tear through his Master’s shields and make himself at home in his mind to know his thoughts. The thought of the other Sith Master awakened Qui-Gon’s usual more subtle bloodlust. Sidious was a hindrance, a dangerous one at that.

“Why haven’t you killed him yet? We don’t need him anymore. We can take the Republic on our own.”

“Don’t be a fool, Qui-Gon. There is much about the dark side we can still learn from Sidious. He has not yet run out of his use.”

That was something Qui-Gon wasn’t convinced of. “I fear that we give him too much time to discover our plot.”

Sidious had certainly not been pleased about Qui-Gon taking his place as his Master’s right hand., though even the Force, light or dark, could tell that it was right. Qui-Gon frankly speaking didn’t see the point of keeping the other Sith Lord around.

“All will be well, Qui-Gon. You mustn’t worry.”

His Master’s eyes flickered golden, the arrogance of the tyrannical king shining through.

“You will forgive me, but I believe that is impossible. I trust the Force, and the Force is ringing with a warning.”

“Must I forgive you?”

Qui-Gon smiled and then reached for his Master’s neck, tilted his head towards him the same way Dooku used to when he guided him during their lessons. He lingered for just a moment, let himself enjoy the warmth beneath his palm.

“You must,” Qui-Gon announced and captured his Master’s lips in a kiss. There was no hurry to it, no possessiveness, just gentle reassurance almost too compassionate for the shadows they had become, burning embers drenched in the darkness.

Qui-Gon was not a young, fumbling Knight anymore, he was well aware that his Master cared for him and wouldn’t abandon him. When he moved to deepen the kiss, taking Dooku away from the stars and close to his heart, his Master didn’t object. If anything, he indulged Qui-Gon, let him pull at the collar of his robes to suck marks onto his skin while he tangled his hands in Qui-Gon’s hair.

“Then I believe I will,” Dooku replied and tugged at Qui-Gon’s hair to pull him away again so he could kiss him again.

#star wars #count dooku #qui gon jinn #ahsoka tano #dooqui #what's their ship name again?? #background #obikin #fanfic

[padawanlost]

does vader come back to kill watto? i hate entering discourse about it because i see people say “well he wasn’t that bad” or “he didn’t treat shmi and anakin that bad” and honestly? why are they making excuses for slavery?

Tbh, I doubt I’ll ever understand what drives someone to justify slavery. I really don’t get it. but, after realizing the only case of slavery no one tries to justify as a ‘necessary evil’ is Obi-wan’s, I have my theories.

Anyway, Anakin never returns for Watto in anger. Watto, to my great saddens, gets to live a long life. In fact, that piece of garbage manages to outlive both Shmi and Anakin.

"Anakin's mother?" Luke said. "Was her name Shmi?" Ody shook his head. "I can't recall. Like I said a lot of years have passed. But if you want to find out more, you should go to Watto's and " Ody clapped his hand against his forehead. "Sorry, I keep forgetting. It's not Watto's anymore. It's Wald's." "Wald's?" "Yeah, Watto retired. Now it's Wald's Parts. But that's why you should go there. Wald knew Anakin. Let me give you directions” [Ryder Windham. The Life of Luke Skywalker ]

I think people also minimizes the trauma of Anakin and Shmi’s enslavement because neither character thinks to much of it. They have become so used to mistreatment that Watto’s brand of cruelty feels like a respite. 

Leia sat slumped in the seat beside Han, faintly aware of her tender shoulder and feeling distinctly inadequate in the presence of her grandmother’s memory. Watto had been Shmi’s master—and her son’s—for years, and still she had somehow found it inside herself to forgive him. Leia had been Jabba’s slave for one night, and she had strangled him with the chain that bound her. Of course, there was a world of difference between Watto and Jabba. [Troy Denning. Tatooine Ghost]

Besides, what choice did they have in the matter? He raced because he was good at it, Watto knew he was good at it, and whatever Watto wanted of him he would do. That was the price you paid when you were a slave, and Anakin Skywalker had been a slave all his life. [Terry Brooks. The Phantom Menace]

To Leia, a princess of Alderaan, the thought of being a Hutt’s slave was unacceptable. To Anakin, who grew up as a Hutt’s slave, Watto felt like an improvement.  What Leia considered an unspeakable crime, Anakin considered mundane. I think people forget that. People forget the horror of it. So let’s remind them:

When Count Dooku flies at him, blade flashing, Watto’s fist cracks out from Anakin’s childhood to knock the Sith Lord tumbling back. [Matthew Stover. Revenge of the Sith]

Physical pain he could have handled even without his Jedi mental skills; he’d always been tough. At four years old he’d been able to take the worst beating Watto would deliver without so much as making a sound. [Matthew Stover. Revenge of the Sith]

Yeah, a four years old so used to being beaten he no longer cries is totally fine.

Both mother and son were grateful to Watto for keeping them together, and after sharing a dingy, fetid room with six other slaves at Gardulla’s estate, they were astonished to learn they would have an entire hovel to themselves at Slave Quarters Row, along the outskirts of Mos Espa. Watto believed they should feel grateful, and made it clear that if they didn’t do as he said, he’d fill the hovel to capacity with additional slaves. [Ryder Windham. Star Wars®: The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader]

Which single mom doesn’t want to live in precarious conditions. Again, totally normal.

Operating a Podracer required incredibly fast reflexes, the competition was fierce, and Anakin — as far as anyone knew — was the only human ever to fly one and live. Despite this accomplishment, Anakin knew he’d have to do better to please Watto. [Ryder Windham. The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader]

When he’d belonged body and soul first to venal, rapacious Gardulla the Hutt.… and after her Watto, who hadn’t been cruel, exactly, but was greedy and careless and willing to see him die racing a Pod. [Karen Miller. Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth]

Nothing wrong with forcing a kid to risk his life for profit, am I right?

“For a moment, I suspected you’d run away from Watto.” transmitter detonate?” “Pleasure?” Watto said, his trunklike nose turning slightly upward as if recoiling from Anakin’s words. “You think I like cleaning up exploded slaves? Bweh heh heh!” When he was done laughing, he gestured with a three-fingered hand to some more scrap-filled containers that had just been delivered, and said, “Now get back to work! I want this scrap sorted by noon!” [Ryder Windham. The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader]

Freedom and fun? Who needs it when you can be threatened with explosives and forced to work under TWO suns?

“Anakin, how are you feeling? Truthfully?” If he said hungry, Obi-Wan would throw something at him. But he was. He was ravenous. And he hated, hated, feeling hungry. The sensation too. It’s unfortunate but it can’t be helped. We’ll manage.” [Karen Miller. Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth]

Starvation. That’s healthy.

“Rassa dwee cuppa, peedunkel!” Watto screamed, starting in again on Anakin in a fresh burst of Huttese. The pudgy body lurched forward a few centimeters with each epithet, causing Anakin to step back in spite of his resolve. Watto’s bony arms and legs gestured with the movements of his head and body, giving him a comical appearance. He was angry, but Anakin had seen him angry before and knew what to expect. He did not cringe or bow his head in submission; he stood his ground and took his scolding unflinchingly. He was a slave and Watto was his master. Scoldings were part of life. [Terry Brooks. The Phantom Menace]

Verbal assault is always fun. 

Watto was immediately defensive. “He’s my boy, my property, and he’ll do what I want him to do!” [Terry Brooks. The Phantom Menace]

Oh, to be considered property. What a fun concept!

Not only Anakin and Shmi were slaves, without any rights or freedom, they were forced into hard work, starved, threatened, abused and humiliated. 

But, please, tell me again how not rescuing kids under the same or worse circumstances is the right call.

#ask #anon #gffa slavery #sw meta #anakin skywalker #shmi skywalker #watto #meta: anakin #meta: shmi #meta: watto #txt

[cureuba]

alisons bored making tuna at work s o

why we already had cleganebowl, or, sandor’s real fight is against the hound

the downside of not having any POV chapters for sandor is that we don’t really get to see what moments are truly poignant to him- he’s there throughout the events of the first and second books, he sees and witnesses just about everything going on, but we never get his mind. because of this, his fight with his brother only takes up about a page and a half.

the tourney of the hand, when sandor stops gregor from killing loras, that’s cleganebowl, folks. sandor stepping in to save a symbolic True Knight from his evil brother, in front of king and commons? a fight that he deliberately avoids any killing blows in, despite the fact that he has every right to kill gregor in this moment. he’s defending someone, he’s stopping a murder in cold blood. there is nothing keeping him from ending gregor here- he chooses not to.

and the fight lasts a decent while, ned describes it as feeling like an eternity- ned knows combat, hes familiar with it. a battle that lasts a long time to a seasoned soldier is a long ass time.

the show fails us a little more by not showing us the extent that is taken to halt the fight. robert lets it go on and when he does finally put a stop to it, 20 soldiers surround the brothers and keep their swords on gregor, including the kingsguard. the symbols of true knighthood back up sandor, they turn on gregor clegane.

robert lets him go and ned doesn’t seem to really think too much more on this- but ned doesn’t care about the clegane men’s family drama all too much. he’s an isolationist who didn’t want to be here, didn’t want a tourney, and is not having a good time. he’s not going to be caring too much about what just happened.

but the whole city just watched two infamous brothers duke it out, saw the kingsguard turn on the mountain, and in the end of it, regardless of anyone dying or not, sandor proved to everyone who means anything that he’s a better man than his brother. he wins love, gold, honor. but like the elder brother says, sandor doesn’t feel those things in return- this here is everything he’s ever wanted, and it does nothing for him.

‘I’m no ser.’

he’s cheered off and ned doesn’t so much as note a smile. why? why isn’t this the turning point for sandor?

cause gregor isn’t sandor’s worst enemy anymore. he’s an easy excuse. gregor isn’t the one scaring sansa, gregor isn’t the one killing mycah. sandor’s biggest problem these days isn’t his brother, it’s the persona he built as a defensive shell against a very cruel world, it’s the hound. he likes dogs, he became a dog, let his identity be defined by his masters- and his masters made him a brutal, efficient killer, who due to his abuse takes joy in other people’s pain.

so, sandor is forced to face himself. sansa inspires him, but arya and mycah force him to face the terrible things he’s done that have nothing to do with gregor. he’s not crying about gregor on his death bed, he’s crying about letting sansa down, about murdering a scared young boy. HIS sins. sandor’s on the quiet isle atoning, learning how to be his own man, getting sober, surrounded by brothers who actually want to see him be okay.

elder brother says the hound is dead, and he’s half right. the hound has been purged from sandor clegane, the stark sisters plunged those daggers in. but the hound persona has just moved on, to rorge, and now to lem lemoncloak. who, interestingly, is running around with another brotherhood of supposed knights in a similar colored cloak to clegane yellow like dollar store brand sandor clegane.

sandor’s going to make the final death blow against the hound, in taking out the man parading around as his former self. he’s going to go up against lem lemoncloak, an easy enough feat, but a necessary one. he can pick that helm up and destroy it for good, and the hound will well and truly be dead. maybe he’ll be the helping hand brienne needs in her current predicament- the point is hes doing what’s far more important than getting revenge: he’s getting better.

and sandor clegane will find his place.

#;;meta #long post #sandor clegane #SANDORS STORY IS ABOUT MAKING THE CHOICE TO GET BETTER DONT TALK TO MEEE

[smirkingsolo]

Orpheus: A Reylo Story (Prologue: World Between Worlds)

The World Between Worlds Reylo Fix it fic you’ve been craving since TROS ripped out your still beating heart and crushed it to death.

Canon-compliant, universe-plausible, multi-chapter

Summary: 

"Running after Rey with nothing but a blaster to face down the Emperor and his entire cult perhaps wasn’t the wisest, most well-thought out strategy. But he felt it had gone rather well all things considered. Certainly better than he was expecting.

“Ben, a good plan does not involve getting your life force drained from you.”"

After giving his life force to save Rey, Ben Solo awakens in the World Between Worlds. But is he destined to stay there or is there a future waiting for him back in the world of the living?

Find it over on AO3 (Rinnagirl) https://archiveofourown.org/works/21984730/chapters/52460923

A World Between Worlds (Prologue)

The air looked strange. That’s how he knew.

Well I suppose I’m dead, Ben Solo mused to himself. This is the afterlife? Somehow he never expected it would look like the Falcon of all things. Not his afterlife anyway, if such things were personalized. His father’s would, maybe even his mother’s, but not his. For him the Falcon was always about going. Going away, going to. It was too liminal to be a destination, not even the destination of his afterlife.

The air was blurry, an odd, impossible thing for air to be, he thought. Maybe it couldn’t, not in the real world anyway, but this wasn’t the real world. This was death. Every object around him was cast in a soft, smudgy fade, like one of his carefully drawn calligraphy pages when his hand dragged through it before it had time to dry. He’d hated that.

The pessimistic part of him felt there was some sort of deep, cruel irony in his afterlife taking on the look of even the smallest of his pet peeves. It would, wouldn’t it. My afterlife will punish me just as my real life did. He sighed a great, put upon sigh at his new misfortune.

“Still as overdramatic as ever, I see.”

He froze. He hadn’t heard her voice in years. Not in the flesh at least.

But there was no mistaking it, just as there was no mistaking his heap-of-junk surroundings for the Millennium Falcon, there was no mistaking the voice of Leia Organa Solo.

She looked younger, not much older than he was now, like she had in his earliest childhood memories. Her oval face, shaped just like his, was unlined. Her hair was without even the lightest trace of gray, twisted in her familiar twin side-buns. But her eyes pierced him, digging straight through to his heart with their dark brown daggers. The only unblurred thing in the room.

“Mother.”

“Ben.”

She was glowing, faintly though, not the full blueish light common to a Force ghost, but a pale white outline that bent and blurred with the hazy surroundings. Her eyes softened and he thought she might even smile...

Then she smacked him.

It was gentle, a light, exasperated smack on the back of the head like the ones she used to give his father whenever he said something particularly scoundrel-esque. The “ow” he emitted was more for her satisfaction than born of any actual pain, just like his father used to do. He knew she would appreciate the effort.

“You have so much of your father in you.”

“I don’t know what you’re referring—”

“Only a Solo would pull something so risky against such bad odds.”

He didn’t want to smile, but the tiniest eddy of pride swelled within him. She was right, as always. Running after Rey with nothing but a blaster to face down the Emperor and his entire cult perhaps wasn’t the wisest, most well-thought out strategy. But he felt it had gone rather well all things considered. Certainly better than he was expecting.

“Ben, a good plan does not involve getting your life force drained from you.”

Right again.

“I had to.”

He almost felt silly, like he was a teenager again trying to explain why he just had to borrow Uncle Luke’s X-Wing without permission for “learning purposes.” But his mother smiled and the sincerity in her voice was unmistakable.

“Yes, I know you did. She needed you.”

It was nice to be believed. Trusted by someone in his own family. It’d been so long since he had even heard his mother’s voice, let alone his mother’s voice telling him he did something right. He hadn’t expected to hear it like this ever again. Not after everything he had done.

But here she was. Wherever here was. He assumed they were both dead, but if they were and this was, indeed, the afterlife then where was his father, Luke, his grandfather? His one comfort in the face of death had been the thought of seeing them all again, that and knowing Rey would be okay. But it was only his mother here. Unless...what if he hadn’t made it to the afterlife, at least not to the one where “good people” like his family would go? But then why would his mother be here in the afterlife for shitty people? She was, after all, the best of them.

His mother read him instantly. She had always been able to.. When he was a child his emotions would play across his face like shadow puppets in front of a bonfire, open for all to see. But as he’d grown older, he’d learned how to hide some of them, but never from her.

She opened her mouth to answer his unspoken questions.

“The World Between Worlds. That’s where we are, I think.”

He studies his surroundings more closely. Being on the Falcon would make a bit more sense if that was the case. It wasn’t quite a destination itself, but it was the middle ground, the place between destinations. How poetic. How stupid.

“But...I thought you...I thought you were...” He trailed off, unwilling to say it aloud, hoping that would somehow keep it from being true, even now in these odd circumstances.

“Dead. Well, yes, I suppose I technically am.”

“Technically?”

“Ben, before I died I used the last of my energy to reach you, to strengthen your life force and give Rey enough time to heal you.”

He subconsciously touched the spot where Rey drove his own lightsaber though his torso. Rey had been horrified, he saw it in her eyes; he knew from the moment he encountered her in the throne room of the Death Star II that the darkness had possessed her. He had used only the necessary defensive moves, parrying her blows and waiting to wear her out, giving her time to come back to herself. To the Rey he knew. And she had. She’d felt it, as he had, when his mother had gone. The memory ached more than the wound had.

“Because I transferred what remained of my life force into you, my body didn’t fade until yours did. I believe my fate is tied to your choice, Ben. That is why I am here with you.”

“What choice, mother? I gave my life energy to Rey. I used all of it to bring her back. She was gone and I...I couldn’t just...I...” He choked down a sudden lump in his throat at the memory of Rey, eyes wide and sightless.

Leia smiled and he knew she understood.

“I know.”

“Then how am I here? If I became one with the Force, as you said, shouldn’t I be...not here?”

“I have a theory about that, Ben. I believe your life force lives in her now, like a vessel of sorts. I believe it is awaiting the return of her own energy to her body.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” he muttered flatly.

Leia laughed, a warm sound, like fresh brewed caf.

“The Force works in strange ways, you of all the clever, and studious Jedi pupils should know that, Ben.” She winked at him.

A feeling of contentment washed over him like a slide into a warm bath. It had been so long since his mother teased him. She used to do it whenever he was home visiting on breaks from training. Luke had told her how Ben always had his nose stuffed between the pages of some dusty Jedi text in his free time. It had delighted Leia to learn that her wild son could be interested in such a quiet, scholarly pursuit. Hearing the teasing lilt in her voice again made him feel like that same little boy home to visit his mother. He had missed her.

“Normally transferring your life force into another being would mean that theirs is completely gone, rejoined with the Force already. But it would seem that Rey’s may not have been completely gone. I think it is being held somewhere out there in the physical world still, waiting for her to reclaim it.”

Ben sucked in a few calming breaths, his heartbeat quickening.

“What would happen if she did reclaim her own energy? What would happen to mine that is living within her?”

“Well now, that’s the real question, isn’t it? I don’t know that this has happened before. But if I had to hazard a guess, I would say you could reclaim your own energy and pass back into the physical realm, as long as you were there when she reclaims hers.”

