#and get ready for glimbow | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

n7punk · 1 year

Text

"As Many Lives As It Takes (To Be With You)" Fic Notes

After talking shit and increasing the chapter count like five times, AMLAIT is finally done at 13/5 chapters. You can maybe guess there’s a lot going on in these fic notes.

No playlist this time, I didn’t make one assuming it would be a quick fic and just listened to random shit, or watched baking videos, or put in earbuds and listened to silence when I had migraines.

Epilogue life:

So I pretty much put what would be this section in the fic’s actual epilogue, but Catra and Adora end up staying in the apartment for a while. After a couple months of living with a third wheel (who is more like the primary wheel they are tricycling considering who owns the place), it starts cramping on their couple moments. Adora gently prods Catra about the idea of getting their own place, which is an idea that takes several weeks to sink in before she’s willing to explore venturing beyond her safety bubble, but everything changed once and the world didn’t end, so she eventually decides she’s ready. Catra finally leaves that small room after four years. As scary as it is, it feels like the ultimate measure of her growth.

After a few years they move to the outskirts of Bright Moon when Adora switches hospitals, giving them a bit more air and the “best of both worlds” when it comes to being in the city but having a bit more of the freedom/relaxation from their childhood town back. They’re also closer to Thaymor which makes visiting a little easier, and closer to Glimbow and Scorfuma specifically, though they’re farther from some of their other friends.

They both learn to maintain their best friendships even not living together and they regularly visit Adora’s parents, though they never tell anyone else about Catra’s ability. Netossa seems like she suspects something at times, but she never directly implies or asks something, and whatever she suspects certainly couldn’t be the truth.

Chapter 1:

⦁ If you were expecting me to have ever forgotten that tweet ND made about Catra going through all nine of her lives over the course of She-ra and Adora healing her to reset them, then you’re wrong. In a way, this entire AU is ND’s fault. Did you think about that. I have No Responsibility for this.

⦁ Entrapta’s “nerd merchandise” is a premier ball from pokemon because for some reason that was the only thing I could picture for it. It’s not even a regular pokeball I don’t know why!! But that’s what they use.

⦁ Catra technically has binocular vision dysfunction in this due to her right eye being a little out of sync from her left.

⦁ Time paradox is, of course, a portal reference.

⦁ Entrapta’s blanket used to fall off her lap when she was working, which is how it ended up under the table the first few times, and then she noticed Catra balling up there and started leaving it there on purpose, even washing and rearranging it.

⦁ Entrapta’s room is always hot because of the equipment in it and the heat output from her computer and stuff. Luckily, all three occupants of the apartment like it when it’s warm.

Chapter 2:

⦁ Catra watching ice melt is a Booker reference. I love you Booker. But also a euphemism like “watching paint dry,” “watching grass grow,” etc.

⦁ The nightmares weren’t in the initial concept for the fic, but Entrapta helping Catra out with her “condition” was and I found they were a good way to showcase the backstory without actually showing flashbacks or having an entire prologue chapter of trauma after trauma that just would have felt miserable and spoiled everything.

⦁ Catra’s job isn’t necessarily real but is also heavily based on real things. Basically universities sometimes have special collections, archives, etc that are typically “open” during regular work hours, but only by appointment. They might have their own staff or just the librarians see to them. For this fic I basically made up something that might be real, where BMU also allows appointments after hours, but only from grad students, and then professors can come in after hours (or during hours) without appointment as long as there’s staff present. And of course they get away with that by hiring someone cheap so it doesn’t cost them a lot extra to keep it open. Catra has been paid more by other jobs, but she likes this one way better, and she doesn’t have a ton of money pressure living with Scorpia and Entrapta, so she’s planning to keep it. This is also heavily based on one of my first jobs where I did something similar for a university but it had nothing to do with collections or the library. Catra works the same hours I did then.

Chapter 3:

⦁ Bow would have offered Catra his own bed if he thought she would have taken it, but Entrapta — and Catra’s own reactions — made it pretty clear that she was going to make herself difficult to help, so he thought the couch might seem “less pitying,” but he didn’t account for the Adora factor. Everybody forgets about the Adora factor.

⦁ Scorpia mentioning “six years” immediately solidified in Adora’s subconscious that Catra’s injury was from the fall, which is why she jumped to saying she watched it happen. It didn’t even occur to Adora that Catra’s paralysis could have come from something other than the fall until she was in bed like two days later and thought, oh fuck, there could have been something worse.

⦁ Sneaking onto the school roof is the exact kind of shit Catra and Adora would do together, but since she was going up there to have A Moment™️ about one of her deaths, Catra wanted to be alone. It felt like this dark secret that she was harboring and would ruin her life at any moment.

Interlude:

⦁ “It helps a lot even without her talking back or looking at me” yeah sometimes Entrapta is listening and sometimes she isn’t even aware Scorpia is there. Scorpia can unload her whole problem, talk herself through a solution, say “Thanks!”, and then only after she has marched herself out of the room will Entrapta realize she has left and throw a goodbye through the door, still not looking away from her screens. The first time Catra witnesses this she immediately gets a clear picture of the apartment dynamic.

⦁ Catra wouldn’t say her name because it was part of her paranoia over being hunted down somehow.

⦁ “Maybe Scorpia isn’t used to people not immediately loving her.” Yeah could not be further from the truth she was kind of bullied in school, that’s how she and Entrapta became friends, because they were both bad at social cues and stuck together.

⦁ Obviously, Entrapta didn’t mean anything by her questions. When you don’t realize other people would treat someone differently over something, it can seem like innocent curiosity to ask about it. She learned very quickly after meeting Catra that those kinds of things have limits, it just wasn’t something that had come up in her life before and she hadn’t inferred it.

Chapter 4:

⦁ Honestly Adora had to have Mara as family to support her because any less and she might not have made it to be at all together after everything she thought happened with Catra.

⦁ Catra does wear her arm brace in other scenarios — when she’s going to be doing physical activity, for instance, though she might opt for a sling instead/in addition — but as far as wearing it while in the apartment, sleeping like that is the only one. The difficulty of putting it on by herself — and the pain of getting help — are why she almost never uses it, even though it would work for some (but not all) of the things the sling works for, and be less obtrusive too. That’s why Adora being able to help with it later is so helpful.

Chapter 5:

⦁ The thing Adora knows that Catra doesn’t is that she’s absolutely going to break and come back home with her, even if the driving thing was more up in the air.

⦁ I went back and forth on the language to use around Catra’s ears, specifically whether to refer to them as a pair or only reference her single fully-functional one. Ultimately I decided that Catra’s internal dialog would still think of it as her ears pinning back even if only one moves (at all for small movements, or all the way for larger). She spent her entire life thinking of them as a pair, and she can’t feel one not reacting, she just doesn’t feel anything over there, so she defaults to how she used to consider them unless she’s like, looking in the mirror and can see only one move. When it comes to other people addressing them, they see just one ear reacting for the most part and tend to refer to them singularly.

Chapter 6:

⦁ Scorpia got Adora’s number at the same event that she told her about arm-hugs, mostly to puff herself up when she realized Adora could pet Catra, however carefully.

⦁ Scorpia’s pillow said “Not to spoil the ending, but everything is going to be ok” which just irritated Catra every time she saw it, so she hid it. She can’t throw it out because Scorpia’s moms are the ones who got it, but she can do her damnedest to never see it again. It mysteriously reappears when Scorpia is moving out so she can take the dumb thing with her.

⦁ Like every chapter I had a scene that I was like “this is the most fun to write, I love this so much” (which like… really awesome from a writing perspective!) and the cuddling scene was that one for this chapter. I thought it was going to be the phone call, but Adora’s determination to cuddle, her diagram, and Catra’s fluster were just so fun to work with.

Chapter 7:

⦁ Mara calls her loved ones dear because Razz always called her dearie.

⦁ Mara and Adora went all-in on the driving thing because they know Catra well and knows she needs an excuse, or at least an extra push, whenever it comes to emotional stuff like coming home.

⦁ Originally the phone calls were outlined to be one singular phone call, with Catra eventually getting comfortable enough to turn on the video as the call went on, but spreading it out made a little more sense. In the version where it was all one call, though, Catra admitted that she didn’t want them to see her face paralyzed and Adora asked Mara to tell Catra that she didn’t care about her ear. Another reason I cut it is because I decided Catra wasn’t self-conscious about that aspect of her injury.

⦁ Entrapta is thorough. There were two-three months there were she was tracking and timing just about every single thing Catra did inside the apartment. She had monitoring devices she didn’t realize her roommates would want to know about because it just seemed more effective to her than following Catra around all day. Her presence would have skewed the experiment. It’s creepy, but it all came from a place of love and wanting to build a better understanding of what could be effecting Catra’s situation.

⦁ The restraint it took for me to not make a joke about Entrapta knowing when Catra… “takes time for herself” was immense but I kept reminding myself it was a T fic.

⦁ “I was there two months ago” Ha, yeah, this is set in December and… The anniversary……. Adora needed to be home. Her moms are the only ones who can really comfort her when she’s like that.

⦁ Mara really wanted a kid, and Hope did too but less so, and she had a lot more Concerns about it. When they started looking into adoption and found a kid who was human (so Hope was confident they were informed on taking care of her) and had been an orphan for ten years, Mara couldn’t stand to leave her there. They hadn’t really been intending on getting an older kid (I mean, ten is not old, but in Hope’s head they were looking for a baby because typically you Acquire Child at babyhood so that must be how it works) but Adora being older was another thing that made Hope go okay, we can do this (she’s also, to be quite honest, not a fan of babies or very small children). What that meant in the end though was that Mara, in her older twenties, had much less of an age gap with Adora then would be typical. Hope is like six years older and so her age gap with Adora is less noticeably off.

I think it’s a faceblind thing, but I’m absolutely awful with ages. You could tell me Mara is supposed to be early 20s or late 30s and I would have no choice believe you. Regardless, I roughly place Mara somewhere around the 20-30 mark in the show and as having a more “big sister”-like relationship with Adora, so that’s how things got set up in this AU.

⦁ It’s “Bow’s” senior year because Glimmer is a year younger and Adora’s college education was kind of weird so she doesn’t really consider herself as having anything but a freshmen year. Maybe sophmore.

Chapter 8:

⦁ Catra has two bags while Adora has one for two reasons: 1) Adora still has some stuff at home and doesn’t need to bring as much, and 2) Catra’s second bag was mostly dedicated to her adaptive devices and hybrid shit since she knew she might need them for any stuff Adora wanted to do and she couldn’t borrow the shampoo already at the house.

⦁ Perfuma’s nature hike actually originated in this chapter and then I added it in to chapter 6 since I was far enough ahead in writing to do that. Before that the vibe was just “Well obviously Scorpia got Adora’s number from Perfuma at some point,” but this gave a more solid throughline on that. Their interaction at the nature hike is also what led to Scorpia starting to turn around on Adora until she tested her with the phone call.

⦁ The “look” that passed over Adora’s face when Catra joked that she didn’t remember getting tangled in the ribbon was her briefly worrying that Catra actually didn’t remember due to her supposed memory issues following the fall.

⦁ The school where Catra fell is loosely based on the random high school I took my SATs at, where it was actually four buildings with a courtyard and a quad between the buildings and various sports fields. Adora was walking on one of the paths circling one of the buildings when she saw Catra fall from the roof of another.

⦁ Adora mentions hospitals plural because she checked every single one it was even semi-plausible for Catra to be taken to, though there was only one that made sense since it was more than twenty minutes closer than the next one.

⦁ Adora has her childhood twin bed at home and at the apartment Catra has a double bed to give her enough room to comfortably position her arm without worry. It also helps when she does have a nightmare bad enough for her to move around, and when she’s having a day where her fear of falling is intense. She can tuck into the corner between the bed and the wall and know there’s no way she’s going over the edge.