Ben’s choked on his third calming breath.

“Go back?“

“It may not be that simple. The Jedi have never been much for making things simple, as you well know. But this feels like something beyond the Jedi. This is the Force at work, that much I am sure of. But of course, Rey would need to be made aware of this; she needs to seek out where her energy is being held before anything can be done at all. And to do that she’d need a nudge of some kind. Some inkling that something like this could be possible. But I don’t even know if we could intera—”

Leia had shifted into planning-aloud mode, her awareness of Ben lessening as the wheels in her mind turned, and she began to mutter under her breath.

Ben was overwhelmed to say the least. The sheer existence of a World Between Worlds, his mother, his soul living inside someone else, his soul living inside Rey.

Rey.

All his life he had relied on hatred to fuel him, push him, drive him. But then she came along, a scavenger from a desert nowhere, a Palpatine of all things. She’d seen the good in him, believed in it and despite himself, he’d let her pure, guileless certainty touch him. She had reached right into the knot of his deepest conflicts and untangled him, unravelling the mask he’d created from the inside out. He didn’t know how or why, but she had. He’d felt lost, ignored, handed off, left behind all his life. But Rey...Rey stayed. Even as he fought her tooth and nail, pushing her to hate him, fear him like all the others who had claimed to care, she dug herself in and refused to let go. And he knew the moment he touched her hand through the bond that he would hold on just as tight.

She brought him back from the dark, and he’d brought her back from death. He remembered the overwhelming feeling of tragedy the moment he cradled her lifeless body in his arms. He knew when he pulled her to him that he’d give it all away, every drop of his life force. The soul in him would be hers too, just like his heart. He’d held her close and wondered for a moment what it would have been like if this weren’t the end. If they had just met in the middle somewhere.

No war. No Jedi. No Sith. No Light. No Dark. No Palpatine. No death. Just them.

He didn’t know if he could have ever had a life. A real one. Honestly, he’d never wanted one, not since he was old enough to think about such things. Marriages meant mutual destruction, distance, the rot of once vital love. Children were just little versions of yourself you could disappoint and destroy. Families were meant to crumble and decay. None of it worked so why bother chasing down something that was destined to break.

But then she’d kissed him.

The briefest moment, the first positive touch he’d had in years. He didn’t even know what her motivation was—was it relief, the overwhelming emotion of all they’d just been through, gratitude, victory?

Or was it more?

He’d realized in that split second as he held her close—her hand on his cheek, his in her hair, her lips still inches away, and the only real smile he’d smiled since childhood on is face—that there were two things he wanted more than he’d ever wanted anything.

He wanted her kiss to be more than relief, or gratitude, or any of those other things; he wanted her to mean it; he wanted it to be the start of something, and not their final farewell. Then he realized he wanted a future.

Ben Solo wanted a future.

One full of kisses, and real smiles, and maybe even marriage, maybe even children, maybe a little home of his own...of their own. Ben Solo wanted a future with Rey.

He knew his mother could feel it radiating off of him, that newfound resolve. A conviction rooted in a desire for life, for life with someone. He’d never valued his life when it was his own, but now, he’d given it to her and he couldn’t abandon her to live it alone. He wouldn’t.

He made his choice.

Ben Solo would get his future. Ben Solo would see Rey again.

Ben Solo would live.

Next Chapter

#reylo #reylo fanfic #reylo fic #reylo fix it #tros fix it #tros fanfiction #tros spoilers #star wars tros #ben solo #rey #kylo ren #rey x ben #fic request #reylo fic rec #reylo fic requests #my writing #orpheus: reylo #canon compliant #REBLOG TOO YOU COWARDS #world between worlds #wbw

[carewyncromwell]

[Carewyn wasn’t entirely sure why Rakepick had asked her to meet in Knockturn Alley -- it wasn’t exactly a place she wanted people seeing her visit, if she could help it. But with Rowan having been Imperiused, Carewyn had thought that Rakepick might’ve found a lead about who was responsible and that she wanted Carewyn to help her investigate. With this in mind, Carewyn decided to dress as “adult” as she possibly could -- since Rakepick would be there, Carewyn didn’t see any need to fully disguise herself like she had when she first went with Jae, but she didn’t want to appear too young or fragile if she needed to talk to any Dark wizards down there.

So, dressed in her “Rockstar” tuxedo jacket with the fur collar and matching brown slacks and boots, Carewyn met Rakepick in front of Borgin and Burkes. She was surprised, however, when Rakepick said that she wanted Carewyn there not because of a possible lead, but because she wanted to meet away from any prying eyes and ears.]

Rakepick: The next time we meet, we will have found the culprit, and we will need answers...by any means necessary.

[Carewyn was taken aback.]

“What? The Cruci -- but that’s the torture curse! It’s supposed to be Unforgivable!”

[Lane Cromwell had mentioned the three Unforgivable Curses when she’d taught her daughter about the Wizarding War. She’d said that the Death Eaters used the Cruciatus Curse to hurt people -- that the pain was so bad, it could make you go insane...]

Rakepick: “It is -- and it could save your life. And it can certainly help you extract information...”

[Rakepick glanced over her shoulder at a Dark wizard standing on a street corner, likely waiting for someone.]

Rakepick: “Since you already understand what this spell is capable of, I shall demonstrate.”

[Carewyn blanched, horrified.]

“No! I would never use that curse -- I don’t need -- !”

[But Rakepick, ignoring Carewyn’s dissent, turned to face the Dark wizard and pointed her wand at him.]

Rakepick: “Crucio!”

[The wizard crumpled up, crying out in pain.]

Dark Wizard: “AHHHHHHHH!”

[Rakepick’s eyes grew colder as she raised her wand. The man clutched at the air around his head helplessly, as if trying desperately to shield himself from the intense, stabbing pain wracking his entire body.]

Dark Wizard: “STOP! PLEASE!”

[Carewyn had been frozen in horror, unable to move, but the man’s pleading screams seemed to yank her back down to Earth. Even if the man was a Dark wizard -- even if he was involved in some shady stuff, he was a perfect stranger who had done nothing to them! And even if he had, no one deserved --

Despite the fear pulsing through her trembling shoulders, Carewyn barreled forward, seizing hold of Rakepick’s arm in both of hers.]

“Stop it! You’re torturing him! STOP IT!”

[Rakepick looked down at Carewyn, her eyes narrowing critically upon the girl’s face. She was strong enough that Carewyn couldn’t physically yank her arm down, but after a moment, Rakepick seemed to relent, slowly and purposefully lowering her wand arm. The Dark wizard stopped screaming -- he swayed slightly on the spot, before falling down onto his knees.

Carewyn immediately released Rakepick’s arm and rushed over to the stranger, whipping out her wand as she bent down beside him.]

“Are you all right?”

[The man whimpered in pain, clearly unable to respond. Carewyn looked him over for injuries, only to sadly realize that none of the spells she’d learned from Madame Pomfrey or Chiara would be able to help. The pain he felt didn’t come from anything broken or bleeding...but from deep inside where she couldn’t reach.]

Rakepick: “Keep in mind that the more you want to cause pain to your victim, the greater the effect.”

[Carewyn whirled around to look up at Rakepick, who was actually smirking.]

[The fear that had been pulsing through Carewyn’s blood started to heat up, boiling over into fury, as she shot to her feet.]

“You -- how dare you! You’re supposed to be our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and you do -- that!? You cruel -- spiteful -- “

[Carewyn was so angry that her words had started falling more clumsily and emotionally out of her mouth. Not liking how upset she sounded in her own ears, Carewyn struggled to contain her temper, exhaling slowly so she could speak in the colder, more articulate tone she usually used when she was angry.]

“...I have no desire to cause anyone pain -- nor will I need to, to find my brother. I don’t care how terrible the enemy in front of me is. I don’t care how right I am or how wrong they are. No one deserves that kind of pain.”

[Carewyn’s blue eyes flashed.]

“I will never use the Cruciatus Curse -- not on anyone.”

[Rakepick amazingly seemed unfazed by Carewyn’s insistence. Instead she merely looked down on her with an almost patient expression.]

Rakepick: “Never say never, Miss Cromwell.”

[Those murmured words, dusted with Rakepick’s usual cool condescension, was the straw that broke Carewyn’s back. The Slytherin strode right up to Rakepick, getting right up in her face.]

“Never.”

[She spat the word like venom in Rakepick’s face.]

“Never -- never -- never.”

[Her voice, however low and resentful, shook with unrestrained conviction and anguish. It made her suddenly sound much younger than she had previously, when she’d merely sounded angry. It was like the thought of causing anyone that kind of pain was physically hurting Carewyn. The clenched fist resting over her heart was shaking.]

I will not let you contradict me in this. When I say “never,” I mean it, you patronizing feck.

[The two stared each other down for a moment. Rakepick’s blue eyes narrowed upon her apprentice’s face, flushed with unrestrained emotion, before the professor finally broke eye contact and looked away.]

Rakepick: “...Head back to Hogwarts. When next we meet, we will expose one of the Wizarding World’s most despicable villains...”

(OOC: Yes, I know what happens with Rakepick in fifth and sixth year -- but no, I can and will not resist the urge to give Rakepick and Carewyn interactions that make you wonder if she actually cares about MC in her own demented, messed-up way. I mean, seriously, with how similar they are, both visually and personality-wise, I need conflict x 10 between these two. >:3)

#gameplay #hphm #hogwarts mystery #carewyn cromwell #jacob's sibling #patricia rakepick #roleplaying

[thdorkmagnet]

Light of the Sun and Stars Chapter 23: Big Brother Marco

Summary: His whole life Marco Diaz has been raised by monsters, living under the cruel rule of their leader, Toffee. But one day Marco escapes into Mewni where he meets a magical princess and Mewman like himself, who begins teaching him all about her world. Together they will learn about life, love, and the lights within each of them, as they change their world forever.

Chapter Synopsis: There are some visitors to the castle today and Star is excited to see her Aunt Lily and her two young nieces, Daisy and Violet. Marco especially finds some enjoyment spending time getting to know the two young Butterflies. But playtime gets a little bit out of hand.

A/N: For the record Daisy and Violet aren’t quite OCs they are actually based on this Disney XD bump made by Daron Nefcy herself. Their personalities and everything else about them was crafted by me. Lily however is my OC.

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Index

Disclaimer: Star vs and all its characters are owned by Daron Nefcy and Disney. All rights go to them.

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The next few days passed by quickly on Mewni as Star, Marco, and Jackie worked tirelessly to set up their peace commission, hoping and praying that it would be a success. The three debated and planned all they could for their new organization, creating a set of rules to be followed and what all their jobs would entail. Meanwhile, Moon spoke with the Magic High Commission and after a bit of convincing was able to talk them into agreeing to let Star follow through with her plan. As expected there was a condition, though one that no one could have predicted. They would allow Star to form her commission on the terms that one of their members join as well to make sure things “ran smoothly”. Which to Star meant that they would have one of their own spying on them and would report back in case they slipped up. This only added more pressure and worry onto Star, but she did her best to not let it get to her, reminding herself that all would work out so long as they stuck with her plan.

Besides, they still had a bit of a ways to go before everything was ready yet. They were still working on getting all the members together, Star quite adamant on neither Tom nor Pony Head being allowed to be representatives of their kingdoms. Jackie did her best to talk her into it, reminding her that they were the future rulers of their kingdom and she would have to face them eventually, to which Star merely sighed and said that she would think about it.

As for the other members, Star had already gotten into contact with them, and many seemed on board with joining, much to the three teens' delight and relief. And it was one of those future members that had Jackie, Star, and her mom standing outside the castle gates that bright afternoon as they waited for their inevitable arrival, though they had no idea when that would be. None of them said a word to one another, all lost in their own thoughts, as they just stood in silence, hoping that they would soon see a carriage approaching down the way.

Jak and Dex, as always, were guarding the gates and they seemed quite pleased that they were there to witness this crucial and important meeting, Star able to feel their inquisitive stares burning into her back. Star had officially announced her plans for the MMPC publicly just after she had been given the okay from the Magic High Commission and many seemed quite thrilled at the idea. It was a big change, but a good one, many already feeling much safer knowing that their future leader would be looking after them and actively working on protecting them.

As a result, Star's MMPC was a popular and trending subject on not just Mewni but also on Earth and several other neighboring dimensions as well. So the blond couldn't really blame the two guards for their curiosity, everyone seemed eager to learn more and the chance to gain any tidbit of knowledge on what her and her friends were up to would be a hard thing to pass up or ignore. And she had no doubt that Jak and Dex would be sharing whatever they saw to as many people as possible the second they could.

Finally, Jackie decided to interrupt the very, very important and incredibly boring task of watching the road ahead to ask, “Soo, any idea when they're gonna get here? It's already been over an hour and there's still no sign of them yet.”

“Well it is quite a long ways for them to travel, so we could be looking at several more hours before they arrive,” Moon replied, matter-of-factly.

Star and Jackie both released deep sighs at that, as they slouched slightly in boredom. “Why didn't they just use dimensional scissors then,” Star muttered under her breath, though her mother was able to hear every word but chose not to say anything.

After that, Star and Jackie chose to sit on the ground and rest as they continued the excruciatingly long wait, despite it not looking the least bit regal or commanding. But they had some time to kill before their guests arrived, might as well be comfortable while they waited. Moon, surprisingly didn't reprimand her daughter like Star expected her to, though she did remain standing herself, keeping a tall, dignified stance as the minutes dragged by.

Star knew her mother had to be uncomfortable (who wouldn't be having to stand straight and poised at all times) and so asked very lightly, “Mom, you maybe want to sit and rest a bit before they get here? You said yourself that it could be a while.”

Moon did really want to, but part of being a queen was looking the part at all times. Her daughter was just too young to get that yet. She opened her mouth to decline but was interrupted by one of the guards who, overhearing the conversation, were eager to please their ruler.

“Would you like a chair to sit in while you wait, Your Highness,” Jak quickly blurted out, his obvious need for attention shining in his eyes as he addressed his queen. “I would be happy to go fetch you one-”

“No, thank you,” Moon politely declined, smiling to the guard. “That's quite all right, umm...”

“Jak,” Star whispered up to her mom, seeing her freeze up.

“Yes, Jak, thank you, Star,” Moon quickly said, shooting her daughter a grateful look. “But that won't be necessary.”

“Well if there is anything we can do to make you more comfortable, just let us know, Queen Moon,” Dex now pitched in.

“I will, thank you,” Moon said, before looking to her daughter for help again. Star rolled her eyes, unable to believe that her mom had no clue what any of the guards names were, or most of the staff for that matter. She knew that her mom had been gone a while but, sheesh, seriously, how hard was it to remember a couple of names?

“Dex,” Star said and Moon quickly nodded, before repeating, “Dex. I quite appreciate the concern.”

“Of course, Your Majesty,” Dex said, neither looking even slightly bothered by their queen not knowing their names, as they bowed low to the ground.

“It's too bad Marco isn't here,” Star said suddenly. She froze up as she realized she had just voiced that thought out loud, out of completely nowhere. She blushed as four pairs of quizzical eyes landed on her and she quickly added, “Because, he'd somehow find a way to make all this entertaining.”

Star tried to ignore the knowing look from her mom as she towered over her or the short exchange between Jak and Dex behind her, who were undoubtedly cooing over the young couple, as she just focused on stopping anymore blood from rushing to her cheeks.

Thankfully, Jackie (her saving grace) merely nodded her head in agreement. “Yeah, it does seem to be a gift of his,” Jackie said, knowing exactly what Star was talking about. The two friends both found themselves missing the boy quite a bit right then and knew that he was probably pretty disappointed himself that he couldn't be there for this.

He had wanted to be but Higgs, her patience now stretched to its breaking point, had insisted that he stop putting off his self defense classes any longer and absolutely refused to take no for an answer. She had dragged the boy away, ignoring his protests, reminding him that if he didn't do this that she would go back to guarding him 24/7. This had instantly shut him up, though Star had shouted out to him in reassurance, “Don't worry about it, we'll make sure your there for the next one.”

Now it seemed like Marco had dodged a bullet, just sitting here, waiting for what felt like forever, watching the road so long your eyes started to go blurry, all in the hopes of spotting a...

Star felt her heart skip a beat, nearly rubbing her eyes to check and make sure she was seeing things right. Because, finally, there at the end of the road, a purple carriage was exiting out of town and heading their way. The blond royal jumped to her feet, shouting out, “They're here!”

Jackie jumped up as well, as the three women all looked at the welcoming sight with wide and warm smiles, all of them now standing as straight and tall as possible, hoping to make a good first impression with their guests.

...

The fancy carriage slowly made its way through the busy streets of town, accompanied by the sound of clopping hooves from the invisible goats that dragged it behind them. Civilians and passerby's all eyed the expensive looking vehicle with great interest. While inside the carriage, two of its residents looked out the windows at the Mewmans with equal amounts of intrigue as those outside. Two little girls, both at the age of eight, stood up in their seats, drawing back the curtains to gaze in wonder at the strange sights of their new destination.

“Are we here yet, did we make it? Is this where Butterfly Castle is?” one of them asked, practically bouncing in her seat, an excited and enthusiastic energy surrounding her. She had long peach colored hair, that hung down to her waist, with a small yellow flower poised delicately in it. She had tanned skin and bright blue eyes that shined with all the innocence in the world. She wore a modestly short, sleeveless purple dress, with small diamonds lining the bottom, peach colored legging that matched her hair and light blue socks with dark blue shoes. She had rosy cheeks that helped to accent her flower cheek marks which were peach colored just like her hair. She smiled brightly at the other occupants of the carriage, revealing the missing tooth she had.

“I wonder if we're gonna see any Monsters while we're here,” the other girl in the seat across from her said, looking equally excited at the idea, before she pressed her face against the window, trying to pick out any of the weird looking creatures from the crowd. This girl had short dark blue hair, combed back into a spiky style. She also had blue eyes, one of the only features she shared with her twin, though unlike her sister she wore red eyeshadow over it. She had black and white stripped t-shirt with a dark purple ruffled skirt. She also had on red stripped leggings and green boots with a small spike sticking up out of the top of it. Her cheek marks were small creepy-looking eyes, reminiscent to that of a monster, that glowed dark, nearly sinister purple. They each had a single blue bat wing attached to them.