⦁ This fic was supposed to be set nebulously in the fall until I had the Winterfest ideas and lined everything up to make it happen. It still worked out with it starting literally right after Catra’s birthday, but I went back and edited in a line referring to it later so it would build the time of year out better before it got to the Winterfest stuff. Of course, that only matters if you reread chapter 2 after I did it or started reading the fic later on, but it’s there for rereads, at least. It’s one of those unique things about fanfic and how you (typically) post it as you write it, which doesn’t allow for much in the way of second drafts. I really like that about fanfic because of how it forces you to work the limitation (and also I hate rewriting), but I always have more ideas while I’m writing so sometimes it can get in the way of something good.

⦁ The original title of this fic was “As Many Lives As It Takes (To Be With You Again)” but at some point between creating the document and posting the “Again” got dropped. This isn’t relevant to chapter 8, I just happened to notice it while typing the notes for it.

Chapter 9:

⦁ There was a lot more stuff about Catra learning to drive in this chapter initially, but I wasn’t happy with it and found I was skipping right past it when I was trying to reread/edit what was going on in the chapter, so for the final version I cut it. Some things though: Catra’s entire first day of driving didn’t even involve leaving park, it was mostly spent on figuring out how to manage her arm (in the end, putting it in the arm brace was the best way to keep it still and out of the way, even though that was difficult with Adora helping her instead of Entrapta) and stuff like hitting the turn signal with her pinky while turning the wheel. The first day where they actually drove in the street Adora came along — just for fun and not in case you have a panic attack, promise! — but was sworn to being silent in the backseat. That lasted until Mara said Catra was learning faster than Adora did.

⦁ Adora’s not a bad driver, she’s just an anxious one, partially due to Catra’s accident making her all too aware of the dangers. She spent high school watching Catra deal with her paralysis which supposedly came from the car accident, after all, so she tends to be a meek driver.

⦁ When Catra sees things she wasn’t able to IRL in her dreams, like when she sees parts of the incidents that she was actually dead/unconscious for… sometimes that’s accurate. And that’s all I’ll say.

⦁ The dent stuff… with the bumper… might or might not have been inspired by the movie Underdog……… It’s a very comedic origin for something that is so traumatic in the fic but like. I saw that movie as a kid and never forgot that part.

⦁ Entrapta 100% hacked the DMV and canceled someone else’s permit test so Catra could be fit in immediately, she just didn’t tell Catra that. Not that she’s hiding it, exactly, but volunteering that information? No.

⦁ Oh that phone call from Adora’s perspective. Adora basically didn’t know shit about what they did in the logs. She was horrified by what Catra described, but also a little confused, and maybe even put out. Catra had never told her even half the details it was clear Entrapta knew off the top of her head, and she made it sound like it was all very clear and she remembered every second of what she was awake for. Which, well, she did. Because her body was totally fine. Adora was ruffled by Entrapta’s “bedside manner”, and then she heard the hacking stuff which had her like, wait, what? because Catra had mentioned Entrapta was a professional white hat hacker before (sometimes. Sometimes black hat. Sometimes she does other stuff and invents a new programming language) but the whole “instantly pulling up results from the DMV thing” threw her. She was very attentive when Entrapta was running diagnostics and stuff because she didn’t know about things like Catra still being able to slightly twitch her fingers or shoulder sometimes.

⦁ Catra specifies not mocking Scorpia during romcoms because there is no way, ever, no matter what she owes, that she won’t make fun of the dumb romance movie stuff that happens, especially het nonsense when that applies.

⦁ Catra’s fosters did get her “Winterfest gifts” but they were things like clothes and school supplies she would need anyway, just maybe a little nicer or at least less generic than usual.

⦁ Time to talk about what everybody thought happened to Catra! Obviously, people at school decided Catra had died within the first few weeks. At that time, Adora decided Catra must be in a coma or suffering memory loss, maybe awake but not lucid. She thought Catra’s condition being unstable might be why no one would talk to her, but she told herself she couldn’t be dead because then they would just say that. The longer it went with everyone remaining tight-lipped, however, the worse things Adora began to believe. About a year in, she came to “accept” that Catra was dead — outright, or brain dead even if her body was still breathing. Mara and Hope also didn’t know why anyone would “cover up” what was supposedly a very public suicide, so they also believed Catra “survived,” but knowing how far she fell and how bad it must have been, they knew pretty much right away she was likely to be brain dead or not remember anything. They didn’t really ever say what they thought, though, mostly focusing on comforting Adora when she went through disaster scenarios and occasionally reluctantly admitting which they thought was most likely when she got too frantic to be calmed by anything but an answer. Each member of the trio had a different opinion (each of which was an option that everyone else had considered individually): Kyle believed Catra was severely injured and sent away to a rehab facility to recover and perhaps help her overcome her “suicidal tendencies” but was basically cut off from them by the system, Rogelio believed she was in a coma and if she ever woke suffered memory loss (explaining why she never contacted them), and Lonnie thought that she was straight up brain dead before they eventually pulled the plug. Catra’s foster parents, knowing she had run from the hospital, thought she was dead in a ditch somewhere and after a few months decided they were just never informed when she was found.

⦁ Yes it’s late for chestnut season. No I do not care. Chestnut season is a few weeks later in Etheria, okay.

⦁ Both Mara and Hope cook usually, but around holidays Mara takes charge and it’s family recipes 24/7. Mara probably would have baked a pie for the final day of Winterfest anyway, but it wouldn’t have been that one. That one is the most special.

Chapter 10:

⦁ Even if Catra didn’t need her hand for the VR game, Bow’s headset wouldn’t have fit over her ears. There are headsets that would work, just not the one Bow built. It wasn’t a concern for him at the time.

⦁ Glimmer is terrified of horror games for herself, but she seems to forget that literally every time and is always really excited to play, just remembering the adrenaline rush and thinking this time she’ll redeem herself and be totally cool and composed.

⦁ The horror game was going to be the latest Resident Evil DLC (for the Village? I think? Or like the sequel?) but then I was like damn. I don’t know if that’s in VR. But it was literally the only horror game I could think of at the moment despite liking (let’s plays) of them, so I kind of co-opted and mangled the mom-mannequin-dolls section of that.

⦁ The Star siblings were actually at the barbecue in my first draft but it made the scene too crowded when half the attendees already didn’t have speaking roles.

⦁ I kept trying to figure out where to fit in Adora’s school shit and it just never didn’t slow the scene down. I’m not sure it doesn’t here, either, but somewhere in the fic proper I wanted to mention why Adora and Catra never bumped into each other on campus. I had already decided Adora’s school worked out this way before I decided on Catra’s job, but that just made it relevant. Basically, Adora came to Bright Moon intending to get a four year degree and then go into nursing. Mara and Hope were supportive, but a little insistent she go to a four-year instead of a community college for nursing because then she could explore more. They just didn’t want her to fall too into the martyr shit without them there as a support system, but Adora thought they were lowkey hoping she’d change her mind and decide to become a doctor instead of “just” a nurse. Adora was roommates with Glimmer freshmen year and met a few of their eventual friend group there, which she always says made it all worth it, but university was a disaster for her. She would have rather drop dead from exhaustion than drop out, but that was looking increasingly likely as her mental health combined with ADHD to make her a disaster. Her grades weren’t good, she spent time crying in the study rooms at the library, it was a mess. Eventually Glimmer called Mara to make sure she knew just how bad it was for Adora since she knew by then she would play it down. They’d only been friends for a few months and she was definitely overstepping, but Adora’s moms made her talk it out and they decided she would transfer to Bright Moon’s community college, where she could take one less class a semester and graduate with what she needed after only three years of school overall. Adora still kind of felt like a failure, but Glimmer just happened to decide at the same time that the dorms were insufferable and hey, we know we make good roommates already, why don’t we get an apartment between our campuses together? And living with Glimmer meant seeing Bow a lot too, so Adora didn’t have to “lose” the two good friends she had made at uni so far when she left (something she was really worried about). Glimmer and Bow wouldn’t let her hide in a shame corner over “not being cut out for it” either so she still saw their other friends from campus and even made more via mutual friends, eventually ending up with their current friend group, the exceptions being the Star Siblings (from community college), Frosta (from across the streets), and Netossa/Spinnerella (from work, Adora met Netossa during the course of her med studies).

⦁ Adora spent like an hour agonizing over her outfit and asking Glimmer for help, insisting it was just because she wanted to look nice for her birthday and not because she was thinking of putting the moves on someone or wanted to impress them. She undid the top two buttons, and then Glimmer undid two more and called it perfect.

⦁ Hey, guess what, this chapter was supposed to cover twice as much as it did (shocker) and then they took too long making out (shocker) ¯_(ツ)_/¯ This is where I had to update the chapter count AGAIN and when I did that I went back and filled out the scene during the party, which was only written in summary until that point, because apparently I had the fucking room for it in that chapter since the real confession clearly wasn’t happening.

Chapter 11:

⦁ Entrapta is playing Monster Hunter in the first scene, because I’ve had single monster fights last 40 fucking minutes in that game before. I was actually going to make it vaguely be like, a Souls game or something, but then I was like no, Monster Hunter is more her speed, leading to the jokes about how long the fight is.

⦁ Catra’s arm pain is both psychological and magic. Obviously the mechanics of how it hurts without her having any feeling are magic, but the pain comes from her mental state. The more comfortable she is with someone’s touch and the more she trusts them, the less it hurts. It also ties to her general emotional turmoil, which is why it’s still bad when she remembers stressful things, when waking up from a nightmare, etc and why it caused her such pain that first moment Adora touched her.

⦁ Tapetum lucidum is the thing that makes cats eyes glow in the dark (among other creatures) when hit correctly with light. Melog’s was not being hit correctly with light. I refuse to explain Melog.

⦁ The start of Catra’s speech was once the start of the fic, but instead of her telling it to someone, it was just the narration (“It all starts when Catra is eleven and decides to run away to find Adora, but she doesn’t understand it until later. Actually, she never understands it, but the first death she could pretend was a fluke.”). When I had this idea, I started just kind of writing with the idea of well, let me do a few paragraphs on each death and see how I feel about that. I had a few false starts, and then I wrote that beginning bit of Catra’s speech, and then it cut to a new scene to talk about the car. That paragraph ended up being heavily edited down and used in the scene in chapter 9 where she talks about the nightmare. I decided to change direction on that because 1) it wasn’t good, 2) it was wallowing, and 3) I wasn’t actually intending to start the fic that way anyway, it was just so much in its infancy that I was testing some stuff out to see what the backstory was and where I wanted to take it. Because of that false start, though, I then had trouble tracking what had been revealed/implied throughout the fic when it came to the later-revealed deaths and their fallout.

Chapter 12:

⦁ Adora lowkey moved in on a temporary basis, she just needed to be around Catra very badly between the new couple and “died four times” things. She did end up going back to (mostly) sleeping at her place and Glimmer and Bow were very insistent on them spending time together too when she relaxed again.

⦁ I didn’t want to do anything above a T rating with this fic, really, but I did kind of want to make allusions to other ways disability can effect intimacy, hence the allusions to Catra needing toy assistance since her left hand just can’t manage it and her insecurities about “contributing” when it’s time.

⦁ Catra’s ability was so unbelievable and confusing that it wasn’t the kind of thing Adora could just instantly accept as fact and help her work through, so a “trailing” ending was necessary to show Adora coming to that place of total belief with time, and trying hard to support Catra while she did so. And of course I wanted them to get time being totally honest with each other. I had a lot of the ideas for the Scorpia stuff and such that I thought would just be in the “epilogue” part of the fic notes, but then I went no, you know what, this is Important to how I envision the end here, so I made it an actual part of the fic, similarly to how I did the third fic in the Greys/Waiting For My Spaceship To Come Back For Me series. Why am I mentioning that here? Because all of the epilogue stuff was supposed to be part of chapter 12 too and then of course that didn’t work out. And I had to update the chapter count. Again.