“Or maybe we'll get to see a real unicorn!” the first added in an excited shout. She then squealed as she realized that they were in fact in the right place. “Wait, look I can see see it, Violet! There's Butterfly Castle!”  She pressed her finger against the glass, pointing out the large structure to her twin.

Violet, as she was apparently called, followed the pointing finger, before openly scowling at the sight. “This place looks weird,” she remarked, as she eyed the castle wearily, her nose crinkling in dissatisfaction. “It's too bright and colorful. Why would anyone want to stay in a place like this?”

“Well I think it looks amazing!” the other girl shouted, her eyes shimmering in wonder. She turned to the third resident of the royal carriage, asking, “Are we really going to be staying here, mommy?”

Their mother closed the book she had been reading to pass the time, saying to the two with a bright smile, “Yes, we are. I'm going to be helping your cousin Star set up her peace commission.” Their mother had short peach-colored hair, that hung down to just below her ears, as well as blue eyes like her daughters. She had a single strand of hair that framed her face, braided with flowers of every color and variety. Her skin was pale, much like Violet's but her cheeks glowed rosy like her other daughters. She wore a long, light green dress, full of frills and layers, showing off her regalia and high position to any who looked her way, which was also accented with designs of flowers along the hem lines. She had on dark green boots with yellow legging. Her cheek marks were glowing lily flowers, which reflected either yellow or pink depending on the light that struck them.

“Yay, this is going to be so exciting, I can't wait!” the peach haired girl shouted.

“Yeah, of course you would think that, Daisy,” Violet scoffed, rolling her eyes.

“Hey, whats that supposed to mean?” Daisy asked defensively, putting her hands on her hips as she scowled at her twin, still standing up in her seat.

“Just that you're always into all that dumb frilly, girly junk,” Violet replied.

“Hey it's not dumb!” Daisy whined.

“Yes it is!”

“No it's not!”

“Yes it is!”

“No it's not!”

“Girls please,” their mother interrupted, sighing in exasperation.  “No fighting.” She had been listening to the two of them arguing off and on the entire carriage ride there and her patience was growing thin. She was beginning to wish she had just used dimensional scissors to travel like she had been advised rather than trying to take her two daughters on an exciting adventure through Mewni as a means for some mother-daughters bonding time.

The girls did grow quiet after that, the only sound now heard in the carriage being the gentle clopping of the invisible goat's hooves as they pulled the carriage along. Daisy and Violet took their seats once more, going back to just curiously staring out the window, taking in the sights around them with silent awe. Their mother sighed gratefully and leaned her head back against her seat, enjoying the moment of silence, knowing it couldn't last long.

The buildings began to lessen more and more as they drew nearer to Butterfly Castle until the carriage pulled onto the paved path that lead right to the palace. And just a few moments later, the carriage came to a stop at the gates, the giant goats finally able to rest after the tiring journey. The large, colorful structure towered overhead, looking as majestic and magical as possible. Daisy was in awe at the sight, openly gawking and muttering “wows” under her breath, while Violet was doing her best to keep the frown on her face, not wanting to show her twin that she was just as captivated by the sight as she was.

The two were so in awe of the castle that neither of them noticed the group standing in front of the gates patiently or the two guards who were practically racing each other to be the first to open the door to the carriage. Jak got there first, opening the door wide and startling the two young girls inside, who jumped at the sudden movement. The guard smiled in at the three occupants, his eyes freezing on the oldest one there as he said in the most respectful tone he could, “Lady Lily it is a pleasure to meet you-”

Jak was practically shoved out of the way, as Dex said to the girl's mother, “Lady Lily Butterfly please allow me to personally offer my assistance to you.” He held out his hand to her, which she accepted, using his hand for balance as he helped her to climb down and out of the carriage.

“Thank you, sir knight,” Lily said to Dex with a bright grin, her cheeks marks glowing pink, causing her cheeks to do the same until practically all of her face was lit up by the warm glow of her own marks. The guard felt his knees go weak a little. After all, the woman in front of him was quite beautiful.

“U-Uh, well I'm not a knight, ma'am, just a common g-guard,” Dex gulped out, feeling quite flustered in the presence of such stunning loveliness.

“Well thank you regardless,” Lily said flirtingly, before giving the guard a kiss on the cheek, the man nearly passing out from the sudden action as he stumbled back and into the arms of his fellow guard, who looked quite unhappy at being left out.

“Well she certainly hasn't changed a bit,” Moon commented, soundly clearly annoyed, as her, Star and Jackie watched their guest ten seconds since arriving kiss a random man on the cheek.

Lily spotted the three just then and waved to them, a bright, cheerful smile on her face. “Come along, girls,” Lily yelled back to her daughters as she started toward the castle, ignoring the blushing, unconscious man she left in her wake. Daisy and Violet quickly jumped out of the carriage as well, moving around Dex and following after their mother, Daisy skipping with every other step.

“Moon, it's been too long!” Lily greeted, once she was close enough to the three. Daisy and Violet, however, instantly bypassed their mother and Moon, as they immediately ran to Star, shouting, “Star!” They quickly began bouncing and circling their cousin, talking a mile a minute, both nearly shouting so they could be heard over each other, but ultimately making it impossible to understand a word they were saying, but Star just smiled and laughed at the two.

“Yes, hello Lily, I trust your journey was pleasant,” Moon said in an almost emotionless tone.

Lily scoffed at that, before saying in near annoyance, “Now is that anyway to greet your cousin whom you haven't seen for so long.” She shook her head, tutting chidingly. “Same old Moon, I was hoping after marrying that Johanssan barbarian of yours, you would at least learn how to relax a little and not be so stiff like the rest of the family.”

Moon frowned at that, saying in a clearly irritated tone, “So good to have you here as always.”

Lily laughed, as she surprised her dear cousin with a hug. “Oh Moon, I'm just teasing. I just wish you wouldn't be so formal around me, we are family after all.”

Moon's body remained tense for a few seconds before she allowed herself to relax, patting her cousin's back as she returned the hug. “Yes well, you can't really blame me, considering you are here for diplomatic reasons.”

“Speaking of which,” Lily said, as she pulled out of the hug, turning to Jackie and Star who were still being bombarded by excited shouts from her daughters. “There's my favorite neice!” she cried, a bright smile lighting up her face.

“Aunt Lily!” Star squealed in delight, before rushing over and embracing her favorite aunt in a bone-crushing hug.

“Oof!” Lily gasped out in surprise not expecting the startling hug, nearly stumbling over the blond girl's almost tackle. But she quickly began laughing as she returned the embrace, commenting playfully, “My Star, look at how much you've grown! The last time I saw you you were just a tiny little thing and now look at you. You're practically an adult.”

Star giggled at that, though her cheeks did turn the slightest shade of pink, causing her hearts to glow more than usual. “It's so good to see you again, Aunt Lily! We have so much catching up to do!”

“Yes, we do, I've heard you've been quite the busy bee lately. Even getting yourself a cute, little boyfriend.” Star's blush worsened at that, her cheeks turning beet red and her hearts cheek marks thumping against her will at the mere mention of Marco, but Lily pretended not to notice. “You'll have to be sure and tell me everything later!”

“Absolutely, I will!” Star exclaimed, giving her another short hug. “I'm just so glad you came, Aunt Lily!”

“Well of course I came,” Lily said sweetly. “The minute I heard my favorite niece was in need of my help, I dropped everything and left the moment I could.”

Moon held back a scoff at that, considering how long they had had to wait for her to arrive. But none of them of course commented on this, Jackie instead choosing to speak up and address their royal guest for the first time, “Well we're really glad you did.”

Lily looked over to the young skater now, saying politely, “Ah Jackie good to see you are here as well. How is your skateboarding going? Have you learned any new tricks since the last time I saw you?”

Jackie shrugged, saying modestly, “A few.”

“Great! You'll have to show me them later,” Lily said with a warm smile, which caused Jackie to grin ear to ear and reply, “Sure thing.” She adored Star's favorite aunt almost as much as Star did, she was just so cool and always seemed to know just what to say.

“Well, let's get inside, no sense in standing out here all day, not when there is work to be done!” Lily cried, taking the initiative and already strolling toward the castle.

“Yay!” Daisy cheered, grabbing her sister's arm and dragging her behind her as she raced after their mother, excited to explore the inside of the fancy palace. Moon frowned, not enjoying her cousin's often bossy nature, but followed after, taking a deep breath as she tried to remind herself not to lose her calm, with Jackie following right after her.

Star turned back to the carraige her aunt and nieces had arrived on, calling out to the two guards polietly, “Jak, Dex, would you please make sure the carriage is put away and bring in Lady Lily's things for us?”

“Of course, Your Majesty, it would be our honor!” Jak happily complied, saluting the princess. Dex, on the other hand was still too disoriented, smiling goofily and looking completely smitten with the visiting royal as he rubbed absentmindedly at the cheek she had kissed, unaware of the world turning.

“Thank you,” Star said gratefully, before turning away from the two, trusting them to take care of it, while also trying to hide her smile over how ridiculous the guard currently looked.

…

“Woooowwww!” Daisy and Violet gasped out in awe the moment they entered the beautiful castle, even the latter unable to hide her wonderment over the palace that held the most powerful monarchs in the land. It certainty lived up to their fantasies, the interior exquisite and massive, signs of wealth, power, and bright beauty everywhere you looked. Star and Jackie smiled at the two's amazement.

“So welcome to Butterfly Castle,” Star said, wanting to stay at least semi-formal since they were visiting royalty. “Umm, so I'm sure you must be tired and hungry after the long trip so we'd be happy to show you all to your rooms and then we can-”

“Oh no that's quite all right,” Lily interrupted. “I'm more than ready to begin work on your peace commission if that's alright with you?”

Star looked slightly shocked at the statement, but quickly recovered saying, “O-Of course. That would be great! We still have a lot to get going before its ready and we would love some help on it!”

“Hey, what about us?” Violet whined, crossing her arms and frowning angrily.

“Yeah, we wanted to spend time with Star,” Daisy added, looking equally annoyed as she stamped her foot cutely on the ground.

“Not now, girls,” their mother said simply.

“That's not fair, why do you get to spend time with Star and not us?!” Violet argued, pouting.

Jackie quickly took charge of the situation, bending down so she was level with the two and putting a hand on their shoulders. She looked between the two, saying reasonably, “Star has work to do right now, but she will spend time with you later, okay?”

The two shared a quick look, before frowning stubbornly, still not giving in just yet. But Jackie didn't let this effect her, maintaining her cool radiance as she added, “And if you two mind your mom, I might even show you a few tricks on my skateboard.”

The twins instantly perked up at that, their eyes twinkling excitedly as they gasped, “Really?!”

“Yep,” Jackie nodded.

“Okay then!” Voilet cheered, all anger forgotten.

“Yeah, we'll behave!” Daisy added, equally cheerily.

“It's a deal then,” Jackie said, rising back up to her feet and smiling down at the two. “Now you two go and play in your room, okay?”

The two nodded vigorously before taking off down the hallway, already pretending to be on skateboards as they zipped down the brightly lit corridors.

“Have fun, girls!” their mother yelled after them, before turning to Jackie with a grateful smile. “Thank you for that, Jackie. I owe you one.”

“Not a problem,” Jackie replied.

Lily nodded, before clapping her hands together, saying enthusiastically, “Now then, since that's all settled, let's get started shall we? After all, the sooner we get your commission up and going the better.”

Star nodded, saying, “Right.”

“Well then I will leave you all to it,” Moon said, politely excusing herself. “I have work of my own to do.”

“Uh huh, I know how that goes,” Lily said in agreement. Moon started down the hallway but, Lily quickly called out to her teasingly, “Be sure to say hello to that husband of your, Moony.”

Moon whipped back around to glare at her and Lily put on an innocent smile. She knew how much her cousin despised the nickname. Moon looked like she was on the verge of saying something, but she seemed to get control of herself once more, continuing on down the hall without a word, but still looking quite agitated. Lily just laughed, saying proudly to herself, “Still too easy.”

“Soooo, um,” Star said, wanting to get the conversation away from messing with her mom and back on the important stuff.

“Oh right, of course,” Lily said, quickly remembering why she was there. “Lead the way.”

Star obeyed, guiding her aunt and friend to her room, which was their makeshift headquarters for now until they could get a proper room dedicated to it. Her mother's situation room was quite often in use right now, what with Rasticore still on the loose and the Butterfly's still desperately trying to plan a way to catch him and the only other room for the job was the tiny meeting room that Star shuddered at the mere thought of being trapped in again. So for now, her room would just have to do.

She turned over her shoulder slightly, telling her aunt, “Just warning you, we still have a lot of paperwork to sign before the MHC will let us become official.”

Lily scoffed, waving a hand at that, not looking the slightest bit concerned. “Oh trust me, I've had my fair share of paperwork in the past,” she said calmly. The three reached the room just then, Star opening the door to let Jackie and her aunt inside. “Besides, how bad can it be?” she stated, as she stepped inside.

Her smile instantly vanished, as she stared wide-eyed and mouth agape of the piles and piles of paperwork that now crowded the large room, every inch seemingly filled with the unfinished documents. Star just looked at her sheepishly, waiting for her to respond, feeling bad for getting her into this mess and knowing she had to be regretting her involvement as well. The Magic High Commission had just decided to drop all of this off on her the day before, without any warning or heads up whatsoever. No, they just spring all this extra work on her last minute, while also requiring she have one of their own members join her group as their own personal spy. Part of her wondered if they had done this to her on purpose, in hopes of discouraging her or making her quit... or at the very least slow her down as much as possible. Nope, scratch that, she knew they were doing this on purpose. After all one more Monster attack and they were all in control of Mewni.

Her Aunt Lily, though, to her credit didn't run away like she expected her to. Instead after several awkward seconds, she just said in a shocked, uneven tone, “Well this may take us a bit longer than expected.”

Understatement of the year.

…

Marco groaned in pain as he sluggishly trudged through the castle on his way to his room, after a long and bruising self-defense lesson with Higgs. He was feeling quite sore, possibly worse than the last time he had gone head to head with the redheaded knight, his body not used to that level of physical exercise, yet. That and the young knight seemed incapable of holding back that much, despite her promise to do so. How the heck was Marco supposed to learn self-defense if she just kept knocking him down over and over again? All she was going to end up doing was giving him brain damage. Maybe he should just wear a helmet next time?

Marco sighed, holding onto his aching right arm, the part of him that probably hurt the worst right now, having taken the brunt of most of the hits. As his dominant hand it was the one that had to do most of the punching and guarding during the session, which meant that it was the most overworked part of him right now.

And the worst part of it was, because of Higgs's lesson (which he was still glad to be getting, even if it was exhausting) that meant he had missed greeting the newest member of Star's commission, who was apparently Star's aunt or something. So not only had he missed a chance to finally begin acting as a member of the peace commission but he had missed an opportunity to meet another member of his girlfriend's family. And from the way Star had talked about her, she was quite fond of her too.

Maybe he could try and make a good first impression later, whenever that would be. He would have to be sure to have some sort of speech prepared or something, he didn't want to dare risk upsetting her as literally everything depended on their first meeting going well. Both because of his important duties as a representative for the Monsters and his future relationship with his amazing girlfriend.

“Hope everything went okay,” he mumbled worriedly to himself. But there was nothing really he could do about it right now. For now, all he wanted to do was get to his room and take a long nap, hoping he would feel better once he did. Maybe then he could go and help the others out, as well as meet their newest member. He just hoped they were doing well without him.

“Hey stop it, Daisy, that's mine!”

“No, it's not, it's mine! Mom gave it to me for my birthday!”

“Uhh, we both have the same birthday, dummy! And she gave it to me!”

“You're lying!”

“No you are!”

“Are not!

“Are too!”

Marco froze on the spot as he heard the loud argument of what sounded like a couple of kids coming from the guest bedroom. Young girls it sounded like. He didn't recognize their voices at all, which was quite strange. Sure he didn't know everyone in the castle but he was pretty sure if there were any children there, he would have noticed by now. He looked over at the door to the guest room and sure enough could see light clearly peeking out through the cracks. Huh, so there was someone staying in there, a couple of young and very noisy girls.

Marco crept slowly over, making sure not to make a sound, not that it was necessary considering the loud racket the two were still making within as they continued to fight over what seemed to be a pretty precious toy or something.

The hooded teen cracked open the door, so he could see inside, surveying the room closely. The once-empty room was now filled with toys and children's decorations everywhere, most of which were sprawled all over the floor. There was a bunk bed in the room, that Marco was sure hadn't been there before, the top with a cream-colored bedspread and pillow covered in flower print and the bottom a very, dark purple with creepy-looking eyeballs coating it, a small hand-made monster plush laying on it Marco noticed. He smiled, allowing his eyes to continue to roam, spotting a small table and chairs with a tea set lovingly and carefully set up on it before being pushed into the corner, while the other had jars full of some kind of dark blue goop inside (which Marco didn't even dare think of what the contents could be) in the other corner. The closest was opened and he could see two sets of clothing hung inside, one side full of bright, cheerful colored dresses, while the other end had the opposite: dark, dreary t-shirts and skirts. It seemed whoever was going to be staying in this room were about as opposite as night and day.

And once he saw the two girls, this confirmed this completely in his mind. They were standing in the middle of the room, large piles of toys stacked behind them, which Marco assumed was them trying to divide their things in half across the room. They were currently fighting over a fake wand, the hilt painted a dark green, but covered in bedazzled crystals, the top a rainbow with fake spiderwebs meticulously painted on it. The center was another of the creepy looking eyeballs which Marco noticed matched the dark haired girl's cheek marks. The tippy top of the wand had what looked like a unicorn horn poking out.

Just by looking at it Marco couldn't tell who the toy belonged to. By the looks of it, it seemed like the wand belonged to both of them. That thought brought Marco back to the question at hand, who were these two? He definitely hadn't seen them before, but it looked like they were moving in. Could they be fellow members Star hadn't told him about? Though the hooded boy would think they were too young for such an important and mature position and he didn't know if there was any sort of age rule against it or not.