⦁ It was really important to me that Catra’s disability didn’t magically get better. The only thing that changed was it caused her less pain, and even that is person-dependent. Her muscle response gets slightly better — sometimes — but that isn’t enough to hold a pen or be useful. There are temporary disabilities, of course, but that wasn’t the kind I was trying to show here and a disability doesn’t have to “go away” to get a happy ending. Catra’s happy ending was finding peace and love despite the things that haunt her, and she can have all that while still being disabled, she can just get hugs from at least one person now. The original outline had a point where Catra began kneading with both hands while cuddling with Adora around when she told her the truth, but I decided that was too much of a miraculous recovery. Even the sudden squeezing of the ball was something I was iffy on, but that was truly a once-in-a-lifetime thing, so I kept it and portrayed it as such, editing the kneading thing down to just twitching, because I did think it was cute.

Chapter 13:

⦁ WAILMER PAIL

⦁ I know I’ve talked a lot about how this fic ballooned, but I haven’t had fun on a project like I did this one, and Hurricane Adora, and the other smaller fics I’ve done recently, in a long time. Let Me Ride too, to a lesser degree, but I haven’t really had a project just flow out and build like this in the last year. The big difference on those last two was I just… did what I wanted. Which I know sounds obvious, but I didn’t sit and try to plot out okay, what is the whole arc for this fic going to be, what do I need to get done to get there. I did that a decent amount of Let Me Ride, which is why it’s a halfway fic here (and look at that, written slower than the others), but for these two I went well, they’re short fics, I don’t need to worry about that stuff and I can just let loose. And then neither ended up anywhere near where I thought they would, and I had an absolute blast. It’s hard to describe, but I just had a lot of fun and felt very liberated with my fics recently. I think I was treating them too much like novels, if that makes sense, and honestly the word count speaks for itself. I wrote less in November AND December combined than I did in January alone (working on LMR + oneshots), and that’s half as much as I’ve written for March alone (February being closer to March’s word count). I had my 4th highest ever word count day (since I started recording them in 2021) on this project at over 8k (for those curious, my highest ever was 12k the day I pumped out most of MNoHL in one sitting). Anyway, it ran away from me, but I was more than happy to go along on the ride, even if the fic notes alone are 7k.

Adora Interludes:

So, this fic was entirely from Catra’s perspective. Which was for three reasons: 1) Adora’s POV has no place in the first two chapters so at that point I was pretty committed, 2) she’s the most interesting POV by far for this fic, and 3) I thought this fic would be short. I don’t normally do long fics from just one character’s perspective, and you’re about to see why, but I thought it was only going to be 20k which was a fine amount for one POV. The longest fic I’ve done from one perspective before this was ASDLM, depending how you want to count it, and even then I included five fucking interludes of Adora’s POV. I don’t usually use one character POV since I find it interesting to go back and forth, but also, it’s so hard to stick to one POV. The reunion happened and I wanted to write Adora talking to Glimbow that night! Catra has her panic attack and I want to write out what Adora is thinking! But it doesn’t fit with the fic. So sometimes I did it anyway. None of these were fully written and polished and were more just me tracking where Adora was at with the big stuff, but I wanted to at least talk about them a little and they didn’t fit anywhere else in the fic notes. I just played it out in my head, sometimes, but I ended up writing down some rough scene outlines with intersperses of actual writing for:

Adora telling Glimmer and Bow everything Catra told her the night after she leaves. Glimmer starts off a little unsure of if they should be mad at Catra or not for never telling Adora she was alive, but eventually she “accepts” it (though she remains cautious of Catra for a few weeks).

Adora’s next call with her therapist, dumping the story onto her and talking a little about the guilt thing.

I don’t think I ever wrote anything down for the convo Adora had with her parents where she told them the story, but I sure thought about it a fucking lot.

Adora having a conversation with Hope over the break, while Catra and Mara are out driving. I would go into more detail, but there was a line that was originally drafted in a previous scene with Adora and Catra that didn’t end up happening, and then I put it in this scene that also wasn’t “real,” so…. At this point I’m just fucking sharing it. Because why not. The scene will be up tomorrow as a fic extra and linked in the meta section. Note that it is a detailed outline and NOT real writing, but I like it and can’t imagine just deleting it once this fic is done, so I’ll just post it here for anyone interested.

Original Outline:

I talked so much shit about the chapter count for this fic and it came back to haunt me. Here’s the thing: my initial chapter count wasn’t that wrong, which I know sounds insane when it was only like 5, but the contents for the fic I was imagining then did take up about 5 chapters. The intro, getting to the party, reintroduction, getting to know each other again, and then getting comfortable and confession.

The first two of those went exactly as I pictured. While I was writing chapter 3, though, the reintroduction went on longer than I imagined just because there was a lot to cover to do it right and it ended up taking up an entire chapter. Around then I started getting so many more ideas for the story. Initially it was supposed to be like, a nightmare/death per chapter, but then I started thinking about Adora telling her parents, and Catra going back home to visit them, and around then was when I accepted the vision for the fic expanded and bumped it to eight-ish with the vision that the visit would take two of those chapters roughly and another chapter would be fitted in for more bonding/growing closer before the confession.

Then I sat down and actually started doing my, like, one sentence outlines for scenes ([phone convo with Mara, rejects facetime], [entrapta/netossa collab], etc) and realized ohhhhh god this is more than three additional chapters worth of material. And maybe I always suspected that, because when I added more chapter headings to the document, I bumped it up to ten rather than eight. I had a detailed outline up to chapter nine, and by the time I was actually writing that far I was like this is going to be fucking eleven chapters isn’t it… but I was still unsure where it was going to fall in the 10-12 range. The epilogue was, once again, an addition, though a necessary one in my opinion, but those ideas weren’t part of the 10-12 chapter estimate.

I didn’t really have a strong vision for how the end was going to go until I got there, so the only thing about the final part of the fic that is different from the “original outline” is the remote log during the visit home (initially that was supposed to happen in person on a night when Adora slept over after they got back, but that just made less sense) and how they ran into the trio. My very initial idea for that was them driving (Catra driving, Adora teaching her, probably later on in the trip when maybe it isn’t all on Mara) and they drive past the trio walking on the sidewalk of a neighborhood and Catra nearly has a panic attack. Adora steers her through parking on the side of the road (ahead of where the trio are walking) and Catra gets ahold of herself as Adora glances back through the back window to see the trio eyeing the car, because they just saw it park a little erratically, and then they realize Adora is in the car. They can just barely see eartips around the headrest for Catra but can’t make much out.

They then watch Adora get out, wave to them sheepishly, make a motion for them to stay where they are, and then she walks around to the street side and opens up the backseat to get out the sling. This was before I had thought about anything and realized the arm brace was probably the best call for driving. Adora then opens Catra’s door, helps her put on the sling while still sitting in the driver’s seat, and holds her hand to help pull her to her feet out of the car, finally letting them see her. This made the conversation more of Catra’s choice, but when I pictured the whole exchange on the sidewalk, I had no intention of it actually being part of the fic. At that point, I hadn’t even decided if the Winterfest stuff was going to be part of it. But once I started writing that stuff, I decided the trio had to be in it too and switched it around to a run-in that made a little more sense and actually furthered Catra’s progression.

Meta:

Interlude: Three Years Ago

Fic Extra #2: Adora’s Interlude: A Conversation with Hope

Fic Extra #3: Timeline

All posts

Share link

Upcoming

I had a plan for what fic was going to be next. Then another fic idea solidified and it was going to be that one. Then I had a new, but also returning, idea. What I’m saying is, I’m indecisive, but for the last month one AU in particular has been calling, and it’s honestly shocking I haven’t done it yet because I’m me and it's, well…

Up next is Superzero.

#amlait #ficmeta #fic notes

37 notes · View notes

etheria-posting · 1 year

Text

I've seen a lot of analysis about Glimmer and Catra's parallels, but not enough about Adora and Bow. Their character arcs mirrored each other so well.

They both spent so much of their lives living the life/role that was expected of them that they never really learned to think of their own feelings. They both started the series as people driven by their need to protect others so much that they neglect to consider themselves. Adora throws herself into dangerous situations without any concern about her own safety because she feels it's her duty as She-ra to always take the burden of most things on her own, but with Bow it's a little subtler; he ignores his own feelings to keep the peace, and prefers to ignore interpersonal conflict because he feels it's his duty to keep others happy. Adora consistently tries to take down ridiculous amounts of enemies all on her own, and Bow goes so far as to hide the truth from his family and ignore the conflict brewing within the best friends squad in season 4 because he doesn't know how to fix it, so he is uncomfortable with the growing tension between Adora and Glimmer.

They were both having a renaissance in season 5, Adora with learning that it's okay to be "selfish" and taking what she wants for herself and Bow with learning it's okay not to immediately forgive someone when they've hurt you because his own feelings are important too.

Their journeys of learning to understand and honor their own feelings were wholly necessary for them to find their way to their respective happy endings.

We see in the earlier seasons both of them blaming themselves for things (for example both of them trying to take responsibility for losing Entrapta). Adora is much worse about this than Bow, but his tendency to shoulder the blame in situations is detrimental to his growth.

Adora has a huge turning point at the end of season 3, where she stops blaming herself for the way things end up during her "I didn't break the world" speech, and after this point she sticks to it. We don't see her volunteering an "it's my fault" to things, at least not nearly as often. Bow takes a little longer, with making excuses for Glimmer's actions in season 4 and feeling guilt over doing what is necessary to protect Etheria from the Heart when it means going against her orders and wishes. But on Beast Island he begins to let himself hold Glimmer accountable, and he lets himself stay angry instead of letting it go before he's ready to to keep the peace.

It takes a real show of willingness to change (Catra's "stay" and Glimmer's "you get to be mad for as long as you need to") for either of them to be willing to let things go, showing both Bow and Adora's growth into people who can hold others accountable rather than try to place the burden of fixing things onto their own shoulders.

Catradora and Glimbow also has a ton of parallels, but that's a post for another day!

I love Adora and Bow, I love their friendship and their interactions and the parallels in their arcs. I want to make a more detailed essay comparing their arcs and the growth they experience and the way it mirrors each other because I really feel like it's something I'd like to see explored more.

#dreamworks shera #she ra #she ra and the princesses of power #shera #spop #bow #adora

27 notes · View notes

baggebythesea · 2 years

Note

I don’t know if Etheria is ready for a more bratty version of Glimmer in a future Glimbow kid

I know who will be 100% ready and adora and spoil the little tyke rotten no matter how bratty she gets: Micah.

Glimmer: "She set the bathroom on FIRE!"

Micah: "So did you, once."

#spop #Glimmer #Micah #Glimbow kid

31 notes · View notes

bitchqueen1114 · 2 years

Text

Glimbow Week 2022 Day One: Future and Family

This is my first time doing anything like this, so let’s hope this goes well! @glimbowweek

This blurb also includes my Glimbow fankids, Glow, Angel, and Stella, and small references to a bigger story I’m working on (read: imagining in my head) about Glow and his other next gen friends.

Also to avoid any confusion, Angel goes by he/they pronouns, and both are used in his section.

Some swearing is used, fyi.

Waking up at six in the morning had not been Glimmer’s idea.

Bow had insisted that the Royal Family of Brightmoon’s annual portrait be done at seven in the morning, so they could get it out of the way and have the rest of the day to do whatever they wanted.

And, like an idiot, Glimmer had agreed, not fully realizing that she would have to get up at the ass crack of dawn to get their stupid family portrait done.

“Glimmer…Glimmeeeeer–Time to wake up.” Glimmer braved open one eyelid, and saw Bow, infuriatingly already dressed in his finest, gently shaking her shoulder.

“Hrrrg.” She muttered, rolling to face away from him.

Bow laughed softly, crawling onto the bed on his knees and kissing her jawline. “I know, I know. Let’s just get this over with, and you can go back to sleep, okay?”

“M’kay.”

“…”

“That means you have to get up, Glim.”