But whoever they were, he felt like he should at least try and do something, unable to leave them arguing and fighting with each other like that. Marco opened the door wider and this instantly drew the attention of the two girls, who stopped their tug-of-war to stare shell-shocked at the stranger in their doorway. Marco could see their suspicious and apprehension toward him, as the peach haired girl even backed away a step, while the other glared at him wearily. “Um, hi there,” Marco said, trying to sound as non-threatening as possible, waving a hand slowly in the air and giving them a small smile, which he hoped came across as friendly and harmless and not at all creepy.

And though it didn't seem to thankfully frighten them anymore, they still never lost their looks of skepticism. “Who are you?” the dark-haired girl asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

“I'm Marco,” the hooded boy cheerfully introduced himself, momentarily forgetting their fear as he shot his hand toward them to shake, causing them both to jump and take another cautious step back, the light haired girl moving behind her sister for protection.

“Are you... one of the servants?” the cutesy twin tried, keeping a close eye on the red hooded boy's hand as if it might suddenly attack her.

“No, I'm Princess Star's boyfriend,” Marco said, his heart skipping beat as it always did whenever he mentioned this to anyone. It was still almost too good to be true.

The two girls shared a look with one another at that, before the dark one asked slowly, “Your our cousin's boyfriend?”

“Ohh,” Marco said smacking his head, ignoring the pain that resulted from it, too deep in his own realization to actually answer the girl, all the pieces finally sliding into place in his mind. So that was it. “Your Star's cousins.” Marco thought for a moment, before adding, “So then your mom must be our new member of the peace commission.”

The two girls nodded, muttering, “Mmm-hmm.” They now looked a lot more relaxed around the boy then before, the peach haired girl stepping out from behind her twin.

“Wow, so sorry, for just walking in on you like that,”  Marco said, rubbing the back of his neck, sheepishly. “I just wasn't expecting anyone to be in here. Star didn't say anything about you two staying with us. So when I heard voices I decided to investigate.”

“That's okay!” the cutesy one said.

“So what are your names?” Marco asked.

“I'm Daisy!” the peach haired one announced loudly, pointing at herself and then at her sister. “And this is my little sister Violet.”

Violet glared at her sister for that, shouting angrily, “Only by three minutes!”

“Well it still counts,” Daisy said with a shrug.

“No it doesn't!”

“Yes it does!”

Marco looked uncomfortable as another fight began to break out, quickly saying, “Uh hey, do you two want to play a game?”

The two instantly ceased their bickering, whipping their heads around to the hooded boy, expectantly. “Like what?” Daisy asked curiously.

“Oh like, um...” Marco's eyes darted around the messy room, desperately searching for an idea to appease the girls. They stopped on the tea set and the boy blurted out, “A tea party!”

Daisy squealed and 'yay-ed' in joy, while Violet gagged at the suggestion, the mixed reaction troubling to Marco. “Lame!” Violet scoffed out. “And here I thought you might actually have something fun in mind.” Daisy turned to her sister with a look of anger and Marco knew he had to do something before another fight broke out.

“Well t-that's because I didn't tell you the catch,” he stuttered out quickly.

“Yeah and what's that?” Violet asked, raising a critical eyebrow at the boy, clearly calling his bluff.

Marco froze, sweat running down his face, as he tried to think of something that would please the gothic girl in front of him. Come on Marco, think, he urged himself. Okay, she's into all that weird, creepy stuff like Janna, so what would Janna do to make her happy?

“Weeee... were all just cursed by an evil witch!” Marco screamed out in fake panic. Violet and Daisy gave him confused looks and for a second Marco feared they wouldn't play along and just go back to fighting.

That was until Daisy gasped, looking horrified. “Oh no, really?”

“What do we do?” Violet asked, also looking aghast.

“The only way to undo it is with the cure that I have hidden inside this tea,” Marco said, dramatically pointing at the teapot.

“Then we better drink it quickly before the poison spreads to our nervous system and we become paralyzed,” the dark-haired girl said, joyfully. She really seemed like she was enjoying herself now and Marco smiled despite how strange it was that a young girl would be nonchalantly discussing the effectiveness of poisons. He was friends with Janna after all, this seemed almost normal in comparison to her.

“Oh no, I think it's already spreading to me!” Marco screamed, before falling over onto one of their beds, making fake dying sounds as he flailed around on the bed, causing both girls to laugh hysterically.

“Marco, you can't be moving if your paralyzed!” Daisy said, in between giggles.

“Oh right,” Marco said, before going still and stiff on the bed.

“Oh no he's dying!” Violet screamed. “Quickly Daisy, we need to give him the antidote!”

“I'm on it!” Daisy said, doing a salute as she raced over to the table, picking up her tea pot and a saucer and cup, before racing back over to where Violet, who was inspecting the immobile body of the hooded teen. “He only has seconds, hurry and give it to me!” Violet said, holding out her hand.

“No let me give it to him, I have more experience with tea,” Daisy argued, moving the teacup out of reach from her twin.

Violet huffed in frustration, but snapped out, “Fine, but do it fast!”

Daisy then preceded to pour an invisible cup of tea into the cup, before handing the empty pot to her sister, carefully crawling onto her bed, trying her very best not to spill, as if in fear of burning the boy with the hot, non-existent liquid. Once she was next to the boy, she held the cup out, saying, “Here you go.”

Marco sat up, taking the cup from her as he went to sip on it, but Daisy quickly stopped him. “Wait, you're doing it wrong.”

The hooded boy cocked his head to the side, as he asked the young girl, “Really how?

“Your supposed to hold your pinky out,” Daisy explained, holding out her pinky to demonstrate to Marco the correct way.

“Oh,” he said nodding, before obeying the girl, holding out his pinky before pretending to sip the 'antidote/tea'. He licked his lips and rubbed his tummy as he said satisfyingly, “Mmm, delicious.”

“Not really,” Violet spoke up, climbing up onto the bed, now sitting at Marco's other side. “Paralysis poison antidote is made out of the slime of the bitterbite frogs, which is one of the most disgusting creatures in the universe.” She paused for a second as the two just stared at her awkwardly. “Plus, tea is pretty gross anyways.”

“Well I like it,” Daisy huffed, her hands now on her hips. “Do you like tea, Marco?” she asked, the peach-haired girl looking up at him with cute, pleading eyes.

“Um, yeah I do,” Marco said. “Well I mean, I think I would, if I ever actually had any.”

Daisy gasped loudly. “You've never had tea before?” she exclaimed, looking like this was the most tragic, horrifying thing she'd ever heard.

Marco shook his head. “No, not that I can think of,” he said nonchalantly.

“Huh?” Violet commented, before quickly changing the subject to something else, “So now what are we gonna play?”

“How about dragon attack?” Daisy suggested, hopping up on her bed.

“Dragon attack?” Marco repeated in confusion. He'd never heard of the game before.

“Oh yeah, I love that game!” Violet agreed (for once), delightedly. “But I get to have the wand.”

“But you had the wand last time!” Daisy whined.

“Yeah, but I'm better at casting spells than you are. All your spells are just silly flowers and junk.”

“Marco who do you think should have the wand?” Daisy asked, looking up at the boy with pleading eyes and the boy froze, suddenly unsure of what to do.

“Umm, well to be honest I don't even know what dragon attack is,” Marco said, dodging the question for now.

The two looked at him in confusion. “How?” Daisy asked, looking dumbfounded that Marco didn't know what the very common game was.

Marco shook his head. “I just haven't,” he replied.

“But every kid I know has played that game!” Violet shouted in shock.

A sad look crossed Marco's face, as he softly replied, “Well, there were a lot of things I couldn't really do growing up. And I didn't really have other kids to play with to show me how to play these kinds of things.” And it was true, only Buff Frog or maybe one of the other Monsters would play with him. And even then it was pretty rare, most of the time Toffee wouldn't let them, having Marco had to stay in his room, alone, and not disturb the others.

The two girls shared a look across from each other, Daisy muttering sorrowfully, “That's so sad.” Marco noticed that the twins were on the verge of tears and quickly put a smile back on his face, saying in the most cheerful voice he could, “Hey it's not so bad. Now I get to try all kinds of new things. Like drinking tea...” Marco held up the tea cup, holding out his pinky and the two giggled. “Or playing with you two. Just tell me the rules and I'm sure I'll be fine.”

The two girls seemed to have perked up at this, the creepy twin quickly clearing her throat. “Well it goes like this,” she began. “You have a base, which is your castle.”

“ And then a dragon comes and attacks your castle,” Daisy quickly took over, jumping on the bed as she explained. “And then the princess, who has the wand, and her knights have to protect it from the dragon. If you beat the dragon you win, but if the dragon destroys your base then you lose.”

“And all your citizens get eaten,” Violet added dramatically.

Marco nodded thoughtfully. “Okay that sounds fun,” he agreed, smiling joyfully at the two.

The three quickly set up their game, making a make-shift castle out of building blocks and using pillows and stuffed animals as a defense system against the attacking dragon. Violet began taking down her jars of goop off of one of the shelves to use at their moat but was stopped by Marco, who told her that wasn't the best idea.

While the three were busy setting up, Daisy, out of nowhere, said, “Thanks for playing with us, Marco.”

Marco looked at the young girl in surprise.

“Yeah, none of the other adults ever play with us, they're always too busy.”

“And your way more fun than any of them!” Daisy added.

Marco blushed, looking bashfully between the two girls.“Aww, well thanks, I like playing with you two, too!” Marco said with a goofily wide smile, picking up the final remaining block and reaching up to set it in place. “After all, you are Star's family and anyone related to Star is alright in my book.”

“Do you love her?” Daisy asked and Marco, completely caught off guard by the sudden question, felt the blood rushing to his cheeks and released a surprised squeak, dropping the block he was holding, causing it to hit the unstable tower and bringing the whole thing crashing down to the floor, completely destroyed. Daisy and Violet covered their mouths in shock and Marco just looked down at the pile of unstacked blocks with a dazed look.

“Sorry,” Marco said, sheepishly.

“Guess we have to start over,” Violet sighed, bending down as she began re-stacking the blocks and the other two joined her. The three worked on the tower for a few moments in silence, until Marco suddenly spoke up, in a soft, embarrassed tone.

“She means a whole lot to me,” he admitted softly, his cheeks slightly tinged pink, keeping his eyes on the blocks as he began stacking. “She's my best friend. I don't know what I would do without her.”

Daisy and Violet both turned to the boy with wide smiles on their faces. “Are you two gonna get married?” Daisy asked, eagerly.

Marco thought that over. “I don't know, we haven't really talked about that yet. We've only been on one date so far,” Marco replied honestly.

“Well if you did get married, then we'd be related,” Violet pointed out, sounding quite pleased at the idea.

“Yeah, you'd be like our big brother!” Daisy exclaimed, clapping her hands in joy.

Marco smiled. “Huh, I've never had sisters before, that'd be pretty cool,” he said thoughtfully, imagining what it would be like to have siblings.

“Well we could be your little sisters now, if you wanted, even if we aren't related yet,” Violet offered.

Marco looked touched at that, giving her a wide, grateful smile saying in a chocked tone, “I'd like that.”

After that, the final block was set into place and the three stood back to admire their work, looking quite satisfied with their fake castle and defenses they had set up. “Okay, I think we're ready?!” Violet exclaimed, and Daisy cheered her agreement.

“Yeah, let's play!” the peach-haired girl yelled, pumping her fists into the air, before her and her sister ran over to their castle, crouching down behind the pile of pillow defenses, both of them now sharing hold on their toy wand.  

But Marco couldn't help but notice something was missing. “Wait a minute, I just realized, who is gonna be the dragon?” he asked them and they looked at him like he was crazy.

“Silly, we're gonna make our own dragon,” Daisy said brightly as if the answer was obvious.

Marco frowned at the cryptic answer. “But how are we gonna-”

The hooded teen lost his voice though, as the twin's cheek marks began glowing bright white in sync and out of thin air, a large, dark blue dragon appeared out of thin air. It had at least twenty eyeballs on its face, all of them looking just like Violet's cheek marks. Its body was long and snake-like with small multicolored gems covering its scaled body, a small purple flower at the tip of its long black wings. It hovered in mid-air, flapping its bat-like wings with sharp, steady beats.

Marco stumbled back in fright of the creature, exclaiming fearfully, “Where the heck did that thing come from?!” the hooded boy asked, wanting to run out of the room, but afraid to leave the two little girls alone and without protection.

“We made it,” Daisy said simply, not looking the slightest bit fazed by the dangerous creature currently in their room.

“W-What? How?!” Marco asked loudly, in confusion.

“It's our Trait,” Violet explained. “We can make imaginary things, but only if we both are thinking about it at the same time.”

“Yeah if we don't agree, then it won't work,” Daisy added. “So a lot of times we can't because Violet decides to be a big, dummy head.”

“I do not!” Violet argued, fuming in anger.

“Well anyways,” Daisy continued, ignoring her twin's rage. “You should probably get down behind something, before it eats you, big brother.”

“Wait, what?!” Marco exclaimed in surprise, looking over to see the dragon spiraling toward him and he yelled, quickly running over to the pillow pile, where the two girls were. He leapt to safety behind the cushion-y wall, the dragon pulling up at the last second. Marco sat up, as he and the twins watched the dragon fly in circles around the ceiling, letting out a high-pitched roar. “So, what do we do, how do we beat it?” Marco asked panting, out of breath.

“We just have to destroy it by hitting it with stuff,” Violet explained.

Suddenly, above them, the dragon seemed to get tired from its endless circling, as it flew down, scraping across the floor, sending toys scattering across the room, sailing right toward the three and their block castle.

“Incoming!” Daisy yelled.

“Protect the castle!” Violet shouted, authoritatively. The three began throwing pillows and stuffed animals at the dragon, which growled in anger, trying to dodge the barrage of soft projectiles with no luck.

It huffed, before flying over the three's heads, who all ducked low to avoid getting hit, the dragon's swinging tail, nearly knocking over their block tower.

“Whoa, that was close,” Violet said breathlessly, as they all sat up.

“It's too strong we'll have to use magic to beat it!” Daisy suggested gravely.

“Yeah but someone will have to distract it while we get the spell ready,” Violet pointed out.

“Who's that gonna be?” Marco asked, simply. The two turned to him with knowing looks on their faces, which Marco didn't catch, staring blankly back at the girls. “What?”

The dragon did a loop through the air, planning its next attack, this one sure to take out the block castle. It bolted down toward the castle, nothing able to deter its path of destruction. That was until it was hit in the face with a pillow, causing it veer off course, flapping its wind awkwardly, as it dizzily shook its head clear of confusion. “Hey, over here!” called a nervous voice below. The mythical creature looked over at Marco, who had pillows strapped around his body as make-shift armor, another pillow being used as a shield. He looked at the dragon in fear, saying in what was supposed to be a fearless tone, but his squeaky, shaky voice shattered any hope of that, “Come and get me.”

The dragon, forgetting all about its main target, now flew toward the hooded teen, who stood in place for about two seconds before screaming at the top of lungs, running away from the beast and diving under the nearest bed, as the dragon sailed right over it. Marco put the pillow over his head as he waited for the dragon to leave or the twins to destroy it somehow, not sure how he had gotten himself into this mess.

What was this day, anyways? Having to go head to head with a terrifying, unrelenting beast... and now he was having to fight off a literal dragon. And right then, his old aches and pains stirred up again, reminded of the beating he had already taken that day with Higgs. But Marco knew he couldn't hide from the dragon forever, he would have to face it eventually and it wasn't real anyways, so it couldn't really hurt him... right?

Marco peaked out from under the bed, looking around for any signs of the creature, and saw it hovering just on the other side of the bed, a soft growl in its throat as it glared at him with its dozen creepy eyes. Marco chuckled sheepishly, whispering nervously, “Umm, any way of you not trying to eat me and maybe just surrender and let us win the game?”

The dragon only growled in response and Marco sighed loudly. “Yeah, thought so.”

Marco dodged out of the way as the creature snapped at him, using his pillow to block its biting jaw, which resulted in it snapping up his make-shift shield and sending it flying to the other side of the room and far out of his reach.

“Uh oh, that's not good,” Marco whispered in terror, before looking back up at the dragon, which now had steam coming out of its nostrils. “Oh that's even worse!” Marco yelled.

“Hang on, Marco we're coming!” Daisy yelled as her and Violet jumped across their beds. But they were too far away and the dragon was already ready to attack, taking a deep breath in. The hooded boy grabbed another pillow up from the floor and  held it feebly in front of him, closing his eyes as he awaited himself to be burnt to a crisp.

But as it breathed out, instead of fire and flames shooting out its mouth, instead, small bubbles filled the air, drifting around the hooded teen and popping all around him. Marco opened his eyes and blinked once in confusion. “It breathes bubbles?” Marco muttered in disbelief.

“Well yeah, you didn't think we'd actually make it able to breath fire, did you?” Violet commented, putting her hands on her hips as she stood on her bed.

“Yeah that's way too dangerous,” Daisy added from next to her. “Then mom would never let us play this game.”

“So anyways,” Violet said, before yelling in a commanding tone, “Do not fear, knight! For we shall save you from this horrid beast!”

“Yeah, come and get us, ugly!” Daisy added, shouting up to the still hovering dragon.

The dragon obeyed the command, rushing toward the two, who both laughed as they jumped to the next bed, avoiding the creature. It shot more bubbles at them, which the two moved out of the way of, landing safely on the floor. The dragon did a needless spin in the air, before spiraling toward the two.

The two acted quickly as they both held up their toy wand together, shouting out their spells to end the dragon.

“Flower Heart Devastation!” Daisy yelled, as Violet at the same time shouted, “Evil Death Beam!”

The two shared a surprised look, before frowning at one another. “Violet, you were supposed to use Flower Heart Devastation, that's my most powerful spell!” Daisy whined.

“What, no way, Evil Death Beam is way more powerful than your dumb frilly flower spell,” Violet scoffed.

“It is not!”

“Is too!”

“Is Not!”

“Is too!”

Marco sighed, as the two ended up in the exact same place they had started from, arguing, all of his attempts in the end futile. He turned to stare at the dragon, as it suddenly faded from existence, the two no longer in agreement, meaning their power would no longer work. He walked over to the two, trying to think of something to say to get them to stop but nothing came to mind.

So instead he just said the only thing he could think of, which was, “Umm, girls, the dragon's gone.”

The two stopped their arguing as they turned to see that it was in fact gone, before frowning at each other again. “Great now you ruined our game with big brother,” Daisy huffed angrily.

“No you did!” Violet shouted.

“Come on, guys. Please don't fight,” Marco tried, his voice desperate. “You two are sisters, you shouldn't be fighting.”

Daisy and Violet turned to Marco in confusion, Daisy quickly exclaiming, “But Violet messed up our game.”

“She wasn't messing it up,” Marco spoke up. “She just had a different way of playing. That doesn't mean she ruined things.” The two went quiet at that and so Marco decided to try and take it a step further. “Now you two should apologized to each other for arguing,” Marco added, in the most authoritative tone he could.  

The two hesitated doing so for a moment though, Daisy kicking her foot against the floor, while Violet just stared at the far wall with her arms crossed in front of her chest. “Umm, sorry for blaming you for stuff,” Daisy muttered sheepishly, rubbing at her arm, still not looking in her sister's direction.

“And I'm sorry for calling your spell dumb,” Violet added, even softer than her twin had, Marco barely able to pick up on the small voice.

The boy nodded happily, trying to replicate his voice to sound like Buff Frog as he said, “Now you two hug and make up.”

The twins obeyed, pulling each other into a very awkward sibling hug, but Marco was satisfied that the two had seemed to of made up. Or weren't fighting still, at least.  “There, now that's much better,” he praised the two, as they pulled apart. But the two still looked upset, refusing to meet his eye and staring sulkingly at their feet.

“Hey, what's wrong?” Marco asked in concern.

“Sorry for ruining your first game of Dragon Attack, big brother,” Violet said woefully, looking near to the brink of tears.

“Yeah, we just wanted you to have fun, but we didn't even get to finish it,” Daisy said pitifully.

Marco gave them a sympathetic smile, before opening his arms wide to them. “Come here,” he said and the two rushed to give him a hug. He wrapped his arms around the two, holding them tightly. “It's okay, girls, I still had fun. Besides, I'm kinda not really a big fan of Dragon Attack, it's a bit more intense than I like.”

The two girls giggled, as Marco gently ruffled their hair, “Maybe next time we can play something a little less life-threatening.”

“Oooh, like a board game!” Daisy suggested cheerily. “We still have a copy of Magical Chutes and Ladders!”

“Or Castle Defenders!” Violet proposed.

“Sounds good,” Marco agreed.

Suddenly, there was a loud growl from the peach-haired girl's stomach, everyone turning to her in surprise. “Ugh, beating up dragons made me reeaaally hungry,” she groaned rubbing at her rumbling tummy.

Marco laughed, before saying cheerfully, “Well then let's go and get you two something to eat.”

The two cheered, each taking one of the boy's hands as he led them out of their room and into the hallway, the two practically skipping with every step.

“And then maybe we can get you some tea,” Daisy suggested and Marco shrugged.

“I don't know, we'll have to see,” the hooded teen said.

The two walked in silence for a moment, before Violet spoke up. “Um, big brother,” she said, hesitantly.

“Yeah,” Marco said.

“How come you never got to drink tea or play games with other kids before?” the dark-haired girl asked, looking up at him with curious eyes. Marco froze at the question, as a rush of memories flooded his system.

“Um, well..” he started, not sure what to say to the two. How much should he tell them? He didn't want to scare them with talk about Master Toffee, they were still a little young to hear about that?Plus, Marco wasn't too sure he was really ready to talk about that, anyways. It was still pretty painful.

“Were your parents really mean or something?” the peach-haired girl added.

“Well, no not really,” Marco said, trying to keep his voice calm and hide the aching he felt in every fiber of his being. “My real parents died when I was baby. I was actually raised by Monsters.”

Violet suddenly gasped, as she let go of his hand and instead grabbed onto the boy's arm, shaking him violently, causing poor Marco to cry out in pain, his body still sore from Higgs' training. “You were raised by Monsters!”

“Owwww!” Marco yelped, as he was helplessly flung back and forth. He was thankful when the young girl finally stopped her senseless shaking, though still clinging tightly onto his arm, now standing on her tiptoes as she just gave him an eager look, waiting for him to respond. “Uh yeah, Buff Frog and some other Monsters raised me after my parents died,” Marco explained, letting go of Daisy's hand so he could rub at his now aching neck, the hooded teen pretty sure the shaking had caused him to pull a muscle.

Violet screamed at the top of her lungs, unable to contain her excitement anymore and Marco quickly covered his now-ringing ears. “I can't believe it! You've met a real life Monster! That's been my dream! What do they look like?” Marco opened his mouth to answer, but the girl continued to throw out question after question with no sign of stopping. “Can they do dark magic? Cause see I heard one time that they could do dark magic even though it's forbidden. Did they ever try to use dark magic on you? Or maybe they tried to eat you? Do they eat Mewmans?!”

“What, no of course they don't!” Marco quickly exclaimed, horrified that the young girl could even suggest such a thing. “Monsters are actually really nice.” Marco paused for a second biting his lip, as a pair of sinister yellow eyes flashed into his mind and he nearly shuddered. “Well some of them may be bad,” he corrected himself. “But they definitely don't eat people. And as far as I know they can't do dark magic”

“Oh,” Violet said sadly, clearly disappointed. But her hopes rose once again as she asked, “Well, are there any Monsters in the castle that I could meet?”

“I hope not,” Daisy muttered, her eyes wide in fear. She was afraid of Monsters, all the stories about them eating children making her quite frightful. Violet often would tease her, telling her that if she wasn't careful the Monsters might gobble her up while she was sleeping.

“No, there aren't any Monsters here right now,” Marco said, shaking his head. Both Daisy and Violet sighed in unison, but the older twin was sighing in relief, while the younger was sighing in disappointment. “But maybe if your mom is okay with it, I can take you to meet my family the next time I go visit them.”

“Really?” Violet exclaimed, while Daisy looked terrified again. She quickly hide herself in Marco's side, the hooded teen looking down at her in surprise.

“No, I don't want to meet any Monsters,” she squeaked timidly, her small form shaking like a leaf and her tone muffled with her face buried in Marco's hood. “They're scary. They'll gobble me up and make me into a big Mewman stew!”

Marco looked down at her sadly. He couldn't believe such a young, innocent child could be so terror-stricken by the creatures that had raised him. What kind of messed up world did they live in if the children were instilled with so much fear at just the mere mention of the Monsters? There was still so much that needed to be undone before Mewni could be made right. “No Monster is going to eat you, I promise,” he said softly, wrapping a tender arm around the girl.

“Yeah, Daisy don't you remember what mom told us, the Monsters aren't bad anymore, we all made up,” Violet pitched in helpfully.

“In fact, right now Star, your mom and I are working on making a peace commission,” Marco added.

Daisy, finally lifted her head up, staring into Marco's brown eyes with shining pupils. “What's that?” the young girl asked, cocking her head cutely to the side.

“Duh, weren't you even listening before. It's something Star made up so that the Monsters and Mewmans won't fight anymore.”

“So the Monsters aren't bad now?” Daisy asked, nervously.

“No, most of them are really good,” Marco reassured the girl, patting her back softly. “And the ones that aren't, my dad, Buff Frog, is going to stop them from hurting anyone. He's the leader of the Monsters, y'know.”

“Is he gonna eat any of the bad Monsters?” Violet asked, innocently.

“No!” Marco quickly corrected her in a flash. “He's not gonna eat anyone.”

Daisy sniffed, wiping her eyes with her arm, looking less scared than she was before as she asked, “Your dad is the leader?”

Marco nodded. “That's right.”

“So are you like a prince?”

Marco's eyes widened. “Umm, I'm not really sure. I mean, Buff Frog isn't really a king or anything...” the hooded teens voice drifted off, as a million new questions swirled around his head. He made a mental note to call his dad later and ask.

“Well if you were a prince than that means you and Star could have an arranged marriage,” Violet said, as the two continued down the hallway. “That's what some royal couples do sometimes.”

“Maybe, we'll see,” Marco said casually. In reality, though, he had no idea what that meant, but didn't want to admit it to the two. He just made another mental note to ask Star about it later.

…

“Okay...” Star said tiredly. “I think that's a good stopping point for the day.”

She looked around her room with bleary eyes. They had made significant progress, so far, a large chunk of the paperwork finished. They had had to sort through it all, putting it into their proper stacks, before signing and filling out the most important one's first. Luckily, Aunt Lily had known which ones those were and that helped Star out a lot. With those done, they could at least get fully certified from the MHC, while they filled out the rest. So that was at least one problem down for the day.

The blond royal sighed, massaging her eyelids with her palms, thick bags now hanging under her normally bright blue irises. Jackie and Aunt Lily didn't look much better, the skater, leaning far back in the chair she was in, looking on the brink of falling asleep. Lily looked a bit more composed, sitting up straight on Star's couch, but her hair was frazzled in places and her eyes drooped with exhaustion. Suddenly, a voice out of nowhere spoke up, startling the group.

“Huh, it says here that if you cut off a mermaid's tail that you can never be queen, isn't that interesting?” Star and the others turned in shock to see Janna laying on Star's bed, examining one of the papers closely, looking comfortable and relaxed.

“Janna, how long have you been there?!” Star demanded angrily, putting her hands on her hips.

“Mmm, about two hours I'd say,” the creepy girl replied nonchalantly. “Man, there are some weird rules in here.”

“And you never thought about maybe helping us out,” Jackie questioned her roommate in obvious annoyance.

“Of course I did. I just didn't want to,” Janna replied calmly, not even looking away from the paper. “Did you know that if you refuse to eat corn offered to you by a member of the MHC that you can be sentenced to up to 2,000 years in crystal?”

Star let out a frustrated sigh, running a hand slowly down her face. “No, I didn't know that,” Star said in exasperation.

“I also wasn't aware of that,” Lily piped up, sounding quite cheerful.

“Well, now you do, your welcome,” Janna said, before throwing the paper away, letting it fall randomly to the floor, not even bothering with their carefully planned out filing system. Star's eye twitched, before she covered her head in her hands, letting out a frustrated groan. Normally Janna's behavior didn't bother her, but she was too tired and frustrated right now to simply shrug it off.

Jackie put a hand on the blond's shoulder, telling her, “You know how she is. It's best just to ignore her.”

Star let out a deep sigh, releasing all her stress and anger. “Let's just... go get something to eat,” the blond royal said, deciding to take Jackie's advice.  

“Sounds great,” Janna said, rising from the bed and walking over to the door. She looked back at them with a smirking grin, saying, “Well, hurry up, slowpokes. Before it gets cold.”

Star growled in annoyance and both Jackie and Aunt Lily put a hand on either shoulder, giving her consoling looks. Jackie opened her mouth, but Star quickly said, “I know, I know. Just ignore her.”

…

The four were just passing by the kitchen on the way to the dining hall when Jackie heard giggles coming from inside the kitchen area. The skater stopped and said to the others, “Did you guys hear that?”

“Hear what?” Star questioned, giving her a confused look.

That's when they all heard the small and familiar giggles echoing around the room, along with a much older sounding one, that Star recognized in a second. “Marco?” she said.

This was confirmed a second later as they all heard the clear voice of none other than Marco Diaz. “Are you two sure your mom lets you eat this much chocolate?” his muted voice asked.

“Positive,” the voice of little Daisy replied.

“Yeah, don't worry so much, big brother,” Violet said a second later.

“Okay, if your sure,” Marco replied, though he himself sounded slightly unsure still.

“Did he say chocolate?” Lily asked in concern. She knew all too well what too much sugar could do to her daughters.

“Oh Marco,” Star sighed.

Lily quickly rushed over to the door, the three teens right behind her. She threw the door open to reveal Marco and the twins on the floor of the kitchen, a bowl of chocolate pudding between them, being shared by all of them. Everything around them was covered in the substance, including them, chocolate on their faces, clothes, and hair. They all froze when they saw the group enter, Marco in shock and Daisy and Violet in alarm. Their faces both switched to guilt and regret as they threw their spoons of pudding back in the bowl in Marco's lap and tried their best to hide behind the hooded teen.

“Um, hey guys,” Marco said in uncertainty seeing the looks on their faces. “What's up?”

“Oh Marco,” Star sighed again, her heart going out to him. Her sweet, naive gullible bestie. By the looks of it, it was obvious that her mischievous cousins had tricked her poor, innocent boyfriend into breaking the rules.

It seemed her aunt had realized the same as she asked in a scolding tone, “Daisy, Violet, did you trick this young boy into giving you chocolate?”

“Ummmm...” they both said, unsure how to answer.

“Nice,” Janna said in appreciation of the two's level of skill. Jackie shot her a glare to let her know to keep her mouth shut.

“You know your not supposed to have any sugar before dinner,” Lily continued.

Marco just watched the situation progressing in confusion, looking quite uncomfortable being caught in the middle of whatever this was and Star gave him a sympathetic look.

“Sorry mom,” the two muttered, lowering their head in shame.

Marco's eyes instantly widened in realization and he shot to his feet, causing the bowl of pudding to tumble over, landing face-down creating an even larger mess on the floor. “Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, ma'am,” the hooded boy shouted, looking panicked. He shifted hesitantly for a moment, debating on if she offer his hand or bow, sweat beginning to surface on his face over the difficult decision. Finally, he dropped into a late bow, saying in the most remorseful tone he could, “I had no idea... I mean, if I had known I never would have...”

“That's quite all right, young man,” Lily interrupted, before the boy could continue stumbling out an apology. “This is on my daughters, not you.” She gave them a scolding glare and they both shifted nervously on their feet. She turned back to the boy, adding, “I'm sorry they roped you into their little scheme.”

“Oh no, they didn't have any rope,” Marco replied, innocently.

Star, Jackie and Janna all smiled at the boy, shaking their heads at his naivety. Lily raised an eyebrow for a second, before turning to Star. “So I'm assuming this is the boy you told me about?”

“Yep, that would be Marco,” the blond royal replied, glad she had told her aunt all about Marco's innocent and adorable tendencies while they were doing paperwork.

Lily stepped forward, before offering her hand to the still bowing Marco. “It's a pleasure to meet you, Marco. I'm Lily Butterfly, Star's aunt. Star's told me a lot about you,” she said pleasantly.

“Oh no the pleasure is all mine!” Marco replied, shaking her hand far too enthusiastically, but Lily didn't seem to mind, still just smiling warmly at the boy. “Star's told me a lot about you, too,” Marco continued, still not releasing her hand. “She said your really cool and fun to be around.”

“Well I try,” Lily said modestly, allowing the boy to vigorously shake her hand.

Meanwhile, the twins slowly tried to creep away, tip-toeing toward the exit. But Jackie blocked off their path, looking down at them with crossed arms. “Oh no you two don't.”

“Drat,” Violet sighed, Daisy adding in, “Busted.”

“Marco would you mind releasing my hand so that I can finish scolding my daughters,” Lady Lily asked politely.

Marco blushed and obeyed, muttering a quick apology. Lily went over to Daisy and Violet, the two looking up at her with nervous frowns. “Now then, you two know that you aren't allowed to eat chocolate without my permission, right?”

The two nodded silently.

“And you also know that lying to others is wrong, as well?”

Daisy and Violet just nodded again.

“So what do you two have to say for yourselves?”

“Sorry, mom,” Violet mumbled.

“Yeah, sorry,” Daisy sheepishly apologized, hanging her head.

Lily let out a breath, before saying, “Very well, if you are sorry, then I will let it go this time. But I expect you two to clean up your mess.”

“Yes mom,” the two said in unison, though they looked relieved that their punishishment was only minor.

“And I want you to apologize to Marco, as well.”

Daisy and Violet turned to Marco, saying, “Sorry, Marco.”

“Good,” Lily said, her tone light once again, giving the two a quick hug. She looked over to the hooded teen again, saying, “Thank you for looking after my daughters, Marco. I hope they weren't too much trouble.”

Marco shook his head. “No, not at all. I had fun playing with them,” he replied honestly.

“We had fun with you too, big brother,” Daisy said, with a grin.

Lily looked down at her daughter. “Big brother?” she asked in confusion.

“Yeah, that's what we're calling Marco,” Violet explained.

“Why?” their mother questioned.

“Cause he's like our big brother,” Daisy said, as if the answer should be obvious. “He plays with us and stuff, like a big brother is supposed to do.”

“Plus, he's Star's future husband,” Violet added, causing Star and Marco's cheeks to light up and Jackie and Janna's mouths to drop open.

“W-What?” Star stuttered, her mind going completely blank at the thought and her heart thumping away against her will.

Violet shrugged. “I'm just saying.”

“What have you three been talking about?” Jackie asked, looking over at Marco.

Marco looked around the room, flustered. “Well, I mean, um.... I didn't say we were going to get married. I just said, me and Star hadn't really... umm... I mean...” Marco's voice drifted off in embarrassment, not looking in Star's direction.

“I-It's fine, Marco,” Star said, her voice cracking against her will. “I know you know were too young for that still.”

“Right, of course,” he said, nodding, hoping they could please change the subject now.

Janna did just that, as she approached the two girls saying, “You two squirts really need to learn how to cover your tracks better.”

“Janna!” Violet exclaimed, wrapping her arms around her in a tight hug. “It's you! I missed you!”

“Missed you, too,” Janna said, patting her head softly. “So how's my young successor been doing?” She lowered her voice, whispering, “Found any new species of creepy crawlies while you were away?”

Violet tried to replicate Janna's signature smirk, coming remarkable close. “Yeah, I did. But mom took it away, after I hid it under Daisy pillow while she was sleeping.”

“That's my girl,” Janna said, ruffling the girl's hair.

“Great, now there's two of them,” Star muttered, watching the display in annoyance and exasperation.

“They're multiplying,” Jackie added in concern.

“Should we be worried?” Marco asked.

“Yes,” both girls deadpanned.

Star once again changed the subject, asking Marco, “So what were you two doing in here anyways?”

But it was Daisy who answered, shouting, “We were going to make some tea for big brother to try.”

Star looked at her boyfriend in confusion. “Tea?”  

“Yeah, I've never had any before,” Marco said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “But then we saw the chocolate pudding and well... y'know.”

Star laughed, leaning over and giving the boy a quick peck on the cheek. “Your adorable,” she sighed, lovingly.

Marco just blushed, his throat closing up and not allowing him to reply. He felt a small tug on his hoodie and looked down to see Daisy, who whispered none too quietly up to him, “Now you say she's adorable and kiss her back.”