“Ugh…fiiiiiiiine.” said Glimmer, doing her best Mermista impression. She rolled back over and sat up, rubbing her eye with her fist.

Bow beamed. “Alright. While you wake up, I’ll go get the kids ready.”

At Glimmer’s nod, Bow kissed her cheek and strode determinedly out the door. Glimmer sighed, and looked over to where her sparkly purple dress had been laid out for her, then looked back at her pillows, which still had the indent of her head pressed into them.

“Five more minutes.” She thought to herself, burying her head into her pillows once more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bow walked through the halls of Castle Brightmoon, already regretting making their portrait appointment so early. Despite his outward awakeness, he felt like he could fall back asleep at any moment.

Shaking himself awake as he arrived at his daughter’s door, he knocked, not expecting the cheery voice telling him to “Come in!”

He opened the door, and saw Stella at her vanity, brushing her dark brown curls.

She looked at him in the mirror and grinned. “Morning, Dad!”

“Morning, starlight. You look…awake.”

“I like waking up this early! You can see the sunrise. It’s beautiful.” Stella put down her brush and grabbed two rubber bands. “Can you do my hair?”

“Sure thing, hon.” Bow smiled warmly at his youngest child. Using the brush and the bands, he pulled two sections of her hair into two puffs at the top of her head, leaving the rest curled on her shoulders, mostly on autopilot. He dreamed of shedding his fancy clothes and crawling back into bed with Glimmer, all while Stella babbled about the portrait and the upcoming Princess Prom.

“...really don’t think I need two separate dresses, but Kitt brought up the point–Dad…? Dad?”

Bow jerked himself out of his half-snooze. “Huh? Wha–oh. Sorry, twinkle. Guess I dozed off for a bit there.”

Stella smirked, turning in her seat to face him. “Feeling the consequences, eh Dad? Glow told you that having the portrait done this early was a bad idea.”

Bow stifled a yawn. “Yeah, yeah. I’m sure I’ll get an earful when I wake him up. I’m going to grab him and Angel, so get dressed and meet us all in the Great Hall.”

“Okay!”

Bow kissed Stella on the head and left the room, while she called out after him; “Don’t fall asleep on the way to Angel’s room!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Angel’s room was so unlike Stella’s that it took a moment for Bow’s eyes to adjust. They had put thick, deep purple curtains around the walls and windows of their room, making it look almost like a tent.

And unlike Stella, but very much like Glimmer, Angel was asleep in bed, snoring.

Bow tiptoed across the room and grabbed one of the curtains. With one yank, the whole thing fell with a muted fwump, and early morning light streamed through the room.

Angel actually hissed, something he’d definitely picked up from Catra, and pulled his blanket over his head.

“Good morning, sleepyhead.”

“Go ‘way.” they muttered.

Bow rolled his eyes and grabbed hold of the blanket, pulling it off of them. “C’mon, kiddo. It’s portrait day.”

“Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy. Stars, It’s so early!” Angel smacked his hands over his eyes and rubbed hard.

Bow winced. “I know, I know. That’s on me. But think of it like this. After we get the portrait out of the way, you can do whatever you want for the rest of the day.”

Angel huffed, and a lock of pink hair was blown out of their eyes.

“Plus, I’ll give you full rein over my next tech project with Entrapta.”

Angel considered for a moment, then rolled his eyes in a very Glimmer-like way. “Ugh. Fine.” Swinging his legs over the bed, he stood up and stretched. “But I’m gonna complain about it the whole time.”

“Yeah, that’s fair.” Bow chuckled and ruffled their hair. “Get dressed; in your nice clothes, please. Meet us in the Great Hall, I just need to get your older brother.”

Angel shot him a thumbs up as they rifled through piles of clothes on their floor.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glow wasn’t in his room, but that didn’t surprise Bow too much. An arrow was stuck to the door with a note that read;

Hi Mom and/or Dad.

No, I haven't forgotten about the portrait. I had nightmares couldn’t sleep, so I went to Finn’s place for a sleepover. Yes, Catra and Adora know I’m there. Yes, I will be back by seven. And yes, I did bring my fancy clothes and my tiara.

See you in the morning,

Love, Glowbug.

Bow frowned at the scratched off line, but decided not to worry about it for now. Glow was always running away to go see Finn or Zephyr, who lived near the Whispering Woods, and sometimes even to see Flora in Plumeria. He hated sitting still, especially after last decade’s disaster of a Princess Prom.

Pushing those bad thoughts from his mind, Bow changed course and headed over to the Great Hall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sun was streaming oh-so brightly into Glimmer’s eyes as she slowly came into consciousness. She was having the best dream, unlike the dreamless sleep she’d been having before Bow woke her up for–

“The portrait!” Glimmer yelped and shot out of bed so fast, it made her dizzy. She quickly checked her tracker pad, and, yep. She only had about five minutes to get ready.

She yanked off her nightgown and wiggled into her pretty dress in record time. She pulled a brush through her hair with one hand, and applied lipstick with the other, taking the cap off with her teeth. She slathered on foundation (so she didn’t look too much like a corpse), mascara, and eyeshadow.

Too late, she realized, she forgot to brush her teeth. Oh, well. She’d just have to pose with her mouth closed.

She pulled on a pair of golden sandals and hooked her cape around her shoulders. Barely stopping to double check herself in the mirror, she wrenched the door open, only to almost run into Glow and, to her surprise, Finn, who were standing in the doorway, preparing to knock.

“Stars! You two scared me!” Glimmer huffed a laugh, breathless from her morning rush. “And hi, Finn. When did you get here?”

Finn saluted her, tail swishing. “Same time Glow here did.”

She frowned and looked at Glow. “Did you go to Catra and Adora’s last night?”

Glow nodded sheepishly, wings drooping. “I…couldn’t sleep. But Catra and Adora said I’m always welcome at any time!”

“Of course, I just wish you’d woken me up. I could’ve teleported you there.”

Glow shrugged, then brightened slightly. “Oh, yeah, I forgot. Dad wanted me to come get you. He’d figured you’d still be asleep.”

“Whaaaat? Me, asleep? On such an important day? Never!” Her point was mitigated somewhat by her loud yawn.

“Alrighty. Since you pink and purple freaks are gonna go do boring royal stuff, I’ll be in your room, Glow.” Finn punched him lightly in the arm “Don’t take a thousand hours.”

Glow rolled his eyes, but grinned at his friend anyway. “Okay, see you in a billion hours.”

Finn punched him again, gave a half-hearted bow to Glimmer, then scampered away.

Glow yawned slightly, and Glimmer laughed. “Who’s asleep now, sparkler?”

“Hey, I’m not the one who wanted to get our portrait done at early-as-fuck-o’clock in the morning”

“Yeah, you can thank your father for that one.” Glimmer cringed. “Speaking of which, we'd better teleport over there before he sends your siblings after us.”

Glimmer held her hands out to Glow, and in a flash of sparkles, they were gone

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Great Hall was a beautiful, open space, decorated with gold and the kingdom’s signature colors of pink, purple, and light blue. Other portraits lined the walls, the most notable of which showed Queen Angella, King Micah, and a two-year-old Princess Glimmer. This was the last portrait the small family ever did, as right after, Micah was “killed” in battle.

Angel and Stella–blessedly awake and in their fancy clothes–sat on a magenta colored chaise, watching Bow talk to the Salinean artist who would be doing their portrait.

“Ah, good morning, Your Majesty.” As Glimmer and Glow teleported in the room, the artist pulled away from Bow and swept himself into a bow. Angel snorted, and Stella smacked him on the arm. “I am called Tilapia, the most renowned artist in all of Salineas. I come with recommendations from Princess Mermista herself.”

“Yes, I know. Thank you for agreeing to do this so early.” Glimmer smiled, trying not to yawn again.

“Of couse, my Queen Glimmer. I know that you and your family must have very busy schedules.”

Bow came up to Glimmer, pulling her into a side hug so he could whisper in her ear. “You fell asleep again, didn’t you?”

“Hahaha–yeah.” Glimmer giggled. “Sorry, babe.”

Bow rolled his eyes. “I knew I shouldn’t’ve left until you’d gotten completely up.”

“Yeah, okay, but I’m not the one who placed our portrait appointment at the ass crack of–”

“Ahem.”

Both Glimmer and Bow froze, looking at Tilapia, who had set up his huge easel and gotten his paints ready. “Shall we begin, your majesties?”

The couple broke apart, muttering apologies. The kids were all snickering from the chaise sofa.

“Alright.” Glimmer clapped her hands together, teleporting herself and Bow behind their kids. “Let’s get this over with so I can take a fucking nap.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(wanted to include my designs of the kiddos for selfish purposes lol)

Glow

Angel

Stella

#glimbow #spop #shera #she ra #glimmer #bow #she ra bow #she ra glimmer #glow #she ra fanfic #glimbow week #glimbow week 2022 #glimbow fankid #spop fankids #she ra fankids

12 notes · View notes

darcyfangirlsfrequently · 2 years

Text

I am writing my first She-ra AU ever, so get ready for Witch/Witch Hunter Glimbow on September 11th.

#This is also my first supernatural au ever #And my first au for a large fandom #We shall see how it goes #Glimbow #She-ra #SPOP

10 notes · View notes

chippedcat2 · 1 year

Text

Chip's Fic Master Post

Hello there! I'm Chip, these are the things I've written. Mostly Adventure Time rn, but there's plenty of SPOP stuff under the cut. If you read them, that'd be pretty cool!

Adventure Time:

Interludes- Drabble collection written to fill in some canon Chapters 1/? A collection of short stories set within the show canon meant to fill in some gaps. Basically, a dumping ground for little in-universe drabbles.

Brave New World- Pre-Canon fic exploring Marceline and the Hyoomans Chapters: 1/? The others thought she was crazy, but Jo knows that the Mainland wasn't a hellscape. Sure, it was rough around the edges, but it was chock-full of adventures and land ripe for the claiming. With nothing but a boat, muddled memories, and her old bunny hat, she was ready to face whatever waited for her outside the islands.

I'd Know You in Any World (Series):

Blast Off- Set-up fic for the series Chapters 2/2 Finn, Bubblegum, and Jake need to take the Farmworld Enchiridion back to its home, lest a GOLB situation happens again. However, as the trio is about to learn, finding one dimension in the massive cosmic sea is much easier said than done.

Adventure Time with Marcy the Human- Human AU (for some) When the trio finds themselves in a strangely familiar place with profoundly unfamiliar people, they realize they've been blown off course much faster than they anticipated. To take another shot, they'll need the greatest minds of the dimension, some royal gems, and more than a little vampire blood.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power:

What You’re Worth- Massive Magicatra AU spanning the first three seasons Chapters: 24/30 Adora doesn’t want this. This isn’t what she signed up for. But it’s the right thing to do, the only thing to do. Etheria chose Catra. It wants her to protect it, to stop the Horde. The Rebellion chose Catra to be their strongest fighter, their greatest asset, and their most exalted member. They didn’t want Adora. They wanted Catra. She was finally worth something.

We Three Queens- Horde Wives at the fall of the Empire Chapters: 3/3 When the Horde empire fell, Commander Glimmer scoured Etheria to find soldiers and agents who may have escaped capture. A year after the fall, only three have evaded her and it seems that it will stay that way. No one can find the two Horde Queens and their loyal lieutenant, and that’s the way they want

Golden Arrow- Bow-Ra and Horde Glimmer fic, written for Glimbow Week Chapters: 7/7 Imagine the Etherians' surprise when their savior is the universe's first He-Ra.

Adora Bull: Cat Caper- Kim Possible AU because IDK Chapters: 1/2 She's your basic average girl, and she's here to save the world. You can't her stop cuz she's Adora Bull.

To Skin a Cat- Post-Canon Whump with a little plot occasionally Chapters: 7/11 (lol) Who's out to get the cat?

Wild Heart- Feral Catra Fic with a Glimbow focus Chapters: 3/3 There's a secret deep in the Woods who only Bow can call upon.