Marco looked back at Star, nervously saying, “Um, she's adorable. I mean, your a-adorable too,” He leaned in and kissed her on the lips and Star closed her eyes as she allowed it to deepen.

“Nailed it,” Daisy said proudly to herself, doing a small, little fist pump in the air.

Once, the two pulled out of the breathless kiss, Star panted out, “So I guess there is only one thing left to do then.”

“What's that?” Marco asked, equally short on oxygen.

…

Marco, with the rest of the gang all gathered around him, looked down at the small cup of tea that sat waiting on the large dining table, steam steadily rising from the cup. “Will that be all, Your Majesty?” the servant who had prepared and brought them the drink asked.

“Yes, thank you,” Star replied kindly.

The servant bowed, before leaving the dining room, everyone's attention back on both Marco and the cup, which caused quiet a bit of embarrassment for the boy, as he stood unmoving, his face bright red. “Well go on, Marco, drink up,” the blond royal encouraged and the hooded teen nodded, gently grabbing the small handle on the teacup. He lifted it slowly, making sure not to spill and being sure that his pinky was sticking out like Daisy had shown him. He seemed mesmerized by the dish, as he just watched as the liquid within swirl around from his movements, gently blowing on the cup to try and cool it down enough to drink.

Finally, Violet grew too impatient to wait any longer, yelling, “Just hurry up and drink the stupid thing!”

Marco yelped at the sudden interruption, jumping a bit and nearly spilling the drink all over the floor and himself, stumbling as he tried to quickly right the cup. Lily shot her daughter a glare, which Daisy mimicked and Violet just looked begrudgingly back at them. “What? He was taking too long,” she grumbled defensively.

Once, Marco gained a steady hold on the cup, he let out a sigh, before a finger ran up his spine, causing him to scream again this time actually dropping the drink, which Star caught using her magic, lifting the wand up as she put the liquid back in the small teacup setting it back down on the table.

The hooded teen panted breathlessly from the scare, looking behind him with no surprise to see Janna smirking at him. “Janna, why did you do that?!” he asked via panicked shout.

But the creepy girl just shrugged, saying calmly, “Couldn't resist.” Violet and Daisy couldn't quite stifle their giggles, covering their mouths with their hands to try and silence themselves.

Marco just turned back to his drink and lifted it up once more, this time actually bringing it to his lips as he slowly sipped on it. Daisy and Violet leaned forward a bit, both highly anticipating his reaction to the drink.

Finally, Marco lowered the cup, licking his lips, a thoughtful expression on his face. “So Marco, what do you think?” Star asked.

“It's...” Marco looked down at the small cup, trying to find a way to put it into words. “It tastes kinda different than I expected,” he admitted.

“Good different,” Jackie pressed.

“Yeah, I like it, it's just y'know not that great,” Marco said with a shrug. “It's just sorta average I guess.”

Daisy and Violet both shared a look with each other, now at a complete loss. Who had won? After all that their big brother Marco just seemed kinda indifferent. The room was quite for a moment, before Lily spoke up saying, “Well that was a bit anti-climatic, wasn't it?”

“Soooo, who wants some popcorn?” Janna suggested and the twin's hands instantly shot up.

“I do! I do!” they shouted in sync.

“Movie night in our room?” Jackie suggested and the twins cheered as one.

Star nodded, “Yeah that sounds good, thanks Jacks,” After all the chaos that had been going on lately it would be good to just relax and have some down time.

“I'll go speak to the chef and have him bring it up to your room,” Lady Lily said, heading toward the kitchen.

“Wait,” Star said, grabbing her arm to stop her for a moment. “Aren't you going to watch it with us?”

“Of course, I will join you shortly,” Lily said, smiling at her favorite niece.

“Well then let's go and get things set up,” Jackie said, turning to her roommate and asking, “Do you still have that magic mirror hidden in your closet, Jan?”

Janna scoffed, before saying proudly, “Oh Jacks, I've got several.”

Jackie opened her mouth to reply, before she shook her head, saying, “Not even gonna ask.”

“That's probably wise.”

The two headed for the door and Marco turned to Star, the two locking gaze, their hands reaching out for each other. But just then two small hand gasped onto his own. He looked down to see Daisy and Violet, holding onto him eagerly, both bouncing on the balls of their feet. “Come on, big brother, let's go!” Violet shouted, before the two began practically dragging the boy across the room and Marco laughed, as he once again allowed himself to be led out, turning back to his girlfriend with an apologetic smile.

Star shot him a look to let him know it was okay, before following after, watching with a wide smile at the adorable display. Though she had wanted to be the one to walk with Marco and spend some time with him, she was also glad to see that her cousins had taken a liking to him.

…

Later that night, after the last movie was done, the group all just sat around Jackie's bed, Star, Jackie and Janna just chatting as the credits rolled on the magic mirror. Lily just sat listening to the three, a small smile on her face. But as the girls' voices unknowingly raised some, she quickly shushed them, drawing their attention to her. “Shh, you're going to wake them,” she whispered softly.

The 'them' she was talking about was none other than, Marco, Daisy and Violet, lay fast asleep, the two girls cuddling close to the hooded teen, a large blue blanket drapped over them. They all snored softly, looking both peaceful and far too cute for words as they just snoozed, unaware of the world turning, looking safe and content, cuddling close there together.

Star smiled at over at the three. It was so nice to see her youngest family members and her precious Marco getting along, the two easily accepting Marco into their lives, much like she had, and that thought sent her heart fluttering, barely able to contain how cute her boyfriend looked right now. It reminded her of  why she had fallen for the boy in the first place.

She slowly leaned over to the boy, giving him a soft peck on the cheek,causing him to smile in his sleep, as she said quietly, “Good night, big brother, Marco. Sweet dreams.”

#Star vs #Star vs Au #My Writing #Light of the Sun and Stars #Starco #Big Brother Marco

[mysticandskepticmuses]

MEET Rori LuAnne* Dearing.   ( Altered Carbon based original character. )

                *Please note.  Any use of her middle name in character will result in her losing her shit because who the fuck names their child LuAnne in the 25th century it’s so 400 years ago….

                 First things first, OOC, yes, this is the same face claim as I use for Saori; it’s intentional / for plot purposes w/ certain characters where that holy shit it’s like looking at a ghost trope is lots of fun so…  Also, I think it’s particularly interesting in a world where bodies can be custom made and DNA is literally just a playground for scientists for there to be this freak natural repetition / recreation after 250 years.  It is something that family members remark on from time to time, but it’s not something that a lot of them really pay that much attention to, it’s the oh you look so much like so and so, but since none of the living family members even met Saori they don’t realize just how identical the resemblance is.  And most people that meet her wouldn’t know enough about her history / lineage to know though so.  She’s just a pretty, long-legged, pierced and tattooed cutie pie.    [ Any of those rare survivors from Envoy era that were at Stronghold or on Harlan’s World, or any that might have VR’ed in to a conference or something w/ Saori are totally free / encouraged to notice and react of course !!! ]

                  Yes, Rori is the great-great-great …. whatever many great-granddaughter of my other / latest original character, SAORI DEARING, an uprising sympathizer who lived on Harlan’s World during the Envoy war / during the time of the destruction of Stronghold.  [ the battle of stronghold is widely known as the battle where the Protectorate finally defeated the evil Envoys, murderers of children and women and whole families, terrorists who used sabotage, infiltration, mass murder, torture, bombings, wide spread terror attacks, etc. etc. etc. to try and overthrow the protectorate who wanted to do nothing more than keep the peace in known space etc. ] Rori and her older sister, CLAIRE DEARING, currently know nothing about their ancestor’s involvement with / support of the Uprising – which is probably for the best because Claire would probably die of mortification and Rori would loudly and proudly blast the news from the rooftops.  

                   Claire, written by Liz @magicandsciencemuses, is a (mostly) upstanding citizen who works earnestly to better her way of life and has a great amount of respect for the law and a more than healthy respect / knowledge of what the Meths are capable of; she is one of the directors of the Bay City branch of Psychasec as well as being a well renowned scientist in the field of genetics and body mods, cloning, synth, etc. etc.  She is very much the model child, works hard, works long hours, pays her taxes, follows the rules, tries very hard to keep out of trouble and avoid drama.    ADDITIONAL NOTE:  CLAIRE IS 200+ YEARS OLD.  Rori is in her forties (even though she appears in her early twenties) – in Meth years, Rori is practically a BABY.  

                   Rori, on the other hand, is pretty much the exact opposite.  While she is also intelligent and well educated, she was the wild child from the get go and was always the one that came home with the scraped knees and the bloody noses and the torn clothes, whether it was from actually just falling the frack over her own feet or getting into a fight with someone twice her size in defense of someone else or because they offended her with some smart ass / ill thought out comment that provoked her short-fused (but typically short-lived) temper.  She was almost always involved in some form of protests, some form of protect the planet, protect the species, protect the people, protect the sleeves movement, and became more and more focused on protecting the equality (or what is left of it) as she got ‘older’.  

                   She believes that a lot of what is acceptable and norm when it comes to the treatment of sleeves when it comes to the prison system and victim restitution as a whole is beyond fucked up   She believes that the whole essence of the prison system, stacks in storage, etc. is a huge step backwards and one that just does no good to anyone except those profiting financially from the system.  Ripping someone out of their sleeve and sticking them into storage seems entirely opposite of helpful to her.  There is no longer any opportunity for reform in the penal system.  Being on ice doesn’t give you time to think.  It doesn’t give you time to reflect on your life choices and realize what you’re missing.  It doesn’t give you time for soul searching or to learn methods in which to cope, it doesn’t allow you to better yourself in any way – literally the only thing that it does it rip you out of one time and then toss you back out into the world in what was just a blink of an eye to you.  Nothing changes.  Worst case scenario, you’re in a stranger’s body, a hundred years later, maybe you’ve got a family member or someone that was told about you enough to show up and give you a place to crash for a few days while you get your shit sorted but.  

                   Now you’re a stranger, with no working knowledge of the world, the politics or laws that have changed, the events in history that might have been world shatteringly important that you missed, no relevant job history, no contacts, no resources, and depending on what field of study or what kind of job you had, you might be entirely irrelevant plus - you’re a convict so what does that do for your likelihood of finding gainful employment - especially while in whatever broken down sleeve they give you on release ???  It pretty much guarantees the only life the newly released have to go back to is – crime.  

                And that’s not even getting onto the topic of renting out people’s bodies and how that just feels inherently wrong to her – they don’t even bother to try and use it as a deterrent tactics, it’s just a WAY OF LIFE and it just seems cruel and unusual to her.  There have always been accrued costs of prison, one way or another, sticking a body on ice / suspending it / cryogenic storage or whatever is WAY cheaper than actually housing criminals used to be.  And how easy is it for someone that’s corrupt to play that system ???? Want a particular sleeve for yourself or your partner but they won’t sleep with you?  Get them convicted and rent it for a week.  Have a Neo-C that you need out of the way at your job or that’s married to someone you want to pursue or that you have a grudge against and want to see them suffer / their family suffer?  Set them up for even the smallest crime, because once they’re yanked out of their sleeve that’s it, bye-bye.  

                   And it’s not just punishing the criminals! Seeing someone else walking and talking in the sleeve of your lover, your brother, your mother, your best friend and knowing it’s not them - it doesn’t matter how tough you are or act like you are, that hurts – knowing that that body is being used for god knows what and you can’t keep it safe / protect it ???  Knowing that the person’s sleeve is out and about because you couldn’t afford the mortgage payments to keep it hanging out empty until the person’s time was up and they can get put back in it ? That is brutal and cruel and unusual punishment to people that did nothing wrong but care.  

                   So… yeah.  Human rights / sleeves’ rights activist.  Has had the occasional brush with the law in terms of protesting, the occasional riot or act of vandalism, threats against particular organizations or Meths or whomever it is that she’s up in arms against at the time but, generally low level stuff that hasn’t gotten her in a ton of hot water legally speaking.  She actually does have a semi decent relationship with some of the beat cops or a detective here or there, she’s happy to turn over intel and information she finds about acts of actual violence or terrorism that she catches wind of and is especially happy to turn over anything she hears that deals with corrupt cops, politicians, Meths influence on anything with policy or wrangling positions of power for their chess pieces in law enforcement or political circles etc.  

                   She does dabble in some drug use, she drinks, she smokes, she swears, she sleeps around, she has tattoo and piercings that fluctuate a lot - she is still in her birth sleeve (though second clone after an airtram derailment a few years back).  She gambles, she shoots pool, she gets into the occasional fist fight, she has no problem calling anyone out on their bullshit but – she has a good heart and does her best to help out people in trouble around her whenever she can.  She drifts through a lot of circles; she has friends in all manner of walks of life in the underworld and legit circles, she makes it pretty clear she doesn’t have any interest in being involved in drama outside of her choosing and tends to usually manage to keep from pissing off the wrong people (she’s way more likely to have enemies among the politicians, the Meths, the policy makers than get caught up in a turf war etc).  

                   She has a loft apartment in Licktown, but she also has four or five other roommates and it’s very crowded and busy so she tends to prefer to crash at her hookup’s place when an option and also makes a semi regular habit of showing up at Claire’s in the middle of the night and crashing on her couch for a few days.  Despite their glaring differences, the sisters are actually pretty close and as much as they rib on each other, they would not hesitate to come to the defense of the other if necessary, in a heartbeat.  

                     Rori does come from a family of Meths.  Her lifestyle choices, her behaviour, the fact she lives on the Ground and in Licktown are all huge sources of embarrassment for the majority of her family.  The only reason she isn’t actually just cut loose and written off as the black sheep of the family is because Claire wouldn’t stand for it.  Rori does have access to a large stipend, which she does live off of at times but in general she prefers to make her own way - she works as a bartender, a tattoo artist, odd jobs here and there.  Whatever she doesn’t use of her monthly allowance, though, she does pull out every month and donate to a number of different activist groups, shelters, etc. - wherever needs it the most at that time.

#BIOGRAPHY. #BIOGRAPHY. ( rori dearing. ) #DO NOT REBLOG.

[daggerfall]

Tethra’maan

Tethra’maan is the daughter of the Hero of Kvatch (posting Sheogorath mantling) and Martin Septim (somehow post becoming the Avatar of Akatosh), making her a demiprince of Sheogorath as well as of Akatosh. Demiprince lore is pretty lacking, but simply put, they’re beings with a daedric parent and one not daedric parent (however the term demiprince has been applied to a being with an aedric parent, namely Kyne, but mostly is used for daedric ones). 

She grew up in the Shivering Isles, raised by her mother, Haskill, and several other people around New Sheoth. Most people called her Tethra, Teth if they’re close, though Sheo calls her “marbles” or “nugget” sometimes. Her mother told her all kinds of stories of her time as a mortal in Cyrodiil during the Oblivion Crisis, like about the Dark Brotherhood, the Thieves Guild, about Martin, all that. She was an impatient child growing up, always wanting to do more and not be treated like a child. As she got older, she took on some of Haskill’s responsibilities around the Isles, mostly working as an intermediary for the Mazken and the Aureal as well as a soldier in either of their ranks during attacks. She values the natural and necessary balance of life, but also enjoys the raw chaos of change for the sake of fun. She also mentored under Peryite for a time, using the knowledge she learned to better manage the Isles, even though her mother thought Peryite was a fuddy-duddy stick in the mud.

Her “madness” manifests in her callus disregard for life, her self-centrism, and her desire to get exactly what she wants exactly when she wants it. She never had anyone tell her no growing up (besides maybe her mother on occasion), and rarely had to face any form of consequences, so she rarely filters herself or puts the needs of others over her own desires (so long as she knows it doesn’t make a major difference in the overall world). Her powers include a form of all-sight, creation and conjuration of items and objects, boundless creativity, and just being an incredibly powerful mage and solider. 

After several decades of knowing each other, Teth proposed to Sanguine that he should allow her to monitor the Myriad Realms of Revelry for misuse of the pocket realms beyond their intended purposes, or for uses beyond Sanguine’s sphere of influence, as Sanguine himself had very little control over the individual realms. He agreed. (the two of them also became FWB around that time)

How she became the Last Dragonborn was that one day, she started to feel this strange ‘tugging’ sensation every few hours that escalated into her being in excruciating pain and nearly losing consciousness. Sheogorath had to break it to her that somehow she was being summoned to Mundus, which confused the both of them because her identity and existence was a closely guarded secret, so no one should even know that she existed, much less know how to summon her. Recognizing that the only way to stop this was to allow herself to be summoned, Teth said her goodbyes and planned to slaughter whoever was summoning her before quickly returning home.

Turned out it was just some idiot conjurers who thought “well we can’t summon a daedric prince, so let’s go for some random demiprince”. She kills all but one, demanding his hands instead so he can never practice magic again. But then since she doesn’t know how to get home, she treks to the nearest daedric shrine to ask for help from some daedric prince (nearly all of them are her aunts and uncles). It ends up being Sanguine (”This is a weird booty call but okay Teth.” “Put mom on, you bitch.”)

... To which Sheogorath has to tell her that she can’t return home because she accidentally fulfilled the first part of the Prophecy of the Dragonborn, since she is the first Dragonborn to appear in Mundus since the Snow Tower fell. Also that she’s a Dragonborn, since her father is Martin Septim, who is now kind of Akatosh. Also that Sheogorath kept this a secret all of Teth’s life. 

Now Alduin is days from appearing in Skyrim, Aka!Martin just found out he has a kid, and Teth, who has never spent a day in Mundus, has to learn how to be/act like a mortal now that she’s severely restricted in her powers.

Unsurprisingly, Teth is mad. Really mad.

Bonus stuff!

Her eye color was supposed to reflect the mania/dementia split

She’s just slightly taller than a male Altmer despite having an Imperial appearance

The scar under her eye came from an invader’s blade during an attack on the Isles for which she was leading the defense. Sheogorath had some particularly cruel and unusual punishments for those responsible.

Pansexual Aromantic

Vegetarian but never gives the same reason why

Absolutely loves Barbas. Loves giving him pets and calling him a good boy

She starts her journey by very badly feigning total ignorance about how anything and everything works because she fears coming across as Too Knowledgeable, but she also doesn’t really know Tamriel world history regarding the 200 years since she and/or her mom were on Tamriel. So she sounds like an idiot asking what a daedra is, but also does’t know about the White-Gold Concordat.