Domesticity- Post-Canon Fluff, will cause tooth decay Oneshot Ten years since the day we kissed.

Open Heart- Feral Catra's back Oneshot C'yra doesn't know much about love, but she suspects that her brother may have found it with that strange pink girl. Part of the Wild Heart Saga.

War is Heck- Real-World Childhood Fic Oneshot A brief look at the horrors of battle and the devastation of it ending.

Six Gifts- A classic 5+1 Fluff Fic Oneshot There are six gifts Adora treasures the most.

The Vessel AU (Series)

She’s Gone- Canon Divergence in which the BFS loses hard Oneshot Convinced that she’s dead, the Best Friend Squad returns to Etheria without Catra. However, without her influence, Adora fails to forge a stable connection with She-Ra, and Prime destroys the planet. With most of her friends gone and an empty heart left in their wake, Adora is consumed by a need for revenge, intent on hunting Prime to the edges of the universe and destroying his mysterious “new form” before he can hurt anyone else.

Rest for the Wicked- Fic about Adjusting to physical and mental trauma Oneshot Catra feels empty. She can't decide if it's a good or bad feeling.

The Remains- Vessel AU 5+1 with implied Catradora Oneshot Six stories from the world of New Etheria.

The Wreckage of the World (Crossover Series):

CHIPped (Carnivorous and Highly Infectious Prototype)- Catradora Zombie Apocalypse AU Chapters 2/2 The days Catra spends wandering the wreckage of the world are the worst of her life. But they are perhaps the most peaceful. It is just her, her shovel, and her gun. And the zombies, of course, but they rarely bother her. Only when they got truly hungry would they attack one of their own.

Bitten- Bubbline Zombie Apocalypse AU Chapters 1/4 Bonnie's world is Marceline, and when Marcy is bitten by an Oozer, nothing can keep Bonnie from tracking down a cure. Luckily, it seems like the only thing in her way is that angry catgirl and the blonde dumbass.

#atimers #spop #bubbline #fanfics #fanfic authors #spop fanfic #adventure time fanfic

4 notes · View notes

symphonic-scream · 4 years

Text

So uh yeah thanks to the feedback on my post, I will be attempting to write out my She-Ra future AU fic ft. my original fankids, not Finn. I love Finn and they're super awesome but like I already have 4 Catradora kittens and 5 is a lot so :/ no Finn, sorry y'all.

I am not an artist at all, I have tried and it's not for me y'all so best I can give ya is my writing and it's mostly meh but we're doing this now I guess

I should be making a post about the concept and the kids in a wee bit, just waiting for the brain to calm down see y'all later

#she ra #shera #catradora #glow #glimbow #seamista #entraptdak #scorfuma #she ra future #future au #she ra fankids #hehe get ready for the kittens yall #spinnetossa #spintossa

27 notes · View notes

swearyshera · 3 years

Photo

Glimbow fans get ready

#sweary she-ra #shera #spop #spopedit #bow #glimmer #1x08

263 notes · View notes

glimbowweek · 3 years

Link

As we get ready for Glimbow Week this May, we’d like your help in narrowing down the prompts! Please click through to our Google form to vote on what you’d like to see and help us out by giving this a reblog to spread the word!

Voting will close on Friday, March 12 @ 11:59pm EST. Voting is currently closed.

#glimbow #glimmer #bow #spop #glow #spop bow #glimmbow #glimmerbow #glimmer x bow #bow x glimmer #she-ra #she ra #shera #she-ra and the princeses of power #she ra and the princesses of power #spop glimmer #glimbowweek #glimbow week

49 notes · View notes

tippenfunkaport · 2 years

Note

How much are Glow and Arrow inspired by your kids and what other head canons do you have for them?

Not as much as you'd think. Kids change so much the first few years. There are flashes of how my kids were at various stages in how I write all kid characters. Though a lot of the parenting moments I've written were inspired by kid moments in my life in a more general way (bc I was caregiver for other family babies long before I had kids of my own).

I have actually written a bunch more with my fankids and Glimbow parent content, that, like everything, I need the time to be able to clean it up to post. Closest to ready are a pregnancy short and a standalone story about Prince Glowyn much like I did to introduce Princess Arrow so everyone gets to meet him properly but I will get to those when I get to them.

But, overall, the problem with the summer is that I have NO time because of the aforementioned tiny Funkaports so things are going to be a bit crazy until the fall, alas.

#spop #she ra #glimbow #glimbow fankids #asks

6 notes · View notes

highly-impatient · 3 years

Text

Missing Your Touch Ch. 1 (A Glimbow Fic)

Written By: highly-impatient or highly-impatient013

Summary: When you spend all your days together, it feels like years when you’re apart. Glimmer has been recently abducted to space stuck on Horde Prime’s ship as the Rebellion fights off the Horde’s soldiers on Etheria. This story re-imagines season five of She-Ra: Princess of Power as Glimmer and Bow confront their feelings of missing each other’s presence and touch. Expect angst, warmth, hurt, and a beautiful love story!

Available to read on FF.net

Will add it to AO3 as soon as I can

“You know looking back, it was quite obvious that I was jealous,” Glimmer laughed to herself. She had been locked away for who knows how many hours in an empty room. There was nothing but white walls, a large bed, and silence. No one could hear her, maybe Horde Prime, but it’s not like he would care. “When Perfuma asked you to the ball, I was mad you agreed because it was natural to always have you by my side. I felt like I was being left behind, and now, look at me. I’m all alone.” Tears rolled down Glimmer’s eyes. She and Bow always trusted each other. They were best friends, but after becoming queen, losing many in the Rebellion, and her...mother, things were not the same. Her insecurities crushed her, and she kept asking herself if she would ever be good enough. Would she ever be like her mother? And with Adora, Glimmer felt like their relationship had become fragile like eggshells. Glimmer knew others saw Adora as more of a leader. After all, she was She-ra. Glimmer could not help that every time she saw Adora that she was reminded of losing her mother after disobeying her orders. Like a knife plunging through the palm of her hands, Glimmer was left with her thoughts and emptiness, “Bow,” Glimmer whispered. “I miss you.”

“Glimmer!” Bow shouted. It was another nightmare, but could it be a nightmare if the event was real? Only a few hundred feet away, the moment of Glimmer being pulled into space by Horde Prime continued to replay in his dreams every night. He was so close but not close enough. Now, he had no idea what happened to her. What were they doing to her? Or worse, was she even alive? The thought sent an unnerving chill down his spine. The last time he saw Glimmer before she was abducted into space is when the three of them got into a fight. Bow could feel the lingering touch of Glimmer brushing her thumb against his calloused clamped hands. She had begged him to trust her. As much as Bow did trust Glimmer, she had been wrong. Trust comes from being honest and telling the truth, even if it is not something the other wants to hear. But why did she not trust him? It probably did not help that he and Adora had ignored her orders and went to Beast Island without her. Maybe if they had stuck together, they would not be in this mess. The two had spent everyday together for years, and Glimmer’s short absence felt like weeks. Glimmer had become more erratic since becoming queen, and Bow could tell that she was frustrated with how plans were falling apart. It was hard to watch knowing how optimistic she had been. Fighting a constant war was taxing on all of them, so when Bow grabbed onto Glimmer’s hand to comfort her, he did his best to empathize her pain and loneliness. When she pulled away, he could only think about how their intimate friendship was unraveling every passing second. Did she not trust him anymore? Were they not friends that could talk or let the other one know how they felt? Bow scratched the back of his head as he slid from under his covers. How did Bow feel? He already knew how he felt. The person he cared for most was gone, and he missed her dearly.

“Bow, are you up?” Adora whispered. “I couldn’t sleep either.”

Bow replied, “Yea.” Bow got up, in which he came face-to-face with Adora when he exited the tent. After Horde Prime had located Etheria, Bright Moon had been overtaken. They had lost many in the Rebellion, while whoever was left remained in the tents. They were constantly on the move. Adora and Bow sat themselves across each other on logs separated by a burning fire. Streaks of red, orange, and amber shifted in front of them. The sounds of crickets and a gusting wind filled up the air void of their voices.

Adora spoke, “It’s all my fault, Bow.”

“No, it’s mine,” Bow said.

Adora shook her head, “If I hadn’t insisted that we go to Beast Island, then Glimmer would still be here. If She-ra was still--”

“No, it was the right thing to do. We brought back Entrapta, and we found King Micah. We stopped the Heart of Etheria.” Bow swallowed what felt like a lump in his throat before continuing, “I wasn’t fast enough. I was so close, and I let her disappear right before my eyes.” It was clear that Bow was trying to hold back his tears until they had begun to drip like a faulty faucet. Adora ran up to Bow wrapping her arms around his shoulders as the two clung onto each other. Their hearts ached losing their close friend.

“We will get her back,” Adora muffled out of her throat strained from emotion.

Morning came and the Rebellion was back to its regular duties of recovering towns from the Horde. Strategic meetings about what to do next along with the knowledge of safe zones were extensively discussed.

“Entrapta!” Bow called. “Do you think we will be able to fix Mara’s ship for outer space?”

“Space travel!” Entrapta smiled. “I just have to run some tests. With some adjustments and my tools, Darla will be ready to go. Emily, we got work to do!” Entrapta was overjoyed at the thought of seeing what was beyond their planet.

Bow looked up to the sky as the clouds drifted slowly. The stars were dim and not yet in sight, but there was a world outside of Etheria, “ We may not know where you are or how to find you, but I’m bringing you home, Glimmer.”

Puzzled by Bow staring up at the sky while holding his electronic communication device, Micah finally decided to approach Bow with a question that he had on his mind for some time now. Micah asked, “Bow, can I ask you a question?”

“Yes, King Micah, sir,” Bow stood upright.

Micah glanced over at the boy before proceeding with his question, “Are you dating my daughter?”

Bow was flustered by the unexpected question and his cheeks blushed briefly. It was not the first time he had been asked this question, but Micah had been rescued from Beast Island a week ago. “N-no, sir. Glimmer is just my best friend.”

Micah sighed in relief, “Okay. I like you boy, but my Glimmer is too young to be dating.” Micah patted Bow on the shoulder. Micah had no clue how old Glimmer was. It never bothered Bow that people had mistook them for a couple. When you spend that much time with someone, it’s understandable that anyone outside of the relationship may see differently. It had been weirder that Micah had also made that assumption since he had never seen Bow and Glimmer interact with one another. There was a tightness in Bow’s chest.

“Yes, sir” Bow responded. Micah returned as they were prepping to split into groups for the next mission. The tightness in Bow’s chest had not lightened up. Micah’s question repeated again in Bow’s mind. Are you dating my daughter? For just an instant, an image of Glimmer smiling had crossed his mind. This time, Bow’s chest began to thump and Bow looked down confused by the offset feeling, “That’s weird.”

A/N: I originally wanted to post this first on Fanfiction, but I have to wait 12 hours before I post after creating a new account. I wanted to start a new account since my other one is when I was 12. AO3 says I have to wait for an invite link, but the other chapters will be posted on there. Hopefully, you enjoy the story so far because I really love Glimbow as well as all of the characters. I’ve re-watched this show like 5 times already T_T

#she-ra #spop #glimmer #bow #glimbow #glow #fanfic #glimbowfic #adora #entrapta #micah #glimbow fic #glimbow fics #glimmerbow

29 notes · View notes

glimbow-fics · 2 years

Text

"The future seemed so far away back then" she acknowledges idly.

"Yeah, but that's always how it goes, I guess. You know what they say, time flies when you're having fun"

"It really does"

Glimmer finds her longing for the past intensifying. Everything was so much simpler back then, when they were just two kids who had the whole world in front of them, ready to take it on together. It had never once occurred to her that they actually had two different worlds waiting for them. Her world of fishnet tights, tiny clubs and messy apartments and his of fancy costumes, airplanes and theatres. It's like he's too good for her world and she's not good enough for his. Everything they love is taking them farther and farther down different paths, and her heart keeps cracking as they get further away from each other.

(Or Bow and Glimmer make up, ponder the future, and hold hands in a tree house)

Part 3 of the Why'd You Have To Go and Make Things So Complicated? (Glimbow Punk/Ballet AU) series

Words: 3853

#glimbow #glimmer #spop #shera #she ra #bow #glimbow fanfics #glimbow fic #glimbow fanfic #glimbow fics #spop glimmer #Randomdork

2 notes · View notes

sailorglimmer · 4 years

Text

Glimbow First Kiss

Asked by @mochibunny360

Glimmer's pov

Just after we all hugged, we heard a familiar voice calling to us. We all looked back, seeing a smiling Scorpia that was waiving to us.

“Is that a hug without me?” she screamed before coming to us, hugging us together with a smile. “I'm a professional hugger.”

“You are. ” Catra said, smiling. It was still weird seeing her smile all the time. “Hey, I know you just said you forgive me...but I was hoping we could talk. Really...talk about what happened. ”

Catra put sad eyes. She obviously wanted to give Scorpia a real apology, and that made all of us smile.

“Oh...sure. We can talk. ” Scorpia answered, looking at Adora for approval. She was hand in hand with Catra, which made pretty obvious they were...in love.

“You should walk back to Bright Moon together. I will just go with Bow and Glimmer. ” Adora said in a soft voice, and Catra just smiled at her. She left with Scorpia, but not before kissing softly Adora. That was also something that was still feeling weird. In a good way.

When she was gone, I couldn't hold on anymore. I looked directly at the blonde by my side, giving her "the look".

“oh, come on. ” she said with a silly, in love, face. “You can't tell me she's...perfect”

“ I mean, she did tried to kill us many times. ” Bow said in a soft voice, as if it was something that he didn't want to really say.

It hit me exactly at that moment. My mom. They must have notice my change of excitement, because both rapidly put a sad expression. I tried to brush it off, shrugging my shoulders before letting a laugh scape from my mouth. I didn't want to make them uncomfortable.

“ She did say sorry, also. ” I said, starting to walk. I didn't feel like teleporting at the moment. Going back home felt surreal. “If Adora is happy, I'm happy. You deserve happiness after all.”

Adora walked by my side. “ Hey, if you don't feel like...”

“ Nonsense. Catra is part of our Best Friend Squad now, and she helped us save Bright Moon. The whole world, actually. She redeemed herself. It's okay.”

Bow catched up to us, and I just gave them a look before actually teleporting. At the end, it was better than talking about Catra and my feelings towards her. I just wanted to sleep.

It had been days before we actually reunited again. I had been busy with Queen stuff, while the others were helping around the kingdoms. It was really boring, but better than doing nothing. Bright Moon needed many things; food, relocation, reconstructions. My dad was helpful, but many things had changed since he last was ruling and he was more focused on learning those things.

When I finally had a break, I just sat in my bed looking around my room. I had felt so happy, so relieved, when we defeated Horde Prime but now I just felt like something was wrong. I was scared. I was overwhelmed, and really irritated, but didn't even know why. I missed my friends, but couldn't bring myself to ask them to come. I felt like I was insane.

It was then when I hear a knock on my door. I just looked at it, in silence, waiting for someone to open the door to tell me I had a new duty. Contrary of my belief, a familiar face appear when the door was opened.

“ Glimmer? ” Bow looked around before meeting my eyes. I just stared at him. “ Hey, can I come in?”

“ Of course” I said more in a whisper. My heart was suddenly racing, and I could feel my breath start to become more accelerated.

He's my best friend, I don't have to feel like this. It's just Bow. Just...Bow.

“ We haven't seen you around. Even Catra asked for you, which is weird. ” he said with a smile, jumping in my stairs to get up in my bed.

The stairs I had made just for him. Why did it feel suddenly odd that I had made stairs just so he could be in my bed?

“ Catra? Isn't she focused in Adora and only in Adora? ” I said, trying to sound funny. He laughed, and I could feel my nervousness increase.

“ She can do both. Focus on Adora and ask why you aren't there and she has to. It's actually kind of nice of her...asking for you, I mean.”

He arrived by my side, and just like if it was the old times, he just laid in my bed and made me laid by his side. He was still smiling, so when our eyes meet, I couldn't avoid smiling too. For a minute, everything was like before; easy, normal. We stay in silence for a couple of minutes, just looking at each other. It was comfortable; everything used to be with him before the fight. Before the war.

“Glimmer...” he was the first to talk, taking one of my hand. That also used to be something we did without realizing, and that didn't caused a reaction like now.

“ Don't. Please. ”

“ Hey, hey” he gave me a reassuring smile. “Glimmer, it's okay. ”

“ I don't want things to change, Bow. Things...keep changing, and I don't want it with you too. ” suddenly my eyes were blurred with tears accumulating. I didn't even know I wanted to cry. “I don't want to mess up again.”

He stopped smiling, sitting in the bed without letting go of my hand. “You didn't mess up...”

I didn't let him finish.

“ I did. You were angry at me!” I also sat down, looking away. “And it was because I forgot...I...you are my best friend. I don't want to lose you, Bow.”

“I should have been more understanding with you. I was wrong too, Glimmer. It doesn't change that you are still my best friend. That I love you just the same.”

I love you. What had gotten into me to said that I love him with that tone before ending the war with Horde Prime? I was so scared to lose him, and Catra had opened my eyes; she was finally going to make sure Adora knew what she meant to her, so why shouldn't I? I was in the moment, scared of losing him without saying what I really felt. But know it only scared me repeating those feelings.

“ Glimmer, it's fine. I know it feels weird that suddenly our relationship is... different. But I meant what I said. And nothing much is going to change between us just because our feeling grew with time. ”

“ But what if it doesn't work? I will lose my best friend. The only person that I...love more than anything. ” I whispered.

“ You will never lose me. Never. ” he smirked. “I thought you were always ready for adventure, Glimmer.”

I could feel my face turn red, which only made him laugh. My eyes were still watery, but I couldn't help but smile. He was such a dork.

“I always am. ” I said softly. “ I guess... you are right. You are always right. ”

“Does that mean you still love me?” he looked at me with a big smile, and I could see the glow in his eyes almost clearly.

“Well...”

“ Hey, it doesn't matter what happens. I'm not going anywhere. I will never let anything happen to you again. ” he searched for my hand, taking it in between both of his. “Don't you get it? You are my other half, Glimmer.”

I looked at him, almost in shook with his words. I smiled. My heart still racing, my cheeks blushed, and my feeling overwhelming me. How could I be scared of being with him? How couldn't I love him?

“ And you are mine. ” I finally said. “Now, can we just kiss?”

He laughed again. It felt like the time we fought after Frosta's ball so long ago. And just like that time, we could wait for the other.

He got close to me; enough so our breath could mix and we could see each other's eyes clearly. He smiled, carefully caressing one of my cheeks and touching my nose with his. I could feel my heart beating fast and my cheeks burn with his touch. I really wanted him close. I really, really wanted to kiss him in that exact moment. I closed my eyes when I felt him get closer to my mouth, and when his lips rose mine, the electricity it sent through my body made me jumpy. We smiled. I broke the distance between our lips and kissed him, and he didn't wait to kiss me back. I had dreamt about it, but it didn't compare to actually being able to kiss my best friend. My other half.

109 notes · View notes

persephx · 4 years

Text

“i like that boy” - glimbow week 2020

this is my fic for today’s prompt for the @glimbow-week-2020 , family reactions/meeting the parents (siblings), I almost forgot to post it lol

read on ao3

The first time was right after meeting Bow for the first time. It was nighttime and Glimmer was already getting ready for bed after an exhausting day showing Bow around. Her mother knocked softly into the room and walked in the room before she could answer.

“What are you doing here?” Glimmer asked. If she was going to get the overprotective talk of ‘be careful about that boy’ or ‘we still know nothing about him’, Glimmer was going to outright kick her mom out of her room. Bow had been nothing but nice to her, and he was her age! He couldn’t be one of the bad guys!

Her mom smiled in a way that told her she knew exactly what Glimmer had been thinking, and thankfully she found it funny. “What a day, huh?”

Glimmer nodded slowly.

Her mom sat in the sofa next to the window. Glimmer walked towards her and, hesitantly, sat there too. “It took courage to come here like that, don’t you think?”

“I suppose.”

Her mother hummed. “I like that boy,” she said. “I’m sure you’ll become good friends, you already seem to be on that path.”

Glimmer nodded slowly. “I like him too,” she said, still not convinced that this wasn’t going to be her mom trying to keep her away from Bow.

“I hope you treat him kindly.”

And Glimmer took offence at that. “I am always kind!”

Her mother laughed. It hit Glimmer that it had been a while since Queen Angella had laughed out loud like that. She could see how stressed her mom was, and it made sense, with the war going on and how much the Horde was advancing. Maybe Bow wouldn’t just do good to Glimmer, but also to Queen Angella. Glimmer could share her friend, she thought, her mother also needed someone nice in her life.

“Get some sleep, Glimmer.” Queen Angella grabbed her daughter’s hand and squeezed it lightly. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Goodnight, mom.”

- - -

Next, it was Helion. The guard spent a lot of time with Glimmer, as it was usually them who got stuck with babysitting duty. Once Bow appeared in their lives, Helion also spent more time with him, as Glimmer spent most of hers by his side.

“I brought you this flower,” Bow said the day that it happened. He had a small white flower in his hand and he was brandishing it at Glimmer with a sweet smile.

“Oh, it’s so pretty!” Glimmer had answered, instantly taking the flower offered to her and admiring it. It was small, but the petals were shaped in rhombus, and they had speckles of purple which reminded her of her own power. “Thank you, Bow!”

“It was no problem, look, I also have one,” he turned and showed her that he had the same flower behind his ear.”

“We should get you some more,” Glimmer said, frowning. Then she gasped. “Maybe we can do flower crowns if we find enough!”

Bow yelped. “We can mix more flowers and make it super colorful!” he exclaimed, before running away. Glimmer followed him without hesitating.

It took them almost all afternoon to recollect enough flowers and, once they finally had them, they rushed to look for the materials they were going to need. Helion, of course was following them closely.

“Oh!” Bow turned to them in a hallway, so suddenly that they almost tripped. “Don’t worry about yours, Helion, we have enough flowers to make you a crown too.”

And a few hours later, Helion had his own matching flower crown. They kept their face stern —which the kids seemed to find hilarious— but they were moved by the mindfulness of including them in their activity, even though there was no need.

Once Bow had retired to his bedroom and it was just Helion and Glimmer, the guard turned to the princess and bowed slightly. “Thank you for the flower crown,” they told her, giving her the one smile they kept just for the little princess.

She smiled back. “It was Bow’s idea,” she told them. “He wanted to thank you for keeping us safe, and when he said it I also wanted to. Thank you.” It funny to see Princess Glimmer of Bright Moon, a teenager, trying to be formal. Funny and endearing.

“I like that boy,” Helion said then, which resulted in a nod as a form of agreement from the princess.

- - -

The next time it had been with aunt Castaspella, the first time they visited Mystacor. Glimmer had been there so many times that it had stopped being exciting. It had become a boring family vacation. So that year she had asked aunt Castaspella if Bow could go with her. Her aunt, sure that she had been making up her first —and only— friend, had agreed instantly. Once they had actually gotten there, Glimmer kind of regretted her decision.

Bow was as nice as he always was. Castaspella was as smothering as she was. That meant that Glimmer had to deal with the same boring stuff she always had to deal with there. At least there were moment when Bow and her could scape for a mini adventure. Those were the really fun moments. One time, they had been caught red-handed. It had been a pretty bid deal, considering that they were in a forbidden rule, and her aunt had yelled so much that she had gone red-faced.