Eventually she just gives up and accepts her fate as being some weird-ass cryptid wandering Tamriel. Surprisingly, people are far less suspicious of her then than they were when she first arrived.

Intimidates way too often because she doesn’t know how to deal with people telling her no (having grown up the literal child of a god)

Doesn’t understand what’s wrong with calling a child a little bitch and challenging them to a legit duel. 

Always carrying around 50 pounds of cheese

Hates Mehrunes Dagon and Molag Bal. Is at least tolerant of all the other daedric princes

Has filled Coldharbour with cheese several times.

She meets her dad for the first time while “praying” to Akatosh at a shrine. He tells her how much her loves her and how he’s so sorry that all of this is happening because of him (being the dragonborn parent). They also meet after she defeats Alduin and he tells her how proud he is of her, and that he also was hoping to be able to speak with her mother again at some point.

Sheogorath gives Teth a random “blessing” everyday during her journey. Most of the time, it’s a curse.

Teth takes being Dragonborn most serious out of any of my OCs. She actively trains her voice, and uses it all the time both in combat as well as ‘worship’ to Kyne. She also sees it as her connection to her father, who she wants to make proud.

Inigo also features in her story! He’s a major driving factor in Teth understanding mortals and mortality better, especially when she realizes that she is actively working to avoid disappointing or upsetting him (like with her being in the Dark Brotherhood). He’s also basically one of the main reasons she decides to return to Mundus after she fulfills the Prophecy and no longer HAS to be there.

Savos Aren’s death was probably the first major thing to get Teth to understand the permanence of death for mortals, having grown up without forming strong attachments to any of the mortal residents of the Isles and only really seeing death of daedra (who basically always returned. Seeing people care enough about her as Dragonborn Teth rather than Demiprince Tethra’maan to die for her? Really throws her off her groove

Doesn’t like the adopted kids calling her mama, but will give them a warm home and other caring adults to live with.

Kinda insecure about being so young compared to all the other daedra, or even some other people in Skyrim like Serana or Neloth. 

Sheogorath gave Teth a necklace right before she was summoned. The necklace was a gift given to the HoK by Martin during the Oblivion Crisis as a birthday present.

#dragonborn tethra'maan #intro post #long post

[megacrustle]

My last Paper Mario odyssey partners.... had a lot of fun making these! even if they dont get very many notes lol

Part 1 [x] / Part 2 [x]

Oh Mario Baby, I know you're a big, ~strong~ man and all but let me handle these low-class goons~ Siren the Loch Lady. Siren is a former classical opera singer with a silky voice that can put others under her spell. Under the guise of a high-class and posh lady, Siren is actually a bit callous and has a pension for anything morbid. She has no patience for anyone who wastes her time and has no qualms in dealing with others in however manner she decides necessary. Leader of an intimidating "Informant" spy group, Siren and her associates offers help and information to anyone who needs it (granted they have the coins). However, for unknown reasons Siren offers Mario help completely pro bono. Despite her convincing and sadistic nature, Mario and Team have no choice but to accept her incredibly useful help. Siren's ability "Intimidation" is to make enemies on more likely to avoid Mario, meaning he has an easier chance of backtracking or traversing while on low HP? In battle she can give enemies the "cold shoulder" which deals ice damage, as well as charming enemies with her singing so they temporarily switch sides in battle. Attacks Cold Shoulder- Siren snubs a ground enemy and gives them a cold shoulder, dealing ice damage that might freeze enemies. *Siren's Song- Siren sings and has a chance of charming an enemy so they temporarily switch to Mario's side of battle. **Kiss and Tell- Siren plants a gentle kiss on an enemy, dealing damage that penetrates Defense and healing herself the same amount. ***Endear-Gives Mario another chance to act. It's not until later that it's revealed her Sister has disappeared due to mysterious circumstances and she believes Mario's journey is the key to uncovering what happened to her. After time and bonding with Mario and Party, she has grown a bit attached and decided to help him on his journey herself. On this adventure, maybe she will open up emotionally more to the group and in return become less cruel and spiteful.

Times like these makes me just wanna pull out my guitar and strum some mellow jams. Got some good vibes comin' your way, brothuh, I believe we can make it through anything. Morris the Moe-Eye. A world famous retired musician, Morris has traveled to every kingdom playing sold out concerts and spreading the cheer covering a wide range of genres including blues, country, and folk rock (as well as the universal charm of his smooth, golden voice). His music focuses on themes of adventure, self discovery, and other introspective concepts that make those listening stop and *really* thinks bout whats going on in their lives and the lives of others. Morris has a very open minded view of others, he believes everyone and every location has its own story to tell, and in his youth he has traveled the globe and experienced many things in order to gain inspiration for his music. Like other Moe-Eye, Morris has the ability to view invisible and unseen objects, but Morris is capable of seeing also invisible attributes of people and objects, such as emotions, which helps him bond and relate to others exceptionally easily. Morris's ability is to use his shades to reveal hidden objects in the overworld. In battle he can strum rancorous cords that deal damage to enemies or strum a silky lullaby that might lead some to fall asleep, Attacks: Rowdy Twang- Morris plays an unpleasant cord that damages any enemy. *Spectacled- Morris equips his sunglasses which allows him to see enemy weaknesses, which may boosts his attack or defense. **Lullaby Blues- Morris strums his guitar gently and softly, which may cause enemies on the field to fall asleep. ***Rockapalooza- Morris performs a concert which boosts the spirits of the party, temporarily increasing his own and Mario's Attack and Defense as well as replenishing some star points and filling more seats in the audience. Morris joins Mario because he's grown bored of the retired life and decides to relive his old days as an adventurer and helping others, and maybe get inspiration for a come-back album he's planning along the way. How does he even play a guitar without fingers? Does he use his toes?

Come Captain Mustache, with our help we will destroy suffering and evil once and for all! In the name of truth and justice, all villains will experience the mighty power of ROBOT RABBIT RANGER: CYBROOD! Cybrood the Robot Rabbit Ranger. Originally built by a mysterious and unknown scientist, Cybrood was originally 3 individuals of a team of 100 other Rangers who were created to solve problems throughout the world. But when one of these Rangers started strafing towards the side of villainy, re-branding itself as Rex λ, it decided to end the group once and for all by destroy every last Rabbit Ranger. All but 3 Rabbit Rangers were slain, their bodies destroyed and their minds incorporated into the evil singularity of Rex λ. The 3 remaining Rangers; Ranger X, Y, and Z; attempted with all their might to stop Rex λ from wreaking havoc across the cosmos, so they lured it back to their place of origin and used their collective powers to trap it in an indefinite prison. Rangers Y and Z, however, were mortally wounded during the fight. The only way to save them was for Ranger X to assimilate their minds into its own mainframe just as Rex λ had done to the other Rangers. With the assimilation complete, all 3 rangers were no longer individuals, but a new single entity now known as Cybrood who has taken it upon themself to guard Rex λ from escaping its prison. Cybrood has been in guard for many, many lonely years which has given them time to think about themselves. They love being heroes and helping other but more importantly they look back at all the times they were able to give others joy and see smiles on their faces. Perhaps when they're finally back out into the world, Cybrood can find new ways to make others truly happy. Cybrood's ability is an Elemental Blast: Using a concentrated laser that cycles through shock; freeze; or burn, Cybrood can solve numerous puzzles and advance through a multitude of obstacles. In battle he can defeat enemies with simple chopping attack, high kicks, and other similar martial art attacks. Attacks: Bunny Hop-Cybrood quickly hops over to an enemy and kick them with their powerful robotic legs. *Elemental Blast-Cybrood blasts an enemy with his powerful laser, which may leave it shocked, frozen, or burned. **Over the Moon-Cybrood grabs an opponent and flies them high into the sky. A turn later they come crashing down onto the field like a meteorite damaging other enemies on the field. ***XYZ Star Rush-Cybrood produces a myriad of holographic stars to shower over the enemies, causing massive damage throughout the stage. Cybrood follows Mario because, after Mario helps them defeat their demons both literal and metaphoric, they are not only just able to finally return to their original objective of helping those in need and saving the day but also now has a chance to possibly explore new career paths and find new ways to bring joy to others.

HUMAN MARIO, IT IS WISE OF YOU TO HAVE FOUND COMPANIONSHIP WITH A SPIRIT SUCH AS I. WERE WE ENEMIES ON THE BATTLEFIELD, I WOULD BE UNABLE TO DETERMINE THE VICTOR. Ja-Shi the Jaxi. A benevolent and ancient spirit, she has protected the denizens of a small village for thousands of years but has become ambivalent of outsiders. But when a danger comes to her village not even she can handle, she realizes she needs to team up with Mario who she did not initially trust in order to keep the townsfolk safe. Ja-Shi's ability is to carry Mario over deadly and hazardous obstacles such as spikes, poisonous water, or lava(similar to Lakitu or Carrie). In battle shy can trample enemies, burn them with spectral flames, or pull them into the spirit world for massive damage. Attacks Knock Back- Ja-shi slams onto the closest ground enemy, launching them to the back of the stage. *Trample- Ja-Shi rams through all ground enemies, possibly launching some out of battle completely **Spectral Bark- Ja-Shi roars and inflicts an enemy with fire damage, possibly leaving them burned. ***Spirit Warp- Ja-Shi attacks and drags an enemy into the spirit world, dealing massive damage as well as leaving a guarantee burn. Ja-Shi joins Mario because she wants to put an end to a greater threat that could cause possible harm to her village or its inhabitants. Maybe on this journey she can learn to have more trust of outsiders, and be more accepting of receiving help and friendship from those outside her town.

Zap Bang Crash and Pow!! Have no fear, Powup is here!! Powup the Bonneter. A quirky little ghost from Bonneton, but unlike the other guys who possessed hats she had the ability to possess and take the powers of power ups! She is a super secret bonus partner, so Mario has to do some work to get her amazing benefits. Outside of battle, Powup can help Mario locate hidden and secret objects. In battlem Powup acts as a 3rd partner: Mario just has to activate an item and Powup will take its powers. She only has 1 attack and it varies between item, but a 3rd partner can help with Mario's strategy as she can damage enemies, defend herself or her teammates, and appeal to the crowd to increase SP. Mario can change what powerup she is currently possessing anytime as long as he has the item in his inventory, and if she falls in battle he can bring her back. She's a bit of a trickster and hid herself behind multiple difficult objectives to see if anyone could find her. After Mario succeeds and reveals her from her hiding place, she devotes her loyalty  to him for being such a clever player.

#paper mario #paper mario partner #super mario odyssey #mario oc #lochlady #moe-eye #broodal #jaxi #bonneter #cappy

[shannaraisles]

A Rose By Any Name - Chapter 19

In which Ciara gets a nasty shock. Banner created by the superb @kagetsukai.

[Read on AO3] OR [Read from the beginning]

An air of expectant tension hung over the palace in Denerim today. The Landsmeet had been called; the arls and banns had entered the hall, the doors closed firmly behind them. There was a great deal of business to go over, but the question on everyone's lips was the same. Who was the king going to marry?

The ladies themselves were not permitted to be present, for obvious reasons. The tension hung over those who remained as heavily as it did over the city outside, each one dealing with it in her own way. Despite her certainty that she would not be chosen, Ceridwyn of Kirkwall was sparring in the palace grounds to keep her mind off things; Callista of Nevarra had retired to the library with Maria, ostensibly to read while keeping out of everyone's way; Delphine of Orlais was obsessively going through the contents of her trunk, as though trying to determine which of her gowns was the most queenly. And Ciara of Amaranthine? She found herself in conversation with someone who, up until a week ago, she had thought she would despise on sight.

In truth, Bann Ceorlic's grandson, Alron, was nowhere near the monster she had braced herself to look over. Even with the king's assurance that she could not be forced to marry anyone, Ciara had expected to have to find something in the man she might be able to consider a positive. Yet Alron himself proved to be a quiet, studious sort only a couple of years her senior, as in awe of the court of Ferelden as she was herself. Better yet, he was as enthusiastic about marrying a complete stranger as she was. Still, for the sake of her parents, they had made an attempt at spending a little time together. This morning's meeting was no different to any other she had shared with him; indeed, since he, too, was excluded from the Landsmeet, they had elected to fill the time before the king's announcement furthering their friendly acquaintance.

"She has been very quiet these last two days, but it is plain for anyone to see that the king intends to ask her," she was saying as they promenaded around the rose garden under the watchful eyes of her appointed Highever bodyguard. "I do not understand why she should be so withdrawn. She loves him, and he feels the same for her in his heart, I am sure."

"There are some, Lady Ciara, who believe he intends to choose you," Alron told her. "In light of his intervention in our own families' machinations. It does not surprise me that the princess may have fallen victim to believing some of those rumors, especially given that certain of the nobles have been repeating them."

"It worries me," Ciara confessed with a frown. "Princess Felicita carries her kindness in her heart and on her sleeve; that others should be so cruel as to suggest that she is somehow unworthy of the king to her face ... it makes me angry."

"You are very fond of her, are you not?" he asked, his curiosity tempered with friendly warmth. "And she of you. I imagine she would swallow her disappointment to be happy for you, should the outcome not be what you expect."

"I do not think she could," Ciara argued, shaking her head. "I have not known her to lie in all this time. I do not believe she is capable of such a pretence when her own heart is aching."

"And do you truly not wish to marry the king yourself?"

She snorted, hastily covering the reaction with a polite bout of genteel coughing. "I have no desire to marry anyone at this time," she reminded him. "As you well know."

"Truly, Lady Ciara, marriage is the last thing on my mind," Alron promised her with a low laugh. "It isn't that you are not beautiful, accomplished, and so forth - I simply do not believe I shall ever marry."

Ciara bit down on a warm smile in answer to his fervently stated intention. "Lord Alron, please do not repeat yourself again," she assured him. "I have no interest in marrying you either, and there is no power in the land that can force us into such a joining. I must confess, I had thought you would be something of a monster."

"Oh, no, that would be my brother, Atycan," he said dismissively. "A brutish lout of the first order. I know he is my brother and I should love him, but I cannot stand him."

"And he is to be Bann when your grandfather passes?" she asked warily.

"Well, the king has to approve the passing of the title," Alron pointed out, "but I think it very likely that Atycan will be the next Bann, unless he dies horribly in some duel or other."

"Is that likely to happen?" Ciara asked, her voice edged with mild horror at this insight into just how brutish Alron's brother was.

"If I can arrange it, yes," he told her honestly. "The world would be a far better place without my brother, Lady Ciara, and the Bannorn, safer."

"But if you were to become Bann, surely you will have to marry to beget heirs," she said, feeling her way through a conversation that was more than a little complex in its subtleties. "And yet you say you will never marry."

Alron smiled, shaking his head. "No, you are quite right," he conceded. "Perhaps I should amend that then. The woman I might wish to marry will never have me."

"You cannot know that for certain, Alron." Ciara shook her own head at his confident declaration. "Have you not spoken to her?"

Her companion laughed, just a little hopelessly. "There is no need, Ciara," he insisted in a gentle tone. "I adore her. I admire her strength and courage, her intelligence and wit. She insists that her beauty has faded, though I do not see it. But she has been hurt too often by ambitious men for her to trust anyone of noble birth, especially one in my position with everything to gain from a marriage to her. I would not allow her to believe me capable of using her in such a way as she has been used before."

"So you will stay her friend and let your heart wither?"

Alron paused, and for a moment she could have sworn he was fighting not to laugh at her romanticized view of what unrequited loved truly was. He took her hand between his own, patting her knuckles beneath his palm.

"I swear to you, my dear little friend, I will not turn cold and heartless," he promised. "And if you ever need me, I will stand at your back and defend you from the ambitions of heartless men."

"That isn't what I was asking," she argued, pulling her hand away as she blushed under his smile.

"No, it isn't," he agreed. "But it is the truth."

Ciara stared him for a moment, her eyes narrowing at the smile on his face. "I think you're teasing me, Lord Alron," she accused him with a mild sense of offense.

"I do believe you're right, Lady Ciara," he agreed, laughing as she slapped at his arm. "But, in my defense, I -"

"Ciara! Lady Ciara, it's horrible, you got to come now!"

Ciara whirled around at the sound of that voice, startled to find Maria rushing toward her along the paths of the rose garden in floods of tears. The little girl reached her just as she crouched to catch the child, throwing short arms around Ciara's neck to sob into her neck. Ciara glanced up at Alron, utterly bemused and more than a little concerned. What could possibly have happened to upset Maria this much?

"Sweetling, what is it?" she asked, gently drawing the scrunched up face away from her neck to wipe the tears from Maria's cheeks. "Did something happen while you were reading with Callista?"

Maria nodded, hiccuping as she tried very hard to stop crying. Ciara waited, fighting down an urge to press the child for more detail. She'd learned that, when it came to Maria, patience was its own reward. Eventually the little girl swallowed hard, sniffling back the last of her tears.

"Me and C'lista was - were - reading about Caled's ham and making a country," she managed in a broken voice. "And-and the princess, she came in and she said goodbye!"

Alarm flared in Ciara's mind, but she did not dare let it show too obviously, in case it set Maria off again.

"Goodbye?" she repeated. "Are you sure she was saying goodbye, Maria?"

Maria nodded vehemently. "She gave me a dolly and a kiss and said she was going home 'cos Mr. Kingness is going to marry you, and she's going to write to me, but I can't read properly yet and I won't be able to read her letters!" she wailed, heartbroken. "And she wasn't crying like grown ups don't cry when they want to, and C'lista told her to stay, and she didn't listen!"

Ciara rose sharply to her feet, taking the child's hand. "Let's go to the gates," she told the little girl. "Perhaps she hasn't left yet."

"Is there anything I can do, Lady Ciara?" Alron asked, one hand on her arm to stay her leaving very briefly.

She glanced down at the little girl holding tightly to her hand, acutely aware that she herself had almost predicted this might happen in conversation with him just now. She should have trusted her own instincts and stayed close to Felicita! But berating herself now would do nothing. They had to stop the future Queen of Ferelden from leaving over a silly misunderstanding.

"Find Warden-Commander Tabris and tell her that Princess Felicita is leaving in the belief that she is not what the king wants," she told Alron. Demelza could storm the Landsmeet if necessary - she'd done it before, after all. "She'll know what to do."

"As you wish."