“I’m sorry auntie,” Glimmer had said. It wasn’t rare that she faked a trembling voice or a sad face to get out of trouble, but there wasn’t any faking then. She had been genuinely reprimanded at the anger and disappointment that her aunt was showing.

“Glimmer—”

Bow interrupted her. “It was my fault, Miss.”

His face showed he was ready to take any punishment that was inflicted. In fact, his face was stony and serious as Glimmer had ever seen it so far.

“I didn’t know this room was banned. But I told Glimmer that I wanted to see what was behind the door, that’s why she teleported us here. I’m sorry.”

Castaspella stared at the boy with hard eyes for a few seconds before she let out a sigh. “Don’t do it again,” she said, looking at both of them.

That night, as she was tucking Glimmer in —no matter how much her niece usually complained against it—, she was grabbed by the hand.

“It was me who suggested going into the room,” she said, softly. “Bow covered for me, but…”

“I figured as much.”

“Really?”

“Your friend doesn’t lie as well as he believes he does,” Castaspella answered with a knowing smile. “But it’s alright, Glimmer. I just need you to tell me that you won’t do that again.”

“I promise, auntie! Even if I wanted to, Bow wouldn’t agree after that scolding.”

At her niece pouting, Castaspella couldn’t help but laugh. “I like that boy.”

“Yep, everyone does.”

- - -

It had been after the war had ended, they were back in Bright Moon and they were working hard to make everything go back to normal. King Micah couldn’t be prouder of his daughter. His daughter and her funky group of friends. Where he and the First Alliance had failed, his daughter’s Second Princess Alliance had defeated the Horde.

“We should have a family dinner,” he told her one day. “You, me, and that boyfriend of yours.”

“Don’t try to act tough. It’s Bow, you know him well.” His daughter’s raised eyebrow had made him roll his eyes, which made her roll her eyes in response.

“I want to meet him officially. As your boyfriend.”

“Dad—”

“Glimmer. I want to do things normally for once.”

He had looked at him seriously for a couple of seconds before she had sighed and nodded. “Okay, Dad. Family dinner to meet the boyfriend.”

He had sent a big smile her way and she had thrown a few sparkles at his face.

He was ecstatic at the relationship that they had formed, even though it wasn’t perfect yet. After the battle against Prime, their relationship had been strained; the were nothing but strangers, really, but now, after much work, their relationship had evolved to something more casual. He was glad about that.

A few days later, at dinnertime, Bow was sweating in one of the chairs of the dinner table. He was looking nervously at them, and Micah couldn’t help but like that the boy was reacting like that.

“Dad,” his daughter said pointedly.

“Of course.” He smiled kindly at Bow. They had known each other for a long time, they had fought together, even. Micah would have trusted Bow with his life. However, it wasn’t his life what was at stake, it was his daughter’s happiness. “So. What are your intentions with my daughter?”

“DAD!” Glimmer’s outrage was instant.

“Sir—” Bow shifter uncomfortable.

“No,” Glimmer interrupted him. “You don’t have to answer that, Bow.” The boy didn’t say anything, he just turned his eyes to the food. “You are not doing this,” Glimmer told her father with the firm voice she had been curating. “Bow is my boyfriend. Either take it or leave it.”

“I don’t—”

“This is not about you,” Glimmer told Bow, interrupting him. “This is about me being twenty years old and being able to make my own decisions. Dad. Bow is my decision right now. I’m going to need you to respect it. I’m not four anymore.”

King Micah was surprised at her. Both at what she was saying and at how she was saying it. However, he nodded slowly. There was a little bit of silence and then she rolled her eyes and turned her eyes back to the food.

The silence was starting to get uncomfortable with each passing second. Bow cleared his throat. “Perfuma told me that it’s about to be time for the feast of the daisies,” he said in a conversational tone. Neither of the royals said anything, but that didn’t deter him from his task. “We should go. It sounds super fun. She also promised to give us flower crowns, which you know, Glimmer, I’m always in for. See, King Micah, Perfuma’s flower crowns are the best. She makes them with the best flowers of the kingdom. Of course, that makes sense, taking into account that is her power. You know.”

And Bow kept babbling until the silence was so far away that there was no uncomfortable feeling left in the room, and even Micah was laughing at his antics.

After the dinner, Micah and Glimmer stayed back in the dinning room, and it didn’t scape the King’s eyes that he brushed his hand against his daughter’s. He also noticed the smile they shared. It reminded her of Angella so much that his chest started hurting.

“I like that boy,” Micah told her.

There was something sad on Glimmer’s eyes when she nodded. “I don’t need your approval.”

Micah nodded. “I know, I’m sorry for… all of that. But you still have it, though.”

Glimmer smiled, one of the corners of her mouth lifting. “Thank you, dad.”

#glimbow #she-ra #spop #spop fic #she-ra fic #glimbow week 2020 #glimmer #bow #she-ra glimmer #she-ra bow #spop glimmer #spop bow #glimmer fanfic #glimmer fic #persephx #my fic

47 notes · View notes

i-just-love-spop · 4 years

Text

...and then I found you. [Part one]

Part two | Part three

“Bow...” Glimmer was white as a sheet now. “I think I’m having the baby.”

“Did your water break?”

“Yeah. ...about three hours ago? ... I think the baby wants out, like, right now!”

“GLIMMER!”

—

Actually less a request than just the result of me and @darkmasterofcupcakes talking about Glimbow (and stubborn Glimmer that would insist on still working until literally the last minute of her pregnancy) for way too long that spiraled into a huge fic. This is the first out of either two or three parts, depending on how long the rest of this ends up being.

Companion fic to “One night, I wished upon a star...” which completes the title.

Summary: Glimmer is convinced she can get through the rest of the meeting and then have her baby afterwards. The baby disagrees.

Bow is losing his mind.

Their friends are being semi-helpful.

The healer is questioning their own choice of career.

All of the princesses are present but most of them are not that important. Catra and Adora will be more relevant in the second part.

Glimbow-centric, but also has some background Catradora, Seamista and Scorfuma.

I’m going with Perfuma being a trans woman because Rae said she was designed that way, which I like a lot. I’m also using this as the explanation why she can have a biological child with Scorpia, in case anyone is wondering.

[Takes place a couple of years after the end of show.]

(Also, this has cursing in it. For obvious reasons.)

—

This was fine. This was fine. This was fine!

Glimmer clenched her hands on the edge of the table again.

Shit. Was this supposed to hurt this much?

She breathed in and out, in and out, in and out until finally, after what felt like an eternity, the pain finally subsided.

She didn’t really have much time to relax, though. The time that passed between the surges of pain lessened with what felt like every contraction. They were only about five minutes apart now.

This was fine.

Just another half an hour, then they would be done with the meeting, and she could get to a healer and have her baby.

This was fine! And she was totally focused on what was being said!

“Uhm... Should we, like, pause the meeting, or...?”

Mermista looked at her friend, eyebrow raised.

The entire meeting room was staring at her now.

“No, it’s fine! I’m great! Really! Just go on with what you were telling us about the new trading route!”

Glimmer gave them the world’s falsest smile, clenching her fists again.

“Uhm... we finished that topic about twenty minutes ago? Are you okay? Do you need medial attention? I feel like you do.“

The Queen of Brightmoon shook her head vigorously.

“Scorpia, that’s really, really sweet, but it’s fine! Really! I’m great!“

Glimmer had reached the point where she felt so sick and was in so much pain that she was certain she was about to either throw up or pass out on the meeting room table. Maybe both.

This was fine.

“Uhm... are you sure? Sparkles, you look awful,” Catra cut in.

Adora nodded in agreement.

Both of them were immensely worried about their friend.

“Yes! Totally sure!”

Then the next contraction hit, and it was so painful that she couldn’t keep herself from screaming.

“Okay, that’s it! You’ve never had practice contractions this bad, and I don’t care if the healer said this is normal, we‘re done here and you’re seeing another healer IMMEDIATELY!”

Bow was extremely worried.

Glimmer took a moment to reply, breathing heavily until the pain passed.

“It’s fine, really! I promise! We’re almost done here anyway! Let’s just wrap this up real quick, and then we can go see a healer!”

...right. Practice contractions. That’s what she‘d told him this was the day before. She’d completely blanked out on that until now.

She had had practice contractions before, and in the beginning, she’d really thought that was what this was. She’d taken a long bath to make herself feel better and had then gone to bed.

She’d actually slept relatively well through some of the earlier contractions that hadn’t been quite as long and intense.

Then they’d gotten worse and more frequent and had jolted her up from her sleep about every thirty minutes.

By morning, the contractions been twenty minutes apart, and Bow had been pretty worried that she was having them again – which had been a faulty assumption on his part that Glimmer just kind of didn’t correct.

He’d told her to see a healer, which she’d promised she definitely would... but after this really important Princess Alliance-Meeting that she still had to attend. By then, she’d been pretty certain she knew what was going on, and the baby was still kicking and moving around the same way she had before, reminding her that she was alright, so she wasn’t worried about something being wrong with the baby.

All of this had then led to her telling him that this was just... normal and how it was supposed to be – which it really was, according to the books, at least –, and Bow had just assumed a healer had told her, and she once again hadn’t corrected him.

She didn’t like being dishonest with him, but he wouldn’t have let her attend the meeting if she’d told him, and this was important. Bow was already super protective of her anyway and would have preferred it if she’d just taken some time off of work now that she was getting so close to her due date, so there was absolutely no way he would have let her work today if he‘d known what was going on.

But Glimmer had a kingdom to run.

Besides, the books said that it took several hours up to a full day from the first contraction to your body actually being ready to have the baby, especially if it was your first birth, so she could definitely get through the rest of this four hour meeting and then have her baby afterwards.

Probably.

This was totally, completely, definitely fine.

And then the next contraction hit, and it was that very moment she knew that nothing was fine in the slightest.

The realization that she was having her baby very, very soon suddenly washed over her. It was as if someone had flipped the switch on her relatively relaxed ‘I can do this’-attitude, and from one moment to the next, she went into full-on panic mode.

She instantly went back on her word from before.

“ALRIGHT, MEETING’S OVER, GOODBYE EVERYONE!” She yelled, punching her fists onto the table.

If the others’ attention hadn’t been on her since before anyway, it definitely would have been, now.

She needed to get out of here, she needed to get to the healers and-

Glimmer tried to get up. Her knees were weak and everything hurt, and she immediately collapsed back onto the chair, howling with pain.

“Glimmer!”

Her husband was at her side straightaway.

“I’m okay! I’m okay...”

She wasn’t. She really, really wasn’t.

Bow put his arms around her, and she immediately melted into them and started sobbing.

Stars, why did this hurt so much?

“It will be okay, I promise. We’ll take you to a healer immediately, and... you’ll be okay. Both of you will be okay.”

It wasn’t like that was something he could actually guarantee, but he was doing his best to stay calm because him freaking out while his wife was already freaking out would help absolutely nobody.

Seeing her this scared was still just as terrifying to him as it had been back when they were kids.

“No, you... you don’t understand. I’m okay, really. This is perfectly normal.”

He shook his head vigorously.

“Yeah, no. I appreciate the effort to calm me down, really, but there’s absolutely no way this is normal for practice contractions, you’re in way too much pain and you and the baby could be in danger so please don’t downplay this!”

“No, we’re fine. She’s kicking and we’re both fine. I just... don’t think these are practice contractions.”

“...what?” It a moment for his brain to process what she’d just said. Then his eyes widened. “Wait, you mean-”

“Bow...” Glimmer was white as a sheet now. “I think I’m having the baby.”

Okay, that... that was good, right? That did mean what she was going through right now was actually, really normal and Glimmer and the baby most likely weren’t in danger. But also...

‘Oh stars Glimmer is having the baby!’

Bow was excited.

And also terrified.

“Did your water break yet?”

The amount of time his time took before answering made him really, really certain he probably wouldn’t like what she was about to say, and that she definitely knew that.

...he really didn’t like the answer he got when she finally replied.

“Yeah. ...about three hours ago?” The next contraction was so bad it brought tears to her eyes and almost made her faint. That was it. This was too much. The pain was unbearable. She couldn’t take it a single second longer. “I think the baby wants out, like, right now!”

All color drained from Bow’s face.

“GLIMMER!”

That meant his wife wasn’t just... having the baby as in going in to labor, she was actually having the baby. Right now.

Bow was usually a calm, collected, sensible person. He was currently having a very hard time being either of those things.

“I was just trying to get through the meeting first!”

Admittedly, that didn’t seem like much of a decent justification anymore, even to Glimmer. Her defensive tone wasn’t even convincing herself, much less anyone else. Her voice was still shaking from the pain of the last contraction, and she knew there wasn’t much time for her to take a breather until the next one hit.

“I can’t believe you...” Bow shook his head and groaned, less mad than just in plain disbelief and shock. “How often are you having contractions? How far apart are they? Have you been keeping track?”

She thought for a moment.

"...Like, every minute or two? They're close, that's all I kn-"

She wasn’t even able to finish the sentence before the next contraction hit her, this one even longer and even more intense and painful than the last. She screamed her lungs out.

It hurt. It hurt so, so, so, so much.

Glimmer’s body was on fire, and she was almost certain this was what dying felt like – although, who knew, at this point she all but guessed dying was actually more comfortable and hurt less.

“EVERY MINUTE OR TWO? ARE YOU SERIOUS?!”

Bow was officially losing his mind.

His squeaky voice was pretty telling for just how freaked out he was.

‘Why. Is. My. Wife. Like. This?!’

This was bad. This was really, really, really bad.

Bow loved Glimmer, he really did, but there were moments like this where she drove him completely insane.

He took a few seconds to close his eyes and then took a couple of deep breaths to gather his thoughts. They could do this. They needed to, because he had to make sure Glimmer and the baby would be okay, and him freaking out was not helping right now, so he had to stay calm. He could still freak out later. Glimmer and his daughter needed to be his main priority now.

He was calmer and more collected when he opened his eyes again. He clapped his hands together.

“Okay. Catra, please go get some towels, a sanitized blanket and a bunch of pillows, would you? And Adora, we need a healer. Immediately. And ask them to bring medical supplies for the delivery. Everyone else: GET. OUT!”

Catra and Adora both just nodded and disappeared on their separate ways instantly. It wasn’t hard to grasp the importance of his requests, after all.

“Wait wait wait wait wait, there’s no need for anyone to get out, or for anything else, because I’m definitely not giving birth IN HERE!”

Glimmer was tired and in pain and just wanted her bed. Or any bed, for that matter. Just something soft to lay down on that she could sink into that would make her feel a little better. And she definitely did not want to stay in here of all places!

“Love...” Bow’s voice was soft and sweet and sounded really worried. “You can’t even stand up. Forget it. We’re not moving you. I’d be happy if we could get you onto the table so you could lie down, but I’m not even sure we can manage that.”

Glimmer gulped. She really, really couldn’t imagine giving birth in here. She just wanted a bed – was that really too much to ask?

“I- I could try teleport-” She suggested.

Bow didn’t even let her finish. There was absolutely no way he would let that happen.

“Oh no, you don’t! Glimmer, I love you, but your powers have been acting up for a while now because of your pregnancy, and I have absolutely no desire to help you give birth on a tree!”

He really didn’t want to find out where her attempt to teleport during contractions would possibly land them.

“WELL, I DON’T WANT TO GIVE BIRTH IN THE MEETING ROOM EITHER!”

“Glimmer-”

She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate, but then the next contraction hit and this just absolutely, definitely wasn’t happening.

She couldn’t even focus on teleporting long enough to screw it up, which hadn’t happened to her before, ever. And it somehow felt even worse than back when she’d had problems with her powers because of Shadow Weaver’s curse.

The Queen of Bright Moon sunk back into her chair, screaming.

“Okay. Okay, you’re right,” she mumbled after a while when the pain passed. “This won’t work. But I can’t- I can’t give birth in here.”

“I’d prefer it if you didn’t have to, but it’s not a choice anymore, Glim.” Bow was immensely relived that the teleporting hadn’t worked because who knew where they would have ended up if it had, but all of these people in here were stressing him out even more than he already was because of the whole situation. “Could somebody help me get her on the table, and could the rest of you guys PLEASE LEAVE?”

Since Glimmer had said she wasn’t staying in here so nobody had to leave, everyone as currently still standing around the room, either looking at her awkwardly or trying to avoid staring at her even more awkwardly.

“Oh, no problem, I’m out of here I have no desire to learn what I’ll go through in a couple of months,” Mermista commented, dragging her husband after her as she headed for the door.

At least some of the attention of the group shifted from Glimmer to Mermista for a moment.

Bow blinked in surprise.

“Wait... you’re pregnant?”

“Uh, duh? I thought everyone knew that?”

The mermaid seemed a little confused by the question.

Glimmer just looked at her with a pained expression.

“I’d say congratulations, but right now I just feel like I’m dying, so expressing my condolences kind of feels more appropriate!”

Mermista raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t you think you’re being, like, a little dramatic?”

Glimmer gave the mermaid a death glare.

“Either you shut up right now, or by the Heart of Etheria, I swear, the first thing I’ll do after giving birth to this child will be KICKING YOUR ASS!”

Mermista raised her hands defensively.

“Okay. Okay. We were just leaving!”

Bow was a little relieved that there was two fewer people in the room now, but there was still way too many inside for it to be anything close to comfortable.

He growled.

“I swear to the stars, I will shove all of you out of the room myself if I have to!”

“Me and Scorpia can help with Glimmer. Everyone else, you heard him, get out of here!” Perfuma said, gently shoving Netossa and Spinerella who were standing next to her towards the door.

The two of them just waved.

“Alright, we’ll be... on our way. Good luck!” Spinerella said and waved while her wife just gave them an awkward smile.

They had friends that had kids biologically related to them, but they’d never gotten this close to watching the actual birth before. Not that that was something either of them had ever desired to see.

Entrapta on the other hand didn’t move at all. She was mesmerized. She’d never watched anything like this before – well, not with humans anyway.

“Eeek, this is so exciting! Can I stay?”

“YOU ABSOLUTELY CANNOT!”

“Childbirth is one of the most fascinating experiences in nature! It would be incredibly thrilling to see it from up close.“

Bow pinched the bridge of his nose and tried not to scream. He really, really liked Entrapta and went to her for advice when it came to technology a lot. But he also really, really didn’t have the patience to deal with her right now.

...or with anyone, really.

“Well, if you’re so fascinated, just have your own kid!”

She thought for a moment.

“Hmmm... Interesting suggestion.”

“Do me a favor and contemplate it OUTSIDE!”

He was losing his mind. He was officially completely losing his mind.

“...am I making you uncomfortable? I feel like I might be making you uncomfortable.”

Bow was fighting the urge not to just straight up scream for a solid thirty seconds, took another deep breather and looked at Entrapta sternly.

“Listen. You’re great, but right now, I would appreciate it if you could give us a little bit of privacy. Thank you.”

“...right. Sorry. Good luck!“

Bow let out a long-drawn-out sigh when she finally left the room.

Now the only people left in there were Scorpia and Perfuma – well, and Frosta, because she was waiting for them, but she was facing the door and seemed to have absolutely no desire to turn around again.

This was better. Still not even close to ideal, but better.

“Can’t I at least try to climb the table myself if I have to give birth here?” Glimmer protested. “I’m not a baby anymore!”

But the protest was quiet and weak because she was tired and hurting and pretty sure it would fall on deaf ears anyway.

“Right. You’re not a baby, but you’re having one, and you still can’t stand up, so you’re not climbing anything.” He kissed her forehead. “I love all of you, including your stubborn nature, but right now I need you to not be stubborn for once in your life and let us help you, okay?”

She grimaced, but let them lift her onto the table without protest afterwards.

That she was lying instead of sitting now felt a little better, but really just very slightly. She still wanted her bed. Or maybe just to straight up die so the pain would end. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could take this.

...had the pain been that bad from the beginning? How in the galaxy had she sat through several hours of that?!

Her panic got worse by the second as the pain also worsened, and she became more and more certain that she was actually going to die, right here, in the middle of the fucking meeting room table and that she would never get to meet or hold her baby or-

She felt Bow‘s hand in hers, his soft, loving voice pulling her out of her thoughts and back into reality.

“Hey... I’m right here, okay? Shhh. You’ll be fine. I promise you’ll both be okay.”

He was sitting next to her on the table now.

“It hurts so much...”

“I know. I know. The healer will be here soon. You’ll be okay.” She put her head in his lap. He ran his fingers through her hair. “Just breathe...”

And Glimmer did just that, trying to tune out all the background noise and the pain as she breathed.

Bow looked up at Scorpia and Perfuma, on hand still on Glimmer’s hair, the other one squeezing hers.

“...thank you for the help.”

“Always. Can we help you with anything else?” Perfuma asked.

“Not much, we just really need Adora and Catra to be back.” He hesitated for a moment. “Although... I mean, you two are the only ones out of our friend group that have actually had a baby so far, so any advice you could give us right now would be appreciated?”

Scorpia smiled sheepishly.

“I wish we could, but... I actually had Thorn in a medical chamber, so this isn’t really comparable to begin with. And also, I had a c-section, so I don’t think anything we could tell you would be especially helpful right now. Sorry.”

Almost all Scorpioni-children were brought into the world via c-sections because the chances of the child accidentally harming the mother during birth with their pincers and stinger was pretty high, making natural birth too dangerous in most cases.

“She’s right. We could offer you some parenting advice later on, though,” Perfuma added. “But I think we should leave you two alone here for now, anyway.”

“Yeah, that would probably be for the best. Thanks again, you two.”

“Anytime.”

A calming scent of lavender remained in the air when the two of them left.

—

“Will... will she be okay?” Frosta asked softly when Perfuma and Scorpia walked up to her to leave the room.

Frosta still had her back turned to the whole situation but Glimmer’s agonized cries were hard to ignore. She was genuinely terrified.

Perfuma rubbed her hair.

“I’m sure she’ll be fine, don’t worry too much about her, okay? Glimmer can handle herself. She always could.”

“Yeah, okay, I guess that’s true...” Frosta admitted, still somewhat skeptic.

Not that she’d spent much time prior to this thinking about childbirth, but she’d never imagined it was this painful.

She shuddered.

Scorpia put one of her arms around the ice princess.

“Come on, kid. Let’s give the lady some privacy.”

”...okay.” If anyone else had called Frosta kid, especially now that she was an adult, she’d have smacked them on the head with her ice fists. But Scorpia and Perfuma were her moms, so she could let it slide when it came to them... Maybe. “Since I doubt we’ll continue with the meeting today, can we pick up Thorn from daycare now?” She asked when they’d left the room.

Perfuma hugged her daughter, her eyes sparkling.

“Awww, are you missing your little sister?”

“Pffft, no.” Frosta crossed her arms, but Perfuma looked at her with so much love in her eyes that she caved immediately. “Okay, I totally am! Can you blame me? She’s so cute and I love her!” She admitted, her face turning beet-red.

A second later, Scorpia had pulled her wife and her daughter into a crushing bear-hug.

“I love you guys so, so much.”

Perfuma immediate hugged her back.

“We love you too, lightning rose.”

Frosta was just kind of stuck in the middle of the hug between her adoptive mothers.

“Air is still a thing I need, even now that I’m an adult!” she reminded them, only half-serious. “You two are squeezing me to death!”

“Right. Sorry,” Scorpia apologized, relinquishing her grip a little.

When the three of them separated, they were all laughing.

—

Bow was just glad that he was finally, finally, finally alone with his wife.

He just hoped Adora and Catra would be back really soon, because despite having read a lot of books on pregnancy, labor and delivery over the course of Glimmer’s pregnancy, he had serious doubts he would be able to deliver their baby on his own.

101 notes · View notes