With the swiftest bow she had ever seen from a Fereldan noble, Alron spun away, somehow managing to run without actually breaking into a run in the direction of the palace proper. Ciara turned to look down at Maria.

"Now then ... let's catch the princess and tie her up somewhere so she can't leave."

With Maria clinging to her hand, Ciara did run, ignoring the disapproving looks from the superfluous nobles lingering in the public gardens of the palace. If they weren't important enough to be in the Landsmeet, they weren't important enough to worry about offending them, in her opinion. A month of exposure to noble women with confidence in their own position and influence had done wonders for Ciara's sense of self-esteem, even if she still seemed just a little afraid of her own shadow at times. Besides, this was more important than her reputation - this was her friend, hurting over a misapprehension and compounding that hurt by making a judgment without all the facts. Until they could produce the king to set her straight, Ciara was just going to have to do the best she could with the wits she had available.

Breathless, Ciara rounded the corner by the gate, just in time to see the Antivan ambassadorial coach trundle out into the city. Callista was standing on the steps into the palace, her hands on her hips, and her expression defeated. The Nevarran woman met Ciara's horrified gaze, shaking her head as Maria abandoned them to press her face to the gates, calling to the departing coach.

The princess was gone.

#a rose by any name #the plot is now so thick you could build a house with it #ciara of amaranthine #maria of rivain #callista of nevarra #what rom com is complete without a set up to the finale like this? #friendship #tension #oh noes!

[notontumblr]

Character Analysis: Rean’s Opposite (CS1/2 spoilers)

Okay this gonna be super long and maybe pointless, but Trails is very big foreshadowing and catching people by surprise so I might as get my thoughts out there. 

So lots of people talk about Crow and Rean’s differences and insinuate how they're opposites. It's an easy claim to make, but I'm going to argue that while Rean sure has an opposite, it's not Crow. If anything, Rean and Crow are two sides of the same coin.  While there's some opposing traits- they are fundamentally the same deep down. You could write an entire essay on this and their relationship, it’s a very important relationship. But I'm not here to talk about Crow. I'm here to talk about Rean's true opposite.

And that is Elliot Craig. 

There’s a lot of ways they differ in ways that had to be intentional, so I’ll just break it down into categories. 

Battle Abilities

I’ll start with the most obvious one - Rean and Elliot are opposites in fights. Rean is a melee DPS/Tank while Elliot’s a Healer/Ranged DPS. In other words, Rean is a sword fighter while Elliot’s a mage. 

Their crafts are also pretty opposing too. Both of them get their buff craft early on. Rean’s boosts Strength and gives a little CP (the power meter that goes up when you give or take damage), while Elliot’s boosts defense and heals HP. Rean favors going on the offense, while Elliot favors defense. Their other crafts don’t share much overlap either:

Rean: Physical attacks with an increased chance to unbalance enemies. Meant to lay on the hurt whether it be him hitting as many enemies as possible, causing burn status (which causes extra damage each turn), or even being extra enough to summon his robot friend to step on baddies. In CS2 he even gets a special form that increases his damage output. 

Elliot: Only two attack crafts that can’t unbalance enemies. Instead of laying on the hurt, he puts enemies to sleep. His other crafts are a healing craft and one that scans enemy data - in CS2 this gets upgraded to one that will decrease the enemies attack strength when he scans - once again showing he’s favors defense. He’s also the only character with a healing S-Craft. 

Even their elements are opposite. Rean’s elements are Fire and Time (aka darkness), while Elliot’s are Water and Space (aka light). 

Backgrounds

Obviously with the reveal near the end of CS2 of Osborne being Rean’s dad, CS3 goes more into his past and gives more to say about this. But since that hasn’t been localized, I’ll just keep it to info we know from CS1/2 to spare people spoilers.

First, it’s easy to point out their social classes. Rean is an adopted noble from the countryside while Elliot’s a commoner that grew up in a big city - you couldn’t have more opposite upbringings. Sure, Rean is a commoner by birth, but his birth dad is none other than the most powerful and well known commoner in the country. Meanwhile while Elliot’s dad is a commoner with some status being a Lt. General - it’s much more limited, and only people involved with military are familiar with the name.  

Both Rean and Elliot have one sister - Elise is younger while Fiona is older. That makes the relationship dynamic fundamentally different. Both Elise and Fiona really care for their brothers, but Rean is overprotective of Elise while Fiona is the one whose overprotective of Elliot. Even their personalities are pretty different- Elise is a Tsundere through and through. Meanwhile Fiona is sweet and cheerful- but is a force of nature when she wants something. If you talk to the Craigs during the 2nd day of the school festival, you find out even Craig the Red is intimidated by her. 

Speaking of fathers, let’s talk about their relationships with their living parents. Elliot’s relationship with his dad is the focus of his character arc. When Elliot first talks about him, you get the impression that he’s an aloof and intimidating figure that’s trying to push Elliot to be like him. However when you actually meet him.......the stories don’t quite line up. 

While Olaf IS a pushy and intimidating figure, he’s also a very loving dad that openly affectionate and tries to be there for his kids. He even makes sure to attend Elliot’s concert at the school festival despite the worsening situation in Crossbell.  

Even his pushiness has more noble reasons behind it. If you choose to spend time with Elliot during the bonfire, he says this about what he realized with his dad:

"He wasn't against me going to the music academy because he was against me pursuing a career in music. He didn't want me to lock myself into it. He wanted me to be able to decide for myself just what path I wanted to follow. And more importantly, he wanted me to have the strength to do so, even if people around me tried to stand in my way..."

While Elliot says he’s just speculating, CS2 shows that he’s not far off. After reuniting with his son and seeing how strong Elliot’s become, he tells Elliot he’ll support him in whatever path he chooses. Olaf Craig wants his kids to be independent and strong enough to fight for that independence - even if it means going against him.

Another important element of Olaf's parenting? Is his honesty with his kids even when it’s an ugly truth. One example is when Fiona gets captured, the Craig kids know that if their dad has to choose between his duty and their lives- he’ll choose his duty no matter how much it hurts. Imagine a dad as loving as Olaf having to admit that to his kids. Even if it’s questionable if there’s a point of being TOO honest with your kids (hearing how your dad would let you DIE if necessary couldn’t have helped Elliot’s self-esteem issues, I’m just saying), it’s clear he feels it’s better to be honest no matter what.

Rean’s parents, adopted and biological, are the opposite. Let’s start with the Schwarzers. They are a nice and loving folk when you meet them, not at all intimidating. But they actually have their own ambitions for him, revealed mostly in the Drama CD for the CS1 Ymir trip. Rean’s mom wants Rean and Elise to get married and take over his father’s lordship - even though Rean doesn’t want that. While their intentions aren’t necessarily bad ones (though wanting him to marry his adopted sister is worrying), they're planning to use Rean for their own dreams.

And then there’s the honesty thing. The Schwarzers aren’t honest with their kids. Elise didn’t find out Rean was adopted until she was 12, and as for Rean? They pretend they don’t know who Rean’s birth parents are, but you find out in CS2 they knew all along. This exchange in the drama CD sums up their stance on ugly truths:

Rean: The reason why I want to learn more about myself is because I want to become the real Rean Schwarzer. To be proud as a member of this important family, and at the same time, as a comrade for my friends. Therefore, I must find the truth no matter what it takes. Teo Schwarzer: ...No matter how cruel the truth may be?

This shows Teo Schwarzer’s willing to lie and hide things if he feels the truth is too cruel. His stance is a sympathetic one. He wants to shield their kids from the ugly truths as many parents are tempted to do. But in the end, it just ends up hurting their relationship with Rean more than anything else. 

But at least the Schwarzer’s hearts are in the right place, unlike that asshole of a biological dad. Osborne isn’t even subtle about his willingness to use his own son for his ambitions. The moment the civil war ends, he throws his son into helping him conquer Crossbell. As for not being honest, well the fact he hid his identity as Rean’s father until Rean remembered something says it all. While Olaf is raising his kids to be independent adults with a full understanding of the world, Osborne sees his son as a tool that’s on a need-to-know basis. 

Personality

It’s pretty easy to see where Elliot and Rean differ in personality. While Elliot’s timid, Rean’s outspoken. Rean enjoys fighting, Elliot would rather play music. Rean notices girls on several occasions, Elliot notices the guys more during swim class. Rean is regularly in the center of attention, Elliot is regularly overlooked both in game, and by fans. The list goes on about how their personalities differ, but there’s one major theme:

If there’s one thing everyone knows about Elliot it’s that he’s obsessive about music. He practices constantly, he’s a perfectionist, his room is full music stuff- literally he’s a stone throw away from being an Ace Attorney character his obsession is so strong. But if you look carefully, it isn’t so much about music as he’s someone who when he devotes himself to something, he does it at 200%. In the last dorm visit while most characters express something vague like “our paths will cross again” or agreements to meet up sometime if you pick them for their closest bond, Elliot says this: 

In other words, Elliot is the one character that REFUSES to break up or put his relationship on hold. He’s too devoted. Notably, you get his first S-Craft only after he decides he’s glad to be at Thors and becomes determined not fall behind everyone. 

Rean on the other hand is a drifter that doesn’t commit. He studied 8 Leaves, but he stopped after beginner’s rank. He learned the lute, but he wasn’t serious about it and fell out of practice. He never joins a club (seriously Rean would’ve it killed you to join Fishing Club??). At the end of CS2 when it comes time for Class VII to separate so they can pursue their own goals -- Rean doesn’t really have one, so he stays at Thors, because it’s the only place he ever felt like he belonged. 

Character Arcs

Let’s start with where Elliot and Rean were at the start of CS1

Elliot: Pressured to be in the military by his father. Not confident, and a bit at a loss at what his future would be. 

Rean: Enrolling in Thors despite it putting his parents out. Fairly confident in pursuing his plan of easing his perceived family’s burden after graduation.  

Now look at the end of CS2 where they were at:

Elliot: Enrolling in the Music Academy despite his father’s original wishes. Armed with confidence, he committed to a plan to find a way to use music to help the world. 

Rean: Pressured to be in the military by his father. Confidence shaken, at a real loss about his future.  

The situations are different obviously, but they basically switched places over the course of two games.  Generally speaking when stories do that, it’s intentional for some reason or another.

What does it all Mean? 

Truthfully? It might mean nothing. Or it might not. 

It’s impossible to say until CS3 and 4 get released and localized. Maybe Elliot will have an important role to play in the Erebonia arc, or maybe there was a plan and they scrapped it. Or maybe it’s a red herring. With the Trails series, it is hard to tell because they really do like to give hints along the way that you don’t pick up until later. 

But I do believe it’s not all coincidental. For one, in the character line-ups Elliot is almost always listed right after Alisa (the designated main heroine) in terms of importance. And second?

They outright say it in the game.

Thank you all 2 people that read this, this has been my TED talk. 

#trails of cold steel #trails of cold steel 2 spoilers #elliot craig #rean schwarzer #sen no kiseki #my god this is long #i did not mean this to be so long

[oc-review-shop]

OC Review: Keith Gatti

Review by: Mod Charle

(continuing with the dating sim idea, although lookin it closely it fits better for a reverse harem… here’s the first dateable guy) human name: Keith Gatti

It does seem more like a reverse harem series than a dating sim. However, it is possible to make this into a dating sim by changing the backstories of each alien to have them appear around the same time.

real name: unknown,due to his language being incompatible with human languages

I do wonder, if this is the case, when in human form, is Keith able to communicate with Ida and others?

biological age: around 26-27 years old Height:  1.65 meters- somewhat taller (has two personas, but essentiallty they are the same)

If they are the same persona, I don’t feel the need to keep “two personas” in his bio. If they are the same, it is one persona.

Weight: HEAVY Body build: skinny/muscular

If he is very heavy, I would assume he is more big and muscular rather than skinny, like bodybuilders. Skinny doesn’t seem like it fits.

Voice: high pitched, soft, cute / rough, deep (closer to his true alien voice) dere type: Yandere. it will be explained why.

Yandere.... hmm.....

gifts from him: flowers, rollerskates… Approach level: VERY EASY

He kinda seems like a loving puppy lololol

chronological age: 5470 years old, but he spent time on earth (and the space (research) station ) only 40 years (dude, he travelled to earth, and didnt have faster than light time travel)

I am very confused on his age. His biological age is 26-27 years but there are 40 years, and 5470 years sprawled in this little section. How old is he? In alien years? In human years?

Species description: Keith’s species are some sort of gigantic amphibians, living in equally big aquatic enviroments, their skin is coloured accordingly to the “sand” and vegetation of the environment, having a stocky build to resist the changing pressure in land and underwater, and fins, to build resistance.

The species are also predators, but rather than chasing down the prey, they  just lure them using changing patterns on the skin and their visible veins to create a mesmerizing visage, and when the prey approaches, they hold it with their legs and commence eating them, first sucking their juices dry and then munching their dry bodies like a snack. besides obvious predator abilities, they can read feelings, and the reasons for those feelings, they just hold their claws onto the location of the heart of whoever they are reading and using their eyes to make them focus on the reader, its really simple, y'know-

I really like the species description and how each “amphibian-like” creature appears, but I am a little put off on how they lure their prey in. Generally, prey would only go near something if it looks like something familiar or safe. Therefore, I would have to recommend their skin and veins create different colors that resemble coral and such, although I do really like the idea! Also, you may need to go more in depth about how these creatures read feelings. Human emotions and alien emotions, I would imagine, are drastically different given they’re from different worlds. I suggest elaborating a little more on how they vary and how they are similar.

about keith: Keith is one excitable, cheerful boy, who’s really amazed by everything and might as well be a dog, loving to cuddle and nuzzle, however he has a cruel, jealous side, that he shows whenever someone outside the social circle he is in steps in and takes an interest to Ida,and uses their fear to his advantage, or manipulates them to do his biding.or else he would eat them, although he does it more on an impulsive whim,  Ida has no idea of this , thinking he is an uwu soft dumb marshmallow , and neither does Mabel, who would tell Ida inmediately, Caleb knows but shrugs it off, Drake is really angry at this because it might blow up their cover, and Xander just scolds him because eating people isnt nice, and because Ida might find out. yeah… (I know this only covered a few personality traits…sorry)

I think this is a good personality trait for Keith. He seems lovable but is easily jealous and vicious. This dating sim or harem would actually work out very well because Keith is a character that could easily get into the way of another character’s move on Ida.

while not much of his past is known other than him being the first of his batch to hatch, it is theorized that his jealous, manipulative, vengeful cruel persona is the real one , due to other members of his species cowering in fear in his presence, however, he IS genuinely cheerful around Ida and truly supports her and her dreams.he is also very optimistic in that he is going to be her one true love, despite all his jealousness

Keith has some major issues lmao

He still remembers the first time he met Ida, he was going to go crazy after years of isolation, the only contact he has had was with  scientists who just checked him up and left, but then came Ida, she was just cleaning up stuff, looking him and rambling about some things about travels and tourism, venting about her frustrations, he felt the urge of cheer her up, playing like a cat, humans like cats, however, maybe due to his size, she was more scared and angry , thus she searched for the nearest object which happened to be a metal bar that was used in case the door needed to be extra locked, and she knocked out two of his teeth with it.

Man, if I was looking for a man to be my significant other, I would search for one that would knock two of my teeth out with a metal bar on sight. But this is very reasonable. While it is cliche, if you were all alone and someone came to give you company, I bet something would start to blossom.

Keith understood perfectly she was ready to kill him in self defense if necessary, and she was about to start a ruckus (she does have anger issues, and her training was strictly cleaning related) , and she was going to get kicked out, thus, he was not going to see her again, he just calmly laid a claw on her, and looked her directly in the eyes, and found her frustrations and issues.

I think another reason why Keith might have the jealousness is because he was the first to meet Ida. You could maybe add in that these creatures have an “imprinting” thing going on that allows one to claim someone else as their significant other. This could work, but then again, all the other aliens are also going after Ida. Idk it’s just a thought.

Though he needed to talk to her and meet her outside of the job, the morphing device that was on a laboratory was perfect for creating his new persona, his human self, but he needed dna, which… wasnt hard to obtain, Ida’s suit was probably full of hairs, and whatnot, so he did what he had to do, take her suit and go away, it was a hard and painful process until he took a completely human form.

Dang that must hurt. However, I feel like using Ida’s DNA would make him look more like a girl. I would change this to Keith finding a way to obtain a male’s hair and then complete the transformation.

I think I explained in Ida’s profile what happened the next day…

Yes, yes you did.

Relationships:

with Ida:  he is completely infatuated with her, idolizing her, and admiring her, although this is not good, but once he starts respecting her as a human being and acknowledging her faults the ship can sail, if not, there’s suffering for both of them, he is taking steps, for example, he respects her space.

Overprotective but not pushy. Honestly Keith isn’t that bad of a dude.

With Mabel: Mabel is helping him woo Ida, although she isnt aware of his Yandere tendencies.

What a girl Mabel, yes. But I still think Ida and Mabel could be a route in this sim.

With Drake: they dont get along very well, because despite Drake being violent and bloodthirsty he doesnt sugarcoat it , they like to play toghether though…

If “play” means “trying to rip each others’ throats out”, yeah, I guess they love to play.

With Caleb : Caleb and Keith get along very well with each other, is not hard since both of them are very approachable.

Good boys.

With Xander: both are very jealous of Ida, although Xander fears keith, and keith fears xander as well, no reason

I feel like there should be a reason they fear each other. We generally know why Keith is feared, but Xander should have an underlying trait or secret that makes him extremely dangerous. Its always the sweet/quiet ones.

Trivia: *He adopted the manic pixie dream guy persona to cheer Ida up, he loves seeing her smile *According to Ida he weights like a horse, it might be hyperbole though. *His human form presents no glamour failure at first, but if very stressed he shows parts of his true form. *And mantaining his cute voice is difficult for him too *he is an amphibian and thus needs to be hydrated constantly, he carries a purse full of bottled water.

I honestly really like Keith a lot more now. He originally seemed too generic and likable, but he has flaws and I do want to learn more about the fear everyone seems to show around him. Don’t be afraid to send in your other characters, i would be happy to review them!

Thanks for reading, and I hope this helps! (◕ ω ◕✿)

*All OC credit goes to daniluni

~Mod Charle

#ocreview #oc review shop #oc #alien #alienoc #idanorth #keith gatti #amphibian oc #daniluni